Windows

Anything concerning Windows be it Windows client operating system, Windows Server operating system, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone and more.

Living the Dream: Exchange, SharePoint and Lync

Richard Green on

If you happen to work for a Microsoft prodominant environment and you either are thinking about deploying the holy trinity of Exchange, SharePoint and Lync or you are interested in the integration between the services, then check out these two posts from DrRez on the TechNet Blogs. These two posts go into techincal detail about the integration between the services and how to actually setup some of them.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/drrez/archive/2011/04/26/lync-2010-exchange-2010-sharepoint-2010-and-office-2010-integration-part-1.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/drrez/archive/2011/04/27/lync-2010-exchange-2010-sharepoint-2010-and-office-2010-integration-part-2.aspx

One nugget I learnt from reading it was that for Exchange to see the LDAP thumbnailPhoto attribute to allow it to publish the pictures into the Global Address List and Outlook clients is that you ust update the AD Schema to allow replication of the thumbnailPhoto attribute to Global Catalog servers.

Building Active Directory Based Outlook Signatures – Update

Richard Green on

Looking through our corporate Global Address List last night after posting my original article at http://richardjgreen.net/2012/02/24/building-active-directory-based-outlook-signatures/, I discovered a couple of special case users.

In our company, we have two users with identical names, so to differentiate between them, their names in Active Directory have been modified to include their department as a trailing item. For example:

  • Richard Green (ICT)
  • Richard Green (HR)

In the Outlook signature, it is pretty redundant having this included in the name as the department is shown on the following line, so I’ve added a new section to the script which will trim this information.

Firstly, you need to update the Dim statement at the top of the script to include a new integer.

Dim intNameLen

Once you have declared the integer, add the following section. I’ve added it between the existing country specific configuration and the phone number internationalisation sections, but so long as it gets defined before the building of the signature it will work.

If InStr(1, strName, "(") > 0 Then
    intNameLen = InStr (strName, "(")
    intNameLen = intNameLen -2
    strName = Left(strName, intNameLen)
Else
End If

First, we need to look to see if an opening bracket exists in the string using InStr. If there is a bracket present then we move into the If statement, otherwise we move into the empty Else statement and then continue through the script.

Within the If statement, first, we find the character position of the opening bracket using InStr again, but this time we push the value into the intNameLen integer variable. Next, we need to take into account that InStr will return the position of the bracket itself, but as we want to remove the space between the name and the bracket symbol we need to reduce the value of the intNameLen variable by two.

Once we’ve subtracted two from the value, we can use Left to retrieve the value of the strName variable, but only the name portion by excluding the trailing department tag, then save the name back into the strName variable.

Building Active Directory Based Outlook Signatures

Richard Green on

One thing that many companies strive for is a consistent brand identity. There is many reasons for wanting this is anything just to appear to be a professional, unified front your customers. With email being one of the most prevalent communication forms in industry today, one of the best ways to achieve this brand identity.

Active Directory Directory Services, being the centralised gatekeeper of corporate information in a Microsoft environment, the service which feeds Exchange, SharePoint, Lync and many other services with user identity data is the ideal place to get the information needed to generate these signatures.

The key to making this work however is the dynamic automation. Any company can have their Marketing or HR department send a mail shot to the entire company asking the users to update their own signatures in Outlook, but there is always room for ‘creativity’ with this scenario; users trying to make small or subtle changes to the intended design affecting the corporate image.

Luckily, Outlook, or more specifically Word as a good Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) interface for programmatically generating documents and Active Directory Directory Services is one of the most easily and commonly accessed systems via VBScript.

The following script, broken down into chunks explained to allow you to make the script work for your own needs does exactly this.

Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next

Dim objSysInfo, strUser, objUser, strName, strJobTitle, strDepartment, _
    strCompany, strExtension, strPhoneLocal, strPhoneIntl, strMobileLocal, _
    strMobileIntl, strEmail, strCountry, strWebAddress, strPhonePrefix, _
    objWord, objDoc, objSelection, objEmailOptions, objSignatureEntries, _
    objSignatureObject

The opening section quite simply tells the Windows Script Host to only accept variables which are defined (Option Explicit). Many people omit this option from scripts for simplicity of coding, however I think that it’s lazy. Defining your variables with a Dim statement means you know that no rogue variables exist and it helps to prevent typos down the line.

The next line (On Error Resume Next) tells Script Host to continue running the script even if an error occurs. This is needed to prevent the script from generating popup alerts on client computers were the script is running, potentially confusing users. So long as you thoroughly test the script before deploying it, you can be safe in the knowledge that errors won’t happen, but better safe than sorry.

