Microsoft Press

Author news: Steve McConnell speaking in Bellevue, WA

Greetings. Steve McConnell, author of Code Complete (voted the single most influential book every programmer should read at stackoverflow.com), Rapid Development, Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art, and other titles and the CEO of Construx Software, will be speaking in Bellevue, Washington, on November 19. His talk is titled “Secrets of world-class software organizations.” The talk is free and is being presented by IEEE/Computer Society Seattle.

Here are the details:

Thursday, November 19, 2009
6:30 pm – 7:00 pm (Networking)
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (Presentation with question and answer period)

Bellevue College
Building N – Room 201
3000 Landerholm Circle SE, N201
Bellevue, Washington 98007

There is no cost to attend however an RSVP is requested by noon, November 18, 2009 to mike.becker@ieee.org with “confirm 11/19″ in the email subject line to help us manage the facility usage. The event is open to the general public.

About the talk
Construx consultants work with literally hundreds of software organizations each year.  Among these organizations a few stand out as being truly world class.  They are exceptional in their ability to meet their software development goals and exceptional in the contribution they make to their companies’ overall business success.  Do world class software organizations operate differently than average organizations?  In Construx’s experience, the answer is a resounding “YES”.  In this talk, award-winning author Steve McConnell reveals the technical, management, business, and cultural secrets that make a software organization world class.

William Stanek: We interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast again

William here. I know I promised to continue the discussion of Windows 7 migrations. Next up was supposed to be a closer look at automating migrations, but trust me you’re going to appreciate this interruption just as much. So here’s what happened: Since the official release, I’ve been happily installing Windows 7 everywhere. You know, on Ben’s great uncle’s computer, Tina’s mom’s computer, etc., etc. I’ve purchased licenses for my home computers (seven so far :) and upgraded all those as well. No few of them have been older computers and Windows 7 has purred along quite nicely. In fact, in an upcoming series of posts called “Ye Old Hat Trick,” I’m going to dig into all the nifty tricks and shortcuts I came up with to fast-track the manual installs, upgrades, and migrations I’ve done.

In this post, I wanted to attack some of the problems I’ve encountered and resolved. Because I encountered a few biggies, I thought I’d share. One of my computers had the following problem after upgrade:

When the computer woke from sleep mode, the computer did not display the screen properly. Instead, the screen had blotches and hash marks as can sometimes happen when the display cable isn’t seated properly. Immediately after displaying the screen, the computer gave me a blue screen and began a crash dump. On startup, Windows failed to start and then assumed this was a problem that needed to be repaired using Startup Repair. Normally, this is a good thing. You want Startup Repair to fix things for you automatically whenever possible. However, in this case, I was certain the issue was not related to startup and would not be repaired by the tests performed by the Startup Repair tool, so I did a normal boot of the computer.

The first thing I checked after booting the computer was the display adapter in Device Manager. The graphics card was working properly and the driver dated 5/29/09 seemed to be current. A quick check of Windows Update showed there wasn’t an optional update waiting for me to install, and a second quick check of the Update Driver Software process confirmed that this was the most current driver—or was it? Hmm... The next time the computer entered sleep mode and then resumed it blue screened again, and again the screen had blotches and hash marks as can sometimes happen when the display cable isn’t seated properly.

Fool me once, not twice, so after bypassing Startup Repair and performing a normal boot, I checked the vendor site (in this case NVidia) for new drivers as well as reports of driver issues. I couldn’t find either, but that didn’t stop me for digging deeper into the issue. And my first stop might surprise you. My first stop was Action Center. Why? Because I knew that Windows 7 (unlike earlier releases of Windows) has excellent problem-tracking and problem-resolution features built in.

In Action Center, I expanded the Maintenance panel and clicked Check For Solutions. Windows 7 checked the computer for problems and reported that this computer had problems with the graphics driver “6 time(s),” as shown in the figure below. What this means was that the computer had blue screened six times in the past (even though I’d only seen two occurrences) because of the graphics driver. I knew I had to get more information on this, and I did so by clicking the View Message Details button.

The message details, shown in the next figure, provided me with four procedures I could try to use to resolve the problem. Each procedure had steps to follow and I’d instinctively done 1 and 2 already, so I went straight to 3.

The details for procedures 2, 3 and 4 are shown in the figure below. As you can see, procedure 3 tells me to go to the NVidia website and check for drivers. A hasty person might have fired up his or her browser, typed in www.nvidia.com, and then started a search for drivers. But remember, I had already done this the second time I experienced a blue screen. That’s my automatic procedure #3 because I’ve been down this road a few times before. So any guesses at what I did next?

Well, I clicked the link Windows 7 provided, of course, and Windows 7 one upped me, as expected, because clicking the link took me not only to the NVidia website but also to the exact page I needed, shown below. I filled out the form, clicked Search, and there was the driver I needed. It was released on 10/5; see the second figure below. I downloaded and installed the driver. And presto!, no more worries, no more glitches.

