Office 2010: The Movie

It's somewhere between Ariel .... and Wingdings!

Join us at WPC, Virtually or in Person!

It's summer, so it's time for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).  During this annual event, Microsoft and the Windows Server Solutions Group share strategies and visions for addressing the challenging economy, saving customers money, and helping partners and customers compete confidently. Keynotes include Steve Ballmer, Stephen Elop, Kevin Turner, Allison Watson, Bob Kelly and many other executives who will share their vision for the company and its partners.

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference held July 13-16 in New Orleans, is an annual gathering where Microsoft Corp.'s partner community will network and build connections, share best practices, and learn new skills and techniques.  For those of you, who are unable to join us in New Orleans next week, we've created new social networking assets so feel free to follow WPC virtually on our team blogs, Facebook and/or Twitter. (For links see below)

Learn about all the Windows Server options for SMB by attending our session CI003 Windows Server Portfolio for SMB: Which Server Is Best for Your Customer (and You!) on Monday afternoon at 3:30-4:30 in Room 255-257 in addition to visiting our Exposition Hall booth # 621 and you can enter to win one of 6 HP MediaSmart Server EX485 (ERP $599) Windows Home Servers.  The Windows Server for SMB sessions are Windows Essential Business Server 2008 and the free IT Network Health Scanner for SMB session on July 16th from 12:30 - 12:50PM and the Windows SBS and Windows Home Server Client Backup session on July 16th from 2:30 to 2:50PM. Simply drop your business card into the fishbowl on your way in the door or at the booth and we will choose one winner per day at the booth and one winner at each session. Sorry this Sweepstakes is only for event attendees, you must be present to enter.

Hopefully we'll get to see many of you at WPC this year. The best part of this conference is the time we spend with our partners and we are looking forward to meeting with as many of you as we can. Please use the WPC Connect to create a meeting request to request a specific meeting or simply drop by the booth to meet the Windows Server for SMB team including: Dean Paron, Eric Watson, Eric Kidd, Russ Madlener, Nick King, Leslie McGuire, Katharine Pike, Becky Lymberis, Vikram Ghosh, Cecile Charlot, Jonas Svensson, Kannan Iyer, Murali Sangubhatia, Sean Daniel, Lingan Satkunanathan, Cassie Hicks, Eduardo Melo, Brijesh Ramachandran, David Fabritius, Moira Whidby and Brent Reeser.

We hope to see you in New Orleans next week!

Resources to Follow Virtually or while you’re there:

WHS – Team Blog, On FaceBook, or on Twitter.

SBS – Team Blog, On FaceBook, or on Twitter.

EBS – Team Blog, On FaceBook, or on Twitter.

Become a Fan of Small Business Server on FaceBook!

Help us get to 1000! Become a fan of Small Business Server on Facebook!

Add the Recycle Bin to My Computer

My favorite blog LifeHacker has alerted me on how to add more items to My Computer.  Specifically you can go to Tweaking with Vishal for all the details.

Essentially, you can add more items to the My Computer view, including the Recycle Bin!  All you do is add a specific GUID into a specific place in the registry. 

Remember! That editing the Registry could cause problems or unsuspecting things, so be careful!

To make the tweak, simply:

1. Click Start, then Run and type in Regedit.
2. Navigate to the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace key
3. Then with NameSpace selected, on the whitespace right-click, point at New and select Key.  Add the GUID of your choice below:
1. Recycle Bin - {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
2. Control Panel - {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
3. Run - {2559A1F3-21D7-11D4-BDAF-00C04F60B9F0}
4. Search - {2559A1F0-21D7-11D4-BDAF-00C04F60B9F0}
5. Flip 3D - {3080F90E-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}
6. Internet Explorer - {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
7. Administrative Tools - {D20EA4E1-3957-11D2-A40B-0C5020524153}
8. Network Connections - {7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
9. Printers - {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
4. Then simply open My Computer, or if it’s open, press F5 to refresh

If it didn’t work, make sure you don’t have any spaces on either side of the GUID and that you include the {} brackets.

Nice speed saving tip for you!

Sean @ World Wide Partner Conference

If you’re headed to World Wide Partner Conference 2009, I’ll be seeing you there.  I’ll be in town from Sunday at 6pm until super early Friday morning.  Additionally you’ll be able to find me at the WSSG Booth (#621) at the following times:

• Tuesday 7/14 from 3pm-6pm
• Wednesday 7/15 from 12:30pm-3pm
• Thursday 7/16 from 12:30pm-3pm

I’ll be Tweeting before and after while I’m in town using the #WPC09 hash-tag.

For other SBS team information, make sure to follow the Official SBS Team Blog.

Following Me

Folks, a quick post to let you know a minor change in how I communicate.  My blog will remain unchanged, and I will update it with SBS and WHS information that I obtain, etc.  I have now unlocked my Twitter account, and plan to use this to update with all sorts of technical information I find.  Feel free to follow me if the content suits you.

