Orb gives you secure access to the digital media on your home PC through a simple web interface. Orb streams your content safely to virtually any internet-connected device.
Simply open a Web browser on a computer, laptop, PDA or cell phone, log-in and select what you want to view or hear from your personal library. Orb's technology takes care of the rest. Orb's technology determines the best format, codec, bit rate, display capabilities, and network bandwidth available for a particular cell phone, PDA or laptop to view or hear the content. The media is streamed securely from the user's home PC to the user's device to provide fast mobile media access.
Download Orb remote access service
This spreadsheet lists Group Policy settings described in Administrative Template (.adm) files and Security Settings that shipped with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. This includes all Administrative Template policy settings supported on the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, Windows XP Professional with SP2 or earlier service packs, and Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or earlier service packs.
In addition, this spreadsheet includes the following categories of security policy settings: Account Policies (Password Policy, Account Lockout Policy, and Kerberos Policy), Local Policies (Audit Policy, User Rights Assignment, and Security Options), Event Log, Restricted Groups, System Services, Registry, and File System policy settings. Note: This does not include security settings that exist outside of the Security Settings extension (scecli.dll), such as Wireless Network extension, Public Key Policies, or Software Restrction Policies.
Download Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1
There is a known issue with Exchange server installed into a non-default path (something other than %ProgramFiles%\Exchsrvr) where Security Control Wizard is run and application of resultant policy might cause Exchange Server not to be accessible by clients anymore. The possible gotcha is in the "Network Security" portion of SCW which configures the Windows Firewall. This portion of SCW is used to turn on and add exceptions to the Windows Firewall. Exceptions are added by pointing the Windows Firewall to the EXE file to the application that is exempt from firewall blocking. SCW however expects those applications (in our case - services) to be in their default installation paths.
Now, before we start to get nervous, we should understand that the SCW will indicate to the Administrator if it runs into this problem. In other words - the UI will indicate there are issues with services that were "not found", and the Admin will have a chance to correct this before any changes are made to server configuration.(
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Modern laptop computers come equipped with both Ethernet and wireless network adapters. The Ethernet adapter typically supports both 100BaseT and 10BaseT. The wireless network adapter might support 802.11b (11 megabit per second [Mbps] maximum bit rate), 802.11g (54 Mbps maximum bit rate), 802.11a (54 Mpbs maximum bit rate), or a combination of 802.11 technologies. When a wireless laptop is undocked from its docking station, it has only 802.11 wireless connectivity. However, when the laptop computer is docked, it can have both Ethernet and 802.11 wireless connectivity.
This article describes how computers running Microsoft® Windows® XP or Windows Server™ 2003 behave when they have simultaneous connectivity to both wired and wireless networks.This article also describes workarounds for ensuring either that only one network adapter is active at any one time, or that the majority of the network traffic flows over the desired network adapter.(
continue at source)
At a meeting to showcase its latest technologies in Austin, Texas, AMD on Wednesday demonstrated its "Pacifica" virtualization technology, which allows a user to run multiple operating systems on a single machine. While this can already be done on today's computers, Pacifica requires no advanced software.
With the Pacifica technology, as well as Intel's rival offering dubbed "Vanderpool," the software needed will be built into the chip itself. While basic software is still required to switch between operating systems, the programs will be less complex and more secure than older methods.
(more)
Microsoft is readying the launch of its long-awaited Windows Server 2003 64-bit editions next month at its annual conference for hardware developers. At an Intel 64-bit Xeon event in San Francisco on Tuesday, Andy Lees, corporate vice president of server and tools business at Microsoft, said the official introduction of the 64-bit extended editions at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (HEC) 2005 in Seattle in late April.
Unlike the existing 64-bit version designed for Intel's Itanium, the 64-bit versions coming out this spring will support both existing 32-bit and 64-bit applications and show considerable performance improvements in select applications such as databases. This will enable more customers to integrate existing 32-bit applications and experiment with 64-bit computing on the same platform.
Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will be adding benefits to the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program it launched last fall, which requires users to validate their Windows license in exchange for special perks at the Microsoft Download Center. Users with genuine versions of Windows will now be able to download Language Interface Packs, or LIPs.
LIPs are add-ons to the operating system that will allow the user to change some of the commonly used features into their native language, above the 24 languages in which Windows is already released. Currently, 22 LIPs are offered through the company's Local Language Program (LLP), with plans to add more at the rate of "several per month" through the end of this year. (
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The next version of Microsoft's Exchange Server--software used to manage e-mail, contact lists and calendars--will arrive in 2006, according to a company executive.
Andy Lees, corporate vice president of marketing for Microsoft's server and tools business, revealed the ship date Tuesday. Previously, the Redmond, Wash.-based software company had said the software would arrive in 2006 or 2007. The software, currently called Exchange Server 12, will incorporate new features to handle voice mail and faxes. The current version of Exchange Server was released in 2003. It's a dominant program in the market, but it faces competition from products sold by IBM, Novell, Sun Microsystems and others.
When you create a site, you distinguish between different parts of the network. Servers in different sites require different replication strategies. Same site replication (intrasite replication) is assumed to have high connectivity and is optimized for speed. Cross site replication (intersite replication) is assumed to have less connectivity and is optimized for bandwidth. You can use the AdamSitesPack.exe tool to create and configure ADAM sites.
Download ADAMSites Tool for Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Enterprise Edition
The Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 are intended for use by Microsoft support personnel and experienced users to assist in diagnosing and resolving computer problems. For individual tool descriptions, see the Windows Support Tools documentation (Suptools.chm).
The Windows Support Tools for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 can be installed only on a computer that is running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating systems.
It is highly recommended that you remove all previous versions of Support Tools, including beta versions of the Windows Support Tools for Microsoft Windows Server 2003, before you run the Support Tools installation program.
Download Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 32-bit Support Tools
Install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to help secure your server and to better defend against hackers. Windows Server 2003 SP1 enhances security infrastructure by providing new security tools such as Security Configuration Wizard, which helps secure your server for role-based operations, improves defense-in-depth with Data Execution Protection, and provides a safe and secure first-boot scenario with Post-setup Security Update Wizard.
Windows Server 2003 SP1 assists IT professionals in securing their server infrastructure and provides enhanced manageability and control for Windows Server 2003 users.
Download Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Checked Build (32-bit)
Inside Active Directory contains over 60 sample scripts written in VBScript, as well as some LDIF, batch, and Excel files. You can download all the sample files in a
ZIP file or browse individual files on this page.
Both the ZIP file and this page also contain some additional files that are not included in the book (in the section Bonus Material).
Some samples of the scripts available:
- List Global Catalog Attributes
- List the Users of One Container
- List the Operations Masters
- List ACEs
Kouti.com
MSN Messenger lets you see when your friends are online and exchange instant messages with them. Send instant messages with cool, new emoticons, call anywhere in the world from your computer, see when someone's typing, page a contact's mobile phone, send pictures and music to your friends, and much more. You can also use this free program to make phone calls, send a message to a pager, trade pictures and music with your friends, and much more.
MSN Messenger Beta Home
If you are looking to roll out Windows Server 2003 SP1 on your Exchange servers and you are doing clustering on back-end servers, we have a hotfix (Q841561) that you will need to install.
“This problem is caused by some of the security enhancements that are included with Windows Server 2003 SP1.
In this scenario, when a user tries to access a mailbox by using Outlook Web Access, HTTP requests into the clustering API by impersonating the logged-on user. However, there have been security changes in Windows Server 2003 SP1. The security restrictions for the APIs that perform remote registry access have been changed. Therefore, the logon attempt is not successful.” (more)
Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 841561
Dare Obasanjo writes: MSN services such as MSN Spaces and MSN Messenger require one to create a Passport account to use them. Passport requires the use of an email address which is used as the login name of the user. However as time progresses people often have to change email addresses for one reason or the other. On such occassions I've seen a couple of requests internally asking for the ability to change the Passport account an MSN Spaces or MSN Messenger account is associated with.
Doing this is actually quite straightforward in the general case. All one has to do is go to the Passport.net website and click on the 'View or edit your profile' link which should have an option for changing the email address associated with the Passport. And that's it.
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Dare Obasanjo's WebLog
This bundle of flowcharts helps you to troubleshoot Systems Management Server 2003 during the course of your day-to-day tasks.
