What happened to Coalface Tech?

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Coalface Tech podcast graphic
Last year, James Bannan and I launched a podcast called Coalface Tech. At the time we thought we were the only guys doing a podcast for IT Pros, by IT Pros (since then, I’ve discovered and started listening to RunAs Radio) but, to be honest, we broke the golden rule of podcasting/blogging and didn’t post regularly (frequency is less of a concern, but if you post monthly, then that’s what people expect you to continue doing).

The main problem was one of hosting. APC Pro Magazine, who were hosting our episodes, closed down. Episode 3 was recorded and edited, but had no-where to go to. There were also scheduling issues (two guys on opposite sides of the planet, with limited time for recording), and some fairly major family events for each of us.

We do hope to get the podcast going again at some point, and I was heartened when a listener dropped me an e-mail to say “where have you guys gone?” All I can say is, please keep our feed in your reader and, hopefully, there will be a new episode there one day.

Turning off Adobe Photo Downloader in Mac OS X

Posted on By Mark Wilson

I used to use Adobe Bridge with Photoshop on my Mac for all my image editing, until my friend Jeremy Hicks extolled the virtues of Adobe Lightroom to me. Nowadays, Lightroom forms the basis of my photographic workflow, with Photoshop CS4 called in to do any advanced editing, but all the basic stuff (raw image conversion, cropping, minor adjustments and filtering) is done in Lightroom.

Lightroom includes its own photo import tool, so I was getting annoyed when two downloaders popped up every time I connected a camera or memory card… eventually I found out how to turn of the Adobe Photo Downloader – there is a checkbox in the general preferences for Adobe Bridge.

General Preferences in Adobe Bridge

I’ll still need to use something else for video files (as the Lightroom importer only recognises images) but 95% of what I shoot is photos and there’s still the option of using the Image Capture program that ships with OS X for video on those devices that are not recognised by the Finder (e.g. my Canon Digital Ixus 70).

Hyper-V Manager cannot find the MSVM_VirtualSystemManagementService object

Posted on By Mark Wilson

A couple of days ago, I was working with a colleague to build a Windows 7 proof of concept lab with a number of servers running Hyper-V and some virtualised server instances to provide the supporting infrastructure. The physical servers running are a mixture of Windows Server 2008 (full installation) and Hyper-V Server (the free of charge version of Hyper-V) but, after installing the Hyper-V role on one of the full Windows Server 2008 machines, we were still unable to manage the remote (Hyper-V Server) host – even after following John Howard’s 5-part series of blog posts to enable remote management.

Whenever I tried to connect to the Hyper-V server (or indeed the local instance of Hyper-V), Hyper-V Manager complained that:

The ‘MSVM_VirtualSystemManagementService’ object was not found

It turned out that the problem was related to not having the RTM version of Hyper-V installed on the server (a schoolboy error!) – Windows Server 2008 shipped with a beta of Hyper-V. After installing the update described in Microsoft knowledge base article 950050 (downloading Windows Server 2008 service pack 2 to bring the server completely up-to-date was a slow process over a poor Internet connection) the server was able to manage both local and remote Hyper-V resources.

A few notes on the Hyper-V Server configuration script

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Hyper-V Server comes with a handy script to assist administrators who don’t like the command line with key configuration items such as domain/workgroup settings; computer name; network settings; adding a local administrator account; Windows Update settings; downloading and installing updates; Remote Desktop connection settings; regional and language options; date and time; logging off, restarting and shutting down a server.

This script is automatically run at first logon but, if you need to run it again later (rather than use the standard commands that hardened server core administrators are now used to!) then the command to run is [%windir%\system32\]hvconfig.cmd (which calls hvconfig.vbs from the appropriate language-dependent subdirectory, e.g. %windir%\system32\en-us\).

Incidentally, the hvconfig script can also be used on a server core installation of Windows Server 2008, as described by Sander Berkouwer (and linked from this blog back in October).

Manually invoking the Windows Server 2008 Initial Configuration Tasks Wizard

Posted on By Mark Wilson

This afternoon, after installing the Hyper-V role on a Windows Server 2008 computer, a server I was working on restarted and went straight into to Server Manager (without displaying the Initial Configuration Tasks wizard). Whilst Server Manager is a perfectly acceptable way of configuring a server, I wanted the administrators for whom I was preparing some build notes to use one tool (i.e. to provide some consistency) – and the Initial Configuration Tasks Wizard also serves as a handy quick reference. This is not the first time I’ve seen the wizard disappear after installing Hyper-V, so I decided to investigate running the wizard manually and it turns out to be quite straightforward.