Facebook I will be keeping for my closer friends (do not be offended if I don’t friend you!).  If you wish to connect with me, feel free to use Twitter, my blog or Linked-In.  And as always, if you have a blog idea that will benefit others, you can always email me.

Finally, because engaging with the community is my secondary job, if responses are delayed, please be understanding. I’m doing as much as feasibly possible!

I look forward to connecting with you!

Re-Creating the Forefront Security for Exchange Scheduled Tasks

If you’re using Forefront Security for Exchange with Small Business Server 2008, and you somehow managed to erase all of the scheduled tasks, you may also notice that Forefront never updates itself automatically, this is because the scheduled tasks kick off the updates.

Before you do anything, you should make sure follow the Forefront Security for Exchange Repair Document.  If that still fails, you can re-import the Forefront scheduled tasks by downloading this ZIP file of XML tasks that were exported from a working SBS 2008 Server.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Un-Zip the files to the desktop of the server
2. Click Start and then point at Administrative Tools and click Task Scheduler.
3. Agree to the UAC prompt
4. Ensure Task Scheduler Library is selected in the left tree view and then right-click in the white space of the list view and choose Import Task …
5. In the window that opens, select the the first XML file on the desktop and click Open.
6. Verify the Settings in the Create Task dialog that opens and click OK.
7. Repeat for all 11 Tasks

Now you should receive updates automatically for Forefront Security for Exchange.  Thanks to a Canadian SBS Partner, Andrew, for figuring this out!

Pre-Order Windows 7 at a Discount!

From the sounds of it, it looks like Windows 7 is going to be available for pre-order from the Microsoft Store! But you’re going to have to be quick, quantities are limited!

The offer begins tomorrow (June 26th, 2009), and continues while supplies last, or July 11, 2009, whichever comes first.

When you pre-order, you’ll get your copy quickly after it’s available (October 22nd! for General Availability), and you’ll get it fast and save while doing that! Pre-order a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for $49 or a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $99 at Microsoft Store.   That's about half off the estimated retail prices.

More information is available at the Windows team blog.

Windows Live Writer Crashes in Tools/Options

Since the release of Windows Live Writer, I have been using it to update my blog.  It allows me to update my blog offline as well as speeds up the adding of blog posts (such as this one) to my blog.

A little while ago, Windows Live Writer started crashing when I was adding hyper-links into my post.  It didn’t matter if I used CTRL+K, or the menus.  I wanted to check out if I had a failing plug-in installed, but going to Options would also crash Writer.

Searching on the Internet, I discovered that Windows Live Writer has issues with a corrupted Glossary.  Essentially it boils down to the glossary XML file having a bad format.  I still haven’t determined *how* this happened, because I’m not updating it manually, I only use Writer to update it.

Anyways, if you check out the Writer Log file (which is at c:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\Windows Live Writer\Windows Live Writer.log), you’ll notice the following:

System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'WindowsLive.Writer.HtmlEditor.Linking.GlossaryManager' threw an exception. ---> System.Xml.XmlException: The 'entry' start tag on line 3 does not match the end tag of 'glossary'. Line 76, position 3.

Essentially this will point you to the fact that your Glossary Manager is having problems.  Your glossary XML file is at “c:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Windows Live Writer\LinkGlossary\linkglossary.xml"

I took a different approach to fixing the problem than my source, I ended up renaming the file to linkglossary-old.xml, and then re-opening Writer.  Writer will create a new file for you.  I opened the new file in Notepad and noticed that it only contained a single <glossary> tag.  I hit enter and added a </ glossary> tag, then copied one by one all the "<entry></entry>” blocks out of the old file into the new file.  Once I found one that didn’t work, I just deleted it (since I can always re-create it if I want).

Using the POP3 Connector to download Windows Live E-Mail

[This post courtesy of Vita Xiao]

If you haven’t heard, Windows Live Mail has recently made access to your mail via POP3 a standard account, instead of a premium paid account feature!  This means that you can configure your Small Business Server 2008 POP3 Connector to download mail directly from Windows Live Mail, making a transition from Windows Live Mail to Small Business Server and Exchange even easier!  You can do this for all your @hotmail.com, @live.com and @msn.com email addresses!

Simply use the following settings in your POP3 Connector UI:

• POP3 Server: pop3.live.com
• Port: 995
• Require SSL
• Logon Type: BASIC
• Provide your LiveID credentials

The UI will look like this:

While you’ll also notice you can send mail via Windows Live via their SMTP server (smtp.live.com, port 25), Live requires that you send as the LiveID you authenticate as, so while it might be tempting that you use Windows Live as your smart host, you won’t want to because all of your company email will come from one email address.  Furthermore, when you send mail through the Live Mail service, you are sending on behalf of that particular user.  If you send too many pieces of email, or too many NDRs, that particular user can be classified as a spammer, and limited in their ability to use their account.  So stay away from using this as a smart-host!

