Infrastructure Optimization

The fine folks at bink.nu have pointed out that the downloads for Windows XP SP 3 are finally available. Ladies and Gentlemen, start your imagers!

http://bink.nu/news/windows-xp-service-pack-3-officially-avaiable-to-all.aspx

What do the title topics and the actor Kevin Bacon have in common? I dunno - it just sounded funny after listing all of the topics in this posting. Who knows - Windows 7 could be his love child. I mean, really - where did Windows 7 come from? No one wants to talk about it, right? Kevin has worked with every actor in Hollywood - he could have made his way up to Redmond. Could have.

A few of the bloggers here at InfraOps were on “the” project that Microsoft saw firsthand how application virtualization could assist as one piece of an overall strategy in securing the desktop. It was a complete infrastructure change out from a Novell to a Microsoft shop. Desktops were standardized down to the OS including image reduction - one for desktops, laptops/tablets and one for thin terms. This was essentially an MDOP engagement before there was MDOP - the lynch pin was Application Virtualization. Once the image sets were created the only way to keep them pristine was to apply GPO’s to lock them down and deliver applications via SoftGrid.

When I saw my first SoftGrid POC it was an epiphany - I instantly saw the writing on the wall. I said to myself, “Microsoft is going to buy this company.” What choice did they have? Application development is a wild card – there are standards that make applications play nice in Windows but who follows them? The only way to level the playing field is to sand box applications so they don’t take the O/S down.

Parts of Application Virtualization (SoftGrid) are making their way into SMS/SCCM – other parts we’ve been surmising will undoubtedly make their way into the OS. At some point there won’t be a need for an installed SoftGrid client – it will be in the OS to natively interpret packaged applications like the MSIEXEC knows how to install MSI’s - just my guess.

All this to say – read Mitchell Ashley’s excellent blog on where he thinks Application Virtualization, Microsoft Mesh, Vista and what’s being thrown around as the next name for the next O/S – Windows 7 - which just might be Vista SPx and not Windows 7.

Mitchell may be able to say “I told you so” but we at InfraOps can all say, “duh” we knew it first.

I’m not that immature so I won’t say it . . . oh what the heck - neener neener.

If you’re a sysadmin for a small shop and are letting desktops update on their own, or if you’re at home and running XP, you may be wondering how to get SP3 Release Candidate to come down the pipe through Windows Update. It turns out that you need to flip a registry bit to get Windows Update to recognize that it needs to download and install it.

Microsoft has created a small utility to do this for you.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 via Windows Update

From the excellent 4sysops blog:

Vista SP1 is officially only available for enterprise customers, but the reports about problems caused by this service pack are piling up. This post contains a list of all SP1 issues I am aware of.

List of Issues with Vista SP1 (4sysops)

Good to know, especially if you are managing Windows Updates at the Enterprise level. Also good to know for you early adopters with TechNet subscriptions.