This SMS 2003 troubleshooting content is essential reference material for SMS administrators that will help them address problems that are easy to resolve.
Download the SMS 2003 Troubleshooting Flowcharts
John Hann writes: In MOM 2005, when an agent dies and misses its heartbeat and cannot be ping’ed, the Management Server responsible for that agent creates an event on its behalf and an alert – “MOM Agent heartbeat failure”. Since this event and alert are owned by the Management Server, any custom alert notification rules you have setup for most other alerts will not be fired. To get around this situation, I created a custom Rule Group that applies to the MOM Management Servers.
(more)
John Hann's Windows Management Blog
Microsoft has been talking about the next version of Windows Mobile, code-named Magneto, since shortly after the last version came out. Last fall, for example, Microsoft Germany posted a number of details, with screenshots, of this upcoming operating system version.
Recently, however, a beta version of Magneto leaked out, and pocketnow.com has put together an overview of it. This version of the operating system, which is expected to be called Windows Mobile 2005, will have a number of significant changes from the current one.
(more)
eLearning is an effective and efficient system of self-paced personal training, available over the Internet. Microsoft has made courses available in eLearning form to cover several of the important new technologies in Visual Studio 2005, including Connected Systems and Smart Clients, plus Windows Server 2003. More courses are planned for the near future. The Windows Server 2003: Taking Advantage of 64-Bit Computing course provides detailed information for ISVs, customers, and developers seeking to migrate existing applications and functionality from Windows 32-bit to Windows 64-bit.
Windows Server: Taking Advantage of 64-Bit Computing
Microsoft posted a message late Friday night to the support discussion groups for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me acknowledging a problem for users of those OSes who installed a January 2005 patch.
"Microsoft has received reports about issues with KB891711 on Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows ME," wrote Jerry Bryant for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MCSE). "At this point, we have been able to confirm these reports and are currently working on a resolution."
(more)
Microsoft said Monday it has agreed with European Union antitrust regulators on a new name for Windows software sold in Europe.
Officials at the U.S. software giant said they had accepted the European Union's offer to call the European version of Windows sold without Media Player "Windows XP Home Edition N" -- with "N" standing for "not with media player." Microsoft's "XP Professional Edition" will also include the "N" for versions sold without the media player. (
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Microsoft is poised to fire a shot to be heard 'round the business intelligence world later this year.
The company is quietly working on a realtime reporting server, to carry the Office label, that theoretically would deliver timely updates from all manner of back-office applications, several sources said.
The planned server, going under the code-name Maestro, is expected to hit beta this summer. It will be built on various pieces of Microsoft's stack, including SQL Server reporting services and notification services, as well as the score carding expertise from the Office group, sources said.(
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Microsoft will tackle the growing fear of identity theft in its upcoming version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, with a technology it calls ‘info-cards’, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The scheme bears a resemblance to the Passport scheme Microsoft tried reasonably unsuccessfully to introduce to its online services like MSN and Hotmail, as it relies on users being willing to hand over their personal data to 'trusted' companies.
Info-cards, said the Journal, will allow users to "selectively disclose information about themselves to businesses or others online". The software will store users’ personal information such as credit-card numbers or phone numbers and allow data to be transferred in an encrypted form "that can be decoded only by trusted Web sites".
Nat Torkington and I were discussing Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative not long ago. I left Microsoft in early December and had spent the last three years directly involved in various aspects of Shared Source work. The more we discussed his questions, the more we realized others probably shared the same questions. This article came from that realization.
(more)
Last week the Techlog crew visited the technet expert-conference given by
David Solomon the co-author of Windows Internals. If you have the chance to visit one of David's sessions on Windows Internals you should go there, it's worth it. During Teched in Amsterdam from the 5th until the 8th of July later this year David and Mark Russinovich will give more in depth Windows Internals sessions with hands on labs.
David pointed us to an article which explaines why memory optimizers are fraudware.
The Memory-Optimization Hoax at Windows IT Pro Magazine
To stem identity theft online, Microsoft may be readying a new ID management system for its Longhorn version of Windows.
The company will in coming months begin testing the new system, which uses electronic "info cards" that allow people to selectively disclose information about themselves to businesses and others online, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The plan would mesh with Microsoft's public statements in recent months. Scott Charney, vice president of the software maker's Trustworthy Computing initiative, has long advocated an electronic ID card system as a way to protect consumer data. (
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The beta version of the SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for Oracle has just been made available. If you are interested in migrating your Oracle database to SQL Server 2005 take a look at:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/migration. Here are the instructions from that page:
Visit the Microsoft Betaplace Web site
Log in using your Passport account
Enter the following Guest ID (case sensitive): SSMA_test1
Click the "SQL Server Migration Assistant" Beta program link
Complete the SQL Server Migration Assistant survey
SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for Oracle
"Exchange Server 2003 offers IT professionals major advantages. Not only is it far more secure than its predecessors, thanks to Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, but it also offers advances in scalability, allowing for dramatic server and storage consolidation efforts.
IT departments should plan carefully for Exchange 2003, and create a forward-thinking plan that includes fewer (but higher-powered) servers, a simpler network infrastructure, and a more rational, clear and ultimately more cost- effective approach to storage. Following are 15 configuration tips culled from nearly two dozen white papers, reams of case studies, several books on storage and Exchange, Microsoft's own internal best practices, as well as the author's experience as a former storage analyst for Nucleus Research."
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Get first-hand deployment experience through the Virtual Lab series. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 hands-on labs will teach you how to set up the portal, organize content on the portal, manage user permissions, create Web Parts for custom tasks, and much more. As part of the TechNet Virtual Lab, you will have full access to SharePoint Portal Server's features and tools.
TechNet Virtual Lab: SharePoint Portal Server 2003
Thanks to our partner
xpmce.nl for notifying us: the dutch Windows XP Media Center Electronic Program Guide (EPG) has been updated to include program information on the following television channels:
Belgium 1
Belgium 2
TMF
MTV
Eurosport
Nickelodeon
Discovery Channel
National Geographic Channel
Animal Planet
Note: this only works for Windows XP Media Center Edition pc's that receive their TV-signal by cable.
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When you turn on Out of Office Assistant in Microsoft Outlook, if you receive a message that does not have an address in the To or the Cc field, but it does have a distribution list in the Bcc field, an out-of-office message is sent to the distribution list that is in the Bcc field.
To resolve this problem, you can modify the out-of-office message generation behavior on the Exchange 2003 computer that contains the mailboxes so that out-of-office messages are only sent to the message sender if the recipient is explicitly named in the To or the Cc fields of the message. This new functionality is useful if your Exchange 2003 computer coexists with other mail systems that contain mailing lists that reside outside Exchange.
Continue at KB Article 825370
The search for the ultimate European IT Security Expert is about to begin. On April 4, security experts in 19 countries will be able to sign up to go head to head and prove they know the most about IT security.
Every morning for two weeks, security experts from Turkey to the United Kingdom will be competing by answering questions on the hottest topics in IT security. All questions will be multiple choice, except for the twentieth and final question. This open question is the aspiring Gatekeepers' last chance to demonstrate their brilliance in the area of IT security. Participants are able to register for the competition from 4 April 2005. The competition begins on 2 May 2005 and finishes two weeks later, on 14 May 2005.
Microsoft Technet: Gatekeeper Test
Slashdot writes:
"Adrian's Rojak Pot has a nice article about the internals of the Windows paging file. It explains what a paging file is and lists the differences between a swapfile and a paging file. But first and foremost, a large part of the article deals with the various methods of optimizing the Windows paging file, thus yielding a notable performance gain for people who are not overly blessed with RAM." (more)
Microsoft plans to release version 2.0 of its iSCSI initiator next month, and the software giant has added features that could make Windows-based IP storage more attractive for high-end users. Microsoft announced this week that version 2.0 of the Microsoft Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) Software Initiator is ready to be released to manufacturing and will be available via download by mid-April.
Improvements in the second version include integration with Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO), support for all error recovery levels, and support for Windows Server x64 Editions.
(more)
Microsoft has launched a new site called Crossfader, aimed at becoming a community resource and how-to guide for DJs and electronic musicians. Scratch that – specifically for electronic musicians using PCs, rather than Macintosh computers.
