Anything about IT

Often people think that App-V is is an Application Compatibility Solution, it’s not. Chris Jackson has written an excellent article where he explains this in detail. Read the entire article here

Last Friday I met with some friends I used to work with in the past and we had some talk about Windows 7 and IPv6. One had mentioned that they would explicitly disable the IPv6 on the client systems, this because they would not use it and they wanted to avoid unnecessary network traffic on their LAN/WAN.

Back home I did some searches on the internet and found the below statement in the Support for IPv6 in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Microsoft TechNet Magazine article.

It is unfortunate that some organizations disable IPv6 on their computers running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, where it is installed and enabled by default. Many disable IPv6-based on the assumption that they are not running any applications or services that use it. Others might disable it because of a misperception that having both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled effectively doubles their DNS and Web traffic. This is not true.

From Microsoft’s perspective, IPv6 is a mandatory part of the Windows operating system and it is enabled and included in standard Windows service and application testing during the operating system development process. Because Windows was designed specifically with IPv6 present, Microsoft does not perform any testing to determine the effects of disabling IPv6. If IPv6 is disabled on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or later versions, some components will not function. Moreover, applications that you might not think are using IPv6—such as Remote Assistance, HomeGroup, DirectAccess, and Windows Mail—could be.

Therefore, Microsoft recommends that you leave IPv6 enabled, even if you do not have an IPv6-enabled network, either native or tunneled. By leaving IPv6 enabled, you do not disable IPv6-only applications and services (for example, HomeGroup in Windows 7 and DirectAccess in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are IPv6-only) and your hosts can take advantage of IPv6-enhanced connectivity.

I must admit that I haven’t looked at this in more detail myself, but for now I guess I would follow the advice above and leave IPv6 on, especially taking into account that some of our customers are considering using DirectAccess at some stage.

Another interesting article I recommend reading is IPv6 Autoconfiguration in Windows Vista which explains the IPv6 Autoconfiguration behavior in more detail.

Looks like the statement “SMS 2003 does not support Windows 7” isn’t valid anymore. Through an internal e-mail I learned that Microsoft has released a Compatibility Pack for SMS 2003 that adds Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 as supported clients. However don’t get too excited, if you want to benefit from OS deployment features, you still need SCCM 2007. Also note that that Mainstream support for SMS 2003 ended on January 12,2010.

If you have BranchCache deployed within your enterprise environment you might be interested in the
BranchCache Bandwidth Saving Calculation PowerShell Script for the SMB Protocol which allows you to collect and measure the amount of WAN bandwidth that is saved by your BranchCache deployment.

Get the documentation and script from here

if you are still running Windows 7 RC you might have noticed the expiration notification, if not then be aware that as of March 1st 2010 your client will automatically reboot every 2 hours. Conclusion, it’s about time to move to RTM. More information here

This week Jeremy Moskowitz wrote about a Vista/Win7 GPO bug in his weekly newsletter you should know about if you are transitioning to Windows 7.

If you are a systems administrator dealing with Group Policies I strongly recommend to sign-up to Jeremy’s Newsletter.

If you use Vista as your GP management station, and are transitioning to Windows 7 policy definitions, be careful of this bug !

For those of you that do already use Windows 7 DirectAccess or plan to do so in the near future have a look at the Microsoft DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant (DCA).

The Microsoft DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant (DCA) helps organizations reduce the cost of supporting DirectAccess users and significantly improve their connectivity experience. DCA informs mobile users of their connectivity status at all times; provides tools to help them reconnect on their own if problems arise; and creates diagnostics to help mobile users provide IT staff with key information if necessary—all to help customers operate with more efficiency, and at a lower cost.

DCA adds an icon to the Taskbar and informs users about their DirectAccess Connectivity Status and Configuration.

More information and download details for DCA can be found here

Related Articles
Windows7 – DirectAccess video
DirectAccess in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

After months of silence (last post was on August 10, 2009) a new blog post was added on the Engineering Windows 7 blog. Looks like there is something to say about Batteries. Read the full story about “Windows 7 Battery Notification Messages” here

Related articles:
ToolTip: Power Plan Assistant for Windows 7

If you have an interest in Windows 7 BrachCache Technology I recommend reading the TechNet Magazine article “End-to-End WAN Optimization with BranchCache”.

Related posts:
Windows7 BranchCache test results
Playing with BranchCache
ReadTip: BranchCache Design Guide

Since yesterday there have been a lot of tweets and e-mails about the so-called Windows 7 God Mode, which in fact was available in Vista already. In short the Windows 7 God mode can be considered as an extended Control Panel.

No need to re-write what has been written already, so for more details and how-to’s read the articles listed below.

More articles:
Stupid Geek Tricks: Enable the Secret "How-To Geek" Mode in Windows
Create an All-Inclusive Control Panel Shortcut in Windows 7
That "God mode" Explorer trick does less than you think
Create a Master Control Panel shortcut and explore the all tasks
Tweakfest! Enable God Mode in Windows 7

Microsoft has spend a great effort on optimizing the power consumption for Windows 7, But here’s another FREE tool that I consider as a nice enhancement over the build in features in Windows 7. Power Plan Assistant for Windows 7 can be downloaded from here. For a brief feature overview read this.

My favorite feature is the instant “Power off the Display” option that can be invoked with just a double click on the tool’s tray icon.

Related Articles
ToolTip – PowerPlan Switcher for Windows
Power Consumption in standby mode
Windows 7 Energy Efficiency
Troubleshoot Power Management Settings in Windows 7

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

The Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool allows you to transfer the content of the Windows 7 installation sources to a USB device or DVD media. The tool is FREE and can be downloaded from here If you use Windows XP you must have at least the .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed and you must install the Image Mastering API v2.0 prior installing the Tool.

Additional Information:
Microsoft Store: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
CodePlex: Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool

Source: Microsoft

This design guide provides information about BranchCache in both distributed cache mode and hosted cache mode that assists you in determining the best way to deploy BranchCache on your network.

The Guide can be downloaded from here

Related content:
Windows7 BranchCache test results
Playing with BranchCache
BranchCache Deployment Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7