Network & ERP Software

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite USD 10.00

2010-04-23T11:55:00.004+08:00

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite Pricing (BPOS)

If interested, please call 92210817 or email info@nerpsoft.com

Terms & Conditions
* Pricing Level is established by the number of users on a service
* Additonal Storage is in 1GB increments
* MOQ 5 Seats exclude optional item
* The BPOS pricing is reflected in end user price based on per month per user

Deskless Pricing for 0-249 users
* Exchange Online Deskless Worker (500MB) USD 2.00
* SharePoint Online Deskless Worker USD 2.00
* Deskless Worker Online USD 3.00

Standard Pricing for 0-249 users
* Exchange Online Standard (25GB) USD 5.00
* Office SharePoint Online Standard (250MB) USD 5.25
* Office Communication Online USD 2.00
* Office Live Meeting Standard USD 4.50
* Business Productivity Online Suite (Exchange + SharePoint + OC + LM) USD 10.00

SharePoint 2010 was released to manufacturing (RTM) on April 17, 2010

2010-04-23T11:38:00.002+08:00

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is the "Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and the Web".

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 promises to deliver numerous benefits over its predecessor. SharePoint 2010 was released to manufacturing (RTM) on April 17, 2010.

Feature highlights include:
-New user interface, including the new Office Ribbon.
-Web Edit, allowing easy customization of a site.
-Silverlight Web Part, allowing rapid integration of rich Silverlight applications.
-Rich Theming, allowing simplified skinning of a SharePoint 2010 site
-Multiple browser support, including Internet Explorer (Advanced View with Silverlight), Firefox (Standard View) and Safari (Standard View) amongst others.
-Enterprise Metadata Management ("SharePoint taxonomy"), which enables a centralized taxonomy

Will come in two editions: SharePoint Foundation Server and SharePoint Server 2010
There are also a collection of other new features relevant to IT Professionals, Developers and Partners.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits Overview
SharePoint 2010 is the business collaboration platform that enables you to connect and empower people through formal and informal business communities, within the enterprise and beyond, and to manage content throughout the information lifecycle. Whether deployed on-premises or as hosted services, SharePoint’s integrated capabilities are enhanced by search technologies and enable you to rapidly respond to changing business needs by making data-driven decisions and by deploying customized solutions quickly and securely. The consolidation of collaboration solutions onto SharePoint 2010 makes it possible to cut costs by lowering training and maintenance expenses and increasing IT productivity, all within a governable and compliant platform.

Connect and Empower People
Making people more productive is a direct result of enabling them to access resources and knowledge regardless of where they are and what device they use, through a user experience optimized for usability and adoption.

Cut costs with a Unified Infrastructure
Driving cost efficiencies and accomplishing more with the same resources is possible through the consolidation of all the key business collaboration solutions into SharePoint 2010 and using this common platform to deploy solutions for your intranet, extranet, or for your Internet web presence.

Rapidly Respond to Business Needs
When time-to-market is key, SharePoint 2010 enables people to customize the out-of-box platform and deploy solutions that enable them to address specific business requirements quickly and in a secure manner.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits for IT Professionals
For IT professionals, SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment.

Increased Productivity
SharePoint 2010 can help to increase IT professionals' productivity by improving the administrative experience and giving administrators deeper operational insight. Features include a new streamlined Central Administration Web site, new capabilities to manage and monitor the SharePoint farm, and Windows PowerShell support.

Scalable Unified Infrastructure
SharePoint 2010 provides a scalable unified infrastructure. It offers better control over server resources, which can improve processes such as performance and management of large lists and data management and protection using high availability. A scalable services architecture allows you to effectively manage and centralize services like Search, My Sites, and Taxonomy. These service applications can be managed through Central Administration and also can be managed and scripted by Windows PowerShell. Because the architecture is extensible, third-party companies can build and add services to platform.

