Anything about IT

Microsoft recently published a deployment guide for Microsoft Office 2010. The content in this book is a copy of selected content from the Office 2010 Resource Kit Technical library. Download the guide from here

If you are planning deploying Office 2010 throughout an enterprise read this.

This book covers information about the fundamentals of Deploying Microsoft Office 2010. Get it here

Companies that are in the process of planning a Windows 7 migration, will be required to pay some attention to Internet Explorer 8 and web site compatibility. Chris Johnson aka “The App Compat Guy” put together two video’s about how to migrate from Internet Explorer 6 to 8. The videos talk about the potential challenges , testing methods, workarounds and solutions to support companies with a smooth migration.  Thrive Live! Migrating from IE6 to IE8 (Part 1 of 2) and Thrive Live! Migrating from IE6 to IE8 (Part 2 of 2)

Then for those that really want to take a deep dive, I recommend watching the IE 8 Application Compatibility webcast with demos presented by Michel Barnett. You never stop learning…..

One of the objectives of deploying a new operating system within an Enterprise is to provide end users with a state of the art Operating System that builds the foundation for adopting new technologies and to increase end user productivity.

IT departments usually spend months in preparing an enterprise wide desktop deployment and by doing so they automatically get familiar with all the new functionality and features of the new Operating System. But what about the end users? Most end users are not involved in all the preparation and planning activities, hence they will only see the new Operating System on the day their PC is being migrated.

So unless one has recently bought a new home PC that has Windows 7 pre-installed, users will be confronted with a complete new User Interface. Windows 7 is far more intuitive than previous Windows Operating Systems,nevertheless users will need to go through a learning curve to manage their new device. Furthermore to boost end user productivity it is important that end users become familiar with the new features and functionality as otherwise there is a risk that they continue to use their device without using these.

To help Enterprises preparing their end users and IT support staff in creating the awareness and becoming familiar with the new features and functionality of Windows 7 and Office, Microsoft has put in place the Enterprise Learning Framework.

The Enterprise Learning Framework helps with:

• Raising Awareness: Helping employees understand how the new versions of Windows and Office will benefit them and helping to prepare employees before deployment
• Minimizing Disruption: Identifying a small, manageable number of learning topics to get employees up and running quickly with Windows 7, Windows Vista and the 2007 Office release
• Shortening Training: Concise learning topics requiring only a few minutes each from employees
• Gaining Productivity: Identifying the most important learning topics for improving productivity as employees continue to use Windows 7, Windows Vista and the 2007 Office release

The Enterprise Learning Framework portal allows IT departments prepare end user training content. The process of preparing the content is very straight forward.

• Choose Products
• Define User Profile
• Refine Topics

When completed the tool can automatically generate an e-mail message or Word Document that contains all the required training content. To avoid overloading end users with too much information at once, the tool allows to define the actual timeframe.

For more information or start preparing the end user training content visit the Enterprise Learning Framework portal.

On July 12, 2010 Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack will reach end of support, for most companies this shouldn’t come as a surprise as this has been widely communicated when Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 3. however it appears that some companies didn’t took these message too serious then, but now suddenly realize that July 12, 2010 is just a few months ahead of them.

Many people have still in memory the challenges they faced with Windows XP Service Pack 2, this because this in fact was more than what people knew as being a Service Pack. Windows XP Service Pack 2 was not just a rollup of security and product fixes, but also contained various technology updates (Network protection, Memory Protection, Web Browsing security and Computer Maintenance). In these days the famous word was Trustworthy Computing and this was what Windows XP Service Pack 2 was about. From a technical and security perspective Windows XP Service Pack 2 was definitely a big step forward, but many companies faced quite some challenges in deploying it especially with regard to application compatibility.

So now when it comes to the deployment of Windows XP Service Pack 3, many people automatically think of Service Pack 2. But as mentioned previously, Service Pack 2 was a kind of special Service Pack, this isn’t the case for Service Pack 3 which is basically a rollup of security and product fixes and contains just a few new technologies or enhancements that won’t have a big impact on the existing environment.

Here’s a short checklist for planning and deploying Windows XP Service Pack 3

1. Include Windows XP Service Pack 3 in your Software Distribution or Patch Deployment System

2. Identify Test users (Application owners, Developers, standard users) and deploy Windows XP SP3

3. Monitor the Pilot clients and track any issues

4. If all is green, start deploying Windows XP Service Pack 3 throughout the Enterprise

5. In parallel you want to update your current Windows XP Service Pack 2 based images with Service Pack 3 as well, this to prevent very long new PC installation times.

Things to consider

Microsoft did not release separate Multilanguage Packs for XP SP3, companies can continue to use the previous released MUI Pack, but there is a MUI Pack update available that provides MUI support for some of the new or updated components that come with SP3.

