Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Available: Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2

Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 (WSUS 3.0 SP2) delivers updates to corporate environments from Microsoft Update. This release adds new features and fixes issues found since the release of the product. WSUS 3.0 SP2 delivers important customer-requested management, stability, and performance improvements. Some of the features and improvements include the following:

  • Integration with Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • Support for the BranchCache feature in Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 clients.
  • Compliance Report
  • Windows Update Agent (WUA) offers a collection of performance enhancements, user experience improvements, and bug fixes software updates.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Free eBook: Microsoft SQL Server 2008

image Microsoft is offering a free E-Book covering SQL Server 2008. [wikipop]Microsoft SQL Server[/wikipop] is a relational model database server produced by Microsoft. Its primary query languages are T-SQL and ANSI SQL.
Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008
by Peter DeBetta, Greg Low, and Mark Whitehorn
ISBN: 9780735625587

The E-Book covers major new features in SQL Server 2008 including security, administration, and performance with the following table of contents:

Chapter 1: Security and Administration
Chapter 2: Performance
Chapter 3: Type System
Chapter 4: Programmability
Chapter 5: Storage
Chapter 6: Enhancements for High Availability
Chapter 7: Business Intelligence Enhancements

Sign up today to get your own free copy of E-Book here.

NEPALI Language Interface Pack now available for Windows Vista

If you have wondered ever to use Windows Vista in Nepali Language, well the wait is now over. Microsoft has now published the official NEPALI Language Interface Pack (LIP) for Windows Vista that can be instantly applied to change the user interface. Do make sure that you have an English version of Windows Vista running as the NEPALI LIP can only be applied on such.

For folks requiring detailed installation instructions and someone who would like to see how the interface looks like (visual confirmation) before and after applying the NEPALI LIP, I have attached some screenshots for ease and access. ENJOY!

Start Virtual Machines (Virtual PC) through Script

Ben Armstrong, a Program Manager on the core virtualization team at Microsoft recently posted a blog with powershell and vbscript examples that will allow an administrator to boot up virtual machines (built with Windows Virtual PC) directly via scripting. He argues it will provide the following benefits:

  • Automated testing
  • Patch deployment
  • Faster launch

Read his blog to view and download the scripts.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Free e-Book: Microsoft Virtualization Technologies

image Microsoft is offering a free eBook covering its prominent virtualization technologies that include -

  • Server Virtualization ([wikipop]Hyper-V[/wikipop], Server 2008 Virtualization, Virtual Machine Manager 2008)

  • Application Virtualization ([wikipop]App-V[/wikipop])

  • Desktop Virtualization (Enterprise Desktop Virtualization and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)

  • Presentation Virtualization (Terminal Services)

  • Profile Virtualization (Roaming Profiles, Folder Redirection, Offline Files)