Sunday 28 October 2012

Download Windows 8 Upgrade for £14.99!

14.99 for a Windows 8!

Video

Instuctions
I think this is a great deal for a new MS OS.  Windows has typlically always been expensive and the new low price point for Windows 8 is really going to help MS shift units assuming the controversy surrounding the new metro user interface does not get in the way.  Which it probably will because it really is not great for a desktop/laptop non-touch devices.

All you need is a Windows 7 PC, that you have bought in the last few months... But actually MS don't ask for any confirmation of purchase etc so really... Any Windows 7 PC/Laptop will be fine :)

But anyway I have decided to upgrade to Windows 8 and my wife found this on the MS website:
http://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-GB

Windows 8 upgrade offer!
Clicking Continue on the above page will take you to the application page:
These are the Windows 7 purchase questions - you could just make it all up, that is the last you will be asked about your existing Windows 7 - Kinda get the impression that MS really just want you to upgrade to Windows 8!
 Once you have filled out the required fields and click OK you will be immediately accepted (I assume it might be possible to be denied somehow but I was accepted)
As you can see my retailer for my Windows 7 laptop is a random guy off eBay - that's fine with MS as long as I want Windows 8 :)
Next you will get an e-mail with your promo code (actially I got 2 e-mails, one to say that I was going to get an e-mail with a promo code and another immediately after with the promo code thanks for the spam Microsoft).
Your promo code e-mail will look something like this:


You need to Download the Upgrade Assistant in order to continue

Click though all of the screens of the Upgrade Assistant.
You can even choose to pay for the upgrade with PayPal!
Once complete you will be shown the order confirmation screen:
The Promo code reduces the cost at this point and I went on to Download the CD.  It is possible to pay another 12.99 for Microsoft to ship you a CD as well, which I declined.
After this your copy of Windows 8 will start to download
ZZZzzz
Once downloaded you will be prompted to install Windows 8.  You can either go ahead or leave it for now and do so at a later date using the Install Windows shortcut on the desktop.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Citrix XenApp - Adding a shortcut to users local directory (not included in special folder redirection)

You want to give a user a convenient with a link to the users local client folder e.g. a C:\SpecialFolder folderwhich is used by an old application or a legacy proecure that users dont want to change :)

Wrong Solution 1 (only to be used as a one off)
Talk the user through browsing through the file system on their mapped client drive e.g. \\cleint\c$\SpecialFolder - however users will quickly get bored of that and wont want to do that if they regularly need access to files on their local documents folder.

Wrong Solution 2 (you could try this and see if you can find out why the shortcut breaks)
Another thing I then thought was well - now that I have browsed to that location - cant I just add it as a favorite and then the user just clicks the "SpecialFolder" item in theit favorite.  Yes this worked... but only until they logged off and back on again.  At which point the shotcut breaks and clicking on it produces an error - darn!

My Working Solution (use this)
On each of the XenApp severs there is a hidden folder (E:\Hidden) and within that there are symbolic links to the locations that are not covered by "Special Folder redirection", in the below example I create a symbolic link to the local workstation users directory for the current user - (script to create this hidden folder and symbolic links is avialable below) - this could by a symbolic link ton anywhere however!
Symbolic links to the users local machine profile UNC path in Citrix XenApp

Browse to this location and then select the appropriate LocalProfile link
This takes you to the root of the user profiles directory on the machine
You can then add this location to Favourites
This location can then easily be reached from the favorites menu in many open/save dialogues.

Script to create hidden folder with symbolic links to a client machines local users folder and a link to c:\SpecialFolder (copy and paste and save as .BAT) Note: Run as Administrator!
mkdir E:\Hidden attrib +s +h +r E:\Hidden 
mklink /D "E:\Hidden\LocalProfileXP" "\\client\c$\documents and settings\" 
mklink /D "E:\Hidden\LocalProfileWin7" "\\client\c$\users\" 
mklink /D "E:\Hidden\C-SpecialFolder" ""\\client\c$\SpecialFolder"
pause