Its high time... Everyone is talking about going green. Data centers, individuals. Its crazy. I have heard about someone saying, “Do not eat more than you need, the more you eat, the larger the carbon footprint”.

Anyway, i guess the next thing you’ll hear below will help you reduce your carbon footprint.

And since we’re on the topic of Microsoft Learning, just another 2 news to share.

SQL Server 2008 Free Software Offer Extended to September 30
This popular offer has been extended to September 30, 2009 (while supplies last). Enroll in and attend any one of the eight available Microsoft SQL Server 2008 courses, and you'll get a fully licensed copy of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition with one client access license.

Go Further with Microsoft Certification
Being certified can be a proven differentiator with potential employers. By keeping your certifications current, you can make yourself more valuable to your organization so you can find a job, keep a job, or earn a promotion. In today's economy, that's more important than ever. Watch the video and hear what other MCPs have to say about what certification has done for their careers. You can also listen to at anytime to audio podcasts on a variety of certification topics.

/Dennis

Windows 7 will be general available on the 22nd Oct 2009. However, you don’t have to wait till then, to see or hear it. Its all over the place. Its crazy. I’ve seen Windows Client Releases over the past decade. I’ve not seen one that has so much anticipation and excitement. There are tons of media coverage and enthusiasts who gave lots of positive feedbacks.

Today i want to share with you another amazing IT Pro, Alex Crawford.

Alex is a member of Singapore IT Pro User Group. He works for a large public sector organization as a Solutions Architect focusing on End User Computing. He has extensive experience working on multiple client operating system from DOS and Windows 3.1 days till now, Windows 7.

Alex’s Initial Experience with Windows 7

“I feel like Microsoft listened”. Bad hardware support, slow menus, application incompatibilities and a resource hog, are his experience about Windows Vista, the soon to be replaced Windows Operating System. Yes, replaced by Windows 7. These issues has been address in Windows 7. The menu system is now far more sleek and intuitive. Great driver support out of the box and most importantly, runs faster on the same set of hardware compared to Vista. Its been a long time since Alex has been so excited about a new operating system released from Microsoft.

Alex shares with me what he likes about Windows 7.

Aero Peek

This feature allows one to get a sneak peek behind open windows. It has become a way of working on the computer for him. He’s become more productive at the computer and find its quite frustrating not to have Aero Peek on current versions.

To read more about Aero Peek, Paul Thurott' wrote an article about Aero Peek. Read it here.

Applocker

As the name suggests, Application Locker. It can be used to control authorized and unauthorized applications. Say for example, you want a strict operating environment in your corporate desktops. You can use Applocker to prevent users from running unauthorized software.

Before Applocker, we have to use Software Restrictions in Group Policies. Applocker is more powerful then Software Restrictions and reduces lots of overheads compared to previous capabilities.

Edge @ TechNet recently has a video demo posted about Applocker.

Windows 7 UAC

UAC prevents unauthorized execution of software process that requires administrative privilege. To read abo ut UAC, click here. While UAC was already introduced in Vista, Alex never thought it would find the balance between useful security mechanisms and being an annoying pop-ups. In Windows Vista, UAC was popping up all over the place and there wasn’t granular control on how UAC will raise an alarm. Now in Windows 7, one can bring a balance by reducing the number of prompts and giving you the ability to configure UAC experience in the control panel.

Booting from a Virtual Hard Drive

Windows 7, allows someone to build a virtual hard drive, attach it to Windows 7, and literally boot into the virtual hard drive. For techies like Alex, he runs Windows 7 as the default installation. Net he builds a Windows 208 R2 on a virtual hard drive (.vhd) and boot into it. There is no worries about managing another operating system partition. You can dual boot into another operating system in Windows 7, and that other operating system exists as a VHD file.

From an enterprise standpoint, this allows an organization wit mixed desktop environment and virtual images to move to a single format, thereby simplifying image management and deployment.

For a demo of the new booting feature, check out http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd758779.aspx

Application Compatibility

App Compat seems to be on the minds of every IT Pro i talk to about Windows Vista and Windows 7. Alex was surprised that for most part of his applications, they worked flawlessly. However, there are some small exceptions. For example, Norton 360 would not install in Beta build, however, it works in RC. Through the various releases, application compatibility is also incrementally taken care of.

