Update Notifier

 All your software updates in one place! ... Easy, Fast & FREE

What is Update Notifier?
The Update Notifier is a small utility that scans your computer for installed software and displays a list of updates. Also you can see the latest updates for applications from your Watch List.
Download Update Notifier
(updatenotifier.exe 445 kb)
Why do I need this software?
Most of the time having the latest version of a software is a good thing. Usually software updates add new features, which makes the software more usefull. Also with every update a software becomes more secure and more stable by fixing bugs & vulnerabilities from previous versions.
Features:

• install/run option
• scan selected stand-alone software
• delay option on start-up
• low memory consumption
• direct download links
• direct download links
• run in background
• multiple filters
• FREE

Screenshot:

Requirements
- Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista
- for Vista you need Administrator rights
Download Update Notifier
(updatenotifier.exe 445 kb)

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Info found here: http://cleansofts.org/view/update-notifier.html

Moving WSUS update content directory on your Essentials 2007 server

Image via Wikipedia

Faldt lige over denne her: http://www.systemcenterforum.org/news/moving-wsus-update-content-on-your-essentials-2007-server/

Here’s a good question that came up recently:

Q: How can I move the WSUS content directory to another drive on my Essentials 2007 server?

A: You can use the wsusutil.exe tool to make it. The tool is in %programfiles%\update services\tools on SCE server. The syntax is the following:

Wsusutil.exe movecontent g:\new_sce <log file path>

If you need to move the folders, but not the content, you can add the –skipcopy switch.

Incidentally, wsusmove.log is the logfile for the operation

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What's New in DPM 2007 Service Pack 1

 

Så er der nyheder omkring DPM 2007 SP1. Denne info er fundet her: http://www.microsoft.com/SystemCenter/DataProtectionManager/en/us/WHATs-NEW.aspx

Se også video her: http://edge.technet.com/tags/DPM/

De nye licens betingelser er beskrevet her: http://edge.technet.com/Media/DPM-2007-sp1-Licensing/

 

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007 provides continuous data protection for Windows application and file servers using seamlessly integrated disk and tape media and includes the following expanded capabilities:

• Protection of Hyper-V™ virtualization platforms, including both Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and the Microsoft Hyper-V Server, has been added to the existing set of protected workloads, building on the virtualization protection originally delivered for Virtual Server 2005.

• Enhanced SQL Server 2008 protection, including the addition of new protection capabilities for mirrored databases, support for parallel backups of databases within a single instance, and the ability to move data from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 for migration scenarios.

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 receive index protection, significant catalog optimization, and support for mirrored content databases.

• Added protection for Exchange Server 2007 Standby Cluster Replication (SCR), enabling a complete disaster recovery solution that leverages SCR failover alongside DPM point-in-time restores.

In addition to enhancing the protection of each of the core Microsoft application workloads, additional capabilities have also been introduced with the release of DPM 2007 SP1, such as:

• Local Data Source Protection enabling the DPM 2007 SP1 server to act as a branch office server offering self-protecting File Services and Virtualization hosting within one platform.

• Cross-Forest Protection allowing large enterprise customers with multiple Active Directory® forests to now have even more flexibility in their DPM deployments.

• Provision for a Client DPML answers customer demand for a more cost-effective way to protect Windows XP and Windows Vista clients using the same DPM 2007 infrastructure that protects their servers.

• Disaster Recovery capabilities within DPM 2007 SP1 now include the ability to leverage a third-party vaulting partner via the cloud (SaaS).

All of this new functionality builds on the features released in the DPM 2007 ‘Rollup Update’ in June 2008, which provided protection of Windows Server 2008, including Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 core, Windows Server 2008 System State and BitLocker™ support – as well as new tape media capabilities around tape sharing and media library sharing.

Outside of the Service Pack itself, Microsoft is also co-releasing a Management Pack to enable System Center Operations Manager 2007 to monitor and manage DPM deployments, providing an enterprise view of all of the DPM servers and protected workloads, as well as knowledge-based troubleshooting and optimization guidance from a central console.

Between ‘Rollup Update’ and Service Pack 1, many of the core features of DPM 2007 have seen incremental capabilities or workload advancements which promises to keep Data Protection Manager on a trajectory toward improving how Microsoft customers protect and recover their Windows application and file servers with the Microsoft backup and recovery solution.

