For those of you reading our newsletter, following our Twitter feed or blogs, you are aware that I the Springboard Series partnered with Microsoft Learning for the “Get On The Bus Tour” The goal was to bring information on Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, Exchange 2010 and Certification. So, I agreed to spend 5 days working, traveling and even sleeping on a bus.

I have to first start by stating what an amazing group of people I had the chance to work with. From Ken Rosen, Tjeerd Veninga, Liberty Munson, to Brad McCabe from the MDOP group and Ian Hameroff from the Exchange team. All true professionals who can go from speaking to an 18 yrs old to 80 yrs old attendee without missing a beat.

The bus tour during my week onboard visited Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, Vienna, Austria, Prague in the Czech Republic and then a final stop in Berlin where I am am now preparing for TechEd.

We spoke to IT pros in Amsterdam, made a visit to the local Dell office and ended the day with a event complete with a Oscar statues, a red carpet and real “American style” popcorn where Windows 7 was the main event. We spoke to groups of IT managers in Frankfurt (where I learned knocking on a table at the end is a good thing) and to a high school in Vienna were we spoke to around 100 students about Microsoft, technology and the career paths. It was amazing to see the excitement and enthusiasm around our technology.

We visited Munich were again much table knocking ensued and then on to Austria where we did sessions for our TDM (Technical Decision Makers) around the cost savings and benefits of the new products.

Finally, after a long nite and short sleep, we arrived in Prague where we spoke at the new football (soccer for our US readers) stadium for Slavia Praha where we got an great behind the scenes tour of the stadium.

Times are tough all around. So bringing this opportunity directly to the people who can best benefit from it was a great experience. The many questions and thanks I received from all
who attended really made the cold, the lack of sleep and the long days well worth the time spent.

Thank you again for all who attended our events. I have made some great new friends and have learned so much from all of you. I look forward to seeing some of you here in Berlin during my stay.

To see more photos and videos from the tour visit the Bus Tour site here.

Auf Wiedersehen for now.

Stephen

PS-

Also huge thanks to Melissa Bathium our tour coordinator, Bob Simms our contest winner and of course to Celine Allee and Janett Garcia-Riseland for sponsoring this amazing event.

Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2 is a stand-alone product that provides a reliable and optimized virtualization solution enabling organizations to...

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The Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 launches are just around the corner. As you prepare to deploy these operating systems, get a jump start with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Beta 2. Leverage this Solution Accelerator to achieve efficient, cost-effective deployment of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

MDT 2010 is the next version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. New features such as flexible driver management, optimized user interface workflow, and Windows PowerShell can simplify deployment and make your job easier. MDT 2010 will support deployment of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP. Join the beta now! 

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. MDT provides you with the following benefits:

• Unified tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance.
• Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management.
• Fully automated zero touch installation deployments by leveraging System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 beta and Windows deployment tools. For those without a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure, MDT leverages Windows deployment tools for lite touch installation deployments. 

New Functionality

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 2 is a significant upgrade over MDT 2010 Beta 1.  MDT 2010 Beta 2 adds the following new features and functionality:

Deployment Workbench Enhancements

• Manage multiple Deployment Shares from a single Deployment Workbench including local Deployment Shares or from a network location including standalone DFS shares
• Replicate content between Deployment Shares through "Linked Deployment Shares" and use selection profiles to manage what content gets replicated
• Multiple users can now interact with the same Deployment Share
• Create folders to manage Drivers, Task Sequences, Operating Systems, and OS Packages
• Drag-and-drop, copy-and-paste, and cut-and-paste between folders or between Deployment Shares

Powershell Capabilities

• Anything done from within the Deployment Workbench can be scripted through Powershell
• A drive provider has been added for enumerating folders, items, and properties
• Cmdlets can be used for importing content such as Drivers, Operating Systems, Task Sequences, etc.

Task Sequence and Script Enhancements

• Improved Diagnostics and Logging with more specific error messages
• Real time logging directly to a network share
• Enhanced log collection
• Two new task sequence templates (Capture Only, Post OS Installation)
• Pause and Resume a task sequence
• Automatically detect and fix domain join problems
• Improved user interface for client wizards
• Deploy to a specified disk or partition (Vista or later)
• Refresh Bitlocker encrypted systems to Windows 7 without decrypting the contents of the disk

Configuration Manager Enhancements

• Improved wizard for creating task sequences
• USMT 4.0 hard-link support

Next Steps

• Download the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 2 and give your feedback (Live ID login and registration required). If already a member, click here.
• Learn more about this toolkit by visiting MDT TechNet site