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Untitled-6 1 9/22/10 1:27 PM OCTOBER 2010 VOL. 16 NO. 10 REDMONDMAG.COM

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Untitled-8 3 6/15/10 3:20 PM Untitled-1 1 9/9/10 10:20 AM Redmond The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT CommunityContentsOCTOBER 2010

COVER STORY REDMOND REPORT 10 Microsoft Suff ers Major Windows BPOS Outages Problems make service- level agreements critical for Turns 25 customers of online services.

After a quarter-century, Windows has gone from a long-awaited experiment to the dominant software product in the world. But the operating system’s past isn’t necessarily a prologue for what could be an TECHNET PRACTICAL APP uncertain future. 19 Troubleshooting 201: Ask the Right Questions Page 22 Effective troubleshooting is a multifaceted exercise in diagnosis and deliberation, analysis and action.

FEATURES COLUMNS 37 Can Microsoft 6 Barney’s Rubble: Salvage Doug Barney Its Mobile Old Salt Remembers 1985 Strategy? Microsoft is working hard to turn around its fl agging mobile business, but success is far from guaranteed for 7.

42 Decision Maker: Don Jones REVIEWS At the Forefront of Identity Management Technology Preview 46 : 13 The Dawn of a New Greg Shields Day for SBS Virtualization and the Second With a focus on the Death of the ‘White Box’ super-small business market, 48 Foley on Microsoft: Aurora offers a cross-premises Mary Jo Foley Active Directory solution The Many Faces of Windows that’s easy to manage.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 4 Redmondmag.com | 8 [email protected] | 47 Ad and Editorial Indexes COVER PHOTO BY DEBORAH FEINGOLD/CORBIS Redmondmag.com OCTOBER 2010

ADTmag.com Questions with ... Mapping Mobile Use Lee Pender Lee Pender, Redmond recent survey conducted by The Nielsen Company has illuminated magazine’s executive Aseveral trends in the smartphone space. Mobile platforms studied in editor of features, the survey included the Apple iPhone, Google Android, Research In Motion coauthored our BlackBerry and . “Windows Turns 25” One trend the survey identifi ed: Mobile users are big cover story (p. 22). consumers of games. Writes Keith Ward: Here, he shares some Lee Pender “The study found that 59 percent of smartphone of his personal owners downloaded an app in the last 30 days, and that Windows memories. For Windows 61 percent of those apps were games.” enhancements through the years, go Other facts about mobile use include the average age to Redmondmag.com/LeeJeff 1010. of users by device, the rate of app download by device, and the eff ectiveness of mobile advertising by age group. What is a Windows milestone that To learn more about the smartphone survey results, go had a big impact on you? to ADTmag.com/Ward1010. Windows 95. For the fi rst time, I looked at Windows and thought, VisualStudioMagazine.com “Wow, this is useful.”

Bring Your Team to What is your favorite piece of Windows trivia? the Top with Scrum It took Microsoft two years to go from announcing Windows 1.0 to shipping oes your dev team utilize Scrum and Agile it. Some things never change. Ddevelopment methods? If so, you should introduce them to Scrum 1.0, a new What feature do you think will be the Team Foundation Server (TFS) process template for teams practicing Scrum. “next big thing” for Windows? Aaron Bjork, a TFS senior program manager at Microsoft, provides a step- The next big feature might be a lack by-step walkthrough of how to use Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 to set of features—I can see the Windows of up Sprints and Product Backlogs, and track the entire Scrum process. Make the future breaking down into smaller sure that your team is as productive as possible—check out this Visual Studio versions with very specifi c targets. Magazine feature at VisualStudioMagazine.com/Bjork1010. REDMONDMAG.COM RESOURCES What Are FindIT Codes? What we once called FindIT codes are now Resources Enter FindIT Code easy URLs. You’ll see these embedded >> Daily News News throughout Redmond so you can access any additional information quickly. Simply type >> E-Mail Newsletters Newsletters in Redmondmag.com/ followed by the FindIT >> Free PDFs and Webcasts TechLibrary code into your URL address fi eld. (Note that >> Subscribe/Renew Subscribe all URLs do not have any spaces, and they are >> Your Turn Editor Queries YourTurn not case-sensitive.)

Redmondmag.com • RCPmag.com • RedDevNews.com • VisualStudioMagazine.com • VirtualizationReview.com MCPmag.com • CertCities.com • TCPmag.com • ENTmag.com • RedmondEvents.com • ADTmag.com • ESJ.com

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Untitled-1 1 9/13/10 11:12 AM Barney’sRubble by Doug Barney Redmond THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF THE MICROSOFT IT COMMUNITY

REDMONDMAG.COM

OCTOBER 2010 ■ VOL. 16 ■ NO. 10

Editorial Staff Editor in Chief Doug Barney Old Salt Remembers 1985 Executive Editor, Features Lee Pender Editor at Large Jeff rey Schwartz Managing Editor Wendy Gonchar Associate Managing Editor Katrina Carrasco

une 4, 1984, was my fi rst day as a computer journalist, Contributing Editors Mary Jo Foley Don Jones just a year out of college. It got me out of selling hot Greg Shields Art Staff dogs and chili from a big green truck to late-night Art Director Brad Zerbel J Senior Graphic Designer Alan Tao

drunks for a living. Online/Digital Media Online News Editor Kurt Mackie Executive Editor, New Media Michael Domingo Back then most machines were Gates came to the lobby with an Director, Online Media Becky Nagel character mode except for the $10,000 ill-fi tting suit, disheveled hair and too Associate Web Editor Chris Paoli Apple Lisa and the then 4-month-old much cologne, far from the polished Site Administrator Shane Lee Designer Rodrigo Muñoz Macintosh. Microsoft saw the GUI philanthropist we see today. Turns out light and started beating the Windows we had over a week of rain, and the drum two years before its November streets were literally fl ooded. Gates

1985 release. wanted to walk to the restaurant anyway. President Henry Allain That was around the time I started Over dinner we sipped Chateau St. Vice President, Publishing Matt Morollo covering and visiting Microsoft. It had Michelle from Washington State, and Vice President, Editorial Director Doug Barney Director, Marketing Michele Imgrund only two buildings, one for apps and with four reporters in attendance we Online Marketing Director Tracy Cook one for OSes—with a cafeteria in peppered Gates with questions. He between (no wonder never missed an acronym

Redmond developers or a date. Truly amazing. President & Neal Vitale had such an edge). After dinner we invited Chief Executive Offi cer Senior Vice President & Richard Vitale During the early days Gates to the Garden, but Chief Financial Offi cer of the Windows enter- he begged off, saying he Executive Vice President Michael J. Valenti

prise push, I wrote about had to review some code Senior Vice President, Abraham M. Langer Audience Development & microcomputers (that’s on his 386 laptop. Digital Media Vice President, Finance & Christopher M. Coates what they used to call I had a different experi- Administration PCs and PC servers) for ence with . Vice President, Erik A. Lindgren Information Technology & Computerworld. While Back then you had to Application Development Vice President, Carmel McDonagh Microsoft was gung ho, either buy a new high- Attendee Marketing Vice President, David F. Myers MIS managers were priced machine or upgrade Event Operations loath to give up DOS your processor to the latest and spend money on a slow, creaky, and greatest to run Windows. Even Chairman of the Board Jeff rey S. Klein

resource-intensive GUI. I represented then folks complained about the speed. Reaching the Staff Staff may be reached via e-mail, telephone, fax, or mail. the interests of the reader—IT folks— My Uncle Jim is a retired Marine Colonel A list of editors and contact information is also available which didn’t always make Microsoft so who ran a machine I reckoned was barely online at Redmondmag.com. E-mail: To e-mail any member of the staff , please use the happy. At the time, ISVs weren’t huge able to handle DOS. While all the sub- following form: [email protected] Framingham Offi ce (weekdays, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET) fans, either. And they were sources, too. millisecond junkies complained, Uncle Telephone 508-875-6644; Fax 508-875-6633 ended up so frustrated Jim loved Windows. Of course my 600 Worcester Road, Suite 204, Framingham, MA 01702 Irvine Offi ce (weekdays, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. PT) with us he set up a dinner for uncle was retired and living on a Telephone 949-265-1520; Fax 949-265-1528 16261 Laguna Canyon Road, Suite 130, Irvine, CA 92618 Computerworld staffers in Boston. The beautiful lake in New Hampshire, so Corporate Offi ce (weekdays, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. PT) Telephone 818-814-5200; Fax 818-734-1522 date was April 6, 1987. We met Bill at time had a slightly different meaning. 9201 Oakdale Avenue, Suite 101, Chatsworth, CA 91311 The opinions expressed within the articles and other contents the Westin Copley where we had two For years afterward, Ballmer would ask herein do not necessarily express those of the publisher. stretch limos and tickets to the Marvin about my uncle every time he saw me. Hagler/Sugar Ray Leonard middle- Steve, Uncle Jim is still doing just fi ne! weight fi ght, which was simulcast at What’s your favorite Windows memory? the old Boston Garden (by the way, Search your brain and then write to me Hagler was robbed). at [email protected]. ILLUSTRATION BY ALAN TAO/PHOTO BY BRIAN SMALE

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Untitled-1 1 9/2/10 12:26 PM [email protected]

Hooked on Computers I received my fi rst issue of Redmond [June 2010] and started reading Barney’s Rubble. I’m a retired corporate lawyer who got hooked on computers, the Internet and programming back in the

’80s. My fi rst modem was 300-baud to follow in the footsteps of most big acoustic coupler. This winter, I wrote a monolithic corporations (the phone program that shows how company, the cable company and IBM often words are used in a document. It all come to mind). These entities have was my fi rst Visual Basic program—I’ve lots of customers. Lots of people hate EveryE kidIkkid I know says ““cool.” l”“C “Cool” l” always sort of looked down on Visual them and lots of people love them. Most has never gone out of vogue. “Out of Basic. Real programmers use C or Perl, people really don’t care. While they vogue” has, but not “cool.” It remains a or anything other than a visual pro- might introduce a “cool” product now very groovy thing to say. gramming environment. and then, they’re never really consid- I love technology. I look back on the So why write you? ered “cool.” These companies never ’70s and think, “If I needed to contact Well, I founded the Cleveland Amiga really die, but they often just fade away. someone, my only option was to fi nd a User Group and, of course, subscribed (Don’t be confused, though: IBM never telephone that was tethered to a wall to Amiga World! I doubt that I’ll look really faded away. It’s still the largest somewhere.” Ma Bell’s introduction of forward to Redmond like I did Amiga computer fi rm in the world. It just the RJ11 for general use was the greatest World, but it’s nice to know the editor in returned to its roots as a services fi rm.) technological blessing of that decade, chief has a good background! I moved Apple is chock-full of “cool,” but what more important to me personally than on in the early ’90s, but the Amiga was happens when Jobs is gone? I wonder if the moon landing of the previous decade. great fun for a while and got me started. he’ll leave a lasting legacy. Jobs comes But the Kindle? $200 versus a book Good luck. Bill Hogsett across as supremely competent—and that costs $1 to $25? A book can be Cleveland, Ohio equally arrogant. Gates comes across resold and reused. If a book is lost it’s just an annoyance, not a noticeable fi nancial hit. Apple is chock-full of “cool,” but what happens And the iPad? It’s not as functional when Jobs is gone? as a laptop. It’s too big to be a phone and doesn’t make calls. It’s probably the most expensive conversation piece ever, Cool vs. Un-Cool as kind of a geek—and a little less unless you collect art. I enjoyed Doug Barney’s editorial arrogant. Yet, in some ways, these guys And the netbook? They don’t seem to [Barney’s Rubble, “Who’s Cool, Who’s are cut from the same cloth. represent any great savings; you have Not,” July 2010]. Mentioning Andrew Apple is a more typical computer com- to purchase outboard hardware if you Carnegie and Bill Gates in the same pany than Microsoft is. These companies want a larger hard drive or a DVD piece was somewhat ironic. Both spent usually spring up overnight, have a few burner. If you just can’t get to a laptop, their careers building huge fortunes big, “cool” products, and fi nd themselves I guess it’s better for working with and both ended up giving away much of displaced just as quickly. In my view, documents and spreadsheets than on those fortunes. is of the same Apple is still a player largely because a smartphone—but when was the last generation as Gates (and has built him- Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. He time you had an Excel emergency? self a similar empire) but we don’t hear sells “cool”-looking—dare I say “sexy”— And what I especially don’t under- much about his philanthropic activities. products to well-heeled customers. Few stand is paying $500 for a new version Equally ironic is that using the term people have Steve’s vision and sense of of the same phone you already have and “cool” these days is not very cool! style. Who will replace him? standing in a long line for the privilege You asked what I think about C. Marc Wagner of doing so. Gerald Lanning Microsoft. Well, Microsoft is destined Indiana University, Bloomington Austin, Ind.

