stuart test blog

Now that I have a 64 bit notebook, I get to do fun stuff like install the 64 bit version of Windows Server 2008 (beta 3). I wasn’t too sure how well the experiment would go, but so far it’s been pretty successful. Drivers weren’t such an issue as most of the Vista x64 drivers […]

Jeff Jones (Strategy Director in the Microsoft Security Technology Unit) has written a post about Server Core and how its reduced footprint increases security dramatically. The key here is “reduced attack surface area” as all of the most insecure areas of a server have been removed, such as IIS, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, etc… […]

Now that I have a new Server Core installation ready for setup, I read through the Step by Step guide a bit more and continued on to the initial setup. Change the admin password As I mentioned in a previous post, when you create a new Server Core installation you are greeted with a logon […]

Well this is interesting – my first, first-hand experience with Server Core. There’s only one command prompt window rather than the two that was present in previous betas. There is still a GUI, and you can run several apps such as Notepad, Task Manager, Regedit, which are probably the three most useful GUI apps I […]

Longhorn 1 – Stuart 0 First round of Longhorn didn’t go well, but I’ve only got myself to blame. I installed a Standard edition of Longhorn into VMware Server which all went fine. Then I jumped straight into the new Server Manger, and went a bit crazy and selected a whole bunch of roles at […]

Most people are expecting Longhorn to eventually become officially known as Windows Server 2008, but it looks like Microsoft have inadvertently let the cat out of the bag by posting a link to the “Windows Server 2008 Reviewers Guide” on the WinHEC press site. Eagle-eyed Mary Jo Foley picked up on it and grabbed a […]

Big news this week was that Microsoft have had to drop postpone some key features from their new virtualisation software currently in development. Mike Neill, GM of virtualisation strategy went on the defensive with a lengthy blog post detailing all of the cool things about Microsoft’s new virtualisation platform, codenamed Viridian. But if you kept […]

As I mentioned yesterday, PowerShell is now integrated into Longhorn server – and you can read more about it here, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/longhorn/powershell.mspx. Unfortunately, PowerShell won’t be available for Server Core installations, which is where it would make most sense being used. For those that don’t know, Server Core is Microsoft’s first attempt to create a server […]

Any Microsoft Infrastructure consultant should be subscribed to the main TechNet Blogs feed. It can be a bit too much at times as there are hundreds of posts per day, but you can pick out some gems in there if you look carefully. It’s also quite interesting watching the feed as a new beta is […]

I’ll be posting lots of Longhorn related stuff over the next couple of weeks so feel free to keep an eye on my Longhorn tag to keep up to date with the latest beta. You can also keep up to date by subscribing to my Longhorn feed.