Silicon Shecky

So I’ve been working on a project at the office which is more annoying than anything I’ve ever done. I am going through licensing and see what we have, where we need to update, and what is what. The problem is twofold. First, the prior people never kept good documentation, so finding the actually pieces of paper with the licenses on them, or going to eOpen to check on what we have is nigh impossible. Heck, no one even knows what the eOpen username and password are for our licenses. This is a pain mostly because you need to create a Windows Live ID to use eOpen, and every time I try to do it with an actual e-mail address for the company itself, it fails, thereby forcing me to have to create a Hotmail account.

Second, there is no good piece of software to give you an accurate count of licenses installed. I know there is the license logging service on the servers, but it is not always accurate, I have to check it on each server individually, and to top it all off, it won’t show Exchange 2007 licenses, which I did find paperwork for.

Now if companies like Microsoft want people to stay in compliance with licensing, why don’t they make it easier to do an internal audit, so we can find where we are deficient, and then go through the process of ordering what is needed? Am I crazy to be asking for something like that, or is it just a matter of them wanting us to be out of compliance without knowing, so that we can get in trouble? I think that would be called entrapment in the legal field, but I could be wrong.

Monday morning, another work week starting, and a bunch of thoughts and questions about Microsoft for you all.

First off, how does Microsoft determine when it is going to release new software? SBS 2008, which has Exchange 2007 built in it, just came out in November, and now Exchange 2010 is in beta. How fast do they expect people to change? Figuring that it take a while for companies to even consider switching to the newest software, and then the testing and learning curve for it, maybe there is a method to the fast turn around on the next gen software.

Second, and even more annoying to me, is the links inside of the Microsoft Event Logs.   You click on the link, it asks you if you want to send the information, and then 80-90 percent of the time you get a message back saying there is no information from Microsoft on this Event ID. Why the heck do they even offer us a link when most of the time it does nothing but make us bang our heads? Yes there are great ways of finding out about the Event IDs through Google, but the links inside of the event logs are supposed to make our search much easier, and more official.

So, am I way off base on these thoughts? Am I just another looney IT guy who wants more from his vendors than they give, or do you feel the same way?

I am sure you have all had this sort of a problem before. You have a piece of software on CD or DVD, pop the disc into the drive, start going through the install and then WHAMMO! The install bombs out, gives you some error that you start googling, try everything you can find to no avail, and finally break down and get a new copy of the software. It sucks cause you only had the disc for a couple months, and yeah the company won’t send you out a replacement.

Well, I’ve run into that scenario and here is a set of things to try before spending the money on a new set of discs:

1) Try to copy the CD or DVD to your hard drive. If it gives you a CRC error or any error, put in a known good disc and copy to make sure it is not the drive itself.

2) If it is not the drive itself, and you can get a trial version of the software, download it. No you won’t be installing the trial version, but it will allow you to access the files and folders that can not be read off the CD.

3) Once the trial is downloaded, let it extract and then Copy whatever wouldn’t from the CD from the trial install area. Copy them into where the CD was being copied to.

4) Finally install off the hard drive. Use your key from the CD, everything in most cases will install just fine.

Yeah its a little time consuming and a pain, but I think its better than spending the money on the software again. Of course ti all depends on how much the software cost you.