Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

Office Communicator Server 2007 RTM download is here, and Office Communicator 2007 RTM download is here.

A .msi containing over 30 different documents for OCS 2007 and OC 2007 is available here.

The SDK is available here.

The Resource Kit is available here.

The Web Scheduler is available here.

Sidenote: "Appear Offline" functionality, and hyperlinks within OC 2007 are disabled by default but are controllable by the ADM group policy files.

The day after I post about the VSS packages available, a new one gets released.

This one is pretty important though if you seem to be experiencing memory leaks with the VSS services.

Read more about it here.

If you're curious, I've been bug hunting lately and it has involved these particular DLLs and the applications that use them.

Almost a year after ESX 3.0.1 came out, ESX 3.0.2 is now released!
You can read the release notes here.

Consolidated Backup 1.0.3 also came out. Read the release notes for that here.

A few days ago, VirtualCenter 2.0.2 came out too. Read the release notes for that here.

To download the new versions, go here.

500 MB worth of online storage for free that you can share to the world, or a group of friends, or just with yourself, based on folder access rights. For now, it is limited to the United States.

Previously this had been a very limited and closed beta, but they have opened the flood gates again for a little while to add more users to the service.

Check it out here.
The team blog site is located here.

Run the command "netstat -t" from a command prompt. If you receive an error message, which is expected for any OS without the SNP, you do not have it installed.

If you receive output that looks like normal netstat output, with an extra field called "Offload State", you have SNP installed.

It is also a round-about way of telling if you have the offloading features of your network card enabled and/or working.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can read more about SNP at the KB article here or the main SNP site here.

Sidenote: Despite the "bad rap" SNP has received during the Windows 2003 SP2 rollout, with properly written and up to date network drivers, it does enhance the network stack quite a bit! It is also, by default, included with Vista and Windows Server 2008.

**UPDATE**: KB 940252 supersedes KB 929774. It also fixes some serious memory leaks, bringing the revision up to build 4120.

This update is mainly targeted for Exchange 2007 so that it can do a single VSS-based restoration while running multiple VSS-based backups at the same time, under Windows 2003.

It is also a good way of getting the latest VSS fixes if you want to stay with Windows 2003 SP1 for a while, or you are experiencing VSS related problems with Windows 2003 SP2. I know there are many organizations holding off on SP2 for Windows 2003 due to the SNP (Scalable Networking Pack) issues.

There will be more fixes to Exchange 2007 in Exchange 2007 SP1 related to this issue too, based on the notes in the KB article.

This build (2868 for x86 SP1 and build 4010 for x86 SP2) is dated in Jan of 2007. The old VSS update-2 (KB 887827) is dated in 2005. The most recent KB article/build I can find before KB 929774 is KB 923628.

You might not realize you are using VSS with Server 2003, but most backup solutions use VSS to do snapshots of Exchange servers, Windows servers and many other types of services, as long as they have the proper VSS plugins. Backup Exec is good example of a program that takes advantage of VSS when it can, and the same can be said for Windows Home Server.

As always, I recommend only requesting the hotfix if you are having VSS problems. If so, fill out the online request form and the hotfix should be sent to you soon after. The website says 8 business hours but I have seen turnaround times of less than 15 minutes.

Read them here to find out how to enable VGA-quality webcam conferencing, troubleshoot presence status problems and a few other good nuggets of information.

For better presence support in Office 2007, you will want to request, download and install KB 936864.

Although not required, an Outlook 2007 update rollup is also available at KB 939184.

One interesting aspect of Outlook rollup update is the fact that it looks as if Exchange 2007 SP1 is going to support 'advertising' the autodiscovery features with DNS SRV records, much like LCS/OCS have done in the past and present for autodiscovery.

One registry setting that seems to be particularly helpful when migrating clients from LCS 2005 to OCS 2007, is this one mentioned in the release notes:

ISSUE: If a user’s e-mail address, as entered into an Outlook e-mail, cannot be resolved to a SIP address in the Outlook Address Book or through Office Communicator, then presence cannot be retrieved for that user.

RESOLUTION: Set the SetOnlineStatusLevel registry key to allow Outlook to make a call to Microsoft Exchange to help resolve the SIP address for users. Setting this key can help particularly when the user’s Exchange address (x400/X500) is in the e-mail.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\IM] "SetOnlineStatusLevel"=dword:00000003

As I sit here in a massive traffic jam on I-69 a few miles from Shaftsburg, Michigan (not kidding), I figured I would fire up my GPS, laptop, and EVDO connection to kill time.

Whether or not it has been obvious on this blog, the past year or so I have focused on 3 big areas of Microsoft - Vista, Exchange 2007, and LCS 2005 / OCS 2007. Ever since I saw the first 'mock-ups' of the new OCS version and had seen some of the beta bits of Exchange 2007 together with OCS 2007, I knew that these technologies were the ones I wanted to concentrate on. The Exchange 2007 team jumped on the 64-bit bandwagon early, and for good reason, if you have ever fought with the Exchange 2000/2003 store.exe limitations, you know why.

Internally at work we have been getting familiar with the new technology for the past year, and a good portion of us have even taken the certification tests for Exchange 2007 while the tests were in beta. We already have a lot of smart folks in this area!

The VOIP market has typically been dominated by Cisco and other companies, but once you have seen the amount of integration with Outlook and other aspects of the MS product line that you get with OCS 2007, you'll see why I have been gung ho for this technology. You can easily integrate it with your existing Cisco infrastructure, if you know what you are doing.

