As an Office 365 Pro Plus, “Click-to-Run” administrator or enthusiast we’re familiar how this new wave of application delivery when it comes to Office 2013 or 2016, has turned the application delivery and updating arena on its head.
No more traditional hefty “MSI” install and long waiting time and also no updating through the traditional WSUS or Windows Updates.
While this is a speedy much needed revelation for end users and administrators – it has caused quite a challenge when it comes to updating these clients. If you have System Center Configuration Manager to manage your application delivery and patching a whole can of scripting worms has to be opened to patch your new click to run clients – similar to getting a square peg into a round hole!
Now System Center Configuration Manager is taking leaps and bounds in the right direction with update 1511, not only with its own patching (gone are the annoying CU’s!) but in many, many other areas.
However, in this blog we’re just looking at 1511’s impact on Office Pro Plus Click-to-Run clients.
With Configuration Manager and the 1511 update we are now able to manage natively the Office Pro Plus client update system using the Configuration Manager Software Update Management workflow.
As Microsoft publishes and pushes out a new desktop client update to Windows Server Update Services, Configuration Manager is now able to synchronize that update to its catalog if the Office Pro Plus update is added as part of the catalog synchronization.
Your Configuration Manager server will then download the Office Pro Plus client update and distribute the package to Configuration Manager distribution points.
The Configuration Manager client will then let Office Pro Plus desktop client where to get this update and when to start the update processes!
There are just a couple of prerequisites you’ll need for this streamlined and headache free improved process to work:

1. Windows 7 SP1 +
2. Office Pro Plus build 16.0.6228.1000

Now you can manage your Office Pro Plus click-to-run clients as you would any other.
 
Enjoy!

It’s no secret – Microsoft support for Windows Server 2003 ends on July 14, 2015.
Last week, Perficient, AppZero and Cisco teamed up for a webinar, Planning & Preparing for Windows Server 2003 End of Life. During the session, the speakers discussed the options and paths available when moving off Windows Server 2003, including the transition to a cloud model, benefits of Windows Server 2012, virtualization on Cisco UCS, and what exactly AppZero can do for your migrations.
First, Steve Andrews, a senior solutions architect at Perficient, explained exactly what end of support/end of life means: no updates, no compliance, no protection. But, the good news is, for those still on Windows Server 2003, there is the opportunity to transform your datacenter by transitioning to a hybrid cloud model, which Steve reviewed. He then showed attendees how to get started:

1. Discover & Assess: Catalog and categorize apps and workloads
2. Target: Identify destinations
3. Migrate: Make the move

You have a variety of target options, from replacing the server hardware or virtualizing with Hyper-V to a new server, to relocating to a cloud service such as Azure IaaS or decommissioning if no longer in use.
Next, Andy Vigil, a consulting systems engineer at Cisco UCS provided background on Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) and explained how the Cisco datacenter and fabric computing platform unified computing, networking, storage access, and virtualization resources into one cohesive system. Andy showed how UCS Manager provides you with a single point of contact for all UCS components, a discussed how it integrates with System Center tools.
Finally, Terry Walsh, area sales director at AppZero, talked about using AppZero’s automated migration tool to accelerate migration timeframes with lower cost and less risk. Terry also shared a detailed case study showing how one pharma company had benefited, in terms of effort and time, cost, and project duration, by using AppZero verus a manual migration.
You can watch the one hour webinar replay here.

Still running Windows Server 2003? For a variety of reasons, there are many companies with Windows Server 2003 still in production. What does this all mean, really? “End-of-life” means Microsoft will completely end support for Windows Server 2003 including patches and security update. And when does this happen? July 14, 2015.
Given the rate at which new security threats are introduced, it’s dangerous to run production services on a platform that has reached end-of-life. It’s also a compliance nightmare, as many clients in heavily-regulated industries will not pass audits if applications are running on unsupported operating systems.
If you are looking for some guidance around the best ways to analyze your inventory of Windows Server 2003 systems, plan to migrate, and the options you have, join us on Tuesday, December 9 at 1 p.m. CT for a webinar, Planning and Preparing for Windows Server 2003 End-of-Life.
Experts from Perficient, AppZero and Cisco will team up for the one hour session to discuss those options and paths available when moving off Windows Server 2003, including:

• Virtualization Hyper-V on Cisco UCS
• Transitioning to a cloud model – private, public and hybrid
• What AppZero can do for your migrations
• Capabilities and benefits of Windows Server 2012

To register for the webinar, click here.
Planning & Preparing for Windows Server 2003 End-of-Life
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
1:00 p.m. CT

So you have a bunch of old Windows Server 2003’s still plodding along with out-of support legacy enterprise applications running, that are still critical to your business? Windows Server 2003 support ends mid next year! You certainly don’t want to deal with increased security risks and the chance of loss of compliance by ignoring this deadline.
What are you options & how can you get rid of these soon-to-be unsupported servers with ease?
How can you do this without the risk and pain of reinstalling your legacy applications on a newer OS (if the application even supports it?). This laborious task could entail:
• Upgrading the server
• Rebuilding the server
• Reinstalling the application
• Reconfiguring the application
• Hoping it works the same as before!
All these steps are very labor intensive and time consuming, also doing these steps does not help you to modernize your existing infrastructure at all, it just adds to it.
What if you could just have a great tool that quickly and easily moves these applications from their existing old outdated servers to a new Windows OS Server in your datacenter or, even better, the cloud?
You can!
Microsoft and Perficient both recommend a fantastic utility called ”AppZero”, we even partnered with them we like it so much! AppZero can move your legacy application is far less time that it would take to re-install on a new operating system. Configuration, settings, preferences and all! No code changes or updates, even old 32 bit applications onto new 64 bit OS such as the great Windows Server 2012 R2 (you can pass over the Windows Server 2008 step!)
AppZero quickly and efficiently identifies, extracts and then moves your enterprise applications without adding software on the current source, or production server, and makes no changes to the application itself – so much safer!
It is perfectly matched to the modernization of the OS and your supporting infrastructure. It is cloud, and hyper-visor independent, so you can easily choose the new destination for your legacy enterprise application.
Here’s to a slick and pain-free removal of Windows Server 2003 from your enterprise!
Take a look at one of our clear-cut offerings around this very topic, we’ll help you navigate through removing these old servers.
Contact us at sales@perficient.com if you would like more information on Windows Server 2003 migrations.

The new System Center Operations Manager Office 365 Management Pack can be used to:

1. Add and configure Office 365 subscriptions to be monitored in Operations Manager
2. Proactively monitor connection health for subscriptions
3. Automatically discover services and features available for each subscription
4. Proactively notify when Office 365 Incidents that affects services operational status appear, being changed or resolved
5. Reflect Office 365 Incidents and informational Messages for the subscription to Operations Manager alerts
6. Intuitively visualize subscriptions health and corresponding alerts via dashboard.

Monitoring Dashboard provides following features:

• Get a landscape view of connection health for all configured subscriptions

• View lists of active, resolved incidents and informational messages for the selected subscription

• View tree of Office 365 Services and Features available for the selected subscription and summary count of currently active incidents for each

You can download the System Center Management Pack and O365 Management Pack Operations Guide for Office 365 here

The Windows XP end of life support deadline has come and gone as of April 8^th… now what?
End of support means that software updates for Windows XP will no longer be distributed by Microsoft or its hardware partners. This includes security updates that help protect PCs from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal or damage personal information. It also includes maintenance updates that improve reliability and performance and ensure that Windows XP works well with other software and hardware.
Microsoft is offering assistance to get you old XP Operating System data updated and all of your data migrated to Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. Microsoft has provided a FREE tool to assist customers with migrating their data from their old outdated PC to a new Windows PC.
Some key features include:
Easy to use
The PCmover Express for Windows XP step-by-step wizard makes setting up a new PC simple. Download the software onto your new PC and old Windows XP computer to transfer your data and files. The wizard takes it from there, helping you along the way.
Select what you transfer
You can easily transfer all or selected folders, user profiles, and settings from your old Windows XP computer to your new PC.* And if you’ve already personalized settings and preferences on your new PC, those won’t be affected when you transfer your data. *The free data transfer will not migrate your apps.
24/7 Free transfer assistance
More information and the download to the data transfer tool can be found at the following site: Link
 

