Harold Wong's Blog Site

In the chaos that surrounded me during the week of August 7th, I seem to have misplaced a few things.  One of these "things" includes the piece of paper on which I wrote down the questions that I needed to do some additional research and post the answers for.  After a week and a half of turning my home office upside down, I still have not found it (nor the other 4 items I've lost).

For those of you who attended the event in Albuquerque and still remember the questions that I committed to following up on, can you please post a comment with it or email it to me???  I'm pretty sure I didn't have any follow up on the Exchange 2003 or 2007 topics, but there were at least 3 items on Vista.  Thank you very much for your help (and understanding)!!!!!!!!!

Harold Wong
harold.wong@microsoft.com

I wanted to let everyone know where and when the upcoming TechNet Events will be.  If you go to www.technetevents.com, you will see the list of cities for August 2006 through September 2006.  The remaining ones for Desert Mountain are listed below

Las Vegas, Nevada - August 24, 2006
Colorado Springs, Colorado - September 12, 2006
Denver, Colorado - September 14, 2006
Salt Lake City, Utah - September 28, 2006 (Delivered by Chris Henley)

If you are interested in the cities and dates for October 2006 - December 2006, then please read on.  Please keep in mind that these are not 100% set in stone and may change, but this is what I have listed so far.

Billings, Montana - October 17, 2006
Fort Collins, Colorado - November 2, 2006
Tucson, Arizona - November 28, 2006
Phoenix, Arizona - November 30, 2006
Boulder, Colorado - December 12, 2006
Denver, Colorado - December 14, 2006

The only one I see venue details already set for is Billings, Montana.  If you want to give me input for movie theaters in the other cities for November and December, please email them to me by August 31st.

Harold Wong

The Arizona SMS User Group will be holding it's first meeting in the Microsoft Phoenix Office on Thursday, September 21st from 6 PM - 8 PM.  To register and get more information, please visit: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=110934.

Harold Wong

We had our first Phoenix Exchange User Group Meeting last Friday, August 18, 2006.  We had a great turnout and great interaction with all the new members.  I delivered the first topic of Troubleshooting mail flow in Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 (200 Level).  If you want the PowerPoint deck, please feel free to download by clicking this link. 

Our next meeting should be taking place in the October timeframe.  As soon as the date and topic gets finalized, I'll post an update to my blog.

Harold Wong

I meant to post this a lot sooner, but I am soooo behind on so many things.

We are hosting three pilots of Instructor Led Labs for Exchange Server 2007.  The concept here is to have an Instructor / Proctor online and available as people go through a Hands-On-Lab via the TechNet Virtual Lab environment.  Guess who the Instructor will be for these three pilots on Exchange Server 2007???  ME!  The first one is scheduled to take place tomorrow (Tuesday, August 1, 2006) from 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM (Pacific).

For registration information, please visit the TechNet Webcast Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/technetwebcasts/archive/2006/07/31/444231.aspx. 

Harold Wong

I know a lot of you Exchange enthusiasts have been waiting patiently (or impatiently) for Exchange Server 2007 Beta 2 to release.  Well, your wait is now over!!!  To download your copy, please go here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2007/downloads/beta.mspx.

For those of you who were at Tech Ed 2006 in Boston this year and picked up the DVD Set at the Exchange Booth, you already have a nice blank DVD-R media with a nice orange design on it ready to use!

Harold Wong

I just found out today, that there will be some changes to the TechNet Plus Subscription (I know I'm not the first to blog this, but still one of the early ones).

1. On July 28 (if all goes well), a new Benefits Portal will be available for subscribers.  This will give subscribers access to a secure area where they can download all software that is available for evaluation.  You can also view your Product Keys for these non-expiring evaluation copies from this site.

2.  A TechNet Plus Direct Subscription will also be available.  This subscription will cost $349 (US) and will not have any media shipped to you.  Subscribers will download the software from the secure web site (Benefits Portal).  This subscription will be identical in terms of benefits to the main TechNet Plus with the exception of media being shipped to you.  In other words, you will still get the 2 Professional Support Incidents (valued at $490).

If you already have an active TechNet Plus subscription and would like to switch to the Direct subscription, you will get credit for what's remaining on your current subscription.  This credit will be used to extend the timeframe for the Direct subscription.

Also, the original "TechNet Subscription" will no longer be available.

Harold Wong

Great article on the dog fooding benefits (not only to Microsoft, but to all of our customers) that take place within Microsoft.  Ron Markezich gives a few insights and thoughts here: http://www.betanews.com/article/Meet_Microsofts_Ultimate_Beta_Tester/1150301315/1.

Harold

Wow!!!  Is this great news or what?  Microsoft has just announced the purchase of Winternals (founded by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell).  Mark will now be a Microsoft Technical Fellow and Bryce will be a Software Architect with Microsoft!!!!

Here's the news article: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060718\ACQPRN200607181100PR_NEWS_B_NWT_SF_SFTU040.htm

And here's Mark's Blog: http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2006/07/on-my-way-to-microsoft.html.

Harold

Less than a year ago, Microsoft made a decision to make Virtual Server 2005 R2 free to all.  Shortly thereafter, I received a lot of questions as to why the "expensive" version was free but Virtual PC 2004 still cost money.  Unfortnately, I did not have a really good answer for that question.

I have a "better" answer for that question now. 

Microsoft has decided to make Virtual PC 2004 FREE to all as well!!!!  Download it here: www.microsoft.com/virtualpc.

This is AWESOME news!

Harold

If anyone is interested in joining an SMS User Group in Phoenix, please contact Mike Terrill at mike.terrill@gmail.com.  The group doesn't exist yet, but Mike is working on getting it started.  We will be holding meetings in the Microsoft Office in Phoenix (Central and Thomas).  All the details in terms of meeting date and time have not been decided so contact Mike and he'll get the first meeting organized so al the details can be ironed out.

Thanks!!

Harold Wong

Here's another video interview from Tech Ed 2006 that's released on the Exchange Team Blog.  In this one, I interviewed David Howell and got some more information regarding Unified Messaging in Exchange Server 2007.

http://msexchangeteam.com/videos/9/unified_messaging/entry428106.aspx

Harold Wong

I've been asked by numerous folks about the Windows Mobile 5 Emulator image that I used in my screencast (http://msexchangeteam.com/videos/9/train/entry426996.aspx).  Well, I finally setup my own website so I can store files for folks to download.

If you want the .DESS file I used so you can also do some valid testing, grab it here.  I zipped the file using Winzip 9.1.  It is a 30 MB file, so be prepared.  Enjoy.

Harold Wong

Another video interview video is now available - check it out.  I interviewed Kristian Andaker and got his thoughts on OWA features in Exchange Server 2007: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/06/22/428083.aspx.

Harold

For those of you who have not attended a TechNet webcast before and are interested in finding out what they are all about, please take a look at our Best of TechNet Webcast sampler: http://livestream.worktankseattle.com/bestof/technet/0506/. 

A Big Thanks to Dean Andrews for putting this site together!

Harold