Microsoft Products (non-mainstream)

There are a number of Microsoft Products that provide plenty of value add but most people have never heard of them or do not know what they are useful for. I provide a sample below, some more useful than others. I’ll try to keep the links and versions updated as things change (of course, they always do!)

Download the PDF version HERE

List and Description of Microsoft Products for Business Support

Brief Description

MDT provides OS and Application Deployment for Windows 7, Vista, 2008, XP SP3 and 2003 R2.

Overview

MDT 2010 provides a common console with comprehensive tools and guidance for every organizational role – making it the recommended process and toolset to automate large-scale desktop and server deployments

Link

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791

Brief Description

ADMT provides an integrated toolset to facilitate migration and restructuring tasks in an Active Directory infrastructure.

Overview

The ADMT version 3.1 toolkit simplifies the process of restructuring your operating environment to meet the needs of your organization. You can use ADMT v3.1 to migrate users, groups, and computers from Microsoft® Windows NT 4.0, 2000 or 2003 domains to same/newer Active Directory domains; between Active Directory domains in different forests (an interforest migration); and between Active Directory domains in the same forest (an intraforest migration). ADMT v3.1 also performs security translation from Windows NT 4.0, 2000 or 2003 domains to same/newer Active Directory domains and between Active Directory domains in different forests to allow the migration of user profiles.

Link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17918

Brief Description

PES enables password migrations during account migrations in an Active Directory Domain Services infrastructure.

Overview

The Password Export Server version 3.1 (PES v3.1) is a part of the ADMT v3.1 toolset. You can use PES v3.1 to migrate passwords, when performing account migrations between different Active Directory Domain Service (AD DS) environments using ADMT v3.1.

Link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=10370

Brief Description

Windows AIK for Windows® 7 helps you to install, customize, and deploy the Microsoft Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 family of operating systems.

Overview

The Windows AIK is a set of tools and documentation that supports the configuration and deployment of Windows operating systems. By using Windows AIK, you can automate Windows installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, configure and modify images using Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management (DISM), create Windows PE images, and migrate user profiles and data with the User State Migration Tool (USMT). Windows AIK also includes the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT), which enables IT professionals to automate and centrally manage the volume activation process using a Multiple Activation Key (MAK).

Link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5753

Brief Description

Use USMT to migrate user files and settings during large deployments of Microsoft OS.

Overview

USMT captures desktop, and application settings, as well as user accounts and users’ files, and then migrates them to a new Windows installation. Using USMT can help you improve and simplify your migration process. You can use USMT for both side-by-side and wipe-and-load migrations. If you are only upgrading your operating system, USMT is not needed. You can use USMT to preserve user accounts, favourites, files & application settings but it does NOT preserve applications themselves (those you need to manually re-install).

Link

http://www.wintools.com.au/download_usmt4.php

Brief Description

The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 5.6 contains the necessary tools and documentation to evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues before deploying Windows 7, Windows Vista®, a Windows Update, or a new version of Windows® Internet Explorer® in your environment.

Overview

The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.6 helps customers understand their application compatibility situation by identifying which applications are compatible with the Windows 7 operating system and which require further testing. ACT helps customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Windows more quickly.

You can use the ACT features to:

• Verify an application’s compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, or a Windows Update, including determining your risk assessment.
• Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your risk assessment with other ACT users.
• Test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to the Windows Internet Explorer® Internet browser.

Link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=7352

Brief Description

Download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if your PC is ready for Windows 7. It scans your hardware, devices, and installed programs for known compatibility issues, gives you guidance on how to resolve potential issues found, and recommends what to do before you upgrade.

Overview

As above!

Link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20

Brief Description

APT makes it easy to assess your current IT infrastructure for a variety of technology migration projects. This Solution Accelerator provides a powerful inventory, assessment, and reporting tool to simplify the migration planning process.

Overview

APT is an agentless toolkit that finds computers on a network and performs a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and the Remote Registry Service. The data and analysis provided by this toolkit can significantly simplify the planning process for migrating to Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Server® 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Microsoft Application Virtualization, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, and Forefront® Client Security and Network Access Protection. Assessments for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Vista include device driver availability as well as recommendations for hardware upgrades.

Brief Description

The Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner is designed for administrators who want to assess the overall health of their Active Directory and network infrastructure. The tool identifies common problems that can prevent your network environment from functioning properly.

Overview

The Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner is a diagnostic tool that is designed for administrators of small or medium-sized networks (recommended up to 20 servers and up to 500 client computers) who want to assess the overall health of their network infrastructure. The tool identifies common problems that can prevent your network environment from functioning properly as well as problems that can interfere with infrastructure upgrades, deployments, and migration.

When run from a computer with the proper network access, the tool takes a few minutes to scan your IT environment, perform more than 100 separate checks, and collect and analyze information about the following:

* Configuration of sites and subnets in Active Directory

* Replication of Active Directory, the file system, and SYSVOL shared folders

* Name resolution by the Domain Name System (DNS)

* Configuration of the network adapters of all domain controllers, DNS servers, and e-mail servers running Microsoft Exchange Server

* Health of the domain controllers

* Configuration of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) for all domain controllers

If a problem is found, the tool describes the problem, indicates the severity, and links you to guidance at the Microsoft Web site (such as a Knowledge Base article) to help you resolve the problem. You can save or print a report for later review. The tool does not change anything on your computer or your network.

Brief Description

The wizards in the File Server Migration Toolkit use Distributed File System (DFS) to maintain Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths and to simplify the consolidation and migration process

Overview

Many organizations today are consolidating older file servers to reduce the cost of managing multiple file servers and to increase the efficiency of storage allocation and backup tasks. When organizations migrate data to file servers running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008, they can take advantage of new features, such as Shadow Copies for Shared Folders and the Volume Shadow Copy service, and enhancements to other technologies, such as Distributed File System (DFS).

Link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=10268

Brief Description

ADTest.exe is an Active Directory load-generation tool that simulates client transactions on a host server to assess the performance of the Microsoft® Active Directory™ within Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 and Microsoft® Active Directory Application Mode™.

Overview

ADTest is an Active Directory load-generation tool. It allows you to simulate client transactions on the host server. By varying client load, you can relate the transaction rate to resource utilization on the server and get some idea about the requirements for your environment. Because ADTest can perform generic Active Directory requests, it can also create an organizational unit structure inside Active Directory. You can add many organizational units and user objects in those ADTest-created organizational units. You can also add attributes to the user objects. Once you have created the Active Directory structure you require, you can use ADTest to perform various Active Directory requests, including Modify and Search. Several pre-built tests have been written to reproduce some typical activities you might want to evaluate. Examples of these pre-built tests are: an interactive logon, a batch logon, a search for a random user, and a modification of an attribute of a random user. By varying your hardware environment or other test parameters, you can gain insight into the performance sensitivities of your particular setup.

Remember that benchmarking and performance exercises are useful for comparing platforms or for getting a general understanding of the hardware requirements for common implementation scenarios. However, because these tests are run in constrained environments, such as an isolated lab, they do not necessarily translate directly to deployable scenarios. Therefore, it is important to understand that while this tool is meant to help you prepare for a fairly comprehensive server-sizing and capacity-planning effort, any data generated is only meant for general sizing, benchmarking, or deployment recommendations.

Link

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=15275