The best of both worlds? Well maybe, Netscape released a new browser (still beta) based upon Mozilla Firefox, but it also alows you to use the Internet Explorer rendering engine. Unfortunatly the new browser is available for
limited download.
But a little digging around in the slashdot comments showed a mirror site, so download the FireFox based Netscape browser with Internet Explorer ActiveX control at
this location, or
here. (this site is on tcp port 8090 so it could be that your corporate proxy does not allow the download from this site). One strange thing though, why in the world did they use the 0.9.3 build of FireFox and not the recently released 1.0 version ??? Strange guys these Netscape people.
(more).
With this add-in you can permanently remove hidden and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from Word 2003/XP, Excel 2003/XP, and PowerPoint 2003/XP files.
When you distribute an Office document electronically, the document might contain information that you do not want to share publicly, such as information you’ve designated as “hidden” or information that allows you to collaborate on writing and editing the document with others. Download
here.
(more)
Patch management is one of the hottest topics today. The outspread of Nimda using Operating System holes showed that though Microsoft provided patches half a year before the outspread of the virus a lot of machines were not updated. Other "worm" viruses soon followed.
Microsoft provided SUS v.1 which was a sort of corporate Windows Update, configurable using Group Policy or the registry. The first release was a bit buggy and was soon updated. However the tool is still a bit limited, not updating Microsoft applications nor providing any means to actually track whether computers are actually being updated.
Microsoft also provides a SMS 2003 tool that can update Office applications and has reporting features but is difficult to configure and requires a lot of attention.
Microsoft now is on its way to releasing Windows Updates Services (WUS), the successor to SUS, providing the much needed reporting features and able to update Office XP, 2003, Exchange 2003 and SQL (and MSDE) 2000. Other applications will probably be added over time. Continue at source.
There are many things that set the ISA firewall apart from other firewalls in widespread use. But the one thing that stands out is the ISA firewalls unique combination of stateful filtering (stateful packet inspection) and stateful application layer inspection. Combine these features with the ISA firewall’s one of a kind VPN server and Web Proxy/caching capabilities, and you have one powerhouse firewall that causes other firewalls to pale in comparison. Check out this article for details on how the ISA firewall's Firewall client application is a critical components of the ISA firewall's comprehensive defense in depth scheme. Continue at source.
Because Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 has become so feature-rich (in premium mode) and provides a user interface that closely matches Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 (also known as the Outlook MAPI client), provides far better performance and security than was the case with earlier versions, it’s getting more and more popular to use OWA 2003 as the default client among users within the organization (especially when speaking retail stores, schools and factory floors etc.) Continue at source.
A brief Overview of
Commerce Server 2006 has been published on microsoft.com. The most significant thing behind this article is that (hopefully) it will put to bed the exaggerated rumors of the demise of Commerce Server as a product. Yes, I know it has been a long time in between updates, but not as long as SQL Server, right? There is a lot of business that still needs to be transacted over the web, and all of those amazing SOA BizTalk-powered applications need a flexible and scalable front-end.
Read the list of features included
here.
This white paper discusses the package installer for Windows also known as Update.exe. Update.exe is generally used to install a service pack or an update (also referred to as hotfix) for Windows operating systems and other Microsoft products. The package installer has been in use for a number of years servicing the operating system, and recently other teams at Microsoft adopted the installer to service their products.
(more)
Efforts under way to revise the popular GNU General Public License could put additional pressure on Microsoft Corp. by the time it tries to push its long-awaited Windows upgrades out the door. The Free Software Foundation is working to revamp the GPL—the first such rewrite in 13 years. Eben Moglen, general counsel for the Boston-based FSF, who is co-authoring the new license with FSF founder Richard Stallman, has declined to say when Version 3 of the license will be ready. "We need it to be right, and the community needs to be available and adopt it and make good out of it."
But several sources close to the FSF said that from a strategic point of view, the best possible timing would be to have a draft of the next version of the GPL ready before the end of next year. Following that, a global summit on licensing would be convened in 2006, the sources said.
(more)
The Windows XP SP2 firewall log is located at %windir%\pfirewall.log. Since this log file is compliant with the W3C log format there are some tools which you can use to parse these logfiles.
a. The first is by a Partnership called 2BrightSparks. They have a number of pieces of excellent software and included in this list is
FireLogXP. This software allows you to parse the log file easily to see what is going on.
b. The second is a firewall reader that just makes viewing your logs easier:
XP Log reader
c. The
Log Parser from the IIS 6 resource kit. This will give you command line tool and a COM API you can use to pull information out of your log file using a SQL like syntax.
NewsSource:
Bruce Cowper's Weblog (more)
We are proud to announce that Techlog has found a new sponsor. After C2ICT, Jefka Cartoons is supporting Techlog and their members. While Jefka Cartoons is not directly ICT related, they support the ambitions of Techlog. As sponsor, they have earned a link in the upper left corner. If other organizations are willing to support what we are doing and are willing to sponsor, please contact me.
(more)
Microsoft said Sunday it's looking into reports of a security screw-up in Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), a component of its most popular server software, including Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows Server 2003.
In a posting to its online support center, Microsoft said: "this security issue could make it possible for an attacker to take control of a WINS server remotely." As of Friday, November 26, however, Microsoft said it didn't know of any actual exploit of the possible vulnerability.
Microsoft recommended that network administrators remove WINS if it's not needed, and/or block TCP and UDP ports 42 at the firewall.
Source:
TechWeb.com
View:
Knowledge Base Article (KB890710) (more)
There won't be just one Longhorn Server. Instead, there will be nearly a dozen customizable variants, partners say.
While 2007 is still a long way off, Microsoft is making headway (at least on slide decks) with Longhorn Server, according to the Redmond software maker's partners.
Before the Windows Server team can dedicate itself exclusively to Longhorn Server, it needs to roll out several other new releases, including Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; the 64-bit
Continue at
Microsoft Watch by Mary Jo Foley
One of the most important steps in a MetaFrame Presentation Server farm design is to decide what applications you’re going to install on which servers. As many of you know, I’ve spent the past three months traveling and talking about Citrix throughout the world. From a design standpoint, this application issue is huge.
Fundamentally, you have two basic options:
Install all your applications on all MetaFrame servers and then publish the desktop.
Install a few related applications on each MetaFrame server, creating several different server configurations. Then, publish individual applications.
Continue at
Brian Madden's Website
Having problems connecting to SSL sites that use an alternate port number? No problem! Check out this article for an explanation of the problem and a quick fix.
"The problem here is that the Web Proxy filter only forwards SSL connections to TCP port 443. If clients try to connect to an SSL site over a port other than TCP 443, the connection attempt will fail. You can solve this problem by extending the SSL tunnel port range. However, to do so, you will need to download Jim Harrison’s script and enter the tunnel port range(s) you want the ISA firewall’s Web Proxy component to use." (more)
To reach some of the benefits of deploying a Windows 2000 infrastructure it is important to limit the end-user's ability to make changes to the core components of the operating system. Windows 2000 system administrators now have the option of giving users local User or Power User privileges. Under these privileges it is possible to perform the majority of the tasks that an end-user needs to complete to get their job done. However, some non-Windows 2000 logo compliant applications may not properly run. While there are a number of issues related to application not running under a user context, it is important to distinguished between security related requirements and other issues related to application compatibility.
The Elevated Privileges Application Launcher, EPAL, tool is designed to assist a fairly narrow spectrum of the application compatibility issues. It only deals with the ability of letting an application launch under some other user privilege, so that it has access to certain components of the local registry or the file system. With EPAL the network administrator now has the ability of only giving the user local user privileges on their systems and have the application execute and some higher privilege level on the local system that they are currently logged on with.
Download
here (more)
Coming from WindowsNetworking.com:
New to Windows Server 2003, the Volume Shadow Copy Service provides users with a way of restoring files themselves without having to involve you. This article explains how to implement and configure this service.
Although I always believed that Windows 2000 Server was a good operating system, I always felt like a few things were missing from it. Take the recycle bin for example. The Recycle Bin was first introduced in Windows 95, and was included in Windows 2000 as well. The problem was that it only worked locally. For example, if an administrator was sitting at the server console and accidentally deleted a file, they could easily go into the recycle bin and get it back. However, if that same administrator was at their workstation accessing the server remotely and accidentally deleted the same file, it would be gone forever. Because the file was deleted from across the network rather than locally, the file would not be placed into the Recycle Bin.
