March 2009 - Posts

Vista business value redux – and my new, updated Vista productivity & tips demo
20 March 09 05:27 PM | ronaldg

Back in October, I put out a couple of posts that included links to the SB2 content Powerpoint deck, as well as the Vista Resources page (online instead of event handout), and what I call my “Vista productivity demo” clicksteps so that you can re-create some of the business value features of Windows Vista for yourself and hopefully your customers.  Well, it has come to my attention that the PPT link has been lost and i have updated the OEM partnering portion of the deck in any event, so I’m doing a “redux” of those.

Rather than point you to a SkyDrive, you can find the current (and past) SB2 deck on the TS2 web site at:
Microsoft TS2 Home , look under Resources on the left nav panel and you’ll see the link to Content Decks where you can get the current SB2 deck (v2) as well as the TS2 decks and archived presentations as well.

I’ve also updated the Vista productivity demo with some new stuff, so now you’ll not only have an updated version, but you won’t have to browse back to last October to find the old one.   It’s hopefully obvious, but in several places (especially for the search) you’ll want to substitute your own criterion, and if you can come up with something pertinent to your customer’s operations then all the better. 

Btw, I’ve stumbled on a shortcut that’s not unique to Vista but one I’m pretty sure most of you can (and will) use – Ctrl-Shift-Esc. I’m pretty sure I saw it on Ed Bott’s blog, so I’ll give him credit, this is much better than right-clicking on the Task Bar IMHO.  Try it…

Since there’s not a good way for me to upload a file here, below is the demo in text form… (Ctrl-A [select all], Ctrl-C [Copy], then open up a new doc and Ctrl-V [paste] -- or however you want to cut/paste it. 

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VISTA Productivity & Tips Demo:

· Turn Off UAC – WinKey “user” (Note: just show how easy it is to do, I’ll show a better way next)

· Turn Off UAC via policy – type/Run “secpol.msc” | Local Policies | Security Options; then show/change “User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for Administrators…”, then close secpol

· Show System Information/Configuration/Restore – WinKey “sys” (discuss each option)

· Network & Sharing Center – WinKey-“net”, note Tasks, and discuss benefits of N&S Center
[CONTROL PANEL] – WinKey “cont”

· System & Maintenance

· Get Started with Windows | Show all 12 items… | Double-click Windows Vista Demos, then close

· Use BACK arrow; to get back to S&M main page, search for “demos”, then select the “Search Windows Help and Support for “Demos” link, click the “Diagnosing problems…” link, start or discuss the “Watch the demo” link, then close H&S window

· Click “System & Maintenance in the nav pane, highlight Recent Tasks (bottom left)

· Backup & Restore Center (discuss Complete PC) – then click on S&M main page breadcrumb

· Problem Reports & Solutions | See problems to check and/or View Problem History

o [Optional] Show Change Settings and Advanced Settings, then Close open window

· Performance Info & Tools | note the “Not sure where to start?”

· Adjust visual effects | show the Adust for best performance option, then close box

· Advanced Tools | Generate a system health report

o While waiting for Health report, may want to go thru the “Learn more…” options (then minimize the report window)

o Highlight Performance Issues recommendations (at TOP), (no need to view details)

o Restore Health Report window and discuss results

o Note: If still waiting for the Heath Report, mention disabling services too (e.g. meeting space, ultimate extras, Int Prnt client, offline files, etc) to improve performance

· RELIABILITY MONITOR demo (WinKey “rel”), this is awesome for those telephone troubleshooting situations

· Windows Mobile Device Center – WinKey” mob” in the CP search bar, launch the WMDC

[SEARCH] WinKey, then type “TS2” and show/discuss the range of results

· Launch Search Everywhere window, (note: I get over 2100 items, so we want to narrow)

· On Search Pane, select Picture (still get hundreds of items, so we need to narrow some more)

· Drop down the Advanced Search pane and enter the tag “logo”, note focused results.