Set objSysInfo = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo")

strUser = objSysInfo.UserName
Set objUser = GetObject("LDAP://" & strUser)

Here the connection to Active Directory Directory Services is made The connection is made in the context of the logged on user and is then placed into a variable.

If Err.Number <> 0 Then
    WScript.Quit
End If

This section is vitally important in environments with laptop users. If a connection to the domain is not available and this section isn’t included then the script will continue to run, and the user will end up with a very nasty looking signature. If a domain connection cannot be established at this point then the script will exit before anything is modified in the signature, so any exiting signature will continue to take effect.

strName = objUser.fullName
strJobTitle = objUser.title
strDepartment = objUser.department
strCompany = objUser.company
strExtension = objUser.telephoneNumber
strPhoneLocal = objUser.otherTelephone
strMobileLocal = objUser.mobile
strEmail = objUser.mail
strCountry = objUser.co

This section maps the user object attributes to the script variables. Depending on how you use the various attributes in Active Directory, you may need to tweak this, or if you want to pull more information such as building or office address. The format for each attribute is objUser.attributeName. Using a tool such as ADSI Edit will allow you to view all of the attributes in the schema for the user object and their LDAP names.

Select Case strCountry
Case "United Kingdom"
    strWebAddress = "http://www.testcorp.co.uk"
    strPhonePrefix = "+44 "
Case "Ireland"
    strWebAddress = "http://www.testcorp.ie"
    strPhonePrefix = "+353 "
Case Else
    strWebAddress = "http://www.testcorp.co.uk"
    strPhonePrefix = ""
End Select

For some people, this section might not be needed so you could instead simply define the strWebAddress and strPhonePrefix variables. My test lab environment emulates a multi-national company and as such you want each users’ signature to reflect their region. The Case statements evaluate the value in the Country attribute in Active Directory and based on it set the country dialling code and the regionalised web address. Make sure you define a Case Else statement to catch any users who don’t have a Country defined.

If strPhoneLocal = "" Then
Else
    If Left(strPhoneLocal, 1) = "+" Then
        strPhoneIntl = strPhoneLocal
    Else
        strPhoneIntl = strPhonePrefix + Right(strPhoneLocal, Len(strPhoneLocal)-1)
    End If
End If

If strMobileLocal = "" Then
Else
    If Left(strMobileLocal, 1) = "+" Then
        strMobileIntl = strMobileLocal
    Else
        strMobileIntl = strPhonePrefix + Right(strMobileLocal, Len(strMobileLocal)-1)
    End If
End If

Here, the phone numbers retrieved from Active Directory are evaluated and if needed converted to international dialling format. The statements take the first character from the direct dial and mobile phone numbers and if it begins with a plus symbol then no conversion is done and the number is taken literally. If the first character is not a plus symbol, then the first number is removed and replaced with the country dialling code determined in the previous code block.

Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")

Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Add()
Set objSelection = objWord.Selection

Set objEmailOptions = objWord.EmailOptions
Set objSignatureObject = objEmailOptions.EmailSignature

Set objSignatureEntries = objSignatureObject.EmailSignatureEntries

Const wdParagraph = 4
Const wdExtend = 1
Const wdCollapseEnd = 0

objSelection.Font.Color = RGB(0,133,200)
objSelection.Font.Bold = True
objSelection.TypeText strName
objSelection.TypeText Chr(11)

objSelection.Font.Color = RGB(128,128,128)
objSelection.Font.Size = 10
objSelection.Font.Bold = False
objSelection.TypeText strJobTitle & ", " & strDepartment
objSelection.TypeText Chr(11)
objSelection.TypeText strCompany
objSelection.TypeParagraph()

objSelection.TypeText "Internal: " & strExtension

If strPhoneIntl = "" Then
Else
    objSelection.TypeText " | " & "External: " & strPhoneIntl
End If

If strMobileIntl = "" Then
Else
    objSelection.TypeText " | " & "Mobile: " & strMobileIntl
End If

objSelection.TypeText Chr(11)

objSelection.TypeText "Email: "
objDoc.Hyperlinks.Add objSelection.Range, "mailto:" & strEmail,,,strEmail
objSelection.TypeText " | " & "Web: "
objDoc.Hyperlinks.Add objSelection.Range, strWebAddress,,,strWebAddress

Here is the visual bit. The signature is built using a Word application. The script runs through the creation of the signature line by line. The phone number section is dynamic. If when the user information was retrieved from Active Directory one or more of the phone number fields were empty, then the label for that number type and also the number are omitted from the block.