If you were using a single image for standard desktop/laptops and TabletPC’s then be aware of the fact that with Windows XP Service Pack 3 Microsoft has removed the possibility of using a Single Image for Windows XP Professional and TabletPC Edition.  So if a company uses TabletPC devices, they will end up creating separate images for these.

Additional Information
Lifecycle Supported Service Packs
Microsoft Support Lifecycle Blog
End of Support for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista (with no service packs installed)
What’s up with Service Pack support?
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Overview
Release Notes for Windows XP Service Pack 3

On march 4th Microsoft communicated on their Office 2010 Engineering blog that they are on Schedule with Office 2010 and will release it to manufacturing next month. For Enterprise customers Office 2010 will be available as of May 12th, consumers will get Office 2010 in June.

Microsoft Office 2010 Site

Planning, configuration, deployment and compatibility guides can be found here

Microsoft Office ONRAMP Site

Office OnRamp is the BPIO execution package that launches Office 2010 to the Enterprise business. Office OnRamp helps you drive the conversations you need to have with TDMs, ITPros and end users to renew EAs, drive Office 2010 deployment and win new EA business. OnRamp provides a complete set of orchestrated activities and marketing materials that give you the tools you need to demonstrate the value of Office 2010 in the BPIO framework and WIN!

Office OnRamp for TDMs:
Office 2010 Brochure for TDMs
Office 2010 TDM Pitch Deck for Office OnRamp
Office 2010 Client and Server Integration Whitepaper
Office 2010 Client and Server Integration Customer Ready Deck
Top New Capabilities for TDMs in Office 2010
Office 2010 End User and TDM Value Prop

Office OnRamp for IT Pros
Overview of 2010 for IT Pros
Tools for Planning Office 2010 Deployment
Security & Compliance
Application Compatibility for Office 2010
Office 2010 Deployment Considerations
Volume Activation for Office 2010
Web App Architecture & Deployment for Office 2010

Most IT pro’s probably don’t have a problem in getting access to the Windows 7 operating system installation sources because they can access them through their corporate volume license agreement and/or MSDN or TechNet subscription. But unfortunately there are still some out there who do not have such easy access to these sources.

For the use of Windows 7 on a primary device (the one that one uses on a daily basis) an official version of Windows 7 that comes either from the Corporate Volume media source or a separately acquired copy or pre-installed with a new computer must be used.

But if you need Windows 7 just for evaluation purposes Microsoft provides the following 2 options:

Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial
The Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day trial program allows you to download the Windows 7 Enterprise 32 or 64 bit installation sources which can be used for evaluation purposes during 90 days. The Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day trial can be downloaded from here. Note that prior downloading the sources you must fill in a form which also includes a question about your occupation. If you select a profile that does not fit to this program, you don’t get access to the sources.

Microsoft Windows 7 90-Day Eval VHD
This is a preconfigured virtual machine set contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. To run Windows 7 within the VHD you must have access to a system that has Microsoft Hyper-V installed. The Microsoft Windows 7 90-Day Evaluation VHD can be downloaded from here. I recommend to read the Readme prior downloading the sources.

Finally let me also mention the Windows 7 Test Drive which provides access to a Windows 7 client that runs remotely on a Microsoft hosted virtual infrastructure.

Just found this post on Trevor Sullivan’s Tech Room blog which explains how to automate the Windows 7 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) installation. Read the entire article here

Adobe Flash and Shockwave are probably one of those most installed applications on home and enterprise computers. Working within the End User Computing environment for large enterprise customers since quite a while, I can’t remember of just one company that wouldn’t maintain Adobe Flash and Shockwave in their list of enterprise standard applications.

But when it comes to distributing these applications, many companies seem to go down the difficult route instead of taking the easy one. When distributing applications within Enterprise environments, you want them to install automatically, hence you need a software package.

Many companies seem to create their Adobe Flash and Shockwave installation packages by capturing the installation sources that are used when initiating an end user installation from the Adobe website as shown in the picture below.

The challenge of this method is that you need to capture the sources while the web based installer is running (these are stored temporarily on the system) and that you probably want to get rid of any additional software that is being installed such as the Google Toolbar in this case.

Many people seem not to be aware that Adobe does provide redistributable media for enterprise deployment of their Adobe Flash and Adobe Shockwave players. On the download pages of the appropriate Player, you will see a link called “Distribute Flash Player” or “Distribute Shockwave Player”

By clicking on one of these links you are being redirected to the Adobe Player Licensing website where you find the links to apply for a license and obtain the installation media to distribute the players within your enterprise.

License Flash Player ›
License Shockwave Player ›

You will have to provide some information like Company name, number of seats and the operating system used. Once you have submitted your request, it takes about 5-10 minutes until you will receive an e-mail with the links to download the players.

Well, that is what I consider as taking the easy route, clicking on a link, filling in a form, and after let’s say 15 minutes you get the install_flash_player_10_plugin.msi for Flash and sw_lic_full_installer.msi for Shockwave and you’re ready to go.

A similar method is available for Adobe Reader. I plan to post an article about that soon.

if you have watched the Windows XP Mode IT Pro Deployment Video, you might be interested in the scripts they’ve used to automatically install XP Mode and create virtual machines. You can download them from here

If you consider using XP Mode, then I recommend watching this video. This video contains a good tutorial on how to install and configure XP mode including a lot of additional hints. Furthermore the video explains how to create a customized XP Mode VHD for deployment on multiple clients.

The video can be downloaded from here

ImageX is a command-line tool for capturing, modifying and applying file based disk images. ImageX is included within the Windows Automated Installation Kit.

In this post I want to focus on the functionality provided by ImageX to split and merge image files. So why would you want to split and merge image files? Well think of the following scenarios:

• Your image is too big to fit on one DVD and using Dual Layer DVD media is not an option.
• Network related limitations to transfer large files
• Merge image files provided on multiple DVDs for network based deployment

For the purpose of writing this article, I prepared a simple folder structure to demonstrate the capture, split and merge process.

The folder “Output1” is used to store the initial captured image file which contains the data stored within the “source” folder. The source folder was filled with some wallpapers located in C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper The folder “Output2” is used to store the splitted image files. The folder “Output2” is used to store the merged image file created from the splitted image files that are stored in folder “Output2”.

To run the following commands you must open the “Deployment Tools command prompt” which gets automatically added to your start menu when having installed the WAIK. Note that all commands must be run with Administrator privileges.

 Image Capture

Use the following command to capture the first image:

imagex /capture c:\data\splitmerge\source c:\data\splitmerge\output1\splitmerge.wim "splitmerge" /COMPRESS maximum

For validation purposes, I talk about that later, we also produce an image info file using the following command:

imagex /info /xml c:\data\splitmerge\output1\splitmerge.wim > info1.xml

Image Split

Now we are going to split the previously created splitmerge.wim file. Since we are dealing with a rather small image file, the split is set at 20 MB.

imagex /split c:\data\splitmerge\output1\splitmerge.wim c:\data\splitmerge\output2\splitmerge.swm 20

and again we create an image info file.

imagex /info /xml c:\data\splitmerge\output2\splitmerge.swm > info2.xml

Image Merge

Finally we are going to merge the previously splitted image file back into a single image file.

imagex /ref c:\data\splitmerge\output2\splitmerge*.swm /check /export c:\data\splitmerge\output2\splitmerge.swm 1 c:\data\splitmerge\output3\splitmerge.wim "splitmerge" /COMPRESS maximum

and create the image info file

imagex /info /xml c:\data\splitmerge\output3\splitmerge.wim > info3.xml

The Output

If all worked fine, the following files should be present:

• C:\DATA\splitmerge\output1\splitmerge.wim
• C:\DATA\splitmerge\output2\splitmerge.swm, splitmerge2.swm and depending on the size of the source folder your might also get an additional splitmerge3.swm
• C:\DATA\splitmerge\output3\splitmerge.wim
• C:\DATA\splitmerge\info1.xml
• C:\DATA\splitmerge\info2.xml
• C:\DATA\splitmerge\info3.xml

Checking data integrity

When comparing the file size of the splitmerge.wim stored in c:\data\splitmerge\output1 with splitmerge.wim stored in c:\data\splitmerge\output3 you will probably notice that the size in bytes differs. The same applies for the total size of the swm files stored in c:\data\splitmerge\output2.

Well, forget about these file/folder sizes, to ensure that your final wim file contains the exact same data as the initial wim file, we’ll take a look at the previously created image info files.

All of the 3 image info files have the same value stored for:

<FILECOUNT>43</FILECOUNT>
<TOTALBYTES>41339064</TOTALBYTES>

Happy imaging !

Related articles:

Getting your OS Restore DVD to work with large image files

During my weekly “let’s see what’s new”  search on some of my favorite websites, I found the “Bitlocker Deployment Sample Resources” on the MSDN Code Gallery. The Resource Page contains a lot of documentation and useful script samples for the deployment and management of Microsoft Bitlocker.

I’ve spend nearly 3 hours in troubleshooting today to find out the reason why a custom IE7 package, that worked fine on Windows XP SP2 would not work on Windows XP SP3.

If you are using a custom Internet Explorer 7 package (created with the Internet Explorer Administration Toolkit) and plan to rebuild your enterprise image with Windows XP SP3, you might be interested in this article.