Personally I find this very irritating bloatware.

I resolve to shrink my winsxs folder down from 6GB to something reasonable. Its not at all clear to me whats in there and how much space it takes as this directory is peppered with links which are probably not taking up this space. Its still causing me trouble however. I keep getting out of space errors.

Over here http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/09/17/what-is-the-winsxs-directory-in-windows-2008-and-windows-vista-and-why-is-it-so-large.aspx I found an explanation. I dont like it much especially the tone of it which appears to be saying 'buy big disks or else' in this except:-

"So yes, the WinSXS folder is very large, and it will continue to grow as the OS ages. I hope that this clears up some of the questions about why that is, and what you can do about it. Note that the Windows servicing structure and the layout of the store is subject to change."

How to shrink or reduce the size of the Windows Vista Winsxs folder

"The only way to safely reduce the size of the WinSxS folder is to reduce the set of possible actions that the system can take – the easiest way to do that is to remove the packages that installed the components in the first place. This can be done by uninstalling superseded versions of packages that are on your system. Service Pack 1 contains a binary called VSP1CLN.EXE, a tool that will make the Service Pack package permanent (not removable) on your system, and remove the RTM versions of all superseded components. This can only be done because by making the Service Pack permanent we can guarantee that we won’t ever need the RTM versions."

So I ran it: -

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\me>vsp1cln
This operation will make  Windows Vista Service Pack 1 permanent on this computer.
Upon completion you will not be able to remove Windows Vista Service Pack 1 from this system.

Would you like to continue? (Y/N): y
Performing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Disk Clean-up...
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Disk Clean-up completed.

First thoughts, after a month using BPOS

Microsoft BPOS Single Sign in

Microsoft Online Services comes with a special application to keep you signed in and correctly configured.

The application is utilitarian, and clearly doesnt come from the Office 2007 user experience department sporting as it does a tired looking Windows XP tabbed user interface. That being said it does work well. It configures Outlook, Internet Explorer, Office Communicator et al for use with Microsoft Online. Its worked on all the computers I have tried, the emailed instructions providing an easy boot strap for users to follow. Even users with highly complex Outlook Profiles have been able to get it working as it safely creates a multiple profile environment. It would be nice if it created a merged one.

The disclosure down arrow in 'Email and Calendaring' gives access to Outlook Web Access. If you dont have Outlook installed, Email and Calerndaring launches Outlook Web access and the disclosure down arrow is not displayed.

Pre-Requisites

Note: The SSO Application requires .NET and all its Service Packs to be installed. This can take a *long* time.

There are a few settings for logging but this is primarily a useful launcher for each of the BPOS programs, while ensuring that the logged in user doesnt change. This is important for all the services and addresses some serious shortcomings in Windows with regard to switching user in SharePoint, Outlook, and Web Folders and resulting inconsistent treatment of 'who am i' - quite important Im sure you'll agree.

One more shortcoming about the user interface, its not customisable in any way, nor is it possible to change the order or add a third party application to BPOS authentication and Single Sign on. (one of my clients would like to do that for a proprietary application).

FAQ

What is Microsoft Online?

Microsoft Online is the premium brand for hosted managed services provided by Microsoft globally in conjunction with local partners.

What is Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)?

BPOS provides enterprise-class software delivered as a subscription service, hosted by Microsoft and sold by partners. 

BPOS consists of Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting andMicrosoft Office Communications Online.

Domain Naming and Microsoft Online

You can point a domain from almost any domain registration service to Microsoft Onlines domain servers, and once verified, the domain is live and email and dns lookups are recieved by Microsoft Online.

Getting a Windows Live ID

Administration of Microsoft Online

Microsoft Online Customer Portal

Microsoft Online Service Provisioning

Microsoft Online Service Activation

Microsoft Online Administration

BPOS is a story of inflexibility. In three parts. Multizone as a Microsoft Business Partner, Trialists as potential customers for Microsoft and Multizone, and Microsoft Online, for the settings in place in BPOS.

My Inflexibility as a business partner

Like it or not my business has more than one client. This means that I have to be able to satisfy their request that I help them administer their BPOS.

Its almost impossible.

I have a live email system, and a demo BPOS system that is part of the business partner program that Im specifically not allowed to use for real world email.

Its not possible to have this configuration work on one windows login.

Consequently it wont get used because its just too much pain to have multiple images of Windows and multiple logins with multiple MAPI profiles.

Of course this same problem means that I cant have multiple client BPOS systems set up on my PC at the same time.

And it means that my clients who are also in fact BPOS customers cant give me effective access to their email. There can be only one BPOS/Exchange account in your Outlook.