Colours are all defined using RGB values. If you want to change these for your own use, simply use Word to find the colour you need, then select the Custom tab to view the RGB codes for it.

objSelection.StartOf wdParagraph, wdExtend
objSelection.Font.Color = RGB(128,128,128)
objSelection.Font.Size = 10
objSelection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd

Set objSelection = objDoc.Range()

The final and perhaps complicated thing going on here is the hyperlink generation. By default, the hyperlinks will adopt the default hyperlink style of blue text, size 11 font with an underline. Changes to this section should be heavily tested because at this point, Word begins moving the pointer caret through the document to select the hyperlinks which have been created to alter their style. Incorrectly placing the caret can result it items deleted or strangely laid out in the finished signature.

objSignatureEntries.Add "Test Corp Default", objSelection
objSignatureObject.NewMessageSignature = "Test Corp Default"
objSignatureObject.ReplyMessageSignature = "Test Corp Default"

objDoc.Saved = True
objWord.Quit

Last but not least, everything that has been done so far is saved into the document and configured in the default Outlook profile as the signature to be used for new messages and also reply messages.

If you wanted no signature to be added to replies then you could change the following line:

objSignatureObject.ReplyMessageSignature = ""

It would actually be possible to define a different signature for the reply messages if you so wished. To do this, you would need to save the new message signature and close the current Word object, then open a new Word object, define the signature and then save it to the reply message signature.

Deploying Server Core 2008 R2 for Hyper-V: Network Teaming

Richard Green on

In our deployment, we are using servers with Intel network adapters, so the first thing is to install the manufacturer driver package because this enables the ANS (Advanced Network Services) functionality such as Teaming.

The new version of the Intel driver for Server 2008 R2 includes a command line utility for managing networks in Server Core known as ProsetCL, which operates with a syntax not too dissimilar from PowerShell.

The commands from ProsetCL I will be using in this post are:

  • ProSetCL Adapter_Enumerate
  • ProSetCL Team_Create

The full Intel documentation for ProsetCL can be found at http://download.intel.com/support/network/sb/prosetcl1.txt.

With all of the adapters nicely named from the previous post Deploying Server Core 2008 R2 for Hyper-V: Network Naming, this part is actually pretty easy.

The first step is to run an export of the current network adapters to a text file with ipconfig /all > C:Adapters.txt. Once you have this open the file with Notepad.exe C:Adapters.txt.

With the text file open, in the command line window, navigate to the directory C:Program FilesIntelDMIXCL which is where the ProsetCL utility is installed. You could register the directory into the PATH environment environment variable if it makes your life easier, but I didn’t do this personally.

Execute the command ProsetCL Adapter_Enumerate. This will output a list of the network adapters on the server into the command line. Sadly, the Intel utility and Windows order the network adapters differently which is why the text file is needed to marry the two up.

Once you have figured out which adapters need to be teamed together to form your various Client Access, Management, Heartbeat, CSV and Live Migration networks, you are ready to proceed.

You need to know at this point what type of teams you want to create also. The Intel adapters and utility support the following team types:

Team Type Team Function ProsetCL Shorthand
Switch Fault Tolerance Two adapters are connected to independent switches, with only one adapter active at any one time. In the event of a switch failure, the standby link will become active allowing communication to continue. SFT
Static Link Aggregation Two or more adapters are teamed in an always active manner. This mode allows you to achieve a theoretical speed equal to the sum of the speed of all the adapters in the team. To be used when LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) is not available on your switch infrastructure. SLA
LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) Similar to Static Link Aggregation, however the network adapter and the switch to which it is connected negotiate the aggregation using the LACP protocol. 802.3AD
Adapter Load Balancing Two or more adapters are teamed together, whereby the utility forces traffic to be routed out of each port in turn, equally sharing the load across the ports. ALB
Adapter Fault Tolerance Allows two or more ports to be connected in a team whereby the ports may have differing connection speeds (Eg. 1Gbps for the Primary Active adapter and 100Mbps for the Failover adapter). AFT

For full details and a more detailed explanation of each teaming mode, refer to the Intel ANS page at http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-009747.htm

Now that you know which adapters to be teamed together and which teaming mode you want to use for each, it is time to create the teams.

Enter the command as follows:

ProsetCL Team_Create 1,2 MAN_Team SFT

In this example, a team will be created using ports number one and two (the numbers as referenced by the previous Adapter_Enumerate command) with a team name of MAN_Team for the Management network using the Switch Fault Tolerance mode.

