Sunday, May 27, 2012

Windows 7 Upgrade: Isolated Problems, Not Disaster

Speed Up Windows XP With System Mechanic 10.8

System Mechanic 10.8 Put Through The Test

We've all seen those annoying television commercials that promise to speed up a slow computer, but do such solutions really work? The CRN Test Center put Iolo's System Mechanic 10.8 through its paces and was impressed with the results.

Our test subject was an old Pentium III-era PC running Windows XP so slowly that the machine was completely unusable. Just opening the Start menu easily took 20 seconds, opening an app required about a minute, and we could fix a steak-and-egg breakfast in the time it took to reboot this dinosaur.

But it was perfect for our purposes. We installed System Mechanic 10.8 and, after running a scan, the tool reported that the overall system status was poor and health and security were at alarming levels.

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As expected, the floodgates were opened last week on Windows 7 upgrades. From some of the histrionics on the blogosphere, one would almost surmise that an upgrade to Windows 7 was nothing short of a painful, abysmal failure. Much of the spotlight focused on upgrade problems with the Windows 7 Student edition -- one of the more understandable gripes about the upgrade process. Accusations about a host of glitches, such as endless loops of Windows 7 startup, abounded.

However, some of the outrages over Windows 7 upgrades are dubious, at best. As Channelweb.com's Kevin McLaughlin reported, many users are complaining that that they cannot do clean installs with Windows 7 upgrade media.

Say what? When has Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) ever made it an option for a user to do a from-scratch install with an upgrade CD? Legitimately, that is, without any workarounds?

It became a bit hard, during the course of last week, to separate justifiable gripes about the Windows 7 upgrade process from the lone freak incidents and overall general biases against Microsoft. However, upon a deeper dig into a disparate sampling of users all over the Internet recording their Windows 7 upgrade experiences, our verdict is that most problems were more incidental with third-party hardware drivers, line-of-business applications, and just random quirkiness.

We conducted our own independent tests on the upgrade process. What we found were very specific, yet irritating incidents that don't significantly undermine Microsoft's promise that "if it works in Vista, it will work in Windows 7." Furthermore, we did not find any issues in our testing that should render a business system inoperable. Note, all upgrades were done using 32-bit software.

In our initial test, we upgraded a Toshiba Portege 500 laptop from Vista SP2 to Windows 7 Ultimate. The full-blown version of Ultimate, and not an upgrade version, was used for the test. We first attempted to do a clean install over an upgrade, but Toshiba's native hard disk drive software prevented a complete wipe-out of the system. So, we moved on, doing just a plain old upgrade. The upgrade process was successful. There were no issues with drivers or any other preinstalled software.

One nuisance we noticed after upgrading to Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 was a persistence of IE8 to open new IE sessions and tabs at 150 percent zoom. Somewhere during the upgrade process, the previous settings for IE were adjusted, but that is probably more of an issue with the upgrade from IE7 to version 8.

Next, we upgraded a year-old Dell (NSDQ:Dell) XPS laptop, again, with Vista SP2 to Windows 7. There also were no issues with the upgrade process, save for a broken link to a shortcut we had on the Vista OS desktop to wireless networking.

An upgrade of a Dell Vostro 220 mini-tower also gave no problems. All shortcuts and drivers transitioned over to Windows 7 without incident.

This should be of some comfort to home users. From our testing, all of the major OEMs seem to really have prepared for the final release of Windows 7. For business users and those in the channel, it appears that the biggest headaches will be caused by incompatibility issues with LOB software and any other proprietary software or unique hardware. Of course, a solid testing plan along with backing up of mission-critical data and system registries should alleviate any major issues with a Windows 7 upgrade.

Our expectation is that most businesses will opt for clean installs anyway, or replace dated machines with preinstalled Windows 7 ones. It would seem that so far, the Windows 7 upgrade process is a relatively painless one and does not merit the drama it has seemed to attract.

.

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Friday, May 4, 2012

Microsoft announces 7 bulletins for May 2012 Patch Tuesday, closes book on MAPP data leak

In addition to its advance notification for Patch Tuesday, Microsoft uncovers the party responsible for leaking security information and exposing customers to attacks against RDP


Just hours after releasing the advance notification for May's Patch Tuesday release, which consists of seven bulletins, Microsoft brought some closure to its biggest security threat of the year.

