Monday, November 30, 2009

Image-based Installations with Windows Imaging Format

Another helpful post from Petri!

Image-based Installations with Windows Imaging Format: "

Image-based deployments of Windows 7 and prior desktop operating systems like XP Profession and Windows Vista are done to streamline the roll out process and to better allow small to large businesses as well as OEM manufactures the ability to quickly build and deploy their systems in an assembly line fashion.


After installing an operating system on reference system and setting it up with specific settings and configuring other applications they would leverage an imaging solution to capture an image based on a sector-by-sector copy of the reference computer.


Petri Recommended: Update to the Latest Vista Drivers

Vista's performance can be improved dramatically by installing the latest Vista-Certified hardware drivers. PC hardware manufacturers release new, improved Vista drivers continually: New versions are probably available for your PC right now.



Petri IT Knowledgebase Team

>> Download Driver Genius Pro: Our recommended Vista driver update scanner (5.1Mb)

Sector-by-sector copying can be effective in only so many scenarios and has a number of limitations.


Imaging systems with tools available in Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 that leverage image-based installations allow for easier initial setup, overall system deployment, and an improvement to image storage and management.


WIM Overview


Windows Imaging format, referred to as WIM, is a file-based disk image first introduced around the release of Windows Vista. Windows 7 installations use this image file as well.


[NOTES FROM THE FIELD] Imaging systems has been around a long time and for many iterations of Windows operating systems; Windows Vista was the first desktop operating system to leverage the WIM format.


When installing Windows 7 right off of the DVD you are booting the system from a boot image (boot.wim) which is the bootable version of Windows PE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) and this is the installation environment in which the installation routine runs for the operating system install.


You are no longer doing file based installations as you did with Windows XP and prior operating systems; when you are running the Windows 7 installation you are applying an image to the hard disk from the DVD - install.wim.


image based install 0001


One of the benefits of using the WIM image is that it allows for compression and single instancing which is where multiple images share a single copy of files that are common between the instances.


As you can see in the image above - there is one install image file; that is effectively Windows 7 Ultimate. If you have the correct product key that allows for the deployment of everything (which is effectively what Ultimate Edition is) then the entire image is deployed.


All of the other editions of Windows 7 are a subset of that image in that they install parts but not ALL of the parts of Windows Ultimate Edition.


When the installation routine runs it will deploy against the complete image of Windows Ultimate and lay down the selected version of Windows (as an example Windows 7 Home Premium) and only install those supported parts of that edition of Windows from the total image file.


That single image allows for all the installation options on one DVD.


Benefits of Leveraging WIM


There are a number of additional benefits in leveraging the Windows Imaging format over sector-by-sector copying.


Some highlights:



  • One WIM file can address different hardware configurations as there is no requirement as in a sector-by-sector copy installs that the destination hardware match the source hardware

  • WIM can store multiple images within a single file as described above in the install.wim of the base operating system; the same can be done for custom *.wim files created by system admins.

  • When you store multiple images within a single file you can do this as just part of a core build for desktop deployments or with the use of Catalog (CLG) files that allow for the option to set up multiple applications to be deployed as part of the operating system build

  • You can service the WIM image offline from its stored location and add or remove certain operating system components, files, updates, and drivers without creating a new image.

  • Windows Imaging format has the flexibility to install a disk image on partitions of any size. Sector-by-sector images require deployments of an image to a partition that is the same size or larger than the source disk.

  • WIMGAPI is the Windows Imaging API that developers can use to manage WIM image files.

  • WIM deployments can be performed nondestructively. Data can be on the existing volume and the image can be deployed without erasing the existing contents of the volume.


WIMGAPI Tool Overview for Windows Image Deployment


The WIMGAPI is the Windows Imaging Application Program Interface that developers can use to manage .wim files.


Developers are able to use WIMGAPI to mount existing WIM files to a folder in order to revise the contents or adding or remove files or settings from the image and then returning the image (unmount) from the folder.


WIMGAPI can also be used to partition a hard drive and format the volumes ahead of dropping the WIM onto the system as part of the installation being executed.








There is an Install-WindowsImage Powershell script that uses the wimgapi.dll in Windows 7 to apply a WIM to a VHD and there is a white paper on the Microsoft website titled Using Install-WindowsImage to apply a Windows Image to a VHD that has a plethora of details on leveraging it.


ImageX is a command-line tool that mirrors much of the WIMGAPI functionality and I will review some of the additional features of ImageX in a future article in a little additional detail.


In this tutorial we reviewed the highlights and information of the WIM file format and some of the benefits leveraging WIM. We finished up with an overview review of the WIMGAPI Tool that developers use to mange existing WIM files.


Thanks for investing your time in my Windows 7 Image Based Installation - Introduction to Windows Imaging Format article.


I am always looking forward to any feedback you have on this or any of the articles I have written so feel free to offer your feedback.


Additionally, I would welcome any suggestions topics of interest that you would like to see and based on demand and column space I’ll do what I can to deliver them to you.




"



(Via Petri IT Knowledgebase.)

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Guide: How to recover your Windows Administrator password

Guide: How to recover your Windows Administrator password: "

Most operating systems have restricted user accounts for everyday use and one administrator account that has full functionality, which is only used for system maintenance and software installation.

This makes for a more secure system, because malware on a restricted account can't cause nearly as much trouble.

Windows is usually run in admin mode, but if you're a security conscious person and you usually run a restricted account, there's a chance you could forget your admin password because it's so rarely used.

