Sysinternals continue to be a great set of tools.  It seems like I can learn something new about the suite on a daily basis.  I really wish I had additional time to learn all of the tools better.  Mark Russinovich has created another great post over on his blog.  He steps through how he solved a case involving his Mom’s computer.  She was trying to install Security Essentials and was getting a random error that Mark fixes.  Check out the blog post to hear more about it.

Marks Blog - The Case of My Mom’s Broken Microsoft Security Essentials Installation
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2012/01/05/3473797.aspx

Mark’s Latest Case Of The Unexplained From TechEd
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/WCL304

I was jut catching up on the some of the releases around the web.  Google has introduced a new feature in Google maps for showing your location inside of a building.  Google maps used to leave you at the front door of large building like airports to find your own way around.  Check out the below video and Google news release to learn all about it.

Google’s News Release On Indoor Maps
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-frontier-for-google-maps-mapping.html

We know that information is growing at a quick rate.  This graphic helps visualize just how quick data is growing.  It will be interesting to see what these numbers look like in a few years.

Via: The
Rapid Growth in Unstructured Data

Sysinternals is still has some of the best administrations tools out there.  They continue to updated on a continued basis thanks to Mark Russinovich.  The latest update included updates to CoreInfo and Process Explorer.  Check out the links below for more information on Sysinternals.

Process Explorer

Sysinternals Main Site
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals

Sysinternals Download Site
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062

 Mark Russinovich Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2012/01/05/3473797.aspx

Mark Russinovich’s Upcoming Events
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963883

This video is from CES and talks about Windows 8.  Tami Reller, Chief Marketing Officer of Windows, gives the crowd a demo. The video shows off a number of features that Windows 8 has to offer along with the confirmation that there will be a beta coming in February 2012.  Are you going to download it?

PAL version 2.1 was released on November 8, 2011.  I just wanted to take a few minutes to create another post so hopefully more people will hear about this great tool.  PAL stands for Performance Analysis Of Logs and is hosted on SourceForge.  Clint Huffman who is a premier field engineer (PFE) for Microsoft is the main contributor to the project.

PAL is used to read performance logs from Windows and analyze them based on thresholds that are set.   From the SourceForge website here are some of the features.

• Thresholds files for most of the major Microsoft products such as IIS, MOSS, SQL Server, BizTalk, Exchange, and Active Directory.
• An easy to use GUI interface which makes creating batch files for the PAL.ps1 script.
• A GUI editor for creating or editing your own threshold files.
• Creates an HTML based report for ease of copy/pasting into other applications.
• Analyzes performance counter logs for thresholds using thresholds that change their criteria based on the computer’s role or hardware specs.

PAL 2.1 By Clint Huffman

PAL SourceForge Site
http://pal.codeplex.com/

PAL v2.0’s New Counter Generation Feature is Powerful
http://blogs.technet.com/b/clinth/archive/2010/03/02/pal-v2-0-s-new-counter-generation-feature-is-powerful.aspx

 The PAL Tool on Memory Leaks
http://blogs.technet.com/b/clinth/archive/2011/03/28/the-pal-tool-on-memory-leaks.aspx

I hope everybody is having a great 2012 so far.  I just wanted to take a quick minute to talk about the Majestic 12 distributed computing project.  I can’t believe that I have been involved with the project for a little over six years now.  When I first started the project it consisted of a few members helping a person try to achieve their goal of making a distributed search engine.  The person that was trying to achieve this goal was Alex Chudnovsky. As of today the goal has not been achieved but we hope that in 2012 we will see the goal met.  Even though the main goal has not been met there have been several major milestones made along the way.  The biggest one to date is the launch of the Majestic SEO which is the commercial side of the project.  Majestic SEO is a leader in providing information on how websites on the internet link with each other.

The project is always looking for new participants.  It is very easy to contribute to the project.  If you like more information on the project please visit the link below.  I just want to say the main reason I am still an activate participant is the great community that surrounds the project.  They have become an extended family that spans the globe.  If you have any questions feel free to contact me or leave a comment on the post.

Majestic 12

Majestic 12 Distributed Computing Project
http://www.majestic12.co.uk/

Majestic 12 Distributed Computer Project Forum
http://www.majestic12.co.uk/forum/

Majestic SEO
http://www.majesticseo.com/

PAL version 2.0 has officially been released on Codeplex by Clint Huffman.  If you are not familiar with the project PAL is short for Performance Analysis Of Logs Tool.  The tool reads performance monitor counter logs and analyzes them using known threshold limits.  Some of the features of 2.0 are an easy GUI interface for creating threshold files, HTML basted reports, and performance analysis that changes based on the computers role.

The main change in PAL 2.0 is that it is based on Powershell.  You can run it on any current Microsoft Operating System that has PowerShell v2.0, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, and Microsoft chart controls for .NET Framework 3.5 installed.

If you are an IT PRO or just somebody interested in performance analysis please check out this latest release.  I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.  If you like the tool please drop the Codeplex site and let Clint know that you appreciate the tool.

PAL Codeplex  Site
http://pal.codeplex.com/

PAL 2.0 has recently released the beta of version 2.0.  If you are not familiar with PAL it stands for Performance Analysis Of Logs.  In a nutshell PAL allows you to quickly analyze Windows performance logs and gives you a nice report you can hand to your manager.  The new version of the tool is written in PowerShell 2.0 which makes it very powerful.  I have used the tool several time to troubleshoot complex production issues.  This tool will help make you look like genius by being able to pinpoint the problem and provide pretty pictures.  Please stop by the codeplex project site and check it out.  If you like the tool please drop Clint a quick email and let him know how you are using the tool.

PAL Codeplex Project Site
http://pal.codeplex.com/releases

PAL 2.0 Beta Download
http://pal.codeplex.com/releases/view/46846

Intro To PAL Slide Deck
http://pal.codeplex.com/releases/view/46846#DownloadId=126279

Clint Huffman Talks About PAL On PowerScripting Podcast
http://powerscripting.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/episode-97-clint-huffman-and-his-pal-project/

IT professionals have allot of resources to choose from to get there information.  One of the better sites that I like to check out is talkingaboutwindows.com.  The great part about the site is that it covers a wide range of topics that we deal with on a daily basis.  I also enjoy hearing from IT pros who are my peers to see how they are solving real world business problems.  I strongly encourage you to head on over to talkingaboutwindows.com.  I guarantee that you will learn something new.

Talking About Windows
http://talkingaboutwindows.com/