Following the command, you should receive a prompt that the team was successfully created. A new network adapter will now be present if you execute the ipconfig /all command named, sadly, Local Area Connection.

Assuming you named all your adapters from the default name using the previous post, the adapter will always be called Local Area Connection with no trailing numbers. If you run the netsh interface set interface name command after creating each team, it makes it much easier to name the teams as you go rather than doing them in a batch at the end.

In the next post, I will describe configuring the network binding order to ensure the correct cluster communication occurs out of the correct adapter.

Deploying Server Core 2008 R2 for Hyper-V: Network Naming

Richard Green on

Currently, I am heavily involved in a project to deploy a new infrastructure project for a new branch office. In this office we are deploying a network in a box (pod) style configuration consisting of networking, storage array, fibre channel switching and last but not least, a pair of servers to operate a Hyper-V Cluster running on Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core.

In this series of posts, I will share some of the things I have found, learnt and discovered on my journey to deploying the Server Core Hyper-V Cluster. This first post focuses on networking as this is the first thing that needs to be configured on the hosts before you can progress into anything else, and also is the most fundamental operational component of the Hyper-V role.

Luckily for us, Server Core still has Notepad which makes working with some of these commands much easier.

For things, first, run ipconfig /All > C:Adapters.txt to pipe a list of all of the adapters Windows can see to a text file along with their current configuration. The most important element here are the names. By default, all of the adapters are named Local Area Connection with a trailing number. For identification purposes, I wanted a naming convention for them all so in the event of a cable or port failure we could easily identify which port was at fault.This will also make identifying the adapters for the purpose of setting up the teams easier.

Open the text file with the command Notepad.exe C:Adapters.txt and identify which adapters in the text file map to the physical adapters on your server. The easiest way to connect all of the adapters to a physical network and then one by one, disconnect an adapter, re-run the piped ipconfig command and see which adapter has changed its link state.

Once you have identified an adapter, use the following command to name it:

netsh interface set interface name=”Local Area Connection” newname=”SL1-P1-MAN1”

My naming convention consists of SL1, which identifies which PCI slot the port is based on, P1 which identifies the port within that slot and finally MAN1 which tells me that it will be the first port in the Management team once configured.

Repeat these steps until all of your networks are named then sit back and be safe in the knowledge that if a problem occurs with one of your ports once your server is in the wild, you will be able to easily guide your on-site technician to the correct port.

Error Launching AD RMS Console

Richard Green on

Early last week, I encountered a problem with logging in our AD RMS (Active Directory Rights Management Services) production environment which is preventing us from generating reporting and RMS usage statistics. After speaking with Microsoft Premier Support we determined that our AD RMS Logging database was missing some of the stored procedures required to generate the reports.

I decided to do an install of AD RMS in our test lab environment so that I can simulate the reinstallation process to resolve the problem as Premier Support have recommended and I ran into a wierd issue.

Once the installation of the AD RMS role successfully completes, you will natrually try and launch the AD RMS console to check your new installation, however that won’t work. Doing so will result in a HTTP 401 Unauthorized error. To resolve the problem, you need to log off the server and then log on again. This will then grant you the necesarry tickets to access the AD RMS console and manage the new installation.

Windows Phone 7 A2DP

Richard Green on

Last night, I was feeling a little frustrated with the Scala Rider not performing as I would have expected. With the lack of audio control via speech for Windows Phone 7 as per my post Windows Phone 7 Speech I was trying out the music playback on the Scala Rider by starting the music prior to putting on all my biker clobber. Unfortunatly, the VOX voice activation of the Scal Rider was detecting me grumbling and coughing under the helmet as speech and promplty pausing the music playback. The Scala Rider then waits for 30 seconds of silence before resuming the playback (this is in case there is a gap in conversation).

This isn’t a problem in theory, however when the Scala Rider is activated by VOX, it actually temporarily drops the Bluetooth connection to the phone. Be it the fault of the Scala or Windows Phone 7, I’m yet to determine, but it seems that if the VOX feature stays active for a short while, plus the 30 second wait timer, that the Bluetooth connection to the phone is actually lost.

Option 1 was to disable the VOX feature of the Scala whilst I’m riding solo and then remember to turn it back of when I have the wife with me pillion, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having an all singing all dancing product like this.

Option 2 was RTFM in case that turned up something useful on the topic.