Microsoft finally ended support for Windows XP, its end of life happened April 8^th 2014. So what does this mean for those of us still on Windows XP?  No more support, hot fixes, and patches? Well not really, Microsoft will be creating patches and security updates for years ahead. But like everything it has a cost.
Most who know this, think ‘great I am glad I can still get support but how?’ Microsoft has Custom Support programs that are designed for large customers. According to the information I have seen there is an annual cost that increases each year, and is approximately $200 per machine for the first year. Now at first that does not seem too crazy, but this can get quite expensive if you have 10,000 Windows XP machines, that would cost a company $2,000,000 for one year of support “WOW!”. The expert analysts are saying that Patches rated at Critical  will be included in this support but Bugs marked as Important will come with an extra cost, and anything rated lower will not be patched at all.
Customers will receive hotfixes in a secure process, Microsoft will only make the information available to the companies that are enrolled in the Custom Support program. Typically Microsoft will enable Custom Support agreements for up to three years after the end of life of an Operating System.
What is interesting is that even though end of life has happened for Windows XP and Microsoft has the Custom Support Program available, they still seem to be doing some limited support. For example the vulnerability that was exploited in IE Windows XP machines.  Microsoft decided to patch Windows XP machines that are outside of the Custom Support Program for this vulnerability. Microsoft states that the patch was created and released because it occurred so close to the end of Windows XP, as stated in this BlogPost released by Microsoft.
It’s great that you can still get support for your Windows XP machines, but the cost associated with being a retired Operating System should make any company want to make a leap to Windows 7 or 8 as soon as possible. Fortunately Microsoft has many tools in place to make these moves so much easier then they were in the days of Windows XP. For example with SCCM 2012 you can keep your machines current with OS, Patches, Antivirus and Software just to name a few features, and it can all be automated.
If your company is still on Windows XP and you have not started to move off of it, now is the time to start moving from where you are today, to where you need to be in the future.  This starts with planning, proper infrastructure and tools. If done properly companies can stay current for many years to come.
 
 
 

Now that Windows XP end of life is here, if you are one of those companies still hanging on, there’s likely a bit of panic on what exactly to do. Well there is good news, bad news, and then some more good news. If you are in an industry that has heavy governing compliance, like healthcare, you need to be a little more concerned because you are now in violation of regulations.
If you are not under the microscope of government compliance, then you need not fear. There isn’t going to be any major concern if you don’t jump immediately, but you probably want to begin planning, and make the move within the next year.
If you are one of those heavily regulated companies with big brother looking over your shoulder, than guess what? Time to get the show on the road. Since you don’t have a lot of time, here’s some good advice to get the job done smoothly and quickly without a lot of headache:

1. System Center Configuration Manager 2012 – With this Microsoft tool, you will be able to perform Zero Touch installations for your whole organization fairly quickly. The key to leveraging this tool to its fullest is getting your SCCM infrastructure scaled properly and your applications packaged quickly. This product can also manage devices if a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) ends up being the path taken.
2. Go with Windows 7 – With Windows 7, you’ll still have a similar look and feel to XP, which end users are used to. Going to an entirely new platform like Windows 8 requires more time and will likely also require a lot more training and transitioning with end users. Sticking with something familiar will reduce the shock to the end user base.
3. Out with the old & in with the new – If it has been awhile since you have introduced new desktops and laptops, this would be a good time to bite the bullet and have it done. Most manufactures offer programs to preload your company images and apps, leaving only the task of migrating the user data. Also, this might be a good time to go with a BYOD solution, where you virtualize the apps and stream to the device the users choose. SCCM can manage this out of the box.
4. KIS (keep it simple ) – Companies nowadays have allowed complexity to run riot. Unfortunately, I have seen an exorbitant amount of time and money spent because of bureaucracy, rather than the actual time doing the work. If you are one of those companies that fell into the trap of losing the balance between security and flexibility due to an absence of checks and balances, well… I feel your pain. This has become a disease that has infected the IT world and has become the cause of so much complexity and profit loss for very little benefit. It’s hard to fathom (and I will save this for another blog). Get the right project team, with individuals that are high enough up the corporate ladder to make decisions across multiple departments. In other words, your CIO might need to be little more involved in this one. Also, go with the new methods, approaches and technology platforms. The need for massive testing labs and creating a bare metal image for every department is over. All your testing and image development can be done through a few simple virtual instances, secured and managed by SCCM 2012 security.
5. The right team – One of the biggest mistakes I’ve recently experienced was simply having the wrong people managing the project. Windows desktops are best managed by Microsoft Windows professionals, not by the guy who used to manage the development department that can only think Agile. Agile and Microsoft infrastructure don’t mix well, and you will only add complexity and prolong a fairly straight forward task that needs to be completed.

If you are looking for a consulting team, find one with System Center 2012 experience. This will make the job so much more pleasant and easy to carry out.
That said, I know I’m leaving out a lot of information, but I think I have touched on the most important things to consider if you need to get your company migrated quickly. The most important thing to remember is, go after the Goliath first, as once that is out of the way, everything else will likely run smooth. If you ignore the Goliath, well… good luck.