The good news is that Microsoft has remedied this problem in Windows Server 2003. The bad news is that recovering a file that was accidentally deleted from across the network isn’t quite as simple as opening the Recycle Bin. Instead, the process is controlled through the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
Continue
here
Always wanted to have a nice email address? This is you chance. Hotmail is putting some populair email addresses on sale. Among others, jamesbond@hotmail.co.uk, darthvader@hotmail.co.uk and bridgetjones@hotmail.co.uk are for sale on eBay. The money goes to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, an organisation that tries to prevent child abuse. The James Bond email address is the most populair and so are superdad@hotmail.com, fatherchristmas@hotmail.com and santa@hotmail.com.
Help us improve Windows Server by providing us with your suggestions and ideas. All feedback submitted will be sent to the Windows Server Development Team for review and analysis. Your ideas can impact Windows Server in many ways, and might even be incorporated into new Service Packs, Feature Packs, or the next Windows Server release.
(url)
Here's a tip a community member shared to make Adobe Acrobat Reader open up INSTANTLY! Look in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader, create a new folder called "Optional" if it does not already exist, but it probably already does. Go to: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins, move / drag the plug_ins folder into C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\Optional.
Done. If Adobe Reader really needs a plug-in it will find it by itself in the Optional folder without issue. But it no longer will take forever loading every plug-in by default, saving an amazing amount of time. Thanks to Timothy O'Brennen for this tip!
From WindowsSecurity.com:
Are there security settings that you wish were in a Group Policy Object, but are not? How much time, effort, and administration time could you save if you had these security settings deployed through a Group Policy Object? I am going to unlock the ability for you to customize the security settings that are deployed by Group Policy Objects.
Continue
here
If you are a medium or large sized organization, you might have thousands of clients and hundreds of servers that you need to manage. Manually trying to manage all of the local groups on all of these computers is difficult, and almost impossible. Have no fear, Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are here! GPOs provide a mechanism that allows you to control the membership in local groups, and even domain groups, on any computer in the Active Directory enterprise. The specific configuration that you use for this task is the Restricted Groups GPO setting.
(more)
MSN are trialling a new service that enables users running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to remotely schedule TV shows to record on their Media Center Edition-based PCs.
MSN Remote Record is likely to be released as a free add-on in the form of a powertoy in early 2005. For now those wanting to get onto the beta can do the following:
Go to http://beta.microsoft.com
Sign in with your Passport ID
Sign in with Guest ID: myshows (all one word, all lower case)
Click on "MSN Remote Record Service Beta"
Click on "survey" on the left side of the MSN Remote Record Service Beta Program page
Click on "MSN Remote Record Beta Nomination Form"
Fill out the form and submit.
All valid nominations will be approved. Once approved, it takes about 24 hours for the information to get through the Beta Place system and testers to have access to the Beta program.
NewsSource:
Neowin.net
VSS, or Volume Snapshot Services, is used in two ways.
To provide previous Versions of Files and
To ensure backup applications don't have issues with open files
In
this small article Sean Daniel tells you more about Volume Snapshot Services.
From WindowsNetworking.com:
The Windows Performance Monitor is a great tool for analyzing a server’s performance. The problem is that it can be complicated to use and the results can be hard to understand. However, Microsoft has recently released a new tool that will test a server’s performance for you and compile the results into an easy to read report. In this article, I will tell you all about it.
Continue at
WindowsNetworking.com
Microsoft are slowly selecting potential testers for their next Windows Server release, code named R2. In an email to testers today the software giant begins:
"Due to the outstanding contributions you made during the recent Windows SP1 beta, the Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 Beta Team would to extend the opportunity to participate in the upcoming "R2" beta program. The core of this release is built on the Windows Server 2003 SP1 platform and adds optionally-installable components that our customers have requested. This beta will all incorporate a number of key features that are of interest to customers who want to take advantage of new technologies available in the next release of Microsoft® Windows Server 2003."
According to Microsoft the beta will begin in the "early part of December" and will finish in Q4 of 2005. Microsoft have issued several Guest ID's for this beta but in order to prevent leaks the ID's are different (capital letters in different places).
NewsSource:
Neowin.net
According to sources close to Microsoft recent release schedules that have popped up on the internet regarding Longhorn are inaccurate and outdated. Today Windows Client Codename 'Longhorn' hit the milestone of M8-2. The next and final milestone before a beta is released is M9 which is currently due on 16th March 2005. Beta 1 of the much anticipated OS is due within May 2005. These new dates paint a picture of Beta 1 being released at this years WinHEC 2005 (late April) if it's indeed ready.
On another note, Windows Server 2003 SP1 is due to RC1 on the 6th December 2004 with an RTM due Q1 CY2005.
NewsSource:
Neowin.net
Eric Fleischman from Microsoft PSS has a great article on tools he uses for troubleshooting issues with Active Directory. "Often times people ask what sorts of tools and logging we use, and why we use them. I thought I’d share a few with y’all. These are some of the ones I find myself using more than most." Among other tools, he talks about UPHclean, FRSdiag and SPA. It is worth looking into his list if you are a Windows Server engineer!
(more)
This is funny. It would seem that Microsoft's PR firm uses Firefox rather than IE. The company recently provided the press with a
screenshot of MSN Search displayed on the open source browser. An Alert reader of the Seattle Post Intelligencer read a
review of the new MSN Search and noticed something strange about the screenshot in the article, found a larger version of it and was surprised to find out that while the OS was Windows XP, the browser used was Firefox. Moving into damage control mode, Microsoft's PR firm denied using Firefox for any of MSN Search's screenshots.
On Election Day, NASA Astronaut Leroy Chiao cast his ballot from the most remote location to date: aboard the International Space Station, some 230 miles above the Earth’s atmosphere. County Clerk emailed Chiao an encrypted ballot, NASA Mission Control took the lead. By relying on its Orbital Communications Adapter that uses Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003, Commander Chiao exercised his right to vote. According to Scott Curtis, NASA operations planner, “We have Microsoft Outlook onboard and on the ground and we do regular synch ups with the astronauts two or three times a day".
Microsoft is bringing 'Watson'-style online crash reporting to Windows Server, starting with 'R2' in 2005, sources say.
Microsoft officials often tout the company's online crash reporting tool, code-named 'Watson,' for helping to cut the number of bugs in each subsequent release of Microsoft's desktop-office suite.
Microsoft is looking to take the Watson metaphor to Windows Server, according to Microsoft partner sources, who requested anonymity. The result, an automated crash-reporting tool, code-named "Zephyr," is expected to debut in 2005.
NewsSource:
Microsoft Watch by Mary Jo Foley (more)
Software company Microsoft has lawyers who appear to have just made a huge cock-up when they came to sue a software outfit for using the word 'excel'. It turns out that someone forgot to trademark the name and Microsoft didn't own it either. Apparently the legal eagles sent around a cease and desist letter to Savvysoft, which makes Excel portable to Linux under the name TurboExcel. Savvysoft founder Rich Tanenbaum said Vole offered to make his company one of its partners while at the same time threatening it with trademark lawsuits.
Newssource:
The Inquirer
From Windowsworking.com:
For several years now, there have been rumors that 64-bit computing would soon become mainstream. We may have finally reached that point, but there are some problems. The market is filled with competing 64-bit standards, each requiring their own special version of Windows. In this article, I will explain what you need to know about the various 64-bit systems that are available today. As I do, I will talk about the limitations imposed by each.
Since about 2001, 64-bit computing has been available in at least some capacity. However, up to this point, 64-bit computing has been traditionally used by big data centers with huge budgets, and specialized 64-bit applications. All the while though, there have been rumors that 64-bit computing would soon be entering the main stream. Almost four years have passed, and it seems that we are finally at a turning point in which 64-bit computing may finally be upon us. Before you run out and buy a 64-bit system though, there are some important issues that you need to be aware of. In this article, I will attempt to cut through all of the speculation and marketing hype and tell you what you really need to know before you make the move to 64-bit computing.
Continue
here
From
Eileen Brown's weblog: I'm delivering an
Exchange disaster recovery event in the UK in December and we've been owerwhelmed by the responses to the event. It has been very well subscribed, and this makes me wonder if there aren't enough prescriptive guidance documents available on strategies showing how you cope in the case of a catastrophic event.
We've got a couple of documents detailing how to recover from disasters. The
Disaster Recovery Operations guide explains how to back up and restore critical data, whilst the
Whitepaper on using recovery storage groups allows you to recover data from an older backup copy of the database without disturbing access to current data. I got these documents, amongst others from the Exchange documentation library but I wondered, do we need to run more "how to recover from disaster" type events like this one, or do we need to produce more documentation? If so, what would we need in addition to what's already out there on the web? It would be interesting to know.
