Microsoft Talk

Reveals extensive enhancements for simplified application life-cycle management, provides sneak peek at all key focus areas for Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0.

Microsoft Corp. today provided the first look at the next version of its developer tools and platform, which will be named Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. Microsoft described the next release through the following five focus areas: riding the next-generation platform wave, inspiring developer delight, powering breakthrough departmental applications, enabling emerging trends such as cloud computing, and democratizing application life-cycle management (ALM).

Today’s announcement included an in-depth look at how Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2010 (code-named “Rosario”) will help democratize ALM with a unique solution that brings all the members of a development organization into the application development life cycle, and removes many of the existing barriers to integration. Additional details on the other focus areas will be disclosed over the product development cycle.

“With Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, we are focused on the core pillars of developer experience, support for the latest platforms spanning client, server, services and devices, targeted experiences for specific application types, and core architecture improvements,” said S. “Soma” Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “These pillars are designed specifically to meet the needs of developers, the teams that drive the application life cycle from idea to delivery, and the customers that demand the highest quality applications across multiple platforms. You can expect to hear a lot more about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 in the coming months.”

Democratizing Application Life-Cycle Management

Today, much of application development remains siloed throughout the enterprise, leading to decreased productivity and lengthy product development cycles. With VSTS 2010, Microsoft is taking the next step forward in giving individuals and development organizations an advanced solution that enables them to integrate effectively and build and deliver high-quality applications.

On July 24th, Microsoft announced that it intends to acquire DATAllegro Inc., a provider of breakthrough data warehouse appliances. The acquisition will extend the capabilities of Microsoft’s mission-critical data platform, making it easier and more cost-effective for customers of all sizes to manage and glean insight from the ever-expanding amount of data generated by and for businesses, employees and consumers.

“DATAllegro is a tremendously innovative company that has started to redefine the data warehouse market,” said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft. “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 delivers enterprise-class capabilities in business intelligence and data warehousing, and the addition of the DATAllegro team and its technology will take our data platform to the highest scale of data warehousing.”

“Integrating DATAllegro’s nonproprietary hardware platform and flexible software architecture into Microsoft SQL Server will provide customers with the strongest offering in the market,” said Stuart Frost, CEO of DATAllegro. “We are excited to join forces with Microsoft and continue the innovation this company was founded on.”

Unlike most data warehouse appliance vendors targeting the 1–25 terabyte range, DATAllegro has specialized in large-volume, high-performance data warehouses. DATAllegro’s data warehouse appliance installations boast some of the largest data volume capacities in the industry — up to hundreds of terabytes on a single system. DATAllegro clients span such markets as retail, telecommunications and manufacturing.

According to a report by Donald Feinberg of Gartner Inc., “As data warehouses are becoming more strategic to organizations and as data warehouse appliances mature, the adoption rate of the data warehouse appliance is increasing rapidly.” (“Data Warehouse Appliances Are More Than Just Plug-And-Play,” July 13, 2007.)

In addition to offering large capacities, DATAllegro’s patent-pending technology is designed for complex workloads including high concurrency and mixed queries. DATAllegro is one of the few data warehouse appliances built on a nonproprietary hardware platform including Dell and Bull servers and EMC storage. This flexible architecture makes it ideally suited to integrate with Microsoft SQL Server.

After completing the acquisition, Microsoft will retain most of DATAllegro’s team as well as its headquarters in Aliso Viejo, Calif., making it a Center of Excellence for data warehousing. Existing DATAllegro customers will continue to be supported.

What this means for you and me, is faster and more effecient service from any company.

Check out the newest books over on The BookStacks.

In one of my earlier posts, I shared the scary bits on sneaky Windows Update. That was incoming in to your computer. How does this scare you? Your computer connecting to websites without your knowing about!!!

Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration blogs about a simple DOS command that will enable you to detect and prevent.

Source

1. Type cmd in your Windows Run box.

2. Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter. After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.

3. Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

The file activity.txt will have a log of all process that made a connection to the Internet in the last two minutes. It will also show which process connected to which website in this time. And not just the web browsers (like iexplore.exe or opera.exe), the log will also show your IM clients, download managers, email programs or any software that requires a net connection.

Scroll though the activity.txt file and look for any process names or website addresses that you are not aware of. If you track one , go to the task manager (or Process Explorer) to find the location of the executable on your computer and eliminate it.

You may want to add this to your automated 5 Windows Tasks

How to automate Windows software updates
How to automate cleanup of Windows temporary directories
How to automate Windows desktop folder synchronization
How to automate Windows desktop backup tasks
How to automate advanced Windows desktop tasks

Sysinternals’ PageDefrag is one freeware programs that you must have on your usb drive.

PageDefrag lets you defragment immovable system files.

It won’t defrag while the system is actually running, but at the next reboot it will defrag the system.

The utility defragments the page file, the event logs, the Registry hives and the hibernation files, all of which normally cannot be defragmented.

