Most network administrators would care less of what applications are put into play. In fact, most of them would rather address the firewall and network security issues before sitting down on the actual workstations individually and check which applications should be enabled and which should go.

Such is a common practice in companies that place a lot of emphasis in making sure that their workstations adhere towards policies. Further it is a good way to ensure that no untoward infections stemming from browsing or accessing files that are not permitted on the network. Source such as floppy drives or links that anyone could get from browsing can be entirely hazardous and apparently this is where a good clamp down has to be done.

But among their priorities, this is perhaps the last of their priorities. It remains that most network administrators would do well to focus on what comes in. They can do their part by limiting the access from a remote destination within the intranet but like all viruses, they will always find a way to ruin desktop programming or workstations.

Add to the fact that users could care less of what happens to their workstation as they know that the IT or MIS people are always there to rescue them. Such may be called a petty belief but as long as it works, nothing is bound to stop them from doing so. That is perhaps one reason why most administrators have a hard time managing networks. People fail to go deeper on how to safeguard them.

I’ve gotten the chance to play around with the Windows 7 pre-beta build and I feel like a kid in a candy store. There are many new features that I personally am excited about that I hope to blog about over time. To kick things off I wanted to discuss the several new features in Windows 7 that make managing and sharing your files on your home network a much easier experience than ever before. Using Windows 7’s Libraries along with its HomeGroup network sharing feature, I was able to share content with other PC users on my home network. I’m going to go into detail on my experience with Libraries and setting up a HomeGroup on my network with Windows 7 to illustrate these new features for you. And believe it or not… it all starts with the relatively minor changes made to the naming of folders within User Profiles in Windows 7.

One of the things you’ll notice first is the User Profile folder structure in Windows 7 has changed a little bit from what was seen in Windows Vista.

In Windows Vista: Documents, Downloads, Photos, Videos, and Music

In Windows 7: Personal Documents, Personal Downloads, Personal Photos, Personal Videos, and Personal Music.

The naming also changed in the Public User Profile: Public Documents, Public Downloads, Public Photos, Public Videos, and Public Music.

These folder structure changes were made to accommodate a new Windows Explorer feature in Windows 7 called Libraries. Libraries exist in the Navigation Pane of Windows Explorer which has been updated for Windows 7. In Windows 7, users are given Libraries that consist of multiple “library locations” or folders from both their User Profile and Public User Profile.

For example: the Documents Library in Windows 7 consists of your Personal Documents folder under your profile and the Public Documents folder – or 2 “locations”.

By default, my Libraries consisted of the following folders:

· Documents: Personal Documents and Public Documents

· Downloads: Personal Downloads and Public Downloads

· Music: Personal Music and Public Music

· Photos: Personal Photos and Public Photos

· Videos: Personal Videos and Public Videos

There is a very specific reason why each of these Libraries consists of a Personal folder and Public folder. It ties in with HomeGroup and specific permissions which I will talk about very soon… keep reading ;-)

When I view the Documents Library – it displays all files and folders from any folder I have included in this Library in a single Windows Explorer view.

In the above screen shot, the EXAMPLE folder in the red box is a folder in the Public Documents folder while the rest of the folders are from my Personal Documents folder.

To add locations to a Library, all I needed to do was hit the location button in the top right-hand corner. To create custom Libraries, all I needed to do was right-click on “Libraries” in the Windows Explorer Navigation Pane and choose “New”. I decided to try adding a folder from my Windows Home Server to my Document Library. I had a folder full of documents on my Windows Home Server that would be perfect for my Documents Library. To my excitement I was easily able to add the folder to my Documents Library just fine. So Network locations such as Windows Home Servers are in for “library locations”!

Either way – creating custom Libraries or adding folders to a Library are very easy.

These Libraries can easily be shared with other people on your Home network through a new network sharing feature in Windows 7 called HomeGroup.

In creating a HomeGroup I was also able to choose which Libraries I would like to share out to the HomeGroup.

A few things I discovered about HomeGroup when setting a HomeGroup up:

· In order to setup a HomeGroup, my PC’s Network Location needed to be set as “Home” in Network and Sharing Center. Just like in Windows Vista, a Network Location for networks your PC is connected to can be a Home network, Work network, or Public where Windows automatically applies certain settings to keep your PC safe (for example if you are on a Public network, Windows locks down your PC appropriately so you aren’t sharing important files with the world).

· If a HomeGroup had already been created on PC on this network – instead of asking me to create a HomeGroup, it would have asked me to join a HomeGroup and which Libraries I would like to share.

· There can be only 1 HomeGroup per Home network as far as I can tell and each HomeGroup is password-protected.

· Users on any Windows 7 PC) on my Home network can join the HomeGroup and are required to enter a password for that HomeGroup they are joining. This is great because if you have friends come over to your place – they can’t just jump on to your HomeGroup and access your stuff.

· Once a Windows 7 PC is joined to HomeGroup – any user on that Windows 7 PC can participate in HomeGroup. You can continue to access files from a User on a Windows 7 PC even if a different user is logged in to the PC.

So how does Personal Folders VS Public Folders tie in with HomeGroup?

I discovered that when sharing Libraries into my HomeGroup, the Public folders and Personal folders within the Libraries have different read/write permissions and are completely customizable.

In general, Public folders have read AND write permissions – meaning users in your HomeGroup can add and remove files to the folder.

Personal folders have read-only access. For files in your Personal folders within a Library – users in your HomeGroup can only view them – not edit, delete, etc.

To add a file to a Library being shared out via HomeGroup, all I needed to do was simply drag the file into the specific Library they want to add it to. That’s it. The file appears in that Library to everyone in the HomeGroup. But when I drag files to a Library someone is sharing in HomeGroup, the files are physically added to the “public” folder and not their “personal folder” (because of the permissions setup I mentioned above).

