Windows 7 Reaches Its First EOL Step

Windows 7, the operating system that Microsoft simply can't kill off, has reached the first major step in its End Of Life cycle - the end of mainstream support was yesterday (13 Jan, 2015).  As can be seen on Microsoft's Product Support Lifecycle page for Windows 7, this date has now been reached and we're now in the Extended Support phase.  This is just like when Voyager 1 passed out of our Solar System in August 2012 and into interstellar space.

What this means is that the product will now only receive security updates - no non-security updates will be made available for Windows 7 based products (unless you have a Premier Support Agreement for Windows 7 Enterprise, which I can guarantee no small business has).  This is not a nail in the coffin of Windows 7, but it does mean that the product is entering its final years of functionality.  Paid support is still available for Windows 7 on a per-incident basis.

On the 14th of January, 2020 we'll have another milestone - the last day of extended (security update) support.  That will be the last nail in the coffin of Windows 7 - this is what happened to Windows XP back on 8th April, 2014.

So, right now there's nothing to worry about if you're still running Windows 7 on your computers - currently computer manufacturers are still allowed to supply computers with Windows 7 pre-installed if the manufacturer still has old stock of Windows 7 licenses.  But with Windows 8 and also Windows 8.1 already out and Windows 10 on the horizon, it may be time to think about the steps needed to move up to the current/next version of Windows.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Making Google the Default Search Provider in IE10 and IE11

I hate that you can't do this directly in Internet Explorer as Microsoft wants us to use the appalling Bing search (sic) engine.  So, instead, just click on http://www.iegallery.com/en-US/Addons/Details/813 and add this as a Search Engine, then go to Manage Add-Ons and ensure the "Search in the address bar" checkbox is checked (should be), change the listing order to make Bing feel even more unloved and your searches in IE will finally be functional! :)

UPDATE: Microsoft has made it even harder to make Google the default search engine.  You nowe have to go to the URL above, which Microsoft will redirect, then you need to go to the URL again for the Google Search option to appear.  Go Microsoft - you bastards!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Bootable Windows Server 2012 ISO

Back in the Windows F^HVista/7 and Server 2008/2008R2 days, it was possible to install an operating system instance without needing to input a key during the installation process.  You could use various methods to make a bootable OS Install USB key then simply remove the \sources\ei.cfg file and you'd be able to choose between all the versions of the OS inside the boot.wim file - this was very handy!

Microsoft has made a change since Windows Server 2012/Windows 8 whereby they don't allow you to install Windows without the use of a Product Key.  There is no ei.cfg file in the \sources folder and you are forced to input a Product Key during installation.

Well, there's a simple way to work around this to not only create a bootable USB Key that doesn't need a Product Key during install (and lets you choose among the multiple OS variants in the boot.wim file), but also to re-create a bootable ISO image so that you can then mount this as an installation media source in Hyper-V!

The steps to achieve these goals are:

• First, you'll need to download a Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2 ISO image or use the VL ISO image you already have there.  Then you'll need to either extract this image to a folder, or better still, just run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool as detailed in this post and make yourself a bootable USB key that allows for quite quick OS installs.
  
• Now, you'll need to copy the following into a new file called ei.cfg in the \sources folder of the USB key:
  [Channel]
  Retail
  [VL]
  1
• If you only need the bootable USB key, you can stop here, however if you now wish to recreate the ISO image file so that you can then use this modified image in a Hyper-V environment...
• Download and install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8 (yes, all 3GB of it!) to give you access to both the Deployment and Imaging Tools, which you will need to install (the other components of the WDK are optional)
• Now, to create an ISO image that will work with BIOS-based systems, assuming the USB Key we just made is available at U: and you're creating the ISO image on D:
  