Enjoy your seamless transition to Exchange from Hotmail.

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta

 

Looks like Microsoft’s new Anti-Malware software is available for download in beta.  I’ve been running the Alpha for a while now on my Acer Aspire One Netbook.  I like it because the Acer has limited resources. I’m running Windows 7 RC on the Acer, the Live Essentials for email, messenger, and I wanted to protect the laptop because it jumps between networks often.

I like MSE because:

1. It’s invisible.  I’ve opened the UI twice, once to see what it looked like, and once to perform a scan because it hadn’t been on for a few days, but even that was superfluous, as you can just click “yes” from the Action Center
2. It provides “hero” statistics when I want to go and see them (ie, opening the UI), but otherwise, it’s completely invisible, just silently protecting the Netbook
3. It uses very little RAM and processor power, essential for my Netbook
4. It’s Free, Once this is RTM, I can toss out the OneCare yearly fee I pay for my grandfather, my sister, my parents, and even my cousins! (yes that’s right, it’s easier for me to pay than it is for me to explain the value in them paying).

So if you wanted to try out the new Security Essentials, you can today!

Windows 7 Beta will Start Rebooting July 1st!

If you’re checking out Windows 7 Beta and you haven’t yet switched to the release candidate, now is the time to do that.  Starting on July 1st, the Beta will reboot every 2 hours and expire on August 1st!  You can still download the release candidate up to August 15th from here.

When using the release candidate, Microsoft is still interested in your feedback, you can do that using Microsoft’s Input website.

Preventing Reply-All without DRM E-Mail

[This post courtesy of Becky Ochs]

I'm back from vacation, and all rested up and it's time to continue with the tips that have built up!  This one is great.  Have you ever been on a "Me Too!" e-mail thread?  You know those ones that people won't stop replying-all to save your life.  It's tough for the mail server to handle with large distribution lists (although with Exchange 2007, roughly 15.5 million email messages were delivered in the span of an hour, as seen in the link above), but mostly irritating for people on the mail list.

With the introduction of DRM (Distributed Rights Management), once configured your users can click a button and not allow “reply-all” as an option to the message.  However, this does lace DRM meta-data around the message such that you need to connect to your corporations “rights-management” server to actually open the message.  It also means that on mobile devices, you have to ensure the device is enabled for DRM, and then download the entire message just to decrypt and read it. 

Well, there is an easier way with Office 2007!

1. On the open e-mail message, select the Options tab on the ribbon and then click on Direct Replies To button:
2. Once the property window opens ensure that the Have replies sent to… is selected and your email address (or multiple email addresses if you’re working a team) is in the box next to it:
3. Close the message options window

That’s all there is to it.  Now when someone hits reply or reply-all, the message goes to whomever you specify in that list.  Thus if the whole alias is back on the mail when you get it back, you know that person explicitly wanted to send to that alias, and there are no issues when trying to open it on a smartphone, or without Internet access (like on a plane).

Now DRM still has it’s uses, such as preventing forwarding, or copy/paste out of the email, so choose your technology wisely!

Bing - The Decision Maker

Yesterday Microsoft announced "Bing", a new Internet search engine. The press release mentions how Bing is attempting to revolutionize search by changing the rules of being a "Search Engine" to being a "Decision Engine".

Clearly great search results are at the top of the list, but embedded within those results is organization to help you sift through the data faster, and more efficiently with computer assisted insight. Check out this virtual tour for more details:



On June 3rd, make sure you head over to Bing! for your first chance to try out the search engine.

Bing-it baby!

Windows 7 has “Network Aware” Default Printers

Being a 75% mobile worker, I’m constantly on the move.  This means that I live and breath on my laptop.  Windows 7 has helped me be more productive and efficient. With faster boot times, more reliable sleep/hibernation modes, and improved security and access (such as Direct Access).  My mobile computing has never been easier. 

To make it one step easier, I discovered a particularly nifty feature that I found over at Life Hacker. Windows 7 has a new printer manager feature that allows you to set your default printer dependant on which network you are connected to, perfect for a mobile worker such as myself.

Before we get into details on how to configure this, we should all working hard to reduce our carbon foot print and work on going green in the office.  With new technologies and plenty of access, printing should be one of those last resort things.

Having said that, Windows 7 can switch your default printer depending on which network you’re connected to.  For example, at my home I want the default to be my HP Laser Jet 2506dn printer.  At work I want it to be the crazy Xerox copy center behind the kitchen.

To set this up simply do the following:

1. Launch into the Control Panel/Devices and Printers dialog
2. Select one of your printers
3. Select Manage default printers from the blue-bar under the address window
4. Now simply choose your network, and the installed printer of preference for that network, and click Update.