RELATED: Microsoft's MAPP reportedly hacked, RDP exploits coming sooner than expected

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In a post on its TechNet blog, Microsoft blamed March's information leak in the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) that led to several threats against a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) vulnerability on Chinese partner company Hangzhou DPTech Technologies.

"During our investigation into the disclosure of confidential data shared with our Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) partners, we determined that a member of the MAPP program, Hangzhou DPTech Technologies Co., Ltd., had breached our non-disclosure agreement (NDA)," Yunsun Wee, director of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, wrote in the blog post. "Microsoft takes breaches of our NDAs very seriously and has removed this partner from the MAPP Program."

The breach, which came at the hands of hackers in China, granted the cybercrime community access to information to attack the RDP vulnerability before Microsoft customers were given the information needed to patch it. Wee added that Microsoft "took actions to better protect our information," while senior program manager Maarten Van Horenbeeck provided more visibility into the inner workings of MAPP.

Given the relatively light load of security bulletins, Microsoft chose an opportune time to close the book on March's security scare. Three of the seven bulletins were rated critical, the most interesting of which was Bulletin 1's critical patch for Office, Qualys CTO Wolfgang Kandek says.

Threats against Office typically require the user to open a file containing a malicious program, Kandek says. Microsoft has traditionally been more prone to issue the "important" rating to threats that involve user interaction, he added, making this month's critical bulletin "kind of interesting."

Marcus Carey, security researcher at Rapid7, speculated that the Office vulnerability patched with Bulletin 1 "is an underlying issue on how it processes data." Citing the recent phishing attacks against Mac systems, Carey says threats coming through Microsoft productivity software are "becoming a recurring theme for organizations and end users because it's primed for phishing attacks."

Beyond that, the remaining two critical patches will attract the most attention, primarily because they address vulnerabilities in Windows versions XP through 7, Carey says.

"This means that all organizations and the entire user base will be affected by these critical bulletins," Carey says.

The other four bulletins were all rated important. Bulletins 4 and 5 address remote code execution vulnerabilities in Office, while bulletins 6 and 7 address elevation of privilege in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

With seven bulletins in April, Microsoft's total bulletins for 2012 rises to 35, compared to the 36 issued by the same point last year. Interestingly, Microsoft's release schedule has been far more consistent than in years past. From January through May 2012, the total number of Patch Tuesday bulletins issued in a single month has dipped as low as six and risen only as high as nine. In the same period last year, those totals ranged from two in both January and May to 12 in February and 17 in April.

This trend shows a sign of stability in Microsoft research and makes the jobs of systems administrators much easier, Kandek says.

"I'm not sure how they do this internally in terms of planning, but it seems to me going to a more steady stream is a sign of maturity, and from my systems administration perspective I prefer that than every two months getting something bigger," Kandek says. "I personally prefer a steady stream coming out. I can deal with that better, rather than things where suddenly my capacity is stretched more."

Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle, also took note of Microsoft's continued move away from the "feast and famine" approach of last year. However, the number of bulletins is less relevant than the number of common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs), Storms says, and the security community should put more focus on Microsoft's increase in that area this year.

"Bulletin numbers don't tell the whole patch story," Storms says. "CVEs correspond to the number of bugs fixed, and this year Microsoft is on a CVE streak. With the 23 CVEs in May's patch, Microsoft's CVE count has already reached 70 for 2012. This time last year Microsoft issued just 59 CVEs."

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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Microsoft may take on Kindles and Nooks

Microsoft pays $300M for a Barnes & Noble app for Windows 8 and may build its own e-reader

Microsoft is investing $300 million in a Barnes & Noble spinoff that has agreed to create a free Metro style Windows 8 application so customers can shop at the spinoff's store, but Microsoft reserves the right to compete against Barnes & Noble with its own e-reader hardware presumably based on Windows 8.

As part of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that details the agreement between the two companies, Microsoft can make its own e-reader -- akin to Barnes & Noble's Nook and Amazon's Kindle -- and include an interface to the store and support any content customers buy there.

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HARDWARE: 12 available devices to test drive Windows 8

The new company, called NewCo for purposes of the filing, will create a Metro style application for x86 Windows 8 machines as well as Windows RT for ARM-based devices, including tablets.

"If Microsoft creates a reader, Microsoft may include an interface to the NewCo Store in that reader and may surface in that reader all Content purchased by customers from the NewCo Store," the filing says.

