VT Technology Blog

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Windows 10 Shortcut Keys

This guide published 8/24/2015
Download link: Shortcut keys for Windows 10

How to switch from one desktop to another using keyboard shortcuts

How to create desktop shortcuts for settings in Windows 10 intowindows

Shortcut	Description
Windows key	Open and close the Start menu.
+1, +2, etc.	Switch to the desktop and launch the nth application in the taskbar. For example, +1 launches whichever application is first in the list, numbered from left to right.
+A	Open the action center.
+B	Highlight the notification area.
+C	Launch Cortana into listening mode.[1] Users can begin to speak to Cortana immediately.
+D	Switch between Show Desktop (hides/shows any applications and other windows) and the previous state.
+E	Switch to the desktop and launch File Explorer with the Quick Access tab displayed.
+H	Open the Share charm.
+I	Open the Settings app.
+K	Open the Connect pane to connect to wireless displays and audio devices.
+L	Lock the device and go to the Lock screen.
+M	Switch to the desktop and minimize all open windows.
+O	Lock device orientation.
+P	Open the Project pane to search and connect to external displays and projectors.
+R	Display the Run dialog box.
+S	Launch Cortana.[2] Users can begin to type a query immediately.
+T	Cycle through the apps on the taskbar.
+U	Launch the Ease of Access Center.
+V	Cycle through notifications.
+X	Open the advanced menu in the lower-left corner of the screen.
+Z	Open the app-specific command bar.
+ENTER	Launch Narrator.
+SPACEBAR	Switch input language and keyboard layout.
+TAB	Open Task view.
+,	Peek at the desktop.
+Plus Sign	Zoom in.
+Minus Sign	Zoom out.
+ESCAPE	Close Magnifier.
+LEFT ARROW	Dock the active window to the left half of the monitor.
+RIGHT ARROW	Dock the active window to the right half of the monitor.
+UP ARROW	Maximize the active window vertically and horizontally.
+DOWN ARROW	Restore or minimize the active window.
+SHIFT+UP ARROW	Maximize the active window vertically, maintaining the current width.
+SHIFT+ DOWN ARROW	Restore or minimize the active window vertically, maintaining the current width.
+SHIFT+LEFT ARROW	With multiple monitors, move the active window to the monitor on the left.
+SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW	With multiple monitors, move the active window to the monitor on the right.
+HOME	Minimize all nonactive windows; restore on second keystroke.
+PRNT SCRN	Take a picture of the screen and place it in theComputer>Pictures>Screenshots folder.
+CTRL+LEFT/RIGHT arrow	Switch to the next or previous virtual desktop.
+CTRL+D	Create a new virtual desktop.
+CTRL+F4	Close the current virtual desktop.
+?	Launch the Windows Feedback App.

[1] If Cortana is unavailable or disabled, this shortcut has no function.

[2] Cortana is only available in certain countries/regions, and some Cortana features might not be available everywhere. If Cortana is unavailable or disabled, this command opens Search.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3, RSAT for Windows 10

Microsoft released Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 on August 19 2015 as well as System Center 2016 and RSAT for Windows Server 2016 TP3.

Windows Server 2016 TP3 is the first public version to support Windows Server Containers
It also includes improvements and new features listed on technet:

