Here is a video of Microsoft’s VP, Joe Belfiore (Microsoft VP) introducing the next version of Windows – Windows 10!
Archive for Windows – Page 5
Microsoft announced today (Oct 30, 2014) that the next release of Windows will be called Windows 10. Their main goal is to have a single, common operating system that runs on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smart phones. Windows 10 will be in various stages of internal and beta testing thru 2015, with an anticipated general release date sometime in the second half of 2015.
If you want to get a running commentary, with photos, of today’s release, click here.
Here is a quick summary of new features and changes to Windows 10:
- The Start menu will look more like Windows 7, although there is an area on the start menu to show “live tiles” like what was on the Windows 8 metro screen
- Newer style “apps” will work in more traditional windows, with ability to minimize, move or click X to close as expected. It will not feel like two different worlds which Windows 8 feels like.
- It will have the ability to have multiple “desktops” with different apps and windows running in each desktop (nice way to separate work and home) and the ability to flip through the desktops.
- The “charm” bar is still on the right side of the screen like in Windows 8.
- There will be a “Touch UI” tool to allow operation similar to Windows 8 for those who like that.. and will also be good for two-in-ones (laptop/tablets) to still operate like a touch tablet. They call the new tool “Continuum” that will help users switch between touch and keyboard modes for the two-in-one convertible devices.
- They’ll be releasing the Technical “Preview” version soon. The Windows Insider program opens tomorrow http://preview.windows.com – there’s a video there now showing a few of the new features.
- The actual Windows 10 operating system is expected to ship in 2015 “mid to later in the year” as they will still be previewing new consumer aspects and new “universal apps” in April.
- Windows 10 is also the next version of the phone operating system.. will run the same operating system family on all devices from 4″ to 80″. However phone version does not have a ‘desktop’.
In case you missed it, Microsoft rolled out version 5.0 of their Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) in July 2014. This follows on the heels of EMET 4.0 (Nov 2013) and EMET 4.1 (May 2014).
What is EMET?
You may be asking yourself What is EMET? Why should I install it? Where or when should I install it? Susan Bradley has written an in-depth article on EMET, covering all of these questions. I highly recommend reading her article.
EMET helps defend against zero-day threats. It is a standalone security application, but that does not mean that it should be installed on every workstation. The basic guideline is to install EMET on this systems where you do any online tasks that involve sensitive personal information, purchases and online banking.
EMET: A Customer’s Perspective
Installing EMET
EMET can be installed standalone, which is what I am showing here. The EMET manual offers additional information and guidance for businesses and domain-based networks.
If you have a previous version of EMET installed, you will need to uninstall it first and reboot before installing EMET 5.0.
If you wish, go ahead and download and install EMET 5.0 now! Installation is straightforward, and does not require a reboot of the workstation. EMET 5.0 supports Window clients Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8/8.1, as well as Windows Server 2008 SP2, 2008 R2 SP1, 2012 and 2012 R2.
The only suggestion I would make when installing EMET 5.0 is to select “Use Recommended Settings”:
After installing EMET 5.0, you will find a new Padlock icon in your list of notification-area icons in your taskbar.
Right click on the Padlock icon, and select Open EMET to view the EMET Settings.
Microsoft’s Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a great resource tool for testing and running diagnostics against Exchange, ActiveSync, OWA, POP3/IMAP, Lync, and Office 365. It also includes Message Analyzer, which is an SMTP header analysis tool and makes reading email headers less painful.
Microsoft’s Exchange Team has a good blog post on how to use the Message Analyzer feature.
For grins and giggles, I sent myself and email from my Gmail account to my business email account, and then processed the message header through the Message Analyzer.
- Open up the Message Analyzer tab of Microsoft’s Remote Connectivity Analyzer in a browser window.
- Open up your email client and access/view the message header. Select and copy the complete contents of the message header.
I have a separate post that explains how to view email message headers from Outlook 2010/2013.
- Flip back to your browser, and paste the message header into the Message Header Analyzer area.
- Click Analyze Header and you will get a Summary report, plus a list of Received Headers and other headers.
On Monday Sept. 22, 2014, Microsoft and Microsoft MVPs will be sponsoring a half day free seminar entitled “Transforming the Datacenter MVP Roadshow” at the Microsoft Office in Tampa Florida.
But don’t let the title dissuade you from attending. Topics for this session will include:
- Migrating from Windows Server 2003
- Comparing public, private and hybrid cloud approaches
- New features in Windows Server 2012 R2
- Understanding Microsoft Azure service offerings
- Getting started with moving data, apps and services to the cloud
- And much more!
We know that you have busy schedules, and so we have planned this morning’s event to be packed full of information. We will start with breakfast at 9am, with three sessions, followed by lunch during a final Q&A session. We plan to have things wrapped up by 1:15pm.
Register for the event now! and read more details on this free seminar.
Please note: when registering, you can skip the field labeled invitation referral code.
