<a href="https://paradisj.blogspot.com/" itemprop="url" title="Jean-Pierre Paradis's Blog"> Jean-Pierre Paradis's Blog

Not new, but great post by Ed Bott about Windows Vista boot performance diagnostic. Did you know that Windows Vista records many events about poor performance and boot up sequence ? Just follow this path in your Event Viewer : Applications and Service Logs
     Microsoft
          Windows
               Diagnostics-Performance
                    Operational Thanks Ed, Read more : blogs.zdnet.com/Bott

SQL Server 2005 Database Mail in cluster (updated)

11:25 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Original content SQL Server0 comments

I have updated my post about SQL Server 2005 Database Mail in a cluster. You should check it.

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 is here!

9:35 AM

After 2 betas I’m glad to announce the release of the Microsoft Outlook Connector 12.1 – the add-in that puts your Windows Live Hotmail data in Outlook. Outlook Connector 12.1 provides a great synchronization experience with e-mail, contacts, and the free Windows Live Calendar service. Download it now! As part of the 12.1 release, we have also made improvements to the e-mail and contacts synchronization that make this version of the connector faster and more robust. Thank you to everyone who contacted us and gave us feedback and suggestions during the beta period of the release. Source : blogs.msdn.com/outlook

Announcing December Cumulative Update for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

9:30 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

We are happy to announce that December Cumulative Update for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is available now. Despite the fixes and improvements, this new update package is also an effort to create a more convenient way for SharePoint administrators to keep all files in their SharePoint installations up-to-date. In this post, we will guide you on how and when to update, and the background of this new update model improvement. Source : blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint

Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (Beta)

4:56 PM

From Bink.nu : This new Microsoft site lets you test you Exchange 200x remote connecttivity. You can choose the following tests: Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Test
This test will simulate the steps a mobile device uses to connect to an Exchange Server using Exchange ActiveSync. Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync AutoDiscover Test
This test will walk through the steps a Windows Mobile 6.1 device (or another AirSync licensed device) uses to connect to the AutoDiscover Service Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 AutoDiscover Connectivity Test
This test will walk through the steps Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 uses to connect to AutoDiscover Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 RPC/HTTP Connectivity Test
This test will walk through the steps Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 uses to connect via

Announcing the WSRP Toolkit for SharePoint

9:03 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

Today, we are excited to announce the release of the Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) Toolkit for Office SharePoint Server 2007. The WSRP Toolkit for SharePoint provides sample code for producing WSRP conformant data from SharePoint lists and libraries. External portal platforms (e.g. BEA AquaLogic Portal, IBM WebSphere Portal, SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal etc.) can then render SharePoint data natively through their WSRP consumer portlets. The Toolkit is available now for download from the MSDN Code Gallery. Source : blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint

My blog is now IE8 friendly

10:19 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Internet Explorer MyBlogs0 comments

Well, not really, I have simply added the following tag in the header as a quick fix : <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" /> When I will have some free time I will look why does my blog look so bad in IE8.

Windows in the cloud - First impressions of Amazon EC2

9:57 AM

Posted by ParadisJin 0 comments

Excellent series of article from Michael Pietroforte about Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) : Part 1: Installation Part 2: My view Here’s some of Michal’s views : It never took me so long to set up a server. The price structure is quite complicated and so I was unsure how much it would actually cost me I am sure that Amazon’s cloud will expand over time. But, in my opinion, at the moment it can’t be considered as an alternative to on-premise servers.

Windows Live Essentials new beta released

9:31 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows Live0 comments

You can download a refresh of the beta version (the last before final release) of the Windows Live Essentials – suite of downloadable programs for your Windows PC, including Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety. You can get the latest betas from: http://download.live.com/.

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 Released

9:11 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SQL Server0 comments

Service Pack 3 for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is now available. Download and infos : www.microsoft.com/downloads/

New Failover Clustering & NLB in Windows Server 2008 R2

8:42 AM

New Failover Clustering features in R2: Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) – A distributed access file system optimized for Hyper-V allowing virtual machines and their disk resources to reside be on any cluster node Live Migration – Move virtual machines between different physical machines while keeping them running and maintaining client connections PowerShell Support – The scripting language of the future which will gradually replace cluster.exe DFS-Replication support – Configure members servers in your replication group to be highly available for uniterrupted and failure resilient replication services Remote Desktop / Terminal Services support – Make the Connection Broker highly available ensuring that clients are reconnected to their same session or virtual machine within a server farm Network Prioritization –

Windows Server 2008 R2 new features - the complete list

11:16 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Active Directory Windows Server 20080 comments

Michael Pietroforte wrote a super serie of articles about Windows 2008 R2 on 4sysops blog. A must read. thanks Michael. Part 1: Virtualization Part 2: Active Directory Part 3: IIS 7.5 and Performance Part 4: Administration

Oxite - Open Source Content Management System

10:08 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Development IIS70 comments

