Richard Qi

Windows 10 is great! As a typical Windows administrator, you might ask so what is new in the Group Policy? Well all the group policy is well documented at the link below: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25250 Download the file by selecting Window 10 ADMX spreadsheet. Open up the file, you can filter all the new to Windows 10 group policy through the last column Here are three questions that came up quite a lot DISABLE Cortana in Windows 10, via GPO or Regedit This is possible by editing below registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search!AllowCortana This policy setting specifies whether Cortana is allowed on the device. If you enable or don’t configure this setting Cortana will be allowed on the device. If you disable this setting Cortana will be turned off. When Cortana is off users will still be able to use search to find things on the device and on the Internet. DISABLE Windows Update Delivery Optimization (WUDO) in Windows 10 This is possible by editing below registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DeliveryOptimization!DODownloadMode Set this policy to configure the use of Windows Update Delivery Optimization in downloads of Windows Apps and Updates. Available mode are: 0=disable 1=peers on same NAT only 2=Local Network / Private Peering (PCs in the same domain by default) 3= Internet Peering DISABLE WiFi-Sense in Windows 10 There is no GPO for this. Some organizations want to turn this option off as they may see this as a risk to corporate Wi-Fi. An enterprise can disable in the following ways: ...

What is PDT? PDT refers to PowerShell Deployment Toolkit. It is a community Toolkit to help automate System Center deployment. PDT is posted to the TechNet Gallery here. PDT consists of 5 files: Installer.ps1 is the PowerShell script that you run to actually perform the deployment. It should be run from a system that is not a target system for the deployment itself – it can even be run from a workstation. Workflow.xml contains all the “knowledge” of how to deploy system center – we will look in more detail at the content of this file in later posts. Variable.xml is the file that you modify to define your deployment. Downloader.ps1 is a utility to allow you to obtain all the software required to deploy. Using this utility will be the topic of another post. VMCreator.ps1 is a utility to quickly create domain joined VMs on which to deploy. Using this utility will be the topic of another post If you are interested, also check out the MMS2013 session on this topic: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/2013/SD-B302

When comes to public cloud like Windows Azure, security is always a popular area for many customers. A new technical whitepaper on Windows Azure Network Security is released to help IT Administrator to understand the security mechanisms within Windows Azure. Windows Azure networking provides the infrastructure necessary to securely connect your virtual machines to one another, as well as bridge between the cloud and your on-premises datacenter Few of the questions I get asked a lot are around protection against DDOS and intrusion detection. The whitepaper explains those points in detail. ...

Windows Azure Backup Service is now available! This means it is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production scenarios. What is Windows Azure Backup? Windows Azure Backup is a cloud based backup solution for Windows Server which allows files and folders to be backed up and recovered from the cloud, and provides off-site protection against data loss. The service provides IT administrators and developers with the option to back up and protect critical data in an easily recoverable way from any location with no upfront hardware cost. How does Windows Azure Backup Work? Windows Azure Backup is built on the Windows Azure platform and uses Windows Azure blob storage for storing customer data. Windows Server uses the downloadable Windows Azure Backup Agent to transfer file and folder data securely and efficiently to the Windows Azure Backup Service. Along with providing cloud backup for Windows Server, Windows Azure Backup Service also provides capability to backup data from System Center Data Protection Manager and Windows Server Essentials, to the cloud. All data is encrypted onsite before it is sent to the cloud, and customers retain and manage the encryption key. How to do it? Click New->Data Services->Recovery Services->Backup Vault to do this: Learn more on how to do it from: ...

Windows 8.1 is ready for widespread adoption. This book focuses on things that are new, with a special emphasis on topics of interest to IT pros. Instead of tips and tricks on 8.1, You will find more about management, deployment, and security, which is at the heart of every IT Pro. Download the eBook Here This is just an introduction, an overview. For more detailed information about the features and capabilities described in this book, I encourage you to become a regular visitor at the Springboard Series on TechNet: http://www.microsoft.com/springboard

In Windows Server 2012 R2, you can create a new type of VMs called Generation 2 VMs. Gen 2 VMs will give you several benefits including: Emulated devices have been removed Allows for boots from virtual SCSI You can boot from synthetic network adapters Boot from UEFI instead of BIOS UEFI secure boot is enable You can run Gen1 and Gen2 VMs side by side Enable Enhanced Session Mode Why Gen 2 VMs? Historically OSs didn’t natively understand virtualization, and in the case of Hyper-V, could not just use the VMbus. This is why there are emulated IDE controllers, legacy network adapters, emulated BIOS, COM & LPT ports, keyboard or mouse PS/2 connections, floppy drives, and other system devices such as PCI to ISA bridge. All of these emulated type devices include the requirement to boot from an IDE controller, because the assumption was that OSs weren’t natively virtual aware. Today, even Linux now are natively virtualization aware. Therefore in Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V, a new Gen 2 VM is available that removes all the legacy, emulated hardware and provides a UEFI environment that supports 64-bit OSs that are Windows 8 and Windows 2012 or later. Generation 2 VMs can boot from the SCSI bus and from the synthetic network device. ...

In case you hadn’t heard, the Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Release book from Microsoft Press is now available. You can download it for FREE or order your own hard copy version. This is a great way for you and our valued customers and partners to see what’s new in Windows Server 2012 R2. A System Center 2012 R2 version is underway and there will be a much lengthier version after Windows Server 2012 R2 is generally available. ...

One of the key challenges for IT Pros is always upgrade systems. With release of Windows Server 2012, many IT Pros are thinking about upgrading or prepared to upgrade. To help you better prepared for upgrade, My Australia fellow Evangelist Andrew McMurray and I produced a Migrating to Windows Server 2012 Training on Microsoft Virtual Academy. To access this FREE online course go to link below. It covers migration of varies functions and roles. We hope this helps you in your path to Windows Server 2012. Do rate our course, we will be doing more of these useful courses for you! http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/migrating-to-windows-server-2012-training

Everyone, time to learn powershell together with your fellow IT Professionals. PowerShell Saturday is coming to Singapore! PowerShell Saturday is a full day event focusing on Windows PowerShell. The day consists of instructional sessions and a hackathon. Sessions Sessions include (but not yet finalised): PowerShell for complete beginners Problem Solving with PowerShell Managing Lync with PowerShell Managing Exchange with PowerShell Managing Azure with PowerShell Whats new in PowerShell version 4 Not all sessions may be of interest to you, but if you are between sessions we encourage you to spend time in the Hackathon room to work on your own stuff or try out what you have learned. ...

Yes. Community Technology Update (CTU) 2013 is happening again on 27 July. It is organized by the Community Leads from various Singapore based User Groups and MVPs. It is a great technical events on technologies like BI, Lync, Exchange, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. How do I sign up? Follow the instructions in the URL to register - http://www.sgdotnet.org/Pages/Registration.aspx Session Information 0830 - 0900 Registration 0900 - 0930 Key Note ...