Flexible Deployment
With a quick and simple installation and configuration process, SharePoint 2010 provides a flexible deployment experience. The upgrade from SharePoint 2007 is smooth and predictable. New functionality allows you to manage how others use SharePoint. For example, you can safely allow site administrators to upload custom user code with Sandboxed Solutions. You also have more governance controls: If you want to maintain a centralized SharePoint deployment instead of taking a more decentralized approach, you can block those deployments through Group Policy or track them with AD marker support.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits for Developers
Software developers can use the SharePoint 2010 developer platform to build business collaboration applications for the enterprise and the Web, all with familiar tools and a rich set of interoperable, out-of-box features. SharePoint 2010 includes extensible framework features and tools for building applications, including Microsoft Silverlight Web Parts and Client APIs, LINQ to SharePoint, Business Connectivity Services (BCS), Sandboxed Solutions, and new SharePoint List data relationships. Developers can more efficiently build SharePoint solutions with Visual Studio 2010, Team Foundation Server 2010, and the new SharePoint Designer 2010

Developer Productivity
Software developers can increase productivity with Visual Studio 2010 and the new SharePoint Designer 2010. SharePoint 2010 can be installed on Microsoft Windows 7 or Windows Vista for development purposes. With SharePoint 2010, software developers get a rich set of resources, including SDK documentation and product features such as the developer dashboard page.

Rich Platform Services
SharePoint 2010 provides new features for building business collaboration applications, including Silverlight hosting for user interfaces, LINQ to SharePoint, Client Object Model, BCS, data relationships, and large list scalability. Using BCS, developers now can integrate line-of-business data in SharePoint and Office Client solutions easily and with read/write capability.

Flexible Deployment
Developers can build Sandboxed Solutions to be deployed on-premises or online, with built-in API limits and resource governance for administrators. In SharePoint 2010, new Sandboxed Solutions can be deployed to a corporate intranet or to a shared hosting environment, such as SharePoint Online.

SharePoint 2010 Benefits for Partners
Partners have opportunities to expand their markets, develop new revenue models, and increase sales with SharePoint. Now is a great time to become a SharePoint partner or expand current offerings.

Connect, Extend, and Build on SharePoint
SharePoint is the business collaboration platform for the enterprise and the web. Collaboration, content management, enterprise search, business intelligence and web capabilities enable partners to deliver innovative and extensible solutions for customers.

Get Ready for SharePoint 2010
New capabilities such as cloud services, a new client-side object model, advanced support for .NET and Silverlight development, and business connectivity services open opportunities for partner solutions. Partner resources are being updated regularly to help partners get people and solutions ready for SharePoint 2010.

Engage with Partner Programs
The Microsoft Partner Network provides opportunities to strengthen capabilities, expertise to help serve customers better and communities to spark innovation and connection. Learn more about the new and expanded benefits of the Microsoft Partner Network.

Resources are available to support partner businesses in information worker solutions and web development solutions. Competencies for enterprise content management, portals and collaboration, search and web development provide partners new ways to differentiate themselves and their SharePoint and FAST capabilities.

Current partners should review the features of the program and begin preparing their organizations to meet the new competency requirements by May 2010.

