Microsoft has just released a new hotfix to address an issue with slow logon performance when you use AppData folder redirection.

Consider the following scenario in a network environment:

• You configure users to use roaming profiles to log on to a client computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
• You redirect the %AppData%\Roaming folder to a network share.
• You enable the Do not automatically make redirected folders available offline Group Policy setting on the client computer.
• You enable both of the following Group Policy settings for the %AppData%\Roaming folder:
• Administratively assigned offline files
• Turn on economical application of administratively assigned Offline Files

This configuration specifies that only new files or folders in the %AppData%\Roaming folder are synchronized during the logon process.

In this scenario, the users encounter slow logon behavior on the client computer.

In addition to this hotfix you will also need to make some registry changes which of course you can easily deploy this using the Group Policy Preferences Registry Extension.

Link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981830

This video provides of an overview of the steps required when migrating from Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to Lync Server 2010.

The Exchange Team publishes an update bringing it to version 17.2.

Bug fixes since version 16.5:

• Database Copy Distribution fixes:

  • Prevented distribution calculation when Input sheet values are invalid; added row in header for counters for databases assigned to a server;

  • Added conditional formatting to highlight error/problem status messages in white text on red background;

  • Corrected the issue where Non-English operating system locales could not execute the database copy distribution macro;

  • Increased the performance of the Server Failure buttons;

  • Corrected an issue that prevented the Diskpart.ps1 script from working when there was only one server line present.

• Updated comments for processor input section to help customers understand the correct value to enter for SPECInt2006 rate value when deploying Mailbox servers as guest machines;

• Fixed CPU percentage calculation formula for lagged database copy servers to use the available megacycles for the Lagged Copy servers as opposed to the primary datacenter Mailbox servers;

• Added 900GB capacity as an option for disk drives.

It's always good to know how many users might be affected by an taking a server down. The following PowerShell function will grab performance counter data from each server to determine the number of active OWA and RPC connections:

function Get-CASActiveUsers {
 [CmdletBinding()]
 
param(
 [Parameter(Position=0, 
ParameterSetName="Value", Mandatory=$true)]
 
[String[]]$ComputerName,
 
[Parameter(Position=0, ParameterSetName="Pipeline", 
ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true, 
Mandatory=$true)]
 
[String]$Name
 )
 process {
 switch($PsCmdlet.ParameterSetName) 
{
 "Value" {$servers = 
$ComputerName}
 "Pipeline" {$servers = 
$Name}
 }
 $servers | 
%{
 $RPC = Get-Counter "\MSExchange 
RpcClientAccess\User Count" -ComputerName $_
 
$OWA = Get-Counter "\MSExchange OWA\Current Unique Users" -ComputerName 
$_
 New-Object PSObject -Property 
@{
 Server = 
$_
 "RPC Client Access" = 
$RPC.CounterSamples[0].CookedValue
 
"Outlook Web App" = 
$OWA.CounterSamples[0].CookedValue
 
}
 }
 }
}

Just add the function to your shell session and when you run it, specify one or more server names using the -ComputerName parameter:

Get-CASActiveUsers -ComputerName cas1,cas2

The function is also written to support pipeline input, so you can pipe the Get-ClientAccessServer cmdlet to it as well:

Get-ClientAccessServer | Get-CASActiveUsers

It can take a few minutes before the values are updated as clients connect or disconnect.

In this video tutorial Trond Eirik Haavarstein shows you how to install and configure Citrix XenDesktop 5 (XD5) with Microsoft Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). The process is pretty straight forward if you do them in the right order.

This small video shows how to quick and easy configure WebDAV extensions in IIS on Windows Server 2008 R2. These configurations are targeted for SCCM 2007 R2 / R3 deployment.