Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1 is the newest version of MDT, a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. MDT 2012 Update 1 supports deployment of Windows 8, Windows 7, Office 2010 and 365, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

Some of the key changes in MDT 2012 Update 1 are:

  • Added support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
  • Support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 CTP: Added support in MDT for deploying Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 with Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 CTP, while supporting all new Configuration Manager functionality (offline BitLocker, UEFI, and Assessment and Deployment Kit).
  • Support for DaRT 8 Beta: Updated MDT to support DaRT 8 for Windows 8 deployments, while continuing to support DaRT 7 for Windows 7 deployments. Added DaRT support for Configuration Manager scenarios.
  • New “Build Your Own Pages” User-Driven Installation (UDI) feature: Enhanced the UDI wizard and designer to enable IT pros to design their own wizard pages with little effort.
  • New System Center 2012 – Orchestrator support: Provided the ability to add steps into an OS deployment task sequence to execute Orchestrator runbooks as part of the deployment process.
  • Other improvements: Added support for Windows PowerShell 3.0, reworked Roles and Features installation logic for Windows 8, improved “boot from VHD” deployment scenarios, and added support for Configuration Manager monitoring.

Download

VMware Workstation 8

What’s New

This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new features and support.

Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards

The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU. See Installation Requirements for details.

The keyboard filter driver is no longer installed by default. When the driver is not installed, the enhanced keyboard functionality is unavailable and you must press Ctrl-Alt-Ins instead of Ctrl-Alt-Del to send a Ctrl-Alt-Del keystroke to the guest. To use the enhanced keyboard functionality, you must perform a custom installation and select the component. If you select the component, you must reboot whenever you install or uninstall Workstation.

Virtual Hardware Improvements

This version of Workstation includes many hardware improvements. To try new hardware features, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine or create a new virtual machine that uses the latest virtual hardware version.

  • The display technology has been changed to provide a better experience for Unity users and users who have multiple monitors. These changes also allow you to add a projector to your laptop without restarting your virtual machine.
  • Virtual machines can now support up to 64GB of memory. The host system should have more than 64GB of memory to use this feature.
  • An HD Audio device is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 guests. The HD Audio device is compatible with the RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec.
  • USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.
  • Bluetooth devices on the host can now be shared with Windows guests. With the latest hardware version, Bluetooth devices that are paired to the host system radio are available to Windows guests and can be paired from within the guest. You should not pair Bluetooth audio devices, such as headphones, or Bluetooth input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to a guest.
  • You can now enable Virtual VT-X/EPT or AMD-V/RVI in the processor settings interface. With this feature, applications running in a guest can take advantage of these virtualization technologies. You can also run 64-bit guest operating systems inside of vSphere running inside Workstation.
New User Interface

The Workstation user interface has been updated to include new menus, toolbars, and an improved preferences screen.

  • The favorites sidebar has been replaced with a virtual machine library. Instead of identifying every virtual machine created in Workstation as a favorite, the library is a comprehensive list of all of the virtual machines that Workstation users create, open, or access.
  • A new folder summary page helps you to better manage a group of related virtual machines. Live thumbnails make it easy to see what is happening in running virtual machines.
  • The full screen toolbar has been updated so that you can do more without having to leave full screen mode. Quick switch mode is no longer needed.
What Happened to Teams?

Although at first it might appear that the teams feature has been removed, you can add team attributes to any virtual machine in this version of Workstation.