The app itself will be available free at the Windows Store, and NewCo will support it once it's installed on customers' machines. NewCo will also update the application as needed, the filing says.

The application will include other functionality, but what that is exactly is redacted from the SEC filing because Barnes & Noble requested confidential treatment.

Barnes & Noble commits to directly shift its agreements with publishers for content such as e-books and digital magazines to NewCo if possible.

The agreement also hints at more cooperation with Microsoft. "NewCo will make good faith commercially reasonable efforts to enhance the NewCo Windows App to exploit features and functionality available through Windows and its extended Microsoft ecosystem," the filing says.

It further states that the company will help Microsoft software and services interoperate with the NewCo store under specified circumstances. "NewCo will use good faith efforts to enable Microsoft Products and Services to be used with the NewCo Store and distribution system in the following scenarios, the delivery and nature of which will be subject to the Microsoft product and service strategy," the filing says. The scenarios are redacted from the filing.

The agreement has a clause to prevent Microsoft from hijacking the NewCo Store name or masking the fact that Microsoft customers are accessing it and giving the impression that it is a Microsoft store. "Microsoft will not white-label (which for the avoidance of doubt includes rebranding or presenting as Microsoft's) the NewCo Store or obscure NewCo's branding or the fact the NewCo Store is the NewCo Store, including in Microsoft Products and Services," the filing says.

The agreement calls for transferring to NewCo its e-reading assets and content, and to sell the content in a marketplace called the NewCo Store, apparently a replacement for the Barnes & Noble Store. As long as Barnes & Noble holds the majority stake in the company, Barnes & Noble will use its influence to supply digital content to the NewCo Store. The pricing of content available on the Windows application will be set by NewCo, according to the filing.

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Friday, April 27, 2012

Learning Microsoft MCTS 70-516 Exam

Microsoft certification exams are a great way to build your resume and let the world know about your level of expertise. Certification exams validate your on-the-job experience and product knowledge. While there is no substitution for on-the-job experience, preparation through study and hands-on practice can help you prepare for the exam. We recommend that you round out your exam preparation plan by using a combination of available study materials and courses. For example, you might use the Training kit and another study guide

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for your “at home” preparation, and take a Microsoft Official Curriculum course for the classroom experience. Choose the combination that you think works best for you.

This article will let you understand the core developers who write or support applications that access
data written in C# or Visual Basic using Visual Studio 2012 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 and who also plan to take the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) exam 70-516. Before you begin using this kit, you must have a solid foundation-level understanding of Microsoft C# or Microsoft Visual Basic and be familiar with Visual Studio 2012..

Topics to know in C# or Visual Basic using Visual Studio 2012
ADO.NET Disconnected Classes
ADO.NET Connected Classes
Introducing LINQ
LINQ to SQL
LINQ to XML
ADO.NET Entity Framework
WCF Data Services
Developing Reliable Applications
Deploying Your Application

Most of the examples in the article could run very well on a single server running both the Active Directory and Exchange Server 2010, if you do not have the time or resources to set up a fully functional lab. (Keep in mind that it is highly recommended that the Active Directory Domain Controller and the Exchange Server do not coexist on the same physical or virtual machine in the real world for a variety of reasons.)

Make use of the Testing Engines that are available, as well as the free Webcasts. Practice test material is just for that... PRACTICE. It may help you pass the test but believe me you will only last one day in a job if you don't know what you are doing, so if you use practice material, read the question and if you don't know the answer, research it and learn it, don't just memorize the answer....I will tell you right now that their answers are not always right.

If your ready for career change and looking for Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training or any other Microsoft Certification preparation get the best online training from Certkingdom.com they offer all Microsoft, Cisco, Comptia certification exams training in just one Unlimited Life Time Access Pack, included self study training kits including, Q&A, Study Guides, Testing Engines, Videos, Audio, Preparation Labs for over 2000+ exams, save your money on boot camps, training institutes, It's also save your traveling and time. All training materials are "Guaranteed" to pass your exams and get you certified on the fist attempt, due to best training they become no1 site 2012.

