Martin Kulov's Blog

Coskun Sunali sent me a list of 77 tips for Windows 7. While some of the tips are already included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, it is still a good reference to all of them. Here is a short list of my favorites.

15. Prepare for DirectAccess. DirectAccess makes it easier for users to remotely access their office-based resources, without a VPN. DirectAccess also opens up remote computers more fully to Group Policy—but it requires Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

21. Presentation Nirvana. Press Windows+P to access the new Presentation mode, and easily turn on your projector and laptop screen at the same time. No more messing with vendor-specific utilities and arcane keystrokes. (Windows+X accesses the Mobility Center, with additional presentation options.)

22. Cut the Clutter. Press Windows+Home to minimize all but the current window, removing background clutter and letting you focus on that report your boss has been bugging you about.

 

23. Be a Mouse-Click Administrator. Windows 7 makes it easy to gain admin rights with a keyboard shortcut. Click on Ctrl+Shift on a taskbar-locked icon, and voila! You've launched it with appropriate admin rights.

29. RoboCopyCopyCopy. The always-useful Robocopy.exe can now run multi-threaded; run Robocopy /? to review its new parameters (like /MT for multithreading) and make your copies go faster.

35. Simplify Cloned Machine Setups. You can't run Sysinternals' newsid utility to change the identity of a cloned Windows 7 machine (either a virtual machine or imaged PC). Instead, create a template installation then run sysprep /oobe /generalize /reboot /shutdown /unattend:scriptfile. Clone or copy this virtual machine file. When it launches, it will get a new SID and you can fill in the name. The reference for building unattended script files is at tinyurl.com/winunattend.

46. Encrypt USB Sticks. Use BitLocker To Go. Maybe you've managed to never misplace or lose a USB key, but for the rest of us mere mortals, it's a fact of life. Most of the time it's no big deal, but what if it contains sensitive data? BitLocker To Go enables you to encrypt data on removable storage devices with a password or a digital certificate stored on a smart card.

Labels: Tools and Tips, Windows 7

The new licensing schema is actually hotter topic than the new Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. So – good bye Visual Studio Team System – welcome Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. Visual Studio 2010 RTM will be released on 22^nd of March.

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 will also include Go Live license for all customers.

In addition – clients using VS 2008 can connect to TFS 2010 using the newly released VS2008 GDR Pack.

Here is the new Visual Studio 2010 SKU list:

• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® 2010 Professional
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® 2010 Professional with MSDN
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® 2010 Premium with MSDN
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® 2010 Ultimate with MSDN
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® Test Elements 2010 with MSDN
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® Team Foundation Server 2010
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® Team Lab Management 2010
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® Load Test Virtual User Pack 2010

Need to learn more about the licensing and pricing? Check out my blog as I will post information when and where you can learn more in our User Groups.

PS: Did I tell you that TFS is now available in all versions with MSDN? And for small teams you can use TFS Basic that is installed from the same installer as the full blown Team Foundation Server!

Labels: Visual Studio 2010

I just found today that Hyper-V snapshots are recommended by Microsoft only for development and testing purposes. You should never try to use Hyper-V snapshots instead of fully functional backup solution!

There is even more on the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Snapshots FAQ:

Important

Microsoft does not support the use of snapshots on virtual machines hosting the Active Directory Domain Services role (also known as “domain controllers”) or virtual machines hosting the Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services role. For more information, see Operational Considerations for Virtualized Domain Controllers (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159631).

There are many horror stories in the net about losing all production environment due to Hyper-V snapshots failures. Snapshots are also based on differentiating disks so it will hurt your performance too.

Here are some pros and cons about Hyper-V vs. VSS backups.

VSS stands for Volume Shadow Copy Service and it is used by Windows Server Backup available in Windows Server 2008.

There is also some known way to enable Hyper-V VSS Writer as it is not enabled by default.

Labels: Hyper-V

Brian Harry finally shared a long kept secret. TFS Basic, that is going to be part of the VSTS 2010 release, is the replacement tool for Source Safe users.

TFS Basic is the all-in-one development system that combines Version Control, Bug Tracking and Build Automation.

The beauty of it is the new install experience. There is a Next, Next, Next wizard that validates and configures everything for you. Fully functional instance of TFS Basic can be installed and configured for about 20min, if you have .NET Framework 4 and SQL Server 2008 installed already.

I am happy to see that Microsoft provides single developer and small team shops with a high quality product like TFS in smaller packaging.

Labels: TFS