Microsoft Case Studies: Windows Intune

Windows Intune - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windowsintune/try-and-buy.aspx

A fair solution for smaller sized IT Teams that do not want to manage the overhead of new systems/hardware for a PC management solution. Larger organizations could use Systems Center. A more reasonable and lower featured product would be the Systems Center Essentials. This would be the 3rd product from Microsoft in the chain but targeted towards SMB and cloud based.

Some quick notes:
- Retail list at $11/month/PC. Discounts for people under software assurance.
-  If I am reading correctly, the license rights of Windows 7 are part of the subscription. There are buy out rights if one wishes to cancel the Intune service. Additionally license rights allow 4 instances of virtual windows 7 licenses on each licensed PC. However Intune will not deploy/upgrade windows 7.
- Need to install client manually under admin login
- Firewall policies have to be modified for cloud access
- Special deployment provisions if group policies are in effect
- Endpoint protection. Concerned with strength of Microsoft endpoint protection as reviews I have read do not give it a high enough ranking
-Need professional, enterprise, ultimate versions of XP, Vista, 7. Those deploying home editions in the workplace are out of luck
- Serious concern from reviews is the fact that "end user assistance" is still required for tasks
- Ability to package and keep software to be deployed in the cloud (software should allow/compatible for silent installs)


Microsoft Case Studies: Softchoice

HTML5 WebSockets, it's coming to ColdFusion

Very interesting feature and like how they have used Flash as a fallback for older browsers.

HTML5 WebSockets, it's coming — Rapid web apps | Adobe ColdFusion Blog

jQuery plugin: Validation

jQuery plugin for form validation with lots of customization options. Easier than writing your own.

bassistance.de » jQuery plugin: Validation

Firefox - Flash unresponsive or frozen due to plugin

If you are a Firefox user, on an occasion your browser may seen unresponsive. Typically this is because of a plugin misbehaving. In my case it is typically Flash and it seems to be more when I make too many jumps, clicks etc with flash in one of my tabs. Killing Firefox helps and with my settings, I am able to recover all the tabs and contents to a large extent. I have found a better way that just kills the bad plugin. Start your task manager and look for a process called "plugin-container.exe ***". If you have multiple processes with similar name, kill the one with the highest memory usage.

Windows Task Manager - Firefox Plugin Container

You will notice that your Firefox browser is immediately available. The offending webpage will display a "plugin

Remotely shutting / restarting Windows

Need to restart/shutdown/sleep a windows machine remotely?

Scenario 1 - Home

My main PC has a comprehensive collection of software and tools installed. To access them from various parts of the house, I frequently remote desktop in using a laptop. At the end of the day, if you wish to restart/shutdown/log off/ or place your PC in sleep mode, the typical menu options from windows "start" button are not available. Although there are various ways to do similar tasks, here is an easy one to remember:

1. Minimize all applications
2. Click ALT + F4 (Function Key 4)
3. Choose your option from the drop down as shown below.

Alt + F4

Scenario 2 - Professional - Domain environment

ZoomIt - Standard part of Presentation tools

If you do presentations and have had people squinting or walk in closer to see the details (Programming code and spreadsheets are equally guilty), then ZoomIt should be part and parcel of your presentation laptop.  Windows 7 already comes in with a magnifying utility called "Magnify". You may want to play with it as well for your specific needs.

Magnify (Part of Windows 7)

ZoomIt adds on several other neat features that allows much better presentations. It works from keyboard