Microsoft's upcoming 64-bit version of Windows XP, which is expected to debut later this year, might not please many users considering that the long-awaited 64-bit operating system might only be available to OEM resellers.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=16919
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I just had a customer question concerning how to size a SQL database server. In most cases, hardware vendors supply some generic sizing tools to assist customers with getting "close" to the right configuration. Dell has several of these tools available on their web site:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/alliances/en/sizing?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz.
You'll find sizing tools for :
SQL Server 2000
Exchange Server 2003
Exchange Server 2000
Windows 2000 Active Directory
PeopleSoft/JDEdwards
SAP
Rack System Sizing Tools
Customers who use a number of the top online banking sites are at risk of falling prey to a new Web-based attack that snatches user IDs and passwords for these sites. Among the sites targeted by the attack are some owned by Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Barclays Bank.
The attack is rather complex and appears to use a known flaw in Internet Explorer (IE) to drop a Trojan horse program on vulnerable machines. The Trojan is delivered through a malicious pop-up ad that loads a file called "img1big.gif" onto the machine. The file is in fact a compressed Win32 executable that contains the Trojan and a DLL.
The DLL is installed on the PC as a BHO (Browser Helper Object), a type of DLL that normally is used to let developers control IE in certain circumstances. When IE runs on a machine infected with the malicious BHO, the file monitors IE's activities for any HTTPS sessions with URLs that have any of a large number of banking-related strings in them.
VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for x86-based systems, today announced support for 64-bit extended x86 platforms, including AMD64 and the Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T). VMware software will support systems with terabytes of physical and virtual memory, enabling the virtualization of the next-generation memory-intensive applications such as data-mining and managing large databases.
http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/64bit.html
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The
Active Directory to ADAM Synchronizer Beta provides one way synchronization from Active Directory to ADAM.
Overview
"The feature will provide synchronization of data from AD to ADAM and keep the ADAM data consistent with the source AD data. Application administrators and developers can use a configuration file and a scriptable command line interface to specify a filtered and scoped subset of data to be pulled from AD to ADAM. There will be no data written back to AD and the objects and values in ADAM are not “transformed” in any way. Object or attribute based evaluation rules cannot be implemented and all values from the source AD are authoritative so while the target ADAM app may extend the data, any shared data will be overwritten with AD data values."
You'll definitely want to have a look at these KB articles:
KB.867633 -
Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) Release Notes - This is the updated version of the release notes that answers all of the Frequently Asked Questions about IMF -- where to install it, why it's not working like you expect, etc.
KB.842106 -
Mailbox remains in the original site after you move the mailbox to a mixed site in Exchange 2003 - This is not the title I would have given this one... might be more appropriately called something like “if you don't have proper two-way connection agreements for all sites and you move mailboxes cross-site with the new SP1 functionality, the stub mailboxes in the source site may not get cleaned up properly”. The workaround is to use the ADCTools to create proper connection agreements..
KB.867626 -
New Error Correcting Code is included in Exchange 2003 SP1 - SP1 adds to the existing ability to detect checksum errors in the Exchange database some additional functionality to correct the error in certain cases! See the article for substantially more detail.
I'll try to post a few more as they are released in the next few days!
SQL Server Express is a version of SQL Server 2005 designed for building simple, dynamic applications. SQL Server Express helps developers build robust and reliable applications by providing a powerful database that is also free and easy to use.
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/sql/default.aspx
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A whitepaper which describes memory dump files and their use by Product Support Services (PSS) has just been released to the web. The paper was created in response to customers who have voiced frustration with requests to obtain multiple memory dump files to troubleshoot certain problems and wanted to understand the processes used by PSS to collect and analyze those files.
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For those of you not travelling to TechEd 2004 this week, please check out the TechEd 2004 website. It contains all presentations, including powerpoint files given during the TechEd 2004 week. A must read!
(click here)
Microsoft teams are investigating a report of a security issue known as Download.Ject affecting customers using Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0 (IIS) and Microsoft Internet Explorer, components of Windows. (Download.Ject is also known as: JS.Scob.Trojan, Scob, and JS.Toofeer.)
Reports indicate that Web servers running Windows 2000 Server and IIS that have not applied update 835732, which was addressed by Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011, are possibly being compromised and being used to attempt to infect users of Internet Explorer with malicious code.
