MDT 2013 Preview includes:
More information can be found here;
UE-V focuses on providing a personal and flexible experience for the end user, being simple and versatile for the IT Pro to enable what applications should have their settings roam, and be easily integrated and can scale through your existing tools and infrastructure. UE-V 2.0 continues to deliver on these focus area by:
Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). App-V enables anywhere access to virtualized applications on any authorized PC without application installs. Microsoft’s has a long history of providing flexible application virtualization with powerful management, and making the virtual application behave as if it was locally installed. App-V 5.0 SP2 builds on these solutions through the following new features:
More information can be found here;
Just back from TechED 2013 EMEA;
System Center 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012 R2
SQL Server 2014
Windows 8.1
Windows Azure Pack
The word most used is cadence; followed by rapid.
Improved import/export functionality
For those who create their own queries this is a real time-saver. We can now import from multiple XML files simultaneously only choosing the queries we wish to import from multiple query libraries or XML files.
Search Query Results
The existing feature allowing searching of queries in the library is now context aware meaning if you have a completed query in the query window, the search option searches that query. If you are in the library it searches the library and so on. This allows drilling down into existing query results without having to run a new query if all you want to do is narrow down existing result sets.
Input/Output Format Support
All LP 2.2 Input and Output formats contain preliminary support in LPS. Each format has its own property window containing all known LP 2.2 settings which can be modified to your liking.
Exchange Extensible Logging Support
Custom parser support was added for most all Exchange logs. These are covered by the EEL and EELX log formats included in LPS which cover Exchange logs from Exchange 2003 through Exchange 2013.
Query Logging
I can't tell you how many times myself or another engineer spent lots of time creating the perfect query for a particular issue we were troubleshooting, forgetting to save the query in the heat of the moment and losing all that work. No longer! We now have the capability to log every query that is executed to a text file (Query.log). What makes this so valuable is if you ran it, you can retrieve it.
Queries
There are now over 170 queries in the library including new sample queries for Exchange 2013.
If you are installing LPS for the first time you'll surely want to review the getting started series:
(Please note: An Office 365 subscription is required to use this app. )
Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your iPhone. You can access, view and edit your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.
KEY FEATURES:
Access documents from virtually anywhere:
* Cloud – Access Office documents that are stored on SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro, or SharePoint.
* Recent Documents – Office Mobile is cloud-connected. The documents you’ve recently viewed on your computer are readily available on your phone in the recent documents panel.
* Email Attachments – You can view and edit Office documents attached to email messages.
Office documents look stunning:
* Great-Looking Documents - Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents look great on your phone, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt Graphics, and shapes.
* Optimized for phone - Word, Excel and PowerPoint have been optimized for the small screen of your phone.
* Resume Reading - When opening a Word document from SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro on your phone, it automatically resumes at the place where you left off reading, even if you last viewed the document on your PC or tablet.
More information can be found here;
The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) is designed to help prevent hackers from gaining access to your system.
Software vulnerabilities and exploits have become an everyday part of life. Virtually every product has to deal with them and consequently, users are faced with a stream of security updates. For users who get attacked before the latest updates have been applied or who get attacked before an update is even available, the results can be devastating: malware, loss of PII, etc.
Security mitigation technologies are designed to make it more difficult for an attacker to exploit vulnerabilities in a given piece of software.
EMET allows users to manage these technologies on their system and provides several unique benefits:
No source code needed.
Highly configurable.
Helps harden legacy applications.
Ease of use.
Ease of deploy.
On-going improvement.
The toolkit includes several pseudo mitigation technologies aimed at disrupting current exploit techniques. These pseudo mitigations are not robust enough to stop future exploit techniques, but can help prevent users from being compromised by many of the exploits currently in use. The mitigations are also designed so that they can be easily updated as attackers start using new exploit techniques.
More information can be found here;
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Enhancements
Workplace Join
This feature allows a middle ground between all or nothing access, allowing a user to work on the device of their choice and still have access to corporate resources With Workplace Join, IT administrators now have the ability to offer finer-grained control to corporate resources. If a user registers their device, IT can grant some access while still enforcing some governance parameters on the device.
Work Folders
Work Folders allows a user to sync data to their device from their user folder located in the corporation’s data center. With Work Folders, Users can keep local copies of their work files on their devices, with automatic synchronization to your data center, and for access from other devices.
Mobile Device Management
When a user enrols their device, they are joining the device to the Windows Intune management service. They get access to the Company Portal which provides a consistent experience for access to their applications, data and to manage their own devices. This allows a deeper management experience with existing tools like Windows Intune.
Web Application Proxy
The Web Application Proxy is a new role service in the Windows Server Remote Access role. It provides the ability to publish access to corporate resources, and enforce multi-factor authentication as well as apply conditional access policies to verify both the user’s identity and the device they are using resources, and enforce multi-factor authentication as well as verify the device being used before access is granted.
RDS Enhancements
Session Shadowing allows administrators to view and remotely control active user sessions in an RDSH server. Disk dedupe and storage tiering allow for lower cost storage options. User experience for RemoteApps, network connectivity and multiple displays has been improved. End users will find RemoteApp behaviour is more like local apps, and the experience in low-bandwidth is better, with faster reconnects and improved compression, and support for multiple monitors.
NFC Tap-to-pair Printing
Tap your Windows 8.1 device against an enterprise NFC-enabled printer and you’re all set to print. No more hunting on your network for the correct printer and no need to buy a special printer to take advantage of this functionality. Simply attach an NFC tag to your existing printers to enable this functionality.
Wi-Fi Direct Printing
Connect to Wi-Fi Direct printers without adding additional drivers or software on your Windows 8.1 device, forming a peer-to-peer network between your device and the printer.