Ophcrack can help in this situation. All Windows passwords are encrypted for security purposes, so getting into an account where you've forgotten the password is nigh-on impossible without outside help. In order to recover your password, Ophcrack cracks your Windows passwords using a huge table of data (over 600MB).

However, it's OS specific, so if you want to recover Vista passwords, you'll need to download the table for that version of Windows.

A password saviour

Ophcrack comes in two handy flavours: a Windows version and a Live Disc variant that runs in the place of Windows. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

The Windows version enables you to store as many tables as you want and use them to recover passwords from almost any version of the OS.

The Ophcrack Live Disc is useful if you're completely locked out of your machine because it enables you to boot straight into the application and find that forgotten password without needing access to Windows itself. Burn just one disc and you'll always be able to get into Windows.

1. Get the password data

Ophcrack needs the encrypted password – its hash data – to decode it into the actual passphrase, so click Load > Local SAM.

Step 1

2. Activate the table

Now you need to select a rainbow table. Click Install and navigate to the right one. Ensure the table you need is activated with the green button.

Step 2

3. Crack the password

Click Crack to start the process, but be prepared to wait a bit. Eventually, the lost password should be displayed in the NT Pwd column.

Step 3



"



(Via TechRadar: All latest feeds.)

Friday, November 27, 2009

In Depth: How to make your old PC perform like new again

In Depth: How to make your old PC perform like new again: "

Not everyone wants to buy a new PC every couple of years. Just because your PC no longer sits at the cutting edge of the technological spectrum doesn't mean you need to replace it to get great performance.

Your PC is just as useful now as it was when you first purchased it and with a few handy tips and tricks, you can keep it that way for a long time – saving yourself some money in the process.

There are three broad techniques you can use to extend the life of your PC: maintenance, repairs and upgrades. The only one that doesn't cost any money is maintenance and if you follow our advice you can not only make your PC as speedy as it was when you bought it, you can even improve its performance, making a new purchase unnecessary.

Look after your PC

Maintenance is the key area to consider when it comes to giving your PC a long life. If your computer suddenly feels sluggish, that's because Windows needs reviving with a good spring clean. You could perform a full reinstall but before going down that time-consuming route, try to see if your current installation can be improved with a little care and attention.

Start by running a full security scan to remove malicious software (malware) that affects performance, threatens your privacy and can mess up your PC. Also run scans using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware, which can find and remove threats that other tools miss.

Once your computer is free from malware, it's time to give it a thorough health check. Windows Vista (and Windows 7) has numerous tools that can help you assess the health of your PC.

All of the following utilities can be found by typing their names into the Search box on the Start menu, so you could begin by typing problem to access the Problem Reports and Solutions control panel, for example.

Problems

Every time a program crashes or Vista encounters a problem, it offers to send information to Microsoft, in case there's a solution. If there is, you're given the opportunity to fix your problem there and then. If not, a record is kept and stored here, and if a solution is found at a later date, you can access it from here. Check back regularly for new solutions to both current and old problems.

Streamline your PC

Over time, your PC starts to struggle with the load placed on it when you install new programs, but there are ways to reclaim hard drive space and system resources.

Start by going through the Programs and Features Control Panel, uninstalling programs you no longer need (or use Revo Uninstaller if you want to really cut back the flab).

Next, install CCleaner and use it to clear your hard drive of redundant files, and finally defragment your hard drive. Smart Defrag, stops your hard drive becoming fragmented in the first place.

CCCleaner

Check reliability

Do you want a quick view of your PC's health and stability? Type reliability into the Search box to access the Reliability and Performance Monitor. Select Reliability Monitor and you can see how your PC rates over a period of time for dependability, with a score from one to 10. Any problems will be flagged.

You can also generate a report of your PC's health by typing performance into the Search box to access Performance Information and Tools. Once it's open, click Advanced Tools > Generate a system health report to flag up any problems.

Reliability

Get more details about potential problems by reviewing your event logs. These can flag up issues and may be able to offer advice on fixing them. These logs are stored in the Event Viewer – type event into the Search box to access it.

Once it has launched, select a log from the Windows Log menu – start with System – and wait for a list of events to appear. Every major event is recorded in its default view, so click Filter current log and select Critical, Error and Warning before clicking OK to leave only potential problems flagged.

Click or double-click on an event to learn more about it – you'll get more information and possibly a link to more help and a solution. Make a note of error numbers and filenames if you need to research them further.

Stay up to date

Another way to keep Windows Vista and other programs ticking over correctly is to ensure they're up to date.

Automatic Updates should be switched on – click Start > All Programs > Windows Update to verify this and to see what optional updates are available, including hardware patches that can improve your PC's performance and fix bugs.

If you have other Microsoft software and hardware installed – including Microsoft Office – Windows Update and Automatic Updates can provide updates for these, too. Other programs can check for updates as well; some do this automatically, whereas others need to be prompted (look in the Help or About menu).

One of the best free programs for alerting you to updates is Update Notifier, which is small, fast and can be run from a USB flash drive.

It's always a good idea to check your hardware components now and again to make sure they're all working as they should. The Windows Vista installation disc features a memory-checking tool, which is accessible when you select the Repair option. If you don't have this, you can download the same tool from here.

Extend the life of your laptop battery

If you usually run your laptop from the mains, train yourself to run it on its battery for two to three hours every week – this helps it last longer.

You can also extend the life of your battery by being more conservative with your power requirements when it's in use; start by opening the Windows Mobility Center from Start > All Programs > Accessories and reduce power consumption through the various options on offer.

Disable wireless when it's not needed, avoid using the DVD drive when your laptop is running on batteries and disconnect all non-essential USB devices to further eke out the time between battery charges.

Get smart with your drive

Hard drives have a collection of built-in features, known collectively as SMART tools, which are designed to provide an early warning when your drive is approaching the end of its life. You can install a free tool such as HD Tune to find out about these problems even earlier, enabling you to back up your data or source a replacement hard drive well ahead of time.

HD sentinel

If you want to keep an eye on the health of any external hard drives as well as your internal ones, try downloading HD Sentinel. A limited version of the software is available free of charge, but it gives you regular prompts about purchasing a full version.

These two programs alert you to possible physical problems with your PC, but there can be less critical issues in the form of corrupt files (caused by crashes), which hamper performance as well as stability. Get into the habit of checking your hard drive for these problems once a month.

Click Start > Computer, right-click on your hard drive and choose the Properties > Tools tab. Click the Check now button, tick both boxes and then select Start. If prompted, click Yes.

Windows Vista will then check the drive and attempt to fix any errors it finds the next time you restart your PC.

You can check other components with a series of stress tests, which highlight weak points. Passmark provides a fully functional 30-day trial of its BurnInTest tool. The full version costs US$34 if you want to keep testing your PC once the trial period has ended.

Passmark

Start your PC quicker

Ever noticed how sluggish your PC's performance is when it first starts, even after the desktop has appeared? That's because too many programs are competing for system resources as they attempt to load along with Windows Vista.

You can use the free Startup Delayer program from here to help stop any unwanted programs from the startup.

First, disable any programs you don't need by unticking them, so they don't waste time and resources by starting with Windows – once you've ascertained they're not needed, select the program and click Delete to remove its start-up entry permanently.

You can also stagger the loading of other start-up programs so they don't all make a grab for system resources the moment you log on. Just right-click each program you identify in turn, then choose Edit and set a delay in minutes and seconds.

Delay startup

Start with a one-minute delay, then, if performance is still hampered, try delaying it further.

Trimming your list of start up programs frees up memory and reduces the time it takes Windows Vista to deliver you a usable computer, while giving your PC a good clearout and defragmenting the hard drive can also deliver more speed.

By the time you've followed all of our advice, you should have a faster, more responsive PC. What was that about having to buy a new machine again?



"



(Via TechRadar: All latest feeds.)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Sonoma County Movies

Just came across this list of movies filmed in Sonoma County.

Store photos outside of iPhoto's library

Handy tip if you don't want iPhoto to do all the file management of your photos.

Store photos outside of iPhoto's library: "Despite its powerful cataloging tools and easy-to-use editing features, many users are still nervous about committing their photo library to iPhoto. The program's approach to storing images feels a little like the photography version of Hotel California: your pictures check-in, but they can never leave. That may be fine if you don't often venture beyond iPhoto's borders; but what if you want to take advantage of the advanced image-adjustment tools in programs such as Aperture or Lightrooom?"



(Via Computerworld Breaking News.)

10 things you can do to keep Exchange running smoothly

10 things you can do to keep Exchange running smoothly: "

Microsoft Exchange is a complex and powerful platform - and a highly critical system for many organizations. These tips will help you stay ahead of problems and optimize performance.





Microsoft Exchange servers are among the most critical systems IT professionals administer. While many organizations can make do by implementing temporary workarounds for different failed processes, email and calendaring aren’t among them. If you support Exchange servers, review these 10 steps to keep Exchange running smoothly.


Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.


1: Create proper backups


Ensure good backups are in place. Exchange, due to its continuous transaction logging and multiple storage group nature, is among the more difficult platforms to properly back up.


Be sure to deploy an Exchange-aware backup mechanism. Exchange-aware backups know how to work with Exchange’s transaction logs to properly back up store databases and transaction log files. In addition, Exchange-aware backup operations delete log files after backing up appropriate data, which prevent slog files from filling hard disks.


Once an Exchange-aware backup is deployed, and you’re confident System State backup operations are completing properly, disable Exchange’s circular logging feature. Circular logging is enabled by default on Small Business Server 2008 servers. However, configuring the SBS Backup Wizard disables circular logging, as the SBS Backup Wizard is Exchange-aware and backs up Exchange stores and processes log files as required.


Organizations leveraging Local Continuous Replication (LCR), which enables copying the Exchange database automatically to another volume to aid in disaster recovery, must be particularly careful backing up Exchange data. Windows’ native backup utility does not support backing up Exchange stores when LCR is in use. Instead, a third-party Exchange-aware backup application must be used. Microsoft notes the limitations of Windows Backup when backing up Exchange 2007 data.


2: Run Microsoft’s Exchange Best Practices Analyzer


The Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer utility, also known as ExBPA, assists administrators in gauging the overall health and configuration of Exchange servers. The utility collects information from Active Directory, the registry, performance monitor, and other locations before presenting recommendations for repair and improvement.


Administrators should run the tool immediately upon deploying a new Exchange server. It’s also a good idea to periodically run the ExBPA when performing routine Exchange maintenance, as the utility helps spot non-default operating parameters and identifies configuration issues that could adversely affect the email server’s performance.


