Lets thinapp IE7 and IE8 together
Its, Monday morning so time for some fun!
A customer asked me if it was possible to install Internet explorer 8 beta, and still be able to use Internet explorer 7 for old applications (in their test environment). Of course I answered and immediately started testing. As you all know Microsoft app-v does not support sequencing internet explorer so the best thing to do was use VMware’s Thinapp. My base image is an Windows XP SP3 machine, SP3 does not install IE7 or IE7 updates unless you already installed IE7 before upgrading to SP3 (see Microsoft KB) To successfully sequence IE7 to work together with IE8 download the following files:
• WindowsXP-KB957095-x86-ENU
• WindowsXP-KB958644-x86-ENU
• Nlsdl.exe (microsoft)
• idndl.exe (microsoft)
• IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe
These downloads will definitely save you some time finding out exactly witch updates you need, after this the Thinapp part is pretty straight forward.
• Install updates
• Start capture
• Install IE7
• Stop capture
• Revert machine
• Install IE8
• Start the tests 
Because this is a fast proof of concept test, I challenge you to drop some improvements in the comments to make it even better.
Vista and 2008 SP2 BETA
I was just browsing the web and stumbled accross this. Whoohoo, Vista and 2008 SP2 Customer Preview Program!.
Wait... what?! Vista and 2008 SP2 BETA?
That's right! A single service pack that covers both Client and Server!
This is actually pretty nice! This reduces the management of service packs for both server and client. Just service packs
So what's actually in there?
Well... seeing as after you installed a fresh Vista SP1 machine you almost get crushed by updates. Here's a list of hotfixes included in service pack.
Other then that there are a few new features:
- Support for new types of Hardware and emerging standards, including Bluetooth 2.1, the ability to natively record data on Blu-Ray media, support for ICCD/CCID smart cards, and support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU
- Wi-Fi setup and maintenance is simplified with the addition of Windows Connect Now (WCN)
- The ex-FAT file system is enabled, supporting UTC timestamps to ensure correct file synchronization across time zones
- Windows Search 4.0 is included, which provides users faster and more relevant results. Windows Search 4.0 also allows Group Policy integration, which provides administrative control over search parameters
- End users should also experience improvements in resume performance when a Wi-Fi connection is no longer available
Get your copy here!
EDIT:
You can also get the SP2 update through Windows Update. Use the script below to enable the update:
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP2 /f reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP2 /f reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP2 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d 93F7D954-DF91-22E6-99AB-4D8AF54E813A /f
MDT 2010
I just read this article, which announces the beta of MDT 2010 coming out soon
According to the article it will have:
- Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Well, that was to be expected. I already installed Windows 7 on a VPC, but the installation process looked the same as Vista/2008. So there's probably some extra features/roles/components you can select in the task sequences, but I don't think this will be too exciting 
- Deployment Workbench and script architecture improvements.
I'm very curious about the script architecture improvements!! Will they have changed to Powershell instead of VBScript? I do hope so, because i'm still looking for a reason to start learning Powershell!
- Documentation improvement
Right, nothing to add to that 
I signed up for the beta, and will get a download link as soon as it's available!
I will be writing an article about MDT 2010 as soon as I get to take it for a spin.