8 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | How fast does a system have to be to capture a business opportunity? How do you cut costs without cutting results? How do you benchmark intelligence?

Untitled-1 1 9/17/10 10:27 AM RedmondReport

Microsoft Suff ers Major BPOS Outages Problems make service-level agreements critical for customers of online services.

By Kurt Mackie BPOS, which guarantee 99.9 percent icrosoft Business Productivity uptime per month. Online Suite (BPOS) Msuffered three service outages Standard-Issue SLAs that affected customers in North The “all-in” Microsoft organizational America in August and September, the move to the cloud—providing Software common practice of services providers, company disclosed last month. as a Service (SaaS) to businesses and according to Robert Mahowald, Morgan Cole, a Microsoft director, organizations—hangs on meeting the research vice president for SaaS and admitted in a blog post that BPOS had company’s SLA agreements. However, Cloud Services at IDC. service outages on Aug. 23, as well as on the SLAs don’t change the fact that “Web applications rely on access to Sept. 3 and Sept. 7. All of the outages businesses using third-party hosted the Internet, which of course adds were associated with a Microsoft services will be dependent on external another potential weak link in the chain network upgrade effort, which initially infrastructure that they don’t control. of getting access to information and knocked out the service for two hours In exchange for giving up that control, functionality,” Mahowald explains. “But on Aug. 23. A fi x led to additional organizations can avoid upfront capital it’s pretty much common practice for problems in September, including expenditures for installed software as SaaS providers to guarantee ‘three problems with the “sign-in service and well as maintenance. That’s the value nines’ of uptime, which is about 28 administrative portals,” Cole explained. proposition of BPOS. hours a year in which they won’t be On Sept. 7, Microsoft had a problem “I think BPOS will appeal most to accessible. Most of that is supposed to with BPOS that had “more widespread small and midsize businesses that prob- be scheduled downtime. Essentially, it’s customer impact, although the dura- ably would’ve had less than 99.9 percent pretty much common practice for tion was relatively short,” Cole stated. uptime administering Exchange on- providers to pay service credits in The nature of the problem was not premises,” says Matt Rosoff, an analyst recompense for the lost opportunity, and to not pay any monetary fi ne.” The Microsoft SLA for BPOS doesn’t “It’s pretty much common practice for providers include scheduled maintenance or to pay service credits in recompense for the lost downtime, Rosoff says. “That’s about opportunity, and to not pay any monetary fi ne. eight or nine hours of downtime per year ” before Microsoft has to start refunding Robert Mahowald, Research VP, SaaS and Cloud Services, IDC customers’ money,” he estimates. BPOS users are credited for service explained, but Microsoft typically uses with Directions on Microsoft. “Patching outages based on a calculation of the an RSS feed to keep its customers and updating Exchange is no picnic. uptime for the month, according to the apprised about the service. According Those businesses can save considerably Microsoft Exchange Online SLA docu- to that feed, Microsoft restored services on IT costs without sacrifi cing uptime. ment. If service availability dips below on Sept. 7 for multiple applications, They can also get functionality from 99.9 percent, the service credit is 25 including Exchange Online, SharePoint and [Offi ce] Communica- percent of the monthly service fees. If it SharePoint Online, Offi ce Live tions Online at little incremental cost, dips below 99 percent, then Microsoft Meeting and Offi ce Communications whereas installing and running those pays 50 percent of the monthly service Online, plus a few others. servers on-premises is probably out of fees. Microsoft pays the full monthly Microsoft issued service credits to reach for many smaller businesses.” service fee if the service availability dips some of its customers affected by the Service-credit compensation for not below 95 percent. Aug. 23 BPOS outage. The compensa- meeting the SLA may not seem equiva- tion is mandated by Microsoft lent to the costs of lost business time, Kurt Mackie ([email protected]) is service-level agreements (SLAs) for but paying that compensation is the the online news editor for Redmondmag.com.

10 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | IMAGE FROM SHUTTERSTOCK Smarter technology for a Smarter Planet: It’s time to ask smarter questions. What exactly does a benchmark mean? For the last five years, IBM DB2® on Power Systems™ has ranked first on three of the industry’s leading performance benchmarks, longer than Oracle and Microsoft combined.1 But is that the best way to think about the possibilities of technology? What really matters isn’t some abstract measure of performance, it’s what companies actually do with that performance. For instance, Coca-Cola Bottling Company is using DB2 on Power to reduce licensing, maintenance and storage fees by $350,000. EuResist is using an integrated analytics solution to predict the most effective drug combinations for individuals with HIV, with 78% accuracy. And the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange is working with IBM Security Services to achieve system uptime of over 99.9%. On a smarter planet, these are the benchmarks that matter. A smarter business is built on smarter software, systems and services. Let’s build a smarter planet. ibm.com/questions benchmark. TPC, TPC-C and TPC-H are trademarks of the TPC. IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, DB2, Power Systems, Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., Power Systems, DB2, ibm.com, the IBM logo, IBM, TPC. TPC-H are trademarks of the TPC-C and TPC, benchmark. worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. © International Business Machines Corporation 2010. at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Web on the A current list of IBM trademarks is available Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. worldwide. 1. Based on number of days of performance leadership for the TPC-C, TPC-H 10TB, and SAP 3-Tier SD benchmarks between June 1, 2005, and June 1, 2010. For more information, see http://www.tpc.org and http://www.sap.com/solutions/ see http://www.tpc.org For more information, 2010. and June 1, 2005, SD benchmarks between June 1, and SAP 3-Tier TPC-H 10TB, TPC-C, Based on number of days performance leadership for the 1.

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Untitled-4 1 8/5/10 12:38 PM TechnologyPreview

The Dawn of a New Day for SBS With a focus on the super-small business market, Aurora off ers a cross-premises Active Directory solution that’s easy to manage.

By J. Peter Bruzzese mall businesses often need the Small Business Server (Code-Named “Aurora”) same high-end solutions that big Beta Release Sbusinesses require. E-mail, a Microsoft Corp. | Microsoft.com collaboration portal, a domain … these are all features of larger organizations. How can a smaller shop of fi ve to 25 without diverting resources from its and create add-ins and integration people have those same features core competencies. models for cloud services. without the complexity and cost that Aurora is perfect for those smaller For those who require a database typically go along with them? businesses that may already be utilizing with SBS, there’s an optional Premium Windows Small Business Server Microsoft Business Productivity add-on that will include a licensed (SBS) “Aurora” is the Microsoft answer Online Suite (BPOS). BPOS makes copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 to this problem. With the next releases the value of having a hosted Exchange, Standard and Microsoft SQL Server of SBS, Microsoft is dividing the a hosted SharePoint and additional 2008 R2 Standard for Small Business, solution into two pieces. SBS7 is the services like Offi ce Live Meeting and to allow businesses to have the traditional, on-premises solution that Offi ce Communications Online— database management solution they has been used by organizations for without all the hassle of on-premises need, as well. years. SBS7 will function in much the servers—easy to see. With Aurora, not same way previous versions did, but only will you have off-premises First Impressions with all the new bells and whistles. Microsoft solutions (like a BPOS Currently, the only version of Aurora The second offering of SBS is code- offering) from which you can pick that Microsoft is allowing us to play named “Aurora.” Aurora offers an and choose, but Microsoft is also with is the beta—and for a beta it on-premises solution for Active encouraging ISV partners to utilize seems pretty solid. It’s not a product Directory, print services and storage the software development kit (SDK) built from scratch. Aurora is pulled with off-premises, cloud-based services to handle many of the extras that larger IT shops handle in-house. Target Audience Think small: Companies of 25 or fewer users may want a full AD domain, but currently work off a peer-to-peer network simply because the budget to utilize a full server or to employ an IT expert is too much for them. Think versatile: Just like big businesses, small companies need backup and recovery for server and client systems, remote monitoring and health checks. Think robust: With an on-premises AD solu- tion that handles storage, backup and health monitoring and an off-premises, pay-as-you-grow service for anything and everything else, your small busi- Figure 1. Through the Aurora Dashboard, admins can add up to 25 user accounts and ness will have all the services it needs manage backups, server folders and hard drives.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | October 2010 | 13 TechnologyPreview

together from relevant features of several other Microsoft projects: Aurora is pulled together from relevant features a 64-bit combination of Windows of several other Microsoft projects: a 64-bit Server 2008 R2 for the internals with next-generation Windows Home combination of Windows Server 2008 R2 for the Sever (code-named “Vail”) in the internals with next-generation Windows Home Dashboard details and features. Sever (code-named “Vail”) in the Dashboard details The installation was as easy as any modern-day server install. I installed and features. my copy on a Hyper-V server as a child virtual machine (VM) without issue. The only odd aspect of the However, Aurora wasn’t developed • Users: You can add up to 25 user install was that it required 160GB of with AD experts in mind (and we’ll accounts and defi ne which folders a disk space at the minimum, whereas have to see if these beefy tools remain user has access to, as well as that user’s I usually only allocate 15GB or 20GB for the fi nal release), so I had to pull degree of access. for a test VM. The installer automati- away from the comfort zone and look • Computers and Backup: Client cally took the disk I gave it and broke at the Aurora Dashboard, the one- systems are added through Connector it down into auto-added shared folders stop shop for managing this server software, and as these systems connect with drive letters called Users, Client for small business IT—or even to your server you can see at-a-glance Computer Backups, Company and non-IT—administrators. information about systems that have Shadow Copies. The Dashboard has a Ribbon inter- been joined. You can see if there are I was surprised to see all the typical face feel to it, with fi ve tabs at the top any warnings or alerts that relate to server tools still available for me to that are customizable through the your system and what you need to do to correct these. You can also ensure backups are being cared for with each system and see the status of those backups. • Server Folders and Hard Drives: Storage management is handled through this tab, where you manage your server’s hard drives and shared folders. If you have two hard drives in the system, you can select Enable Folder Duplication, which allows for two copies of the data to be stored, one on each drive. • Add-ins: Used to view, manage and remove software components from Microsoft or third parties. There are no add-ins available just yet and there isn’t a roadmap being shared for these add-ins at this time, but no doubt we’ll hear more on this soon. The hope is for Aurora to plug into a wide range of cloud services developed by third par- ties, including online backup solutions, Figure 2. The Launchpad lets admins access Backup Properties, Remote Web security services, remote monitoring, Access, Shared Folders and the Dashboard. management and more. The Dashboard also provides links to use. I expected a locked-down envi- SDK. The initial tab set (shown in Help information; Alerts, which open ronment, but I was happily greeted Figure 1, p. 13) includes: the Alert Center; and Server settings, with server-management tools like • Home: Shortcuts to help you get which confi gure items like the system’s AD Users and Computers, all of started with common task links like data and time, Windows Update set- which made me feel right at home. adding users. tings and Remote Access.

