John Howard - Senior Program Manager in the Hyper-V team at Microsoft
Senior Program Manager, Hyper-V team, Windows Core Operating System Division.
Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 SP1 availability
In line with the announcements for Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 today, another important...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/30/2005
Windows Server 2003 x64 and Windows XP Professional x64 go RTM
In addition to the SP1 release of Windows Server 2003 the x64 versions of Windows Server 2003 and XP...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/30/2005
My blog has moved - please update your links
Some of you may have noticed recent changes to the blogs.msdn.com site. In case some of you are...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/30/2005
Windows Server 2003 SP1 for x86 and Itanium is now available
Just released to the web is the a significant release for the Windows Server 2003 platform in the...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/30/2005
Server Performance Advisor (SPA) - Provide your feedback
Following my blog entry a few days ago about Server Performance Advisor, I've just been made aware...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/30/2005
Good news for popular people on MSN Messenger
I saw several threads on the Internet earlier this month regarding a change that increases the...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/23/2005
Server Performance Advisor - the Performance Diagnostic tool for Active Directory and IIS
Following a recent Technet session, I was asked where you can download adpref.exe (an Active...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/23/2005
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Release Candidate is now available
Someone made a more appropriate choice of name (thankfully!) given some of the alternatives which...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/23/2005
Account Lockout Tools for Active Directory
I should have posted this previously, so apologies to those who attended my recent session on AD...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/22/2005
MIIS Alliance formed
A great day for identity management and the MIIS product! The reason - five leading companies,...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/18/2005
Post domain migration - removing sidHistory
After a successful domain migration, you may be in a situation where it is necessary to remove the...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/18/2005
Managing your windows websites and web services
If part of your job entails monitoring and management of Windows Websites and Web Services hosted on...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/15/2005
Application Compatibility Toolkit 4.0 (ACT) released for download
The latest version of the ACT was released at the end of last week for free download. OverviewThe...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/14/2005
limitlogon - new download to stop concurrent active directory logons.
My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets this morning. I was discussing this very problem with...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/14/2005
Media Centre (MCE 2005) changing 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio and zoom mode patch
Having bought a 17" widescreen media centre PC at christmas, I was struggling to work out why the...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/14/2005
Active Directory Database monitoring using ESENTPRF.DLL
One of the demonstrations at last nights "Active Directory Diagnosis, Troubleshooting and Recovery"...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/11/2005
Active Directory diagnostic event logging in Windows Server
I mentioned at last nights "Active Directory Diagnosis Troubleshooting and Recovery" Technet session...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/11/2005
Extending the Active Directory schema
There are occasions when you need to extend the Active Directory schema for applications. Besides...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/09/2005
Remote access solution deployed at Microsoft
A webcast coming up on 29th March at 9AM PST (5PM GMT) caught my eye as remote access is something I...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/09/2005
Common mistakes when upgrading domains from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003
In my line of work, I talk to lots of people about the "hows" of upgrading to the latest and...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 03/01/2005
Scripting Clinic - what would you like to know?
I'm considering putting together a full day UK based event, either in Reading or London probably in...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/24/2005
Stretching Directory Boundaries, Cross Platform Identity Management, Authentication and Security
These are all critical pain topics among enterprises the world over. Fear not though (at least if...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/24/2005
Killing winlogon.exe remotely
No, not usually a good idea, I know. However, I was asked last night a "what would happen if...."...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/23/2005
WMIC Samples
As promised, here are the sample WMIC commands I demonstrated in the Automating Windows Server 2003...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/23/2005
Access Based Directory Enumeration - markshareforABDE.exe utility download
Following the myriad of emails I received, here's a link to markshareforABDE.exe as used in my...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/22/2005
Expanding disk partitions when deploying using ADS and VSMT
At last nights Virtual Server 2005 Technet evening in Edinburgh, I was asked whether it was possible...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/18/2005
Shared Networking (NAT) workaround in Virtual Server 2005
Following the Virtual Server technical overview event I presented in Manchester yesterday evening, I...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/16/2005
Blogcast on Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) in Windows Server 2003 SP1
The Aussies beat me to this one. If you want to find out more about the Security Configuration...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/14/2005
MSN Messenger 5.1 Tab Functions
I just stumbled across Marts blog entry and thought this was such a cool way to use of the tabbed...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/11/2005
Blogcast: Access Based Directory Enumeration (A Windows Server 2003 SP1 New Feature)
Find out about one of those really cool new features of Windows Server 2003 SP1, Access Based...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/11/2005
Windows Server 2003 as a client, MSN Toolbar Suite and Orca
I'm going to have eat a few of my own words now... I blogged in December about the "IT Pro" way of...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/11/2005
Windows Server 2003 SP1 RC2 (Build 3790, v1433) released
The second release candidate (aka RC2) for Windows Server 2003 SP1 has now been released to the...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/09/2005
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Technical Overview
I'll be presenting a Technet evening session on 15th Febuary at the Regus, Manchester and also on...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/08/2005
Scriptomatic (revisited)
The Scripting Guys released version 2 of their "Scriptomatic" tool a couple of weeks ago. Don't be...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/07/2005
This is a test post only - trying out customised style sheets.
This is a test post only - trying out customised style sheets. This is a test post only - trying out...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/04/2005
How-To install a certificate for SSL Encryption under IIS
Following on from my post a couple of days ago about using MakeCert to generate a self-signed...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/04/2005
How-to boost Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Guest Performance
One very easy win to gain fairly significant extra performance from your Virtual Server 2005 guest...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/03/2005
PKI and Certificate Management Information in Windows Server 2003
While on the subject of Certificates/Encryption/IPSec/PKI in general yesterday, I was looking around...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/02/2005
How-to use MakeCert for trusted root certification authority and SSL certificate issuance
I wasn't originally going to blog this, but my colleague, Mat, and I were discussing encryption late...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/02/2005
IIS 7.0 - a first look
I saw several demonstrations of an early cut of IIS 7 when I was over in Redmond a couple of weeks...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/02/2005
MSN Search Launched
Kind of hard to miss the launch party. Well, as it happens I did :-)Even though I'd consciously seen...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/01/2005
The future of the Windows-centric IT Pro?
I looked at Monad briefly a couple of months ago - after all it's still a reasonably long way off...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 02/01/2005
Blogcast on Install from Media - Promoting a Branch Office server to Domain Controller
For this series of four Blogcast recordings, I've reproduced a demonstration I did for a Technet...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 01/31/2005
Hyperthreading and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
Several people internally at Microsoft have commented that you should turn off Hyperthreading when...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 01/29/2005
VMRC - simultaneous sessions
This is fantastic. I love using the Virtual Machine Remote Console for accessing VMs running under...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 01/28/2005
Reset lost BIOS password - Virtual Server 2005
An answer to a question that came up on the internal Microsoft discussion group for Virtual Server...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 01/27/2005
contoso.com - why, who chose it, is it an anagram, is there a hidden meaning???
I have to admit, I'd never given a second thought to the origin of the use of "contoso". Contoso is...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 01/27/2005
Sample scripts for dsadd, dsmodify, dsget, dsquery, dsmod, dsmove
Following my Technet session on the New Features of Windows Server 2003 Active Directory, scenario...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 01/27/2005
Installing a Two-Node Virtual Machine Cluster under Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
If you're interested in clustering under Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, then this forthcoming...
Author: John Howard -MSFT Date: 01/26/2005