Oxite is an open source, standards compliant, and highly extensible content management sample that can run anything from blogs to big web sites. We know this because it runs MIX Online. This CMS is based on ASP.NET. Source : www.visitmix.com/Lab/Oxite

Compatibility View Improvements to come in IE8

11:12 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Internet Explorer0 comments

The next public update of IE8 (for Windows Vista- and Windows XP-based operating systems as well as the Windows 7 Beta) includes improvements to Compatibility View that help end-users when they visit web sites that are not yet ready for IE8’s new, more standards-compliant defaults Read the article : blogs.msdn.com/ie/

Reality is finally setting in at Google

10:39 AM

Posted by ParadisJin 0 comments

So, the Utopia that was Google (supposedly, the reality has never been what their PR people have made it out to be) is finally understanding how the real world works. After missing 4 quarters of profit projections in a row and having over half of their products in perpetual beta (which means they never have to guarantee reliability, functionality, or even product viability) Google is finally cutting back and organizing to function as a real company. Source : windowsconnected.com

Windows 7 new features - the complete list

11:33 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows 70 comments

Michael Pietroforte wrote a super serie of articles about Windows 7 on 4sysops blog. A must read. thanks Michael. Part1: User interface Part2: Applications and functions Part3: Security Part4: Networking Part5: Administration

How to query a WINS server

4:39 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Original content Windows Server 20030 comments

Every time I got a NetBIOS or WINS name resolution problem I hit google and search for a way to query a WINS server. And every time loose many minutes looking for a tool. Well, this time I decided to blog about it so next time maybe my blog will show up in my search. Actually the answer to the question «How do you query a WINS server ?» is pretty simple : Use NBLookup from Microsoft.

Search Server 2008 Express and WSS

2:04 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

Nice post by Tim Allison from C/D/H about installing Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express on Windows Sharepoint Service 3.0 Link : www.cdhtalkstech.com

3D modeling for FREE !

1:22 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Fun0 comments

Yesterday Google released a new version of their free 3D modeling software : Google Sketchup 7 I didn't tried the package yet, but it looks very cool. Microsoft is also offering a free 3D modeling software with Microsoft TrueSpace. Sources : Digital Inspiration : google sketchup 7 Digital Inspiration : microsoft truespace

Google Docs Users Spend Only 5 Minutes per Month on the Site

1:32 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Fun0 comments

Google Docs had arround 4.4 million unique visitors in september (2208), it's a very large user base. But does all thoses users really use Google Docs to do realy work ? Well according Amit Agarwal from digital inspiration, that may not be the case. Looks like all those users only spent 5 minutes each mount workging on Google Docs Source : Digital Inspiration

Announcing SPDisposeCheck tool for SharePoint Developers

4:51 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

The tool, called SPDisposeCheck, will open your custom compiled assemblies recursively and validate them against the Microsoft published guidance. The output from the tool will contain messages that may indicate the SPSite and SPWeb Dispose() methods guidance are not being followed in the customers source code Looks cool, unfortunately the tool will not be available until winter. Source : Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog

SQL Servers Blogs

4:34 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SQL Server0 comments

There is a list of all blogs related to SQL Server at Microsoft. You will find it at Technet.

RML Utilities for SQL Server

2:49 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SQL Server0 comments

Do you know which databases or applications are using the most resources on your server? How will a service pack upgrade, configuration change or application change affect your production SQL Server? The RML Utilities for SQL Server provide you a set of tools and processes to answer these questions and much more. Downloads : RML Utilities for SQL Server (x86) RML Utilities for SQL Server (x64)

25 GB of storage for FREE !

1:49 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows Live0 comments

Yes you read it wright. In the next upgrade, SkyDrive is going to offer 25 GB free. When will that be ? soon. Read all about the next upgarde of skyDrive here.

Find Programs Connecting to the Internet

11:50 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools0 comments

If you like to know out about all software programs on your computer that are connecting to the Internet, here’s a simple tip. Type "perfmon" in the Windows Vista search box to run the "Reliability and Performance Monitor" utility. Next click the Network tab in the right pane to expand it. Source : www.labnol.org

Get Quick Feedback on your Blogger based Blog

11:44 AM

Posted by ParadisJin 0 comments

Blogger today launched "Reactions", an instant ratings feature for individual blog posts. So unlike the start ratings system where people express their opinion (poor to excellent) on a scale of 1 to 5, here you can customize the scale. Source : www.labnol.org

Windows Services Optimizer (WinServicesOptimizer.vbs)

11:41 AM

Disabling unnecessary Windows services can result in significant performance gains for production machines and virtual machines. This script helps you manage and share templates for services optmization. Some templates are included. Source : desktopengineer.com/winservicesoptimizer

How to Debug Kernel Mode Blue Screen Crashes (for beginners)

11:31 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Windows Vista0 comments