· (assuming you’re in details view), Click thru Views (I love this feature) to get to the Large icons view

o [Optional] can also show how to scale the icons by Ctrl-mousewheel, pointing out that if this was a docx/xlsx/pptx then you would be seeing a live preview of the file contents

o [Optional] Go to Details view and show Organize | Layout options (show Preview Pane)

· Save Search results as a Virtual Folder, then close Search Explorer window

· Reopen Explorer (Win-E), click on Searches (left nav pane), and Open the newly saved search

· Select one of the files, then show/discuss the properties (bottom pane),

· Select several files (with something in common) and Add a Tag (e.g. color), be sure to SAVE

· Do a search for the new custom tag, , and discuss the value of being able to add and search for custom tags/metadata, and notice the tag was almost instantly searchable

· [Optional] Drop down Search Tools, show the “Search options…” and discuss or show how to Modify Index Locations options (time permitting)

· Highlight any other desired items in the Advanced Search pane, and then close it

· Right-click on one of the files and select “Open file location”, then close

· Right-click on the file again, this time select Properties and show/discuss “Previous Versions” (Shadow Copy)

· Show how to Copy Address as Text from Breadcrumb toolbar

· [Optional] Click thru Views again to get to Details view and show how easy it is to manipulate the columns to get just the info you want (size, sort, and titles)

· [Optional] Also show how to access the Folder pane on left if it’s not visible by default, then close all windows

[SIDEBAR]

· Add the Battery gadget (or any gadget of your choice not already showing)

· Highlight theMultimeter and System Control gadgets (or your favorite gadgets) and explain benefit

· Show how to turn off Sidebar with Right-click (then note the icon in notification bar)

· My favorite new Gadget is one called System Control v1.4 by Incomps Creations (www.buildagadget.com) , great customizability and I love being able to do a one-click Shutdown

[SHORTCUT KEYS]

· WinKey-E – to bring up an Explorer view of Computer

· WinKey-R – to bring up the Run command

· WinKey-D – can toggle the plain desktop view (all windows and Sidebar minimized)

· WinKey-F – to bring up Search Explorer

· WinKey-X – to bring up Mobility Center

· [just mention, do not do] WinKey-L – to Lock the computer

· WinKey-Q – to bring up Communicator, if you have that running

· WinKey-S – will do a “snip” and paste it directly into a new OneNote page

· (if you don’t have OneNote, then do Winkey”snip”, or I have a shortcut on my Taskbar)

· While working with Snipping tool, show how to do a quick free-form or window screen clip (of course the free-form snip works a lot better with a TabletPC pen than a mouse but it still works)

[OPTIONAL]

· Mention other features that provide business value including:

o Shadow Copy, (if didn’t demo above)

o BitLocker,

o Startup Repair Tool,

o Removable Device policy,

o Speech Recognition,

o Others (that you use)…

C’mon, it’s time to “Get Started”… (and find out about the Partner Learning Plan Tool)
17 March 09 11:01 PM | ronaldg

This week the Partner Skills Development organization (which, btw, TS2 is now a part of) is launching a couple of new programs geared towards helping our Disti’s and VAR’s consume training in a way that is more tailored to each one’s sales  model – no more “one size fits all” for partner solutions training. 

The Disti Training Program, one part of this two-pronged system, is obviously focused on our distributor partners and since they’re not a part of my normal audience, I won’t go into detail on that program.  But, since a lot of my readers are likely VARs, I wanted to highlight the other prong of the program called “The VAR Get Started Program”, and let you know a little more about it.  Hopefully, most of you already got an email from Microsoft explaining the new program, but for those who might have been missed, I hope this will help.

The VAR Get Started Program consists of the three customized Learning Packages (see below), as well as supplemental training, that are designed to help Microsoft Value Added Resellers (VARs) effectively grow their business.  You can access these learning packages thru the Learning Plan Tool which Mike Marshall blogged about back in Feb (see: Mike's blog on the Microsoft Partner Learning Plan and/or Direct link to the Learning Plan Tool sign In).  I highly suggest you read Mike’s blog about this great new resource for Partner training.  But, in a nutshell, the Learning Plan Tool helps you find “training packages” which are composed of pre-selected training events that have been identified as the most relevant trainings available from the Microsoft Partner Program for specific purposes such as achieving Microsoft certification or extending sales and technical skills around our products and solutions.  You can search and find packages by Product/Solution, Competency, Business Skills, Role, and/or Exam.  The VAR Get Started Program is basically a shortcut and identifies 3 of those packages which are focused on the VAR Sales and Licensing roles– check it out!! 

· Best of the Business Readiness – This package is geared for the novice Sales Representative and Licensing Specialists to gain general business skills.