XP Mode

“Microsoft has listened again.” Windows 7 introduced a feature called “XP Mode”. In essence, the feature is a Virtual PC version of Windows XP running on Windows 7, allowing you to continue your favourite XP applications that do not work in Windows 7. This provides the ability for anyone to easily move to Windows 7, but yet still retain the ability to run Windows XP.

If you are running Windows 7, and would like to download Virtual PC and/or XPMode in Windows 7, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Alex looks forward to deploying Windows 7 to his customers. He has a pilot setup running somewhere in office. You too, can be ready to deploy Windows 7 when it is generally available. By joining the IT Pro Momentum, you can look forward to learning about how to enable yourself to meet new challenges. To learn more about IT Pro Momentum, please email me (i-dchung@microsoft.com)

/Dennis

Singapore IT Pro User Group met up on the 10th June 2009.

The group leaders shared about Active Directory. If you were able to join us, we are happy to see you there. If you haven’t, in partnership with DPE in Microsoft Singapore, we have made recording of the session possible.

Details of the Event Synopsis can be found here: http://mstechevents.sg/ViewEvent.aspx?eventId=243

Recorded Video Session and PPT;

Session 1: Fundamentals of Active Directory (Design and Configuration)

Session 2: Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory

/Dennis

Windows 7 Beta has been out for a couple of months. If you are using Windows 7 Beta, i have a warning for you. Following the release of Windows 7 Release Candidate, the Beta version will so call “expire” very soon. Come 1st July 2009, Windows 7 Beta version will start rebooting every 2 hours automatically.

If you are still using Beta version, please move to Release Candidate immediately to avoid the reboots.

The Release Candidate download program expires on the 15th August 2009. To download and obtain a key now, please visit Springboard.
To give feedback about Release Candidate, please visit http://input.microsoft.com. You can provide feedback regarding various aspect of the operating system.

/Dennis

VMWare’s vSphere tout a new feature called Fault Tolerance (FT).

It is interesting because many Fault Tolerance features should give you maximum resiliency against faults.
Before you decide to dive into this, read this link that talks about its limitations.

http://vmjunkie.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/why-you-may-want-to-leave-ft-alone-for-now/

/Dennis

Learn how Microsoft IT Plans for, deploys and manages solutions within its global enterprise using the latest Microsoft products and technologies.

This DVD contains content that shows how Microsoft does IT, from in-depth technical white papers and notes on IT to at-a-glance IT value cards and presentations. You’ll also find IT Professional and IT manager webcasts, videos, technical solution briefs, case studies and more.

http://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase

If you are a Singapore IT Pro, in the role of an IT Manager or someone who does planning for your organization, you may request for a copy by sending me an email (i-dchung@microsoft.com) with the following information;

Name:
Email:
Company Name:
Job Title:

I only have limited numbers left. Please send me an email soon. ;-)

/Dennis

Windows 7 RC has been released to the public recently (in the past 1 or 2 months). Microsoft Springboard contains a huge amount of resources for IT Pros who wants to find out more about Windows 7. There has also been tremendous uptake in the testing of Windows 7. There are many outstanding and impressive press writings and blogs by enthusiasts. You can search around for those writing over common search engines and you’ll come up with tons of them.

I manage the IT Pro Community in Singapore and fuel their passion. As you can probably imagine, I’m overwhelmed by IT Pros in Singapore to learn more about Windows 7. So much so that I think I’m doing injustice to the product by not talking enough. ;-)

Tan Chee, is an old friend of mine. Coincidentally, he is also an active contributing leader of Singapore Windows IT Pro User Group. He works as an IT Consultant in one of the largest system integrator in Singapore. He manages the an education body’s systems infrastructure that comprises of servers and more than 10,000 clients.

Tasked with Upgrading Client OS

He has recently been assigned to look into the upgrading of Windows XP to the next version of the Operating System. The upgrade has to take into consideration both hardware and software compatibility. He is familiar with Windows Vista, while the software compatibility is acceptable, the hardware deals a big blow. Vista is hardware resource demanding.

