Long story short, these slide decks are chock full of internal thinking on Windows 8 — everything from customer target audiences to the Windows 8 developer market to the Windows 8 product cycle and much, much more.

While I agree with the author of the post, in that I feel bad for the person who leaked this, I do think it is pretty interesting to get a look at what Microsoft is thinking.  I always find it useful to know now where they think things are going to be in the future, in the hopes that I will make better decisions about how to position myself and the company I work for to take advantage of the “new stuff” when it gets here.

three big things we focus on for all TechNet scenarios are Content, Discoverability, and Participation. We really want to invite participation from everyone and what better way to combine that with discovery and content than to use Wiki technology?

Later this year TechNet and the Server & Cloud Division will partner to launch the new TechNet Wiki.
…
We believe a public wiki for technical content on TechNet has the potential to be a big step forward in all three areas:

• For content, while Microsoft teams write some great content, we cannot possibly author all the content customers need to be successful, and a wiki that offers content from the community will increase the breadth and depth of technical content available for IT Pros.
• For participation, the wiki is a great new way for any IT pro to create and share technical knowledge, engage with other technical people and with Microsoft, and build an identity and reputation within the TechNet community.

I used the word "potential" above because Microsoft cannot succeed with the TechNet Wiki on its own – success ultimately depends on the direct engagement, support, and ongoing feedback from the IT community.

I am not sure how I feel about this.  I like Wikipedia, and OFTEN reference it for information on non-work related topics.  We use a SharePoint wiki for a lot of our documentation where I work, but I don’t find it to be as useful as I would like, because for some reason, I don’t like the interface.  One of the big issues I have with it, is the inability to insert pictures directly in the article during the creation of the article.  You have to upload the picture (such as a screenshot) separately and then link to it.  That doesn’t seem very efficient to me.

With this blog, I use Windows Live Writer.  It allows me to take a snip like this:

and paste it right in the text.  When I publish, it is auto-magically uploaded and linked to my post.  I think the other issue that I have is that I am afraid I would take it personally if someone felt the need to correct something  I posted to a wiki.

I guess I am going to have to work on that.  Both for the wiki at work and (maybe) for the TechNet wiki.  There are those occasions when I actually have useful knowledge to share…

Blog Posts by System Center Influencers

Get the feed.

Below are the most recent posts from several of the members of the System Center Influencers Program. Note that Microsoft does not review the content or endorse it in any way; we present this content in a feed form for your information and convenience. (In the event that the feed refuses to render due to the flakiness of the third-party feed service, simply use the feed embedded in the RSS icon above.)

Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog : Blog Posts by System Center Influencers

Rule "Long path names to files on SQL Server installation media" failed.

SQL Server installation media on a network share or in a custom folder can cause installation failure if the total length of the path exceeds 260 characters. To correct this issue, utilize Net Use functionality or shorten the path name to the SQL Server setup.exe file.

So, I moved it to a shorter path and it installed just fine.

https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?SiteID=840&DownloadID=22070

Which sent me here:

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7

Brief Description

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows® 7 enables IT administrators to manage roles and features that are installed on computers that are running Windows Server® 2008 R2, Windows Server® 2008, or Windows Server® 2003, from a remote computer that is running Windows 7.

Download details: Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7

Now that the problem was understood, Microsoft and Citrix brainstormed on workarounds customers could apply while Citrix worked on an update to the ICA Client that would prevent the sharing violation. One workaround was to disable application prefetching and another was to write a logoff script that deletes the Ssonsvr.exe prefetch files. Citrix published the workarounds in this Citrix Knowledge Base article and Microsoft in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article. The update to the ICA Client, which was made available a few days later, changed the network provider DLL to 10 seconds after Ssonsvr.exe launches before returning control to Mpnotify.exe. Because Winlogon waits for Mpnotify to exit before logging on a user, the Logical Prefetcher won’t associate Winlogon’s accesses of the user’s hive with Ssonsvr.exe’s startup.