Important: customers who have deployed Windows XP Service Pack 2 RC2 are not at risk.
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The software giant wants the ruling that it pay a heavy fine and offer Windows without its media player to be blocked
Microsoft plans to ask a European court in the next few days for an
emergency order blocking a ruling imposed in March that levied a heavy
fine and required that Windows be offered without a media player.
full article here
Moving to Exchange 2003? Avoid getting lost in your Active Directory forest(s) with The Expert's Guide for Exchange 2003. It’s a roadmap for how to prepare for, move to, and support Exchange Server 2003. This FREE eBook will tell you the requirements you may not know, why you may need multiple directories, and how to allow access while maintaining security.
(download here)
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Windows Server 2003, High-Performance Computing (HPC) Edition becomes life late 2005. The Windows Server 2003, HPC Edition will target scalable, parallel-computing workloads in vertical market segments such as engineering, life sciences, and finance, according to Microsoft. Windows Server 2003, HPC Edition will offer customers a Windows-based solution with a single simplified environment for developing HPC applications, deploying, and managing HPC clusters.
Windows Server 2003, HPC Edition will include established industry standards, such as Message Passing Interface (MPI), for high performance computing and will be supported by many industry partners, including OEMs, middleware [vendors], and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) such as AMD, Dell, IBM, Intel, HP, Verari Systems, and Cornell Theory Center (CTC).
kbAlertz.com is an e-mail notification system that scans the
entire Microsoft Knowledge Base every night, and e-mails you when updates or
additions are made to the technologies, you subscribe to. Since they scan the
entire knowledge base, they also have a pretty good search system for you to use
on their website. So sign up and stay up-to-date on all or some Microsoft products!
Microsoft is currently planning a new edition to the Windows XP family of operating systems, namely "Starter Edition". Starter Edition is the name of a previously announced effort to deliver a tailored and localized Windows product to Thailand and Malaysia, as part of Microsofts efforts to enable access to technology.
Previous rumours suggested that Windows XP Starter Edition would include a set of applications on top of the standard Windows XP installation (including Office 2003). We cannot confirm these reports but are awaiting a statement from Microsoft Press.
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Network Associates is for sale, and Microsoft is rumored to be the buyer.
The maker of McAfee antivirus and security products has not made it public, but a "for sale" sign figuratively hangs from Network Associates' front door, according to Wall Street sources and channel partners.
A public announcement concerning either the pending or closed sale of the company to a buyer could come as early as July 1 when Network Associates also plans to announce layoffs associated with the company's for-sale status, these sources said.
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In what amounts to a change in strategy about ending support for Windows NT, Microsoft has agreed to an unspecified extension of Windows NT 4.0 software security and support for customers in the financial industry.
In a deal with BITS, a consortium of financial institutions that collectively holds more than half of the nation's financial assets, Microsoft has agreed on parameters for what is being described as "specialized support" for Windows NT 4.0. Under terms of the pact, Redmond will continue to provide NT 4.0 security updates for an extended period while U.S. banks work to migrate to new versions of the Windows operating system.
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Prior to Exchange 2003 SP1, if your SMTP protocol virtual server didn't have anywhere to go with a timed-out email, it would drop it in the BadMail directory on your server. This directory could potentially grow and grow without bounds until it filled up the disk, etc. There are two big changes to Badmail in the SP1 timeframe: one in SP1 directly, and one in the WebRelease “WR1”.
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Last week I visited a session from
Quest Software, they talked about their migration tools. Quest Software recently completes the acquisition of Aelite Software. Now there are two players on the market Quest Software and NetIQ.
With the tools from Quest Software you can administer, report, recover, audit and migrate the Active Directory, Exchange and Windows environment. At the session they demonstrated the Domain Migration Wizard and Exhange Migration Wizard.
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I can't believe that I've been using Windows XP since Beta 1 and did not know this feature existed.