Knowing that Windows 7 is due to release soon, Tan Chee looks into testing Windows 7. Having ran Windows 7 Beta since Jan 2009, Tan is impressed with how polished the codes were in Beta stage. He loved the new OS and found that it resolved most of the software and hardware issues with all the new features.

Through real-time testing and observations, Windows 7 performs better than Windows XP in all lab tests.

Crux of a Client OS Upgrade

In the current economic climate, Tan Chee highlighted the challenge he faces. He points out 2 main considerations; Software and Hardware issues.

Software issues has always been a plaguing legacy in any organization. It is important that existing Line of Business applications will work and run on new platforms. Tan Chee also drives a constant message back into his organization that software must progress with the change of state in the business.

Hardware costs is another huge issue. In such economic times, we’re constantly driving to keep costs down. As such, there is a constant pressure to extend the operating life of the client machines. Switching to Windows Vista proved to be a costly exercise should he go down this path.

Tan Chee is amazed that Windows 7 breathed new life into the existing sets of hardware. In performance tests, using current hardware, Windows 7 runs faster than Windows XP. This allowed him to extend the life of serviceable machines and saved him money.

Real “Minimum” Hardware Requirement

Tan Chee set out on a mission. To discover what is the oldest supported set of hardware he could use with Windows 7. He scrambled around office and got 2 “minimalist” hardwares. A mini PC running on VIA CPU and on an Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz CPU with 512MB of ram.

In both installations, Windows 7 performed smoothly. As smooth as XP, if not better. That’s really giving an old machine a new soul.

Using Windows 7 as a production machine

Given those lab tests, Tan Chee believes his organization is ready for Windows 7. To take it to the next level, he and several colleagues decided to use it as their production day to day work. Using RC bits, Windows 7 is READY for this environment. For his daily administration work, almost every tool and utility works well. He’s been more productive on the same set of hardware.

Tan Chee, together with a few others, are sharing a list of applications that they come across with and works with Windows 7 in their day to day work. Check out the list here. You are welcomed to contribute to the list here.

Further mitigate software compatibility with XP Mode

Given the high levels of software compatibilities, Tan Chee feels that there may still be situations that could hinder the move to Windows 7. He identified a new feature that will remove this blocker. Windows 7 RC, comes with a desktop virtualization capability – Windows XP Mode.

To find out more about Windows XP Mode, click here.

Going Green!

There are also many conversations about driving GreenIT. Tan Chee wants to do his bit too. He came across a blog post by the Windows 7 engineering team about Windows 7 Energy Efficiency. Always being curious about labs and testing, he mounted on a simple power consumption test.

Using an old set of machine, Tan Chee runs Windows XP and have its power consumption measured over a 1 hour period, recording power consumption every 10 minutes.

With the same set of hardware, he runs Windows 7. With no configuration change at all, power savings kicks in after 30 mins. The results, approx.  40% drop in power consumption after 30 mins. Calculating power savings is tough, but he concluded that based on that simple test, power consumption for his 10,000 clients could potentially have a drop of 20-40% in power bill each month.

This can be quite significant savings for an organization with 10,000 machines. Windows 7’s energy consumption can be easily managed through group policies in Active Directory.

Tan Chee is another happy IT Pro who participate in IT Pro Momentum. If you want to have that cutting edge, IT Pro Momentum makes that difference. To find out how to participate, email i-dchung@microsoft.com, and include which country you are from. For Tan Chee, he can’t wait for Windows 7 to be released.

/Dennis

With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 coming, the Technical Writers in Microsoft has updated the Getting Started Guide for R2’s release.

Check out the technical library for it, click here.

WDS allows an organization to deploy in quick time, Operating Systems via the network. A computer can simply be installed without having to have the media for installation. In a few simple steps, an Operating System + Client Applications can be provisioned and deploy in matter of minutes. You can also deploy multiple machines at the same time.

If you’re into accelerating your deployments, you should serious check out the Getting Started Guide, plus also SpringBoard.

