tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74558576108772740912012-01-07T04:37:32.255+01:00...about desktop management, deployment and application delivery; both physical and virtual.Mentnoreply@blogger.comBlogger871100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-64965639201041167602011-01-04T08:00:00.000+01:002011-01-04T08:00:38.362+01:00

Jeremy Chapman wrote an excellent article where he sums up a great list of resources about Windows deployment. If you are new to the Windows deployment game or are stuck in the spooky world of drive-cloning with older sector-based processes, this should help you get started.His topics include an overview, Video Demonstrations, Deployment Tools and VHDs to Download, Deeper Technical Guidance,

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-27428124298419356562010-02-26T20:10:00.002+01:002011-01-03T07:56:08.199+01:00

Last week when I was in Redmond I bought myself a wireless bluetooth Microsoft Mobile keyboard and mouse. Back there I connected the devices to my Dell Latitude D630 laptop running Windows 7 and everything worked great. But back home when I was booting my dual-boot machine in Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 I noticed that the Bluetooth devices did not connect to the laptop. After a small investigation

Mentnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-14018545809905339102010-02-22T08:58:00.004+01:002011-01-03T07:57:09.495+01:00

Organizations that are moving towards Microsoft Application Virtualization are often wondering what the best delivery infrastructure is for their environment. In the days of SoftGrid there was only one way of delivering your virtual applications to the end-user, by building a dedicated SoftGrid infrastructure. But since the introduction of App-V 4.5 the possibilities have extended, making the

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-3323849478455395652010-01-07T20:39:00.001+01:002010-01-07T20:39:18.801+01:00

Got this information from fellow App-V MVP Kevin Kaminski on his twitter page. The Configuration Manager Support Team blog posted a great article on ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 install failures. This document was created to help in troubleshooting Configuration Manager Service Pack 2 (SP2) install failures. This document is not entirely specific to Service Pack 2 and can apply to Service Pack 1

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-76936634854740680082009-12-21T14:35:00.001+01:002009-12-21T14:37:21.302+01:00

Peter van der Woude just posted a nice sum up of some popular free tools and website for Configuration Manager 2007, in any particular order: SCCM Right Click Tools SCCM Client Center OSD++ SMSMap SCCMAutoDoc SCCM 2007 SDK SCCM-Tools.com BitsAdmin WMI Administrative Tools WMI Diagnosis Utility Please visit his website to view details about these tools and

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-23634447102312641462009-11-30T09:46:00.003+01:002011-01-03T08:18:36.046+01:00

As I’ve described in some earlier posts the Reporting functionality will be fully based on SQL Reporting Services in future versions of Configuration Manager. This means we will have to say goodbye to our familiar standard reporting functionality. SQL Reporting services have some benefits over the current reporting solution: Provide best in class reporting capability by integrating SQL Reporting

Mentnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-24276866865753059642009-11-29T11:57:00.001+01:002009-11-29T11:57:20.512+01:00

Recently I’ve reinstalled my lab environment with the latest versions of: Windows Server 2008 (R2 x64) SQL Server 2008 (SP1 x64) Configuration Manager 2007 (R2 with Service Pack 2) As I’ve ran into some issues while installing this configuration I thought it would be nice to share them with you. The installation I did (for lab purposes) was all on a single box. Of course this is not

Mentnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-18844889466518597462009-11-18T09:13:00.001+01:002009-11-18T09:13:59.032+01:00

So unfortunately I couldn’t make it into TechEd 2009 Berlin, so I know I missed out on a whole lot of information. Luckily the guys from the System Center User Group in the Netherlands and Belgium organized an event and had Wally Mead (Microsoft) come in to talk about the current and future versions of Configuration Manager. I visited the Belgian event last night and had some nice conversations

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-8417540808161981712009-11-10T15:25:00.002+01:002009-11-10T16:22:33.861+01:00

It looks like Microsoft renamed the next version of Configuration Manager from ConfigMgr vNext to ConfigMgr 2011.Given the fact that 2011 is now part of the productname means that Microsoft plans the release of the product way ahead to 2011. This should buy them plenty of time to do some massive changes. Can´t wait for the next public announcement of what´s to come...