- Date: Monday September 22, 2014
- Time: 9am to 1:15pm
- Location: Microsoft Office. 5426 Bay Center Dr, Suite 700, Tampa FL 33609
Last week Microsoft rolled out a large set of updates that cover both the Windows operating system and Microsoft Outlook. In my testing, the updates have installed fine. However, Microsoft has indicated that they have since removed some of the Windows OS updates from distribution on Friday – based on early feedback from users that they may cause a “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) situation.
The most sever case is with MS14-045. For details on the updates in question, check out this ZDNet article.
For I.T. personnel, Ed Langley (Naked PowerShell) has written a series of PowerShell scripts (click here) to determine if any of the relevant updates are installed on a system.
- If you, tend to periodically run Windows Updates on your own workstations, I would advise against doing so until I hear more from Microsoft.
- The Microsoft Office updates are not involved, and can be applied as desired.
- Finally, it’s because of situations like these that I recommend that servers are NOT configured to have updates automatically applied.
There is nothing you need to do as a response to this email. This is simply an advisory – unless of course you have encountered a workstation that has had a BSOD.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms14-045.aspx
Microsoft released the August 2014 update rollup (KB 2975719) on Tuesday August 12, 2014. This is an optional update, but does provide two new feature enhancements:
- Precision touch pad improvements
- More information on the Windows Update tab in PC Settings
Although these don’t seem to be significant at first reading, they are certainly improvements that I have been waiting for.
More importantly, this appears to indicate a change in how new features are released. Until now, new update rollups might come out a couple of times a year, containing a slew of new features and enhancements. But, it looks as if Microsoft will release new features and enhancements on a monthly basis, in smaller chunks.
I like that!
If you want to read more about the August update rollup, check out Ed Bott’s writeup on ZDNet.
StorageCraft and Netgear are teaming up to release a new set of products called ReadyRECOVER Backup Appliance. It’s designed for small and medium-sized businesses, and leverages the legendary reliability of StorageCraft ShadowProtect to simplify backup and recovery of Windows systems.
With ReadyRECOVER, incremental snapshots, taken as often as every 15 minutes, generate full backups instantly. Each point in time backup is ready to quickly and reliably recover Windows systems, including Microsoft SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint servers, into production mode on any platform – physical or virtual. Each backup is also ready for fast, simple recovery of files or folders.
GFI recently rolled out their new Web Protection solution allowing KW Support & Consulting to deliver web security, web filtering and web bandwidth monitoring to its clients. Web Protection is integrated into the GFI RemoteManagement dashboard and is based on GFI’s award-winning GFI WebMonitor product.
Features include:
- Web security – stop client’s end-users from accidentally visiting malicious sites pushing malware, phishing, proxies, spyware, adware, botnets, etc.
- Web filtering – help end-suers stay productive with common-sense web browsing policies designed for the workplace. Protects the business from legal liability and reduce the risk of a security breach through proactive internet access controls.
- Bandwidth Monitoring – automatic alerts when excessive bandwidth activity on a network is identified, so you can remediate quickly and maintain productivity.
With Web Protection integrated into the GFI RemoteManagement platform, there is no software to install at the client site, no DNS name records to create or modify, and all settings and policies are managed right from the RMM dashboard.
If a user goes to a malicious web site, this is the type of warning screen they will receive:
Customer has a Windows Server 2012 system, and calls me to say that the NIC icon in the taskbar has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark. This would normally indicate that there is no network/Internet connection.
And, when I opened up Network and Sharing Center, it reports that there is no Internet connection.
But, Internet is working just fine. So, what gives?
This situation will often occur when you have a server with multiple NIC adapters, but only one of them is active, and the others are disabled. And this was exactly the case with this custoer.
The solution is two-fold:
- You need to change the binding order to put the active NIC first
- And then you need to restart Network Location Awareness and change its default startup condition.
Step 1: Change binding order of NICs
- Unfortunately, finding out where to change the binding order is not always intuitive. These steps were for the 2012 Server I was working on
- Locate the network icon in your right taskbar, right click on the icon, and select ‘Open Network and Sharing Center’
- In the new window that displays, along the left side, click ‘Change adapter settings’
- A window displays listing your network adapters. Here comes the “tricky part”.
- Press the ALT key, and a new command menu bar will appear, like this:
- Click on Advanced, then click Advanced Settings
- If the active NIC is not listed first, then click to highlight it, and use the arrow keys to the right to move it up.
- For more information on changing the network protocol bindings, view this Microsoft article
Step 2: Reset Network Location Awareness service
- Open up Services control panel (Run –> services.msc)
- Find the Network Location Awareness service, click to select it, and then select Restart
- After the service has been restarted, right click on the service, and click Properties.and select to restart it.
- Go to Startup Type, and change it to ‘Automatic (Delayed Start)’
![clip_image001[4]](https://kwsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/clip_image0014_thumb.jpg "clip_image001[4]")
- Click OK and then close the Services windows
![clip_image001[4]](https://kwsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/clip_image0014.jpg "clip_image001[4]")