Dave's Weblog

2nd Deployment Summit at TVP

2007-08-08T10:23:00.000+01:00

Taking your first look at Windows Vista or Office 2007 and the deployment challenges ahead? The team will be running a 2nd free community Deployment Summit on the 12th September where you can find out more about Business Desktop Deployment, Application Remediation and Office 2007 deployment.You can register for the event from this page

BDD 2007 3.0.142.0 (Patch 1)

2007-06-17T20:44:00.000+01:00

The first patch for BDD 2007 is now available or for those of you just getting started it is now included as part of the main download. Improvements to driver injection and support for USMT 3.01 are just a few of the updates. Check out the release notes for installation tips and more information.Dave

Application Readiness for Vista

2007-05-10T08:54:00.000+01:00

A great new resource is available online for deployment teams looking at application compatibily. The database is an online version of the compatibility information used by ACT, so if you don't want to run the tool you can just quickly check an individual application against the list.Dave

BDD in Server Management Magazine

2007-04-27T08:29:00.000+01:00

Interested in getting started and finding out more about Business Desktop Deployment (BDD), A good starting point would be to read my article in this months Server Management Magazine.Dave.

UK Community Deployment Summit

2007-04-27T08:20:00.000+01:00

Thank you to all of you that were able to join Keith, Jason and myself for the 1st UK Community Deployment Summit in Reading. We had some fantastic presenters at the event to "Talk Deployment" which included Garry Corcoran, Paul Schnell, Paul Butterworth, Steve Green, Steve Reay and Davidson Baron. It was great to meet so many people and for those of you that were unable to attend watch this

Longhorn Public Beta 3 Available

2007-04-27T08:17:00.000+01:00

Interested in getting a first Look at Windows Longhorn Server. Beta 3 is now available to the public for download. Don't forget to check out some of the new WDS features !Dave

BDD 2007 Source Code Available

2007-04-15T21:49:00.000+01:00

The source code for Buiseness desktop deployment (BDD 2007) has now been made available for download on the Microsoft site for partners and customers that may need to make modifications.Dave.

UK Microsoft Management Summit

2007-03-31T03:09:00.000+01:00

The Microsoft Management summit in Reading will provide a selection of the most valuable content from the year’s global Microsoft Management Summit event held in San Diego March 26-30th.Register OnlineDave

Configuration Manager Beta 2

2007-02-22T16:26:00.000Z

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SMSv4) Beta 2 has now been released via the connect site. Time to start looking at a Zero Touch deployment solution for Windows Vista using System Center, if you have not already.DownloadDave.

BDD 2007 Updated Components !

2007-02-22T15:29:00.000Z

Your BDD workbench should give you the latest info:Final versions of other deployment tools are now available! Use BDD 2007 to download, install and manage them via the component page.Application compatibility Toolkit 5.0 - Analyze and mitigate your application compatibility issues.Office Migration Planning Manager - A group of tools designed to help administrators during the planning and testing

Virtual PC 2007 Released

2007-02-21T11:55:00.000Z

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 has been officially released, which includes some significant improvements including support for both AMD and Intel Virtualization.DownloadDave.

Vista Deployment Summit

2007-02-05T10:49:00.000Z

Taking your first look at Windows Vista and the deployment challenges ahead? I will be running a free community Deployment Summit in April where you can find out more about Business Desktop Deployment, Application Remediation, Office 2007 deployment and also more information on Microsoft SoftGrid.Check out the press release last week which has all the detailsDave.

Into the Grid

2007-02-05T10:47:00.000Z

What do you know about Microsoft SoftGrid, Application Virtualization?There is some great documentation available now online to help bring you up to speed on this technology. Take a look inside and then take some time to consider how significant this product could be in the future.Get into Microsoft SoftGridDave

Vodafone Mobile Connect "Vista Version"

2007-02-04T13:17:00.000Z

Great news, I have just found on the Vodafone website the latest release candidate for a Vista Compatible Mobile Connect package.Download Vodafone Mobile Connect Vista RCOnce downloaded, unzip the folder to the local drive and make sure you have uninstalled any old drivers you may have already tried. Results look good at the moment, drivers installed without any problems and I am able to

Longhorn Server Beta 3 "Get Ready"

2007-01-26T09:19:00.000Z

If you are looking to get early sight of the next Server release codenamed "Longhorn", then now is the time to sign up as the public Beta 3 phase approaches.Register for Beta 3 hereDave.

BDD 2007 Final Release

2007-01-18T09:24:00.000Z

A major milestone has been reached for all Microsoft Desktop deployment specialists with the final release of BDD 2007. This is a fantastic achievement and for those of us that have worked with earlier versions of BDD the change is significant.BDD 2007 Final ReleaseDave

BDD 2007 RC 1 Available

2006-12-10T17:43:00.000Z

The latest release of the Business Desktop Deployment toolkit (BDD 2007) has just become available for download. Anyone taking a long look at Vista Deployment should start with this download first.Business Desktop Deployment (BDD 2007 RC1)Dave.