3: Review defragmentation operations


Exchange servers include default online maintenance operations, which are typically scheduled during off hours. Among the tasks the automated maintenance operations perform are transaction log management and database integrity checks and defragmentation.


When database checks begin, Exchange notes the event using ID 700 within application log files. When full online defragmentation passes complete within allotted time, Event ID 701 is recorded. If a full online defragmentation is interrupted, such as by a backup operation, Event ID 704 is recorded. When interrupted maintenance operations ultimately complete, Event ID 703 is written within the server’s application log.


Administrators should regularly review the server’s event logs to confirm that these operations are completing without error. While failures typically appear within daily performance reports, manually reviewing these records helps ensure failures are not overlooked.


4: Confirm storage requirements


A common error I’ve frequently inherited as an IT consultant is a failure to properly size disk partitions housing Exchange stores. When volumes exhaust available disk space, Exchange cannot store additional mail. This often turns into a critical issue for small and medium businesses.


The best defense is proper planning. The Microsoft Exchange Team Blog maintains a complex (six-part) worksheet you can use to calculate proper storage requirements. You can download the actual calculator spreadsheet from the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog, aka ‘you had me at EHLO.’


How do you know if you are headed for trouble? Other than trends indicating that available free space is decreasing unacceptably due to mail storage, Microsoft warns against average read and write latencies exceeding 20 milliseconds and sustained latency spikes that exceed 50 milliseconds for even a few seconds. Multiple high-performance disk spindles, and aligned disk partitions, are recommended best practices.


5: Review mailbox quotas


It’s an easy trap to fall into. You’re busy recovering a failed Web server when a director calls. Having bumped up against his Exchange mailbox quota, the user can no longer send/receive email, and he’s on deadline for an important project. So you log on to the server and temporarily remove the director’s mailbox size restrictions.


Ever have that happen? Maybe a couple of times a year? Then what happens when you finally get a chance, 10 months later, to review those users’ mailboxes? If you’re like me, you’ve seen a few of their accounts grow to 6 gigabytes or more.


Police user mailbox sizes. Just because mailbox quotas are in place doesn’t mean you or another administrator didn’t make changes to buy time — and then forgot. Make sure all user mailboxes are sized within reason (typically 2GB or less). While newer Exchange releases perform much better when supporting larger mailboxes, huge accounts are still recipes for disaster.


6: Implement mailbox quotas


Maybe mailbox quotas were disabled or never configured. That’s easy to fix; enable mailbox restrictions.


Default limits are easily set. Just open the Exchange Management Console, expand Server, choose the Mailbox container, select the Mailbox Database within the First Storage Group, and open its Properties. Click the Limits tab and configure the storage limits (in KB) you want to use as universal defaults.


What restrictions should you set? Windows Small Business Server 2008, which includes Microsoft Exchange 2007, sets default mailbox sizes of 2.3GB for each user. Warnings are set to trigger whenever a user’s mailbox reaches 1.9GB. Sending is prohibited when the mailbox reaches 2GB. Larger organizations may want to configure maximum mailbox sizes of just a few hundred megabytes for their users.


7: Tune virtual memory configurations


Few services are as memory hungry as Exchange. This is true whether running Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007.


When configuring page file settings for Exchange 2007, Microsoft’s rule of thumb is to use the amount of RAM times 1.5, if the server has less than 8GB of memory. But if an Exchange 2008 server has more than 8GM of RAM, the rule changes to the amount of memory plus 10MB.


On older 32-bit Exchange 2003 servers, all administrators can do is employ the /3GB switch, when appropriate. First, the server must have more than 1GB of RAM. But the switch should not be employed on certain server configurations, including front-ends, dedicated bridgeheads, and domain controllers that also host Exchange services. Microsoft provides a number of other rules and recommendations dictating the /3GB switch on its Web site.


8: Review SMTP logs and queues


Often, SMTP logs and queues hold the key to solving messaging failures. But monitoring and reviewing SMTP logs and queues can also help administrators keep tabs on an Exchange server’s performance.


All mail, ultimately, is transported through Exchange’s SMTP queues. If problems occur, the messages become stuck in the queue. Microsoft lists queue names, descriptions, and error causes on its Web site. It also provides simple steps for enabling and understanding SMTP.log files. Regularly reviewing SMTP logs can help administrators better understand their Exchange server and isolate trouble when issues do arise.


9: Defragment database stores using Eseutil


Not necessarily for the faint of heart, Eseutil is Microsoft’s utility for manually defragmenting Exchange information stores and directories offline, going all the way back to Exchange version 5.5. The utility should not be used before first creating and verifying an Exchange backup.


Defragmenting an Exchange store typically improves performance by contiguously locating storage data, eliminating unused storage, and compacting the Exchange database. I’ve even seen Eseutil recover failed or corrupted Exchange stores on Small Business Servers.


Running the Eseutil command with the /c switch performs a restore operation, while running the command with the /d switch instructs the system to defragment the .edb database and leave the new defragmented database in a temporary location without overwriting the original database. Using the /d switch with the /p switch adds repair operation. Running the command with the /g switch simply verifies the logical integrity of the Exchange database. Numerous other switches are available, and you can research them online.


10: Check Exchange-compatible antivirus and anti-spam tools for errors


Administrators often make the mistake of installing Exchange-aware antivirus and anti-spyware tools on an Exchange server and then leaving them be. Frequently, I see third-party antivirus and anti-spyware applications in need of updates or even upgrades that require first uninstalling the existing version.


