Microsoft has released a free tool called Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool which allows us to create a bootable USB of Windows 7 for installation on netbooks.

Using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Before you run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool, make sure that you have already purchased Windows 7 ISO download from Microsoft Store and have downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to your hard drive. If you have purchased Windows 7 but have not yet downloaded the ISO file, you can download the file from your Microsoft Store Account. [Jabez: If you purchased the boxed set, just create an ISO from the CD by using ImgBurn, and follow the steps below.]

To make a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file:

1. Click the Windows Start button, and click Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool in the All Programs list to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.
2. In the Source File box, type the name and path of your Windows 7 ISO file, or click Browse and select the file in the Open dialog box.
3. Select USB to create a copy on a USB flash drive or DVD to create a copy on a DVD disk, then click Next.
4. If you are copying the file to a USB flash drive, select your USB device in the dropdown list and click Begin copying. If you are copying the file up to a DVD, click Begin burning.

Source: Microsoft’s site.

With Windows 7 now available worldwide, I wanted to share some resources available to help IT Pros become more proficient with Windows 7 and consumers more savvy about new support resources for Windows 7.

Microsoft Learning has developed a wide range of training and resources for IT Pros that address the benefits and key technical aspects of Windows 7. With these resources, IT Pros can prepare for deployments and become Windows 7 experts within in their organization. These resources include:

• The Windows 7 Learning site with information, tools and resources to help people get up and running on Windows 7, such as Learning Snacks, Learning Plans, certifications currently available on Windows 7, and resources for classroom and online training. 
• The Career Campaign site that provides guidance, career paths, special offers and certifications for common IT job roles. Through Learning Plans and special offers, IT pros can train to get certified on Windows Server, Windows client technologies, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server. Individuals can chart their course from their current skill level to their desired job role and skill level, from beginner through experts, with clear guidance on classes, upgrades and newest releases, along with special offers that will help individuals meet their career goals.
• Special offers from Microsoft make it easier for individuals who are getting started in their careers, changing job roles or advancing within their organizations get the training they need.  This includes limited-time offers and discounts on training and certification, making it easier to embark on a career course, such as: discounts of up to 25% on certification exams, Career Packages that include classroom training, a Certification exam and a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (available through select Certified Partners for Learning Solutions) and discounts on e-Learning collections for self-paced study.
• Springboard Series on TechNet is a GREAT place for IT Pros to Discover & Explore, Pilot & Deploy and Manage Windows 7. Be sure to keep your eyes on the Springboard Series Blog too.

Since many IT Pros serve double-duty as the IT expert for their friends and family, there are support tools available in and around Windows 7 that make it easier for them to help consumers address their issues. Detailed on Microsoft’s PressPass site, these resources provide end-to-end Windows 7 support that includes built-in self-healing and support tools, easy-to-use automated and scripted solutions and customer support through new social media forums, including:

• Windows Update:  Automatically updates software to help prevent problems.
• Windows Action Center: includes more than 20 automated troubleshooters that fix more than 150 common problems.
• Scripted diagnostics and solutions: through Fix IT solve common software problems with the click of a button.
• Online Support: through Microsoft Answers provides peer to peer help, guidance from customer support experts and Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs).
• In the moment help:  through tweets to the @MicrosoftHelps Twitter account.
• Easier, more intuitive online resources such as the Windows Help and “How To” center and the solution centers available on support.microsoft.com .

For more information about the value of training and certification, and to keep up with new Windows 7 training resources, visit Born to Learn; and for more information about the consumer support resources available in Windows 7, please visit support.microsoft.com.

Special thanks to the folks at Microsoft Learning and Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) for reaching out to me and compiling these awesome resources to share with you today.

Now that Windows 7 is available, are you looking for some security baseline recommendations from the experts? Then here’s another timely release from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team! Today, new security baselines for Windows® 7 and Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 are available for download.

Over the past few months, the Solution Accelerators team collaborated with Microsoft security experts, multiple government agencies worldwide, and a large community of IT security professionals to develop and test these new security baselines.All of these baselines are free for you to use.

In case you are not familiar with all of the security baselines available for Microsoft products, they ship as part of the Security Compliance Management Toolkit (SCMT) Series. The SCMT helps you to plan, deploy, and monitor security baselines for Windows® operating systems, Internet Explorer, and 2007 Microsoft® Office applications. It contains background information about compliance, and planning advice about how to automate security compliance. It also refers you to other tools and guidance that you can use to establish and deploy a security baseline, and then monitor and maintain compliance with your established configuration.

Where do you start?

At a high level, security compliance consists of four basic steps:

1. Plan how to meet security baseline requirements.
2. Deploy security baseline configurations.
3. Monitor security baseline configurations.
4. Remediate security baseline configurations.

The tools, guidance, and recommendations in the SCMT help you through each step of this process and give you the support to make key decisions about security baseline settings for your specific environment.

Here’s what you get:

• Security guide – The toolkits include new and updated security guides for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Microsoft Office 2007 SP1, and Internet Explorer 8. The guidance provides you with best practices and automated tools to help you plan and deploy your security baselines.
• Attack Surface Reference workbook – A resource that lists the changes introduced as server roles are installed on computers running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.
• Security Baseline Settings workbook – A resource that lists all of the prescribed settings for each of the preconfigured security baselines that the guides recommend.
• Security Baseline XML – XML files that allow you to consume the data defined in the security baseline settings workbooks.
• GPOAccelerator tool – A tool that you can use to create all of the Group Policy objects (GPOs) you need to deploy your chosen security configuration. This release also supports creating security configurations on computers not joined to a domain.
• Baseline Compliance Management Overview – The overview discusses best practices on how to monitor security baselines for Windows operating systems, Office applications, and Internet Explorer 8.
• DCM Configuration Pack User Guide – A step-by-step prescriptive user guide about how to use Configurations Packs with the DCM feature in Configuration Manager 2007 R2.
• DCM Configuration Packs – Configuration Packs that provide prescriptive security information, which you can use to check the compliance of systems in your environment.

What should you do next?

• Learn more about the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series.
• Download the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series.
• Find other Windows 7 Solution Accelerators here: Windows Desktop Solution Accelerators.
• The Solution Accelerators team is developing a new tool called the Security Compliance Manager. It will help you manage your security and compliance process for the most widely used Microsoft technologies. Join the Beta review program and provide your feedback on the features you want most.
• Get all the step by step guides, whitepapers, how to’s and screen casts on deploying and managing Windows 7 in your environment from the Springboard Series on TechNet.