Recordings of the book event: “What Makes A High Performance Organization”

For those who don’t know what a High Performance Organization is, please read my previous blog post because this post will only cover the event organized around the latest book from André A. de Waal called “What Makes A High Performance Organization“

The event was held at the Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and was very well organized. Food and drinks were available and all aspects regarding logistics (including parking) had been properly taken care of as well.

 

Recordings of the “Windows 8 for IT Pros Jump Start” are available now

The recordings of the “Windows 8 for IT Pros Jump Start” are available now.

More helpful resources regarding this jump start can be found in my previous blog post.

 

Windows 8 – Change default install location of Windows 8 apps / Modern UI apps

In a previous blog post I compared Windows 8 tablets with other tablets. In it I said that it was nice that you could use memory cards to expand your storage, but unlike Android there is no easy way to move windows 8 / modern UI apps to the memory card and run them from there.

Since I saw the question pop up a couple of times and because I was convinced it would probably be possible, I went to look for a workaround. This is the procedure I used to change the default app install location:

1. Close the Windows Store app.
2. Make a new folder in the desired location. By example “D:\WindowsApps”.
3. Run regedit as administrator
4. Create a backup of your registry just in case.
5. In regedit go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx”
6. Take ownership of this path and everything below it (inheritance).
7. Edit the value of “PackageRoot” to your desired location. By example “D:\WindowsApps”
8. Start the Windows Store app.
9. Install apps.
10. Run apps.

Beware: I’m not entirely sure if and how this affects security, so use this at your own risk.

This article regarding the use of junction points may also interest you.

 

Windows 8 available today, check out limited time offers including free stuff

Introduction

Even though Windows 8 has been available for quite some time for IT pros and developers, it is now available for the general public as well.

Microsoft has also released its own Windows RT based tablet (Microsoft Surface) in some countries and is expected to release a Windows 8 based tablet (Microsoft Surface Pro) within the next three months. For more information about Windows tablets and the differences between Windows RT and Windows 8, read my previous blog post.

 

My opinion about the ITpreneurs Cloud Essentials eLearning Course

Introduction

For those who haven’t read my previous blog posts, here’s a short summary. A couple of weeks ago I decided that I wanted to know more about cloud computing and get certified as well. I used freely available resources to attain these certifications:

• CompTIA Cloud Essentials (CLO-001)
• Exin Cloud Computing Foundation (CLOUDF)

In short, my conclusion was that the quality of the freely available resources were not sufficient. ITpreneurs responded to this by giving me access to their own paid ITpreneurs Cloud Essentials eLearning Course.

First of all, thanks to ITpreneurs for this opportunity. Also even though they provided me with access to this course, nothing was expected in return. They just wanted to share their knowledge with me. Because of my personality, I felt however that that the very least I could do was to:

1. Provide constructive feedback on the course
2. Write about how I experienced the eLearning course

And this blog post is the result.

 

Windows 8 tablet considerations including Windows RT and Windows 8 comparison

Since I’m seriously considering buying a Windows based tablet, I’ve been very closely following all developments. Even though a lot of information has become available, it’s often spread across many different websites and articles and is often incomplete in my opinion. Since the Microsoft Surface RT tablet is available for pre-order and will be sold when Windows 8 will be available on the 26th of October I decided to write this article.And even though a lot of people have complained about this on various sites, most sites don’t have one article that covers all the things to look out for. In this post I try to do just that. One of the most useful resources I’ve used are the articles from Paul Thurrott on his website supersite for windows.

Also it’s not just consumers that are having trouble understanding / explaining the differences between Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets though, Microsoft employees are also still being trained to properly handle questions.

In this post it’s important to realize that Microsoft Surface RT is not the same as Windows RT, Microsoft Surface RT is a tablet from Microsoft (hardware) that runs Windows RT (software). Microsoft Surface Pro is another tablet from Microsoft (hardware) that runs Windows 8 (software).

 

Preparation guide for 70-688 Managing and Maintaining Windows 8

Last week I got a beta exam invite for exam “70-688 Managing and Maintaining Windows 8″ (in beta it is 71-688). As with most beta exams lately, you only have max two weeks to prepare and there are no books available yet that you can use to study. Therefore I start with looking at what skills are being measured and if there are preparation guides available. From there on I start looking for relevant learning resources for each subject and adding them to the skills that are being measured for easy future reference.

I hope it is useful for you as well.

 

The power of passion (and how I got access to commercial cloud learning materials)

People who know me personally, know that I’m very passionate about ICT. Some of you might also have read about my previous blog post regarding cloud certifications. In this post I described how I prepared for the cloud certifications CompTIA Cloud Essentials (CLO-001) and Exin Cloud Computing Foundation (CLOUDF). In this post I also said that I felt that the quality of the freely available materials was lacking and suggested people would check out other (paid) learning resources like by example the TrainSignal CompTIA Cloud Essentials training videos because they have a good reputation regarding training videos.

Because I was still curious about the quality of the paid training materials, I decided to contact TrainSignal to see if they were willing to provide me with a review copy. I hoped they would agree, but didn’t have high expectations. To my surprise however, they provided me with a review copy.

In the meanwhile, ITpreneurs contacted me to check out their IT Preneurs Cloud Essentials Course. I really liked that they contacted me, because to me this feels like they’re very passionate too and are continuously trying to improve.

I’ve already completed the IT Preneurs Cloud Essentials Course and will be posting my opinion on this blog very soon. I still have to start reviewing the TrainSignal CompTIA Cloud Essentials training videos, but I’ll try to do this as soon as possible as well.

If you have specific questions regarding one of both learning materials, please leave a comment so I can include it in my reviews.

 

Book Event: “What Makes A High Performance Organization” (October 30th, 2012 in Maastricht)

For those unfamiliar with High Performance Organizations (HPO), this is the definition of an HPO:
“A High Performance Organization is an organization that achieves financial and non-financial results that are exceedingly better than those of its peer group over a period of time of five years or more, by focusing in a disciplined way on that what really matters to the organization.”

For more information about the HPO Framework, you can read more on the HPO Center website.

For those who want to know even more about HPO, they can either:

1. Order the book “What Makes A High Performance Organization“.
2. Attend the book event “What Makes A High Performance Organization” that includes a signed copy of the book from the author André A. de Waal. For more information about the book event, check out this link.

I’ve already read “What Makes A High Performance Organization“. And even though I was already very familiar with the HPO framework (because of previous books from André A. de Waal), I really liked the fact that it was very practical and included many real life examples and experiences from companies all over the world including Microsoft, SABMiller, Svenska Handelsbanken, HP, Unilever, Umpqua Bank, Tata Steel and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

I look forward to the book event and hearing more about how other companies went about transforming their organizations to HPO. If you’re attending this book event as well, please leave a comment.

Also if you want to keep track of new developments regarding HPO, you can use the following resources:

• Blog
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Website

 

Information from the “Windows 8 for IT Pros Jumpstart”

After some technical difficulties the “Windows 8 for IT Pros Jumpstart” started about 50 minutes later than planned. For people new to Windows 8 I think that Stephen Rose and Joey Snow covered most of the important features that are relevant for enterprises. For me personally however, it was mostly repetition since I’m already very familiar with Windows 8.

The recorded videos are available now as well: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/jj687764.aspx

Nevertheless, for people who are interested, I’ve saved the chat / Q&A from the jump start which also includes a lot of links to use if you want to know more about specific features.

Some links from the Q&A include:

• Windows 8 for IT Pros Jump Start Break Slides
• Springboard series for Windows 8
• Springboard series insider
• Protecting user files with File History
• Enhancing Windows 8 for multiple monitors
• Windows 8 To Go feature overview
• Windows To Go Step By Step

For people who are either struggling with the new user interface themselves or expect their family, friends, colleagues or customers to struggle, I suggest you take a look at my previous blog post.

• Windows 8 – User interface help

If you’ve missed this event, it has been recorded and will probably be posted online somewhere in the next two weeks.

Also for those who are looking to upgrade their certification to Server 2012, next week there’s another jumpstart “Prepare for exam 70-317 – Upgrading Skills to Windows Server 2012 Jumpstart”. I hope to see you there.