This isn't just Apple-bashing ad copy, however. The site is launching in beta format featuring a video shot and instructional interview with DJ Spooky, a New York-based music collagist with plenty of art and street cred. A quick perusal shows Crossfader seems to be serious about becoming a forum where musicians can swap ideas and tips on software and production techniques.
(more)
Crossfader homepage
Microsoft Corp.'s application of a mandatory "Security Development Lifecycle" for all its Internet-facing products has "significantly reduced" the number—and severity—of security vulnerabilities, according to a white paper released by the software giant.
The 19-page document, titled The Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle, outlines the "cradle to grave" procedures used for software creation at Microsoft. According to senior executives, the new approach represents a major change in the way that software is designed, developed and tested.
Michael Howard, senior security program manager at Microsoft Corp. and one of the authors of the white paper, told us that the SDL is mandatory for about 90 percent of all products shipped. It covers four high-level principles covering every stage of software creation.
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Microsoft Corp. plans to fit out-of-the-box NAP capabilities into the Longhorn client due out in 2006.That's the word from Jawad Khaki, corporate vice president of Microsoft's networking and devices technologies division.
During an hourlong Web chat to share details on Longhorn Networking, Khaki disclosed that the Longhorn client will ship with capabilities to enforce security policy compliance powered by Network Access Protection.
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Internet Explorer product manager Dave Massy has refuted claims made by Mozilla Foundation president Mitchell Baker that Firefox is, and always will be, more secure than IE. Massy attacks Baker's claims that IE is inherently vulnerable due to its direct integration with Windows.
Baker's remarks came during a speech at the PC Forum conference in Arizona. She explained that "not being in the operating system is a phenomenal advantage for us," and rejected claims that IE is only more vulnerable because it has more users.
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WinZip Companion for Outlook makes it easy for users of Microsoft Outlook to zip and encrypt attachments when sending messages.
Zipping attachments saves transmission time, conserves space in Outlook mailboxes, and saves disk space for both the sender and recipient of the e-mail. The Companion can be configured to automatically zip your attachments, ask whether or not you want them zipped, or let you zip and attach files manually with just a few mouse clicks. Toolbar and menu items allow you to control the Companion's functionality on a message-by-message basis. In addition, sensitive attachments can be easily protected with the same built-in advanced AES encryption found in WinZip 9.0. (continue at source)
REDMOND, Wash. -- Mar. 23, 2005 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that its board of directors has increased the size of the board from nine to 10 members and elected Dina Dublon, 51, retired executive vice president and chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase, to the board. Dublon was also appointed to the board's audit committee. (continue at source)
Daniele Muscetta writes:
"In our test case we have a Windows XP SP2 machine BEHIND an ISA Server 2004. We want to be able to set up an IPv6 tunnel on the Windows XP machine, so let it tunnel through the ISA server and get a public IPv6 address. We could have other scenarios, including the one of having the ISA server being the endpoint for the tunnel, and acting as a router. This would be achievable even though ISA is at this time v4 only, because the IPv6 stack, on the other end, has full routing features built in. Thus a Windows machine is capable of being an IPv6 router." (more)
Lawyers for the Public Patent Foundation and the Software Freedom Law Center are scrutinizing a patent held by Microsoft for which, one lawyer told eWEEK.com, Microsoft failed to disclose prior work done by the Internet Engineering Task Force. "This patent has been called to the attention of the free world, including the Public Patent Foundation,"
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The ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition Configuration Guide is a collection of documents that can help you deploy and configure Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Enterprise Edition arrays in a number of different scenarios.
Each document is self-standing and does not require you to read any other document in the collection to complete the solution discussed in any document in the collection. This approach enables you to bypass extraneous information and target your attention on the chapter providing information that applies to your specific interests and requirements.
ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition Configuration Guide
Encouraged by the market reception of its Windows Small Business Server product, Microsoft is looking for an encore with a similar bundle targeted at mid-size businesses.
The new Windows Server SKU — called, at least for now, Windows Midmarket Server (MMS) — is still not soup yet. But Microsoft executives have a good idea about how they plan to reach the mid-market sweet spot, which Microsoft identifies as users with 50 to 250 PCs.(
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Microsoft execs have been reticent to talk about changes that Microsoft is making to Windows' core "Fundamentals" pillar with Longhorn. But on Tuesday, a handful of Microsoft's top Windows Longhorn networking officials opened up a bit.
Led by Jawad Khaki, corporate vice president of Microsoft's networking and devices technologies division, the Microsoft Windows execs participated in an hour-long Web chat on the topic of Longhorn Networking. Ironically, the chat, attended by nearly 300 participants at one point, was plagued by constant connectivity problems. Nonetheless, the execs provided answers to a number of high-level Longhorn networking questions.(
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With the introduction of Terminal Services Group Policy in Windows Server 2003, Microsoft adds new capabilities for managing Terminal Services in enterprise environments.
These Group Policy settings can be used to manage many features of Terminal Services including server configuration, client sessions, security, and licensing. Some of these settings can also be specified using the Terminal Services Configuration MMC snap-in, but using Group Policy is a simpler approach when you have multiple Terminal servers in your enterprise and many Terminal Services users.
This article looks at how you can use Group Policy to manage Terminal Services environments in Windows Server 2003. The article summarizes the various policies available and focuses on some key policies to configure. (
continue at source)
Symbian, maker of mobile phone software, has announced it will license synchronization software from Microsoft, swallowing its pride and shaking hands with its Redmond rival. The company hopes to bring corporate customers that use Microsoft Exchange for e-mail over to Symbian-based smartphones.
The synchronization tools will be made available to Symbian licensees, which include Nokia and Fujitsu. Symbian already supports RIM's Blackberry Connect and Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization protocols.
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Exchange databases need disk space, once they run out of disk space they can not continue to function. My aim in this article is not to describe methods of preventing or solving the disk space problem(even though I will provide a tip or two)- my aim is to describe and explain the way that Exchange databases uses disk space.
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Microsoft's Chief Identity Architect,
Kim Cameron is interviewed by ZDNet's David Berlind, also downloadable an as
MP3.
Read the full interview
Fujitsu-Siemens just released an interesting paper comparing VMware GSX and ESX Server, and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition:
Today’s server systems are extremely efficient. Applications frequently only use a fraction of the servers’ resources. Server virtualization makes it possible to run several operating systems on one server at the same time so as to achieve a better server workload. Furthermore, virtualization enables a logical separation of the applications.
This document describes the three most important virtual server products VMware ESX Server, VMware GSX Server as well as the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and provides an overview of their performance.
VMware vs Microsoft Virtualization Comparison
Dare Obasanjo writes:
"Last night, we put the finishing touches on an upgrade to the server-side of MSN Messenger. The maximum size of a buddy list has been increased from 150 to 300. Enjoy."
The current Novell Linux Desktop 9, which was released last November, is targeted not at the mass market but rather at those customers with more contained workloads. But all of that is set to change with the next version of the product, Novell Linux Desktop 10, scheduled for release next year.
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Steven Bink has posted a link to Visio Cafe:
Do you have a Visio collection? You can share them with the world right here, for free.
This website contains a lot of Visio stencils, a great resource for anyone who uses Visio for making technical drawings.
Visit the Visio Cafe Website
Microsoft's rollout of Windows XP SP2 in August 2004 was the most likely reason the number of bots actively involved in scanning dropped precipitously in the second half of 2004, said Symantec in a report the security company released Monday.
Although Symantec's claim that bots are on the downturn contradicts recent research by the Honeynet Project, which last week said that as many as a million machines may be kidnapped by botnets, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company made a compelling case.
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Coming May 2005:
All of the in-depth technical information and tools you need to manage and optimize Windows Server 2003—with expert guidance and best practices from Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft partners, and the Microsoft Windows Server team. This official Microsoft RESOURCE KIT delivers six comprehensive volumes, including: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Performance Guide, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Troubleshooting Guide, Microsoft Windows Security Resource Kit, Second Edition, Microsoft Windows Group Policy Guide, Microsoft Windows Registry Guide, Second Edition, and Microsoft Windows Administrator’s Automation Toolkit.
