Sean Daniel's SBS blog over at http://seanda.blogspot.com recently ran this piece which finally answers the question, "How do I run Windows Vista on an SBS network?"  Thanks to Becky Ochs of the Small Business Server team for writing this much-needed bit of info.

 

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With the release of the pre-RC1 32-bit Vista, we thought we’d update you on what the known issues are for joining a Vista client to an SBS 2003 SP1 or SBS R2 network. Of course, if you just want to manually join the Vista client to the SBS domain w/out using our tools, that is also supported. You just won't have the SBS-specific client customizations.

How to join the pre-RC1 32-bit Vista client to SBS
The known issues and workarounds for when you try to deploy applications using the SBS tools and for when you actually join the client to the SBS network using the SBS tools are described. This will not be the user experience once we release an update to our tools.

Create your user and computer account on the SBS Server
At the SBS server, create the user and computer accounts using the SBS tools (eg. run the Add Users and Computers task on the To Do List).

1. Choose a computer name – if you choose a name different from the existing Vista client name, it will be renamed when it is joined to the domain
   
2. Select client applications to deploy
   
   
   • Client Operating System Service Packs – this cannot be deselected, but it won’t be installed anyway because it’s for Windows XP and Windows 2000.
     
   • IE 6.0 – you can deselect since IE 7 is on Vista – leave the Advanced Client Computer Settings for IE selected to have SBS home page and favorites still set
     
   • Outlook 2003 – deselect if running Office 2007 – leave the Advanced Client Computer Settings for Outlook profiles settings selected to have SBS settings for Outlook 2007 configured
     
   • Shared Fax Client - you can deselect since Fax client is on Vista – some of the fax settings in the Advanced Client Computer Settings will be configured, but some will not. If you select this, it won't hurt anything, but you'll get an error that it cannot install during the Client Setup Wizard.
   
   
3. Mobile Client and Offline Use page
   
   
   • Connection manager – for 32-bit, this will work
     
   • ActiveSync 3.8 – don’t bother selecting. Vista has a newer version included. If you select this, it won’t hurt anything, but you’ll get an application compatibility error when it tries to deploy and it won’t install.

Join the Vista client to the SBS network
Until we release an update to our tools, you will need to do several workaround steps to use the SBS tools to join a Vista client to the SBS network.

1. Connect the network cable for your Vista client to your SBS network
   
2. Log on to the local Vista client as the restricted administrator account that was created during Vista Setup.
   
3. Find an IE icon, right-click it (eg – there is one on the taskbar), and then click “run as admin” (this is a workaround for a known bug with our ConnectComputer page and IE protected mode)
   
4. Accept the User Account Control (UAC) prompt
   
5. Browse to http://computername/ConnectComputer
   
6. If you haven’t done so already, answer the questions on the IE first-run page about anti-phishing, etc.
   
7. Click the intranet information bar (gold bar) prompt and Enable intranet settings. (note – the intranet settings are automatically enabled after you join the domain anyway, but you have to do it now or ConnectComputer won’t work)
   
8. Click Connect to the network now
   
9. Click Install for the security prompt that appears for if you want to install SBS software.
   
10. Complete the SBS Network Configuration Wizard. You cannot select a profile to migrate – this is a known issue.
    
11. Accept the prompt to restart (so we can join your computer to the domain). At the logon prompt (ctrl+alt+delete) you may need to switch users and then logon using the account that you just assigned to this computer.
    
    
    • Click Switch User, and then click Other User
      
    • Enter username and password for SBS user just assigned to the computer
      
    • Accept the UAC prompt for the SBS client setup (there is a WSBS window minimized and flashing that is a UAC prompt).
      
      Note – if you don’t accept the LUA prompt before a timeout period, the application returns an error that it has timed out. If that happens, you’ll need to log off and then log back on.
    