Perhaps the largest call generator for the Core Team is for us to determine cause of a hard system crash that generates a Blue Screen and memory dump file. Commonly called a "Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)." The vast majority of these memory dumps could be analyzed by Administrators in just a few minutes using the latest debugging tools. These tools do most of the work for you, once they're set up. Kernel mode debugging is a pretty specialized skill, with experienced debuggers throwing around lots of imponderable terms. But it's really pretty simple and I'll point out the gaffe's you'll want to avoid as a beginner. Read the complete article : blogs.technet.com/askcore

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Technical Library in Compiled Help format

11:26 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

Now there is a downloadable CHM version of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 content on TechNet. Cool ! Download : www.microsoft.com/downloads

Convert Scanned PDF Documents to Text with Google OCR

8:26 AM

Posted by ParadisJin 0 comments

Here's a great trick Amit Agarwal to convert your scanned documents (in PDF) to Text with Google OCR for free. Link : www.labnol.org

Announcing Windows Server 2008 R2!

8:53 AM

First sneak of pre-beta Windows Server 2008 R2 : 64-bit only ! Physical to Virtual migration (live migration) PowerShell 2.0 And more Source : Windows Server Division WebLog

Announcing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office System

4:14 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

We’re pleased to announce that Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office system is expected to be released in the near future. Although we aren’t yet announcing the exact release date, it will fall between February and April of 2009. Source : blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering

URLSCAN 3.0 RTW: DOWNLOAD TODAY

12:33 PM

Posted by ParadisJin IIS70 comments

In June of this year, we released a beta version of UrlScan 3.0, which can help mitigate SQL injection attacks. Today, we’re happy to announce the final release of UrlScan 3.0 for Internet Information Services (IIS). UrlScan 3.0 is a security tool that restricts the types of HTTP requests that IIS will process. By blocking specific HTTP requests, the UrlScan 3.0 security tool helps to prevent potentially harmful requests from reaching applications on the server. UrlScan 3.0 is an update to UrlScan 2.5 and requires IIS 5.1 or later, including the latest IIS 7.0 on Windows Server 2008. Source : blogs.technet.com/windowsserver

Microsoft Web Application Installer

11:45 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Development IIS70 comments

The Web Application Installer Beta is designed to help get you up and running with the most widely used Web Applications freely available for your Windows Server. Web AI provides support for popular ASP.Net and PHP Web applications including Graffiti, DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, OSCommerce and more. With just a few simple clicks, Web AI will check your machine for the necessary pre-requisites, download these applications from their source location in the community, walk you through basic configuration items and then install them on your computer. Download and infos : www.microsoft.com/web

Microsoft Web Platform Installer Beta

11:42 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Development IIS70 comments

The Web Platform Installer Beta (Web PI) provides a single, free package for installing and configuring Microsoft's entire Web Platform, including IIS7, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s simple user interface, you can select specific components or install the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. To help you stay up-to-date with product releases, the Web Platform Installer always contains the most current versions and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform. Download and infos : www.microsoft.com/web

Windows Server 2008: Access Based Enumeration

4:04 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 20080 comments

Last week during a community meeting I was talking to Kurt Roggen about all the cool new features in Windows Server 2008. While talking we came to the discussion if Access Based Enumeration (ABE) was still implemented and if we had a GUI to enable it. Excellent post by Alves Arlindo about Windows Server 2008 and ABE on blogs.technet.com

Clustering Videos on the Web

9:48 PM

Hi Cluster Fans, We have some great webcasts to share with you created by one of the team’s Most Valuable Professionals (MVP), John Savill. (What is a MVP? Visit: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com) John has shared some of his clustering work from website, SavillTech.com.

Announcing August Cumulative Update for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

9:37 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

The Microsoft Office team has changed the way that it delivers hotfixes for reported problems. This change comes in the form of cumulative updates and critical on-demand hotfixes. The detail of August Cumulative Update (CU) for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can be found here: Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package (Wssmui.msp): August 26, 2008 Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package: August 26, 2008 Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: August 26, 2008 Source : blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint

Core Configuration Console (CCC)

9:07 PM

Excellent post on 4sysops blog about CCC. This tool (in fact it’s a batch) can help you configure Windows Server 2008 Core. Could be also an alternative to CoreConfigurator (great GUI tool) witch is no longer available.

Sad day for formula one’s fans in Canada !

8:40 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Formula 10 comments

Yesterday we learn that the Canadian’s Grand Prix was not on the calendar for 2009. As a Formula one fan and a Canadian Grand Prix lover for more than 20 year (grandstand 34) I’m really sad. Read F1-Live.com article «why the Canadian GP was cancelled» to learn more. I really hope that someone would come up and save «my» Grand prix.

Slimming down the bloated iTunes 8 installer

8:23 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Apple0 comments

So, how do you wrestle back control of iTunes so that you’re not installing unneeded and unwanted junk? Excellent post by Ed Bott showing how to get rid of the uneeded junk. Source : Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

How to create the cluster.log in Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering

3:23 PM

Excellent post by Steven Ekren at Clustering & High Availability blog about cluster.log in Windows 2008. Source : blogs.msdn.com/clustering

Network Monitor 3.2 has arrived!

10:44 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools0 comments

I’m so excited about this release I had to commandeer Paul’s blog for the day and write about it. My name is Tawanda Sibanda and I am the lead program manager for Network Monitor. The team put a lot of effort into this version, adding many of the requests we heard from our customers, while simultaneously fixing bugs and stabilizing the product. We hope you enjoy this release! Please feel free to leave feedback on Paul’s blog or participate in our Network Monitor survey Now, let’s deep dive into some of the details of Network Monitor 3.2 Source : blogs.technet.com/netmon

VMC to Hyper-V Import Tool Available

10:41 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Hyper-V Virtual PC Virtual Server0 comments

Matthijs ten Seldam has produced a very cool tool that enables you to import your existing virtual machines from Virtual PC and Virtual Server in Hyper-V Source : blogs.technet.com/matthts

SharePoint Best Practices Resource Center on TechNet

11:11 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

The SharePoint Best Practices Resource Center on TechNet highlights the different best practices for IT Professionals and Developers and helps you navigate through the resources. IT Professional topics include Operational Excellence, Team Collaboration Sites, Publishing Portals, Search and My Sites. Developer topics include Common Coding Issues, Using Disposable Objects, Search SQL Syntax Queries and Customization Best Practices. We will continue updating and publishing new Best Practices based on real-world experience. Source : blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint

SQL Index defrag and maintenance tasks for Search

10:59 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint SQL Server0 comments

Hi all, this topic is an area that has caused me much pain and work. My goal for this was to follow the recommended SQL guidelines while minimizing the impact that these maintenance jobs have on Crawling and Queries. We know from the SQL Monitoring an I/O post that Search is extremely I/O intensive . As it turns out so is all of the regular maintenance that SQL recommends, so finding the right balance between the two is an interesting scheduling task. Read the complete post : blogs.msdn.com/enterprisesearch

SQL Server : error detaching msdb

9:56 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Original content SQL Server0 comments

I received the following trying to detach the msdb database in SQL Server 2005 : Cannot detach an opened database when the server is in minimally configured mode I was trying to move msdb according to kb224071. I finally found why. When I opened my query in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) I was connecting to msdb database by default. Event if I do a use master; after that, it was too late, I always got an error doing a sp_detach_bd 'msdb'; So here's the trick : Click new query on the tool bar of SSMS Click on the Options >> buton in the Connect to Server dialog Select the Connection Properties tab Type master in the Connect

Can't logon to SQL Server 2005 Cluster in single-user mode

2:55 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Original content SQL Server0 comments

Last night I spent a few hours trying to follow the kb224071's instructions to move the MSDB system database but was always getting the following error trying to connect with the -c -m -T3608 startup options : Login failed for user '******'. Reason: Server is in single user mode. Only one administrator can connect at this time. [CLIENT: *.*.*.*] But nobody else was using the database ! Seems that I was wrong. When I looked again at my error log I saw this line : Login succeeded for user 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM'. Connection: trusted. [CLIENT: *.*.*.*] Then I tried the same thing in virtual without a cluster and everything worked fine, so I got a little suspicious about the

FastCGI Extension - RTM

10:37 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows Server 20030 comments

I misted that news, but looks like FastCGI has bean released to manufacturing. Read more and download : FastCGI Extension for IIS6.0 FastCGI for IIS7

But Wait – There’s More! IIS 7.0 Extensions.

10:30 AM

Posted by ParadisJin IIS70 comments

So far, we have made available 12 different Extensions as CTP, Go Live, or RTW releases. Each one is completely free and integrates fully with IIS 7.0. We even released versions of the FTP and WebDAV extensions for IIS 6.0, although you’ll see us do that less often in the future because we feel strongly that IIS 7.0 should be the Web platform of choice so that’s where we’ll concentrate our efforts. Here’s the full list: Deployment Web Deployment Tool [Go Live] (x86) and (x64) Management PowerShell Provider for IIS7 [CTP] (x86) and (x64) Administration Pack for IIS7 [CTP] (x86) and (x64) Database Manager for IIS7 [CTP] (x86) and (x64) IIS Manager for Remote Administration [RTW] (x86) and

IBM TV

8:44 AM

Posted by ParadisJin 0 comments

Cool ! lot of Tv shows about IBM technologies. Check it out.

SQL Server 2005 Database Mail in cluster

11:29 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Original content SQL Server0 comments

Updated in december 2008 (see at the end)
I've been playing with Database Mail in my SQL 2005 Cluster for a few days now. I always get the following errors :
Database Mail Log:
Log Database Mail (Database Mail Log)
Last Modified By sa
Message : Activation failure.
EventViewer Application Log: Event Type: Information
Event ID: 9724
User: N/A
Description: The activated proc [dbo].[sp_sysmail_activate] running on queue msdb.dbo.ExternalMailQueue output the following: 'Error executing extended stored procedure: Invalid Parameter' Last night I found a solution and I though it would be a good idea to share it.
As you know SQL Server use an external program to process mail : DatabaseMail90.exe. As I understand it, when SQL launch

Windows security rendered useless? Uh, not exactly

11:45 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Security Windows Vista0 comments

Oh dear. The Chicken Little contingent is out in full force. Break out your Kevlar helmets, everyone, because the sky is falling on Windows! At last week’s Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, researchers Alexander Sotirov and Mark Dowd presented a paper that outlined some new attack vectors they had discovered targeting some security features introduced in different versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. It’s a fascinating paper, rich in technical detail and hewing to the Black Hat tradition of providing clues that others can follow to discover, exploit, and ultimately fix vulnerabilities in widely used computer code. Read Ed Boot's article at blogs.zdnet.com

Debunking Common Windows Performance Tweaking Myths

11:24 AM

As a tech writer, one of my biggest pet peeves is the plethora of bad advice littered across almost every web site dedicated to system tweaking. Besides the tweaks that simply don't work, some of them will actually cause your computer to run even slower—or worse. Let's examine some of the most offensive myths out there regarding PC performance tweaking, and debunk them once and for all. Read the complete article at lifehacker.com

Application virtualization : advantages & disadvantages

8:42 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools0 comments

These days application virtualization is a hot topic. Michael Pietroforte form 4sysops blog has produce a list of advantage and of disadvantage for the new technology : The advantages of application virtualization The disadvantages of application virtualization

Error 8024400E When Trying to Download Updates Via WSUS?

9:57 PM

Posted by ParadisJin WSUS0 comments

For a few days I'm not able to check for new updates from my WSUS server, I always get an error 8024400E. Strangely if I check for updates from Microsoft Update I've got no error. A few computers (and servers) at my location got the same problem. Today I've tired the workaround published by Cecilia Cole (WSUS Program Manager) and it WORKED ! Many thanks Cecilia, Source : Client/Server Synchronization issues

IBM's Visio collection

10:26 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools0 comments

IBM's Official Visio collection including front and rear physical shapes of servers, disks, storage systems and workstations. It's FREE ! Link : http://www.visiocafe.com/ibm.htm

Windows Server 2008 to Workstation Manual

2:02 PM

If you don’t want to configure all options to convert Windows Server 2008 to a Workstation manually, sawo now made it possible to use a tool for this. He has done a great job by creating this converter to automate all steps of the manual! Source : www.win2008workstation.com

eToolz - GUI for ping, traceroute, WHOIS and more

4:02 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools0 comments

eToolz is a nifty GUI tool that allows you to perform a number of network queries: DNS, ping, traceroute, WHOIS, mail-check, HTTP-header, time (NTP), Google pagerank, top level domains and port numbers. For some of these queries, you would usually go to the command prompt in Windows; for example, the DNS query would be just nslookup. eToolz allows you to query for A, PTR, NS, MX, and SOA records. The Ping tool offers the options pause, bytes, timeout and count, and traceroute lets you configure the number of hops and the timeout. Even though eToolz is a standalone program (it doesn’t have to be installed), it will store the IP addresses, host names, etc. that you enter, so

Application Virtualization products - the complete list

11:06 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Virtual PC Virtual Server0 comments

Michael Pietroforte has an excellent series of post on 4SYSOPS blog on Application Virtualization.

TCP/IP Fundamentals for Microsoft Windows

3:58 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Windows Vista0 comments

This online book is a structured, introductory approach to the basic concepts and principles of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite, how the most important protocols function, and their basic configuration in the Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 families of operating systems. This book is primarily a discussion of concepts and principles to lay a conceptual foundation for the TCP/IP protocol suite and provides an integrated discussion of both Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Download : www.microsoft.com/downloads

WebCast: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Failover Clustering on Windows Server 2008

2:39 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SQL Server Windows Server 20080 comments

This Support WebCast focuses on how to plan, implement, and administer a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 failover cluster on Windows Server 2008. This session provides step-by-step instructions about how to install SQL Server 2005 clustered instance on a Windows Server 2008 cluster. It also discusses the options you can use to move SQL Server 2005 failover cluster from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008. Details: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=953170 Webcast Link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032379512 Source : blogs.msdn.com/clustering

Announcing the Failover Cluster Configuration Program (FCCP)

2:36 PM

So you want to build a Windows Server 2008 Cluster, but don’t know what hardware to use or if it will work? Well with the FCCP we will make clustering even easier Source : blogs.msdn.com/clustering

Announcing open source Podcasting Kit for SharePoint - the power of social media for the enterprise

8:21 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

... announcing the Podcasting Kit for SharePoint (PKS), available as an open source project at http://www.CodePlex.com/PKS. The PKS is an accelerator for social media, using podcasting and social networks to deliver the next generation knowledge management solution. Built on top of SharePoint Server 2007 and using Silverlight 2, the PKS delivers an integrated experience with a wide variety of devices including iPod, Zune, Windows Mobile phones, and other podcast capable devices. The PKS follows the same model and approach to open source community contributions and support as the Community Kit for SharePoint. Source : blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint

How to troubleshoot performance issues in Outlook 2007

4:18 PM

Here's a very interesting knowledge base article about Outlook 2007 that may answer a few problems? Does the computer meet the system requirements for the 2007 Office suite that you are using? Are you running the latest version of Outlook 2007? Do you have a large .pst file or a large .ost file? Are you running a computer that has a Solid State Drive (SSD)? Do you have many items in a single folder? Do you have any nonessential add-ins or out-of-date add-ins that are installed in Outlook? Did you install any gadgets that integrate with Outlook? Is Outlook integration with Communicator enabled? Is antivirus software running? Did you install Windows Desktop Search on a Windows XP-based computer

Search Protocol Handler .NET wrappers

3:53 PM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

Protocol Handler.Net is a set of .Net wrappers for the protocol handler interfaces that enable developers to create and deploy protocol handlers for SharePoint search and Search Server. Developers can index data and documents from any system they can connect to. Much of the complexity and time around the development of protocol handlers, such as COM interoperability, are reduced and hidden in the wrappers themselves letting developers just concentrate on code to connect to a content source and pull data. Protocol Handler.Net makes it possible to develop protocol handlers in C# or VB.Net and simplifies the handling of security, metadata, streaming content, deployment and management just to name a few things. It also comes with a help system

Installing Fedora 9 (Sulphur) in Virtual PC 2007

8:22 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Virtual PC Virtual Server0 comments

Sean has a great post on how to get this to work over here: http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/archive/2008/05/19/installing-fedora-9-sulphur-in-virtual-pc-2007.aspx

Web Page Error Toolkit

9:41 PM

Posted by ParadisJin IIS70 comments

Why not display a search page instead of the traditional 404 error page. Microsoft released the Web Page Error Toolkit to do that. It is a ASP.NET application that replace your error file in IIS. There is a lot of customization possible. Source : dev.live.com/blogs/livesearch
blogs.msdn.com/livesearch
arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars

IE8 Beta 2 Coming in August

9:26 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Internet Explorer0 comments

I’m happy to announce that we’re on track to deliver IE8 Beta 2 this August when you’ll get a chance to see what we’ve been up to in these areas. Source : blogs.msdn.com/ie

Windows Search 4.0 released

9:17 PM

Today Microsoft released Windows Search 4.0 and the Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI) for Windows Search 4.0. This update include de following improvements : Support for indexing encrypted documents of local file systems Reduced affect on Microsoft Exchange when you index e-mail in online mode, and there is no local cache (.ost) Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes Support for client-to-client remote query to shared indexed locations Improved indexing performance Faster previewer updates for Windows XP Per-user Group Policy settings Windows software updates for Watson errors Support for new enterprise Group Policy objects Source & download : support.microsoft.com

Google Search Inspired by Unix Command Shell

8:58 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Fun0 comments

Goosh is brilliant. You can execute Google search commands in the browser just like using the Unix shell and the results get displayed inline. You can even search for feeds with Google just like MSN. Thanks Philipp. Source : Digital Inspiration

WPF & PowerShell Series

10:37 AM

Posted by ParadisJin PowerShell0 comments

James Brundage published an excellent serie of articles about using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and PowerShell) on the Windows PowerShell team blog : WPF & PowerShell – Part 1 ( Hello World & Welcome to the Week of WPF ) WPF & PowerShell – Part 2 (Exploring WPF (and the rest of .NET) with Scripts) WPF & PowerShell -- Part 3 (Handling Events) WPF & PowerShell -- Part 4 (XAML & Show-Control) WPF & PowerShell - Part 5 ( Using WPF & PowerShell Modules) WPF & PowerShell - Part 6 (Running Functions in the Background) WPF & PowerShell - Part 7 (Sharing Hosts)

Windows Server 2008 Domain Functional Level - Features that make it worthwhile to raise DFL

4:37 PM

The four new features discussed in this post require upgrading to Domain Fonctionnal Level (DFL) Windows Server 2008 : SYSVOL Distributed File System (DFS) replication support Advanced Encryption Services (AES 128 and 256) support for the Kerberos protocol Last Interactive Logon Information Fine-Grained Password Policies Read the complete post at 4sysops.com

Sysinternals Tools Live !

12:57 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools0 comments

This news is cool, really cool ! The famous Sysinternals tools are now accessible online thanks to this new service : Synternals Live. Simply enter a tool's Sysinternals Live path into Windows Explorer or a command prompt as \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\<toolname> or view the entire Sysinternals Live tools directory in a browser at http://live.sysinternals.com.

Community Clips help video recorder

1:40 PM

Microsoft Office Labs has released a free screencasting software using which you can capture all your desktop activities with keystrokes and audio. When you install Community Clips, it adds buttons providing options to Office Ribbon and also to System Tray. Its a simple , basic screencasting software and very easy to use for preparing demo or help videos. Source : meraTechPort Download : communityclips.officelabs.com/download.aspx

Microsoft breaks silence on Windows 7; No new kernel!

1:20 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Windows 70 comments

There is a lot of rumours over the net about Windows 7, from new features to why Microsoft is so silent. Today Chris Flores, Director at Microsoft working on the Windows Client Communications Team publish a few straighten a few things on Windows Vista Team Blog : With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how we share information ... Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. ... we're still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista.

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack SP2 will be a True PDF Writer

10:40 AM

Here’s a quick summary of upcoming changes in Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 with regards to document formats: With Office 2007 SP2, you will be able save documents to Adobe PDF format without requiring external plug-ins. Microsoft Office 2007 will still not be able to read content from your PDF files so Adobe Reader is safe. Like PDF, Office 2007 will also let you save documents in ODF format which is used by OpenOffice and is supported by almost every web office suite. Unlike PDF, you will be able to open OpenOffice documents in Office 2007 for reading and editing. Office 2007 customers will get an open to set OpenOffice as the default document format. That means when you

Kong version 1.1.0 Released

9:52 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Game0 comments

Kong is a freeware top-down shooter game featuring monkeys with a thirst for blood in a full 3D environment. The rules are simple, pick up as many health/armor packs and weapons as you can before blowing your enemies into smithereens. The game currently features three game modes including deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag with plans to introduce a number of new game modes. Computer controlled bots are provided as target practise but the real fun comes from playing in multiplayer over a local area network or

New computer game deal for F1

9:34 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Formula 10 comments

Formula One is to have its first official computer game in more than two years next season following the capture of a new official licencing deal with British gaming company Codemasters, autosport.com can reveal. The new game should be based on the 2009 season and should be available in 2009. If you'd like to give you ideas on the game there is already an official forum.

Free first person shooter games

10:33 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Fun0 comments

If you like to play first person shooter games on Windows here's two free games : Celistial Impact Nexuiz Have fun.

Installing Ubuntu 8.04 under Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

4:16 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Linux Virtual PC Virtual Server0 comments

Great post by arcanecode ! This is a step by step guide to successfully install the new Ubuntu 8.04 on Virtual PC 2007. Source : arcanecode.wordpress.com

PowerShell on Server Core

9:00 AM

Posted by ParadisJin PowerShell0 comments

Dmitry Sotnikov posted a great step-by-step instruction on installing Windows PowerShell on Windows Server 2008 in Server Core mode. Note that these are in no way official or supported by Microsoft. Microsoft is working on official version of .NET and PowerShell for Server Core installations, so eventually you will be able to get this fully supported. Until then below are the instructions you can use at your own risk, etc., etc. Source : dmitrysotnikov.wordpress.com,

Virtual PC SP1 and Virtual Server update

10:28 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Virtual PC Virtual Server0 comments

Microsoft released an update for Virtual PC and Virtual Server to support Vista SP1, Windows 2008 and XP SP3. You can download the updates at Microsoft.com/downloads : Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Update Don't forget to upgrade the Virtual Machine Additions on each Virtual Machine to the new version 13.820

Enhanced Forums on SharePoint

9:03 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

If you are looking for more features in the builtin forum webpart in in SharePoint you may want to look at thoses alternatives : Tobias Zimmergren's SharePoint Forums WebPart SharePoint Forums Web Part Project Enhanced Discussion Board Edition from The Community Kit for SharePoint Project KWizCom SharePoint Forum Web Part (commercial) Note : I didn't try any of those webparts (you'll have to try them for yourself), some are still in beta and there may be more Forums WebPart on the net.

Posters for SharePoint Stsadm command line parameters now available

8:28 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

Following popular demand, Kirk Stark from the SharePoint User Assistance team has created a set of useful posters that show the Stsadm command line parameters for MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0. Source : blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint

Does your AMD-based computer boot after installing XP SP3?

9:35 AM

Posted by ParadisJin 0 comments

Don't be too fast to complain about Microsoft. It Looks like some OEM (like HP) have shipped their INTEL and AMD based computers with the same Windows XP image. This is not a recommended config. Jesper M. Johansson as an excellent post on his blog about this problem and how to fix it. [May 19, 2008] Microsoft issued a technical note about this problem : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888372/en-us

Windows Server 2008 Clustering Documents, Whitepapers, Webcasts, Groups

9:48 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Active Directory Windows Server 20080 comments

From Microsoft's Failover and Network Load Balancing Clustering Team Blog : We’ve had a lot of requests for a centralized website to find clustering and high-availability information and…it’s coming soon. J But in the meantime I’ll post some great resources from Microsoft’s Clustering and High-Availability team. I’ll try to update this list when we get a few more. We have several coming out in the near future (including Active Directory considerations). Check the list at blogs.msdn.com/clustering