Its 2009. Thats ridiculous. Its a non comprehension of how companies interact. Its:-

'We, the wise people of Microsoft use Exchange like this so its how you must use it too... All companies are structured like Microsoft and have the same poilicies arent they'

'We cant make it work better for BPOS in a supportable way so it has to have reduced capabilities'

at worst.

The Inflexibility of trialists

My trialists arent green field sites. They dont like email downtime. They avoid it like the plague. Migrating domains should be easy but it isnt. Exiting DNS hosters dont like people leaving and make it difficult. Trialists dont want to hear about these kinds of issues.

Trialists want to put a few people onto the system at a time, and others, well they want them to get their email but not be on the system until its proven. With BPOS thats not possible. Trialists dont want to hear that. They also dont want to hear how its only fixable with a domain forwarding hosting account dealing with all email before forwarding it to BPOS.

'Why, is my enterprise email behind a hundred bucks a year domain forwarding service?'

Trialists like things to be 'just so'

Consider this request I had from a potential client:-

'Why cant I have my header and footer auto generated just the way it is now by my Exchange Server, because our emails look the same as our headed paper with our logo on the top and standard text including name and job title at the bottom. I dont want this in Outlook, I want it like it is - done by the server because then it cant be broken'

My answer after conferng with support and the forums

"BPOS are providing company disclaimer texts as a support issue'

Trialist responded

'yeah but we have to have our logo at the top - so it looks like our headed paper, just like it does now and so it cant be deleted by our people - If youre saying you cant do that I dont want it.'

BPOS inflexibility

1. Client side single sign on application, not customisable, impossible to add other programs like say CRM or internal tools that could benefit from this new model of authentication/authorisation sync between apps. Lack of colour about how open and supported this tool is.
2. Only one BPOS/exchange account at a time. Period. (well unless you use Entourage for Mac which supports many, but the incredulous look from the client when you explain that is no longer funny)
3. No server side rules
4. No company imposed letterhead / signature variables / disclaimer
5. No forwarding
6. No POP
7. No IMAP (if I had those I could have a client email address, like most of my clients want me to - currently the only way to do this is to use a Mac)
8. No turning off the original domain name (careful then what you choose on the first screen of installig BPOS - a decision here must be right and youre frankly not equipped to make it when you're asked).
9. General hotch potch look and feel of the BPOS apps. Hardly a suite of like designed programs

Conclusions?

So there you have it. Three inflexibilities. But they are important ones to navigate round to get a successful implementation. Ive only had a 20% hit rate of success so far.

If you cant avoid these inflexibilities, and if they dont get addressed where possible, soon, in new releases of BPOS, then its going to be very difficult to see the value.

Ive spent a day training, taken an online assessment, signed the legalese, and invested a lot of time in pre-sales activity. The BPOS effort has a long way to go before I see any meaningful payback.

That said if you are a green field who wants pin sharp Microsoft based infrastructure and will bend towards what it can do in exchange for peace of mind then BPOS is perfect.

Disclosure: For several years I was a senior architectural engineer for Microsoft Exchange at Microsoft, leading pre sales technical engagements it in its original incarnation to BT, Glaxo, British Gas, Rolls Royce, and other leading enterprise customers. Now Im a Microsoft Online business partner and qualified Small Business Partner.

I had to find a way to attract visitors to this site. The obvious solution being google. The world of search engines is complex but in reality there are a few things you can do to make sure you get great results.

1. Get your site right first
2. Use google adwords carefully and with thought

How did I get #1 in google UK?

1. I made sure that my site had the right content on it for what I was trying to do.
2. I made sure my case study was there, and contained good accurate supporting information.
3. I set my titles, headings, paragraphs, descriptions, meta-data and keywords to exactly represent what the articles were about.
4. I set Joomla, my content management system, to use SEO friendly URL's
5. I submitted my site to the google crawler.
6. I re-read the adwords chapter in the Timothy Ferriss book "The Four Hour Working Week" - my favourite book about work - even though its a lie of sorts - which suggested spending time looking at what your keywords were going to be by looking at all the websites that you could find on google that were similar or indeed that you didnt want to attract. Avoiding the wrong words seems very important. Attracting a click isnt the objective - finding a customer is.
7. I narrowed down my world to avoid 'funding' and 'grants' because I reason that these are not my audience even though I might blog about these issues, I need to focus on the more technically oriented search.
8. I submitted my keywords to google adwords
9. And I restricted the display of my adwords to England - I want to find customers I can get to!

Job Done.