So let me give you a “real-world” example of how it works.

As you saw in the above screenshot, the user “Bruce Wayne” from the PC named MYUMPC was in my HomeGroup. I decide I want to add a photo to Bruce Wayne’s Photo Library. I dragged and dropped a photo onto his Photo Library. The photo appeared within that Library as it should. When Bruce Wayne checks out his Photo Library, he will see that photo I just added. However because of the read/write permissions of Personal and Public folders – the photo I *just* added to Bruce Wayne’s Photo Library actually sits physically within his Public Photos folder on his PC (the PC named MYUMPC).

Essentially PC users on your HomeGroup can add files to your Libraries but they physically sit in your Public folders on your PC and not your Personal folders. Your personal folders are preserved for only your important data. You don’t want people adding photos to your Personal Photos folder and messing up your photo collection – and the same with your music.

The way that Libraries are set up with the Personal and Public folders allows users to be in control of their personal data. You can choose to let folks in your HomeGroup view your data in your Personal folders within your Libraries or you can completely turn off access to your Personal folders all together giving only access to the Public folders within the Library.

With Windows 7’s new Libraries feature as well as the new HomeGroup feature – I discovered I am more easily in control of my data at the same time am able to easily share things out to people.

If we look at standard operational procedures, we would see most jobs and workloads relying so much on manual labor. But that was yesterday’s news. These days, we have seen the power of technology as some tasks have shown the latest injection of computers and systems to make jobs accurate and faster.

This is not to say that man cannot do routine work on his own. But the real competitive leverage these days is being fast and efficient. Apparently this has become the benchmark for companies to be at par with modern companies and also a means of getting them a step ahead. In the corporate world, you cannot afford to nap and if you do, chances are you will find yourself tailing other companies that are the frontrunners for success.

While the presence of a computer desktop may seem like a threat to most workers today, it should not. Computers are innovations and they are in now way present to take the place of hands-on labor. This is the wrong perception that most people put in their minds today. Rather than cooperate and enjoy the fruits of making their work easier, they make it harder by treating these fruits as banes to their livelihood.

This is crab mentality that many just cannot figure out. Rather than make life easier, they take at the influx of computers and gadgets as a step towards a different direction. So rather than enjoy and even look forward to gaining additional knowledge from these technology developments, they are showing that they have resistance and may even lose the opportunity to advance in knowledge and experience. In job requirements these days, you will notice that computer literacy is a must. Perhaps people should look at this chance as working to their advantage.

Hello IT Pros!

February 27 is a big day.  Windows Server 2008 will be officially launching in Los Angeles with Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, kicking off in just a few hours. 

In support of this very important technology milestone as well as the Windows Vista SP1 release, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team has just released the third-generation of the agent-less infrastructure assessment platform called Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0 (or simply MAP).  Through the use of remote WMI calls and secure inventory engines, the MAP tool enables you to quickly inventory a wide variety of networks (AD-managed, IP ranges, and workgroups), securely assess IT environments of servers, desktops, applications and devices, and auto-generate specific and actionable reports and proposal documents in a matter of hours.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE BLOG POST...

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD MICROSOFT ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING (RTM BITS)

Thank you,

Baldwin Ng (Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning)

Introducing Microsoft Assessment and Planning 3.0 

For those of you who are considering the migration of your desktop and server infrastructure to Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, we have good news for you!

As we’ve announced at TechEd IT Forum 2007 in Barcelona last November, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team is going to release the expanded version of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 called Microsoft Assessment and Planning 3.0 (aka MAP).

In short, MAP is an automated agent-less network-wide inventory and assessment tool that can quickly determine if your organization’s desktops and servers are ready for migration to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

What do I mean by AGENT-LESS inventory?  Simply put, it means that you do not need to launch any software agents on any of those machines you want this tool to inventory and query - so no more security concerns and user interruption!

It offers quick network-wide inventory of machines and generate hardware and device compatibility reports with actionable recommendations in the form of auto-generated proposal documents - perfect documentation for your IT project planning in the new fiscal year!

The best part is that you can use this tool to inventory your environments ONCE and get multiple assessments and reports for not just server and desktop migration, but also various virtualization options from Microsoft (see our Virtualization Day Summit blog post here)! 

How it Works? 

Through the use of a sophisticated, agent-less and network-wide inventory engine, Microsoft Assessment and Planning will be able to discover machines on your network whether they are in workgroups or managed AD environments.  By way of WMI, Win32, SNMP and other protocols, we can then securely collect hardware and device attributes of each machine and auto-generate migration readiness reports in Microsoft Word and Excel for the user. 

What a great way to help you jump-start your planning process when you know your manager is waiting for your IT project plans for the New Year!

What’s New with MAP 3.0? 

• Full incorporation of the features of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment including the generation of reports and proposals in 7 languages including N. American English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese
• Windows Server 2008 migration hardware assessment
• Windows server virtualization assessment (supports Virtual Server 2005 R2; will also add Hyper-V assessment in later this year)
• Application virtualization infrastructure assessment for Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid)
• New Graphical User Interface

Check it Out! 

• Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Beta Refresh today, give us your feedback, and see how you may get a free copy of Windows Vista software and more!
• Visit the MAP Team Blog to learn more or check out other great Solution Accelerators!
• Subscribe to the Windows Vista Team Blog & MAP Team Blog RSS feeds to make sure you’re the FIRST to know when MAP 3.0 will RTM (target date: February 27, 2008)
• Sign up to join our weekly Live Meetings and chat directly with our development team
• Download the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment - if you can’t wait for MAP RTM version (RTM on Feb 27)

See you next time!

Baldwin Ng - Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning + Virtualization Solution Accelerators