As an aside, the driver likely would eventually appear as an optional update in Windows Update or become available through the Update Driver process. However, because only fully tested drivers are made available through either process, the driver wasn’t yet available in this way. Because I needed the driver now to resolve a very real problem, I installed it.

Next up, I have another fun problem & solution scenario for you. Whether you are working with Windows 7 at home or in the office, I hope you find these insights into troubleshooting processes to be helpful!

William R. Stanek

williamstanek at aol dot com

Twitter at http://twitter.com/WilliamStanek

Ed Wilson: The infamous six words

Whenever a group of IT Pros get together the discussion invariably turns to user stories. While some are amusing, and others tell more about the IT Pro than the user in the story, there is one class of stories that knows no cultural boundaries … the story where the user walks up to the IT Pro and begins his tale with the infamous six words … “I have this computer at home.”

If you have been following me on Facebook, you know that I recently attended a family reunion. While at the family reunion I was … wait before the family reunion, the first thing I had to do was fix my mothers computer. Then at the family reunion, I spent most of the day giving tech support and computing advice, instead of learning the latest scholastic achievements of little Johnnie … (maybe it is not such a bad thing after all.)

A few years ago, my wife had to take me to the emergency room. While I was being admitted, the person at the receiving desk was looking at my health insurance card, and this exchange took place:

“You work for Microsoft?”

“Yes,” I moaned in pain.

“I have this computer at home …”

A recent survey states that Windows 7 just broke the 4% market place adoption rate (something that took Windows Vista 5 months to do). Everyone is interested in upgrading to Windows 7. This past weekend we took a friend with us to the Columbia Zoo, and one of the major conversations that took place was not the eating habits of Brown Bears, rather it the hardware requirements for running Windows 7 (in her case, it was easy because she is already running Windows Vista. In most cases if your computer is running Windows Vista, it will run Windows 7 – only better). When we got home, Teresa logged onto Facebook, and was immediately accosted by a friend who is running Windows XP and was seeking upgrade advice.

To upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 one needs to be a bit more careful. In most cases if you have a relatively new computer there should be no problems … but if you have a four or five year old computer, you may need to be a bit more careful. I searched Microsoft.Com looking for the system requirements page for Windows 7 we could send, but because I have been an IT Pro for nearly 20 years, I know how the conversation would go. Something like this:

“You need either a 32 bit or 64 bit CPU that runs at a speed of at least 1 gigahertz,” I would say.

“What is a CPU?” the friend would say.

While I was conducting my Bing search for system requirements  to run Windows 7, I ran across the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. I tested it on an old computer I had laying around, and it works great. With the approach of the holiday season in the United States, it is all but inevitable you will be accosted by well meaning friends and loved ones seeking upgrade advice. Keep the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor handy (a Bing search for “upgrade advisor” returns the download page as the #1 search result) and maybe you will even get to taste some of the wonder holiday food that is sure to be waiting for you.

Early reviews for Windows 7 Inside Out

Greetings, everyone. We’d like to point you today to the early Amazon reviews for Windows 7 Inside Out, by Ed Bott, Carl Siechert, and Craig Stinson. Five of them are 5-star reviews and two of them are 4-star reviews, but both of the 4-star reviews are pretty stellar too.  Here’s one of those:

For ALL PEOPLE that want to know the new cool Features of Windows 7 and take best from is pc with windows 7 it's a great book. Don't expect a step by step, but many hints and many tricks to entusiastics.

And here’s the other:

I just scratched the surface, but like what I see. It is much too early to really judge the book. I already know that it tells me more of what I want to know than the other book I bought.

The other reviews are even better. Congratulations to Ed, Carl, and Craig for this initial reception!

William Stanek: Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 6 “Automating Migrations with USMT 4.0”

William here, continuing with my inside track discussions on Windows 7. Last time, I provided step by step options for using Windows Easy Transfer. Now let’s kick it up a notch and look at automating migrations using User State Migration Tool (USMT) Version 4.0.

As you learned from my earlier blog entries, Windows Easy Transfer is best suited for personal use or for transitioning several computers from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7. When you have a lot of computers to transition, you’ll want to automate the process using USMT 4.0.

Unlike Windows Easy Transfer, which doesn’t require much pre-planning, you’ll need to perform some fairly extensive planning before you use USMT to transition your computers. As part of your planning, you’ll need to identify the settings you want to migrate.

USMT 4.0 can help you migrate operating system settings, application settings, user data, and more. As examples, operating system settings that you can migrate include:

• Appearance settings for the desktop, menus and the overall user interface.
• Keyboard and mouse settings as well as folder options
• Internet options for home pages, favorites, bookmarks, cookies, security, connections and proxies
• Mail settings, rules, contacts, views and signature files

USMT 4.0 allow you to configure your migration using these migration rule (.xml) files:

• MigUser.XML Sets the rules for migrating user profiles and user data
• MigDocs.XML Sets the rules for automatically finding user documents that should be migrated
• MigApp.XML Sets the rules for migrating application settings

To control exactly which files and settings are migrated, you’ll need to modify these scripts to suit your environment. You might need different versions of these rule files for different departments or different types of users.