 

Related articles:

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• Data Backup & Recovery for Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, Files & Hyper-V - A Technical Overview of System Center Data Protection Manager

Rebuilding your Essentials server without losing WSUS settings

Here’s a good question that came up in the Essentials Support Forum Recently.

Question: How can I rebuild my Essentials 2007 Server without losing my WSUS approvals?

Answer: Uninstalling SCE 2007 will also uninstall the WSUS 3.0 instance that is installed with it. However, you can choose to retain the updates when running uninstall wizard. As for your WSUS configuration, you can export the configuration to an xml file with the wsusmigrationexport.exe and wsusmigrationimport.exe tools.

At a high level, you’ll basically

1. Export your WSUS approvals to an xml file with  wsusmigrationexport.exe
2. Uninstall Essentials (and thus WSUS), retaining your updates that have been downloaded.
3. Install WSUS 3.0 on your Essentials Server.
4. Import the  xml settings file into WSUS with wsusmigrationimport.exe
5. Reinstall Essential.

Download this tool along with WSUS 3.0 API samples at the URL below.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=117680

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Logon Windows Vista as Administrator

Image via Wikipedia

Enable the Administrator Account

1. Open the command prompt with Administrative privileges by opening the Start Menu, and typing cmd in the search box, and then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter or click the Start orb, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
2. Type the following in the command prompt and press Enter after:

   net user administrator /active:yes

3. Restart your computer and logon as Administrator.

Note: You might want to set a password for the administrator’s account for at least a little protection.

Disable the Administrative Account

To disable the Administrative account run the Net User command demonstrated above while logged on an account with administrative privileges but not as the Administrator account and replace yes with no

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VMware Workstation 6.5 is here!

Image via CrunchBase

 

• Seamless desktop experience with “Unity” — Run applications in virtual machines alongside applications on your normal desktop. The desktop of the virtual machine disappears and applications appear as a normal window in the rest of their environment. Color coding of Unity application windows makes it easy to run multiple versions of the same application across different virtual machines.
• Support for DirectX 3D graphics — VMware Workstation was the first desktop virtualization product to support 3D graphics and VMware Workstation 6.5 takes it to the next level with support for DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 2 3D graphics.
• Simplify creating Windows and Linux virtual machines with Easy Install – VMware Workstation 6.5 enables users to save time and simplify Windows and Linux guest operating system installation. Just answer a few simple questions and the Easy Install feature will perform an unattended installation of the guest operating system and VMware Tools in a single step.
• VM record and replay for groundbreaking debugging — VMware Workstation 6.5 lets users record a VM’s entire programmatic execution—every CPU instructions, every memory page, and every disk write—over time and then replay the recording to reproduce the exact behavior and state of the virtual machine to help analyze and debug hard-to-reproduce software defects until they are fixed.
• Create ACE encrypted virtual machines — VMware Workstation 6.5 users now benefit from the included ACE authoring capabilities.  Encrypt important virtual machines and run them with the included VMware Player for improved data security, or create personal Pocket ACE virtual machines to take virtual desktop environments on the road with a USB thumb-drive.

Source: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/ws_6_5.html

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Requesting MS hotfixes online has changed slightly - new way of generating a request

Source: http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/archives/1746-Requesting-MS-hotfixes-online-has-changed-slightly-new-way-of-generating-a-request.html

I don't know if this is considered a 'backdoor' or not, but it has worked with every KB article I have tried it on so far.
Most of the time, if a KB article is available to the public, there will be a "Hotfix Download Available -
View and request hotfix downloads" message on the top of the screen like this:

If you have a particular KB article that you want to download, and the image above seems to be missing, try this link in your web browser:
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=[KBnumber]&kbln=[KB language]
Replace [KBnumber] with the number of the hotfix you want, and replace [KB language] with your build language.
For instance, requesting KB 940848 for US English, would look like this:
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=940848&kbln=en-us
If someone wanted to, you could create a little Javascript applet to ask for the language and KB article, and auto-generate the above link.
Update: As pointed out in the comments section, someone beat me to writing up a Javascript-esque script for automating the request process. It is called Hotfixr. Much like Flickr. We seem to be losing vowels on the Internet.

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Creating a "no hypervisor" boot entry

Image via Wikipedia

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/04/14/creating-a-no-hypervisor-boot-entry.aspx 

From time to time I want to run Virtual PC / Virtual Server on my Hyper-V system.  While I can do this with the hypervisor running, the result is that Virtual PC / Virtual Server run quite slowly.  An easy fix for this is to create a second boot entry for my system that starts Windows without starting the hypervisor.  To do this you need to open an administrative command prompt and run:

1. bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Microsoft Windows Server 2008 - no hypervisor"
   
   This copies your currently active boot entry (assuming that this is the one you want to copy) and gives the new copy an appropriate description.
2. bcdedit /set {identifier for the new boot entry (copy from the output of a plain 'bcdedit' command)} hypervisorlaunchtype off
   

After doing this you can choose whether the hypervisor gets loaded whenever you boot the system.

 

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Enabling VSS for Hyper-V Backups With Windows Server Backup

Image via Wikipedia

Source: http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thelazyadmin/archive/2008/10/06/backing-up-hyper-v-with-windows-server-backup.aspx

 

As with anything you should be backing up your Hyper-V machines.  I think that just goes without saying.  Backing up Hyper-V has gotten easier with the addition of VSS and Windows Server Backup (WSB).  WSB is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 that replaces the old NTBackup from days gone by.  It is not installed by default but can be easily added with the Add Features wizard in Server Manager.  Once installed there is one last setting you must configure before backing up the Hyper-V virtual machines.

While Hyper-V does support VSS backups, it is not enabled by default.  I am not sure why but you need to set a few registry settings to get WSB to recognize the Hyper-V VSS writer.  You can enable this with the following two registry settings.

Under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WindowsServerBackup\ApplicationSupport add the following key {66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE

Then under that newly created key add a new REG SZ string called Application Identifier with the value Hyper-V.  Once that is done you are ready to go!  To make it a bit easier you can copy and paste the following to a command line (with administrative privileges) and it will get it all set up for you.  You will need to set this on all Hyper-V servers in your organization but there is no reboot required!

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WindowsServerBackup\ApplicationSupport\{66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE}"
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WindowsServerBackup\ApplicationSupport\{66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE}"

/v "Application Identifier" /t Reg_SZ /d Hyper-V

For more information see:

Windows Server 2008 Backup Step By Step

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Announcing the System Center Essentials Technology Adoption Program

Image by cote via Flickr

 

This announcement is to alert you that the next version of System Center Essentials Technology Adoption Program (TAP) is now accepting nominations.
Do you want to be part of making the next generation of the System Center Essentials product great?  If you are a responsible for managing the IT assets and services for a midsized business and have a passion for providing feedback, you could be a great candidate for our Technology Adoption Program (TAP).  We view our TAP program as one of the most important investments we make as a product team.  We are very selective in which customers we invite to participate and we intend is to partner very closely with you.  Our goal is to develop a mutually beneficial and long term relationship with you to enable building the next version of the System Center Essentials product that is designed to meet your needs to the best of our abilities.

For more information and to nominate yourself for the TAP please click this link.
Thank you!  The System Center Essentials Team.

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2 new Microsoft infrastructure planning and design guides - Server 2008 File Services and Server 2008 Print Services

Image via Wikipedia

Windows Server 2008 File Services
This guide provides the basic building blocks upon which many other infrastructure services are based. Enjoy peace of mind in knowing that all critical phases of the plan are included, allowing you to establish a good foundation for future expansion.

Windows Server 2008 Print Services
The goal of this guide is to enable you to strategically plan your print infrastructure. By analyzing your printing needs, you will be able to design print servers with sufficient memory and spooler capacity. Efficiently designing printer pools can help you avoid problems before they begin, erase performance bottlenecks, and serve your customers more reliably.

Link to originally blog: http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/archives/1742-2-new-Microsoft-infrastructure-planning-and-design-guides-Server-2008-File-Services-and-Server-2008-Print-Services.html

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Google Epic

Image via CrunchBase

Faldt lige over denne video, som bare skal ses…

Google Epic er en god historie, som ALLE bør se, hører og tænke over:-)

 

 

 

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