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.

Terminal Services 2008: When its not your print job

I got wind of an interesting problem at work recently. I wasn’t involved in troubleshooting it at the time, but I still think it’s worth a post in case it ever comes up again for someone.

We’ve been rolling out the pilot of our Terminal Services 2008 remote access solution and are now doing the necessary tweaks and repairs that come from having people actually work the system. All our users (terminal services or otherwise) get an automatically mapped printer that emails the user a PDF of whatever they printed. Some users had reported they weren’t getting their PDFs delivered via email and others were getting PDFs that didn’t belong to them.

Turns out there is a known issue with Vista and Server 2008 where “print jobs may have incorrect owners” when using a shared printer. As stated in the KB article, every print job that is sent from this print client has the same owner in all print queues. The owner is the first user who sends a print job from this client after the printer server is restarted. The problem occurs because the print job is sent in the wrong remote procedure call (RPC) context.

While this usually isn’t a big problem (outside of others potentially being able to manage another person’s print job), but when it came to our PDF printing process the owner of the print job is used to determine the email address of the recipient. The knowledge base article includes a link to request the hotfix and applying it did solve the issue.

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.

The MVP Summit ends, but the experience continues

I had a fantastic time at the MVP Summit this past week. I enjoyed two days of sessions on Microsoft’s campus, as well as keynotes and other side events in downtown Bellevue to complete the four day adventure.

Even though I’m a Windows Desktop Experience MVP, I hit sessions from some of my other interest areas too – particularly Exchange and Directory Services. It meant I spent a lot of time switching between shuttle buses and hoping I didn’t arrive too late to sessions, but it was well worth the effort. Some of the sessions brought to my attention current features that I need to spend more time looking at and others highlighted things that will just have to wait a bit, due to the MVP NDA.

In addition to all the learning opportunities, I’ve met some great people and have run into some familiar faces from attending TechEd and other tech conferences over last few years. Now I have new blogs to check out, new people to follow on Twitter and more ways share information about technology.

All in all, my first Summit has been a great experience and a stellar way to start my first year as an MVP. I’m looking forward to staying in contact with Microsoft staff and my fellow MVPs the rest of year through other online and live events. And I hope I’ll get to enjoy this all again next year!

RSA Conference 2010 – You gonna be there?

If you are looking for a reason to hang out in San Francisco’s Moscone Center in early March, look no further. It’s time for the annual RSA Conference on security. With meager a beginning in 1991 with 50 attendees at their first event in Redwood City, RSA has grown to attract over 10,000 attendees annually.

This will be the 4th RSA I’ve attended, though I’ve never attended the full conference. It always looks jam-packed and awesome, but security is only a small portion of my job, thus only gets a small portion of the training dollars I can lobby for myself. So I always opt for the Expo Plus Pass.

I think the Expo Plus Pass is a great way to get a taste of the conference, attend all the keynote speeches and even pick one breakout session to attend. For just shy of $300, I think it’s a great value over the regular Expo Only Pass ($100).

RSA is being held March 1-5th and you can register here.

Happy 10th Anniversary to Active Directory

Time sure flies when you are busy keeping up with Active Directory, which has been around since it’s release on February 17, 2000 with Windows Server 2000.

I remember the first time I was part of an upgrade from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000 Active Directory. I was the sole IT person in the branch office and was working on a project to upgrading my branch office to be a child domain in the headquarters’ “new” Windows 2000 Active Directory forest.

The NT 4.0 PDC in my office had a DNS suffix defined in the network settings, and unknown to us at the time, caused my domain to end up with a disjointed namespace. Once we realized we had an issue, I got to be part of my first upgrade and my first rollback – all in the same evening.

Because I had taken my backup domain controller offline, it was pretty easy for me to bring NT 4.0 back to life. It was far more work for my colleagues at headquarters, who had to call support services for details on using NTDSUTIL to remove the remnants of the child domain controller out of AD forest so we could perform the upgrade again.

Several years, and several domain controller demotions later, I’m quite comfortable with the process I first saw happen back in that little closet of a server room. Active Directory, it’s certainly been fun 10 years!

Microsoft Support – Look Again

I have to admit the first place I go to for answers to problems with Microsoft products is Google. Years ago, I learned that I was more likely to get my answer starting outside of the Microsoft Support web pages. In many cases, I’d even find knowledge base articles faster when searching the whole Internet vs. starting directly in the knowledge base portal itself. That fact alone has kept me from starting out at “support.microsoft.com” for a long time. Old habits die hard.

But I’ve been giving Microsoft Support a second look lately and it’s improved over the years.

One of the areas you should check out when supporting home or office users is the Solution Centers which will tailor content to the OS or application you select. Depending on your selection, you might find options to access Microsoft Fix it, which can lead you to some automatic diagnostics and solutions. There are automated solutions for XP, Vista, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and others. Windows 7 has a lot of the automated diagnostic features built in and the Fix it web page provides alternate instructions for accessing those tools.

Another area to check out is the Microsoft Answers forum, which is geared toward more consumer level Q&A on desktop operating systems, Office products, Windows Live, Security Essentials.

Finally, if you seek more support information for enterprise applications and Windows Server, TechNet is the place to be. Check out Keith Comb’s recent post about improvements in TechNet Search. Don’t forget about the TechNet Forums and Community areas too – lots of great blogs and other resources are there, like the Fix it Blog that posts regular additions to the Fix it solutions, especially for more of the server products.

Happy Help-desking!

Looking forward to the MVP Summit

Next week, I’ll be heading to Bellevue and Redmond, WA to take part in the annual Microsoft MVP Summit. This is my first chance to attend the summit, so I’m hoping to make the most of it! I spent some time last week working on my conference schedule and it looks like it’s going to be a busy few days – full of interactions with members of the various Microsoft product teams and plenty of presentations and activities. I almost wish I could be in two places at once so I could attend sessions that share time slots.

I’m also looking forward to meeting other Windows Desktop Experience MVPs, as well as those in other technical areas I’m interested in, like Remote Desktop Services, Exchange, Active Directory and SharePoint. Events like this always get me jazzed about ongoing or upcoming projects I can work on – I’m sure next week will not disappoint!