Tag Archives: Windows

How To Make A Bootable Windows 8 USB Drive

Posted on 17th January 2013 by Ian Grieve

In this post I’m stepping away, briefly, from Microsoft Dynamics GP but will return in to it in my next post.

Microsoft have recently released a raft of new versions, including Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and Management Reporter 2012 Rollup 3, and to test I’ve been installing a few new virtual machines with Windows Server 2012 and have also updated a couple of machines with Windows 8 and, because they’re new machines without DVD players in them, to do this I used the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool which is available for free download from the Microsoft CodePlex|Project Hosting for Open Source Projects site in order to create a bootable USB drive.

I thought a step by step guide for others needing to install Windows 8 (or other version of Windows) might be of benefit. So after downloading the utility from the above link, double click the downloaded setup file to install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Setup Wizard;

Welcome to the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Setup Wizard

Continue reading →

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SysPrep Virtual Machine After Replication

Posted on 29th August 2012 by Ian Grieve

I think I mentioned the other week that I had built a new Hyper-V server to use a as a test bed. I did run into an issue when I created the second virtual machine and tried to install SQL Server into it when it was complaining about S IDs.

I did a quick look around and realised that the problem was because I had created a virtual machine with Windows installed and made a backup of this VM which I had been copying to create subsequent machines.

The first VM I configured properly became my Domain Controller and had worked fine.

The second machine, and every subsequent ones needed to be tweaked using the System Preparation Tool before it is used.

To run the System Preparation Tool (sysprep), open the Run window and type sysprep;

Run

Continue reading →

Posted in Microsoft, Windows | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

How To Install Windows 8

Posted on 17th August 2012 by Ian Grieve

Well, Windows 8 has landed on MSDN and TechNet for subscribers and is due for general release in, I believe, October.

This means it is time to interrupt the scheduled posts on installing the Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP. Having got my hands on an MSDN version I thought a quick run through on how to install it might be in order.

I am installing this into a virtual machine so I can have a little test before replacing one of my main systems with it.

I mounted the ISO image from MSDN in the virtual machine settings and launched the VM. The first part of the installer shows the new Microsoft Windows Metro Modern logo;

Windows 8 Setup - Modern Logo

Continue reading →

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Windows 8 & Server 2012 Released to Manufacturer

Posted on 2nd August 2012 by Ian Grieve

I was just catching up on the blogs this morning and caught David Musgraves post on the release of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 to manufacturing.

Great news and must mean about two weeks before they’re on MSDN and TechNet. Can’t wait :)

Posted in Microsoft, Windows, Windows 8 | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Microsoft Surface Announced

Posted on 19th June 2012 by Ian Grieve

As recently rumoured, Microsoft announced a self-built tablet yesterday adding to their current hardware line which includes mice, keyboards and the XBox 360.

Branded the Microsoft Surface it is available as both Windows RT, arm powered 32 or 64GB memory, or as the Windows 8 Pro, powered by an Intel i5 and with either 64 or 128GB of memory with both versions coming with built in Micro SD slot for more, exchangeable memory;

Microsoft Surface

Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware, Microsoft, Windows, Windows 8, Windows RT | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Available

Posted on 1st March 2012 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Windows 8Windows 8 Consumer Preview now available for download.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Available

Yesterday, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft announced the availability of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.; full details at the Building Windows 8 blog.

I’m in the process of downloading it so I can see what improvements have been made since the Developer Preview and will post any thing of interest.

Posted in Microsoft, Windows, Windows 8 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How To Create A Domain Controller

Posted on 28th December 2011 by Ian Grieve

The release of Management Reporter brought several advantages over FRx; x64 compatibility, replacement of the Access database with SQL Server and a modern client among them. However, one of the downsides is that Management Reporter requires a domain to be available for both the installation and running.

Where FRx could be run on any PC or laptop regardless of the operating system, Management Reporter can only be run on a server OS. This means that the Business Development Managers, and I, need either a laptop with Windows Server 2008, or better the R2 version, installed or we need a VM with the same. To make everyday life easier I opted for the latter as I can install it once and then copy the VM between machines.

I am a Microsoft Dynamics GP consultant by training, certification and experience but I don’t have a huge amount of experience with Active Directory. I am the most knowledgeable here about installing GP and Management Reporter though, so it falls to me to do the setup of the demo systems and I figured I might as well do the full monty rather than getting someone else to install the operating system and then passing it back to me.

To this end I needed to learn how to install and configure Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) and I thought it best to document here for anyone else interested and also for my own future reference. Continue reading →

Posted in Dynamics, FRx, GP, Management Reporter, Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server 2008 R2 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Making A Drive Available Over The Remote Desktop Connection

Posted on 2nd November 2011 by Ian Grieve

I needed a colleague to backup and copy a clients Microsoft Dynamics GP System and Company database back to our systems remotely out of standard working hours.

While I may have used FTP or similar if I had control of all software installed on the server, in this case the best way of doing this was to just use the Remote Desktop Connection and a local drive made available and copy the backups to this drive over the connection.

However, the colleague who was going to do this for me out of hours is not from an IT background like I am. He’s one of those Mark Polino laments the absence; a qualified accountant who has moved into a role as a Microsoft Dynamics GP consultant.

As he’s not from a technical background, there are some things I take for granted which he does not know of. I therefore documented the process of making a drive available over the RDP connection for him and I thought I’d post it up here as I thought it might be useful to others. Continue reading →

Posted in Dynamics, GP, Microsoft, Windows | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Happy Birthday, Windows XP!

Posted on 25th October 2011 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Windows XPWow, time flies. Windows XP was released to the retail channel exactly ten years ago today.

XP has remained popular through the years, but in Windows 7 a worthy successor appeared. The future looks bright with Windows 8 on the horizon (and currently green in the Developer Preview).

Posted in Microsoft, Windows, Windows XP | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 On Windows 8 Developer Preview

Posted on 16th September 2011 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Dynamics GP
Microsoft Windows 8Well, I’ve just finished installing SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Dynamics 2010 R2 on the Windows 8 Developer Preview and GP is exactly like it is on Windows 7. Continue reading →

Posted in Dynamics, GP, Microsoft, SQL Server, SQL Server 2008, Windows, Windows 8 | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments