Entries for Adam Bomb

Exchange 2010 at Lifetime Products

Adam Bomb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Road Trip!
I tagged along with the Exchange team to shoot some video of some customers who are using Exchange 2010 today.
Our first stop was Lifetime Products - manufacturer of basketball hoops, folding tables and all kinds of other cool stuff.
We talked with the CIO, President and VP of Sales and Marketing about all the new features and benefits they've gotten from Exchange 2010 - their story was even picked up by CIO magazine, you can read about it here.
More videos from our road trip to follow - keep an eye out for them!

System Center Essentials (SCE) 2010 beta preview

Adam Bomb — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:01:00 GMT

I recently sat down with David Mills and Edwin Yuen, who got together for a brief discussion of Microsoft’s IT management and virtualization solution for midsize businesses. With the release of public betas for System Center Essentials 2010 and Data Protection Manager 2010, customers will have the capability to easily manage, backup and restore their physical and virtual servers in an integrated way.

After discussing the benefits of using Hyper-v, SCE 2010 and DPM 2010, Edwin gives us a quick demo of SCE 2010’s integrated virtual and physical management capabilities.

For more information and to download public betas, go to:

SCE 2010: http://www.microsoft.com/sce

DPM 2010: http://www.microsoft.com/dpm

Windows 7 Early Adopter Panel at the Gartner Symposium

Adam Bomb — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2009 is one of industry’s largest and most important annual gathering of CIOs and their senior IT leaders. One of the Microsoft –sponsored sessions that took place is Windows 7 Early Adopter Customer Panel.

In this highly visible discussion, featured Gartner Research VP & Distinguished Analyst Michael Silver facilitated the panel around Windows 7 planning, deployment and customer experience with Windows 7 Early Adopter Customers: ADP, BMW, Energizer and Pella.

The panel includes discussions about topics of importance for enterprises considering the move to Windows 7. ADP, BMW, Energizer and Pella share their perspective on business drivers to adopt Windows 7 and the benefits they expect to achieve with deploying Windows 7. These companies also share their deployment experience and recommendations for companies new to Windows 7 deployment. This is a great chance to get valuable insider information from Microsoft Customer industry leads.

Please visit Gartner.com for a replay of this webcast.

Windows 7 in stores now

Adam Bomb — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:51:00 GMT

Midnight Launch Events, House Parties - there are lots of opportunities to check out Windows 7, if you haven't already.
Starting today, Windows 7 is available in stores, and shipping on new PC's.
There's lots of great Windows 7 content on Edge already, and more to come in the upcoming weeks. Here are some of my favorites.
The App Compat/Migration video series
Building Install Media for Windows 7
XP Mode for Windows 7
Using AppLocker in Windows 7
BitLocker to Go
DirectAccess
BranchCache
How to install Windows 7 from a USB stick

Exchange 2010 RTM!

Adam Bomb — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:00:00 GMT

The big news today is that Exchange 2010 is now code complete. The senior leadership team has signed off on the final code, and it has been sent to early adopters for a final look before its public release. This Release To Manufacturing (RTM) milestone means we are well on our way to general availability and launch at TechEd Europe in November. For those of you attending TechEd in Berlin this year, be sure to visit the Exchange booth and tell them what you think of the product. I caught some of you on video with Crystal Flores at TechEd US earlier this year…Crystal will be looking for more of you in Berlin in a few weeks. If you can’t join in person, tune in via the Web (www.thenewefficiency.com) to be part of the launch.

Windows 7 After Dark [Windows 7 After Dark]

Adam Bomb — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Andrew Dugdell is a known for his technical talks at TechEd in the past, but this year, he offered a session that was a little lighter: Windows 7 After Dark, all the stuff in Windows 7 that's fun for you at home.
Andrew gave me a quick rundown of some of the things in his session like Media Center and touch screen integration.
Even cooler though, Andrew showed off the arcade unit he built on Windows 7 as a hobby project.
Andrew's next project is a cocktail style arcade unit, which means retiring this stand up unit, so we got to witness that, too.
Andrew's how-to presentation on building an arcade unit can be found at http://www.tinyurl.com/buildwin7

in reply to Windows 7 After Dark

Virtualization at TechEd Australia

Adam Bomb — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Events like TechEd Australia are often an opportunity to showcase technology from Microsoft and our partners. One of the ways we did this at TechEd Australia was to set up a large demo platform that all the speakers could host their demos in using virtual machines.
I spent some time with Andrew Lee of HP and Jorke Odolphi of Microsoft to show me the hardware and the configuration that made up the infrastructure.
Some of the cleanest rack wiring I've ever seen. Seriously. Nice work guys!