USMT also allows you to configure user account migration by using ScanState and LoadState command-line tools. You use ScanState to collect settings and data and LoadState to restore settings and data. Because USMT 4.0 now supports offline migrations, you can run ScanState in Windows PE and you also can perform migrations from previous installations of Windows contained in Windows.old directories.

As part of the migration process, you can use the MigUser.Xml file to define the user data to migrate and also to control how access control lists (ACLs) for user data are migrated. By default, all user folders from each user profile are migrated, including Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos. Folders from the All Users in Windows XP and Public profiles in Windows Vista are migrated as well, which ensures any shared data is migrated.

If you use the MigUser.Xml file, ScanState searches fixed drives, collecting and migrating files. The files collected are determined by the file extension. Although you can edit the MigUser.Xml file to add or remove file extensions, the default files collected include those with the following file extensions:

.accdb, .ch3, .csv, .dif, .doc*, .dot*, .dqy, .iqy, .mcw, .mdb*, .mpp, .one*, .oqy, .or6, .pot*, .ppa, .pps*, .ppt*, .pre, .pst, .pub, .qdf, .qel, .qph, .qsd, .rqy, .rtf, .scd, .sh3, .slk, .txt, .vl*, .vsd, .wk*, .wpd, .wps, .wq1, .wri, .xl*, .xla, .xlb, .xls*

USMT 4.0 can migrate ACLs along with user data. However, to do so, you must specify the folders to migrate. The source ACL information is migrated only when you explicitly specify the folders to migrate.

Well, that’s it for now. In my next post—Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 7 “More on Automating Migrations with USMT 4.0”—I’ll dig deeper into the automation process. Thanks for reading!

William R. Stanek

williamstanek at aol dot com

Twitter at http://twitter.com/WilliamStanek

Mark Russinovich on Introducing Windows 7 for Developers

We’re happy to announce that Introducing Windows 7 for Developers (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735626829), by Yochay Kiriaty, Laurence Moroney, Sasha Goldshtein, and Alon Fliess, will be available via online retailers soon (this week or next). As a preview, today we offer the book’s Foreword, by Mark Russinovich.

Foreword
Windows 7 is arguably the best version of Windows ever. This might sound like a generic
marketing claim, and if you consider that each version of Windows has more functionality, is
more scalable, and supports the latest advances in hardware, each version of Windows is
better than the last and hence the best version of Windows up to that point. Windows 7,
however, not only delivers things that satisfy the basic check boxes required of any new
release, but does it with an end-to-end polish that surpasses previous Windows releases.

Of course, Windows 7 couldn’t be the great release it is without standing on the shoulders of
the major advances and innovations of its predecessor, Windows Vista, but there are some
differences in how Windows 7 was developed. Windows 7 is the first release of a Windows
consumer operating system that actually requires fewer resources than the previous version—
something that’s pretty amazing considering the addition of all the new functionality.
Reducing the memory footprint, minimizing background activity, and taking advantage of the
latest hardware power-management capabilities all contribute to producing a sleek, yet
modern, operating system that runs more efficiently on the same hardware that ran
Windows Vista.

Another change from previous releases is the way Microsoft worked with PC manufacturers
and hardware vendors. Throughout the Windows 7 development cycle, it kept them apprised
of coming changes, shared tools and techniques, and sent engineers onsite to help them
optimize their software and hardware for the new operating system. By the time of
Windows 7 general availability, most partners had over a year of deep experience with the
operating system, giving them plenty of time to tune and adapt their products.

While the under-the-hood and ecosystem efforts deliver the fundamentals, Windows 7
introduces a number of features that more directly enhance a user’s experience. For example,
the redesigned taskbar makes it easier for users to keep track of their running applications,
navigate between multiple application windows, and quickly access their frequently used
applications and documents. The Windows taskbar, which hadn’t changed significantly from
Windows 95, had become as comfortable as an old pair of slippers; but once you’ve used the
new interface for any length of time, you’ll feel cramped if you have to sit down at an older
version of Windows.

Windows 7 also unlocks PC hardware devices that are becoming increasingly common,
creating a platform that empowers applications to deliver more dynamic and adaptive
experiences. Mobile PCs now adjust display brightness based on ambient light and have GPS
and other sensors that give Windows a view of the world immediately around it. With the
infrastructure and APIs for these devices delivered in Windows 7, applications can integrate
with this view to provide users with information and modes of operation specific to the
local environment.

As a user of Windows and a former independent software vendor (ISV), I know how
disconcerting it is when an application exhibits user-interface constructs different from the
ones we’ve grown to consider modern by the newest operating system release or version of
Office we’re using. It’s also frustrating when you experience the seamlessness of an
application that integrates with the operating system in a way that blurs the line between it
and the operating system, and then run into others that seem to flout their nonconformity or
shout that they were developed for 10-year-old operating systems.