Top 10 IT Pro Tasks Made Easier by Windows Server 2008 R2

2009-05-25T08:43:00.002+08:00

Top 10 IT Pro Tasks Made Easier by Windows Server 2008 R2

Do more with less. This has been the server manager’s mantra for several years but never moreso than now. Fortunately, Windows Server® 2008 R2 has got your back with numerous and varied features designed specifically to address IT’s current challenges while making day-to-day life a little easier. Here are the top 10:
#1. Migrating VMs Without Service Interruption
Windows Server 2008’s Quick Migration was an adequate feature, allowing administrators to move VMs between physical hosts with only short downtime. Trouble is, even that delay was long enough to drop any currently connected users or applications and that tends to arouse help desk ire. Windows Server 2008 R2 meets this challenge with Live Migration.
Live Migration leverages Windows Clustering Services and the Cluster Shared Volumes technology to transfer VMs in milliseconds. That means no dropped connections and a much more dynamic data center management environment. We’ve also added Live Migration features to System Center Virtual Machine Manager, including the ability to perform migrations based on policy. It’s a brave new virtual world.
#2. Branch File Access Performance Up; WAN Costs Down
Branch offices can be the bane of both server and desktop administrators. Remote workers can’t find files due to lack of access or can’t get them fast enough because of bandwidth constraints. Enter another key Windows Server 2008 R2 feature: BranchCache™.
Administrators can use BranchCache to track file access requests at the branch office, and the files can be cached there. Files can be retrieved from other branch office client PCs (a peer-to-peer caching model, known as distributed mode) or from a dedicated BranchCache™ server at the remote site (also called hosted mode). A central BranchCache™ server keeps track of both existing file requests and file updates to ensure all requests receive only the most current content.
The result is an easy-to-configure and easy-to-maintain caching solution that speeds the servicing of remote client requests and lowers WAN bandwidth utilization at the same time.
#3. Self-adjusting Server and Data Center Power Management
Green IT may be the single hottest mandate from upper-level business management to IT in 2008, and the trend is likely to continue in 2009. To help harried IT managers go green quickly and easily, Microsoft is doing its part with new power management updates in Windows Server 2008 R2.
First, there’s an exciting new feature called Core Parking. When this feature is enabled, Windows Server 2008 R2 will constantly monitor the various workloads running across multi-core server systems. If certain processor cores are under-utilized or unnecessary, Core Parking can set just those cores into sleep mode, thus saving significant power. If workloads suddenly increase, R2 can spin up dormant cores in a matter of milliseconds. So a server with 64 logical cores can drop to just a 4-core machine during low-utilization times and rev back up to full CPU power as soon as workloads increase.
In addition, Windows Server 2008 R2 enables administrators to design active power policies that can cause servers to ‘throttle-down’ during off-hours by using DMTF-compliant remote management interfaces.
#4. Remote Server Management
Doing more with less includes traveling. Managing servers effectively no matter where they are physically located is always a problem. Windows Server 2008 R2 addresses this challenge with a Server Manager that can be installed on workstations and pointed at servers from afar. In addition, Server Manager has new management consoles devoted specifically to remote management tasks across all server roles.
#5. Squeeze the Most From Your Hardware
Virtualization might be a major boon when it comes to server consolidation, but the other half of that equation is squeezing every last drop of performance out of your virtualization hosts. Windows Server 2008 R2 has several new features designed to take full advantage of all any hardware config.
First, because it takes advantage of the last two years of 64-bit server CPU manufacturing, Windows Server 2008 R2 is the first Microsoft server operating system to take only the 64-bit road. Your 32-bit applications will continue to run flawlessly on R2, but the 64-bit operating system is much better designed to take advantage of those high-end server CPUs from AMD and Intel.
And more of them, too—with Windows Server 2008 R2 scaling up to address as many as 256 logical processors in a single server, and Hyper-V in R2 is able to use more than 32 logical processors in a single VM. That’s twice the CPU support of Hyper-V 1.0! R2 can also take advantage of advanced CPU features, including Second Level Translation for much-improved memory management. It all adds up to more server muscle for your data center dollar. When combined with the consolidation power of Hyper-V, it means R2 can make a significant dent in your annual IT spend.
#6. Do Better At Managing Virtual Data Centers
Data centers have gone virtual with a speed that’s surprised even the experts. But although the technology’s potential is easily realized, tools to effectively manage large pools of virtualized resources have been slower to emerge. Windows Server 2008 R2 helps fill that void with a slick update to Hyper-V™.
