It's here, it's official: the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 !
New Interface
Say goodbye to bulky toolbars. Internet Explorer 7 has a new interface that shows more of each webpage you visit. The streamlined toolbar makes it easier to add websites to your Favorites, search the web, clear your history, and access the other tasks and tools you use most.
Tabbed Browsing
Whether you're searching the web, comparing prices, or just staying on top of your favorite topic, Internet Explorer 7 lets you view many different websites at one time — all within one organized window.
Search
Internet Explorer 7 brings your favorite web search providers to you. With the built-in search box, you can search the web at any time without having to open a search provider page. You can display search results in a separate tab, and then open the results in other tabs to quickly compare sites and find the information you want. You can even customize your search by setting your favorite search provider as the default.
RSS Feeds
Don't waste time checking many different sites and blogs for updates. Just select the sites or topics you care about and Internet Explorer 7 delivers all the new headlines and updates to your Favorites Center.
Security
Internet Explorer 7 helps keep your information safe by alerting you to potential phishing sites — sites that look legitimate but actually are designed to capture your personal information. It's also easier to see which sites provide secure data exchange, so you can shop and bank online with confidence.
read the release notes
Take the tour
Have you ever sat and waited (and waited) while your Google Maps reloads the image as you scroll in? A new technology called Seadragon might change all that -- at least for Microsoft products.
Seadragon is a neat little technology where users run a streaming client that allows them to view images of much larger images, constantly scaling and scrolling on demand. Google Maps uses Javascript to load progressively larger resolution tiles of images. Seadragon, on the other hand, uses a client to constantly focus and defocus a JPG image on demand, without transmitting the whole image. As the Seadragon demo shows, the client software focuses the image for an effect similar to what you might experience while looking through an adjusting microscope.(
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Microsoft Exchange Server loyalists expect new releases to deliver performance and individual productivity improvements. Their expectations will be met in Exchange 12 – although architecture redesign may be required.This paper will help you understand the major items that will impact planning decisions. Time to Start Migration Plans. While the upgrade from Exchange Server 2000 to Exchange Server 2003 was considered a point release in complexity, the upgrade to Exchange 12 (the code name for next-generation Exchange) will be a major release.
We expect Exchange 12 to be generally available (i.e., “go live”) the first half of 2007. However, you need to start migration planning now – even if you just migrated off of Exchange 5.5. Very preliminary plans for major upgrades should start years in advance of actual deployments. Exchange 12 beta 1 was released 14 December 2005. Expect product development change as Exchange 12 moves through its beta cycles.
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Detailed discussion describing how Microsoft IT uses SQL Server 2005 to improve data security for its line of business applications. SQL Server 2005 enabled Microsoft IT to implement column-level encryption together with a robust, and yet easy-to-use encryption key management framework.
How Microsoft IT Implements Encryption Using SQL Server 2005
David Lowe writes: "One of the things we get asked a lot is when Longhorn Server will be released and when people will be able to get their hands on a new pre-release build. Well, you won't have to wait too much longer. We're planning to kick off a Customer Technology Preview (CTP) program to coincide with Beta 2, which will arrive in the second quarter of this year. That means all MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be able to download it and start playing with fun new things like Network Access Protection, Server Core, IIS 7.0, Terminal Services Gateway and Remote Applications. You'll also get to pair it with Windows Vista to see the performance and reliability improvements we've made in our completely redesigned TCP/IP stack."
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See how easily you can work with people around the corner or around the globe. Live Meeting is an online, hosted service, so there is no software to install prior to use. Just complete the registration process and you're up and running.
Free 14-day trial of Live Meeting
Familiarize yourself with Live Meeting. Take a few minutes to experience the benefits of Live Meeting through this live-hosted walk-through of its features and easy-to-use interface. In a real hurry? Go to the Quick Demo for a hosted virtual tour.
Live Meeting Quick Demo
Russ Kaufman writes: "Rod Fournier and I had one of our geek talks recently, and it also came up in our clustering class in Denver. It also came up in a conference call last week. What does R2 offer when it comes to clustering?"