The key to great software is not to force the user to learn idiosyncratic user-interface
behaviors, feel like they’re in a time warp when they run it, or wish that it took advantage of
their PC’s capabilities like other applications do. To delight the user, you need to keep abreast
of technology and user-interface trends, recognize when your application can and should
take advantage of them, and deliver valued innovation to your customers. Being on the
cutting edge of the platform's capabilities helps your applications stand out from the
competition and conveys the message to your customers that you’re hip.

This book is a great one-stop resource for learning how you can make modern applications
that use new PC hardware capabilities and allow users to quickly access common functionality.
From using taskbar icons that show the progress of long-running operations, to taskbar icon
jump lists that provide easy access to common tasks and recently used documents; from
location APIs you use to deliver the most relevant results, to library APIs that allow you to
integrate with and access a user’s existing document collection; from a ribbon control that
exposes the extent of your application’s functionality and features, to supporting a touch
interface for intuitive interaction—this book is your complete guide to bringing your
applications into the 2010s.

For a programming book to be worth reading in this day of instant access to online
documentation and code samples, it must provide complete and coherent introductions and
overviews to new concepts as well as clearly explained and straightforward code samples that
are easy to reuse. Yochay, Sasha, Laurence, and Alon have delivered both in this book that’s
sure to become your Windows 7 programming companion whether you program to .NET or
Win32 APIs. I’ve started adding Windows 7 functionality to the Sysinternals tools and the
description and example of how to exploit the taskbar icon’s progress display enabled me to
enhance the Sysinternals Disk2Vhd tool literally in a matter of minutes. I know I’ll be turning
to this as I continue to update the tools, and I’m confident you will too, as you strive to give
your applications that extra edge.

Mark Russinovich
Technical Fellow
Windows Division, Microsoft Corporation

New book: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant

We’re pleased to announce that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, by William Stanek, is now available for purchase in bookstores (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627123; 688 pages)!

Here’s the introduction from the author:

Introduction

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant is designed to be a concise and compulsively usable resource for Exchange Server 2010 administrators. This is the readable resource guide that you’ll want on your desk at all times. The book covers everything you need to perform the core administrative tasks for Exchange Server 2010, whether your servers are running on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Because the focus of this book is on giving you maximum value in a pocket-size guide, you don’t have to wade through hundreds of pages of extraneous information to find what you’re looking for. Instead, you’ll find exactly what you need to get the job done.

In short, this book is designed to be the one resource you turn to whenever you have questions regarding Exchange Server 2010 administration. To this end, the book zeroes in on daily administrative procedures, frequently performed tasks, documented examples, and options that are representative although not necessarily inclusive. One of the goals is to keep the content so concise that the book remains compact and easy to navigate while at the same time ensuring that the book is packed with as much information as possible—making it a valuable resource. Thus, instead of a hefty 1,000-page tome or a lightweight 100-page quick reference, you get a valuable resource guide that can help you quickly and easily perform common tasks, solve problems, and implement advanced Exchange Server 2010 technologies such as EdgeSync subscriptions, local continuous replication, Outlook Anywhere, SMTP connectors, and Active Directory site links.

Who Is This Book For?

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant covers the Standard and Enterprise editions of Exchange Server 2010. The book is designed for the following readers:

· Current Exchange Server 2010 administrators

· Current Windows administrators who want to learn Exchange Server 2010

· Administrators upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 from Exchange 2007

· Administrators upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 from Exchange 2003

· Administrators transferring from other messaging servers

· Managers and supervisors who have been delegated authority to manage mailboxes or other aspects of Exchange Server 2010

To pack in as much information as possible, I had to assume that you have basic networking skills and a basic understanding of e-mail and messaging servers. With this in mind, I don’t devote entire chapters to explaining why e-mail systems are needed or how they work. I don’t devote entire chapters to installing Exchange Server 2010 either. I do, however, provide complete details on the components of Exchange organizations and how you can use these components to build a fully redundant and highly available messaging environment. You will also find complete details on all the essential Exchange administration tasks.

I also assume that you are fairly familiar with Windows Server. If you need help learning Windows Server, I highly recommend that you buy Windows Server 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant or Windows Server 2008 Inside Out.

How Is This Book Organized?

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant is designed to be used in the daily administration of Exchange Server 2010. As such, the book is organized by job-related tasks rather than by Exchange Server 2010 features. If you are reading this book, you should be aware of the relationship between Pocket Consultants and Administrator’s Companions. Both types of books are designed to be part of an administrator’s library. Pocket Consultants are the down-and-dirty, in-the-trenches books, while Administrator’s Companions are the comprehensive tutorials and references that cover every aspect of deploying a product or technology in the enterprise.

Speed and ease of reference are essential parts of this hands-on guide. The book has an expanded table of contents and an extensive index for finding answers to problems quickly. Many other quick reference features have been added as well. These features include quick step-by-step instructions, lists, tables with fast facts, and extensive cross-references.