14 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Having trouble deciding whether to migrate to the cloud?

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Untitled-1 1 9/15/10 10:10 AM Untitled-2 1 8/17/10 11:25 AM TechnologyPreview

The Client Connection or allow them to quick-click into a Network Health Monitoring: SBS Getting the server up and running is Remote Desktop session for their work Aurora clients have their health under only half the confi guration for your systems. Administrators can connect constant surveillance. The server can environment. (The server focuses on to the Dashboard, as well. The SDK report back to you on the success or managing users, systems and data.) provides for greater customization, failure of backups, hard disk health The next half is to connect your PCs gadgets, add-in extensions, mobile status, security status (for example, to the server. Supported clients include rendering and more (through AJAX). letting you know if you don’t have an Windows XP, , Drive Extender: This technology important patch installed), key and Mac OS X version 10.5 treats all the storage attached to the Windows services, low disk space and higher. server—both internal and external monitoring and more. Macs are also monitored to a degree, including f irewall status, disk space status and Remote Web Access allows your users to access the software update status. However, the server from virtually anywhere through any system Mac monitoring isn’t as robust as that of Windows XP, Windows Vista or or mobile device with a supported browser. So, even Windows 7 clients. while on the road, they can connect back to their server for document search and retrieval and more. Promising Beginnings With the discontinuation of the Essential Business Server earlier this year, it might have seemed that a blow To get a client up and running, start drives, and up to 16 drives, with had been dealt to the SBS development by opening a browser and going to 60GB-plus drives supported—as a team. However, with a refocus on the servername/connect, where servername single pool of storage that doesn’t have core SBS offering, SBS7, and a new is the name of your SBS Aurora server. to include the system drive in the pool look at the needs of small business and From here you can install the Connec- itself. Some of the impressive features cloud-based solutions through SBS tor Launchpad solution that will run on of Drive Extender include: Aurora, it appears we have much to each desktop. The Connector Launch- • Automatic detection and correction look forward to from Microsoft and its pad provides the ability to log into and of many “silent” hard disk errors SBS team. be credentialed by your Aurora server, • Makes duplicated data available Having a painless way to transition and allows for you to maintain a single should a single drive fail, without from peer-to-peer to server-based sign-on to multiple services that will be requiring the removal of the failed technology is a plus for smaller envi- provided. Through the Launchpad drive fi rst ronments. Home offi ce businesses (shown in Figure 2, p. 14) you can • Robust hard disk health monitoring may still look to Home Server “Vail,” quickly access your Backup Properties, and alert features but once you have fi ve to 25 PCs in Remote Web Access (not enabled by • Adds or removes hard disks without your environment to manage, you’ll default), Shared Folders and the Dash- server downtime want to consider Aurora. Beyond that board (if you’re an administrator). Backup Features: The backup there will be SBS7, and once you top features are easy to use to back up the 75 systems, you’ll need full versions of The Highlights server itself (and clients to the server) Windows Server to meet your needs. There are several interesting features for centralized protection of critical Whether you call it a cross-premises that make this a solid solution: data. The backup solution only backs solution, a hybrid, a “bridge to the Remote Web Access (RWA): This up data one time, eliminating redun- cloud” for the small business or the allows your users to access the server dant backup data from sprawling. dawning of a new day, Shakespeare from virtually anywhere through any Backups can be scheduled easily probably said it best hundreds system or mobile device with a sup- through the wizard, and you can of years ago: “Yonder shines ported browser. So, even while on restore an entire computer or restore Aurora’s harbinger.” the road, they can connect back to individual fi les and folders to your their server for document search and systems. You can quickly and easily J. Peter Bruzzese (Triple-MCSE, MCT, retrieval (through access to shared utilize external drives that you can MCITP) is the co-founder of ClipTraining, folders) and more, so long as the router take off-site for your server backups the Exchange instructor for Train Signal, is tweaked to allow them through. of shared folders, providing for and a well-known technical author, You can set up RWA to allow a user simple offsite backup rotation through speaker and columnist. You can follow access to their documentation only, external drives. Bruzzese on @JPBruzzese.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | October 2010 | 17 VISION SOLUTIONS WELCOMES DOUBLE-TAKE SOFTWARE

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Untitled-2 1 8/17/10 11:26 AM Content provided by TechNet Magazine, MAGAZINE PracticalApp Microsoft’s premier publication for IT Professionals Troubleshooting 201: Ask the Right Questions Eff ective troubleshooting is a multifaceted exercise in diagnosis and deliberation, analysis and action. By Stephanie Krieger here are two rules that always apply, whether you’re technology is rooted in logic. If a fi x T seems unruly or overcomplicated, like troubleshooting hardware or software. the challenges in reality TV shows, there’s probably a better way. In this 1. Troubleshooting is a process of If You Don’t Know Why case, there’s a simple, consistent elimination. It Works, It Isn’t Fixed solution. You just have to change one 2. The most important assumption While teaching a document trouble- setting in a dialog box (you’ll fi nd the you can make, no matter how much shooting training course, I asked the details of this particular fi x in you know about the technology, is that class if they were familiar with the “Sensible Solutions,” p. 21). you could be wrong. Microsoft Word bug by which Word The path to effective problem solving If that fi rst rule seems obvious, then randomly changes the type of section broke down here when the trouble- consider this: Troubleshooting—or any break in long documents for no reason at shooters assumed the behavior was a bug problem-solving process—is clearly a all. They excitedly replied that they had because they didn’t understand. They process of elimination. However, it’s not been plagued by this bug, but one person looked for any possible workaround that simple. in the class had found the solution. rather than a simple, logical solution. Your success or failure lies in what As you may already know, I had set It’s common and understandable for you choose to eliminate, and more them up. There’s no such bug. The sec- users to blame the software or hardware importantly, why. It’s a game of Pick tion start type is often misunderstood. when something frustrating happens Up Sticks where you evaluate, reason, It does what it does for good reason and that they don’t understand. For a trou- then remove any obstacles that get you not at all randomly. So as you might bleshooter to do the same, however, is closer to resolving the problem with- expect, their solution was not ideal. an almost certain setup for failure. out breaking anything else. How you After telling me they didn’t know why The job of troubleshooting begins make those choices depends entirely the fi x worked, but that it did work most when you don’t already know the answer. on the questions you ask and how you of the time, they explained their solu- You can’t fi x something if you don’t interpret the answers. tion. They recommended adding several know why it’s broken. So how do you get As for the second point, the assump- next page section breaks before and after to the “why” when you don’t know the tions you make lead to the questions the break that changes. Then remove “how”? You start by gathering informa- you ask and the way you interpret them one at a time (undoing your actions tion, and that means asking questions of responses—whether you’re asking a when the result is undesirable) until the user and of the technology itself. person, a document, a piece of hard- you’re left with the break type you want. ware, a software package or a network Whether you’re familiar with this Ask, Narrow and Verify infrastructure. When you assume you feature of Word or not, a trouble- This three-tiered approach to trouble- could be wrong, no matter what your shooter should know this isn’t a viable shooting is both simple and effective. level of experience, you keep an open solution, and here’s why: Here’s one example: a networking mind that helps you see simple solu- • If you don’t know why a fi x works, troubleshooter in a large corporation tions you may never have expected. it probably doesn’t. It may appear to was speaking with a user who couldn’t These are some of the common pit- work by coincidence, but a workaround log in to one internal application. The falls you can run into while trouble- is not a fi x. user had contacted the help desk to shooting technological problems, as • If the fi x doesn’t work consistently, request login credentials. He learned well as tips for asking questions that it most likely doesn’t work at all. that anyone in the organization should can lead you to the simple, effective • Whether you’re working with be able to log in. solution every time. software or hardware, computer Ask: Through a series of

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Untitled-4 1 8/5/10 12:41 PM MAGAZINE PracticalApp

questions, the troubleshooter deter- Sensible Solutions that it solves the problem consistently. mined the user works remotely. How- And most importantly, be sure that you ever, the user is able to access both Solution: Word Section Break understand why the fi x worked, or you internal and external sites, as well as The answer is that the break type can’t be sure that you’ve fi xed it at all. other internal applications. Everything changed because a user removed an appeared to be working normally, and adjacent section break. While a Open Minds, the user had never had connectivity section break stores formatting for Simple Solutions the section that precedes the break, issues before. the type of break (such as next page Consider one more example of trouble- Narrow: The troubleshooter was not or continuous) refers to how the shooting a Microsoft Word document: an expert in that particular application, following section starts. A troubleshooter received a document so she started from what she knows— To change the break type, click into that was crashing frequently. He began networking. Based on the fact that the the section that follows the break. by opening the document using the Then, on the Page Layout tab of the user could log in to other applications Ribbon, in the Page Setup group, Open and Repair feature in Word. and was working remotely, the trouble- click the dialog box launcher. On the Open and Repair indicated there was shooter hypothesized there had to be Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog a corrupt shape in the document. How- something about his connection that was box, change the Section Start value. ever, he saw no embedded graphics. Was a problem for this particular application. The only case in which this won’t Open and Repair wrong? No, it was work is if the section requires a She researched the system requirements specifi c break type. For example, absolutely right. Closer examination for the application and then connected you can’t have a continuous section revealed shapes off the page, as well as remotely to his computer. break between sections with in a header that was currently turned Verif y: When connected remotely, diff erent page orientation, because off. (See “Sensible Solutions” for more the troubleshooter saw a network set- a single piece of paper can’t be both information on troubleshooting this portrait and landscape. ting she believed might be causing the particular issue.) issue. She changed the setting and the Solution: Word Open and Repair Whether you ask a question directly user was able to log in, but she didn’t One easy way to fi nd issues such of a user or of the technology itself in leave it there. The troubleshooter had as Open and Repair indicating that this case, trust the information you the user verify other connectivity and something is wrong, but you can’t receive and interpret it based on every- see the object in question, is to use found that the change prevented him Microsoft Visual Basic for Applica- thing else that you know. from accessing certain Web sites. She tions (VBA). You don’t have to be a Good troubleshooting skills are a tried a different change to the same programmer to quickly learn some necessity that’s entirely separate of tech- setting that let the user log in without simple VBA that can be a trouble- nical knowledge. Good troubleshooting disrupting other connections. shooter’s best friend when working means applying logic so you can take in any Microsoft Offi ce documents. If you’re working with a user, listen to See the MSDN Library article, concrete steps to effectively narrow the what he has to say and value the infor- “Troubleshooting Word 2007 possibilities. It also means keeping an mation he gives you. Use any related Documents More Easily Using VBA” open mind and calling on any related knowledge you have to interpret the (tinyurl.com/2ehevyv) for detailed knowledge (including how to fi nd help answers. In the case of the networking help and more information. This and research the problem) to help you article was written for Word 2007, issue, the user assumed that because he but also applies to Word 2010. reach the simple solution. never had a connection problem before, Before you tell a user that he needs his connection couldn’t be an issue. The new hardware, needs to reinstall soft- way he answered the question was exactly used. That way, you can begin to ware or needs to recreate a document what made the troubleshooter believe understand the behavior. from scratch, consider the most likely she should, in fact, check his connection. Get your hands dirty. If you’re not possibility: If the answer appears to A good troubleshooter takes informa- an expert in the specifi c problem, be that complicated, you may not have tion she’s given and applies to it what she approach it with the same logic you asked the right questions. knows, always confi rming the validity would approach a technology you know of a hunch before taking action. For well. This might mean connecting to a Stephanie Krieger is a Microsoft Offi ce example, this troubleshooter researched user’s machine and interacting with the MVP, as well as the author of “Advanced the system requirements of the app in technology in a way that’s familiar to Microsoft Offi ce Documents 2007 Edition question before connecting to the user’s you. Be specifi c, start simply and look Inside Out” and “Microsoft Offi ce computer. Similarly, if you’re trouble- for concrete information that can help Document Designer,” both from Microsoft shooting the fi rst scenario from this you narrow the possibilities. Press. Krieger writes and creates content for article and you aren’t familiar with Measure twice, cut once. When you several pages on the Microsoft Web site. Visit section breaks in Word, use the help think you have the answer, test it. her blog, Arouet Dot Net (arouet.net), for functionality in the program to fi nd Make sure that it fi xes the issue without Microsoft Offi ce tips, and information about out what they are and why they’re doing other harm. Test it to confi rm new and upcoming publications.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | October 2010 | 21 Windows Turns After a quarter-century, Windows has gone from a 25 long-awaited experiment to the dominant software product in the world. But the operating system’s past isn’t necessarily a prologue for what could be an uncertain future.

By Jeff rey Schwartz and Lee Pender

arsha Collier recalls purchasing a copy of Windows 1.0 when it was fi rst released 25 years ago. But, like many users of MS-DOS, Collier had second thoughts. Upon Mlooking at its features, Collier wondered what she would do with it—and she returned it right away. “I seriously read the packaging and thought to myself, ‘Why would I ever want to run more than one program at a time?’” recalls Los Angeles-based Collier, who is no tech neophyte. Today she hosts a tech radio show and is author of various books, including “Ebay for Dummies” (For Dummies, 2004). Like many at the time, she had no idea how big would become. Indeed, it’s now arguably the most dominant and infl uential single product—of any kind—of the last quarter-century. As few as 20 years ago, Windows wasn’t a sure thing to succeed. But succeed it did, and beyond the imagination of most observers—and maybe even beyond the imaginations of the creators of the OS itself. Windows runs more than nine out of 10 of the world’s computers. Huge corporations run on it; sole-proprietorship businesses get off the ground with it. It runs stock markets, media empires and governments. Go to India, China, Russia, Australia, Texas or Brazil, and almost every computer in all of those places will run on Windows. No other single product has the global reach of the Microsoft client OS. The sun never sets on the Windows empire. Microsoft, on the back of its OS, has built one of the most recognizable brand names in the world. Bill Gates is a hero to millions and, despite his amazing charity work, still a villain to others. Windows is a target for critics, hackers, bloggers, journalists and competitors, but everybody knows which product rules the roost in its category. Love it or hate it, there’s likely no other 25-year-old as infl uential and pervasive as Windows. But is the mighty OS at the peak of its powers? Has it peaked already? With the nearly 10-year-old Windows XP still dominating the market worldwide, where will Windows head as the 21st century stretches into its second decade? Nobody is sure, but one thing is certain: The world sees computing through Windows … for now.

22 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | PHOTO BY DEBORAH FEINGOLD/CORBIS | Redmondmag.com | Redmond | October 2010 | 23 Windows Turns 25 Two Years of Waiting So You Think You Windows 1.0 got off to an auspicious start on Thursday, Nov. 10, 1983, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. That’s Know Windows 1.0? when Microsoft founder and CEO Gates took the wraps off the fi rst version of the OS. Gates’ original name for By Scott Bekker Windows was Interface Manager, but Rowland Hanson, a For the 25th anniversary of Windows 1.0, take Microsoft marketing guru at the time, is credited with our quiz about the market forces, Microsoft convincing Gates to go with Windows. personalities and technical specs of the Invitations to the launch were sent to the press in a box with earliest version of the OS. How much do you a squeegee. The header read: “For a clear view of what’s new in remember about the debut of Windows? microcomputer software, please join Microsoft and 18 micro- computer manufactures for a press conference …” ext month marks the 25th anniversary of But like many versions of Windows that would follow it, NWindows. The empire that is now Windows the fi rst release didn’t ship until two years after that fateful comes from humble beginnings. How humble? press conference, leading many to refer to it as “vaporware.” Put it this way: On the Fast Facts About Microsoft Web Finally, Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in November of page, the company’s list of important dates doesn’t even 1985 at Comdex. William Zachmann, at the time a promi- include the Windows 1.0 release. (Windows 2.0 doesn’t nent IDC analyst and now an independent consultant with rate a mention either, for that matter. Only Windows 3.0 Canopus Research Inc., was at that Comdex launch. is considered worthy of the corporate history.) “It was by no means clear who was going to win during Windows 1.0 hearkens back to a young industry fi lled the period of the early ’80s when the rush to GUI was on,” with characters like Philippe Kahn and incidents like wild Zachmann says. “The success of the PC in 1981-82 was a helicopter rides, Steve Ballmer picking up Microsoft inter- character mode interface, and graphics were handled only view candidates at the airport with laundry in his backseat by applications—and rather tentatively.” and Bill Gates driving very fast Porsches and talking his way onto an airplane that had already left the gate. It was by no Were you in the computer industry in the early ’80s, or “ have you read enough about it to think you know the means clear who history? Take our quiz and fi nd out how much attention you were paying—to both the substance and the trivia. If you’ve was going to win read the accompanying feature, you should have a leg up. during the period of Otherwise, 1985 rules apply: No fi ring up Google or Bing. the early ’80s when the rush to GUI was on.” William Zachmann, Consultant, 1. Where was Canopus Research Inc. Windows 1.0 fi rst announced in November of 1983? That competitive rush included Apple Lisa (the precursor - Comdex/Las Vegas to the Macintosh), Xerox Star, VisiCorp VisiOn, IBM Top - New York View, Compaq Computer Presentation Manager and Digital - Redmond - San Francisco Research Graphics Environment Manager, Zachmann recalls. “It wasn’t clear that Microsoft was going to be successful with 2. What software its approach because there were a lot of competing alterna- had to be installed tives,” he says. “Windows was viewed as the most likely to suc- for Windows to run? ceed, [but] there was no guarantee of it at the time.” - None, it could run Besides adding a primitive graphics layer to Microsoft MS- exchange, this release took on bare metal IBM PCs and clones DOS, Windows 1.0 wasn’t regarded as a feature-rich envi- advantage of 286 processors; a - MS-DOS version 1.0 ronment, according to Zachmann. But in Redmond’s defense, version called Windows 2.03 - MS-DOS version 2.0 he says the weakness of Windows was more a function of the added extended memory and limits of hardware than of the Microsoft software. 386-processor support. 3. What kind of “PC hardware, up until the early ’90s, really didn’t have the In May 1990, Microsoft operating system capability of adequately sustaining a GUI environment; it released Windows 3.0, which was Windows 1.0? - 8-bit OS was very limited compared to what it does today,” Zachmann most observers consider to be - 16-bit OS says. “Remember, in 1990, 512MB was a lot of memory.” the fi rst major release of the - 32-bit OS Microsoft released Windows 2.0 in November 1987. OS. Windows 3.0 offered full With improved graphics and support for dynamic data 386-processor support, and

24 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Lotus knows you can’t truly appreciate a cloud from behind windows.

Not all clouds are equal. Unlike some vendors, LotusLive™ makes it easy to collaborate with people outside your company. Plus, you get a comprehensive suite of integrated productivity tools, including e-mail, fi le sharing, social networking, web conferencing, instant messaging and integrated third-party apps. All of this for only $10 per user per month. Does your cloud offer all that? Smarter software for a Smarter Planet.

lotusknows.com IBM, the IBM logo, Lotus, LotusLive, Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions Smarter registered Business Machines Corp., trademarks of International Planet and the planet icon are LotusLive, Lotus, the IBM logo, IBM, worldwide. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. Business Machines Corporation © International Web 2010. on the list of IBM trademarks A current is available worldwide.

Untitled-1 1 9/7/10 8:25 AM Windows Turns 25

4. What was the Microsoft introduced the File Manager and Print Manager. “I was identifi ed as one of the minimum hardware It was the fi rst release to get widespread support from soft- few idiots that actually thought requirement for ware developers and hardware providers. OS/2 was still viable,” he says. Windows 1.0? A key fork in the road for Windows came after that release. “I’ve made some pretty good calls - 2 single-sided Originally, Microsoft and IBM Corp. had agreed to co-develop at times; that was defi nitely not disk drives - 1 double-sided the next version of DOS called OS/2. OS/2 had a character- one of them.” disk drive mode and the Windows-like OS/2 Presentation Manager. But Windows for the enterprise - 2 double-sided the relationship between the two companies was dicey at best. started to take off with the disk drives Zachmann says IBM’s goal was to make OS/2 proprietary and release of Windows 3.1 and its - Hard disk link it to the company’s Micro Channel Architecture. successor release, Windows for 5. What was the He points to three reasons Microsoft objected to Big Blue’s Workgroups 3.11, which offered minimum amount of ideas: “IBM really had this underlying agenda of wanting to peer-to-peer networking, support supported memory keep it proprietary,” he says. “Second, IBM never accepted for Novell NetWare and remote for Windows 1.0? the notion of Microsoft as an equal partner; it wanted to treat access service (RAS). Windows - 56K Microsoft as a supplier that it could tell what to do. The third would solidify its dominance with - 128K issue was that IBM was incredibly bureaucratic in its software the release of Windows 95, which - 256K - 512K development and, frankly, not very good at it.” added 32-bit TCP/IP support and With the two companies far apart, each decided to go its introduced Plug and Play. 6. Who came up own way: Microsoft promoted Windows clients and built with “vaporware,” a Windows NT for servers, and IBM stuck with OS/2. At the Eyes on the Future term to which time, Zachmann believed that IBM had the upper hand and When it comes to Windows 1.0, Microsoft Windows would prevail with OS/2. Microsoft prefers not to look 1.0 was a prime contributor? - Esther Dyson Windows Got the Loot - Ann Winblad - Mark Ursino In the seminal software-industry movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” Anthony Michael Hall’s Bill - Stewart Alsop Gates character famously yells at Noah Wyle’s Steve Jobs, “I got the loot, Steve!” Back in 1997, Gates did have the loot—and he gave some of it to Apple to keep the Microsoft competitor alive. But Microsoft wasn’t so kind to a lot of other competitors, and if Microsoft was a killer, then 7. When was the Windows was its weapon of choice. The OS had a raft of competitors when it launched 25 Windows 2.0 release years ago, but most of them have fallen victim to the dominance of Windows. Interlopers since that superseded then have also been defeated: It’s always telling when a Web search for a product name brings Windows 1.0? up a Wikipedia page rather than a product’s Web site. Here, we look back at some of the - August 1987 products that Windows killed—or, at least, severely wounded. - November 1987 The Mac OS. We must be crazy, right? The Mac OS is alive and well. Well, don’t forget that - February 1988 it was on its deathbed, along with Apple Inc. as a company, in the late 1990s. An investment - November 1988 from Bill Gates and Microsoft kept Apple and the Mac alive—and now Steve Jobs’ company is bigger than the fi rm Gates founded. But the Mac has the kind of market share that would have 8. When did offi cial any self-respecting ’Softie resigning, or if not, surely getting fi red. support end for The Amiga. Commodore’s most signifi cant entry into the PC market was actually a technical Windows 1.0? marvel for its time, and to this day it still has a cadre of faithful fans—Redmond Editor in Chief - Dec. 31, 1988 Doug Barney is among them. But even the friendly off ering (the name of which means “female - Dec. 31, 1995 friend” in Spanish) had succumbed by the early ’90s to Windows. - Dec. 31, 1998 VisiCorp Visi On. This relatively resource-intensive GUI was never terribly popular to begin - Dec. 31, 2001 with; it arguably died before Windows became dominant. But it would never have been able to withstand competition from Microsoft, anyway. 9. True or False: IBM TopView. TopView was a useful GUI for MS-DOS-based machines, but was kind of ugly Microsoft faced legal and ultimately surrendered to the relative beauty of the Windows interface. challenges from Digital Research Graphical Environment Manager. This product was more GUI than OS, and Apple Inc. about while it could actually create windows on-screen, it couldn’t match the popularity of Windows the user interface of in the market. Windows 1.0? Netscape Navigator. There was a time when many neophyte Internet surfers would call - True surfi ng the Web “getting on Netscape.” The company and its Navigator browser had Kleenex- - False like brand recognition—but Microsoft had Windows. Once Microsoft integrated the browser into the OS, Netscape was doomed. Microsoft ended up a convicted 10. Which of the monopolist as a result of this episode; Netscape ended up dead. following was not a Novell NetWare. NetWare lives, actually—as does Novell—but the product has been on a potential competitor downward trend in terms of popularity for 15 years or so. Once a great rival to Microsoft, to Windows 1.0 as it Novell now has a partnership with the company for distribution and patents for SuSE Linux. was being IBM OS/2. The history of this forlorn OS, much of which became the foundation for the developed? breakthrough Windows NT product, is as infamous as it is complicated. Once an IBM-Microsoft - IBM TopView joint project, OS/2 would up end up being split by the two companies. IBM kept the name, but - VisiCorp. Visi On Microsoft made the cash. Today, Windows NT is still the basic foundation of new Windows - Apple Macintosh —L.P. releases, and OS/2 is the answer to a trivia question. - Quarterdeck DESQ 26 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | “I can’t recommend this conference enough to my co-workers.” “The best SQL Server learning conference available.” “By far the best conference I’ve ever attended.” Increase Your SQL Server Value. Immediately. The largest gathering of SQL Server and BI professionals in the world, PASS Summit 2010 brings together the entire community to connect, share and learn new skills and strategies to help you do your job better, faster and easier.

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Untitled-5 1 9/16/10 3:40 PM Windows Turns 25

back. When Redmond magazine reached out to Microsoft to That said, Gillen points out - Digital Research talk about the company’s fi rst edition of Windows, that his advice is what he thinks Graphics Environment Manager Microsoft declined to make available anyone who was with Microsoft ought to do, not what - Compaq the company during the development of Windows 1.0. it likely will do. Observers widely Presentation Manager “We’re focusing our anniversary efforts on the Windows 7 believe that the next version of fi rst birthday, so unfortunately we won’t be able to provide a Windows will be Windows 8 and 11. What date was briefi ng from someone from the Windows 1.0 days,” a that it will ship in 2012. Blogger it announced that Windows 1.0 was spokesperson for Microsoft said in declining our request. Steve Chapman published an shipping to dealers Indeed, the release of Windows 7 has been well-chronicled extensive report consisting of and distributors—in in the pages of this magazine over the past two years, and leaked Microsoft documents that other words, there’s no question it dispelled concerns that Windows show details of Windows 8. offi cially released? has hit the end of the road. In addition to fi xing many of Originally published on the - Nov. 5, 1985 the bugs in Windows Vista, Windows 7 adds performance Italian Web site Windowsette, - Nov. 12, 1985 - Nov. 20, 1985 improvements, slightly faster booting and support for Chapman wrote in his own post: - Nov. 23, 1985 Windows PowerShell, as well as some UI enhancements. “I’m quite confi dent these are the Since its launch a year ago, a stunning 150 million real deal. I just feel bad for the 12. Who presented Windows 7 licenses have been sold, Microsoft says. This poor sap who either leaked these Bill Gates with the brings up the question: When will Microsoft release the or inadvertently shared these “Golden Vaporware Award” at the next version of Windows? Look for the fi rst service pack of with the world.” Microsoft sponsored Windows 7 to ship imminently. As for the next full-blown Among features under consid- “Windows Roast” to release of Windows, Microsoft is keeping mum. eration for Windows 8, according celebrate the launch “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure [Microsoft] knows at to the leaked slides, are support of Windows 1.0? this point,” says IDC analyst Al Gillen. “Windows 7 is so for facial recognition as a means - Stewart Alsop important to [the company’s] current roadmap that the last of providing user access, assumed - Steve Ballmer - John C. Dvorak connectivity to the Internet and - Pam Edstrom Windows 7 is cloud resources, and the ability to “ power up instantly. 13. According to a going to be widely Windows 8 will also target Steve Ballmer joke three key form factors: slates, at the same Windows Roast, the Windows adopted and as notebooks and all-in-one PCs. 1.0 development the momentum Furthermore, it will support eff ort grew from a customization of applications, single diskette and increases for devices and content, according six man-years to Windows 7, it’s going to be to the leaked documents. To what? what extent these documents - 2 diskettes and very hard for Microsoft to 200 man-years will represent what Microsoft - 4 diskettes and change and redirect that ultimately delivers, of course, 180 man-years remains to be seen. - 5 diskettes and momentum to Windows 8 80 man-years Slates - 7 diskettes and or whatever it winds up 50 man-years While Windows 8 will bring being called. better support for slates, many ” 14. What was the Al Gillen, Analyst, IDC had hoped OEMs would be able listed retail price for to port Windows 7 to slate form Windows 1.0? factors. While Hewlett-Packard - $49 thing it can afford to do is talk about the next version. What Co. back in January promised - $99 - $149 it needs to do is drag its feet and not rush the next product a slate-based PC by the end of - $189 out. All that does is add confusion. Windows 7 is going to this year, it backed off on that be widely adopted and as the momentum increases for promise after agreeing to acquire 15. What did the Windows 7, it’s going to be very hard for Microsoft to Palm Inc. for $1.2 billion, and is Microsoft mantra change and redirect that momentum to Windows 8 or planning a device based on the “slow burn” about Windows 1.0 mean? whatever it winds up being called.” Palm webOS platform. Now HP - Windows sales Rather than a full-blown release, Gillen suggests Microsoft is indicating that a slate-based would grow slowly might be better off adding an upgrade to Windows 7, some- PC running Windows 7 may over time thing akin to a 7.1 release. “Microsoft should release a version come after all, perhaps by the - Windows would fi re with incremental functional improvement that doesn’t disrupt next quarter. However, the HP up user productivity any applications or break any of the installs,” Gillen says. Windows-based slate is likely to - Windows bugs

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Untitled-1 1 7/16/10 12:37 PM Untitled-10 1 6/9/10 2:52 PM Windows Turns 25

be signifi cantly more costly than its webOS or the Apple Gillen says. It does have an would cause early iPad device, and the HP slate will likely be geared toward impact on peripherals, but that computers mother- boards to burn up enterprise business users and not consumers. will not likely be a showstopper - Windows sales Meanwhile, Dell Inc., Acer Inc. and others appear to be for those who want better- would go through focusing their slate efforts on the Google Android platform. performing systems down the road. the roof immediately But if slate OEMs are passing on Windows 7, does that He explains further: “It mean that Microsoft will miss out on this market? IDC’s future-proofs you better if you 16. True or False: Gillen doesn’t believe so. move to 64-bit.” The fi rst version of Windows featured tiling (side-by-side) windows rather than Redmond Readers Remember the overlapping Many of you have been with Windows since the very beginning— (stacked) windows here are some of your thoughts. seen now. Compiled by Doug Barney - True - False Joseph Johnson, Global Business Transformation, Ingersoll-Rand plc Saying Windows is 25 may be technically accurate, but leaves out a lot about the usability and acceptance of Windows. I was in college way back then and 17. By how many remember picking up a copy of Windows 1.0 at the library around 1986—and months did Microsoft fi nding it was essentially unusable on my 8088 10mhz clone. If my volatile miss its initially memory serves me correctly, it wasn’t really eff ective and widespread until announced ship date Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups came out. for Windows 1.0? Windows for Workgroups was great. The networking just worked. You didn’t have all the - None crashes from loading a network stack into upper memory and trying to get Windows to work - 7 on top of that. I cursed Netware so many times prior to Windows for Workgroups coming out. - 19 - 36 Chris Barber, President, TechQuility LLC Since Windows 7 came out, I’ve been telling clients that it took Microsoft 24 years to get it 18. Which of the right—and it fi nally got it right with Windows 7. following was not an offi cial, blown Mark D. MacLachlan, Senior Consultant, The Spider’s Parlor release promise for I fi nd it hard to believe that Windows is going to be 25 years old. I fi nd it especially troubling Windows? because I started with a DOS version that started with a “2.” - April 1984 I’ve watched the Windows versions evolve and think that, overall, they’re getting better and - May 1984 better. But, like my own waistline over the years, I think they’re also suff ering from bloating. - July 1984 I remember the days of Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. I was working at ABC - September 1984 Television in New York back then, and had to set up developer desktops to dual boot between the Windows versions using nothing more than the Autoexec.bat to move directories around so 19. What percentage the appropriate version was always located under C:\Windows. My icons were nicely organized of the installed base in program groups, a feature that went away with Windows 95 and only recently returned to of DOS computers me when I downloaded a copy of Windows Fences. Continued on page 32 did Bill Gates and Jon Shirley predict Windows would run “Certainly Microsoft has failed to be a leader and innovator The Incredible by the end of 1984? in this space; there’s no question about that,” Gillen says. Shrinking Windows (The actual fi gure is “Apple may be on a run-rate to sell 5 million iPads a year, While 64-bit Windows might be 0 percent, because but that’s still a fraction of the PCs sold, and for now it’s the immediate future of the OS, its it didn’t ship until 1985.) additive, not replacement,” he says. long-term future is, to introduce - 20 percent a metaphor, cloudy. Microsoft is - 50 percent Enter 64-Bit Windows straddling two worlds with its - 75 percent Windows 1.0 was a 16-bit OS. It wasn’t until Windows 3.11 reliance on Windows as a major - 80 percent was introduced in 1994 that it supported 32-bit processing. revenue producer and its commit- 20. How many stars Seven years later, Windows XP had a 64-bit edition. But ment to be “all in” for the cloud. out of 10 did the Windows 7 promises to bring 64-bit processing to the Cloud computing emphasizes InfoWorld review mainstream, according to Gillen. lean over fat, cheap over expen- give Windows 1.0? “We see it as a fundamental part of what’s being deployed sive and—most telling of all—the - 2.5 with Windows 7,” he says. Why? Currently, most desktops browser over the traditional OS. - 4.5 and laptops come with at least 4GB of RAM, and often Indeed, the future of the OS itself - 6.5 - 8.5 support much larger amounts. But the 32-bit versions of as a concept is, to work the cloud Windows can only use a maximum of 3GB of RAM, thereby metaphor again, up in the air. But 21. At an event on limiting the power a user can get out of today’s hardware. that doesn’t mean that Windows, or Nov. 23, 1983, “64-bit allows you to access that memory and has almost the OS in general, will go the way Microsoft brought no downside impact on the average business application,” of the dinosaur anytime soon. out 23 DOS hardware