Native Miracast Wireless Display
Present your work wirelessly with no connection cords needed; just pair with a Miracast-enabled projector via NFC and Miracast will use Wi-Fi to let you project wire-free.
Mobility Enhancements
VPN
Increased support for a wider range of VPN clients in both Windows and Windows RT devices plus the ability to have an app automatically trigger VPN connections.
Mobile Broadband
Windows 8.1 supports embedded wireless radio, which gives you increased power savings, longer battery life, also enables thinner form factors and lower cost devices.
Windows To Go
The Windows Store is enabled by default. Windows To Go users may roam to any number of machines and access the Windows Store and use Windows Store apps.
Broadband Tethering
Turn your Windows 8.1 mobile broadband-enabled PC or tablet into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing other devices to connect and access the internet.
Security Enhancements
Remote Business Data Removal
Corporate data can now be identified as corporate vs. user, encrypted, and wiped on command using EAS or EAS + OMA-DM protocol. This capability requires implementation in the client application and in the server application (Mail + Exchange Server). The client application determines if the wipe simply makes the data inaccessible or actually deletes it.
Improved Biometrics
Authenticating with your biometric identity anywhere in Windows; optimized for fingerprint based biometrics and will include a common fingerprint enrolment experience that will work with a variety of readers. Modern readers are touch based rather than swipe and include liveliness detection that prevents spoofing.
Pervasive Device Encryption
Enabled out of the box and can be configured with additional BitLocker protection and management capability on the Pro and Enterprise SKUs. Consumer devices are automatically encrypted and protected when using a Microsoft account. Data on any Windows connected standby device is automatically protected (encrypted) with device encryption. Organizations that need to manage encryption can easily take add additional BitLocker protection options and manageability to these devices.
Improved Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 11 improvements include faster page load times, side-by-side browsing of your sites, enhanced pinned site notifications, and app settings like favourite's, tabs and settings sync across all your Windows 8.1 PCs.
Malware Resistance
Windows Defender now includes network behaviour monitoring to help detect and stop the execution of known and unknown malware.
Device Lockdown
Enable a single Windows Store application experience on the device.
Modern UI experience
Boot to Desktop
Boot directly to the desktop in Windows 8.1.
Desktop and Start Screen
Improvements for users who prefer a mouse and keyboard experience to access applications; plus the Start Button is back.
Check out the following at 55 minutes and 22 seconds;
Also, a sneak peek at Windows Server 2012 R2 “Start Button” 
Cisco Nexus 1000v for Hyper-V includes;
- VLANs with local PVLAN Enforcement
- Port Profiles
- Traffic Visibility
- Virtual machine networking based on Cisco NX-OS operating system
- Integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1
- Layer 2 Switching
Download available here;
TechED North America 2013 Key Note; nicely done Mr Anderson!
Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machines
- Virtual Machines will be legacy free and based on UEFI
- Boot from virtual SCSI controller and/or synthetic network adapters
- Secure Boot as standard
- Faster Virtual Machine boot times
- Supported guest operating systems are x64 Windows 8 / x64 Windows Server 2012 / x64 Windows 8.1 and x64 Windows Server 2012 R2.
Faster Live Migration
- Live Migration Compression of the host before it’s sent over the lan reduces the migration time by 50%.
- Live Migration with SMB Direct over high speed networks (RDMA) allows for faster live migrations.
Other new features are:
- Automatic Guest Virtual Machine Activation when the virtual machine is running inside an activated host running Windows Server 202 R2 Datacentre.
- Shared VHDX allows two virtual machines to share the same disk catering for guest clustering inside virtual machines without using iSCSI or virtual fibre adaptors.
- Linux Guest OS now supports dynamic memory and live backups.
- Hyper-V Replica 2.0 can replicate to a third Hyper-V host every 30 seconds / 5 minutes or every 15 minutes.
- Online resizing VHDX allowing the expansion and reduction of VHDX files while the virtual machine is running.
- Deduplication of Virtual Machines.
- Storage Quality of Service (QoS) can limit the IOPS per virtual machine
- Live Virtual Machine Cloning and Exporting
More information can be found here;
- Support Windows 8.1
- Manage Mobile Devices (BYOD) via Intune from SCCM
- Better management of iOS and Android devices
More information can be found here;
- Tiered Storage Spaces allows the mixing of SSD and traditional hard disks into a single storage space with "hot" blocks getting moved into SSD via the tiering algorithm.
- Windows PowerShell 4 and PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) extensions
- Work folders
- Workplace Join
More information can be found here;
The evolution of SQL Server;
- In-memory in the box enables breakthrough performance
- Delivering mission critical capabilities through new hybrid scenarios
- Unlocking real-time insights
More information can be found here;
Want to build a private cloud? Head over to Kevin Remde’s blog for more information and video series.
| Date | Title / Topic | Author |
| 1-Apr | Series Introduction - Build Your Private Cloud in a Month | Keith Mayer – @KeithMayer |
| 2-Apr |
Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (SP3) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2010 SP3 since the software was released.
Some issues that the update rollup resolves:
2750846 Information Store service crashes when you mount public folder databases on an Exchange Server 2010 server
2777742 Address Book service crashes on an Exchange Server 2010 Client Access server when a server has been running for 25 days or more
2782683 Email message that a user sends by using the "Send As" or "Send On Behalf" permission is saved only in the Sent Items folder of the sender in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
2803132 Delayed email message delivery on a BlackBerry mobile device after you install Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2
2806602 EdgeTransport.exe process crashes on an Exchange Server 2010 Hub Transport server
2822208 Unable to soft delete some messages after installing Exchange 2010 SP2 RU6 or SP3
Download SP3 UR1 here; KB and fixes can be found here.
As always please read the comments sections first!
