The good thing is that you can get Office cheaper if you only buy the product key without the DVD. I have been criticizing Microsoft’s practice of selling software in colorful boxes as if the internet didn’t exist. It appears Microsoft has finally arrived in the internet age. Let’s just see when the boxes become history. What I find remarkable is how big the price difference is.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can repeat the success of Windows 7 with Office 2010. After the Vista marketing debacle many bloggers believed that this is the beginning of the end of Windows. It appears this prophecy won’t come true any time soon considering that Microsoft has already sold 90 million copies. But I suspect even more people are out there who think that MS Office is obsolete because the future belongs to cloud-based Office applications such as Google Docs. I seriously doubt that is true simply because a web browser will never offer the same capabilities as a full-blown operating system. If this ever happens, a browser will become as complex as Windows. The other question is whether Microsoft-critical Europe won’t move increasingly to Open Office considering these high prices.

You probably have heard that if you buy Office 2007 you can upgrade to Office 2010 for free. However, just in case you have no use for a colorful Office 2010 box, you can save money if you just wait. Office 2010 will RTM in April, businesses will get it on May 12, and consumers have to wait until June.

Below are the Office 2010 prices in euros. The first price is for Office and the second price is for Office plus colorful box. It appears there are no product key card versions for the academic version and the single editions. I wasn’t able to find the US prices for the individual products. Please let me know if you know more.

• Office Home and Student 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote):
  109 euros, 139 euros | 119 dollars, 149 dollars
• Office Home and Business 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook):
  249 euros, 379 euros | 199 dollars, 279 dollars
• Office Professional 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access):
  499 euros, 699 euros | 349 dollars, 499 dollars
• Office Professional Academic 2010:
  109 euros | 99 dollars
• Word 2010: 189 euros
• Excel 2010: 189 euros
• PowerPoint 2010: 189 euros
• OneNote 2010: 109 euros
• Outlook 2010: 189 euros
• Publisher 2010: 189 euros
• Access 2010: 189 euros
• Academic version for each of the above individual products: 59 euros

• Microsoft Office 2010 video presentations and some related links (2)
• MS Office 2003 SP3 on Microsoft Update in February (0)
• Office 2007 SP1 downloads (0)
• Office 2007 SP1 secrets (3)
• What is online editing? (5)

(Note to subscribers: There is video embedded)

My first reaction was comparable to Mary Jo Foley’s. If Hotmail, Windows Live, Xbox Live, etc., are all considered cloud computing, then it can’t be some new kind of technology but something we have been using for many years already. This also means that it is not a question of whether cloud computing will prevail. Cloud computing is already everywhere, and everyone is using it. Mary Jo Foley thinks that marketing is the reason for trying to establish such a broad definition of the cloud. I mean, what other company can say that they have 28,000 people working on their cloud infrastructure? Thus, Redmond is not following Amazon, Google, and company in cloud computing—Microsoft is actually the leader in cloud computing.

At first, I disliked Ballmer’s speech because I also saw it as a marketing trick. I was thinking that if one would just erase the expression “the cloud” from his speech and let some IT professionals guess what he is actually talking about, most of them probably would have thought he was referring to the web or perhaps the Internet as a whole. The danger of such a wishy-washy definition of the cloud is that it downplays the new technologies that most IT people associate with cloud computing. I mean, why does anyone need Azure for cloud computing if I can also do it with a simple web server?

I then listened again to some parts of the speech, and this changed my mind. I can’t tell why, exactly. But after a while I realized that he is not just talking about some dumb web apps. 28,000 people are a lot. Hence Ballmer’s concept of the cloud must be even broader. He probably also counts a large number of the Windows team members in his cloud workforce estimate. And then consider his email to all Microsoft employees. If this is just a marketing trick, then why so enthusiastically encourage 40,000 people to embrace the cloud?

I think, Ballmer recognized that something fundamental is changing in information technology. It is happening gradually but steadily, and it grows exponentially. He decided for himself that “the cloud” is the most fitting term for this development. None of those concepts that usually come up when people talk about cloud computing, such as pay-as-you-go pricing and scalability, are new. For instance, pay-as-you-go is a very old concept in IT and was quite popular during mainframe time.

