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Windows 7 for XP Professionals
Updating Support Skills from XP to Windows 7
by Bink.nu's Raymond Comvalius

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Posted by Steven Bink on December 1 2009, 5:12 PM with 1 comment
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This download package is intended for Microsoft Premier Customers Only. This package includes all of the scoping tools necessary to prepare and qualify your environment to receive a Risk and Health Assessment Program for Windows Desktop (WDRAP).

The Microsoft® Services Risk and Health Assessment Program for Windows Desktop is a proactive, Premier Offering to assess the health, performance, and efficiency of Windows Vista® and Windows® XP-based desktop and portable computers.
The Risk and Health Assessment Program for Windows Desktop (WDRAP) performs over 500 in-depth tests against a group of your desktop and portable computers and your IT operational procedures. WDRAP collects required configuration data, analyzes it to identify settings that deviate from recommended best practices, and generates remediation recommendations. This enables the enterprise to make sure that computers are optimally configured and maintained in order to provide a dependable and well-performing platform for business applications.

Download details Risk and Health Assessment Program for Windows Desktop (WDRAP) – Scoping Tool v1

Risk and Health Assessment Program for Windows Desktop Datasheet

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Posted by Steven Bink on November 11 2009, 2:54 PM with no comments
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This is small tool that adds Attach and Detach option to contextual (aka right-click) menu of Virtual disk (vhd) files. That enables those operations to be done without trip to Disk Management console. Detach option is available on hard drive contextual menu also.

Additionally program can be used as classic utility in order to see various information about virtual disk, even without attaching it.

Do notice that this program only works with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Older operating systems are not supported.

vhdattach

 

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Posted by Steven Bink on November 11 2009, 2:12 PM with no comments
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SyncToy 2.1 is a free application that synchronizes files and folders between locations. Typical uses include sharing files, such as photos, with other computers and creating backup copies of files and folders.

There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality.

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows, is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without additional complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

SyncToy2.1 is powered by the latest synchronization engine from Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 and provides better performance and robustness. The new features and improvements included in SyncToy 2.1 release are:

  • Better Performance: The speed of file copy operations is significantly increased across the board.
  • Improved Robustness: Much more resilient to transient network and file system errors and better error reporting which pin-points which file the sync failed on in case there’s a fatal error that stops the sync.
  • Folder pair configuration backup: Folder pair configuration is automatically backed up under %localappdata%\microsoft\synctoy\2.0. User can replace SyncToyDirPairs.bin with the backup copy to resolve last saved configuration.
  • Bug Fixes:
    • Fixed the data corruption issue when using SyncToy with NAS drives.
    • Fixed the issue that prevented uploading files to SharePoint when using SyncToy 2.0.
    • Fixed the issue that prevented delete changes from being synchronized when the sync option is set to “Echo”.
    • Fixed the UI issue where reported file time were off by the difference between local time and UTC when destination is a FAT volume.

The major new features and improvements included in previous SyncToy 2.0 release are:
  • Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.
  • True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.
  • Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.
  • Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).
  • Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.
  • Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.
  • Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.
  • Re-Architect Sync Engine: The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.
  • Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.
  • Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.
  • 64-Bit Support: SyncToy now has a native 64-bit build (x64 only) for 64-bit versions of Windows.
  • Folder pair rename
  • Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents created under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded. Usability improvements for the sub-folder exclusion dialog.
  • Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.
  • Setup Improvements: Integrated setup with single self-extracting archive file and no extra downloads if you already have .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Enabled silent install for the SyncToy Installer file (see readme.txt file for more information).


Please continue to send us feedback about our tool, using the SyncToy - File Synchronization forum (listed below).
Note: We've taken great care to ensure that this tool operates as it should, but it is not part of Windows and is not supported by Microsoft Technical Support. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about SyncToy. To speak to other users and contribute feedback about your experiences with SyncToy, please use the SyncToy forum at http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/synctoy/threads.