"The answer is, nothing. Let me expand on this because it really isn't true. While R2 offers absolutely nothing new for server clustering, it does offer many benefits that can improve the performance and reliability of clustering, and it also adds a new resource type. So, let's try this again. What does R2 offer when it comes to clustering? Improved DFS. DFS improvements allow for scheduling of traffic, throttling of traffic, and utilizes compression across WAN links. Also, DFS offers the ability to store and forward changes in response to WAN failures. Since it is possible to run DFS roots on a server cluster, this can impact your current environment."
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Russ Kuafman's weblog
Novell, through its CoolSolutions community-relations Web site, is conducting an online public survey to determine which Windows-only applications are most likely to keep Windows users from migrating to Linux. The company also wants to know which Windows-only apps would be most popular on Linux desktops if they were ported to Linux.
"The end result is that we will be contacting the vendors of these applications, asking them to partner with Novell to port their software to Linux," said CoolSolutions site editor Scott Morris. "As you know, numbers speak volumes." Morris said responses to the survey, which was launched earlier this month, thus far have been all over the board.
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This 100-level technical white paper provides information on the principle of least privilege and describes how to apply it to user accounts on Windows XP. The paper covers the following topics:
- Risks associated with administrative privileges
- Definition of the principle of least privilege
- Definition of the least-privileged user account (LUA) approach
- Benefits of the LUA approach
- Risk, security, usability, and cost tradeoffs
- Implementing the LUA approach
- Future developments
This paper also describes at a high-level the issues that affect implementation of the LUA approach and provides useful links to other online resources that explain these concepts in more detail.
Download the Applying the Principle of Least Privilege to User Accounts on Windows XP Whitepaper
In Exchange 2000 the password change feature was enabled by default, due to the Trustworthy Computing Initiative, Microsoft disabled this feature in Exchange 2003.
The Lazyadmin explains how on his website:
The change password feature can be enabled and you can allow your users to change their passwords via OWA again. Before you begin, you must have set up the IISADMPWD virtual directory already.
Once IISADMPWD is installed, it is a matter of a small registry change on order for this to take effect. Open up the registry on the Exchange 2003 server and drill down to:
HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/MSExchangeWeb/OWA
Locate the REG_DWORD called DisablePassword and change the value to "0". Close the registry editor and log into Outlook Web Access.(
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Windows Server 2003 R2 features the File Server Resource Manager which has the following functionalities: Quota Management, File Screening and Storage Reporting.
The File Screening technology enables administrators to restrict the use and propagation of non-business files throughout the organization. File screening rules defined by so called filters apply to all users in a folder tree or volume. Exceptions limiting inheritance of screening policies can be configured.
On the
blog of Matt Hester there is an interesting part which covers the limitations of this file screening technology. The limitation of the file screening technology is that it screens on file extensions.
Let's say that you configure a file screening template which doesn't allow Audio and Video files and apply this template to a folder. When you copy a file with a mp3 extension you get a access denied for this file. If you rename this file to a doc extension it's possible to copy the file to the folder.
It isn't possible though to rename the file with the doc extension back to it's original mp3 extension as long as it is in the folder with the template defined. What you can do though is take another (not known) extension and configure your mp3 player to play this extension as well.
Conclusion: The file screening technology can help you block unwanted files, in my opinion though it will be a matter of time before users find out it's weakness and make advantage of it. In that case it won't help you solve the real problem.
Ntdsutil.exe is a command-line tool that provides management facilities for Active Directory. The tool has a series of menus that allow you to move between different management tasks. Ntdsutil.exe is intended to be used by experienced administrators. In Windows Server 2003 it is installed by default in the %systemroot%\system32 folder. However, this version of Ntdsutil.exe does not contain the Group Membership Evaluation task.
The Group Membership Evaluation task is an update to Ntdsutil.exe. You can obtain the updated tool, along with instructions for how to run the tool at the download center on the Microsoft Web site.
Download the Ntdsutil update with the Group Membership Evaluation task update
Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith announced Microsoft’s decision to license all the Windows Server source code for the technologies covered by the European Commission’s Decision of March 2004. The company is making this voluntary move in order to address categorically all of the issues raised by the Commission’s December 22, 2005 Statement of Objections. That document asserted that Microsoft’s prior technical documentation provided insufficient information to enable licensees to implement successfully certain Windows Server communications protocols.