  • Run the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment (Command Prompt) as Administrator, change to the "amd64\oscdimg" folder and then type the following:
  • oscdimg.exe –l<disc_label> -m -u2 –b<path_of_bootable_img_file> <path_of_installation_source> <path_where_ISO_is_to_be_created>
  • Please see this link for an explanation of the oscdimg.exe command-line options
  • Example:
    oscdimg.exe -l2K12R2BIOS -m -u2 -b"U:\boot\etfsboot.com" "U:\" "D:\2K12R2-BIOS.iso"
• If you wish to create an ISO image that will work on both BIOS-based and UEFI-based systems such as a Hyper-V 2012 R2 Gen 2 guest instance, assuming the USB Key we just made is available at U: and you're creating the ISO image on D: (this uses a modified version of the instructions found here):
  
  • Run the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment (Command Prompt) as Administrator, change to the "..\Windows Preinstallation Environment" folder
  • Type copype.cmd amd64 winpe_x64 This command creates the directory structure and copies the required files.
  • Now, copy winpe_x64/fwfiles/efisys.bin U:\boot to keep a copy on the USB key
  • Change back to the "..\Deployment Tools\amd64\oscdimg" folder, then type oscdimg -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -bootdata:2#p0,e,b"U:\boot\etfsboot.com"#pEF,e,b"U:\boot\efisys.bin" "U:\" "D:\2K12R2-UEFI.iso"
  • Update: I have thought this through a little more and found an even easier way to achieve this. :)
  • Run the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment (Command Prompt) as Administrator, change to the "amd64\oscdimg" folder and then type the following:
  • oscdimg -l2K12R2UEFI -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -bootdata:2#p0,e,b"U:\boot\etfsboot.com"#pEF,e,b"U:\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin" "U:\" "D:\2K12R2-UEFI.iso"
  • Please see the original post (here) for more information on the command-line options used.
• Now, you can burn this ISO image to a DVD or simply use it as the source for a Hyper-V guest and because it contains both the BIOS and UEFI boot data, it can be used to install either a Gen 1 (BIOS) or Gen 2 (UEFI) Hyper-V Guest. :)

* I have updated this post at: http://hiltont.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/bootable-windows-server-2016-uefi-iso.html

Enjoy!


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Office 2013 hits RTM

Microsoft has announced that their latest Office suite - Office 2013 - has just been released to manufacturing.  General availability will be January 2013 (just after the FSMas rush - I think that was badly timed), however the roll out of versions will start in November 2012 to Office 365 Enterprise customers (some features, most likely not all in the initial upgrade), followed by existing Software Assurance customers in mid November and new Licensing customers in December 2012.

Anyone who purchases Office 2010 from October 19th will be eligible for a free upgrade (costs for postage, if required) to Office 2013 when it is available in 2013.

Microsoft's Office News blog had this to say about Office 2013:

This is the most ambitious release of Office we've ever done. It spans the full family of Office applications, servers and cloud services. The new Office has a fresh, touch friendly design that works beautifully on Windows 8 and unlocks modern scenarios in social, reading, note-taking, meetings and communications. We are proud to achieve this milestone and are eager to deliver this exciting release to our customers.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Mobility Computing - Microsoft & Apple

As will be patently obvious to anyone who has read anything I've written on tech in the past, I'm most definitely not an Apple fanboi nor do I wear the rose-colored glasses that the Microsoft mindwashed crowd wear, either - I simply call it as I see it.

Back when the Symbian OS was considered half decent, Microsoft had their Windows Mobile SmartPhone OS and RIM had Blackberry.  Right up front I'm going to pretty much ignore RIM and Blackberry here as I operate in the SMB world and in this market, RIM has never held a market share percentage easily distinguishable from zero.  Symbian was OK, but nothing to write home about.  I tried it on a few handsets and was never really a fan.  Microsoft's Windows Mobile - though bloated and ugly by today's standards - was quite usable as a SmartPhone OS and had email that connected quite effectively to Exchange Server for business users.  Aside from the terrible Office Mobile suite, Windows Mobile basically worked.

And then through a number of version upgrades, a trend became glaringly obvious - Microsoft had pretty much abandoned any idea of making this usable.  After seeing this trend and hoping I was misreading it, I eventually wrote this article in June 2008 where I accused Microsoft of treating Windows Mobile like a redheaded stepchild.  Around 15 months later in September 2009, Steve Ballmer admitted that he screwed up with the SmartPhone market and that they were going to address this.