Download details SyncToy 2.1

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Posted by Steven Bink on April 1 2009, 1:24 PM with no comments
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Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 Update 1 is the recommended process and toolset to automate desktop and server deployment. The support status of earlier versions is outlined here.
 
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008 Update 1 is the latest supported version of MDT, formerly known as Business Desktop Deployment (BDD).

Click here to download MDT 2008 Update 1.

These versions of MDT and BDD are no longer available for download but are still supported by Microsoft at this time:

  • Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008, March 2008 release
  • Microsoft Deployment, November 2007 release
  • Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Update 2, March 2008 release

These versions of BDD are retired and are no longer supported by Microsoft:
  • Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Patch 1, May 2007 release
  • Business Desktop Deployment 2007, January 2007 release
  • Business Desktop Deployment 2.5, August 2005 release

For more information on Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, see Microsoft Deployment Toolkit on TechNet.

Send requests, questions, or feedback to us directly at SATfdbk@microsoft.com.
98283 Views
Posted by Sumeeth Evans on March 24 2009, 2:15 PM with no comments
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Back in the November 2006 issue of TechNet Magazine, I wrote about a handy little utility called Robocopy GUI (see "Utility Spotlight Robocopy GUI"). This simple tool was written by a Microsoft engineer named Derk Benisch, and all it really did was create a graphical interface for the very popular Robocopy command-line utility, which provided file copying capabilities far beyond what was built into Windows. Believe it or not, more than two years later, the Robocopy GUI article remains the single most popular piece of content we've ever published, having been viewed well over 220,000 times.
 
Needless to say, this speaks far more to the value of the tool than to the quality of my writing. Nevertheless, it also makes perfectly clear just how crucial certain simple tasks are in our day-to-day lives, and how staggering an impact even a small improvement in performing those critical tasks can make.
 
In this case, we're discussing the simplest of tasks: copying files. Except copying files is not always that simple. What if you're copying thousands of files across a slow connection? What happens if your network hiccups and interrupts the copy? What if you want to make sure that you preserve particular file attributes, such as a Last Modified date, but not other attributes, like security descriptors? What if you want to filter the files you're copying from source to destination based on filename or extension?
If any of these apply to you, the simple Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V combination probably won't cut it. And though Robocopy GUI certainly improves on that basic functionality, it still has some limitations in terms of granular control and usability. What you need is RichCopy.
 
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88822 Views
Posted by Steven Bink on July 10 2008, 10:15 AM with no comments
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The Active Directory Migration Tool version 3.1 (ADMT v3.1) simplifies the process of migrating objects and restructuring tasks in an Active Directory® Domain Service (AD DS) environment. You can use ADMT v3.1 to migrate users, groups, and computers between AD DS domains in different forests (inter-forest migration) or between AD DS domains in the same forest (intra-forest migration). ADMT can also perform security translation (to migrate local user profiles) when performing inter-forest migrations.
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Posted by Steven Bink on July 10 2008, 10:14 AM with no comments
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The Password Export Server version 3.1 (PES v3.1) is a part of the Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) v3.1 toolset. You can use PES v3.1 to migrate passwords, when performing account migrations between different Active Directory® Domain Service (AD DS) environments using ADMT v3.1.
 
 
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Source: In House
Posted by Steven Bink on May 9 2008, 3:49 PM with no comments
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Login Virtual Session Index (Login VSI), is a free and easy to use benchmarking methodology from Login Consultants. The Login VSI is a complete toolset that allows you to easily compare scalability all of today's major virtualization platforms and technologies. Login VSI supports most recent Windows OS’s (including 32 and 64bit), Office 2003 and 2007, all major application streaming technologies and most importantly both SBC and VDI. The next beta (out in a couple of weeks), will also include full support for benchmarking VDI environments.

 

Because the setup is so simple there is an infinite amount of combinations and technologies you can now compare. For instance, you can also measure the relative impact of a virus scanner or performance optimization technologies. Additionally, Login VSI will be a perfect tool to compare scalability of different virtualization platforms.