The new Hyper-V™ sports numerous improvements over the old, including support for both 32- and 64-bit VMs, larger memory support (up to 64GB per VM), pass through disk access, and new hardware sharing architectures for resources like disk, networking, and video. But Hyper-V™ hasn’t left managers out in the cold—it includes new consoles for Live Migration and high-availability clusters, support for WMI management extensibility, and day-to-day tools to make life easier such as Virtual Machine snapshots. And last (but definitely not least), Hyper-V™ also sports a host of new support from PowerShell 2.0 with a slew of new dedicated cmdlets.
#7. Create Customized and Automated Management Tools
Canned management tools are great, but in large scenarios and especially vertical environments, being able to build your own management tool box is critical. Microsoft took an exciting step in this direction with the release of PowerShell 1.0 with Windows Server 2008. With Windows Server 2008 R2, we’ve reacted to the hugely positive customer feedback around this feature with a revamped and updated PowerShell version 2.0.
PowerShell v2 carries improvements across the board with improved remote management via WS-Management, better security with features like constrained runspaces, extended scripting functionality, and even improved script portability via XML. You’ll find a new Graphical PowerShell that adds pro developer-class IDE features, including colored syntaxing and better debugging tools for building your own cmdlets. And lets not forget about the over 240 new cmdlets that ship with R2 right out of the box.
#8. Use Virtualization to Ease Desktop Management
The Hyper-V™ server virtualization feature is only half of the virtualization message in Windows Server 2008 R2. Desktop and application management has always been a troublesome task because of the distributed nature of its targets. With R2, however, Microsoft presents a centralized solution to many of these difficulties via presentation virtualization.
The new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in Windows Server 2008 R2 figures largely in this vision, and builds on the solid presentation virtualization foundation we built into Windows Server 2008’s Terminal Services. With the advent of Window Server 2008 R2, this is now called Remote Desktop Services under which VDI encompases a centralized desktop delivery architecture that allows customers to centralize the storage, execution, and management of a Windows® desktop or application in the data center. This capability gives desktop and application administrators a whole new toolkit for better enablement of flexible work scenarios, including work-from-home and hot-desking as well as increased data security, compliance, and more efficient management of the desktop operating system and applications.
#9. Broaden Remote Access Adoption While Making it Easier to Manage
Green IT, skyrocketing gas prices, a slow economy, and a need to get the job done no matter where it might be—all these factors combine to make remote computing one of the most important and difficult IT management tasks at the moment. Windows Server 2008 R2 addresses this with an exciting new feature that seeks to turn your clunky VPN into something as easy to manage and reliable as a dial tone.
DirectAccess (DA) is a comprehensive anywhere access solution that enables organizations to provide always-on, secure connectivity to on-premise and remote users alike. It improves security and lowers total cost of ownership (TCO). DA eliminates the need to connect explicitly with the corporate network while roaming and provides organizations with the next generation of policy-based, secure connectivity. To end users, the concept of remote computing goes away because DA and Windows 7 combine to present them with an always-on connection to their corporate network whether they’re attached to a local, remote or even public network.
DA uses technologies already included with Windows Server 2008, including IPsec and IPv6, but combines these with an easy wizard-style configuration and management toolkit that enables administrators to build and maintain DA. To maintain reliability and security, DA also takes advantage of many of the innovations found in other Microsoft products and services such as Network Access Protection, Server and Domain Isolation, and Forefront™ Client Security. In addition, the Microsoft Forefront Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) can enhance deployment and management.
#10. Take Your Web and Application Serving To The Next Level
Windows Server 2008 R2 includes many enhancements that make it the best Windows Server for Web applications and services yet, most notable of these: Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5.
Overworked server administrators will appreciate the updated Web server, which includes features that streamline management by extending the functionality of IIS Manager to include new configuration modules, by implementing a new Windows PowerShell Provider and task-based cmdlets for IIS, and by offering support for .NET on Server Core—that means not just more application flexibility with ASP.NET now available on Server Core, but remote administration through IIS Manager and Server Manager as well. IIS 7.5 also integrates new support and troubleshooting features, including configuration logging and a dedicated Best Practice Analyzer, and integrates many of the more popular extensions for IIS, including updated versions of Secure FTP and WebDAV.