Windows Phone 7 was announced in February 2010 and devices running this OS were finally available for sale in October 2010 - 8 months later.  Even now, in June, 2012, Windows Phone barely makes a blip on the radar of Mobile OS usage - even the Nokia Series 40 OS out-ranks it!

Microsoft had already effectively killed off their Windows Mobile platform by simply ignoring it so when Windows Phone 7 finally launched, the fact that all Windows Mobile handsets and applications were incompatible with it wasn't a big deal to *most* people.  One big reason for this is that most of those who were previously using a Windows Mobile handset had since bought an Apple iPhone or one of the Google Android handsets.

Microsoft released the "Mango" Windows Phone 7.5 upgrade in late 2011 and a minor "Tango" update in early 2012.  On June 20, 2012, Microsoft announced Windows Phone 8 and an upcoming and final update to the Windows Phone 7 platform - Windows Phone 7.8 - that will backport some of the features of Windows Phone 8, but not application compatibility.

WTF???

That's right - Microsoft has announced that Windows Phone 8 will run on a different CPU architecture - partly because they couldn't shoe-horn a decent OS into a single core CPU (iOS and Android can, though) - which means that any new Windows Phone 8.x applications will not run on Windows Phone 7.x handsets.  What's worse, though, is that this means that all currently available Windows Phone 7.x handsets will absolutely not be upgradeable to Windows Phone 8.

So, anyone who has bought a Windows Phone 7.x handset is now SOL when it comes to worthwhile OS upgrades - they are simply not going to happen.  Sure, the few people who own Windows Phone handsets will be disappointed by Microsoft shafting them once again, but as there are < 5% of SmartPhone users running Windows Phone 7 handsets, this will not have any great affect on the OS share of Windows Phone as a whole.

Now, will running the Windows 8 kernel on a SmartPhone under Windows Phone 8 be viable?  Well, it will be optimized to run on a quad core CPU (which not only means that it NEEDS serious grunt, therefore battery drain, it is also reasonable as mobility CPUs are migrating past dual core to quad core now anyway) and it may mean that Metro apps that will run on Windows 8 and Windows RT could also run on Windows Phone - that would be nice.  We'll have to wait and see...

Apple, on the other hand, has just announced that iOS 6 will be released soon and it supports all of their currently selling devices.  Not all features will be made available, however, and whilst some of these are for performance reasons, a number are purely corporate decisions, which is causing a bit of a stir with many commentators claiming that not properly supporting current devices where possible is not acceptable.  Just wait until they see what Microsoft's done to all of their currently available Windows Phone handsets!  :)

Android - well, there's a conundrum.  The vast majority of Android users are on rather old versions of the operating system and very few are running the current release - Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) - because the many and varied devices running Android require their manufacturers to customize ICS for their devices before having it released.  Manufacturers like Toshiba who are glacially slow to release ICS for their Thrive (AT100) tablets are causing their customers to look at other manufacturers for future devices.  Why would you buy another device from the manufacturer who has just shafted you on the device they are currently selling?

And now Android Jelly Bean (4.1.x) has been "announced" on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone.  Google really needs to try and get their shit together here and ensure developers are releasing updates for their devices in a timely fashion - there are still quite a number of Froyo and Gingerbread devices being sold without any ability to upgrade, not to mention the Honeycomb devices still being sold.

So, will the new Windows Phone 8 work?  Microsoft's currently making a last ditch attempt at re-entering the mobility market.  They once owned and then ignored away their SmartPhone market share to Apple/Android and they have previously pretty much owned the tablet market with Windows XP Tablet Edition and the tablet features in F^HVista and Windows 7 even though they have completely disregarded touch functionality up until Metro.  This will be an interesting time for Microsoft in the mobility market - with the newly announced Microsoft Surface Windows RT/Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone 8 they have one last chance to show the world that they have something decent to offer.  If the Windows Surface tablets omit integrated 3G/4G functionality, though, it shows how little Microsoft actually understands about mobility today.