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-37485918495618146972009-11-08T18:42:00.001+01:002009-11-08T18:42:23.088+01:00

As I’ve described in a previous post I’ve restaged my laptop with a dual boot system including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 including Hyper-V. This also means I have to start updating my Virtual PC images to Hyper-V. Some information on how to migrate from earlier version (like Virtual Server or Virtual PC) can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd296684(WS.10

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-90446987752460250902009-11-03T21:42:00.001+01:002009-11-03T21:42:52.952+01:00

I am running the DesktopControl blog for about 2 years now and was getting a bit tired of the layout it was having, so I thought I’d alter it a little bit. I sticked with the 3 column layout but I’ve changed some other things: The posts are now aligned in the left (widest column) and I have two smaller columns on the right. Posts are now displayed in short. Clicking on Full Story will

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-84611508878240095762009-11-01T14:54:00.006+01:002009-11-01T15:04:19.526+01:00

After Windows 7 was officially released I was planning to reimage my laptop to the final version. I was running the RC all that time. Also I’d ordered a solid state disk to fit my laptop and when that package arrived I decided to pull the plug on my old laptop this weekend. Intel X25-M Postville After I’d read some reviews I had decided to order the Intel X25-M Postville SSDSA2MH080G2C1 80GB,

Mentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-61887169615419614962009-10-23T10:32:00.003+02:002009-10-23T10:33:40.469+02:00

I’m catching up on email after a holiday and it seems that Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 has been released. Service Pack 2 for Configuration Manager 2007 delivers new platform support for Windows 7 client, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2. In addition, Service Pack 2 delivers continued innovation with Intel vPro technology, support for Branch

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-22006923620478968932009-10-15T14:47:00.003+02:002009-10-15T15:48:54.362+02:00

It is a fact that many applications require other applications to run properly. In App-V these dependencies can be sequenced along with the main application in the same virtual environment or they can be sequenced separately and joined together through Dynamic Suiting Composition. However it’s also a fact that not all applications can be virtualized. So you often find yourself in a situation

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-24019199618380085002009-09-18T13:08:00.003+02:002009-09-18T13:20:21.681+02:00

On my development machines I allways like to enable the Autologon feature of Windows. I know this might be a security breach, but I'm comfortable with it.When upgrading my development machines to Windows 7 I was struggling a bit on how to set the AutoLogon feature in Windows 7. I used to edit the information directly into the registry, but I found there are other ways as well.I found a good

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-23667522400364715992009-09-09T08:31:00.004+02:002009-09-09T08:37:16.535+02:00

The System Center Team announced the plans to release System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3. One of the focus areas of R3 will be centralized management of power management on Windows Desktops.Our approach is based on 3 primary areas: A. Help the organization plan a power strategy by monitoring current power state and consumptions and reporting on machine utilization trends, current power

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-65624817214233429062009-07-22T13:21:00.010+02:002009-07-22T13:59:43.416+02:00

As you might know I work for Login Consultants and besides consultancy we have been delivering various training programs to our customers all over the world. We’ve always had a quite unique training approach because the training program combines theoretical knowledge with real life experience from the field. So we are not only talking about the products we train in, we have actually implemented

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-51834543531234220092009-07-21T11:52:00.005+02:002009-07-21T12:00:53.703+02:00

I just noticed on the website of Matthew Hudson that the website of Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2010 is up-and-running. There is not a lot of info on there yet but you request update notifications. I visisted this event in 2007 (in San Diego) and I was really impressed by the content. If you are into application / operating system management (as I am) this is the event for you.

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-59323152003563793792009-04-20T11:32:00.002+02:002009-04-20T11:33:02.559+02:00

We are halfway across April now and I must say that it has been very rewarding so far. As you might have read on softgridblog I recieved notice on the 1st of April that I have been rewarded with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award (MVP) on Microsoft Application Virtualization (Softgrid), which is why the MVP logo is located proudly on my blog. The Microsoft MVP Award Program

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-86943235200982747072009-03-02T07:34:00.002+01:002009-03-02T07:35:39.768+01:00

This weekend I received an email announcing the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 Technology Adoption Program. Microsoft is currently building the update to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (ConfigMgr07) titled Service Pack 2. The ConfgMgr Technology Adoption Program (TAP) team is pleased to announce that we are now soliciting participation in the System Center

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-7705746332829589042009-02-23T12:00:00.003+01:002009-02-23T12:03:34.020+01:00

Today Login Consultants releases two new freeware tools to support Microsoft Application Virtualization. The first one is called App-V 4.5 Client Diagnostic and Configuration Tool 1.0 (ACDC for short) and is created by myself. ACDC makes it possible for administrators or users to troubleshoot virtual applications and the environment they run in: Launch predefined and custom commands

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-85137305114762651002009-02-17T11:48:00.002+01:002009-02-17T11:50:17.196+01:00

