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Let ISInc start your organization with a free trial and get Office 365 up and running in your organization easily. The trial will let your users experience the value that Office 365 can bring to them. Begin your Office 365 experience with helpful scenarios and how-to documentation for your users and IT professionals – all from within your own Office 365 environment.
Ask an ISInc representative for information on how Office 365 can save your organization on hardware and IT support costs!
August 22 2012
One of the features of the Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Client in Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 is the support for multiple monitors. If the machine running the TS-Client has a multi-monitor configuration that creates one logical rectangle, then the TS-Client can span over all the monitors, creating one virtual desktop of the combined size.
Specifically, the client needs the following for span mode to work correctly:
o Equal resolution monitors
o Total resolution of all monitors not exceeding 4096 x 2048
o Top-left monitor being the primary So, with this basic setup, let’s jump right in!
Step 1. Check the basics
Make sure both your monitors are using the same resolution and are oriented horizontally. Right click on the desktop. Click Properties.
In the Display Properties tab, make sure the monitors have the same resolution and are oriented horizontally. If not, adjust your monitor resolution and position so they are.
Step 2. Get the right version of Remote Desktop client
Check if you have the right version of Remote Desktop Connection client. You need at least version 6.0In the Start Menu > Run… dialog, type “mstsc” and hit enter.
The acronym “mstsc” stands for “Microsoft Terminal Services Client” – another name for Remote Desktop Connection client. You can also start it from Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection (or Accessories > Connections > Remote Desktop Connection)
The Remote Desktop Connection program should open up.
Click the monitor icon in the top-left corner of this dialog, and choose the “About” menu:
This will show the version of the Remote Desktop Connection client. It should be version 6.0 or higher:
If you have an older version, first download and install the newer version from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6E1EC93D-BDBD-4…
Step 3. Connect to remote computer in ‘span mode’
To have the Remote Desktop connection client use both your monitors, you need to start it in “span” mode. This is done by giving the following command in the Run dialog: mstsc /span
Open Start Menu, click Run. Then type in mstsc /span and hit Enter or Click OK
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When the Remote Desktop client opens up, enter the remote computer name to which you are connecting, and click Connect.
The Remote session should open up and cover both your monitors.
Once you have this working, you may want to launch the remote session in an easier way instead of typing the ‘mstsc /span’ command everytime.
The next section shows how you can create an “RDP file”, so you can launch a spanned remote desktop session by just double-clicking a file/shortcut.
Creating an RDP file to launch a spanned remote desktop session covering multiple monitors
Create the RDP file
Open Start Menu, click Run. Then type in mstsc /span and hit Enter or Click OK
When the Remote Desktop client opens up, enter the remote computer name to which you are connecting, and DON’T click Connect. Instead, click the Options button.
The window will open up to reveal more options:
Click the “Save As” button. A “Save As” dialog will open to save the connection settings to a file. Save the file to a known folder, and with a name like remoteserver.rdp. In this example, let’s say we saved it to C:\remoteserver.rdp
Now, close the Remote Desktop Connection program. We are done with this for now.
Editing the RDP file
Open Windows Explorer, and browse to the folder containing the file you just saved (C:\remoteserver.rdp). Right click the file > choose Open With… menu > Choose Program…
In the Open With dialog, choose Notepad to open the file. Remember to NOT check/enable the “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” option.
Click OK. The file should open up in Notepad. It is a file with many lines. We need to edit this and add one more line.
In the last line of the file, add the following command and hit Enter:
span monitors:i:1
The file should look something like this (note the last line added manually):
Save the file (File menu > Save) and exit Notepad.
Double click… and connect!
From now on, you can connect to the remote computer using both monitors (in span mode) by just double-clicking this file. To add a shortcut to your desktop, right click the file, and choose “Send To> Desktop (create shortcut)”. This will place a shortcut to this file on your desktop, and you can just double click the shortcut to remotely connect to the remote computer using multiple monitors in span mode.
July 23 2012
Office 2013 will soon be here, along with a new and improved version of the cloud-based Office 365. If you’re looking to upgrade, you have to decide whether the traditional desktop version of Office is the way to go, or if Office 365 is a better fit for your needs.
Office 2013 is impressive, but Office 365 is a better value in most cases.
1. Cost
Microsoft hasn’t yet shared what the price tag will be for the new Office 2013. But, unless it follows the same bold path laid out in offering Windows 8 for a mere $40, history suggests the new productivity suite will start somewhere in the $150 neighborhood.
Office 365 plans start at $4 per month. Small businesses can get access to Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync in addition to the core Office productivity applications for only $6 per month. Larger businesses that want to take advantage of Active Directory integration can do so for $8 per user per month.
