By Dan Holme
Office & SharePoint Pro
Community Manager

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1
- What They Mean to You and Me -
As you have probably heard from no less than five million other newsletters and media outlets, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 were released to manufacture (RTMed) on Monday. That means the code is complete and will be starting to be put into production. For most mere mortals, the two releases will start burning the wires in March and April.

I've been using both OSs for quite some time now, and I must say that I'm a huge fan. You've no doubt heard the laundry list of major features provided by Windows 2008. But let me tell you from experience: it's the little things that will make the biggest difference. Microsoft has addressed some of the minor (and major) problems with Windows Server 2003 that will impact your day-to-day operations in a big, and valuable way. I'm very excited about the future of this OS! Get your hands on it now, even the release candidate 1 (RC1) code released in December (the RTM code hasn't changed that much, functionality wise). Put it to the test in your lab. You're bound to have some "aha!" moments that get you excited as well.

Windows 2008's release also signifies the official "divorce" of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) from the Windows Server OS. They were only ‘paired' for a short time, but now SharePoint is back to being a separate component, added to the OS as a free download. Now we can, I hope, expect a burst of rapid innovation from Microsoft as far as WSS goes.

Windows Vista SP1 is going to be a juggernaut, I believe. Many, many enterprises were waiting for SP1 before deploying Vista. For some, it was due to real resource limitations that hindered application compatibility testing. For others, it was lack of training and knowledge (if you're one of those, call me!). Unfortunately, for quite a few it was because the media over-hyped the problems with the new OS which, while real, were not anywhere near "show-stopper" magnitude as we were being led to believe. The hotfixes and updates that Microsoft rolled out in late 2008 made a huge difference, and all of those are now bundled into SP1, making it an attractive time to get real about deployment.

And if you're now in the "planning to deploy" boat, again, call me. You really need to know about the Microsoft Deployment toolkit (MDT, formerly known as the BDD). It makes a world of difference. I'm actually in the process of building an image of Windows XP for a client, and the toolkit is a godsend. But the experience is reminding me of the many reasons I like Vista more than XP from a deployment and manageability perspective. Uffda! The back-in-time gymnastics I'm having to perform make me appreciate the few driver problems I've faced with Vista and incorrigible hardware vendors looking to force an upgrade.

So why spend time in the To The SharePoint newsletter discussing Windows 2008 and Vista SP1? Because they represent an available "big step forward" for enterprises worldwide--a step that will take them further from the file-share-based collaboration of the 1990s and further into the collaboration, business process and intelligence, and content management world of the 2000s. Vista supports Office 2007 and SharePoint slightly better than XP did, and it provides integrated digital rights management to support task-based protection for content. The more people that have Vista, the more people will begin to leverage these incredible technologies. It's all a slowly evolving ecosystem, and each piece helps the other.

For me, personally, the release of these two platforms means I've finished my two gigantic books: the Windows Administration Kit (which is like the highlights of my 13-year career delivering consulting and solutions around Windows technologies), and the Training Kit for the 70-640 (Active Directory) exam, both from Microsoft Press (and available for pre-order on Amazon if you are so inclined). And with those projects behind me, I am turning to the future and toward Office 14, and the next releases of SharePoint.

I'll be interested to hear what you think about what Windows 2008 and Vista SP1 mean to you!

Content Types in SharePoint
So if you are a developer or IT professional working with SharePoint and you haven't really mastered the concept of content types, wait no longer to "get it!" Windows IT Pro magazine published a great article on content types in January, written by Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen. We've made it available to the community for free at the Office and SharePoint Pro site. Content types are a super-important component of SharePoint, allowing you to define the data fields (columns) that make up a record (list item or document) in a site or site collection. The name content type tends to make a lot of people think that content types deal only with documents, but that's not right--they define every type of list item, as well as document type. Take some time to read up on content types if you're not familiar with them, yet.

Managing Microsoft Office with Group Policy
I'm guessing that if you support or develop for SharePoint, you also have your fingers in the Microsoft Office client applications as well. It pains me to see how few organizations have put the Office Group Policy templates in place. DO IT! There are some 'no brainer' changes you must make to Office. Turn off fast saves in PowerPoint! (They're a security and information-leak problem!) Point users to a shared location for templates (the Workgroup Templates Path setting). And look at your Help desk logs. What problems can you solve with better configuration management? Group Policy guru Darren Mar-Elia tells you what you need to know in another Windows IT Pro subscriber article that we've made available to you here.

Other Notes

SharePoint Replication Revisited
One of our community members pointed out to me that I missed a player in my discussion of SharePoint replication last week: DocAve Replicator. I feel like an idiot, because its maker, AvePoint has a great product line and a great team behind it..

Windows Connections and SharePoint Connections
Don't forget to pencil in a visit to Orlando for the most independent and expert technology conferences, SharePoint Connections and Windows Connections. Both are chock-full of SharePoint content, with slightly different perspectives, so look closely at the agendas and come visit us there!.

Until next week, all the best!

Dan Holme

danh at intelliem dot (top level commercial domain)

ScriptLogic’s NEW Security Explorer for SharePoint dramatically simplifies SharePoint security, with a full tree view of the SharePoint site and point-and-click permissions management, duplication, backup and recovery.

Download a 30-day evaluation today and get The Definitive Guide to Securing Windows in the Enterprise ebook for free!