Windows Server Containers: Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview now includes containers, which are an isolated, resource-controlled, and portable operating environment. They are an isolated place where an application can run without affecting the rest of the system or the system affecting the application. For some additional information on containers, see Containers: Docker, Windows and Trends.
What's new in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server Technical Preview. Active Directory Domain Services includes improvements to help organizations secure Active Directory environments and provide better identity management experiences for both corporate and personal devices.
What’s New in Active Directory Federation Services. Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview includes new features that enable you to configure AD FS to authenticate users stored in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories. For more information, see Active Directory Federation Services Overview [Role/Tech Overview].
What's New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Failover Clustering. A Hyper-V or Scale-out File Server failover cluster can now easily be upgraded without any downtime or need to build a new cluster with nodes that are running Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview.
What's new in Hyper-V in Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, Client Hyper-V running on Windows 10, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server Technical Preview.
Windows Server Antimalware Overview for Windows Server Technical Preview. Windows Server Antimalware is installed and enabled by default in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, but the user interface for Windows Server Antimalware is not installed. However, Windows Server Antimalware will update antimalware definitions and protect the computer without the user interface. If you need the user interface for Windows Server Antimalware, you can install it after the operating system installation by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard.
What's New in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2016. For the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, the Remote Desktop Services team focused on improvements based on customer requests. We added support for OpenGL and OpenCL applications, and added MultiPoint Services as a new role in Windows Server.
What's New in File and Storage Services in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Storage Services. An update in storage quality of service now enables you to create storage QoS policies on a Scale-Out File Server and assign them to one or more virtual disks on Hyper-V virtual machines. Storage Replica is a new feature that enables synchronous replication between servers for disaster recovery, as well as stretching of a failover cluster for high availability..
- What's New in Web Application Proxy in Windows Server Technical Preview. The latest version of Web Application Proxy focuses on new features that enable publishing and preauthentication for more applications and improved user experience. Check out the full list of new features that includes preauthentication for rich client apps such as Exchange ActiveSync and wildcard domains for easier publishing of SharePoint apps.
- What's new in the Windows console. The underlying console host (Conhost.exe) has been updated in several ways, adding new and different functionality to the Windows command prompt, the Windows PowerShell prompt, and any other character-mode applications. For details, see What's New in the Windows Console in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview and Console Improvements in the Windows 10 Technical Preview , but you should take note of these important changes:
  - The new console functionality is enabled by default. If an existing application doesn't work properly with the new console, you can select Use legacy console on the Options tab and then restart your application. You can also control individual aspects of the new functionality with registry keys; see details at the linked topics.
  - Console windows can be resized dynamically with the mouse. This could cause issues with some console applications.
  - Quick Edit mode is enabled by default. If this conflicts with your application, you can disable it on the Options tab.
  - There are new keyboard shortcuts for copy, paste, and history navigation. If these conflict with your application, you can disable them on the Options tab (look for Enable CTRL key shortcuts and Extended test selection keys).
  - The default font type for new console windows is TrueType. You can still use raster fonts, but they won't scale properly on some displays.
  - Text wraps and reflows by default when you resize a window. If necessary, you can disable this on the Layouts tab.
  - In some cases, after upgrade installation, fonts in the console window might be very small. To adjust this, use the Fonts tab.

What’s New in Windows PowerShell 5.0. Windows PowerShell 5.0 includes significant new features—including support for developing with classes, and new security features—that extend its use, improve its usability, and allow you to control and manage Windows-based environments more easily and comprehensively. Multiple new features in Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) are also described in this topic.
What's New in Networking in Windows Server Technical Preview. With this topic you can discover information about new networking technologies, such as Network Controller and Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) Tunneling, and new features for existing technologies, including IP Address Management (IPAM), DNS, and DHCP. Detailed information about what’s new is available for these networking technologies:

GRE Tunneling in Windows Server Technical Preview. This preview release introduces a new feature that enables Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) for the Windows Server Gateway.
What's New in DNS Client in Windows Server Technical Preview. Window DNS Client provides enhanced support for computers with more than one network interface.
What's New in DHCP in Windows Server Technical Preview. The DHCP Server role no longer supports Network Access Protection (NAP).

The Software architecture changes between Windows Server 2012 R2 & Windows Server 2016 TP3

image via Microsoft

MSFT Evaluation Center:

Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3

Hyper-V Server 2016 Technical Preview 3

System Center Technical Preview 3

RSAT for Windows 10

Additional Information:

Monday, August 17, 2015

Manage all versions of Microsoft Hyper-V from Windows 10 with VT Technology Management Utilities (vtUtilities)

VT Technology's popular Hyper-V management tool vtUtilities is now compatible not only with Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 but with Windows 10 as well.

