James O'Neill's blog
Windows Platform, Virtualization and PowerShell with a little Photography for good measure.
Fighting talk from VMware.
There’s running joke on my team – if I want to drive my blog statistics up all I need to do is talk...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/24/2009
Powershell Parameters 2: common parameters.
In the previous post I talked about the template I have for many of my PowerShell functions. And...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/22/2009
Parameters in PowerShell functions: vague is good.
There is a theme which I’ve found has come up in several places with PowerShell. Giving flexibility...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/22/2009
Drilling into ‘reasons for not switching to Hyper-V’
Information week published an article last week “9 Reasons why enterprises shouldn’t switch to...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/21/2009
Server 2008 R2 feature map.
One of the popular giveaways at our events this year has been the feature poster for server 2008-R2...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/15/2009
Add-ons and plug-ins – do you have a favourite ?
I was chatting with a couple of colleagues yesterday about internet explorer. Someone grumbled “When...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/15/2009
Hyper-V resource round-up.
I spent this morning with a group of our partners and one of the comments which came back was “we...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/10/2009
Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool update
I had a mail about an update to the Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool , which I thought was...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/10/2009
Search stories … or “how do people manage on XP”
I know from experience that the people I meet in this job , and those who read this blog are more...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/08/2009
Get-Scripting podcast
I was pleased to get asked to record a Podcast with Jonathan and Alan to become episode 14 of their...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/08/2009
Security updates.
There are some rumours circulating about problems with the latest round of security updates. The...
Author: James ONeill Date: 12/02/2009
The nights are drawing in, stoke up the fire and listen to some senior Microsoft Execs
My colleague Graham Watson has a secured a number of senior folk based in Redmond to do some on-line...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/30/2009
Shouldn’t regular reboots be a thing of the past ?
A few days ago I linked to a post of Viral’s which showed some of the holes in the hype around...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/30/2009
Windows Deployment information
A couple of posts back I put talked about how easy it is to use Windows Deployment Services with a...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/29/2009
How easy is it to deploy a Virtualized server ?
A couple of posts back I showed the video of deploying an operating system with Windows deployment...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/28/2009
Decisions Decisions, and “When is a phone not a phone ?”
Someone at work (no names, no packdrill) keeps telling me I’m set in my ways, and I keep...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/27/2009
How to deploy Windows: Windows deployment services.
I saw something recently – it must have been in the discussion about Google’s bootable browser new...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/26/2009
Panel discussion: So, you want to be an MVP ?
Since I just mentioned Andy Malone, one of our MVPs, I should also say that he got a session...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/25/2009
Interview: Cybercrime , defence against the dark arts.
When I was at Tech-ed in Berlin a couple of weeks ago I recorded an interview with Andy Malone, one...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/25/2009
Announcing the PowerShell Configurator.
For a little while I have had a beta version of a project I call PSCONFIG on codeplex. I’ve changed...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/25/2009
Two Posts from Viral worth a read
I don’t normally blog just links, but after Google took the chrome OS into the open last week I was...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/25/2009
A few thoughts on the power of social media
Back in the middle of October I started writing about couple of big events so-called “world of...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/23/2009
A Windows 7 trick for multiple sound cards
I’ve mentioned here before background noise drives me nuts (it’s one of boxes that gets ticked doing...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/21/2009
“ThriveLive! Online IT Professional Virtualization Tour
My colleagues from the other side of the Atlantic Dan Stolts, Blain Barton, Yung Chou and John...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/19/2009
Saving the world, and your sanity, one gadget at a time.
For as long as we have been talking about “Green IT” I’ve thought the opportunity to save carbon...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/17/2009
Making word clouds (Part 2: how to use it , and clouds from twitter).
Attached to this post is a Zip file containing Twitter.ps1 the PowerShell script I use to get...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/17/2009
Making Word clouds (Part 1: how it works).
I’ve been playing with word clouds on and off for the last couple of months, and finally I’ve...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/17/2009
The point of Windows 7 libraries and search
In my previous post I mentioned a correspondent – his name is Andy – who’d written asking the...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/06/2009
Car trouble – a possible metaphor for new software ?
A little over a year ago I mentioned I had taken delivery of a big Citroen. It’s my seventh, I’ve...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/04/2009
You can’t be a 21st century admin without PowerShell
When I was at school my father gave me a copy of an article he’d seen at work. I remember nothing of...
Author: James ONeill Date: 11/02/2009
How to cut the crap in IE8 (IE and Privacy Part 2)
I mentioned IE87 pro in the last post, but recently I was doing some work on a server 2008 R2...
Author: James ONeill Date: 10/26/2009
IE8 and privacy , part 1
I wanted to talk about the privacy enhancements in IE8, and to save you from reading something of...
Author: James ONeill Date: 10/23/2009
Can Bing do twitter search better than twitter ?
First off to avoid any frustration, you need to set your country to United States, because this...
Author: James ONeill Date: 10/22/2009
A uniquely good day to be at Microsoft
I don’t think you can have missed that today was the day Windows 7 became generally available. I’ve...
Author: James ONeill Date: 10/22/2009
More on VHD files
I’ve had plenty to say about the uses of VHD files on different occasions. They get used anywhere we...
Author: James ONeill Date: 10/17/2009
Microsoft Security Essentials
Somehow, in all the other activities of the last couple of weeks I missed the release of Microsoft...
Author: James ONeill Date: 10/16/2009
A quick thank you
The theft of my laptop, bag, fleece, keys, etc was a pretty galling experience as I described in the...
Author: James ONeill Date: 10/09/2009
My life in a bag
I have became a crime statistic. It was only a bag. And I didn’t realize the significance it had...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/30/2009
Hello Exchange 2010
Inside Microsoft we have this custom of “dog-fooding” new software, and Exchange 2010 is now at the...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/28/2009
Windows 7… “Media for everyone !”
From the betas of Windows Vista until the start of September I ran the Ultimate edition of Windows,...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/27/2009
On Scanners, Cameras and their USB modes, and lifting the lid on how they can be scripted.
Long title, and I’m afraid I’ve been on a bit of a voyage of discovery about some of the things...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/23/2009
Story of a photo.
My last two working days were spent at a team “off-site” – and these things tend to bring out the...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/20/2009
On PowerShell function design: vague can be good.
There is a problem which comes up in several places in PowerShell – that is helping the user by...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/14/2009
How to view RAW image files on Windows 7 (and Windows Vista).
My photography posts appear to be a bit like busses. I don’t make one for a while then two together...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/14/2009
Photosynth re-visited
One of the things that I’ve said many times is how great today’s technology seems. The first...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/14/2009
For your viewing pleasure …
For the last few weeks, on and off, Andrew and I have been working on a set of Videos on Windows 7...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/12/2009
How to use $myInvocation to do simple command profiling in PowerShell
One of the things I’ve noticed on our internal PowerShell DL is that some of the Redmond cognoscenti...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/12/2009
Select string. Finding a PowerShell *
I've thinking about odd figures of speech. Like telling one's naughty children "I'll swing for you...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/12/2009
Windows 7 upgrades: my experience
I’ve done more than my share of Windows upgrades. I’m fond of telling people that my first proper...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/10/2009
How to load files into the PowerShell ISE editor – or “What’s in your profile”
(another in the “Things you’ll want to do with PowerShell V2” series) One of the tricks I have been...
Author: James ONeill Date: 09/02/2009