Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH: LAUNCH (1/30/2007 and 2/1/2007)

Good Afternoon Louisville and Cincinnati! First off THANK YOU for coming to launch! We had over 1000 Kentucky and Ohio IT Professional in the both cities, 1057 to be exact! That is an incredible turn out and again I cannot thank everyone enough! I also loved doing the wave, to show my good friend Michael Murphy we can do that in Ohio!

After the Launch in Cincinnati, I was approached by one of the attendees, Gregory, and he is very interested in networking with other local Cincinnati area scripter’s. He is looking to get together with people interested in VBS, WMI, PowerShell…etc. and the integration into SQL and ASP. If you are interested please contact him directly at: gdececco@oraucoc.org

We had a great day and we had a lot of questions and without any more delay here are the questions. Enjoy and comment if I missed any or if you need more information!

Q: What are the different versions of Windows Vista and what are the differences?
A:
There are 5 different versions that will be available to all customers, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate. Here is a great reference page: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx

Q: How do the upgrade copies of Windows Vista work? For example what media do you need if you need to replace the hard drive?
A:
The upgrade copies of Windows Vista do not require previous version media to install. So if you need to recover from a failed drive after you have upgraded to Windows Vista you will just need the Windows Vista media and a key. Before upgrading I do highly recommend that you use the upgrade advisor: https://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx This is a fantastic utility to give you great guidance on what version of Windows Vista will work the best on your current hardware.
To get more information on the upgrade paths and possibilities take a look here: https://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/default.mspx

Q: Where can I learn more about the class ID’s for device installation restrictions?
A:
There is a great step-by-step guide on working with the device installation policies here: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/9fe5bf05-a4a9-44e2-a0c3-b4b4eaaa37f3.mspx This will give you all the different possibilities on how to work with this fantastic feature!

Q: How does Bit-Locker work with users without Active Directory?
A:
Really only the main difference is going to be about the recovery keys. For non-AD environments the recovery password can be saved to a folder, saved to a/several USB key/s or just sent to printer. There is a great advantage of leveraging Active Directory. You can additionally configure group policy to automatically generate recovery passwords and transparently escrow them to Active Directory. Administrators can handle recovery keys in whatever manner is most appropriate for their infrastructure. In enterprise environments the most efficient way to handle key material is to utilize BitLocker’s ability to escrow the keys in Active Directory. This can be enabled via Group Policy or WMI. Recovery keys can be accessed whenever they are needed by domain administrators using scripts or simple LDAP commands. Another option is to store recovery keys on USB media. The USB devices can be kept separate from the machine, and an extra layer of physical access control can be implemented by the enterprise administrator to help protect those keys.

Here is the home page for BitLocker: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905065.aspx

Q: Will TPM integrate with biometrics?
A:
Yes and no (mostly no), you need to make sure you have the appropriate hardware that will support it. This is not something that is inherit to BitLocker specifically more of a function of the hardware. In tracking down some information on this question I stumbled on some good FAQ’s

· https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/faq/TPMFAQ

· https://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/hwsecurity/BitLockerFAQ.mspx

Q: Where can I learn more about the Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) tools?
A:
There are some very exciting deployment technologies for Windows Vista, this is great page: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/default.mspx To learn more about imaging, application compatibility, infrastructure requirements…etc. Fantastic page! For more specific information on the BDD take a look here: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/2007/default.mspx

Q: Where can I get the We Share Your Pain Video (WYSP)?
A:
I get this question quite a bit, it is a fun little video on IT Showtime located here:  https://www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx?videoid=9999
The video is under the title: WSYP Project: leverage customer feedback for software quality.  If you have never seen the video it is very funny, and will answer the question what happens when I click on the button that sends the error report to Microsoft. Enjoy.

Q: Where do I learn more about the decision to go all 64-bit for Exchange 2007?
A:
The interview was done by a teammate of mine, Michael Murphy.  It is located here: https://blogs.technet.com/mjmurphy/archive/2006/02/27/420667.aspx

Q: What are the main differences between Exchange 2007 Standard and Exchange 2007 Enterprise?
A:
There are a few differences between standard and enterprise. For example standard can 5 unlimited stores while enterprise can have 50 unlimited stores. Enterprise also has support for log shipping via local continuous replication and clustered continuous replication. For a list of all the differences take a look here: https://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/editions.mspx .

Q: Is there an adminpak.msi for Windows Vista?
A:
You can install the adminpak on Windows Vista, however you will have to follow this KB to make it work: https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/930056