The first two chapters provide an overview of Exchange servers and Exchange clients. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Exchange Server 2010 administration concepts, tools, and techniques. Chapter 2 discusses deploying Exchange Server.

Next I cover the fundamental tasks you need for Exchange Server administration. Chapter 3 details how Exchange environments are organized, how information is stored in Exchange Server, and how Exchange Server works. The chapter also explores Exchange message queues and Exchange Server service management. Chapter 4 discusses Windows PowerShell and the Exchange Management Shell, providing the essential background for using these powerful command-line environments for Exchange Server administration. Chapter 5 takes a look at creating and managing users and contacts. You’ll learn all about Exchange aliases, enabling and disabling exchange mail for individual users, forwarding mail offsite, and more. Chapter 6 discusses mailbox administration, including techniques for configuring special-purpose resource mailboxes, moving mailboxes, and configuring mailbox delivery restrictions. In Chapter 7, you’ll find a detailed discussion of how to use distribution groups and address lists. You’ll also learn how to manage these resources. Chapter 8 covers how to implement Exchange security.

In the next several chapters, I discuss advanced tasks for managing and maintaining Exchange organizations. Chapter 9 provides the essentials for managing database availability groups and using full-text indexing. Chapter 10 examines administration of mailbox and public folder databases. The chapter also covers how to recover disconnected mailboxes and deleted messaging items. Chapter 11 looks at how you can use public folders in the enterprise.

Chapter 12 provides a comprehensive discussion of deploying and managing Hub Transport servers and Edge Transport servers. The chapter examines SMTP connectors, Active Directory sites, Active Directory links, and connecting to Exchange 2003 routing groups. The chapter also examines configuring EdgeSync subscriptions, journal rules, transport rules, and anti-spam features. Chapter 13 provides a comprehensive discussion of deploying and managing Client Access servers. The chapter examines IIS Web servers, POP3, IMAP4, and Outlook Anywhere. The chapter also examines configuring Exchange Server features for mobile devices, including Autodiscover, Direct Push, Exchange ActiveSync Mailbox Policy, Remote Device Wipe, Password Recovery, Direct File Access, Remote File Access, and WebReady Document Viewing.

In Chapter 14, you’ll learn about troubleshooting essentials as well as Exchange maintenance, monitoring, and queuing. You’ll learn key techniques for using message tracking, protocol logging, and connectivity logging for troubleshooting. You’ll also learn techniques for automated monitoring and managing Exchange message queues—both of which can help ensure that your Exchange organization runs smoothly. Chapter 15 details how to back up and restore Exchange Server. You’ll learn key techniques that can help you reliably back up and, more important, recover Exchange Server in case of failure.

Chapter 16 covers Exchange client setup and management, and Chapter 17 extends the Exchange client discussion and looks at mobile Microsoft Office Outlook users as well as Exchange Active Sync, Outlook Web App, and Outlook Anywhere. With more and more users working on the road or from home, this chapter helps ensure that you can give these mobile users the best support possible.

Sample Chapters

To download sample chapters, as well as learning snacks and online clinics, be sure to visit the Microsoft Learning Exchange Server 2010 Training Portal.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/training/exchange-server.aspx

Review: Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Hey, everybody. David Lean has posted a review of another recently published book on SQL Server 2008 by Microsoft Press: Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2008, by Leonard Lobel, Andrew J. Brust, and Stephen Forte.

Dave posts his reviews on his Dave does Data (Tutorials, Performance Tuning, Tips & Techniques on SQL Server & its ecosystem) blog.

Dave’s summary is a good one:

It appears to me that the authors started this book with the premise “There is a lot in SQL2008 that can dramatically change the way you architect solutions. Many features elegantly remove some of the clunky poor performance approaches we use today” So they set about drawing your attention to those features & mapping it back to the problems you currently experience when writing applications.

The book is a good read, plenty of code examples & screenshots to help understand the subject quickly (not just to pad out the pages).

But I think you’ll find his chapter-by-chapter description of the book most helpful. He tells you exactly what’s covered in each chapter so that you can determine if the book will meet your needs.

Dave even comments on how well the authoring team worked together (because, as we all know, sometimes multi-author books suffer quality-wise from the approach):

Like SQL 2008 Internals, this book is written by a team of authors. Handy because it is hard to specialise in everything. Compared to the SQL Internals authors, they must have spent much more time peer reviewing as there is a lot less variation in style between each chapter. Though you can see one author was keen to give a little background while one of the others prefers to dive right in.

Thanks again, Dave, for sharing your thoughts on our books. We look forward to your future feedback!

William Stanek: Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 5 “Migrations with Windows Easy Transfer”

William here. Last time, I talked about migrations and the options for using Windows Easy Transfer. So now let’s look at the actual migration process. Keep in mind that migration is only necessary if you can’t perform an in-place upgrade. Generally, in-place upgrades are supported when you are moving from a like edition of Windows Vista to a like edition of Windows 7, but there are many gotchas as discussed in my previous blog entries.