 

Login VSI can be download from http://www.loginconsultants.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=20&Itemid=149

 

320280 Views
Source: In House
Posted by Sumeeth Evans on January 16 2008, 10:40 PM with no comments
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Many of you have seen the New York Times reader application - it was featured as part of the portfolio I've been building up of Great WPF Applications. As I mentioned at the time, the New York Times reader is based on an SDK that we built to allow newspapers and content publishers to create rich, "occasionally-connected" experiences based on the flow layout capabilities in WPF. We've had a private beta program running for a while now, and over the intervening months there have been a number of other newspapers that have gone live with applications using this toolkit.

image Now we're delighted to announce the public release of the reader toolkit on windowsclient.net. We've made a number of improvements to the kit to broaden its usage; the reader toolkit is now known by the rather more accurate but slightly less memorable name: the Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit. This reflects its potential to go beyond a news reading scenario and handle other kinds of data synchronization and display needs. For example, you could use this as the basis of a client for financial data analysis, where the application downloaded stock prices and other financial information and presented it in a rich client experience (Lab49, are you listening?!)

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404468 Views
Source: blogs.msdn.com
183445 Views
Source: In House
Posted by Steven Bink on November 14 2007, 2:20 PM with 2 comments

Brandon from Windows Experience Blog recently had a chance to give one of the components of MDOP - the Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) 6.0 - a try:

DaRT is an excellent set of tools for IT Professionals to troubleshoot unresponsive PCs and removing viruses and malware off infected PCs in their environment. DaRT 6.0  also now has the ability for IT Professionals to conduct offline removal of malware and viruses from infected PCs.

The first thing I noticed when I started using DaRT is that it provides two options to the IT Professional: a way to analyze crash files from unresponsive PCs through the Crash Analysis Wizard, and a way to create a startup disc with the necessary tools in fixing an unresponsive PC that is unable to boot into Windows called ERD Commander.

I first took a look at the Crash Analysis Wizard.

The Crash Analysis Wizard allows an IT Professional to take a crash dump file (*.dmp files associated with a system crash) and analyze it and get important bits of information that could help figure out why a PC is crashing. I have an old .dmp file from a crash a long time ago I dug up to run through the Crash Analysis Wizard. The Crash Analysis Wizard requires the Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows as a prerequisite so before proceeding in analyzing my .dmp file, I had to install that first. I was also able to specify any Symbol files I had as well. I had no Symbols to provide so I skipped to choosing the specific .dmp file I wanted to analyze.

Once I choose the .dmp files - I clicked next and the analysis commenced.

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Posted by Steven Bink on November 13 2007, 10:26 AM with no comments
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The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.0 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Microsoft® Windows Vista, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows® Internet Explorer® in your environment.
 
The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0 helps customers understand their application compatibility situation by identifying which applications are compatible with the Microsoft® Windows Vista® operating system and which require further testing. ACT helps customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Windows Vista more quickly.

You can use the ACT features to:
  • Verify an application's compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment.
  • Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users.
  • Test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows® Internet Explorer® Internet browser.

Version: 5.0.5428.1056

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54087 Views
Posted by Steven Bink on November 11 2007, 11:10 AM with no comments

ADInsight is an LDAP (Light-weight Directory Access Protocol) real-time monitoring tool aimed at troubleshooting Active Directory client applications. Use its detailed tracing of Active Directory client-server communications to solve Windows authentication, Exchange, DNS, and other problems.

ADInsight uses DLL injection techniques to intercept calls that applications make in the Wldap32.dll library, which is the standard library underlying Active Directory APIs such ldap and ADSI. Unlike network monitoring tools, ADInsight intercepts and interprets all client-side APIs, including those that do not result in transmission to a server. ADInsight monitors any process into which it can load it’s tracing DLL, which means that it does not require administrative permissions, however, if run with administrative rights, it will also monitor system processes, including windows services.

AD Insight works on Windows 2000 and higher.