Breaking those down, it takes more than three years to reach $150 based on the $4 per month plan, and more than 18 months under the $8 per month plan. The 18 months is less time than a business typically gets out of an investment in the desktop Office software, but it also comes with more than the software itself.
Of course, those are the current subscription prices and plans for Office 365, so those figures are subject to change as well.
2. Updates and Maintenance
What else do you get with your Office 365 subscription? An IT department. Sure, you can set up your own Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Lync infrastructure. You can manage and maintain the desktop Microsoft Office software, and install the patches and updates every month yourself. How much will that cost?
Consider that implementing the same capabilities in-house requires servers, and network infrastructure, and IT personnel to install, manage, update, and maintain it all. Plus, you still have to buy and maintain the Office software itself.
With Office 365, Microsoft takes care of all the dirty work so you don’t have to. Updates, patches, and upgrades just happen in the background without you needing to worry about it. When the server crashes, its Microsoft’s problem. When a hard drive needs to be replaced, Microsoft will handle it. You get the benefits of using Office without any of the headaches of updating and maintaining it all.
3. Accessibility
Office 365 lives in the cloud. That means you have access to Word, Excel, Outlook, and other Microsoft Office tools from anywhere you can get a Web connection, and from virtually any device–Windows or Mac desktops and laptops, Android devices, iPhones, iPads, and other smartphones and tablets.
Office Web Apps provide basic features and functions for free.This isn’t quite the selling point it once was for a couple reasons. First, even with the desktop Office 2013 suite Microsoft is pushing users to save files to the cloud-based SkyDrive, or to a SharePoint server by default. So, there’s no reason the data can’t be accessible regardless of whether you choose Office 2013 or Office 365.
The second reason it may not be all that compelling is that Office Web Apps are already available for free from the SkyDrive site. So, even without Office 365 users can create, view, and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files from the Web.
For businesses, though, SharePoint, Active Directory, and other elements of Office 365 that go beyond simply creating and editing Office documents still make Office 365 a better value.
Your mileage will vary of course. There are a number of factors involved in calculating the cost of purchasing, installing, configuring, updating, and maintaining Microsoft Office and the accompanying back-end services versus the ongoing subscription costs associated with Office 365. Office 365 is a solid service providing tremendous bang for the buck, though, so it won’t be easy to beat the value it brings to the table.
July 20 2012
I recently had an issue with a new install of SharePoint 2010. A user was trying to send/copy documents between libraries on the site, and the “send to” function was not available, it was grayed-out. After a little research, I found that there is an add-on in Internet Explorer that can cause problems with the “send to” feature of SharePoint. To fix this problem, go to “Manage Add-ons” in the Internet Explorer tools menu. Change the view to “show all add-ons”, and disable “STSUpld CopyCtl Class”. Your “send to” should now work without a problem.
-Mike
August 30 2011
While working remotely I noticed my bandwidth would drop when I connected to our VPN. It appeared that all internet packets were being routed through our VPN connection. While this normally wouldn’t be a problem, I often found myself downloading large files and my connection performance was limited to the available bandwidth to the VPN connection. That’s when I learned about what a “split tunnel” vpn connection is. I wrote this article to walk you through the process of setting up your VPN to take advantage of this option in Windows Networking.
With a “split tunnel vpn” connection, the internet traffic is routed through the local gateway connection. All other network traffic works through the vpn connection as you would expect. This is a feature that is available with Windows Vista and XP PPTP VPN connections, but it isn’t the default setting.
Here is how you configure your VPN connection to use the local gateway:
Step 1
Right click on your VPN connection and choose “properties”
Step 2
Click on the “Networking” tab. This is where we will need to make changes to the TCP/IP settings for your VPN connection. If you are using V6 IP addresses or V4, you’ll need to make the change in both locations just to be sure.
Step 3
Click on the “Advanced” button to get to the Advanced TCP/IP options
Step 4
The VPN connection by default configures all packets to route to the remote server’s gateway. We want to turn this option off by clicking on the “Use default gateway on remote network” option.
That’s it! Once you have made those changes you will notice your internet packets are no longer automatically routing through the VPN server.
August 18 2011
In this post we will look at how to create new document content types and insert the metadata fields in the header of the Word Document.
Creating the Content Type
1. Make sure you are in the site where you want to create the content type. Click Site Actions | Site Settings.
2. In the Galleries section click Site Content Types.
3. Click Create.
4. Fill in the appropriate information on the form to create a new content Type. Give the content type a name.
Make sure to select “Document Content Types” on the Select parent content type from drop down menu. Make sure to select “Document” in the Parent Content Type drop down menu. Put the new content type in either an existing or new group. Click OK.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the new site content type property page to find the columns section. Here you can either create new site columns or add an existing site column. The column will then be associated to the content type.
