Red Bull Flugtag was on Saturday, and I’m proud to say that the Phoenix flew 62 feet!  45 of those feet were straight down, but who’s counting?  Have a look at the video (the photographer got our name wrong, but that’s ok)…and pay attention to the mind-blowing dancing.  I’m the one in yellow:

The actual flight wasn’t a huge success, but the event was.  People were cheering their hearts out for us and for Microsoft, and I know I speak for everyone on the team when I say that it was really cool to be part of something so totally off-the-wall crazy.  I think my favorite part of the flight was the reaction from the crowd when we played our launch music, which we laced with system sounds from Windows 7 and Windows XP.  When the Windows XP startup music played, the crowd immediately got into the groove.  Everyone knows that iconic noise and it instantly made the Flugtag/Microsoft connection for the 105,000 people who were watching.

The Windows Project Phoenix Team celebrating the completed craft & tower

We’re all safe and sound and in one piece (I smashed into the wing on the way into the water and banged up my mouth, but nothing major), and happy to be back in Redmond with our friends, families and co-workers.

Below are a few more of my favorite photos from launch day and we’ll be posting many more stills and video clips on our Facebook page over the next few days.  Thanks again to everyone who supported us – we really couldn’t have done it without you.  And be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook page for information on our next crazy adventure.  I’m pretty sure that Project Phoenix will rise again!

Three words: Mad. Dance. Skills.

Seconds before the “flight”.  We were running at full-tilt to get the Phoenix up to launch speed.

Our engineers, Mike, Lucas and Brian, worked their hearts out (and butts off) on this project.

The team with one of our fans.  Support for Project Phoenix was off the charts.

Jay, Ali and Ryan working the crowd.

This is the second screen in the Windows InTune Console:

Computers

On the left you can see a list of all the computer groups that I’ve created. These machines are on 3 different networks but they all appear in this one central view, which makes administration very easy!

Selecting a group on the left takes you into a new view where you can see much more granular detail on the machines. At the minute, I’ve only got one machine in each group but you get the idea

The “View Properties” button takes you deeper into that machine, with more sections available to view:

The first few tabs are all quite self explanatory…but the final two are very interesting.

Hardware

This gives an amazingly detailed list of the hardware in and related to the machine. For my laptop, this information includes:

• Model
• Serial Number
• BIOS Name & Version
• CPU Name/Type/Speed
• Number of disks
• Disk model
• Disk Size
• Number of partitions
• Network adapter
• IP Address
• MAC Address
• Monitor Resolution
• Printers (including Soft printers like OneNote)

and more. It’s similar to the free ware program CPU-Z (which you may be familiar with) in that it gets really deep into you machine to give you all the information you could possibly need!

Software

This gives a list of all software installed on the machine…in this case:

It then gives you an idea of the category such as Browser, OS, Utility etc and also tells you if it’s a Virtual Application.

You can export these lists to either .csv or .html files for use with other applications and systems.

This feature fits really well in to the whole Software Asset Management piece, as organizations will have a complete, current list of all software installed on all machines. It’s very quick to update with added/removed software which will enable companies to be confident of compliance at all times.

Groups:

Creating a group is very straight forward. It has 3 sections, each with just one selection to make:

Details = Group name (and an optional description field)

Parent Group = Choose which group this will link off from. Either “All Computers” or one of your own.

Members = Choose which machines to add to the group.

Done.

I’ll cover deploy software to machines etc in a later post.

I installed Sharepoint 2010 on a Virtual Server last week, set up some new site collections and then when I came to use it, got a very strange error:

”The trial period for Sharepoint Foundation has expired”

Strange because this wasn’t a trial and because it wasn’t Sharepoint Foundation…it was full server 2010!

I did a little searching round the web and saw something on the Microsoft forum that suggested it might be related to Windows Web Server. I checked and yes, our System Admin had built the VM with Windows Web Server…but than itself was weird…why did he do that?

I went downstairs and asked him…he didn’t make a web server, it was Windows Server Std 2008 R2 but by the time it got to me, it had magically morphed into a Web server…WTF?

The media being used was from MSDN and contained Std, Ent & Web in one image and you choose which one you want during the installation. The Sys Admin built a Svr Std machine, converted it to a VMWare template, deployed it again and gave it to me…and there was the problem. We tried again and this time, COPIED it to a template (rather than converting) and hey presto, it all worked perfectly. The VM was a Svr Std box and, after re-installing it, Sharepoint 2010 was up & running straight away

I don’t know if this is a known problem and perhaps it seems really obvious to some, but it had me stumped for a while so I thought I’d share it on here…just in case.

Calling all Windows fans!  This Saturday, August 21st in Long Beach, CA a team of Microsoft Employees - many from Windows - are participating in Red Bull Flugtag, a competition where teams from all over the world build human-powered flying machines, push them off a 30’ high dock, and see who can fly the farthest.  We’re already getting some love from the press, but we need your support as we take on the competition!