AD Insight Screenshot

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Other updated Sysinternal tools:

ADInsight v1.0: Introducing ADInsight, an LDAP (Light-weight Directory Access Protocol) real-time monitoring tool aimed at troubleshooting Active Directory client applications. Use it’s detailed tracing of Active Directory client-server communications to solve Windows authentication, Exchange, DNS, and other problems.

Process Explorer v11.04: This update fixes a memory leak in the threads tab.

ADExplorer v1.01: This release of ADExplorer, an Active Directory browser/editor, fixes a number of minor issues.

Process Monitor v1.26: This release of Process Monitor contains minor bug fixes.

BgInfo v4.12: Improved reporting of CPU cores and logical processors for multi-core and multi-proc machines.

Psexec v1.91: allows standard users to use -l switch again

DebugView v4.73: fixes race condition that could hang system on first run

133911 Views
Posted by Steven Bink on November 7 2007, 11:19 PM with no comments
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Wish you could get a network capture from a computer with no capture software installed? Wish you could have a network traffic "flight recorder" on a USB key? Here's your answer!"

The motivation behind creating this tool was to provide an extremely simple way to get a trace from an end user. And the name says it all, though maybe a small bit of false advertisement as it may take a bit more than just one click :). Once you have it downloaded to your machine, you can launch the executable and it will lead you through some simple dialogs that install the tool and start a trace. Once the trace is complete, which means it was manually stopped by the user or the default time of 2 hours have passed, a window will be opened to the location for the capture, called OneClick.cap.

Two Versions for Two Scenarios

One Click Autorun: The main scenario is a customer who has network access and can simply click on the EXE from a share or get the tool locally using the internet. Running this version will install NM 3.1 on your machine (if you do not already have a previous version of NM 3) and begin capturing. The capture will terminate after 2 hours, or if you press the 'x' key on your keyboard. If you did not have NM3 on your machine previously, NM 3.1 will subsequently be uninstalled.

Extract Only: For this scenario, the user doesn’t have network access at all. This version is tailor made for use with a USB drive to be inserted into a problem machine. If you place the files on the root of a flash drive, One Click will run automatically when you insert the drive.  You can also run One Click by double clicking the file "OneClick.cmd" in the destination folder. The resulting capture will be copied back onto the USB device.

Detailed Tour of a One Click Capture

First thing I should mention is if you are running on Vista and don’t have NM3.1 previously installed or you are not a member of the Netmon User’s group, then you will need to run the EXE with elevated rights. Just right click the EXE and select “Run as Administrator”.

When you launch the One Click tool, it will prompt you with a EULA dialog. Assuming you accept the terms, then click YES. Remember that we do install a driver for Vista in cases where NM3 is not already installed. Also one caveat here is that if NM3.0 is installed, we use that driver rather than installing a new one. The disadvantage here is that NM3.0 can’t do wireless monitor mode or RAS capturing.

Once you accept the EULA, a CMD prompt dialog with a red background and white text shows up. We leverage NMCap for this job which is a command line utility, hence the CMD window. The window contains instructions as to where the capture file will be put by default. If you want to change this location, you can type a new one now.

If you choose the default be pressing enter, the capture will be started. At this point typing X on the keyboard will stop the capture once you are done. If you don’t press the X key, the capture will complete after 2 hours.

When the capture completes, an explorer window will open to the location where the capture file was stored. This allows the user to simply send the file to you in email or upload it to a location where it can be accessed by the original requestor.

If multiple captures are taken with the tool, the current OneClick.cap file will be renamed and appended with an incrementing number on the end.

Obtaining the Tool

At this point we are beta testing the tool. So the only means of getting it is on the Network Monitor project on http://connect.microsoft.com. When you join the project, you will see both the Auto-run and Extract Only packages in the download section. Once we release the tool, we will make it available on the Microsoft Download site as this is more convenient, which is our goal for this tool.

114440 Views
Posted by Steven Bink on November 7 2007, 11:02 PM with no comments
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This application counts lines of code written in programming languages by connecting to servers, downloading source files, and applying customizable counting rules.
 
Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP Huh?
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