Are you going to be on the East Coast? Get on the Bus!

Microsoft’s “Get on the Bus” Tour is coming back to North America in late May for a 10-day tour down the east coast from Montreal, Canada ending in New Orleans just in time for TechEd.

Take a deep dive into Windows 7 and Office 2010, plus learn about the path to getting certified on those technologies. Check out some best practices for deploying Windows 7, review the features of Office 2010 and learn how to optimize your desktops for ease of management.

Visit the bus tour crew in the following cities:

Montreal – May 21st
Boston – May 24th
New York – May 25th
Philadelphia – May 26th
Washington DC – May 27th and 28th
Richmond – June 1st
Raleigh – June 2nd
Charlotte – June 3rd
Atlanta – June 4th
New Orleans – June 6th

Learn more and register, and don’t forget to follow the tour on Twitter @thebustour.

Even More Windows Events!

It must be conference season again, because I keep running across a variety of technical events that look valuable. Here are a couple more:

Windows Summit 2010 runs May 25-27 at the Microsoft Conference Center on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA and is designed for people who engineer and test Windows 7 PCs, devices, and software. Three technical tracks (System, Device and Software) will to help you create the best systems, devices, and software using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer. For more information visit the website, registration is $399.

Also, the Launch 2010: Technical Readiness Series kicks off in late April. The event in San Francisco is on May 20th at the Embarcadero Hyatt, but check out the full city listings for other locations. The event will cover Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and other products including Exchange 2010 and SQL Server. There are both IT Professional and Developer tracks available and this event is free, so register soon – these types of events fill up fast.

Finally, don’t forget the Pacific IT Pros regular monthly meeting tomorrow and the special TechDays Forensics session next week.

Connecting to secure Wireless Network Connections on Windows 7

Wireless access at the RSA Conference has been pretty good this week and since it’s a security conference, the official network is password protected with 802.1x PEAP. The wireless network help desk has printed instructions for connecting your XP or Vista laptop, but no instructions for Windows 7. I used a combination of the instructions and screenshots from both OSes to give me the details I needed to get Windows 7 connected.

Interestingly, the Windows Vista instructions implied a much faster process where the user is prompted to trust the server certificate and the PEAP and MSCHAP v2 settings do not need to be manually configured. I’ve never run Vista on a laptop, so I can’t confirm or deny the need to configure those items. In XP and Windows 7, you have to make sure that the root certificate is trusted and other settings are configured before attempting to connect.

Below is an example of the secure network settings provided for the conference center and where to plug in that information in Windows 7. Settings may vary depending on the requirements of other secure networks you encounter.

Setting Information

SSID: secure2010
Network Authentication: WPA2 or WPA (enterprise)
Data Encryption: AES or TKIP
EAP type: PEAP
Validate server certificate: ms1.showfloor.net
Certification Authority: Thawte Premium Server CA
PEAP authentication method: MSCHAP v2
MSCHAP properties: Do not use Windows logon
Enable Fast Reconnect: No

Steps By Step

Open Network and Sharing Center

Set up a connection to a new network (manually create network)
After the network connect is created, go to it’s properties. On the security tab, click the settings for PEAP.

Check “connect to this server” and add the server name to validate the server certificate.

Check the appropriate trusted root CA.

Disable Fast Reconnect.

Click the “configure” button for MSCHAP and unselect the option to use the Windows logon.

When you connect to the network you’ll be prompted for the username and password. Once entered, your connection will authenticate and you’ll be on your way.

Pacific IT Professionals Meeting Tomorrow

Don’t forget the PacITPros regular meeting this Tuesday (tomorrow!) at 6:00pm.

I’ll be doing a quick presentation regarding Remote Desktop Services (on Windows 2008 R2) and we’ll also be hearing from Ed Horley on Windows 7 Deployment and an overview of the Application Compatibility Toolkit.

This meeting is a Microsoft STEP event, so be sure to check out the details and RSVP!

You know you love Windows 7, so upgrade from the RC.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here. You’ve probably already upgraded to a full version of Windows 7. But if you haven’t or if you know someone who still hasn’t decided how they feel about Windows 7 and are still running the Release Candidate version, it’s time to act.

Starting tomorrow, March 1st, your Windows 7 RC operating system will begin shutting down every two hours. Your work will not be saved during the shutdown and the Windows 7 RC will fully expire on June 1, 2010.

After June 1st, your computer will continue shutting down every two hours and your files won’t be saved during shutdown. In addition, your wallpaper will change to a solid black background with a persistent message on your desktop. You’ll also get periodic notifications that Windows isn’t genuine. That means your PC will no longer be able to obtain optional updates or downloads requiring genuine Windows validation and you won’t be able to use Microsoft Security Essentials.

Don’t get caught doing this at the last minute and don’t spend 2 months being annoyed by multiple shutdowns each day. Install a official release version of Windows 7, or if you must, go back to what you had before. In either case, you’ll need to do a clean install to replace the RC. As with any clean installation, you’ll need to back up your data then reinstall your applications and restore the data.

End of Support for Window 2000, Vista RTM and XP SP2: Where are your priorities?

There’s been a lot of chatter about some of the upcoming Microsoft end of support dates that are coming due, specifically for Windows 2000 and Windows XP Service Pack 2 on July 13, 2010 and Windows Vista RTM on April 13, 2010. If you are running an OS version that has reached the end of the support life, you aren’t eligible for any support updates or security patches after these dates.

