This is the fourth and final installment of this series from Jeremy Chapman

After user targeting and planning is complete, you can start your Proof of Concept testing and begin building Windows 7 images. There are many ways to build Windows 7 images or standard builds and depending on the tools you have in place, you may want to test a couple of options. For organizations with System Center Configuration Manager 2007, you can use that to create standard Windows builds with complete automation of OS, applications, drivers, data and profile migration, etc. If you won’t have Configuration Manager available for the pilot, you can download the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to create standard builds with similar automation capabilities to Configuration Manager. The main difference is that with Configuration Manager, you do not need to initiate the installation at the target PC, with MDT, you do need to initiate it. Both of these solutions use the Windows Automated Installation Kit components at their core to create and service images, migrate user state and activate Windows. They also use Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2008 R2 for network-based deployments or they can use media (USB flash and DVD) to install builds at target computers. My simple recommendation is to use Configuration Manager if you have it, if not use MDT.

Is Configuration Manager or MDT Overkill for a Pilot?

You might be thinking that Configuration Manager or MDT is too much to learn compared to a straight thick image (Windows plus all of your applications and drivers) and standing up Windows Deployment Services. I have seen this and heard this before. The problem is that habits start early on and if you invest a lot of time into a thick image and refining the straight Windows Deployment Services, Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) and any additional scripting work, you’ll probably end up either with multiple images to manage and may not be taking advantage of the improvements in Windows 7 for imaging and deployment made since Windows XP – namely Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) independence, multi-language support, offline image servicing and better in-box driver coverage or you may reinvent the wheel and create your own version of a deployment task sequence engine like the one shared by Configuration Manager and MDT in-box.

There are other advantages to using a task-sequence-based deployment that Configuration Manager or MDT can provide – especially when it comes to things like computer naming, the ability to install applications based on user needs, integration with the user state migration tool processes to migrate user data, domain joining, ability to enable Bitlocker, custom locale and keyboard settings per user, language definition per user and so on. The flexibility that these tools provide can improve the thoroughness of the pilot testing – since you can test more configurations – and any work you do to make your applications install silently via a task sequence and not baked into a thick image can be re-used with ongoing software distribution in the future. I’ve seen many people get MDT up and running in a day or less, so if you fought with Business Desktop Deployment 2.0 and its scripting back with your Windows XP deployment in 2004/2005, I’d encourage you to look at MDT now re-evaluate it – even at the pilot stage.

The last area I want to hit on here is activation. For Windows 7, there are two primary ways to activate Volume License versions of Windows. Multiple Activation Keys (MAK) or Key Management Service (KMS) are used once the client comes up and is either connected to the Internet (MAK) or connected to the domain (KMS). KMS runs on a server in your environment and will automatically activate clients for you. With KMS, you own the activation process and traffic; the PCs do not hit a Microsoft activation service on the Internet. With MAK, it is similar to retail activation and the PC hits a Microsoft server to activate over the Internet. To use KMS, you need 25 clients to hit the service, so typically you start with MAK for the first 25 PCs, then you convert their activation type to use KMS after you cross the 25 threshold (virtual machines can also be used against this threshold now). KMS is the recommended way to activate Volume License clients because you do not need to worry about managing keys in your imaging or unattended build process and your infrastructure manages the activation. You can find more information about Volume Activation on Microsoft TechNet.

Rolling Out Desktops and Collecting Feedback

Once you have your strategy in place for delivering desktops (hopefully it doesn’t involve sneakers and a case of DVDs – aka manual installation work), then you can start rolling out desktops. In Proof of Concept, you are typically targeting the lab and IT department staff first. Once you’ve worked in their feedback and feel confident about letting your custom builds loose into the wild, you can begin with Phase 2 and rolling out to end users. If you take away anything from this series, remember to start small and grow your pilot user count based on your confidence level, support activities, user demand and any other indicator of pilot capacity.

Generally speaking, no news is good news when piloting. Sometimes you need to work to collect feedback and other times it will come to you very quickly, especially if something isn’t working and is impacting multiple users. Be prepared to hear about things like applications not working correctly, the Web browser not rendering pages like it used to, printers not being configured, hardware not getting recognized or working and people not finding the old functions they used to have in the old – often customized – operating system. If you are coming from an environment where users had full administrative privilege, then expect some questions around User Account Control prompts or other configuration management features. Much of the feedback you’ll receive will be in response to Windows working by design, but others will require work or workarounds.

Architectural changes like going from 32-bit to 64-bit will impact older 16 bit applications (they won’t install or run) and non-standard devices with unsigned drivers (they won’t work). Moving users from administrative account privileges to standard user account privileges will have another set of challenges, if uses are accustomed to administering their machine. The payoff in the long run will be worth it, but expect to get some helpdesk calls even if you use due diligence to inform users of the change.

To handle communications to and from users, there are several tactics that can be used. In most cases, you will want to implement an Intranet portal to allow users to submit feedback and also have helpdesk staff trained for telephone calls or instant message-based support. In addition, proactive meetings and open forums with pilot users are recommended to get as much feedback as possible on all areas of the pilot, its processes and the software being tested.