“Today we are putting our most valuable intellectual property on the table so we can put technical compliance issues to rest and move forward with a serious discussion about the substance of this case,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “The Windows source code is the ultimate documentation of Windows Server technologies. With this step our goal is to resolve all questions about the sufficiency of our technical documentation.”(
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Microsoft Corp. announced the formation of Microsoft® Live Labs, a research partnership between MSN® and Microsoft Research. Under the leadership of Dr. Gary William Flake, noted industry technologist and Microsoft technical fellow, Live Labs will consist of a dedicated group of researchers from MSN and Microsoft Research that will work with researchers across Microsoft and the academic research community. Live Labs will provide consistency in vision, leadership and infrastructure as well as a nimble applied research environment that fosters rapid innovations.
“Live Labs is a fantastic alliance between some of the best engineering and scientific talent in the world. It will be the pre-eminent applied research laboratory for Internet technologies,” Flake said. “This is a very exciting opportunity for researchers and technologists to have an immediate impact on the next evolution of Microsoft’s Internet products and services and will help unify our customers’ digital world so they can easily find information, pursue their interests and enrich their lives.” (
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Microsoft Tuesday released new previews of its upcoming tools for designers. Microsoft Interactive Designer is a product for building Avalon ("Windows Presentation Foundation" or WPF) user interfaces. These tools have been dubbed a Flash killer by some industry watchers, as it is expected to compete head-to-head with the Macromedia Flash product that was acquired by Adobe Systems last year.
The software giant has released the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of its Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer tool, formerly known as Sparkle, and the company also released the fourth CTP of its Expression Graphic Designer, formerly known as Acrylic, said Forest Key, director of product management for Microsoft's design tools.
Download a trail at
Microsoft
Microsoft's Expression Suite consists of the Expression Graphic Designer, Expression Interactive Designer and the Expression Web Designer. Microsoft has yet to release a CTP for the Web Designer, also known by its codename Quartz. (Continue at source)
Steven Bink reports:
Next release of Microsoft Windows Vista CTP is set to Februari 21st. This won't be the Beta 2 yet, that is planned somewhere in April. The word is that the Februari CTP is feature complete!
It is not likely that in this CTP round a Longhorn Server build will be distributed.
With the threat from kernel-mode rootkits on the rise, Microsoft plans to make a significant policy change to block uncertified drivers from loading on x64 versions of Windows Vista.
Starting with Windows Vista and Windows Server (Longhorn), kernel-mode software must have a digital signature to load on x64-based computer systems.
The decision to block unsigned drivers from loading is a direct attempt to restrict the spread of powerful rootkits that intercept the native API in kernel-mode and directly manipulate Windows data structures.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the far-reaching policy change was part of the company's SDL (Security Development Lifecycle), the mandatory software creation process used by Redmond engineers to bake security into all Internet-facing products.(
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Mark Russinovich writes: "Steve Gibson (of SpinRite fame) proposed a theory in his weekly Thursday-night podcast last week that if true, would be the biggest scandal to ever hit Microsoft - that the Windows Metafile (WMF) vulnerability that drew so much media attention last month is actually a backdoor programmed intentionally by Microsoft for unknown reasons. Slashdot picked up the story the next day and I received a flood of emails asking me to look into it. I finished my analysis, which Steve aided by sending me the source code to his WMF-vulnerability tester program (KnockKnock), over the weekend."
"In my opinion the backdoor is one caused by a security flaw and not one made for subterfuge. I sent my findings to both Steve and to Microsoft Monday morning, but because the issue continues to draw media attention I’ve decided to publicly document my investigation. Understanding the WMF vulnerability requires a brief background in WMF files. A WMF file is a script for executing graphics commands, called graphics device interface (GDI) functions. Each command is stored as a record in the WMF file and examples of GDI functions include ones to draw lines, fill rectangles, and copy bitmaps."
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On November 1, 2005, Microsoft announced that it would release a set of services beginning in 2006 under the Windows Live brand. For the most part, the Windows Live services match up with previous projects from MSN, which had been pulled into the Windows division at Microsoft during a late 2005 reorganization. As a long-time fan of MSN--see my exhaustive showcase, MSN: The Inside Story, for details--this reorg gave me mixed feelings.
On the one hand, I felt that the somnolent Windows group could use the injection of energy, excitement, and innovation that MSN would no doubt provide. But on the other hand, I was fearful that the enormous Windows division would simply destroy MSN and the many benefits of MSN's rapid release mantra. Two months later, it's not clear how this combination of Windows and MSN will turn out. However, I am reasonably confident that the numerous Windows Live services that Microsoft plans to ship in the weeks and months ahead will be interesting and compelling for a wide range of consumers.