... and now for some rather telling graphs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system showing the mobility space as it currently stands today.  Notice that there's no "Microsoft" anywhere on those graphs...

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Windows 8 Tablet PC Part II

So, after spending a little while using Windows 8 x86 on this Tablet PC (Slate) I have started to restore the Windows 7 image backup I took before installing Windows 8.

The *main* issue I have is the seriously reduced functionality of the "Desktop" in Windows 8 - there's no Start Menu any more and clicking on what appears in place of the Windows 7 Pearl just takes you back to the (currently - this is pre-beta) almost totally non functional Metro UI.  If this is what Microsoft relegates the desktop to, then I can't see anyone except personal (home) users and tablet users looking at Windows 8 - Enterprise and SMB clients will not be able to function in a barely usable desktop environment as I can *guarantee* you that very, very few of the LOB vendors out there will release their apps through the Microsoft Win 8 App Store as full-screen (Metro-style) apps.  And the "just use search, not the Start Menu" response Microsoft gives is a crock - especially on a Slate!

Obviously, as all of the tiles in the Metro UI are place holders except "Explorer", "Desktop" and "Control Panel", it is next to useless right now - however that aside, it *does* seem to be an interesting way to handle a Touch UI and I'm sure when devs start releasing apps that will work, it will become quite nice.  Right now, however, there's nothing useful in it at all.

So, back to Windows 7 I come.  This is disappointing as this is the fastest I have ever returned to a previous OS when starting to beta test the next one.  :(


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Office 2010 SP1 Is Out

If you've been wanting to do some testing again, then you're in luck - Microsoft has just released Office 2010 SP1 for download.  http://www.techspot.com/news/44454-microsoft-releases-office-2010-sp1.html gives some more information and direct download links are below:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26622 (x86)

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26617 (x64)

Thanks to Peter Hale for giving me the heads up on this.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

ShadowProtect Restore Issues

Thanks to Tony for bringing to my attention this blog post from Philip Elder regarding issues around restoring Windows F^HFista and WS2K8 images that were previously made using ShadowProtect.  This is also quite possibly an issue also with Win 7 and WS2K8R2 - I'm not 100% sure here, though the BCDEdit results do look similar to those in F^HVista and WS2K8, so I'd be placing money on this also being an issue

I'd suggest placing this script on the ShadowProtect IT USB key and running it on any F^HVista/WS2K8 (and Win 7/WS2K8R2) machine before taking an image.

StorageCraft is most likely working on a fix to this issue right now, especially considering Acronis' True Image has already addressed this.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Internet Explorer Certificate Security

Once upon a time in a world not too unlike this one, there was an Internet Explorer browser known as 6.0.  It was a nice little browser and had one big security advantage over all of its progeny - it not only looked at the Certificate Revocation List published by each Trusted Root Certification Authority, it also took the step of informing the user if this List could not be contacted.  That's a sane, security-conscious move right there.

Now, in a strange reversal of "Survival of the fittest" (which is a term incorrectly attributed to Charles Darwin), a genetic mutation occurred during the coding of Internet Explorer 7 whereby the CRL is still checked, but if the List cannot be contacted the user is no longer informed and continues on their merry way thinking that everything is good.  This mutated genetic code has then been successfully passed down to MSIE 8 and also on to MSIE 9.  This is not a good thing.

To address this issue, you'll need to make a Registry modification.  This isn't something that only those chosen few can do, but it is something you need to be really careful doing unless you like turning functional computers into smouldering piles of partially molten metal(1).  This Registry modification was originally listed in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 946323 which has since been removed from the Microsoft KB.

I'm not going to repeat what's already out there in the Intarwebs, so I'll just link to an existing site showing what this Registry modification entails.  Obviously those people running an AD-based network can push this Registry entry out using GPO - Policies or Preferences depending on the version of AD/Server and your organizations policies on these sorts of things.

So, this link is basically a copy of the original (now removed) Microsoft KB article.  It adds the "FEATURE_WARN_ON_SEC_CERT_REV_FAILED" key to the Registry.  This link is to one of the original blog posts in 2007 about this security issue.

