Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 time to Upgrade

 

Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003

Support Ends April 8, 2014

So what can you do now? If you are a home user or have a small business here is some simple steps to follow.

1st look at you business applications and se if they will run on Windows 7 or Vista. If the app works on Vista should work on windows 7.

Then look at your hardware is there driver(s)  for Windows 7. Your can use the Windows upgrade advisor to learn about your computer and understand what hardware and software will be issues.

When you use the upgrade advisor do your self a favor and connect ALL you devices to the computer 1st then run the advisor..

If your hardware is good to go and you have your software original disk, then BACKUP you computer and verify it a good copy. As when you install Windows 7 you will be formatting your hard drive and will loose all your data, a idea I tell user to do is to buy a new hard drive and put the new operating system on that, that way you can test and verify that the hardware and all your device work. Then if you buy Windows 7 Profession or higher you can use XP more for application that will only work in XP and not on windows 7 …

If the Hardware is old  and you do not want to buy a new computer, and your computer can run Windows 7 switching out the hard drive is a good idea anyway as that is the the one of the 2 items that fail in an old computer. Power supply being the second.

For more information click here

For business users you should look a

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to accelerate and automate deployments of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft Office products.

For more information click here

 

 

Windows 8 Information

Today the Springboard site went live with content about windows 8 !!!!!

This is the go to site for Information about windows 8. The site has content  about the following subjects

To learn more  go http://technet.microsoft.com/windows/windows-8.

Essential Downloads

 

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop and server migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides private and public cloud planning assessments, and server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V. Other significant new features in MAP 6.5 include the discovery of active Windows devices, Software Usage Tracking for Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server. Learn more.
MAP is one of the tools provided by the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Security Compliance Manager provide tested guidance and automated tools to help organizations plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. All are freely available, and fully-supported by Microsoft. Learn more.
For home users and users with a few computers to migrate, use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to understand the readiness of your computer for Windows 7.
The MAP Toolkit includes the following components:

  • Microsoft_Assessment_and_Planning_Toolkit_Setup.exe. Installation package containing the tool, release notes, Getting Started Guide and toolkit help (chm file).
  • readme_en.htm. Available as a separate download. Provides information to read before installing the MAP Toolkit, including installation prerequisites and known issues.
  • Getting_Started_Guide.en.doc. Provides information about toolkit installation, environment preparation, and assessment scenarios supported by toolkit wizards and the UI.
  • MAP_Training_Kit.zip. Available as a separate download. Contains sample databases and training materials.
  • MAP_Sample_Documents.zip. Available as a separate download. Contains sample reports and proposals.

To learn more go here.

This is a Microsoft article copied and posted here.

Join the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Beta 2

Join the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Beta 2
New features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever. For System Center Configuration Manager customers, MDT 2012 Beta 2 provides an improved, extensible wizard and designer for customizing deployment questions. Existing MDT users will find more reliability and flexibility with the many small enhancements and bug fixes, and a smooth and simple upgrade process.

 

To find out more click here

 

Technorati Tags:

Windows XP End of Support: April 8, 2014

On April 8, 2014, security patches and hotfixes for all versions of Windows XP will no longer be available. This means that, after this date, PCs running Windows XP will be vulnerable to security threats. In addition, many third party software providers are not planning to extend support for their applications running on Windows XP, which translates to even more complexity, risk, and ultimately, added management cost for your IT department if you are still managing Windows XP environments. Explore your options with this blog post from the Springboard Series and download the Windows XP End Of Support Countdown Gadget to help remind you about this important milestone.

Cross post from Microsoft

Microsoft Certified Career Conference

Microsoft Certified Career Conference

Day 1, March 14, 2012
Start 6:00AM – End 6:00PM Pacific Time
(What time is that in my time zone?)
Day 2, March 15, 2012
Start 6:00AM – End 6:00PM Pacific Time
(What time is that in my time zone?)

This event is free of charge!

CONFERENCE SESSIONS include:

Microsoft Official Courses
Technical sessions for IT professionals, developers, and Office power users, excerpted from Microsoft Official courses, delivered by Microsoft Certified Trainers.
Super Cert Me!
Ready for your certification exam? Find out in these exam preparation sessions.
Career Essentials
Learn how to find and land the right job. Sessions include interviewing skills, resume writing, and more.
People and Technology
Discover how cloud computing, unified communications, and other new technologies can change the way your team works
Opportunity Knocks
New technologies bring new business opportunities. Explore what’s coming next and learn how to get in on the ground floor.
The 60 Minute Rock Star
Learn Office tips and tricks to boost your productivity and impress your colleagues.
A Day in the Life
Thinking about a new role in IT? Real IT professionals, developers and managers tell you what their jobs are really like.

This is a Post from Microsoft I thought would be interest to you

New RC versions of System Center 2012 Products

 

  • System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control.
     
  • System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RC, built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection.
  • System Center Operations Manager 2012 RC provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private, and public clouds.
  • System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Beta provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise.
  • System Center Orchestrator 2012 RC provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of runbooks that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency.
  • System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 RC provides virtual machine management and services deployment with support for multi-hypervisor environments that can help you deliver a flexible and cost effective private cloud environment.
  • System Center App Controller 2012 Beta provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.
  • System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.

Go Here

 

Virtualization Resources

This is a link to a groups of resource about Microsoft Virtualization articles and videos.

Topics include

Deploy a private cloud infrastructure

SharePoint Virtualization

Virtualize Exchange 2010

Manage Storage Migration with Virtualization

Run 3-D Applications on Hyper-V Remote Clients

Use Virtual Clustering to Deliver High-Availability Applications

Disaster Recovery Using Virtualization

Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track Program
Download Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Reference Architecture Technical White Paper.

Private Cloud Concepts
Consult the Microsoft Private Cloud team blog for advance about building your private cloud and virtualization projects.

Choose your Private Cloud Components
Learn what Microsoft products are available for private cloud solutions and how to combine them.

Microsoft Virtualization Learning Snack
Take an interactive tour of Hyper-V and Integrated Virtualization from Microsoft.