7 hrs ago I just wish they would have linked to those "typical sites". 15 hrs ago 1 day ago 1 day ago
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My “Vista goodbye” article evoked emotions among some 4sysops readers. Publicly defending Vista is still a dangerous thing to do. I can understand that very well, considering how many headaches must have been caused by malfunctioning device drivers, high hardware demands and broken applications.
I have been a Vista advocate since its first beta version. In my view, it was a milestone release only comparable to Windows 3.0, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4. Windows 3.0 was the first Windows that really worked. Windows 95 introduced a new interface concept, Windows NT brought stability, and Windows Vista security. All other Windows releases were just feature packs. It is typical for all milestone releases that they caused a lot of trouble in the beginning and required significantly more hardware resources than their predecessors. Nevertheless, from a technical point of view they were much more important than the other releases. The server version Windows 2000 was a milestone release too, but we are talking about desktop operating systems here.
Anyway, I think, the final word on these matters belongs to the 4sysops readers. What could be more revealing than the operating system shares among 4sysops readers? I must say that I was quite surprised when I generated the statistics with Google Analytics.
Release Notes: Operations Guide: In the last post of this series, I outlined the changes that the Active Directory Recycle Bin introduces to Windows Server 2008 R2 when it comes to restoring Active Directory objects. Today, I will give you an overview of how the Recycle Bin can be used.
Before you can work with the Recycle Bin, you have to raise the functional level of your Active Directory. Basically, you have to run ADPREP /FORESTPREP on the forest Schema Master and then ADPREP /DOMAINPREP on the Infrastructure Master, with the ADPREP version on the Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD. I recommend that you read James Bannan’s guide to migrate the Active Directory functional level to Windows Server 2008 R2.
Raising the functional level alone does not make the Active Directory Recycle Bin available. This feature has to be explicitly enabled. Not that this process is irreversible. Once you have enabled Active Directory Recycle Bin, you can’t disable it again. Since this step will affect your backup strategy, you should fully understand how Recycle Bin works, before going ahead.
Comprehensive article with Windows 7 deployment timeline Also check out my review of the previous version That’s why I believe in the future of “fat” “desktops”.In the last article in this series, I recapitulated briefly how Active Directory objects have to be restored in Windows Server 2003/2008. Today, I will explain how the new Active Directory Recycle Bin feature works and the changes that comes with it. Let’s see first in what way the Recycle Bin improves AD object restores.
There are three advantages in using the new Recycle Bin feature:
There are four requirements that have to be fulfilled so that an Active Directory object with Recycle Bin can be restored:
Automated installation: Upgrading: Automated: Active Directory Recycle Bin is a new Windows Server 2008 R2 feature that allows you to easily restore accidentally deleted Active Directory objects. When I first heard about this feature, I thought that the Active Directory User and Computer Interface (ADUC) would just provide a Recycle Bin like the one we know from Windows Explorer. However, things are a lot more complicated with the Active Directory Recycle Bin. This is why I need two posts only to summarize the essentials that every Windows administrator has to know.
Before I describe how the Recycle Bin works, however, I will recapitulate how the restoration of Active Directory objects works with previous Windows versions. This makes it easier to understand the changes that were introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2.
In a few weeks, Vista will be history. Even though, it will still be running for quite some time on many machines out there, most IT pros will focus now on Windows 7. Of course, no IT pro will start using Vista now. But I am sure many are still running XP on their own computers, at work or at home, and quite a few of them believe that skipping Vista was the smartest thing to do. If you are one of them, then this article is dedicated to you. Quite by chance, I’ve found seven reasons why you should now regret your decision.
You probably think that since Vista was such a mess and Windows 7 is so great, your decision to skip Vista was a wise one. The contrary is true. The major reason why Windows 7 is so great is because it builds on Vista. You could have had many of the great Windows 7 features long ago.
How many hours per week do you work? I work 10, the rest is fun. 
x86: Cool video demo of a booklet with a dual multitouch screen When will people understand that a feature-rich OS has to be bloated?One of the reasons why Server Core 2008 is not that popular is because basic configurations have to be made on the command line. Perhaps this alone wouldn’t be a problem: however, most of Server Core’s commands are somewhat longwinded, at least when you compare this system with other CLI-based operating systems such as Linux. This is why, almost immediately after its release, several Server Core configuration tools came up. The Windows Server 2008 R2 edition of Server Core comes with its own configuration tool: Sconfig.
Some days ago , I outlined why I believe that Mac OS X is no match for Windows 7 when it comes to the decision which OS is the best choice for the corporate network. Today, I want to tell you the main reason why I also wouldn’t use a Mac privately. I just have to let this out publicly at least once. My aversion against Macs has nothing to do with OS features, overpriced hardware, or the ecosystem. You won’t believe it, but it is this “I am a Mac” adverts that I find quite repulsive. Their main message is that if you want to look like a cool, stylish surfer and not like a dumpy business guy, you really need to be a Mac. That is, using a Mac is not enough, you have to show everyone that you are a Mac.
When I compiled my complete Windows 7 feature overview a while back, one of the features that caught my attention was the background upload of roaming user profiles. This Windows 7 feature overview was mostly based on Microsoft’s Windows 7 reviewer’s guide of the beta version. This guide is no longer available at Microsoft Download, but you still can get it at rapidshare. Note that not everything in this paper applies to Windows 7 RTM.
This is the original text in the Windows 7 reviewer’s guide:
Windows 7 makes Roaming User Profiles more useful and reliable by enabling IT professionals to automatically synchronize users’ profiles with the server while users are still logged on. Prior to Windows 7, this synchronization occurred only when users logged off. With this improvement, users can roam from one PC to another while remaining logged in to both PCs—and still have the same consistent environment.
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