There are many tactics to get people involved and the ones I have seen work both within Microsoft and at other companies are:

• Having an executive sponsor. This is vital to a good pilot, as the executive sponsor can help with areas of budget and organizational challenges, plus let’s face it, sometimes users tune out to emails coming from the IT department whereas they may react more quickly to emails coming from an executive sponsor.
• Identifying Pilot Group Leaders. These are people with a true pulse on how others are feeling about the pilot, the process itself and the software they are testing for you. Group leaders interact with pilot users on a regular working basis and hear the good and bad aspects – often getting information not sent to the helpdesk. As an information aggregator, they also reduce can help the communication traffic required to each pilot users
• Staying up-to-date with how people communicate. With so many communication channels available, you’ll want to stay up-to-date with communications to and from users. This might mean using social networking portals, email, in-person meetings, group calls, videos, etc. It usually isn’t enough to bury a pilot group RSS feed into your standard email client configuration or build an Intranet portal – users still may not consume the information.
• Communicating and requesting feedback often. This might seem counter-intuitive if you want to minimize helpdesk activities (especially for those outsourcing the helpdesk), but if you open up other less expensive channels, you can prompt pilot users for frequent feedback and ultimately collect more data to prepare for the production deployment.

These are just a few tactics to get users involved and there are many more. Other tactics like user recognition for the most bugs filed, group morale events and pilot program branded swag have been used with high degrees of success as well. If you are in a constant state of piloting something like I was, these tactics can be applied to anything you are piloting – not just a Windows pilot.

Analyzing User Feedback

There are both reactive and proactive phases to handling user feedback. As feedback comes in, you will want to perform initial triage of the feedback. Remember the severity levels I defined in Part 2[j1] of this series? These severity levels will help indicate how quickly you need to respond and how critical a fix is. Also, you will find patterns for feedback and duplication of feedback. It is important to keep a count of the duplicate issues or trouble tickets to gauge how many people are impacted. Based on severity and number of users impacted, you can decide how you go about addressing issues – or if you address them at all. Some issues will be technology-related, others will be based on lack of user training and others will be cultural in nature. Despite the nature of the issues, all of these categories are addressable before the production deployment.

Before we defined severity levels in Part 2, we also defined areas to validate the technology and associated processes, then we talked about quality gates to proceed from phase-to-phase. Part of your analysis will be checking whether validation and quality goals were met, if not, you may need to continue the pilot and push out your schedules a bit to ensure that you have enough information and quality to proceed into the production deployment.

Finally, there are business aspects to measure. Will the technology meet business objectives? Have we identified ways to minimize user disruption? Do we have a plan to train users sufficiently and proactively manage the issues we know will come up in the production deployment? All of these should be answered and your executive sponsors will be keen on knowing the work already performed, current status and what is planned to correct any outstanding issues. The pilot is only complete when you have enough information to proceed with a go/no-go decision and that are confident in your abilities to deliver the new technology to a broader set of users.

This was the final part in the Windows 7 Pilot series. Thanks for reading and please comment on additional content you’d like to see covered.

Happy piloting,

Jeremy Chapman

In the last post I started the planning process, but we are far from finished. We’ve basically outlined what we want and quality bars, but we haven’t actually mapped out the test cases, pilot phases or built a timeline yet. Let’s start by looking at test cases for the pilot.

Initial Testing for the Pilot

As this is just a pilot, you should not expect to be testing with the full rigor of a production deployment. That said, the more committed you are to actually deploying the operating system you are piloting, you could argue that testing as much as possible in early pilot phases will pay off in the long run, resulting in less testing for the production deployment. Your test cases should cover the following primary categories:

• Application and hardware compatibility. Required applications and targeted hardware works with Windows 7. As discussed earlier, this may include 64 bit considerations.
• Unattended operating system and application installation. Windows 7 is installed and configured without prompting users or administrators for more information. Application installations are fully-automated or included in the base image. If you are evaluating Application Virtualization or desktop virtualization, considerations should be added to these tests.
• User State Migration. Users get back their data and profile from the previous operating system – if it exists. This testing will also include any required computer backups for potential roll-back to the previous user-specific environment. 
• Windows 7 base image validation. This ensures that the base image(s) can be installed on the hardware you are targeting and nothing was impacted by the System Preparation (sysprep) process.
• The deployment process itself and end user outcome. This ensures the end-to-end process is working, infrastructure is delivering as expected and the migration experience of the user is acceptable. If you are evaluating Application Virtualization or desktop virtualization, considerations should be added to these tests.

While this list isn’t exhaustive, it covers the main areas for your initial test cases. Testing can be iterative and results-based, so may uncover additional areas to test or de-prioritize some of the main categories above if everything simply works as expected.

We’ll define the phases as an addendum to testing. Especially with lab deployments as the first pilot phase, there is little to delineate it from “initial testing” or “initial piloting” – both are early tests of functionality and often the operating system and general application testing will bleed into the testing of automation elements. Now let’s define our phases and assume that with Phase 1, a person in IT is actually using the computer for common tasks and we aren’t just looping installations of Windows images.

Phase 1: The Lab and IT Department – aka “Proof of Concept”

There are a couple of phases to a typical pilot rollout. The first phase really involves your IT department gathering common hardware types – or standard hardware for orgs with standards in place – and installing the operating system and applications that comprise the current desktop standard image or standard build in a lab. This is often called a Proof of Concept or POC for short. For the POC, you are performing light validation that everything works and noting what doesn’t work. If you are thinking about moving to 64 bit, now is a good time to open up those test matrices as well and build systems using a 64 bit version of Windows 7. Also, if you are considering re-architecting how applications or the entire desktop is delivered (think Application Virtualization or desktop virtualization), you probably want to try out the options you have in mind in the lab – before you test these implementations on unsuspecting users.

Phase 2: End Users and Production Hardware

When it comes to end user testing, depending on which operating system you are coming from, you probably want to start small and gradually grow your pilot user base. If your users have Windows XP or Windows 2000, the transition to Windows 7 will be a significant change for many users. For organizations with Windows Vista in production, you may be able to be a bit more aggressive with your timelines. If you are using an opt-in approach, you can phase in additional users with on a schedule or based on helpdesk, issue and feedback load. Based on these activities, you can ratchet up the user count based on your ability to support them.

With end users, you are paying particular attention to most of the primary categories of test cases I listed out above; application and hardware compatibility, user state migration, Windows 7 base image validation, and the deployment process itself. As you roll out to end users, pay attention to end user communications, training and tips for using new features. The Enterprise Learning Framework helps the IT department author emails for communicating new Windows and/or Microsoft Office features to end users during the pilot and production deployment phases.

While the content Microsoft provides to aid in end user training may suffice, pay attention to how people use their PCs and make sure they are aware of and using new features. Find out which features resonate with people and observe where people have issues. You can use this information to augment your user training for the production deployment.

Establishing Timelines 

Timelines should be established to follow your project objectives and organization size. For a single site, single language pilot with limited applications, you can probably perform Phase 1 in as little as 2-3 weeks and Phase 2 in as little as 30 days. Once you add more geographies, applications, hardware, changes to how desktop images or applications are delivered, etc., then you’ll need to add time accordingly. I haven’t seen many organizations where the initial pilot exceeds around 4 months in total. Every pilot is different though and there will be some that exceed 4 months or the “pilot” itself transitions into other phases of the deployment project, continuing as user validation for application compatibility mitigations. There is no one-size-fits all pilot timeline, but the main objective here is to have a rough schedule in place based on your unique environment and know what you are testing for and would like to validate.

With that, I will end part three of the series. In the next blog, I will highlight strategies for installing your image builds and harvesting and making sense of user feedback and information once Phase 2 has begun.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading,

Jeremy Chapman

Continuing the series with our guest blogger, Jeremy Chapman.

As with any IT project, the first part of planning is about building a plan. There are several things you’ll want to accomplish with a pilot and depending on your organization, the importance of each validation area will vary. I think of the pilot as trying to achieve the following key tasks

1. Technology validation. This not only validates the desktop environment you are delivering, but also how you deliver it. This covers everything from inventorying current users’ desktops, to imaging, applications and deployment technologies.
2. Process validation. Process validation is ultimately for ensuring that you have covered all bases for the project and implementation infrastructure, while making sure that you have the right people and resources in place for the production rollout.
3. User validation. User validation is not about validating the user’s abilities, but instead it gauges the impacts specific to the deployment process, new desktop environment and especially application experience.

 
Once you have the project goals in mind, there are many ways to execute the pilot in minimize user disruption. The idea is to start small and gradually increase the number of pilot seats – ensuring that you have an adequate representation of users, hardware types and sites (or geographic locations). Now is the time to document a plan for rolling out the pilot. You will also want to define success criteria relatively early in the process and what should constitute sign off for each phase. This typically means the number of issues and issue severity that you are willing to live with during each phase – recognizing that things should improve as you get closer to the production deployment. The concept of severity is important here as with any testing. You can use the following as a sample guideline for classifying severity:

• Severity 1. A fatal error, or a critical fix is needed before production
• Severity 2. Error is non-fatal, but it still needs to be fixed before production
• Severity 3. A fix isn’t required before production deployment
• Severity 4. Generally a nitpick, does not affect usage, performance or the average user, but somebody had to log it

Your quality gates should reflect these severity levels and include some count or measure for success. These numbers should get better as you approach production deployment. Here are a couple of examples:

• System performance. Were the desktop computers successfully migrated? The target for success is that 90 percent of all desktop computers migrated received only severity 3 or 4 issues.
• User satisfaction. How satisfied are the users with the outcome of the migration? Were all of the authorized data and settings migrated? Are their new installations usable? Did they need to call the help desk? How much downtime did they experience? Severity is can be judged individually per question above – you might want to stick with the 90% 
• Operations readiness. How satisfied is information technology (IT) Operations with how the pilot went? Were there critical issues that had to be resolved? Success in this case might be if more than 10% of users were dissatisfied with the delivery, service and issue resolutions.

By now you should have project goals, a system for assigning and prioritizing issues and a few quality gates defined for sign-off when moving up phases. Now is the time when we define the high level phases for the project with timelines and who is targeted per phase. I’ll save that for Part 3 of this blog series though.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading,

Jeremy Chapman

This week we recently released a new version of MDOP that includes six virtualization and management tools for Windows desktops. Along with the new App-v 4.6, we have also released the MED-V v1 SP1 Release Candidate, with support for Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit for download. It’s final release is expected on April 2010 as mentioned in the MDOP blog announcement earlier this week.

I had the opportunity to sit and chat with Ran Oelgiesser, Sr. Product Manager for MED-V and have him answer some of the common questions about MED-V:

Stephen: Why would I look to use MED-V?
Ran: When you upgrade from Windows XP (or even Windows 2000) to Windows 7, you need to map and test all your business applications. It’s not a secret that some applications will not work on Windows 7, and while there are many ways to fix them, there is always a small set of applications that are more stubborn and could not be fixed.

So what MED-V (or in length – Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization) does, is running a virtual Windows environment (Windows XP or Windows 2000) to enable all those incompatible applications to operate in their “native” environment. And the great thing is that the user just launches those applications from his Windows 7 start menu and gets a completely seamless experience.

Stephen: So I can deploy Windows 7 without all of my critical applications being 100% compatible?
Ran: Yes. That’s one of the major advantages that MED-V brings in the way you think about deploying a new operating system. In the past you could not take advantage of any of the new features and productivity gains of a new OS until you had all of your critical applications 100% compatible or fixed. With MED-V you can deploy Windows 7 even if you have a few critical applications that still require Windows XP.

