Windows

I've been impressed over the last year or so by how much time and energy Microsoft has committed to building up a thriving user group community around the globe. If you're looking for an IT pro user group in your area, a good place to start is Culminis, a not-for-profit, member-owned association sponsored by Microsoft that has almost a million user group members under its umbrella.

Deployments of new platforms and products should always be business-driven, not technology-driven. If your enterprise has a business need that can be realized by deploying a new version of Windows or Office, then do it. But how do you identify possible areas of business need? Vendors generally present you with a list of exciting new features for new versions of their products -- how do you match these features to the needs of your business? A good place to start is usually with your mobile workforce. That's because many of the advances in Windows and Office in recent years have been in the areas of security, recoverability, collaboration, and wireless networking -- all critical technologies from the point of view of mobile workers.

Systems administrators can never have enough short cuts or creative troubleshooting ideas. In this series, Mitch Tulloch, a well-known industry expert specializing in Windows server operating systems, provides advice for every day administration as well as more challenging problems.

I've heard from several quarters that desktop refresh cycles are returning to the front burner for many enterprises after being placed on hold during the recent economic downturn. Whether you're organization is contemplating a three- or four-year refresh cycle or a rolling replacement of a certain percentage of desktop computers each year, there's one thing you need to remember if you want to make the most of your IT hardware investment: buy only x64-capable machines from now on. This doesn't mean you have to think right away about deploying Windows XP Professional x64 Edition on your new desktops as third-party application support for this platform is still pretty slim (though this should change once Vista is released). Instead, install regular 32-bit Windows XP Professional on x64-capable systems and that way you can protect your hardware investment if you decide later on to switch to 64-bit Windows (XP or Vista).