Microsoft Future

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-roadmap-leaks-for-office-15-ie-10-and-more-key-products/12417

6291A - Updating your technology knowledge of Microsoft Windows XP to Microsoft Windows 7

Do you like the new taskbar pinning feature of Windows 7?  Do you miss the quick launch?
Note that the pinned Location is:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar.

Having problems with adding network shares to tyour library, check out this work around.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpronetworking/thread/efb5b9dd-4281-4a17-947d-d55207bd6015

Whats new in Windows 7 Networking
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd367855(WS.10).aspx

Direct Access, are you using it yet?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/dd420463.aspx

VPN Reconnect
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd637830(WS.10).aspx

BranchCache
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/dd425028.aspx

I have been using this free anti virus even before its public debut.  Works well for free.
Microsoft Free Anti Virus ... http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Features of Windows 7 Enterprise - Direct Access, Branch Cache, Bitlocker, Applocker
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/products/windows-7/features.aspx

 bit locker to go reader
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=64851943-78c9-4cd4-8e8d-f551f06f6b3d&displaylang=en

Best free Microsoft tools on the net ... sysinternals
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

IE8 using content advisor instead of old hosts trick of adding 127.0.0.1 to bad site
http://jaxov.com/2009/08/how-to-block-websites-in-internet-explorer-and-mozilla-firefox/

How to use system image to back up your system and restore if needed ...
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/4241/how-to-create-a-system-image-in-windows-7/

create custom pe disk
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709665(WS.10).aspx 2.0
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744533(WS.10).aspx 3.0

sysprep limit hoax ... well not really, just don't forget to use skip rearm switch
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/f2805904-9a18-405a-ba97-10773bbe5ea5

Installation from A - Z
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee956903(WS.10).aspx

slgrm switches
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793433.aspx

Use blocknote to edit problem steps recorder mhtml files
http://www.blocknote.net/

Windows 7 Logon to appear as XP

Sure it is new, but let's not stress out our users too much.  Through GPO (group policy objects) we can bring back the control + alt + delete to logon that we go used to in XP.  There are also several other options that will improve security such as clearing last username, and creating a warning message at logon.

Using either your local GPO security editior secpol.msc or GPMC in the domain edit your security settings.  The logon control is found under local policies -> security options -> and look for interactive logon settings

Do you want a custom background for your logon?  Default Domain? Classic logon?

Copy background to C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds 
Using GPO editor ...
Go to computer -> administrative templates -> system -> logon
More on backgrounds

use image x to backup xp ...

Need a GUI for image x not a problem go here

untested myself but worth a repost from http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=19355

I've been playing around with ImageX from the Windows AIK and can confirm that this is a kickass app. I try not to get too excited about software as my partner's already written me off as a sad geek, however this is really worth checking out. I won't post much about ImageX here as there's plenty of information about it in the WinPE user guide (and online) - check out these links if you want to find out more:


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista....

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/.....

The important stuff is basically that it is a file based backup solution, it (sort of) supports incremental backups and the output file(s) can be mounted and edited easilly.

The good news is ImageX works fine under BartPE - check out Malice's post in this thread here for a plugin (it's post #20).

I've just finished some testing on a fresh install of Windows XP. I booted into BartPE after the installation had completed, but before XP install had booted. The XP partition (C: under BartPE) was 1.22GB (including pagefile). I ran ImageX using the following code to backup XP:

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /capture c: d:\XP_backup.wim "XP_Master"

The output file d:\XP_backup.wim was 461MB - backup took approximately 3 minutes.

I then booted into the XP partition and added about 63MB of programs - then booted back into BartPE and re ran ImageX using:

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /append c: d:\XP_backup.wim "XP_01" /verify

The XP partition size was 1.89GB with the new programs (and pagefile), the backup took about 3 minutes again and d:\XP_backup.wim (now containing two images) was 514MB

I rebooted into XP and made a few changes - removed pagefile; turned off automatic updates, firewall and system restore; installed 3 hotfixes; switched to classic view and installed Office 2003 (just WORD and POWERPOINT). The new XP partition size was 1.34GB. I then rebooted into BartPE and appended another image using:

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /append c: d:\XP_backup.wim "XP_02" /verify

The backup took about 3 1/2 minutes and d:\XP_backup.wim (now containing three images) was 613MB

All of the images contained in XP_backup.wim restored successfully. Restoring was fairly straightforward - I reformatted the c: drive before applying (restoring) each image in XP_backup.wim. The disk does not need to be reformated however I didn't want any existing data leaving on the disk.

The main drawback with using ImageX is that the bootsector needs re-installing as only the files from the partition are copied and applied. This is not a major problem as Vista contains bootsect.exe which can reinstall XP's bootsector.

bootsect command (where e: is drive with Vista DVD)

CODE

e:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 C:

ImageX command (where 1 is the image to apply)

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /apply d:\XP_backup.wim 1 c:

To apply the second image I ran IMAGEX.exe /apply d:\XP_backup.wim 2 c:, etc...

It took longer to format the c: drive than to apply the files from the images in XP_backup.wim. Just to make sure each image could be edited individually I then mounted the 1st image contained in XP_backup.wim and removed ntdetect.com, ntldr, boot.ini and about 400 drivers and commited the changes. I then formatted c:, used bootsect.exe and applied the 3rd image from the wim file - XP rebooted without any problems on the restored partition.

My experiance with backup software is admittedly pretty limited (I've never even seen a copy of ghost let alone tried using it) but I'm seriously impressed. ImageX is command line only so scripting backups shouldn't be a major problem. Oh, did I mention it's only 372KB + it's included in the WAIK which is free to download!

diddy