About The Author
Hi I educated in the U.K. with working experienced for 5 years in multinational companies, As an IT Manager and IT Instructor, I am attached with certkingdom.com here they provide IT exams study material, the study materials included exams Q&A with Explanation, Testing Engine, Study Guides, Training Labs, Exams Simulations, Training Videos, Audio Exams Training, etc. for certification like MCTS Training, MCITP MCTS, MCSD, MCSA, MCSE Training, CCNA exams preparation, CompTIA A+ Training, and more Certkingdom.com provide you the best training 100% guarantee. “Best Material Great Results”

My Specialties
I’ve worked with a lot of technologies, but these are where my focus has been in recent years:
* Microsoft SQL Server (particularly high availability and disaster recovery)
* VMWare Virtualization
* Oracle (yes, Oracle, I’ve worked on 7-11)
* Microsoft Clustering
* Red Hat Linux (I can still write shell scripts)
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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Over View Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 : MCTS 70-662 and MCITP 70-663

A number of articles have been published on Windows PowerShell, but very few of these are dedicated to Exchange Server 2012. I am an Exchange administrator. I am not a developer. Yet, I have found an increasing need to improve my development skills in order to be an effective administrator—first with Exchange Server 2007, then with Windows Server 2008, and now with Exchange Server 2010. Fortunately, with Windows
PowerShell and Exchange Management Shell, I can do so without having to learn a complicated language and extensive developmental concepts—something I really have no desire to do as an administrator. With just a simple verb-noun combination, I can achieve fantastic things in the Exchange organization and still be able to sleep at night without pieces of code swirling around in my head as I dream.

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What’s New in PowerShell 2.0
Microsoft Windows PowerShell is a combined command-line shell and scripting language designed primarily for administrators, not developers. Prior to the introduction of Windows PowerShell into operating systems, administrators were forced to learn a programming language such as Visual Basic to fully manipulate objects in the Active Directory and Exchange environment if the graphical user interface (GUI) did not provide
an easy means for administration. Mainly, an administrator found the need for additional tools, such as custom VB scripts, when he or she wanted to manage objects in bulk. PowerShell 2.0 includes significant changes from the original version.

Topics To Understand Exchange Server 2010 Portable Command:
An Overview of Windows PowerShell 2.0 for Exchange 2010
New Features and the Exchange Management Shell
Basic Techniques
Achieving a Comfort Level with PowerShell
Advanced Techniques
Customizing the PowerShell Environment
PowerShell and the Exchange 2010 Deployment Process
Standard Deployments
Disaster Recovery Deployments
PowerShell and Recipient Objects
Working with Recipient Objects
Bulk Management of Recipients
PowerShell and the Transport Roles Message Routing
The Hub Transport Role
The Edge Transport Role
Configuring Rules and Agents on Transport Servers
PowerShell and the Client Access Server Role
CAS Services
Working with Certificates
PowerShell and the Mailbox Role
Mailbox Servers and Databases
Working with Mailboxes
Using the Recovery Database (RDB)
PowerShell and the Unified Messaging Role
Working with Unified Messaging (UM) Role Objects
Managing Unified Messaging (UM) Users
PowerShell and Message Routing
Exchange Server 2010 Message Routing
Integrating Exchange Server 2010 into an Existing Exchange
Server 2003 Environment
PowerShell and High Availability in Exchange 2010
Database Availability Groups (DAGs)
Mailbox Database Copies
Using DAG to Mitigate Failures
Monitoring Highly Available Databases
PowerShell and Public Folders
Public Folder Database Management
Managing Public Folders
Public Folder Permissions
Troubleshoot Exchange Server 2010 Using PowerShell
Troubleshooting with the Test Cmdlets
Event Logging with PowerShell
PowerShell and Automating Exchange Server 2010 Administration
Using and Finding Scripts to Automate
Monitoring Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Permissions,
Mailbox Audit Logging, and Reporting with PowerShell in Exchange Server 2010
Configuring Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Permissions
Using Mailbox Audit Logging to Monitor Exchange Server
Reporting and Other Useful Cmdlets

Most of the examples in the article could run very well on a single server running both the Active Directory and Exchange Server 2010, if you do not have the time or resources to set up a fully functional lab. (Keep in mind that it is highly recommended that the Active Directory Domain Controller and the Exchange Server do not coexist on the same physical or virtual machine in the real world for a variety of reasons.)

Make use of the Testing Engines that are available, as well as the free Webcasts. Practice test material is just for that... PRACTICE. It may help you pass the test but believe me you will only last one day in a job if you don't know what you are doing, so if you use practice material, read the question and if you don't know the answer, research it and learn it, don't just memorize the answer....I will tell you right now that their answers are not always right.

