Avi Samocha's Blog

Updated: Exchange 2013 Deployment Assistant

Avi Samocha — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:08:35 GMT

When Exchange 2013 Deployment Assistant was first released, it didn’t help organizations that are using On-Premises deployment and want to upgrade from previous versions of Exchange, because Exchange 2013 didn’t support it yet.

Now, after CU1 for Exchange Server 2013 was released, we can see these scenarios available:

“The Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant is a web-based tool that helps you deploy Exchange 2013 in your on-premises organization, configure a hybrid deployment between your on-premises organization and Office 365, or migrate to Office 365”

Check the following links for further information:

Announcement - Updated: Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant

Tool - Exchange 2013 Deployment Assistant

Exchange 2013 EAC Certificate Creation Bug

Avi Samocha — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:50:33 GMT

I want to update you about a post I read on ExchangeServerPro Blog regarding a bug in the EAC certificate request wizard.

It appears that there is a bug when creating a certificate using EAC, that mixes up the Department and Organization values. The bug doesn’t appear when creating the certificate with the New-ExchangeCertificate cmdlet.

I didn’t have the chance to check it myself yet, but if we’ll rely on a comment for the post, that bug still exist in CU1 of Exchange Server 2013. I tried to find more cases of the issue in Microsoft Forums and Knowledge Base with no luck… So if you encounter that issue yourself, please give an update in the comments.

For now, use the New-ExchangeCertificate cmdlet to create your certificate, and lets hope this issue will be resolved soon.

You can find the original post from ExchangeServerPro Blog here

IGNITE ONLINE: Online Interactive Guides for IT Professionals

Avi Samocha — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:02:10 GMT

Planning to implement the new version of Office, start using Office 365 or upgrade your Exchange / Lync server?

Here is a good way to start!

IGNITE ONLINE gives you interactive technical guides (Level 300) that lead you through some of the new features and capabilities in Office, Office 365, Exchange 2013 and Lync 2013.

Enjoy!

Avi.

Keep Track of Hyper-V and Failover Cluster Hotfixes / Updates for Windows Server 2012

Avi Samocha — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:19:14 GMT

If you would like to keep track of hotfixes and updates for Hyper-V and Failover Cluster on Windows Server 2012, use the following links or subscribe to the RSS feeds:

Hyper-V: Update List for Windows Server 2012 – Site / RSS

List of Failover Cluster Hotfixes for Windows Server 2012 – Site / RSS

Enjoy!

Avi.

Performance Hotfix Rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Avi Samocha — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:40:24 GMT

Few days ago, Microsoft released a very important performance hotfix rollup addressing performance issues in Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

This hotfix rollup (KB2775511) contains no less than 90 hotfixes that were released after the release of SP1 for both operating systems and improve their overall performance and system reliability, especially slow boot and slow login issues caused by GPO’s, Folder Redirection, Offline Files and more.

You can find more information in the KB Article and on the PFE Platform Blog.

To download the update, you will need to go to the Microsoft Update Catalog site and search for 2775511.

To make it more simple, just use this link: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2775511

Good Luck!

Avi.

Server Performance Issues? SPA to the Rescue

Avi Samocha — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:52:26 GMT

A lot of causes can make your server to get slow and slaggy, and sometimes finding the cause can be a real headache…

That’s where this useful tool comes to the rescue.

The Server Performance Advisor, or SPA, helps IT administrators collect metrics to diagnose performance issues for up to 100 servers unobtrusively without adding software agents or reconfiguring production servers. It generates comprehensive performance reports and historical charts with recommendations.

The SPA is composed of two parts: The Console/Dashboard and the Advisor Packs (AP’s). The AP’s are the actual set of performance rules that the tool checks, which consist of a series of metadata and SQL script files. The tool comes with 3 built in AP’s: CoreOS, IIS and Hyper-V, and new AP’s can be built by developers. The built-in AP’s ship with a predefined set of thresholds for all the rules, but users have the flexibility to set their own thresholds in the AP’s to better suite their environment and workload.

This new version (SPA v3) supports Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008.

The tool has some requirements like Microsoft .NET Framework 4 and SQL Server 2008 R2 Express SP1 (or SQL Server), but after setting all up, it will surely help you diagnose and repair your server’s performance issues.

You can download the tool and user’s manuals here

Enjoy!