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | October 2010 | 31 Windows Turns 25

“The fi rst thing to acknowledge is that, while OSes are “Windows is fundamentally a licensees who had going to change signifi cantly in the near future, they’re general-purpose OS,” Cherry pledged to support Windows. Which still going to exist,” says Michael Cherry, an analyst at says. “It runs on a wide variety potential OEM was Directions on Microsoft and a former employee at of platforms, and it runs a wide not there? Microsoft for 11 years, primarily in the 1990s. “Something variety of applications. It pro- - Compaq has to sit between the applications people want to write vides such a wide set of services - Eagle and the hardware. Even on the iPhone, you have hardware that it’s big.” - IBM Corp. - Hewlett-Packard Co. that has a certain set of attributes, and the average devel- Windows might need to shrink, - Radio Shack Corp. oper that wants to develop an application doesn’t want to at least for IT customers, suggests - Wang deal with that.” Don Jones, a consultant, Redmond The structure of Windows, though, might change. Thus magazine columnist and noted 22. What product far—and especially since its re-tooling in 1990—Windows technical author. It’s fi ne for con- name did “Windows” has been a catch-all. Given its universal nature, it has to run sumers to have the whole raft of replace? - Interface Manager just about any application and include just about any capa- Windows functionality, but Jones - Multi-Tool bility that any user might need. says that businesses don’t need it. - Multiplan - Defenestrate Continued from page 31 23. What Microsoft I remember participating in the Windows 95 beta and installing the product from what seemed executive lobbied like a hundred fl oppy disks. With Windows 95 came the registry I learned to love as knowledge Bill Gates hard to of it set me apart from many of my coworkers who were scared to death by it. change the name to off ered better disk performance, but little else that was memorable. Windows? I remember seeing Windows XP for the fi rst time and thinking, “Wow, how will Microsoft ever - Rowland Hanson top this?” The company didn’t top it for at least 10 years. - Jeff Raikes The evolution of the server platforms has been even more dramatic. I was fi rst introduced to - Steve Ballmer Windows Servers with NT version 3.51. I remember technicians from NCR coming in to assemble - Scott McGregor huge refrigerator-like quad processor servers for ABC. We consolidated 80 Novell servers down to two Windows servers. Life was good and the interface was easy to fi gure out on your own. NT 4.0 24. As he was being was a huge leap forward, until Windows 2000 Server came around. Windows 2000 Server became recruited in mid- Windows Server 2003, with little real impact on things. It wasn’t until the recent introduction of 1983 to take over the 64-bit servers that things started to shake up. Suddenly servers could support a lot more memory, Interactive Systems and unfortunately a disconnect happened and the tools to support the new OS weren’t there. Group, with a job goal of fi guring out Robert Thomson, Multi-Network Systems Analyst what Windows ought Way back when I was running a VAX/VMS shop, I was also in the to be and delivering Army Reserve, teaching people how to use DOS. I saw a demo of it, Scott McGregor Windows—1.1, I think—and was not impressed. Soon afterward, got a “wild” Microsoft issued 8086 systems with Windows 2.0. I was not impressed. helicopter ride from I suff ered through many, many floppy installs of Windows 3.1. I was not what Microsoft exec- impressed. I fought with installing TCP/IP on top of DOS without messing utive and fl edgling up Windows 3.11. I was not impressed. helicopter pilot? Then, I bumped machines to 4MB of memory and wiped them so they - Charles Simonyi could run Windows 95. It said, “Everything you do will be more fun.” I - Bill Gates was impressed. Windows 95 actually installed easily and worked pretty well. It had TCP/IP built - Steve Ballmer in, and it made a good terminal to Alpha/VMS. - Gordon Letwin Unfortunately, that was the last time Windows really impressed me. Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 were good and solid. I ran them for more than 10 years. I also learned to live with 25. What product the constant patch parade of Windows XP—and then came Windows Vista. Ugh. demo at the 1982 I just fi nished putting Windows 7 on a bunch of machines. It’s not bad, but it’s not impressive. Comdex spurred Bill Considering the amount of storage and compute resources modern machines provide, it should Gates and Microsoft boot in about 3 microseconds and anticipate my every desire. Windows 98 did most of what to work on what Windows 7 does. would eventually become Windows? C. Marc Wagner, Services Development Specialist, University Information Technology - Apple Macintosh Services, Indiana University - Lotus 1-2-3 My fi rst exposure to Windows was version 1.0. I wasn’t terribly impressed, but then I was running it - Visi On on an original IBM PC with 640K of RAM and a character-based, green-monochrome display. - Xerox Star In 1987, I bought a brand-new PS/2 with an i386DX/387DX combo and 2MB of RAM. It came with PC-DOS 4.x, I believe, and Windows 2.11. I was sold! Visit RCPmag.com/ Each transition got better until Windows 98/Windows Me. No version of this OS was particularly BekkerA1010 to stable so, at fi rst, I downgraded to Windows 95, then jumped to the NT kernel once Windows see the answers to NT 4.0 came out. By now, you can see that I’ve always been an early adopter. I’ve been burned these questions once or twice, but never severely. and receive your Continued on page 34 score!

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Untitled-1 1 1/13/10 11:13 AM Windows Turns 25

Microsoft should “focus on making [Windows] an OS being patched. Something like 30 percent or 40 percent and not a bundle of applications,” Jones says. He says that of patches have nothing to do with a business computer. Microsoft should do much more to differentiate between That’s insane. Microsoft has to let that go.” consumer versions of the OS and enterprise versions. And Jones breaks the idea down even further, saying that he has an idea for how the enterprise version should look. with Windows, Microsoft “should focus on different audi- “We already know what that looks like,” Jones says. “It ences, not on feature sets.” For instance, he says, he might was DOS. There should be a control panel and an empty be tempted to buy a copy of Windows if he knew that it start menu when you get the thing, and that’s it. Every included BitLocker, but most of the other features in the OS moving part is just another thing you have to worry about wouldn’t matter to him. Jones, as it happens, is a Mac user. “I really think [it] has got a fan- Continued from page 32 tastic OS,” Jones says of Microsoft. Just as Windows XP was the product Windows 2000 “should’ve been,” “It’s got a great core there. [But] the Windows 7 is the product Windows Vista “should’ve been.” Still, Windows Vista world doesn’t need another raft of took a black eye not so much because it was a bad product, but because features laid on top of the features Microsoft really botched its introduction and rollout. we’ve already got. The Windows OS Ultimately, because Windows XP was kept around for six whole years, a very is tremendously noisy. [Microsoft] large number of IT folks grew up on Windows XP with no experience with what an OS transition might look like. Those of us who were around in the 1980s and 1990s needs to back down. It tries to make understood the pitfalls and watched as Microsoft created one problem after another one OS for every possible audience, for the adoption of Windows Vista. Add to that a slowing economy, and you’re left and that’s its problem.” with Windows Vista not having much of a chance for success. Jones’ business partner and fellow By the way, I started using Windows Vista during the public beta (I even had it Redmond magazine columnist Greg running on an 866MHz Pentium II, with 512MB of RAM). I used Windows Vista on much more robust machines with success: The last of the bugs was gone from my Shields offers similar suggestions, but Windows Vista environment by March 2007. with a different focus. Shields says the I also joined the public beta of Windows 7. The superiority of Windows 7 was key to the future of Windows is ease of clear from the moment I booted it up. It ran happily on a 6-year-old laptop until it deployment on multiple platforms— was released to manufacturing and, within a month, I had upgraded from Windows another factor that could lead to Vista SP2 to Windows 7 on all of the machines I use on a regular basis. I can’t say enough about the positive experience I’ve had with Windows through Microsoft shrinking the OS, as it has the years—and I’ve spent a lot less on hardware and licenses than I would’ve spent tried to do to an extent with Windows on Macintosh hardware and software upgrades during the last 25 years! Phone 7 for mobile devices. I’ve owned nine computers in all that time. Computers six, eight and nine are still “Where’s the OS going?” Shields in service. No. 7 is deceased. All the others were retired gracefully after four or asks, and he answers: “It’s going into more years of service. And before any of your readers take exception to my story, during those 25 years, I’ve been a professional IBM mainframe specialist, a DOS your phone; it’s going into your PDA; specialist, a Unix systems specialist and a Windows specialist. I’ve worked with it’s going into your laptop; it’s going Linux and, to a lesser extent, Macintosh. I always come back to Windows. into your [Virtual Desktop Infrastruc- ture]. As the world starts becoming Ryan Bedford, Software Engineer more app-centric, the concern is: Our company is small, bringing in about 5 million in revenue per year. Only last year did we upgrade a Windows for Workgroups 3.11 machine that was responsible What happens if apps start getting for one-third of the revenue for our entire company. Do the math! This machine hosted on other platforms?” controlled a piece of lab equipment for years. Shields continues: “That’s where Windows could potentially be mar- Matthew J. Brock, Computer Solutions:AZ ginalized. Where Microsoft stands Wow! Windows is turning 25! That’s how old I was when it came out. I’d been tooling around in DOS just fi ne. Suddenly, a few applications, most from Microsoft, would to keep itself relevant is in making load a graphical environment to run, and when I shut it down, I saw the familiar that OS as deployable as possible. DOS prompt. Ahhh ... C:\>! The company’s relevance stays as When Windows 3 came out, I began the learning curve of going from the blank long as it becomes supremely easy screen to the much richer graphical environment. I also played with Digital to deploy that OS to any delivery Research Graphical Environment Manager (GEM) and OS/2, which Microsoft lovers like to say stood for half an OS. Along with the new advantages came new mechanism possible.” problems. Remember adding network cards, scanner cards and so on, and having But Directions on Microsoft’s to hunt around for an open IRQ or I/O address? Or having clients call you with Cherry isn’t so sure that Windows computer lockup problems and having to hunt down which card was causing the will shrink. It was necessity, he notes, problem? Then, Windows 95 came along and we got “plug-n-pray.” When it that made it large to begin with. worked, it made life so much easier. When it didn’t, it made life a living hell. I went through them all: Windows 95c, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows “You don’t go to work every day NT, Windows 2000, Windows Me (don’t get me started!), Windows XP, Windows and say, ‘Let’s build a big, fat, bloated, Vista (which proved Microsoft learned nothing from Me!) and then Windows 7. dumb OS,’” says Cherry, who helped I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Windows throughout this entire process. design features for Windows 2000. It gives so much power and capability, and at the same time infuriates with “It happens day by day. You start off inexplicable behavior and vendor lock-in. However, I appreciate the living I’m able to make because of the Windows infrastructure that nearly everyone uses. with a really great design. People

34 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | comment on your design and they say, ‘This is great, but The fi rst thing to it would be really great if it did …’ And you can fi ll in the “ blank with your favorite capability there. Any request to acknowledge is that, while make a change in the OS appears reasonable. You add it in, and that creates a set of dependencies.” OSes are going to change Cherry does, however, echo Jones’ notion of different versions signifi cantly in the near future, of Windows—as well as competing OSes—being targeted at they’re still going to exist. different audiences. “In the future, we may see far more ” specialized OSes that target a specifi c device or a specifi c set of Michael Cherry, Analyst, Directions on Microsoft functionality than the Microsoft general OS does,” he says.

