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Previously:
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Part 1: Overview
Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Part 2: Remote Access

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials has one overlooked feature that fills an important need in most small businesses. Every night, SBS 2011 Essentials backs up all of the workstations in their entirety.

Microsoft originally developed this backup technology for Windows Home Server. Microsoft did some of its best technical magic on the backup system to use the least possible space on the server hard drives and to make the backups quick (although they’re done in the middle of the night, so speed isn’t really an issue). […] continued

In April, with little fanfare, Microsoft released three new server products to manufacturing and to the hardware vendors: Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Windows Home Server 2011, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is so well-designed and fits its niche so perfectly that I expected that it would become the standard platform for many very small businesses, as ubiquitous as SBS 2003 was in its day. I excitedly previewed SBS 2011 Essentials back in November 2010, and I began using it in my own office earlier this summer. It’s great! Ever since the final product shipped in April I’ve been waiting to detail some of its best features – waiting until the inevitable burst of promotion from Microsoft, waiting until Dell and HP start selling it preinstalled on their servers, waiting until there was something concrete for you to look at and consider buying for your office. […] continued

Drive Extender deserves another mention before it heads into the graveyard of failed technology.

If you’ve been reading along, you know that Drive Extender was the promising technology built into Windows Home Server to make it easier to manage storage space on a network device. Drive Extender pools the storage on all the hard drives in a Windows Home Server device, with little regard for drive letters, partitions, volumes, RAID, or the other arcana of hard drive management; and it replicates data across the physical hard disks so that no data is lost in the event of a hardware failure.

At one time Microsoft intended to make Drive Extender the foundation for hard drive management in all its products – a huge undertaking that would have had repercussions at all levels, from enterprise servers to our individual home computers. […] continued

Previously:
The Future Of Small Office Technology
History Lesson, Part 1: Small Business Server
History Lesson, Part 2: Windows Home Server
Looking Forward: Small Business Server 2011 Standard

I have a long article for you about an exciting new platform for small businesses scheduled for release in six months. Take your time and read this over the holiday weekend, but don’t get lazy and decide you can skip this one – there will be a test when class meets again. Happy Thanksgiving!

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials will be marketed as a “first server” for small businesses with fewer than 25 users. […] continued

Previously:
The Future Of Small Office Technology
History Lesson, Part 1: Small Business Server

Some of Microsoft’s best technology has been overlooked for three years, hobbled by a poorly chosen name and a market that wasn’t ready for it. Microsoft is about to take that technology and put it front and center. I think it should be smashingly successful in its new incarnation.

Windows Home Server started life as a heavily customized version of Microsoft’s long-standing platform, Windows Server 2003. WHS then added some unique features that set it apart – the features that make the new products so exciting that will be arriving from Microsoft next spring. […] continued

Over the past few weeks, Microsoft has laid out the technology that will power small offices for the foreseeable future.

When these are on the market (likely within the next 3-6 months), the landscape for small businesses will be completely different than anything you have seen before. Each piece is an outgrowth of existing products and services, but each one represents a huge step forward in vision and execution.

If you are in a business with 1-25 computers, it is likely that you will be using one or more of these products, and probably sooner rather than later.

We will be choosing from six new products. […] continued

Previously: Windows 7 Searches – Small Business

When you click on Documents in the Start menu in Windows 7, your cursor arrives blinking in Libraries. I’ve been annoyed by that for months, but I finally had an “ah-ha!” moment when I discovered what libraries can do for searches. Let me give you some background about libraries, from the perspective of a small business or law firm user.

Libraries are collections gathered together from different places and presented in a single view. There’s no folder on your C: drive named “Libraries.” A library is a special view of files stored in other places. […] continued

If the right elements are in place, Windows 7 can be used for lightning-fast searches through shared folders in small businesses and law firms. There are a couple of tricks to that process; it will take a couple of days to give you the background and show you some search techniques.

When Windows Search 4.0 was released in the summer of 2008, one of its important features was “remote query” or “remote index discovery.” A computer with Windows Search 4 responds to a search query from a remote computer by consulting its own index and sending the search results. When Windows Search 4 is running on a server sharing company documents, the server returns the results instantly with high accuracy and a minimum of network traffic. […] continued

This is for anyone who might have been procrastinating. Look down in the lower right corner for the icon for your security program.

If you see the Windows Live OneCare icon (pictured above), it’s time to move on!

If you see the Microsoft Security Essentials icon (pictured at right), you’re fine. Go back to work. (If you’re using Windows 7, you may have to click on the up arrow to find it in the hidden icons.)

Microsoft is sending out a blizzard of email notices to former OneCare users about OneCare subscription extensions and renewals and cancellations. You can ignore them. […] continued

There is more frustration with passwords than almost any other part of our interactions with computers. Part of the frustration is the difficulty of remembering them, of course, but there is also no consistency to help you understand when a password is required or what it’s for.

Passwords will be a fact of life for a long time. They are crucial to our security as we move forward into an era when our data is stored online or is accessible online. Frequently it is only a password that protects you against identify theft or financial loss. I’ve written before about the necessity of accepting the need for passwords and some tips about how to make them more secure. […] continued