stuart test blog

Most large organisations employ dedicated packagers to create automated software installations that can be deployed enterprise-wide using distribution tools such as Microsoft’s SMS 2003 or Group Policies. Smaller companies, however, can’t afford to package applications and often revert to manually installing the software on computers as required. Adobe provides a useful utility to help administrators customise […]

The Disk Cleanup tool can be incredibly useful but is often underutilised. Here are some tips I’ve picked up that can help you utilise the tool to its fullest. Launch the tool quickly by opening the Run command (Start -> Run or Win Key + R) and type: “cleanmgr” (without quotes) To configure the settings […]

On the topic of books… The Windows Server Division Weblog has details on the newly released about to be released book called Introducing Windows Server 2008 Here’s the list of chapters: Introduction Usage Scenarios Windows Server Virtualization Managing Windows Server 2008 Managing Server Roles Windows Server Core Active Directory Enhancements Terminal Services Enhancements Clustering Enhancements […]

Jeff Jones (Strategy Director in the Microsoft Security Technology Unit) has written a post about Server Core and how its reduced footprint increases security dramatically. The key here is “reduced attack surface area” as all of the most insecure areas of a server have been removed, such as IIS, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, etc… […]

Now that I have a new Server Core installation ready for setup, I read through the Step by Step guide a bit more and continued on to the initial setup. Change the admin password As I mentioned in a previous post, when you create a new Server Core installation you are greeted with a logon […]

Well this is interesting – my first, first-hand experience with Server Core. There’s only one command prompt window rather than the two that was present in previous betas. There is still a GUI, and you can run several apps such as Notepad, Task Manager, Regedit, which are probably the three most useful GUI apps I […]

Most people are expecting Longhorn to eventually become officially known as Windows Server 2008, but it looks like Microsoft have inadvertently let the cat out of the bag by posting a link to the “Windows Server 2008 Reviewers Guide” on the WinHEC press site. Eagle-eyed Mary Jo Foley picked up on it and grabbed a […]

Big news this week was that Microsoft have had to drop postpone some key features from their new virtualisation software currently in development. Mike Neill, GM of virtualisation strategy went on the defensive with a lengthy blog post detailing all of the cool things about Microsoft’s new virtualisation platform, codenamed Viridian. But if you kept […]

I’ve mentioned before how I recommend that all infrastructure consultants subscribe the TechNet Blogs feed, and once again I’ve picked up on a gem. This one is courtesy of the “Schweiser” blog in Switzerland and they have provided PowerShell courseware and demos for download. The courseware is an introduction to PowerShell and is in pdf […]

Good to see Microsoft and Apple working together to come up with an update for Vista that corrects some of the compatibility problems that have caused corruption on some iPods. You can download the update from the Microsoft Download Center.