Well, after attending RES Software’s Pre-Solutions Breakfast yesterday, I can inform DDS Lite stands for the RES Dynamic Desktop Studio Lite edition.

The DDS Lite program consists of a combination of solutions, comprised of both RES Automation Manager and RES Workspace Manager. It basically provides entry-level task automation, resource provisioning and user workspace composition and -personalization.

To break it down, DDS Lite is basically:

RES Automation Manager:

• Task Automation
• Conditions
• Query Evaluators
• Parameters
• Resource Provisioning

RES Workspace Manager:

• Composition & Personalization
• Desktop Sampler
• Workspace Designer
• Workspace Modelling
• Zero Profile Technology

Based on the information given on monday the 18th of April, the product will be priced at 45€ per concurrent user & 60€ per named user.

Not quite yet the point and click system that it, perhaps, should be. Call it the battle between ‘man and machine’. But with a bit of creativity, some PowerShell frags and a dash of Google, most things conceived can be procured. This little gem of information shows how to use PowerShell commands in conjunction with RES Automation Manager (formerly know as Wisdom) to create Exchange mailing lists.

These PowerShell commands have only been tested in an Exchange 2007 environment, but they could also work in and Exchange 2010 environment. Please feel free to use them at your own risk!

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin

chdir “c:\program files\microsoft\exchange server\bin”

New-DistributionGroup -Name “Managers” -OrganizationalUnit “Contoso.com/Users” -SAMAccountName “Managers” -Type “Distribution”

These commands should be used with the following variable to ensure re-usability and flexibility:

groupname: which is the name of the distribution group you want to create path in Active Directory: in which OU do you want to create the distribution group

Which should result in:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin

chdir “c:\program files\microsoft\exchange server\bin”

New-DistributionGroup -Name “$[groupname]” -OrganizationalUnit “$[path in Active Directory]” -SAMAccountName “$[groupname]” -Type “Distribution”

Apart from the new name the product has been given, some changes have been made to the product.

Just to name a few:

• A new licensing model
• Small Business Server connectors
• The introduction of Service Orchestration!
• Master caching dispatchers
• Exchange 2010 support
• Windows 7 support
• Windows 2008 R2 support
• Citrix Workflow Studio invoking

You can find the RES Automation Manager 2011 download here. Registration is required.

Only one day left for RES Software’s big announcement. Be sure to check out the RES Software website tomorrow!

Another date to add to your agenda: October 5th 2010.

On that date RES Software will announce some major changes regarding, well. Err, that’s NDA stuff really.

Let’s just say it’s more than a service release…

Philadelphia, PA, August 30, 2010 — RES Software, the proven leader in user workspace management, today announced that it has been granted Patent No. US 7,725,527 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its Virtual Desktop Extender (VDX) technology. VDX serves as a key technology in the successful deployment of virtual desktops because it enhances the remote desktop experience by enabling local applications. This industry-first solution, which also has approval from the European Patent Office, will be demonstrated from August 30 through September 2 at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco in booth #431.

VDX reverse seamless technology is part of the RES Software user workspace management solution. RES Software separates the user experience and settings from the underlying desktop infrastructure and dynamically composes a personalized, secure and consistent user workspace regardless of the underlying desktop infrastructure – traditional desktops, a notebook, a thin client or a virtual desktop.

With VDX technology, user workspace management solutions by RES Software incorporate the unique ability to enhance a virtual desktop with applications that run locally. This means that the local applications that end users rely on can be merged with a remote desktop into a single user workspace, eliminating the need to switch between two sessions and thereby increasing end user productivity, without compromising the manageability benefits of VDI.  RES Software VDX technology extends the user workspace through independent computing architecture (ICA) and remote desktop protocol (RDP) virtual channels and increases the ease of adoption of any VDI or terminal server environment.

These benefits become extremely useful in providing end users working on a remote desktops access to applications that typically do not run smoothly, or at all, in a virtual environment. Some of these include heavy applications like AutoCAD and Photoshop, applications in healthcare requiring diagnostic imaging, certain custom applications, multimedia (AVI) files and media intensive applications including CD/DVD applications, VoIP and video applications.

The RES Software VDX solution also provides the ability to write a CD-ROM on your local computer from the virtual desktop. This capability is not currently available within today’s other virtual desktop technologies. The resulting advantage is increased end-user productivity and acceptance of the new desktop technology because there is no interruption to the end-user.

“We believe this breakthrough technology is critical to the future success of virtual desktop deployments,” said Bob Janssen, Chief Technology Officer of RES Software. “By securing the US patent for VDX, our solution is now officially recognized for its unique value to customers and as a key differentiator for RES Software.”

The user workspace management market is generating increasing attention as IT professionals and analysts recognize that desktop configuration of the future will be a mix of traditional workstations, thin clients, remote terminals, and virtual desktops. These mixed environments increase the complexity for IT.