With the recent Comodo SSL breach still fresh in our minds, it should be time to ask, again, why this setting is not the default in Microsoft Internet Explorer and also why Microsoft has removed KB 946323 instead of updating it for MSIE 8 and MSIE 9.

(1) OK, your computer won't *physically* melt down, but you definitely need to be careful when editing the Registry as it can result in an unstable on unbootable Windows installation.  If we're talking about a F^HVista box here, making it unbootable may not be a bad thing - especially if this then means you can upgrade it to Windows 7!  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Security Essentials Update

On 16 December, Microsoft released their latest version of Microsoft Security Essentials - version 2.0.657.0 for both x86 and x64 systems running Windows XP SP2/SP3, F^HVista RTM/SP1/SP2 and Windows 7.

Microsoft Security Essentials is licensed for use as follows (more complete information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/eula.aspx#mainNav and should be carefully read before installing MSSE):

1.INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.

    a. Home Use. If you are a home user, then you may install and use any number of copies of the software on your personal devices for use by people who reside in your household. As a home user, you may not use the software in any commercial, non-profit, or revenue generating business activities.

    b. Small Business. If you operate a small business, then you may install and use the software on up to ten (10) devices in your business.

    c. Restrictions.

        i.The software may not be used on a device running an enterprise version of a Microsoft Windows operating system.

        ii.The software may not be used on devices owned by government or academic institutions.

    d. Separation of Components. The components of the software are licensed as a single unit. You may not separate the components and install them on different devices.

    e. Included Microsoft Programs. The software may contain other Microsoft programs. The license terms with those programs apply to your use of them.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Marketing Finally Gets Something Right

As we all know, the Bill and Jerry series of adverts were able to achieve two things: 1. They proved how totally and utterly out of touch with reality Microsoft had become, and 2. They paid Jerry Seinfeld a lot of money to show how mouch of his shine he'd lost.  Oh, and they canned the series of adverts before they got to show them all.

Now, it seems that someone in at Microsoft's Marketing department got fired and replaced by someone who has a clue.  And whoever it was, THANKYOU.  Whoever is responsible for this advert - both in at Microsoft and whichever agency they contracted to do it - finally gets that tacky, ill-targeted, esoteric adverts are a waste of time if they are trying to generate positive results.

Have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAhJTxC1C8w and see if you agree with me - this has to be the best advert Microsoft has released in a long, long time, if ever.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Is Microsoft dying?

Some people are calling this CNN Money article a simple measure of FUD.  Is it?

There's a lot of truth in there - consumers aren't "buying" Windows 7 - if they get new computers, they come with Windows 7, sure, but are they really forking out their cold, hard cash to upgrade machines that are running XP?  Not that I've seen.

Businesses are definitely buying Windows 7 - this is because so many business machines are still running Windows XP, an OS initially released in 2001 (that's 9 years ago, folks), due to the fact that F^HVista was a festering bucket of poop that no self-respecting IT provider would have deployed to the majority of their clients.  We're upgrading all of our clients from Windows XP to Windows 7 - we had a few "taster" Vista installs out there, but we never went past that and we even dropped a number back to XP to gain stability, functionality and speed.

Microsoft recently released their Kin mobility platform and then due to appalling sales, pulled it from the market only 48 days later.  Hopefully their Windows Phone 7 product gets better reception than that, however we need to recall that back in June 2008, I'd already called Microsoft out for treating their then ageing Windows Mobile platform like a redheaded stepchild and it has taken over 2 years from then for Microsoft to come up with Windows Phone 7.  Is it too little, too late?  I honestly hope not.  (Interestingly, there's little mention of the whole Kin failure on the Microsoft website, hence my link above to Wikipedia.)

