IT Pro Event 14th May: Unified Communications with Eileen Brown

For the second VBUG Newcastle IT Pro event, we’re fortunate to have a great speaker. Eileen Brown is the manager of Microsoft’s TechNet UK IT Professional Evangelist Team, and writes a hugely popular blog on Management, Messaging, Mobility and Real Time Collaboration.

Here’s the overview of Eileen’s talk:

“If the PCs on our desks do much more than they did 10 years ago, why don’t our phones ?

On a Mobile phone calls are dialled from your phone book – UC allows your PC contacts to be used to place calls rather than re-keying the number into a desk, and identifies your contacts by name when they call you and routes your calls to the best phone. Unified communications is bringing together Voice, Fax, Video, Email and Instant messaging, into one system. So Voice mail which arrives in your mailbox And e-mail which can be read to you over the phone. With UC you can see if someone is around to take a call or answer a message before you contact them – and choose the best medium. And a conversation can move seamlessly from email, to instant message, to data sharing and video conference. Harnessing UC can mean less travel, less frustration and greater productivity.”

This presentation is particularly timely in the University, since this year we’ll be looking at adding some unified messaging features to our existing Exchange infrastructure. This is a great opportunity to hear about what the future might look like, from a real expert in this area.

The presentation will take place in Room 118 of Claremont Tower on Thursday 14th May, 18:30 (for a 19:00 start). If you plan to attend, please could you sign up at the VBUG site (just so we have numbers for refreshments, etc): http://www.vbug.co.uk/Events/May-2009/VBUG-Newcastle-Unified-Communications-with-Eileen-Brown.aspx

You don’t have to be a VBUG member and the event is free to attend.

If you’re on Twitter, you might like to follow Eileen.

VBUG Newcastle’s first IT Pro event

On Tuesday, the University hosted the first IT Pro event held by VBUG Newcastle. Going forward the aim is to host developer and sys admin events in alternate months. For the first set of sys admin content, I did a presentation entitled “PowerShell: 0-60 in One Evening”, which you can find the details of at: http://www.jonoble.com/blog/2009/3/26/powershell-0-60-in-one-evening.html

For a first event of a brand new group, I think a turnout in the high teens was ok, and from a speaker’s perspective the level of interaction was good, but we’d love to see double that number next time. We’ve got a great speaker planned for the May event and I’ll post the details here as soon as everything is confirmed.

Free PowerShell event: 24th March

I’ve been working with Andrew Westgarth, who runs the VBUG Newcastle events, to try to provide IT Pro (i.e. sys admin) content as well as their traditional developer events. The idea is that we’ll run free developer and IT Pro events alternate months on the Newcastle University campus.

The first of the IT Pro events will be held on the 24th March in Claremont Tower and I will be presenting “Windows PowerShell: 0-60 in One Evening”. The presentation will highlight a number of free tools to help you get up to speed quickly with PowerShell.

All the details are on the VBUG site at:
http://www.vbug.co.uk/Events/March-2009/VBUG-NEWCASTLE-Windows-PowerShell-060-in-One-Evening-with-Jonathan-Noble.aspx

If you’d like to come along, please book your free place (just so we don’t run short of refreshments).

Forthcoming Events on Campus

I will be preseting a brief introduction to Windows PowerShell at this month’s Super Mondays event in the Beehive (Old Library Building) on the 23rd at 18:00. These events are growing rapidly and well worth attending – the topics are usually diverse enough that there should be something of interest to everyone. See SuperMondays.org for the full line-up and the Upcoming link if you’re attending. I hope to see you there.

The postponed VBUG Newcastle developer event on “Parallel Programming in .NET (VS2010)” with Eric Nelson has now been rearranged for Tuesday 24th February at 18:30 in Claremont Tower room 118. Sign up at:
http://www.vbug.co.uk/Events/February-2009/VBUG-NEWCASTLE-REARRANGED–Parallel-programming-in-NET-VS2010-with-Eric-Nels.aspx

.Net Developer Event Cancelled

[UPDATE] This event has now been rearranged for Tuesday 24th February. Sign up at:
http://www.vbug.co.uk/Events/February-2009/VBUG-NEWCASTLE-REARRANGED–Parallel-programming-in-NET-VS2010-with-Eric-Nels.aspx

Unfortunately, due to the weather causing flight cancellations, the VBUG Newcastle event on 3rd February, which was announced here: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/blogs/index.php/wit/2009/01/21/developer_event_parallel_programming_in_ has had to be cancelled.