I personally use Windows Live Writer to support my blogging and a new version  was recently released. Windows Live Writer makes it easy to share your photos and videos on almost any blog service. With Writer, you can preview everything you’re adding to your blog, and see exactly how the fonts, spacing, colors, and images will look, before you publish. It's fast and easy to make photos and

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-3908684826441047722009-02-12T08:02:00.002+01:002009-02-12T08:03:53.701+01:00

A couple of days ago a new version of the Configuration Manager 2007 Right Click Tools was released. New in version 1.8 Added Support for Windows 2008 64bit. New Tool to Re-run advertisements from a drop down list. Added the ability to run client actions from the Query results. Check it out here. Download here.

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-46656682566210398652009-02-07T22:34:00.006+01:002009-02-07T22:58:01.673+01:00

The App-V 4.5 Full Infrastructure scenario (with App-V Management / Streaming server) only supports User Based application deployment. If you are using the Configuration Manager 2007 R2 integration of App-V 4.5 you can do both User and Machine based deployment. Since I often receive questions about user based and machine based deployment with App-V 4.5, I thought I would be nice to explain the

Mentnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-64021971419930491072009-01-26T14:30:00.002+01:002009-01-26T14:32:18.502+01:00

For all of you wanting to get a jumpstart at installing and evaluating a Configuration Manager 2007 R2 environment you might want to take a look at this download. This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 is the next-generation release of Systems

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-48240679970940032272009-01-23T08:03:00.002+01:002009-01-23T08:05:59.402+01:00

Soon after the release of Login VSI 1.0 Login Consultants and PQR released some platform performance indexes of the most common hypervisor solutions currently in the market. In more than 150 tests on different Windows platforms (2003, 2008, XP and Vista) the workload is measured on VMWare ESX, Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V in different hardware and software configurations. All this was

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-85188625834956359082009-01-10T19:55:00.002+01:002009-01-10T19:55:45.313+01:00

From the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team Blog: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 1 is now available! MDT 2010 is the next version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, a solution accelerator for operating system and application deployment. New features like flexible driver management, optimized transaction processing, and access to distribution shares from any location simplify deployment and

Mentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-20652178211495040142009-01-10T18:29:00.002+01:002009-01-10T18:31:36.699+01:00

My colleagues at Login Consultants have finalized Login VSI. The Login VSI is a free and platform independent benchmark for Virtual Desktop Infrastructures and Terminal Services. This 1.0 release has been fully tested, the workload has been carefully tuned, and now publication of your own results is allowed. As usual, Login VSI 1.0 is can be freely downloaded from here. I want to see the

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-90000844068076940752009-01-10T18:09:00.002+01:002009-01-10T18:10:03.398+01:00

...since I set up this website and I'm pretty pleased with the result. Although I haven't been very active lately (my apologies) I will really try to delivery nice content to this website in the the comming year. Let me show you some statistics. Last year I over 28.000 visits to the website and about 21.000 unique visitors. More than 40.000 pages were watched by all you people. Visitors

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-51527221064295436462008-10-06T08:25:00.002+02:002008-10-06T08:26:30.847+02:00

Download the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 here Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 is a stand-alone product that provides a simplified, reliable, cost-effective and optimized virtualization solution enabling organizations to improve server utilization and reduce costs. It allows organizations to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server and is a good solution for organizations who

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-71012843524390895602008-09-30T13:17:00.002+02:002008-09-30T13:17:44.648+02:00

Read here on the WSUS Team Blog a nice article about troubleshooting WSUS. It references the site http://www.wsuswiki.com/. This site was created to provide a place for the WSUS community to share information about WSUS, including troubleshooting steps and best practices. The advantages that this site provides over public news groups include: Content on this site is edited and kept

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-44318805762846240402008-09-22T08:49:00.005+02:002008-09-24T09:03:35.713+02:00

Steve Rachui's did it pretty good job providing a nice overview of the new unknown computer support in Configuration Manager 2007 R2. One of the new features in SCCM 2007 R2 is support for OSD deployments to 'Unknown' Computers - computers that do not exist in the SCCM database. This is a feature that did exist in previous releases of OSD (SMS 2003) but was removed for security and safety reasons

Mentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-31999314150438868102008-09-18T09:01:00.002+02:002008-09-18T09:03:07.207+02:00

If you ever tried to configure Operating System Deployment in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 you inevitably have run into the required Windows Deployment Server (WDS). Setting up WDS for Operating System Deployment in ConfigMgr does have some pitfalls in it as I've pointed out in a different post. Additionally I found an article over at The Manageablity Team Blog called ConfigMgr 2007:

Mentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-21973691236881995562008-09-05T23:09:00.003+02:002008-09-06T00:44:25.604+02:00

Now that both Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.5 as well as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 are both RTM, let's take a close look how they integrate together. Installing Configuration Manager 2007 R2 requires SP1 already installed on your ConfigMgr server. After a successful installation of R2 you can see the virtualization popping up at several locations.

Mentnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-1496675429366296732008-09-05T21:56:00.005+02:002008-09-05T22:01:46.132+02:00

While using Virtual PC 2007 as my main "test" platform I've been constantly running into a little issue. After a while (for no apparent reason) the Virtual PC Console will start minimized when opened. And I mean minimized in a way that it just won't show. The only way to start my machines is either through right-clicking the tray icon or double clicking the .vmc file. This would happen both on my

Mentnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-69863845892609335972008-09-01T09:07:00.002+02:002008-09-01T09:10:16.124+02:00

It's out there: MS System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 !! Here's some info from the Configuration Manager 2007 R2 website: What’s New in Configuration Manager 2007 R2 Read about the notable changes made to Configuration Manager 2007 in R2, which focuses on: Application Virtualization. For more information, see About Virtual Application Packages. Forefront Client Security

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-39981824017656695772008-08-25T11:16:00.004+02:002008-08-26T17:24:58.223+02:00

While still catching up on interesting news during my vacation I came across the following:The first one is on The Manageability Team Blog about Sample Configurations and Common Performance Questions in Configuration Manager 2007. This document "provides an overview of sample hardware configurations used in stress and scale testing for different size environments. Additionally, it answers common

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-81806205965956871322008-08-21T08:36:00.005+02:002008-08-22T08:56:48.375+02:00

I found this nice article explaining the differences between System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and SMS 2003.It's categorized to what's new, what's changed and what's the same.Definately worth reading for those planning to migrate to ConfigMgr 2007.

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-57898178263957476182008-07-19T09:02:00.003+02:002008-07-19T09:10:25.102+02:00

It looks like Ronni Pedersen already finished the second part of Introduction to Configuration Manager 2007. This one covers installing SQL 2005 (including SP2) and Windows Update Service 3.0 SP1, which is needed if you want to deploy Software Updates to client.In addition to his article I would like to add that when choosing the SQL 2005 edition be aware that SQL 2005 Express edition is not

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-78026953913642516432008-07-18T08:54:00.003+02:002008-07-18T09:07:37.618+02:00

As you might have read on SoftGridBlog.com Rodney Medina and I have to decided to join forces and contribute to the same website about App-V related stuff. On SoftGridBlog.com I will join the team of Jan van der Elst, Dennis Damen, Jan Willem Roks and of course Rodney who are already contributing.This doesn’t mean I will stop contributing to DesktopControl. There are many other subjects that I

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-15724345365633484892008-07-13T10:15:00.003+02:002008-07-13T10:28:45.694+02:00

A must read if you are new to the product is "Introduction to Configuration Manager 2007 – Part 1" on the blog of Ronni Pedersen.When people that are new to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, start playing around with the product in a test lab, they often want to start with a simple OS deployment setup. But if you are new to the product and wants to deploy Windows XP, getting

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-18121984087677060902008-07-09T22:25:00.004+02:002008-07-09T22:32:19.071+02:00

Check out Microsoft Connect because System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 Release Candidate is out.Remember: this update is for lab use only and requires Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 RTM to be present on the system.Just to remind you what's new in ConfigMgr 2007 R2 here's the list:Application Virtualization management support Forefront Client Security Integration SQL Reporting

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-20105248759966980452008-07-09T10:15:00.005+02:002008-07-09T10:51:04.882+02:00

There is a very nice video over at Channel 9 in which John Sheehan, the primary architect of Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly the chief architect of Softricity) digs into the details of how app-v works.Some highlights:1' Introduction App-V4' Conflictfree application deployment9' App-V shortcuts & FTA's15' Limitations20' High Level Architecture24' User mode & Kernel mode

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-5720329787923566012008-06-14T20:34:00.003+02:002008-06-14T20:47:54.272+02:00

With the upcoming new version of SoftGrid (4.5) Microsoft allready changed the productname from SoftGrid to Microsoft Application Virtualization. While I've seen this get abbreviated to MSAV, MS AppVirt and MAV (and probably many more) Microsoft is now officialy calling the product App-V. There is a strong parallel in this name to the other virtual flagship of Microsoft: Hyper-V.I must admit I