Windows 7 on a multitouch tablet device - I dunno.  Windows 7 still needs grunt to drive it well.  It will work on an Atom, sure, but with Windows 7 and the weight of common applications such as Microsoft Office (Outlook and OneNote in particular) and Adobe Reader that people will run on a Windows 7 tablet, I honestly wonder what the experience will be like compared to an iPad.  With an iPad you absolutely do not expect it to run like a desktop nor laptop - it has a clearly different operating system (very similar to that of an iPhone) with applications designed to run in that lightweight environment.  A Windows 7 tablet, on the other hand, will run regular applications on a low-grade hardware platform and therefore look and feel like a sluggish desktop or laptop.  This is where I think that it will come unstuck.

We're looking at our mobility options here - the iPad has some clear wins, but so does Windows 7 on a tablet.  The clear lose for the Win7 tablet PC is that I can see us being bitterly disappointed with the performance for the reason mentioned above.  Sure, it will run that applications we need it to, but they will be slow and drain the battery life.  We need to look for alternate applications on the iPad and accept some differences, but then maybe this is a more acceptable option.  We're still undecided.

So, Windows 7 is selling to businesses who didn'ty buy Windows F^HVista, but isn't selling to existing consumers.  Microsoft Kin was stillborn.  Vista was stillborn.  Zune was stillborn.  Office 2010 is an excellent product, but most clients running Office 2007 already can't see clear benefit in upgrading - ESPECIALLY now that Microsoft has dropped all "Upgrade" SKUs and forced smaller clients to buy the full product again.  Windows Phone 7, years too late, is selling in the market like uranium-laced cookies (no-one's really going near it).  In Brisbane there were literally a handful of people waiting on launch day for the handsets - compare that to the iPhone when it was released.  Microsoft's providing all employees and paid Professional Developer's Conference (PDC10) attendees with a handset - at least that will get the numbers up.  Let's hope it helps get the platform off the ground.

And now they change focus for Silverlight to a Windows Phone development platform and put their weight behind HTML 5 as the cross-platform basis that Silverlight was originally meant to be!

And to top that off, Microsoft's lost their Chief Software Architect (Ray Ozzie) in a move hailed by most people as a massive "so what?" but the crazy thing is that Microsoft has decided not to replace him at all.  This is  once visionary technology company, now being run by a retail store accountant without any vision (but who oozes crazy like it is sweat) who fails to replace their relatively ineffective replacement for Bill Gates' Chief Software Architect role with someone with, I dunno, let's say "vision".  This is the one thing that truly makes me wonder about Microsoft's direction - not their failures (which shows that at least they are trying), but their lack of foresight in employing a visionary in their organization.  Groundbreaking developments and leadership by a technology company *CANNOT* be sustained with only an accountant at the helm of the ship.
Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Future Directions of Technology Seminar Series

Please click here for more information on the on this series of seminars that SMBiT Professionals Brisbane will be presenting throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory in November 2010. If you're a Small to Medium Business owner and want to learn more about The Cloud, Virtualization, Communications and Greening of IT, please register to attend one of these sessions as there will be some information that will be pertinent to your future use of technology. If you have other colleagues who may benefit from these seminars, please feel free to pass this email on to them and invite them along, too – the more the merrier!
These seminars are aimed at the Business Owner and others involved in the *use* of Information Technology in the business, not the *management* of the Information Technology – so there will be as little “baffling us with technogeek speak” as we can possibly have – we want to inform you of the technologies and what they can mean to your business, not scare you off with technoblahblahblah mumble, mumble, mumble.

Oh, and please ignore the scary photos – none of are as bad as those photos make us appear! OK, so, well, maybe we are! ;)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Windows Phone 7 Launch

A friend of mine, Alan Burchill (Group Policy MVP) waited in line (alone for quite some time) this morning for the Telstra Store to open so he could buy a Windows Phone 7 device.  Ultimately by the time the store opened, there were a total of 6 (six) people queued for the opening and launch of Windows Phone 7.

Unfortunately, the Brisbane store didn't have any Windows Phone 7 handsets - maybe they didn't think they'd be popular enough to bother with for the launch day?  It seems they were right - a 6 person queue for the latest new thing from Microsoft - how the mighty have fallen (under the "leadership" of Steve Ballmer).


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Reset Password in Windows Server 2008 (RTM and R2) and Windows 7

OK, time to fess up here.  I screwed up, so needed to find out how to do this for a machine we set up some time back that has been sitting idle - I was *sure* I recorded the authentication details in the OneNote build documentation for this client, but for the life of me, I can't find it.  Now I need to finish the install and, well, that's a little difficult without logon details...

So, I Googled and found these instructions that I've added to a bit (net group) and added some handy screen captures as well:

1. Boot from DVD or USB media - this media can be Windows Server 2008 RTM, 2008 R2, SBS 2008 or even Windows 7.

2. Change the language to English (Australia) if you want - but we're not installing anything, so it really doesn't matter right now

3. Click on the "Repair your computer" link

4. Choose the OS instance that you wish to reset the Administrator (or other Administrative) password for, taking note of the drive letter that was chosen for it (normally D:)

5. Choose "Command Prompt"

6. Change to the Windows\System32 directory of this OS instance and move the Utilman.exe file to a  backup, then copy cmd.exe to Utilman.exe

7. Remove the USB Key, reboot into the Windows install you need to change the password for and when at the Login prompt, hit Windows+U


8. Type 'net group "Domain Users"' to see a list of all the domain users on this system (Domain Controllers only)

9. Type 'net group "Domain Admins"' to see which administrative accounts exist on the system (Domain Controllers only) then type 'net user Administrator Select_a_decent_passphrase' to change the password of the Administrator account

10. Log in using the new password.  Immediately go and change this password to a nice, secure passphrase.


11. Reboot with the DVD/USB boot media and copy the backed up Utilman.exe.bak file to Utilman.exe to make sure we don't leave this hole open for now.  And that's it!  :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

The system could not access your credential management server

On HP desktop and workstation computers that don't use biometric logins, I normally uninstall all of the HP ProtectTools stuff.  Well, I used to up to and including Vista and for some reason stupidly thought that maybe in Windows 7, HP had got their software working properly.  Apparently, this assumption was incorrect.

The main issue that I've seen in the past is that the HP ProtectTools suite seems to bork occasionally which then results in the error message I named this blog entry after: "The system could not access your credential management server..." and also occasionally the following error message: "The server is not responding properly. Verify that the Credential Manager server is properly installed on the target server."  There's then no way you can log in to this system - either locally or onto the domain  Fun, fun!

Well, the fix (temporarily) is to disable the HP Credential Manager during login and long term is to uninstall the HP ProtectTools suite to leave the system able to work properly and reliably.

So, here's the drum:

1. At the login screen, click on the Log on with Wizard... link

2. Using the Logon Wizard, check the "Do not Log On to Credential Manager" option under the "More..." button

3. Log on using a Domain Administrator account (or a Local Administrator account)

4. In "Control Panel\Programs\Uninstall a program", click on "HP Protect Tools Security Manager Suite" and click Uninstall.  If prompted to uninstall various other Suite components first, please do so.  Reboot and you'll be able to log in normally again!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Parallels iPhone/iPad App

This falls into the "things that almost make me think about a Mac desktop box, but not quite..." category:

http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/14/demo-parallels-mobile-virtualization-app-ipad-iphone/

So, a Mac desktop computer, running Win 7 in Parallels 6, then being able to access the Windows 7 apps remotely using an iPhone or (better) an iPad...

But could I use multiple monitors in the way I'm using them now?  I have 3 on my i7 Win 7 desktop now and will likely be adding a 4th soon as a dedicated OneNote display now that I'm finding I spend more time in OneNote 2010 than ever before.  That's one of the lingering doubts...

But this Parallels functionality, added to the Seagate DockStar Network Adapter or (better) a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Net Media Sharing Device to give you remote iPad/iPhone access to files that can't fit on these mobile devices is starting to really look impressive.

For example, you could walk onto a client site with your iPad to show a client your plans for the work you're going to be doing for them, find out they need a few changes, Parallels into your office Win 7 environment, make the edits and save them to the Seagate device, making them immediately available to view from your iPad.  You could also access those images/documents from an older job that the client may be interested in when you didn't think that they'd be appropriate, but now you've been brainstorming, this other information is relevant - you could do it now, in the cafe, on your iPad instead of needing to send the images when you get back to your office - it allows for more free-flowing sessions with clients in these types of scenarios.

The Seagate devices with PogoPlug functionality, even without the Parallels functionality, would be rather handy to have for many iPhone/iPad users.

Thanks to @Lachlan_Mc for bringing this new Parallels app to my attention.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Mapping SkyDrive Folders As Network Drives In Windows 7

If you have a Windows Live SkyDrive account and wish to use it like any other network device, you can map it to a drive letter.  Using Windows 7, this is how you can do this:

Office 2010

1. Open a blank document in word 2010
2. File, Save & Send, Save to Web
3. Sign in to your Windows Live account (if you've not already saved the credentials in Word 2010)
4. Choose the SkyDrive folder you wish to save to
5. Click the "Save As" button
6. You will see the URL up the top - click in a blank space and copy this URL, which will be something like https://foobar.docs.live.net/15eec001f00dcafe/Documents which we'll use a little later


Office 2007 (and maybe Office 2003 - too old for me to try)

1. Sign in to Live SkyDrive and upload a Word document to your Documents folder
2. Click on the uploaded document, which will open it for viewing in the Word Web App
3. Click the Open in Word button up the top left of the page
4. Sign in to your Windows Live account
5. File, Save As and you will see the URL up the top - click in a blank space and copy this URL, which will be something like https://foobar.docs.live.net/15eec001f00dcafe/Documents which we'll use next


Mapping The Drive Letter In Windows 7

1. Open Windows Explorer (or My Computer), right click on Computer or Network and choose "Map network drive..."
2. Choose the drive letter you wish to use and then paste the URL into the "Folder" box, ensure "Reconnect at logon" and "Connect using different credentials" are both checked then click OK
3. Enter your Live ID username and password in the Windows Security box and choose "Remember my credentials" if you want Windows to remember them instead of having to type them in each time you log in to your computer and first access the SkyDrive folder


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Office Web Apps

Microsoft's Office Web Apps are nigh.  I've been playing for a while now with Word, Excel and PowerPoint docs saved to my Live SkyDrive (25GB free, online storage) and it works reasonably well.  A document saved to your SkyDrive online storage can be viewed in SkyDrive using Microsoft Office Web Apps and can even be edited online.  If you want, the document can then be opened for more powerful editing in Word/Excel/PowerPoint 2010 (or 2007 or 2003) if it is installed on your desktop.

Now, the online Microsoft Office Web Apps aren't bad - they don't offer the full scale of features that the regular Microsoft Office application suite provides, but for a free, online, edit (almost¹) everywhere Office app that renders documents the same way Office 2010 renders them on your desktop, Office Web Apps is quite usable.

If you want to share OneNote documents between multiple computers - or multiple users - then you don't need to have a SharePoint site set up for this any longer.  I've not yet played with OneNote sharing between multiple machines nor users with Live SkyDrive as we have a SharePoint site, however I probably should, if only to test it out.  SharePoint offers more benefits than just sharing OneNote documents, but for smaller businesses who don't want or need to get a SharePoint site up and running, either locally or hosted, then Live SkyDrive offers OneNote sharing.

Do you want to map your SkyDrive folders to your computer(s)?  Well, have a read of this blog post for how to do this in Windows 7.


¹ Opera 10.53 fails to render any Word documents (at least - if it fails at that, I can't be bothered trying any further until they fix this), however it works fine in Chrome, Firefox and obviously in IE8.  I don't have Safari installed on my Win 7 box so I don't know what Safari support for Office Web Apps is like.  All the browsers I tested, aside from Opera (which is glacial compared to the others, by the way) also open the files for editing.



Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7

Well, this nice add-on to Windows 7 was previously only available to large OEMs like Dell, HP, IBM and Toshiba, however it now seems that Microsoft has opened its use up to all of their Windows 7 multitouch users, not just those from these large partners.

You can go here to download this pack.

(Thanks to Dennis Tan, MS PAM in Brisbane for alerting me to this information.)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie