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The Microsoft® Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.6 enables software developers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and IT professionals who work in a corporate environment to determine, before deployment within the organization, whether their applications are compatible with a new version of the Windows® operating system. ACT also enables such individuals to determine how an update to the new version will affect their applications. You can use the ACT features to: * Verify your application's, device's, and computer's compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, including determining your risk assessment. * Verify a Windows update's compatibility, including determining your risk assessment. * Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your application assessment with other ACT users. * Test your applications for issues related to User Account Control (UAC) by using the Standard User Analyzer (SUA) tool. * Test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to Internet Explorer®, by using the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool. In This Release Topic Name Description Using the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) Includes in-depth information and procedures for use with the ACT, including configuring the ACT, collecting your data, analyzing your data, and testing and mitigating your compatibility issues. This section also includes walkthrough topics that provide step-by-step guidance for the top three ACT scenarios. These scenarios show you how to deploy a new operating system, apply a Windows update, and test and mitigate your issues by using the included development tools. Application Compatibility Toolkit Technical Reference Includes in-depth technical reference topics, written for the compatibility evaluators, the Microsoft® Application Compatibility Toolkit Data Collector (ACT-DC), the Microsoft Compatibility Exchange, the ACT Community, the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool (IECTT), the Standard User Analyzer (SUA) tool, and the Setup Analysis Tool (SAT). Customer Support and Documentation Resources Includes references to additional product and documentation resources, such as applicable Web sites and product pages. It also includes customer support information, including Web sites and phone numbers for assistance. Troubleshooting ACT Includes topics that can help you solve issues that occur during ACT setup, and to help you solve possible issues due to running the User Account Control Compatibility Evaluator (UACCE), the Windows Compatibility Evaluator (WCE), and the Update Compatibility Evaluator (UCE). Software and Hardware Requirements for ACT 5.6 Includes information about the supported software and hardware required to run the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) in your environment. This also includes special considerations that are required if you intend to use the UCE, the SAT, or the Compatibility Administrator tools. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722367%28WS.10%29.aspx

can you describe the steps you are taking? any errors that are obvious in your site status component logs ?

no need for any hyperv files, just make sure your hyperv VM has the network card set as 'legacy network card' cheers

are you doing this in SCCM or purely in MDT 2010 ? sounds like you need network drivers in boot.wim, did you add any ? enable F8 command prompt support in your boot wim to find out

Microsoft's business strategies were described at the company's Financial Analyst Meeting on Thursday. The talks by five Microsoft executives, including Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, came on the heels of the company's positive fourth-quarter earnings. Last week, Microsoft announced revenue of $16 billion for the quarter. Peter Klein, Microsoft's chief financial officer, said at the time that all of Microsoft's business segments showed "double-digit growth," quarter over quarter. The number-crunching crowd of financial analysts attending Microsoft's annual event may have preferred seeing spreadsheets and graphs. Instead, they got PowerPoint slides illustrating Microsoft's general vision in the enterprise and consumer markets. That vision encompassed Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud computing platform, Windows operating system success and consumer products. Ballmer Lays Out Consumer Strategy During Ballmer's talk, the Windows Phone 7 operating system was demonstrated running on an unidentified prototype device by Augusto Valdez, senior product manager for Windows Phone 7. Valdez showed off the mobile integration of the Microsoft Bing search engine, which provides search and mapping services based on the user's location. He said that the device was capable of running multiple Microsoft Exchange accounts on one phone. Brad Brooks, CVP for Windows consumer marketing, showed how Windows 7-based PCs and Windows Phone 7 smartphones will be able to tap into a "personal cloud." Data can be shared across those devices using Windows Sync technology and the Windows Live SkyDrive cloud-based storage space. This data-sharing capability will be available "starting this fall," Brooks said. "And by Q3 a vast majority of all PCs that ship to consumers will have this pre-installed so people will have this personal cloud experience as part of their Windows 7 experience right out of the box, and of course that will come with every Windows Phone 7 as well," Brooks said, according to a transcript. Ballmer focused his talk on the consumer side of Microsoft's business since it is "very much on the minds of [Microsoft's] shareholders." The company's consumer products include Xbox gaming consoles, Bing search, Microsoft Office, the Windows operating system and Windows Phone. Microsoft's mobile strategy has received much criticism over the years, particularly with regard to meeting the competition in the smartphone and tablet markets. However, Ballmer said that Microsoft has had Windows 7 on tablets and slate devices "for a number of years." He noted Apple's progress in putting out popular products and suggested that Microsoft would rise to the challenge. "Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we've got to make things happen with Windows 7 on slates," Ballmer said. "And we are in the process of doing that as we speak. We're working with our hardware partners; we're tuning Windows 7 to new slate hardware designs that they're bringing them to market." He later referred to devices from Samsung, HTC and LG that are expected to "come to market this fall," but it wasn't clear whether he was talking about tablets or smartphones (or both). Microsoft expects to get "a boost" in 2011 when Intel rolls out a low-power processor to market code-named "Oak Trail," Ballmer said. Oak Trail is an Intel Atom-based processor for tablets that's expected to use half the power of an Atom chip. It's designed to work with Windows 7, MeeGo and Google operating systems, according to Intel. In a Q&A session with the financial analysts, Ballmer would not be pinned down on when Windows phones or tablets would hit the market. "We'll be in the market as soon as we can," he said. He did reveal a bit about Microsoft's thinking on executing its product plans, noting that "there is no way we will let hardware be an impediment." Ballmer revealed that Microsoft had actually designed the hardware for Windows phones for its partners. Turner Extols Microsoft's Enterprise Strengths Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, described the company's advantages in the enterprise space. He said that 70 percent of Microsoft's cloud platform wins in its fourth quarter represented new business, with Microsoft gaining customers from IBM (Lotus Notes) and Novell (e-mail). He cited "limitations" to Amazon's cloud service in that it requires the customer to maintain virtual machines. He touted Windows Azure, saying that the capabilities of Google's and Salesforce.com's cloud platforms fall short by comparison. Microsoft has an edge over VMware because "they don't run their own datacenters," Turner said. The introduction of Windows 7 to the market gave Microsoft a 2.7-point advantage over Apple in terms of laptop attachments in the U.S. market, Turner claimed. Microsoft sells "just under eight copies per second [of Windows 7] since we launched this product in October 22," he said. Turner also claimed that Windows Server has been showing its highest gains over Linux in the last three years. Microsoft hopes to grab database market share when Oracle launches its Fusion product, which is rumored to happen this fall, Turner said. He touted the "self-service" business intelligence capabilities of SQL Server 2008 R2. In 2011, Microsoft expects to launch the Parallel Data Warehouse version of that product, which will enable "100-terabyte" data warehouses. On the enterprise collaboration front, Microsoft is challenging Cisco Systems with the Microsoft Office Communications Server product. Turner said that Microsoft's Live Meeting service is offered for "a third of the price of [Cisco's] WebEx" videoconferencing solution. In addition to Turner and Ballmer's talks, the event featured presentations by Bill Koefoed, general manager of investor relations, Craig Mundie, chief research strategy officer, and Peter Klein, chief financial officer. Recorded video and print transcripts are available at the Microsoft investor relations Web page here. via > http://mcpmag.com/articles/2010/07/29/ballmer-outlines-mobile-strategy-at-microsoft-event.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=windows-noob.com

here's a sample Task Sequence to see it in action, simply import the XML file into SCCM 2007 sp2 (with MDT 2010 integrated) and you are nearly ready to go, you will have to edit the task sequence to point to your packages, one package is the prompt for password containing the original wsf file, the second package is your mdt files package (which contains a subfolder in scripts called TS Password, which in turn contains the shutdown.wsf script) Prompt For Password.xml In my example task sequence I install an application (microsoft security essentials) after successful password completion, however you could install an entire OS or more as you would with any task sequence, it's up to you. Here's a description of the Task Sequence Steps:- Restart to Windows PE This does a check in the options tab to see if we are in WinPE, if not, it restarts the computer into WinPE so you will need to attach a boot image to this Task Sequence. The reason for this check is that we cannot interact with the user on the desktop in Windows itself, only in WinPE. The options we set are: This group/step will run if the following conditions are met: If All the conditions are true: Task Sequence Variable _SMSTSinWInPE equals False Prompt For Password This step runs the actual promptforpassword.wsf script directly from the package we put it in, you could clean this up even more by placing the script in the mdtfiles/scripts/ts password folder (more on that later). I've also got yet another check in here (not needed if you include the previous step) to see that we are in WinPE (see the options tab). This script returns a value for the AllowOSDBuild variable, either YES or NO depending on whether you enter the password correctly or not. Use Toolkit Package This step loads the MDT Files package (needed for the next step) and you should know by now that we have copied the TS Password folder containing shutdown.wsf to the scripts sub directory of the MDT Files package. Shutdown This step executes the script called shutdown.wsf contained in the TS Password subfolder (in the scripts directory of MDT Files package). This script will shutdown the computer if: * AllowOSDBuild=NO or * If you click on Cancel at the password prompt screen. Below is a copy of the Shutdown Step options Rest of Task Sequence If the user enters the correct password the the Rest of the Task sequence steps will be ran as normal, in this example I install an application after rebooting back into Windows, (you can put whatever you want here, like installing an OS or migrating from XP to 7 or whatever !).

you don't have to but you certaintly can

welcome to the growing family

hi all, in conjunction with an online shop i've designed a few windows-noob tshirts, and as part of that process ordered myself all 4, i wear them all to advertise windows-noob and to show my devotion to this great forum my favorite t-shirt is the Catastropic failure one, i'd like to see some members of windows-noob wearing a noob t-shirt, and i'd like to see some of you in a photo wearing one, but i'm at a loss as to how to motivate you guys, i can't afford to give away something like an i-pad but perhaps a free t-shirt for someone with a good idea, (the irony...) for a t-shirt competition or something, are they too expensive ? any other ideas/suggestions ? i don't make anything on the tshirts i just want them to be worn by members all advertising is good !!

Peter use's it on his blog here http://www.petervanderwoude.nl/post/Capture-User-Files-and-Settings-Offline-(WinPE)-or-Online-(FullOS)-with-ConfigMgr-2007.aspx

i think it will be next year at MMS 2011, in Las Vegas, not sure though... are you going ?

excellent !, pinned !

ok then, try and create two deployment management tasks one pointing at the Unknown Computers Collection, and the other pointing at your Deployment Collection, that should cover your scenario

to create the unattend.xml file use the original DVD that you created the WIM with, not the resulting WIM cheers niall

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article This article contents is Microsoft Copyrighted material. ©2005-©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks Article ID: 2083921 - Last Review: July 21, 2010 - Revision: 1.0 Cumulative update package 9 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 Hotfix download is available INTRODUCTION Cumulative Update 9 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 contains hotfixes for the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 issues that have been fixed since the release of SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1. Note This build of the cumulative update package is also known as build 10.00.2789.00. We recommend that you test hotfixes before you deploy them in a production environment. Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 fix release. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 970365Â (http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=970365/ ) The SQL Server 2008 builds that were released after SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 was released Important notes about the cumulative update package * SQL Server 2008 hotfixes are now multilanguage. Therefore, there is only one cumulative hotfix package for all languages. * One cumulative hotfix package includes all the component packages. The cumulative update package updates only those components that are installed on the system. MORE INFORMATION How to obtain Cumulative Update 9 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 A supported cumulative update package is now available from Microsoft. However, it is intended to correct only the problems that are described in this article. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing these specific problems. This cumulative update package may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by any of these problems, we recommend that you wait for the next SQL Server 2008 service pack that contains the hotfixes in this cumulative update package. If the cumulative update is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the cumulative update package. Note If additional issues occur or any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific cumulative update package. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support) via > http://kbalertz.com/2083921/Cumulative-update-package-Server-Service.aspx

yes it should upgrade your secondary sites to SP2

not that I am aware of but if you find one please post a link to it here

thanks Mike I appreciate the kind words a lot !! and I also appreciate the job the moderators and other regular members on the site are making, great work cheers niall

hi all i've moved some forums around to clean things up, what do you think ? better or worse ? I've created a new section in SMS/SCCM/vnext called Deploying Operating Systems where i've moved Deploy XP and so on, is it ok ?

yup and optional advertisements can appear in the Run Advertised Programs gui in Control Panel.