Mark’s Blog : The Case of the Temporary Registry Profiles

The fix that Microsoft developed is here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=aee949aa-d3e7-4b0f-b718-00b7c20f1257&displayLang=en

A few people have asked for the PowerShell script “show-pruneshadowcopies.ps1” that Microsoft provided and I mentioned in my previous post (here).  The script looks like this:

#displays all RP for data sources and shows which RP’s would be deleted by the regular pruneshadowcopies.ps1
# Outputs to a logfile:  C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\bin\SHOW-PRUNESHADOWCOPIES.LOG

#Author    : Mike J
#Date    : 02/24/2009
$version="V1.0"

$date=get-date
$logfile="SHOW-PRUNESHADOWCOPIES.LOG.txt"

function GetDistinctDays([Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.UI.ObjectModel.OMCommon.ProtectionGroup] $group,
[Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.UI.ObjectModel.OMCommon.Datasource] $ds)
{   
    if($group.ProtectionType -eq [Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.UI.ObjectModel.OMCommon.ProtectionType]::DiskToTape)
    {
        return 0
    }
    $scheduleList = get-policyschedule -ProtectionGroup $group -ShortTerm
    if($ds -is [Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.UI.ObjectModel.FileSystem.FsDataSource])
    {
        $jobType = [Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.Intent.JobTypeType]::ShadowCopy
    }
    else
    {
        $jobType = [Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.Intent.JobTypeType]::FullReplicationForApplication
        if($ds.ProtectionType -eq [Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.Intent.ReplicaProtectionType]::ProtectFromDPM)
        {           
            return 2
        }
    }
    write-host   "Look for jobType $jobType"

    foreach($schedule in $scheduleList)
    {
        write-host("schedule jobType {0}" -f $schedule.JobType)
        if($schedule.JobType -eq $jobType)
        {
            return [Math]::Ceiling(($schedule.WeekDays.Length * $ds.RecoveryRangeinDays) / 7)
        }
    }

    return 0
}

function IsShadowCopyExternal($id)
{
    $result = $false;

    $ctx = New-Object -Typename Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.DB.SqlContext
    $ctx.Open()

    $cmd = $ctx.CreateCommand()
    $cmd.CommandText = "select COUNT(*) from tbl_RM_ShadowCopy where shadowcopyid = ‘$id’"  
    write-host $cmd.CommandText
    $countObj = $cmd.ExecuteScalar()
    write-host $countObj
    if ($countObj -eq 0)
    {
        $result = $true
    }
    $cmd.Dispose()
    $ctx.Close()

    return $result
}

function IsShadowCopyInUse($id)
{
    $result = $true;

    $ctx = New-Object -Typename Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.DB.SqlContext
    $ctx.Open()

    $cmd = $ctx.CreateCommand()
    $cmd.CommandText = "select ArchiveTaskId, RecoveryJobId from tbl_RM_ShadowCopy where ShadowCopyId = ‘$id’"  
    write-host $cmd.CommandText
    $reader = $cmd.ExecuteReader()
    while($reader.Read())
    {
        if ($reader.IsDBNull(0) -and $reader.IsDBNull(1))
        {
            $result = $false
        }
    }
    $cmd.Dispose()
    $ctx.Close()

    return $result
}

"**********************************" > $logfile
"Version $version" >> $logfile
get-date >> $logfile

$dpmservername = &"hostname"

$dpmsrv = connect-dpmserver $dpmservername

if (!$dpmsrv)
{
    write-host "Unable to connect to $dpmservername"
    exit 1
}

write-host $dpmservername
"Selected DPM server = $DPMservername" >> $logfile
$pgList = get-protectiongroup $dpmservername
if (!$pgList)
{
    write-host   "No PGs found"
    disconnect-dpmserver $dpmservername
    exit 2
}

write-host("Number of ProtectionGroups = {0}" -f $pgList.Length)
$replicaList = @{}
$latestScDateList = @{}