Hyper-V Latest Update Rollups, Hotfixes and Workarounds

Avi Samocha — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:52:00 GMT

Recently, Microsoft released an Update Rollup for Hyper-V, designed to resolve known issues with Intel processors and networking problems -

An update rollup package for the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2: August 24, 2010

This Update Rollup resolve three known issues that already had individual hotfixes:

Stop error message on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has the Hyper-V role installed and that uses one or more Intel CPUs that are code-named Nehalem: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

The network connection of a running Hyper-V virtual machine is lost under heavy outgoing network traffic on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer

"STOP: 0x0000001a" error message on a computer that has an Intel Westmere processor together with the Hyper-V role installed on Windows Server 2008 SP2 or on Windows Server 2008 R2

Other hotfixes, not in the above update rollup, include solutions to known issues with AMD’s processors, Hyper-V Manager and backup & restore issues with Hyper-V:

The computer stops responding or restarts during the Hyper-V Live Migration process in Windows Server 2008 R2

This issue occurs because of erratum 383 in AMD Family 10h processors. This erratum generates a machine check exception. This machine check exception causes the hardware to restart or to stop responding.

Virtual machines are missing in the Hyper-V Manager Console or when you create or start a virtual machine, you receive one of the following error codes: "0x800704C8", "0x80070037" or "0x800703E3"

When you try to create or start a virtual machine on a Windows Server 2008-based computer that has the Hyper-V role installed or on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 or on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 computer, you experience one of the following problems…

A Hyper-V update rollup package is available for a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2

This update rollup package resolves some issues that occur when you backup or restore Hyper-V virtual machines.

Be sure that your Hyper-V servers are using Windows Update or other patching solution (WSUS, SCCM) to keep your server up to date!

Hope it helps!

Device Stage, I Guess We’ll Have to Wait…

Avi Samocha — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:19:21 GMT

Recently the Windows 7 Team Blog posted a very informational article about Device Stage in Windows 7.

For those of you who are not familiar with the technology, “Device Stage helps you interact with any compatible device connected to your computer. From Device Stage you can see device status and run common tasks from a single window. There are even pictures of the devices which makes it really easy to see what's there. Device manufacturers can customize Device Stage. For example, if your camera manufacturer offers a custom version of Device Stage, then when you plug your camera into your PC, you could see things like the number of photos on your camera and links to helpful information”.

In other words, Device Stage is designed to give you the most of what you need from your device without installing any third party drivers and application to support its features and services.

Device Stage is an extension of Microsoft’s new device management in Windows 7, available from Devices and Printers in the Start Menu.

Devices and Printer – Device Experience for the poor…

Devices and Printers is available from the Windows 7 Start Menu. Devices and Printers gives you tools to manage and use your devices. For example, if you right click your wireless card, there is a shortcut to Network Settings. Right clicking your mouse enables you to change mouse settings.

One of the icons you’ll see in Devices and Printers is your Computer. Right clicking your computer name gives you general management tools to manage your computer. A cool thing you can do is creating a shortcut of the computer icon on the desktop and access these management tools directly from there.

This is the regular device experience you’ll see in Windows 7. Its better that what Windows XP had, but it’s not what Device Stage is going to be.

Device Stage – I guess we’ll have to wait…

As said earlier, “Device Stage is designed to give you the most of what you need from your device without installing any third party drivers and application” (and I know it’s wired I’m quoting myself…), and as you can see in the images below, the device management is much more intuitive than what was in earlier versions of Windows. To check if your device works with Device Stage, just double click its icon in Devices and Printers.

The next examples are two devices connected to my home computer supported with Device stage.

One of them is Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard, rather old hardware (I bought it at least 5 years ago…). This old device is working with Device Stage but it doesn’t have any special features accept “Configure My Keyboard” and some help and promotional information.

On the other hand, the second one is a new SanDisk Sansa View Player I bought a few months ago. This device experience has more features like Firmware Upgrade, Media Converter, Sync Configuration, Charging Status, Media Management option and more. Some of the options direct you to Windows applications (‘Manage Media on Your Device’ opens Windows Media Player...) and others direct you to SanDisk Web site (to download Firmware Updates, for example…).

As you can see, this device experience ease your device management, but it’s still lacks the features to manage the device directly from the device page. I’ll expect that a feature like the ‘Firmware Updates’ option will check and download the firmware directly to Windows instead of directing me to SanDisk site to download an installer that downloads the Firmware, for example.

Device Stage is a really cool feature in Windows 7, which helps you use your devices without using any third party drivers or applications that can damage your computer stability, but as for know there are only few devices that support it. As any new technology, it takes some time until hardware manufacturers add their support for it, but I believe that in a world where Microsoft operating systems control the market, it won’t take long until new devices will emerge and work with Device Stage. If not in Windows 7, maybe in Windows 8.

Is Google Copying from Microsoft Bing?

Avi Samocha — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:43:24 GMT

As for now (and probably in the near future…) Google is the best search engine around. Although Microsoft released their new shiny Search Engine Bing (based on Windows Live Search, Live Search,…) with new enhancements and look, Google is still the #1 search engine available.

But, is the Search giant copying from Bing?

One of Bing features is the Left Navigation Pane, something that Google didn’t have until now (well, at least not like the Navigation Pane they are working on…)

It seems that Google is working on a new interface for their Search Engine, adding a new Navigation Pane in search result and a new look in Google’s homepage. This new interface is not yet public, but someone already found a way to enable it with a small tweak.

This is what you need to do:

Go to Google.com
Paste the following in the Address Bar (only this, with no Google.com at the beginning):

BLOCKED SCRIPTvoid(document.cookie="PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com");

Hit Enter.
Refresh the page or enter Google.com again.

You’re Done.

Now, you’ll see that the Google’s homepage has a new look:

Before After

Besides the new look, a new navigation pane is added to your search result:

The new navigation pane helps you categorize your search result ,just like Bing…;-).

I know Microsoft has a lot to learn from Google in the Search Engines area, but it’s nice to see that Google is learning something from Microsoft as well….

Windows Virtual PC & Windows XP Mode - Release Candidate Review

Avi Samocha — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:51:07 GMT

Recently, Microsoft released an RC version of Windows Virtual PC and Virtual Windows XP, Now called Windows XP Mode.

Windows XP Mode is a new free separate install feature for Windows 7 that gives you a full Windows XP environment running as a virtual machine on your Windows 7. This feature enables you to launch the applications you install on Windows XP Mode from your Windows 7 desktop.

I covered the Beta version a few month ago when it was just released, so if you are not familiar with Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, you should read this post first.

And now, lets see what changed since the Beta version.

Install

The install is pretty much the same as in the Beta version. After downloading the two files needed for Windows XP Mode (Windows Virtual PC update KB958559, Windows XP Mode Package) you’ll need to install Windows Virtual PC first and then the Windows XP Mode package.

The install is quiet simple. Windows Virtual PC is installed as an update and the installation is done after few clicks.

After installing Windows Virtual PC (which requires a restart) you can start the Windows XP Mode Installation. During the install process you can watch an updated tutorial on how to use Windows XP Mode. The install is the same as in the beta version and when it finishes, you got a full functional Windows XP.

Installing Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode creates a new program in the start menu. As I mentioned earlier, in the Beta release, Windows XP was called Virtual Windows XP, and now its Windows XP Mode, as you can see in the following screenshots:

Windows XP Mode Release Candidate Virtual Windows XP Beta

Management

As in the Beta version, Windows Virtual PC does not have a Management Console and the Virtual Machines management is integrated with Windows Explorer. When you click Windows Virtual PC in Start Menu, the following window opens, giving you tools in the upper side of the window to manage your Virtual Machines:

Regarding Hard Disks management, there is an option now to create a new virtual hard disk or modify the location of existing one. Windows XP Mode VHD’s are installed by default to your C drive, something I personally don’t like… so after installing Windows XP Mode my first step is to shutdown the VM, move all files (VHD,VMC,…) to a different partition, modify the location in Windows Virtual PC and start the machine.

The Integration Features has improved and now you can select the drives that you want Windows XP to connect to.

Integration Features – Windows XP Mode (RC) Integration Features – Virtual Windows XP (Beta)

All other components in the Integration Features are the same.

Integration with Windows 7

Windows Virtual PC RC and Windows XP Mode now have better integration with Windows 7. If you’ll hover over Windows Virtual PC in Start Menu, or right click the Taskbar Icon, you will see an option to manage Virtual Machines and view the latest Virtual Machines used.

Auto Publish

When I covered the beta version of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, I demonstrated how you can run on your Windows 7 two versions of Microsoft Office and how you get remote alerts on Windows 7 Desktop from the Virtual Machine.