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-30109762056301926072008-05-26T12:33:00.003+02:002008-05-26T12:46:31.749+02:00

I found a couple of interesting articles on the blog of Troy Wilch over at myITforum which are related to the upcoming releases of Microsoft SCCM 2007 R2 and Application Virtualization 4.5.The first post he talks about the different ways of delivering virtual applications, being streaming, local delivery and (virtual) MSI. In his second post he zooms in on these technologies and shows how the

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-31942418796230308442008-05-23T16:07:00.004+02:002008-05-23T16:10:27.977+02:00

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 Update is currently available through Microsoft Download.Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 now offers full support for management with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, integrates customer feedback, feature Integration with Intel vPro Technology and enhances Asset Intelligent features. Full Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-76556303547478237352008-05-20T10:11:00.008+02:002008-05-20T10:45:26.474+02:00

An interesting thing happened the other day.While testing an upgrade scenario to Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (beta), where we deployed several of our SoftGrid 4.1 applications to the 4.5 client after opening and closing them in the 4.5 sequencer, one particular application stood out.This particular application depends on certain (conflicting) crystal reports dll’s which is why it’s

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-14478077366748894412008-05-18T11:59:00.003+02:002008-05-18T12:06:08.499+02:00

I checked out this post by J.C. Hornbeck over the Manageability Team Blog in which he announces the new WSUS Support Team blog. Brian Shaw kicked off with the first post. Definitely something to keep up with. Subscribe to their RSS here.

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-32055152807050562972008-05-18T11:43:00.004+02:002008-05-18T11:49:49.258+02:00

Microsoft recently released Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1. No big changes, but it includes support for the following additional Host and Guest Operating Systems:Additonal Guest Operating System support: Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1) Windows Vista® Business Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1) Windows Vista® Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1) Windows Server® 2008

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-43039061894981040382008-04-18T07:40:00.004+02:002008-04-18T07:45:50.344+02:00

My colleagues Rodney Medina, Dennis Damen and Jan van der Elst have released new versions of their Microsoft Application Virtualization (SoftGrid) Add-on toolset.SoftGrid Migration Tool version 1.1The purpose of the SoftGrid Migration Tool is to help you “convert” existing automated application setups to SoftGrid Virtualized Applications (aka streams or sequences) with the least possible amount

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-64108748115102607972008-04-04T15:30:00.002+02:002008-04-04T15:42:17.397+02:00

Justin Zarb wrote a great article on his blog on how to get SCCM R2 working together with Application Virtualization 4.5 beta.His post includes - downloading a pre-configured VHD for SCCM (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=469af3b8-849d-4400-bded-9024c3db759f&DisplayLang=en) - and upgrading it to SP1 and than R2 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=109598)Then Brian

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-67727931815749907042008-03-21T19:43:00.002+01:002008-03-21T19:53:28.929+01:00

Yesterday Microsoft released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008.Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008 unifies the tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment into a common deployment console and collection of guidance. The fourth generation deployment accelerator adds integration with recently released Microsoft deployment technologies to create a single path for image

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-60444832135643900162008-03-09T14:52:00.012+01:002008-03-09T15:40:29.632+01:00

One of the main advantages of Microsoft Application Virtualization (SoftGrid) is that applications that would normally require Administrator privileges now can be virtualized and therefore can run under Limited User context. Application delivery can be done through a “classic” streaming server and through MSI deployment.A downside to the MSI deployment model is that it needs Administrator

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-64197950656166940152008-03-06T20:46:00.003+01:002008-03-06T20:56:23.587+01:00

Rick Houchins posted a new version of the Right Click tools for SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) 2007. It needs to be installed on the same machine as the actual Admin Console.Check out his post here or directly download here.Brian Tucker included some screens of the tool on his blog.If you haven't migrated to ConfigMgr, you can also get most of these tools available in the SMS Console

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-68146210463261154152008-02-22T23:05:00.017+01:002008-02-25T13:29:29.187+01:00

Troubleshooting SoftGrid applications often includes taking a look under the hood and inside the Q:\ drive (or whatever drive letter you set it to). Obviously this cannot be done directly from Windows Explorer. Doing this will result in an error "Q:\ is not accessible. Access is denied."Luckily, there are many ways to take a look inside the Q-drive, through explorer or command line, and