Microsoft Virtualization Announces Hyper-Green.com

2009-05-15T11:27:00.005+08:00

Microsoft Virtualization Announces Hyper-Green.com
Today Microsoft announced the release of a set of tools available at http://www.hyper-green.com/ designed to help organizations quantify the environmental and cost savings benefits available through virtualization technology. At the site visitors will be able to build a simple environmental savings report for virtualization projects they are considering and access a set of tools, including a deeper scenario-based ROI analysis and infrastructure assessment that can help them get started on realizing that value. On the site Microsoft showcases a number of case studies for customers that have done this such as Banque de Luxembourg and Kentucky Department of Education. Check it out now: http://www.hyper-green.com/

Google unveils new features

2009-05-13T14:02:00.001+08:00

Google unveils new features

'We want to help our users find more useful information, and do more useful things with it,' said Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president.

WASHINGTON - GOOGLE rolled out new Web search features on Tuesday and an update to its 'Sky Map' that can allow users of its mobile phones to figure out which constellations they are looking at in the night sky.
Google's new 'Search Options' lets users 'slice and dice' search results, narrowing them down in time to results from the past 24 hours, the past week or the past year, for example.

'Search Options' also allows users to confine their search results to videos, product reviews and forum posts on a particular topic. Search results can also be viewed on a timeline displaying their popularity over time.

'We want to help our users find more useful information, and do more useful things with it,' Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president said in a blog posting about the new features unveiled at Google's California headquarters.

She described 'Search Options' as 'a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier.' Google also previewed a new tool called 'Google Squared' which is to become available later this month.

'Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic - instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet,' Google said.

Google also showed off an update to 'Sky Map,' an application for the T-Mobile G1 phone which uses Google's Android software.

The application uses global positioning system and compass data and the date and time to figure out what celestial objects the device is facing at a given moment.

'If it is pointed towards Venus, for example, users will see a labelled map of the sky with Venus and the objects surrounding it on their screens,' Google said.

'As users move their phones, the map displayed on the screen adjusts accordingly, enabling them to point their phones at the sky and discover what they are seeing (or could be seeing), wherever they may be.' -- AFP

Facebook blocks private messages

2009-05-08T21:54:00.002+08:00

Home > Breaking News > Tech and Science > Story
May 8, 2009
Facebook blocks private messages

If links to certain websites are detected in a private message, the user is shown a warning. --PHOTO: AFP

SYDNEY - AN AUSTRALIAN news website reported on Friday that Facebook has begun blocking private messages.
The technology blog written by News Limited journalist Andrew Ramadge stated that Facebook 'has started censoring private messages sent between users to block out internet nasties'.

According to the blog on news.com.au, if links to certain websites are detected in a private message, the user is shown a warning.

The message says 'Warning: This message contains blocked content. Some content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users.'

The message is then deleted automatically.

Mr Ramadge writes that the first block to be reported was applied to The Pirate Bay; one of the world's largest file-sharing websites. The Pirate Bay recently lost a legal battle against a number of music and film industry groups.

'Links to The Pirate Bay's homepage were reportedly accepted, but links to specific pages within the site were blocked,' wrote Mr Ramadge.

'When we tested it today, that was still happening. However links to other file-sharing sites were fine:

The Pirate Bay - BLOCKED

Mininova - OK

Demonoid - OK

BTJunkie - OK

'Links to at least one major pornography site were also blocked.'

The internet industry website, Wired, also reported that this censorship could lead to Facebook breaching United States wire-tapping laws.

Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said the website had a legal right to censor messages, reported Mr Ramadge.

'Because users had agreed not to send 'spammy, illegal, threatening or harassing' content in accepting the site's terms of use,' wrote Mr Ramadge, quoting Facebook's officer.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV

2009-05-08T21:52:00.001+08:00

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product from Microsoft.

The product is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises. Value-added resellers (VAR)s can have full access to the business logic source code, and it has a reputation as being easy to customize.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Features
3 External links
3.1 Press
4 References

History
The company was founded in 1984 in Denmark as PC&C ApS (Personal Computing and Consulting).

In 2000, Navision Software A/S merged with fellow Danish firm Damgaard A/S (founded 1983) to form NavisionDamgard A/S. Later the name was changed to Navision A/S.

