Author: Ronni Pedersen

Multiple Group Policy Preferences have been added to the Windows Server 2008 Group Policy Management Console (which are also available through the Remote Server Administration Toolset (RSAT) for Windows Vista SP1). Group Policy Preferences enable information technology professionals to configure, deploy, and manage operating system and application settings they previously were not able to manage using Group Policy. A few days ago Microsoft released a new version of the Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions. Microsoft Windows XP (x86): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e60b5c8f-d7dc-4b27-a261-247ce3f6c4f8&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Windows XP (x64): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=249c1aed-c1f1-4a0b-872e-ef0a32170625&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (x86): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bfe775f9-5c34-44d0-8a94-44e47db35add&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (x64): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=29e83503-7686-49f3-b42d-8e5ed23d5d79&DisplayLang=en For more information…

I’ve just got an email from Microsoft, saying that I’ve received the Microsoft MVP Award on System Center Configuration Manager. I’m truly honored… Thanks to my lovely wife and to my son, for being so patient when I spend (too much) time working for the Danish IT community.

Living in a non-english speaking country like Denmark, I often have to deal with deploying English versions of Windows XP and/or Windows Vista, with other Regional Settings, Keyboard Settings, Time Zones etc. In the past I’ve created a VBScript to modify the sysprep.inf or the unattend.xml, after laying down the image on the client. The values were configured with Collection Variables or Computer Variables. The script collected the value during deployment, and replaced the value in the sysprep.inf or unattend.xml file before restarting into mini setup. This year at TechEd in Orlando, I attened a great session on Windows Deployment…

Hyper-V, one of the key features of Windows Server 2008, has now released to manufacturing (RTM) and is available for deployment into production environments. A beta of Hyper-V was included with Windows Server 2008 and this update provides the final release. The Hyper-V update will be available through Windows Update from July 8th. I’ve upgraded my test lab running Hyper-V RC1 to the RTM version, and so far everything is running smoothly. The official Press Release from Microsoft. Additional information: http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/default.mspx http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950050 http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/c513e254-adf1-400e-8fcb-c1aec8a029311033.mspx?mfr=true http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/e/7/2e7387d3-1391-4176-abe8-44e481100694/relnotes.htm Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F3AB3D4B-63C8-4424-A738-BADED34D24ED&displaylang=en

With ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 released, we now have support for running ConfigMgr on Windows Server 2008. Microsoft has released an update that adds the required information, so the Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) can lock down the ConfigMgr Site Systems. Download the update here. Overview: The Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) is an attack-surface reduction tool for the Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 operating system. SCW determines the minimum functionality required for a server’s role or roles, and disables functionality that is not required. The Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 Windows Server 2008 SCW template supports both new and updated site system definitions and…

First thing on the agenda was the Keynote… As usual Bob Muglia was doing this presentation. I don’t want to go into any details about the keynote or the sessions. But if I say the keynote was both predictable and a bit boring I don’t think I’ll offend anyone. Better luck next year 🙂 My first real session was “What’s new in SP1 in ConfigMgr”. Not a “tech sexy” topic, but I think Wally did a good job. The focus was on Asset Intelligence 1.5 and the Intel AMT feature (Out of band management). After lunch I went to a…

Today the Microsoft TechEd 2008 North America starts. What we traveled half around the globe to attend had finally begun. Monday was Pre-Conference day. I attended the “Deploying and Managing a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Environment” with Wally Mead as speaker. He started by telling us that we properly wouldn’t be able to complete the content of the session within the 7 hours available for the pre-conference 🙂 During the first half of today’s pre-conference, we was continually disturbed by the noise from the KeyNote practice. Loud bongo drums, and a hysteric woman that were yelling, for literally hours,…

I knew yesterday was going to be exciting, but it went beyond my imagination. We left the Hampton Inn in Fort Lauderdale at 8 am. We drove south, heading for the Tamiami trail (route 41).The first stop was the “Shark Vally Visitor Center”. At the entrance we saw the first amazing animal. I have no idea what the turtle is called, but check out these pictures: At the parking lot we saw this little fellow: Baby aligators… Cute…! The adult aligators…   And a lot of amazing birds.   We arrived at the hotel in Orlando 10 pm last night.…

Yesterday was amazing… We actually managed to spend more than 9 hours of non-stop shopping. Not even my wife can beat that 🙂 We got a lot of cool stuff, and to a very good prize… When you live i Europe, almost everything is about 50% off.   Today we are heading for Orlando. We plan to drive through the Everglades National Park. The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, visited by more than one million people each year. This is how our trip is planned, and hopefully we’ll arrive at our hotel in Orlando around 8 pm tonight.

Yesterday, my travel mates (Peter Schmidt and Jens Ole Kragh) and I, arrived at the hotel in Fort Lauderdale (Hampton Inn), where we’re staying for the next couple of days. The flight from Frankfurt in Germany to Miami was almost 10 hours. The flight was less than 50% booked, so even on “monkey class”, the flight was comfortable. Last time I visited Miami was 15 years ago, so I wanted to check out downtown Miami to see if anything has changed. We went to the Bayside Marketplace to grab some food and a beer at Hooters. Everything looked excalty the…