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The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Solution Accelerator is an agentless tool that will find computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Using the inventory data, the tool will assess and report whether computers can run Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Application Virtualization (SoftGrid), and Windows Server 2008. This includes assessment of device driver availability and recommendations for hardware upgrades that may be required.

System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows XP Professional Edition

Hardware Requirements:

• 1.6-GHz or faster processor minimum
• 1.5 GB of RAM minimum (2.0GB for Windows Vista)
• 1 GB of available hard-disk space required
• 10/100 Mbps network adapter required

Software Requirements:

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition for storing inventory and assessment data. Microsoft Word 2003 SP2 or Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Excel 2003 SP2 or Microsoft Excel 2007 for generating reports.

CPU Architecture:

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator can only be installed on 32-Bit versions of any of the supported operating systems.

Click here to download this free tool.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator (MAP) is the expanded version of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment solution accelerator (WVHA). This new version of the network-wide assessment tool gives you not only the original capability of hardware inventory and assessment for desktops, but also expanded features including server migration recommendation with Windows Server 2008, virtualization workload placements for server consolidation with Hyper-V or Virtual Server 2005 R2, and application virtualization recommendations with Microsoft Application Virtualization.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool is based on agent-less infrastructure scanning technology that makes it easier to set up the inventory without the requirement of installing any software agents on each machine being inventoried.

Click here for more details.

Check out these MSDN Virtual Labs and TechNet Virtual Labs if you haven’t already. These are a series of guided, hands-on labs which can be completed in 90 minutes or less. The best part is these labs don’t require any installation and are available to you immediately for FREE. Here are the topics that are currently available to you.

MSDN Virtual Labs

ASP.NET 2.0
ASP.NET
BizTalk Server
Commerce Server
Fritz Onion’s Intro to ASP.NET
Internet Information Services (IIS)
JPlusN (J+N)
Microsoft Expression
.NET Framework 3.0
Soup to Nuts
Visual Studio
Visual Studio 2008
Visual Studio Team System
Visual C#
Visual J#
Visual Basic
Visual C++
Connected Systems
Data Access and Storage
Office
Security
Smart Client
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2005 Upgrade
Visual SourceSafe
Web Services
Windows Embedded CE 6.0
Windows Live
Windows Mobile
Windows Vista
Windows XP Embedded
TechNet Virtual Labs

TechNet Virtual Labs

Antigen
BizTalk Server
Configuration Manager
Enterprise Search
Exchange Server
Forefront Security
Groove Server
Identity Integration Server (MIIS)
Internet Information Services (IIS)
Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server
Office Communications Server
Office System
Operations Manager
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2000
SharePoint Server
Systems Management Server (SMS)
Windows Mobile
Windows Rights Management Services (RMS)
Windows Server 2003 R2
Windows Server 2008
Windows SharePoint Services
Windows Small Business Server
Windows Vista

With every new version of Windows the number of Group Policy settings are increased. In Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Microsoft increased to the number of Group Policy settings to approximately 1,800. In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 the number has been increased to approximately 2,500. That’s a whopping increase of about 700 new policies that you can use to manage your company desktops, security, and some other aspects of your network.

Here are a couple of useful links related to Group Policy:

• Deploying Group Policy Using Windows Vista

• Group Policy Settings Reference Windows Server 2008 Beta 3

• Group Policy FAQs

• Windows Server Group Policy Home

Windows PowerShell 1.0 RTW currently supports Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Windows PowerShell can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Download Center for all operating systems except for Windows Server 2008 where it is available as an optional component on the installation disk or via Server Manager. The .NET Framework 2.0 is required in order to install Windows PowerShell. Remember to download the Windows PowerShell Documentation Pack that includes a Getting Started Guide, Quick Reference chart and a 100+ page Windows PowerShell primer.

Click here to download PowerShell.