Windows Deployment Services, WAIK & Windows 7 – Part 2/4
Welcome back to the second part of this series and in the next 2 article’s I will be focusing our efforts on creating the necessary xml answer files to automate the deployment of our Windows 7 image via Windows Deployment Services (WDS). In part 1, I provided you with step by step instructions on installing and configuring your WDS role on your Windows 2008 R2 machine. If you missed it, you can access part 1 here. Our focus in today’s article revolves around the creation of the WDSUnattend.xml file that is required to automate the Windows Pre Execution Boot for WDS...
Read MoreiPhone 3.1 breaks Exchange ActiveSync – The fix
After yesterday’s announcement made by Apple with regards to the latest iTunes version 9 and iPhone OS 3.1, I decided to update both and take advantage of the new features. After updating iTunes to version 9, I docked my iPhone which then detected that an update was available in which it then proceeded and installed successfully. However! When I decided to look at my work Exchange ActiveSync Account I received the following popup as per the below screen shot. “The account “” requires encryption which is not supported on this iPhone” My iPhone is the 3G model which apparently...
Read MoreWindows Deployment Services, WAIK & Windows 7 – Part 1/4
I have been known to be at the cutting edge of technology, early adoption of Microsoft technologies is a must and this time round nothing is going to change. I first played with Windows Deployment Services (WDS) back in the day when it was referred to as Remote Installation Services (RIS) and had first exposure to the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) back when it was in beta and so was Vista at the time. I took the plunge and deployed Windows Vista using Light Touch deployment via WDS and the WAIK a month after Vista was released to the enterprise and today I will be providing...
Read MoreNew home, new name, new platform, new look!
A goal of mine earlier this year was to begin blogging and sharing with the IT Pro community my experiences, implementations and designs as an IT Infrastructure Manager who has a distinct passion for Microsoft Technologies. So my first blog came about with the name of Everything IT and Everything Not which was soon changed to George Khalil’s everything IT. During the last 6 months of blogging I have definitely learnt a lot about using various web blogging platforms, social media and a lot about the content that I was providing my readers with. As you are already aware my passion is...
Read MoreSlipstream Office 2007 Service Packs & working with the Office Customization Tool
I am currently in the process of creating my first Windows 7 Enterprise Image for Light Touch Deployment via Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) and Windows Deployment Services (more on this at a later date) and am currently at the stage of organising my client applications for deployment. Office 2007 is on the top of my list and in today’s post I will show you how you can incorporate Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 in the single installation also referred to as slipstreaming and in the second part of this post discuss how you can further customize an installation of Office 2007...
Read MoreIntroducing your first Windows 2008 R2 Domain Controller
Windows 2008 R2 has only been out for over a week however I have decided to introduce my first Windows 2008 R2 domain controller (DC) almost immediately into an existing Windows 2008 Active Directory (AD) Domain to eventually have a complete R2 forest functional level to benefit from some of the new R2 features. For a seasoned IT Pro, introducing new domain controllers is fairly straightforward, however I have decided to provide you with a step by step guide on doing so and the pre-work that is required, so let’s begin! Now before we delve into the step by step guide I thought I would...
Read MoreForefront Server Security engines retiring soon
If you aren’t already aware, or haven’t been notified for that matter through Forefront’s diagnostic notification system, Microsoft’s Forefront Server Security for Exchange and SharePoint is retiring 3 of its 9 engines on 1 December 2009. Forefront server security products has been renowned for its multiple scanning engine technology that allows you to scan items using up to 5 of its 9 engines at any one time, but that is about to change. So which engines are being deprecated and why? If you are running any of the Forefront Server security products such as Forefront Security for...
Read MoreIntegrating Exchange 2007 Messaging Records Management with SharePoint Document Libraries – Part 2
Welcome back to the final post in this 2 part series, Integrating Exchange 2007 MRM with SharePoint Document Libraries. Today’s post will wrap things up by going through the process of mail enabling an existing SharePoint document library and creating a new managed content setting in Exchange 2007 providing us with the ability to journal a copy of all messages moved into our “Project XYZ” managed folder located in Outlook, into our Shared collaborative Document Library under our Project Team Site. Recall from part 1, that the objective of integrating Exchange MRM with SharePoint is...
Read MoreIntegrating Exchange 2007 Messaging Records Management with SharePoint Document Libraries – Part 1/2
There are two technologies in my IT Pro life that I am very passionate about, SharePoint and Exchange, so why not incorporate both passions in a single blog post. In this two part series I will be discussing how we can manage email records from our Exchange mailboxes and archive them in SharePoint Document Libraries for compliance or collaboration reasons. Exchange 2007 introduced a great new feature set in the name of “Messaging Records Management” or commonly referred to as MRM. Managed Default Folders is a key component of MRM which will assist us in achieving our archiving...
Read MoreSharePoint, My Site and Managing User Profile Properties – Part 2/2
Welcome to part 2 of My Site & Managing User Profile Properties. In Part 1 we introduced User Profile Properties and how these can be automatically populated via Windows Active Directory (AD). We also went into some detail regarding the Organization Hierarchy Web part. You can access part 1 here if you missed it. In today’s post our focus is around creating additional profile properties either by mapping to existing fields in Active Directory such as Company or creating a field which may not necessarily be mapped to Active Directory but is required to be entered by the user...
Read More