The event will be rearranged for a later date which will be posted on this blog.

Developer Event: Parallel programming in .NET (VS2010)

[UPDATE 2] This event has now been rearranged for Tuesday 24th February. Sign up at:
http://www.vbug.co.uk/Events/February-2009/VBUG-NEWCASTLE-REARRANGED–Parallel-programming-in-NET-VS2010-with-Eric-Nels.aspx

[UPDATE: Due to flight cancellations caused by the weather, this event has been cancelled and will be rearranged for a later date.]

This is a slight departure from our normal topics, but some of you may be interested in attending this event, which the University is hosting for VBUG Newcastle…

Date: Tuesday 3 February 2009 from 6:30 PM to 09:30 PM

Topic: VBUG NEWCASTLE: Parallel programming in .NET (VS2010) with Eric Nelson

Overview
The next version of the .NET Framework will come with new classes that start to remove the difficulties in building multi-threaded applications that are able to take advantage of the modern multi-core processor architectures and the future many-core architectures that are coming over the next few years. In this session, we will look at why we will all need to start thinking about parallelism and drill into what is available in the current previews for managed code development.

Location: Room 118, Claremont Tower, Newcastle University

For more information, and to book a place, go to:
http://www.vbug.co.uk/Events/February-2009/VBUG-NEWCASTLE-Parallel-programming-in-NET-VS2010-with-Eric-Nelson.aspx

Windows Vista Migration Tools & Support!

We would like to remind you of the support available for migration to Windows Vista and introduce some additional toolkit items.

As well as the improvements in the new Base Policy announced earlier the Vista Version of ‘CMDInfo’ includes tools which allow users to import Favourites, Desktop Files and Outlook NK2 files from their XP Profiles.

For those of you developing Policies for Vista, there is now a Vista WMI filter ‘ISS – Windows Vista Filter’ which can be used to easily restrict Policies so that they are only applied to Vista Machines allowing you to run XP and Vista machines within the same OU container. The Test Vista Base Policy already uses this filter.

The vast majority of centrally provided software Policies are tested and supported on Windows Vista including but not limited to the programs below.**

4 Central Office 2003
4 Central Office 2007
3 Central Apple QuickTime 7.4.5
3 Central Adobe Reader 8.1.2
3 Central Asian Fonts for Adobe Reader 8
3 Central Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124.0
3 Central Adobe Shockwave Player 11.0.0.429
3 Central Paint Dot Net 3.31
4 Central ReadAndWrite Gold 8.1.6
3 Central Citrix RAS Client 10.200
4 Central MindGenius 2.43
3 Central CDBurnerXP 4.0.024.439
4 Central SAPCampus SapGui710 (Vista)
2 Campus Microsoft ISA Firewall Client 4.0.3442.654
4 Central Office 2007 Getting Started Toolbars
5 Central Licensed Acrobat 8.1.2 Professional
5 Central Licensed Inspiration 8.0b
4 Central Office 2007 Proofing Tools
4 Central SigmaPlot 11.0.1
4 Central CES EduPack 2008
4 Central QSR NVivo 8
3 Central Adobe Flash Player 10.0.12.36
3 Central Notepad++ 4.9.2
3 Central SequoiaView 1.3
4 Central EndNote X1.0.1
3 Central MDL Chime 2.6 SP7
3 Central TrueCrypt 6.1

**This is a list of new numbered policies created since Easter 2008 we started packaging for Vista however many other numbered policies work fine.

The ISS teams responsible for infrastructure and software are only an email away via helpline@ncl.ac.uk. If you have concerns about migrating to Vista or issues preventing you then please let us know. You can also comment on any article posted here on the WIT blog where one of us will respond.

Campus Managed Desktop Information Tool

CMDInfo is a major redevelopment of the ISS PC Info tool which is part of the current Windows XP Base Policy. It is designed to provide important information to users and support staff including their profile path, home directory path, machine name, group policies and firewall exceptions.

CMDInfo also includes WinDirStat, a freeware tool which gives a graphical representation of the space utilisation on a given folder or volume. When launched from CMDInfo WinDirStat will automatically present a view of a users H Drive.

Extra features are available when running CMDInfo under Window Vista including migration scripts which will copy Internet Explorer Favourites, Desktop Items and Outlook NK2 (nickname) files to their Vista profiles.

The new tool is included in the new Test Vista Base Policy announced yesterday. It will also be merged in to the existing XP Base Policy later today and delivered to machines under the Policy at their next restart.

Features

  • Displays detailed system and user information including Username, Home Directory path, Profile Path, Mapped drives, Firewall exceptions, Network Name and Hardware Information
  • Simple and advanced views.
  • Support links for helpline and printing credit.
  • Includes WinDirStat
  • Includes tools to import all or any combination of Favorites, Outlook settings, Desktop files and document templates from a Users XP profile to their Vista (Vista Only).
  • Includes emailing component which will interrogate the system and send advanced support information ‘ipconfig’, ‘set’ and event logs to support staff (Vista Only).

Screenshots

User information (Advanced View).

User Information

System information (Advanced View).

System Information

Support and Tools (Advanced View/Windows Vista)

Tools

Send Logs (Advanced View/Windows Vista)

Email

Send Logs Script (Advanced View/Windows Vista)

Send Logs

Email recieved from CMDInfo

Email

New Windows Vista Base Policy open for testing

For the last few months we’ve been developing a new version of the Windows Vista Base Policy. The current version, which has not been updated since Vista’s release , has suffered from a number of problems, particularly with Folder redirection. These have now been addressed and we are pleased to invite you to help us test the new Policy before its full rollout in the few months of next year

These improvements will allow seamless switching between Windows XP and Vista machine on CAMPUS and will make the rollout of the Vista OS viable for the majority of campus users.

To apply the Policy apply to a machine use ‘TEST 0 Windows Vista Base Policy.’ Please note that the test policy should replace the original policy.

New Windows Vista Base Policy Features

Folder Redirection Fixed!

All standard Vista user folders are now redirected to the Network and any duplicate folders are removed but only if they are empty.

This means that users who have accidently saved files to their local machine will not lose them upon the new Base Policy being applied. The table below shows details on the redirection paths. Notice that where applicable, folders have been redirected to the exact location of their Windows XP counterparts i.e. ‘My Music ‘ rather than ‘Music.’

This means that users moving between XP and Vista are using the same folder and will not see duplicates under drive H:\ or C:\Users

Windows Vista Folder Name

Description

New Location

Contacts

Default Location for Users’s Contacts

\\towerx\homex\username\Contacts

Desktop

Desktop items, including files and shortcuts

n\a

Documents

Default location for all user created documents

\\towerx\homex\username\Documents

Downloads

Default location to save all downloaded content

\\towerx\homex\username\Downloads

Favourites

Internet Explorer Favourites

\\towerx\homex\username\Favorites

Music

Default location for user’s music files

\\towerx\homex\username\My Music

Videos

Default location for user’s video files

\\towerx\homex\username\My Videos

Pictures

Default location for user’s picture files

\\towerx\homex\username\My Pictures

Searches

Default location for saved searches

\\towerx\homex\username\Searches

AppData

Default location for user application data and binaries (hidden folder)

n\a

Links

Contains Windows Explorer Favourite Links

\\towerx\homex\username\Links

Saved Games

Used for Saved Games

\\towerx\homex\username\Saved Games

Redirection

Start Menu

The existing base policy removes the ‘Documents’ label from the Start Menu and replaces it with the full UNC path to the users home directory. This is unhelpful and unsightly. The new Base policy renames the ‘Documents’ label Documents (H:\). This will provide a consistent point of reference for support calls. The Drive map label will also have the same name.

My Pictures and My Music shortcuts reference the new redirected (correct) location.

The computers network name also appears on the start menu providing an ‘at a glance’ view of the computers name.

New Start Menu

Branding

To help distinguish Campus Managed Desktop machines branding has been added.

The University crest now replaces the default logon pictures.

Logon

The Crest is also visible on the Start Menu

Start Menu

System Properties have also been updated.

System Properties

Other Features

Local Administrators

When using ‘Run as Administrator’ the UAC dialog box will list all local administrators on the machine.

Local Admins

Offline Files

Offline files are now automatically Encypted.

Offline

System Drive Permissions redesigned.

The new policy sets stricter permission for the system drive preventing creation of folders by non Administrators as well as creating the C:\TEMP folder on which so many of our packaged applications depend.

Feedback.

We really need feedback on your experiences with the new Policy. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with any comments, questions or issues.

Everything Must Go!

Rather than email campus-support every time we have some new equipment to trickle down we’ve created a web page (see campus-support for URL) for *server room* and general equipment.

Desktops\cluster room equipment will still be trickled down in the usual fashion.

The page will be updated as new equipment becomes available so you may wish to bookmark it.

In the spirit of green IT I’m happy to add any surplus equipment from departments too, just let me know.