So what's been fun on the Internet lately?

First up, in case you missed out on some of the new things from Microsoft, Windows 8 and Server 2012 are coming soon!  When you have some free time, start learning more about Server 2012 or take a close up look at Windows 8. You can even download a 90-day trial of the new desktop client.

And here are some other links to some fun things I've seen online, mostly via Twitter:

• 10+ Most Dangerous Species of Help Desk Callers
• Kids Explain Why We Should Use the Internet - where were you in 1995?

For those of you who work on Exchange, don't miss out on these:

• Fix Exchange Server 2010 SP Udpdate Errors
• Everything You Need to Know About Exchange Backups

Handy Windows 7 GPO Policies

The official roll-out of Windows 7 has begun in my office.  We are doing a round of hardware refreshing for some end users and with that comes Windows 7 and Office 2010. Here are a couple handy GPO settings we've used to make our lives easier.

Verbose Startup and Shutdown - by default, Windows 7 will just display "please wait..." while it handles it's startup and shutdown processes.  If you find the verbosity of Windows XP handy, likely displaying the name of software that's being installed automatically, you'll want to change use these policies.

Computer Configuration - Policies - Administrative Templates  - System - Verbose vs normal status messages = Enabled

Computer Configuration-Policies - Administrative Templates - System - Remove Boot / Shutdown / Logon / Logoff status messages = Disabled

Let Users Install Printers - Windows 7 increased security and UAC will prompt standard users for administrative credentials before adding a printer because the driver store is a protected area.  If running around to help every user who's trying to add another network printer isn't your cup of tea, try these policies to give the standard user a little bit more power.

Computer Configuration - Policies - Administrative Templates - Printers - Point and Print Restrictions = Disabled

User Configuration - Policies - Administrative Templates - Control Panel - Printers - Point and Print Restrictions = Disabled

What's A Techie To Do?

Or rather, what have I been up to lately?

Been doing a lot of "spring" cleaning at the office. Trying to tie up loose ends on lots of little projects.

1) Upgrading Shoretel - I've been using Shoretel since Shoretel 5. We've been through several upgrades since then and last week moved to Shoretel 12.3.  We have a fabulous reseller that did most of the work for me. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and watch the magic. The trickiest part was getting the MSI file for the new desktop software, Shoretel Communicator, out of the setup file so I could deploy it with a GPO.  This guy had a good blog post that helped me out.

2) Removal of Exchange 2003 - Back in October I migrated our mail to Exchange 2010 SP1. Our old server had going through several stages of being decommissioned and had been left turned off for several months as other more pressing project got to me. I finally turned it back on and ran the setup program to remove it.  It didn't go completely flawlessly, but most issues were resolved by fixing a few public folder replication issues and then deleting the server from the Exchange 2003 ESM.

3) Training for Windows 7 and Office 2010 - We have finally reached the point where we are doing a bunch of hardware refreshes for staff in the office.  That means moving from XP / Office 2007 to Windows 7 and Office 2010.  I'm not doing the hardware deployments, but I'm responsible for providing basic training to the staff so they are prepared for some of the changes that will come.  My first two sessions were this week and I concentrated a lot on the new start menu and taskbar in Windows 7.  Also, Outlook 2010 has quite a few navigation changes that are notable.

4) De-cluttering My Desk - While not a super-techie endeavor, it needed to be done. I trashed piles of CDs and DVDs of very dated software, including diskettes for installing Windows 2000 Server. Diskettes!! Ah!!  If anyone is looking for the DVD to install Windows 95, I'm your girl. I'm hanging that in my cube for decoration.

3 Weeks with the Samsung Focus 2

I'm happy to report that after nearly 3 solid weeks of use, my Samsung Focus 2 has not crashed.  No more text message of death.

The form factor is managable (about the same size as an iPhone but rounder at the corners) and I really only have one complaint - it's not easy to tell the top from the bottom.

The screen is nearly perfectly centered in the device and while their are some visual differences between the top and the bottom, there is nothing truely tactile to tell which end you grabbed when you pull it out of your bag or pocket.

Also, while the power button is easily accessible if the phone is in your hand, it's angled toward the back side, it's hard to press when the device is sitting flat on a desk.  You have to lift the side of the phone to reach the button or pick it up entirely.

Overall, these are minor issues and I completely recommend the Focus 2 as a Focus Flash replacement, particularly if you are tired of crashes caused by text messages.

TechEd 2012 Session Recap

As is likely with many of you, when I return from a conference that has taken me out of the office for more than a day or so, I have plenty of email and tasks to catch up with.  Now that I have a little bit of wiggle room, it's time to try to watch all the sessions I missed at TechEd.

There is one little problem when you are mostly an IT generalist and attend a multi-track conference event.  You simply can't be everywhere you want to be.  I'm so glad that sessions from TechEd are available after the conference for review, otherwise I'd miss out on some great stuff.

Here are some highlights of some of the sessions I attended or viewed so far:

EXL304 An Inside View of Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP2 - I listened to this yesterday and it highlights all the new features in SP2. Most are geared toward either multi-site or multi-tenant needs, but GAL segmentation might be useful for smaller organizations too, depending on your business needs. There are also over 600 bug fixes!

VIR317 Lessons from the Field: 22 VDI and RDS Mistakes You'll Want to Avoid - a lively session with more RDS than VDI mistakes, particularly geared toward farms with more than one RDS Host.

SIA312 What's New in Active Directory in Windows Server 2012 - A great summary of some of the cool AD features that come with Server 2012, particularly support for virtualized domain controllers while avoiding issues like USN Rollback.

WCL324 IPv6 Bootcamp: Get Up to Speed Quickly - IPv6 is here and if you are running Windows 7, you've already deployed it.  So don't forget to spend a little time becoming more "in the know" about what's probably already on your network.

And my to-do list of sessions to watch later!

• SIA402 - How to (un)Destroy Your Active Directory: Reloaded
• WSV321 - Windows PowerShell Crash Course
• SIA300 - Ten Deadly Sins of Administrators about Windows Security
• VIR308 - What's New in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Part 1
• VIR309 - What's New in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Part 2

 I didn't provide links to each session, but you can find them at MyTechEd or on MSDN's Channel 9.