So what is new? What the heck is the cloud? It has to do with the internet but it is more than that. In the beginning people mostly used the internet to access information by simply downloading files. Then, came the Web 2.0. People started not just to consume information but also contribute to the web in blogs, video portals, social networks, etc. One of the founders of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, believes that the Web 3.0 will be the semantic web. This will certainly not to be case. Nobody cares about the semantic web. So what will be the next step, the next release of the internet, the internet 3.0? Well, it is the cloud.

By now, you are probably thinking I am making fun of you because you still don’t have a clue what the cloud is. Okay, I tortured you long enough. What’s new are the applications, the software that reaches out to the internet. Now you will probably laugh. You knew all along that the cloud is about web applications. This is what the Google evangelists are preaching. No, that is not my point. Perhaps web apps were the first cloud apps. The new thing is that almost any kind of software is connected through the internet with other applications. This is why 70% of Microsoft’s employees are already working on “cloud technology.” When Ballmer said:

All of our products make the cloud better, and the cloud makes our products better.

he meant that no application should just run separately on a PC or a mobile phone. Good applications run in the cloud. For Microsoft that means that every application has components that run locally and components that run somewhere else, perhaps on the other side of the globe, or perhaps simultaneously on multiple continents around the globe.

Of course, at the moment only a relatively small portion of every Microsoft application has cloud components. But Ballmer’s enthusiastic speech can only mean one thing. This is going to change, and it has to change fast. An example is Office 2010. Its cloud components are the most interesting part. It is not just the web version that runs in the cloud. For instance, Outlook’s new Facebook connector is a cloud-based component. This way a part of Facebook becomes a part of Outlook and vice versa. It becomes more and more unclear where an application actually runs. If Outlook is not only connected to Exchange but also to Gmail, Facebook, or perhaps to Twitter, then the best way to account for this is to say that Outlook is not just a client-server application, but a cloud application or an application that runs in the cloud. As I’ve said before: Cloud computing is location virtualization. It doesn’t just virtualize hardware or operating systems; the cloud virtualizes the place where software runs.

Thus, the difference to all other cloud concepts (and there are countless definitions floating on the web) is that the cloud is not just something that runs far away in a huge datacenter to which we connect with a dumb web browser. The cloud is the internet 3.0. And the third evolutionary revolution is that now not only every user contributes to the internet, now every application “makes the cloud better.” Every mobile phone, every PC, and every server is part of the cloud.

We are only at the beginning, of course. However, I have no doubt that Microsoft and the whole Windows ecosystem has the resources to change this quickly. There are still only a couple of fleecy clouds in the sky, but it is probably only a matter of a couple of years until we will find ourselves amid a thunder storm.

• Will cloud computing kill IT jobs? Why hard skills matter more than ever (5)
• Amazon EC2 – Boot from EBS volumes (0)
• Poll: Are you interested in cloud computing? (5)
• Free Amazon S3 explorers (file managers) for Windows (7)
• Elasticfox – Manage Amazon EC2 with a Firefox plugin (2)

I think, she is correct when she says that many IT pros are afraid of losing their jobs because of cloud computing. The worldwide economic crisis certainly cost quite a few IT jobs, which made many worry about the future. Thus, I decided to post another article about this issue because I strongly believe that these worries are unjustified.

Vanessa Alvarez’s main argument is that even though many on-premise IT systems will move to the cloud, IT pros will still be needed to accompany this evolutionary process, and once most of our IT runs in the cloud, IT pros will find new tasks in their organizations:

IT professionals looking to evolve their roles will need to learn how to work more closely with other business units, and to help others understand the new requirements, limits, and benefits of the new model. These “people” skills — sometimes called “soft” skills, have often been lacking in IT organizations, but will become critical as cloud computing inevitably brings together several different business units.

Well, to me this is akin to killing IT jobs. If this is our future, then we will no longer be IT pros but a cross between managers and end user trainers. This means we will no longer administer and program computers but will help others understand what kind of things they can do in the cloud. I am not sure if this kind of work qualifies as an IT job.