  • The team structure has been converted to a simple folder of virtual machines.
  • A new advanced settings dialog box has been added for network adapters to let you throttle the bandwidth of incoming and outgoing transmissions and simulate packet loss.
  • You can perform power operations on several virtual machines at the same time by selecting virtual machines on the folder tab and pressing the power button on the toolbar. If all of the virtual machines in a folder are in the same power state, you can select the folder to perform a power operation on all of the virtual machines in the folder.
  • You use a global Workstation preference to configure the delay between powering on virtual machines.
  • To implement LAN segments, you can use traditional VMnets or put all of the virtual machines that you want to communicate on the same custom VMnet.
Shared Virtual Machines and AutoStart

You can share virtual machines with remote users in this version of Workstation. A shared virtual machine can be accessed remotely by other instances of Workstation. Workstation moves virtual machines to the shared virtual machines folder, where the VMware Host Agent service manages them. The VMware Host Agent service is used by other VMware products, including VMware Server and vSphere, and provides additional capabilities required by professional users. An extensive permissions interface lets you control the users who can access and use shared virtual machines.

You can use the new AutoStart feature to configure shared virtual machines to start with the host system. You can also configure AutoStart for shared virtual machines on remote hosts running Workstation and ESX 4.x and later.

Remote Connections

In this version of Workstation, you are no longer constrained to working only with virtual machines that your computer has enough power to run. You can use the new Connect to Server feature to connect to remote hosts running Workstation, ESX 4.x and later, and VMware vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote host, all of the virtual machines that you have permission to access are displayed in the virtual machine library.

Upload to ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server

VMware OVF Tool is now integrated with Workstation so that you can upload a virtual machine from Workstation to a remote server running ESX, ESXi, or vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote server, you drag the virtual machine from the local My Computer section of the virtual machine library to the remote server. A wizard walks you through the process.

Documentation Changes

This version of Workstation includes several important documentation changes.

(NEW) Getting Started with VMware Workstation
Describes how to install and upgrade Workstation, create a typical virtual machine, and perform common virtual machine operations.

Using VMware Workstation
(previously VMware Workstation User’s Guide)
Describes how to create typical, custom, and shared virtual machines, add virtual devices, configure network connections, connect to remote servers and use remote virtual machines, upload virtual machines to remote servers, and perform all virtual machine operations.

Getting Started with VMware Player
(previously VMware Player Getting Started Guide)
Now contains complete information on installing and using Player.

Online help
Has been redesigned to provide context-sensitive help and information on performing common tasks. For complete information on using Workstation and Player, see the guides.

(NEW) Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
Contains comprehensive information on installing, upgrading, and configuring VMware Tools.

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Installation Requirements

When you install Workstation, the installer performs checks to make sure the host system has a processor that meets the following requirements. You cannot install Workstation if the host system does not meet these requirements.

  • 64-bit x86 CPU
  • LAHF/SAHF support in long mode

You can use CPU-Z or a similar utility to determine if the host system CPU is 64-bit capable. CPU-Z shows EM64T (Intel) or AMD64 (AMD) if the processor is 64-bit capable.

If you plan to install a 64-bit guest operating system in a virtual machine, the host system must have one of the following processors. Workstation will not allow you to install a 64-bit guest operating system if the host system does not have one of these processors.

  • AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode.
  • Intel CPU that has VT-x support. VT-x support must be enabled in the host system BIOS. The BIOS settings that must be enabled for VT-x support vary depending on the system vendor. See VMware KB article 1003944 for information on how to determine if VT-x support is enabled.

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Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows:

