THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA - All Comments

re: That word cloud

Joe Raby — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:27:14 GMT

File this article under "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". McAfee falls more under the "meatball" category.

re: So what does end of support for XP mean?

Paul Husted — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:16:54 GMT

With this kind of comment, we run the risk of minimizing the real impact to the user. When Microsoft stops updates for an OS, almost all developers do too.

New software purchased by users will not be tested or supported on XP. Older versions of software in most cases can't get updated to the new version if still running on XP.

That's the real impact to the user. Security updates are clearly important - but the loss of support/testing on all the other software they might want to run is the overriding argument to let XP go.

re: Important! Discontinuation of Support for Windows XP and Office 2003

Joe Raby — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 05:08:23 GMT

Question about end of support:

How long after support ends until they pull all support articles and downloads for XP?

re: I wonder how the survey numbers would go today?

Philip Elder — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:51:59 GMT

And my comment too.

Philip

re: There's an iLO app for that!

Keith Templin — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:32:16 GMT

If you recall a post you did back in March:

msmvps.com/.../keith-templin-shares-an-ilo-tip.aspx

Where I shared how to mount a ISO over a iLO all started by reading (yes I actually read it) the manual for this app. The manual made references to launching scripts from the app. Of course they did not tell you how or where to store the scripts.

The same process / procedure for setting up ISO mounting is the same for any type of script that you want the ilo to do. Want to power cycle the server, there is a script for that. Want to enable a emergency user, there is a script for that.

totaly usefull for the on the go admin when a nasty application needs a reboot.

re: Got Australian Quickbooks?

Alan — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 07:26:57 GMT

Problem is we have to use QB over here.

2012/13 version is gone now anyway. Its the all new 2013 version.

It stlll uses .net 1.1 but also works on Windows 8. I really hate the Australian version of QuickBooks. Even the online version crashed very often.

re: New features for 2012 R2 announced at TechEd

Joe Raby — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 02:02:19 GMT

I'm looking forward to this new feature:

VM's with UEFI support.

Why?

MultiPoint Server.

Why?

Because the VDI wizards are broken on systems with UEFI. You know, that new firmware that is required for system certification....

Why?

Because the wizards try to get the BCD entries from the host after dumping the installation image files into a mounted VHD instead of doing an install in the VM, which would've prevented this issue.

Why?

Don't ask me. Ask the developers. Now get off my lawn!

re: WSUS role on Essentials?

Joe Raby — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 03:42:11 GMT

Right-o!

I just look at this and think: why can't you just build an "infrastructure and VDI appliance" on Windows Server for Embedded Systems and use Windows Embedded Standard for desktop devices and deliver it as a platform solution to a business? You'd need to license the Windows Client OS for VDI, but as a partner, you could just bundle everything together for the client. There's your low-maintenance (VDI) infrastructure and you'd just load up the "dedicated" client roles by way of whatever LOB app is required to get the "purpose-built" device. They even talk about providing intelligent *SOLUTIONS* on the Embedded website. Hasn't that been the goal of Microsoft Partners (including the SBSC) all along?

I gotta really look into this. Hell, this is the solution for getting SBSs after it gets killed off in the other channels in a short while.

re: WSUS role on Essentials?

bradley — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 02:35:45 GMT

Beancounters and licensing. They don't want to cannibalize their other sales.

re: WSUS role on Essentials?

Joe Raby — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 02:07:50 GMT

This reminds me of a problem that I've had that has never really gotten a concrete answer on.

I've noticed that Embedded versions of Windows Server have all of the roles of the standard equivalents available through normal channels, including Hyper-V. So where does Microsoft draw the line between what is a general-purpose AD DC and storage server, and what is an "infrastructure appliance" with the same roles installed with the cheaper Embedded OS?

As you might already know, Embedded products have much longer distribution and support lifecycles. They are also cheaper than buying through a VL. I just don't really get why there aren't more Embedded OEM's making cheaper appliance-type servers (or at least just marketing them like that). It sure would make IT simpler to manage.

re: WSUS role on Essentials?

Pete P — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 11:24:03 GMT

Yay! I've been waiting for this. Thanks.

re: Messy, huh?

Rich Lusk — Fri, 31 May 2013 13:58:12 GMT

Great! Thanks. I'll give it a try.

re: So what's supported?

bradley — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:38:27 GMT

Phil in the kitchen project is working on that.

re: So what's supported?

Ray — Thu, 30 May 2013 08:30:55 GMT

I have never needed to contact Microsoft support, maybe because I've been lucky, and maybe because I tend to go for the simplest, standard solutions. I also know not to expect software to work beyond its most basic features.

That said, have there been attempts from the small business community to create a cookie cutter server setup with Hyper-V, a domain Controller, and Exchange Server? The variables are pretty much only memory and storage in that context.

re: Messy, huh?

bradley — Thu, 30 May 2013 05:57:27 GMT

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

2 to 3 eggs (use egg beaters)

1 Tablespoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon of orange or lemon extract

(optional) small container of cream

Fill with whole milk

(and don't fill as full as I did)

re: Messy, huh?

Rich Lusk — Wed, 29 May 2013 13:00:35 GMT

My family has the same ice cream maker; we love it. We haven't found a good ice cream recipe yet that we really like. What recipe do you use?

re: Messy, huh?

Joe Raby — Mon, 27 May 2013 22:04:36 GMT

Make a mental note: Never blend your ice cream on 'puree'.

re: What a Windows RT device does

Joe Raby — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:07:28 GMT

Every platform has compromises. For instance, Apple doesn't let you download anything from the app store unless you have payment information tied to an Apple ID (at the very least you need to buy a gift card) - even if you want to download something for free.

re: What a Windows RT device does

bradley — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:49:14 GMT

But I don't want a Microsoft account. I just want the Exchange activesync profile.

These are users in the firm that I don't want to have/they don't care/they don't need one. I've set up my bogus Microsoft account on it.

Sorry Joe, I don't want to have an email app that DEMANDS an account that I'll never ever ever use.

Apple doesn't demand I set up my email app with their Apple ID now do they? I set it up for any email address I want. Not with my Apple ID.

Sorry Joe, even Apple gives me choices.

re: What a Windows RT device does

Joe Raby — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:32:05 GMT

Huh? You can set up a Microsoft account with any email address. It will have a mailbox assigned to it, but you won't be using it - unless you want to route POP mail into an Exchange ActiveSync account, which certainly has it's advantages. You can then just set up the Microsoft Outlook.com mailbox by itself without needing a separate setup for the IMAP settings (and Mail only supports IMAP, not POP). This works far better for Yahoo mail because Yahoo's IMAP server is horribly unreliable and has been ever since they created the new server for Windows 8. If you would rather set up separate settings for your email so you don't route into an Outlook.com account for privacy reasons or whatever, you can still set them up separately. Your Microsoft account can be used for syncing settings for the Mail, People, Calendar, and Messaging. Passwords are not saved in the cloud though - just the server and general account info.

If you tried going to Outlook.com to set up a previous email address and it doesn't give you the option, go to httpS://signup.live.com

I'm not sure I understand the argument of not having some kind of Microsoft Account at all with a Surface RT, since you can't access the app store at all without one, and the platform is built for that. Would you use an iPad without an Apple ID? Or an Android device without a Google Account?

Oh and the app separation thing is by design because the apps are moved to userland instead of having system-level access like they did in previous versions of Windows. Data is sandboxed in each users profile, for each app independently. Auto-updating doesn't seem to function even though there is a setting in the Store app though. This is supposed to be fixed in Blue (but it should've been fixed long ago anyway).