詠鉌のIT

For me, Vista is one of the failure from Longhorn series. Although the interface is quite impressive, but it require or I should said it utilize at least 30-40% resources from your PC or Laptop. In other words, it will slow down or cause hang/freeze when you run 3 or more 'resources-drained' application, such as Adobe Photoshop, PPS Player, Movie Editing software and etc. That is why I quickly change to Windows 7 when I heard most of the people said it is the 'improved-version' of Vista. I'm using it for more than a year, still I will giving 7 out 10 for it.


Microsoft had declare the end of sales and end of support as below. 


End of Sales Date: 

Many customer called and ask is there anyway to downgrade from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2003. Hereby I would like to say : "..It can be done!"

For Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Operating System, it have two different types of downgrade options:
    - Downgrade license (bundle with Windows Server 2008)
      When Windows Server 2008 launched for one quarter, Dell start not to upsell Windows Server 2003. Therefore, the Sales team introduce Windows Server 2008 with Downgrade license to Windows Server 2003. During the installation, the interface slightly different with the usual one, you will see extra options called: "Downgrade" is available to chose.

    - Downgrade media
      If your OEM Windows Server 2008 doesn't come with the downgradeable license (due to price different), you may contact your Sales Account Manager to request a Downgrade Media from Microsoft. Please note that this is not a new license, and it is chargeable.

Please refers to the below for further info from Microsoft.

From an OEM. From now until March 31, 2011, some OEMs may support fulfilling Windows Server 2003 R2 downgrades (includes Windows Server 2003 Web Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for Itanium-based Systems) to their customers. There are several options available. Contact your OEM to determine if it supports downgrade fulfillment. Please note that downgrade media is not a new license for Windows Server. It only enables a customer to install, activate and run an earlier version of Windows Server under a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 license.

• OEMs may provide their existing Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 customers one copy of downgrade Windows Server 2003 R2 media only if their customer requests it.

Some OEMs have pre-activated their software. In these cases, a customer would not need a product key or to activate over the internet or via the phone.For Windows Server 2008 R2 downgrade requests, end customers should fulfill downgrade requests through the Windows Server Downgrade Fulfillment site.

After the previous post: How to install Microsoft Hyper-V in Dell 11th Generation server? , I received few enquiry on where to download Dell System Management Tools and Documentation (SMTD).


Please follow the steps below to prepare the SMTD v6.4:

1. Download both ISO from below:

Image 1: OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001 Image 2: OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 

copy /b OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001+OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 OM_640_SMTD_A00.iso

cat OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001 OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 > OM_640_SMTD_A00.iso

Yesterday, a visitor named Syedz inquiry how to install Hyper-V in R710. I thought I can reply him through email, but I didn't receive any email afterwards. In case you re-visit my site, here is the steps you required.

Steps

1. Install your Windows Server 2008 with Dell System Management Tools & Documentation
2. After that, boot with the Windows Server 2008 media.
3. In the Setup Wizard, click the language you want to use during the installation.
4. Next, select the language to be installed, along with the time and currency formats and the keyboard layour, and then click Next.
5. Click Install Now, and then accept the license terms
6. In the next screen, specify the location where you wan Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 to be installed, and then click Next.
7. During the installation, server will restart several times. When the installation is complete, you will prompt for Administrator account setup. Click Ok.
8. Give a strong password for the Administrator account, confirm, then press ENTER.
9. When you see the message "Your password has been changed", click Ok.

Recently I've done some review to few hard disk which configured with hardware RAID related cases, found that most of the hard disk replacement that lead to OS 'crash' is due to the server did gone through ChkDsk, either trigger by user or start automatically.
I do not know why until I found this article with the below statements:

"....Chkdsk is not RAID-aware. Its algorithms only work in the simplest cases. In general, it must be avoided. If chkdsk attempts to repair one or more member disks, the RAID data patterns will be destroyed, usually beyond recovery."

Didn't expect Microsoft do have this kind of sharing at their site: Free resume template for download. For those who need to update their resume, especially the graduates, this is a very good example to come out with a simple, informative resume.

Hurry, grab one of it from Microsoft today! It is FREE.... :-)

#1

Windows Server 2008 already in the market for more than two years, but some of the Server Administrators still not familiar to it, as Windows Server 2003 still perform well in most of the companies nowadays.


The most common question asked by a Server Administrator during the Windows Server 2008 implementation is as below:

"...After Windows Server 2008 installation completed, it will ask to log in with a password, but I can't find any default password from the DVDs case.." 

On and off, I still received calls that customer still request support or escalation to Microsoft for Windows 2000. I remember few weeks ago, a Singaporean request support for this Operating System (OS), even though result from the troubleshooting shows that the issue from the OS but not hardware. Furthermore, his server already out-of-warranty but still requesting the support with the arrogant tone.

Finally I have a little time to clean my personal email - Hotmail. I'm did not read the email one by one before I click 'Delete' button, because there are too many spam emails flood the mailbox everyday. However, I'll have a quick look to the email subject before I send them into the dustbin. 
Didn't know why, a subject with "Your Windows Live Space will close on 16 March" attract me to read further. That's how I discover this notification email from Microsoft.

Dear Windows Live Spaces customer, 

You are receiving this note as a follow-up to our communications notifying you that Windows Live Spaces will soon close. If you haven't taken an action yet, please read on to learn how to preserve the content of your space. On March 16th, 2011 your space will be closed. However, you can still preserve the content of your space if you take action now. 

We are collaborating with a premier and innovative blogging service, WordPress.com, to enable Windows Live customers to migrate their Windows Live Spaces blog to WordPress.com where you will get a number of enhancements to your blogging experience. We'll help you migrate your current blog to WordPress.com or download it to save for later. On March 16th, 2011 your current space will be closed and you will no longer have access to the content on your space unless you take action. Click here to begin the migration of your space. 

With the new release of Windows Live services, we've made a series of changes and improvements across the products. We chose to partner with WordPress.com to provide Windows Live users with a fantastic blogging solution. However, we realize they will have an impact on you, so the information in this email aims to clarify what to expect. We thank you for your continued support of Windows Live.

When you visit your space you'll have the following options: 

i)   Upgrade your blog by migrating to WordPress.com - We will provide a simple way to move your blog posts and comments to WordPress.com. 

ii)  Download your blog – You can download your old posts to keep a copy with you. You can also do this and then migrate to WordPress.com. 

iii) Delete your space - If you decide that you do not want to have a space anymore, you have the option to delete it permanently. If you want to save your content, please make sure to do that before deleting your space. 

iv)  Review your blog – Soon your space will close but you still have some time to review your blog and make a decision that's right for you. We're very excited about what you can do on WordPress.com and hope you'll decide to take advantage of this improved blogging experience.

Windows 7, one of my favorite Operating System after Windows XP. Not only come with the impressive user-friendly interface, but also with the very good stability. At least, it is able to run smoothly with only 2GB system memory; this is the main reason I switch from Windows Vista to Windows 7, due to 4GB system memory just enough to support Vista without any other complex applications such as Adobe Photoshop is running.