• Total Network Monitor 1.1.3 with some improvements is released. Now the program is absolutely free!
• Microsoft removes hardware virtualization barrier to running XP Mode
• Windows XP: No IE9 for You Now you understand what “supported” until 2014 means.
• Microsoft Windows blog: Talking About Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Accelerates Desktop Virtualization (Press Release)
• Dynamic Memory Coming To Hyper-V
• Microsoft explains RemoteFX
• Microsoft lowers Windows licensing costs for virtual desktops

I somehow forgot my poll about cloud computing which I started last year. I wanted to know how many Windows admins are already involved in cloud computing and how interested 4sysops readers are in this new technology. The result is quite interesting:

At time of this writing, 17% are already using cloud technology, 11% are planning to introduce cloud computing in their organization, and 24% have no such plans. The most interesting result here is that 48% of those who took part in this poll didn’t choose any of these three options. Does this mean that almost half of participants simply don’t know if their company will introduce cloud computing?

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• Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Beta 1
• Microsoft drops cut and paste from Windows Phone 7 BIG MISTAKE! Why does MS also copy Apple’s failures?
• IBM Launches Public Cloud Service No support for Windows. Only Red Hat.
• RightScale Launches 1 Millionth Cloud Server

Last year, when Firefox 3.5 was released and the whole net community was amazed by the performance gains of the Open Source browser, I was only amused by the childish obsession many IT pros have with browser speed. Now, as the Internet Explorer 9 developer preview is available, touting its fabulous hardware acceleration, I am beginning to wonder if the whole net is just nuts or if I should see a doctor because something is profoundly wrong with my sense of time. I am really worried. So please help me diagnose this phenomenon!

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• Symantec Backup Exec 2010 review Main new feature: deduplication (elimination of redundant data)
• Microsoft unveils IE9 public preview You can download IE9 here
• IE9 proves Microsoft is back in the browser battle, says analyst

I suppose, most organizations use Microsoft’s Key Management Services (KMS) to activate Vista/Windows 7 and Server 2008/R2 machines. The Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) is usually used by smaller organizations which prefer to activate Windows with MAK or retail product keys. However, even if you work with KMS, VAMT can be useful to keep track of your Windows activations. KMS still only has a command line interface and VAMT has a nice GUI which gives you a good overview of the activation status of all Windows machines. In this post, I will summarize the enhancements of VAMT 2.0 compared to VAMT 1.2. VAMT 1.2 is part of the WAIK and already supports Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. VAMT 1.1, which is available as a separate download, only supports Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Please note that VAMT 2.0 is still in beta. For an introduction to VAMT please read my review of VAMT and my article about proxy activation with VAMT.

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• Spiceworks 4.6 is out
• Microsoft Select Licensing Discontinued
• Silverlight on 60 per cent of ‘internet devices’ My view: Silverlight will be Microsoft’s main gateway to the cloud.
• Microsoft announces more Windows Phone 7 details
• Windows Phone 7: New Samsung device and hardware specs revealed
• Windows Phone 7 Apps Must Be Microsoft Approved
• Gartner Says 60 Percent of Virtualized Servers Will Be Less Secure Than the Physical Servers They Replace Through 2012
• Paul Thurrott: Windows 7 Annoyances (and solutions)

• Review: Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
• Windows 8 Technical Documentation in the Works
• Qualcomm’s Multi-Fold Device: tablet and smart phone in one device Isn’t this cool?

PC Audit is really a very simple tool. But, in some cases, this is just what you need if you want to quickly see an overview of the hardware and installed software on a PC. The tool can also display the running processes. You can save all the data to the clipboard, which allows you to paste the inventory data quickly into any application, or to a text file. I think this latter feature makes PC Audit a useful tool for the helpdesk.

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• Windows 7 SP1 Coming Q4 2010?
• Hackers exploit latest IE6/7 zero-day with drive-by attacks Move to IE8 and Windows 7 NOW!
• Microsoft develops 3D cloud mouse
• Hackers love to exploit PDF bugs, says researcher
• 12% knowingly violate company IT policies
• Windows 7 Compatibility Testing (Part 2)

In my last article, I listed all important features of Microsoft’s free Sysprep tool. Today, I will explain why I think that unique SIDs are still necessary, even though, Mark Russinovich debunked the machine SID duplication myth.

I have no doubts that Mark’s analysis that Windows networks don’t require unique SIDs is correct. Actually, this corresponds to my own experience. I have been cloning machines long before Microsoft introduced the Sysprep tool. At that time, Microsoft warned about using cloning tools. The main argument was that SID duplication can cause problems. This didn’t really convince me because my tests showed that these problems don’t exist. When I first tried a cloning tool, I was baffled as to how this technology was superior compared to unattended installations. Thus, I decided to ignore Microsoft’s warning and embrace OS cloning. I don’t remember SID duplication ever causing a problem.

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• Amazon S3 Now Hosts 100 Billion Objects My laptop with 1TB hosts about 1 million objects. So S3 stores 100,000 TB?
• Cloud and The Death of the Sysadmin Wrong! Innovation in IT will require more sysadmins:

In response to my article about Microsoft’s free OS image preparation tools, a reader claimed that as a result of Mark Russinovich’s famous SID duplication myth article, Sysprep would no longer be required. Mark argued in detail why SID duplications are, contrary to a widespread opinion, no problem in Windows networks. Since Mark is such a famous figure, I believe many admins have read his article and came to the same wrong conclusion that the Sysprep tool has now become obsolete. I think that this a big misunderstanding. Thus, it is important to get a few things straight about the System Preparation tool.

First of all, those who read Mark’s article to the end will have noticed that he still recommends using Sysprep. The problem is that his article is quite long and, I guess, many admins missed that part. Second, I disagree with Mark that duplicate SIDs are not an issue. I will provide my arguments in the next article. Today, I will explain why sysprepping your master image is essential even if we assume for a moment that unique SIDs are not required.

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• Serious Apache vulnerability disclosed
• Sysinternals updates: AdExplorer v1.3, VMMap v2.6, Disk2vhd v1.5, LiveKd v3.14, Sigcheck v1.66

Microsoft announced the Office 2010 prices for the European market. With the exception of the Home and Student edition, the European prices are unbelievably high. Most US companies just convert one US dollar into one euro, which is already unfair considering that one US dollar equals 0.73 euro. Although one has to consider that the language pack has its price, that doesn’t explain that Office 2010 Professional costs almost twice as much in Europe as in the US.

The good thing is that you can get Office cheaper if you only buy the product key without the DVD. I have been criticizing Microsoft’s practice of selling software in colorful boxes as if the internet didn’t exist. It appears Microsoft has finally arrived in the internet age. Let’s just see when the boxes become history. What I find remarkable is how big the price difference is.

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