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On February 6, the Microsoft Surface team took to Reddit to do its second AMA (Ask Me Anything) question and answer session about the Surface Pro. Participants in the chat asked about everything from why Microsoft made the ARM-based Surface RT available months ahead of the Intel-based Surface Pro, to why the Surface Pros didn't end up using a lower-power Intel IvyBridge chip. Various members of the Surface team provided answers to a number of the questions. The Softies told participants Microsoft is working on a fix for Windows 8 to help with display-resolution issues around the Desktop that some reviewers, including Windows SuperSite's Paul Thurrott, mentioned. And they hinted about the possibility of a keyboard with additional battery built in. They also said that Microsoft would make the Surface Pro available in retailers outside of just the U.S. and Canada "in the coming months." I've pulled out a few of what I considered the more candid and interesting bits from the session and paraphrased the questions. The full AMA with the Surface team is here. Q: Why was there a 3 month gap between the Surface RT and Surface Pro, especially given the fact the Surface Pro uses the higher-power Intel Ivybridge Core i5 and not the next-generation Haswell processor? A: "This is simple. We started the Pro 3 months after we started Surface RT :-) That is exactly when we staffed the team to go and bring this product to life!" Q: Why couldn't Microsoft have done something to get better battery life out of the Surface Pro, which is getting about half of the battery life (around four to five hours) of the Surface RT? A: "This product is optimized in every way to take advantage of the full third generation core i5 it runs, yet give the best battery life. If you compare it to say a MacBook Air, you will quickly see that pound for pound in battery size vs battery life, you will find optimizations that puts Surface best in its class. That said we picked a smaller battery to be sure we were able to give you the same performance and to keep it thin. This kept the weight under 2lbs, and still kept it thin enough to take advantage of our great Windows work for inking and give you a great inking experience (like pressure sensitive inking, ability to do kanji, great sketching)." Q: Surface Pro has a high resolution for a 10.6-inch screen, but it needs to be scaled to 150% to be usable on the desktop. Windows 8 doesn't allow for independent scaling between the Surface Pro and an external monitor when using an extended display option. Will Microsoft fix this in Windows 8? A: "The Windows team is aggressively working on this feature to fix this for all high resolution Windows devices. We don’t have a date yet to share, so sorry. But in the meantime here are some things I do to maximize my external monitor experience.I personally use 125% scaling.. and like that better for what I use Surface Pro for… see more things on the screen.. and the size of the text suits me just fine. Next I make sure my Second Screen is set to Extended mode. Then I adjust my Office apps using the built in zoom control (lower right of office apps) to set the desired text size. In Windows 8 the Desktop can be thrown on your second monitor and operate all your office apps... nice. For Outlook if I have on my second monitor I switch Outlook into mouse mode. Also in Outlook you can change your Zoom Setting in new message (compose window under zoom).. and it will also persist (which is nice). In IE desktop.. same thing.. the zoom persists on the desktop.. And I use IE 10 desktop in desktop mode.. and the touch version of IE10 on my Surface modern screen. You can also change the width of the cursor under Ease of Access. Also… not a must but, if you use a high resolution external monitor it also help a lot." Q: Why didn't Microsoft simply provide a USB flash drive with the disk recovery image on it in the Surface Pro box to free up more disk space in the product? A: "We could have done this, but then there would be a chance it would be lost. We give you the ability to make one if you choose and free up the space..... There ha(ve) also been questions about why including the recovery image by default. Ideally, you will never need your recovery image, however this is a choice we would prefer the customer to make vs. having the customer need the recovery image not realizing they needed to create one themselves." Q: Does Microsoft have any plans for an external battery or for a thicker keyboard cover that has an extra battery? A: "That would require extending the design of the accessory spine to include some way to transfer higher current between the peripheral and the main battery. Which we did..." Q: What are the new connectors on the bottom of the Surface Pro for? A: "Wow - I'm pumped you caught that - we haven't announced what they are for but they aren't an accident! At launch we talked about the "accessory spine" and hinted at future peripherals that can click in and do more. Those connectors look like can carry more current than the pogo pins, don't they?" Q: On the Surface Pro, is the boot loader unlocked so I can load other operating systems? A: "Like other Windows 8 machines, you can access BIOS settings and turn off secure boot, enabling you to load other OSes." The Surface Pro goes on sale as of February 9. Microsoft provided some Microsoft Stores and Best Buy stores with display Surface Pros as of February 3 so that users near those retail outlets can get some hands-on time with them. Microsoft decided against taking Surface pre-orders, but some retail outlets are providing those interested in buying with "reservation cards" for the devices. Microsoft also provided some reviewers (and "non-reviewers," including me) with Surface Pros so we could try these systems ourselves. via ZDNet > http://www.zdnet.com/why-did-microsoft-deliver-surface-rt-before-pro-and-other-pesky-questions-answered-7000010935/

thanks for updating this with the resolution.