Also, last time, I forgot to talk about using external hard drives with Windows Easy Transfer. With external hard drives, you’ll want to look at speed as well. Most external hard drives have USB 2.0 connections. Generally, USB 2.0 has a maximum transfer rate of 480 Mbps with sustained rates of 10 to 30 Mbps. As with UFDs, transferring multiple gigabytes will take a while. In contrast, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and eSATA generally will be much faster (up to 3X faster with eSATA) and there are a few high-performance external hard drives that support these interfaces. The catch is that your computers (both old and new if you are transitioning from one computer to another) must support the interface and removable media type.

With Windows Easy Transfer, your migration has two phases:

1. Copy the data you want to transition.
2. Move the data to its destination.

You kick start phase one of the migration process on the old computer or operating system using the Windows 7 installation media. The process is similar to the following:

1. Insert or attach the Windows 7 installation media while running Windows XP or Windows Vista. On the installation media, in the Support\Migwiz folder, double-click MigSetup.exe to start Windows Easy Transfer.
2. When the wizard starts, click Next, select the “An external hard disk or USB flash drive” option and then click “This is my old computer.” You can specify that you want to migrate all user profile data, select specific user profiles or customize the process.
3. Enter a password to protect the data you are transitioning and then click Save. Next, select the external location or external media where you want to save the data. Click Save again.
4. Click Next and then wait for the copy process to complete. Click Close.

Once you’ve confirmed that the data has been transitioned, you can move the data to the new computer. Or you can upgrade the Windows XP or Windows Vista computer to Windows 7 by performing a clean installation and then move the data back to the computer. Remember, this migration process with a clean installation is only necessary if you can’t perform an in-place upgrade.

To move the user data to its final destination, the process is similar to the following:

1. Attach the UFD or external disk to the computer or make sure you can access the shared network location where the data is stored.
2. Insert or attach the Windows 7 installation media while running Windows XP or Windows Vista. On the installation media, in the Support\Migwiz folder, double-click MigSetup.exe to start Windows Easy Transfer.
3. When the wizard starts, click Next, select the “An external hard disk or USB flash drive” option and then click “This is my new computer.”
4. Click “Yes, open the file,” and then browse to where the Easy Transfer file was saved. Click the file name and then click Open.
5. You can transfer all the files and settings you saved or only those files and settings for specific users. To transfer all the saved data, click Transfer. To select the saved data to transfer, click Customize, select the user profiles to transfer, and then click Transfer.
6. Wait for the copy process to complete. Click Close.

That in a nutshell is how the copy/move processes work. Hope this gives you the core details you need to successfully migrate your computers using Windows Easy Transfer! In my next post—Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 6 “Automating Migrations with USMT 4.0”—I’ll dig into automating the migration process. Thanks for reading!

William R. Stanek

williamstanek at aol dot com

Twitter at http://twitter.com/WilliamStanek

Quick note: PDC attendees save 25% on certification exams

This just in: Microsoft Learning is pleased to offer PDC09 attendees an exclusive discount on Microsoft Certification exams.  At registration check-in, attendees will receive a 25% off discount code, along with instructions for scheduling Microsoft Certification exams.  For more information on Microsoft certification, visit www.microsoft.com/learning.

William Stanek: Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 4 “Migrations and Automation”

William here. Let’s get back to our discussion of Windows 7 while continuing to focus on upgrades and migrations. So far we’ve discussed upgrade paths, cross-architecture upgrades, cross-language upgrades, and cross-variant upgrades. [Everybody, you can use the “William Stanek” tag in the blog’s right column to find all of William’s previous posts.] Now let’s look at migrations and automation. If you can’t perform an in-place upgrade of your computer, you may be able to migrate file and settings.

Migration is supported in several scenarios. You can:

• Migrate files and settings from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 on the same computer.
• Migrate files and settings from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 on a new computer.

With either scenario, the migration techniques you use are similar. In one scenario, you are moving to a new operating system and in the other, you are moving to a new computer. The two main migration tools you’ll use are Windows Easy Transfer and User State Migration Tool (USMT). Although both tools are old standbys from migrations in the past, there are some changes that make the tools easier to use and work with.

With Windows Easy Transfer, you normally transition files and settings in two stages. First you use Windows Easy Transfer to copy them to a network folder or USB flash drive then you use Windows Easy Transfer to move the copied files to the new operating system or the new computer. You also can use an Easy Transfer cable to copy files and settings directly from an old computer to a new computer. Keep in mind a standard USB cable is not an Easy Transfer cable. You’ll need to purchase the cable if you don’t have one.

You use Windows Easy Transfer to move program settings and user files. Generally, the files transitioned only include those files in the user profile folders, such as the contents of C:\Users\%UserName% and all subfolders. Windows Easy Transfer does not move program files or system files, such as fonts or drivers. You’ll need to migrate, then install your programs, fonts and drivers as needed.