When first run, PageDefrag generates a report that describes the location of those files, how many clusters they occupy and how many fragments they’re in. You’re then presented with three options:

1. Defragment once at the next reboot,
2. Defragment at each boot time with a countdown delay, or
3. Disable defragmentation.

If you choose either of the first two options, defragmentation will occur at the next reboot before the Windows GUI loads, and the program will provide real-time feedback on its progress. PageDefrag can also be invoked from the command line or in a script; you don’t need to use the GUI to trigger it.

This toolkit is intended to help you secure the data on your organization’s mobile PCs–in a cost-effective way–using Encrypting File System (EFS) and Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker) technologies.

The Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs describes how to effectively use both EFS and BitLocker to help address your organization’s requirements to protect data on mobile PCs. The Toolkit also provides you with software tools and scripts to help you centrally configure, deploy, and manage encryption settings on all your mobile PCs.
The Toolkit consists of four components. The Executive Overview and Security Analysis documents are available now, and the remaining components will be released later this year.
The Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs includes the following components:

• Executive Overview. This document provides a broad survey from a business and regulatory perspective of how mobile data is at risk and how the Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs can help. It also provides information about how you can use the guidance and tools in this Solution Accelerator as well as tools you may already have licensed to mitigate these risks.

• Security Analysis. This guide provides an in-depth review of how EFS and BitLocker can help you address the unique risks associated with data on mobile PCs.

• Planning and Implementation Guide. This guide describes how to plan for, configure, deploy, and operate EFS and BitLocker in your organization. A Beta version of the Planning and Implementation Guide is currently available (see below).

• Microsoft Encrypting File System Assistant. The EFS Assistant is a software tool you can use to centrally control EFS settings on all your PCs (the EFS Assistant also works with desktop PCs). The EFS Assistant can help you encrypt the sensitive files on your users’ laptops, regardless of where those files are located. In addition, the EFS Assistant operates transparently to end users, eliminating training issues or other impacts. A Beta version of the EFS Assistant is currently available

To view this solution online at TechNet, click here.

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What command do you use for copying of files from the command line? COPY would be the most obvious answer for single-item copying of files.

For copying multiple directories you would use XCOPY command, since it preserves the attributes as well. What about preserving NTFS extended attributes such as access control lists and alternate data streams? Use Robocopy. It is available as part of Windows Resource Kit, designed to overcome unreliable network conditions or other possible interruptions of service—e.g., for copying files to drives mapped across WAN links or via wireless networks.

Robocopy is now a a standard-issue item with Vista, meaning it’s all the easier to get hold of and work with.

Derk Benish,systems engineer in Microsoft’s MSN Search Group, has a simple GUI for Robocopy! Maybe because Robocopy is a command line utility and has not gained as much ground as it should have.

The GUI is divided into six tabs, each dealing with one aspect of the Robocopy command set:

• Path allows you to set the source and target paths for the copy operation, or use the standard Windows folder-picker to select them manually. The “Map Drive?” box lets you map to a folder on a remote server if needed.
• Copy Options lets you set all the needed switches for the copy operation. If you don’t know what each switch does, hover your mouse over them for an explanation.
• Drive Mapping allows you to provide a target server name, username, password and domain if you’re using the drive-mapping option in the Path tab.
• Filters defines any file-filtering operations (again, as described by the program’s command switches). Hover your mouse over any of the options for an explanation.
• Logging lets you enable any logging options for Robocopy.
• Monitoring enables real-time monitoring for the copy operation.

Save the configuration to a script that can be reused, so the GUI doesn’t create a dependency on the GUI in order to make Robocopy functional. Use this GUI to learn how Robocopy works and slowly move to using the command line.

Till now, what did you use to copy files/folders?

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Cross Posting from Alpesh Nakars’ Blogosphere - IT’s All about Technology

When you install Windows Server 2003 and start to place applications on that server, it’s absolutely astounding how many programs are actually there. If you’ve used msconfig, you’ve gotten a partial look at a list of these programs. Msconfig provides you with a small subset of the actual executables that are loaded when you use a Windows server. Using the AutoRuns utility, available for download from Microsoft’s Web site, you can get the complete list of programs and executables that are loaded when a Windows server boots or when you run certain applications.

AutoRuns looks at every known location that houses boot files, including the StartUp folder, the Run and RunOnce registry keys, Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, autostart services, and a number of other locations. AutoRuns displays each item in the order that Windows processes the item, and provides a Properties page that matches the page you get if you locate the executable file on your own and bring up the Properties page.

AutoRuns also provides a Jump To link that takes you directly to the location that loads the executable. For example, if you use the Jump To link on an entry that is loaded from the registry, AutoRuns will load the registry editor and browse to the key. You can also configure AutoRuns to look at the entries that are loaded for a particular user.

AutoRuns also comes in a command line variety, named Autorunsc.exe. Use autorunsc /? to get information from particular startup locations.

VIA TechRepublic