Windows Power Essentials Tips & Tricks
July 30, 2012 16 Comments
First day back from holiday today, and already blog post fodder is flying at me.
I have seen this issue reported on the forums a few times, but only ever seen it myself once on a Windows 7 desktop machine, when an Acronis image was in progress. Read more of this post
July 11, 2012 66 Comments
Yes, you heard me right. Hopefully by now the news of the end of development, shall we say, of SBS 2011 Standard has settled in, and you are ready for how to tackle the void left in the market. I know many partners and folks are talking about alternatives, Kerio, Hosted 
Exchange or any number of other solutions, but i wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to setup the OnPrem (OP) integration with an Exchange server, and how it is possible to access both, using 1 single public IP address.
I have no idea how much it would actually cost to do in production though!
July 11, 2012 4 Comments
Congratulations on your new download of the Windows Server 2012 Essentials Beta.
I am going to walk through the process of installing the beta, it’s really very simple, just as easy in fact as installing SBS 2011 Essentials.
July 5, 2012 Leave a comment
If you are interested there is now a public beta of ‘SBS8’ or Windows Server 2012 Essentials.
I am certainly not the best person to ask for a reasoned business argument about why the loss of SBS Standard is good or bad thing. Read more of this post
July 4, 2012 1 Comment
An announcement has finally been made about the future plans for the SBS Product lines.
In 2011 the SBS Product team launched a new version of SBS, SBS Essentials, this was the first product in the SBS line not to include Exchange , it also was missing other components like SharePoint and WSUS.
The concept for this product was that it would integrate tightly with Cloud providers. At this time, many could see the writing on the wall for On Premises SBS with Exchange…
If you have been patiently waiting for the next release of Small Business Server Standard, with the Windows Server 2012 Operating System updates, sadly, you will be disappointed to learn that this SBS 2011 Standard is the last planned release of the Small Business Server Standard product SKU.
Let me clear that up, and say that there are currently no plans for any future Windows Operating System to include an Integrated Domain Controller, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server or WSUS Server.
The Premium Add-on (PAO) Component will also not be refreshed. SQL Server 2012 does not have a Small Business edition, meaning that they apparently cannot include that.
Which seems a little odd to me, as SQL 2008 for SMB, was just a modified version of SQL Standard that would only install in an SBS Domain.
SBS 2011 Standard will remain available through various channels until Q4 of 2013.
For those of you thinking about Software Assurance..
http://download.microsoft.com/download/WS2012_Licensing-Pricing_FAQ.pdf2
Q.36: If you have Software Assurance on Small Business Server 2011 Standard edition, you will receive one Windows Server 2012 Standard edition license and one Exchange Server Standard 2010 license.
This grant will be reflected upon your agreement renewal; however you are entitled to use the granted product upon availability.
The product you all know and love as Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, will be rebranded and refreshed onto the Windows Server 2012 platform.
The new name is Windows Server 2012 Essentials.
I haven’t decided whether i will call it WSE, or WES, but i think we should come to some agreement as it might get confusing. Of course WSE could be Storage Server Essentials, which, at this point at least, remains untouched. WES rolls off the tongue a little easier than WSE, but could perhaps give the false impression the name is Windows Essentials Server, i may play it cool and type WSE, but speak ‘Dub-S-E’ ; Dub being short for W of course, but then that could lead people to think that i mean SSE (DUB S, double S) which in turn could lead people to think i mean WSSE, and by that point i think people will have lost interest. You may well now be asking yourself why drop SBS in the first place, i mean, just look at the mess the last paragraph has ended up in!
There will not be a new version of Home Server. WSE has incorporated ‘Media Streaming’ it will now also act as a Domain Controller in your home, which is what apparently all that great feedback has told Microsoft you guys want.
Now, the SBS MVPs and Home Server MVPs have suggested this may be a little off the mark, but we are assured that the surveys have told them they are right.
We are also aware, but cannot confirm, the survey sample was 12 companies in Hong Kong.
If all of that is too much for you to take in, i sympathise! Just remember SBS Standard would want you to be happy, it would want you to move on..
More details surrounding WES will no doubt appear over the coming weeks.
More Resources..
http://www.windowsserveressentials.com
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/
http://www.nogeekleftbehind.com
http://www.nci-technologies.co.uk/blog/
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/2012-editions.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/sbsserver
July 3, 2012 1 Comment
A long night pouring over the literally tens of entries into the hottest competition this blog has ever seen, has produced not one, but yes, two winners.
If you are reading this in anticipation then I’m sorry, but you didn’t win.
The winning entries were from ‘Alberto’ and ‘Greg Charland’ for their quite superb attempts at making me laugh.
So, i suppose you will want to know what they said?
I Should win this book…
“..Because there is nothing more dangerous than keen SBS business owners rolling up their sleeves thinking they can solve their problems simply referring to Stackoverflow!..”
“..I could use this book because Microsoft says I don’t need an expensive IT person to set up and manage SBS. So I’ll need something to burn when the high-priced IT consulting work goes away…”
Honourable mention to anyone else who entered. Except @DirectorCia who for some reason felt compelled to enter a competition to win his own book, hang your head sir, hang your head!
Also to Ken Shafer i say, a phone book would be a better booster seat, as this guide is only as thick as a biro.
If you would like to enter another competition, then Andy Parkes is running the same one.
http://andyparkes.co.uk/blog/index.php/2012/07/04/sbs-2011-study-guide-bookcompetition/
June 20, 2012 8 Comments
It has been a year since i first went through the process of installing a Third Party SSL certificate onto my SBS Essentials server.
I going through the renewal process, so i thought it might be an idea to document and blog it in case anyone else is also doing this.
SSL Certificates and renewals, are one of the topics i am asked about most frequently. Read more of this post
Title (Required) 