Anyway, I don’t think that this will happen and I actually believe the opposite is true. We will need more IT pros with “hard skills”—that is, IT pros with detailed technical knowledge. The main mistake of all those “IT won’t matter” supporters is that they hopelessly underestimate innovation in the IT sector. It is true that advanced automation and centralization always makes many jobs obsolete. (This has happened countless times with so many professions.) However, the main difference between IT and electricity supply (Nicholas Carr’s favorite analogy) is that IT is evolving at a never-seen pace whereas electricity management hasn’t changed much in the last decades.

Automation in IT has progressed rapidly since the invention of the first computer. Before, you needed a bunch of admins to administer a couple of computers. Nowadays, thanks to improved management tools, one admin can manage hundreds of machines easily. But did this kill IT jobs? Not at all! More and more IT jobs have been created along with improved automation and centralization in IT management.

Why? Because breathtaking advances in IT (the internet, for example) made new and innovative applications possible. IT is now only at its beginning, and cloud computing will certainly not be the last innovation in the years to come. As long as there is innovation in IT (and we have no reason to believe that the evolutionary revolution is over), more people will be needed to master these technical advances. It doesn’t really matter if you will manage IT systems in the cloud, on-premise, on-pocket (smart phones, etc.), or perhaps on-brain (once the first brain implants become publicly available). IT will become more sophisticated, more complex, and more technical and will soon penetrate many more fields, feeding the need for more people with highly technical skills.

As an IT pro, it can’t be wrong to improve your soft skills. But those skills won’t secure your job. As long as you don’t “just stick with what you know” and you keep your hard skills up to date, you don’t have to worry about your future.

• What is THE cloud? My interpretation of Steve Ballmer’s cloud concept (0)
• Amazon EC2 – Boot from EBS volumes (0)
• Poll: Are you interested in cloud computing? (5)
• Free Amazon S3 explorers (file managers) for Windows (7)
• Elasticfox – Manage Amazon EC2 with a Firefox plugin (2)

First to consider is its modern user interface, complete with ribbon and tabs. This UI doesn’t just look better; it is also more convenient than Process Explorer’s old style interface. But, of course, some fancy icons are not enough to remove the king from the throne.

I can’t discuss all of Yet Another Process Monitor’s (YAPM) features. Everyone’s opinion may differ regarding which features matter, but here are the features I like most:

Remote process management

YAPM supports two types of remote connections: through WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and via the YAPM Server. If you use WMI, not all features will be available. For example, you can’t kill a process tree or kill a process by method (see below). If you connect via the YAPM Server, you first have to install YAPM on the remote computer and then start the server on that machine using the Windows Start menu. You can find the remote function on the client through YAPM’s start button. You have to click “disconnect” first before you can connect to a remote machine. By default YAPM is connected to the local machine when you launch the tool. Make sure that the server and the client use the same port.

Tasks / Jobs / Services / Performance Monitoring

YAPM not only allows you to manage processes but also tasks, jobs, and services. Tasks are what you can see under Applications in the Windows Task Manager, a feature that Process Explorer lacks. Jobs group processes together so you can manage them as a single item (for example, you can kill a couple of processes in one go if you terminate the corresponding job). You can add a process to a job through its context menu. Moreover, you can use the tool to monitor all Windows performance counters.

Kill method

Like Process Hacker, YAPM supports different kinds of kill methods. For instance, you can close all handles of the process or terminate all its threads. In some cases, this helps to get rid of the more persistent processes (malware for instance) that can’t be killed by a simple terminate command.

Dependencies

This feature allows you to view the DLLs that a process depends on. This can be helpful if you have to troubleshoot an application. Unfortunately, this feature seems to be working only on Windows XP and Vista but not on Windows 7.

Search

YAPM comes with three search features. You’ll find the first one, a search box, right below the ribbon. This search box also appears in the task and the services tab. YAPM sorts processes as you type. Strangely, the hits are displayed at the end of the process pane and not at the top.