Unless you regularly review Exchange server antivirus and anti-spyware application logs to ensure that the security software isn’t having trouble (failing to update, unable to perform scans, real-time engine disabled, stalled trying to remove an infection, or otherwise corrupted), the Exchange server’s performance could be at risk.


Summary


Microsoft Exchange is a critical, complex, and powerful platform. While its complexity makes it intimidating to some, smart and diligent maintenance helps forward-thinking administrators prevent anxiety-provoking outages.





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"



(Via 10 Things.)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Guide: How to fix Windows Update

Haven't tried it yet, but thanks again to TechRadar!

Guide: How to fix Windows Update: "

What can I say about Windows Update? It makes me feel warm and fuzzy to knowing that Bill Gates has personally been plucking away on his computer just for me.

Actually I'm thinking what hole in the dam of security flaws are they trying to plug this time around?

Anyway, it's a process we all need to endure and it's a fairly painless weekly interruption in the grand scheme of things.

That said it is possible for Windows Update to break, which prevents a single update from completing. This can then stop new updates being downloaded, leaving your system vulnerable to exploits.

Often such errors are a result of a breakdown in communication between your PC and the Windows Update service. Thankfully there's a simple trick to get things rolling again.

Hold down the Windows key and hit 'r' to bring up the Run command box. Type 'regsvr32 jscript', then 'regsvr32 vbscript', and finally 'regsvr32 /i mshtml', making sure to select 'OK' each time.

Restart your PC and it should now update.

Another common problem is due to updates not installing properly. There's no definitive answer here, although the most likely reason is that existing files or settings are blocking updates.

If updates are showing up as 'failed' in Windows Update, use CCleaner to clean your Temp folder and Registry files, and then try again. If you still can't install updates then you can try tricking Vista's management system. We've detailed how to do this a little further down the page.

The most infuriating part of using Windows Update is trying to troubleshoot poblems, as all errors are obscure codes. There's no 'Time and date settings are incorrect' error (a common problem if your clock isn't set), instead you get an unfathomable series of numbers that you'll have to figure everything out for yourself.

However, there's help to be had - check out the comprehensive list here along with some common solutions available here.

How to trick Vista

If your Windows Update woes still haven't been fixed by following the instructions to the left, then it's time to seek out the big guns to solve your problems.

Fortunately, it's a pretty straight forward procedure and only takes a few simple steps. First things first, to complete this hack you temporally need to disable a running service.

1. Right-click 'Computer' in the Start menu and select 'Manage', then in the Services screen find Cryptographic Service and click 'Stop'. This service will restart as normal after a reboot.

Step 1

2. Next, we need to dig around the System folder, which is generally an area you want to leave alone as that's where the Windows operating system lives. It's easy to kill the operating system if you start rummaging around carelessly, moving and deleting items within, so show care here please.

However for this purpose it's required to make a small change. Go to C:\Windows\System32\ and rename the 'Catroot2' folder to something like 'Catroot2old'. The Catroot2 folder is used as part of the Windows update process and can sometimes become corrupt. Once you've done reboot your PC.

Step 2

3. Now, hold your breath and attempt to perform a Windows update and the interrupting update failure you've been experiencing should now be solved and updates should resume as normal.

Step 3

Since the Catroot folder no longer exists, Vista will just go ahead and make a new one – thereby tricking the updates into installing. You may also at this point locate the renamed Catroot2 folder and delete it to recover the valuable hard drive space.



"



(Via TechRadar: All latest feeds.)

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Office for Mac Videos

I just noticed that Microsoft now offers many of the lynda.com videos for free on their Mac site. Lynda.com makes some outstanding video series for learning software, be it Windows or Mac, and dozens of applications. Great free resource.

Some Handy free Windows Utilities

Seems like there are lots of these lately, but much of that is due to a new OS coming out. Good summary by Computerworld.

Online Backups for Home Users

Lifehacker posted a nice summary of several online data storage/backup services. For home users, this is highly advisable, particularly for those who have digitized their documents, photos, or any other irreplaceable data.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

In Depth: Hands on: Office 2010 review

Sounds like the main user complaint about Office 2007 that I heard about has been addressed with a compromise in the UI--the 'Ribbon.' It appears that MS came up with a compromise by keeping the Ribbon and returning the traditional 'File' and alt keyboard functions.

I need to see about downloading a beta now!


In Depth: Hands on: Office 2010 review: "

Office 2010 is due in a few months, but the beta release is available now. It has interface changes, bug fixes, one secret new feature – and although it's still a long way from being finished, it shows much more clearly than the technical preview what you'll be waiting for.

Like Windows 7, the Office line-up has gone on a diet; instead of six different versions, there are just three (for home users).

Office Home and Student 2007 sold a copy on Amazon every 90 seconds at its peak last year; the 2010 version has the same apps (Word, Excel, PowerPointand the under-rated OneNote) and the new Home and Business version has those apps, plus Outlook.

Office Professional 2010 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher. There's a free version of Office that you'll only get on new PCs called Office Starter. This replaces the ageing Microsoft Works and gives you versions of Excel and Word without all the business features, plus a small ad for Office on the task pane (that doesn't go away).

Microsoft office 2010

NEW ICONS: Office 2010 intros a new interface, new icons – and a secret new feature in Outlook

There are also new ways of buying Office; you can buy a 'product card' with a licence key to unlock a trial copy of Office on a new PC (particularly useful for PCs with no optical drive) or you can install a streamed version called Click-to-Run.

We tested the business version, Office Professional Plus 2010 which has Access, Excel, SharePoint Workspace (the Groove replacement with added SharePoint features), OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word and InfoPath (Visio and Project are still separate apps).

Some of the changes from the technical preview are small; others are more significant.

Microsoft office 2010

HOME AND PRO: The beta is the full Office Professional Plus version, but most home users will want Office Home and Student, Office Home and Business – or the free Office Starter on new PCs

We also looked at the Windows Mobile apps, and the business versions of the Office Web apps.

The Windows Live Office Web apps aren't in the beta but Microsoft tells us that the Excel and PowerPoint Web apps available now are feature complete and the Word and OneNote Web apps will have the same functionality as the business versions.

The rest of the web apps will be finished with the rest of Office 2010, in the first half of next year.

Hands on: Word 2010 review

The look of the beta apps is subtly different from the technical preview. They've still got the ribbon, but the File menu is back by popular demand; the Office button still opens the Backstage menu but it's now labelled File instead of sporting the Office logo.

The overall interface colour now defaults to silver; blue and black are still there as options but it turns out the deeper colour is a distraction (and will affect your perception of other colours). And positions of buttons on the ribbon change slightly, especially for the context-sensitive tabs, usually into more logical positions.

Microsoft office 2010

FEATURE PACKED: The Word interface is clean and simple but packed with features (though only a few are new)

Word shows off the improved Backstage menu well. If you use Recent files frequently you can promote a number of them to the Backstage menu itself. There's a new Add-Ins menu to keep third-party programs tidy.

You no longer have to keep clicking links to see all the metadata and properties for your document. And the Print pane has been rearranged, using less space for headings and more space to explain the different settings you can choose.

Microsoft office 2010

FASTER PREVIEW: The interface is clearer, the preview works faster and Word's new Background Removal tool does just what you want it to

As in the technical preview, there aren't any major new features in Word itself; the new navigation pane for searching still works well, especially now things are faster. Oddly, there are still two versions of the new Text Effects on two different tabs and the advanced Open Type typography would benefit from a clearer preview.

Microsoft office 2010

TEXT EFFECTS: Word still has a text Effects button on the Home tab that gives you presets plus custom effects and the WordArt button on the Insert tab that only gives you the presets

The photo correction tools and artistic effects are also mostly the same as in the technical preview but they're arranged more logically and they preview more quickly.

Microsoft office 2010

PROTECTED VIEW: Warns you about documents you've downloaded and no longer wrongly identifes shared files

The background removal tool is also faster, which makes it more usable because you can see instantly what effect marking the areas you do and don't want is having. The interface is clearer too. Text flows around the shape you create so you can make very effective cutouts of complicated shapes in an image very easily, turning a flower or a building in a photo into a single element that stands out on the page.

Microsoft office 2010

NO CHARTS: The Word Web app doesn't have all the features of Word so there are some elements you can't edit – like charts

The beta fixes a bug in Protected View; documents you've downloaded are correctly marked as potentially unsafe but documents on servers and NAS boxes aren't distrusted any more, and you can no longer have to mark a document as safe just to search it.

Hands on: Excel 2010 review

Excel gets the same general improvements in the interface; the look is cleaner, you can add Recent files to the backstage menu and the print preview lets you see the margins and zoom out to see the whole page or zoom in to read the cells.


Microsoft office 2010

DIFFERENT SHEET: If you put your charts on a separate sheet you won't have to wait for it to rebuild every time

The main new feature in Excel for the beta is an extra for businesses called PowerPivot; if you need to work with millions of rows of data, this lets you scroll through it seconds.

Even without that, Microsoft is promising performance improvements for Excel charts; complicated charts are certainly far faster to render than in Excel 2007 (which introduced a powerful but slow new charting engine) although not quite back to the speed of 2003.

Microsoft office 2010

STATS FUNCTIONS: Excel 2010 gets newly accurate statistical functions

If you put your charts on a separate sheet even Excel 2003 took a second or two to redraw the charts; in the beta these appear pretty much instantly as they're cached. And spreadsheets load and save more quickly (especially if you're still using the binary XLS format).

Microsoft office 2010

ACTIVE SHEETS: To save paper, the default print setting in Excel is Print Active Sheets; the preview pane in the Backstage menu makes it really clear what you get and how you can use even less paper

Statistical functions in Excel have been notoriously inaccurate; for this version Microsoft promises a complete rewrite – not before time - and the new functions will be signed off for accuracy by professional number-crunchers.

Microsoft office 2010

DASHBOARD: Create a 'dashboard' for exploring the results of a pivot table

If you use pivot tables, the new 'slices' make it easier to explore the information without getting confused; instead of having to turn columns and categories on and off in a task pane you can create your own interface by picking slices of data to put on the spreadsheet.

Click to select the data you care about and the pivot table updates; it's much easier to work with.

Microsoft office 2010

COLOUR IT IN: Have you had a good month, a bad month or a terrible month? Excel makes it easier to colour in your spreadsheet to make it obvious at a glance

As with the technical preview, the mini-graph (called sparklines) and conditional formatting icons and colour bars let you add instant visualisations to your data that give you a picture of what the numbers mean without creating a chart for every cell.