/Dennis

Topic: SQL Server Reporting Services
Speaker: Alvin Lau

Venue: Level 21, One Marina Boulevard
Date: 30 April 2009
Time: Registration starts at 6:30, session starts promptly at 7PM
Synopsis:
Ever felt that SSRS is behaving slightly below your (or your customer's) expectations? Come and join me in sharing some of the 'better' practices of using SSRS. Don't just listen to me, chip in with your very own good practices, tips or tricks.

http://www.mstechevents.sg/ViewEvent.aspx?eventId=222

/Dennis

Coming Soon: Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC

Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC.

All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC. The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.

Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC are best experienced on your new Windows 7 PC. We will be soon releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.

/Dennis

The Next Generation of Windows® is almost here!

Hello World…

I am pleased to share with you a video blog that will officially debut in early May called Talking About Windows.

This video blog provides insight on Windows 7 from the Microsoft engineers who helped build the product.

Additionally, it provides real-world commentary from IT professionals who have chosen to shift to a modern OS. 

We hope you will take a moment to watch the videos, participate by commenting in the spaces below each video and help spread the word about this exciting endeavor to build community.
Watch. Connect.
www.talkingaboutwindows.com

/Dennis

There has been a lot of anticipation for Windows 7. Earlier in the year, Microsoft released Beta. However, limited downloads were set and some of you out there didn’t get a chance to download it. However, if someone else has the download for Beta, you can still request for Keys.

Released Candidate of Windows 7 will be signed off on the 30th April 2009. Come 5th May 2009, Windows 7 Release Candidate will be open to all. It will be available for download over TechNet, MSDN and the General Public.

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/04/24/windows-7-release-candidate-update.aspx

The above blog entry was just published a few hours ago.

At the same time, in Singapore, we are preparing for a Windows 7 InstallFest as part of Microsoft {one} Nation 2009 celebration. Lock your calendar, 23rd May 09 (Not publicized yet), will be the date where the communities will come together in Microsoft’s office and talk about future platforms.

Join us and see you there. We’re preparing the contents for 23rd May 2009 as i’m typing this. :-)

/Dennis

Best offer to upgrade your Microsoft Credentials and Improve Your Career Prospects

If you are a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) who have not attained any new credentials since July 1, 2007, you can now upgrade your Microsoft credentials at an exclusive exam voucher at US$25 only. Validate your skills on Microsoft new technologies including Microsoft Windows Server 2008, SQL 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and Vista TODAY. Go to MCP Upgrade to validate your eligibility and get the special offer voucher

(Valid in Asia Pacific Region, India, Greater China Region and Japan)

/Dennis

I was thrown this question, “Microsoft Hyper-V does not work with Intel’s Core i7 Processors, is this true?”. Answer if NO, of course it is not true. Microsoft Hyper-V works fast on Intel’s Core i7 processors.

See Intel’s processor over page. http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei7/index.htm

On the specifications page, you will see that it supports Intel-VT. The same series of processors also takes advantage of Extended Page Table (EPT) feature. EPT provides improved performance for workloads with large memory footprints, example SQL, Exchange etc.

With 8 processing threads in that socket, you can bet that it runs faster those virtualization workloads that you want to use it for.

/Dennis

Hyper-V has been much “souped” up in terms of the amount of resources it could work with. Here’s a table that gives you more information. Do bear in mind that over time, Microsoft will increase the amount of resources a VM can work with. In the past year that Hyper-V got release, Microsoft has increase twice the amount of processor support.

There is a figure here that my require a little more explanation.

Under the row; “Max # of VMs” – 8 V Procs per Logical processor.

If you have VMs that are configured with only 1 CPU, then you can have a max of 256 VMs. 8 V Procs x 32 logical processors

if you have VMs that are configured with 4 CPUs, then you can have a max of 128 VMs. 8 V Procs x 32 logical processors / 4.