Remote Connection and Remote Virtual Machine Issues
  • When Workstation is installed on a Linux host, VMware Workstation Server writes the core file to /usr/bin instead of to /var/core or /var/log/vmware.
  • You cannot use Workstation to create a remote virtual machine on an ESX or ESXi 4.1 host if the virtual machine name contains non-ASCII characters.
  • When you upload a virtual machine to a remote server (VM > Manage > Upload), Workstation modifies the MAC address and PCI slot number of the virtual Ethernet device in the newly created remote virtual machine. Network errors can occur in the remote virtual machine if the network settings in the guest operating system require the original network hardware configuration.
    Workaround: Change the network settings in the guest operating system in the remote virtual machine to match the new network hardware configuration.
  • VMware Workstation Server occasionally crashes on a 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x host.
Role and Permission Issues
  • On a Windows host, if you edit a permission, assign the Administrator role, and then immediately click Remove to delete the permission, the original permission still exists when you reopen the Permissions dialog box.
Shared Virtual Machine Issues
  • On Windows hosts, if a shared virtual machine has a floppy drive that is configured to connect at power on, and a remote user powers on the virtual machine, a dialog box appears on the host system asking whether to connect the device every time the virtual machine powers on. If you click Yes to close the dialog box on the host system after the virtual machine is completely up and running on the host system, Workstation crashes on the host system.
  • On a 32 or 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 2008 R2, or 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3 host, if you uninstall Workstation, preserve the configuration, and then reinstall Workstation to a different path, the Shared VMs item is unavailable in the virtual machine library.
  • On a Windows host, if you create a virtual machine with a name that contains non-ASCII characters in the New Virtual Machine wizard, you cannot share the virtual machine with the Move the virtual machine option if the destination path is other than the system operating system location. The sharing process stops with the error message Failed to move VM to destination path.
    Workaround: If you want to share the virtual machine, you must use only ASCII characters in the virtual machine name when you create the virtual machine in the New Virtual Machine wizard.
Display and Input Issues
  • On an Ubuntu 11.04 host, the virtual machine icon does not appear on the system tray when you set the Show tray icon setting (Edit > Preferences > Workspace) to Always or When a virtual machine is powered on.
    Workaround: Whitelist vmware-tray as an application that can show system tray icons in Ubuntu 11.04. Alternatively, enable Notification Area (Systray) for all applications, for example:
    gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"
    After you run the command, log out and log back in. The command can take several minutes to take effect.
  • On a Fedora 15 host, powering on a virtual machine that has DirectX 9 accelerated graphics enabled might fail with the error "Unable to change virtual machine power state: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to."
    Workaround: Deselect the Accelerate 3D graphics setting (VM > Settings > Hardware > Display) to disable DirectX 9 accelerated graphics in the virtual machine.
  • When you enter Unity mode in an Ubuntu 11.04 guest, application menus do not appear for applications that were opened before entering Unity mode. Application menus do appear for applications that are opened from the Unity launch menu after entering Unity mode.
    Workaround: Disable the APPMENU (Global menu) in the Ubuntu 11.04 guest. See the Ubuntu documentation for more information.
  • After you upload a Windows XP virtual machine from the local host to a remote server, you cannot autofit the guest in full screen mode. This problem occurs because VRAM is reduced to 4 MB when the virtual machine is uploaded to the remote server.
Folder and Team Conversion Issues
  • When you select a newly created folder in the Workstation library, the toolbar power option button is dimmed and you cannot perform batch power operations on the virtual machines in the folder.
    Workaround: If you select a virtual machine in the folder, move the selection off the virtual machine (for example, click anywhere on the folder tab), and then select the folder in the library again, the toolbar power option button becomes available.
Device Issues
  • On Windows hosts, Player crashes if you click Connect or Disconnect in the Removable Devices menu before the console appears.
  • An Ubuntu 11.04 host might crash when you try to connect a USB device to a running virtual machine from the status bar icon’s context menu. This problem typically occurs after Workstation is freshly installed, the host is rebooted, and the first time the device is connected to the virtual machine.
Physical Machine Virtualization Issues
  • When simple file sharing or UAC is enabled on the physical machine, the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard returns an "incorrect user credentials" error instead of an error message that indicates simple file sharing or UAC must be disabled before virtualizing the physical machine. See the online help or Using VMware Workstation for information on preparing a physical machine for virtualization.
  • You cannot use the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard if the Workstation installation path contains non-ASCII characters.

System Center Operations Manager 2012 Beta is released

Overview

System Center Operations Manager 2012 provides the monitoring component of cloud and datacenter solutions, to help you manage your datacenter and cloud environments by:

  • Delivering flexible and cost effective enterprise-class monitoring and diagnostics while reducing the total cost of ownership by leveraging commodity hardware, with standard configurations to monitor heterogeneous environments.
  • Helping to ensure the availability of business-critical applications and services through market-leading .NET application performance monitoring and diagnostics plus JEE application health monitoring.
  • Providing a comprehensive view of datacenters, and private and public clouds.

