Before I answer this question completely, let’s look at what we do have.  First of all, you can see it, right now.  Windows 8’s first iteration, meaning it will change, is available as a Developer Preview Operating System, which you can download and install on a compatible PC today. 

The Windows 8 Developer Preview Metro Interface

Seeing and using all this is very interesting, however, since this release in September, four months ago, we are eagerly awaiting a true Beta, and this hasn’t happened yet.

Back in September, this post (on www.windows8news.com) talked about a potential October, 2012 release.  Since that time, all the chatter on the web is still talking October.  At the recent CES in Las Vegas earlier this month, Microsoft bigwigs were pretty tight-lipped about announcing any timelines for Windows 8.

So what should you expect?  For the next several weeks, expect a lot of this speculation to continue.  However, be on the look out for actual announce millstones, like newer version numbers, and interviews with key personnel that might give hints.  My opinion is if they want to have an October release date, they better get cracking!  To that end, we should expect to hear of a beta announcement no later than next month, or the October pseudo-date will not be met.

DaveF

See my post above dated Feb 11, 2012.

What is Windows Defender Offline Beta?

During the July, 2011 meeting of the Montgomery Windows IT Professional Group, member Jamie Gelhaus gave a demonstration of Microsoft's Standalone System Sweeper.  For those of you who saw this, Jamie showed how we can actually boot to a CD or USB with this product installed, and then use it to scan the hard drive for malware.  This boot function especially applies to rootkits, which are notoriously hard to get off a machine, as they embed themselves on the MBR below where the operating system is loaded. 

Microsoft has changed the name to the Windows Defender Offline, but it's still the same quality product.

I found one such virus recently.  Since the Windows Kernel 6 (Vista, Windows Server 2008 & Windows 7) came out and User Account Control (UAC) is very much a part of Kernel 6, it's harder for malware to load itself because you have to give it permission to do so.  Let me say, as an aside, that you should NOT disable UAC for this and other reasons.  Anyway, we've all seen the ubiquitous Adobe Flash updates, which will launch UAC in order to run.  Well, there is a new virus, or a new manifestation of an old one, that asks your permission to run the Flash update…  This is indeed a rootkit!  So, does that mean don't run Flash updates?  Well, no…  But if Flash wants to update itself, look carefully for the Adobe certificate, and don't expect the update to happen midway through a session.  The legitimate update always runs early in the logon process.

So what happened to me?  Well, if you guessed I clicked OK to this, you’d be right.  Took a copy of the Windows Defender Offline beta, PLUS Malwarebytes to kill it.

Moral is, pay attention to UAC queues, and have the right tools on hand for those times you don't!

Oh, this is so awesome!  Read the link, and watch the video

Kinect Effect

It’s Official: Kinect for Windows is Coming Soon - Kinect for Windows Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

Ugh!  I use a Motorola Droid (original).  I really like this phone and what it can do.  Still, it hangs some times and acts funky.  I’d like to think Google and Motorola and heck, even Verizon--was taking good care of me, since I still have 8 months on the 2 year contract!

Click on link and be warned Android users – You may well be getting screwed!

H/T to Michael DeGusta!

Windows Intune is Microsoft’s latest cloud service designed to simplify and help businesses manage and secure PCs using Windows cloud services & Windows client operating systems. Windows Intune is a comprehensive offering that includes PC management; malware protection and a Windows upgrade subscription.

Windows Intune is Microsoft’s cloud solution for PC management and security.   

Windows Intune plays a key role in bringing the advantages of the cloud to our customers and partners.

Let’s look at the ways that the cloud can change desktop management. Your customers depend on you to keep their PCs up and running—whether they are in the office or on the road—so that they can be most productive. But this can be challenging given the complexities surrounding an organization’s PC infrastructure:

• PCs are running multiple configurations, versions, and licenses
• With workers in many locations – in the corporate office, branch office, coffee shops, home office – ensuring their PC’s are up to date and secure can be a challenge when PCs aren’t physically in the office or connected to the corporate network.
• With PC’s spread across these locations – some with corporate network access and some with just an Internet connection - IT professionals noted that a lack of insight to all their PCs impaired their ability to efficiently identify and resolve issues. For instance, there were times when IT couldn’t confirm that security patches and updates had been validated and deployed on remote PCs.
• Lastly, on-premises desktop management solutions that could address some of these needs required high upfront infrastructure investments – in both technology costs and deployment time.

Microsoft has designed Windows Intune, the latest addition to the Microsoft Online Services family, to help you meet these challenges and help your customers be more productive.

With Windows Intune, you can:

•Help businesses manage and protect PCs virtually anywhere with the cloud service component

•Give your users the best Windows experience with the Windows 7 upgrade rights

•Deliver big tech results to your customers with a small tech investment for them.

Tonight (Oct 27, 2011), I will present and demonstrate Windows Intune to the Montgomery Windows IT Professional Group and the Montgomery Area .NET User Group at the Alabama Technacenter (right off exit 11 on I-85 in East Montgomery) at 6:30 PM.  I hope you can make it.  Free pizza and soft drinks, thanks to http://www.idera.com, will be served!

One of the great men I have met.  A sad day.  Nowadays 70 seems so young.  Because of his and Ken Thompson's creation of UNIX, I am where I am today….

From the CNET article:

Dennis Ritchie, an internationally renowned computer scientist who created the C programming language, has died at age 70.

Ritchie died at his home over the weekend, according to a Google+ post from longtime colleague Rob Pike. His Wikipedia entry was updated to say he had died in Murray Hill, N.J.

His death was confirmed today by Bell Labs, in a message from its president, Jeong Kim, to employees. That message reads, in part:

Dennis was well loved by his colleagues at Bell Labs, and will be greatly missed. He was truly an inspiration to all of us, not just for his many accomplishments, but because of who he was as a friend, an inventor, and a humble and gracious man.

In addition to being the creator of C, Ritchie co-authored "The C Programming Language," commonly referred to as K&R (after the authors, Brian Kernighan and Ritchie) and widely considered the definitive work on C. He also made significant contributions to the development of the Unix operating system, for which he received the Turing Award in 1983 (along with Kenneth Thompson).

I’ve created a video on installing Windows 8 Developer Preview as a virtual machine in Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.  The video is long (a little over 16 minutes) but can help you if you wish to install Windows 8 yourself.

HowTo: Install Windows 8 as a Hyper-V virtual machine

Last night at the Montgomery Windows IT Professional Group meeting, I demonstrated booting Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 from a .vhd file.  Some asked how I set this up.  So let me show you how.  Now, please note you can boot from a .vhd in Windows 7 also, but I haven’t done this—only from a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine.  I am in the process of testing out the .vhd boot on Windows 7, and will show y’all how to do this soon, as soon as my tests are done.  Suffice to say it is easier (for me at least) to do this from Windows Server 2008 R2 (RTM won’t work), because you can have Hyper-V on it and make the virtual machines in the first place, which store their data in a .vhd file on that server.

So, I started off by making two virtual machines in Hyper-V,  one for Windows 8 (64-bit—don’t use 32 bit if you can help it!) Developer Preview, and the other using Windows Server 8 (ONLY comes in 64-bit) Developer Preview.  Once I got them installed and configured, I shut them down and took a snapshot.

First .vhd boot I did was on Windows 8, as follows:

1.  From Server Manager (remember , this is on the Windows Server 2008 R2 parent platform running Hyper-V), expand Storage.

2.  Right-click Disk Management, select Attach Virtual Hard Disk dialog box, click Browse.

3.  Browse to the location of the .vhd file for Windows 8, which in my case was d:\Program Files\Microsoft Learning\Windows8, and select the .vhd file, in my case I had named it windows8.vhd.  Click  windows8.vhd, open, then OK.  note the drive letter that Windows associates with the attached .vhd.  In my case, it was F:\.

4.Click Start, go to Command Prompt, right-click it and select Run as Administrator.  Yes, if required, to the UAC pop-up.

5.  At the command prompt, type bcdboot F:\windows  Note I used the drive letter Windows assigned in 3 above.

6.  At the command prompt, type bcdedit /set {default} Description Windows 8

At the command prompt, type shutdown /r /t 0  The system reboots.

Now here is where it got interesting.  The above steps swapped out my Windows Server 2008 R2 boot loader with the Windows 8 Developer Preview boot loader, so when the system came back up, the boot loader was a nifty Windows 8 green with two tiles, one for Windows 8 and the other for Windows Server 2008 R2.    I tested both by repeatedly booting and selecting each one and then logging on.  all worked fine.

Now I proceeded to set up the Windows Server 8 boot to VHD.  Same as above, but substitute the .vhd file for Windows Server 8 in step 3 above.  As follows, here’s how I did it (changes in red):

3. Browse to the location of the .vhd file for Windows Server 8, which in my case was d:\Program Files\Microsoft Learning\WinServer8, and select the .vhd file, in my case I had named it winserver8.vhd. Click winserver8.vhd, open, then OK. note the drive letter that Windows associates with the attached .vhd. In my case, it was G:\.

4.Click Start, go to Command Prompt, right-click it and select Run as Administrator. Yes, if required, to the UAC pop-up.

5. At the command prompt, type bcdboot G:\windows Note I used the drive letter Windows assigned in 3 above.

6. At the command prompt, type bcdedit /set {default} Description Windows Server 8

At the command prompt, type shutdown /r /t 0 The system reboots.

The interesting thing now is that the boot menu went back to the older boot loader (I guess that’s what Windows Server 8 uses) so the colorful, er, Green boot loader menu was short lived.  I tested out booting to all three and everything worked just fine.

DaveF

I've tested all of these out.  Some do not work on my keyboard, but your mileage may vary….