No text necessary.

For those that haven’t been using the CTP (Community Technical Preview) and now publicly released Beta 2 of Microsoft Office 2010, heres a quick 2min video of some of the awesome that is Microsoft’s new Outlook release.

Just by the way, OWA 2010 is also dramatically improved and works equally well on Firefox/Chrome as it does IE (this is new).

PS – MailTips requires Exchange 2010, but you want that ASAP anyways!

Aside from the overly detracting soundtrack, its worth a watch for anyone who has even a remote interest in Windows or tech progression in general over the last 25 years.

Also shows a few DEV Windows versions we never got to see (or in my case, even hear of!).

Windows Chicago?

Windows Neptune?

Windows Whistler!

 

From http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=2450&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techrepublic%2Ftech-manager+%28TechRepublic+Tech+Manager%29

 

• “YOU are responsible for YOUR career and no one else.”
• Making excellence a standard should be a focus on getting teams to work together.
• Make the decision to stop the negativity in its tracks. Beginning with you.
• Make the decision to be solutions-minded. Don’t just complain, think of ways to fix what you’re complaining about.
• Take the solutions mindset into every meeting or discussion you have
• Clarify roles and who belongs to them, then draft an attack plan with your team. You are not “the hero” here. Your team must help create the plan and buy into it. Period.
• Execute the plan. Stick to the plan and revisit it often, tweaking it when necessary.

Just like you are ultimately responsible for your own career and professional growth, you are ultimately responsible for your (project’s) success

Not at all related to the subject matter of this blog, but us cutting edge nerds have to stick together right.

Currently Punkbuster (the anti-cheat software built into many multiplayer games) has major compatibility issues with Windows 7. Various fixes have been discovered for x32 versions of the Beta OS, but none (until now) for x64. Punkbuster themselves have refused to support Windows 7 until RTM, so forgive the “hackiness” of the fix, but it works.

The Fix

In both C:\Windows\SYSWOW64 and C:\Windows\System32

Open PnkBstrA.exe and PnkBstrB.exe’s properties and enable Vista Compatibility Mode, as well as “Run as administrator”. Save.

Right click on the desktop and create a new text file, then copy paste the following:

:start

sc config PnkBstrA type= own type= interact

sc config PnkBstrB type= own type= interact

timeout 60

goto start

Save the text file as punkbuster.bat and run it (as an administrator) before joining a server.

Problem “resolved”.

Updated version of Remote Altiris Agent Diagnostic tool has been released (compatible with CMS 7). The latest version also allows you to push the Altiris Agent out to a PC that doesn’t have one when querying it!

https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45023&p=1

The tool allows you to connect to remote PC’s and view MASSIVE amounts of >useful< information about their Altiris client, including:

• Agent Details (last config request/change, service status, GUID, basic inventory)
• Installed Agents
• Policies
• Software Delivery/Update Status
• Logs!!
• Package Server info
• Misc tools, including the ability to restart the service, change logging options etc.

Anyone who has anything to do with Altiris (NS) agents NEEDS this tool.

Ever since I inherited Altiris as a responsibility at work, I have committed myself to applying only bandaid fixes to a problem plagued system. The reason was simple; CMS 7 was just around the corner. I heard about it at ManageFusion (Sydney, not Vegas), I saw and read about it on Juice (now Symantec Connect), I even beta tested it thoroughly. It was prettier, more streamlined, more feature rich.

CMS 7 has been out for a month and despite piloting it twice internally, I have not yet ‘moved up’. I’m sure 90% of Altiris admin’s are in the same boat for one of the following not-yet-implemented features:

• Deployment Solution – PXE Booting, Scripted OS Installs, Deployment Console (SP1, sans Console, which has been discontinued)
• Asset Management Solution (Q4 2009)
• SQL/Windows Server 2008/x64 Support (SP1)
• A myriad of other, “minor”, solutions.

At risk of turning my first blog post into a rant, I cannot believe Symantec had the nerve (for lack of a better word) to take PXE out of CMS 7 RTM. Altiris, for many, is first and foremost a deployment solution, and without PXE functionality, image deployment is indescribably harder (granted, not impossible). Add to that the first chance (and last) chance many admins would love to have; rebuilding their NS host OS from scratch, preferably on the current-gen Windows OS (2008 RTM), crushed for early adopters. I even investigated the possibility of running side by side CMS 6 and CMS 7 boxes, to harness the best of both worlds, but alas, no Inventory Forwarding from 7  > 6 is yet available (yes yes i know, a SQL connector could be set up, but thats messy and SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY!!!).

Rushed to market you say? The beta phase was lengthy and from what i hear the phrase “CMS 7” has been around since mid to late 2007. Seems to me the only reason to release(stretch of the word, i’d prefer “tease us with”) CMS 7 now is to attempt to keep up with the rapidly improving competitor products, but that’s another post.

I’m a technologist. I live for the cutting edge. Taking core functionality away and adding what are essentially trial versions of other Altiris solutions (look, more teasing!) into the mix has left me bewildered at the direction Symantec is taking. With a recent license audit taking far longer than expected (causing an immediate inquiry into the viability of implimenting Asset Management, our Help Desk still very much in love with the drag and drop nature of the DS 6.9 Console, I have begun (for the first time) putting real effort into the improvement, nay, perfection of my CMS 6 environment. It’s going well. Everything works. Having said that,  a once hardcore Altiris advocate is now, slowly but surely, beginning to eye what was once the undenyable black sheep of systems management; Microsoft (SMS, now System Center).