From this point forward, when you are connected to that network, you’re default printer will always be what you expect.  If you do a lot of printing, might save you some time.  Or if you have users that take laptop to and from work, might save you some support time in the evenings as they go home and try to print from there.

If you’re interested in the Life Hacker post, you can read it here.  Thanks Life Hacker!

Thanks for Attending my Tech-Ed Presentation

This past Friday, I was in Los Angeles at Microsoft Tech Ed as I mentioned before. I didn’t have a slot targeted for high attendance: 9am Friday morning, after a big party.  But wow! 45-55 people joined to learn about Small Business Server 2008!

I just wanted to send out a thanks for rolling out of bed to those that made it.  I also wanted to make sure my power point deck was available to all.  Of course, if you weren’t there in person, you lost out on:

1. Seeing the demo’s in person
2. Having the ability to ask me or Susan any question in person
3. Seeing Susan Bradley, our “booth babe” as she called herself.
4. Having a chance to win a copy of Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed, written by Eriq Neale, co-authored by Susan Bradley.
5. Obtaining a resource card on SBS resources.

I hope you enjoyed Tech-Ed, I know I did.

Check out Susan’s Blog for a roll-up, a discussion on backup, and our follow-up discussion on migration at the WESS booth.

Additionally, thanks to Susan for her help during the presentation and at the booth with Oliver.

Adding Items to the “Send To” Menu

 

One of the lesser used features of Windows is the “Send To” menu.  This menu enables you to copy any file to any other location within the “Send To” menu. 

I’m often on out on corporate shares and such and I want to copy files and folders down to my local PC for faster access, or I might just want to move things around my hard drive to get things organized.  Instead of opening up two Windows Explorer Windows, you can use the one, right-click the file you want and go to the “Send To” menu, and then choose to copy it to any location you choose.  But how do you update the “Send To” menu?

WinHelpOnline.com has a simple solution:

1. Click Start and then Run
2. In the window that opens type shell:sendto, and Windows Explorer will open directly to the “Send To” menu location.
3. Simply create a short cut to the location you want to add to your menu, and close explorer

Now when you right-click and choose that “Send To” menu, you get the additional locations you need to make your life more efficient!

(More Details at WinHelpOnline.com, this also applies to Vista)

Microsoft Tech-Ed is Next Week!

Next week I’ll be in Los Angeles to attend Tech-Ed 2009, North America Edition.  Come and join me in room 409 on Friday May 15th from 9am to 10:15am for the session:

Windows Small Business Server 2008: Up and Running in Under an Hour

During the session I will go over all of the core concepts of Windows Small Business Server 2008, and how you can finish setup in just under an hour using a pre-installed server. The MVP community has already started to pick up the excitement.

See you there!

How to get Live Messenger back in the System Tray on Windows 7

Ok, so Windows 7 has a fancy new task bar, and Windows Live Messenger shows up on the task bar even when it’s closed.  It definitely looks fancy, and it will help folks like my parents and grandparents find messenger on their computer.  I love that I don’t have to explain “that tiny little chess piece in the right hand corner of the screen, no further down, no all the way down, near the clock, no to the left of the clock”.  Yes, I do this often.

However, for me, and probably a lot of power users that take advantage of the fact that Windows can task-switch and have plenty of windows open, you really don’t want Live Messenger to take up a section of that, when you’re used to it sitting right in the corner out of the way.  You can get that back to the way it was in Vista/XP simply by running it in compatibility mode. 

If you want to get Live Messenger back into the System Tray, you can customize that by following these steps:

1. Simply close Live Messenger by clicking on it and closing it.  Make sure it’s not minimized, but actually closed, so it doesn’t even appear in your Task Manager as a running program
2. Then browse to c:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Messenger (this could be c:\program files, without the (x86) if you’re running a 32-bit operating system)
3. Right-click on msnmsgr.exe and choose properties.
4. Under the Compatibility tab, choose to run this under Windows Vista (SP2) compatibility mode:
5. Click OK, and then run messenger again

Now Live Messenger is sitting back in the system tray.  Don’t forget to customize the hiding feature, so it doesn’t hide on you for not using it!!

So, it’s easy to get Live Messenger back in the system tray.

Migrate from SBS 2000 to SBS 2008

Announced this morning over on the SBS User Assistance Blog, was a newly added whitepaper to the MVP Corner on Technet. The paper written by an SBS support engineer from India, Edwin Joseph.  His whitepaper covers the how-to steps on migrating from SBS 2000 to SBS 2008. So if you’ve been itching to upgrade this old piece of software, now you can!

If you want to read more from Edwin, he maintains his own blog.

In the meantime, you can directly download the SBS 2000 to SBS 2008 Whitepaper.