Gatt's Ramblings

A few quick screenshots of the new Metro UI in Windows 8, which replaces the Start Menu ..

1.. The “Start Screen” as Microsoft

2.. When you press Win+C together then “Settings” on the Charm it allows you access to the properties for the screen, app or tile..

3.. Right clicking on a tile allows you to resize the size to a smaller tile (like the Firefox Tile) or a larger tile (like the Desktop tile). You can also unpin the tile or uninstall the app itself.. Different options are available for different tiles..

It looks like Homegroups now have some sort of grouping by Username:

As the above image shows, all the users currently logged into the homegroup are shown, but unlike in Windows 7, expanding a username lists all the PCs that user is logged into and then under each PC, the expected list of their shared libraries on that specific machine.. This is much more organised that in Windows 7 where there was a separate entry for each computer that the user was logged into…

Also, it would appear that a users Desktop is now a visible share in the homegroup…

If, like me, you have given the Metro UI a try in Windows 8 and have developed an instant dislike towards it then the folks over at ghacks.com have, kindly posted an article on how to get rid of Metro UI but keep the new Ribbon interface in Windows Explorer…

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/09/17/metro-controller-disable-metro-ui-ribbon-explorer-in-windows-8/

Well, I’ve downloaded the latest build of Windows 8 and installed it on a laptop and a spare PC and testing a few of the features out.

So far I have mixed views about the Metro UI and have disabled it on the laptop as it was beginning to “hang” and was a tad frustrating.

I’ll post my findings here periodically and I’m open for suggestions on what to try…

So today I was trying to get Threat Management Gateway to act as a URL filter for the school. Boy is it an up hill struggle..
It just wont do as it’s told..

I created a test rule so that the Test Use was denied access to this site..

Nothing.. Checked the logs and its not reading the rule at all and going to the default Allow All  Users rule instead..

Spent most of the afternoon tinkering with it, to no effect..

Oh well, will try again tomorrow…

Yesterday, I too the plunge and upgraded my Exchange 2010 server from Windows Server 2008 SP2 to Server 2008 R2 SP1

All went well, and everything appeared to be working, it only took a few hours which was good.

However, when I checked my databases, I found that the System Mailbox DB (The one called “Mailbox Database xxxxxxx”) was dismmounted, and was refusing to remount itself..

After about an hour of checking, and failing, I eventually had to do a hard repair with eseutil /p and remove all the log files.

Fortunately, despite the copious warnings about data loss, I eventually got the thing mounted and all is well again.

So, if ever you decide to do this can I make one helpful suggestion to you all..

DISMOUNT ALL YOUR DATABASES FIRST TO ENSURE THEY ARE CLEANLY SHUTDOWN!

After about 6 months, I have finally resolved a problem I was having with my SCCM Server where the OS would not fully load and about 95% of services were stopped and there was no Network communication at all

Every Monday I have had to:

1. Goto the server
2. Power it off
3. Power it back on
4. wait 5 minutes until it checked everything
5. Go into Safe Mode (took about 20 minutes as it rolled back the updates (even if there were none!)
6. Reboot
7. Wait another 15-20 minutes whilst it again rolled back the updates
8. Log in as normal!

No idea why this was happening but it was getting to be a right royal PITA!

Anyway, over the weekend I came across an article on the net somewhere, where someone had had a similar problem to me

Solution: Rerun setup and “upgrade” the server to the same edition that is currently installed – this effectively acts like a OS Repair

So this morning, after going through my usual Monday morning routine, I tried it..

And it worked!! 

Server has had 3 reboots and all (except one  which I am looking into…) services have started as expected!

The link below has a host of info about the new GUI for WIndows 8, including a new start screen that resembles the Windows Phone 7 interface and its tiles.

http://uk.gizmodo.com/5807615/windows-8-and-its-incredibly-cool-new-touch-interface

At first glance, I am not sure how well this will work in an office / school environment or for non-touch screen based devices as a whole.

Edugeek members also appear to have mixed feelings on the new interface as can be seen on this thread here.

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/76714-windows-8-urgh.html

It is still early days so time will tell .

I take a few weeks off work and one of my servers starts acting up Now need to look at how to migrate Config Manager to a new server and pray the existing one holds out till the summer hols…

Microsoft have again proven that they don’t thoroughly test their updates before releasing them.

Last week as part of the bumper Patch Tuesday, they released KB2449742

So after I deployed this to my servers, imagine my surprise when I rebooted my Exchange 2010 server and discovered that all attempts at connecting to the Management Console resulted in the MMC crashing out, along with the event viewer and a few other MMC’s as well

I couldn’t even connect via a remote EMC either..

Typically, I had a lot of change to make with new mailboxes to create and old one needing removing..

Time to hit Google and fortunately came across this article which pointed me in the direction of the update in question

It suggested that I remove KB2449742 and reboot the server.

Thankfully this has indeed resolved the problem and I can now manage Exchange again!