foreach($pg in $pgList)
{
    $dslist = get-datasource $pg
    if ($dslist.length -gt 0)
    {
    write-host("Number of datasources in this PG = {0}" -f $dslist.length)
    ("Number of datasources in this PG = {0}" -f $dslist.length) >> $logfile
     }
    Foreach ($ds in $dslist)
    {
       write-host("DS NAME=  $ds")
       ("DS NAME=  $ds") >>$logfile
    }
    foreach ($ds in $dslist)
    {       
        $rplist = get-recoverypoint $ds | where { $_.DataLocation -eq ‘Disk’ }
        write-host("Number of recovery points for $ds {0}" -f $rplist.length)
        ("Number of recovery points for $ds {0}" -f $rplist.length) >>$logfile 
        $countDistinctDays = GetDistinctDays $pg $ds
        write-host("Number of days with fulls = $countDistinctDays")
        ("Number of days with fulls = $countDistinctDays") >>$logfile
        if($countDistinctDays -eq 0)
        {
            write-host   "D2T PG. No recovery points to delete"
            "D2T PG. No recovery points to delete" >>$logfile
            continue;
        }
        $replicaList[$ds.ReplicaPath] = $ds.RecoveryRangeinDays
        $latestScDateList[$ds.ReplicaPath] = new-object DateTime 0,0
        $lastDayOfRetentionRange = ([DateTime]::UtcNow).AddDays($ds.RecoveryRangeinDays * -1);       
        write-host("Distinct days to count = {0}. LastDayOfRetentionRange = {1} " -f $countDistinctDays, $lastDayOfRetentionRange)
        ("Distinct days to count = {0}. LastDayOfRetentionRange = {1} " -f $countDistinctDays, $lastDayOfRetentionRange) >>$logfile
        $distinctDays = 0;
        $lastDistinctDay = (get-Date).Date
        $numberOfRecoveryPointsDeleted = 0

        if ($rplist)
        {
            foreach ($rp in ($rplist | sort-object -property UtcRepresentedPointInTime -descending))
            {                       
                if ($rp)
                {                   
                    if ($rp.UtcRepresentedPointInTime.Date -lt $lastDistinctDay)
                    {
                        $distinctDays += 1
                        $lastDistinctDay = $rp.UtcRepresentedPointInTime.Date
                    }
                    write-host(" $ds")
                    (" $ds") >>$logfile
                    write-host("  Recovery Point #$distinctdays RPtime={0}" -f $rp.UtcRepresentedPointInTime)
                    ("  Recovery Point #$distinctdays RPtime={0}" -f $rp.UtcRepresentedPointInTime) >>$logfile
                    if (($distinctDays -gt $countDistinctDays) -and ($rp.UtcRepresentedPointInTime -lt $lastDayOfRetentionRange))
                    {
                        write-host ("Recovery Point would be deleted ! – RPtime={0}" -f $rp.UtcRepresentedPointInTime)  -foregroundcolor red
                        ("Recovery Point would be deleted ! – RPtime={0} <<<<<<<" -f $rp.UtcRepresentedPointInTime) >>$logfile
#remove-recoverypoint $rp -ForceDeletion -confirm:$true | out-null
                        $numberOfRecoveryPointsDeleted += 1
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        write-host "    Recovery point not expired yet"
                        "    Recovery point not yet expired" >>$logfile
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    write-host "Got a NULL rp"
                    "Got a NULL rp" >>$logfile
                }   
            }

            write-host "Number of RPs that would be deleted = $numberOfRecoveryPointsDeleted"  
            "Number of RPs that would be deleted = $numberOfRecoveryPointsDeleted" >>$logfile            
        }
    }
}

disconnect-dpmserver $dpmservername
write-host "Exiting from script"

exit

Ask the Core Team : DPM 2007 – Troubleshooting protection for Hyper-V

This post is about Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role installed, that are being protected by System Center Data Protection Manager 2007.  There may be one or many Virtual Machines on each Host/Parent Partition, and they may be running Windows 2003 and/or Windows 2008. 

Ask the Core Team : DPM 2007 – Troubleshooting protection for Hyper-V

Installing Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC
You must be either a member of the Administrators group on the computer on which you want to install the Administration Tools pack, or you must be logged on to the computer by using the built-in Administrator account.
Important: Remove all versions of Administration Tools Pack or Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista with SP1 from the computer before installing Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC.
Important: Only one copy of Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC can be installed on a computer at one time. Before you install a new package, remove any existing copies of Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC. This includes any copies that are in different languages. To remove existing copies of Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC, see Removing the complete Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC pack on this page.
1. On a computer that is running the RC release of Windows 7 RC, download the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC package from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Open the folder into which the package downloaded, and double-click the package to unpack it, and then start the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC Setup Wizard.
Important: You must accept the License Terms and Limited Warranty to start to install the Administration Tools pack.
3. Complete all the steps that you must follow by the wizard, and then click Finish to exit the wizard when installation is completed.
4. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Programs.
5. In the Programs and Features area, click Turn Windows features on or off.
6. If you are prompted by User Account Control to enable the Windows Features dialog box to open, click Continue.
7. In the Windows Features dialog box, expand Remote Server Administration Tools.
8. Select the remote management tools that you want to install.
9. Click OK.

Download details: Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC)