TechNet Magazine, going back to Sept 2009, is now making its articles available as downloadable PDFs. This includes my Windows PowerShell column! Huzzah for downloads - hurry over and start consuming bandwidth! In other TechNet Magazine news, I seem to have the most articles online (36 - three years of columns, plus a feature on Mac interop) of any author! That makes "Windows PowerShell" one of the magazine's longest-running columns. ...more

Although I'm a huge fan of TechMentor, I know sometimes folks can't make it to the big, professional events. That's why the members of Mark Minasi's Forum, with Mark's help, have been putting on their own conference for a few years now. Info on the 2010 conference is now available, and it's worth checking out - and not a bad time to visit Virginia Beach! I've spoken at past events and can attest to the great content, great people, and small-venue advantages - not to mention the great price and a great time. Sadly, I won't make it this year, but hopefully you can! ...more

How many of these good ol' MS codenames do you know the final product name for? No fair cheating by reading this article, by the way, although it's okay if you want to use it to check your answers. Hints: One of these isn't technically a code name as it is used in the final product. Chicago Steelhead Wolfpack Hydra Springboard Viridian Luna Orcas Iridium Platinum Monad Cirrus Have a great weekend! ...more

I'll be teaching a 5-day class on Windows PowerShell v2 in Seattle this coming May. This is a very limited-attendance class, and covers some seriously hardcore stuff - and there's no prior PowerShell experience required. The class is being held by SAPIEN Technologies, and you can read more about it - and register - on their Web site. Note that this is a bring-your-own laptop class, and there are some requirements for the OS you need to be running (although a virtual machine is fine). If you're not comfortable installing Windows Server on a laptop or in a VM, this isn't the right class for you :). Don't delay - sign up today. SAPIEN and I both like to keep class sizes pretty small, so you'll get lots of hands-on time as well as face time with me. It's a great way to learn, ask lots of questions, and leave with some really solid skills under your belt. I make sur ...more

Softpedia reports that they've seen leaked images out of Microsoft that might show the long-desired Memory Overcommit feature for Hyper-V.  Called Dynamic Memory in the pictures, this feature (if it is what we think it is) will reduce the wasted RAM required to be present for Hyper-V cluster failover.  No word on its details, or its future availability. For now, we can only hope. ...more

Big hat-tip to Michael over at 4sysops for this great tip: If you're an old-fashioned kind of guy like me, you're probably just not...yet...ready to wrap your mind around Microsoft's new "Libraries" feature in Windows 7.  I'll get there, I promise.  But for now, when I click on that explorer link in the Start Bar, I want it to take me to My Computer rather than the Libraries folder.  Michael found this little gem of a tip that shows you how to reset the link so it opens in this different location: I found this tip in a list of 70 Windows 7 tricks (many of them already work for Vista). The Explorer in Windows 7 opens by default from the Libraries folder. If you want to start the Explorer with the My Computer page, you have to replace the shortcut target with %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}. Note that you can also open any ot ...more

Don's "Concentrated Guide to Being an Independent Contractor" is full of tips that we've both learned over the years that help us be successful with our freelancing businesses.  But one thing that's missing are the actual warm-fuzzy calculations that tell you you're charging the right amount of money. To help, I found a really nice "Hourly Rate Calculator" that asks you a relatively long series of questions to help determine what your break-even and ideal hourly rate should be.  Remember that freelancing is a business, and one that is successful when it supports the lifestyle you want to live.  Calculators like this help give you a measuring stick to know when you're meeting the financial needs of that lifestyle. ...more

And it should be shipping before long! Visit http://www.scriptingoutpost.com/p-146-windows-powershell-20-tfm.aspx to lock in your copy today. There's an ebook version at http://www.scriptingoutpost.com/p-79-windows-powershell-20-tfm-ebook.aspx, and the print+ebook bundle will doubtless be available once the print version is shipping. This is easily the most comprehensive PowerShell v2 book on the market. It not only teaches you all the v1 stuff you may have missed, forgotten, or never had, but it also covers absolutely every administrator-focused feature in v2 - up to and including full cmdlet development in Visual Studio (which I guess technically is more a dev topic)! You've got remoting, background jobs, data language, internationalization, new cmdlets, new operators, WMI, Active Directory, XML, connecting to databases, writing Advanced Functions, and tons more. My co-author, Jeff Hicks, and myself spent months revamping, reorganizing, and updating the conte ...more

For my book, Definitive Guide to Windows Application and Server Backup 2.0, I coined the phrase "Backup 2.0." My intent was to separate the old-school, file-level backup techniques we've been using for, oh, three and a half decades, from newer, block-image based backups that actually do a better job of meeting the underlying business reasons to back up in the first place. Today, Greg got an e-mail which said, in part: Hello Greg – if you would like to learn more about the new paradigm in backup and disaster recovery—Backup 2.0, Vizioncore CTO Jason Mattox is hosting a live webinar exclusively for bloggers in the virtualization community. The webinar info appears below. It goes on to say: Traditional backup methods, referred to as Backup 1.0, are reaching their technology end-of-life. These methods were designed more than two decades before the existence of cur ...more

I've worked out what may be one of the coolest and most useful things about PowerShell v2. First, some background: You may be aware that Win7 and Win2008R2 can use a new ActiveDirectory module, which includes cmdlets for managing AD. These cmdlets are pretty cool and pretty effective. However, the cmdlets ONLY run on Win7 or Win2008R2. The cmdlets can manage any domain controller running Win2008R2, Win2008RTM, or Win2003; Win2008RTM and Win2003 need a free Management Gateway Service installed, but you DO NOT need any Win2008R2 domain controllers in your environment.  Of course, you can get Windows PowerShell v2 for WinXP, Win2008RTM, Win2003, and Vista, but having PowerShell v2 still doesn't necessarily mean you can run the AD cmdlets. Or does it? Do this: Get at least one Win7 or Win2008R2 machine in your environment. Win7 will need the remote admin ...more