Expect to spend some time learning to make the most of them, but these give you the kind of visualisations we're getting used to seeing in Web 2.0 apps inside your spreadsheet.

Hands on: PowerPoint 2010 review

According to Microsoft's figures, you're likely to use PowerPoint for pulling together information you've been working on in other programs rather than working on your content there (unless you're a student, in which case PowerPoint is the app you use the most); that's based on the sheer number of keystrokes people use inside the different apps.

Because of that, PowerPoint makes it easier to organise information; you can put slides into sections and if you have two presentations open they're two separate windows (if only Excel did the same thing).

Microsoft office 2010

PLAY AND PAUSE: Correct, colourise, style and trim your video; if you play and pause before you trim the first marker is place where you pause

You can also merge two presentations; handy if you're collaborating, or if you want to join two slideshows into one without a lot of dragging and clicking. Incidentally, PowerPoint is a lot better at recovering unsaved files now, and as with most of the Office apps you can recover previous versions of your current document.

Microsoft office 2010

SNAZZY EFFECTS: They're the same as in the technical preview, but the new slide transitions do make presentations look much snazzier

Microsoft office 2010

HANDY FEATURES: Backstage comes into its own with clear explanations for a range of useful options; that's worth the space

PowerPoint has the same paste preview and image editing tools as Word; again, performance is improved slightly from the technical preview and some of the context ribbon tabs have a slightly more logical order. You also get a lot more tools to work with images and video – and a whole new set of transitions.

Microsoft office 2010

STYLE IT: You can apply video styles to online video; the borders will work but crops and rotations just put a border on the page – they don't apply to the clip itself

Your slides can shred, dissolve, fade, flip, wipe, swipe and generally arrive and disappear in a very professional-looking way (as long as you resist the temptation to use all the transitions in one presentations).

Microsoft office 2010

TWO BECOME ONE: Combine two PowerPoint presentations together

Trimming your video clips is the same as in the technical preview (and just as easy); inserting video clips from sites like YouTube is a little smoother although it would still be nice to see a preview in the dialog so you're sure which clip you're putting in. Also, while you can apply video styles to online video clips, reflections, rotations and clipping don't work; we'd like to see PowerPoint warn you of this.

Hands on: Outlook 2010 review

Outlook is the only app with a truly new feature at the beta stage, and it also benefits from the same kind of interface and performance improvements as the other apps.

Conversation view now picks out the message in a thread you haven't replied to, not just the most recent ones, and if you double click on a message in a conversation it will now open in a new window like any other message.

Some mail tips have started working in the beta, even without Exchange 2010; if you reply to a message in a conversation you'll see a warning if it's not the most recent message in the thread – although this also appears if the most recent message is from you and you're sending a second reply, making you think you've had an answer already.

Microsoft office 2010

ARRANGE IT: Choose how you want to arrange conversations of messages back and forth

It's now more obvious that when you hover over the names of people in email headers you'll get a contact card with links to send them email and instant messages. And the new feature gives you a lot more information about the people you get email from.

Microsoft office 2010

PEOPLE CENTRIC: Today the People Pane shows useful details from the emails, files and meetings you've shared...

Microsoft office 2010

…in the future, it could bring in tweets and Facebook updates and Flickr photos

Microsoft calls it the Outlook Social Connector, although what you see in the window is called the People Pane. At this stage it's just gathering information already in Outlook but that's still incredibly useful. If you've used a picture of them on your Windows Mobile phone (or used an app to sync pictures from an online service, you see it here so you know who they are.

Microsoft office 2010

CONTACT CARD: Outlook has always had ways of telling you about who is emailing you; it's now easier as you can get this handy contact card view

You get a list of all the emails that particular person has sent you before, all the meetings you've been at with them and all the attachments they've sent you, which can save a huge amount of time.

And you can click on the buttons for other people in the email conversation to flip to their details instead. The Xobni add-in for Outlook has these features and more, but Xobni, good as it is, has the performance hit of running a second index and store on your system; so far, the People Pane is as fast as the rest of Outlook.

Microsoft office 2010

ORGANISE YOURSELF: The calendar makes good use of the ribbon with handy options like seeing what you're doing for the next few days rather than assuming you get organised on Mondays

Gathering this kind of info together is going to extend far beyond Outlook. At this point Microsoft is only hinting at what you'll be able to see here but there are tabs for status updates and activities and the interface for adding other providers (which only offers SharePoint at the moment) says 'all your networks'.

With the beta, Microsoft is also releasing a toolkit services like Facebook and MySpace and Twitter can use to let you see updates all in one place.

When you get a mail from a friend, imagine seeing their Facebook update that tells you they're having a bad day, or the tweet that tells you they've had good news – maybe even the last Google Wave you had with them or the text messages they've sent you that you've backed up with Microsoft MyPhone?

Hands on: OneNote 2010 review

OneNote is thehidden gem in Office, and it's now in all the Office versions (except Starter but including the web version); it's a notebook app where you can keep text, URLs, documents, images, audio and video (which you can record directly and have synchronised with the notes you take) and anything else you can see on screen.

Microsoft office 2010

SHARE INFO: Send information from the Web or any document to exactly the right place in OneNote

You can print a document to OneNote, or clip information from IE (or Firefox with a third-party add-in), or grab an area of the screen – and rather than being dumped into the unhelpful Unfiled Notes section of old, you can now pick which section to put the information in. You can even put subsequent clips on the same page, so you can grab hotel prices from a range of sites and compare them all in the same place.

