Windows® 7 Resource Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)For a first edition, this RSK shows great promise. Too much information for those who wish to only be power users of the OS, but for anyone who needs to master and administer Windows 7, you can't go wrong with this behemoth. You would be hard pressed to not find an answer to general question or administrative need therein.
Continuing the trend set forth in prior Windows RSKs, this RSK introduces a lot of topics, but requires you to purchase additional books or read additional (and most of the time lengthy) TechNet material to fully make use of the technology or to completely understand what information they did present. A good example of this is PowerShell. The RSK and CD make heavy use of PowerShell scripts to automate tasks, but you do need to follow their How-To link if you actually want to learn the language. Another good example is the section on automated deployment. Although an excellent overview, most of the information you will need to completely perform the task you must get from one of the 7 links they provide you for resource materials.
I have also been somewhat surprised at the amount of information which is just missing, items that any administrator opting to customize the environment might need. As an example, if you're looking to deploy Win7 using the WIM on the install DVD instead of capturing your own, you will probably want to configure the Default User profile - a topic you will find minimal information on beyond folder locations and establishing mandatory profiles. Something as simple as how to configure the default background image is nowhere to be found. There are also no references to OEM configurations, such as changing the stock background image displayed when at the logon screen. Countless web sites publicize the information, but not the RSK.
Yes, this RSK is well written and an invaluable addition to your administrative library, but it won't be the last book on Windows 7 you buy/read.


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Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)The resource kit for R2 is very similar to the R1 version - it is a very technical reference on the servers, roles, services, ports and communications mechanisms to the latest version of OCS. In that, it is written for those with on-hand experience with Microsoft server OS deployments such as Server 2003 and Server 2008. This book is not a book for beginners on OCS. In my opionion, there isn't a good written published reference for beginners - stick with the Microsoft white papers and TechNet articles. If your job is to design, architect OCS R2, this book is very valuable and will provide the process and procedures for completing your design. Deployment tasks are treated a little more lightly; while they are covered, the specific task-by-task details are not provided. That, again, is left to the white papers Microsoft has written well on the subject. As far as migration from OCS R1 to R2, the pages covered are from 659 to 662. Only a few pages - but the process to migrate is depicted in the pages. Migration from LCS or OCS R1 is a coexistence process as you will likely deploy OCS R2 on net-new hardware along side the existing legacy product. This allows easy migration by simply associating the legacy SIP-enabled users to the new system.
This reference is well worth the purchase price. This, along with the Microsoft-provided technical references will steer you in the right direction for OCS R2.

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Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)The OCS 2007 Resource Kit is a must have for any OCS administrator. It has all the details about Office Communicator you need to fully support and understand this complicated product. It has all the WMI settings that any admin would need to make changes to there environment. Also detailed diagnostic information about IM, Conferencing, Telephony is fully exposed in their respective chapters. I highly reoommend it.

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