Active Directory Reporting Tool

8:48 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Active Directory Admin tools0 comments

Active Directory Reporting Tool (ADRT) allows you to sort user objects depending on a couple of important attributes: disabled, locked, expires, never expires, expired, password expires, password never expires, password expired, and never logged in. This product is currently free and 100% functional! Source : 4sysops.com Download : maxpowersoft.com

Announcing the First Release of the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit

10:45 AM

Posted by ParadisJin SharePoint0 comments

It's with great excitement that I get to be the first to announce the initial release of the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit! this first release contains two very useful tools which are both supported on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 The first tool, called "Batch Site Manager", adds new functionality through Central Administration. From the new "Move, Lock, and Delete Site Collections" page on Applications Management you can schedule bulk operations against site collections in the farm—including moving site collections between content databases The second tool is actually a new command in STSADM called "updatealert". This command will refresh all alert URLs in a specific site collection, which is extremely important should you

A Look at Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP)

8:13 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools Windows Vista0 comments

The Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) interface. This month, Microsoft updated its Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), a suite of desktop management tools that are currently offered only to the company's Software Assurance (SA) customers. As with earlier versions of MDOP, this suite is a must-have collection of valuable utilities--many of which originated at startups since purchased by Microsoft--and an obvious and tangible benefit of Microsoft's subscription-based enterprise licensing program. If you're not taking advantage of MDOP, it's time to take a look. Read this great review of

Searching the Office 2007 Ribbon

10:50 AM

I confess: I love the Office 2007 Ribbon. But I know it’s a source of pain for some people. And truth to tell, even I sometimes have trouble finding a command. Which is why I was so pleased to see the new Office Search Commands add-in Source : www.edbott.com

Thinkpad x300 vs Macbook Air

8:50 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Apple Fun0 comments

Hilarious !

DVD Playback Pack for Windows Vista

8:45 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Original content Windows Vista0 comments

If your are lucky enough to have a Windows Volume License for Vista Enterprise you should know that you can download a DVD Playback Pack for free. With this pack you will be able to play DVD, MPEG-2, and Dolby 5.1 content. Source : www.microsoft.com
Download : www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter

Use Consolas font in your CMD.EXE Windows

2:46 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Admin tools0 comments

Consolas is a great fixed-pitch font developped by Microsoft for the developpers (Visutal Studio), but it makes a great font for your CMD.EXE windows. To make this work you have to play a little bit with regedit but it's all worth it. There is an excellent article to learn how to do that on the IEBlog. Source : blogs.msdn.com/ie

IIS 7.0 PowerShell Provider Tech Preview 1

9:20 AM

Posted by ParadisJin IIS70 comments

Finally, IIS 7.0 has a PowerShell Provider! The IIS7 PowerShell Provider allows you to Create Web-Sites, Web Applications, Virtual Directories and Application Pools Change Simple Configuration Properties on Web-Sites, Application Pools, Web Applications and Virtual Directories Add and Change Complex Configuration Settings Query Run-time Data (Web-Site State, Application Pool State, Currently Executing Requests) Execute Advanced Configuration Tasks, Scripting, Integration with other PowerShell Snap-Ins and features Search and Discover Configuration Settings Source : blogs.iis.net/thomad

Windows XP SP3 Release Dates

9:09 AM

Posted by ParadisJin 0 comments

Seem's that NEOWIN.net had managed to get their hands on the internal schedule for the release of Windows XP SP3 : April 14, 2008: Support is available for the release version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP April 21, 2008: Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers April 29, 2008: Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center June 10, 2008: Automatic Updates It looks like the real thing (I think we can trust NEOWIN), the news was also publish by bink.nu

Indexer Status Sidebar Gadget for Windows Search

9:48 AM

Posted by ParadisJin Fun Windows Vista0 comments

Brandon Paddock, who works on the Windows Shell Team here at Microsoft, wrote a Windows Sidebar Gadget that displays the status of the Windows Search Indexer. Download the Indexer Status Gadget here.

Why Windows Vista only sees 3GB memory in a PC with 4GB RAM and how Vista SP1 fools its users

11:19 AM

Memory is getting cheaper every day. This is one reason why more and more people are equipping their PCs with 4GB RAM or more. Modern desktops often support up to 8GB. So it happens quite often these days that a proud owner of a new a PC wonders why Vista only reports about 3GB RAM even though he bought 4GB. I have been asked this question by several people within the last weeks. Some of them were IT pros, so I thought I should post something about it here. The things I say in this post mostly apply to Windows XP as well. Read this post at 4sysops.com

VMRCplus 1.7.0 on Microsoft Download Center

3:49 PM

Posted by ParadisJin Virtual Server0 comments

An update to VMRCplus 1.6.0 has been released and is now available here. This release contains several fixes and minor enhancements. It has been tested on Windows Server 2008 as well. Matthijs Source : blogs.technet.com/matthts

Staging Changes in Windows Server 2008

9:38 AM