In the past, the biggest problem with Windows Easy Transfer has been that the more data you have, the longer it takes to complete the migration process. Transferring a few gigabytes of data over a network twice (once for the copy; once for the final move) is slow (very slow at 100 Mbps and painfully slow at 10 Mbps). The good news: many more computers have 1 Gbps network cards these days, which is 10X faster than 100 Mbps and 100X faster than 10 Mbps. If you’re computers don’t have 1 Gbps network cards, there’s never been a better time to upgrade (and upgrade before migrating if you plan to use Windows Easy Transfer over the network).

You can safely skip all the copy/move over the network craziness by using a USB flash drive (UFD) or an external hard drive. A 16 GB or 32 GB UFD can handle just about any single-computer migration. If you’ve going to use a UFD, make sure you use one that has 100% high-speed flash RAM—you’ll have a smoother, faster migration. Stay away from cheap UFDs. Most of the cheapos have a mixture of slow and fast flash RAM, especially if they are a few years old.

Although Windows Easy Transfer is a good choice for transitioning several computers from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7, it’s not a good choice for transitioning many computers. When you have a lot of computers, you’ll want to automate the process and this is where USMT comes in handy.

Well, that’s it for now. In my next post—Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 5 “Migrations with Windows Easy Transfer”—I’ll walk through the actual migration process. Then in Part 6 “Automating Migrations with USMT 4.0,” I’ll dig into automating the migration process. As an aside, I hope readers know that I don’t get paid for writing these blog entries. The reason I’m writing these blog entries is to help readers learn more about various Microsoft technologies. If you like what you read and enjoy my writing style, I hope you’ll buy my books. Thank you!

William R. Stanek

williamstanek at aol dot com

Twitter at http://twitter.com/WilliamStanek

Download ten free Windows 7 chapters

We’ve added three more chapters to the Microsoft Learning Windows 7 portal, where you’ll find links to numerous training resources related to Windows 7. The following chapters from recently published Microsoft Press books are now available.

From Windows 7 Inside Out:

• Chapter 2, “Installing and Configuring Windows 7”
• Chapter 11, “Backup, Restore and Recovery” (new)
• Chapter 21, “Performing Routine Maintenance”

From Windows 7 Resource Kit:

• Chapter 23, “Support Users and Remote Assistance”
• Chapter 29, “Deploying IPv6”

From Windows 7 Step by Step:

• Chapter 1, “Explore Windows 7”
• Chapter 2, “Navigate Windows and Folders”

From Introducing Windows 7 for Developers:

• Chapter 2, “Integrate with the Windows 7 Taskbar, Part 1”

From Windows 7 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant:

• Chapter 5, “Managing User Access and Security,” and Chapter 9, “Installing and Maintaining Programs” (new: a single download)

Enjoy!

Windows 7 Resource Kit Unofficial Support Site

In our “New book” post for the Windows 7 Resource Kit, where we shared information about the book as well as excerpts from two chapters, we neglected to mention lead author Mitch Tulloch’s supporting Web site for the book: Windows 7 Resource Kit Unofficial Support Site. Mitch mentioned it in the interview we posted on Friday, but we wanted to make sure to emphasize the site with another post (in case you missed that quick mention).

Mitch describes the site like this:

Here you will find tips, errata and links to the latest resources that can help you plan, deploy, maintain and troubleshoot Windows 7 in mid- and large-sized organizations. Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows 7 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2010) and he maintains this Unofficial Support Site for the benefit of IT professionals around the world.

Mitch organizes the material by chapter. For example, here’s the page related to Chapter 11, “Using Volume Activation.”

By the way, Mitch’s coauthors on the Resource Kit were Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, and the Windows 7 Team at Microsoft.

Enjoy!

Author news: Meet the lead author of the Windows 7 Resource Kit

Can we just say, Microsoft Press loves working with Mitch Tulloch! So much so that we ask him for interviews. Here’s one: 

What do you like best about Windows 7?

Honestly, the feature I like the best is Aero Snap, which lets me drag a window to the left or right side of the screen and have it align to the edge and resize to half the screen.  I’m an old dog who hates to learn new tricks and I cut my teeth on Windows 3.1. So when Windows 95 came out, I vigorously opposed replacing File Manager with Windows Explorer as I liked the ability to have two child windows open in File Manager so that I could easily drag files between different locations. But now with Aero Snap in Windows 7, I can open my Documents library and snap it to the left, plug in my USB thumb drive and snap it to the right, and drag files from my Documents library to my thumb drive—yay! Now this may seem like a minor issue, especially to techies, but it boosts my productivity and isn’t that what counts in the end?

How long have you been working with Microsoft Press?

My first book with Microsoft Press was the Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking, which I wrote around 1999. My wife, Ingrid, did a lot of the research for that project, and on the Second Edition she was rightly acknowledged as co-author, which was appropriate. Anyway, I learned something really important on that first project—never write an encyclopedia, the amount of work involved can kill you! Fortunately, while working on the Encyclopedia, I met many of the wonderful people who work at Microsoft Press, so that compensated me somewhat for the grinding effort involved.