The ubiquitous banner ad has become the latest delivery mechanism for exploit code targeting a known flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser. During a 12-hour window over the weekend, hackers broke into a load balancing server that handles ad deliveries for Germany's Falk eSolutions and successfully loaded exploit code on banner advertising served on hundreds of Web sites.
"Users visiting Web sites that carry banner advertising delivered by our system were periodically delivered a file from the compromised site. This file tries to execute the IE-Exploit function on the users' computer," Falk eSolutions confirmed Monday. The exploit (Bofra/IFrame) takes advantage of an
IE vulnerability discovered and reported to Microsoft earlier this month. It is a variant of the MyDoom virus that launched zero-day attacks on vulnerable IE users two weeks ago.
(more)
"Windows IT Pro announced today the launch of the virtual lab phase of the first-ever IT Prolympics, sponsored by Microsoft and Culminis, the world's largest IT pro user group association. The IT Prolympics are designed to rally the IT community, reward real-world IT heroes and create a fun educational experience. The IT Prolympics are an exciting opportunity for IT Pros to compete among their peers to be named the top Active Directory IT professional in the industry."
"The seven-week competition starts by downloading and studying the free Active Directory and Group Policy eBook curriculum, designed to prepare competitors for the quiz and the Virtual Active Directory Lab competition. In the quiz, contestants will answer 20 questions to test their Active Directory knowledge. In the virtual lab, contestants will face the challenge of fixing real-world problems and completing an Active Directory deployment scenario within a matter of minutes."
(more)
The US Air Force has had enough of Microsoft's security problems. But rather than switch to an alternative, it has struck a deal with CEO Steve Ballmer for a specially configured version of Windows to be used by all its 525,000 personnel and civilian support staff.
Full story:
Techworld.com
This white paper helps you troubleshoot the most common problems affecting the deployment of Group Policy in a Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2000 environment. This white paper discusses the likely sources for problems with Group Policy application and administration, and suggests ways to identify the source of problems you might encounter. It also summarizes many of the tools (such as Group Policy Management Console and GPupdate.exe), log files, and other resources that you can use to troubleshoot problems with Group Policy.
Download
here
Administrators use Group Policy to specify managed configurations for groups of computers and users. Group Policy includes options for registry-based policy settings, security settings, software installation, scripts, folder redirection, Remote Installation Services, and Internet Explorer maintenance. Intended for system administrators, architects, and others who need to create and manage Group Policy settings, this paper explains Group Policy infrastructure and shows how Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), a new MMC snap-in with scripting interfaces, fits into this infrastructure. The paper includes detailed information about Group Policy processing as well as many best practices useful to the Group Policy administrator.
Download
here
Quest Software Inc. (Nasdaq:QSFT), a leading provider of application, database and Windows management solutions, today announced that it is working with Microsoft Corp. to provide a new Exchange Reporting Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. This new reporting solution will be available from Microsoft at no additional charge to those who have licensed MOM 2005 and the Microsoft Exchange Management Pack. The new product was announced at Microsoft IT Forum, where Quest is a Silver Sponsor and is presenting in several conference sessions.
"E-mail is critical to today's enterprise, and that brings Exchange management issues to the forefront. IT managers are asking for visibility to certain key metrics in order to more effectively manage their e-mail platform," explained Dave Champine, director, Exchange Solutions, Quest Software.
"That's why Microsoft and Quest are creating this solution, which Microsoft will offer to its customers at no charge. Our goal, together, is to address the industry's need for better management of the Exchange platform." The Reporting Management Pack will be based on Quest MessageStats, the award-winning usage analysis solution for Exchange, which provides numerous additional reports, custom views and business-level analytics.
(more)
One of the highlights of this week’s IT Forum was Paul Bowden’s presentation on the Exchange Best Practices Analyser (ExBPA). It was a very informative session. Given that this tool has been out for almost two months, hopefully by now you will have given it a whirl in your environment. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on something really good, and remember, it’s free! The tool has been downloaded 85000 times, which apparently is some five times the number of downloads of the IMF.
Version 1.1 is due to be released in the second week of December, with version 2.0 expected to follow early next year. Updates are published every two weeks or so. With v1.0 only rules updates are downloaded. Version 1.1 will download both new rules and also updates to the tool itself. The current issue where it can take up to 5 minutes for the tool to be useable on a machine that doesn’t have internet access as it tries to update itself has been fixed in v1.1. A cancel button has also been added. A MOM management pack will be included with v2. Additional localised languages will be supported in v2 as well.
(more)
Connecting users to your network requires more than plugging in a network cable. In this book chapter, you'll learn the specifics of authentication under Windows XP: the process of verifying the identity of the user attempting to access a computer or other network resource. Find out the inner workings of Windows XP Professional, whether you need total authentication services or interoperability with Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows 2003.
Continue at
Informit.com
NewsSource
OsNews.com
Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005 enables use of virtual machines for sophisticated computing configurations like clustering. Clustering is valuable to businesses as it provides high availability for mission critical business applications and computing processes. Using virtual machines to cluster server computers has the added advantage of allowing a server to take advantage of its full computing power by running multiple virtual machines on a single hardware device, thus providing redundancy without requiring the quantity of computer hardware and associated cost that could be required for conventional clustering configurations. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for creating and configuring a typical, single quorum device, two-node server cluster. The configuration uses a shared disk on servers with Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 Enterprise Edition installed in virtual machines on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005.
Continue at
Microsoft
Newssource:
Virtualization.info
This article walks you through the process of setting up an authoritative time server for a Windows Server 2003-based network running Active Directory. The article outlines procedures for syncing to both an internal and external time source, and also lists additional resources for configuring the Windows Time service and troubleshooting time synchronization problems.
Continue at
WindowsNetworking.com
From
Eileen Brown's WebLog:
I had a question from a customer today asking how MOM 2005 is licenced in a Virtual machine. I had a look around and found the pointer to the document which explains this. So a single physical server running either Virtual Server or VMWare requires only one Operations Management Licence (OML), regardless of the number of virtual machines or processors. There is a licencing document for MOM 2005 available here but it doesn't have detailed information on how Virtual Machines are licenced.
Another piece of Microsoft's home entertainment puzzle falls into place this month with the imminent release of a kit that enables multimedia from a Media Center PC to be remotely streamed to a television elsewhere in the home, using an Xbox console as a multimedia gateway. With the kit installed, the Xbox performs the same function as Media Center Extenders (MCEs) recently introduced by HP and Linksys. Except, you can also play games on the Xbox.
Media Center Extenders are a key element of Microsoft's digital entertainment strategy centered around Media Center PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. The MCE enables digital music, photos, videos, and TV shows stored on a Media Center PC to be viewed or listened to anywhere in the home. The Xbox MCE upgrade kit also supports DVD movie playback, according to Microsoft
Continue at
WindowsForDevices.com
Some businesses are not sure just how much network resource Microsoft Office 2003 will use once it is installed. As with previous releases of Microsoft Office, it will consume more bandpass than its predecessors, however the information in this document will help decision makers determine just how much more it might use. It also offers suggestions for how to alleviate possible network bottlenecks by configuring proxy servers, the installed configuration of Office to block access to specific Internet sites, and to also disallow access to the Internet entirely.
Download
here
Corporate and private users of the Windows NT Server 4.0 platform will have to look for support services elsewhere than Microsoft starting on January 1, 2005.
The Redmond firm will phase out its pay-per-incident and premier support on this date. The
official lifecycle support page also indicates that online support may no longer be offered starting on January 1. According to Microsoft's support guidelines, users however will have access to online resources "for a minimum of one year after Premier support and pay-per-incident support have been discontinued".
Windows NT 4.0 Server was introduced in September 1996 and was removed from the retail channel on July 1, 2002. The software was available through the system builder channel through July 1, 2003.
Support for Windows NT 4.0 Workstation was ceased over a year ago on July 29, 2003.
NewsSource:
Tom's Hardware
Microsoft Corp. will announce the release date of the next version of its Exchange Server in the first half of 2005, but until the upgrade arrives, users can expect more management tools for existing versions, a company executive said this week.
Due to the mission-critical nature of Exchange, Microsoft will continue to make large investments in providing tools for the current and previous versions, Exchange Server senior director Kim Akers said at the company's IT Forum in Copenhagen yesterday. "We want to give customers the capabilities they need now instead of just saying, 'It's coming in the future,' " she said. Exchange is server software that handles messaging and collaboration capabilities, including e-mail, considered one of the most essential functions for most organizations.