The Resource Kit also includes:
- Tools: 120+ ResKit Tools and Tools help files, plus 114 IIS ResKit tools
- Scripting tool library: 120+ scripted tools with command-line interface
- Group Policy utilities: group policy scripts, templates, and whitepapers
- WS03 Technical Reference Collection: 5,400 pages created by the Windows UA team
- Unique e-book library: e-book versions of the books in the RK, plus 4 other titles
Most desktop administrators quickly become familiar with the need to make adjustments to the Registry on remote computers.
The free PolicyMaker™ Registry Extension is a true client side extension (CSE) to Group Policy, providing full registry management capability. The interface is simple and configurations are communicated to client computers through Group Policy. When Group Policy refreshes on a client computer, the registry is updated.
Download PolicyMaker Registry Extension - You have to fill in a form.
Microsoft Corp. Monday announced that the much-anticipated next version of its developer tools suite will ship in the second half of 2005 in several versions, with the Microsoft Developer Network as its primary delivery mechanism.
Prashant Sridharan, Microsoft's senior product manager for Visual Studio Team System, said Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005, code-named Whidbey, will ship by the end of 2005 and that SQL Server 2005, code-named Yukon, will ship simultaneously.
Microsoft had earlier said the product would ship this summer, after a series of prior delays.(
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Reporting Services Scripter is a .NET Windows Forms application that enables scripting of all Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services catalog items to aid in transferring them from one server to another. It can also be used to easily move items on mass from one Reporting Services folder to another on the same server. Depending on the scripting options chosen, Reporting Services Scripter can also transfer all catalog item properties such as Descriptions, History options, Execution options (including report specific and shared schedules) and server side report parameters.
Download Reporting Services Scripter
Microsoft today expanded its Shared Source Initiative (SSI) Windows source code licensing programmes to seven additional countries in the European Union. The move allows Windows 2000, XP, CE and Server 2003 shared source programmes to be made available to eligible enterprises, OEMs, systems integrators, Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, and academic institutions in Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The software giant said that the expansion of the programme, which it launched in May 2001, is designed to encourage software development, support teaching and research, and create new business partner opportunities.
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Exchange 2003 provides a
Migration Wizard to migrate from a variety of sources, unfortunately POP3 isn’t one of them! If Windows POP3 only had IMAP then it could be easy! We provide
Exmerge to do interorg migrations between forests, but do we provide a POP3 migration tool? No.
Given that most people pull the data off a POP3 server and store it in a data file client side anyway it becomes a little tricky to get the data. So what’s your choices? Well there’s plenty of tools out there that will migrate from client applications to a server based service. In my little bit of play around testing I saw a program called
UniAccess which can take data from Outlook Express, Netscape Mail and Mozilla files and dump it out to Microsoft Exchange 2003. Theres more tools at the
Microsoft Exchange website. Depending on how you do the process though, it can be a very manual operation or if youre clever, then you can script the operation as well. Take a look in the
Exchange TechCenter for more information and help!
As it said it would do, Microsoft has modified the requirements of its certification programs for the MCSE and MCSA on Windows Server 2003 and provided an upgrade path for people certified on Windows 2000. The new structure, which will be rolled out through the summer and fall, provides a path for candidates to move from the MCSA title to the MCSE title.
Candidates who are part of the first wave of titleholders on the new platform will be recognized as "early achievers" by Microsoft, though the company declined to provide details. At the same time, Microsoft said it would make self-assessment functionality available on its Web site in March to allow users to check their expertise about certain aspects of the new operating system platform.
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Microsoft's latest offer to comply with sanctions imposed by the European Commission is insufficient to meet the concerns of customers and consumers, a Commission spokesman said Friday. "On the basis of market test results, we have serious doubts that Microsoft is complying with the interoperability remedy," EU competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
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Longhorn will offer more natural ways to access, organize and use information, and is designed to improve Information Worker productivity. The key to this, of course, is the new Fast Search feature, which many people incorrectly assumed was being removed from Longhorn when Microsoft delayed WinFS to a post-Longhorn release. That's not the case. Longhorn fast search will provide near-instant searching of your PC, the local network, and the Internet. And it's designed to be intuitive to existing Windows users.
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With less than a month left before Microsoft Corp. removes the block on the automatic delivery of Windows XP Service Pack 2, the software giant updated its Application Compatibility Toolkit to help smooth the migration for large enterprise customers.
The Redmond, Wash., company has set April 12 as the drop dead date for the delivery of the service pack to all Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 1 systems, whether businesses are ready or not.(
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This article describes how Outlook 2003 Cached Exchange Mode works in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 environment. Cached Exchange Mode is a new feature in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. When Cached Exchange Mode is enabled, Outlook 2003 uses a local copy of your mailbox. At the same time, Outlook 2003 maintains an online connection to a remote copy of your mailbox in Exchange Server.
Most Microsoft Outlook profile settings can be configured and deployed to users by using the Microsoft Custom Installation Wizard or the Custom Maintenance Wizard. However, on occasion administrators might want to deploy Outlook settings that are not included in the wizards. When this is the case, the Outlook profile file (PRF file) can be used. This paper describes the PRF file, how to modify it with new settings, and how to deploy it to users.
Download
Outlook Deployment Options: Customizing a PRF File
Microsoft's much anticipated and frequently postponed OS may ultimately lack compelling reasons for customers to upgrade. San Francisco (InfoWorld) - While Microsoft continues raising Longhorn, rivals are seizing the operating system's extended adolescence to develop competing feature sets of their own.
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When a user object moves from one domain to another, a new security identifier (SID) must be generated for the user account and stored in the Object-SID property. Before the new value is written to the property, the previous value is copied to another property of a User object, SID-History (sidHistory). This property can hold multiple values. Each time a User object moves to another domain, a new SID is generated and stored in the Object-SID property and another value is added to the list of old SIDs in SID-History. Sometimes it may be necessary to clear the sidHistory.
Goto MS Knowledge Base Article 295758
A Microsoft employee posted a news on his blog about what is expected on upcoming Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1. As with typical service packs from Microsoft, Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 will be primarily a rollup of fixes we have seen since the product was released to improve performance and increase scalability. In addition, with Service Pack 1:
Virtual Server 2005 will have host support for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 x64 Edition (note that this does not include IA64)
provide PXE support
qualify Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 SP1as a host and as a guest
include the Virtual Disk Precompactor, a utility that is designed to "zero out" — that is, overwrite with zeros — any available blank space on a virtual hard disk
A public beta is slated for the end of first quarter 2005, with product release planned for the second half of calendar year 2005. It seems a really poor features set. VMware could further enhance its GSX Server within this year letting Microsoft virtualization platform far behind.
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Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduced many new security features for Internet Explorer, which can cause compatibility issues for some web applications and sites. In order to help solve such issues I am pleased to announce that the Internet Explorer Compatibility Evaluator (IECE) is now available. IECE is released as part of Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 4.0.
IECE is designed to help IT professionals evaluate changes in behavior of web applications and web sites caused by the new security features in Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and test for compatibility when moving from Windows XP to Windows XP Service Pack 2. It does this by:
- Identifying issues and blocks to web site functionality
- Identifying the cause of a block and specific details to identify the location of the problem
After installing Windows XP with SP2 and IECE, you can begin testing web sites and web applications. When a security feature blocks an action, new information will be entered in the test log.
Download the Internet Explorer Compatibility Evaluator
Server and domain isolation provide a number of business benefits. Most importantly, it provides a layer of network security that can significantly reduce the threat of untrusted hosts accessing trusted domain members on an organization's internal network.
Server and domain isolation can be an important strategy in the defense against virus propagation, internal hackers, employee misuse of technology assets, and information theft. In addition, it can be used to require domain membership of all clients that seek access to trusted resources, either clients or servers, so that they can be better managed by professional IT staff. Server and domain isolation can also be used either as a primary or an additional strategy for meeting data privacy or other protection requirements for data in network traffic, without modifying existing Microsoft® Windows® applications or deploying virtual private networking (VPN) tunneling hardware on the network.(continue at source)
Microsoft's Windows XP Starter Edition will be launched in India in June. The product is in the pilot stage and being tested by nongovernment organizations and other sites in the country, according to a company spokeswoman. Microsoft announced last September that this stripped-down, low-cost edition of its Windows XP OS would be available in India early this year, although it did not give a launch date.
Microsoft announced last year five pilot markets for Windows XP Starter Edition: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, and Thailand. Designed for first-time desktop PC users in developing technology markets, the Windows XP Starter Edition has already been introduced in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. The Windows XP Starter Edition will be introduced first in the Hindi language. Microsoft will ship the product through OEMs only, said the spokeswoman, who would not divulge the software's price.
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Following the lead of Google Inc. and other online competitors, Microsoft Corp. plans to start selling sponsored links on its search Web pages.
Microsoft's move into this potentially lucrative area capitalizes on detailed demographic information the software company has gathered over the years, raising privacy concerns for some.
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UPDATE: Two screenshots are available via S.E.L.D. on the new MSN adCenter. Look
here and
here.
In recent months, Microsoft's MSN online services arm has released several products that it sees as "very cool." Most of them, however, have received a lukewarm reception by both early adopters and the media, leaving some MSN employees frustrated and confused as to what exactly they are doing wrong.
An internal debate began within Microsoft after veteran engineer turned Google employee Mark Lucovsky wrote in his Web log that Microsoft no longer knew how to "ship" software. He noted that work from Microsoft engineers could take years to reach customers while "software as a service" companies such as Amazon and Google deliver improvements overnight. Has Microsoft lost the magic touch -- Is Microsoft software passé?
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Password are only as secure as you make them. In the case of many users, that's not very comforting. Whether it's due to keyloggers, Post-It Notes, or pet names, passwords can be easily compromised and used to wreak havoc.
At CeBIT, Microsoft let on that it was planning on supporting two-factor authentication in Longhorn and other future versions of Windows. For those unfamiliar with the technology, two-factor authentication basically requires two means of confirming the identity of a user. The process is somewhat akin to using an ATM to access your checking account: you need both the ATM card and PIN in order to withdraw money. With a PC, a combination of a password and fingerprint reader could be used to verify the identity of the person attempting to log in.
Two-factor authentication has gotten a lot of attention lately. The onslaught of phishing attacks has prompted some financial institutions to announce plans to offer two-factor authentication to their customers. E*Trade plans to send its customers small RSA token devices which will flash random, six-digit codes that change regularly as part of its new E*Trade Complete Security System. Customers will then need both the code and their password to access their accounts.
We are proud to announce that as of today techlog is officialy member of the Microsoft Related Community. Microsoft Related Community sites will help you to get answers to your questions, state your opinions, meet other Windows XP enthusiasts, and learn more about Windows XP.
As a Related Community, techlog will receive contextually relevant placement (a link and description) on the No. 1 corporate site and fourth largest Web site on the planet (according to Jupiter Media Metrics, 2003).
Visit the Microsoft Related Communities website at Microsoft.
The first beta of IE 7.0 isn't expected for a few more months. But information on Microsoft's security, standards and interface plans are trickling out now.
Since it first revealed a month ago that it was pulling a U-turn by releasing a new version of Internet Explorer independent of Longhorn, Microsoft has been unwilling to share many particulars about its forthcoming browser.
Will Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 have tabs? Will it comply with the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) 2.0 standard? Exactly how will it make browsing more secure? Will it ship in 2005? (
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Windows XP Embedded can be traced back to the days of Windows NT 4.0, there were two flavors of NT 4.0, Server, and Client - a Microsoft development team based out of Israel took on the task of componentizing the operating systems and creating a set of tools around the operating systems that made it easy(ish) to create an embedded device based on the Windows NT 4.0 code base, the operating system was barely componentized, developers could choose from a small number of components - the operating systems were licensed in one of four buckets, depending on whether you were using a headless configuration of the operating system, or display based, and client, or server.
At the time that Windows NT 4.0 Embedded shipped the development work on Windows 2000 was already started, the time needed to componentize an existing operating system was looking to be about 18 months, so we decided to skip Windows 2000 (and licensed Windows 2000 with embedded restrictions to those that wanted to build embedded systems around the Windows 2000 codebase) and move directly to building an embedded version of Windows XP Professional.(
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You might want to create a “base” virtual machine with an operating system and applications, and then copy its .vhd file to use for other virtual machines. Before you make copies of the .vhd, however, it’s important to run Sysprep in the guest operating system. This way, the first time you start a virtual machine that uses a copy of the base virtual machine’s .vhd file, the guest operating system will be assigned a new SID and other identifiers, so you won’t end up with network conflicts between different virtual machines that use the same copied .vhd file.(
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PC World is reporting that Microsoft will skip their plans to introduce Windows Media Center Edition 2006, instead opting for a major MCE 2005 update.
"Microsoft for the first time in three years plans to go without a new release of Windows XP Media Center Edition, a company spokesperson says.
Instead, Microsoft plans to offer an update to Media Center Edition 2005 to refine some features, says Microsoft Product Manager Tom Laemmel, speaking in an interview at the CeBIT tradeshow here. That update would be "bigger than your standard Windows update, but smaller than a Service Pack," he says."(
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Whenever we talk about the Exchange Best Practices analyser, we get asked where it fits in with MOM and MOM's management pack and guide for Exchange. Well here's the thing that effectively connects MOM and the ExBPA. You can even now deploy ExBPA using MOM.(
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Download MOM management pack for ExBPA
The Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as Active Directory, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive ‘best practice’ rules are applied to the topology.
Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime.
Download Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool Version 1.1
While Active Directory in general uses a multimaster replication scheme for replicating the directory database between domain controllers, there are certain directory functions that require they be performed on some specific domain controller. These functions are defined by flexible single master operations (FSMO) roles (pronounced "fiz-moe roles") and at any time these roles are uniquely assigned to specific domain controllers in different Active Directory domains.
Let's begin by describing what these different FSMO roles are and why they are important, after which we'll outline some best practices for how you should assign these roles in your Active Directory environment.(
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NBLookup is a command line diagnostic tool that uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to send NetBIOS name queries to Microsoft Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) servers. NBLookup requires TCP/IP version 4 to run. WINS servers accept name resolution requests on UDP port 137.
NBLookup Usage Examples:
If you verify a specified set of WINS records on multiple WINS servers, this information can help you to diagnose and to fix problems that missing or incorrect WINS records may have caused.
For example, if clients are experiencing problems when they try to log on to the domain, verify that the 1C records that the clients use to find domain controllers are available and are accurate. This information can help you determine if WINS is a cause of the problem.
More Information about the NBLookup.exe command-line tool
If you wondered how Bill Gates topped the Forbes rich list for the 11th year with a personal fortune of US$46.5 billion ($63 billion), look no further than the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office.
Patent 525484, accepted by the office and now open for objections until the end of May, says Microsoft invented and owns the process whereby a word-processing document stored in a single XML file may be manipulated by applications that understand XML.
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Microsoft has revealed at a security panel at CeBIT that it is preparing to dump passwords in favor of two-factor authentication in forthcoming versions of Windows. Detlef Eckert, the senior director in charge of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, did not specify which form of two-factor authentication would be used in the next edition of the company's operating system, codenamed Longhorn.
But he said that the code would have vastly improved handling of technologies including smartcards and security tokens. "I believe that the time of password-only authentication is gone," said Eckert. "We need to go to two-factor authentication. This is the only way to bring the level of trust business needs."
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Microsoft has changed its certification process, moving away from multiple-choice exams towards more practical assessment of IT problem solving. Most large IT departments rely on the Microsoft certified professional (MCP) qualification as a guarantee of aptitude using Microsoft technologies, but until now it has tested candidates on multiple-choice questionnaires. Because candidates can pass these simply by memorising facts, departments are left with little idea of their practical abilities.
Philip Virgo, strategic advisor at IT lobby group the Institute for the Management of Information Systems, said, "Multiple-choice testing is widespread and it is an issue not just confined to Microsoft. Most large-scale, low-cost qualifications rely on multiple-choice questionnaires and there has been a lot of grumbling about that. "In reality most people do not do much practical assessment - at the end of a course they do a multiple choice exam. All that proves is that they attended the course and were awake."
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Microsoft released a tool that adds the ability to limit concurrent user logins in an Active Directory domain. It can also keep track of all logins information in Active Directory domains. LimitLogin capabilities include:
Limiting the number of logins per user from any machine in the domain, including Terminal Server sessions.
