Getting ready for Server 2012 and Windows 8: MAP 7 are now released

Just got an email that MAP 7 are ready and can be downloaded.

This is a copy of the mail:


Get ready for Windows Server 2012 with MAP 7.0!

The latest release from the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) team provides organizations with tools to assess readiness for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

Download MAP 7.0 on the Microsoft Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?&id=7826

Teched Amsterdam: Wds in 2012

In the Windows Server 2012 the Windows Deployment Services Will be fast. And one of the cool feature are that it now don't need to download the wim before you apply it. This will save local disk space, have seen problems with smaller ssd disk. Trade off is that you need 2 gb of memory. More WDS blogging will follow

TechEd Amsterdam: Windows 8 To Go

You want to check out Windows 8 and don't have hardware to spare, can't run virtual or if just want to check if your computer can run Windows 8 ?

Then you might try Window 8 To Go. You need a USB drive with some space available, running it on USB 3 will of course give faster speed, but I have runned it on several USB 2 disk (memory stick and USB 2/3 often got to hot, so I use disks instead) without problem. I runned the developer preview on a Lacie Rugged Disk 500 GB (7200 rpm) and did several session on it at NIC 2012 and Utmessan on this solution without any hickups or problems

TechEd Amsterdam: Session recommandations from my session

Here are the slides showing recommantations for Springboard related sessions from my session

TechED Amsterdam: Using the POC Jumstart Kit

During my session at TechEd Europe I talked about and showed the "POC Jumpstart Kit". This is a smart solution to test out Windows and Office readiness, deployment or just play around With MDT, SCCM, ACT and MAP.

It's a large download, but you get a great demo environment ready in no time. A bit like the Hydration Kit, but you don't have to do the installation process. Everything is on one server, and the server is ready to be used on Hyper-V or Virtual PC. There is no Integration Components installed so it's works well on both platforms. Convertion to other platforms should work as well.

Among the greates benefits are that you get a "instructions manual" with it. There is 13 lab guides Learning you how to use all the powers installed in the "Jumpstart Kit"

There is some "minor" issues to get it to work, but luckily there is workarounds :-)

System Center 2012 SP1 CTP 2 are now out

Service pack 1 will give alot of important stuff to the System Center 2012 family, for instance Windows 8(2012) support for Sccm and Scom. Also backup for de-duplication volumes will be supported in DPM.

Maybe the most exciting news for some people will be the support in SCCM for Mac OS and Linux and Unix servers.

For more info you can go here:

Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

It have taken some time, but it now looks like the IPD guide for System Center will start to arrive (in beta versions first). First one out are Scvmm (Well the System Center Service Manager have been there for a while)

The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides are documents writen by Microsoft to help, like the name says, plan and design implementation of technologies and solutions.

You will fing IPD on the following technologies:

Virtualization Windows Server 2008 System Center Microsoft SQL Server

Windows Optimized Desktop Scenarios Communication & Collaboration Security

The IPD site are located here