Feature Summary

  • Predictable performance and availability of critical applications
    • End-to-end views of application health and topology
    • Establishment of application service-level delivery (SLAs)
    • Precise identification of application errors
  • Flexible and cost-effective infrastructure monitoring
    • In-depth monitoring, diagnostics, and reporting for heterogeneous environments
    • Integrated network device monitoring and alerts
    • Simplified management infrastructure
  • Comprehensive monitoring for your datacenter and cloud—on your terms
    • Integrated physical, virtual, and cloud management
    • Common console across datacenter and clouds
    • Rich reporting

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3

  • Other Software:
    • Any server role
      • .NET 3.5 or 4.0
    • Management Server, Reporting Server, Web Console, Gateway Server
      • Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit)
    • Operational & Data Warehouse
      • SQL 2008 SP1 and above
      • SQL Collation – SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
    • Agent
      • Windows Server 2003 SP2 and above
      • Windows Server 2008 SP2 and above
      • Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows XP Professional SP3 and above
      • Windows Vista SP2 and above
      • Windows 7

    Supported Hardware Configuration:

    • Operations Manager Operations database: 4 GB of RAM or higher, 50 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Operations console: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Reporting data warehouse: 4 GB of RAM or more, 100 GB of available hard disk space
    • Reporting server: 2 GB or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • gateway server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Web console server: 2 GB of RAM or more, 20 GB of available hard disk space
    • Audit database: 4 GB of RAM or more, 100 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server with audit collector: 2 GB of RAM or more, 50 GB of available hard disk space
    • Management server with Agentless Exception Monitoring file share: 2 GB of RAM or more, 30 GB of available hard disk space
    • Agent: Please refer to the recommended hardware requirement required by the operating system.

Download the beta HERE

Microsoft Office 365 Deployment Readiness Tool

The Office 365 Deployment Readiness Tool provides analysis of your on-premises environment in preparation for an Office 365 enterprise deployment. The readiness tool is integrated with the guidance provided in the web edition of the Microsoft Office 365 Beta Deployment Guide.

Download HERE

I run the tool in my test environment. See below the results

Microsoft Office 365 Deployment Readiness Tool

Beta

Office 365 Deployment Resource Kit build 01.00.00.00
modgClick here for the Microsoft Office 365 Beta Deployment Guide for Enterprises

Domains

modg Deployment Guide: Adding Your Domain(s) to Office 365
All email domains discovered in your environment:
Total: 3

All primary email domains discovered:
Total: 2

Primary email domain suffixes with greater than 50 users:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1


User Identity and Account Provisioning

Active Directory

Statistics

Total number of domains discovered in your forest: 1
Estimated total number of users: 59
Estimated total number of contacts: 0
Estimated total number of groups: 54
Estimated total number of mailboxes: 53
Estimated total number of objects for Directory Synchronization: 113
note
Note: Filters were applied to obtain the above object counts for an Office 365 deployment.

Forest and Domains

The following domains were discovered in your Active Directory forest:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1

Trusts

No forest trusts found
green
You may deploy AD FS 2.0 and Directory Synchronization without multi-forest constraints

Schema and Forest/Domain Functionality Levels

Active Directory forest schema level: Windows Server 2008 R2
Exchange schema level: Exchange Server 2010 SP1
Domain Functionality:Windows Server 2008 R2
Forest Functionality:Windows Server 2008 R2
Domain Controller Functionality:Windows Server 2008 R2
green
It appears that your Active Directory schema is prepared for Exchange Rich Coexistence
modg Deployment Guide: Exchange Rich Coexistence Requirements