Displaying the logins information of any user in the domain according to a specific criterion (e.g. all the logged-on sessions to a specific client machine or Domain Controller, or all the machines a certain user is currently logged on to).
Easy management and configuration by integrating to the Active Directory MMC snap-ins.
Ability to delete and log off user session remotely straight from the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in.
Generating Login information reports in CSV (Excel) and XML formats.
Download:
limitlogin.exe
By using registry-based policy, operating system components and applications can respond to registry key settings that administrators can manage centrally with Group Policy. These policy settings determine the behavior of the application for targeted computers or users. As long as a component or application has been policy-enabled (that is, its behavior changes based on registry values indicated in the .adm file), you can manage its features and settings through registry-based policy.
.Adm files are UNICODE text files that Group Policy uses to describe where registry-based policy settings are stored in the registry. All registry-based policy settings appear and are configured in the Group Policy Object Editor under the Administrative Templates node. .Adm files do not apply policy settings; they simply enable administrators to view the policy settings in the Group Policy Object Editor. Administrators can then create Group Policy objects (GPOs) containing the policy settings that they want to use. For example, you might have one GPO that contains various policy settings for managing the Active Desktop feature.
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In Outlook, the storage limit for a single user's .PST file (the file used as Outlook's message database) is 2 GB. If a .PST file grows to over 2 GB, it can become damaged and some mail items may be lost.
If you're forced to use .PST files (for instance, in a remote scenario) and run into this problem, or have older .PST files over the 2 GB boundary that need to be recovered, one solution is to use a Microsoft utility called
PST2GB.
Microsoft plans to all but end its stint as an Internet service provider to Mac users, discontinuing its MSN for Mac OS X software, CNET News.com has learned. The company plans to notify customers this month and discontinue the service as of May 31, a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail. Microsoft announced plans to get into the market in 2002 and began offering the service in the United States the following year.
"Beginning May 31, Microsoft will make changes and no longer support the MSN for Mac OS X Internet Software client," the representative said. A Microsoft representative declined to say how many people subscribe to MSN for the Mac, but said it is "a small number."
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This step-by-step article describes how to configure Active Directory diagnostic event logging in Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Active Directory records events to the Directory Services log of Event Viewer. You can use the information that is collected in the log to help you diagnose and resolve possible problems or monitor the activity of Active Directory-related events on your server. By default, Active Directory records only critical events and error events in the Directory Service log. To configure Active Directory to record other events, you must increase the logging level by editing the registry.
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Microsoft for the first time in three years plans to go without a new release of Windows XP Media Center Edition, a company spokesman said Friday. Instead, Microsoft plans to offer an update to Media Center Edition 2005 to refine some features, said Microsoft Product Manager Tom Laemmel in an interview at the Cebit tradeshow in Hanover, Germany. That update would be "bigger than your standard Windows update, but smaller than a Service Pack," he said.
An update instead of a new release should please existing Media Center users. An upgrade to a newer version of the operating system has been a hassle, often requiring the user to buy a complete new copy of the product.
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We are proud to welcome DIDACTICUM as our new sponsor! Didacticum offers specialized IT-training on networks, infrastructures and platforms. They differ from other institutes by not only working from field practice, but offering shorter training periods with a high value. They are situated in The Netherlands. DIDACTICUM supports Techlog activities and will aid our daily work by supplying financial support. DIDACTICUM is a certified Microsoft partner and we welcome you to visit their site!
DIDACTICUM - Persoonlijke, functiegerichte opleidingen voor IT professionals
Microsoft went public on Thursday with a number of proposals designed to overhaul the U.S. patent system and make it better suited to the software industry. Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith presented Microsoft's proposed reforms during a day-long seminar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Microsoft has a vested interest in patent reform. In 2004, the company filed 3,000 new patent applications.
At the same time, company officials acknowledge that Microsoft is among the largest targets of patent litigation in the country. Microsoft is spending close to $100 million annually to defend against an average of 35 to 40 simultaneous patent lawsuits, according to Microsoft's data. Microsoft is still fighting the $520 million jury verdict that was awarded to Eolas Technologies on the grounds that Microsoft had infringed its Web browser technology patents, for example.
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Microsoft is making a foray into the managed-services business, starting with a deal to manage the PCs for consumer products firm Energizer Holdings. Under the terms of the pact, which has not been formally announced, Microsoft will take over responsibility for managing, updating and supporting the battery maker's roughly 6,000 computers. It will also host a variety of applications, including e-mail, portal and instant-messaging services. The deal is expected to be phased in over the next serveral months.
The Energizer pact is the first of several that Microsoft wants to run as part of a project the company hopes will help it better understand its customers' needs, a Microsoft executive told CNET News.com.
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Microsoft today lifted the lid on its next-generation Xbox video game platform promising that the device will help usher in an era of high-definition gaming.
The next-generation Xbox hardware will, according to the Redmond firm, comprise a "well balanced system" capable of delivering more than a teraflop of targeted computing performance. At the core of the platform will be a multi-core processor architecture co-developed with IBM, and a custom graphics processor co-developed with ATI Technologies.
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One of the hottest exhibits in Intel's booth at the giant CeBIT technology show in Hannover, Germany this week is a prototype Mini Cooper S Capriolet prepared as a show car and fitted with an on-board infotainment PC, according to Inperio Systems, maker of the device. The Envader, which contains a Pentium M-powered embedded computer, is described by Inperio as an "industry standard compliant system offering an integrated infotainment, communitainment, and entertainment platform." Or, as Intel puts it, a "Car PC."
Inperio's Envader, along with a Car PC software suite, turns the vehicle into a "mobile office car," according to Intel. The device implements navigation, audio/video, TV, radio, games, Internet, and email capabilities. It's packaged in an enclosure compatible with the automotive DIN form-factor, allowing it to be mounted within locations provided for normal car stereos.
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Over the last couple of years, spyware has grown from being a nuisance into being an epidemic. Although many tools exist for fighting spyware, they largely focus on the recovery of infected systems and have been mostly ineffective in the war against spyware. A few weeks ago however, Microsoft unveiled the first beta of their own anti spyware solution. Although this software is capable of disinfecting an infected system, its primary goal is to prevent the initial infection. In this article, WindowSecurity.com will explain how this software works and shares their initial impressions of it with you.
In this article MsExchange.org will give you some information about how to use SMTPDiag. SMTPDiag is a diagnostic tool that is used to determine if Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Domain Name System (DNS) are configured to reliably deliver mail to an external e-mail address.
SmtpDiag is a troubleshooting tool designed to work directly on a Windows server with IIS/SMTP service enabled or with Exchange Server installed. It utilizes the same APIs as Windows and Exchange in order to diagnose configuration and connection issues involving SMTP and DNS.
SMTPDiag has two required and two optional arguments, and a built-in Help.(
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The hierarchical nature of group policies can make troubleshooting group policy related issues very cumbersome, especially on unfamiliar networks. One way to greatly simplify the troubleshooting process is to use Windows XP’s GPRESULT tool. In this article, WindowsNetworking.com will introduce you to this tool and show you how to use it.
One of the things that I have always liked about the Active Directory environment is that you can gain such granular control over the behavior of your network through the use of group policies. Group policies can become a double edged sword though. When group policies are applied incorrectly, all sorts of unexpected side effects can occur.
Normally, the side effects of an inappropriate group policy setting aren’t that big of a problem if you are working with servers on your own network. After all, you are familiar with the way that your network normally behaves. If you change a group policy setting and Windows starts behaving strangely then it is a pretty good indication that you defined the new setting incorrectly or at an inappropriate location, and probably need to go back and see what went wrong.(
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In this two part article IsaServer.org will cover the default settings of the ISA 2004 System policy and how these can be manipulated to enable ISA to interact differently with other networked resources. The ISA system policy editor is one way of configuring ISA in a secure way and in also making changes that can un-secure ISA. This is why the security professional must understand the permutations of the system policy tool.
With its lucrative Office suite in decline, Microsoft is feeling the heat. Once accountable for about 50 percent of Microsoft's revenues, Office contributed less than one-third of the company's revenues throughout 2004, and increased competition from low-cost options such as Corel WordPerfect Office 12 and Sun's StarOffice/OpenOffice.org tandem are starting to hurt as well.