Read more about everything that RTM'd today here.

The "short list" of products that RTM'd are:
Office Communicator 2007
Office Communications Server 2007
Office Live Meeting Console 2007
Communicator Web Access 2007
Microsoft RoundTable 2007
Catalina (USB Handset) Hardware
Tanjay (Office Phone Edition) Hardware
Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server

You can see screen shots and more feature points of the suite here.

Update: This is why you shouldn't type and drive, even though I was sitting on the highway, parked at the time. I corrected numerous typos and added a little more info that has come out since then.

Strange. Very strange. I haven't heard about this day until this year but it apparently has a website dedicated to it also.

Although, I cringe at the thought of Hallmark and other card company trying to come up with witty or funny cards for the day.

"My gift card keeps crashing and I didn't change anything, honest!"

For all the identity theft people out there, it means I'm 32 now.

I spotted this in the Microsoft Mobile newsletter and thought it was worth passing along because this is a great GPS chipset. I currently have the USB version of the Sirf II receiver from Pharos that came with Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005. These updated GPS units are perfect for Bluetooth enabled mobile phones and laptops.

To quote the website:
"The PT120L is a repackaged Pharos' award-winning PT120 (MSRP $149.95) with the ultra sensitive iGPS-500 receiver, a durable Bluetooth dock, and a high-current car charger. The convertible iGPS-500 receiver allows you to use one GPS receiver for multiple configurations (i.e. CF, PCMCIA, USB cable, and Bluetooth)."

The last sentence is what sold me on the original Streets and Trips 2005 GPS back in 2006. I love the fact that there is a universal connector on those devices so that you can use the unit with various devices without having to buy another GPS receiver.

I'm not affiliated or "sponsored" in any way on this site, so I'm just writing about this because I think it is cool technology and a good product. Of course, if Pharos happens to read this, please feel free to send me a sample to review. My Streets and Trips 2005 unit has seen a lot of use and I'd love to pass it along to someone else in the family.

Short of compiling new programs that take advantage of the new Vista SP1 SDK changes, I don't know if this new kernel has the new features or not.

I do know that it does fix more than just what is mentioned in this KB article, because my Vista system is running more like my Windows 2008 virtual machines. It seems like it is using less memory and booting faster, but that might just be wishful thinking. Considering that they are 4115 builds apart, it shouldn't be too surprising.

Check out the KB article here.

You can easily request hotfixes through e-mail by clicking on the 'Request MS hotfix' on the left side of my website. It will direct you to a web form on Microsoft's site that will send you the hotfix you request automagically within 8 business hours.

Please don't abuse the service though - in the past, it required a phone call to PSS.

USB thumbdrives are very handy.
USB thumbdrives are also very fragile when sticking out of the side of the laptop.

Somehow one of my thumbdrives many months ago suffered a partial bend and almost rendered it unusable. Even worse, was the fact that it stored my network user profile which would have been bad to lose overall.

On the upside, my user profile operations ran very fast.
On the downside, if I forgot the key, I was left with only a local laptop logon.
You could almost consider it a "poor man's BitLocker".

Anyway, even since then, whenever I put a thumbdrive into my laptop, I use a little 3 foot USB extension cable that I wrap around my screen and lay the thumb drive on top of the laptop near the keyboard.

If anything gets accidentally bumped, at worse, I am out a USB port, or a broken USB extension cable.

You'll want to investigate KB 934797 and request the hotfix for your Vista clients to prevent excessive certificate refreshes.

Not sure what Credential Roaming is? Read about it here.

Unrelated to this hotfix, but worth noting, is that there is a hotfix available for Windows 2003 and Windows XP so that they do not strip the newer CNG data that can come from Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems.

After reviewing some of the trackbacks I have had from my 70-649 posts, I found another great blog site that documents Stan Seger's day to day study preparation for 70-649. He includes a lot of items I haven't posted about here.

His 70-649 specific posts are from Wednesday, Thursday 1, Thursday 2, Friday, and Saturday.

It is probably easiest just to go to the main site here and see if there are newer updates.

This rollup has definitely been needed for many laptops and desktops running Vista.

"Microsoft has released a cumulative update rollup for Windows Vista. This rollup helps establish a quality baseline for the USB core components on the Windows Vista operating system. This rollup supersedes previously-released USB fixes and contains additional high-applicability USB fixes."

It combines 13+ previous hotfixes into one package, and also includes some previously undocumented fixes:

1. When the computer resumes from suspend state or hibernation state, the computer stops responding, and you receive a 0x9F stop message on a blue screen.

2. The computer takes a long time to resume from suspend state or hibernation state.

3. The computer takes a long time to resume from suspend state or hibernation state when you use a VIA controller.

4. The computer stops responding when you use an AuthenTec USB fingerprint reader. Also, you receive a 0xFE Stop error on a blue
screen or a 0x9F Stop error on a blue screen.

5. The computer stops responding when you use a USB Bluetooth audio device.

6. The computer takes a long time to resume from a suspend state or from a hibernation state when you use an Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) controller.

7. The computer stops responding when you remove a USB device, and you receive a 0xFE Stop error on a blue screen.

8. When a computer resumes from a suspend state or from a hibernation state multiple times, you receive a 0xFE Stop error on a blue screen.