Active Directory Cleanup

modg Deployment Guide: Active Directory Cleanup

samaccountname (user name) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

givenname (first name) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

sn (last name) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

displayname Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

mail (email address) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed
green
No duplicates found

mailnickname Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

proxyaddresses (email addresses) Attribute

green
No duplicates found
green
Unsupported character test passed

Directory Synchronization

Object count assessment:
Estimated number of objects for Directory Synchronization (entire forest): 113
modg Deployment Guide: Object Count Considerations
Enterprise Admin rights:
green
It appears that you are an enterprise admin
Directory Synchronization admin requirement met!
modg Deployment Guide: Directory Synchronization Required Permissions
Active Directory recycle bin:
warning
Active Directory recycle bin is enabled in your forest this may impact your total object count quota for Directory Synchronization.


Office 365 Single Sign On and Identity

AD FS 2.0 Directory Cleanup Check:

UserPrincipalName (logon ID for Office 365) Attribute

fyi
Update values once you have verified your organization does not have any other application dependencies on the UserPrincipalName attribute.
modg Deployment Guide: Active Directory Cleanup
green
Unsupported characters test passed
green
Spaces in logon value test passed
green
Unicode character test passed
note
Note: All Unicode characters will be converted to underscores (_) in the UserPrincipalName field.
green
No UserPrincipalName duplicates found
warning
Discovered users without a user logon name (blank value) for UserPrincipalName
You will need to provide each user a UserPrincipalName in order for these users to sign into Office 365.
fyi
Below is a list of your UserPrincipalName domain suffixes in use:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1
note
Note: During the Office 365 Beta only one namespace (root and child domains) per AD FS 2.0 farm
Example contoso.com and root.contoso.com would require 1 AD FS 2.0 farm and fabrikam.com would require an additional AD FS 2.0 farm

fyi
Password length per domain:

wardvissers.local = 7

Exchange Online

Discovered Exchange Server(s) on-premises:
Estimated total number of Exchange Servers: 1

Statistics:

Estimated total number of users with default mailbox size (True): 53
Estimated total number of users with larger than default mailbox size (False): 0
Estimated total number of objects with Exchange organization level quota: 6


Lync Online

Lync user assessment:
Estimated total number of users leveraging Office Communications/Lync on-premises: 2
Sip domains:
fyi
The following sip domains were discovered:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1

SharePoint Online

User object count assessment:
green
The number of user objects in your forest is supported.
modg Deployment Guide: Object Count Considerations

Client and End User Experience

modg Deployment Guide: Rich Experience Client Requirements

Summary of client computer readiness (Office 365 single sign-on and rich client checks):

warning
Below is an estimate of computer operating systems NOT ready for Office 365 rich client experience:
Total: 0
green
Below is an estimate of computer operating systems ready for Office 365 rich client experience:
Windows XP Service Pack 3: 3
Windows 7 Service Pack 1: 3
Total: 6

Network


fyi
IP Configuration:

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.150.60
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.150.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.150.254

fyi
Trace route to your default gateway:

Tracing route to 192.168.150.254 over a maximum of 30 hops
1 1 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.150.254

fyi
Trace Route test to Exchange Online:

Tracing route to outlook.com [65.55.94.40]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 3 ms 2 ms 1 ms 192.168.150.254
2 * 24 ms 25 ms 82.169.11.254
3 25 ms 26 ms 26 ms 195.69.145.20
4 145 ms 146 ms 144 ms 10.14.234.234
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 10.14.234.234 reports: Destination net unreachable.
Trace complete.
fyi

For additional tests utilize the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer

Port Query Tests:

modg Deployment Guide: Ports and Protocols
green
portal.microsoft.com
Made a TCP 443 connection to portal.microsoftonline.com
green
Outlook.com
Made a TCP 443 connection to outlook.com
green
Outlook.com IMAP
Made a TCP 993 IMAP connection to outlook.com
green
Outlook.com POP
Made a TCP 995 POP connection to outlook.com
green
Outlook.com SMTP
Made a SMTP TCP 587 connection to outlook.com
green
Active Directory Federation Services End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to nexus.microsoftonline.com
green
Directory Synchronization End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to adminwebservice.microsoftonline.com
green
Office 365 PowerShell End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to ps.microsoftonline.com
green
Outlook.com PowerShell End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to ps.outlook.com
green
Office 365 Community End Point
Made a TCP 80 connection to community.office365.com
green
Lync Online SIP Connection
Made a TCP 443 connection to sipdir.online.lync.com
green
Lync Online Federation
Made a TCP 5061 connection to sipfed.online.lync.com
Domain Name System (DNS) name records checks:
fyi
Found the following MX DNS record(s):
Server: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1
wardvissers.local
primary name server = ward-dc01.wardvissers.local
responsible mail addr = hostmaster.wardvissers.local
serial = 761
refresh = 900 (15 mins)
retry = 600 (10 mins)
expire = 86400 (1 day)
default TTL = 3600 (1 hour)
Information Gathered On:
WARD-DC01
Date: za 07-05-2011
Start Time: 18:19
End Time: 18:21

GAL Photos in Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2010

With Microsoft Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2010 & Lync & Sharepoint 2010 you can finally get photos into your global address list (GAL) and see just who’s who on your emails. You can do this on 2 way’s

1. Using Powershell Smile

    A minor schema change

    First stop, the AD Schema. A minor schema modification is required to flip the thumbnailPhoto attribute to make it replicate to the Global Catalog.

    1. If you haven’t registered the Schema MMC snap-in on the server you want to make this change on, go ahead and do so using the following command:

      Regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll

    2. Fire up a MMC console (Start -> Run -> MMC) and add the Schema snap-in

    3. In the Active Directory Schema snap-in, expand the Attributes node, and then locate the thumbnailPhoto attribute. (The Schema snap-in lists attributes by its ldapDisplayName).

    4. In the Properties page, select Replicate this attribute to the Global Catalog, and click OK.

      Figure 1: Modifying the thumbnailPhoto attribute to replicate it to Global Catalog

      Loading pictures into Active Directory

      Now you can start uploading pictures to Active Directory using the Import-RecipientDataProperty cmdlet, as shown in this example:

      Import-RecipientDataProperty -Identity "Ward VIssers" -Picture -FileData ([Byte[]]$(Get-Content -Path "C:\pictures\wardvissers.jpg" -Encoding Byte -ReadCount 0))

      To perform a bulk operation you can use the Get-Mailbox cmdlet with your choice of filter (or use the Get-DistributionGroupMember cmdlet if you want to do this for members of a distribution group), and pipe the mailboxes to a foreach loop. You can also retrieve the user name and path to the thumbnail picture from a CSV/TXT file.

      2. Using a Free tool like Outlook Photos from Exclaimer

      Download the Tool HERE

      The tool is easy to use Smile.

      Prerequisites

      User Preferences

        Domain user – The logged in user’ account is required to be an Active Directory account.

        Domain computer – The computer the user is logged into needs to be joined to an Active
        Directory domain.

        Active Directory permissions – The logged in user must have permission to upload photos to the required Active Directory accounts. (Alternate credentials can be supplied or control of the thumbnailPhoto field can be delegated to the logged in user.)

      Operating System

      • Windows Server 2003 x86 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Server 2003 R2 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Server 2008 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Server 2008 R2 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Small Business Server 2003 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Small Business Server 2008.
      • Windows Small Business Server 2011.
      • Windows XP x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows Vista x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).
      • Windows 7 x86 and x64 (including all service pack levels).

      Other Software

      Microsoft Outlook 2010 x86 and x64

      Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

      Microsoft Exchange 2010 RTM and above

      Active Directory

      You must be logged into an Active Directory domain to run the application.

      Active Directory Forest
      Domain and Forest functional level of Windows Server 2008 and above.
      For Domain or Forest functional level of Windows Server 2003, the Windows Server 2008 Forest preparation must first be complete.

      Screenshots

        image image

      Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5

      The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop and server migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V.

      MAP helps make the following IT planning projects faster and easier:

      • Migration to Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Office 2010
      • Migration to Windows 7 compatible versions of Internet Explorer
      • Migration to cloud-based services
      • Server virtualization with Hyper-V
      • SQL Server consolidation and migration to SQL Server 2008 R2
      • Assessment of current software usage and client access history for simplified software asset management
      • PC security assessment and migration to Microsoft Forefront Client Security

      You can use MAP to inventory the following technologies:

      • Windows 7
      • Windows Vista
      • Windows XP Professional
      • Office 2010 and previous versions
      • Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
      • Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2
      • Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server
      • VMware ESX
      • VMware ESXi
      • VMware Server
      • Linux variants
      • LAMP application stack discovery
      • SQL Server 2008
      • SQL Server 2008 R2
      • MySQL
      • Oracle
      • Sybase

      Download MAP 5.5 HERE

      Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1

      Today the Exchange Team released Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (KB2425179). This update raises Exchange 2010 version number to 14.1.270.1.

      If your upgrading from Exchange 2007 you need to implement this rollup because the bug Exchange 2007 OWA redirect bug with Exchange 2010 sp1 is fixed check: kb2458419

      The List with Fixes:

      983186 The mailbox alias of a user contains the "?" character unexpectedly after you run the "Enable-Mailbox" cmdlet to create a mailbox for the user in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

      2295902 An excepted occurrence is not excluded from a recurring iCalendar message for an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox user

      2385017 You cannot edit public folder items even though you are the owner of the items in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

      2385194 You cannot connect to an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox by using a MAPI application when a Mailbox server and a Client Access server are installed on different computers

      2397171 You cannot reply or forward a large email message on an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox

      2403783 An incorrect label is displayed in the date field in a public folder item when you open the item by using OWA in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

      2408924 The subject of an item is deleted when you use the "UploadItems" operation together with the "Update" action or the "UpdateOrCreate" action in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

      2409597 You cannot open a public folder item when the default public folder database for the mailbox database is unavailable in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

      2423776 The Exchange Information Store service crashes frequently during a public folder replication process on an Exchange Server 2010 public folder

      2431500 You cannot connect to an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox simultaneously by using Outlook Anywhere from several Windows XP-based computers

      2433642 The "FETCH (BODYSTRUCTURE)" command returns a corrupted file name of an email message attachment on an Exchange Server 2010 computer

      2452075 You cannot connect to mailboxes in a recovery database on a server after you install Exchange Server 2010 SP1

      2458005  The Exchange Mailbox Replication service crashes when you use the "New-MailboxImportRequest" command to import a PST file to an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox

      2458419 "A temporary change has occurred that requires you to connect to a different server" error message when Exchange Server 2007 mailbox users try to access their mailboxes by using an Exchange Server 2010 Client Access server

      2322161 The replay queue length on passive copies of mailbox databases in Database Availability Group continues to increase in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

      982004 Exchange Server 2010 users cannot access the public folder

      983492 You cannot view updated content of an Exchange Server 2010 public folder

      983549 Exchange Server 2010 removes the sender’s email address from the recipient list in a redirected email message

      Download the Hotfix HERE

      Deploy Office 2010 with Multiple Languages with MDT 2010

      I Like Office 2010. For me it is the best Office version i ever worked with.
      MDT 2010 it’s great tool that Microsoft created.
      Now i will talk about how you deploy Office 2010 with Multilanguage packs with MDT 2010.

      Step 1: Download the Office 2010 English version booth will be in x86 & x64

      Step 2. Download the Office 2010 (language) Multilanguage iso only available from the Microsoft Volume Licensing site. Both in x86 en x64.

      Step 3. Add the Office 2010 English version to MDT 2010 here office-2010-uitrollen-met-mdt-2010

      Step 4. Extract the Office 2010 (language) Multilanguage iso with 7zip in the same application folder witch you created in Step 3.

      Step 5. When you open MDT 2010 management console and you go to the Office 2010 Application that you added in step 3. You wil see that MDT sees more the one language. In my case it was en-us and nl-nl. The Screenshot is from the older MDT 2010 you MDT sees Office 2010 as Office 2007. MDT 2010 beta 1 supports Office 2010. I found till now no issues deploying Office 2010.

       image

      Step 6. Check the languages that you want. Check the Screenshot how i did it.

      Step 7. Deploy the a Windows XP or Windows 7 client with Office 2010 Multilanguage versions.

      Step 8. You can check with Microsoft Office 2010 Language Preferences or the languages that you configured are installed.
      image

      Step 9. Use Group Policy to set the language settings for users

        1. Download the Office 2010 policy template files to your computer. You will find them HERE

        2. Make a new GPO named Office 2010 languages settings it is a user policy.

        3. Under User Configuration in the console tree, right-click Administrative Templates.

        4. Click Add/Remove Templates, and then click Add.

        5. In the Policy Templates dialog box, click the template that you want to add, and then click Open.

        6. After you add the Office 2010 templates, click Close.

        7. Open the Group Policy object (GPO) for which you want to set policy.

        8. Double-click User Configuration and expand the tree under Administrative Templates.

        9. Locate language-related policies in the Microsoft Office 2010 \ Language Settings node.

        10. Select the languages that you want to use for each setting.

        11. Save the GPO.

        12. Go Testing

        MDT 2010 Update 1 Beta Released

        The Solution Accelerators Team have released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1 Beta and would like your feedback.

        Download the beta now at https://connect.microsoft.com/site14/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=8689

        MDT 2010 Update 1 provides new capabilities, such as:

        · Support for Microsoft Office 2010.

        · A new User-driven Installation (UDI) deployment method (formerly known as “Modena”) for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. UDI gives information technology (IT) staff control over the deployment experience while empowering users to interact with and customize their operating system deployment through an easy-to-use wizard.

        · Improvements to the Deployment Workbench driver import process, detecting each driver’s true supported platforms.

        · Many bug fixes and other small improvements.

        This release supports the deployment of the Windows® 7; Windows Vista®; Windows XP; Windows Server® 2008 R2; Windows Server 2008; and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. See the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Documentation Library, which is included with MDT 2010 Update 1, for the complete documentation for this release.

        BitLocker to Go & Save the Recovery key in Active Directory

        Before you start wit Bitlocker to Go your domain controllers must be 2008 R2. You must upgrade your Schema.

        After done that I made a group policy named Bitlocker to Go.
        You can find the Bitlocker Policy under: Computer Configuration | Policies | Administrative Templates: Policy Definitions | Windows Components | BitLocker Drive Encryption | Removable Data Drives.

        I enabled the following policies:

        Choose How BitLocker Removable Drives Can Be Recovered

        image

        At first you must select the Allow Data Recovery Agent option. This option should be selected by default, but since this option is what makes the entire key recovery process possible, it is important to verify that the option is enabled.

        Next, you will enable the Omit Recovery Option From The BitLocker Setup Wizard option. This prevents users from saving or printing their own copies of the recovery key.

        Next, you will have to select the Save BitLocker Recovery Information to AD DS for Removable Data Drives. This is the option that actually saves the BitLocker recovery keys to the Active Directory.

        Finally, you should select the Do Not Enable BitLocker Until Recovery Information Is Stored To AD DS For Removable Data Drives option. This option forces Windows to confirm that the recovery has been written to the Active Directory before BitLocker is allowed to encrypt the drive. That way, you do not have to worry about a power failure wiping out the recovery key half way through the encryption process.

        Windows XP SP2 & SP3 can only read the bitlocker usb stick.

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