My Thoughts On IT…

I see posts all over the web for how to create a bootable USB stick to install Windows 7 but there is an easier way. Microsoft has made available an open source tool to do this. It is the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.  All you need is an ISO image of Windows 7 and a USB stick that is 4GB or more. Then download and run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.

The tool is available from the two locations below:

• http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
• http://wudt.codeplex.com/

Here are the steps to use this tool…

1. download, install, and run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.
2. Select the ISO image (This is the Windows 7 Install DVD ISO image)

3. Choose USB key (This tool can also burn a DVD)

4. Choose USB key (This USB key must be at least 4GB)

5. It will warn you that you are about to erase the data on the USB stick.

6. Watch the progress until it is finished. Close the app.

That is the process – you are finished and you have a USB key ready to boot off of and install Windows 7. Compare it to the manual process I have listed below and you can see this is much easier to use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.

Enjoy!

For fun I have also listed the manual way to setup your USB Key.

The 11 steps for manually preparing a USB Disk to be a bootable Win 7 Install.
1. Diskpart (Run from a CMD prompt)
2. List Disk
3. Select Disk # (Where # is the number of your USB disk)
4. Clean (removes any partitions on the USB disk, including any hidden sectors)
5. Create Partition Primary (Creates a new primary partition with default parameters)
6. Select Partition 1 (Focus on the newly created partition)
7. Active (Sets the selected partition to an active valid system partition state)
8. Format FS=NTFS (Formats the partition with the NTFS file system. This may take several minutes to complete, depending on the size of your USB key.)
9. Assign (Assigns the USB drive a drive letter)
10. Exit
11. Copy all the files from the Windows 7 DVD to the USB Stick.

MSDN and TechNet Subscribers who installed Office Professional Plus 2010 or Visio Professional 2010 before May 1, 2010 may not have all product features enabled. For details check this kb article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983473

I thought this might be of intgerest to some of you… Our MSDN group is going to host a Windows Phone 7 Boot Camp in Waukesha WI at the Microsoft Office. This will be on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 from 8am to 5pm.

Get more details and register here:

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032456043&Culture=en-US

Usually Microsoft gives N-1 downgrade rights in their OEM purchased software. So that would mean that when you buy Windows 7 you could run Windows Vista. To have downgrade rights further you would usually need to purchase “Software Assurance” Which not only gives you rights to the next version of the software but the rights to run earlier versions. Due to customer demand Microsoft has changed their policy for Windows 7 to allow customers to downgraded N-2 and run Windows XP.

This now ends when sales of Windows 7 ends. So, customers will not be able to buy a Windows 7 with end user downgrade rights after Windows 7 reaches the end of sales date in the OEM channel – which according to the current Windows Lifecycle policy is 2 years after the next version of Windows ships.The sales life cycle is much different than the support lifecycle.  A sales lifecycle ends 2 years after the next release of a product vs support life cycle is 10 years after a product is RTM’d.  So this means that customers who buy Windows 7 Pro OEM licenses will have downgrade rights to Win XP Pro, on all new OEM purchases, up until 2 years after the next OS release.   This can be a little confusing but it is a good thing for customers!

For more information on OEM downgrade refer to the Microsoft website at: http://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentPage.aspx?pageid=552836

The new Xbox 360 sports a sleek new design, a wisper quit 250GB hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi, the new Xbox 360 gives you the ultimate gaming and entertainment experience! For more information check out: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/

Kinect – formerly known as “Project Natal” was official announced also. This is a technology that watches your body movements and removes the need for a controler in Xbox games. There is a lot of potential here to expand past gameing and use the body for computer interaction. What kinds of things can you think of? For more information check out: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinect

On June 7th Microsoft launched Expression Studio 4. A great set of tools for designing rich media applications and websites.