Logical processor

If you have 1 Dual Core CPU, that’s 2 logical processors

If you have 4 Dual Core CPU, that’s 8 logical processors

If you have 2 Quad Core CPU, that’s 8 logical processors

Note:

VMWare suffers the same problem has Hyper-V. 4 V Procs per VM. :-)

/Dennis

The Infrastructure Planning and Design team has released a new guide: Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization.
This guide outlines the critical infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). The reader is guided through the four-step process of designing components, layout, and connectivity in a logical, sequential order. Identification of the MED-V server instances required is presented in simple, easy-to-follow steps, helping the reader to deliver managed virtual machines to end users. Following the steps in this guide will result in a design that is sized, configured, and appropriately placed to deliver the stated business benefits, while also considering the performance, capacity, and fault tolerance of the system.
Download the guide by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/ipd and selecting “Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization” under the IPD One-click Downloads, listed on the bottom right of the page.
Infrastructure Planning and Design streamlines the planning process by:

• Defining the technical decision flow through the planning process.
• Listing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options and considerations.
• Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.

Join the Beta
Additional Infrastructure Planning and Design guides are available as beta releases on the Connect Web site. They are open beta downloads. See below for instructions on how to access the beta guides.
To join the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta, follow these steps:

1. Visit the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta at http://connect.microsoft.com.
2. Sign in using a valid Windows Live ID to continue to the Invitations page.

Related Resources
Check out all the Infrastructure Planning and Design team has to offer! Visit the IPD page on TechNet, http://www.Microsoft.com/ipd, for additional information, including our most recent guides

/Dennis

I just want to alert everyone that this is an opportunity to influence how Microsoft shapes its products and services.

Each year, Microsoft sends out a GRS (Global Relationship Survey) to randomly select IT Professionals. There is a high chance that you would have received it. We know there are many surveys out there these days.

If you could take 15-20 minutes to complete this survey, your feedback goes a long way to shaping Microsoft’s products and services, which in turn helps us to meet your needs and help millions of users worldwide have a better experience.

We understand you are busy, so we have designed the study to take minimal time. We need your candid feedback to make improvements that are meaningful and effective for you.

Between March 9 and April 17 you will receive an email invitation from IPSOS, our certified research vendor, with a link to an online customer satisfaction survey. If you utilize a spam filter, please adjust the settings to allow an email from the following address: feedback.en@satisfaction.ipsos.com I assure you, this is a valid Microsoft survey. You may send a blank email to survey.request@satisfaction.ipsos.com for a new invite if you are unable to locate the email invitation.

Thank you in advance for your participation and valuable input.  You have our commitment that the results of the survey will be used in our efforts to better meet your needs.

/Dennis
IT Pro Evangelist | Microsoft Singapore

Apart from my brother, who has a MacBook running Windows, i’ve never parted with any money to buy something from Apple. Is MAC really expensive? Gee… I have thought Macs are cheap.

/Dennis

SharePointPROs.SG April 2009

Date & Time: 9th Apr 2009 – 6.45pm
Location: Microsoft Singapore Level 22 CF-12

7.15pm – 8pm:

Scalable SharePoint Infrastructure Management

Wong Chuin Hun, AvePoint

Grow your SharePoint implementation with ease and confidence.  SharePoint administration tools provides organizations universal control over their enterprise-wide SharePoint landscape, from a single farm to hundreds of farms with top administration to do mass security and configuration administration, content management to achieve full range topology management and deployment management to automate the SharePoint implementation lifecycle from staging to production to manage a highly scalable SharePoint environment.

About the speaker:

Wong Chuin Hun is a SharePoint Solution Consultant  from AvePoint, focusing on scalable infrastructure management solutions for SharePoint.

8.15pm – 8.30pm:

SharePoint with No Deployment

Steve Sofian, nichefield

A quick look at the new SharePoint Online offering from Microsoft.  Built on top of MOSS 2007, provide a single, integrated location where users  can efficiently collaborate and a simplified IT management by removing the need to deploy, configure, monitor and update.

We will also take a quick look on customizing a SharePoint Online site.

About the speaker:

Steve Sofian is a Solution Architect from nichefield, and also one the SharePoint MVP in Singapore.

Please RSVP to ssofian@mvps.org to confirm your attendance.  Thanks.

/Dennis