Microsoft released Windows 10 at the end of July, planning to release next Technical Preview of Windows Server 2016 along with RSAT for Windows 10 later this month, making remote management of WinServ2016 TP 3 from Windows 10 machine possible. Commercial release of Windows Server 2016 is expected next year.

It's a good news for Windows administrators. However, local management or management of previous versions of Hyper-V from new OS still would not be possible without VT technology Management Utilities for Hyper-V.

You can get your free trial of vtUtilities here

Friday, July 31, 2015

Windows 10

Windows 10 has been available since July 29, and 14m devices have already been upgraded after first 24 hours.

Based on Gartner's most recent count of 374 million total Windows devices, that means the new OS now powers nearly 4 percent of all Windows machines. For comparison's sake, five days after the launch of Windows 8 - which wasn't a free upgrade like Windows 10 - then SEO Steve Ballmer was bragging about 4 million upgrades sold. And that was more than Windows 7 saw. More

Windows 10 is free for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users. Go to Microsoft's Site to pick the 32-bit version / 64-bit version of media creation tool and download. Paul Thurrott has a good write-up: Windows 10 Tip: Upgrade to Windows 10 Right Now.

If you want to revert back to the former OS you have 30 days to make the decision.

Windows 10 launch - as it happened The Telegraph

Upgrade to Windows 10 for free Microsoft
Windows 10 Q & A Microsoft
Step-By-Step: Reducing The Windows 10 Installation File Size Via DISM technet
Configuring Custom Windows 10 VPN Profiles using Intune
Windows 10 - How to Upgrade msdn
Windows 10 - The First 24 Hours Microsoft

Wi-Fi Sense in Windows 10: Yes, it shares your passkeys; no, you shouldn’t be scared arstechnica
Windows 10 Mail: Beautiful but bug-ridden
How to do a clean install of Windows 10 (from Windows 7 and 8)
Review: Windows 10 is the best version yet—once the bugs get fixed
Trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts, or: Windows 10 for the Mac user

How to Uninstall and Block Updates and Drivers on Windows 10 how-to geek
How to Clean Install Windows 10
How to Manage Accessibility Features in Windows 10
How to Reset Your Forgotten Password in Windows 10
How to Hide the Cortana Search Box on Windows 10 Task Bar
How to Dual-Boot Windows 10 with Windows 7 or 8
How to Create Bootable USB Drives and SD Cards for Every OS

Windows 10 Tip: Master the Quick Access Menu Thurrott
Windows 10 Tip: Upgrade to Windows 10 Right Now
Windows 10 Tip: Master Multitasking Keyboard Shortcuts
Windows 10 Tip: Get Windows 7 Start Menu Back
Windows 10 Tip: Successfully Clean Install Windows 10
Windows 10 Review
Windows 10 and Automatic Updates
Windows 10: The New PC Experience

A closer look at logging into a Windows 10 PC with just your face The Verge
How to clean install Windows 10
The story of Windows 10 from inside Microsoft
Here's what's next for Windows 10
Why Microsoft is giving away Windows 10 for free
The best Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts

How to do a clean install of Windows 10 cnet
Change your mind about Windows 10? Here's how you can roll back

Use Windows 10's individual display scaling to perfect your multi-monitor setup PCWorld
Killing Cortana: How to disable Windows 10's info-hungry digital assistant
Can your old PC run Windows 10? The answer will surprise you
How to uninstall programs and apps in Windows 10
What Windows 7 holdouts will miss: 11 improvements in Windows 10
10 things Windows 10 failed to fix or flat-out broke
Windows 10: The 10 best new features you should try first
How to play DVDs in Windows 10 for free
How to install Windows 10 on your PC
5 must-know Windows 10 tips and tricks
Hands on with Windows 10's Windows Hello: It just works
How to schedule when Windows 10 updates restart your PC
Set Windows 10's Wi-Fi connections as metered to download forced updates at your own pace