Exchange Server 2003, the latest version of the software, was released a year ago. Since then, Microsoft has introduced a number of tools to expand the capabilities of the software, including a Best Practice Analyzer, which helps fix configuration problems, and an antispam tool called Intelligent Message Filter. This week the company also released Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, which supports Exchange Server 2003 availability.
Read the full story at
Computerworld
This download will enable you to send SMS text messages through most GSM mobile phones connected to your PC using Outlook 2003.
You can enter your SMS text within a Outlook-type entry form and have it sent to your mobile phone for delivery through your mobile phone network service. There is no requirement to install third-party software or to subscribe to additional mobile network services if your mobile phone can be connected to your PC. This is typically via an infrared connection, Bluetooth technology, or a USB/serial cable.
The SMS messages can be saved as a draft, grouped, and forwarded like standard Outlook 2003 e-mail.
NewsSource:
NtCompatible
Download
here
Microsoft released a
whitepaper about P2V migration with Virtual Server Migration Toolkit (VSMT):
IT departments attempting to consolidate servers by using virtual machine technologies face a challenge when applications and operating systems do not readily migrate to a virtual machine environment. Manually reinstalling software in a virtual machine is both inefficient and costly. Frequently, this isn’t even an option as installation disks are misplaced and product keys are lost.
Microsoft Virtual Server Migration Toolkit (VSMT) is designed to help solve problems associated with migrating to Virtual Server 2005 by creating a reliable and repeatable process for migrating an operating system and installed applications from a physical server to a virtual machine.
Newssource:
Virtualization.info
VMware, as you probably know, provides a virtual machine capability on Intel hardware, making it possible to make far more efficient use of server resources than if you just deploying the vanilla operating systems (whether Windows or Linux). It allows for multiple virtual machines to be deployed on a single server, each of which is completely independent of the other. However the available resources of the server are managed collectively. VMware delivers a true On Demand capability.
What is perhaps less well known is that VMware can also provide an important service for desktop hardware. This is partly because its desktop capability is still evolving. The VMware desktop capability, VMware ACE, is currently in beta release. It provides a standard virtual hardware configuration for the desktop, including the OS, web browser and all the applications - all of which are distributed from a central point. VMware ACE solves a major desktop support problem by enforcing standardization and thus making local software installation of any kind unnecessary. It is not the resource utilization that is the issue here, but manageability.
However, on its own VMware ACE does not solve all the support issues. This is where Softricity's SoftGrid plays a complementary role. In fact the role it plays is complementary enough for VMware and Softricity to be jointly marketing the capability.
Newssource:
Virtualization.info (more)
Sources familiar with testing have told BetaNews that VMware has released Beta 1 of Workstation 5.0 to a select group of testers.
This latest release of VMware's virtual desktop software includes a host of new features ranging from improved collaboration and networking, better performance and surer security, to enhanced cloning capabilities and Microsoft Virtual PC compatibility.
Newssource:
Virtualization.info (more)
The GPMC is an extremely useful tool that allows you to manage, test, and evaluate Group Policy settings. It brings the functions of a number of other tools, such as Resultant Set of Policy and Gpresult, and puts them all in one easy-to-use utility. It sounds a little bold to say that the GPMC is the only tool you’ll ever need to manage Group Policy on your Windows Server 2003 system, but the reality is that it’s probably true.
Like a number of other tools designed for Windows Server 2003, the GPMC missed shipping on the original Windows Server 2003 CD, and so it must be downloaded from the Microsoft Website
http://www.microsoft.com/....
Continue at
EnterpriseItPlanet.com
Steven Bink reports: Internet junkies, take heart: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates receives four million e-mails daily, most of them spam, and is probably the most "spammed" person in the world. But unlike ordinary users, the software mogul has an entire department to filter unsolicited e-mails and only a few of them actually get through to his inbox, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said here Thursday.
Ballmer was speaking to government information technology and development officials from the Asia-Pacific at the start of a two-day Microsoft-sponsored Asia Leadership Forum in Singapore. "There are two people who probably are the number one spam recipients in the world," Ballmer said, referring to Gates and himself. "Bill Gates (is number one) because he is Bill Gates.
(more)
Detailed discussion of how Microsoft IT upgraded its MOM 2000 SP1 infrastructure to MOM 2005. Microsoft IT uses MOM 2005 out-of-the-box to manage 5,600 servers worldwide. They deployed MOM 2005 in half the time required to deploy MOM 2000 SP1. In the process, they’ve begun to consolidate servers and monitoring staff to reduce TCO. Savings to date include 40 percent reduction in monitoring support staff and over 30 percent reduction in servers.
Download
here
Microsoft is currently busy working on its latest flagship operating system codename Longhorn, but for those running 32Bit hardware you may be left out when the OS is finally released.
According to sources, Microsoft Windows Longhorn will only be available for 64Bit processors and not for 32Bit.
Newssource
OsViews.com
The current planning of product releases is Major Release -> 16-20 month later -> a "R2" release, also named v2 or point release. Microsoft decided in a R2 release the kernel should not be changed, so upgrades should go more smoothly. Appearantly "Bear Paw", "Network Access Protection" and " Access Anywhere" needed kernel changes, so ity was automaticly postponed to the next major release: Longhorn Server.
is the roadmap for the
client operating systems.
is the roadmap for the
server operating systems.
Thanks to
Steven Bink and
Julio Campos for supplying the pictures.
Note: This review is based on the tech preview version of Secure Gateway 3.0. You never know what Citrix might change to the final version.
Citrix Secure Gateway (CSG) is another great free component for Citrix customers that works in a MetaFrame Presentation Server (MPS) or MetaFrame Secure Access Manager (MSAM) environment. It allows thousands of users to access many MetaFrame servers from outside of the corporate network via a single IP address and single port while simultaneously handling the SSL or TLS encryption of the individual sessions. MetaFrame Access Suite 4.0, due out next year, will include a new version of CSG.
Continue at
Brian Madden's website
There was a session at the IT Forum on Exchange Best Practices from Microsoft IT, presented by Konstantin Ryvkin, Senior Systems Engineer. This was an interesting presentation which covered Microsoft’s own implementation of Exchange 2003. There was one point made during the session which is worthy of being noted. One of the SLA requirements for the new Exchange 2003 clustered solution at Microsoft was for the nightly backup jobs (disk to disk and then to tape) to take no longer than 4 hours using NTBACKUP. This was so that the Exchange online maintenance had sufficient time to run its course prior to staff coming into work in the early morning and to begin using the system.
(more)
Microsoft's focus on IT management is sharper than ever. Microsoft plans to continue delivering on this wave, helping customers reduce complexity through innovation. Watch the IT Forum keynote speech delivered by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, and hear him talk about Microsoft Management today—and tomorrow.
(view)
Bill Gates made a number of announcements during his keynote this morning. 64-bit computing is
coming next year. There will be no price premium to pay for 64-bit as a result of the efforts of Intel and AMD. The 64-bit version of Windows is in the latter testing stages.
Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 product and Virtual Server 2005 software are
now available worldwide. The public beta of the eagerly awaited SUS replacement,
Windows Update Services (WUS) is available from today.
SMS 2003 has been a tremendous success, having been adopted by 16000 Enterprise customers, covering some 10 million devices. Two SMS feature packs were announced, Operating System Deployment Feature Pack (adds support for SMS to create and deploy images of Windows operating systems) and Device Management Feature Pack (use this feature pack to enable SMS 2003 to manage devices running Windows CE 4.2 or Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PC).
(more)
The Microsoft business desktop deployment EMEA technical training CD is on Microsoft downloads now. While there is not much information, the BDD Technet labs describes these topics:
"This three-day training is divided in three main parts: The first part is about understanding and digging into the various deployment components like Unattended setup, RIS, Windows PE, USMT, Imaging etc...The second part is putting all technologies together and start working with Computer Imaging Systems and Lite Touch Deploy from BDD 2.0 Standard Edition. The third part is extending the solution further using Zero Touch Installation and Zero Touch Provisioning from BDD 2.0 Enterprise Edition" (download)
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) includes the Windows Firewall, a replacement for the Internet Connection Firewall component in previous versions of Windows XP. Windows Firewall is a stateful host firewall that discards unsolicited incoming traffic, providing a level of protection for computers against malicious users or programs. To provide better protection for computers connected to any kind of network (such as the Internet, a home network, or an organization network), Windows XP SP2 enables Windows Firewall on all network connections by default. Network administrators can use the Windows Firewall INF file (Netfw.inf) to modify default settings either before installation or after installation. This article describes the usage of the Windows Firewall INF file.