But Microsoft's biggest competition in the office productivity space, ironically, comes from within: Older versions of the Office suite, including Office 2000, XP, and 2003, are often cited by customers as being good enough. Thus, businesses aren't upgrading to new Office versions as quickly as they used to. And most now skip a version or two before upgrading. (
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Microsoft Windows XP Embedded can boot from a tiny USB flash disk module, thanks to the efforts of M-Systems. Booting up from an M-Systems uDiskOnChip USB 2.0 flash disk is twice as fast as booting from CompactFlash, according to the company. Target applications include thin clients, point-of-sale terminals, gaming equipment, single-board computers, and other embedded systems.
Microsoft endorsed the new capability, which was announced at this week's Embedded Systems Conference. "M-Systems' uDiskOnChip USB 2.0 flash disk boot solution is an example of the innovative and flexible solutions that bring added value to our Windows XP Embedded customers," said Jane Gilson, director for the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft. "Microsoft works closely with companies such as M-Systems to bring the best user experience to our embedded customers." (
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March 8, 2005
Microsoft Corp. today introduced a new release of Microsoft® Office Live Meeting, its hosted Web conferencing service that helps information workers communicate and collaborate with anyone, anytime, anywhere, with just a PC and an Internet connection. Live Meeting 2005 further delivers on Microsoft's vision for integrated communication and presents significant user enhancements. These include the ability to launch a meeting from within familiar Microsoft Office software, more effortless and cost-effective audio controls, and powerful presenter control capabilities. In addition, Live Meeting 2005 will be available in localized versions with support for seven additional languages, enabling people all over the world to participate in a Live Meeting session.(
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Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool 1.2 is available.
The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 computers for and helps remove infections by specific, prevalent malicious software--including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed. The tool creates a log file named mrt.log in the %WINDIR%\debug folder.
Microsoft will release an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month. New versions will be made available through this web page, Windows Update, and the
Malicious Software Removal Tool Web site on Microsoft.com.
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool from Microsoft
More Information About This Download (KB890830)
The just-released Google Desktop has improved security features, is a lot more open-source program friendly and boasts time-saving search features. Let me open my kicking the tires of Google's new desktop application by saying that I love desktop search programs like a fat man loves doughnuts. Although, I'm one of those people who file documents and correspondences religiously in directory structures like C:/corr/eweek/2004/manuscripts, I still can't find what I need when I need it, as quickly as I'd like. Enter Google Inc.'s Google Desktop Search 1.0.
Google's free desktop search application only came out of beta on Monday with a new release that boasts better security, support for popular open-source programs and an open SDK (software development kit) that enables programmers to add non-supported file types to the program's search range. For me, though, they've already taken care of the most important programs by adding support for Adobe Acrobat PDFs; e-mail from Mozilla, Mozilla Thunderbird and Netscape; and recently viewed Web pages from the Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape browsers.
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ExtremeTech has an editorial summarizing a question that is being asked more and more frequently these days. Should stay Windows or make a switch to OS X on Macintosh? The article summarizes the situation well enough in my opinion... representing the strengths and deterrants from using both platforms. Read on to learn about what's coming up for Microsoft's Longhorn and Apple's Tiger.
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"What you might see is an 800-pound gorilla on steroids (today) and five years from now it might be a 400-pound gorilla on vitamins,'' said Don Tennant, editor of ComputerWorld, which recently held a panel discussion among experts about the future of the information-technology sector.
The increasing competition from Linux open-source technologies, Apple Computer Inc. and Internet-focused companies will slowly chip away at the Redmond, Wash.-based behemoth's dominance, Tennant said.
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For three years now, I've been charting the progress (or lack of progress) Microsoft has made with its next generation Windows operating system, code-named Longhorn. It all started back in January 2002, when I released my first iteration of The Road to Windows "Longhorn": What we know about the next version of Windows. The goal was to separate fact from myth. In that article, I exposed numerous Longhorn frauds and discussed some of the features Microsoft was then known to be including in Longhorn. Some of these, like WinFS (then identified only as a "SQL Server .NET-based file system) have since been culled from Longhorn and will be delivered separately. Others, like Windows Movie Maker 2 and a Windows Media Player refresh, have since shipped independently of Windows because of Longhorn's ever-increasing delays and will be replaced by newer versions in Longhorn.
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This article covers the upgrading caveats that need to be considered when upgrading from Windows NT and Windows 2000 Network environments to Windows 2003. Issues encountered during installation and understanding the importance of the minimum requirements prescribed for installing the software, understanding the fundamentals described below will resolve and reduce problems that are usually encountered.
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Microsoft is beefing up its corporate instant messaging product lineup with new extras like firewall traversal and collaboration, as it prepares to launch its code-named Istanbul desktop communications client, possibly as early as Tuesday. All the deal making and development work is an attempt to kick-start a market for corporate instant messaging, which hasn't not grown as quickly as anticipated although a growing number of businesses are increasingly making use of popular desktop IM clients.
On Monday, at the VON Spring 2005 Conference in San Jose, Calif., Microsoft is expected to trumpet a recent partnership with online collaboration provider Radvision and routing specialist Jasomi Networks. Radvision and Jasomi are essentially providing add-ons for Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005 (LCS), which is software that initially launched as a way for companies to offer secure Instant Message to their employees. LCS has become a cornerstone of Microsoft's effort to expand its Office line beyond a mere collection of productivity applications.
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Slashdot writes: "Dejan Levaja, a Serbian security engineer has discovered that nearly 8 years after the attack was first made public, WIndows 2003 and Windows XP SP2 are in fact vulnerable to the historic LAND attack." Granted, you need to have the firewall turned off for this work, but there's a whole lotta machines that don't have it turned on.
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The Microsoft IT Department this month posted a public account of its efforts in deploying Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 -- a sure sign the release of the service pack is imminent. Microsoft IT, which defines one of its primary functions as being "Microsoft's first customer," regularly releases a report on its rollout experience near or just before the Release to Manufacturing of a major Microsoft product or update.
Windows Server 2003 SP1 is a major service pack for the server operating system, bringing new security enhancements such as the Security Configuration Wizard and Windows Firewall on top of the usual service pack bug fixes. Microsoft has said SP1 will be available in the first half of 2005, and the service pack is in Release Candidate 2 testing.
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Omar Shahine wrote an article comparing the Creative Zen Micro to an iPod. He writes: "Kick Ass - better than iPod. (this is the first device I have reviewed that has received this rating). If you are looking for a device to replace your iPod or looking for a new device I would highly recommend this device. My only real complaint with the device is that the backlighting for the silk-screened keys is poorly implemented. It makes the device feel cheap."
He adds: "I happen to love the device, and in many ways I find it's feature set to be better than the iPod. The build quality and fit and finish aren't as good as the iPod, but this device comes closer to anything else I've tried. I suspect that it will be a matter of months, or a year before Creative and iRiver have matched Apple in every way while providing some features the iPod still doesn't have."
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Microsoft was enthousiastic about the article I wrote for the march number of NetOpus (former dutch Windows & NET magazine) and they have placed in on their (dutch) corporate website. Great to see Microsoft appreciating the work done by independant consultants. For our dutch readers: click the link below to view the pages. In the april number of NetOpus, I will be writing a 2-page article about the new features of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.
MOM 2005 review on MS corporate website
Last week there was a Technical Roundtable at Microsoft Nederland. The powerpoint presentations can be found at the source link. The site is in Dutch but the presentations are in English.
This were the topics:
- Virtual Server 2005
- Service Line Architect Premier Services van Microsoft, over Microsoft Services
- Consultant Microsoft Services, over MIIS 2003
- Microsoft Security Vision & Strategy
It's ironic that a company as innovative as Apple Computer could have such a regressive view of the changing world of American media. The company, led by Chief Executive Steve Jobs, won a round in its quest to force three Apple -enthusiast Web sites to disclose their sources on articles they published regarding unannounced Apple products. In court filings the company argued that the Web sites were not protected by free speech because they are not legitimate members of the press.
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Microsoft has extended its antipiracy olive branch to China, offering users of bootleg copies of Windows a 50 percent discount on a legitimate version if they come clean on how they got their pirated copy. As part of a two-month promotion that started in February, the company is offering a Chinese version of Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition at 786 yuan ($95), and 1,270 yuan ($153), respectively. According to Microsoft's Web site, the two products normally retail for about $199 and $299.