EVO Cinema Tour

2006-12-04T13:05:00.000Z

I have just come back from a great morning at the Bristol IMAX with the Microsoft team. If you have not had chance to take a look at Vista, Office 2007 System's or the new Exchange 2007, then take some time out this week to attend one of the Microsoft Partner Cinema sessions. There were some cool demo's in particular deploying Vista to a Laptop from a 4GB USB pen stick in 8 minutes !Worth a look,

Windows Vista Product Guide

2006-11-29T22:44:00.000Z

Microsoft has released the final version of the product guide for Windows Vista. It is a great introduction to the new features and functionality that Vista provides. A recommended read for any technical person thinking there is not much new in Vista.Vista Product GuideDave

Windows Vista Downloading !

2006-11-17T16:40:00.000Z

Windows Vista final release downloads now available on MSDN.Dave

Windows Vista RTM

2006-11-09T02:04:00.000Z

Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing has been announced, the mile stone has been reached. Check out the announcement on the Windows Vista Technical team blog.http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/Dave

Vista: Doing Deployment Right!

2006-11-09T01:25:00.000Z

I am delivering a sequence of events for Partners on the deployment tool set for Windows Vista. These sessions are a great opportunity to get offline and spend some time exploring the tools in a solutions lab environment.Check out the dates on the Partner Readiness Sitehttp://www.microsoft.co.uk/events/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=8563#bookingOptionsDave

ACT 5.0 RC1 Available on Connect

2006-11-08T00:18:00.000Z

The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT5.0 Release Candidate 1) has now been released onto the Microsoft Connect site. If you are starting to look at application compatibility for Windows Vista then this is the first toolkit to download.https://connect.microsoft.com/downloads/downloadDetails.aspx?siteid=81&downloadid=1654&wa=wsignin1.0Dave

Vista RC1 Update, Build 5278

2006-09-25T10:16:00.000+01:00

Microsoft has released an update to RC1, build 5278 which is available to the public as part of the Customer Preview Program.Download Vista RC1 Update, Build 5278Customer Preview ProgramDave.

Using HTA to Hide Credentials

2006-08-14T14:23:00.000+01:00

This is an example of a recent HTA I created for starting a script using alternate credentials. Service desk staff often need to run scripts using support accounts that they are not logged on to as standard. This HTA provides a simple way to hide the input of credentials and pass it as arguments to a script or it could be used to launch a script using runas.Provide Credentials

Getting to Grips With HTA

2006-07-29T10:46:00.000+01:00

Working with scripts is great as we all know, however have you started to convert some of your scripts over to HTA for a simple interface for service desk style activities. Here is an example of a simple service control script I wrote today for someone. Copy this into notepad and the save the file as a hta and then start to experiment with the script elements, enjoy.Restart Spooler </article> <article> <h1>AD Replication Health Check</h1> <p>2006-06-29T10:33:00.000+01:00</p> If you have reported replication problems with a Domain Controller what diagnostic tools are in your toolkit to help diagnose the problem? Stage one would be to identify any simple connectivity problems on the machine, the netsh command is a great way to run a quick test.Netsh diag show testAs Domain Controller’s communicate using GUID’s rather than machine name’s it is important to ensure that </article> <article> <h1>ADModify Utility</h1> <p>2006-06-23T08:57:00.000+01:00</p> ADModify is a great utility for Exchange and Active Directory users looking to make bulk changes to user attributes in Active Directory. Well worth investigating.Click here to downloadDave. </article> <article> <h1>WMIC to enable Remote Desktop</h1> <p>2006-06-23T08:47:00.000+01:00</p> Using the Windows Management Instrumentation Command line can be useful to enable remote desktop on servers that have already been deployed without the feature enabled.wmic /node:SERVERNAME rdtoggle WHERE servername="SERVERNAME" CALL SetAllowTSConnections 1WMIC is worth investigating further, I comes with a large list of pre-configured WMI commands with simple aliases. Open a command Windows on </article> <article> <h1>Display SID History Information</h1> <p>2006-06-18T22:28:00.000+01:00</p> A useful tool worth investigating if you are using the SID History function during a migration is acctinfo.dll. This utility is part of the Windows 2003 resource kit and can also be found in the Account lockout tools.Copy acctinfo.dll into the System32 directory and register using:Regsvr32 acctinfo.dllOnce registered an “Additional Information” tab is available through Active Directory Users and </article> <article> <h1>Reset User Passwords using DSQuery</h1> <p>2006-06-15T13:28:00.000+01:00</p> Reset a complicated collection of users passwords the easy way using DSQuery. First use the Saved Queries function within Active Directory Users and Computers to narrow down the query and ensure you have the users required; for example all of the Bristol Office Staff.The edit Copy the Query String from the Saved Query you have created and use it the following way from the command line:dsquery * </article> <article> <h1>Debug GPO Application Deployment</h1> <p>2006-06-13T23:09:00.000+01:00</p> Investigate group policy application installation problems by enabling diagnostic logging in the registry to help identify problems:Key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\DiagnosticsName: AppMgmtDebugLevelType: REG_DWORDAppMgmtDebugLevel = Hex 9bThe log file is located in the %systemroot%\debug\Usermode folder called Appmgmt.logIn addition to this consider enabling Windows </article> <article> <h1>Multiple Local GPO's in Vista</h1> <p>2006-06-09T10:14:00.000+01:00</p> Windows Vista now supports multiple local GPO's. If you are exploring the new Beta 2 checkout creating a local GPO through the normal MMC Group Policy object editor snap-in, however when it displays "Local Machine" use the browse button and the select the users tab. Very interesting feature for standalone machines kiosks, library machines etc.Dave </article> <article> <h1>Reporting Local Security Settings</h1> <p>2006-06-09T10:00:00.000+01:00</p> If you are having problems reporting local security settings on machine's and want a simple utility then Dumpsec is worth investigating. SomarSoft provide this FREE useful utility that allows you to remotely dump security settings on machines. Cool utility, which whilst having security limitations, is a great tool for a Security Administrator.http://www.systemtools.com/somarsoft/Dave </article> <article> <h1>Public Download of Vista Beta 2</h1> <p>2006-06-09T09:38:00.000+01:00</p> Windows Vista Beta 2 is now available for Public download.http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/beta2/en/x86/download.htmDave </article> <article> <h1>Vista Beta 2 Video Drivers</h1> <p>2006-06-04T04:12:00.000+01:00</p> If you are having problems loading drivers for the nVidia Quadro FX350 on Vista Beta 2, there is a work around. If you are faced with the message "Could not find a compatible card…" then go manual.Through device manager update the video driver and use the have disk approach to use the extracted nVidia driver set and they load without any problems providing the full Aero experience.Also worth a </article> <article> <h1>Scripting Fun with Speach API (SAPI)</h1> <p>2006-06-02T22:59:00.000+01:00</p> Add a little fun to your scripts using the Speach API.set objVoice = createobject("SAPI.spVoice")objVoice.Speak "I'm sorry Dave, I'm affraid I can't do that"Thanks goes out to Brian for this one.Dave. </article> <article> <h1>Security Policy Problem</h1> <p>2006-05-30T23:11:00.000+01:00</p> I came across an interesting problem today with a machine not processing the security element of Group Policy (Secedit.sdb).The error was as follows:"Security policies are propagated with warning. 0x4b8 : An extended error has occurred. Please look for more details in Troubleshooting section in Security Help."Using esentutl /g c:\Windows\Security\database\secedit.sdb displayed that the database </article> <article> <h1>Investigating .pol files</h1> <p>2006-05-30T23:05:00.000+01:00</p> Using the resource kit tool regview.exe you can display the registry changes that are contained within any group policy .pol file.e.g regview C:\Windows\system32\GroupPolicy\User\registry.polWill display any registry values contained within the user element of local policy for the machine. This can be a quick an easy way to investigate and compare local policies on different machines. </article> <article> <h1>Exploring GPMC Scripts</h1> <p>2006-05-25T17:53:00.000+01:00</p> It is worth exploring the scripts provided with the GPMC to save some time documenting and automating the backup of GPO's. Open a command prompt in the C:\Program Files\GPMC\Scripts folder and explore in the lab.A great example is producing a report to document all of your GPO's. This command will generate an XML and HTML report of all of you GPO's. Very useful for documentation or passing on to </article> <article> <h1>Using log files to Debug Group Policy</h1> <p>2006-05-24T15:47:00.000+01:00</p> If your having difficulty getting to the bottom of Group Policy problems having used GPOTool to check consistency and RSOP to check processing, logging is the next step. Enabling this logging tracks all changes and settings applied to the machine as it starts and the user as they log on.The log file is located in the %windir%\debug\UserMode folder called Userenv.logKey: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\ </article> <article> <h1>GPOTool to Check GPO Consistency</h1> <p>2006-05-20T08:57:00.000+01:00</p> One of the most common group policy problems which produces hidden policies or inconsistent results is when SYSVOL may not be replicating correctly. Using the resource kit tool GPOTool is the best way to ensure that replication of Group Policy is occurringThe utility will report all “Policies OK” if all Domain Controllers SYSVOLS are up to date and current. It is worth considering scheduling this </article> <article> <h1>Troubleshooting Offline files</h1> <p>2006-05-20T08:52:00.000+01:00</p> The local Offline files database does not work well when server folders are moved and this problem is common. The best approach is to re-initialize the offline files on the clients with problems. This functionality is build in but hidden. On the client hold down "control" and "Shift" at the same time before clicking the delete files button in the Offline files tab. This will remove all records of </article> <article> <h1>Great ADM file Resource</h1> <p>2006-05-20T08:50:00.000+01:00</p> A great guide for creating ADM file's for registry based policy changes. Details all of the format required and has some examples. Useful resource.http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e7d72fa1-62fe-4358-8360-8774ea8db847%26DisplayLang=enDave </article> </main></body></html>