for thoses of you waiting, please just realise that I am in the process of doing it, i'm half way done, however it's taking time as I want to do it right and document it properly, I hope to have it done by the end of this week but no promises, it all depends on how the current progress goes.

i'm working on it, soon done, be patient please, the guides take a lot of work.

if i get time I will update it, however i'm busy working on the next post and all the posts take a lot of time to accomplish, the design change was done because running the installer (setup.exe) was basically an unsupported way (according to the Windows team at least) of installing these operating systems with different versions of WinPE, therefore Microsoft decided to move to the supported method (using install.wim) but still give you the possibility of changing back to the 'old' method if needed.

you could check the System Management container and delete everything that is in there, it will autopopulate from your CAS again once rebooted or the sms_component_manager service restarts...

you can reinstall SQL, read here for more details. http://www.niallbrady.com/2012/03/13/about-to-install-configuration-manager-2012-check-your-sql-collation-first/

I'd give Microsoft a call on this problem, please do let us know what they say

that should work ok, however measuring compliance on that ADR will be more challenging as you are mixing updates in the same ADR, if you dont care about compliance and reporting then you should be ok, or if you think 'general' compliance is good enough. Normally with servers you want to have a clear picture of what servers are patched (compliant) versus those that are not, in addition to the above, the Configuration Manager client knows which software updates to isntall even if you offer it windows updates from another OS altogether.

if pxe boot aborts then you need to clear the last PXE boot on that computer object in the console (right click,..) as regards "Failed to resolve selected task sequence dependencies. Code(0×80040104)" you need to examine the SMSTS.log file and find out what package(s) are not on the distribution points and once done resolve them

Introduction Backing up your Configuration Manager hierarchy is important for a variety of reasons including: preparation for avoiding loss of data preparation for upgrade failure and ability for site rollback preparation for hardware failure If you don’t enable the site maintenance backup site server task then you will have no site backup to recover in the case of a hardware or other catastrophic failure (by default it is not enabled). It is important to backup regularly on a schedule and to store those backups on another server in case the Configuration Manager site server itself has a hardware failure. Thankfully the site maintenance task called Backup site server makes this easy to do. Step 1. Enable the Site maintenance Backup task Our first task is to enable the built in site backup task in site maintenance. In the Administration workplace, expand Site Configuration and select sites and select your Primary site server that you want to backup, in the ribbon click on Settings and then click on Site Maintenance like in the screenshot below. A list of Maintenance tasks appears, select Backup Site server and click on Edit below to enable the task. Next we need to enable the task, so place a check mark in the box provided Next you need to choose where to store the backup, click on Set Paths and browse to a network path (recommended) or local drive on the site server (not recommended due to hardware failure) to store the site data and site database backup. On my networked server chosen to store the backups I’ve created a share called ConfigMgrBackups with sub folders in it named after the site code of the Primary site servers eg: \\ad1\ConfigMgrBackups\CAS \\ad1\ConfigMgrBackups\P01 \\ad1\ConfigMgrBackups\P02 \\ad1\ConfigMgrBackups\P03 and I’ve give the computer account of the site server Write permissions of that share. Note: The computer account of the site server and the computer account of the SQL Server, if SQL Server is installed on another computer, must have Write NTFS and share permissions to the shared network folder. Next decide when you want the backup task to take place, choose what is appropriate for your environment and try to minimize network bandwidth interruption during office hours by scheduling the backup task during non-business hours. This is a recommended best practice approach. Note: As a best practice, consider a backup schedule that is outside active working hours. If you have a hierarchy, consider a schedule that runs at least two times a week to ensure maximum data retention in the event of site failure. In my example below I am backing up on a Wednesday and Saturday and the backup task starts after 2am and before 5am. If you want to be alerted when a site backup fails then place a check mark in the appropriate box. Click on Apply to apply the changes and then Ok to close this window, you will see that the Backup Site Server task is now listed as enabled in Site Maintenance. Step 2. Manually start a Site Backup In order to verify our backup is working properly, we could wait until the scheduled time, or we could trigger it manually. To speed things up we want to manually trigger the task, to do this open up Services.msc on your primary server and locate the SMS_SITE_BACKUP service, it’s listed as Manual and not started, right click the service and choose start. While the backup task is running we can review the appropriate log and that is Smsbkup.log. In <ConfigMgrInstallationFolder>\Logs, review Smsbkup.log for warnings and errors. When the site backup is completed successfully, you should see Backup completed with a timestamp and message ID STATMSG: ID=5035. Below you can see the Smsbkup.log file open in CMtrace during the SMS_SITE_BACKUP process. Step 3. Verify backup completed successfully Once the backup is complete look for the following line in your Smsbkup.log file along with the STATMSG 5035: Backup Completed - Sun Feb 03, 13:49:21, 2013 And on our network server you can see the following files have populated in our share Success ! Step 4. Archiving your backupAfter successfully backing up the site, the Backup Site Server task automatically attempts to run a file that is named AfterBackup.bat. You need to manually create the AfterBackup.bat file and place it in <ConfigMgrInstallationFolder>\Inboxes\Smsbkup. ] If an AfterBackup.bat file exists, and is stored in the correct folder, the file automatically runs after the backup task is completed. The AfterBackup.bat file lets you archive the backup snapshot at the end of every backup operation, and automatically perform other post-backup tasks that are not part of the Backup Site Server maintenance task. Fellow ConfigMgr MVP Garth has published a sample AfterBackup.bat file here. Step 5. Supplemental Backup Tasks The Backup Site Server maintenance task provides a backup snapshot for the site server files and site database, but there are other items which are not backed up using this scheduled task and you must consider these items when you create your backup strategy. The following items should be backed up using whatever method you deem appropriate, for example using Data Protection Manager if that's what you use to backup data in your organization. Custom Reporting Services Reports (backup the report server database files) Content Files (Verify that you include both the content library and package source locations in your file system backup for the site server.) Custom Software Updates (backup your SCUP 11 database) In a later post I’ll show you how to restore a site backup in the event of a site failure. cheers niall Recommended reading: Restoring Backups - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/canitpro/2013/10/30/step-by-step-testing-system-center-2012-configuration-manager-backups-for-restoration/ Backup and Recovery in Configuration Manager - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712697.aspx#BKMK_SiteBackup Support Tip: A Backup Site Server maintenance task may fail to run in ConfigMgr 2012 - http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/archive/2012/08/01/support-tip-a-backup-site-server-maintenance-task-may-fail-to-run-in-configmgr-2012.aspx How to recover a Configuration Manager 2012 site using a restored database - http://stevethompsonmvp.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/how-to-recover-a-configmgr-2012-site-using-a-restored-db/ SQL Server backup recommendations for Configuration Manager - http://stevethompsonmvp.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/sql-server-backup-recommendations-for-configuration-manager/

the one thing you havent listed above is usb media, if PXE is failing for whatever reason you can always use standalone media

well what errors are you seeing ? is the device X86 or X64 ?

i'll post a guide about this soon (time willing) but in the meantime make sure you've got a backup of your database before starting and do a testdbupgrade on a copy of the database.

you need to find out what that package is (GR2000004) and update it to your distribution points

it should work with greater than 4gb, the keys i used in the above were 8gb in size

hi and thanks ! see my response below for details http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6382-cannot-select-operating-system-installer/

what info did you enter on the Database Information page.

this is not a bug its a design change, when I wrote the initial guide RTM was released and SP1 was far from beta, in RTM you can select an operating system installer, in SP1 you cannot in the wizard but you can edit the task sequence afterwards to point to the intsaller if thats the way you want to do it, in SP1 the recommended way is to use the install.wim file either from a previously captured image or from the Installation media itself, this is the major design change in SP1.

then you are running an unsupported version, if you have any issues that require you to call Microsoft, Microsoft may not help you.

and how did you install it ? did you follow this guide ?

its on the CM server in the logs folder

SQL 2012 SP1 is not yet supported, see this post for details

no, currently as of today 29/1/2013 it only supports SQL Server 2012 currently (not sp1) see this post for details

hi all, i've been closely watching the growing number of views on both the Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012 index of guides here, and now they've passed the 1 million mark today. I setup those index's to help people find content I created on windows-noob.com, the index's themselves just grew and grew both in content and popularity and today they finally got past 1 million combined page views. 1000343 page views ! Note: This is the number of times that those two posts have been viewed in total, it doesn't give us the total number of times all the Configuration Manager guides themselves have been viewed. You are more than welcome to click on the index's themselves to see how many times each guide has been viewed. here's some of the stats: The System Center 2007 Configuration Manager Guides http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1064-sccm-2007-guides/ 756,048 views as of January 28th, 2013. The System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Guides http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4045-sccm-2012-guides/ 244,295 views as of January 28th, 2013. well I think that's pretty cool indeed, and here's to the next 1 million views ! cheers niall.