Download
here
The Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Resource Kit contains five downloadable tools to help ease systems monitoring using MOM 2005:
Management Pack Toolkit
Infrastructure Management Solution Accelerators
MOM Product Connectors
Troubleshooting Tools
MOM Power Toys
It was released on October 13 by Microsoft, but not yet posted on Techlog. Download
here. More MOM 2005 downloads can be found
here at Microsoft.
Sign up now to evaluate Microsoft Windows Update Services. Read about the Open Evaluation Program and the different options for obtaining the pre-release software. Complete the registration process and you will automatically receive the files needed to install the product. The download files are large (approximately 78.4 MB) so the download may take considerable time to complete. Microsoft recommends only those with broadband, ADSL, or other high-speed Internet connections attempt this download.
Note: The WUS evaluation software is available in English only. It is also intended for testing and evaluation purposes only and should not be used for production purposes or placed in a production environment.
(download)
Companies that want to deploy the latest operating systems and applications are often burdened with the work of supporting distribution across the company. The SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack reduces this burden by providing a customizable, centralized, and scalable way to deploy Windows images.
http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/osdfp.asp
Microsoft Corp.'s Linux point man is at it again. This week, Martin Taylor, Microsoft's general manager for platform strategy, isn't touting any new Microsoft-funded studies aimed to demonstrate that Microsoft's total-cost-of-ownership numbers beat those of its Linux competitors. Instead, he is targeting one of the newer and increasingly powerful Linux players, Novell, by crusading to capture NetWare defectors before they have a chance to migrate to Linux.
On Tuesday, Taylor and his team rolled out a new set of programs, under the "Mid-Market NetWare Migration Promotion" banner, aimed at convincing Novell's installed base—especially midsize companies—to move to Windows Server 2003. Microsoft is offering U.S.-based NetWare customers a voucher worth $600 toward channel-partner migration services for each NetWare server they are willing to convert to a Windows Server 2003 one.
(more)
The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Standard Edition is best-practice guidance for desktop deployment using limited tools and requiring basic infrastructure.
Download
here
The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) Enterprise Edition follows the best practices of a multinational bank with more than 15,000 employees on five continents using multiple data centers.
Download
here (more)
This white paper describes the patch sequencing functionality in Microsoft® Windows Installer version 3.0. Beginning with the theory of patch sequencing in Windows Installer version 3.0 and finishing with specific sequencing sample techniques for controlling the lifetime of patches through supersedence relationships, this document identifies the concepts of patch migration and compatibility, advanced sequencing scenarios, and integration of sequencing with other features of the Windows Installer.
This document is targeted at installation developers or Setup authors responsible for the design, creation, and management of Windows Installer patches (.msp files). Familiarity with the basic principles of the Windows Installer and Windows Installer patches is assumed. Sample patch metadata tables in this document may be authored by using the Orca tool in the software development kit for Windows Installer version 3.0. Other authoring tools may require different authoring steps or may provide access to a subset of the described functionality.
download
here
As a key component of the Dynamic Systems Initiative, Microsoft System Center 2005 delivers integrated enterprise management by bringing together and enhancing the change, configuration, event, and performance management experience provided by Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005.
System Center 2005 includes:
Systems Management Server 2003
Operating System Deployment Feature Pack
Device Management Feature Pack
Administration Feature Pack
Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
System Center Reporting Server
Download
here
ADFS enables federated identity and access management by securely sharing digital identity and entitlement rights across security and enterprise boundaries. ADFS will be available with the R2 release of Windows Server 2003.
Download the WhitePaper
here
Newssource:
John Howard's WebLog
The new version does not yet have a link on the
download page, but if you click on
this link, you’ll get it.
What is Lookout?
Lookout is lightning-fast search for your e-mail, files, and desktop. [It] works with Microsoft Outlook.
Built on top of a powerful search engine, Lookout is the only personal search engine that can search all of your e-mail from directly within Outlook - in seconds…
You can use Lookout to search your:
- E-mail messages
- Contacts, calendar, notes, tasks, etc.
- Data from exchange, POP, IMAP, PST files, Public Folders
- Files on your computer or other computers
Just enter your search and press enter. Results are fast. Lookout will find your search terms hiding nearly anywhere in your Outlook mailbox - subjects, bodies, phone numbers, addresses, etc.
Newssource:
Lockergnome's Windows Fanatics
On 12 November 2004 Microsoft released a
new Storport driver, but what exactly is the difference between the SCSIPort and Storport drivers ?
In the Microsoft Windows operating system, the ScsiPort driver, in conjunction with vendor-written adapter-specific miniport drivers, was for many years, the only driver delivering SCSI commands to the storage targets. The SCSIport driver, however, was designed to work optimally with the parallel SCSI interconnects used with direct attached storage. It was neither designed to meet the high performance standards of Fibre Channel SAN configurations, nor to work well with hardware RAID.
(more)
When you setup a Windows Enterprise Root CA environment and you enable autoenrollment, all domain member will automatically download the root certificate.
When for some reason the root certificate is deleted from the local machine store of the domain member, the autoenrollment process will not automatically download and install the root certificate again.
To force a new download, delete the following registry key and all subordinate keys on all affected machines.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\AutoEnrollment\AEDirectoryCache
After this use GPUPDATE or SECEDIT /REFRESHPOLICY MACHINE_POLICY for windows 2000 machines to trigger the autoenrollment process. More info can be found
here.
Microsoft recently released
version 2.0 of their whitepaper on working with Active Directory and Firewalls. Here is the description of the doc:
"Provides best practices for deploying Microsoft Active Directory service domain controllers in segmented networks, procedures for configuring IPSec policies to protect traffic between domain controllers on opposite sides of a firewall, and recommended practices for managing these policies."
Some people are confused by the seemingly random behavior when you drag a file. Do you get a move or a copy? And you're right to be confused because it's not obvious until you learn the secret. Mind you, this secret hasn't changed since 1989, but an old secret is still a secret just the same. (Worse: An old secret is a compatibility constraint.)
If Ctrl+Shift are held down, then the operation creates a shortcut.
If Shift is held down, then the operation is a move.
If Ctrl is held down, then the operation is a copy.
If no modifiers are held down and the source and destination are on the same drive, then the operation is a move.
If no modifiers are held down and the source and destination are on different drives, then the operation is a copy.
This is one of the few places where the fact that there are things called "drives" makes itself known to the end user in a significant way. Thanks to
Raymond Chen for the tip.
An anonymous reader writes "German PC-Welt magazine reports that Microsoft used an illegal copy of SoundForge 4.5 for editing Wave files shipped with Windows Media Player. You can check that yourself by opening any file in the [Windows location] \Help\Tours\WindowsMediaPlayer\Audio\Wav\ folder in notepad or other editors of your choice and looking at the last line. There you will find a reference to SoundForge 4.5 and also a user called 'Deepz0ne' who happens to be one of the founders of an audio software cracking group called Radium."
Source:
slashdot.org
Generally speaking, installing Windows XP, either Home or Professional, is a walk in the park. Guided by pretty colors, loading bars that beam back and forwards and constant Microsoft messages that reassure you that you have made a worth while purchase, which is Microsoft Windows XP. However, at this important stage of file decompression, decoding and decrypting and extracting tyrant sized Windows files, odds are that your computer is highly susceptible to fault at this stage. However, theoretically speaking, certain problems with install might cause a lot of variables to turn sour, and as a whole, cause your install of Windows XP to become possessed to the core. Thankfully, most problems are solvable by yourself, just before you use the hammer, miscellaneous computer accessory, or your fist to manually correct the issue.
Pc Mechanic have researched and listed 5 of the most common Windows XP install problems and have outlined their cure and has also provided additional support to search the cure for your problem if it is not one of the 5 most common.
Seagate Technology announced its Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) hard disk drives are being sampled by OEMs for qualification. Earlier this year the company demonstrated its Savvio 10K.1 and Cheetah 15K.4 drives in work at an industry event.
Serial Attached SCSI is the next step for the enterprise industry's storage I/O standard interface. SAS technology extends SCSI interface solutions beyond Ultra320 to the next-generation Direct Attach Storage (DAS) server and workstation markets while retaining device-level backward compatibility. SAS physical layer is compatible with Serial ATA, which enables users to establish storage systems with either SATA or SAS hard disk drives, or a combination of both. Boasting features that liberate SCSI from its parallel predecessor, Serial Attached SCSI delivers new levels of speed and connectivity while retaining the functionality and reliability of SCSI.