Why the Hell is Windows !0 Sharing my WiFi Passwords Gizmodo
Windows 10, Day One
Windows 10 Is Hiding a Great Video Capture Tool
Why I'm Upgrading to Windows 10
I Installed Windows 10 and Now I'm Talking To My Computer
The Ultimate Guide To Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts
14 Thing You Can Do in Windows 10 That You Couldn't Do in Windows 8

The 10 best features of Windows 10, in GIFs Mashable
What Windows 7 users need to know about updating to Windows 10
The evolution of Windows startup sounds from Windows 3.1 to 10
Windows 10 review: A needed upgrade with missing pieces
Here's how to install Windows 10 on a Mac. But should you do it?
What to do if your PC doesn't have enough space for Windows 10

Windows 10 Updating, Reinstalling And Activation Guide: Essential Advice To Avoid Problems Forbes

Windows 10 laptops and tablets ZDNet
Windows 10: You've got questions, I've got answers

Why is it called Windows 10 and not Windows 9? | ExtremeTech

How to download Windows 10 and create your own installation USB flash drive or DVD betanews

Here's the most surprising fact about Microsoft Windows Time

Windows 10: The first 5 things you need to do immediately after you install it yahoo

Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do – here’s how to opt out bgr

Supporting Windows 10 in Your Environment myITforum

Windows 10 Torrent-U-Like updates slurp your precious bandwidth theregister

Windows 10 uses your bandwidth to send other people updates TNW

How to revert back to your previous OS after a Windows 10 upgrade winsupersite

Saturday, June 27, 2015

New Links for Windows Server, Hyper-V, Azure / May - June 2015

Downloads & Scripts

TechNet, MSDN blog posts

Linux Integration Services 4.0 Announcement Ben Armstrong's Virtualization Blog
Building a Daily Ubuntu image for Hyper-V
Handy Tool for Converting KVM / VMware Images to Hyper-V
Using PowerShell to Ping Test a VM
Using PowerShell to get VM IP addresses
Programmatically keeping the VM screen on

Ignite

Microsoft Ignite Keynote Announcement Summary WinITPro
Windows Server & System Center Futures—Bring Azure to your Datacenter (Platform Vision & Strategy) (Channel 9)
What 'client' means on the new Windows Server zdnet
Windows Server 2016 TP2 and Storage QoS S & T
Hyper-V at Ignite technet
What’s New in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V ZDnet
Microsoft Ignite: The beginning of the end for Windows Server? Techdiction

Blogs

How to install the GUI on Windows Server 2016 4sysops
What's new in Hyper-V in Windows Server 2016 TP 4sysops
How to build your fist fantastic Nano Server Happy Sysadmin
Azure Site Recovery: Generation 2 VM support Kristian Nese
Configuring the Virtual Network using Converged Networks Leandro Carvalho
How to transfer a file from Host to a Hyper-V VM? Denis Voituron's Blog

Press

Why Nano Server is the most vital change to Windows Server since Windows NT 3.5 techradar
Everything Microsoft announced at Build Developer Conference 2015: Day 2 thenextweb
Deep Dive into SCVMM 2012 R2 Networking and Storage (Part 2) virtadmin
Getting Started With Azure Pack virtualizationadmin
Microsoft Hyper-V: Guide To Common Commands IWNetworkComputing
Microsoft: Nano Server Is Most Significant Change Since Windows NT VR
Microsoft Azure – or how to make the public cloud work for you theregister
Sysadmins rebel over GUI-free install for Windows Server 2016
Windows Server is Going Nano: Is Windows 10 Next? cmswire

Image via Microsoft

Video

The Storage Replica Video Series:

Virtualization sessions @ Msft Ignite ch9

Nano Server videos at Ch9:
Nano Server PXE Boot demo
Nano Server Scale Demo
Nano Server and Chef Provisioning - extended cut
Nano Server and Release Management
Nano Server and Azure PowerShell
Nano Server as a Hyper-V Host on an 80-core machine
Remote Server Management Tools on Nano Server
Server Manager managing Nano Server
Nano Server Reboot Speed
Failover Clustering on Nano Server
Remotely Managing Hyper-V on Nano Server TP 2 from Windows 10
Remotely Managing Nano Server with PowerShell Desired State Configuration
Remote Script Debugging on Nano Server

Monday, May 4, 2015

Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 2. MS Ignite News.

Microsoft announced release of Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview at Ignite conference in Chicago on May 4.

The second preview includes Nano Server, support for rolling upgrades for Hyper-V and Storage Clusters, Storage Replica and other improvements.

Windows Server / Hyper-V Container and Azure Stack functionalities are not included in TP 2 and expected to be available in the next TP coming this summer.

Windows Server 2016 TP download link

Hyper-V Server TP download link

What's new in Windows Server 2016 TP :

Compute and Virtualization: Simplified upgrades, new installment options, and increased resilience, helping you ensure the stability of the infrastructure without limiting agility.

Rolling upgrades for Hyper-V and scale-out file server clusters for faster adoption of new operating systems
Functionality for hot add and remove memory and NIC, reducing downtime
Virtual machine compute resiliency, so that virtual machines continue running even if the compute cluster fabric service fails
Nano Server, a deeply refactored version of Windows Server with a small footprint and remotely managed installation, optimized for the cloud and a DevOps workflow

Networking: Continued investment to make networking as flexible and cost-effective as possible while ensuring high performance.

Converged NIC across tenant and RDMA traffic to optimize costs, enabling high performance and network fault tolerance with only 2 NICs instead of 4
PacketDirect on 40G to optimize performance

Storage: Expanding capabilities in software-defined storage with an emphasis on resilience, reduced cost, and increased control.

Virtual Machine Storage Path resiliency, enabling virtual machines to pause and restart gracefully in response to either transient or permanent storage path failures
Storage Spaces Direct to enable aggregation of Storage Spaces across multiple servers, pushing the cost of storage down while allowing for increased scale out
Storage quality of service (QoS) for more control and predictable performance
Storage Replica, giving you synchronous storage replication for affordable business continuity and disaster recovery strategies

Security and Assurance: Protecting against today’s threats with a “zero-trust” approach to security that is rooted in the hardware.

New Host Guardian Service, part of a trust and isolation boundary between the cloud infrastructure and guest OS layers
Just Enough Administration to reduce the risk of security breaches by allowing users to perform only specific tasks

Management: Ongoing advances to simplify server management and increase consistency in approach.

PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) for easier, consistent and faster deployment and updates.
PowerShell Package Manager for unified package management and deployment
Windows Management Framework 5.0 April Preview and DSC Resource Kit (available online simultaneously with TP2)

And much more, including new features for IIS, RDS, and AD such as:

Conditional access control in AD FS, allows requiring a device compliant with policies to access resources
Support for application authentication with OpenID Connect and OAuth, making it easier to build mobile enterprise applications
Full OpenGL support with RDS for VDI scenarios
Server-side support for HTTP/2 including header compression, connection multiplexing and server push.

So what’s the next step? Check out the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 2 here, and start learning more about what’s new and notable.

Additional Information

Release Notes: Important Issues in Windows Server Technical Preview 2

Microsoft Brings Azure to the Datacenter for the Next Generation of Hybrid Cloud Server & Tools

Microsoft tees up second test builds of Windows Server 2016, System Center 2016 ZDnet

Microsoft will now let you run Azure in your datacenter tnw

Microsoft readies new Azure Stack bundle for private cloud customers ZDnet

Microsoft Announces Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 msftnews

Microsoft releases Server Technical Preview 2 to TechNet subscribers neowin

Try to contain your joy: Microsoft emits Windows Server 2016 with nano-services theregister

Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016 TP technet

Gallery: Windows Server TP 2 neowin

How to Setup Hyper-V in Windows 10 insider Preview TroubleShoot Windows