In light of Windows 10: Comparing Service and Privacy agreements

Reading Time: 25 minutes There's been a lot of media attention regarding Windows 10 and privacy concerns. Unfortunately not all reports contain correct facts while others suggest some of the implemented technology is unique for Windows 10. There's a lot of bad reporting (do some of them even fact check?) or even malicious FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) out there. Now, don't get me wrong, knowing how the products you use handle your (meta)data and privacy is IMHO very important and should receive all

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Can you use ActiveSync to measure market shares?

Reading Time: 5 minutes Computerworld.com published an article this week called “iPhone, iPad dwarf mobile rivals in small- and mid-sized firms”. It stated: Apple has won the hearts and minds of small- and mid-sized businesses, which have overwhelmingly adopted Cupertino's mobile devices over rivals powered by Android or Windows, an Exchange hosting vendor said last week. Well, my interest was peaked. Mobile devices and Exchange, that is a combination for which I have a soft spot! However reading the article and statements made, I

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Windows 8.1 Enterprise upgrade: You can’t keep apps?

Reading Time: 2 minutes I was postponing my work laptop Windows 8 Enterprise upgrade to 8.1, because I assumed I would have to install every app over again. My Windows 8 Pro upgrade to 8.1 on my personal desktop didn’t go as smooth as I had hoped. I had to install every (desktop) application again, as I did not have the option to “Keep Windows settings, personal files, and applications” but only “Keep personal files only (data only)” or “Nothing”. Now, I didn’t update

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Blocking the Windows 8 Mail app in Exchange 2010 & 2013

Reading Time: 3 minutes I think I might start a new tradition: every time a major/important OS or update is released, I try find out how to block it from Exchange . Now, I know the Mail app has been around for some time now. If you recollect, I did some research on how Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) within the Mail app works in general and how it implements security settings in Windows 8. But especially since Windows 8.1 RT has been released yesterday with

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Blog series on Windows 8.1

Reading Time: < 1 minute As it is almost October 18th , a quick plug for my Dirteam.com "co-blogger" Sander Berkouwers 10-part series on the upcoming Windows update: Is your organization ready for Windows 8.1? Part 1, Overview Part 2, The best hardware for the job Part 3, Start Button and Boot to Desktop Part 4, Automatic App Updates Part 5, Managing SkyDrive Part 6, Start Screen Layout Management Part 7, Managing Start Screen Theming Part 8, Start Screen App Pinning Part 9, Disable help

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My portable lab hardware

Reading Time: 2 minutes Recently somebody asked via Twitter my what the make and model is of my laptop, used for Exchange testing environments. Well, 140 characters is not a lot of space so I decided to blog about it. Our company uses Dell laptops as a laptop standard, but other vendors might have comparable configurations. The main model type is a Precision M4700, but for lab purposes the configuration has been customized: CPU: Intel Core i7-3820QM @ 2,70GHz Memory: 32GB (4x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3

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The Windows 8 Mail app

Reading Time: < 1 minute A few hours back the Microsoft Exchange team published a blog post on how to connect and support your Windows 8 Mail app with Exchange. It has a lot of good info on which Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policy settings are supported and how the App reacts. Most of those things I already discovered in earlier blog posts of mine, using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. It seem as if there are no massive changes since then. But I did dig

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More about Windows 8 CP and ActiveSync

Reading Time: 5 minutes Since yesterday’s blog post “Yes, there is ActiveSync in Windows 8!”, I have fiddled some more with the Windows 8 Mail app. So, which other ActiveSync settings do work within Windows 8? There are quite a few, and some aren’t supported by all devices. So, which are important and could I use as a baseline? Well, Microsoft already made a baseline: Exchange ActiveSync Logo Program The Exchange ActiveSync Logo program was created to easily identify devices which had a certain

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Yes, there is ActiveSync in Windows 8!

Reading Time: 4 minutes *** updated: Also read the followup blog post: More about Windows 8 CP and ActiveSync I think it was already present in the Developer Preview, but it is definitely present in the Consumer Preview. Chris Brownie has blogged about it and has some screenshots. Go ahead and read his blog! As can be seen in his screenshots, ActiveSync policies are applied to the device (or computer) and it is listed in the Exchange Control Panel. But how should we treat

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Install Screenshots

Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve installed some screenshots of the new Windows 8 Consumer Preview. It was installed on VirtualBox with an 32 bit ISO. I forgot to make a screenshot were you configure the install disk, but that’s basically the same as Windows 7. Download your ISO’s here. Also Windows Server 8 Beta also became available here. And now for some screenshots! Fishy! Remember this? And here I forgot the drive configuration screenshot. But it’s basically the same as in Windows 7. First

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