On the search tab, you’ll find more sophisticated search functions. You can limit your search to processes, modules, environment variables, services, handles, and windows. The search box also appears on this tab so that you can easily search within the search results.

The third search feature allows you to look for processes on Google. You can access this internet search function through the process’s context menu. This feature comes in handy if you detect suspicious processes on a machine.

Network

YAPM also has network monitor that displays all TCP/IP connections. What’s nice about this feature is that you can locate the process to which a certain connection belongs by right-clicking the connection.

Just one further note: If you are trying YAPM on Vista or Windows 7, and you right-click a process, you have to hold the mouse button a few milliseconds longer than you are used to until the context menu shows up. (I observed this behavior under VMware Workstation. I didn’t have this problem with Windows XP.)

Yet Another Process Monitor

• FREE: Elevation Gadget – Drag and drop to elevate programs (0)
• FREE: Extended Task Manager – Find resource eaters (0)
• FREE: ServiWin: Manage Windows services and drivers (1)
• Raffle: VisualCron – Visual task scheduling (0)
• Raffle: VisualCron – Configuring cron jobs (0)

This tool is certified by Microsoft for Windows 7 compatibility. Free version allows to monitor up to 5 hosts, commercial version is also available and allows to monitor unlimited number of hosts.

EMCO Ping Monitor Free

• FREE: ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer – Network traffic analysis tool (2)
• FREE: PingInfoView – Another ping monitor GUI tool (3)
• FREE: Advanced Port Scanner – A port scanner for newbies (0)
• FREE: WinPing – A portable ping GUI (4)
• FREE: DHCP Reservation Manager – Easily migrate DHCP reservations (3)

NetFlow Analyzer is a, web based, bandwidth monitoring, network forensics and network traffic analysis tool that has been optimizing thousands of networks across varied industries for peak performance and helping them to put their bandwidth for a better use. NetFlow Analyzer gives detailed information on network bandwidth usage pattern for traffic analysis, capacity planning and making policy decisions. By drilling down into the specific applications, users, ports or communication network managers are able to determine the exact source of spikes and bursts and therefore able to proactively monitor, control, and take informed decisions. NetFlow Analyzer runs both in Windows & Linux. Cisco NetFlow, jFlow, sFlow, IPFIX are some of the few technologies supported by NetFlow Analyzer for network traffic monitoring.

During the first 30 days, you can monitor any number of interfaces with all the features. After the first 30 days, the product will continue to monitor 2 interfaces with all the features of the professional edition.

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer

• FREE: EMCO Ping Monitor Free (0)
• FREE: PingInfoView – Another ping monitor GUI tool (3)
• FREE: Advanced Port Scanner – A port scanner for newbies (0)
• FREE: WinPing – A portable ping GUI (4)
• FREE: DHCP Reservation Manager – Easily migrate DHCP reservations (3)

Single PC migrations

Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 is a rather long-winded process. As you might know, you can’t just pop in the Windows 7 DVD and upgrade an existing XP installation. In my view, in most cases it is better to start with a clean installation anyway. This video tutorial explains in detail how to perform the upgrade. You should print the printed version of the tutorial before you start the upgrade process because your PC will restart during the upgrade. Don’t forget to copy your data files to an external drive before you begin.

Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7

While the upgrade from XP to Windows 7 requires five steps, the upgrade from Vista can be completed in only two steps. This gives you an idea why skipping a Windows version—even for single-PC upgrades—usually doesn’t save money. Of course, this is just one of many reasons.

Network migrations

Tools to plan and deploy Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

If you are more the visual and auditory type, you might be interested in this video interview. It also gives you the chance to get acquainted with a couple of Microsoft employees who are responsible for Windows deployment. In this interview, these employees discuss the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 (MDT), Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0 (MAP), and the Infrastructure Planning and Design guides (IPD).

Windows XP to Windows 7 migration interviews

This is a series of interviews covering the topics “Collect, Analyze, and Test,” “Remediate Applications – Fix,” “Remediate Applications – Virtualize,” and “Deploy Operating System.” These interviews give you a first look at what awaits you if you have to migrate your Windows XP network to Windows 7.

