Windows 8 – How to activate product key

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For general public, you need  a Microsoft account, you can see all of the apps you bought from the Store and you can install any of those apps on up to five PCs.

Because Microsoft Windows 8 handles activation differently, the grace period has been eliminated. Microsoft has ditched the 30-day grace period, a trademark of Windows 7, in the retail copies of Windows .

For general public release, Microsoft requires a product key during setup because both Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro and the customers must enter a unique product key — a 25-character alpha-numeric string — to proceed during Windows 8 setup. If you cannot provide the key,  the process stops in its tracks. The version installed depends on the key provided.

Windows 8 Enterprise, the version aims companies with volume license agreements, uses an entirely different mechanism for activation. Rather than ask the user for a key, it install the Windows 8 Enterprise and activates the  KMS (Key Management Service) key that’s activates by an on-premises machine or a MAK key through internet.

Here, (MAKkey scenario) most of the time the system failed to activate the product key.

To activate it manually using MAK key,

  • Hit the Windows+R hotkeys to open the Run box and run the following command: slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx  

OR

  • GUI option: Hit the Windows+R hotkeys to open the Run box and run the following command: slui.exe 3.
  • This command will open the following Dialog Box in which you can manually enter your MAK:

  • Enter your MAK in the “Product Key” field shown above.
  • Click the “Activate” button.

As if there aren’t enough scenarios, Microsoft’s free 90-day evaluation of Windows 8 Enterprise does not require a product key.  As with the retail versions now available to some users, and that will go on sale Oct. 26,2012 the evaluation automatically activates if the PC has a live online connection. All the Software assurance users, Windows 8 RTM is available for download from their portal itself.

Windows 8 Release Preview is stable and has been thoroughly tested by Microsoft, but it’s not the finished product. Your PC could crash and you could lose important files. You should back up your data and you shouldn’t test Windows 8 Release Preview on your primary home or business PC. Install at your own risk. This copy is only for testing the OS. You can install the release preview from here. For detailed product and feature information, download the Windows 8 Release Preview Guide (available in English only).

Microsoft Store – For general public, you need  a Microsoft account, you can see all of the apps you bought from the Store and you can install any of those apps on up to five PCs.

Enjoy!!!

Windows 8 – Boot from USB disk

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Now you can create bootable USB for Windows 7 or Windows 8. Microsoft has released a new tool for this task to achieve

  • First download an ISO file of your Windows 7 onto your media
  • Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (This is a onetime process)
  • Run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

The advantage to following this process and creating bootable media is that it allows you to install Windows 7 without having to first run an existing operating system on your machine. If you change the boot order of drives in your computer’s BIOS, you can run the Windows 7 installation directly from your USB flash drive or from a DVD when you first turn your computer on.

System Requirements

  • You need to be an administrator on the computer you are installing the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.
  • The tool requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher.
  • This tool requires the USB flash drive to be completely blank before the Windows 7 files are copied.  This helps ensure that the device is bootable after the copying has completed.
  • Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit).
  • Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended).
  • 50MB of free space on your hard drive.
  • DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive.

Enjoy!!!

Windows 8 – How to disconnect VPN connection

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Ha ha ha… New OS released and we are now findings work arounds…

When you connect a VPN network through Windows 8, how to disconnect an incoming virtual private network (VPN) connection in Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012.

  • Open Network Connections. To do this, use either of the following methods:
    • Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, or point to the lower/upper-right corner of the screen, and then click Search. Then, type ncpa.cpl, and then click the Ncpa.cpl icon.
    • Another option is press Win+R to open the Run window, type ncpa.cpl,  and then  click OK.
  • Right-click the incoming VPN connection that you want to disconnect,  and then  click Status.
  • On the General tab,  click Disconnect.
  • Close Network Connections.

Evoko room manager now support Office 365

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New software release for Evoko room manager, that supports Office365 and Google Apps. Read the Blog

Enjoy!!!

Exchange Server “2013” Preview is out

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Exchange 2013 preview release will subject to change when it reaches to RTM. Installing Exchange 2013 Preview is not for production environment.

Exchange 2013 preview is for simplicity of scale, hardware utilization, and failure isolation. With Exchange 2013 Preview, they reduced the number of server roles to two:

  1. the Client Access server role
  2. the Mailbox server role.

The Mailbox server includes all the traditional server components found in Exchange 2010

  • the Client Access protocols
  • Hub Transport service
  • Mailbox databases, and Unified Messaging.

The Mailbox server handles all activity for a given mailbox. The Client Access server provides authentication, redirection, and proxy services.

The Client Access server itself doesn’t do any data rendering. It is a thin and stateless server. There is never anything queued or stored on the Client Access server.

The Client Access server offers all the usual client access protocols: HTTP, POP and IMAP, and SMTP.

Managed Store works with the Microsoft Exchange Replication service to manage mailbox databases, which continues to use Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) as the database engine. Exchange 2013 Preview includes significant changes to the mailbox database schema that provide many optimizations over previous versions of Exchange. In addition to these changes, the Microsoft Exchange Replication service is responsible for all service availability related to Mailbox servers. The architectural changes enable faster database failover and better physical disk failure handling.

The Managed Store is also integrated with the FAST search engine (the same search engine used by SharePoint 2013 Preview) to provide more robust indexing and searching.

No more Exchange Management Console (EMC) Administration is now performed using the new web-based Exchange Administration Center and the Exchange Management Shell (3.0)

All certificate management is performed on the Client Access server. The Mailbox server has a self-signed certificate installed by default. The Client Access server automatically trusts the self-signed certificate on the Exchange 2013 Preview Mailbox server, so clients will not receive warnings about a self-signed certificate not being trusted provided that the Exchange 2013 Preview Client Access server has a non-self-signed certificate from either a Windows certificate authority (CA) or a trusted third party.

Exchange 2013 Preview offers greater integration with SharePoint 2013 Preview and Lync 2013 Preview. Benefits of this enhanced integration include:

  • Users collaborate more effectively by using site mailboxes.
  • Lync Server 2013 Preview can archive content in Exchange 2013 Preview and use Exchange 2013 Preview as a contact store.
  • Discovery Managers can perform In-Place eDiscovery and Hold searches across SharePoint 2013 Preview, Exchange 2013 Preview, and Lync 2013 Preview data.
  • Oauth authentication allows partner applications to authenticate as a service or impersonate users where required.

Public folders in Exchange 2013 Preview now take advantage of the existing high availability and storage technologies of the mailbox store. The public folder architecture uses specially designed mailboxes to store both the hierarchy and the public folder content. This new design also means that there is no longer a public folder database. Public folder replication now uses the continuous replication model. High availability for the hierarchy and content mailboxes is provided by the DAG. With this design, we’re moving away from a multi-master replication model to a single-master replication model.

Exchange 2013 Preview continues to make use of the database availability group (DAG) platform introduced in Exchange 2010 for both high availability and site resilience. Exchange 2013 Preview also includes enhancements to the DAG platform that improve manageability and reduce costs. These features include:

  • Managed availability.
  • Managed Store.
  • Automatic configuration and management of DAG networks.
  • Management via the Exchange Administration Center.
  • Enhancements to DAG-related cmdlets to introduce new scenarios.

PRE-REQUISITES

INSTALLATION TYPE

  • Install Exchange 2013 Using the Setup Wizard, Click here
  • Install Exchange 2013 in Unattended Mode, Click here

Remote Connectivity Analyzer gets an updated CAPTCHA experience

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The improvements to the Remote Connectivity Analyzer CAPTCHA experience. It was very annoying to have both password fields get blanked out if you got the challenge incorrect. While we can’t remove this “feature” completely, we hope the enhancements will make a big difference.

The latest version (V1.4) of the Remote Connectivity Analyzer has the following improvements:

We are using a new CAPTCHA service provided by an internal team!!! EHLO rocks again!!!

  • The challenge is NOT case sensitive, so it doesn’t matter if you type upper or lower case letters. We also note this on the web page.
  • The CAPTCHA challenges will not include hard to distinguish letters/numbers. For example 2 and Z or O and 0.
  • If you get the challenge wrong, the password entries will not be removed.
  • Once you enter a correct response to the challenge, you will be verified for a set amount of time. This means you will not see additional CAPTCHA challenges until the timeout period expires.
  • The inbound SMTP test now inserts the IP address of the user performing the test into the test email message. The IP is also inserted into an SMTP Header (X-Originating-IP).
  • Fixed an issue in the Sender-ID test where certain DNS responses while evaluating the “exists” mechanism were incorrectly being treated as a TempError
  • The outbound SMTP Sender-ID tests now conform to the RFC specified limit of ten DNS-based mechanisms that can be used during the evaluation of the SPF record.

To know more, click here

Nikon firmware update…Released

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Nikon release Firmware updates for his range of camers.. Click here to know more. Select the appropriate model and click the link to download the firmware and user manual for how to update. Also you can refer to one of my collegue’s blog.

Firmware is a read only set of instructions that is embedded in a hardware device to either add or improve function. Sometimes there are two parts to a Nikon firmware update labeled A or B. Some updates will perform either A or B, and others may perform A and B. Some updates will perform both A and B at the same time, and other will only do one at a time. Please read the instructions carefully before performing the update, as firmware updates are permanent and cannot be ‘undone’ outside of the service department. Newer firmware versions will overwrite older versions and will also include all previous update changes.

 

Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate

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Windows Server® powers many of the worlds’ largest datacenters, enables small businesses around the world, and delivers value to organizations of all sizes in between. Building on this legacy, Windows Server 2012 redefines the category, delivering hundreds of new features and enhancements spanning virtualization, networking, storage, user experience, cloud computing, automation, and more. Simply put, Windows Server 2012 helps you transform your IT operations to reduce costs and deliver a whole new level of business value.

To know more..click here

Download Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate (RC)…click here

Windows 8 Release Preview

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It’s Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It’s an all-new touch interface. It’s a new Windows for new devices.

Windows 8 Release Preview: Frequently asked questions…click here

Metro Style apps development….click here

The Windows 8 Release Preview & Windows Upgrade…click here

Product guide…click here

Internet explorer 10 – Built for speed, Internet Explorer brings you a faster web…click here

Your apps light up with connections to your friends and family. Info from the services you connect to—Hotmail, Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more—appears right inside the Mail, Messaging, and People apps…click here to know more