Good news folks!  2012 has seen the release of a new Microsoft TechNet Subscription Discount code.  This new code for 2012 will give you 15% (small print: this is based on the US currency so may vary slightly between countries) and is due to expire on the 29th February 2012. 

Code: TNFLA12

To give you an idea of the type of savings you can find on a Microsoft TechNet subscription, here are the savings on a new TechNet Professional subscription in the US, UK and Europe (checked against France & Germany): TechNet Pro - US $349.00 -> $296.65 TechNet Pro – UK £234.21 -> £199.08 TechNet Pro – Europe €373.64 -> €317.59

If you run your own IT lab environment the Microsoft TechNet subscription is definitely a worthwhile investment as it gives you access to most Microsoft applications and MS operating systems, along with legitimate licence keys for non-production use.

Those of you like myself who are already signed up to the Microsoft TechNet subscription programme will no doubt agree that it offers great value for money, and avoids the headache of trying to ‘track down’ license keys.  It also certainly beats having to install time limited trial versions which you end up having to reinstalling after a set period of days, which only wastes precious lab time.  Along with access to the actual Microsoft software you the TechNet subscription also provides you with access to the Microsoft Knowledge Base and the moderated Microsoft TechNet Forums, which are also valuable resources.

Check out the TechHead ‘Hot Deals’ section at the top of this page for more decent product discounts and deals I have come across along with any new or updated Microsoft TechNet discount codes.

A big thanks goes out to Colin Westwater who pointed out this new 2012 Microsoft TechNet code to me.

The Microsoft Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) has had a face lift with the introduction of Windows 8.  Many of us have learned to dread the traditional, and rather un-user friendly BSOD from the Windows operating system (OS) over the years, though it would appear that Microsoft have decided to take a softer, more Apple-like, approach with Windows 8 which is definitely more in keeping with the new Windows 8 look and feel .  In fairness to Microsoft it is very unusual these days to see a BSOD and considering that the Windows OS can run on most x86 hardware this is pretty good going in my opinion. 

During my first proper outing into the world of VMware PowerCLI I had to start using the pipe (ie: | ) symbol in some of my command expressions within the command window.  Now, the pipe symbol on my Microsoft keyboard appeared straight forward enough (see image below) on the keyboard’s layout though upon pressing it in the PowerCLI window I received a broken looking pipe symbol instead (ie: ¦ ) which of course PowerCLI doesn’t like when I tried to execute the command.  Strangely enough when I pressed shift and the broken pipe looking symbol to the left of the ‘z’ key this, unsurprisingly, produced a broken pipe symbol… though upon executing the command in the PowerCLI window it worked.

Lesson Learnt: Use ‘shift’ and the broken pipe symbol (see below) on my Microsoft keyboard to achieve the pipe symbol, even if it doesn’t look like a pipe symbol in the PowerCLI command window or on the physical keyboard.  Note: I did check that I had the correct keyboard mappings in place within my Windows 7 OS.

Here is a really useful, and free, utility that displays the temporary MS Outlook email attachments stored in your PC’s local OLK cache.  I found myself needing this utility after working late last night and making the school boy error of working on a MS Word document directly from an email attachment and then closing it without saving it to a directory on my hard disk.  When I had realised what I had done and went to open the Word document from within the attachment it unsurprisingly had reverted back to the original version with no sign of my last 60 minutes worth of updates to be seen.  Doh!

I knew about the temporary OLK directory that contains the temporary files for the MS Outlook attachments though this can be quite a chore to try and search through it to find the required file.  This is when I called on the services of the ‘OLK Finder’ utility.  Within seconds of running this useful utility it presented a list of my OLK based temporary files without having to rummage through the temporary internet files directories – check out the long ‘OLK Location’ field in the screen shot below.

I definitely recommend adding ‘OLK Finder’  to your IT toolbox and the fact that is free makes it a great addition.  It doesn’t require to be installed on your PC so is suited to a USB key for convenience.

Microsoft have released this rather nifty Hyper-V architecture poster, which is available for download here.  I’ve always liked Microsoft’s large architecture posters on products such as Windows Server & MS Exchange which are usually found at the TechEd events and occasionally inserted into the MS TechNet magazine, at least whilst it was still being published here in the UK.  They always provide a useful reference affixed to the wall of my office/lab.

This electronic version of the Hyper-V architecture poster will no doubt be of interest to those of you using or thinking of implementing Hyper-V into your IT environment.  A VMware vSphere equivalent would be fantastic (hint, hint VMware)…

Microsoft Press have released a free downloadable ten chapter e-book entitled, “Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2”.  It covers many of the new features of MS SQL Server 2008 R2 along with information around upgrading, consolidation and monitoring and business intelligence maintenance.

If you deal with Microsoft SQL Server this could be a useful book to download and have available on your PC/laptop for reference.  Here is a breakdown of the chapters:

PART I   Database Administration

CHAPTER 1   SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements 3
CHAPTER 2   Multi-Server Administration 21
CHAPTER 3   Data-Tier Applications 41
CHAPTER 4   High Availability and Virtualization Enhancements 63
CHAPTER 5   Consolidation and Monitoring 85

PART II   Business Intelligence Development

CHAPTER 6   Scalable Data Warehousing 109
CHAPTER 7   Master Data Services 125
CHAPTER 8   Complex Event Processing with StreamInsight 145
CHAPTER 9   Reporting Services Enhancements 165
CHAPTER 10   Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot 189