Microsoft

Installation and Use of Server 2008 Backup

Glenn Weadock — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:53:55 -0400

Windows Server Backup is available on all versions of Server 2008, including 64-bit versions. Install it as a feature via Server Manager, either interactively or with the following command:

servermanagercmd.exe -install Backup-Features

The utility is available on Server Core systems, as well. Use the command

start /w ocsetup WindowsServerBackup

to install it on those systems.

You need to be an administrator or a member of Backup Operators to use this tool, which appears in the Administrative Tools folder after installation. When you run it, the tool presents you with a wizard interface (see Figure 1) having the following steps:

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Slowly Changing Dimensions – a cool new transform in SSIS

Brian Egler — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:49:26 -0400

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) has superseded DTS in SQL 2005 and has some great new features beyond better performance, more scalability and an integrated debugging facility. As if that was not enough, we have been given a whole new set of pre-defined tasks and transforms. But wait; we can also write our own tasks and transforms, making SSIS a truly industrial strength extensible ETL tool that can now compete against the Informaticas of the world. One of the predefined transforms that you might find useful is the Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) transform.

One of the major uses of ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) tools is to populate Data Warehouses.

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Microsoft MUCI

Alpha Doggs — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:40:22 -0400

New Scientist reports on a development of Microsoft Research dubbed MUCI , or Muscle-Computer Interface, designed to enable users to control computing devices by simply lifting a finger. MUCI could take the shape of a wristband that senses muscle movement to figure out what someone would want to do on a computer even when their hands are tied up, such as when driving. Microsoft researchers describe MUCI in this recent paper called "Demonstrating the Feasibility of Using Forearm Electromyography for Muscle-Computer Interfaces."

Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail on the BlackBerry

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:03:52 -0400

Can anyone say co-opetition?

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Well done, Microsoft

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:34:52 -0400

Microsoft gives users lots of reasons to grow frustrated with it, but when it does good, it does good. The company should be applauded for putting its resources into such a project. Especially when the DAISY community has been prodding Adobe to also add support, but, so far, to no avail.

Go to the Microsoft Subnet home page for more news, blogs, podcasts.

Why would cheap PC makers agree to this?

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:02:40 -0400

PC makers are free. They need Microsoft less and less. The more Microsoft behaves in ways that puts its own interests ahead of the customer and partner, the more motivated the entire market is to put its resources into Linux and the open-source movement.

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Microsoft wants to meddle in ULPC designs

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:00:45 -0400

IDG News Service has secured documents showing that Microsoft is meddling in PC hardware designs of ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs). Microsoft wants PC makers to agree to Microsoft's hardware limitations in exchange for very low prices on XP to ship with the PCs. The company says it will charge PC makers $26 for Windows XP Home Edition for ULPCs sold in emerging markets such as China and India, and $32 for those sold in developed markets, the documents show.

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UCStrategies in AZ

Alex Lewis — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:16:19 -0400

In about 2 hours I'm headed to the airport and jumping on a plane to Arizona. Even though I printed my boarding pass last night I'm stuck in the 6th boarding group! Grrr, that sucks.

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Windows Server 2008 Backup and Restore

Glenn Weadock — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:07:44 -0400

Microsoft seems to be intent on undoing its longstanding practice of licensing other people's software for use in its operating systems. Take the Longhorn code project, for example. The evergreen disk defragmenter, a limited version of Executive Software's Diskeeper, has been replaced by new code written by Microsoft. More significantly, the NTBACKUP program from (originally) Seagate Software has also been replaced by new Microsoft code.

One could argue that licensing code written by specialists was a good thing for operating system users. Diskeeper worked well and provided a graphical interface (and progress indicator) that the new defrag tool conspicuously lacks, although Microsoft claims other virtues for its new utility.

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Bill Gates is giving us a break with SQL Server licensing – or is he?

Brian Egler — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:55:37 -0400

The latest development of multi-core processors has opened the door to affordable performance that was only achievable before from multi-CPU machines. I gave an example recently with the 8-way dual-core HP ProLiant servers used by bostonmarathon.com. Intel is now busy rolling out its Core 2 Extreme processors with quad-cores. What's this got to do with SQL Server? Better performance?

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Domain Controllers - Part III: Domain Controllers and Site Replication

Patrick Regan — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:19:32 -0400

Forests, domains and organizational units are considered logical structure because they don’t follow any subnet or network boundary. The physical structure of the Active Directory, which uses subnet/network boundaries, consists of domain controllers and sites.

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3 Underutilized SharePoint Technologies

Scot Hillier — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:00:34 -0400

SharePoint provides a number of different development opportunities for creating information worker solutions. Many of these solutions are well known such as custom lists, content types, and workflows. In this post, I'll point out three key areas that are rich in development opportunities, but routinely overlooked by developers.

Enterprise Search Solutions

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Windows Auto

Sat, 10 May 2008 22:46:23 -0400

Not now, Honey. I have to reboot the car.

Patch Tuesday right around the corner

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:00:43 -0400

Wouldn't it be amazing if Microsoft issued an announcement saying that Patch Tuesday was canceled this month, as no patches were necessary in any of its software. Well, that's obviously not going to happen in May.

This time the company will fix critical bugs in Word, Publisher and the Jet database software. Plus, it will release a less-critical update for its antivirus products, fixing a flaw that attackers could use to launch a denial of service (DoS) attack against products such as Windows Live OneCare and Microsoft Forefront Security.

Forgive the fine? Microsoft can hope ...

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:47:29 -0400

Microsoft, don't hold your breath that the EU will pat you on the shoulder and forgive the $1.3 fine it imposed in February. It is good for all concerned (including Microsoft itself, your customers and your stock holders), that you have arrived at the modern age and published the protocols for Windows, Office and other applications. "a href="/community/?q=node/27658">READ MORE of this comment on Microsoft Subnet..

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Microsoft to EU: Please forget about the $1.3 billion fine

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:39:15 -0400

Microsoft, don't hold your breath that the EU will pat you on the shoulder and forgive the $1.3 fine it imposed in February. It is good for all concerned (including Microsoft itself, your customers and your stock holders), that you have arrived at the modern age and published the protocols for Windows, Office and other applications. This allows Windows to remain viable -- to be a target for open source developers wanting to create great new apps for it, instead of being slowly replaced by Linux (which might still happen).

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Here we go with another version of the free "MS Office" killer suite.

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:10:27 -0400

So, the OpenOffice.org Community has announced the public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0, a new version of the free office productivity software suite. Its got better Mac support plus a bunch new features, this story from Macworld reports, including a new "Start Centre," new icons and a new zoom control in the status bar. Calc, the spreadsheet tool, now has a new "solver" component, supports workbook sharing, and increases size to 1024 columns per sheet. Writer, the word processor, has an improved notes feature and displays multiple pages while editing.

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Secure home drug machines from Microsoft?

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:05:33 -0400

Can you imagine trusting Microsoft and HP to securely and accurately "print up" your medications at home? Many of us can't even get the combo to reliably print out directions from Mapquest. Still, it's a cool vision -- the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that makes the technology industry so much fun.

The idea here is that people one day may be able to buy a standard sets of chemicals that can be combined in standard formulas to create drugs in the same way that they use ink today to print up color documents, says Microsoft's said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, in a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday.

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Telescope: made Robert Scoble want to cry

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:46:55 -0400

Scoble sent tongues in the blogosphere wagging in February when Microsoft showed this to him under NDA. He posted that he saw something so amazing that he couldn't talk about that he just wanted to cry. Microsoft has now announced that it will launch Worldwide Telescope, a tool for exploring images of the night sky, by the end of May, free to anyone who wants to use it, Microsoft's chairman said Friday. What Scoble loved about it was, in his own words, " Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Pan over to Mars. What a glorious view. You’ve never seen Mars like that through your $2,000 Celestron Telescope."

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A Better Windows World… Really!

Ron Barrett — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:17:08 -0400

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic today, so I'll quote (sort of) the great Louie Armstrong. OK, picture me crooning (it's not that bad I have a decent voice) to the tune of What a Wonderful World:

I see server rooms going green, and security that's tight,

Great Admin tools, and an O/S that works right,

And I think to myself, What "A Better Windows World"

As you may have reasoned, the focus of my blog is on things that can make the Windows enterprise more efficient, functional, and easier for the IT professional. A big component of my blog are the tools and upgrades, both from Microsoft and others

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