Microsoft office 2010

LINKED NOTES: Create 'linked' notes from any Office documents; you get thumbnails of the document you're annotating for referring back to later

Microsoft office 2010

QUICK ACCESS: The Ribbon interface is a big change and it does take up more room than the menus and taskbars if you're using a tablet PC; to make up for that you can put multiple pens on the Quick Access Toolbar in the beta

You can link any Office document to OneNote, so you can take notes on it – and it's sheer simplicity to share a OneNote page or section with someone else. You email them a link and they can work in the same page; when you go back to the page you see what they've added, marked with their initials – but you can both work in the page at the same time.

Microsoft office 2010

SHARE NOTEBOOKS: It's extremely easy to share notebooks and collaborate with other people in them; you can type at the same time but you also get this highlighting to show what someone else has written in your notebook

OneNote is peppered with a host of other small improvements – editing equations, translating between languages, making links by typing them like a wiki link – but the main change since the feature is making it easier to change pen styles on a tablet (OneNote has excellent ink support).

Microsoft office 2010

RECORDING: The ribbon interface works well for OneNote's built-in audio and video recording

If you don't want to keep the ribbon open (to give you more writing space) you can now put multiple pens and highlighters on the Quick Access Toolbar so you can change colours more quickly.

Hands on: Publisher 2010 review and other apps

With the Professional version of Office, you also get Access and Publisher. Along with Excel, Access will be the app that takes the most advantage of 64-bit systems (assuming you're running 64-bit Windows).

Most of the new features are aimed at making it easier to build databases quickly but Access is still a professional, powerful and complicated database app, rather than something you can jump right into using.

Publisher supports the same extended OpenType typography as Word; it actually has more options but makes it look much simpler by putting options in the relevant place rather than cramming them into the Font dialog.

Microsoft office 2010

ADVANCED TYPE: See the details of the OpenType advanced typography you can use in Publisher…

Microsoft office 2010

…or just pick a different look for the font from the ribbon. The page navigation bar and uncluttered workspace make it easier to see your document

It helps that the preview isn't hidden as you change from one set of alternate characters to another but it's even better that you can use the font tools from the ribbon, in the Text Box Tools context tab; that gives you a dropdown preview of all the alternate styles for your font so you can see instantly which one looks interesting and which looks over the top.

Publisher has a clean new interface; the guides and rulers and graphical managers and other clutter are off by default and there's a PowerPoint-style page navigation to show the different pages of your publication.

Guidelines are much less aggressive about snapping your content into position but you get a pink line hinting you're in a good place when you drag an object over the middle of the page or it lines up with something else.

Images larger than the box you're trying to put them in don't push text out of the way. Publisher also makes excellent use of the ribbon for many of its features, with galleries for the different elements and page parts you can insert; but others are still buried in dialogs with no live preview and most of the effort has gone on shifting the interface to the ribbon rather than developing the same new tools as the rest of Office (you don't get the new image editing tools or background removal).

Print preview in the Backstage menu is excellent through; if you're printing on both sides of the page you can turn on page numbers in the Backstage print preview so you know what prints on each side, and you can use the transparency slider to check the back of the page to make sure it's the right way up (handy if you're doing a folded booklet).

Microsoft office 2010

WORD ON A PHONE: Word Mobile has richer tools, from paragraph formatting to word count

The Office Mobile apps are only for Windows Mobile 6.5; Windows Mobile 7 will have versions with more significant updates (especially for OneNote Mobile which is all but identical with the current version but does now sync with OneNote beta). Word and Excel Mobile have more options for layout.

Conclusion

The beta of Office 2010 is a big improvement on the technical preview – and that didn't have significant problems. Many of the niggles and bugs that we noticed in the technical preview are fixed, like problems with cut and paste inside Excel or Outlook saying it was 'unable to complete a search' with a large number of results. Generally, the interface and features feel more polished; the Backstage menu is still a little oversized but it's been reorganised to be much more useful.

Microsoft office 2010

HAPPY FAMILY: The Office apps look like a family now though they have their own personality; the interface is less distracting and you can concentrate on your documents and the features you're using

Microsoft is claiming major performance improvements for Office 2010, compared to 2007 (which was slower than Office 2003, especially for Outlook and Excel). It's still too early to say whether that's true, but the beta seems speedier.

Picture Style previews and Outlook searches are fast and the apps open faster; the Cancel button has proved popular with technical preview testers who click the wrong app by mistake, but they often open too quickly for you to click it anyway.

It's too early to judge the People Pane as well. With only Outlook to draw on, it's handy as a faster way to see other email conversations and files you've exchanged but if it can connect to social networks like Facebook and Twitter it will be hugely useful.

Microsoft office 2010

MINOR CHANGES: These are minor interface changes from the technical preview, but you no longer have to wonder what the Office logo is doing there

The big question with any new version of Office is less 'how good is it?' and more 'is it so much better that I want to upgrade?'. One major feature (co-authoring with the Office Web Apps) won't work until the web apps are finished in the first half of 2010, but trying the SharePoint-based business versions is encouraging.

You wouldn't want to use Office Web Apps instead of the full desktop versions given the choice (especially if you get Starter Edition Word and Excel free on a new PC) but they'll be great when you're away from your PC. The pieces of Office 2010 are slowly coming together and once you've tried it, we think you won't want to go back.



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(Via TechRadar: All latest feeds.)