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

I know a lot of you reading our articles are gadget geeks as much as Greg and I are, so I thought I'd give you an update on my experience with CLEAR 4G wireless. As long-time readers will know, Clear launched in Las Vegas, Portland, and Atlanta this summer. They're now in 27 markets, primarily markets where Spring (who owns 51% of Clear) has a pre-WiMax 4G presence (XOHM), and is converting those old customers. At the launch, I noted how Clear was delivering reliable 6Mbps service at the launch site, a shopping mall near my home - but that I was only getting 1Mbps service at home, about a mile away. Clear's service is highly dependent on distance from the tower, not unlike DSL.  Fast forward a few months. Clear resellers - like the kiosk at the aforementioned mall - have access to an app that shows actual tower locations. So every so often, I stop by and check things out. Recently, I discovered that a couple of towe ...more

How are you folks connecting your offices to the Intertubes these days? Leave a comment; give me an idea of how many humans are in the office (round numbers are awesome), and what kind of connection the office has to the big ol' world.  Anyone still using T1s? They're kinda pokey by DSL and cable modem standards, and pricey too, although they're synchronous. What about ISDN? I hated working with that stuff when I was at Bell - could they possibly have come up with any MORE configuration parameters? Does anyone use aDSL or sDSL for an office connection? What about cable modems - lotsa bandwidth, but cable providers aren't really known for their business services, are they? If you've got multiple offices and have private WAN bandwidth between them, tell me what that looks like to, if you don't mind. Thanks! ...more

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/cbt-nuggets/id330040904 (iTunes App Store link) This is pretty cool - CBT Nuggets has a free iPhone/iPod Touch app that includes a bunch of their training videos. Now this is free, so don't expect the entire library... but I do know they're re-encoding the entire library to work with these devices, so a purchase option might be in the future. The videos are obviously smaller - roughly 50% full-size, I'd say - but they're remarkably clear. As you probably know, both Greg and I have done a slew of training for this company - you can find a list of our videos on the front page of the site, at the bottom - and I'm excited to see them in the mobile market, now. If you don't know, CBT Nuggets sells "series" of videos. A single series might consist of around 15-25 videos, each about 15-30 minutes in length. So you get to learn in chunks... & ...more