Stephen: So should you do that for any application that does not run in Windows 7?
Ran: Actually no. I’d recommend that you first try to run the application in compatibility mode and use all the tools we provide to fix the application. A great place to start is in the Springboard App Compat Zone. Only when applications cannot be fixed, you should use MED-V. Even then, I wouldn’t keep the application in a virtual Windows XP environment forever. MED-V should be used as transitional solution – eventually you should be able to upgrade the application to a new version that support Windows 7 (or if it’s a home-grown application, fix it).

Stephen: When I deploy MED-V, does the end user see and interact with a virtual machine?
Ran: No, to the end user the applications running in Windows XP look and feel like they are installed directly on Windows 7. Users will see icons for their applications in the Windows 7 start menu, they can even create shortcuts for them on the desktop. When they launch the application it appears as a window, they never see the Windows XP virtual machine running in the background. Their applications just work. A great way to see this in action is in this quick MED-V demo walkthrough.

Stephen: Is this solution good for client applications or also for web applications?
Ran: It could also be a solution for web applications. In some cases internal portals and web applications still require Internet Explorer 6 to function properly, and this gives you a great way to run only those web sites in Internet Explorer 6, within the virtual Windows XP environment, while all other sites run in Internet Explorer 8 – Again it’s all seamless and hidden from the user – you define which URLs require Internet Explorer 6.

Stephen: This sounds a lot like the Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 – what’s the difference between the two?
Ran: It is and it isn’t… Windows XP Mode, is a preconfigured Windows XP environment that is available for customers who have Windows 7 Pro and above. It’s great as long as you are ok with manually configuring each virtual environment separately. When it comes to larger deployments, you’d need a way to deploy those virtual machines, provision and customize them accordingly, control their settings centrally and finally support and troubleshoot. That's what MED‑V is providing… It adds everything an IT Professional needs to deploy and manage virtual PCs in his or her environment. That includes: virtual image deployment and customization, policy-based provisioning, control and centralized monitoring.

Stephen: Will MED-V require Hardware Assisted Virtualization CPU (e.g. Intel vPro/VT or AMD-V) like Windows XP Mode does?
Ran: No. MED-V V1 SP1 is based on a version of Virtual PC 2007 for Windows 7 that works on any desktop hardware. Even with next version of MED-V (2.0), we will benefit from Hardware Assisted Virtualization if available - but MED-V will not require them.

Stephen: How can I get MED-V?
Ran: MED-V is part of MDOP for Software Assurance customers, which contains five other products besides MED-V. We recently published an article about 7 reasons for deploying MDOP you can learn more about some of the other challenges MDOP helps you solve. You can also get the beta software at Connect even if you are not an MDOP customer yet…

Stephen: What are the typical steps in deploying MED-V?
Ran: Sure.The image deployment is pretty simple.

1. Create a base Windows XP (SP3 recommended) virtual image – similar to a standard desktop image – no need to include all applications the user is ever going to need
2. Distribute MED-V and Virtual PC software (standard MSI files) via System Center Configuration Manager or any other software distribution infrastructure
3. Use MED-V administration console to package the virtual image
4. Distribute the package via System Center Configuration Manager (or again - any other infrastructure for that matter) to a predefined path on the client
5. MED-V will use your settings to join the virtual image to your Active Directory domain
6. The virtual image can now be managed and patched as any other domain-joined desktop
7. Specifically you can deliver applications according to the user needs with System Center, App-V or any other management software

The one component you’d need to install is a Windows Server 2008 R2 server for authenticating and provisioning the Windows XP applications based on Active Directory users and groups. That’s the main control center for MED-V deployments.

Stephen: Where can I learn more on deploying MED-V?
Ran: Best is to start with the Quick Start guide (and the Quick start policy XML file) to create a test environment and explore the key product features.Once you are done you could move on to the Evaluation Guide to learn about the deployment and management options of MED-V. A set of “how-to” videos are available for IT Administrator self-training as well as a ton of content in the MDOP Med-V area on Springboard.

With the launch of App-V 4.6 happening today, I was able to catch up with Karri Alexion-Tiernan, Director of Product Management for App-V for a quick Q&A.

Stephen: What problems can Microsoft application virtualization (App-V) solve for my business?
Karri: App-V reduces the IT costs of packaging, deploying, testing, updating, and servicing installed software. It can isolate applications from the operating system to prevent application conflicts (for example allowing you to be able to run to different versions of the same software on the same machine without overwriting key settings and preferences. It can stream applications on demand over the Internet or via the corporate network to desktops, terminal servers, and laptops.

In addition, App-V automates and simplifies the application management lifecycle by significantly reducing regression and application interoperability testing. It reduces the end-user impacts. No reboots required; no waiting for applications to install, and no need to uninstall when retiring applications and finally it enables controlled application use when users are completely disconnected.

As you move to Window 7 you can create a simple base image that contains only the OS in a pristine state and deliver only the applications needed by the user on demand. Take a look at App-V MVP Daniel Nerenberg’s blog for real world implementation. We’ve done the heavy lifting for IT Pros and have seamlessly integrated App-V and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) already.

Stephen: Why should I consider App-V now?
Karri: App-V will help save money immediately by freeing up administration time from IT and enhance end-user productivity. It is an out-of-the-box platform to enable you to migrate your applications and deploy Windows 7 faster and easier. We offer much tighter integration with more products (Office 2010, SCCM, 3^rd Party Distribution Systems) and we support both Windows 32/64-bit applications and x86/x64 platforms on desktops as well as Terminal Servers. App-V client deployment is easy and plugs into your existing deployment workflows.

