In the past there have been some free and easy to use tools for converting a physical machines to Vmware vmdk disks but I haven’t found any if you want to create a vhd. Of course you can use System Center Virtual Machine Manager but that is not always what you have i mind. Some weeks ago Microsoft released a small tool that do just this.

1. Download the Disk2vhd from Microsoft (you can even run it directly from from Live.Sysinternals.com)
2. Start the machine you want to convert (Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and higher, including x64 systems)
3. Copy the tool to the machine and follow the wizard

If you have a Notebook and want to install a fresh Windows 7 you have a “small problem” – you probably won’t find a DVD. Another situation can be if you want to install Windows 2008 R2 on your server (it might be an older system with a CD). To fix this problem you need to create a USB disk to boot from. This can be done “manually", but now Microsoft released a tool that makes this a bit easier.

1. Download and install the tool from Microsoft
2. Download Windows 7/ Windows Server 2008 R2 as ISO
3. Start Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool and follow the wizard (in the example below I use the Windows 2008 R2 ISO)

This week Microsoft released two new beta product from the System Center product suite:

System Center Essentials 2010

Read more about the new features

Download the beta version

System Center Data Protection Manager

Read more about the new features

Download the beta version

Today Microsoft published a technote that state that both Operations Manager 2007 SP1 and R2 is supported on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

Note that there is some known issues if you upgrade your servers to Windows Server 2008 R2, these will be fixed in updates that will be available in the future. Doing a clean install should work fine.

Also note that System Center Essentials is still not supported on Windows Server 2008 R2.

PS! Microsoft also release an updated MP for Windows Server Operating, we can now monitor Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 Server

Read the technote from Microsoft

A couple of weeks ago the WSUS team released there SP2 for WSUS 3.0. Now the SCE team has announced that SCE 2007 SP1 support to upgrade to WSUS 3.0 Sp2.

Read the announcement on the SCE team blog

Today Microsoft released the release candidate for Exchange 2010. In the text from the Exchange team blog, they writes that this will be upgradeable to RTM.

More information about the Exchange 2010

Download Exchange 2010 from Microsoft

If you download and install it, you can also test the new Forefront Security 2010 for Exchange Server Release Candidate (this one works with both Exchange 2007 and 2010).

Download Forefront Security 2010 for Exchange Server Release Candidate

As for monitoring the Exchange 2010, I haven’t seen any public version of the Exchange 2010 management pack.

Update – You can download the Exchange 2010 beta MP from Microsoft Download. Note that this MP install some bits on the RMS.

Download Exchange 2010 Beta MP from Microsoft

Yesterday Microsoft added some more content that will help everyone that want to learn more about how to create a Management Pack. If you open the TechNet site and click on the Management Pack University link you will have 14 videos that describe different aspects related to building Management Packs.

Today I got my MVP renewal letter that informed me that I was re-awarded as Most Valuable Professional and therefore receiving the Microsoft MVP award for the third year in a row for doing a great job in serving the community by helping out on forums and other community events.

If you do any kind of operating system deployment, now is the time to start testing the new MDT 2010 beta 2. Some of the new features is:

• Access deployment shares from anywhere on the network and replicate files and settings across organizational boundaries or sites.
• Organize and manage drivers, operating systems, applications, packages, and task sequences with an improved UI.
• Automate UI functionality using the Windows PowerShell command line interface.
• Drag and drop
• Copy/Past

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In the above print screen you can see how you can organize OS, drivers, etc in “folders”

Download MDT 2010 from Microsoft Connect

Today Microsoft released there first MP for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

Feature Summary
The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack provides the following capabilities.

• View the state of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 AOS instances
• View information about AOS instances such as version and configuration information
• View users connected to AOS instances
• View Event Log Messages for AOS instances
• View batch jobs and batch task information
• Start and stop AOS instances
• Receive alerts when AOS instances stop running

Download Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Management Pack for Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 from Microsoft

PS! If you are running System Center Operations Manager R2 you can download and import directly from the console