Official WSUS on SBS steps have been posted!

Hey all,

If you're tired of reading my "RC" version of the steps, the real versions are posted On the Microsoft Website.

I'll be posting more next week when I return from holiday's.

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Blog from Word!

Google has released a new tool to enable you to blog from within Word! Check it out!

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Is it really only at Microsoft?

Today I brought in 3 lbs of M&M Candies. I put them on my desk, then sent email to the SBS product team. There are about 80 of us. That was six hours ago, there are 42 M&M's left in this big bowl on my desk.

The M&M's were a hit.

Moral of the story? Microsoft employees seem to really like M&M's. I wonder what they would do if they discovered Smarties!

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Work-around steps for installing WSUS on OEM Pre-installed SBS machines

As promised, I've been keeping my eye on the work around for the problem installing Windows Software Update Services on SBS OEM Pre-installed computers. I've received a ton of emails on this based on my previous post on How to configure WSUS on SBS.

The steps below are a release candidate version of the steps that Microsoft will publish to the web in the next few days. So feel free to use them, but know that they may still change slightly.

Download the WSUS installer to your computer

1. On the SBS server, create a folder called C:\WSUSFiles


2. Download Windows Software Update Services: You'll have to answer questions in order to obtain the download


3. Save the file to the C:\WSUSFiles directory you created in step 1

Prepare the WSUS database separately

1. Extract the WSUS setup files using the command WSUSSetup.exe /X


2. Change to the newly existing directory at C:\WSUSFiles\wmsde.


3. Now the tricky part: Type the following command line:
   
   Sqlrun03.msi INSTANCENAME=WSUS BLANKSAPWD=1 REBOOT=ReallySuppress DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=1 DISABLEAGENTSTARTUP=1 DISABLETHROTTLE=1
   
   
   • This setups up a blank password for the msde database, but when WSUS is installed a randomly generated password is set


4. Open the services.msc snap-in and right-click the MSSQL$WSUS and choose Start. If the service isn't there, try running the command line again.

Install WSUS

1. In the command prompt, launch c:\WSUSFiles\WSUSSetup.exe and follow the onscreen instructions

When the setup is complete, you can delete the C:\WSUSSetup folder as it is no longer needed. Be careful not to delete the C:\WSUS folder :o)

I know it's a pain, and we'll definitely fix this in future releases, but for now, you've got the work around steps! So WSUS your network!

Cheers,

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RE-Indexing the Company Web for Premium Customers

Against the popular believe that Microsoft builds what they want and people just conform, we're actually spending time going through research (most of it in PDF format) and we're sharing amongst each other (which you should just read as SharePoint). Only one problem. SharePoint doesn't have that PDF icon in it, and it doesn't index PDF files for search with the SQL 2000 backend.

Lucky for us, we have a Blithering Lunatic for an MVP! Chad posts on how to add a PDF icon in Companyweb, which essential involves dropping a 16x16 icon into the specific location of c:\program files\ common files\ microsoft shared\ web server extensions\ 60\ template\ images, and dropping that icon in there. Then modifying the c:\program files\ common files\ microsoft shared\ web server extensions\ 60\ template\ xml\ docicon.xml in the "By Extension" section to add the entry.

Next you need the Adobe PDF IFilter to install on your server so the PDFs are searchable.

Now comes the inspiration for this blog post. Dean, my manager, is a smart guy, he'd already copied about 40 PDF files into our SharePoint website, but they weren't getting indexed. Dean decided to do an MSN Search for how to get the indexing to happen. A couple of responses came back involving

1. Removing and copying all the files into the site again -- Painful


2. Running some osql commands -- DOS, ouch!


3. Forgetting about searching those files -- Clearly not an option

So what did Dean do?

Dean actually found the Content Database SharePoint was using by opening up SharePoint Central Administration from the Administration Tools, then going to Configure Virtual Server Settings, Company Web and then Manage Content Databases.

Write down the name of the content database, then
Expand Microsoft SQL Servers, SQL Server Group, {ServerName}\SharePoint and Databases. Pick the name you wrote down above, and then select Full-Text Catalogs. You can right-click on the catalog and choose Rebuild Catalog.

In a somewhat short period of time, all those files will be indexed and you'll be able to search your PDF files.

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Applepie: Embarking on an Apple fix.

So this is pretty funny, an Ex-Microsoft employee decided to strip out Microsoft products from his life for 30 days and he's blogging about it. Only one problem, he's keeping

• 2 Media Center PCs


• 2 Windows XP Laptops (for his kitchen and wife)


• MAC Office


• Hotmail


• MSN Messenger


• Windows SmartPhone

It's still pretty interesting blog posting though:Applepie: Embarking on an Apple fix.

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Windows Vista Beta 1: A Guided Tour

Scot Finnie gives the guided tour to Windows Vista: Beta 1

If you're curious as to the main changes in Windows Vista, now is your chance to check them out!

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Exchange SP2 is Coming

For those of you who don't know, Microsoft is working on a service pack 2 for Exchange. If you didn't know, then.... SURPRISE!!

Let's talk a bit about what's going into it shall we?