If your ready for career change and looking for Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training or any other Microsoft Certification preparation get the best online training from Certkingdom.com they offer all Microsoft, Cisco, Comptia certification exams training in just one Unlimited Life Time Access Pack, included self study training kits including, Q&A, Study Guides, Testing Engines, Videos, Audio, Preparation Labs for over 2000+ exams, save your money on boot camps, training institutes, It's also save your traveling and time. All training materials are "Guaranteed" to pass your exams and get you certified on the fist attempt, due to best training they become no1 site 2012.

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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Microsoft 70-640 Exam Quick Pass Tips (Windows Server 2008)

As the your know that getting good job you need pass Microsoft exams and get certified to eligible for the job. Some Microsoft exams are not as simple and easy to pass; you need get the core concept of the exam this article will help you to under stand Microsoft Server 2008 for the exams of 70-640, 70-642.

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WHAT IS WINDOWS SERVER 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2, or simply R2 for short, is the second release of Windows Server 2008 . It isn’t a completely new release, but rather adds additional features and refinements to the existing release . In this book, we focus on the new features and refinements in R2 . We assume you have at least a general knowledge of Windows Server, and that you have some familiarity with Windows Server 2008, although we don’t assume you’re actively running Windows Server 2008 . Where an R2 feature is a refinement of a feature that was new in Windows Server 2008, we provide background on the Windows Server 2008 feature to provide context .

THE ROLE OF SERVER ADMINISTRATOR
Windows server administrators who are responsible for hands-on deployment and day-to-day management of Windows-based servers for large organizations . Windows server administrators manage file and print servers, network infrastructure servers, Web servers, and IT application servers . They use graphical administration tools as their primary interface but also use Windows PowerShell commandlets and occasionally write Windows PowerShell scripts for routine tasks and bulk operations . They conduct most server management tasks remotely by using Terminal Server or administration tools installed on their local workstation .

9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WINDOWS SERVER 2008
1. What’s New in Windows Server R2
2. Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World
3. Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines
4. Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management
5. Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access
6. The File Services Role
7. IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform
8. DirectAccess and Network Policy Server
9. Other Features and Enhancements

Make use of the Testing Engines that are available, as well as the free Webcasts. Practice test material is just for that... PRACTICE. It may help you pass the test but believe me you will only last one day in a job if you don't know what you are doing, so if you use practice material, read the question and if you don't know the answer, research it and learn it, don't just memorize the answer....I will tell you right now that their answers are not always right.

If your ready for career change and looking for Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training or any other Microsoft Certification preparation get the best online training from Certkingdom.com they offer all Microsoft, Cisco, Comptia certification exams training in just one Unlimited Life Time Access Pack, included self study training kits including, Q&A, Study Guides, Testing Engines, Videos, Audio, Preparation Labs for over 2000+ exams, save your money on boot camps, training institutes, It's also save your traveling and time. All training materials are "Guaranteed" to pass your exams and get you certified on the fist attempt, due to best training they become no1 site 2012.

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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Recycle It! SharePoint’s First Line of Defense

Introduction
With the introduction of SharePoint 2007, Microsoft saw fit to give us the recycle bin for catching and holding onto tossed away information before it was lost forever. Not only did the recycle bin provide us with the opportunity to recover items for a defined period of time, but this recycle bin actually had two parts. The first stage held items tossed away by users, from which they could retrieve said items if they discovered they still needed them. The second stage provided a catch-all bucket for items that were subsequently dumped by users from the first stage, out of which a Site Collection Administrator could then retrieve these items, provided their expiration time had not passed.

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While SharePoint 2010 continues the tradition of this two-stage recycle bin, it seems that there is still some confusion as to just how the recycle bin functions. This article will delve into the mystery that seems to be this little wonder of restoration and hopefully provide the clarity to its configuration and usage.

How SharePoint’s Recycle Bin Works
Let’s begin with the basic operation of SharePoint’s recycle bin. To start with, the recycle bin is both user-specific and site-specific. This means that from the user’s perspective they will only see items in the trash that they have deleted from the specific site they are currently visiting.