TOP NEW FEATURES
SketchFlow – a rapid prototype tool
SketchFlow, a feature of Expression Studio Ultimate, enables you to rapidly present ideas, user interface flows, screen layouts and application functionality to your clients through effective prototyping. The lo-fidelity, or ‘sketchy’ look to the prototype helps clients focus on the functionality, rather than the detail of the experience, while the SketchFlow Player gives the client an easy way to test and provide feedback. This new release of SketchFlow features a more robust client feedback solution which integrates with both local and online versions of SharePoint, allowing clients to more effectively share and review feedback.
Behaviors – accelerate your UI designs
Expression Blend 4 includes new Behaviors designed to enhance your application design process; multi-touch, the ability to preserve screen state from screen to screen, easily drag-able items between listboxes plus many more designed to keep you focused on the art of creating compelling UI designs.
Visual State Manager – bring you application to life one transition at a time
Bring your application to life with effective transitions. Add subtlety and texture to your UIs by taking advantage of the new pixel shader effects. Whether you want to manipulate color, add a drop shadow or animate a ripple transition or swirls, the extensible range of pixel effects gives you total control so you can create the transition you want through the Visual State Manager.
Team Foundation Server Integration Share your Expression Studio project files with those of your colleagues by using check in and check out functionality with Microsoft Team Foundation Server integration. The feedback you receive via SketchFlow can now be converted into Team Foundation Server work items.
SEO Diagnostics
Expression Web uses the IIS Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit to improve your Web site’s relevance in search results by recommending how to make the site content more search engine-friendly.
Create Expression Web add-ins
Now you can extend Expression Web’s functionality with HTML and JavaScript. Add panels, menu commands, and tools to the toolbox. Share your add-ins with the Expression Community.

We have streamlined to three main SKUs, including Expression Studio 4 Ultimate, Expression Studio 4 Premium and Expression Studio 4 Web Professional—all featuring Expression Encoder and Expression Design. This diagram helps explain what is in each of the three SKUs.

More information and trial downloads available here: http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

Just released a great new tool for midsized organizations! System Center Essentials 2010 has released to manufacturing. It is a new management solution in the System Center family of management products that is designed for businesses with up to 500 client computers and 50 servers. System Center Essentials 2010 provides a single solution with a single console for managing your servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services for a unified experience.

Once configured, you can manually or automatically deploy updates for Microsoft operating systems, hardware updates, third-party updates, drivers and Microsoft and non-Microsoft software applications to ensure the security of your IT environment. Further Essentials 2010 can automatically checks for new updates available and applicable to your IT environment and provides notification and access reports on update deployment progress to help you quickly troubleshoot any update deployment issues.

 Here are some of the key features of SCE 2010:

• Simple Installation and setup
• Comprehensive Monitoring
• Automated Software Deployment and Patch Management
• Software and Hardware Inventory
• Virtualization management, including server provisioning and live migration

I am taking it for a test drive in my test network the week of May 17^th. I encourage you to do the same and set it up in your lab. If you do drop me an email or post on my blog and let me know how it went for you! You can get the trial code at: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/essentials/sce-try-it.aspx

You can learn more about System Center Essential here: http://www.microsoft.com/sce

GET IT NOW!!! Why wait? Download your copy of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 for testing and development today!!! If you don’t have a TechNet or MSDN subscription you can  Click here for 25% Off TechNet Plus!!! That is TechNet Plus for $262!!!

http://msdn.Microsoft.com/        http://technet.microsoft.com/

While Windows Phone 7 is a multipurpose phone for a broad set of consumers, KIN is for a generation of people that live to be connected to their friends and their family. They get their news through Facebook and Twitter, and they can’t bear to be cut off from their friends. They connect, express and relate through technology, and this generation needs a phone to help them share their life moment to moment.

KIN delivers breakthroughs throughout the product such as the Loop, the Spot, and the Studio:

• KIN Loop – The Loop is filled with your favorite people and the things you love – on your home screen, in real time. You tell KIN who and what is important, and it delivers the latest updates from your favorite people and places.
• KIN Spot – The Spot is the new way to share. Share almost anything – photos, texts, web pages – to almost anyone by simply dragging them to a “spot” on your phone. Since the Spot is always on your screen you don’t have to worry about opening new applications – it’s easy.
• KIN Studio –The KIN Studio is your KIN phone on the web.  Everything you create on your phone – messages, contacts, photos, videos – is also stored in the cloud and accessible from any web browser.  The content that’s important to you is automatically backed up to your own secure website and presented in a beautiful, visual timeline to make it easy to view and share with friends. And with all the storage you’ll need, there’s almost no limit on what you can keep.
• The KIN Camera – KIN takes amazing photos, even in low light. One click upload makes it easy to share your pictures, and because they’re backed up automatically to the KIN Studio, you can look at them online, in full size, whenever you want. Only KIN makes sure all your photos and video clips are stored online without taking up precious memory on your phone.

Learn More: http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/201518.asp