Windows 7
Microsoft Partner Trend Micro Releases Internet Security for Windows 7 from The Road to Know Where
Microsoft Security software provider, Trend Micro, has released their Internet Security for Windows 7, providings smart protection for your home network, covering up to three (3) PCs.
Microsoft Releases Documentation for "Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 Networking Enhancements for Enterprises" from The Road to Know Where
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Networking Enhancements for Enterprises (direct 6.4 MB .DOC link) – A detailed look at new networking technologies in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, with particular emphasis on enhancements to improve connectivity for a mobile workforce.
New features and enhancments including DirectAccess, BranchCache, VPN Reconnect, mobile broadband device support, URL-based QoS, DNSSEC, and support for green computing.
Windows 7 Beta Experience from Direct2Dell by Daniel_Judd
There have been millions of downloads of the Windows 7 beta since Microsoft made it official back in January this year. Since then, it’s been good to see positive reactions to it in the blogosphere. As we all wait for the release of Windows 7 Release Candidate, I thought you might be interested in hearing about our experiences with the Beta Code.
Over the last month we have been testing hundreds of Dell systems and the results are promising.
Here’s a peek into what we are seeing when testing:
- On many systems we are seeing noticeable improvements in boot to desktop times (versus Vista)
- Almost all existing Vista drivers are working – great sign in terms of compatibility
- Vista Application compatibility is promising as well (including the IE 8 compatibility mode)
- Transcoding (ripping) media files is faster than Vista
More to come as we test on later builds of Windows 7.
We would love to hear more about your experiences with Windows 7 on your Dell PC. What did you like? What may not be as useful? Send us your thoughts.
Windows 7 Product Editions: A Comparison from Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows RSS
Finally, a feature-by-feature comparison of the various Windows 7 product editions.
A second look at the Windows 7 Display control panel, across product versions from Paul’s SuperSite blog
The email that generated the previous post, Interesting new Windows 7 features … But only for Starter and Home Basic, got me thinking. Why was this particular control panel so different across different Windows 7 product editions? To see what the differences really were, I took a shot of the Display control panel task list in each version, and then created this image, which shows each side by side…
Project Management
Opinion on PMBOK(r) from Herding Cats by Glen Alleman
Dr. Jame Brown has an opinion piece on the current state of PMBOK(r) 4th Edition. I’ve read and reviewed Dr. Brown’s book The Handbook of Program Management. The book is a "must read" for any serious project or program manager. The PMBOK(r) article has a critically important point
Project Management is nothing but structured organized common sense!
This is one of the best statements about project management I’ve heard in awhile.
Finish to Start Is All There Is from Herding Cats by Glen Alleman
I’ve discovered the site Mosaic Projects. There is a wealth of material that I’m starting to go through. A useful paper is titled Links, Lags, and Ladders. It is about the topology of project schedules. In Microsoft Project there are many ways to link tasks with each other. This paper describes a few and speaks to the outcomes of these choices.
Here in Space and Defense, there is only ONE way to link work together.FINISH to START
Now to say this is the ONLY way is a bit of a stretch, but every effort is should be made to use FS for task connectivity. There is one critical reason for this:
The start of any future work that depends partially complete previous work, usually results in rework.
Project & Project Server 2007
Microsoft Releases Office Visio 2007 WBS Modeler from The Road to Know Where
Microsoft Office Visio 2007 WBS Modeler is intended to improve the project planning process by giving the opportunity to generate Project Plans from a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) using a graphical representation of elements.
Gridlines Galore from Microsoft Office Project 2007 by Heather O’Cull
You may know you can update the formatting of the current gridlines you see in Project, but did you also know that you can add additional gridlines? While in the Gantt chart, go to Format – Gridlines and you can see in the list of "Lines to Change" everything that you can format. To get the line to show up, just set Type to something besides blank. I wanted to callout a few useful lines that aren’t on by default…
Back to basics: Gantt Chart view from Microsoft Office Project 2007 by Heather O’Cull
The Gantt Chart view is the most commonly used view in Project. It lists the tasks in your project, and illustrates their relationship to one another and the schedule using Gantt bars. Let’s look a little more closely at each portion of the view.
From Project Server 2007 Newly Published Content
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Deploy Project Server 2007 updates - This article provides an overview of available Project Server 2007 updates.
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Checklist for deploying Project Server 2007 updates - This checklist describes the general sequence in updating a Project Server 2007 farm deployment to the most current update. It also gives references to other articles that provide detailed guidance and procedures for installing various type of Project Server 2007 updates.
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Inventory of SQL Server databases for a typical Project Server 2007 deployment – This is technical reference article provides a list of databases that are created in a Project Server 2007 and Portfolio Server 2007 deployment.
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Walkthrough: Deploy Project Server 2007 to a server farm environment - This article contains a white paper and a four-part video series which provide a walkthrough of a typical Office Project Server 2007 deployment. The white paper contains step-by-step instructions for each step necessary to successfully deploy Office Project Server 2007. While the scenario described in the white paper may differ from the deployment scenario that you plan to use for your organization, you can gain significant hands-on experience by following the steps described herein in a test environment.
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Deploy Service Pack 1 for Office Project Server 2007 – This article has been updated to reflect Project 2007 client requirements for the Project Server 2007 infrastructure update.
Outlook 2007
Xobni Microsoft Outlook 2007 Add-in Removed from Beta from The Road to Know Where
For over a year, Microsoft employees* have been taming their Outlook email with the a free Add-in called "Xobni" (Inbox spelled backwards). Recently, Xobni removed their software’s Beta status — and Cisco & Blackberry have invested over $10 Million dollars.
So when I was asked why Xobni wasn’t listed here at the "Road to Know Where", I was truly surprised I had forgetten to include Xobni. After all, I too have been using Xobni for over a year!
SharePoint
On Babies, Bathwater, and SharePoint Designer from Woody Windischman – The Sanity Point
On April 2nd, as has been rumored for quite some time, Microsoft announced that SharePoint Designer is available as a free download. (Get it Here…)
Reaction to even the rumors of this has ranged from very positive, to downright horrified. So, what’s all the fuss about? What is SharePoint Designer, and why should you care?
Check Out Joel Oleson’s Ten Cool Branded SharePoint Global Internet Sites You Can RAVE About! from Michael Gannotti on SharePoint – OLD
Okay earlier I quick pointed everyone to the Ferrari posting that shows my favorite cars in the world being powered by SharePoint (see site and video Check Out The New Ferrari.com Site! – Powered By SharePoint ). Joel Oleson though has kicked it up a notch with a listing of 10 gorgeous SharePoint driven public Internet sites in his new post Ten Cool Branded SharePoint Global Internet Sites You Can RAVE About!
Print selected Web content from Path to SharePoint by Christophe
Do you have a need to print only parts of a Web page, for example only selected Web Parts in a SharePoint page? Then you might be interested in a free add-on proposed by Hewlett-Packard, called HP Smart Web Printing. It works on Internet Explorer and Firefox. Here is an excerpt from their site: Print what you want, how
Word 2007, the Document Management Panel and SharePoint from End User SharePoint
In Word 2007, there is a potentially hidden tool that can help you quite a bit. Most people know about the Document Information Panel (DIP), but did you know there’s a Document Management Panel? Check out this two minute screencast to see how the Document Management Panel displays information about a SharePoint Word document.
Networks
Monitoring Network Performance with PRTG free edition from WindowsNetworking.com by (David Davis)
How to download, install, and use the free PRTG Network Monitor to Monitor and Troubleshoot Windows Networking Issues.
Nessus
Detecting Malware Distribution With Nessus from Tenable Network Security by Paul Asadoorian
Many of today’s latest worms and viruses are using interesting methods to propagate across the network. For example, the Conficker.A / Downadup worm sets up a web server for victims to connect to and download a copy of the malware. What I find interesting about this method is that no matter what request is made to the HTTP server, it responds with a Microsoft executable file. Nessus detects such an HTTP server with plugin id 35322 "HTTP Backdoor Detection"…
Tenable’s products can be used in a pro-active manner to help protect your network, as described in the following previous posts to the Tenable blog:
1) Disabling Password Guessing attempts with Nessus – This post describes how Nessus tests for passwords, and how to prevent it from locking out accounts. Specifically plugin 10404, "SMB Log in as users", will intelligently test your domain accounts for weak passwords.
2) How did you test for MS08-067? – Details how to test your network for the MS08-067 vulnerability using Nessus. This can be done using either network or credentialed scanning.
3) USB Device History Auditing with Nessus – If you believe the worm was spreading via the usage of USB thumb drives, the methods described in this post could help you track down the offending USB drive.
Miscellaneous
A Historical Perspective on the Financial Crisis from Irving Wladawsky-Berger
For quite a number of years, Carlota Perez has been predicting the inevitability of the financial crisis that ultimately engulfed us. An expert on the historical links between technology and socio-economic development, she is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge, as well as being affiliated with the University of Sussex and a number of other institutions,
In this recent article, After Crisis: Creative Construction, she explains that
“this time we have had the boom and crash in two episodes. The first was the Internet mania which was truly fuelled by new technology and ended in the NASDAQ collapse of 2000. The other was the set of easy credit bubbles of 2003-08, when investors were pushed by an abundance of quasi-free money into finding anything but technology as an object of speculation (from commodity futures to securitized sub-prime mortgages). The enormity of this financial bubble was facilitated by the process of globalization and the capacity for computer-aided financial "innovation" acquired during the NASDAQ boom. It is because regulation did not follow after 2000 that free-wheeling finance was able to reach such astonishing levels of systemic risk. It is only now, when all the crooked doings of the casino have been revealed and their painful consequences for the real economy are being suffered, that there is enough political pressure for regulation and institutional recomposition.”
Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2009 is Now Available from Springboard Series: The Resource for Windows Desktop IT Professionals
MDOP 2009 includes MED-V 1.0, App-V 4.5 CU1 and AIS 1.5 Updates
I wanted to let you know that Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2009 is now available for purchase to Software Assurance customers. MDOP 2009 includes the first release of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V 1.0), a Cumulative Update to Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V 4.5 CU1), and an update to the Asset Inventory Service (AIS). Alongside these updated releases, MDOP 2009 also includes the other standard MDOP tools: Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management, and Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring.
Steve Mullen has been involved in information technology for over 35 years. He is also actively involved in the music program (voice and English hand bells) and Vestry of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Damascus, MD.
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker
who has been doing a little homework on this. And he actually bought
me breakfast simply because I found it for him…
lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to discuss this subject here on
your internet site.