    
12. Click Start now to start the Client Setup Wizard – depending on what you selected for the client applications to deploy and depending on the applications, some applications will install/configure
    
    Note - If you selected to install a printer that requires a driver, you’ll need to accept the UAC prompt.

Post-SBS Client Setup tasks
We have a few of our custom client settings that won’t get configured. Here are a few workarounds.

1. Manually set a few Windows Firewall settings
   
   
   • Start, search for Firewall, and then click Windows Firewall
     
   • Click Change Settings and then accept the UAC prompt
     
   • Click Exceptions and then enable both Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop
     
     Note – there are some other Group Policy settings from the SBS domain that aren’t being applied, but you can still work.
   
   
2. Using OWA – you’ll need to install the hotfix for KB article 911829 on the SBS server.
   
3. If you’re using Outlook 2003, you’ll need to accept the prompt for making Outlook the default mail client.
   
4. If you are using Fax on your SBS server and use the new Vista Windows Fax and Scan, you’ll need to set the fax server the first time that you send a fax.
   
5. Turn off the logon script for your user account if you don’t want the UAC prompt every time you log on. Basically, at each logon we are resetting some SBS custom client settings which results in a UAC prompt to allow us to do this (yes, we’ll fix this). If it annoys you, turn off the logon script for the user account that you are using to logon to the Vista client.

Note, if you are running the Premium version of SBS w/ ISA 2004, the ISA Firewall Client currently has compatibility issues w/ Vista. See KB article 911077.

Non-joined Vista clients accessing SBS
If the Vista client isn’t joined to your SBS domain, but you want to use Vista with either Outlook over the Internet (aka RPC over HTTP) or Remote Web Workplace (aka RWW) and you have a self-signed certificate, you’ll need to add the cert to the client as follows: Find an IE icon, right-click it (eg – there is one on the taskbar), and then click “run as admin”. Browse to RWW and install the cert in the trusted store.

Hey, gang--

 

The password for the BOB team extranet site that you can use to download Powerpoint decks, PDF's, Q&A's, and other content from BOB team webcasts has changed.  You can now access the site using the name partners\channelpartner and the password July!2006.

 

For future reference, you can always get the current password to the BOB team extranet SharePoint site by going to https://oem.microsoft.com/BOBwired.

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

Hello again, Study Group--

 

I know from your mails that many of you have sold SBS 2003 SP1 over the past few months with the assurance that your customers could upgrade to SBS 2003 R2 in the near future.

 

Well, the future is now!  The Technology Upgrade Program website is now fulfilling its promise.  If either you or your customers have purchased SBS 2003 SP1 licenses under the Technology Upgrade Program, it's time to get your SBS 2003 R2 upgrade kit.  Full details are available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/r2/upgrade.mspx.

 

As usual, send us your questions, comments, complaints, and test-passing success stories at study@microsoft.com!

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

Hi Study Groupers:

 

On Thursday morning (PDT), June 29, Microsoft will announce the public availability of Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 for Windows XP. With this release, Microsoft encourages technology enthusiasts who want a safer and easier browsing experience to download the beta for free at www.microsoft.com/ie.  Throughout the development of Internet Explorer 7 Microsoft has encouraged and listened to customer feedback. Although Beta 2 was feature complete and few visible changes were expected in Beta 3, as a result of customer feedback, IE7 Beta 3 contains some feature changes in addition to the planned reliability, compatibility and security improvements. Those changes include:

• Changes to the look and feel – enabling users to add the email button back to the toolbar, reorder their tabs by dragging them to the left or right and scroll horizontally while zooming
• Improving the RSS experience – IE7 Beta 3 now allows users to update all their RSS feeds automatically and allows more control to the user in marking their RSS feeds as “READ”
• Improved compatibility and reliability – testing from Beta 2 has helped improve compatibility with websites and web applications, and reliability has improved through adjustments to several IE7 layout rendering bugs that have been fixed  
• Important security improvements – IE7 Beta 3 contains all the security fixes addressed in the Internet Explorer Security Bulletin released June 13^th.