You see, I do a lot of work from the command line - sometimes it's just more comfortable for me as that's how EVERYTHING was done when I started doing this stuff 15+ years ago. And although I'm an excellent typist (if I do say so myself!), it's a major pain to have to deal with long filenames - copy, delete and rename commands are a chore when you're working with
"myveryimportantdocumentthatIcreatedwitharealllylongname.doc". (more)
That's right...the product group has finally moved to a Release Candidate version of Virtual Server 2005. Virtual Server is a datacenter-class virtualization product - the big brother of Virtual PC. Both Virtual PC and Virtual Server (then a beta product) were purchased by
Microsoft from Connectix some time ago. And while VPC 2004 was released last year, we're still waiting for Virtual Server to see the light of day. Release Candidate status means it's very close, though...
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Welcome to the Online Experience! Through these exclusive labs, you’ll see first-hand how Microsoft Windows Server System, through its Management products, technology, and services, can help IT professionals create and maintain a well-managed Windows infrastructure. You can experience Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manager SP1 in critical user scenarios, including security patch management and Exchange server monitoring. These labs are free and allow you to get structured, step-by-step experience without even leaving your desk!
(click here)
Microsoft on late Monday provided testers with the much anticipated, security-minded second Release Candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 2. The timing of the final release is still hard to pin down. The second release candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 2 will be released tuesday
here.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 provides Windows Firewall, an enhanced firewall that is enabled by default.
This white paper describes the methods used to deploy Windows Firewall settings in a managed environment.
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Finally, the resource kit for SPS 2003 is released to the web. A nice sample chapter is
Integrating Exchange Server 2003 with SharePoint Products and Technologies which discripes how to integrate Exchange 2003 with SPS 2003:
"Although Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies do not require any particular mail server, the tightest integration is available with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Web Parts distributed with Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 can display a user’s Inbox folder, Tasks folder, a list of upcoming appointments from the Calendar folder, or the contents of any other mailbox folder. "
Exchange 2003 Standard and Enterprise offers the feature to monitor the Server status of the Exchange Servers in your Enterprise. If some of the monitored services and other Resources (RAM, CPU, Services) are in “Warning state” or “Critical State” you receive a status E-Mail or a customized action provided by a script notification. This article explains in detailed steps how to configure Monitoring and E-Mail notification."...
(full article)
This downloadable article provides a technical overview of the Network Access Quarantine Control feature in the Windows Server 2003 family and includes instructions on how to deploy it.
The Network Access Quarantine Control feature of Microsoft
® Windows Server
™ 2003 delays normal remote access to a private network until the configuration of the remote access computer has been examined and validated by an administrator-provided script. This paper describes the components of Network Access Quarantine Control, how it works, and how to deploy it using Windows Server 2003 remote access servers, the Connection Manager Administration Kit, and, optionally, Internet Authentication Service.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/..
This article covers how to install Windows XP embedded withing MS Virtual PC 2004. These can be handy because Windows XP embedded normally only installs on specific hardware.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?..
Just like in the old days with the NT 4 exams, Microsoft is bringing back the simulation part of the exams. In the next months all exams will be changed to include one or more questions where the candidate must simulation actions to perform the required answer. Obviously this will really prove if someone is experienced in the subject being tested and it is Microsoft's answer to exam pirating (like Testking). Click on this
this to see a sample simulation video in WMV format.
Currently Techlog is transitioning from Dutch to English to reach a wider audience. The content management system (Pivot) is already converted and in the next days we will translate all historic articles. Be sure to visit Techlog on a regular basis as we are changing the layout over the weekend to give Techlog a more professional look and feel! Our new logo will then be presented also. You can have a first look at it if you click the thumbnail below:
On the download site of Microsoft, there is a so called
SQL Best Practice Analyzer tool available for download. When you run that tool from your workstation (minimum of IE6 and .NET 1.1) you can review your SQL server and see if it complies with the Best Practices that Microsoft recommends. For instance: memory tuning, disk setup, etctera. Really worth the download!
Just like
Bink writes on his weblog, Microsoft is bringing no attention to a new security leak. In
KB830847 you can read that if you're using Windows 2000 (all flavours) and the FQDN of your domain is exactly 8 characters, users will be able to login with their password even when it is expired! A patch to fix this is available via Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS).
David Watson writes in his
article on IDG that Microsoft will allow servers to have no additional licenses when used in case of emergency. A requirement is that these servers may only be used in case of emergency and must be offline during any other time. Microsoft calls these machines "cold" servers. It seems a sign for what is coming: more relaxed terms for the Software Assurance license.