And just what goes into the recycle bin? List and library items, as well as lists and libraries themselves all get caught in the recycle bin when a user chooses to delete said items from SharePoint. If a list or library is deleted, all of the items contained in that list or library are deleted as well. However, if a user decides to delete their entire site, don’t expect to go into the recycle bin and find it. It won’t be there. Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 adds a Site recycle bin to capture deleted sites, but we’ll review that later. For now, simply bear in mind that only items, lists and libraries can be found in the user’s trash. Therefore, users are able to retrieve an item or an entire library, without the aid of an administrator, if they discover that they really did need that material.

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Deleted items can only be restored to their original location. This means that if you have deleted items from a library and then the library itself is subsequently deleted, you must first restore the library before you can restore a specific item from that library. Simply creating a new library with the same name will not work. Items are all identified and referenced by their Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs), so, creating a new library would generate a new GUID.

Since the recycle bin is user/site-specific, what happens if someone deletes an item that another user needs? This is where the Site Collection recycle bin comes in. The Site Collection recycle bin, viewable by Site Collection Administrators, provides a comprehensive view of everything in the trash throughout the entire Site Collection. Think of the Site Collection recycle bin as the dumpster out back where all the trash for the entire building goes. Viewing the Site Collection recycle bin, a Site Collection Administrator will see all the deleted items from all of the sites within the collection and can then restore any item that a user has deleted.

It is from the Site Collection recycle bin that Site Collection administrators have access to the second stage of the recycle bin. This is where items go that have been deleted from the user recycle bin before they are purged. Item purging is based upon the recycle bin settings that can be found in Central Administration and are configured for the web application. It is also here, in the second stage, where a Site Collection administrator will find sites that may have been deleted by users. This is, of course, if you have installed SP1 for SharePoint 2010.

So just what are these settings and how do they work? In Central Administration, under the Application Management heading, Manage Web Applications, select the web application you want to adjust the recycle bin settings for and then select General Settings from the ribbon. Scroll down until you find the Recycle Bin settings section as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Recycle Bin Settings Section
First of all, we have the ability to turn off the recycle bin completely. While there are some organizations where this is the chosen method of operations, most of us will want to avail ourselves of this handy option and leave it on. The default setting is for the recycle bin to store items for 30 days. Items held within the recycle bin will count towards any Site Collection quota settings you might have configured, so you will want to take this into consideration when planning your SharePoint environment. Switching this to the Never option will simply allow items in the recycle bin to accumulate until a user manually deletes items from the trash (and we know how often that will happen) and could therefore use up all of the quota space for a Site Collection eventually. Setting the purge duration is a good idea. Furthermore, I would suggest giving some serious thought to increasing the time that items are kept within the recycle bin itself. From a disaster recovery perspective, when comparing the cost of restoring data from backups vs. the cost of additional disk space for longer recycle storage, my point should become increasingly clear.

The second stage of the recycle bin seems to be where most of the confusion abounds. Let’s start with the storage setting. By default, items in the second stage will take up no more than 50 percent of the quota assigned to the Site Collection. If you have set a Site Collection quota of 100mb, items in the second stage can take up to an additional 50mb of disk space. Once this limit is reached and as newer items are dumped from the first stage and caught by the second stage, older items that are lying around in the second stage will be purged. There is no catch-all for items that are removed from the second stage. This also means that for collections that do not have a quota assigned, the recycle bin can simply grow and possibly fill up your entire database disk space.

The second stage can also be turned off. Before doing this, think very hard about how often it is needed to recover items that users have tossed from the trash to make room for something else because they were running out of disk space. By planning storage needs properly and taking into account the extra space for your second stage bin, it can be a very handy part of a recovery plan.

Now, let’s revisit the 30-day delete items setting. This 30 days, (or whatever preferred range it is set to) applies to both the first and second stages of the recycle bin. This is a one-setting, cover- all situation that covers 30 days total, not 30 days each. When a user deletes an item from a list or library, the 30-day timer starts. If at 28 days into the count the item is then deleted from the first stage, it rolls over to the second stage where it will sit for two more days before being purged for good. If the item would cause the second stage bin to hit its quota maximum, then an older item in the second stage would be deleted to make room for the new arrival.

Information Summary and Consideration Points
Plan a strategy well when implementing SharePoint’s recycle bin. Remember to account for the added storage needs when planning databases and consider hold times when planning a recovery model. A well-implemented recycle bin is an important element in a Disaster Recovery plan and can save both time and money over the SharePoint farm’s lifespan.

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