 

For additional information, please reference the following resources that provide more detail on the features included in this build:

·         IE7 Beta 3 for Windows XP Fact Sheet: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/IE7XPSP2FS.mspx

·         Internet Explorer homepage at: www.microsoft.com/ie

·         Microsoft Internet Explorer Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/

 

IE7 Beta 3 is available in English and will run on Windows XP 64-bit Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 in addition to Windows XP SP2. The German, Japanese, Finnish and Arabic versions of IE7 Beta 3 for XP are targeted to be available in early July. Please let me know if you have any questions or wish to speak with a Microsoft spokesperson from the IE team. 

 

Thanks,

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team

Hey gang—here are some Q’s and A’s that could help in your studies!

 

Darryl writes with two questions:

 

Is the setting to make shadow copies on my C: drive something that SBS set up automatically (I sure didn't do it), or does Windows Server 2003 have some default set up for the shadow copy data?

 

You guessed it, Darryl.  SBS 2003 sets up Shadow Copies automatically on the volume that hosts the "Users" share.

 

Where is the shadow copy data stored (so that I make sure not to back it up to tape and in essence back up data twice)?

 

Please see http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/2b0d2457-b7d8-42c3-b6c9-59c145b7765f1033.mspx?mfr=true for the technical details on how Shadow Copies work.

 

Matt writes:

 

I was going through the Self Test Practice Exam today and ran into a question I couldn't quite understand.  Perhaps you could be of assistance.  The question deals with IP addresses.

 

The answer says that I need to go into the TCP/IP Properties for the server, and set a IP of 132.0.0.3 and subnet of 255.255.252.0.  Why should I have to set the subnet to 255.255.252.0?

Also, what does the 136.0.0.0/22 (/22 part) mean?  and the /23 part?

 

Thank you

 

Excellent question, Matt. As far as I know, this type of question is found on the 70-291 exam, and not the 70-290.

 

The a.b.c.d/x type notation is very common in technical documentation.  The number after the slash mark indicates the length of the subnet mask.  For example /23 is 23 bits long, which translates out in decimal to 255.255.254.0.  The /22 means 22 bits long, which would be a decimal subnet mask of 255.255.252.0.  The number indicates how many binary bits of the mask are turned on in binary, reading the entire 4-byte subnet mask from left to right.

 

22 bits:

11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000 = 255.255.252.0

 

Notice that because subnet masks are contiguous blocks of bits turned on (aka “ones”) from left to right, the only real decimal values you see in subnet masks are 128, 192, 224, 240, 248, 252, 254, and 255.  I hope this makes the question a little clearer. 

 

Keep ‘em coming, gang, and DEFINITELY write us at study@microsoft.com and let us know if we’ve helped you pass the exam!

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The US System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

When studying for the 70-290 and 70-282 exams, you deal with a lot of material relating to SUS.  You learn how to install SUS and how to configure clients to use the SUS server instead of the Windows Update servers in order to retrieve patches.

 

One issue that isn’t addressed in the SUS training for either Study Group has been brought up by a 70-282 Study Group on-demand member.  Darin Pauls writes:

 

Once WSUS is setup up to manage the clients, how do you prevent the clients from accessing the update.windows.com site so that can’t update their computers on their own?

 

Thanks,

 

Darin

 

PS I am on Session 8 and they just keep getting better.

 

Thanks, Darin!  Fortunately, the answer to your question is pretty straightforward.

 

Configuring client computers to use SUS or WSUS is a Computer Policy setting.  Configuring users not to use Windows Update/Microsoft Update is a User Policy setting.  You will find the setting in the Group Policy Editor under User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Update.  The setting is labeled “Remove access to use all Windows Update features”.

 

Once this setting has been  applied, the affected users will no longer be able to download patches from the Windows Update or Microsoft Update websites.  However, the approved patch process you are running through SUS or WSUS should continue to function.

 

Hopefully, you’ll find this helpful.  Keep writing us study@microsoft.com.

 

Great news, Study Group members--

 

The BOB Team will be continuing the Study Group series with the 70-291 Study Group, launching soon!

 

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed at http://oem.microsoft.com/bobwired to stay up to date on the events, and watch out for the registration form at http://www.msreadiness.com/study.

 

Keep studying!

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

 

 

Hey, gang--

 

Several people have written and requested the syllabus for the upcoming 70-290 Study Group.  I'm posting it here for your convenience.  There will be a new Study Group blog site for the 70-290 Study Group as well...I will post to this blog when the site is ready.

 

So, for those of you who are ready to get started, here are the readings!  Go to it!

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

 

 

Syllabus for 70-290 Study Group

 

Except where otherwise noted, readings are from "Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment" by Dan Holme and Orin Thomas, from Microsoft Press, ISBN 0-7356-1437-7

 

 

Session 1

4/25/06

Windows Server 2003 and Server Hardware

Chapter 10, 11, and 14

 

Session 2

4/25/06

Active Directory Users and Computers

Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 15

 

Session 3

5/2/06

Understanding Permissions and Access Control

Chapter 6, pages 6-1 to 6-37; Chapter 16

 

Session 4

5/2/06

Managing Servers

Chapters 2 and 8

 

Session 5

5/9/06

Patch Management

Chapters 9 and 17

 

Session 6

5/9/06

Internet Information Services

Chapter 6, pages 6-38 to 6-47; and “Common Administrative Tasks” from IIS 6.0 Technical Reference at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=10492

 

Session 7

5/12/06

Monitoring Resource Usage and Performance

Chapter 12

 

Session 8

5/12/06

Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery

Chapters 7, 13, and 18

That's right--the Microsoft U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB) will be starting a new Study Group series at the end of April, 2006.  This time, the topic is Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment, which is the topic tested on the Microsoft 70-290 Exam.  This is a great opportunity for those who attended the 70-282 Study Group to expand their skills to encompass Enterprise-level technologies.  The 70-290 exam is a core requirement for both the MCSA and MCSE certifications.

 

To enroll for the entire 70-290 Study Group series in one easy step, head over to http://www.msreadiness.com/study and get signed up.  In the meantime, mail any questions to study@microsoft.com.  I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

 

Congratulations to William Hadly, our Xbox 360 winner for the 70-282 Study Group!

 

Great job to everyone who achieved their SBSC status prior to January 31 on your accomplishment, and thanks for making the 70-282 Study Group a success!  ALL of you have bragging rights, Xbox 360 or not.

 

The BOB team has more Study Groups coming...we already have new content available at http://msreadiness.com/study, so be sure to check it out if you haven't done so yet!

 

Thanks again, everyone, and congratulations again to Will!  Enjoy the Xbox!

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

 

Hello to all of you out there in the 70-282 Study Group!

 

Terrific news for those of you who have not yet taken the 70-282 Exam!  For a limited time, the Worldwide System Builder Team is offering terrific incentives to help you pass the exam and attain your SBSC status.

 

Included in this offer: 

 

--The first 1000 partners who request it will receive a FREE voucher to take the 70-282 or 74-134 exam, either of which can be used to qualify for the SBSC program

--25% discounts are available on 70-282 Practice Exams from MeasureUp Software

 

Head over now to https://partner.microsoft.com/global/examsavings for all of the details right away!

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

Hey all--

 

The password for downloading the decks and PDF files from the live sessions of the 70-282 Study Group has been changed.  The user name is still "partners\channelpartner".  The password is now "Spring!2006".  You can access the decks via the BOB team Sharepoint site here, or by using the link on the left side of the blog page.

 

Only 27 days left until the close of the Xbox 360 contest!  We've already received many mails from partners who have passed the 70-282 exam with the help of the 70-282 Study Group sessions.  Remember, when you pass your 70-282 exam, be sure to drop us a line at study@microsoft.com and let us know what you thought of the Study Group and how it impacted your testing experience.

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

 

Hello everybody--

 

The PowerPoint slide decks and printable PDF files of Study Group sessions 9 & 10 are now available for download from the BOB Team extranet SharePoint site (always posted on the left hand side of the page).  Be sure to use the Username "partners\channelpartner" and the password of "AtLast!2005" to gain access.

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

 

Hey there, Study Group folks.  I'm back to answer a few of the questions we've received via e-mail.

 

Tom writes, "Ok.  You stated in the class that Terminal Services in Application Mode had to be installed on a different server than the one running SBS 2003.  Why is that, especially with the machines available today running in small environments?"

 

Answer:  Excellent question.  This was a design decision for Small Business Server 2003.  Because the Small Business Server 2003 machine is always a Domain Controller, it is considered a security risk to allow users to access Terminal Service sessions hosted on the local SBS machine.  See the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;828056 for more details on this issue.

 

Rocky writes, "If you have a Network with a Domain Controller or Exchange Server or DNS server, could/would you put an SBS server in that environment?"

 

Answer:  Networks with a previously existing Exchange Server would also have Domain Controllers, because you can’t run Exchange Server 2000 or 2003 without an Active Directory domain already being present.  Having an AD Domain requires having DNS.  Small Business Server 2003 can be installed in an existing AD domain, and mailboxes and other contents can be moved from an existing Exchange Server.  See the KB article at http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=884453 for more details.

 

Ximena writes, "What is the difference between Sharepoint Portal Services and Windows Sharepoint Server?"

 

Answer:  Windows Sharepoint Services is a website-based extension of the capabilities of Microsoft Office to include features such as ease of collaboration and organization.  Small Business Server 2003 installs and configures a WSS-based called CompanyWeb by default.  See a demo of the capabilities of WSS at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011709791033.aspx.

 

SharePoint Portal Services, or SPS, is a product designed to provide an enterprise-wide network of Sharepoint sites which can be searched for document collaboration purposes even across a large organization.  A demonstration of these features is available at http://www.microsoft.com/office/sharepoint/prodinfo/demo.mspx.

 

Thanks to all for excellent questions.  Keep watching the blog for more updates coming soon!

 

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)

 

 

Hello, all you SBSers!  Here are a few of the questions we've received during our LiveMeeting webcasts which may be of interest to you.  If you have input or questions about anything you see here, be sure to use the comment option here on the blog, or send us an e-mail at study@microsoft.com.

 

Wade asked, "Can Windows 2000 Advanced Server be upgraded to SBS 2003?"

 

Answer:  No.  There are several types of Windows which can't be upgraded to Windows Small Business Server 2003.  You cannot perform the in-place upgrade from any client version of the Windows OS, from Windows 2000 Advanced or Datacenter Server, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise or Datacenter, any type of Windows NT 4.0 (including SBS 4.x or any version of the BackOffice suite).

 

Larry asked, "Can you expand on what the gotcha is when installing SBS 2003 on a dual processor machine?"

 

Answer:  When you install SBS 2003 on a dual processor machine with hyperthreading turned on, you will receive a warning message stating that SBS only supports two processors, not the four being seen by the OS (two physical and two virtual).  This is a warning message only and can be safely ignored.

 

Dave asked, "Can a Windows XP Professional machine be set as a file serving machine or would it be preferable to use Windows Server 2003?"

 

Answer:  Yes, Windows XP Pro can be used as a file server, but it only supports a maximum of ten concurrent connections to a file share.  Also, Windows XP Professional does not have the Volume Shadow Copy service, which allows users to roll back to previous versions of files that have been accidentally deleted or saved over on file shares.  It is not recommended practice to use a client operating system as a file server.

 

More Q&A coming soon!  Keep on studying!!!

 

Yours,

 

Sterling Jones

The U.S. System Builder Technology Team (aka BOB)