Seagate’s SAS-enabled Cheetah 15K.4 and Savvio 10K.1 are shipping now for qualification into OEM systems, with general availability set to occur simultaneously with the industry's other SAS solutions in approximately Q1 2005.
Newssource:
X-bit labs
The Windows Firewall feature of Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), a replacement for the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) in previous versions of Windows XP, is a stateful host firewall that provides protection for computers against incoming traffic from the Internet or from neighboring network devices on a private network. This article describes how Windows Firewall works, the common problems with using Windows Firewall, and the set of tools used to troubleshoot Windows Firewall issues. This article is intended for network administrators and advanced users who are familiar with Windows XP and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
Download
here
When searching the knowledge base, it becomes apparant that the Recipient Update Service, and Exchange clusters resolve names by using NetBIOS for full functionality, and will
not process users in remote Exchange 2000 domains.
WINS name resolution is necessary for functionality of Exchange such as:
- The Exchange Server 2003 Setup program and the Exchange 2000 Server Setup program, especially on clustered servers.
- Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge) on an Exchange 2003 computer and on an Exchange 2000 computer.
- Changing a password for an Exchange 2003 mailbox or an Exchange 2000 mailbox through Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA).
- Exchange System Manager on an Exchange 2003 computer and on an Exchange 2000 computer.
- Clients older than Outlook 2003 also depend on NetBIOS name resolution.
You may have a setup that proves that WINS isn't neccesary, but check that the configuration will be supported if you have any issues with the environment.
Newssource:
Eileen Brown's Weblog
Redmond is readying a new storage-management subsystem that it plans to fold into its next Windows Server release.
Branch management isn't the only market for which Microsoft is optimizing its next release of Windows Server, code-named "R2."
Microsoft is not folding its Windows Storage Server technology into R2. In other words, there will be a new version of Windows Storage Server in the R2 timeframe. Microsoft officials have said as much, and have even talked about the next Windows Storage Server release by its code name, which is "Storm." Storm is expected to debut next year and to take advantage of some of the features built into R2, such as advanced data replication, Microsoft officials have said.
But Microsoft is planning to include a storage-resource-management (SRM) component in R2. In keeping with the Longhorn theme, this SRM component is code-named "Corral," partners said.
Corral will provide R2 administrators with tools for controlling and monitoring the data stored on their servers, partners said. Corral will include three buckets of functionality: storage reports, directory quota information; and file-screening information, partners added.
Read further at
Microsoft Watch by Mary Jo Foley
'R2' still has yet to go to beta, but Microsoft is well on its way to finalizing the product due to ship in the latter half of 2005, according to sources.
Microsoft still has yet to release a wide-scale beta of its next Windows Server release, code-named "R2." But according to sources, the product is well on its way to being finalized, with packaging, licensing and support details already hammered out.
Microsoft officials said last month that R2 will ship in the latter half of 2005. To make that date, the company cut some features, such as network-access protection and file sharing over HTTP, from the product, officials acknowledged.
Read further at
Microsoft Watch by Mary Jo Foley (more)
Yesterday, the Gmail Team announced free POP access for Gmail users. POP access has been a much requested Gmail feature and the GMail Team is now making it available to all users over the next couple of weeks. Also automatic forwarding (which enables users to send incoming messages to the email account of their choice) will be made available.
With POP access, Gmail users can download a copy of their messages using any email program (such as Microsoft Outlook), or any device (e.g. Blackberry, mobile phones) that supports POP. And of course with POP access on Gmail, users can access their messages offline.
Newssource:
Lockergnome.com
Read
'What's new on Gmail?'
This white paper supplements the Office 2003 documentation and the SMS 2003 software distribution documentation by providing information specifically targeted at deploying Office 2003 to SMS 2003 clients in your organization.
Microsoft® Office 2003 is a suite of business products that includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, and other programs that are useful in a business setting. Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 is an enterprise management tool that you can use to deploy and maintain Office 2003 in your organization.
(download)
Why does Windows not recognize my USB device as the same device if I plug it into a different port? You may have noticed that if you take a USB device and plug it into your computer, Windows recognizes it and configures it. Then if you unplug it and replug it into a different USB port, Windows gets a bout of amnesia and thinks that it's a completely different device instead of using the settings that applied when you plugged it in last time. Why is that?
The USB device people explained that this happens when the device lacks a USB serial number. Serial numbers are optional on USB devices. If the device has one, then Windows recognizes the device no matter which USB port you plug it into. But if it doesn't have a serial number, then Windows treats each appearance on a different USB port as if it were a new device.
(more)
[
SysInternals]
Delve inside the Windows kernel with noted internals experts Mark Russinovich and David Solomon, in collaboration with the Microsoft Windows product development team. This classic guide—fully updated for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000— describes the architecture and internals of the Windows operating system.
Awesome. I'm really glad to see that they did an update to this classic book. You can
pre-order your copy from Amazon today. Here's the table of contents if you're wondering what this must-have book contains:
1. Introduction
2. Architecture
3. System Mechanisms
And much much more. Thanks to
Steve Makofsky for the tip.
Ken Circeo posts an interesting entry entitled Myths about Working at Microsoft. "Working for a well-known company is kind of a kick. When the subject comes up in conversation, everyone from the butcher to the baker to the candlestick maker has a preconceived idea about what it's like to work at Microsoft. As I approach my third anniversary as an employee, I finally feel duly qualified to address a few myths." Read it
here.
Microsoft Corp. will support only x86 processors with 64-bit extensions when it releases a special version of Windows Server for high performance computing (HPC) next year, leaving support for Intel Corp.'s Itanium 2 for a later, undefined date.
Microsoft is sharing early details of its Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition, previously called HPC edition, at a supercomputing conference in Pittsburgh this week.
"
In our first edition, we don't plan to support Itanium 2," said Greg Rankich, senior product manager at Microsoft, in a telephone interview on Monday. "When you look at our target market, the departmental clusters, Itanium 2 is a bit outside the reach in terms of budget and in terms of needed computing power."
Microsoft plans to support Itanium 2 in a second release of Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition, but no release data has been set for that version, Rankich said.
Continue at
Source (
InfoWorld.com)
If you are planning to use a Linux workstation in a Windows Network, one of the things you probably want to do is authenticate against the Windows Domain name server (s), i.e. Active Directory.
One thing to keep in mind is that – even when signed on in active directory - it doesn't offer a complete single sign on – yet. You will still have to provide a user name and password if using a windows based proxy server such as ISA server. You will probably still have to use a user name and password if using a windows based mail server (Although Evolution supports GSS API and through this you should be able to eliminate this sign-on – I will be trying this out at some point).
However it does mean that you can use the same account name and password to log on to your Linux or Windows machine, and it also means you can change your password in Linux. Also, in case your company requires this, network administrators will be able to logon to your machine with their administrator credentials. So the Linux machine no longer is an 'island'. It is also possible to extend active directory to allow for home directories etc to be managed in active directory.
Continue at
source (
WindowsNetworking.com)
One of the great mysteries in security management is the modus operandi of criminal hackers. If you don't know how they can attack you, how can you protect yourself from them? Prepare to be enlightened.
Paths hackers can use to infiltrate networks
What patching and version states reveal
IIS and SQL injection attacks
The dangers of elevated privileges
Read further about it
here. (Via
bink.nu)
Microsoft Windows Installer 3.0 shipped as part of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and is now available as a redistributable system component for Microsoft Windows 2000 SP3, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows XP SP1, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003. The additional features help make servicing easier and more efficient. (Servicing includes authoring, creating, distributing, and managing updates to applications.) These features also address issues that exist with earlier versions of the Windows Installer.
Download
here (more)
This free downloadable version of Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2 is segmented into smaller downloads so you can easily and successfully access the tools to begin evaluating Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2 today.
You may also choose to purchase the Windows XP Embedded with SP1 Evaluation Edition on CD from the following Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/Embedded/x../evalkit.asp.
The Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 2 Evaluation Edition will be available later this year.
Download
here
This guide provides information about developing MOM 2005 Management Packs and is specifically focused on features new to MOM 2005 that affect Management Pack development. You can use this guide to collect information about your application, define various states for your application, and create a Management Pack to monitor these states and to alert an operator about state changes. This guide provides high-level overview information about MOM 2005, along with detailed procedures and guidelines that are used to develop a custom Management Pack.