To qualify for this offer, users with unlicensed copies of Windows installed on their machines need to complete an online form in which they disclose how they obtained the bogus software.
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Microsoft may not be willing to talk file-system futures, but it is working to back-port its future file-system technology to Windows XP. Microsoft is back-porting its WinFS file-system technology to Windows XP, the same way that it is doing with its Windows presentation and communications subsystems, according to company officials. The acknowledgement is significant, given that Microsoft has been reticent to offer any details on WinFS since the company decided in August to cut the WinFS information storage and retrieval feature from both the client and server versions of Longhorn.
Longhorn client is set to ship in 2006; Longhorn server in 2007, according to Microsoft. Company officials have declined repeatedly to project when or how Microsoft would deliver WinFS to developers and customers. Microsoft's silence had lead some industry watchers to speculate that WinFS would be relegated to the fate of "Cairo," the object file system that Microsoft touted throughout the 1990s but never managed to deliver.
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Centrify Corp. has released DirectControl, a Microsoft Active Directory-based program that enables network administrators to use AD's identity, access and policy management for not only Windows, but also Unix and Linux systems.
According to Centrify CEO Tom Kemp, with DirectControl "administrators can reduce management costs associated with user account management, strengthen security throughout their organization and improve user productivity through the consolidation of multiple user IDs without having to go in and make costly changes to either their AD or Unix/Linux infrastructures."
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Did you know that there is a repository on the TechNet site with a whole heap of scripts for controlling Virtual Servers:
here. Well, you do now! Many people have been asking me for scripts to automate tasks on Virtual Server so I posted a backup script the other day as a sample. However, if you look at the above site, there are many many more. Here are a few samples:
A big performance tip is to compact your virtual server hard disks
Saving a Virtual Machine State
Listing the Virtual Server Host information
Listing the Current Virtual Server Access Rights
List All Virtual Networks
One of Microsoft's key Windows architects has defected to Google. But at least so far, no one is talking about what Marc Lucovsky's new role will be at one of Microsoft's major rivals. A 16-year Microsoft veteran, Lucovsky was one of a handful of "Distinguished Engineers" at Microsoft. He is credited as one of the core dozen engineers that came from Digital Equipment Corp. to Microsoft and built the Windows NT operating system. He was charged with building the Windows NT executive, kernel, Win32 run-time and other key elements of the operating system. NT was the precursor to Windows Server.
In 2000, Lucovsky was named the chief software architect for Microsoft's .Net My Services (code-named "Hailstorm") effort. .Net My Services never materialized in the form that Microsoft originally envisioned—a set of personal Web services, hosted by Microsoft. Instead, the company has folded a number of the .Net My Services technologies into other Microsoft products.
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News.com.com is reporting a short but very interesting factoid. It would seem that Google managed to get some talent scouts to visit Microsoft's campus in an effort to hire away at least one of its employees.
No big deal you say? Perhaps, but this employee works on Microsoft's operating system division and is supposedly one of the division's "gurus." Sure, Google's been on a mass hiring spree as of late so it could be a mere coincidence, but news.com.com is theorizing that this could theoretically be the first steps to a Google OS.
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A federal appeals court reversed a patent ruling against Microsoft that included a damage award of more than $520 million, according to published reports.
The original infringement claim was made by Eolas Technologies, a firm founded by a former University of California professor that had alleged the software giant used technology at the school in its Internet Explorer software, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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Microsoft’s plan to end windows XP activation via the internet caused some confusion to users. In response to the article first reported here last week, Alex Kochis, Senior License Compliance Manager at Microsoft Corp. sent me the following clarifications of the Windows XP Product Activation changes and how it will affect end users.
Users of genuine Windows will experience no impact
The intent is to dissuade the theft or misuse of the Certificate of Authenticity or accompanying product key
Honest resellers have requested that Microsoft close this loophole so that they can compete effectively and they are extremely supportive of this effort
On Monday, Microsoft disabled Internet activation for all Microsoft Windows XP product keys located on COA labels that are adhered to PCs from large, OEMs who have direct licensing agreements with Microsoft. Directly licensed OEMs are authorized by Microsoft to customize their branded re-installation and recovery media so that if installed on the hardware it shipped with the Windows XP operating system will not require end-user activation.
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You just installed Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware, and now you’re having difficulties with your scripts. Here’s some insight into what’s happening and what to do about it.
So a few months ago you dutifully installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 on all your computers, then saw your life flash before your eyes when you discovered that you could no longer use your system administration scripts (or any other system administration tool besides Group Policy) to remotely manage those computers. Fortunately, that story had a happy ending: based on the knowledge gained from a
Tales from the Script column and from a number of
sample Service Pack 2 scripts found in the Script Center, you were able to regain the ability to use scripts to manage those machines. No doubt it was quite a shock to find out that your scripts were temporarily disabled, but at least you knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and could rest assured that your scripts would now work forever and ever.
And then you downloaded and installed the beta version of the new Microsoft® Windows AntiSpyware utility.(
continue at source)
This article describes the techniques and tools that you can use to help identify a problem at successive layers of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol stack that is using an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Internet layer in Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), or Windows Server™ 2003. Depending on the type of problem, you might do one of the following:
• Start at the bottom of the stack and move up.
• Start at the top of the stack and move down.
The following sections are organized from the top of the stack and describe how to:
• Verify IPv6 connectivity
• Verify Domain Name System (DNS) name resolution for IPv6 addresses
• Verify IPv6-based TCP connections
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continue at source)
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation is not particularly difficult to install inside of Virtual PC - however there are a number of small issues that catch people up from time to time. The first thing to be aware of is that it is best to have installed
Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 before attempting to install Windows NT 4.0 Workstation - as there were two bugs specific to Windows NT 4.0 installation that were fixed in this service pack (specifically for installing Windows NT on virtual machines with greater than 64mb and installing Windows NT on computers with Prescott class Pentium IV processors).
Before you start installing Windows NT 4.0 Workstation you should decide how many network adapters you want to have in the virtual machine - as changing this after NT installation is actually relatively painful.
Once you have created a new blank virtual machine, and configured the network cards to your liking, you should be able to directly boot the virtual machine off of the Windows NT 4.0 Workstation install CD.(continue at source)
Microsoft's long silence on Exchange is over. In January, Microsoft publicly laid out plans for the next release of Exchange. Microsoft is calling the next version "Exchange 12" or "E12." The code-names emphasize the close ties to the next version of Office, code-named "Office 12." Usually Microsoft starts talking about the next version of a product as soon as, or even before, the latest version ships. But since Exchange Server 2003 went gold in June 2003, Microsoft hasn’t said much on the record about its successor.
Hugo Leijtens, a dutch Media Center MVP, is running
xpmce.nl, a forum for dutch users about Media Center related issues. Hugo is a friend of Techlog and therefore we decided to become affiliates. With this partnership, we hope to bring daily fresh Microsoft news to the readers of xpmce.nl. In the future, Techlog will work with Hugo to bring the latest on Media Center news.
For our dutch readers: want to know more about Media Center 2005? Visit his site,
xpmce.nl, regularly!
Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Standard Edition SP1 provides the latest updates to ISA Server 2004, with increased security, reliability and stability. Microsoft strongly encourages customers to install SP1 on all computers running ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition. ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition SP1 can be installed directly on computers running ISA Server 2004 Standard edition, and includes:
All software updates issued since ISA Server was released to manufacturing
Fixes for common issues reported by customers through Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS)
Enhanced stability of the ISA Server services and administration tool in a number of scenarios
ISA Server 2004 Service Pack 1
Maybe SQL Server "Yukon" won't be as good a deal for entry-level users as it seemed at first blush. Currently, a SQL Server Client Access License (CAL) allows you to access either Standard or Enterprise editions of Microsoft's flagship database. But with SQL Server 2005, Microsoft is moving to a different, and potentially more costly, CAL scheme. As eWEEK.com Database Topic Center Editor Lisa Vaas reports: "You not only need to buy a more expensive server license between Workgroup and Standard editions, you also need to buy a more expensive CAL as you move up the edition ladder." Ouch!
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| 22 Mar '05 - 06:56 | kenneth van surksum | 
one comment | news source ~ Jernstrom.org via Steven Bink 