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-86844989895443307052008-02-20T08:57:00.003+01:002008-02-21T07:37:21.297+01:00

If you are troubling drivers in ConfigMgr 2007, there's an article from Ben Hunter that explains driver management in System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Ben Hunter and several other "Deployment" guys from Microsoft Services have joined forces and recently created a blog called "The Deployment Guys".In the article Driver Management (Part 1) - Configuration Manager he explains the different

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-40232791620976318952008-02-20T07:54:00.003+01:002008-02-20T08:06:05.001+01:00

Only 7 weeks after the release of HFRU1 Microsoft now releases SoftGrid Hotfix Rollup Package 2.Besides from stability improvements there are several other enhancements: The log level of the "Error reading from socket" message is now Debug. Therefore, the message does not appear in the Sft-server.log and the Windows event log at the default log level when you use SoftGrid Virtual Application

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-77358149350653316662008-02-18T19:42:00.002+01:002008-02-18T19:52:04.691+01:00

Rod Trent over at myITforum posted a nice download to a guide called "Deploying Windows Server 2008 With System Center Configuration Manager", by Tim Mintner. Tim Mintner is a Senior Software Development Engineer on the Microsoft Solutions Accelerator team, focusing on the Microsoft Deployment ToolkitWindows Server 2008 deployment uses the same underlying deployment tools and technologies as

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-67972757918936173502008-02-18T18:00:00.000+01:002008-02-18T20:00:23.069+01:00

Through myITforum I ran into an all-in-one solution for creating Visio drawings of any combination of SCCM 2007 and SMS 2003 site servers.It's called SMSMAP an the feature list included:Support for SCCM 2007 Support for SMS 2003 Support for site server components on different layers Support for changing Visio icons Support for Windows XP and Vista Support for Vista UAC Support for Visio 2003 and

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-40197257577359798632008-02-12T12:47:00.001+01:002008-12-19T09:01:17.901+01:00

I ran into an article from Matt Royer where he explains the steps to install the recently released System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1. He talks about the prerequisites, the installing steps and even includes a video actually showing the installation screens.A warning from Matt:This is not a replacement for the install documentation that Microsoft provides for installing System Center

Mentnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-79120502438262028052008-02-09T09:16:00.000+01:002008-02-09T09:29:16.932+01:00

As of now Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 and R2 are available in public beta on Microsoft Connect. Yeah.We are pleased to announce that System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack (SP) 1 and R2 Beta releases are now available on Microsoft Connect. Sign in and navigate to the downloads section of the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 program

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-34016057554549218632008-02-07T08:39:00.000+01:002008-02-07T08:42:36.010+01:00

Microsoft released the Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008.The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 family of operation systems. By using Windows AIK, you can perform unattended Windows installations, capture Windows images with

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-59590510049838056142008-02-06T23:13:00.000+01:002008-02-06T23:21:20.242+01:00

In Windows 2003 the only way to search through Group Policies was to have a well documented spreadsheet containing the configured and configurable settings. In Windows Server 2008 this all changes because a search capability is built-in to the Group Policy Edit tool.However if you still want to know every possible Group Policy Setting (or still want to rely on good documentation) you could

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-76385787623359905052008-02-02T00:03:00.000+01:002008-02-02T12:54:38.399+01:00

Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) created a Sequencing Guide for Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization 4.2.This guide walks through several steps of the sequencing process like the Sequencer Workstation Configuration, Recommended Practices, OSD Scripting and Sequencing Limitations. It ends with mentioning Justin Zarb's excellent article relating to the SoftGrid error codes.Two things

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-55771561132833888342008-01-30T09:55:00.002+01:002008-01-30T21:08:23.648+01:00

I have captured several interesting System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) articles and bundled them into a single one:ConfigMgr Maintenance Windows Explainedhttp://configmgr.com/configmgr-maintenance-windows-explainedSCCM: How to capture imagehttp://andrius.kozeniauskas.com/blog/?p=16ConfigMgr 2007 Virtual Labs From Microsofthttp://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/dhite/archive/2008/01/20/configmgr-

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-51587600630566849572008-01-30T09:55:00.001+01:002008-01-30T20:53:26.331+01:00

The well known SFT Explorer has been updated to version 1.2. With SFT Explorer it is possible to look inside Microsoft Virtual Applications (SoftGrid).Features as of now:Load SFT files - even slightly broken ones View internal filestructure, with regexp-based filtering View virtual registry View virtual services Export files/folders from package's filestructure Export registry entries from

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-36278867481788625152008-01-30T08:06:00.000+01:002008-01-30T20:47:18.575+01:00

I was abroad for a week and saw some great news coming by.During the Microsoft Virtualization Deployment Summit, which was actually held across from my hotel, there were several announcements:Desktop virtualization alliance with Citrix. Microsoft and Citrix will co-market a broad portfolio of new client computing offerings so that customers have simple, flexible and low-cost client computing

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-1378616952994632512008-01-28T20:19:00.000+01:002008-01-30T08:06:08.181+01:00

As I reported in my last post I visisted Redmond, WA last week as part of LEAP2008. It was an exciting week full of listening, learning, questioning and discussing but also of fun, food, relax and lack of sleep (mostly due to a jetlag, yeah right ;-))Although it took like forever to get there (due to strong head winds) I found the weather in Seattle to be very nice. Cold, but sunny.After our

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-46959814200834575412008-01-19T15:00:00.000+01:002008-01-19T14:55:05.563+01:00

I'm very excited because I will be visiting Microsoft HQ at Redmond next week as part of the LEAP masterclasses I attended this year.LEAP stands for Lead Enterprise Architect Program and is meant at complementing the existing skills and experience of aspiring architects with specific architect-level information about Microsoft technology. The acquired knowledge will help the aspiring architect in

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-82322328936238702692008-01-19T13:45:00.000+01:002008-01-19T14:06:01.949+01:00

Christ Stauffer at myITforum wrote an article about how to setup WSUS on SCCM in your environment. First determine what Configuration Manager 2007 sites must have an active software update point, which sites should have an active Internet-based software update point, and when a Network Load Balancing (NLB) cluster should be configured to be the active software update point. More information about

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-70206038900040748592008-01-15T19:49:00.000+01:002008-01-15T21:36:01.165+01:00

For those of you troubling with PXE Service Points (PSP) in System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Omar van der Hoeven wrote three articles on his blog covering this topic.SCCM: PXE Service Point setup procedure SCCM: No DHCP offer for PXE boot (bare metal) in a central DHCP / local PSP environment SCCM: PXE Service Point (PSP) installation issues Also be sure to check out this very nice

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-57872300072120454902008-01-15T18:55:00.000+01:002008-01-15T21:35:51.076+01:00

The first big acquisition award this year goes to VMWare, who announced today the acquisition of both Thinstall (Application Virtualization) and Foedus (Virtualization Services Assets).After the acquisition of Softricity by Microsoft (july 2006) and XenSource by Citrix (august 2007) this is the third big acquisition on the virtualization market in 2 years. Now that all the big players have

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-72159307406210564762008-01-14T07:38:00.000+01:002008-01-14T19:47:12.205+01:00

I found this article about extending the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Console with custom commands.Remember back in the SMS 2003 days we had nice tools that enabled right-click on computers/collections to ping/force policy refresh etc. You will find that now extending the SCCM console is easier. It all comes down to an XML file placed in a proper folder. We can soon expect

Mentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-66113901301319723532008-01-12T13:10:00.000+01:002008-01-12T13:20:33.764+01:00

In Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Microsoft released the vhdmount utility. The interface of the tool (command line) was not very intuitive but it worked and gave us the possibility to edit VHDs without a virtual machine.Along with this utility Microsoft installed a dll but lacked to offer any documentation or sample code with it.This article shows the creation of a simple program called VHDMounter

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-14942890867979308072008-01-12T12:55:00.000+01:002008-01-12T13:09:34.585+01:00

Ever troubled the explain texts in Group Policy settings? Find contradictions in some of the texts? Enable a setting when it should have been disabled, or the other way around?This is your chance!The Group Policy Team wants your feedack, so your experience with Group Policy will be even better.How would you like to see Explain text improved? Sock it to us! Let us know what you love and, um, don’t

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-10154324736997464132008-01-06T21:22:00.000+01:002008-01-08T17:43:46.199+01:00

After several successful manual installations I wanted to test the quality of the MSI Utility through automatic distribution. First up: Group Policy Object Software installation.So I set up a Windows Server 2008 Active Directory and two clients: one Windows XP SP2 and one Windows Vista SP1 machine. I'm using SoftGrid client version 4.2.1.21 and downloaded three applications from instantapp.net

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-62185758144834927222008-01-05T11:01:00.000+01:002008-01-05T11:08:12.971+01:00

In my previous post I couldn't find the reason for the MSIDEPLOYMENT=TRUE command line option of the recently released SoftGrid client 4.1.2.21 and 4.2.1.21.Some further investigation brought me to the following differences in the registry after successfully installing the client:With MSIDEPLOYMENT=TRUE "RequireAuthorizationIfCached"=dword:00000000 "AllowDisconnectedOperation"=dword:00000001 "

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-26510411568259074882008-01-04T16:56:00.000+01:002008-01-04T17:55:10.729+01:00

Now that SoftGrid client versions 4.1.2.21 and 4.2.1.21 are here I can continue my journey of installing a MSI based Microsoft Virtual Applications. Here's where we left off. Preinstallation fun?After performing several test installations of the SoftGrid client I noticed the MSIDEPLOYMENT = TRUE property mentioned in the MSI Utility Admin Guide which should be on the commandline when installing

Mentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-41640473015500379782008-01-03T18:40:00.000+01:002008-01-04T15:22:21.455+01:00

Yesterday Microsoft released a whole new set of Microsoft Application Virtualization (SoftGrid) components as Hotfix Rollup Package 1 (HFRU). It seems that not only the client has gone through some remodeling, also the sequencer and server components of SoftGrid have been renewed (for 4.1 that is).While in my opinion the biggest improvement is the support for the recently released MSI Utility

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-63829316231483210542007-12-26T10:52:00.000+01:002007-12-29T17:12:28.572+01:00

Here's a list with several shortcuts keys and windows programs which can be run directly from the run command without clicking through the startmenu. I came across several lists on the internet (here) including one from Microsoft.I've enlisted the most importent ones to me (excluded the common ones like F1 :-) ) and tested them on both Windows XP and Windows Vista.Shortcut KeysWIN + E -

Mentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-11160201843108668322007-12-20T17:39:00.000+01:002007-12-25T09:41:37.155+01:00

Finally...Microsoft released the MSI Utility for Microsoft Virtual Applications (aka the MSI Wrapper) and pretty quiet I might add. Not even a post on the SoftGrid Team Blog. I had expected some sort of announcement. Probably due to holidays or something.Anyway, I've been waiting for this tool for some time and I'm curious if it meets up with my expectations. I know the SMS 2003 connector with

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-82100984195824042202007-12-20T07:28:00.000+01:002007-12-20T07:30:59.148+01:00

Yesterday Microsoft released the MSI Utility for Microsoft Application Virtualization is a new tool designed to extend virtual application deployment in certain key scenarios. In cases where a computer running Microsoft System Center Virtual Application Server is not available, the MSI Utility allows delivery of sequenced applications directly to Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization for

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-53145971837048246302007-12-18T07:32:00.000+01:002007-12-25T09:41:02.580+01:00

I just recently found out that there is a free AdminStudio Edition to download for SCCM 2007 customers.According to this link AdminStudio Configuration Manager Edition provides Configuration Manager 2007 customers with an easy way to prepare reliable, customized Windows Installer packages for distribution via Configuration Manager. and is the result of collaboration between Macrovision and the

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-77230532128178225612007-12-17T21:04:00.000+01:002007-12-25T09:42:26.829+01:00

This article by Mario Morejon compares several Application Virtualization and Delivery solutions that are currently available in the market. It covers Thinstall Application Virtualization/LANDesk Application Virtualization, AppStream/Symantec Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Professional and Citrix Presentation Server.He says that "solution providers should look at SaaS-based application

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-47567308428509360532007-12-12T11:59:00.000+01:002007-12-25T10:53:12.802+01:00

There is a new version of the very cool tool SFTexplorer released, version 1.1.According to Kalle Saunamäki (the creator of the tool)" SFT Explorer will show all that's inside your SFT package. Files, folders, virtual registry, virtual services ... all! And you can optionally export selected content out of the package, to examine files more closely or to migrate virtual registry settings to

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-15266851897769293942007-12-11T16:08:00.000+01:002007-12-25T10:53:59.132+01:00

Today VMWare announced their newest version of VMWare Infrastructure 3.0 which includes VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5. VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 provides the following new features: Virtualization platform enhancements help deliver significant performance gains for the most memory and I/O intensive workloads, including large memory pages for both ESX Server as well

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455857610877274091.post-32074314471958898592007-12-07T19:39:00.000+01:002007-12-25T10:54:59.361+01:00

I will start blogging about subjects that interest me like Group Policy Objects (GPO), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), System Management Server (SMS), Microsoft Application Virtualization (SoftGrid), Windows Installer (MSI) and desktop management products in general.

Mentnoreply@blogger.com0