Here and Now don’t want them to have all of my data. I’m not prepared to As for the threat of the browser replacing the OS as go to a totally lightweight OS and not have data on it.” cloud computing grows, experts remain skeptical for the time So, Windows remains the standard for now, and it prob- being. “I think that the OS as it stands today is the OS we’re ably will for a while to come. But what the next 25 years will going to see into the medium-term future,” Shields says. bring is still anybody’s guess. And Microsoft can’t afford to Cherry offers a more blunt view: “There’s nobody out make missteps with its fl agship product, which is in many there running a centralized service that I trust with my ways the linchpin of its entire operation. data,” he says of cloud providers. “I may use some Web apps. “I don’t think there’s anybody at Microsoft who has a solid, I may park some fi les in the Web so that I can access them long-term vision for what Windows is supposed to be,” Jones from other machines. But in terms of saying, ‘I’m not going says. “There’s no vision for where the truck is driving. The to have local storage,’ I don’t trust any of these people. I , if Microsoft doesn’t do the right thing with Windows, is it stands to start losing other pieces of the enterprise. GetMoreOnline Windows kind of locks you into a Microsoft solution.” Go to Redmondmag.com/LeeJeff 1010 for more on Jeffrey Schwartz ([email protected]) is editor at large Windows 1.0 and for a list of advances to the OS and Lee Pender ([email protected]) is executive editor of throughout the years. features for Redmond.

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Untitled-2 1 6/7/10 10:57 AM Can Microsoft Salvage Its Mobile Strategy? Microsoft is working hard to turn around its fl agging mobile business, but success is far from guaranteed for .

By Paul Korzeniowski

emember ? Whether the moves will pay off, Premier Team, a RE/MAX Excalibur Does anyone in your com- though, is unclear. Microsoft has franchise in Scottsdale, Ariz., found pany use Windows Vista? badly misread the smartphone market, that her team members were having RDo you have a Windows and the fi rm’s traditional strengths diffi culty answering their e-mail Tablet PC, circa 2003? haven’t translated well to recent market messages during the workday. In the Microsoft has been in business since changes. Rather than shutting the high-pressure, quickly moving real 1975, and along with its many high- door on its competitors, it has seen estate market, three to four hours profi le, successful products, the company its market share spiral downward as sometimes passed before team mem- has laid an egg or two—or even three. users have embraced the Apple iPhone bers could return calls. In 2008, the Some think that the company may and Google Android. Consequently, company worked with 4SmartPhone, a soon add a new member to its list of Microsoft fi nds itself playing catch up, local mobile-services company, obsolete technologies: the Windows and the question is: Are the company’s to use Microsoft Direct Push Mobile OS. moves too little, too late? Technology and hosted Exchange “Microsoft has made so many mis- services to deliver e-mail to employees takes over so many years with Windows A Checkered History even as they were showing houses. The Mobile that I just don’t see how it can While many other Microsoft duds end result was improved productivity recover,” says Jack Gold, principal were doomed almost immediately and more sales. analyst at J. Gold Associates LLC. upon their launch, Windows Mobile Advanced Computers Engineering Yet there are reasons for optimism. has had a more volatile history. The Solutions (ACES) is a computer reseller The vendor recently acknowledged product was unveiled in 2000 and in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which has about its mistakes and has been trying to delivered in 2002. From the start, 15 employees. Several years ago, the dramatically overhaul the Windows Microsoft focused on the enterprise company searched for a way to help Mobile line to get itself back on track. market. Because it was tied closely engineers assigned to evening and The company has reorganized the to the Microsoft e-mail and offi ce- weekend support more easily monitor group’s management team, pumped productivity products, the mobile OS their incoming messages. Alerts were more money into development and gained traction in the smartphone automatically generated, but the attempted to raise the mobile plat- market as many businesses deployed employees had to access them via a form’s profi le. A major new release of the platform. PC, which was inconvenient. To the system has been planned to coin- Consequently, some companies streamline response times, the cide with this year’s holiday season like the Microsoft system quite a bit. company outfi tted its employees with smartphone sales. Kris Anderson, team leader for Your Windows Mobile phones.

| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | October 2010 | 37 Windows Mobile

Smartphones vs. the Windows Mobile product. In 2008, 2009 and May 2010, according to market Laptops Phil Kenealy, president of ACES, beta research company comScore Inc. By the In business since 2003, Dallas-based tested one of the HTC Windows 6.5 end of that month, the Microsoft OS Homecare Homebase LP developed phones. “It was diffi cult to get the system was on 13.2 percent of new smartphones software that allows home-care to work; I wasn’t sure if the sold versus 19.7 percent eight providers (nurses, therapists and home problems were with the phone, months earlier. health aides) to collect and send patient our carrier or our applica- The industry behemoth, information to its main offi ces from tions,” says Kenealy, who however, isn’t ignoring its people’s homes. “Competitors relied on eventually returned the problems. Earlier this year, laptops to collect their information, but phone and withdrew from the CEO Steve Ballmer we found them bulky and their batteries beta program. acknowledged that the often wore out during the day,” notes company’s outlook about its Jim Griffi n, VP of customer services at Enter Android smartphones was wrong. “A the company, which has 150 employees. In November 2007, Google phone is not another PC” Because Homecare Homebase relied on Inc. unveiled its Android became the company’s new Microsoft products, its selection of platform. With its open mantra. Given its roots, Windows Mobile phones over a com- source and open interface Microsoft had been focusing petitive offering from what was then approach, it garnered a great on using its phones to Palm Inc. was a “no brainer,” Griffi n deal of third-party support. Developers leverage more sales of its Windows OS says. Currently, employees use Windows don’t need to get Android apps and associated business tools—but Mobile-based phones from HTC Corp., certifi ed by anyone, nor are there any such thinking has gradually changed LG Electronics and Motorola Inc. to hidden APIs. By contrast, in most in Redmond. collect and ship patient data. cases, handset vendors make their APIs In May, Robbie Bach, president of the Because it was so popular with busi- accessible only to mobile operators. company’s Entertainment and Devices nesses, the OS Three times over the course of a few division, which was responsible for garnered signifi cant market share and weeks, engineers walked into Kenealy’s both Windows Mobile and the , found itself in a race with the Research offi ce to tell him how excited they were found himself out of a job. The party In Motion BlackBerry as the No. 1 about applications they found for their line was that Bach, who had overseen business phone OS. Motorola Droids, which run the the division for 10 years, was retiring, Android OS. That’s something that but few observers bought that story. Hitting Rock Bottom rarely happened with their Windows Senior Vice President Andy Lees was In the last few years, however, the Mobile phones, Kenealy says. Conse- put in charge of the Mobile Commu- market position of Windows Mobile has quently, Google and Apple are in a nications Business, which was split off dropped like a stone, and Microsoft has heated battle for mindshare and market from the Xbox group. He now reports been fl oundering on the mobile front. share. In fact, NPD Group Inc. recently directly to Ballmer. The company claimed it would increase found that Android system sales The moves foreshadow the release of unit shipments from 11 million in fi scal surpassed those of the iPhone for the Windows Phone 7, which is designed 2007 to 20 million in fi scal 2008. But it fi rst time in the fi rst quarter 2010. to address some of the Windows Mobile shortcomings. Windows Clearly, there’s a In Need of Some Buzz Phone 7, which was released to manu- “ The end result is that the Microsoft facturing last month, features a robust lack of buzz about mobile OS is now under siege. “Clearly, Web browser, integration with social- Windows Mobile. there’s a lack of buzz about Windows networking tools and support for a ” Mobile,” notes Phillip Redman, broader range of third-party applica- Phillip Redman, research vice president at Gartner Inc. tions. Windows Phone 7 supports Research VP, Gartner Inc. One telling sign of a failing product 6, the latest line is a name change. After using the version of the Microsoft mobile Web fell 10 percent short of that goal and has name Windows Mobile since the browser (previously, the browser was been steadily missing key milestones. launch of the OS at the turn of the sold as a separate product, but now it Apple Inc. blunted the Windows millennium, Microsoft decided that the will be integrated with the Windows Mobile momentum with the introduc- latest iteration of its mobile OS would Phone 7 OS). tion of its iPhone in January 2007. The be known as Windows Phone 7, a The browser includes several new product’s touchscreen UI was sleek and subtle but telling distinction. features. Traditionally, mobile hand- easy to use. Users loved their iPhones, The lack of buzz has translated into sets have lacked suffi cient processing while Windows Mobile users did not. declining market share. The Windows power to support full-function In fact, Microsoft users often feel indif- Mobile U.S. market share dropped a browsers. But this time, IE Mobile ference—sometimes even disdain—for whopping 33 percent between October includes a full HTML engine. A

38 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Untitled-2 1 7/12/10 11:00 AM Windows Mobile dual-mode feature will let users Swing and a Miss Microsoft As the switch between full HTML browsing While Microsoft is fi ghting back, it Gritty Underdog? and browsing of Web site content spe- still faces some hurdles. As it was dra- So, Microsoft fi nds itself in an unusual cifi cally designed for mobile devices. matically revamping its smartphone position: the underdog. Another noteworthy new function is business, the company introduced the “When we announced that we seamless Facebook integra- Kin line of phones, which were resetting our mobile strategy, tion. The social-networking debuted in April 2010 and we knew the transition wouldn’t be service is becoming a quickly bombed. These easy, but on balance we’re extremely common tool for business devices were based on tech- pleased with the course we’re on,” says users as well as consumers. nology garnered from the a Microsoft spokesperson. $500 million acquisition of The company has supporters, including Improved Danger Inc. in 2008. The Kenealy of ACES. “Microsoft is a Integration phones were targeted at large, well-run company with a lot of There’s also tighter inte- teenagers and young adults. smart people,” he says. “It seems to be gration between contacts The most celebrated tech- quite focused on improving its smart- lists and various applica- nology feature in Kin was phones, and has the resources to be a tions. Every application, its Studio function, which major player in the marketplace.” including e-mail and text, allowed the storing of pic- Others, however, are not as certain. automatically creates a tures and other multimedia “We’re concerned about the direction link for an address. With in the cloud and included that Microsoft is moving in with Windows Phone 7, users tight connectivity to social- Windows Mobile,” Griffi n says. “We can automatically pull networking applications such want the company to do well, but are contacts’ updates when they access as Facebook and Twitter. not certain that will be the case.” them via the address book. Executives There was one problem, though: One thing is clear: There’s a distinct can look at current status details along- The products were shelved almost as possibility that Windows Mobile and side phone numbers and addresses. The soon as they reached resellers’ stores. Windows Phone 7 will take their software recognizes street addresses “The Kin really didn’t seem to meet and then offers one-click access to map any pressing market need,” says David locations and details, via the Microsoft Morton, director of mobile commu- The Kin really Bing search engine. nication strategies at the University of “ Another problem area for Redmond’s Washington. While Microsoft targeted didn’t seem to mobile plans has been application young users, the price tag for Kin meet any pressing development, which traditionally has phones—about $150—was too high. market need. been a Microsoft strong point in other Plus, it was coupled with voice and data ” areas. Apple has more than 150,000 plans that would run users at least $70 David Morton, Director applications for its phone available in a month. In addition, the phones lacked of Mobile Communication its iTunes store. In response, instant-messaging and calendaring Strategies, University of Microsoft has announced its own functions, and customers were unable Washington app-dev store called Windows to easily download applications. Marketplace for Mobile, which Similarly, the Windows Phone 7 provides direct-to-phone mobile design dumps some features that are places among other notable Microsoft applications and can be accessed from needed in the enterprise. For instance, bombs. “The fate of Microsoft should both phones and the Web. The company Homecare Homebase’s Griffi n was become clear in the months that claims that 20,000 applications have disappointed that the OS won’t sup- follow the Windows 7 rollout,” been developed for its mobile OS. port an inherent database-management Morton, of the University of Microsoft does have a few other chips system, a feature needed to run his Washington, says. “The Palm product to play in this high-stakes game. company’s mobile applications. “We announcement generated some buzz, While Apple and Google have created couldn’t use the iPhone because our but it quickly died down. To be a buzz with their phones, there are customers work with several different successful, Microsoft will need to questions about how well their respec- carriers, so we plan to take a look at keep its buzz going, the way that tive products operate in the corporate adding support for the Android system Apple and Google have done for the space. Security on these devices is to our product line,” Griffi n says. last few years.” often an open question, especially for Finally, the Microsoft decision to block enterprise users. For instance, not until multitasking—at least in the initial Paul Korzeniowski ([email protected]) version 4 did the iPhone include multi- release of Windows Phone 7—also is a freelance writer based in Sudbury, tasking features that let IT professionals sparked complaints from customers Mass. He’s been covering various IT issues monitor their users’ activity. and developers. for more than two decades.