“The 451 Group sees desktop virtualization continuing to gain ground. The most complete desktop virtualization offerings will combine terminal services, dynamic assembly, user management, server-, client- and cloud-hosted desktops. RES Software is well positioned to centrally manage the complexities of these desktop transformations,” commented Rachel Chalmers, Research Director, Infrastructure, The 451 Group.

RES Software is a Gold Sponsor at VMworld 2010, and will be demonstrating its user workspace management solution and its patented Virtual Desktop Extender technology at booth 431. For more information on RES Software and its user workspace management solutions, please visit:

• RES Software Solutions On the Web
• RES Software On Twitter
• RES Software blog communities: here, here and here

About RES Software
RES Software, the proven leader in user workspace management, is driving a transformation in the way organizations manage and reduce the cost of their PC populations. The company empowers customers, from SMBs to global enterprises, to manage an increasingly complex desktop ecosystem and meet the essential needs of a dynamic workforce that requires on-demand access to their personalized workspaces. Designed for physical or virtual desktop platforms, the award-winning, patented technology enables IT professionals to address this shift by managing, automating and delivering secure, personalized and more productive desktop experiences to any user. For more information, follow updates on Twitter @RESSoftware and visit www.ressoftware.com.

For Inquiries within North America:

RES Software

Lorena Crowley

Marketing Communications Manager

610-994-9718

l.crowley@ressoftware.com

Racepoint Group

Shannon Breen

Account Director

781-487-4607

The  survey of close to 1.000 IT professionals in the Nordics, conducted byRES Software, shows that eight out of ten businesses have decided to roll out Windows 7, and almost half will roll out virtual workspaces by the end of the year. Migrating user profiles is considered the biggest challenge. The most interesting finding in the survey was that only 4 out of 10 migration projects are completed within time and budget limits.

The survey shows that almost eight out of ten companies are planning to migrate to Windows 7 (W7), with the same amount having purchased licenses already. 34 percent have already rolled it out, and almost four in ten indicate that they have a few selected users up and running the operating system. 65 percent do not have any tools or procedures to migrate back from W7 on challenges arise.

“According to IDC over half of all businesses will migrate to W7 at the end of the year. The big challenge is that user settings and preferences disappear unless procedures are in place. This leads to large additional charges,” said Ole-Kristian Sivertsen, Nordic Director of RES Software.

Eight out of ten believe analysis and design of the platform will take up to six months, with the remaining using more time. For application testing, 75 percent believe that this will also take the same amount – up to six months. 40 percent indicated that they will spend more than six months on the actual roll-out. Migrating user profiles, downtime and lost productivity, lack of knowledge of the user environment and potentially disgruntled users are the biggest concerns.

“To deliver the same desktop environment is a necessity for a migration. We want to make it easier, safer and cheaper to manage users’ desktop environments. Migrations are not difficult if you have the right tools. The process should take place without the users being affected, “says Sivertsen.

50% have decided to roll out virtual workspaces from Citrix or VMware. 45 percent by the end of the year, another 20 percent set in 2011.

“This confirms what many people know. Virtual workspaces are one of the biggest growth rockets in the market. The results show that customers have realized the many advantages of the concept. It is positively surprising that so many say they should have it in place during the fall, ” says Sivertsen.

Nordic findings
The survey was also conducted in the Swedish and Danish market. Number of respondents in these two markets were almost 300 in total.  Although the answers to a large extent aligned, there are also some interesting differences:

• The Swedes are on top in the decision to roll out W7 (85 percent)
• Four out of ten Danish companies have rolled out W7, compared with three out of ten Norwegian and Swedish
• 50 percent of Norwegian companies have taken the decision to roll out virtual workspaces. In Sweden and Denmark four out of ten have made the decision
• Four out of ten Danish companies have not decided when the deployment of virtual workspaces to happen (six out of ten will be in place by the end of next year s). Just over half of Swedish companies will have it in place by the end of 2011
• Half of the Swedish migration projects are delivered on time and on budget. Similarly, Norway and Denmark were ten percent lower
• The Danes set a higher degree of planning for emergency preparedness plans / tools for the transition back from W7 (rollback)
• Norwegian companies will use the shortest time on analysis and design of W7, the Swedes the most
• Danes calculated shortest time to application and functionality testing (55 percent in under three months)
• Half of Danish enterprises will have deployed the W7 to all users within three months. The Swedes will take the best time, probably because they have many special adaptations and tailoring to the user environment
• Danish and Norwegian companies believed that the migration of user profiles will provide them with as many challenges. The Swedes were most worried about downtime and lost productivity. Other special concerns across the region were: Many tedious manual processes, dissatisfied users, the migration at the expense of more strategic initiatives and whether users would have the same permissions, the rights and programs as they had before migration
• When asked about their thoughts on migrations, most respondents emphasized strongly that it is mission critical. About 15 per cent in each country believed migrations are fun. Between ten and 20 percent thought it was a necessary evil

About the Survey
The web-based survey was conducted from Nordic end-users in July 2010 with nearly a thousand answers. 676 people answered the survey in Norway. Seven out of ten worked in the private sector. More than half had more than 500 IT users in the business. Half were architects or IT consultants. 20 percent were IT or operations manager. In Sweden, 179 people answered the survey. Seven out of ten came from the private sector. 55 percent from businesses with fewer than 1,000 IT users. In Denmark, there was 111 responses. Eight out of ten from the private sector, and seven out of ten had fewer than a thousand users in the IT environment.