Anti-Spam
Lots more work is being done to help on the front of Anti-spam with SP2 of Exchange. Specifically new and improved filters are being added to

1. Connection Filtering


2. SMTP Filtering


3. Content Filtering


4. Inbound mail processing rules

More information on how the SP2 will handle Anti-spam is already posted live over on the EHLO blog Post on Service Pack 2 Anti-Spam Framwork.

Mobility
More security around mobility is being put in place, including remote Wipe and policy infrastructure (which won't be fully realized until the 2005 version of Windows Mobile is available to the public. Again, the EHLO blog's post on Remote Wipe has the nitty gritty.

Offline Address Book
And of course, less exciting, but still neccessary is changes to the Offline Address Book. Go Go Gadget EHLO blog post on OAB version 4.

Of course there is other funtionality too, but we have to keep some surprises don't we?

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Don't have a Smartphone yet?

Looks like the Smartphone is finally taking off. In one survey, the smartphone takes #1, #3, and #6 positions out of 10! Check it out on MS Mobiles: Windows Mobile Rocks!. Now there should be no more hesitation. Truely see what SBS can provide you as a back end. mmmmm Smartphone...

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Ah yes, reducing all forms of spam

Let's talk about spam for a second. My home SBS server gets roughly 30-40 peices of spam email a day. That's my home server! I think I finally got my IMF (Intelligent Message Filter) settings just right. I get 2-3 of these a day into the junk email filter of Outlook, and probably 1 per week that actually lands in my inbox. Not terrible by any means and I'm quite happy with it. Of course I do have Multiple Layers of spam filtering as I mentioned earlier.

Now I only wish I could get spam filtering on my snail-mail box (that's the USPS mailbox sitting outside my house). Today a site passed through my inbox that I just had to share. Using the Opt Out Prescreen website, you can opt-out from getting those 0% credit card offers, which I get 2-3 of those a day!

Why not save the paper people, we already know you toss 98% of those in the garbage!

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IE 7 is a commin'

I've already got to play with IE 7, it's pretty cool. Don't worry, with the release of Vista Beta 1, you'll also get to play with IE 7. Want to help out? Check out the Beta Test Program for IE 7 and let us know what you think!

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VP talk on Windows Vista Beta 1

For geeks and nerds, hanging out on Channel9, this post is a little behind. I've been busy.

As you all probably know from my previous post on the real name of the 2006 version of Windows, Vista is coming.

To add a bit more clarity around the upcoming Beta 1, VP of Windows Client, Chris Jones did a little chat with Scoble on Channel9. Watch the 1/2 hour video here & enjoy!

Sean

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Shadowing the Console Session on SBS

For those of you who've been using Windows Small Business Server 2003 (or even Windows Server 2003) you know you have 3 Terminal Service sessions. One is the console, and two are available remotely.

You probably also know by this time if there are two people connected to remote sessions on the server, one session can Shadow the other. This means that you have two users sharing the keyboard & mouse input. Seems odd, but hey, it's great for showing people how to do something, so they don't have to keep asking you.

To do this, you simply right click the session you want to use and select Remote Control. Then use CTRL+* to release the control to drop back to your own session.

I thought it worked great, until Jimbo, an Enterprise Admin type guy (I know, we don't normally like to consult with these types of scary people, but he's nice, I promise!). Jim's problem was that the lab guys (4 floors up from his office) sometimes need help. Jim wanted to leverage the Windows Server 2003 investment his firm had made so he didn't have to walk up 4 flights of stairs, but this remote control functionality didn't cover the console (which was where his techs were using the computer from).

Of course, Windows Server 2003 is super cool (and hence so is SBS), Jim had to make a simple Group Policy change on his server with the following:

1. On the computer you want to shadow the console, click Start, Run and type in GPEdit.msc and hit Enter


2. Expand Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components and select Terminal Services.


3. In the right-hand pane double-click Sets rules for remote control of Terminal Services user sessions and on the Settings tab, select Enabled. Change the options to Full Control with users' permission and click OK


4. To have changes take effect immediately, make sure you run gpupdate /force from the command window on that server

Now this particular server is ready to have it's console shadowed. Alternatively, Jim could create a Group Policy Object that filters on OS type so all the servers in his domain (I think he said 40?) have this functionality.

Connecting to the Session
Now, because Jim is in an Enterprise, depending on the firewall policies on all his Servers (if RPC ports are open or not), he has two options:

1. The first is what us SBS'rs will do, because we are absolutely not going to open the RPC port on the external network card or poke the RPC hole in our network firewalls. Simply TS into the server using the mstsc client, or Remote Web Workplace, and in the command prompt type Shadow 0 (where 0 is a zero). This will prompt the user (since that's what you said in the policy) and when they click yes, you have a joint TS session.


2. Depending on Jim's firewall configuration for his servers, from his XP client, he can also type shadow 0 /server:{servername or ip}. Better yet, he could make icons using shortcuts on his desktop so he can just double click on it

That's all there is to it. Oh, and don't forget that CTRL+* is your way out of the shadow session.

More information on the topics are available on the Microsoft website:

• How to Connect to and Shadow the Console Session with Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services


• How To Shadow a Remote Desktop Session in Windows XP Professional

Cheers,
Sean

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We are not the only one ....

... With bugs that is. Firefox has already released 12 new fixes.

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