40 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | Untitled-2 1 8/17/10 11:51 AM DecisionMaker by Don Jones At the Forefront of Identity Management

everal years ago, Microsoft purchased a company needs a Web server, such as IIS7, and it integrates with SharePoint Services 3.0 called Zoomit, which made a meta-directory product. SP1 or later. It needs the latest version S of the Microsoft .NET Framework, The idea behind the meta-directory was to add a and mailbox provisioning support layer atop Active Directory where you would manage user requires Windows PowerShell (which ships with Windows Server 2008). FIM itself costs $15,000 per server accounts in your environment. In further broadening the directories and and $18 per user; even fairly large addition to replicating account changes applications it can manage for you. organizations can get by with one to AD, the meta-directory could also FIM is designed to enable users to server, and discounts are doubtless replicate them to other systems and manage some delegated aspects of their available for larger organizations with directories, helping to create a unifi ed own identities through tools such as some bargaining leverage. identity for your users, easing log-on Offi ce, SharePoint and controls built Depending on your needs, FIM pains and making for a more consis- into newer versions of Windows itself. might not be your only option to tently confi gured environment. FIM offers self-service capabilities, access the features I’ve outlined. Quest Microsoft has subsequently released such as the ability for users to—using Software, for example, offers a solution enhanced versions of the meta-directory either a Web-based tool or an interface set in its Quest One family that can product in the past few years, that integrates with the native give you the same workfl ow capabili- continually adding new features and Windows log-on process—perform ties and self-service features—even functionality—and changing its name password resets and account unlocks. connections to certain non-Windows almost every time. Microsoft Identity This is a must-have capability that can directories and products. Integration Server became Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager, which has FIM provides much-needed capabilities for now become Forefront Identity Manager (FIM), refl ecting the implementing workfl ow- and change-management product’s position as part of the capabilities for identity and access management. Microsoft security-product family. You might be surprised by what FIM save even midsize organizations a Still, the capabilities offered by FIM can offer your organization. considerable amount of money: Industry are powerful, and they’re defi nitely a estimates are that most help desks must-have for many companies. Meta-Directory, Sure spend $30 to service a password-reset FIM still provides robust meta-directory call, and that about a third of help-desk Don Jones ([email protected]) is capabilities through an included set of calls fall into this category. a 12-year industry veteran, author of management agents. It can connect to FIM provides much-needed capabilities more than 45 technology books and an any version of AD, to Tivoli Directory for implementing workfl ow- and in-demand speaker at industry events Server, Novell eDirectory, IBM change-management capabilities for worldwide. His broad technological Directory Server, Exchange Server, identity and access management. background, combined with his years of Lotus Notes, SAP and more; it also managerial-level business experience, exposes an API so that developers can Not the Only Solution make him a sought-after consultant by write custom management agents to FIM isn’t cheap. It requires a 64-bit companies that want to better align their integrate with line-of-business or other server and a 64-bit version of Windows technology resources to their business applications. It can work with any Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 direction. Jones is a contributor to directory that supports LDAP or the R2; it also requires a 64-bit edition of TechNet Magazine and Redmond, and Directory Services Markup Language, SQL Server 2008 as its data store. It writes a blog at ConcentratedTech.com.

42 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | MAGAZINE

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Untitled-4 3 9/17/10 1:55 PM WindowsInsider by Greg Shields Virtualization and the Second Death of the ‘White Box’

irtualization took the IT industry by storm just a as we once again kill off that nasty practice of building our own white boxes. few years ago. Promising more effi cient uses of Oh, yes, many IT professionals will V guffaw at the notion of abdicating their expensive computing hardware, virtualization’s design to some third party. We all fi rst ROI came in the form of space, power and cooling know that third parties, in the end, want to sell you a product. But the datacenter reductions for everyone. of the future no longer really cares about design—nor should the business Yet virtualization’s rapid rise from building them quickly became a that purchases it. That business instead bleeding-edge to just-the-way-you-do- maligned practice once our hardware cares about delivering applications and things came with its own baggage. companies began applying real engi- data to its users. It accomplishes that goal “You must measure performance, using neering to server design. through some numerical assignment of solutions that give you actionable infor- It’s exactly that cusp of time between memory, processing, networking and mation,” I’ve written in the past. At thinking we were smarter and recognizing storage. All are numbers on a manage- other times, I’ve said, “Creating your that we weren’t that we’ve once again ment screen that tie back to a pool of own private cloud requires quantifying reached inside today’s virtual infra- resources that we shouldn’t have to care the resources you have in comparison structures. Modularized architectures about much anymore. with the resources you need.” that incorporate the best features of So, how are we doing? We’re not But all of those lofty statements belie blade technologies with the benefi ts of there yet, but we’re getting really, really virtualization’s current and arguably node-oriented SAN storage and net- close. As you can imagine, is the most important problem: Our view of working are now available. business that will throw away its hard- hardware hasn’t evolved. Yes, our hardware has gotten faster, We still treat hardware as individual pieces of a and its processors have new virtualization-friendly instruction sets. greater whole. But the central problem inside most of our existing virtual environments is These architectures enable snapping won virtualization investment simply to that we still treat hardware as indi- a quantifi able amount of processing, move to some modular infrastructure. vidual pieces of a greater whole. disk space and networking into your But computing hardware is evolving to Remember the “white boxes” of not virtual environment. And they’re the point where we only need to plug in that many years ago? It hasn’t been that creating reality out of the private cloud a few cables and let our software long since companies like HP, Dell, “vaporware” we all chuckled at not that management tools take care of the rest. IBM, Hitachi and others convinced us many months ago. It’s high time we begin evolving our that their engineers were smarter than In essence, using today’s hardware, we notion of how hardware creates a us when it came to designing servers. don’t need to build virtualization out of business datacenter. I remember those days. Back then, pieces and parts. Rather than white- buying a server was more like piecing boxing a virtual environment, we can Greg Shields ([email protected]), together a set of parts—a motherboard buy the GHz of processing, GB of MVP, vExpert, is a recognized IT author, here, some processors and RAM there, RAM and disk, and GB of networking speaker and strategic consultant, sharing his then an educated guess on storage, as a package all from the same vendor. 15 years of technical and IT/business align- usually limited by the number of slots This is the promised power of virtual- ment experience with companies worldwide. inside the server. ization: Complete and total abstraction Get more of Shields’ inside look at Windows Those white boxes were admittedly of physical resources across every piece along with other useful tips and tricks at fun to build—don’t get me wrong. But, of hardware. And it’s becoming reality ConcentratedTech.com.

46 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | AdvertisingSales RedmondResources

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| Redmondmag.com | Redmond | October 2010 | 47 FoleyOnMicrosoft by Mary Jo Foley The Many Faces of Windows

t Microsoft, there’s one Windows über-brand, measure. There have been rumors since the start of this year that Windows but there’s not just one Windows. The question client President Steven Sinofsky is A making a play to get the mobile teams is: Will there ever be just one? And does it really moved under his oversight. If that matter to anyone who’s not channeling Bob Marley’s classic happens, Sinofsky would end up owning Windows, and the tune “One Love”? Windows Mobile businesses. If either or both of these scenarios Today, Microsoft offers Windows According to my sources, Microsoft come to pass and Windows and client, Windows Server, Windows has been working for years to get Windows Mobile are united, there will Azure, Windows Mobile, Windows Windows ported to the ARM processor still be other Windows OSes out there Phone 7, Windows Embedded (that’s what the project code-named that aren’t part of the “One World.” Compact, Windows Embedded Standard “LongARM” was all about). More Windows Azure and Windows Server, and Windows Embedded Handheld, recently, Microsoft researchers were which are becoming more and more along with other rogue Windows- assigned to the case. The “Menlo” closely intertwined—both organization- trademarked OSes. No two of these are project—and the related “Experiment ally and feature-wise—are built on the the same. They’re developed by different 19” team—is, from what I hear, looking same NT kernel as the Windows client teams at Microsoft, sport different UIs, at creating some kind of mobile OS or is today. But the server and cloud offer- run on different processors and are layer that will replace the Embedded ings seem to be moving on a separate compatible with different sets of apps. Compact core that’s currently at the trajectory. Microsoft has fi nally gotten I’m sure the ’Softies would love to con- heart of the Windows Mobile, Windows client and server in lockstep, solidate at least some of those platforms. Windows Phone and Zune OS. The releasing new versions of the OSes and Doing so would save the company replacement would be the same NT- service packs for them at the same time. money, simplify Redmond’s developer based kernel that’s currently in the These days, though, it’s the Windows story and make the whole “three screens main Windows OS. If this can be done, Azure team and the Windows Server and a cloud” idea a lot simpler. then Microsoft will be a giant step closer team, more so than the Windows client Look at what Apple’s doing: It’s to realizing the “One Windows” vision. and Windows Server teams, which are making iOS its OS for smartphones, Given that Menlo is a research project sharing code and features (with new fea- iPods, iPads, its next-generation and not even in incubation, however, it tures debuting fi rst in Windows Azure AppleTV (as many Apple watchers are may take a long time for any of the and later appearing in Windows Server). guessing), and maybe even for new fruits of that effort to make their way So, maybe the idea of “One Windows” Macs. I’d think—politics aside—that into commercial Microsoft wares. for one and all isn’t really useful or the ’Softies would love to do something A nearer-term step Microsoft could feasible. But it sure seems like two similar. But because Microsoft has a far take toward creating a “One Windows” versions could do the trick. Do you think larger installed user base, not to world is an organizational one. Currently, Windows consolidation is coming and mention tons of hardware and software the Windows Embedded and Windows needed? Or is more better, even when it dependencies, simply going “Windows Mobile and Phone teams are not part of comes to OSes? everywhere” isn’t as easy as it sounds. the Windows client or server business units. Until very recently, those teams Mary Jo Foley ([email protected]) were part of the Microsoft Entertain- is editor of the ZDNet “All About GetMoreOnline ment and Devices (E&D) unit. In May, Microsoft” blog and has been covering For more on the Microsoft concurrent with the resignation of Microsoft for about two decades. Her book, consolidation of platforms, go to E&D chief Robbie Bach, CEO Steve “Microsoft 2.0” (John Wiley & Sons, Redmondmag.com/Foley1010. Ballmer moved the mobile teams to 2008), looks at what’s next for Microsoft report directly to him as a stopgap in the post-Gates era.

48 | October 2010 | Redmond | Redmondmag.com | faster server ROI.

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