I went with Option 2 for now and read the manual for the Scala Rider and discovered that it supports A2DP remote commands which means that through button presses on the Scala Rider, I can start and stop playback and also skip and replay tracks on the phone. I tried these out and it appears that Windows Phone 7 fully supports all of these operations.

I’m still to get to the bottom of my disconnect issue, but in the mean time, knowing that Windows Phone 7 supports these remote commands means that I can force the Scala Rider to reconnect to the phone and then start playback whilst riding.

Windows Phone 7 Speech

Richard Green on

Windows Phone 7 has some really nice voice control and speech recognition features such as the ability to transcribe text messages and even reply to or write new messages to people in your contacts but to name one of the features. I’ve used the text messaging speech control on a couple of occasions in the car, but only really by fluke due to the fact that I had my phone connected to the car for playing music at the time.

You can read the official Microsoft page on speech control at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/wp7/get-started-speech.aspx.

I’ve never really been a big speech or voice control user, let alone a fan. I don’t spend a lot of time travelling in the car and typically, my phone is with me, on my person, so I use my hands as after all, that big touch screen on the HTC HD7 is made for them.

As a Christmas gift, I bought my wife and me a Scala Rider Q2 Multiset Pro (http://www.cardosystems.com/scala-rider/scala-rider-q2-multiset), which is a helmet mounted voice activated rider to pillion (and bike to bike) communication system, but it also triples as an FM Radio and a Bluetooth headset, allowing me to connect my phone and satnav device to it so that I can get handsfree Bluetooth calls or music whilst riding and get satnav directions through the helmet.

I fitted my Scala Rider unit to my helmet yesterday and thought I would have a play with some of the speech controls of my Windows Phone as I would be using some of them now via the helmet.

The call commands are pretty intuitive and what you would expect: Call is the opening command  followed by the name of the person and optionally which number to call them on. For example, call Richard Green Work would dial my work number. If you omit the work, home or mobile command, then the phone will prompt you for which number to dial if you have multiple numbers for a given contact.

The text command is pretty simple too: Text is the opening command followed by the name of the person. You will then be prompted to start speaking your message. Once you’re done, the phone will read back the transcript and if you’re happy with it, you can say Send, or you can say Try Again to start over if it misheard you. On the receiving side, when you receive an incoming text, the phone will announce that you have a new message and the name of the contact whom it is from and you are given the option to have it read out loud and then reply if you wish.

The application commands, again are simple and intuitive, and herein lies the problem. Saying Open followed by the name of an application of feature on the phone and it will do so, for example Open Zune will open the Music and Videos Hub (renamed from the Zune Hub pre-Mango update). You can say Open Music and Videos too, but why would you when you can just say Zune? This works for any application, including third-party ones, so I can say Open Sky News or Open Endomondo and the app will promptly open, however this is where it ends.

Once the Music and Videos Hub is open, there is no way to start playing music, play a particular artist, a playlist or anything.

I love my Windows Phone as anyone remotely close to me will tell you. The style of it, the ease of use and the way it gives me the data I want quickly and easy to read with those big blocks of bold colour, but most of all, my passion for all things Microsoft, but this is one area that flops.

What is the purpose of being able to open an application on the phone via speech if you then can’t control the application beyond that? I know that Microsoft can’t be expected or even be able to implement deep level interoperability for speech control for third party applications because Microsoft have no understanding of the function and purpose of the applications or code used to make those applications function (beyond the actual language used), but a deep rooted part of the operating system such as music, messaging and phone should be there out of the box.

Ignoring the new Siri functionality on the iPhone 4S which is different to what I’m covering here – Just the core platform controls, and an iPhone user can dictate to the phone to shuffle all music, play a particular album, artist or playlist which is what you need. Going back to my original statement, I’ve never been a big speech user, this one-up-manship for the iPhone didn’t phase me, however with my shift in needs, it does.

Now, in my circumstances, the phone is safely inside my backpack while I’m riding, so touching the phone to operate it isn’t even remotely viable. If I wanted to listen to music on the road, I would have to start the music playing before I get all my gloves and other gear on so that it’s already rolling before I’m rolling. If I want to stop the music for any reason, I need to take off, at a minimum, my gloves and backpack so that I can get into the bag to stop it. If I’m on the subject of music on Windows Phone, why is the music volume linked to the system volume? There should be separate control for the music and system volumes, as well as a separate control for the ringtone volume, however that’s a separate rant.

I still prefer my Windows Phone to any iPhone offering, because it does what I want, how I want it (except for this one occasion), however on this occasion, I do envy those owners. I’ve read multiple rumours about speech operation in Windows Phone 7 Tango update rumoured to be coming in 2012 which will bring the speech more inline with that seen in Siri, however for me, now, this can’t come soon enough.