(download)
Newssource:
Larry Duncan
An unnamed source has told me that Microsoft has just begun sending Premier Support Services calls to Banglore, India as part of its layoff strategies. Effective today, only one of the fifteen SMS support personnel that will be taking your calls in India has had exposure to SMS! Yet, this will be your first line of support for issues related to the product. In the last round of layoffs 67 U.S. workers lost their jobs. Today's total has yet to be tallied. However, I have a nature distain for
qualified U.S. workers losing jobs to
unqualified workers overseas. I think we can all agree that PSS can be improved. And if this was a measure that would improve the customer experience, than most likely we'd all support it. However, that doesn't appear to be the case at all. Why would I, as a Microsoft customer, want to continue paying for
premier support when the person answering the phone has less experience with the product than I do?
Newssource:
Larry Duncan
Microsoft on Monday showed off a forthcoming version of Windows Server that's designed to help governments and businesses build supercomputers from clusters of PCs.
The company demonstrated the software at a supercomputing conference in Pittsburgh and also unveiled a new name for the product: Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition. (Previously, the company had referred to the product as Windows Server HPC Edition.) Microsoft has not made final decisions on how much the software will cost or how it will be packaged
Newssource:
CNet News.com (more)
The previous poll about Windows XP service pack 2 clearly indicates that 9 out of 10 Techlog visitors have applied SP2 to their systems. Fifty-two people have voted in about 80 days time. Thanks guys! The current poll will show how many people currently are syndicating our and other news sites with a RSS reader. Based on the logfiles, my guess would be that only about 1% of all visitors use RSS. Please cast your vote now!
One of the relatively cool things about Virtual Server 2005 is the ability to automate the configuration and provisioning of virtual machines using the Virtual Server 2005 API. Just about everything you can do through the GUI you can also do via the API - as long as you're a script guru. Well, if you're not quite at "guru" level yet, the TechNet folks have posted
several sample scripts for managing Virtual Server 2005.
There are tons of good scripts out there broken down into categories to make them easy to browse and find:
Virtual Disk Drives
Virtual Machine and Virtual Server Properties
Virtual Networks
Virtual Server Access Rights and Security
Virtual Server Client Information
Newssource:
Roudybob.net
Ever wonder how Microsoft handles unwanted email? They have a "detailed discussion on how Microsoft IT manages the large quantities of unwanted e-mail (a.k.a. spam) and malware-infected messages in its inbound Internet e-mail traffic" available to download. They call it "
messaging hygeine". Some basic numbers from the document, "these numbers are based on average daily volumes":
Connection filtering blocks approximately 25 percent of all incoming SMTP connections. These connections come from known spam sources listed in third-party, real-time block lists.
Sender and recipient filtering deletes 59 percent of the messages received after connection filtering.
Intelligent Message Filter deletes 38 percent of the messages remaining after sender and recipient filtering.
There is an accompanying powerpoint slide deck as well. It's good to see that Microsoft has at least the same spam issues as the rest of us.
Microsoft has helped the dutch police find two men who have sent threats via the internet to the address of dutch house of representatives member, Geert Wilders. The men - in age of 20 and 23 years and have the dutch nationality - are suspected to be involved with placing death threat messages on the internet and are suspected to be members of a terroristic organization. The country's police have said that the two have been tracked down en found with the help of the Microsoft main office in the United States and a duch internet provider who's name wasn't made public. The two men are in custody since last friday. The death threats sent to Mr. Wilders were done on October 10th in a MSN group called 'Jama'at Al-Tawheed Wal Jihaad'. In the message, there was a link to a video, displaying messages to punish the dutch politician for his way of speaking about the islam. "Via Microsoft and the american justice department we have got information on the details of the MSN account. When we got their IP address, we were able to get their address details via their ISP", says Wim de Bruin from the country's police. The MSN group has been shut down.
Newssource:
Webwereld (dutch)
CNET Asia published a long comparison between Virtual Server 2005 Release Candidate and GSX Server 3.1. I personally don't like it very much because reviewers approached both products like a simple desktop application (you can notice this starting from testing platform: much more a desktop machine than a real middle business server) and left out a deep analysis of how virtual machines processes are handled (which impacts on VMs performances, stability and management). It's also incomplete becase Virtual Server 2005 pricing was not published at writing time. Anyway it's a good starting point to have an idea of raw features available.
(read it here)
'Magellan,' which will add small-business accounting and payroll services to Office, is Microsoft's attempt to go head-to-head with Intuit's QuckBooks. The gloves are off. Microsoft is ready to take on Intuit for the dollars of small-business managers. Microsoft confirmed on Friday — a few days earlier than it originally planned — that it is working on a new version of Microsoft Office aimed specifically at small-business managers. The new product, code-named "Magellan," will ship in late 2005, Microsoft officials said.
The new Office release will include the existing Office 2003 core set of programs, plus a new product, Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting. It also will include an updated version of Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager, the personal-information-management product that Microsoft first rolled out as part of Office Small Business Edition 2003.
(more) (screenshots)
Should you allow SSL connections through your ISA firewall? How does the ISA firewall protect you against exploits sent over an encrypted SSL channel? Did you know that your hardware firewall leaves you defenseless against these exploits? As an ISA firewall administrator your main concern is controlling what external users can access on your corporate network and what users on the corporate network can access on the Internet and other networks within the corporate network. You spend a lot of time configuring firewall policy so users access only the protocols you want them to use, connect only to the servers you want them to connect to, download content corporate security policy approves, and access resources only at a specified time of day.
(more)
People getting their hopes up for an early release of Windows XP for 64 bit chips can relax a bit longer, they'll probably not be surprised to learn. According to sources at Intel Taiwan, the earliest we can expect to see such an operating system is at the end of the first quarter of next year. But, the same source added, Microsoft does not talk in terms of quarters of a year, but halves. So it's entirely possible that the launch of such an operating system could slip right up to the 31st of May next year. Frankly, we're totally amazed that Microsoft is allowed to get away with such slack launch dates. Both Intel and AMD, never mind Via, would have their respective knuckles rapped if they failed to ship chips by their due dates.
Newssource:
The Enquirer
Microsoft provides TechNet Virtual Lab for Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003
here. It's simple — no complex setup or installation is required to try out SMS 2003 running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. As part of the TechNet Virtual Lab, you'll have full access to SMS 2003 through five modules:
Deploying Office with Systems Management Server 2003
Deploying SMS 2003 in an Active Directory Environment
Managing Security Updates — SMS
Patching Exchange with SMS 2003
Using SMS 2003 for Asset Management
You get a downloadable manual and a 60-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 60-minute blocks anytime.
A cool post from
Bart De Smet on how to customize your Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 boot screens so that, when running multiple machines within Virtual PC or Virtual Server, you can tell the difference between them. He uses the tip supplied by Mark Russinovich to add text to remind you which virtual machine you're looking at!
http://blogs.bartdesmet.net/bart/archive/2004/10/16/440.aspx
One of the challenges the MCE Product Group faced when the product was first created was how they would distribute the product to customers. Would it be through major OEMs, through the broader System Builder Channel or directly to customers as boxed product at places like Best Buy. As you know with the first two versions, the decision was to stick with major OEMs. Why? Well, one of the things to understand about MCE is its dependence on specific hardware (video card and TV tuner, for example...) and specific versions of drivers for that hardware. Using unsupported hardware or even inappropriate versions of drivers for supported hardware would degrade the end user's experience.
With Media Center 2005, distribution was opened to the System Builder Channel in addition to the major OEMs. I presented the technology to a group of System Builders in Indianapolis last week and they were all very excited about the new offerrings they could provide their customers. If you're one of these System Builder folks or a developer building a system for test and development purposes, it's important to understand what's compatible and what isn't. There's a list of known compatible products
here. Also, here's a nice
picture of how all the pieces go together.
Newssource:
Roudybob.net
Welcome to the Management Pack and Product Connector Catalog. Use this page to enter criteria that searches for the software you need to optimize MOM and SMS with your other applications. In this catalog, you will find downloadable management packs created by Microsoft, as well as information about connector software provided by Microsoft partner companies.
At time of writing there are already 141 management packs
Goto the
Management Pack and Product Connector Catalog
One of the biggest jobs an administrator of a large network has to do is manage user shares. Users need to be able to access certain shares on various file servers, or in some instances create shares on their own machine for sharing with other users. It is important to have an organized structure with which to manage files; otherwise, you introduce more ways for files to become lost, needlessly duplicated, or removed. This article tells you how to set up a DFS root, and you'll learn some good practices for managing one or more DFS roots on your network.