On 11 July 2002 Microsoft bought Navision A/S to go with its previous acquisition of Great Plains. The new division in Microsoft was named Microsoft Business Solutions and also included Microsoft CRM.[2][3]

In September 2005 Microsoft rebranded the product and re-released it as Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

The product itself has gone through several name changes as the original Navision company or Microsoft has tried to decide on how it should be marketed. The names "Navision Financials", "Navision Attain", "Microsoft Business Solutions Navision Edition", and the current (2007) "Microsoft Dynamics NAV" have all been used to refer to this product.

In November 2008 Microsoft released Dynamics NAV 2009, with a new role-based GUI. Microsoft originally planned to develop an entirely new ERP system (Project green), but has decided to continue development of all ERP systems (Dynamics AX, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL). All four ERP systems will be launched with the same new role based user interface, SQL based reporting and analysis, SharePoint based portal, Pocket PC based mobile clients and integration with Microsoft Office.

Features
As of 2006, NAV is licensed using the "Business Ready License" (BRL) model. The customer purchases user sessions, which have access to certain parts of the system included. There are two types of user - Business Essentials (BE) and Advanced Management (AM); AM provides access to more functionality than BE. Under the previous licensing model, "Module Based License" (MBL), users came with no functionality - this all had to be bought separately. Microsoft offers a path for customers to transition from MBL to BRL licensing.

The product gives administrators the option of using either a native database server (now called 'Classic') or Microsoft SQL Server, as the DBMS. SQL is better able to cope with large database sizes, but requires more maintenance than the classic database. The original database server is often referred to as 'C/SIDE' which refers to Client/Server Integrated Development Environment.

Relative to Microsoft's other 3 ERP products, Dynamics NAV's sector is distribution and manufacturing companies that want more than "out of the box" functionality. Yes the solution has a strong feature set, but more importantly it can be thought of as an "ERP System construction set". The Pascal like development language is easily accessible to appropriate developers and is designed for rapidly customizing the software. There is no need for complex server side Transact SQL stored procedures as the one language manages the application and database. This typically results in new development or modifications that take about 1/2 the time of traditional ERP applications.

On the downside, all changes, even changes as simple as adding a field or modifying an existing report is considered a source code modification. They are also "universal" meaning if you modify a screen it applies to all users. Many competitive systems which may not be as easy to modify the source code, often provide a customization layer above the source code that can easily adapt to basic changes such as moving or hiding fields or adding extra fields.

French hacker cracks into Twitter exposing millions of accounts

2009-05-07T14:22:00.001+08:00

1 May 2009

French hacker cracks into Twitter exposing millions of accounts to danger
Sophos advises Twitter to improve its security

IT security and control firm Sophos is advising that Twitter hardens its security as a French hacker claims he broke into Twitter's internal administration system, enabling him to access the accounts of millions of Twitter users - including Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and Lily Allen.

The hacker - known as 'Hacker Croll' - claims that he was able to access Twitter's internal administration system after stealing a password from a staffer at the micro-blogging website. It is alleged that by resetting the employee's Yahoo password after guessing his 'secret question', Hacker Croll found the information about the staffer's Twitter login credentials.

Claims appear to be confirmed by screenshot images uploaded to a French blog, which give a glimpse into the micro-blogging site's admin panel revealing that the likes of Kutcher and Allen have blocked other Twitter users, such as celebrity gossipmonger Perez Hilton, from contacting them. Amongst the private information accessible was the email addresses of compromised accounts, mobile phone numbers (if one was associated with the account), and the list of accounts blocked by the affected user.

"This is just the latest in a string of security issues at Twitter in recent months, and the website is surely in danger of losing the confidence of its users who will be rattled by yet another breach," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Just like with the recent Twitter worm outbreaks, this is not so much a case of Twitter raising awareness amongst its many users about sensible online security, but learning a few lessons itself. Careless security by the micro-blogging site could potentially put millions of Twitter users at risk."

Sophos advises that Twitter's internal security could be improved if staff were forced to log in using authentication tokens that provide a randomly generated key upon login, meaning that even if a staffer's username and password is compromised hackers would not be able to gain access.