The Publish Application engine, which can be disabled through the virtual machine settings, is the same, with no new features. Applications that are installed to All Users will be available under Windows XP Mode Applications in the Start Menu. Another option is dragging an application shortcut to the All Users folder or the Start Menu which work for some applications, like Internet Explorer.

The way to RTM…

As you can see, there are no major changes from the Beta version except a better integration with Windows 7 and a few improvements to the Virtual Machine Settings. Microsoft did not mentioned an RTM release date but I can assume it will take no more the 6 month for Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode to go RTM.

For additional reading, check Windows 7 Team Blog announcement for Windows XP Mode and Windows XP Mode / Windows Virtual PC Home Page

If there’s something you’ll like to see in the RTM version, feel free to comment.

Enjoy!

Exchange Server 2007 SP2 is Available

Avi Samocha — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:12:49 GMT

Two days ago (24.08.09) Microsoft released SP2 for Exchange Server 2007.

As we know, most of Microsoft Service Packs are collection of all updates released for a product since it was RTM, but that is not the case with Exchange Server 2007 SP2. Exchange Server 2007 SP2 adds some new features to your Exchange Organization which I will summaries here.

Deploying Exchange Server 2010 - You can deploy Exchange Server 2010 in your organization once all of the Client Access servers in your organization have been upgraded to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Exchange Backup Functionality - Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 includes a VSS plug-in for Windows Server Backup to support Exchange backups. Once SP2 is installed, you can use Windows Server Backup to back up and restore your Exchange 2007 SP2 databases

Enhanced Auditing - New Exchange auditing events and audit log repository enable Exchange administrators to more easily audit the activities occurring on their Exchange servers

Dynamic Active Directory Schema Validation - The dynamic AD schema update and validation feature allows for future schema updates to be dynamic deployed as well as proactively preventing conflicts whenever a new property is added to the AD schema.

Public Folder Quota Management - Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 provides a more efficient way to manage Public Folder quotas by improving the current Cmdlets and removing the dependency on the Public Folder Distributed Authoring and Versioning Administration to perform management tasks.

Centralized Organizational Settings - There are several new Cmdlets parameters that have been added that enable centralized management of many of the Exchange organization settings.

For a list of new Cmdlets and additional info about what’s new in Exchange Server 2007 SP2, visit the What’s New page.

You should also read the Release Notes for Exchange Server 2007 SP2 for more information about installing SP2 in your Exchange Organization, especially the Upgrading to Exchange 2007 SP2 part .

Enjoy!

Windows Server 2008 R2 Available to Download!

Avi Samocha — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:15:00 GMT

Yesterday, August 14, Microsoft made Windows Server 2008 R2 available to download through TechNet and MSDN.

You can find the the announcement at the Windows Server Division Weblog.

From the announcement: “TechNet and MSDN subscribers also get access to RTM in the form of full bits. This version requires you to enter a product key for activation, but that key is supplied when you download the code. Just log-in with your account credentials and start downloading. Enjoy the new server!”

Windows Server 2008 R2 brings great new and updated technologies. These technologies include Web Application Platform, Virtualization, Scalability and Reliability, Management', better integration with Windows 7 and a lot more!

For those who are not TechNet or MSDN subscribers, there is a 180 day evaluation version of Windows Server 2008 R2.

Well, the download is in progress… Can’t wait to check it out!

Check Your PC for Windows 7 Compatibility

Avi Samocha — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:05:18 GMT

Now, after Microsoft announced Windows 7 is RTM, it’s time to check if your PC is compatible with Windows 7.

Two month ago, Microsoft released the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. “Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scans your PC's system, programs and devices to check if it's able to run Windows 7. After a few minutes, the report will let you know if your PC meets the system requirements, if there are any known compatibility issues with your programs and devices, and will also provide guidance on your upgrade options to Windows 7”.

Download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Good Luck! ;-)

Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 are RTM!

Avi Samocha — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:21:52 GMT

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 are Released to Manufacturing.

Unfortunately, the ISO’s are not avaliable for download at the moment through MSDN/TechNet or any other Microsoft source. For specific release dates check the Windows 7 Team Blog and the Windows Server Division Weblog.

In General, Windows 7 will be available to download starting August 6th (Partners and OEMs) and Windows Server 2008 R2 starting July 29th (OEMs). In the following weeks after, Windows 7 and 2008 R2 will be available to download in more languages to other customers.

Check out the announcements:

Windows 7 RTM announcement

Windows Server 2008 R2 announcement

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview – First Impressions

Avi Samocha — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:20:00 GMT

(Read this post in Hebrew at Newsgeek.co.il)

As you probably already know, Microsoft Office 2010, the next version of Microsoft Office has a Technical Preview release. This release is not publicly avaliable but I’m sure you can manage to get a copy if you want to… ;-). Several builds of Office 2010 TP were already leaked to the internet, but be aware that Microsoft checking those builds and they confirm that several copies are infected with Malware…

If you want to get a genuine copy of Office 2010, check out Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Program, that’s where I got my copy from. The Technical Preview Program build is the Professional Edition which includes Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, Publisher and OneNote.

Office 2010, including Office Web applications, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 — entered a technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and are scheduled for RTM in the first half of 2010. Other Office-Related products like Microsoft Exchange 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009.

After mumbling enough about the release, lets see what Office 2010 has to offer. Forgive me for not covering all of Office 2010 application. I will focus on, what I think, the most used applications: Outlook, Word and PowerPoint.

Outlook 2010

The New Ribbon

In Office 2007 Applications, a new Ribbon was introduced, providing more flexible and intuitive way to get the job done, showing us features we didn’t know about and made them easier to use. This new Ribbon was not built into Outlook 2007, but now, in Outlook 2010, the new Ribbon is built-in. The Ribbon in Outlook 2010 is divided to four sections: Home – for general mailing operations, Send/Receive – for Send/Receive operations, Folder – for folders management and View – to manage your Outlook and mail way of view.

If we’ll compare Outlook 2010 to Outlook 2007, we can see a big difference:

Quick Steps

One of the new features in the new Office Ribbon, providing quick access to new mail operations. If the built-in commands are sufficient for you, you can add other commands:

Conversation

This new nice feature, group mail items with the same subject into one email that you can expand, taking less space in the Inbox:

Word 2010

New Formatting Tools

New formatting tools, easy to access from the Home tab, enhance and improve the look of your documents by using WordArt-like fonts with effects like Shadow, Reflection and Glow.

New SmartArt Shapes

The new SmartArt shapes help you illustrate processes and more:

Document Map

This new feature, maps the document according to the documents heading

Using Document Map, you can edit Headings configuration and change the document view to a Thumbnail View:

Collaborate

If you are using SharePoint Workspace 2010, you can publish the document to a team workspace, check if someone is editing the document at the moment, chat with him, call him and a lot more.

PowerPoint 2010

Photo Effects

New photo editing tools let you edit the photos you are using in your presentation: correct to brightness and colors of photos and apply artistic effects.

Video Editing

New Video editing tools let you format the shape of the video and recolor the video (Brightness, Contrast, Grayscale,…):

Another great video editing tool, Trim Video, let you choose the start and end point of the video.

Slideshow Transitions, Animation and Recording

New Transitions and Animation effects, gives a better look and feel of your presentation:

Another cool thing is the Slideshow Recording that lets automate the time between slides transition:

Office 2010 Backstage

Another great new feature, is the Office Backstage, available on all Office 2010 applications. Office Backstage will give you tools and options you need according to the application you use. Among others, you will find media compression in PowerPoint, New Print Preview functions in Word and Mailbox Cleanup in Outlook:

Off Topic

Running Office 2010 as a Virtual Application

I’m running Office 2010 on Virtual Windows XP that’s installed on Windows 7 RC. I had to try running Office 2010 applications directly from Windows 7 as a virtual application, but unfortunately its not working… for now… :-\

Office 2010: The Movie

Microsoft also came up with a site called Microsoft Office 2010 Backstage, with Office Backstage-like design, avaliable at http://www.office2010themovie.com.

If you’ll check YouTube, there is also a funny Office 2010 Movie teaser:

Summary

Office 2010 has a lot to offer and as you can see there are lots of new features and enhancements in the applications I covered here and a lot more on other Office Applications like Visio, SharePoint Workspace, Project and more.

You can find more information about Office 2010 applications on the Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering Blog and at the Office 2010 Home Page where you can also register for the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Program. If you are encountering bugs and other problems after installing Office 2010, check out Office 2010 Forum.

After getting your invitation and installing Office 2010, don’t forget to send a feedback, using the Microsoft Office Send-A-Smile utility, by pressing the Frown or Smile icons at the taskbar:

Have Fun!