Microsoft announced on Thursday, a record fourth-quarter revenue of $16.04 billion for the quarter ended June 30. The financial figures are a 22% increase from the same period of the prior year. Microsoft says this revenue growth was driven by a strong performance from Windows 7, which has sold more than 175 million licenses to date. “This quarter’s record revenue reflects the breadth of our offerings and our continued product momentum,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer. “The revenue growth, combined with our ongoing cost discipline, helped us achieve another quarter of margin expansion.” Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting the software giant to report a profit of $0.46 per share on revenue of $15.26 billion, Microsoft beat these expectations with $16.04 billion and profit of $0.51 per share. Kevin Turner, chief operating officer, said the revenue was down to strong sales in the enterprise with Windows 7 and Office 2010. "“Our transition to cloud services is well underway with offerings like Windows Azure and our Business Productivity Online Services, and we look forward to continuing our product momentum this fall with the upcoming launches of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect," said Turner. Windows 7 was released nine months ago today, on October 22, 2009. The OS originally released to manufacturing one year ago. Microsoft announced that Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history, selling over 175 million licenses to date. The company is projected to sell 300 million by the end of 2010. Microsoft's success with Windows 7 began before the product was even widely available. Released in October 2009, the operating system has received praise from consumers, businesses and the media. In November 2009, Windows 7 managed to surpass Apple's Snow Leopard market share in just two weeks. In early February it was revealed that Windows 7 had reached 10% market share in just three months. Windows 7 has also driven an uptake of 64-bit computing. According to ChangeBASE research, conducted with senior IT decision makers, more than 65% of businesses hoped to migrated to Windows 7 within 12 months of its release. Over 50% of those migrating will be choosing the 64-bit route. Microsoft confirmed earlier this month, that nearly half of all Windows 7 PCs run 64-bit versions. Screenshots of a Windows 7 post RTM build showed up on the web in February, fueling speculation that Microsoft is compiling early Windows 8 builds. The successor to Windows 7 will likely be available in 2011 as an ex-Microsoft worker penned July 2011 as the RTM date for Windows 8. Microsoft is expected to build a 'Windows Store' app store into Windows 8 and Kinect-like functionality. Microsoft is currently readying its first Service Pack for Windows 7. A public beta version was made available recently with a final release expected in the first quarter of next year. via > http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-reports-strong-q4-revenue-thanks-again-to-windows-7-sales

This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2. Quick Details Version: 2.0 Date Published: 7/22/2010 Language: English Download Size: 71 KB - 700.0 MB* *Download size depends on selected download components. Overview Download this fully configured virtual machine of the latest release of Configuration Manager. Evaluate the abilities for System Center to provide you a solution for operating system deployment, patch management, software distribution, virtual application streaming and more. For more information on System Center Configuration Manager R2, please visit the product homepage and the Configuration Manager Techcenter. System Requirements * Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista A virtualization product that supports the VHD format is required to use this virtual machine. Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server are provided for free and can be used with these VHD based virtual machines. Please refer to the Virtual Server 2005 R2 System requirements page here. In addition to the System Requirements for the virtualization product, you will need additional disk and memory resources for running the virtual machine. This VHD is pre-configured to use approximately 10GB of hard disk space and approximately 512MB of memory. Instructions In order to use this evaluation package you will need to have Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005 R2 installed on a physical machine. If you do not have Virtual Server installed you can get this product free of charge from www.microsoft.com/virtualserver. Details of how to install Virtual Server 2005 R2 are included in the download and documentation that accompanies the product. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e0fadab7-0620-481d-a8b6-070001727c56

Cumulative Update 2 for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 R2 is now available. Cumulative Update 2 for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 R2 includes Cumulative Update 1 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2. Additionally, Cumulative Update 2 resolves the following issues: * The Network Devices State view does not display the device name. * The discovery process fails when a double-byte character is inserted into a string that is searched. * The availability reports that are exported as TIF files or as PDF files are truncated. * The property bags of WMIEventProvider module do not support the including or excluding of specific properties. * The color of the chart lines does not match the legend in the Web console in the Performance view. * When SQL Reporting Services is enabled in SCOM by using the United States Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) security, the datawarehouse encounters an InvalidOperationException error. * The monitoring host process does not start the workflows immediately when tasks are received. * The Operations Manager console crashes when you open multiple customized views in a new window. * The Allow Anonymous discovery property in the Internet Information Services (IIS) Management Pack is incorrect in the console. * When you run updates, a restart dialog box is shown before the files for the update are delivered. * The agent update packages are not deployed to the servers that have the Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway) role installed or that have the Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) role service installed. * Audit Collection Services stops collecting data if the Event Log service uses the automatic backup feature. For all the latest information, including how to download the update see the following Knowledge Base article: KB979257 - System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Cumulative Update 2 Release Notes J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer http://blogs.technet.com/b/operationsmgr/archive/2010/07/07/system-center-operations-manager-2007-r2-cumulative-update-2-release-notes.aspx

have you enabled Unknown Computer support ?

start with a main image containing the os and no drivers, perhaps one or two major apps (eg: office 2010, winzip) build upon that with the groups i mentioned, in there you can install drivers for the model, plus software (bluetooth apps whatever) and any additional apps lastly you can have 'common' applications (dynamic) which change often and are small in size, it's all possible you just have to think it through properly and plan it, start with a piece of paper or whiteboard and some other it people to discuss it this will take time to decide, plan, and implement but in the long term you'll have a LOT less to manage, and you'll be able to adapt quickly to new models/new applications/new drivers.