Windows 7 desktop deployment overview

These nine pages give you an overview of the new deployment features in Windows 7. I recommend this overview only for admins who are already familiar with Vista deployment.

Deploying Windows 7 series by Mitch Tulloch

Before you read Microsoft’s documentation, I recommend studying Mitch Tulloch’s Windows 7 deployment series in 16 parts. This guide is clearer and more practical than Microsoft’s guides and covers everything that is important for small and mid-sized organizations.

Windows 7: Deployment – TechNet documentation

The TechNet documentation is the place to go when you want the details. For my taste, TechNet documentation is sometimes a bit too theoretical, an opinion that also applies to this guide. However, if you work in a large organization you often have no other choice than to study the theory first before you can actually start playing with the tools.

Deploying Windows 7 essential guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine

Without a doubt, this guide is the most comprehensive one. At 332 pages it more like an ebook. You will be hard pressed to find a Windows 7 deployment question that is not answered in this PDF file.

Windows Desktop Solution Accelerators – Windows 7

This page offers links to Microsoft’s solution accelerators covering topics for every stage of the Windows 7 migration: Planning, delivery, and management. However, not all the topics are related to OS deployment. Most of the content is of interest to large enterprises.

Do you know of other good Windows 7 deployment guides?

• Microsoft’s free Windows 7 deployment tools – Part 3: Installation (6)
• Microsoft’s free Windows 7 deployment tools – Part 2: Image preparation (4)
• Microsoft’s free Windows 7 deployment tools – Part 1: Planning and compatibility (2)
• Seven reasons to stick with Windows XP? The angst of the unknown (17)
• Windows 7 Troubleshooting Platform – Limitations (0)

Windows Deployment Services (WDS)

WDS is one of the major enhancements in Windows Server 2008 and is also available for Windows Server 2003 SP2. This tool enables small and mid-sized organizations to deploy Windows. Its main limitations compared to more sophisticated commercial deployment tools are that you can only install Windows remotely within a subnet (see discussion below) and that it lacks scheduling features, and supervision capabilities. I reviewed the Windows Server 2008 WDS a while back. The Windows Server 2008 R2 version comes with the following improvements: dynamic driver provisioning, Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) deployment, additional multicast functionality, PXE provider for Transport Server, and additional EFI functionality.

Learn more | Download

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

The MDT is a shell that can be used to tame Microsoft’s deployment tool zoo. You can integrate the WAIK tools, USMT (see below), Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT), Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit, and volume licensing tools. It is essentially a central GUI that gives you an overview of the whole deployment process. The toolkit offers two types of installations: Lite Touch Installation (LTI), where you can deploy Windows without a systems management tool, and Zero Touch Installation (ZTI), where you would integrate MDT with Microsoft’s Configuration Manager.

Learn more | Download

User State Migration Tool (USMT)

You might have heard that it is not possible to upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7. You can, however, use USMT to transfer user files and settings to the Windows 7 installation. If you are lucky and you deployed Vista, you can upgrade directly to Windows 7, but you can also use USMT. USMT 3.0.1 was available as a separate download. The latest version is USMT 4.0 which is now part of the Windows AIK. You can find all the tools that belong to USMT in C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\USMT\. The documentation is in C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Docs\CHMs. Transferring user settings with USMT is not trivial. In most cases a clean install is probably the best solution. If you work with roaming user profiles, then transferring user files shouldn’t be big problem anyway.

Learn more | Download WAIK

Windows Easy Transfer

Windows Easy Transfer basically does the same as USMT—that is, it allows you to transfer files and settings from one PC to another. However, whereas USMT is for large deployments, Windows Easy Transfer is for migrating computers one at a time.

Learn more | Download

Key Management Service (KMS)

If you are migrating your PCs from Windows XP to Windows 7, you will have to deal with the new activation “feature” that was introduced with Windows Vista. Entering the product key is not enough any more; every single PC now must be activated. Microsoft offers two free tools for corporate environments that help you manage Windows 7 activation: Key Management Service (KMS) and Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT).

KMS is a central service that can activate all Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2 machines in your network. KMS is part of the operating system since Windows 2008. You can get help about the tool with the slmgr command. If you installed KMS 1.1 on Windows Server 2003, then you have update to KMS 1.2. The update for Windows Sever 2008 can be found here: x64, x86. Windows Server 2008 R2 comes already with KMS 1.2.

Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT)

If you prefer to activate each machine separately using so-called MAKs, VAMT helps you centrally manage Windows 7 activation. VAMT 1.2 is now part of the Windows AIK. VAMT 1.1 is available as a separate download and VAMT 2.0 is still in beta. I will probably blog about VAMT 2.0 soon.

Just in case you are not yet familiar with Vista/Windows 7 activation, see my previous articles on this topic:
How to activate Vista: MAK (Multiple Activation Key) essentials

How to activate Vista: KMS (Key Management Service) essentials

MAK vs. KMS: advantages and disadvantages of activating Vista using MAKs

Windows 7 Security Compliance Management Toolkit

Once you have deployed Windows 7, you might want to tighten the security settings in your network. The Windows 7 Security Compliance Management Toolkit could be of help here. It enables you to plan, deploy, and monitor the security baselines of computers running Windows 7 and BitLocker. The security baselines are predefined settings that offer more security than the default Windows 7 settings. The toolkit comes with an Excel sheet that gives you an overview of the settings and documentation that explains how to deploy these settings network-wide. The GPOAccelerator allows you to create the corresponding Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and the DCM Configuration Packs help you monitor the security baselines with Microsoft Configuration Manager. Note that the Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series also support other operating system versions, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 8.

Learn more | Download

Did I forget any free Microsoft deployment tool? Please let me know!

• Windows 7 deployment resources (3)
• Microsoft’s free Windows 7 deployment tools – Part 2: Image preparation (4)
• Microsoft’s free Windows 7 deployment tools – Part 1: Planning and compatibility (2)
• Seven reasons to stick with Windows XP? The angst of the unknown (17)
• Windows 7 Troubleshooting Platform – Limitations (0)

By now, you probably expect another pro-Microsoft article and attack on Google. I am sorry to disappoint you, but this also an anti-Microsoft post. However, I won’t complain about Microsoft as the possible wirepuller as all the-web-and-only-the-web advocates out there do. If Microsoft is really behind this, then it probably is a strategic error because it is only a matter of time before Microsoft’s competitors will complain about Bing’s rankings.

This brings me to my point. I always wanted to address this topic because I never liked Microsoft becoming a player in the search business. First, it appears to me that Microsoft’s top management neglected their core business by focusing on Google as their major competitor while others, most prominently Apple, had an easy play. This is the only explanation I have for the two most severe management mistakes in Microsoft’s history:

The Vista debacle was not at all about technical issues of the operating system. Technically, Vista was Microsoft’s greatest achievement since Windows NT. Vista is perceived by many as a failure only because the Windows ecosystem wasn’t prepared for this major update. There was enough time between Windows XP and Vista for Microsoft’s management to prepare business partners. But it appears that they hopelessly underestimated the importance of this task. Since they are all very smart people, it can only be because they were distracted by pondering why on earth they can’t beat Google.

The second big management mistake was neglecting Windows Mobile. How can a nobody in the smart phone business, like Apple, make a fool of all the major players in this market? Was it really so difficult to see that you can’t just run a slim version of Windows on a mobile phone? Windows Phone 7 Series is certainly a step into the right direction. The only feature I don’t like about it is the release date. The correct release date of Windows Phone 7 Series would have been Christmas 2006. Rest assured that if Microsoft had done that then the iPhone wouldn’t even exist today. And if all those resources that were bound up in hunting Google were focused on Microsoft’s core business – that is in creating and managing software ecosystems – it wouldn’t have been a big deal to come out with a really cool smart phone OS long before a couple of Cupertino guys were able to hack together the iPhone OS.

While these two are the most severe recent management mistakes, others may turn out as comparably dangerous in the near future. I am thinking mostly of cloud computing. The next year or two will show if Microsoft can catch up with Amazon & Co. in this area.