Continue
here
Dsrevoke is a command-line tool that can be used on domain controllers that are running Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server to report the existence of all permissions for a specific user or group on a set of OUs in a domain and optionally remove from the DACLs of a set of OUs all permissions specified for a particular user or group. Dsrevoke complements the functionality provided by the Delegation of Control Wizard, which is used to delegate administrative authority, by providing the ability to revoke delegated administrative authority.
(more)
Intel Corp. will update its Itanium 2 family of multiprocessing units next Monday with the release of a number of new Itanium 2 processors with boosted clock-speeds and enlarged cache sizes accelerating the computing speed for high-end servers.
Intel Itanium 2 processors with Madison 9M core are designed for powerful multiprocessor servers and will be available at speeds of up to 1.70GHz with 9MB, 6MB and 4MB L3 cache. Intel also has plans to roll-out cut-down version of Madison 9M – code-named Fanwood – for dual-processor servers and workstation. Both Fanwood and Madison 9M will use 400MHz processor system bus and will be drop-in compatible with existing infrastructure, sources said. Future incarnations of
Madison 9M and Fanwood will get
667MHz and 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus respectively.
The world’s largest chipmaker Intel in the past updated its Itanium 2 family with high-end SKUs in mid-year; the company also was expected to release its code-named Madison 9M products during IDF Fall 2004 in early September, 2004, but then cancelled such plans.
Newssource
X-bit labs through
Neowin.net
While every self-respecting sysadmin should have the Active Directory "cook book" by Robbie Allen, Microsoft posted some great sample scripts for accessing and retrieving Active Directory information. Here are some links:
Creating an Active Directory Site
Creating an Active Directory Site Link
Creating an Active Directory Subnet
Listing Active Directory Connections
Listing Active Directory Sites
Listing Servers in an Active Directory Site
Listing the Subnets in all Active Directory Sites
Listing the Subnets in an Active Directory Site
Renaming an Active Directory Site
Retrieving the Domain Controller Site Name
Retrieving the Site Name for the Local Computer
In this article
John Howard explains how to get Virtual Server up and running under Windows XP:
After installing Virtual Server, I noticed that the web-based Virtual Server Administration site was giving a “404, not found” error.
Restart IIS – no difference
Check IIS admin that the virtual site exists
Reboot box – no difference
Add “test.htm” in the virtual directory and browse to it – OK.
Search
newsgroups (there is a Virtual Server newsgroup),
Microsoft support knowledgebase and the web in general to see if this is a known problem – found nothing
Fortunately, there’s an internal discussion group for Virtual Server which a colleague pointed me to. Two minutes later, problem solved (it seems I’m not alone after all). The problem relates to the “URLScan” part of the
IIS Lockdown tool I installed, and a case of more careful observation – the VS Admin site uses an executable, vswebapp.exe. A quick edit of \windows\system32\inetsrv\urlscan\urlscan.ini to allow .exe’s to be served from IIS, and hey-presto.
This article looks at the various ways you can deploy the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack (adminpak.msi) to remotely administer Windows 2000/2003 servers from administrator workstations running Windows XP. It also examines various incompatibility issues using these tools and workarounds for resolving them.
The Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server product CDs contain a Windows Installer file named adminpak.msi in the /I386 directory. Windows Server 2003 product CDs contain a similarly named file in the same folder. Both of these .msi files install a full set of GUI and command-line tools for Windows administration, but which should you use in a mixed Windows 2000/2003 environment?
Read further at
WindowsNetworking.com
Use the Error Code Lookup tool to determine error values from decimal and hexadecimal error codes in Microsoft Windows operating systems. The tool can look up one or more values at a time.
While the download name is the “Exchange Server Error Code Look-up”, this actually has error codes for all of Windows. In fact, yuo can even do a 'reverse' error lookup:
D:\>err =ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND
# matching string "ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND" :
0x00000002 ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND winerror.h
Very cool, and extremely useful.
Download
here
Newssource
Steve Makofsky's weblog
When you install an application only to have it crash Windows, there's a good chance the crash occurred because the application overwrote critical Windows system files. The results are unpredictable any time that system files are overwritten. The system may run fine with the modified files, or the system may operate erratically or fail completely. Fortunately, Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003 use a mechanism called Windows File Protection (WFP) to prevent critical system files from being overwritten. In this article, I'll explain what WFP is and how it works. I'll go on to show you how to modify or override WFP's behavior. (Note: Although WFP works almost identically on Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003, this article's information, including the registry entries and SFC syntax, was written specifically for XP.)
Newssource:
Cnet.com through
OSNN.net (more)
Microsoft is developing a portal-like interface for its identity management platform that will let users self-manage their identity information and provision network services. The features are part of Gemini, the code name for the next version of Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS). Microsoft officials offered the first peek at Gemini at the Digital ID World conference.
Microsoft said Gemini likely would ship at the same time as Longhorn server in 2007, but could be released as early as 2006. Gemini's highlight, according to Microsoft, is self-service provisioning features that let users maintain their own identity information and give delegation of authority to managers, department heads and others to create and delete accounts for select user sets. The intent is to make it easier and more cost-effective for customers to manage user identity and access by pushing out those responsibilities to users with a vested interest in the information. "This is a self-managing model with constraints as opposed to the manual model of today," architect of directory services for Microsoft, Kim Cameron, said. "For the first time, we'll have a separate provisioning component that's self-service for identity management."
(more)
This is the place to play with new MSN technologies, look at prototypes, and peek behind the scenes at some of our new ideas
This website contains
Extreme gamers and media enthusiasts have a new set of high-performance products at their fingertips today as Intel Corporation introduced a new platform for people who like to push their PCs to the limit. The Intel® Pentium® 4 processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology and a higher-speed system bus enabled by the new Intel® 925XE Express chipset form the foundation of this new enthusiast platform.
The new Intel 925XE Express chipset platform is an extension of the popular and rapidly proliferating 915/925X Express chipset family launched earlier this year. A new 1066 MHz system bus-the main data path between the CPU and system memory-will bring enhanced levels of performance to the latest cutting-edge games and media tools that require extra horsepower. With a maximum data throughput improvement of up to 33 percent** between the CPU and system memory (compared with systems using an 800MHz system bus), a 1066 MHz system bus can enable faster frame rates for both gaming and video editing. This helps maintain smooth, realistic 3D gaming and glitch-free video in the heat of action.
Read more
here
Google branched out into 3-D digital mapping with the acquisition of Keyhole Corp. In its second acquisition this year, Google has bought a startup company that connects consumers, businesses and public agencies to a multi-terabyte database of mapping data and images gathered from satellites and airplanes. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
Keyhole, founded in 2001, sells software for viewing 3-D maps and images from as far away as space and as close as street level. With the software and an Internet connection, users can view a street corner around the world, find a local hospital, map a road trip or measure the distance between two points, Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president of product marketing at Google, said in a statement. "Keyhole is a valuable addition to Google's efforts to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Rosenberg said.
(more)
The Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack Release Candidate (RC) helps you create and deploy Windows operating systems images. The OSD Feature Pack RC allows the deployment of Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003 operating systems to systems currently running Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows 2003 through SMS advertisements or a CD-based installation with the following features:
- Support for unattended image deployment to Windows desktops
- Support to create and distribute OS images using SMS 2003 advertisements or CD-triggered installations
- Fully integrated with SMS 2003 SP1, leveraging SMS inventory-based planning and targeting, advertisement status, and site-to-site content replication
- Built-in imaging using advanced Microsoft Imaging format
- Advanced image installation task scheduler supporting scripts to perform custom installation
- Includes Microsoft Windows Pre-Execution (WINPE) 2004
- Leverages the new Microsoft Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) 2.6 to capture and restore user state
(more)
Unicode, or the Universal Character Set (UCS), was developed to end once and for all the problems associated with the abundance of character sets used for writing text in different languages. It is a single character set whose goal is to be a superset of all others used before, and to contain every character used in writing any language (including many dead languages) as well as other symbols used in mathematics and engineering. Any charset can be losslessly converted to Unicode, as we'll see.
Read further at
Newsforge.com (more)
The Microsoft SQL product team is hosting a special week of live MSDN Webcasts to provide you a sneak peak at what Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 has in store for the future database development. SQL Server 2005 offers a new paradigm for database development that integrates SQL Server and the CLR to provide several major benefits including enhanced programming mode, enhanced safety and security, user defined types and aggregates, and a common development environment, where database development is integrated into the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 development environment.
Goto
SQL Server Developer Center