Of course, the associated message is that the best way to stay supported is to upgrade to Windows 7. I’m all for that. I love using the latest and greatest operating systems, Windows 7 and Server 2008 (R2 or original) are no exception. But when it comes to these particular announcements, I only sort of care about them. I suspect that unless you haven’t patched or upgraded a server or desktop in last 5 years, you probably only sort of care too. Here’s why:

Windows 2000 – This one is a pretty big deal. Windows 2000 is 10 years old and there will be no more support for the client or server versions, especially when it comes to security updates. Running Windows 2000 on your servers is like running NT 4.0 – you’re on your own! And being that Windows 2000 can’t run a version of Internet Explorer higher than 6, I’d limit the Internet access of any “2000” box you may need to keep in production this year.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 – This is a Service Pack, not the actual OS. Windows XP is in extended support until 4/8/2014. It’s true that you really shouldn’t be using SP2 anymore (for the IE 6 concerns alone) and Service Pack 3 has been out since April of 2008. If you are running XP SP2 and you don’t want to make any “big” moves to Windows 7 this half of 2010 then make a “little” move to SP3 for XP and buy yourself some more time.
Windows Vista RTM – Let’s take a closer look at the life-cycle here. The RTM version was released on 11/8/2006 and the generally available versions of Vista were released to customers on 1/30/2007. Vista, overall, is still in mainstream support until 4/10/2012. Plus, Vista Business and Enterprise versions have extended support until 4/11/2017. However, since SP1 has been out for Vista since April 2008, a version of the OS without any service pack is no longer supported. If your organization is planning on staying on Vista for the foreseeable future, you’ll want to be using SP2 for Vista, as the support for Vista SP1 ends on 7/12/2011.

So it comes down to really thinking about where the needs of your organization are now and where they really need to be come the end of 2010. I’d love to see Windows 7 on every desktop I touch, because I’m already finding myself annoyed with some of the things that XP lacks. However, I do think replacing Windows 2000 on servers takes priority over any Windows XP client.

Tech Triple Play in San Francisco – March 2nd

Is your schedule empty on March 2nd? If so, you can fill your day with several technology events being held in downtown San Francisco.

Start your morning with a Microsoft TechNet Event (8am-Noon) for Windows Azure, Hyper-V and Windows 7 Deployment. Get an overview of Windows Azure, look at the tools and techniques available for building virtual environments in Hyper-V version 2.0, then learn how to simplify your Windows 7 deployments.

Then for the price of an Expo pass at RSA, spend the afternoon checking out the vendors in the Exposition hall. The Expo pass also gets you the afternoon keynotes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Finally, spend the evening hanging out with the Pacific IT Professionals at their monthly meeting, held at Microsoft’s downtown office at 6pm. Be sure to check out the site for meeting information and RSVP so there is enough snacks to go around.

See you there!

Looking at Microsoft’s Customer Experience Improvement Program

Microsoft has several ways of collecting data in order to improve the Windows experience. One of them is the Customer Experience Improvement Program. New installations of Windows 7 prompt you to opt in or out during the initial set up, but if you want to check or change your participation, you can find setting in the Control Panel.

This data mining tool sits in the background of your computer collecting usage and “trouble” data, periodically sending it off to Microsoft. While the idea of that sounds a bit “big brother”, there are some benefits to having a sibling watch over you. While you may or may not believe it, Microsoft uses data from these tools to fix bugs and improve the Windows operating system.

If you’ve checked “Yes” in the box above, your computer is identified by a unique GUID and your IP address is captured in the data submission process. The GUID is used to determine wide-spread issues compared repeated events from the same computer and is tracked, however your IP address isn’t ultimately stored with the data reports, so your computer can’t be identified specifically.

The CEIP data that is collected from your computer generally includes:

Configuration – how many processors you have, your OS version, screen resolution, if you use Bluetooth or high-speed USB devices, etc.
Performance and Reliability – how quickly a program responds to a button click, how many problems you have with a program or device and how fast your network connections work.
Program Usage – what features you use most often, how often you launch programs, and how many folders you typically keep on your desktop.

If you want more details or to review the entire privacy policy regarding this program, visit the program webpage at Microsoft.

Secrets of the Ease of Access Center

If you are a Windows user without any physical handicaps, chances are you’ve never even looked at the “Ease of Access Center” in the Window 7 control panel. However, there are some interesting things in there!

I find Mouse Keys to be handy from time to time, especially if I’ve been doing a lot of mousing and my hand needs a break. (This isn’t recommended on a laptop with an embedded number pad.) You can find those settings under the Make the mouse easier to use options. There are also different mouse style options than you’d find under the regular mouse settings – good for when you are doing presentations and want to make the mouse easier for others to follow.

Under Use this computer without a display, you’ll find the setting to adjust how long notification boxes stay open. This is adjustable up to 5 minutes. You can also change the thickness of the blinking cursor in the Make this computer easier to see section.

Under Make the keyboard easier to use there is the a couple hidden gems. First, “underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys” can make it easier for you to perform some tasks without reaching for the mouse.

Finally, if you aren’t impressed with the new Aero “Snap” features for docking your windows to the sides and top of the screen, you can turn them of by selecting “Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen.” For those of you who like shoving windows to the side to take advantage of screen real estate, this gives you that power back.

Not only can you find some interesting options for occasional use, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with what Windows can do for someone who may need some adjustments in order to use their computer to the best of their abilities.

Upcoming TechNet Event – Happening Near You!

The TechNet Events team is hitting the road again, bringing you presentations on Windows Azure, Hyper-V and demonstrations on simplifying Windows 7 deployments.

TechNet Events are free and with over 35 dates in cities across the United States, there’s bound to be one near you. The San Francisco session will be held on March 2nd. Registration is open now.