· Licensing Programs - What VAR's Need to Get Started - This package is geared for the novice Sales Representative and Licensing Specialists to learn more about Microsoft licensing.  

· Selling with Microsoft - Introduction - This package is ideal for Sales Representative to learn about Microsoft’s core products: Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Servers, Office & Vista.

And, as I mentioned above, there’s also a plethora of Supplemental Training for business readiness, licensing, technical product training, and sales product training that you can take advantage of.  So check out some of the other Learning Plan packages as well.

Here’s an example of my Learning Plan home page and the training it contains:

and last, but not least,

can’t get enough blogs, check out BlogsMS…
17 March 09 04:35 PM | ronaldg

or maybe you just need more info on Microsoft technology.   Microsoft now has a directory listing official Microsoft Team Blogs and essential web feeds (organized by category).  There are currently 214 blogs listed in the directory (as of Feb09); which didn’t include TS2 blogs, but we just got added.   Note that this directory isn’t solely for blogs, but also includes other web feeds. The BlogMS site will publish a summary weekly (usually on Mondays) and on a monthly basis it will provide a single article with a listing of all the latest announcements.  Of course, you can directly subscribe to any of these resources you want.  And, be advised, there are many more blogs published by Microsoft employees and communities, in fact, you can find the (presumably) full directory of all MS blogs on the Microsoft Communities Website, which also supplies links to Technical Chats, Newgroups, Webcasts, User Groups, Forums, and other Community web sites.  I should also mention to be sure and scroll down (if necessary) and check out the BlogMS Resource Guides, note the first one is “Free Microsoft Software and Online Services”, hey, who isn’t interested in free , and it also includes links to Microsoft Support Resources.  Well, if you don’t already have more blog feeds than you can handle, this should help but you “over the top” on that account.   enjoy…

BlogsMS / Official Microsoft Team Blogs

App compat toolkit for Windows 7 coming sooner vs later
12 March 09 07:44 PM | ronaldg

Since I was just talking (in the previous post) about compatibility and how we are trying to be more proactive in mitigating it in Windows 7 (Win7), I thought I’d share this piece of news that just came out.   We will apparently be releasing a version of the Application Compatibility Toolkit for the pre-release versions of Win7.  Historically, we released these compatibility toolkits after the general release of the product, and with Vista we released the toolkit at product release in order to give folks an earlier start on doing compatibility testing.  Now, with Win7 we are actually being even more proactive.  Of course, one of the reasons we are able to do this is because, as I’ve pointed out before, Win7 leverages essentially the same app security and driver model as Vista, so the changes are relatively minor (e.g. the WDDM has been updated from WDDM v1.0 to v1.1, so there are changes to be sure, but the fundamental architecture is the same so the vast majority of drivers should just work.)  Since the major version is the same you can expect that a WDDM v1.0 (Vista) driver will work on Win7, and if you get a WDDM v6.1 (Win7) driver you can expect enhancements to the v6.0 experience and/or performance.  In fact, as most of you know, the kernel for Win7 is actually v6.1, and one of the reasons that the kernel was kept in the same major version range was to prevent additional app compat issues for apps that might still do major version checking.

App-compatibility tool kit for Windows 7 due in April

BTW, here’s the link to a Springboard series home page on TechNet and the Springboard series blog.  I’ve also included the direct link to a Springboard webcast on Win7 that discusses some of the evolutionary features like Group Policy, BitLocker To Go, DirectAccess, BranchCache, and AppLocker, and also covers some tips on troubleshooting, deployment, and application compatibility.

Springboard Series on the Windows Client TechCenter  (nice set of feature walk-throughs on this site)

Springboard series blog  (great set of Q&A’s on the current blog home page, in fact, a couple of them pertain to app compat)

Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable: Windows 7 - To the Beta and Beyond

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing the Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program
12 March 09 12:03 PM | ronaldg

As we approach Windows7 (Win7) Microsoft has taken a more proactive approach to compatibility than we have ever done in the past.  As I’ve noted before, since Win7 is built on the Vista code base, a major goal for Win7 is that programs that work on Vista should continue to work seamlessly on Win7.  Of course, this will not be possible in some cases (i.e. system utilities, diagnostics, security software, etc.) where the applications/drivers have deeper hooks into the OS than normal, but nevertheless the goal is to attain the highest possible level of compatibility.  You can find out a lot more detailed info on this in the Engineering Windows 7 blog that I’ve highlighted in a previous post.  In concert with this goal, one of the things we’re doing to facilitate increased compatibility is to launch the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Ecosystem Readiness Program (launched Feb09).  The program is designed to provide partners with access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 beta builds, development and test toolkits, technical documents and application testing labs through Microsoft Connect.  Software partners can join by going to: www.msdn.com/windows, and hardware partners can go to: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/win7/default.mspx, if you are not already part of the Microsoft Connect program.  IF you are already on Connect you can go to directly to the link below.   I should point out that the site is specifically intended for hardware and software ecosystem partners, but that would include some of my OEM and TS2 audience, so I wanted to highlight this possible resource, since it has links to the most recent Win7 and Server 2008 R2 releases, as well as updates to the Windows Logo Kit (WLK), Windows Driver Kit (WDK), and Software Development Kit (SDK).  As of yet, the site doesn’t have any Article links, but presumably that section will be populated with technical documentation as time goes on.  You should also check out some of the links in the “Links” section, especially the Forums, there’s lots of good technical info on those already.

On a related note, I’ll take this opportunity to also mention the Windows Application Quality Cookbook.  It’s intended for developers, but if you want to do a deep dive into some of the changes in Win7, this will be something you should be interested in.  You can find it at: Windows 7 Application Quality Cookbook.  Btw, there was a similar doc (called What’s New In Windows Vista) for Vista – this one’s significantly smaller since there’s not a lot of platform level changes to document like there was for Vista.

Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program

new “Windows for your Business” blog
06 March 09 07:41 PM | ronaldg

Thought you’d like to know about this new blog.  Although, as the title implies, it’s focused on “all customers from small businesses through large enterprises”, I know that partners need this same kind of info since those same customers are their customers as well.   The blog states that the team hosting the blog focuses on “enabling end-user productivity and reducing desktop administration overhead”, again things that are needed by partners as well as customers. 

The current headline blog entry: “Guidance on Windows Deployments for Business Customers” has some good content and links to resources around things customers (and partners) can do to assess their environments to make sure they are in the best position to make critical desktop infrastructure decisions.  Examples would include guidance and resources for doing application and hardware inventories and assessments.

Check it out.  And I’ll keep this post short (for a change).

 Guidance on Windows Deployments for Business Customers

And, btw, here’s links to other Windows blogs, one of which, “Windows Experience Blog”, I was not familiar with. (these are also on the above page).  It’s more about the media, games, and misc Windows stuff, check it out too.  And the Windows Vista Team blog has some hot updates and specific information about Vista SP2 if you’re interested.

The Windows Experience blog

The Windows Vista team blog

Game on!
06 March 09 01:51 PM | ronaldg

Hey partners,

We’ve launched the Windows Vista Means Business course on PLC (targeted to partners serving small business).  Partners that take it and pass the assessment get entered into a sweepstakes for a free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate (25 winners per week)!  The promotion and game end June 12, so there’s no particular rush but this is a good time to get as much solution selling info on Vista as you can (before we get too close to Windows 7).  The course is only about 30 minutes long.   For the MAPS subscribers, in addition to the page linked below, you may see it on the MAPS Training page as it qualifies for that assessment (although that requirement has been temporarily discontinued, you may want to do this anyway just for the chance at the software).  

Note, you will need a passing score of 80%, which I’m sure will be easy for most of my readers, but if you mess up the first time, you’ll have up to four time to pass.   I’ve taken it, so here’s some tips.  If you see “Select all that apply” they will be looking for more than one answer (even though some answers may be not be as obvious as others), especially if they ask about productivity (remember that can include performance considerations).  So go for it, have some fun, and hopefully you’ll win a copy of Vista Ultimate.  Oh, and it shows you the correct answers for any you may have missed so passing the second time around (if necessary) should be close to a no-brainer.

https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40095310

I will say this about some of the content I saw as I browsed through -- if I were you, I’d avoid too many references specific to Vista SP1, this only unnecessarily reinforces the old “wait for SP1” stereotype.  I’m betting that most of you had pretty good experiences with Vista right out of the gate (some app and driver compat notwithstanding), and Windows 7 will be even better (esp from an app/driver perspective), so calling out SP1 really isn’t all that helpful IMHO.