Click on the flag for your country below to participate.

The winner will be announced August 16th. Stay tuned!

This generic approach can be supported by most infrastructure components, that offers a DHCP service with Options support.  The article at hand will take you through the steps necessary to configure it correctly.

1. Get the connection string. First of all, you need to obtain the encrypted connection string from the PowerFuse console. Note this string contains the Site ID, so a PowerFuse managed laptop already associated with another environment cannot use the connect string. This also prevents someone from tampering with a managed laptop by hooking it up to their DHCP server at home. Go to the Setup | Datastore | Connection node. Use the Export button to extract the string.
2. Use the copy button to copy the encrypted string to your clipboard. Alternatively you can use the button on the right to export the connection string to a file.
3. Create the DHCP option. This article will show you how to do this on a Windows server only. Goto Adminsitrative Tools and start the DHCP manager snapin.
4. Rightclick on the DHCP server in the tree and select the option ‘Set predefined options’. This will allow you to create the option we need for configuring RES PowerFuse to grab it’s connection settings when the RES service starts
5. In the Option Class dropdown list, select ‘Microsoft Windows 2000 options’. Then click add. It is important to remember the optionclass, as it is a prerequisite for the DHCP connection string configuration to work.
6. Fill out the option type fields. For the Name field, you can chose anything, however for the sake of compatability stick with regular A-Z chars. Set the Data type field to String. In the Code field, chose the option number you wish to use. Any number between 72 – 223 should be fine. You may also use options number 2 – 71, although bear in mind Windows may use some of these. Finally, fill out the Description field with anything you like.
7. Preconfigure the DHCP option. nce the option type has been defined, you are returned to the previous screen, which now has changed to accomodate a string.  In the value field, paste in the connection string which you grabbed in step 2 above, as shown on the right.
8. Attach the option to your scope. At this point, it is presumed you have one or more scopes configured on your DHCP server (if not, it wouldn’t do you much good anyway :) Rightclick the scope and select Configure options on the context menu.
9. On the dialog box, you need to 1) go to the Advanced tab.  2) Select “Microsoft Windows 2000 Options” from the Vendor Class  dropdown. Leave the User Class dropdown alone. Finally 3) in the Available Options list, scroll down and find your newly created option. Select it and click OK.

You’re done now, and the settings will take effect for any client renewing it’s IP address at boot. If you already have a test client configured, the easy way is just blowing out the entire HKLM\Software\RES\PowerFuse key on the computer, then restart it. What happens is that the IP stack will initialize via DHCP before the RES Service is started. The RES Service will look for any DHCP option that begins with RESPFDB=. If valid settings are found, the connection settings are written back to the registry and everything is synced back to order again.

An important security note on the encrypted portion of the DHCP connection string. One might think that using DHCP options leaves the managed workspace vunerable to highjacking, as someone might attempt to spoof PowerFuse client to use an alternate connection string. To ensure against this, the PowerFuse Site-ID on the license node, is encrypted into the connection string. Once a PowerFuse enabled computer has picked up the DHCP string and connected to a valid PowerFuse datastore, it will henceforth only accept new connectionstrings which has the same site ID. This way a user is prevented from bringing his managed laptop home, connecting it to his own DHCP server, which connects him to a trialversion of PowerFuse, in which he’d given himself full access to the computer. Since the SiteID won’t match, the connection is refused by the client.

Finally, a couple of tips on how to query your DHCP server. If you would like to have absolute certainity that the connection string is available through your DHCP infrastructure, you can use the built-in NETSH command to check it out.

1) Create a file with the following contens:

add helper dhcpmon.dll
dhcp
server 10.5.5.200
scope 10.5.0.0
show optionvalue

2) In the script above, change the server IP to your DHCP server’s IP and change the scope IP to the IP address of the scope. If you are unsure of the Scope IP, you can see it in your DHCP admin console in square brackets right next to the scope name. Once you’ve got the netsh script ready, just run it like this: netsh -f scriptfile.

When you’re done, you can query the options available from the DHCP server. The result should look something like this below:

On the other hand, if you like me hate to Fly-Mo when you can import a Wisdom buildingblock, I took the opportunity to create a little something for you. The Wisdom buildingblock below, will prompt you for the necesary input and let you query your DHCP server scopes

Click here to download: