More Exchange 2007 stuff from Microsoft… Here’s a bunch of case studies for migrating to Exchange 2007 – they cover a wide range of businesses and scenarios, so they should be applicable to all sizes of environments.

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/search.aspx?ProTaxID=1267

The latest edition of Microsoft’s free, downloadable, TechNet magazine is now available. There’s lots of good Exchange 2007 stuff in there so it’s worth checking out.

• December TechNet magazine
• Direct download link as CHM

Microsoft have just RTW’d (released to web) version 6.0 of the RDP client which can be installed on Windows XP SP2 machines. This new version supports all the new RDP features that have been introduced with Vista and Longhorn. You also get a lot of new performance options so that you can now disable many of the Windows effects while connecting.

If you use the RDP client a lot, this is definitely worth getting. Link here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/…

I’ve just been reading a good blog post from the MS Exchange team (You had me at EHLO) detailing some recommendations for your Exchange 2007 hardware requirements. Here are the links:

• UPDATED: Exchange 2007 Processor and Memory Recommendations
• Performance Benchmarks for Computers Running Exchange Server 2003
• CPU and memory scalability for Exchange Server 2003 and for Exchange 2000 Server
• Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer

ASB have released a new service in NZ called pago (lower case intended) which allows you to make payments for goods using your sms with your mobile phone or by email. The site is clearly targeting a younger audience, even encouraging you to use your TradeMe or MySpace username as your pago login name. There’s even a ‘cool’ beta logo in the top corner. What’s worrying to me is that this service doesn’t seem too secure as if someone steals your mobile phone or gets access to your emails they will be able to steal your money and you won’t be able to do anything about it.

If this doesn’t sound like a good thing to you, be sure to read the terms and conditions to highlight how dangerous this service is. Note how many times it’s stated that if you lose money, you will not be refunded!

For example, you want to pay your friend $20 towards dinner, but you mistakenly enter their username wrong – you lose your money. No refund. No help from ASB. I really don’t think they are making the risks clear enough here, and I guess they are hoping that the younger crowd are more naive and that they won’t read the terms and conditions.

ASB needs to sort this out quickly.

Microsoft have recently created a new page on their Vista site that provides details on their new offering for Software Assurance customers. They’ve bundled up their recent purchases of Winternals, Softricity, and DesktopStandard into a free offering for those that sign up for Microsoft’s controversial licensing program. Here are some of the details from the site:

Using the solution’s virtualization, dynamic streaming and desktop manageability technologies, customers will:

• Improve PC manageability
  • Streamline and accelerate the entire application management lifecycle from planning and predictable deployment, to using, maintaining and migrating software
  • Further reduce total cost of ownership of the Windows desktop
  • Enhance management of software assets
• Accelerate and simplify desktop deployments and migrations
  • Reduce end-user downtime
  • Increase IT and business agility
• Enhance change management process and roll backs
  • Enhance group policy management
  • Reduce downtime
  • Provide end users with on-demand access to applications for which they are assigned

Source: Windows Vista: Optimizing the Windows Desktop

I was a little late to the party but my Movember effort is now in full swing. I have a week’s worth of stubble to carve into something embarrassing! Thanks to my sponsors (Damian, Lisa, Ness, Sheri) who haves donated so far – I’ve raised $25 $55 $60 for prostate cancer research. I’ll be posting the first round of photos tomorrow night…

For those that don’t know, Movember is a charity that raises money for prostate cancer research by getting males to shave a moustache during the month of November. Here’s the blurb from the website:

Movember – Changing the face of Men’s Health
Movember (the month formally known as November) is a charity event held during November each year.
At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants known as Mo Bros then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache and along the way raise as much money and awareness about male health issues as possible.

If you would like to help out this worthy charity, please go to http://www.movember.com/nz/sponsor, enter my Rego number which is 45478 and your credit card details. All donations over $5 are tax deductible.

Microsoft are following VMware’s lead by providing pre-built virtual machines for download. Have a look at this search on the Microsoft downloads site and you’ll find a few there already: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?pocId=&freetext=VHD&DisplayLang=en

These are only official trial versions from Microsoft, so VMware still has the lead here with a whole community of user-created virtual machines most of which are fully-licensed machines ready to run. But these offerings from Microsoft will definitely make it easier for end-users to trial Microsoft’s software.

Just noticed today that the Sysinternals site has completed its migration to Microsoft’s TechNet site. The new address is http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx

I’ve had a quick dig around and noticed this tool which looks new, Process Monitor. Here’s a screenshot from the site:

Everything else seems to be the same apart from the lack of source code which Microsoft have said they will not be migrating due to lack of interest as well as potential future complications as the tools get merged into the Microsoft suite.