Spiceworks are doing a Community update tonight:

We’re planning on pushing out an update to the Spiceworks Community tonight (Aug 12) at 7pm CST. The Community will be offline during this time. We should be back up in 4 hours. For those of you with S.C.A.D – rest assured we’ll be back and spicier!

Some of the changes you’ll see are:

• New Feature Request Section: The feature request forum has become really hard to navigate and filter. We’ve created a new section that’ll make it easier to see feature requests by section (Help Desk vs Reporting, etc).
• New Script Center: A while back ChristopherO suggested a section in the community where we could share scripts. This new section will allow you to navigate scripts by language and type.

Cant wait to give the new features a try tomorrow

Church Tech Matters have done a great article on how to user Spiceworks in a church.

So, now that I have your attention, what is this Spicy thing?

As a church IT volunteer,  our time is limited and we need tools that can help us be more efficient with the time we do have. When I took over as the tech team leader, I knew that the biggest challenge was going to be maintaining the network. I needed a tool that could be my eyes and ears in the environment and let me know when things are not right. For example, some of the canned alerts will tell me when someone has installed new software on their system or if they added the infamous weather-bug.. without having to install expensive 3rd party applications on every workstation in the network.  That is where SpiceWorks comes in.

Read more http://churchtechmatters.com/2009/08/11/getting-it-spicy-at-your-church/

Golden ~Eye~ or Tim Golden recently did a nice write up on Spiceworks

I’ve been a SpiceWorks user since 2007 and have been loving it!

This slidedeck will help explain what Spiceworks is .. a nutshell.. it’s the best free way to monitor your network..

Read more

Tabrez has just annouced 4.1 has been released.

The latest version of Spiceworks (4.1) is now available. We have been working on fixing a number of issues found in 4.0 as well as adding a number of nice features, we think everyone will want to update to this version of Spiceworks (4.1). A summary of issues fixed as well as enhancements is listed below. Feel free to open discussion on any that you feel need more details. Enjoy!

Read the release notes here http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/74080

• Customize HTML Email Templates in the Help Desk.
• Find new features with the new Inventory and Help Desk Guides.
• Manage Software Product Keys on the software or device page.
• Identify more Antivirus Packages with improved detection for more vendors.
• Edit Links between Network Map nodes.
• Access vPro web interfaces on the configuration tab.
• Identify devices that are from Remote Sites in the device details column.
• Over 150 performance and reliability enhancements.

Want to keep track of our latest news from within Spiceworks? Now you can with the Unofficial Spiceworks News plugin.

Its a simple RSS reader for your dashboard to show you all the latest goings on in the world off Spiceworks.

Check it out and download it now from the Spiceworks community ( here )

Help out Spiceworks and Nominate them for a Windows IT Pros Award

From now to Aug 10th, nominations are underway for the 2009 Community Choice Awards – presented by Windows IT Pro & SQL Server. These awards recognize the products that IT pros vote as the best-of-the best…..we’d love for Spiceworks to win one(or more!) – but need your help!

Will you take 2 seconds and – BY AUG. 10th – please nominate Spiceworks for the network management category (#27)?

Read more

David Scammell has setup a Twibbon for Spiceworks

I found a neat way to promote Spiceworks via your Twitter avatar. For those who missed my latest tweet, here it is:

@dscammell just created #Spiceworks – http://twibbon.com/join/Spiceworks – #twibbon

By joing this Twibbon group, you’ll have a transparent overlay added to your Twitter avatar that will place the Spiceworks icon in the lower left hand corner of your Twitter avatar.

Read more http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/73782

Scott Alan Miller or SAM as he is known on the community recently got to spend time at the Spiceworks Head office in Austin, Texas.

I was not sure how to find the SpiceWorks building in the complex that they are in.  Finding the complex was super simple but finding their building was a bit tough.  I lucked out, though, that I parked and immediately as I got out of the car with the intention of wondering around and just looking for the building and saw someone walk right by me wearing a SpiceWorks t-shirt!  I grabbed them and they recognized me after a minute and then took me right in to the offices – which it turned out I had parked directly at.

Read his post http://www.sheepguardingllama.com/?p=4364

Announcing the Spiceworks Plugin

Think you have an idea on how to enhance Spiceworks? Been waiting for a good opportunity to flex those scripting skills? Here’s your chance!

Tabrez recently announced Spiceworks are running a Plugin contest in which you could win a trip to Spiceworld Austin! Expenses’ Paid!

There are 7 categories you can enter your plugin into:

1. Extending Help Desk Functionality
2. Extending User Portal Functionality
3. Extending Inventory Functionality
4. Extending Monitoring Functionality
5. Most Useful
6. Most Creative
7. Most Entertaining

What do I win?
Each of the category winners will receive an Amazon Gift card valued at US $250.

In addition, each of these winners is eligible for the coveted “Best-in-Show” grand prize. This winner, select by a vote of Spiceworks employees, will win an all-expense paid trip to Austin (up to US $1,000) and free admission to Spiceworld Austin. All contest results will be announced live at Spiceworld Austin on October 23rd.

Read more and enter now

For Spiceworks-News and well alot of Spiceworks users… #ItSucksWhen (It Sucks When) Spiceworks stops working or starts throwing unkowns at you…

Don’t know what Spiceworks is?

Read out about page