Maybe these management mistakes would be forgivable if those resources had been well invested and Microsoft was a serious Google competitor today. But I believe that it is quite unlikely that this will ever happen. And the reason is the same, because Google will never be a serious competitor for Microsoft. This antitrust case shows why. The more Google tries to expand in non-search-related fields the more their new competitors will complain about their search engine rankings. And if Google were ever forced to disclose their ranking algorithm, they would be dead.

The same applies to Microsoft. If they ever reach a significant market share with Bing, then they will be heaped with lawsuits from competitors. Microsoft then has to transform from a software company into a law firm because they’ll need so many lawyers to fight this battle. The only good thing for Microsoft about this situation is that it shows exactly why Google will never be able to compete with Microsoft in the software business. Running a search engine rules out diversification.

I think sooner or later governments will introduce the corresponding laws. I agree with Joe Wilcox that Google is a dangerous monopoly. Being the gateway to information requires extraordinary responsibility. Repeating the “don’t be evil mantra” won’t calm down the growing number of Google critics. Actually, I think it makes vigilant observers only more suspicious. Usually only those with a guilty conscience reassure their innocence at every possible occasion.

Of course, a significant market share of Microsoft in the search engine market would be even more problematic. Therefore, it would be better for Microsoft to stop burning money with Bing before the laws change and sell that thing to Yahoo! For those of us who work in the Windows ecosystem, we can only hope that Microsoft will turn its focus again onto their strengths, so that Windows will never be in the dangerous situation that Windows Mobile is today.

• Why I don’t wanna be a Mac (14)
• Snow Leopard goes head to head with Windows 7? (15)
• Deploying 2500 Windows 7 netbooks at Tech.Ed Australia (5)
• Microsoft and Yahoo sign search deal – What does it mean for the Windows platform? (6)
• Is Windows 7 the last dedicated version that Microsoft will release? (2)

Windows System Image Manager (WSIM)

WSIM is a GUI tool that allows you to create answer files for unattended Windows setups. Installing Windows unattended means that typical setup configurations—such as applications, additional device drivers or updates that have to be added during the installation, Windows settings, and system partition settings—are stored in an answer file and loaded from there during the installation process. This allows you to fully automate Windows 7 deployment.

Learn more | Download WAIK

ImageX

ImageX is an important command line tool for creating, modifying, and deploying Windows images (.wim files). Windows deployment without it is hardly imaginable. If you are a Vista geek, you already know this tool inside out. I blogged about the new features in Windows 7 and the tool’s new command line options a while back. If you prefer using GUIs, you should also check out GImageX.

Learn more | Download WAIK

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM)

As a Vista expert, you might not yet be familiar with DISM. This tool replaced three other tools in the WAIK: Package Manager, PEimg, and Intlcfg. You can use DISM to add OS updates and drivers and to change language-related settings in .wim files. It is also for creating and modifying Windows PE images. I blogged about DISM in more detail before: Introduction to DISM, Managing .wim files with DISM

Learn more | Download WAIK

Sysprep

Sysprep will also be well-known to anyone familiar with Windows cloning. It is used to remove unique elements of a Windows installation such as the computer name and the Security Identifier (SID). You have to run this tool before you create a master image that you want to deploy client computers. Since Windows Vista Sysprep is already included in every installation and can be found under C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\.

Learn more | No download required

Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)

If you used third-party cloning tools to deploy Windows XP, you probably had to work with DOS to create and deploy Windows images. When Microsoft finally embraced OS imaging they introduced Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) for this purpose. It is a limited Windows OS that also comes into play when you boot up from a Windows setup DVD.

Learn more | Download WAIK

In Part 3 of this series, I will show you those free Microsoft tools that allow you to deliver the Windows 7 master image to your PCs.

• Windows 7 deployment resources (3)
• Microsoft’s free Windows 7 deployment tools – Part 3: Installation (6)
• Microsoft’s free Windows 7 deployment tools – Part 1: Planning and compatibility (2)
• Seven reasons to stick with Windows XP? The angst of the unknown (17)
• Windows 7 Troubleshooting Platform – Limitations (0)