Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows Vista, Windows

Video Demo: Identifying Security Vulnerabilities for Your Desktop Infrastructure

Baldwin Ng — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:20:00 GMT

Whether you are planning to deploy Windows Vista or already did, it is important that you keep security high on your list and make sure that all of your desktops are secured. So, how do you know if your desktops have Windows Firewall settings turned off? What if some desktops do not have Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware software installed?

To quickly get an answer, please check out the new Security Center assessment feature that we have added to the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.1 released in June. It auto-generates a security assessment report on your existing desktops as part of the "Windows Vista hardware assessment" migration report.

What's Next?

Start identifying these security vulnerabilities today with a free download of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. You may also view the new MAP Toolkit demo video and learn how to get the Security Center assessment report as well as the hardware compatibility assessment report for Windows Vista migration.

Cheers,

Baldwin Ng

Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team

IE partners with American Forests for green Carbon Grove campaign

Chris Flores — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:02:00 GMT

Last month, Window's Internet Explorer launched Carbon Grove, a green campaign designed to mobilize internet users to pursue reductions in their personal carbon footprints. Today, we are excited to announce that the campaign is expanding to France, and in partnership with American Forest we are taking steps to make the virtual forest a reality through the planting of up to 250,000 real trees in deforested regions across the globe.

Carbon Grove is a carbon footprint reduction reminder service that empowers users to reduce their impact on the environment, and through the use of Windows Internet Explorer 7 with Dynamic Security Protection, users can also help improve the internet environment. Internet Explorer 7 is architected with security features that help defend against malicious software (also known as malware) and better protect against the theft of personal data by fraudulent websites.

By participating in Carbon Grove's campaign, internet users nurture a virtual tree seedling and after six weeks of continued commitment to carbon reducing efforts, Internet Explorer will then sponsor the planting of a tree in a region of need around the world.

To participate in the campaign, users register at www.carbongrove.com and follow the simple steps to plant a virtual tree. Users can then visit their tree once a week and watch it grow. As part of the campaign, Carbon Grove will send weekly reminders to users with updates on their trees' growth and how it has become shelter for virtual animals. The weekly email reminder will feature a link to the user's tree, as well as "green" tips on ways to help the environment in simple but meaningful steps.

Carbon Grove is built on Windows technology and Silverlight, and works with Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8 Beta. If IE7 or IE8 Beta is not already installed on the user's PC, both are available as free downloads. You can download IE7 here and IE8 Beta here. With a Beta version of Internet Explorer 8, users can also take advantage of IE8's new WebSlice feature to monitor their tree's progress no matter where they are browsing.

Microsoft encourages employees, customers and partners to understand and embrace sustainability and learn how to improve the Earth's environment and foster a safer internet ecosystem. To plant your virtual tree and help our eco-system, visit www.carbongrove.com.

Communicating Windows 7

Chris Flores — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:09:00 GMT

Typically when Microsoft ships a new OS (like Windows Vista), we immediately start talking about the next version-which begs two questions: 1) is Microsoft working on a new version of Windows, and if so, 2) why aren't you talking about it?

I thought I would spend a minute giving you an update on where we are. First, yes, we are working on a new version of Windows. As you likely know, it's called Windows 7.We are always looking for new ways to deliver great experiences for our customers. This is especially true of Windows - where we're constantly examining trends in hardware, software and services to ensure that we continue to drive the innovation that has both made Windows the world's most popular operating system and has provided a foundation on which our partners built great products and businesses. When we shipped Windows 2000, we were already working on Windows XP and we started working on Windows Vista even before we released Windows XP. So naturally, we've been thinking about the investments we made in Windows Vista and how we can build on these for the next version of Windows.

What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows. So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience. For instance, several months ago we began privately sharing our preliminary plans for Windows 7 with software and hardware partners who build on the Windows platform. This gave them an opportunity to give us feedback and gave us the opportunity to incorporate their input into our plans. As the product becomes more complete, we will have the opportunity to share our plans more broadly. Steven Sinofsky, Windows and Windows Live Engineering SVP, talks more about this in his interview with CNET's Ina Fried, published today: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9951638-56.html.

We know that this is a change in our approach, but we are confident that it will help us not only to build even better products, but also to be more predictable in the delivery of our products. We also know that this change has led to some confusion, so we would like to share information today that will hopefully clear up some of this.

Before we talk about what's ahead, we should take a look at where we are today with Windows Vista. From a quality perspective, both Windows Vista SP1 and the ecosystem have delivered measurable progress in the six dimensions of quality we track -- device compatibility, application compatibility, reliability, performance, battery life and security. The business results speak for themselves. As of March 31, we had sold more than 140 million Windows Vista licenses, and analyst firm forecasts indicate that Windows Vista adoption among businesses is on a similar pace as Windows XP in similar timeframes. Millions of enterprise users are already running Windows Vista, and we invite you to read their stories published in more than 100 case studies. The benefits they are experiencing range from energy conservation, lower TCO for mobile users, and greater security. Our job is not done, but we've worked hard with our ecosystem to improve the quality of Windows Vista and we're pleased with the customer response.

Another question we often get asked is whether Windows 7 is a major release. The answer is "yes" -- it's hard to describe any product that is used by millions of people and worked on by thousands of engineers as anything else. That said, the long-term architectural investments we introduced in Windows Vista and then refined for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 will carry forward in Windows 7. Windows Vista established a very solid foundation, particularly on subsystems such as graphics, audio, and storage. Windows Server 2008 was built on that foundation and Windows 7 will be as well. Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. Rather, we are refining the kernel architecture and componentization model introduced in Windows Vista. While these changes will increase our engineering agility, they will not impact the user experience or reduce application or hardware compatibility. In fact, one of our design goals for Windows 7 is that it will run on the recommended hardware we specified for Windows Vista and that the applications and devices that work with Windows Vista will be compatible with Windows 7.

We are well into the development process of Windows 7, and we're happy to report that we're still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista. As always, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain feedback, but we're not yet ready to discuss timing and specific plans for any Beta releases. In the meantime, customers can confidently continue with their Windows Vista deployment plans.

Try Windows Media Center - you may already have it!

Ben Reed — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:31:00 GMT

If your PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, you have a great feature set you may not even know about: Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center can turn your PC from a "plain vanilla" computer into something pretty powerful and impressive: the hub of your entertainment system. Surprised? Well (if you ask nicely), I'll tell you more.

Use Windows Media Center to browse your music collection by cover art or year, organize photos and create albums and jazz up custom slide shows with music. If you're a sports fan, you'll definitely want to check out your favorite team's scores and stats on SportsLounge (U.S. and Canada only).

And if you like movies and TV, you'll enjoy Internet TV Beta. This new feature allows you to play free streaming video content on demand, choosing from more than 100 hours of TV entertainment, music concerts, movie trailers, news, and sports content from MSN Video.

Are you a film buff? If so, you're in luck. Windows Media Center, you can watch movies on DVD and stream or download movies from a growing list of content providers through Online Media-an innovative portal that helps you find movies over the Internet. If you want a quick glimpse of all the movies you've recorded or the movies coming up on TV, check out the Movies Guide. You can see movie jackets, search for films by actor, director, genre, or title, and read descriptions and reviews of the films.

TV features are some of the most exciting in Windows Media Center. You can watch, pause, and rewind live TV shows in standard and high definition (HDTV available only in the U.S.)1. Schedule recordings with the Electronic Programming Guide and find shows in the Windows Media Center Recorded TV library using picture thumbnails from the actual programs. You can also view live TV through Picture-in-Picture or as a background while performing other activities in Windows Media Center.

Want to save what you've recorded? No problem. Go ahead and burn your favorite shows to DVD. Windows Media Center will even create a simple DVD menu, which you can navigate using your DVD remote.

Right about now, you're probably thinking "Hey, this sounds pretty good - but I'll bet set-up is complicated." Not so! A TV tuner is all you need to start enjoying live TV on your Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate PC.2 Just plug your TV antenna, cable, or the video output from your satellite set-top box into your TV tuner, open Windows Media Center, and follow the appropriate set-up instructions. To find out what else you need to perform specific functions in Windows Media Center, take a look at the handy chart here.

Some Windows Media Center users like to stream their digital media throughout the house. If that appeals to you, Extenders for Windows Media Center are just the ticket. And here's a tip: If you have an Xbox 360, you already have a first-rate extender available.

1 Enjoying live and recorded HD content may require additional equipment, including but not limited to an HD compatible receiver, tuner, set-top box, and TV or other display.

2 Windows Media Center supports as many as two NTSC Standard tuners and two ATSC HD TV tuners, for a maximum of four TV tuners in a Windows Media Center PC but not limited to an HD compatible receiver, tuner, set-top box, and TV or other display.

How to Download the Localized Version of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1?

Baldwin Ng — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:53:00 GMT

Hello Windows Vista Team Blog readers,

We've heard that some of you are very interested in getting the localized version of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 but was not sure how the download process works for this globalized integrated download. To clarify, the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 is available in any of the SEVEN languages from a single download (not just English). That includes North American English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. No more hunting around for 2 different localized versions of the download. This is especially convenient for those of you who are multi-lingual in US, Europe and Latin America!!

Here's how the download and installation process work:

Download the globalized integrated version of the tool here (please ignore the fact the language field says English, trust me, it has all 7 localizations in it :-) ): http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83115
Decide on which language you want the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment to operate in (e.g. Japanese)
Install this globalized integrated download on a computer with the matching localized operating system (i.e. Japanese version of the 32-bit Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 R2 OS)
Double-click the download and complete the installation process
When you are ready to use Windows Vista Hardware Assessment in Japanese, make sure that your DISPLAY LANGUAGE is set in Japanese in this case
(Optional Step) If you want to switch to a different language and, for example, create readiness assessment report in English, you may change the display language from Japanese to English and then re-launch Windows Vista Hardware Assessment.

To read more about the details of this tool, visit the localized sites here:

Don't forget to check out the various blog posts and web pages on many of the Windows Vista Solution Accelerators we've produced in the past few months! My colleague Jeremy Chapman just wrote about the Windows Vista Service Life-cycle Management solution accelerator - you definitely should check it out!

Thank you and enjoy!

Baldwin (Baldwin.Ng@microsoft.com)

Get Microsoft Solution Accelerators: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators

New Application Compatibility training available

Peg McNicol — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:19:00 GMT

When we talk about application compatibility for our large customers, it goes beyond making sure the latest game or end user application works. Our enterprise customers sometimes have hundreds of thousands of PCs to manage. That means a lot of different applications, from many different companies, some custom and some customized. To help these customers we created a suite of enterprise tools called the Application Compatibility Toolkit (see my earlier post), and also worked with partners to create a service called the Application Compatibility Factory (see here).

One thing you may not know is that we also have a team of specially trained consultants who work with customers on some of these very large deployments. We try to make sure all our customers can take advantage of the team's knowledge, so we send them to events like TechEd or IT Forum and they contribute significantly to the content you find on TechNet and MSDN. Unfortunately it's not always possible for customers to have one-on-one interaction with this team. That's why we are pretty excited that one of the consultants, Caio Chaves Garcez, recently recorded the full 2 day training the team usually presents to these large customers. The training covers most common application compatibility issues found with Windows Vista, as well as how to use the various tools we make available. Whether you are an IT Pro starting your deployment or a developer trying to make your older applications work with Vista, the content of this webcast is well worth the just over 8 hours it will take you to get through it. If you want to learn more about what the team is working on, you can also check out Chris Jackson's blog.

Download the training

Meet Windows Vista IT Pro Hero - Sumeeth Evans from Indianapolis

Baldwin Ng — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:10:00 GMT

Hi all,

Whether you are seriously considering moving your desktops to Windows Vista or just simply contemplating about it, I highly encourage you to grab your favorite latte or beverage, sit back and read about this great story – one that illustrates how an IT pro had become an instant hero in this company.

Meet Sumeeth Evans - IT Manager of the Collegiate Housing Services (CHS). Situated just about 2 hours south of the Great Lake Michigan, CHS manages student housing programs for 27 post-secondary campuses in 13 states across the nation. Late last year (2006), Sumeeth started planning for migrating his company’s computers to Windows Vista but estimated that it could cost $76,000 to get the job done – he assumed that most of his Windows XP machines might not support Windows Vista due the hardware requirements. Fortunately, he joined the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment beta program and found out after using this assessment tool that 70% of his 3-year-old Windows XP machines could run Windows Vista with no or only minor upgrades! Yes, that’s the majority of his PCs!

Needless to say, his manager was pleasantly surprised with the readiness results and the huge savings in the hardware replacement costs that Sumeeth virtually became the IT HERO of the company!

Wanna be an IT hero too? Read on and find out how he did it:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=93644

To become an IT HERO yourself, download Windows Vista Hardware Assessment for free and get the tool here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83115

Cheers,

Baldwin Ng

Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators

Hello World! Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 is Going Global!

Baldwin Ng — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:48:00 GMT

The wait is over! The Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team is pleased to announce the newly-released Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 with many of the features YOU have been looking for. For example, we've added features such as localization to 6 more languages in addition to North American English, IP range scanning and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) detection of non-Windows machines and network devices. These are excellent features to help you speed up your migration projects to Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office!

For the newcomers of the Windows Vista Team Blog, let me give you a brief overview and show you what Windows Vista Hardware Assessment solution accelerator can do for you. Of course, if you can't wait, just click HERE to download the tool. That's okay too. :-)

In a nutshell, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment is an automated software tool that helps business customers and consultants make informed decisions about desktop deployment and migration to Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office. Specifically, this tool provides users a very quick way to inventory and assess PCs network-wide for their hardware and device readiness (within an hour if you have a network of about 500-1000 PCs). Through auto-generated readiness reports, organizations can more quickly identify computers that can migrate to Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office "as is" without any hardware upgrades and other computers that could be migrated with very minimum hardware upgrades such as system memory and hard drive upgrades. This tool is now used by many large and small enterprises and it can scan 25,000 PCs in a single scan per domain/workgroup and can run multiple scans for a larger organization as well.

FIGURE 1: Screenshot of the Welcome Screen - French Version of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment

FIGURE 2: Screenshot of the Japanese Windows Vista Readiness Report

In this new release of version 2.1, we have added 3 major features that address many of the customer and partner feedback that we've collected for the past months:

Localization to 6 New Languages: With Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office going to all corners of the world, we've decided to globalize the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool. Now, you can not only operate this tool with your OS but you can also generate readiness report in Microsoft Word and Excel in your local languages including French, German, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. This makes this tool and the reports more impactful when presented to the technical and business decision makers.
IP Range Scanning: This feature is one of the most frequently requested features from our customers (you!) and this IP range scanning capability allows you to select a set of computers for the readiness assessment independent of whether you are using Active Directory or not - especially useful in many branch office assessment scenarios! This nicely complements other ways to target machines for assessment including the Active Directory Organizational-Unit targeting and flat-file import method.
SNMP Discovery: While many of your computers are Windows-based, we do know that our customers and partners would like to assess the ENTIRE network environment. So with this new SNMP discovery feature, you will now have the ability to discover and assess machines running non-Windows OS that are SNMP-enabled. It also paves a way for you to understand the network devices as well. Very cool feature in my opinion!

For more details, please view the content on TechNet or check out my previous blog in July.

Most importantly, over 240,000 users have downloaded this tool since February 2007. Many customers have already saved significant of migration costs and accelerated their migration using this tool - such as Sporton International and Collegiate Housing Services.

So why wait? Download Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 Now!

To read the TechNet overview in the 6 new languages, please click one of the links below:

TechNet France
TechNet Germany
TechNet Japan (available in the next 24 hours)
TechNet Korea
TechNet Latin America (Spanish)
TechNet Brasil

Have a great weekend everyone!

Baldwin Ng

Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators

wvhafdbk@microsoft.com

“Fireside Chat” with Heartland Technology Solutions at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2007

Baldwin Ng — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:42:00 GMT

Hi all,

For those of you who missed some of the actions and announcements at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference regarding key technologies and tools including SoftGrid, Windows Partner Solutions, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment and Windows Business Value Assessment Tool, read on...

Baldwin

Interview with Heartland Technology Solutions at WPC 2007

On Day 3 of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2007 (WPC) in Denver, I caught up with IT veterans from the Heartland Technology Solutions (HTS) in Harlan, Iowa - CEO, Arlin Sorensen and Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Larry Hedin. Here's what they have to say about what's they've seen at WPC.

Baldwin: "Arlin, it's good seeing you and Larry again. A few months ago, I met you and a few peer group members of the Heartland Technology Group (HTG) during a series of product and technology review meetings on Microsoft's Redmond Campus. Can you tell us a bit more about the Heartland Technology Group (HTG), how it started and what the charter is?"

Arlin: "Sure. Back in 2001, I recognized that there was a general lack of peer groups for Microsoft partners that serve the SMB space in the United States and Canada. As technology continued to morph and change, we knew that we couldn't figure out everything on our own, so I decided to launch the first HTG peer group that same year. The HTG peer group is an open community where technology leaders would share their own daily real world experience with those having the same challenges. Better yet, they are all coming from non-competing markets so there are no worries and concerns about competition. Through sharing of best practices in business and technologies implementation, we are able to stay ahead of the rapidly changing industry. That's how we are able to grow and grow - we are now at close to 100 company members."

Baldwin: "Very interesting. You certainly have a great group of technology leaders. I always enjoy meeting them and tapping their insights."

Baldwin: "Larry, as part of the Worldwide Partner Conference partner panel, what was your impression about the solutions and technologies that Microsoft has rolled out at this conference? What impressed you the most?"

Larry: "Baldwin, there are two things that are very impressive - SoftGrid and Windows Partner Solutions. SoftGrid application virtualization has really become affordable for my customers. As part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), SoftGrid really helps reducing deployment time down to a minimum. It takes care of tough apps - apps that conflict with other line-of-business apps previously without SoftGrid. It is really awesome to see how energized my sales force are when they discuss SoftGrid and MDOP with our customer base. These technologies give partners like us greater leverage and help remove deployment roadblocks for Windows Vista."

Larry: "I am also very impressed with the assessment tools rolled out this week as part of the Windows Partner Solutions program. The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool is a great tool that helps my sales force quickly assess the existing PCs of my customer base and determine if they are ready for Windows Vista and Office 2007 migration. It is easy to learn and use and, most importantly, it helps accelerate my business! Another great tool is the Windows Vista Business Value Assessment Tool (may require partners log-in). It enables partners like us to sell the business value of Windows Vista. Without the data-centric intelligence provided by this tool, it's much harder to sell. This tool is straightforward and the customization to specific market and company size is a great addition. We can now build our sales process around the use of these assessment tools and the results they generate. Partners should definitely download these free tools and see how they can help accelerate their sales.

Baldwin: "Arlin, what would you say would be another technology that our customers and partners should keep an eye one?"

Arlin: "Partners here are seeing and hearing the buzz about Software plus Service and how this will offer great business to us. We too are getting ourselves prepared to get more involved in the Managed Services side of the IT business."

Baldwin: "Arlin, Larry, on behalf of our Windows Vista Team blog audience, I'd like to thank you for your time today. Thanks for your insights and hope you enjoy the rest of the event."

Arlin and Larry: "Thanks for having us."

Kick Your Windows Vista Projects into High Gear - a success story

Baldwin Ng — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:54:00 GMT

Hi all,

A few months ago, I had the pleasure to meet David Feng, Director of Technical Services in Systex Corporation in Taiwan. He has been involved in Microsoft technologies for many years and was part of our Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Beta Program. His participation has been key to the success of our release and I want to thank him as well as the tens of thousands of other beta users out there! Thank you!

Below is a great success story about how Systex Corporation was able to use Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool to assist Sporton International Inc. in accelerating Windows Vista deployment. If you want to know how to kick your Windows Vista project into high gear (or out of second gear), read on…

The leading mobile communications certification company in Taiwan, Sporton International Inc. wanted to upgrade its operating system from Windows® 2000 Professional Edition and Windows XP to Windows Vista®. The company wanted to know which of its computers were ready for Windows Vista. Based on previous upgrade experiences, the company planned to perform this inventory manually on 300 PCs and expected the process to take at least a month. To avoid compatibility problems, Sporton considered retiring at least half of its PCs and replacing them with new ones—at a cost of nearly U.S.$20,000. Instead, the company turned to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, SYSTEX, the largest systems integrator and Microsoft Large Account Reseller in Taiwan, for assistance. The company introduced Sporton Lab to the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool, which is part of a family of Solution Accelerators that are available for download at no cost from the Microsoft TechNet Web site.

From a single PC, the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool scanned a network of 300 computers for Windows Vista–readiness within 30 minutes. The tool gathered migration-readiness information from each PC, including device and driver details, without installing any software agents on computers. Rather than replacing half of Sporton Lab PCs, 88 percent of the computers were either immediately ready for the migration or needed only minor memory and hard drive upgrades. Sporton Lab saved nearly U.S.$20,000 and finished the assessment in a half an hour rather than a month…

Download Windows Vista Hardware Assessment FREE at:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83115

Read the rest of the story:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=93643

View technical drill down:

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/07/09/microsoft-releasing-new-version-of-the-windows-vista-hardware-assessment-tool.aspx

Use other Solution Accelerators for Windows Vista

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators

Microsoft Released New Version of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool

Baldwin Ng — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:09:00 GMT

Hi Folks,

Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office are here! And, you are probably thinking that it's time to take advantage of these 2 great technologies. But, you need to get answers on a few practical questions first:

Would my existing PCs run Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office? Should I buy new ones or upgrade them instead?
Would my devices still work? Would most of the device drivers be available from Windows Vista installation DVD and/or Microsoft Windows Update site?

Well, I have good news for you! Today, our team is happy to announce the availability of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 tool at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2007. This network-wide readiness assessment tool is designed to make it easier for Microsoft partners and customers to determine their existing PCs' readiness for Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office. It's a great tool to accelerate migration and deployment planning for Microsoft customers and partners.

How it Works?

Step 1 - Network Inventory:

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 connects securely and remotely from a networked PC and reaches out to each PC on the network, whether they are in an Active Directory domain/forest or in a peer-to-peer/workgroup environment.
Hardware and device data were collected through the WMI protocol (Windows Management Instrumentation) and other Windows networking protocols all without deploying any software agents on the individual PCs.

Step 2 - Compatibility Analysis:

By analyzing the hardware and device data from each computer, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 can assess your existing computers' hardware compatibility and device compatibility for Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office. It also offers hardware upgrade recommendations if required for each PC.

Step 3 - Readiness Reporting:

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 offers the auto-generation of 2 readiness assessment reports: a summary report in Microsoft Word and a detailed spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel.
The Summary Report provides business decision makers with a high-level view of percentage of existing computers that can run Windows Vista and how many more computers can take advantage of Windows Vista with minor level of memory, hard drive and other upgrades.
The Detailed Spreadsheet Report provides technical decision makers with a detailed view of the information they need to plan for a desktop deployment/migration.

What's New with Version 2.0?

Backed by popular demand, we have added many features in this release:

Enterprise-Scale Scanning - Scan up to 25,000 computers per domain/workgroup in every scan (Note: multiple scans are possible for larger networks)
Office 2007 Hardware Assessment - Assess PCs for hardware compatibility with 2007 Microsoft Office
Customized Inventory using Active Directory - Choose computers of specific organizational units (or OU's) within an Active Directory domain/forest where the inventory would be conducted
Customized Inventory using Flat-File Import - Target a specific set of computers for the inventory and assessment by importing a specific flat file of computers (such as computer host names, NetBIOS names, or Fully Qualified Domain Names - FQDN)

What is the IT community saying about Windows Vista Hardware Assessment? Visit these blogs to find out more.

Where Should I Start?

Download the tool today and see how it can benefit your Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office migration planning
Sign up for one of my July webcasts on TechNet and Partner Readiness web sites
Look for the 6-language localized version that will go live in the coming weeks that will enable you to create readiness assessment reports in your own language including French, German, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese
Tell your success story using the tool and email us at: wvha-tap@microsoft.com
Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay tuned for my future blog posts where I will share with you our customers' success stories and what's new at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2007
Check out the Windows Vista Business Value Assessment Tool if you are a Microsoft Partner - you'll be amazed how powerful this ROI tool is! (IT Blogger, James Senior, gives you the inside scoop HERE!)
Visit the Solution Accelerators home page to download other great Windows Vista tools including Windows Vista Security Guide, Data Encryption Toolkit and Business Desktop Deployment 2007

See you next time...

Baldwin Ng (Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators)

wvhafdbk@microsoft.com

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 Public Beta Now Available for Download!

Baldwin Ng — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:51:00 GMT

Hi all,

The Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team is happy to announce the release of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 Public Beta. Windows Vista Hardware Assessment is an automated software tool that helps business customers and consultants make informed decisions about desktop deployment and migration to Windows Vista. Specifically, this tool provides users a very quick way to inventory and assess PCs network-wide for their hardware and device readiness. Through auto-generated readiness reports, organizations can more quickly identify computers that can migrate to Windows Vista “as is” without any hardware upgrades and others with recommended hardware upgrades.

The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.0 Public Beta, an agent-less network-wide assessment tool, includes three frequently-requested features:

· Customized Inventory – Users may now choose computers of specific organizational units (or OU’s) within an Active Directory domain/forest where the inventory would be conducted.

· Flat-File Import of Computers – Users can now target a specific set of computers for the inventory and assessment by importing a specific flat file of computers (such as computer host names, NetBIOS names, or Fully Qualified Domain Names - FQDN).

· Office 2007 Hardware Assessment – Users may now assess their desktop computers for compatibility with Office 2007 system.

In addition, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment users may now inventory up to 10,000 per domain/workgroup per scan (Note: you can inventory a few times to assess a network larger than 10,000).

So, why wait? Download our 2.0 Public Beta here and give us your feedback! Make sure you use your Live ID (or Passport credentials) and register for this beta program before starting the download process. To download the already-released Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0, you may visit here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/wvha.

This tool is one of many Solution Accelerators that were recently launched for Windows Vista. Please visit the Solution Accelerators Home Page to download other tools including Business Desktop Deployment 2007, Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs, Windows Vista Security Guide and more.

One more thing – if you are attending TechEd 2007 in Orlando, please attend our breakout session and hands-on lab throughout the week and test drive Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0. See you there!

Baldwin Ng

Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators

TechNet Radio Chat on Windows Vista Readiness

Baldwin Ng — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 04:54:00 GMT

Tune in and listen to the radio interview of Microsoft Product Manager, Baldwin Ng and IT Pro Evangelist, Chris Avis as they discussed how the newly released Windows Vista Hardware Assessment solution accelerator has become the popular tool in helping businesses determine their readiness for Windows Vista migration.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88283

Baldwin Ng baldwin.ng@microsoft.com

Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerator

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Guidance Pages now available in 8 new languages

Baldwin Ng — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:23:00 GMT

Hi all,

We are happy to announce the availability of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment guidance pages in 8 new languages in addition to the already-available US English version. The list of localized web sites is listed below, please click the individual link to visit your language of choice:

For more information about Windows Vista Hardware Assessment v1.0, you may also visit the original blog post last month:

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/02/20/windows-vista-hardware-assessment-1-0-released.aspx

Baldwin Ng (Product Manager, Solution Accelerators Team - baldwin.ng@microsoft.com )

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0 Released

Baldwin Ng — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:54:00 GMT

Hello,

Let me first introduce myself. I'm Baldwin Ng, Product Manager for Microsoft Solution Accelerator team. Our team has been developing great tools such as Business Desktop Deployment 2007 and guidance on client security such as the Windows Vista Security Guide. Today, another IT pro tool is born - Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0.

Now that Windows Vista is launched and made available, customers are asking many of these deployment questions:

How many of my existing PCs are currently ready for Windows Vista?
How many more PCs can be upgraded to Windows Vista?
What upgrades are required in terms of memory, hard disk and graphics cards?
How much would it cost and how long would it take to upgrade these PCs?

Indeed, one way to answer these questions would be to manually check each computer. Another way would be to run automated readiness tools that can check one PC at a time against the Windows Vista hardware specifications, like the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. However, most businesses and IT consultants told us that they much prefer an easy-to-use network-wide assessment tool. Many of the IT consultants also stressed the need for a tool that would not require deployment of software agents to individual PCs being assessed.

NEW TOOL - Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0
To tackle this challenge head-on, our development group teamed up with Windows Vista team and Microsoft Partner group and developed a network-wide assessment tool for Windows Vista migration called Windows Vista Hardware Assessment. This tool helps organizations make informed decisions about desktop deployment and migration to Windows Vista by quickly assessing PCs on a network and generates detailed readiness reports of their hardware and device compatibility.

Please read on to find out more about how this tool works and learn ways to leverage the power of assessment to accelerate your desktop migration projects! (Of course, if you can't wait to try this tool, we understand. Feel free to jump to tool's web site and CLICK HERE!)

HOW DOES IT WORK?
The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment consists of three core components: Hardware Inventory, Compatibility Analysis and Readiness Reporting.

Hardware Inventory
* Through the use of WMI, AD and other Windows Networking Protocols such as NetServerEnum, this tool discovers both computers on a domain as well as workgroup computers.
* Once inventory is completed, all system resources and device information are stored in a SQL Server 2005 Express database.
* AD domain membership and WMI credentials are required for you to conduct a successful inventory.
* The current release of this tool supports network discovery of up to 5,000 machines.

Compatibility Analysis (with Windows Vista)
* Using the most up-to-date device and BIOS database from the Windows Team, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment analyzes each PC's readiness around hardware and device compatibility for Windows Vista. Driver information is pulled from online through a regularly updated Web service so that you can get the latest devices information each time you run the tool.
* Each PC is analyzed for its ability to run Windows Vista as well as the two different levels of experience: Windows Vista Capable and Windows Vista Premium Ready. For more information regarding the details of hardware requirements, please visit the Windows Vista Hardware Planning Guidance site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905075.aspx

Readiness Reporting
* The last step of the readiness assessment is the auto-generation of a set of readiness reports.
* Summary Report in the form of Microsoft Word document provides a concise summary for business decision makers in an organization to understand the existing PCs' readiness for Windows Vista and what it takes to upgrade them to the new operating system.
* Detailed Report in the form of Microsoft Excel workbook provides IT implementers and consultants the detailed analysis results, PC by PC, so they can better estimate and implement the desktop migration by completing the required hardware upgrades such as addition of memory and more hard-disk space. Detailed information is also provided so one can understand the number of device drivers that are required to get device updates and where to get them. For example, this tool will tell you if a certain device driver can be updated via Windows Update, Windows Vista DVDs or through the device manufacturers.

MORE ON READINESS REPORTS
The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment provides 2 reports for each network/network segment:

Summary Report (in Microsoft Word)
* The Executive Overview section provides a high-level view of Windows Vista readiness for each PC discovered as-is (i.e. without any hardware upgrades) and after you decide to invest in some minor upgrades such as memory, disk space, etc. Note that CPU change is considered a major upgrade - a typical buy-new scenario as supposed to an upgrade scenario. For example, in this report, you may find that if you were to invest in the recommended upgrades, you can migrate up to 342 PCs to Windows Vista. That is good news if you are looking to reduce your desktop management cost and migrate most PCs to a single operating system - i.e. Windows Vista.

* How about hardware upgrades for the various experience levels of Windows Vista? What you'll find is that Hardware Analysis section of this readiness report would give you much of the details that you need to estimate the upgrade cost including number of PCs requiring increase of System RAM, Hard Disk Capacity, upgrade of Graphics Card or Optical Drive, etc. This really helps the business decision makers of any organization to better understand the cost it takes to roll out Windows Vista.

* On the Device Compatibility side, we provide the insights into how many device drivers would be available for updates and where one can find the updates. This makes it easier for any organization to implement the migration. An OS analysis summary is also provided, which is especially valuable to organizations where asset management and system management software are not used. You may find this summary useful when considering various Volume Licensing options with Microsoft as well.

Detailed Report (in Microsoft Excel)
* The Client Assessment worksheet provides assessment results, PC-by-PC regarding current readiness and reasons for the current "rating." For example, take a look at the Computer_00001 in the spreadsheet below. You will find that this computer is not upgradable to Windows Vista Capable experience because its CPU speed is lower than 800MHz, a Windows Vista minimum requirement. Computer_00003, however, can be upgraded to Windows Vista Premium Ready.

* The Capable After Upgrades worksheet provides detailed recommendations for each PC that can be upgrade to Windows Vista Capable such as 1) Upgrade to 512 MB RAM or 2) Free up 15 GB of disk space (with a disk drive capacity of at least 20GB). For example, if you take a look at the report below, you will find that Computer_00003 can be upgraded to Windows Vista Premium Ready by clearing the hard drive to make room for 15GB of disk space.

* Aside from hardware assessment, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment also gives you a detailed look into device compatibility on each PC as well as organization-wide. The Device Assessment Summary worksheet makes it easier for you to identify devices that you need to investigate further (e.g. devices with no known device compatibility information).

OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
It is important to note the following before you start scanning your network:
1) Information is encrypted end to end, providing a secure way to inventory each PC.
2) There is minimal impact on the network and PCs during the inventory process.
3) Currently, there is no technology available to allow remote/agent-less detection of Bit-Locker and Aero-Glass features of a specific PC. You are advised to use other tools available for single-PC readiness assessment for such features, such as Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

OTHER WINDOWS VISTA DEPLOYMENT TOOLS
Aside from hardware and device compatibility, you may also want to try out two other tools that are crucial to the success of any desktop deployment projects: Business Desktop Deployment 2007 and Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0.

Don't forget, if you want to further harden your Windows Vista PC environment, our team has also produced the Windows Vista Security Guide that gives you the best practices and guidance you need.

SUMMARY
As you can see, Microsoft is readying IT professionals with a suite of deployment tools including the brand new Windows Vista Hardware Assessment. So, why wait? Download the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool and guidance today and accelerate your Windows Vista desktop migration project planning!

For any suggestions on future releases, please write to us at: wvhafdbk@microsoft.com . We'd love to hear from you!