Stephen: What benefits would my IT organization gain from deploying App-V?

Karri: IT organizations will be able to reduce IT costs associated with deployment, testing, application updates. App-V reduces the time spent on application and regression testing because conflicts no longer occur. Once tested, App-V delivers virtual applications faster by using streaming and eliminating application installation.

App-V delivers the virtual application on demand to the user when they need it, not when IT schedules or pushes it overnight. That paired with the ability to consolidate Terminal Services infrastructure and use servers more efficiently as well as being able to reuse existing SCCM infrastructure to deliver and manage physical and virtual applications really helps companies continue to realize ROI on their existing infrastructure investments and expedite deployment.

Stephen: How would the users benefit from App-V?

Karri: Users would enjoy productivity benefits as applications follow them and not a specific device. Some key benefits include:

• User settings roam with them, no matter which PC they login from.
• Applications are pulled by the user. Only 20-40% of the application to get up and running, as opposed waiting for the full installation to complete.
• No more reboots during application deployment, upgrades and other maintenance tasks associated with native applications means more user productivity time.
• Fewer machines required supporting down-level application versions, for example Word 2003, Word 2007 and Word 2010 can co-exist on the same machine.
• Applications are available to the user while connected and when offline.
• Fewer helpdesk calls and shorter wait times for support.

You can see the step by step videos of the product features here.

Stephen: Which applications can I virtualize using App-V?

Karri: Most of the applications (32 or 64 bit) can be virtualized using App-V. Virtualizing an application is a simple three step process that does not require source code changes to your applications.

The key to application virtualization is sequencing: a step-by-step process going through the installation and post-configuration procedures for the application. Documenting the sequencing process step-by-step is referred to as a “recipe” - a standardized template that you can hand someone else in your organization and have them recreate the same package.

For information about using the App-V Sequencer with down-level versions of App-V check out the App-V Blog and the App-V Sequencing Guide. A video demonstrating the sequencing process can be found here. Microsoft has published a recipe to virtualize Office 2010 and can be downloaded from http://officeitpro.com.

Stephen: How can I get App-V?

Karri: Microsoft Application Virtualization combines with five other tools to make the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, which delivers dynamic desktop solutions. App-V is also available via Microsoft Application Virtualization for Terminal Services, MSDN, and TechNet.

Stephen: What is the news about virtualized Office 2010?

Karri: App-V’s native streaming, no installation and isolation capabilities deliver Office 2010 faster than a traditional install and with less user productivity impact. Our customers will now be able to run multiple versions side by side and ease the learning curve associated with advancements like the ribbon user interface while providing IT Pros more time to migrate LOB applications dependent on older Office versions.

Cross product collaboration with the Office team allows us to deliver seamless integration and new advancements in virtual Office 2010 and the Office family of products not previously available, examples include:

• Improved SharePoint integration to Open, Save, Edit files.
• Send your email items quickly with Outlook’s Fast Search.
• Send files from directly inside of Office products, such as PowerPoint.

If there was any doubt about virtualizing Office with App-V in the past, you can feel confident that virtualized Office 2010 will deliver a seamless experience for your users.

“App-V 4.6 provides Office customers with a robust set of features to tackle core challenges including application upgrade, application coexistence, and user readiness. It’s an exciting, powerful new way for IT to deliver Office 2010 quickly without impacting user productivity.”  --Takeshi Numoto, CVP Microsoft Office

Take a look at App-V MVP Ment Van Der Plas’ blog where he shows how to virtualize Office 2010 Beta with App-V 4.6.

Stephen: How is the customer experience on App-V?

Karri: Over 80 customers have tried and deployed App-V 4.6 with great success and business benefits. You can learn about some of them here. A few examples are below.

“By cutting the time that consultants spend on application packaging and deployment, we’re freeing them to focus on providing quality service to their customers.” - Doug Miller, Practice Architect, CDW

“We want our clinicians to be doing what they’re supposed to do: caring for patients. With App-V, we’re reducing time required for computer work so that clinicians can focus on the business of healthcare.” - Keith Lee, End User Support Manager Care New England, United States 

Stephen: Where can I learn more about App-V?

Karri: The App-V Tech Center contains videos, whitepapers; test-drive labs, community resources at document library. We also have the following specialized resources:

• The Springboard Series on TechNet
• App-V Blog
• MDOP Blog
• Office 2010 Beta
• App-V Home Page
• Remote Desktop Services (Terminal services) Blog

Real World Expert Blogs:

• Ment Van Der Plas talks App-V deployment with System Center Configuration Manager and Sequencing Office 2010.
• Daniel Nerenberg shares App-V Real World Experience from an MVP and STEP member perspective on his blog.
• Tim Managan talks about App-V and Windows7 integration on his blog.
• Ruben Spruijt, App-V MVP and STEP Member, describes the power of App-V’s Shared Cache in his blog.
• Kevin Kaminskis discusses Sequencing 64-bit apps on his blog.
• Rodney Medina talks about how App-V is helping his customers deploy Windows 7 in his blog.

We once again welcome guest blogger, Jeremy Chapman.

Now that I’ve written the most informal white paper ever published about operating system deployment, I’ve been inundated with requests to talk about piloting Windows 7. There were some excellent resources written in the Windows Vista timeframe from MVPs, but as they have pertained to Windows Vista and not Windows 7, not many people are finding or using them. In truth, the concept of piloting an operating system isn’t really unique by operating system version and I can say with a high degree of confidence that just about everything you read in my next couple of posts will be relevant for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Before I came to Microsoft, the IT organization I worked in was in a constant state of piloting something, usually software, but sometimes the occasional operating system. Piloting is about putting something through its paces without exposing yourself to much risk and I think most IT organizations are doing a lot of this. Whether a new application is rolling out or another is nearing end-of-life, I was always testing something and my guess is that you are, too.

Piloting an operating system is like a mini deployment, you do roughly the same steps you would in a full-blown deployment, but you don’t worry about process polish or scalability as much. Combine that with specific targeting of representative and willing test subjects, and you have a pilot.

Targeting Your Pilot Users

One of the first things you do when piloting applications or operating systems is figure out who the best people are to test and report back issues. There is no perfect science to this and the general rule of thumb is to find communicative people who are somewhat self-sufficient and can take the occasional software or configuration glitch. There are a few elements to consider a group of people to pilot Windows 7:

1. Users who are enthusiastic about new technology. I’m one of these people and if you can’t identify them easily, chances are their colleagues can.
2. Users who can easily be rolled back to previous state or have a couple devices to use simultaneously. For roll back, this usually means proximity to your IT staff in case anything is not working. If they can use multiple devices, I would recommend against road warriors – unless they have small form factor devices.
3. Users with Windows 7 compatible hardware. This is getting easier than with Windows Vista or even Windows XP at the time it was shipped. Most hardware produced in the last four years will be fine – even low end devices with 1.6 GHz processors and 1-2GB RAM may be sufficient here.
4. Users with a representative set of applications. You’ll want a decent cross-section of user roles, the applications they use and levels of technical savvy. If you have less technically savvy users in the pilot, then the part of rule #2 applies for keeping especially those users within close proximity of IT resources.
5. Users who will take the time to provide feedback. This is where tech enthusiasts alone may or may not suffice. I tend to work through issues myself without complaining to IT, but you actually want people who communicate issues before trying to resolve or reverse engineer issues themselves.

 
I tend to prefer opt-in models, where the user feels in control. In this case you only need to set guidelines around communication and their involvement in the process. What also seems to be working lately (as smaller devices keep getting less and less expensive) is giving pilot users dedicated notebooks with Windows 7 pre-loaded. This is actually new to Windows 7’s release timing, given current pricing for budget devices. The theory here is that the specs on these machines are far less than what is normally in production, so a user satisfied with these devices will be more satisfied with an even more powerful device later.

With pilot users selected, we will move on to the next topic around pilot project planning in the next blog post.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading,

Jeremy Chapman

What’s new on Talking About Windows? Well, hear from Jeremy Chapman, Senior Product Manager for Microsoft, as he shares his knowledge on the User State Migration Tool (USMT), which transfers information from XP to Windows 7 faster and easier than ever before.

Program Manager Michael Kleef knows the benefits of making edits offline. Listen as he talks about using Advanced Group Policy Manager to eliminate mistakes and make changes before going live

Ashwin Palekar, Principal Group Program Manager, addresses remote application accessibility, data security and compliance, and other related scenarios.

Mike Mitchell, Principal Group Program Manager, talks about the advantages of the Microsoft Assessment Planning Toolkit (MAP) for IT pros and business decision-makers as they begin to integrate Windows 7.

All of this and the most complete list of live and virtual events for IT pros anywhere on our Talking About Windows events portal.

Come stop by and join the conversation!

Just before the holiday, I asked the fine folks at Microsoft Press to send me some of their Windows 7 books for me to read and review. Several days later, a huge box arrived with a half dozen books. Over the holidays I had the chance to read through two of them. Windows 7 Inside Out by Ed Bott, Carl Siechert and Craig Stinson and Plain & Simple Windows 7 by Jerry Joyce and Marianne Moon.

The first of these, Windows 7 Inside Out is a solid reference guide for IT Pros and Tech Enthusiasts alike. This book assumes you are familiar with the Windows 7 basics and dives right into the meat.

Topics covered include:

• Configure and customize your system with advanced setup options.
• Manage files, folders, and media libraries.
• Administer accounts, passwords, and logons—and help control access to resources.
• Troubleshoot errors and fine-tune performance. Monitoring system health and troubleshooting errors
• Advance Search techniques
• Deep dive into the event viewer
• Registry Editing
• Automating routine maintenance with scripts and other tools.

Included is a fully searchable eBook, “Before You Call Tech Support” reference guide, links to download gadgets, tools, blogs (like this one) and more…

If you are looking to tweak your Windows 7 system or help to support others, this book will more than cover your needs.

The second one, Plain & Simple is a great book for those IT Pros who were directly or indirectly involved with the purchase of a Windows 7 PC for someone else who is not PC savvy. (ie: You are now or have been the tech support line for Mom, Dad, Grandma, etc…) With huge photos and solid walkthroughs, Plain and Simple is a must have addition to that new PC purchase. The book covers the key areas to get you set up and running.

• Running programs and sending e-mail
• Browsing the Web and sharing your files.
• Working with digital media, including photos, music, and videos.
• Burning CDs and DVDs; make your own movies.
• Setting up printers and home groups
• Managing security settings and performing backups

The book offers easy-to-follow steps and screenshots show you exactly what to do, lots of tips to teach you new techniques and shortcuts and their TRY THIS! exercises to help you apply what you’ve learned right away. One thing for sure, this book will reduce the number of “how do I” calls you will receive from friends and family.

Even I learned a few cool new tips and tricks reading through these books. :)

For even more tips and tricks, check out our recently updated IT Pro At Home Tips and Tricks area on Springboard and look for more book reviews over the next few weeks.

Thinking about deploying Windows 7? Need to crunch the numbers to show your boss the  reduced TCO and quick ROI that Windows 7 will have for you’re company?

The Windows 7 Return on Investment (ROI) Tool, powered by Alinean, can help you evaluate your current PC total cost of ownership (TCO) and identify the potential benefits of deploying the Windows 7 operating system to help lower costs, improve service levels, and increase productivity.

This new tool can quantify the tangible value of Windows 7, estimate migration costs, and calculate the financial metrics necessary for your a project review and approval.

To check out the the Windows 7 ROI Calculator visit the Pilot and Deploy area of Springboard or just click here.

Visit the Windows 7 Test Drive for IT Professionals and take a guided tour of Windows 7.  The short virtual labs and supporting videos will give you a chance to explore Windows 7 by feature with no installation required.

What can you try?

• Search Federation: See how Search Federation works and see how to set up search federation connector.
• BranchCache: Try BranchCache and enabling BranchCache in a virtual environment.
• Med-V: Learn about Med-V and enabling Med-V in a virtual environment.
• BitLocker/BitLocker to Go: Learn about enabling BitLocker and BitLocker to Go encryption using group policy.
• User Account Control: Controlling user access through User Account Control.
• Windows Troubleshooting: Observe first hand how the Windows Troubleshooting features work.

Try out a few of the virtual labs and watch a few videos today and learn how Windows 7 can help you and your organization. There are more labs coming in the next few weeks including Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5, AppCompat using Shims, Windows 7 Deployment, Internet Explorer, Powershell, Problem Steps Recorder and App-V.

To check out the labs, visit the Springboard Series on TechNet and go to our Latest Content and Expert Advice area and click on the Windows 7 Test Drive for IT Professionals

Don’t forget to download the free Windows 7 Enterprise 90 day trial version here – and discover how these scenarios work in your own environment.

Now that Windows 7 has been released you may be interested in understanding what Microsoft Certifications are available, and how you can update your certification.

Jim Clark, Sr. Certification Manager for Microsoft Learning is here to answer some of the common questions.

Stephen: Are there any new certifications for Windows 7?

Jim: Yes, in addition to new versions of the Enterprise Desktop Support Technician Pro credential and the core configuring TS exam we have created a new credential with Windows 7 that is focused on the Enterprise Desktop Administrator.

Stephen: What is the difference between this new Enterprise Desktop Administrator (EDA) credential and the Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (EDST)?

Jim: Good question. The primary difference is that the EDST is focused on reacting to customer issues as a helpdesk or technical support responder?, but the EDA roles is focused on proactive desktop tasks that include designing, deploying, and managing. The EDA role is part of a design team that is looking into the future to determine what the desktop infrastructure will need to maintain, grow, or gain efficiency. This could be by upgrading or deploying a new OS, or modifying an existing deployment.

The simple answer is to look at these two credentials the same way we look at the Windows Server 2008 credentials:

• Windows Server 2008, Server Administrator – Operations focused, responsible for today, tomorrow, and next week
• Windows Server 2008, Enterprise Administrator – Engineering focused, responsible for next month, next year and beyond
• Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician – Operations focused, responsible for today, tomorrow, and next week
• Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Administrator – Engineering focused, responsible for next month, next year and beyond

Stephen: So those are the two Pro credentials for Windows 7, are there also new Technology Specialists (TS) exams for Windows 7?

Jim: Yes, there is one new TS exam that will support both the Enterprise Desktop Administrator (EDA), and the Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (EDST) credentials. That exam is 70-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring. This exam is the backbone of our credentials and it validates all of the common how-to tasks associated with Windows 7. It is a requirement for both the EDA and EDST credentials.

Stephen: Will any of these new exams also count towards the Windows Server 2008 credentials?

Jim: Yes, the 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring exam will count towards the Desktop requirement for the Enterprise Administrator Windows Server 2008 credential.

Stephen: How about people with the Vista EDST credential or even people with the XP DST credential, will they have a way to upgrade their credential to Windows 7?

Jim: Yes, we are creating an exam so that either XP DST’s or Vista EDST’s can take this one exam and become MCTS: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician certified. This upgrade exam will be out in early 2010.

Stephen: So what would you suggest is the first step to become Windows 7 certified?

Jim: If you are new to Windows client certification, or are not currently certified as either an XP DST or Vista EDST, then I recommend you take the 70-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring exam. This exam is required for both of the Pro credentials and can be used for the desktop requirement for the Enterprise Administrator credential, so it’s the best place to start.

Stephen: Are there any other Windows 7 exams beyond the ones you’ve mentioned?

Jim: Yes, we also have an exam that is geared towards OEM Preinstallation specialists. This exam 70-683: TS: Windows 7, Preinstalling for OEMs is designed to validate skills of OEM vendors that preinstall Windows 7 on desktops and laptops for corporate or retail sales.

Stephen: Are any of the exams live now?

Jim: Yes, all of the exams (except the upgrade exam) are live now. Anyone can register to take an exam at www.prometric.com.

Stephen: Where can I learn more about Windows 7 certification?

Jim: Best place to start is the Windows Client Certification portal. This page will link you to all the Exam Preparation Guides for the Windows 7 exams.  If you decide you would like training before you take the exams then here Windows – Training Portal is the place to start or to get the latest information around the world of training and certification, check out the Born To Learn Blog.

NOTE: Until Dec 31st enjoy 15 to 25 percent off select Microsoft Certification exams. Click here for details.

The Windows Client marketing team held a 72-hour film festival for Windows 7 in Seattle last month, to create fun and funky videos for our IT Pro community.17 film teams in the Seattle area participated. The contest started on a Thursday at 7pm and concluded on Sunday at 7pm, so the contestants had only 72 hours to create their 2 minute works of art.

Each team picked a different genre from a hat (e.g. Comedy, Music, Parkour, Blast from the Past, etc.). Every entry had to include the following in their film: 1) a character called “CIO Wiggins”, 2) a line of dialog “The guys in IT are going to like this” and of course 3) mention “Windows 7”.

I was asked to help judge the contest and present awards to the winners at a local theater in Seattle.Needless to say, the results are hilarious and interesting. Everyone did an amazing job. I have posted my personal favorite from the competition. Check out all the winners here.

With Windows 2000 Server and Client and Windows XP SP2 support ending July 13, 2010 are you aware of all the resources available to help you move to a new client and server operating system?

We have created a End-of-Support Solution Center to help with the planning of your migration strategy from Windows 2000 or Windows XP to Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

Client Migration

There is no supported migration path from Windows 2000 to Windows 7 using the User State Migration Tool (USMT). You must first upgrade to Windows XP and then migrate to Windows 7 with USMT 4.0 included with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK).

Here are some resources to help guide you:

• Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Guide - This guide helps walk through the decisions you will make when migrating from a Windows XP environment to Windows 7 and to learn about the tools and resources available from Microsoft to help you each step along the way.
• Download the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 - The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 helps you to install, customize, and deploy the Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 family of operating systems.
• Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 - Learn how to use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to migrate user files and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 using a default installation. (Screencast)
• User State Migration Tool - The User State Migration Tool (USMT) for Windows 7 is now part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and provides fast and flexible options to migrate user profiles and data from one operating system to another. Explore how the new Hard-Link Migration feature highlighted in his demonstration can dramatically reduce migration time for in-place operating system migration or computer refresh scenarios.(Screencast)
• Planning Windows Optimized Desktops and Windows 7 Projects with MAP - This demo will show you how to use technical guidance and automated tools to clarify infrastructure planning process and speed up asset discovery and hardware readiness assessment for Windows 7, App-V, and more. (Screencast)
  
• Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 - Guidance for IT pros – This 5 part blog series covers :
  • The "One-Pager" for Moving from Windows XP to Windows 7 (Overview)
  • Migrating User Files and Settings from Windows XP to Windows 7
  • Application Management and Preparing for a Windows 7 Deployment
  • Choosing and Image Strategy and Building Windows 7 System Images
  • Automating the migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 End-to-End
• Check out the Windows client and server support forums and our Deployment zone on Springboard where we have additional screencasts, walkthroughs, whitepapers, FAQ’s and much much more to help guide.

NOTE: If you are looking to move from Windows Server 2000, the best place to start is at the Windows 2000 End-of-Support Solution Center where they have key information to help guide you through the upgrade paths, migration tools, and toolkits you will need

if you haven’t visited Talking About Windows.com in awhile, look at all you have missed.

Lidiane Souza a Sr. Group Program Manager at Microsoft discusses the concept of isolated applications and the benefits it provides to IT administrators, including flexibility, the ease of management, and a seamless experience for end users.

Listen in as Greg Lambert from ChangeBASE AOK discusses Windows 7 application compatibility, and highlights ways for developers to optimize the application experience for end users and Stephen Hall from District Computers, LLC. shares his thoughts on the speed, security, and remote capabilities of Windows 7 and how it can benefit end users who require on-site and off-site access to their information

Hear what Peter Menadue from Dimension Data has to say about early deployments of Windows 7 and methodologies used to ensure OS ease of use for both end users and IT administrators. Listen in as he also dispels the myths of virtualization

And, if your looking to learn more about Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008, come find a live or virtual event in your area by visiting the Events tab on the Talking About Windows site.

Listen, comment, join the conversation at Talking About Windows.com

Until now there were a couple of ways to determine if your applications were compatible with Windows 7 – you can test everything, look them up one-by-one in the Windows Compatibility Center, or inventory your production machines using the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 and synchronize your inventory with hosted compatibility data from Microsoft and ISVs. For about a year, we’ve been posting regular updates to the Windows Vista Application Compatibility List for IT pros and even though compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7 is pretty high, there has still been huge demand for a Windows 7-specific list. If you already have a list or inventory of the applications you want to move forward in a Windows 7 deployment, the new Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals lets you download a spreadsheet of known vendor-supported applications so that you can query the list against your pre-existing application inventory. This list represents a sample of the total ecosystem focusing on top products as defined by customers and deployments with a public statement of support provided by the vendor.

As you can see, there is compatibility status listed for both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, plus each application’s major and minor version numbers are listed to help normalize your data queries. Since October (yes, last month) we have already collected more than 5500 applications and the list is growing every day. If you are working through a list of hundreds or thousands of applications, this list will help you validate your applications more quickly. We will be updating this list regularly, so keep checking back to avoid any unnecessary testing. Click here to download the spreadsheet and get started.

If you are in the process of testing in-house developed applications, download the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) and use its in-box evaluators and test tools. Although we released ACT 5.5 back in April coinciding with Windows 7’s RC release, there were no changes needed to support the RTM version of Windows 7. Even though you will see an occasional “RC” in ACT’s reports, ACT 5.5 is the RTM-supporting version.

To access these and other application compatibility resources, check out the Springboard Application Compatibility Zone where we host the latest application compatibility content for Windows 7.

Jeremy Chapman
Windows Deployment