After a twelve-year run, the end of life for Windows XP is finally here. So what does this mean for those on XP still? Well in a nutshell support and updates will no longer be available, many machines will be unprotected, out of compliance and will open the door for vulnerabilities.
The big question going forward is do I make the big jump to Windows 8, and get the latest operating system or do I go with the small leap to Windows 7. Typically this comes down to company culture, strict business needs or are the architecture and deployment tools in place to make this all happen.
Jumping to a new Operating System is never easy or painless, there are many things to take into consideration hardware, application compatibility, deployment methods, training etc. Thankfully Microsoft has tools available to help aid in the process, ACT (Application Compatibility Tool Kit) MAP (Microsoft Assessment and Planning) SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) to name a few.
This is  all great, here I am stuck on Windows XP an Operating System that is no longer supported, what should I  do move to Windows 7 or go to Windows 8?
Let’s start with making the move to Windows 7. A lot of customers find this an easier pill to swallow for a few reasons.

• Familiarity between Windows XP and windows 7
• Windows 7 is a proven Operating System
• Application compatibility with older apps
• Most hardware that Windows XP is running on will support Windows 7
• Deployment tools SCCM 2007 is optimized for Windows 7 deployments.
• Extend support of Windows 7 until 2020

Moving to Windows 8 is not an easy jump to make from Windows XP. But there are some great features in Windows 8 to take into consideration for example.

• Runs Application and Apps
• Better touch Screen capabilities
• Faster boot and shut downs
• Better networking capabilities
• Flexible hardware options
• OneDrive Integration
• Windows to Go
• OMA-DM capabilities
• Sideloading LOB Apps
• Work Folders
• Workplace Join
• Drive encryption
• Extended support of Windows 8 until 2023

Typically the largest deciding factor when moving from Windows XP to the next operating system, has been similarity in the interface between Windows XP and Windows 7. Allot of companies have found they get less push back from their users and more productivity by taking the step to Windows 7, this seems to be a more natural progression. That being said Windows 8 is an excellent Operating System, it’s just going to take some time or training to get the users comfortable. What really it all boils down to is company culture, how as a company do you treat your users are they hand held or do does the company have control.
One item that has been become a big rumor, and  aiding in the decisions for many companies, is the upcoming release of Windows 9, code-named Threshold – supposedly to launch in the spring of 2015. Some of the rumors state this will have a more Windows 7 ish look and feel. My guess is only time will tell.
All of this reminds me of when Windows XP was the Operating System of choice, then Vista came along and did not have a strong adoption. With the release of Windows 7 made companies skip Vista altogether.
Over all there is not right or wrong answer to whether to use Windows 7 or Windows 8, Just decisions. I feel like we are losing an old friend with the support for Windows XP upon us.
 
 

It’s no secret Microsoft is doing the same to XP as the bad boy trio from Office Space did to that poor Printer.
The deprecation of XP will have an impact on organizations for various reasons, some of which I’m not qualified to speak in depth about, but a key topics on the wire as of late is particularly around security. Without a steady stream of updates and patches, you leave your environment largely susceptible to attack.
I can speak more intelligently and qualified around XP in the workplace and how it works with Lync…or how it DOESN’T really, kind of a little, maybe…work with Lync. Huh?
Let me explain. The Windows XP OS has been dropped from backward support-ability with Lync Server 2013. Microsoft knew long ago, XP was going to be killed off during the reign of Lync Server 2013, so they are essentially forcing your hand to upgrade. It’s a fair hand to be played in defense of Microsoft, at some point we have to move on and put to rest the aging systems to focus on improving existing and future releases, so don’t look at this as a strong arm play by Microsoft, it’s just simply evolution.
If you are considering the move to Lync Server 2013, understand that any pockets of existing XP machines need to be upgraded to at least Windows 7 for the Lync 2013 client to install. If you do not upgrade, your users will be left with Lync 2010 or OCS 2007 R2 (MOC) client and that’s not cool.
Start reviewing Client Interoperability and Support here.
Keeping Lync 2010 client in your environment because of XP is not ideal. It works and its supported, but its just not perfect. Expect that you will find feature and functionality caveats and shortcomings, plus multiple support streams and image packages. Yuck!
If you are upgrading from OCS 2007 R2 Platform to Lync Server 2013, another knock against replacing the MOC client with Lync 2010 client just to justify the retention the XP OS, is user adoption. If you introduce Lync 2010, then plan to introduce Lync 2013 or maybe even the next rev of the Lync client over an accelerated timeline to get your OS’s upgraded, you essentially press change upon your users more times than needed. Change would essentially happen like this for your users:
1.) Introduce new Lync 2010 Client
2.) Introduce new OS
3.) Introduce new Lync 2013 Client
Simply put, this is not ideal.
If you hit the OS upgrade button now, change would look like this:
1.) Introduce new OS and Lync 2013 Client at the same time during the same roll out of a single package.
This strategy has much less of an impact on your sensitive user base.
The MOC client, however, is much much different.
First and foremost, you can’t join a Lync Conference using MOC. ALL you get with MOC, is IM and Presence, so that is an incredibly big disadvantage of using the MOC client as a stop gap.
Second, the MOC client does not support DNS Load Balancing as the Lync Clients do. This could cause an impact as well if you feel your users need HA. If you keep the MOC client on the desktops and move to a Lync Server 2013 back-end, you will need to configure or purchase an HLB to maintain SIP communication HA, no exceptions. All of this JUST for IM&P?
If you move to the Lync Client immediately, you can take advantage of the DNSLB mechanism built into the Lync client to maintain SIP communication HA. Keep in mind, however, HLB is still required for load balancing the web communications required by Lync, but sizing of the HLB can be dramatically reduced.
So the moral of the story, please look to upgrade as soon as possible. Your organization is only limiting itself by trying to squeeze every last breath from XP. The OS is dead, time to move on and allow the grieving process to run its course.

With the release of Windows Server 2012 R2 comes many great new features, including a improved virtual machine named generation 2.
Generation 2 virtual machines provide quite a few enhancements across the spectrum of Hyper-V VM technology. Perhaps most notable is the removal of legacy emulated hardware. Removal of the legacy network adapter, IDE controller, floppy controller, serial controller (COM ports), and PCI bus, results in a more efficient VM. You should see faster boot times, and quicker installations from .iso. How does a VM boot without these integral components? Where necessary, they have been replaced with software based versions.
Other enhancements include:

• Replaced BIOS with UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)
  • Faster boot times
  • Support for boot volumes up to 64TB (Uses GPT instead of MBR)

• Enhanced Security
  • Smaller attack surface
  • Secure Boot – Prevents unauthorized firmware, drivers and OS from running during boot.

• Expansion of data and boot disks while VM is running. Nice!

• Complete reliance on VHDX file format resulting in much better performance (VHD’s are no longer supported).

• Enhanced Session Mode
  • This allows device redirection and the ability to control display configuration when connected via the Virtual Machine Connection tool.

Some things to keep in mind with generation 2 machines:

• Guest OS environments must be 64 bit, and only supports Server 2012 and Windows 8 or later.

• Physical CD/DVD pass-through is no longer available. Although you can still attach physical disks to a VM, it is strongly discouraged due to the fact that any reliance on physical hardware makes live migration problematic.

• Generation 2 is a feature of Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. Keep this in mind if you try to live migrate a gen 2 machine to a Windows Server 2012 host. You can live migrate a generation 1 machine between 2012 R2 and Server 2012 hosts, but not generation 2.

• You currently can’t officially convert a generation 1 machine to generation 2. Although there are PowerShell scripts which can make this happen, it isn’t supported by Microsoft. Hopefully, there will be a supported utility soon.

• RemoteFX is not supported.

This is not an exhaustive list of the features of the new generation 2 virtual machine in Windows Server 2012 R2, but it is hopefully enough to get you interested. If you are ready for a deep dive, here is more information.
Next time you create a VM, choose generation 2.

Being able to create multiple application deployment types with Configuration Manager is a great feature. This gives you the ability to have one application  built to suite many deployment needs, such as MSI, Script, AppV, Citrix or multiple languages. While this is a great feature there is one issue with the new release of Configuration Manager 2012 R2 I have come across.
While creating new applications, I started to notice many were not giving me the ability to select uninstall the button was grayed out while other applications worked fine. I then proceeded to verify uninstall was setup correctly, and if any of the  installs were set as required. The one thing I did noticed was all the applications that were having the uninstall issue all had multiple deployment types. So I said to myself (SELF) what if I removed all the deployment types except one, and guess what, now I can uninstall the application. So after this chat with myself, I decided to try the same thing on all of the other applications that I have this issue with and now I can use the uninstall feature on them as well.
My theory was that if  you have multiple deployment types you lose the ability to uninstall applications. I decided to test this in our lab on an older version of Configuration Manager 2012, and found I had no issues with the ability to uninstall applications when you have multiple deployments created for the same app.
So this appears to be a bug or an issue in SCCM 2012 R2. I did read a articles stating that this is an issue at this time,  Microsoft is working on a fix. So for now if you have multiple deployment types created with SCCM 2012 R2 for a application you will not be able to use the uninstall feature, the button will be grayed out.
I will do a follow up to this post once I get conformation this issue has been resolved.
Happy Application Packaging….
Here are some screen shots of my testing.

Multiple deployment types

Grayed out uninstall

One deployment type

Uninstall available