James O'Neill's blog
Windows Platform, Virtualization and PowerShell with a little Photography for good measure.
Sophos error: facts not found
Having begun my previous post with an explanation of “I have a professional disregard for …” it...
Author: James ONeill Date: 08/18/2009
How to Boot from VHD (VHD booting re-visited.)
Some while back I wrote about boot from VHD. To re-cap, in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 (including...
Author: James ONeill Date: 08/17/2009
VMware – the economics of falling skies … and disk footprints.
There’s a phrase which has being go through my head recently: before coming to to Microsoft I ran my...
Author: James ONeill Date: 08/14/2009
Core parking in Server 2008 R2 – why it’s like airport X-ray machines.
It’s third time lucky for this post… a couple of weeks ago I was at our big training event...
Author: James ONeill Date: 08/13/2009
Update on Windows 7-E / IE 8
Many thoughts have been expressed about the situation with Windows 7 and internet explorer in...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/28/2009
Vulcan hunting: a mini case study in social media
I’ve described some of my activities over recent weekends as the biggest hunt for a Vulcan since...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/25/2009
Seventh Heaven
As I mentioned recently I have bought a new Camera – the Pentax K7 : as a proper photographer I’m...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/24/2009
PowerShell on-line help: A change you should make for V2 (#3) (and How to Author MAML help files for PowerShell)
In the last could of “change you should make” posts I’ve talked about a couple of things which turn...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/24/2009
A tale of two codecs. Or how not to be a standard.
I’ve just bought a new digital SLR camera. Being a dyed in the wool Pentax person, I’ve upgraded to...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/24/2009
Oink flap –-- Microsoft releases software under GPL --- oink Flap
Mary-Jo has a post about the release of our Hyper-V drivers for Linux entitled Pigs are flying low:...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/23/2009
Release the Windows 7 !
It’s official. Windows 7 has released to manufacturing....
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/22/2009
PowerShell Modules: A change you should make for V2. (#2)
A few days back I wrote about PowerShell version 2’s ability to confirm whether it should be...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/22/2009
How to activate Windows from a script (even remotely).
I have been working on some PowerShell recently to handle the initial setup of a new machine, and I...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/22/2009
Michael Jackson memorial concert
I’ve had a “please blog this” email: most of these get deleted on sight, but because of the unusual...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/07/2009
Tennis as a way of testing search.
Like a lot of people who would really call themselves Tennis fans I was watching the Wimbledon final...
Author: James ONeill Date: 07/05/2009
New Podcast available, of , er … me
I think everyone hates hearing themselves recorded, and I’m no exception. But Tony Soper though what...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/27/2009
“Thumbing” Windows 7 onto Netbooks – my experience
Several posts on twitter linked directly or indirectly to an item on CNET News. It opens “Microsoft...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/27/2009
More PowerShell: A change you should make for V2. (#1)
There will be a couple more posts on changes for V2, of PowerShell but I want to get something...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/25/2009
How to: have nicer Active Directory management from PowerShell – without upgrading AD
One of the first books I read on PowerShell had a comment about using AD from the PowerShell...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/25/2009
How to get user input more nicely in PowerShell
Long, long ago when I was using my first Microsoft product, I knew one way to get input from the...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/24/2009
New demo videos for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
I had a list of videos through which show many of the the new features. The scripting feels a bit...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/18/2009
Technet virtual conference – tomorrow !
Details and Registration are at www.Technet.com/govirtual/ I’ve been told there is a great “goody...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/18/2009
Fifteen minutes of fame. Not like this, thanks.
What some people refer to as “Life’s rich tapestry” has had more knots and twists in it than usual...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/18/2009
More on VMware and YouTube
A few weeks back I posted about VMware’s conduct in posting a video which of some tests which appear...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/11/2009
Parsing lists to objects in PowerShell – Tzutil
Last week I taught a PowerShell class – the first time in ages I’d gone back to my old role as a...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/09/2009
Events: TechNet Virtual Conference 19th June
Andrew beat me to it, we have a virtual conference coming up: you can watch it – or any part of it...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/09/2009
Llet the [scripting] Games begin.
The Windows scripting guys have put up the details of the first event in this years summer scripting...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/08/2009
A few interesting links.
I’ve got a little bit of a backlog of links which I’ve been meaning to talk about: usually I like to...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/03/2009
Free the Windows 7 !
Brandon has a post on the Windows team blog Windows 7 will be in stores beginning October 22nd. I...
Author: James ONeill Date: 06/02/2009
How to Install an Image onto a VHD file.
The last post I made talked about customizing windows image (.WIM) files, and the post before that...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/27/2009
How to: customize Windows images with DISM
In the initial release of Windows Server 2008 one of the the questions which always came up was “how...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/26/2009
How to: work with VHD files at the command line.
Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files have been given greater importance in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2....
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/26/2009
Windows 7 – how low a spec will it go to ?
Talking to people about Windows 7 one of the frequent things we mention is it works better on low...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/22/2009
How to configure iSCSI on Server 2008 R2 core or Hyper-V server
In my post a couple of days ago I talked about configuring my servers from the command line and one...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/21/2009
Another reason why I like IE8 – dealing with broken scripts
IE 8 just locked up on me. This in and of itself is a Bad Thing. I’ve got into the habit of having...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/21/2009
Boot from VHD – the joy of BCDedit and a nice hyper-v gotcha or two.
I’ve been updating two of my machines from the Beta to the RC of Server 2008 R2. It’s been quite a...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/19/2009
Making easily Tweetable blog posts from Live writer
Live writer is one of those tools which I don’t know how I managed without. Word has a blogging...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/11/2009
Thoughts on uses of YouTube … and virtualization
I’m taking a breather from re-recording the voice track for a Video on Live Migration in Hyper-V....
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/10/2009
A Windows 7 tip for (untidy) presenters
Do you have lots of icons on your windows desktop ? I do. And sometimes when I’m giving a...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/09/2009
Customizing the Windows 7 logon screen: no additional tools required
A few of people have noticed that I’m running Windows 7 with a customized logon screen, and a couple...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/07/2009
Buy the book(s)
I wanted to get let people know about books which I have been involved in (and one that I haven’t)...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/05/2009
Windows 7 for everyone !
I don’t normally cut and paste things from mail straight to my blog but this arrived in ready to...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/05/2009
Windows 7 XP mode: helpful ? Sure. Panacea ? No.
ComputerWorld have an interesting piece up about XP Mode for Windows 7. Saying that it “could create...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/04/2009
Virtual Windows XP … picking myself up off the floor.
Someone gave me a definition of insanity as “trying the same thing over and over again expecting...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/03/2009
Exploring Windows XP mode for Windows 7
Windows Virtual PC is on Technet for people to download, the Windows Virtual PC page says it...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/02/2009
Easy transfer is not a sign of weakness
Someone from the office (no names, no pack drill) told me they had read my post from yesterday where...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/01/2009
Clarifying: the new virtual PC, Windows XP mode for Windows 7, and MED-V
There is an interview with Scott Woodgate, published as press release on press...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/01/2009
F1 thoughts.
The first F1 season I remember properly is 1976: James Hunt being champion, winning the British...
Author: James ONeill Date: 05/01/2009
Now available on Technet and MSDN – RC of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2
Hopefully the title is self evident. The servers are taking a real pasting right now, so you might...
Author: James ONeill Date: 04/30/2009
Now available on ebay … I’ll have a slice of that !
I’ve been pretty enthused about IE8 since it got to Beta 2. Yes there are some sites which need to...
Author: James ONeill Date: 04/30/2009