Here’s the deal: each team’s human-powered flying machine can be built out of any material, as long as the wingspan is under 30’ and the weight is less than 450 lbs (including the weight of the pilot).  Only 1 person can fly the craft, and each team can enlist 4 pushers to get the craft up to speed.  And of course, everyone dresses silly and participates in a 30-second skit before you launch.  If that does NOT sound fun to you, please leave this blog immediately, turn off your computer and slowly back away.

Our Flugtag, the Phoenix.  More on how we built it below.

Obviously we’re excited, but we want you to be excited too!  You can join the Windows Project Phoenix team in a few ways:

• Like us on Facebook!  Tweet that you like us on Facebook!  Tell you friends to like us on Facebook!
• Come cheer us on in person in Long Beach
• Follow me on Twitter for up to the minute status of the craft, team and event.

And most importantly:

• Show your support from anywhere in the world by helping us with the Flugtag Popularity Contest! Just text Team15 to RBULL (72855) anytime after 11am on Saturday, August 21st Friday, August 20th. 

The team has been working their collective butts off building an amazing craft, putting in more than 1500 total hours in design, fabrication, construction, event planning, marketing and promotion.  More on the actual flaying machine in a second, but first I wanted to introduce you to the crew that made this whole thing happen:

THE ENGINEERING MASTERMINDS

Brian Lysak

• Real Job:  Senior Program Manager on the Windows Planning & Ecosystem Team
• Flugtag Role:  Engineering Lead, materials and fabrication expert.
• Solution to Everything:  Lay it up with carbon fiber!

Lucas Brodzinski

• Real Job: Program Manager on the Windows Graphics Team.
• Flugtag Role: Self-taught aerodynamics guru with $5.42 worth of library late fees to his name, CAD designer, and all around awesome guy.
• He’s an international man of mystery: Lucas was born in Poland, raised as Canadian, and is now working in the United States – an international triple threat.  He’s working towards his pilot’s license

Mike Arntzen

• Real Job:  Partner Engagement Manager on the Windows Ecosystem Team
• Flugtag Role:  Avionics  Aviation maestro
• High in the sky:  Mike has over 500 flying hours under his belt and served in the Royal Australian Airforce for 6 years.

Mike, Lucas & Brian, with the Phoenix’s wings just before packing them into the moving truck

THE DRAFT HORSES

Ryan Asdourian

• Real Job: PC Product Manager on the Windows Team
• Flugtag Role: Team Captain, Morale and Adrenaline Injection Specialist
• 20,000 screaming fans is a small crowd:  Ryan spends his weekends as Blitz, the Seattle Seahawk’s mascot

James DeBragga

• Real Job: GM, Windows Marketing
• Flugtag Role: Lead pusher (i.e., the biggest guy on the team)
• Fun Fact: James can leg press 850lbs.

Jay Paulus

• Real Job: Director of Product Management on the Windows Team
• Flugtag Role:  Cart pushing technician
• Go fly a kite:  Jay is an expert kitesurfer, so he’s used to high-flying insanity.

Ben Rudolph

• Real Job:  PC Guy on the Windows PR Team
• Flugtag Role:  Shameless promoter
• Cheer us on or die: I’m a certified Krav Maga instructor and holds a black-belt in jiu-jitsu. 

Remember that I’ll also be live-tweeting the event, so be sure to follow me to keep tabs on the action!

OUR FEARLESS PILOT

Ali Driesman

• Real Job: Student Audience Marketer, Education Strategy and Marketing
• Flugtag Role: Piloting the phoenix, resident crazy person
• Brave, or crazy?:  Ali has a severe disorder – FOMO (Fear ­Of Missing Out). The effects have been massive over-commitment issues, and a general dedication to participating in all things fun. Please pray for her.

Your brave & slightly crazy Flugtag flight crew:  Jay, Ryan, Ali & Ben.  James is up top.

(BTW, we built this photo from 5 different shots using Photo Fuse in the new Windows Live Photo Gallery)

THE PHOENIX

The real star of the show is our flying machine, the Phoenix.  I have to say that it’s a pretty impressive sight to behold when you see it completely assembled, and it’s lightness is truly amazing – the whole contraption weighs less than 75lbs, which is a whopping 375lbs under the legal weight limit! Here’s what Brian, Lucas and Mike have to say about its construction and how they made something so light, so strong, and so flyable:

With less than 2 months to design, plan and execute we had a serious challenge ahead of us, especially given that we were a team of opinionated engineers, each with our own ideas.  Our goal was to not only build an aircraft that we could build on time and toss off the dock…  We wanted this thing to fly and fly well.  Project Phoenix also needed to look the part with a simple, intuitive design that functions.