Whats Missing in the Lync Client for Windows Phone 7

Richard Green on

Microsoft Lync is one of those fantastic products that I yearn for. It cross cuts the entire communication eco-system and gives you fantastic integration across the Microsoft stack including SharePoint and the Office application suite, however much to my dismay we don’t use Lync in my place of work and instead use the mediocre Cisco CUCM. To this end, my only experiences with Lync in a real-world ‘anger’ situations are when participating in calls hosted by other companies using Lync, Microsoft themselves being the main player for me.

For a long time now, there has been speculation of a Lync Client for Windows Phone 7 being released and this week it finally hit the marketplace not only for Windows Phone 7, but also for Apple iOS devices, Android and Symbian.

The app looks great in the screenshots, showing the features on offer well, however one huge feature is missing for me. The ability to use the app as a Lync Attendee Client: See Lync offers two different clients. The full blown corporate use client and the Lync Attendee Client. If you use Lync in a corporate scenario you will have the full client, however if you are like me and only use Lync to participate in sessions hosted by others, you use the lighter Lync Attendee Client which doesn’t require credentials and is designed around guest access.

Sadly, the Lync Client app for the mobile handsets released this week is only suitable for full client use scenarios as told by the app guidance notes in the Windows Phone Marketplace:

IMPORTANT: Microsoft Lync 2010 for Windows Phone requires a Lync Server or Office365/Lync Online account and will not work without it. If you are unsure about your account status, please contact your IT department.

He being me, I decided to install the app and try it anyway, but sadly the prescribed guidance was correct. This was a sucker-punch to me, and I think it will limit somewhat the ability for people to use the Lync Client. My only hope is that a separate client is released which does give you the ability to participate in Lync sessions as a guest.

If you are lucky enough to use Lync in a full deployment, you can get the app for Windows Phone 7 from http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/9ce93e51-5b35-e011-854c-00237de2db9e.

What Does the Windows Live SkyDrive App Do For You?

Richard Green on

Personally, not a lot in a nutshell.

This post comes off the back of the announcement today from Microsoft of the release of a Windows Live SkyDrive app for Windows Phone 7 and Apple iOS devices. You can read the post for yourself in full from http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/12/13/introducing-skydrive-for-iphone-and-windows-phone.aspx.

For Windows Phone 7, I don’t see the application providing a whole lot that isn’t already available through the Pictures and Office Hubs integrated into Windows Phone. Sure, it does have a few new features that aren’t previously available like the ability to share links to your documents or pictures and gives you the ability to create new folders within your SkyDrive account, but that’s it for the new stuff.

iOS device users get more because they currently have zero SkyDrive integration, but that still doesn’t give you integration, just functionality. For iOS device users, you could say that it does actually give them a lot more than a nothing nutshell, but obviously what I write is focused on Microsoft technologies (in case you didn’t guess from all my previous posts).

For me what would be a serious leap in the usability and resourcefulness of Windows Live SkyDrive would be the consolidation of Windows Live Mesh (previously Windows Live Sync and Microsoft Live Mesh as two separate projects) and SkyDrive, or the release of a SkyDrive desktop client. DropBox and many other online file repository sites have desktop clients allowing you download, upload, sync and use all of your content across your desktops, laptops and mobile devices, however SkyDrive and Mesh are currently flawed.

Windows Live Mesh allows you to sync files to your desktop with a desktop client, and allows you to sync that content across multiple devices including the ability to sync between Windows PC and Mac, however it is limited to 5GB and although the application and the Windows Live Mesh web interface state that the storage is based on Windows Live SkyDrive, the folders and content are isolated and not interoperable.

Consolidating the storage pools in Windows Live Mesh and Windows Live SkyDrive would allow you to sync content between iOS devices, Mac, Windows PC and Windows Phone which would be utterly living the dream. All of this of course is overlooking the additional features of Windows Live Mesh already available today including the ability to sync Internet Explorer favourites and Office Outlook signatures, Office styles and templates and custom dictionaries.

Just imagine for one moment: The ability to sync all of your documents and pictures to all of your devices both desktop, portable and pocket, and have changes to those documents automatically replicated to all your other devices, have your standard email signature available on all your devices to provide you with a truly unified front when sending and responding to email communiqué, all whilst having your own shorthand, TLAs and words available in the dictionary saving you countless autocorrect issues on your mobile device?