Retraction Time

I’m a bit slow, but I eventually get around to admitting my mistakes.  Ok, well, most of them.  I have to save a few apologies for those long spells when I don’t make any mistakes (those last about 15 seconds).

R.K. kindly corrected my mention about the Autodesk University 2011 course listing.  The listing for the System Center Configuration Manager course with Nate Bartley and Jerry Milana was actually a leftover from AU 2010.  My bad.  Sorry to spin everyone up.

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Dear Software Developers...

Good morning Coders,



I hope your day has started off well? (Can you already tell this isn't going to end well? Heh heh...)



Hopefully, you've finished off your bag of Skittles, your third Mountain Dew or second can of Rock Star, and are looking forward to hitting your favorite X-men Edition Signature series ceramic bong at lunchtime. A good day so far.



I would like to make a few small suggestions on behalf of all IT minions around this big ball of dirt floating in space:



Please be consistent. Please use a common naming and version method for all of your products, components, files, folder names, services, processes, threads, interfaces, API modules, documentation, support files, registry keys, junctions and reparse points?



Is this really too much to ask?



So, you say "but Dave, we have 9,000 skittle-swilling bastards spewing code in 24 countries and 12 languages. How do you expect us to be that consistent?"



Write a memo. Send an email. Hold a meeting. I don't know and I don't care. McDonalds can do it, so can you. Or are you saying you cannot perform at the level of a McDonalds worker? Wow.



Pick a 3 or 4 character label that uniquely identifies your company and use it on everything you do. EVERYTHING!



Stop with the "Shitware 2011" and "Crapware 14.5" and "Doucheware 0.0.002.9a" versioning and pick ONE format for everything. Okay?!



Pick ONE standard for publishing updates. Zip,MSI, EXE, MSP, whatever, just pick ONE f-ing format and stick with it. Survey your customers (whoa! What a concept!) To see what works best for them.



Fill-out the property tags on all of your DLL and component files. Company, product, version. You know: all that painfully complicated stuff. I know it might cut into your bong-loading time, but it'll make a better product.



Mm-kaay??!



Jesus! Shitty coders piss me the f**k off.

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10 Microsoft Tools You Might Not Know Exist

Before you smirk and roll your eyes, I’ll be the first to say that at least once a month I run into another tool I never knew Microsoft published.  No, I’m not talking about Steve Ballmer, but real software tools.  Some you may know, some you may not.

1. Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner
2. Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer
3. Client Profile Configuration Designer
4. Risk and Health Assessment Program for Active Directory (ADRAP)
5. Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4
6. Web Application Configuration Analyzer
7. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Update 1
8. Application Compatability Toolkit (ACT) 5.6
9. Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2
10. Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP)

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Autodesk University 2011

First off, all I can say that I wish I were going, but I'm not able to. Financially, it is beyond my reach this year. I've attended four of them, the most recent in 2004, so I'm dating myself badly of course. LA in 1997, Philly in 1998, Boston in 1999, and Vegas in 2004. All of them were well worth the trip, except for maybe Boston in 1999

(Although, Boston itself was a blast).



But what I wanted to mention is that I saw a session that caught my eye:



CM330-2 "Installing Autodesk(r) Applications with Microsoft(r) System Center Configuration Manager"



Speakers are: Nate Bartley and Jerry Milana



I've known Jerry for quite a few years, so I'm sure that will be a very good session. I don't know Nate, but given the subject matter and Jerry as co-speaker, I have to assume he is also a very worthy speaker. In all, that should be a great session for anyone working in a network environment, even if you do not yet own a product like Configuration Manager.



As a small favor, I'd like to ask: who is planning to attend that session?



If your are, or are even thinking about attending it, send me an email at ds0934 (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Photos from Tech-Ed 2011 Atlanta

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Windows 7: Default User vs All Users

A lot of confusion seems to occur with understanding the difference between the "Default User" profile, and the "All Users" profile on Windows 7.  This applies, conceptually, going back to Windows 2000, Windows XP and on up to Windows7 (as well as Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2).  From what I've seen this shows up with software developers and software packagers, but also with script developers.

 



The "Default User" is basically a template for any new user logins for a given computer.  The net result however is that the template is applied "per user", rather than "per computer".  So, ultimately, if you make a change to the "Default User" profile, and there are already existing user profiles from previous logins, they will not receive the changes, only new user logins will receive them.

 



The "All Users" profile is a "per computer" feature that applies to all users, existing and new.

 



Default User (aka "%SysDrive%\Users\Default User"):



"C:\Users\Default User\Start Menu\Programs"

 



All Users (aka "%AllUsersProfile%"):



"C:\ProgramData\Start Menu\Programs"

 



As a test, try this out:



1.  Create a folder under "C:\Users\Default User\Start Menu\Programs" named "Default Users Folder"



2.  Create another folder under "C:\ProgramData\Start Menu\Programs" named "All Users Folder"



3.  Log off and log back on to the computer



4.  Click the Start Menu and click "All Programs".  Scroll down to view all folders on the Start Menu.  Which do you see?



5.  Log off and log on as a different user (a user that has NEVER logged onto this computer before).



6.  Click the Start Menu and click "All Programs".  Scroll down to view all folders on the Start Menu.  Which do you see now?

 



I hope this helps gain a little more insight into how these two user profile features behave.

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Reminder: WWA is Toast

I thought the word had gotten out, but for anyone that missed it:

Windows Web Admin is no longer being developed or updated. I will leave build 2011.05.13.001 online for another month or so. The project site is still http://wwadmin.sf.net.

Now, back to your regularly-scheduled Wednesday, already in progress.

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