Simply navigate to the Start Menu and in the search box type oobe. Once you know the filename (the full path is %windir%\system32\oobe.exe) it seems logical (OOBE stands for Out of Box Experience) but, until today, OOBE was something I’d equated with client operating system releases.

Microsoft surrenders to the bureaucrats in Brussels

Posted on By Mark Wilson

A few days back I commented about the madness that is going on in Europe with the European Commission taking up the case of a minority web browser company and making life difficult for Microsoft in the courts.

Let’s get this straight: Opera may be a fine browser but, as far as I can tell, almost no-one uses it on the desktop. Part of the reason for this is that, long after most other browsers became free, Opera were still charging users so they failed to capitalise when Firefox grew its market share at the expense of Internet Explorer. Basically, Opera’s business strategy failed… so they went to court and other minority browser vendors piled in (e.g. Google).

As a result of componentisation of Windows, Microsoft gave us the ability to uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows 7 but that wasn’t enough for the bureaucrats in Brussels so now, in order to avoid costly delays in shipping Windows 7 as a result of legal action, Microsoft has decided to offer an E edition of Windows 7 in Europe, without Internet Explorer.

As I wrote last week:

“Personally, I would like to install Windows quickly with the least possible user interaction. Then, once the base operating system is installed, I’d like to select roles/features (as I do for Windows Server 2008) and install any third party software that I choose – independently of the Windows setup routine. If we have to have something to please the minority browsers (Opera, Chrome, Safari, etc.) then Windows already lets me choose search providers, media players, mail clients, etc. – why not use the same mechanism for browsers?”

Instead, I have multiple Windows versions for multiple markets. Thanks to the EU I have one version of Windows 7 in Europe and another for the rest of the world (what’s not clear is whether I can still buy the normal version in Europe, should I choose to do so). Gee, thanks. I’m glad to see my taxes are being used to tackle the real issues of the day… like financial meltdown, rising unemployment, global warming, world poverty…

It seems that, if I have a company with a product that no-one wants, I can go to the European Commission and have them stop the large, successful, companies from competing with me. Presumably Apple will stop shipping Safari with OS X and Linux distros in Europe will come without Firefox, etc.? No. I thought not.

Some free Windows 7 training resources

Posted on By Mark Wilson

The Microsoft Official Curriculum courses for Windows 7 are not expected to be released until October but Global Knowledge is planning to run a selection of “hands-on master classes” for Windows 7 through the summer months, as well as securing some Microsoft e-learning titles – register at the links below for 60 days of free access:

UK iPhone users up in arms – and to think that people say I whinge on this blog…

Posted on By Mark Wilson

iPhone 3G S logoThis week’s announcement of a third generation of iPhone (the 3G S) has left existing UK iPhone users seething. You see, when last year’s iPhone 3G shipped, Apple’s UK partner (O2) let existing users upgrade regardless of the remaining contract length (they had to… it was in our contracts…) but, critically, the original iPhone was not subsidised – and its 3G replacement was. Now existing subscribers are waking up to the fact that they have to buy themselves out of their contracts if they want to move to a new device. Well, welcome to the big bad world of mobile telecoms guys – that’s the way it’s been for years and why should the iPhone be any different?

Don’t get me wrong – I have an iPhone 3G and I still have about nine months to run on my contract so I’m caught up in this with everyone else but I won’t be looking to upgrade to the 3G S. After all, Apple has committed to giving me the 3.0 software upgrade for free (something I wouldn’t get on a competitive platform – if I had a Windows Mobile phone I would have to wait for the telco to approve the software and, even then, they might not offer me an upgrade). I would like a better camera but I’ve managed with crappy iPhone optics for two years now and, anyway, I’m not convinced that the new one will be that good either – it’s still only 3MP and a camera phone is always hampered by a tiny sensor and poor quality glass (maybe even plastic!). I can live without a compass and, as for video… it’s hard enough to take a decent photo on an iPhone! Voice control will be good, but I don’t think that relies on the new hardware (I may be proved wrong on that). Finally, Apple claim that the 3G S is twice as fast as the 3G… but the network will still be the bottleneck!

