More in Windows 7

Back when I was studying for my Windows 2000 MCSE I remember reading that WINs was going to be deprecated and wouldn't be in future versions of the Windows Server operating system. Yet here we are with the release of Windows Server 2012 imminent and WINs is still a role you can install on servers. WINS still functions in the same way as it did back in the Windows NT4 days. Besides being given the Metro treatment as shown in the exhibit, the console hasn't changed much. Interestingly there doesn't seem to be any WINS specific PowerShell module. It's reasonable to assume that Microsoft only keeps features in the operating system when they have good reasons to do so. There must still be a substantial number of organizations out there which need WINS for local name resolution. WINS is definitely an artifact of an earlier time - useful when our networks were full of clients running Windows 95 and Windows NT4 - and apparently still useful enough to still be present in Windows Server 2012. Of course if it takes so long for WINS to disappear from local networks, you can make an educated guess as to how long IPv4 is going to stick around....More

One of the unintended side effects of the growth of virtualization and cloud computing is the resurgence of the thin client. At this past TechEd in Orlando I met with Diana Wong, HP thin client embedded product manager and Karin Taylor Worldwide PR Manager to look at HP’s new t610 thin client PC-like experience for virtualized desktop environments. The t610 thin clients deliver full scale PC power in a small and inexpensive form factor. Built using AMD’s new APU technology the t610 comes with an AMD 64-bit dual-core T56N APU with Radeon HD 63202 Graphics (1.65 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache) processor. It provides DirectX 11 graphics support and has DDR3-1600 RAM with up to 4 GB of capacity. Externally the t610 has a DVI-I and DisplayPort. There are two models: the t610 and the t610 Plus. Externally both have 4 USB 2.0 (2 front/2 rear), 2 USB 3.0 (rear),1 DVI-I, 1 DisplayPort, 2 PS/2, 1 serial, 1 GB RJ-45. Both models also offer built-in WiFi. The slightly larger Plus model adds support for 1 parallel connector and 1 half-height PCIe x4 card slot. The HP t610 units consumes about 65W HP while the t610 PLUS uses about 85W which is less than many light bulbs. For enterprise connectivity the t610 supports DirectAccess, RDP, and BranchCache. It also supports RemoteFX. One of the most interesting things that HP demoed was the t610 thin client’s support for multi-touch. As of June 2012 Windows Embedded 7 is supported by the t610 thin client enabling multi-touch when used in conjunction with a multi-touch monitor like the HP L2105tm. The t610 starts at $399 with Windows Embedded Standard 7 and the HP L2150tm multi-touch monitors lists for $279. You can find out more at HP Thin Client Solutions....More

"If consumers don't like it, IT departments won't be able to roll it out" Up to this point, Microsoft has been making the Windows 8 case more broadly for the "consumer" demographic rather than the IT professional demographic. Rather than spending a lot of bandwidth discussing IT Pro friendly features of the operating system, the primary coverage seems to be on items that are of more general interest such as file copy dialog boxes, the new start menu, and mobile broadband data usage enhancements. There are a couple of reasons why a consumer focused communication strategy is sound: The biggest group adopting Windows 8 after release isn't going to be organizations with thousands of desktop computers. It's going to be people buying new computers with Windows 8 pre-installed. The reaction of this group at launch is critical. If Windows 8 doesn't wow early adopters at release, it the operating system is more likely to end up as "Vista" rather than "Windows 7" in terms of public perception. Lose that first battle and all the latter ones become an order of magnitude more difficult. The organizations that need to support tens of thousands of desktops won't be deploying Windows 8 until sometime in mid to late 2013 at the earliest. By then the deployment tools (such as MDT) are going to have been supporting Windows 8 for some time and there will be resources, such as books and in depth blogs showing how big organizations can efficiently deploy the operating system. Discussion of Windows 8 deployment enhancements and IT Pro "must know features" can wait. Dessert needs to come first, then there can be a focus on the “meat and potatoes”. Learning from Vista. A lot of Microsoft's pre-release coverage of Vista focused on aspects of the operating system that were of interest to IT pros. It was a "meat and potatoes" strategy. IT Pros knew exactly what the point of User Account Control was - because they had to m...More