Why? Even though it was probably one of the least technical session I have done to date ; I find it very interesting and something I have been tinkering with since Christmas.

I’ll post more details in future posts but in a nutshell here is what I have.

• USB TV tuner that records ATSC digital
• Windows 7 PC with Media Center and a 1.5TB hard drive
• Xbox360 connected to the TV
• Xbox360 remote control

The computer records TV from the antenna using the ATSC tuner. ATSC is completely digital, making the picture look great, no snow or ghosting. Files are big, 5gb per hour when recorded in HD. From there they sit on my computer. When I want to watch my show, I turn on the Xbox, hit the green button on the remote and then head to recorded TV. I then select what I want to watch and presto, I can watch my show. I can pause, fast forward and rewind, no problem.

The best part about it is that it is easy for Tracey to operate. She can setup shows to record and watch her shows with relative ease.

She said last night to me as she was watching a recorded show from the weekend, “I love the Xbox”.

For me, I love how easy it was to get everything setup. There is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes, that once setup, that she doesn’t have to know or care about for her to watch her favourite shows.

What I want to talk about is KMS, Key Management Service. Setting one of these servers up is as easy as making Kraft Dinner. Yes, simple. In reading in the forums I see people having troubles getting one up and going. I’ll walk you through the easiest setup. This walkthrough isn’t meant for someone already using a KMS server for Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008.

If you want to activate Windows 7 clients, the simplest choice is install Windows Server 2008 R2. You can use Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 but you need to install an update. If you have Server 2008 R2, I recommend using it, its just the easiest thing to do. There is a hierarchy of how the setup works, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979804.aspx will give you the low down.

For me, Windows Server 2008 R2 based KMS server made the most sense. The next step is to locate your KMS key for your volume activation. The key you are looking for, is the Windows Server 2008 Std/Ent KMS B (note the KMS B).

Instead of using the MAK key when you enter the key for activation, you will enter in your KMS.

You will get an warning message that you are using a KMS key, like this.

Click OK and you will have then made a KMS host machine. That is all there is to it. Some people get worried and think they have to add a Windows 7 key for the KMS host to accept Windows 7 clients. You don’t need to do that, at least I didn’t have to.

The other thing to remember is that in order for your server to activate computers, you must have at least 5 Servers checked in for server activation to occur or 25 Windows 7 or Vista machines checked in for client activation to occur. To check the status of the computers, I find the VAMT tool which comes with the WAIK works well.

I had the opportunity on Wednesday to head up to Toronto for the launch. Steve Balmer was on hand to do a keynote speech and had a few interesting points.

He was asked when Microsoft was going to force customers to upgrade to Windows 7. He countered that they have customers who are still running Windows NT.

Another question was around the 32 bit edition of Windows. When was Microsoft going to stop making a 32 bit edition of Windows. Steve’s reply was that they would let Intel dictate that as right now the Atom processor is popular and doesn’t support 64bit operating systems. As long as Intel was making a 32 bit processor, Microsoft would make a 32 bit edition of Windows.

I also had a chance to hop on a touch screen PC and see how they worked. We use some touch screens for our Kiosk computer and I wanted to see what type of improvements I could expect.

Also launching was Windows Server 2008 R2. There are a few new improvements in R2, most notably, the ability to use Direct Access, Branch Cache and improvements to Windows Deployment Services (WDS). I’ll take some time and cover these topics in more depth in the next while.

The last product that launched was Exchange 2010. Storage is something that is supposed to be improved in this version. I haven’t looked at the beta bits or RTM bits yet, but I will sometime later this fall, after my sessions at TechDays Ottawa.

For good information for IT Pros, check out Windows 7 Springboard on TechNet.

Crowd Shots

Windows 7 gets installed onto Macs

For those that don’t know. David and I spent many hours together driving back and forth from the Certification Study Group in Ottawa for a couple of years and we both did our Train the Trainer course for our MCTs together back in 2007. While the certification groups are on a hiatus right now, we still do stuff together through the user groups, OWSUG & OttawaSQL.net.

David has accounts that he uses for SQL Server that he needs to run commands as. With Vista, he had to create batch files for programs that he needed to run as the SQL account. Now with Window 7, he just holds shift when right clicking on the program and now another option shows up, Run As Another User. I never would have noticed this as I have my domain user account that I use for my day to day stuff, and the system will prompt me for the domain admin account to load drivers, apps, etc. I don’t have a need right now to run stuff as different domain user account.

Go check out his blog at DavidEMyers.com and have a look what he’s discovered new in Windows 7.

Great work pointing out that new feature David.

The versions being offered are as follows and the points listed are my interpretation of the what I read in the article.

• Starter – Only available to OEM’s.
• Home Basic – Not available in North America
• Home Premium – The version for home users
• Professional – Mainstream version for business customers
• Enterprise – For customers who opt to purchase Software Assurance, has bitlocker and other security features
• Ultimate – For those customers who want every feature available

According to the article, there is supposed to be a natural progression from version to version, as opposed to having some features in some versions and not others at the same level like we saw in Vista. (The example given was Media Centre being available in Vista Home Premium but not Vista Business).

It will be interesting to see what the differences between versions on Windows 7 will be. From the press release, it looks like Bitlocker will only be available to customers who buy Ultimate or purchase Software Assurance and utilize the Enterprise edition of Windows 7. That’s a shame because I think the value of Bitlocker should be available to home users along with businesses. Home users have a need to protect their data just like a company, but I guess I can’t have everything in one version.

The complete plan is located at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/feb09/02-03Win7SKU-QA.mspx

I should point out, Tracey was pretty much a novice on the computer when we first started dating. She just started using a computer on a regular basis back in September. She was using a desktop I had but then she discovered my laptop over the Christmas holidays and now I have had to give up my laptop pretty much whenever she wants. Which I don’t mind actually, eventually I’ll get her a laptop that she can call her own.

So Tracey got to play with the new Windows 7 build before me and one of the new features I helped her discover were the jump lists.

Jump lists are a menu option available by right clicking a program in the taskbar. In the picture, you’ll  notice how by right clicking on Media Player icon, you can get a quick list of things to do with Media Player. For example, you can then listen to music you just recently listened to, resume the last playlist played or play all the music. Microsoft Excel will show a list of recently opened files.

Tracey really liked Internet Explorer’s jump list which shows the pages you recently visited. For her, it allows her to open and launch Internet Explorer on a page she was recently at. Tracey, being a creature of habit, only has a small list of pages she checks out daily so she can do that to open up where she needs to be. For me, it means less time having to help her find the page she wants to look for.

While there are other changes between the PDC build and the Beta build, this is probably one of the best UI changes.

I also noticed in the release notes that if you have an iPhone and install the 64 bit version of Windows 7, and you install the 32-bit version of iTunes and your phone will not sync up properly. To get the 64 bit version of iTunes, go to http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunes801forwindows64bit.html.

I am also looking for an antivirus for Windows 7 and when I do find one, I’ll post a link.

If you went to TechDays here in Canada, remember that free TechNet subscription you received in your box of Techie Crunch? Well, here is a chance to get some value from it. Go hit the TechNet site and download Windows 7 from there.

If you don’t have a TechNet or MSDN subscription sit tight and know you will be able to get it soon.  Apparently, Windows 7 was showing up before the beta went live in the torrent streams, but it wasn’t the correct version in some cases, as you can see in this post on Softpedia . My suggestion is to wait it out and get the correct version straight from Microsoft. Don’t waste your time and bandwidth downloading something that may be no good, or worse, tampered with and made into a security risk.

I though it was Interesting to see the instructions to the DVD, “backup all MP3 files before installing Windows 7”. That hot fix in the directory also needs to be installed which solves the mp3 issue. The problem with Windows 7 and MP3s is covered by a Knowledge Base Article, (kb961367) and information about the problem can be found at BlogsDNA.

Be sure to check it out.

A quick one this week. Paint has received a visual makeover in Windows 7 but the guts of it are pretty much the same as in Windows Vista. It now has the ribbon bar similar to what you would find in Microsoft Office 2007. This makes everything in paint easy to find so you don’t have to go through menus to find everything. You can save file in Bmp, tif, jpg, png and gif formats.  You also get the option to send the file in email from the paint program.

My next attempt is going to be installing Windows 7 from WDS, (Windows Deployment Services) which I am guessing will work fine and I won’t apply an unattend file but manually answer all the questions. I’ll see what happens and post the results back here.

There are four different modes in the calculator now, Standard, Scientific, Programmer and Statistical.

Standard

Scientific

Programmer

Statistics

There are also templates available under options. My favourite these days since we are planning on buying a house over the next little while is the Mortgage Estimation. Other templates include Gas Mileage,  Lease Estimation and Wage Calculator. Also under the options pull down are unit conversion and date calculation.

Mortgage Estimation

Date Calculator

There you have it, small but I think useful changes to the calculator.