The other gripe is the fifteen quid that O2 wants for using the tethering functionality on the iPhone. Here I think the complainers may have a point – after all we have unlimited data access on the iPhone already and why pay more (for what… more data than “unlimited” data!)? Then again, using a full-sized laptop (tethered) to surf with a larger screen will pull down larger graphics – which means more data – and a subsequent hit on O2’s network. The charge is broadly equivalent to that of taking out a contract for a 3G data connection but I would like to see a PAYG option for tethering – I’m simply not going to stump up fifty quid a month for a mobile phone contract (£35 for the base iPhone deal and another £15 for the tethering, minus a few pence from last year’s VAT cut).

If we’re lucky, someone will write a WiFi router application (like they did for Windows Mobile where the telco doesn’t know you are tethered – the laptop talks to the phone over WiFi and the phone looks like it’s using its 3G connection for its own data.

So, I’m sorry for my fellow UK iPhone users but this is the reality of signing up for a mobile phone contract – either buy an unsubsidised (expensive) phone and be free to move around or have a subsidised one with a contract that the telcos will enforce. As for tethering, it is an additional feature, so hoping that O2 wouldn’t charge for it was probably a little naive. With any luck there will be a 4th generation of iPhone this time next year and most of us will be freed from our contracts by then!

iPhone 3.0In the meantime, the iPhone 3.0 software is due out next week… it looks like I had better upgrade iTunes to 8.2 then…

Another one of my “How Do I?” videos makes it onto the Microsoft TechNet website

Posted on By Mark Wilson

A couple of days back, I noticed that another one of my videos has made it onto the Microsoft TechNet website – this one looks at backing up a Hyper-V host using System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 SP1.

Those who’ve watched earlier videos may notice that the sound quality on this video is much improved as I finally bought myself a half-decent microphone. I’ve also dedicated a PC to the task of recording these videos (recommissioning my old Compaq DeskPro EN510SFF, which has been upgraded with a 250GB disk and 2GB of RAM, and more recently gained a Matrox Millennium G550 dual-display video card picked up for a few pounds on eBay). This machine is certainly no screamer but, as the videos are only recorded at 5 frames per second it’s perfectly capable of keeping up, although TechSmith Camtasia Studio falls over from time to time and the 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor does take a while to render the final output.

There are some more videos on the way as I’ve submitted three more that have yet to make it onto the TechNet site but, if you’re looking for step-by-step information on perform some common tasks with Microsoft products, then there are a whole bunch of guys working on these TechNet How Do I? videos and they’re definitely worth a look.

The Pirate Party takes 7% of the vote in Sweden… meanwhile the European Commission wants Windows users to vote for their browser!

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Last Friday saw the election of representatives to the European Parliament (MEPs) and the results were out today. Whilst this might not have the global impact of President Obama’s election in the United States, for the 375 million of us that live in the 27 EU member states (sorry, sovereign nations), it is pretty significant because, according to the eurosceptics, 75% of our national laws are passed down from Europe.

Here in the UK, minority parties faired well – partly as a protest against our own incumbent (or should that be incompetent?) Government and partly as a result of the proportional representation system that is used for the European elections. Whilst the UK Green party narrowly missed out on a third seat in South East England (but the far right British National Party gained significant support in the North of England…), it’s the result in Sweden that has perplexed me the most – 7.1% of Swedish voters said “yes” to the Pirate Party – formed in response to copyright laws and the impact of the Pirate Bay filesharing network!

Now, I’ve been very careful not to express any political views in this post but, with a new Parliament in place, it seems to me that now is the time to sort out the idiots in Europe who are pushing ahead with yet more action against Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer in Windows (hey guys – you’re too late – the damage was done 10 years ago, the American Courts did very little about it, and Internet Explorer has credible competition in the shape of Firefox today). It seems that Microsoft’s componentisation of Windows and provision for the removal of Internet Explorer 8 is not enough for the European Commission – they want users to vote for their browser of choice when installing Windows!

Personally, I would like to install Windows quickly with the least possible user interaction. Then, once the base operating system is installed, I’d like to select roles/features (as I do for Windows Server 2008) and install any third party software that I choose – independently of the Windows setup routine. If we have to have something to please the minority browsers (Opera, Chrome, Safari, etc.) then Windows already lets me choose search providers, media players, mail clients, etc. – why not use the same mechanism for browsers? There’s more about this madness over on Mary Jo Foley’s All About Microsoft blog but I really do wish that my taxes (which pay for Neelie Kroes and her organisation to bring about action like this) were being used more effectively…