Where do you work?

My wife and I currently run a content development business in Winnipeg, Canada, which is almost right in the geographical center of North America (see http://www.mtit.com for details). Before I started my business about 10 years ago, I was a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and before that a Web Production Manager for an Internet startup. And way back in another life I taught Physics at the high school and Advanced Placement levels.

What is your advice for people starting out in IT?

Be prepared to learn constantly. Technology is constantly changing, and that means an IT professional’s job is also constantly evolving. You need to be highly organized to get ahead in IT these days as most projects involve bringing together many different technologies and services and integrating them. Learn about the business side of things, about project management and procurement and regulatory/compliance issues. Don’t just focus on learning technology—learn business skills as well if you want to get ahead in IT. I recommend Donald Trump’s books—they’re the best books on self-improvement and entrepreneurship available. Donald is shameless at prompting himself, but you need to be in order to become a success nowadays. Which reminds me, the Windows 7 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627000; 1760 pages) is a really outstanding book, and as lead author for this title I’m maintaining an Unofficial Support Site for it at http://www.mtit.com/reskit/. I list additional resources there and try to respond to questions from readers around the world. New content is also being added to this site daily, and it will likely become an essential resource for the IT pro community. Just thought I’d mention it.

First job?

Cooking pizzas at Pizza Hut. Great job for learning to multitask, but way too easy to put on weight.

Thanks, Mitch. Everybody, you can learn more about the Windows 7 Resource Kit here.

William Stanek: Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 3 “More on Upgrades and Migrations”

William here. Up for continuing our discussion about upgrades and migrations? Hope so, so here goes… So far we’ve discussed upgrade paths to Windows 7 from earlier releases of Windows. There are a few more gotchas in the upgrade process we should talk about before we go into migrations. The most important ones have to do with:

• Cross-architecture upgrades
• Cross-language upgrades
• Cross-variant upgrades

When you upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, you must upgrade to the same architecture, language, and variant. This means that you must:

• Upgrade 32-bit Windows Vista to 32-bit Windows 7 (and likewise 64-bit Windows Vista to 64-bit Windows 7)
• Upgrade to the same language version, such as US English to US English (rather than say US English to Japanese). If you have a particular language version with add-on language packs, you also might have to remove the add-on language packs to upgrade.
• Upgrade to the same or higher edition in keeping with variants. You cannot upgrade from Windows Vista to the Windows 7 N, K, KN, or E variants.

I can hear the groaning and grumbling already, but these restrictions make perfect sense. For instance, 64-bit Windows is an entirely different animal than 32-bit Windows. Trust me, you don’t want all that 32-bit OS baggage on your 64-bit computers. 64-bit is where computing is going, and you want to be there bathing in all the high-power 64-bit glory. And there are always options and workarounds. An example? Sure. User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0 makes it possible for you to migrate 32-bit settings to 64-bit environments. To do this, you’ll need to extract the current state before installing Windows 7.

When you upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, a Windows.old directory is created with the settings and files from Windows Vista. As long as you do a straight installation (and don’t modify or remove partitions during installation), the Windows.old directory is available for you to use. USMT 4.0 can use this directory to transfer settings and files from Windows Vista to Windows 7, and it can do so after the upgrade (in most cases). More on this later but first let’s circle back to Windows XP.

Although you can’t upgrade Windows XP directly to Windows 7, you can maintain your Windows XP settings when installing Windows 7 on a computer running Windows XP. To do this, you must migrate files and settings prior to installing Windows 7. One tool that allows you to migrate settings is Windows Easy Transfer (Migwiz.exe). You’ll find it on the Windows 7 installation media in the Support\Migwiz folder. You can use Windows Easy Transfer to transfer settings and files from any computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7.

You can transfer files using a network drive, a USB flash drive, or an Easy Transfer Cable. Of the three options, my favorite is the USB flash drive. With network drives, you have to transfer the data over the network. If you have a lot of data to transition, you likely will find the process very slow and frustrating on a 100 Mbps network. Even if you are on a 1 Gbps network, this process will seem fairly slow but doable for the patient technician. And that’s why I prefer a USB flash drive. Just make sure you purchase a newer flash drive with high-speed memory and a lot of capacity, such as 16 or 32 GB. A 32-GB flash drive will handle most any transfer and it will do it much faster than a network transfer.

Keep in mind that you cannot use Windows Easy Transfer to move program files or system files, such as fonts or drivers. Windows Easy Transfer moves program settings and files only. You will need to migrate and then install your programs, fonts, and drivers as needed.

As you might imagine, there are many more options for migration, and I’ll discuss these next time in Windows 7: Inside Track, Part 5 “Migrations and Automation.” Happy Halloween (and the occasion makes it seem fitting somehow that this is my 13th post here at the Microsoft Press blog).

William R. Stanek

williamstanek at aol dot com

Twitter at http://twitter.com/WilliamStanek