Top Reasons to Deploy Windows 7 [Top Reasons to Deploy Windows 7]

Adam Bomb — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:01:00 GMT

While attending TechEd Australia, I sat down with Kyle Rosenthal, a Windows MVP and speaker at TechEd Australia.
One of Kyle's sessions was on the top reasons to deploy Windows 7, so I had him go over some of his top reasons with me.
You can follow Kyle via his website and blog at www.windowspcguy.net

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TechEd Australia Netbook Deployment [TechEd Australia Netbook Deployment]

Adam Bomb — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:01:00 GMT

There's lots of buzz at TechEd Australia from attendees experiencing Windows 7 on their new netbooks.
What few people see is the amount of effort that went in to getting Windows 7 deployed on 2,500 machines in just a week.
John Pritchard is a client specialist in Australia, and part of the team that made it happen. He took a minute to tell me how it all happens.
There was lots of effort in getting a reference image created with all the appropriate drivers, and preloading the machines with apps like Visual Studio 2010 and the Office 2010 Tech Preview.
You can see more about the process at www.technetbackstage.net

in reply to TechEd Australia Netbook Deployment

Backstage at Keynote Rehearsals, TechEd Australia [Backstage at Keynote Rehearsals, TechEd Australia]

Adam Bomb — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:25:00 GMT

As it turns out, if you carry a camera and act like you know what you're doing, you can go pretty much anywhere at a conference. This time, I wandered in during keynote rehearsals, and got a sneak peek at what attendees were going to see. Windows 7, Office and Visual Studio 2010, and more were on display, including, most disturbingly, Nick Hodge's Win7 tattoo.

in reply to Backstage at Keynote Rehearsals, TechEd Australia

TechEd Australia Netbook unwrapping [TechEd Australia Netbook unwrapping]

Adam Bomb — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:10:00 GMT

I've mentioned on Edge before about the netbook attendees receives here at TechEd Australia. I managed to grab Alan Burchill and have him take us through the out of box experience that each attendee goes through with their new netbook.
The actual process takes about 10 minutes (the netbook is pre-installed with the Office 2010 technical preview and some other apps), so I took the liberty of chopping it down to just the important parts.
You can follow Alan's further adventures at TechEd and beyond on Twitter. He's @alanburchill.

in reply to TechEd Australia Netbook unwrapping

Get your hands on Windows 7 yet? [Get your hands on Windows 7 yet?]

Adam Bomb — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:00:00 GMT

There are lots of ways to get your hands on the final bits for Windows 7:

Through a Software Assurance Volume License agreement
Through MSDN and TechNet subscriptions
Through Software Assurance agreements allowing the download of Windows 7 RTM via the Volume Licensing Download Center.

If none of these options work for you, our friends at Springboard are making a 90-day eval version available for download.
A few things to be aware of before you download the Evaluation code from the Springboard Series site on TechNet:

A limited number of licenses are available, so the download will only be available while supplies last.
Following the 90 day evaluation period, IT Pros who wish to continue to use Windows 7 Enterprise will be required to purchase and perform a clean installation of Windows 7, including drivers and applications.
Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 90-Day Trial is the final Released-to-Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. This is the same software that is available to Volume Licensing (VL) through Software Assurance (SA) and is feature-complete.
Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial is available in English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese in both 32 and 64 bit versions.
Activation of Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial is required within 10 days after installation, or the product will shut down every hour. Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial is valid for 90 days after installation. After expiration, your computer will shut down every hour.

If you wish to continue to use Windows 7 Enterprise please note that you will be required to purchase and perform a clean installation of Windows 7, including drivers and applications. Please keep this in mind; Windows 7 Enterprise is not available through retail channels.

For more technical guidance, tips, and tools you can keep up all the general technical information and news by following the Springboard Series blog, becoming a Springboard Insider or by following our Twitter feed @MSspringboard

in reply to Get your hands on Windows 7 yet?

Exchange 2010 Release Candidate

Adam Bomb — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:00:00 GMT

The Exchange 2010 Release Candidate is available today.
In this video, Crystal sits down with Michael Atalla to talk about the scope of the Exchange 2010 beta, and some of the advances Exchange has made over the last 14 years.
Michael and Crystal also talk about some of their favorite features in Exchange 2010
There are already over 10 Million users on Outlook Live today beta testing this release.
Download the RC from the download center.

Conference Attendee tools powered by Microsoft Surface [Conference Attendee tools powered by Microsoft Surface]

Adam Bomb — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Twice a year Microsoft runs an internal conference in Seattle for field technical employees to come get cutting edge training on the latest Microsoft technologies.
While I can't share with you what I learned in sessions at the event, I will share this application that the Surface team had running on various kiosks around the event - it's a cool way to exchange contact information with other attendees and bookmark content that you want to take a look at later.
You can learn more about Surface at the Surface Home Page.

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Power Management and Troubleshooting Group Policy [Power Management and Troubleshooting Group Policy]

Adam Bomb — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:04:00 GMT

I sat down with Michael Kleef and Mark Gray in the Group Policy team to talk about the kind of settings in Windows 7 that can be controlled by policy.
Mark also gives us a primer on how to troubleshoot group policy issues by turning on GP logging on the client.
Find out the latest about Group Policy by following the team blog.

in reply to Power Management and Troubleshooting Group Policy

Using Group Policy to set default printers in Windows 7 [Using Group Policy to set default printers in Windows 7]

Adam Bomb — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:01:00 GMT

In a recent visit with the Group Policy program managers, Michael explained the challenges that used to be involved in setting printers via group policy, and Lilia walks through the steps to easily do so today.
You can follow Michaels blog at http://blogs.technet.com/mkleef, and Lilia contributes to the Group Policy team blog.

in reply to Using Group Policy to set default printers in Windows 7

Exchange 2010 at WPC [Exchange 2010 at WPC]

Adam Bomb — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Crystal and I went down to New Orleans for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference to talk to some Exchange partners about what's coming in Exchange 2010. They share with us some of their favorite features, and the benefits their customers will see with 2010.
More info on Exchange can be found on the Exchange home page and Exchange team blog.

in reply to Exchange 2010 at WPC

Windows XP to Windows 7 migration - Deployment [Windows XP to Windows 7 migration - Deployment]

Adam Bomb — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:04:00 GMT

In this final video in the application and deployment series for Windows 7, I sit down with Joey, who explains to me some of the deployment options available to IT Pros who want to automate the process of deploying Windows 7.

Watch all 5 videos in the XP to Windows 7 Migration series:
1. Overview
2. Collect, Analyze, and Test
3. Remediate Applications - Fix
4. Remediate Applications - Virtualize
5. Deploy Operating System

View the XP to Windows 7 migration process diagram which will walk you through the tools and resources available from Microsoft to help you each step along the way.

in reply to Windows XP to Windows 7 migration - Deployment

Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration - Remediate Fix [Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration - Remediate Fix]

Adam Bomb — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:01:00 GMT

In this third video in the application compatibility and deployment series for Windows 7, Yochay tells us a little bit about the options available to get an application to run on Windows 7.
When possible you should look to upgrade an app, or recode if if you have source code access and expertise. If those aren't options, he also talks about implementing shims, which may allow an app to run on Windows 7.

Watch all 5 videos in the XP to Windows 7 Migration series:
1. Overview
2. Collect, Analyze, and Test
3. Remediate Applications - Fix
4. Remediate Applications - Virtualize
5. Deploy Operating System

View the XP to Windows 7 migration process diagram which will walk you through the tools and resources available from Microsoft to help you each step along the way.

in reply to Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration - Remediate Fix

Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration - Collect, Analyze, Test [Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration - Collect, Analyze, Test]

Adam Bomb — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:03:00 GMT

This is the second video in a series on Windows 7 application compatibility and deployment. In this video, David explains the process and tools available to you to determine what applications you are running in your environment, and which ones may potentially have compatibility issues with Windows 7.
Watch all 5 videos in the XP to Windows 7 Migration series:
1. Overview
2. Collect, Analyze, and Test
3. Remediate Applications - Fix
4. Remediate Applications - Virtualize
5. Deploy Operating System

View the XP to Windows 7 migration process diagram which will walk you through the tools and resources available from Microsoft to help you each step along the way.

in reply to Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration - Collect, Analyze, Test

Windows XP to Windows 7 migration - Intro [Windows XP to Windows 7 migration - Intro]

Adam Bomb — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:03:00 GMT

There are a few myths around the XP to Windows 7 migration, and this video is the first in a series all about application compatibility and deployment of Windows 7.
We address XP Mode, application compatibility, the lack of an in-place upgrade from XP to Windows 7, and the tools available to help you deploy for free.

Watch all 5 videos in the XP to Windows 7 Migration series:
2. Collect, Analyze, and Test
3. Remediate Applications - Fix
4. Remediate Applications - Virtualize
5. Deploy Operating System

View the XP to Windows 7 migration process diagram which will walk you through the tools and resources available from Microsoft to help you each step along the way.

in reply to Windows XP to Windows 7 migration - Intro

Building Win7 - interview with a Build Engineer [Building Win7 - interview with a Build Engineer]

Adam Bomb — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:40:00 GMT

Today we're announcing that Windows7 is complete and the final build is locked. In this video, I sat down with Istvan Cseri, a build engineer who works in the main Windows build lab and burn lab. He explains a little bit about the daily build process and what it takes to compile Windows builds on a regular basis.
Some of the stats he shared with me:
it takes 12 hours to compile a build of Windows 7. A new build is compiled 5 times a week.
Each build is 13 terabytes, and includes over 3,300 different .iso's, for each of the different versions of Windows.
over 30 machines do the actual source code compilation.

oh, and Istvan just told me that for the final build, he was the guy that accepted the last fix for Win7, and kicked off the compile.
more information about the daily build process can be found in this post on the Windows 7 Engineering blog.

in reply to Building Win7 - interview with a Build Engineer

What's new in Group Policy for Windows 7? [What's new in Group Policy for Windows 7?]

Adam Bomb — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:01:00 GMT

I recently visited again with Lilia and Michael in the Group Policy team, and they showed me a couple of the improvements coming for group policy management - the UI has been improved now so it's much easier now to see all the information available about a particular setting.
For all things Group Policy, check out the Tech Center on Technet.
You can follow Michael and Lilia from the Group Policy blog, and Michael's TechNet blog.

in reply to What's new in Group Policy for Windows 7?

Using Service Manager with Operations Manager [Using Service Manager with Operations Manager]

Adam Bomb — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:01:00 GMT

While at MMS last April, I ran in to Clare Henry on the Ask the Experts night, and she introduced me to a few members of her team and got a demo for me of Service Manager.
It's pretty slick - you can use the trouble ticket tool to drive activities in Operations Manager. This way your help desk people can have basic operations activities performed without requiring administrative permissions or OpsMan access.
You can find out more about Service Manager here. Oh, and look, you can take it for a test drive.

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Volume Activation changes in Windows 7 [Volume Activation changes in Windows 7]

Adam Bomb — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:01:00 GMT

so what's different about doing product activation in Windows 7 vs. previous versions of the OS?
Ram brought in Kalpesh, the lead program manager on activation, to answer some of those questions. He explains how you have to do things compared to XP and Vista environments.
For upcoming Windows 7 volume activation guidance, visit http://www.technet.com/volumeactivation.
There's other Edge coverage of volume activation here and here.

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