6. Content types can also have workflow, retention schedules and modified document information panels.
7. Upload a document template to
SharePoint Training
July 18 2011
You might be wondering, what is Microsoft Office 365?
It’s familiar Microsoft Office collaboration and productivity tools delivered through the cloud. Everyone can work together easily with anywhere access to email, web conferencing, documents, and calendars. It includes business-class security and is backed by Microsoft. Whether you are a small business or multinational enterprise, Office 365 offers plans designed to fit your organization’s unique needs.
There are two plan families available:
Plan P – for professionals/small businesses
Plan E – for midsize businesses and enterprises.
Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses
This service plan is designed for up to 25 employees who want:
•A solution without dedicated IT staff
•Essential email, calendar, and website services
•Free online community support
•Month-to-month subscription
Microsoft Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises
This service plan is great for any size organization that wants:
•Advanced IT configuration and control
•Office Professional Plus, Active Directory or advanced archiving
•24×7 IT Administrator support
•Choice between monthly and annual contracts
Please contact an ISInc account representative for more information, or email [email protected].
January 15 2009
Do you have staff in remote locations, and find it difficult to get them the training they need? There comes a time when your resource is too valuable to send off site for a class. This is where ISInc’s e-Learning can come into play. Now your students can access the same classes via their desktop computer.
ISInc’s e-Learning training is live, interactive online training for those who would like to attend one of our face-to-face instructor-led training courses without leaving their offices, homes or classrooms. Learners can listen to the presentation, ask questions, hear others’ questions and get live answers, all from wherever they choose. They can engage in discussions with others in the physical classroom and throughout the country who are involved in the same class session.
ISInc’s e-Learning training blends the best from traditional face-to-face instructor-led training with the latest in conferencing technology, allowing us to deliver live training to multiple locations at one time. This model is based on our over 27 years experience as trainers and the general premise that the classroom is the foundation of a great training experience.
All courses offered at ISInc can be taken online via our live e-Learning training using Microsoft Lync. So, if you have employees in remote offices that you are trying to schedule for IT training, consider ISInc e-Learning Training. Please contact us for more information.
For more information on our e-learning and to view a video on how it all works, visit our e-learning page here.
November 7 2008
If you spend any time coding CSS from scratch or debugging existing stylesheets, you know how tricky it can be to find that pesky error! Whether it is getting IE6 to play nice or just understanding where all that white space is coming from, these Firefox add-ons should help you do the job better and faster. I’ve only chosen a couple of my favorite add-ons and my favorite features of each. Feel free to include your favorite features or add-ons in the comments as this list is anything but exhaustive.
The Web Developer Toolbar by Chris Pederick has many useful features like an easy-access javascript disabler, a simple window resize to test 800×600 screen resolution, and an option to view all of the stylesheets associated with a page (easily searchable!).
One of my favorite features, however, is surprisingly simple and incredibly useful. Using the Outline menu, you can outline any block level element on the page with just two clicks of the mouse. Personally, I can end up spending minutes of wasted time adding borders to elements here and there trying to figure out why I am seeing too much or too little space in a certain area. No need to do that anymore with this feature. It outlines your div tags for you, making spatial debugging a much simpler and faster process.
My other favorite feature in the web developer toolbar is the quick access to the W3C XHTML validator. It will upload your local file and display your pass/fail status quickly and efficiently!
Next on my list is the Firebug add-on which again, has a wealth of useful and time-saving debugging tools. My favorite, by far, is what I’ve coined as their CSS specificity revealer. Ok, you got me, I just made that up. The feature I’m referring to goes something like this:
1. You add some CSS rule
2. Your CSS rule doesn’t work
3. You can’t figure out why it doesn’t work
4. You wish to yourself there was some tool out there that could tell you if someone wrote a rule that is somehow overriding your own
5. You realize that firebug has that very feature and you’re going to use it now!
Launch firebug after you’ve installed it and click the “Inspect” button at the top of the console. Now, watch the Style panel on the right hand side. As you mouse over different elements on the page, you will see which rules apply to which elements. You will also see which rules are being overridden by others as evidenced by the line through.
For instance, in the above example, the #description rule is overriding our normal <p> tag line height of 1.4em because #description is an ID (which will always have a higher specificity than a non-ID rule).
Personally, I think this feature of firebug makes it one of the best CSS debugging tools out there.
And remember, feel free to leave me some tips and tricks in the comments section if you have any!