"If a Twitter employee loses their password, it seems hackers can run riot on the site and cause all sorts of problems. By making staff adopt the kind of hardware authentication keys that many online banking customers now need to use to login online, Twitter would make it far less likely that an attack like this could succeed," explained Cluley. "Let's not forget, although many will blame Twitter for not ensuring that its staff followed sensible policies to better secure critical administrator accounts, the real criminal here is Hacker Croll."

What's New in Windows 7 for IT Pros

2009-05-07T13:19:00.001+08:00

Windows 7 includes a number of new features, such as advances in touch and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors,[31][32][33][34] improved boot performance, and kernel improvements.

Windows 7 adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors (Heterogeneous Multi-adapter), a new version of Windows Media Center,[35] a Gadget for Windows Media Center, improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack and Windows PowerShell being included, and a redesigned Calculator with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion.

Many new items have been added to the Control Panel, including ClearType Text Tuner, Display Color Calibration Wizard, Gadgets, Recovery, Troubleshooting, Workspaces Center, Location and Other Sensors, Credential Manager, Biometric Devices, System Icons, and Display.[36] Windows Security Center has been renamed to Windows Action Center (Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds) which encompasses both security and maintenance of the computer.

The taskbar has seen the biggest visual changes, where the Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with pinning applications to the taskbar. Buttons for pinned applications are integrated with the task buttons. These buttons also enable the Jump Lists feature to allow easy access to common tasks.[37] The revamped taskbar also allows the reordering of taskbar buttons.

Adjacent to the system clock is a small rectangular button for the new feature named Peek. Hovering over this button makes all visible windows transparent for a quick look at the desktop.[38] In touch-enabled displays such as touch screens, tablet PCs etc, this button is slightly wider to accommodate being pressed with a finger.[39] Clicking this button minimizes all windows.

Additionally, when a user drags a window to the edge of the screen, it will snap in place on that half of the screen. This allows users to snap documents or files on either side of the screen to compare them. There will also be a feature where when a user pulls a window to the top of the screen, it will automatically maximize. When a user tries to move windows that are maximized, the system will restore them automatically.

This functionality is also accomplished with keyboard shortcuts. Holding down the Windows key and pressing the up arrow maximizes; pressing down the down arrow minimizes; pressing the left or right arrows snap the windows to the sides of the screen. Repeating the keyboard shortcuts generally restores the window's previous size.

The 'middle-click' or scroll button on the mouse will be in more use as the middle click will be able to close applications and tabs.

Unlike in Windows Vista, window borders and the taskbar do not turn opaque when a window is maximized with Windows Aero applied. Instead they remain transparent.

For developers, Windows 7 includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET based WCF web services),[40] new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages,[41] and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API.[42]

At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that color depths of 30-bit and 48-bit would be supported in Windows 7 along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB.[43][44] Microsoft is also investigating better support for Solid State Drives and Windows 7 will be able to identify a Solid State Drive uniquely.

Internet Spades, Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers, which were removed from Windows Vista, were restored in Windows 7.

Windows 7 will include Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12. The latest beta of Windows 7 blocks the usage of third party video decoders from Windows Media Player. Microsoft says this restriction will not take place in the final version of Windows 7.[45]

Wikinews has related news: Windows 7 will allow users to disable Internet Explorer

Users will also be able to disable many more Windows components than was possible in Windows Vista. New additions to this list of components include Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows Search, and the Windows Gadget Platform.[46]

Windows 7 includes 13 additional sound schemes (entitled Afternoon, Calligraphy, Characters, Cityscape, delta, Festival, Garden, Heritage, Landscape, Quirky (which is similar to Vista's default sound scheme[citation needed]), Raga, Savanna, and Sonata.[47]

A new version of Virtual PC, Windows Virtual PC Beta is available for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.[48] It allows multiple Windows environments, including Windows XP Mode, to run on the same machine, requiring the use of Intel VT-x or AMD-V. Windows XP Mode runs Windows XP in a virtual machine and redirects displayed applications running in Windows XP to the Windows 7 desktop.[49]

Preparation for the RHCT and RHCE Exams

2007-04-21T23:56:00.000+08:00

To help you determine the best courses to take, Red Hat provides online skills assessment.

Components of the RHCE and RHCT Exams

The RHCT exam is a subset of the RHCE exam, and is organized as follows:
Troubleshooting and System Maintenance — 1 hour
Installation and Configuration — 2 hours

In order to earn RHCT, one must successfully complete all the requirements in Troubleshooting and System Maintenance, and must achieve a score of 70 or higher on Installation and Configuration.

For RHCE exams given on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and higher, the exam is organized as follows:
Troubleshooting and System Maintenance — 2.5 hours
Installation and Configuration — 3.0 hours

In order to earn RHCE, one must successfully complete all the RHCT-level Troubleshooting and System Maintenance requirements, and successfully complete enough additional RHCE items to earn a score of 80 or higher overall on the section.
In addition, one must score 70 or higher on the RHCT items of Installation and Configuration, and 70 or higher on the RHCE components of that section. We describe the skills associated with RHCT and RHCE below.

Study Points for the RHCE Exam
Prerequisite skills for RHCT and RHCE
Candidates should possess the following skills, as they may be necessary in order to fulfill requirements of the RHCT and RHCE exams:
use standard command line tools (e.g., ls, cp, mv, rm, tail, cat, etc.) to create, remove, view, and investigate files and directories
use grep, sed, and awk to process text streams and files
use a terminal-based text editor, such as vim or nano, to modify text files
use input/output redirection
understand basic principles of TCP/IP networking, including IP addresses, netmasks, and gateways for IPv4 and IPv6
use su to switch user accounts
use passwd to set passwords
use tar, gzip, and bzip2
configure an email client on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
use text and/or graphical browser to access HTTP/HTTPS URLs
use lftp to access FTP URLs

RHCT skills
Troubleshooting and System Maintenance
RHCTs should be able to:
boot systems into different run levels for troubleshooting and system maintenance
diagnose and correct misconfigured networking
diagnose and correct hostname resolution problems
configure the X Window System and a desktop environment
add new partitions, filesystems, and swap to existing systems
use standard command-line tools to analyze problems and configure system
Installation and Configuration
RHCTs must be able to:
perform network OS installation
implement a custom partitioning scheme
configure printing
configure the scheduling of tasks using cron and at
attach system to a network directory service, such as NIS or LDAP
configure autofs
add and manage users, groups, quotas, and File Access Control Lists
configure filesystem permissions for collaboration
install and update packages using rpm
properly update the kernel package
configure the system to update/install packages from remote repositories using yum or pup
modify the system bootloader
implement software RAID at install-time and run-time
use /proc/sys and sysctl to modify and set kernel run-time parameters
use scripting to automate system maintenance tasks

RHCE skills
Troubleshooting and System Maintenance
RHCEs must demonstrate the RHCT skills listed above, and should be able to:
use the rescue environment provided by first installation CD
diagnose and correct boot failures arising from bootloader, module, and filesystem errors
diagnose and correct problems with network services (see Installation and Configuration below for a list of these services)
add, remove, and resize logical volumes
diagnose and correct networking services problems where SELinux contexts are interfering with proper operation.
Installation and Configuration
RHCEs must demonstrate the RHCT-level skills listed above, and they must be capable of configuring the following network services:
HTTP/HTTPS
SMB
NFS
FTP
Web proxy
SMTP
IMAP, IMAPS, and POP3
SSH
DNS (caching name server, slave name server)
NTP
For each of these services, RHCEs must be able to:
install the packages needed to provide the service
configure SELinux to support the service
configure the service to start when the system is booted
configure the service for basic operation
Configure host-based and user-based security for the service
RHCEs must also be able to:
configure hands-free installation using Kickstart
implement logical volumes at install-time
use iptables to implement packet filtering and/or NAT
use PAM to implement user-level restrictions