OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 has been released and includes official support for Windows 8 through bootcamp. For the full list of changes, take a look at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5612
Monthly Archives: March 2013
Microsoft – Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 3.0 best practices checklist
Roger Osborne has posted a great article with a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V best practices checklist.
I especially like the fact that it’s not just a checklist, but it also explains what it does and why it is considered a best practice to do it this way (in specific situations).
Additionally you might also want to take a look at “Top 20 Hyper-V Performance Metrics You Should Care About” and System Center Advisor.
PowerShell – Book review of : Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a month of lunches
At the end of February I published a review of “Learn Windows Powershell 3 in a month of lunches”. Even though it is a well written book from which I learned a couple of things, it did ‘t increase my productiviteit with PowerShell as much as I had wanted. This is probably due to the Windows PowerShell knowledge I already had.
I decided to read “Learn Windows PowerShell Toolmaking in a month of lunches” next and I have to say this was exactly what I needed … and more.
I think it really made my scripts more flexible and easier to maintain and manage. It was also great to see how easy it can be to create a GUI version of your PowerShell script. I will try to post some scripts and GUI examples to my blog soon so you can be the judge :).
There were also some things that weren’t (yet) relevant to me, but it is good to be aware of them and being able to revisit them when necessary.
Windows 8 / RT – Metro Internet Explorer 10 flash whitelist to be replaced by a blacklist
Up until now in Windows 8 and Windows RT, the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 would only run flash on websites that were whitelisted in the Internet Explorer Compatibility View list. Even though you could add websites to the whitelist (I even made a script for it), most people didn’t knew it or just aren’t that handy with computers to fix this themselves. This ofcourse leads to a bad user experience.
Now Microsoft has decided to allow all flash websites and only blacklist some that don’t meet the standard (apparently less than 4% of the tested websites). You can read more about it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2013/03/11/flash-in-windows-8.aspx
I think this is a good move, because it gives an advantage over other tablets. I think this should’ve been this way from the start, but better late than never.
TrainSignal offering unlimited access to IT training for only $49 a month
Personally I’m always looking for good training at a good price. Even though TrainSignal has always provided good training and also at a good price, it has now become even cheaper.
So no more excuses for not learning 🙂 Be sure to browse their training videos.
PowerShell – Advanced Function Template
I’m currently reading the great book “Learn PowerShell In A Month Of Lunches“.As it turns out there is a lot I can still improve on (which I already knew ofcourse).
Part of the book covers properly creating an advanced function. I’ve taken these sample scripts and added additional comments so I can more easily use it for future functions. You can find it here.
Windows 8 – Use Windows 8 apps when behind a proxy including the Windows 8 Store
In the past I’ve heard numerous people mention they couldn’t get the Windows 8 Store from behind a proxy on the corporate network. Many even thought it was a design flaw by Microsoft and that it wasn’t possible.
A colleague of mine Kuo Wei Lau informed me about this article that specifies how to configure the proxy for metro apps in Windows 8.
So it is possible to use Windows 8 apps from behind a proxy, but I have to admit that in my opinion the configuration is hidden in a not very obvious location. Nevertheless, it is possible 🙂
Apparently there are also other solutions and apparently there are also some issues to take into account. So you might want to take a look at these articles as well:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/setup-proxy-metro-application-windows-8
http://drdebmath.blogspot.nl/2012/11/use-proxy-windows8-iitg.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2778122
[EDIT 04-07-2014] With Windows 8.1 Preview configuration of the proxy has been improved. For more info take a look at: https://bjornhouben.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/windows-8-1-use-windows-store-apps-when-behind-an-authenticated-proxy/
blog.bjornhouben.com 