We wanted to have a safe aircraft which would glide far at best or act as a nice parachute at worst so we made it BIG… so we pushed the size limits of the Flugtag rules.  With a wingspan of about 28 feet, the Phoenix is just inches short of the limit.

We settled on a hang glider inspired aircraft due to its simplicity and light weight.  We also quickly opted for a simple straight wing design vs. a swept-back wing for ease of fabrication.  To provide better horizontal stability we decided to build in a 12 degree angle between the two wings.  This would enable one wing to even the other out if the craft started to roll.  Mike, our resident pilot, recommended this design addition so that a tail section would not be needed to laterally stabilize the craft.

Early sketches of the Phoenix.  Our goal was to build something aeronautically sound, safe, and super lightweight

Throughout the design process brainstorming parts, fabrication methods and steps to get “Phoenix” built and assembled was on the top of my mind to enable a clear vision and plan going forward for the team.  After some shopping around and discussion we hand-picked the most feasible ultra-lightweight, strong and reasonably priced materials to build our glider.    Most of the parts with the exception of the carbon fiber are off the shelf components used daily by many hobbyist and DIY’ers.  The keel and cradle, as well as the wing ribs, are made of Macrolux, and incredibly light weight & strong cellular polycarbonate. The wing spars (ie, the pieces that hold the ribs together are used windsurfing masts & kite posts, and we made heavy use of carbon fiber for the center section. We covered the wings with Monokote, a thin, heat-sensitive plastic that’s typically used for model airplanes.  Completed, the entire craft weighs about 65lbs – 385lbs under the weight limit!

The final piece of the puzzle was a launch, which we built out of ABS plastic pipe. The launcher is an impressive site to behold – it hoists the Phoenix about 20’ into the air!

 Ali strapped into the harness on the almost-completed launcher. 

We’ve poured our heart and soul into the Phoenix and hope that it performs well.  Given the time constraints we were not able to perform test flights and we’re excited to see it take flight and learn even more from the experience. For more information on how we built the Phoenix, hit the Facebook page…we’ll be posting more detailed design notes there!

The completed Phoenix!

Thanks again to everyone who chipped in and supported us – this has been a true cross-company effort and we’re really proud to be representing Microsoft and Windows.  Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, follow me on Twitter for the latest news, and text your hearts out on Friday!

Microsoft Windows InTune is the new Cloud based systems management tool from Microsoft, formerly known as “System Center Online” and has been long awaited. The ability to manage multiple locations/organizations from one central, online point is attractive to a lot of people for a lot of reasons…so let’s take a look @ InTune.

There are at least 10 sections inside InTune so I’m going to cover them in a number of posts, we’ll start with – System Overview:

This is the first screen you see when you log in to the Windows InTune Admin Console and it immediately gives you a great overview of yours systems. It shows:

• If Machines are infected/unprotected
• If there are updates for your machines
• A number of other alerts

Malware Protection:

From here you can see which machines have Malware protection turned off completely and also if they have overdue scans or specific parts of the protection, such as USB device scanning, turned off.

1 click takes you to a list of machines, from where you can turn on protection.

Updates:

This, not surprisingly, gives you a list of all the updates that are available for you machines be they for the OS or applications.

One issue with this is that, as default, it shows you ALL possible updates:

however, these can easily be filtered:

Another problem I have noticed is that it wants to give my laptop updates for Office 2007, as well as Office 2010; oddly, this doesn’t happen with my other 2010 machines. I had a number of issues when upgrading Office versions and I’m inclined to believe that there are some Office 2007 remnants on the machine that are being picked up by Intune.

Should you choose to approve an update for a machine/machines, you then reach this screen:

Choose the groups on which you want to install the updates, click approve and job done!

I feel it would be a smoother experience and require less clicks, if you could see the machine names on the same screen as all the updates. Currently, you must:

• Select the update
• click on “x computers need this update”
• Check the groups/machines
• Go back to the previous screen
• Approve Update

Showing the machines names/groups on the initial screen would remove a lot of that.

You can also access the updates via the individual machine screen, I’ll cover that in a later post.

Alerts by Type:

This section, as well as the above, also includes other types of alerts…not just updates and malware. This is where InTune starts to differentiate itself from other products, for example:

If I click through, it tell me:

That is pretty cool, and something that is very useful for System Admins. I didn’t expect InTune to cover things like this, certainly not in the beta, so I’m pleasantly surprised However, you can’t initiate the defrag from InTune.

The 2 options on the right hand side “Create Computer Group” and “View a Report” will be covered in later posts.

Summary:

This is a brief look at just the first screen of Microsoft Windows InTune but I’m sure you will agree that it already looks very interesting. So stay tuned for the remaining posts in this series (at least 9!) and ask any questions you may have in the comments

Cheers

Rich