Recently I made a move to using Windows Server 2008 on my primary development machine. The reason for this was that I needed to use full blown IIS 7 for testing of the product we are building and neither XP or Vista really cut it. I’m in the process of moving my Devs and here are the issues and solutions I have found up to now:
- Webcam. I use a Microsoft Lifecam VX3000. This was an absolute nightmare to install, however I found this post which tells you how to make it work: The link is here
Here’s the steps:
1. Go and get Orca to edit the .msi file lifcam10.msi in the subfolder \lifecam\setup. You get orca with the PSDK. Only install the windows installer TOOLS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255905
2. Open the msi in orca, on the left hand side pane go to the table called LaunchCondition and Drop all the rows except AdminUser.
3. Save and close
4. Run setup.exe for lifecam as normal.
I love working on Server 08. It’s rocket fast and delivers all I need 
Sphere: Related Content
It’s been kind of quiet here lately. Since leaving Dimension Data, I’ve been working on a new product called Community Engine. We’re producing a leading edge, semantic web application, with all the bells and whistles of Silverlight, Active Directory and a slew of other technologies which will produce probably the coolest web platform since apache….
We hit beta 1 last week and are currently deep in issue management driving to beta 2.
We’re running a significant web farm at a co-location facility, performing management with System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager and a ton of powershell and other features.
It’s a tough job; I’m managing a team of devs as lead architect, a bunch of UI designers and a full featured operations team.
I’ve got a little more time now and will post updates as I get them…
| In scanning my Google Alerts this week, I came across this really useful PDF on tuning and optimising System Center Operations Manager. You can download it from here. Thanks to infront consulting for this one! Well done boys! |
 |
.
Sphere: Related Content| Chris Wolf has been writing about two acquisitions that Microsoft has made recently in the desktop virtualisation space. This is becoming more and more exciting. We’ve never really been able to get application developers to use practices which eliminate software compatibility problems and I don’t think we ever will… Therefore, instead of fixing the coding problem, we’re going to virtualise applications and the desktop (and probably servers as well), which kind of hides the issue and encourages more sloppy coding… Nevertheless, I think the days are numbered for all the first movers as the Microsoft machine is getting ready to own this space (and they probably should…). Whilst I look forward to the end of application compatibility issues, I don’t really feel the solution is as elegant as it could be. Click on the image to read Chris’s take on the whole thing… |
 |
| Take a look at the document linked on the right. It’s long been the case that the big framework management products have held sway over every machine under outsourced management. Articles such as these are really the tip of the iceberg. Many pundits are telling me that we are moving to a world where managed service providers (called MSP’s) are seriously looking at the Microsoft Management tools in earnest. Unicenter and Tivoli have never been fantastic at desktop management so this is an interesting and some would say well overdue movement. |
 |
| For just 48 Euros, you can understand System Center Data Protection Manager. As Backup is soooo important to most businesses, I really think if you have any responsibility for system backups, you should understand as much as possible about the options available to you. System Center Data Protection Manager has been architected from the ground up as a leading edge world class data backup and recovery solution so even a cursory look is probably worthwhile. Enjoy! |
 |
Sphere: Related Content
| Michael Campbell has posted an article with slides describing the how-to’s of desktop error management with System Center. For years now, we’ve had a really good idea what our servers are doing but almost no idea about the performance of desktops. The only information we’re really getting is anecdotal and from the help desk. With the increases of WAN bandwidth, coupled with greater client side instrumentation, we’re now able to manage and measure the performance of the desktop. I think most corporate SOE techs are going to be really surprised when they see just how badly their SOE is performing in production. Maybe the end-users are right; maybe it does all keep crashing and maybe it is really slow… Time to find out <grin>. |
 |
Sphere: Related Content
 |
Although this site has lots of details about Windows XP Embedded (XPe), the comments about System Centre and SMS show that the embedded and devices community is starting to adopt SMS 2003 and ConfigMgr. This is ideal in retail environments who can use ConfigMgr for Servers, BackOffice and Point of Sale Devices… Rock on Embedded support |
Sphere: Related Content
 |
The details in this article should be common sense. The reason for the post is that I’ve just been fixing a windows sync problem on Windows Vista Business (yup an IT support day) and vista seemed (on a fantastically new Vaio) to be really, really slow. This guide gives some things you can do, but doesn’t seem to mention upgrading to Windows XP. Never mind… |
 |
Don Hite at myITForum has posted an article on command line actions for the ConfigMgr Console. While this is a useful reference, anyone really wanting to extend the MMC Console for ConfigMgr needs to spend a good deal of time (as I have) navigating the vagiaries of the MMC 3.0 SDK before attempting this… However, if you are competent at OOP and C#, you can quite quickly get a working console going. Just Remember, the Listview pane has no idea where you are in the tree view pane, and cannot really share data… However getting a working prototype is quite easy and very, very cool… |
Sphere: Related Content
Designed By :