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Approximately a year ago Orange launched their best smartphone yet, the SPV C500. Neowin reviewed the device and it turned out to be the most popular smartphone that has ever hit the market. A year later and this time around it's a new operating system and a sleek refined model to wow new year shoppers and smartphone fans alike.
At first it's easy to say that the device is very similar to the C500 and that's a fair comparison. The outer shell of the C600 hasn't changed considerably from the C500 with only a few shifts and additions. From the C500 there haven't been many hardware changes. The screen is now QVGA and is slightly larger than that of the C500. The device measures a mere 10.5cm in height, 4.8cm in width and 2.0cm in depth. This is nearly identical to the C500.
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John Howard writes: "So hands up everyone who's built their own MCE machine - particularly those who have MSDN, for example, and like to "test" :) And... for those MCE machines, keep your hands up if you've bought one of those multi-function media devices which fits into a floppy-drive-sized bay (I can't think of the name) which allow you to plug in SD/CF cards etc. And... Still keep your hands up if the devices show up in explorer as boring drives rather than the image below. Obviously, this isn't specific to MCE machines, so I'm sure lots of you have those reader things in XP machines too."
"Well, if you're in that position, here's how many of the OEM builders change the icons - it's a simple tweak in the registry.
You basically need to change information under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons\
, replacing with E, F, G, H etc.
The subkeys are DefaultIcon and DefaultLabel, both REG_SZ." (more)
The purpose of this blog post series is to serve as a guide to troubleshooting public folder replication problems. It will not tell you exactly how to fix every possible replication problem. However, it will show you how to isolate every possible replication problem so that you focus your troubleshooting on the point of failure. Put another way, this post is intended to take you from a problem description like “The content on my old server isn’t replicating to my new server” to a much narrower problem description like “My old server isn’t responding to the status requests from my new server, therefore the new server doesn’t know it’s missing data and isn’t trying to backfill. This means the problem is actually with the old server.” This post will also describe how to identify a few of the most common replication problems. Before I get into the details of troubleshooting, I want to give an overview of my general approach to these issues. (more)
We've just announced open federation for the Google Talk service. What does that mean, you might be wondering. No, it has nothing to do with Star Trek. "Open federation" is technical jargon for when people on different services can talk to each other. For example, email is a federated system. You might have a .edu address and I have a Gmail address, but you and I can still exchange email. The same for the phone: there's nothing that prevents Cingular users from talking to Sprint users.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with many IM and Internet voice calling services today. You can only talk to people on the particular service you have an account on (so you need an account on every service to talk to everybody, which is pretty cumbersome). With open federation, you get to choose your service provider and you can talk to people on any other federated service (and vice versa). (more)
Microsoft's forthcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 7 browser will have a thorough flush feature that clears its history and all associated files stored after a Web site is accessed. In IE 6, a user has to spend lots of time trying to expunge the information stored after a Web site has been visited, wrote Uche Enuha, a program manager on the IE user experience team, on the company's browser blog on Thursday.
The new "delete browsing history" feature under the "tools" menu will be able to wipe out five major data categories, including temporary Internet files, cookies, history, form data, and passwords, Enuha wrote. A user can delete all of those at once or can individually choose which ones to wipe through the "delete browsing history" panel, Enuha wrote.
Windows Vienna is the new codename for Windows Blackcomb the successor to Windows Vista.
Not much is known about Blackcomb officially and Microsoft is not ready to talk about it yet. However, Microsoft's blogging guru, Robert Scoble confirmed in a thread reply to a channel 9 video, "since this video was shot the codename for Blackcomb has indeed changed to Vienna. I haven't gotten the story on this yet, though."
While Windows Vista is intended to be a technologies-based release, with some UI changes (in the form of the Aero set of technologies and guidelines), Vienna is targeted directly at revolutionizing the way we interact with our home and office PCs.(continue at source)
A year after first disclosing its internal “Project Elixir,” Microsoft has begun releasing sample code and documentation so that developers can use it as a pattern to design their own integrated front-end and back-end systems around Outlook 2003.
“Project Elixir uses Microsoft Office 2003 as the development platform and Microsoft Outlook as the familiar user interface to make data in its back-end systems more accessible to the company’s sales force,” a company spokesperson said.(continue at source)
Steven Bink reports that Windows XP SP3 will not be available this year but in 2007.
Last year in April, Ballmer said windows XP sp3 would ship before "Longhorn" comes out. Now it will be a year later: 2nd half or 2007!!
Steven also reports that strangely SP2 for Windows Server 2003 is scheduled for 2nd half of 2006. (continue at source)
The Windows Server 2003 R2 Administration Tools Pack provides server management tools that allow administrators to remotely manage computers running the Windows Server 2003 R2 family of operating systems.
These packages contain management consoles for Print Management, File Server Resource Manager, Distributed File System, and Identity Management for Unix. Additionally, the Print Management tool enables remote administration of computers running the Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. These management consoles are supplemental to the tools included in the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Tools Pack.
One thing to note is that you must first install the MMC 3.0 Administration Tools Pack before installing the Windows Server 2003 R2 tools.
Download the Windows Server 2003 R2 Administration Tools Pack x86 | x64
Advertisers pay top dollar to place products in popular television shows and movies.
Now, Microsoft is hoping to expand on the concept with a new technology that allows viewers to click on cars, clothing or other products that appear in online movies or TV shows. For example, viewers of "Sex and the City" could click on Carrie Bradshaw's designer shoes or Kamali sweaters as she walks down a New York street and immediately be transported to advertisements for those products.
"Until now, there is no way for the user to actually interact with these ads in the video," said Microsoft data-mining analyst Li Li, who was showing off the technology as part of the company's annual adCenter Demo Fest Thursday.(continue at source)
Nice tip from Robert Scoble:
One thing that is a pain is on many phones looking at a full Web page is painful. MSN has a neat little search feature that lets you look at a Web site reformatted specifically for viewing on a phone. Just go to MSN Mobile Search, put in the site’s URL that you want to visit, and click “mobile” next to the result.
Go to the MSN Mobile Search Page
MSExchange.org writes: "In this article we’ll take an in-depth look at the new Public Folder improvements included in Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). The biggest as well as most notable improvement in Exchange 2003 SP2 is without discussion the new Public Folder Settings Wizard, which was specifically made in order to make administration of Public Folders more efficient. The primary reason here was to eliminate the high number of support calls Microsoft Support Services received on Public Folder issues. The Public Folder Settings Wizard in Exchange 2003 SP2 replaces the old Propagate Settings with a new Manage Settings context menu command." (more)
How would you like it if the contacts you are talking to could hear the same music you are currently listening to? Well that’s what Leah from the Live Messenger development team wanted, so thanks to her idea, in an upcoming refresh build of Live Messenger we will have a new feature called “MUSIC MIX.”
It will allow both contacts who are messaging to listen to the same play list simultaneously. If you were to pause, skip, or change the track on the list the other contact will also receive the same change. Also for those of you using WLM, this feature will be available soon.
Anyone who's ever tried to browse the web on their cell phone knows that it isn't always the best user experience. That's why I'm excited to tell you about Google Mobile Personalized Home. We've designed a way for you to view the things that you really care about, from your Gmail inbox to news headlines, weather, stock quotes, and feeds (Atom or RSS). The interface is optimized for small screens, and we've arranged things so you don't have to click on a bunch of links to locate what you're after -– your personalized content appears on top, right where it should be.
Google Mobile Personalized Home
There are some shortcuts that you simply discover by accident! Like the dreaded CTRL+ENTER shortcut which many people unwittingly discover sends your email before you've finished typing it! I've blogged about a fix to that little problem here. But here's a shortcut that I only just discovered, completely by accident, while reading an email and fiddling with my mouse.
If you've got one of those mouses (I think that's the correct plural of computer mouse) with a roller wheel on it you can change the magnification factor while editing an email in its own pane. To do this, just hold down the CTRL key and roll your mouse wheel down (for zoom in) or up (for zoom out) while editing your email. I guess this only works if you use Word as your email editor and have the right mouse drivers installed. This little shortcut also works in lots of other applications. Try it here in your internet browser and see what happens!
By now many of you have heard that Symantec released a security advisory last Tuesday that reported its use of rootkit-like cloaking technology in its SystemWorks product. The Symantec use of rootkit-like cloaking raises the question of what exactly defines a “rootkit” and whether or not there is ever a justifiable reason to use cloaking. I’ll first describe Symantec’s cloaking and then I’ll move on to trying to answer these two questions.
SystemWorks includes a feature called Norton Protected Recycle Bin that serves as an extension of the standard Windows Recycle Bin, saving copies of deleted files that the standard Recycle Bin doesn’t capture such as those deleted by applications. The saved files store in a directory named NPROTECT that SystemWorks creates under the standard Windows Recycle Bin directory, RECYCLER, of each volume. Symantec was originally concerned that end-users might stumble across the directory, not realize its purpose, and inadvertently permanently delete the backups of their already deleted files. The cloaking therefore uses a file system filter driver to mask the presence the NPROTECT directories from Windows directory enumeration APIs. (more)
Performances are the greatest concerns CIO/CTO usually have approaching virtualization. You surely would compare a virtual machine performance against a physical server, but you could also be in need of exploring how different virtualization technologies perform.
The first aspect you should test is I/O performances: physical raw partitions, proprietary filesystems, remoted SANs systems, local virtual IDE or SCSI disk subsystem. All of these configurations should be tested and compared with each other and against physical machines I/O performances. Another second aspect you could test is network performances since virtual network adapters devices can handle traffic in different ways and be more or less efficient. (more)
A remote code execution security issue has been identified in the Graphics Rendering Engine that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it.
Windows Vista Beta 1: x86 | x64
Windows Vista December CTP: x86 | x64
Microsoft launched this week the beta of its Chinese search engine, offering desktop and Web page searches. The move comes at a time when Microsoft Research Asia is in ongoing discussions with Yahoo Research about enhancing their respective search capabilities to better compete with Google. Baidu.com, in which Google owns a 2.6 percent stake, is currently the largest Chinese search engine. Microsoft launched MSN China in May of last year, a joint venture between MSN and Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. (more)
Late this year, Microsoft announced a name change for Windows Antispyware - now called Windows Defender. Windows Defender will become available to users of Windows XP SP2 and will be built into the next version of Windows - Windows Vista. Users got their first peak at Windows Defender with the December CTP of Windows Vista, Build 5270.
Screenshot: Introducing Windows Defender
As you can see in the above screenshot, Windows Defender comes with a complete redone user interface. The user interface is very similar to Microsoft's Windows OneCare Live software with the blue gradients surrounding the white middle section used to disaply alerts and information regarding your PC's security. Its almost as if the two Windows applications were meant to be paired, although Microsoft has said OneCare won't be available on Windows Vista. (more)
Microsoft's new system for selling advertising within its search results will go live in June, the company announced Friday. MSN adCenter will compete with rival offerings from Google and Yahoo, as well as eventually become a one-stop-shop for advertising across any of Microsoft's online services.
Eventually, a user would be able to buy ad space on services like MSN Spaces or Office Live. The tools to make this happen are not yet complete, Microsoft says, but should be over the next year. The technology would alllow an advertiser to target their campaigns to specific demographics. These demographics would be culled in an anonymous way from Microsoft's Passport system, giving a company broader control over who sees their ads. (more)
Images of the much anticipated IE7 Beta 2 have recently surfaced, it is not yet known from where the screen shots originated from but these images are believed to be real. We believe that with these images breaking out into the wild suggests that we may be in for a treat quite soon. Microsoft also suggests that this is the latest build number here, which is also the same build number shown in the screens.
Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2: #1 | #2 | #3
As of today you can listen to the news brought to you by techlog.org. Scroll down a bit and look for the podcast button on the right side. The feed is provided by Feed2Podcast.
Happy podcasting !
Coming from Paul Thurrot:
During its first-ever appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2006, Internet search giant Google unveiled two initiatives, both of which are aimed, in part, to counter Microsoft, the company it considers a primary competitor. The first is called the Google Video Store: Users of this service will be able to buy and rent a wide range of video content online, including prime-time and classic TV shows from CBS, NBA games from this season and the past, Sony BMG music videos, and news and historical content from ITN. The second initiative, and the focus of this review, is Google Pack. Google describes Google Pack as a free collection of safe, useful software from Google and other companies that improves the user experience online and on the [Windows] desktop.
That description is vague and potentially inaccurate. Google Pack is indeed a collection of free software. Whether it's useful or improves the online experience is, I suppose, up to the individual. From what I can see, Google Pack is decidedly mixed. And if you're interested in installing this package, you're going to want to choose which applications you install quite carefully.(continue at source)
Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 R2 is a solid upgrade, bolstering the server operating system's already-strong file-serving capabilities and markedly improving its interoperability with Linux and Unix systems. An R2 upgrade will make sense at many Windows Server 2003 sites, but its new file replication capabilities will make it particularly valuable in branch office scenarios.
Read the review from eWeek Magazine to learn more about the new R2 features.(continue at source)
Microsoft issued two more critical patches as part of its regular Patch Tuesday security update, including a fix for a vulnerability when viewing embedded Web fonts and a flaw in the decoding of TNEF messages. The company included its WMF fix with the monthly security updates, although a patch for the issue has been available since January 5.
The first patch fixes a problem in how Windows displays embedded Web fonts. The flaw could enable malformed fonts to be used as a way to execute code on a remote system. The vulnerability could be exploited through either a malicious Web site or specially crafted e-mail message, Microsoft said. The flaw was first reported to Microsoft by security firm eEye Digital Security in March of this year, and affects all versions of the operating since Windows NT and Windows 98. According to an advisory discussing the vulnerability, the problem has been traced back to a heap overflow issue in T2EMBED.DLL. (more)
Jim Harrison has created a very cool script to do much better blocking of the WMF exploit in ISA server. The script is nice because it sets up a policy that actually parses the request body and blocks WMF files that are renamed to something else by using ISA's ability to look really deep into the payload. It also is helpful in that it can uninstall itself.
This script, while being much better than simply looking for extensions, is not foolproof. It will obviously not work with an HTTPS tunnel, unless the ISA server is proxying the HTTPS connection and terminating it at the ISA server. Nor would it work on an e-mail borne attack, such as where the offending file is attached to an e-mail. Those latter ones you need to block by blocking attachments in e-mail. Still, it does assist in blocking certain types of attacks and as I said before, all these things have to be accounted for in your risk management strategy.
Script to Block WMF Attacks via Microsoft ISA Server
"Since the introduction of FU, the rootkit world has moved away from implementing system hooks to hide their presence. Because of this change in offense, a new defense had to be developed. The new algorithms used by rootkit detectors, such as BlackLight, attempt to find what the rootkit is hiding instead of simply detecting the presence of the rootkit's hooks. This paper will discuss an algorithm that is used by both Blacklight and IceSword to detect hidden processes. This paper will also document current weaknesses in the rootkit detection field and introduce a more complete stealth technique implemented as a prototype in FUTo."
Rootkit technology (paper)
Windows "Monad" Shell is a new interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology in Windows that enables administrators to more efficiently and securely automate and control system management tasks on both desktops and servers. "Monad" Shell provides powerful task-based control (via built-in command line tools and utilities) and a powerful scripting language that enables comprehensive scripted control of the Windows operating system and applications.
The key features of Monad include: Simplified command-based navigation of the operating system (including drives, startup files, and registry), Command extensibility that allows administrators to quickly write scripts, customize commands, and author their own shell tools, Powerful object manipulation capabilities (objects can be directly manipulated or pipelined to other tools or databases), Direct control of system data (without the need to perform error-prone text parsing and object lookup), Powerful aliasing and output formatting capabilities and Support for existing scripts and command line tools.
Windows "Monad" Shell Beta 3
At MacWorld on Tuesday, Microsoft committed to supporting Office on the Mac for five years, as of November 2005. While the Mac Business Unit team was surprisingly forthcoming about some details of its future Mac Office plans (such as the provision of discs for both Power-PC- and Intel-based Macs), the team made barely a mention of Mac Office 12, the next version of Microsoft's Office suite for Apple aficionados. All we know is the next release is due out by 2007. Until the next Mac Office release hits, users will be able to run Office 2004 on Intel-based Macs using Apple's Rosetta technology.
Microsoft Press Statement
In early December of 2005, Microsoft had announced that they were to ship a code-complete version of Windows Vista internally by the end of 2005 to prepare for a CTP of the code-complete build to be issued to testers. However this never happened. Microsoft now plans to have an internal build of the code-complete Vista by early February. However, the next CTP, due out on February 17th, apparently predates the code-complete version; therefore, the February CTP might not in fact be the code-complete build. Currently, Microsoft is internally testing build 5293 of Vista, which means the February CTP build might be within the 5300 range.
In order to clean up Routing Engine’s Cache, we no longer have to recommend customers’ to shut down all their Exchange Servers simultaneously in the entire org. This was required to force concurrent destruction of Org object that lives inside reapi.dll, by forcing unload of reapi.dll from all machines in the organization at the same time. This was extremely painful for the customers, & other alternatives (e.g., un-registering xlsasink.dll were complex & resource intensive, & may not work in some situations). With this hotfix / tool release, we have a much easier solution now.
Microsoft has created a tool / hotfix which will fix stale routes problems ( [Routing groups not found in DS] or object_not_found_in_DS ) without requiring that all servers need to be down at the same time & then rebooted. To read more about this problem, please check this KB article. This blog post includes detailed documentation of REMonitor tool, its injection mode capabilities, and its usage. It is recommended that this tool should be run under the guidance and supervision of Support Services, especially under injection mode. However, because we have sent this tool to customers in the past, we wanted to provide documentation on it. (more)
Ending a two-year battle over the FAT file system, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has reversed a non-final ruling from October and upheld Microsoft's patents on the technology. Despite the prior setbacks, Microsoft had remained steadfast that it would be victorious all along.
In June of 2004, the USPTO agreed to review the patent after questions arose surrounding its validity. A group known as the Public Patent Foundation disputed Microsoft's claims to FAT in April 2004, saying it had become ubiquitous as a format and found in many devices. After an initial rejection of the patents in September 2004, the USPTO rejected two patents related to long file names in October 2005. At the time, Microsoft noted that the non-final rejections were based on issues with the inventor named on the patent application, not claims of prior art from PubPat. (more)
Coming from Josh's weblog on Windows Connected:
One of the big concerns of anyone considering moving to Windows Vista is “How many of my applications will work on Windows Vista?” We have spent a lot of time trying to answer that very question for our company so I will share with you some of the common problem areas we found for applications to help give you an idea of what applications might have problems for you.
Interesting Article (continue at source)
Coming from Eileen Brown:
The Exchange Activesync web administration tool was released a couple of weeks ago, and because I was running around like a mad thing on the Exchange Unplugged tour - I completely missed this appearing on the download site. With the advent of Exchange SP2 and the remote wipe functionality, you can remotely manage any lost or stolen mobile phones before it becomes a major issue for you. Here's what it does:
• View a list of all devices that are being used by any enterprise user
• Select/De-select devices to be remotely erased
• View the status of pending remote erase requests for each device
• View a transaction log that indicates which administrators have issued remote erase commands, in addition to the devices those commands pertained to.
The Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Web Administration Tool is designed for use With Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and compatible mobile devices.
Download the Active Sync Web Administration Tool
In a recent CRN article about Xen, Paula Rooney wrote:
It [Microsoft] announced plans this year to integrate a virtualization hypervisor directly into Release 2 of its Windows Longhorn Server operating system due in the 2009-2010 time frame.
While I don't remember of such an announcement, actual confirmed plans for Windows Hypervisor (or whatever is going to be called) is to release it immediately after codename Longhorn Server release, which should mean around 2008.
So if Ms. Rooney is right Microsoft virtualization roadmap should be as follow:
- 2006 - new Virtual Server (actually referred as vNext)
- 2007 - Longhorn Server
- 2008 - Windows Hypervisor (coming in a Service Pack format?)
- 2010 - Longhorn Server R2 (embedding Windows Hypervisor R2?)
Critics have taken aim at a study published by the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team that said more vulnerabilities were found in Linux/Unix than in Windows last year.
The report, Cyber Security Bulletin 2005, was released last week. It claimed that out of 5,198 reported flaws, 812 were found in Microsoft's Windows operating system, 2,328 were found in open-source Unix/Linux systems. The rest were declared to be multiple operating-system vulnerabilities.
The report has attracted criticism from some in the open-source community. Linux vendor Red Hat said the vulnerabilities had been wrongly tagged, and so could not be used to compare the relative security of Windows and Linux/Unix platforms.
"The study is confusing and misleading. When you look at the list, the vulnerabilities are miscategorised," Mark Cox, a consulting software engineer at Red Hat, said. "For example, Firefox is categorised as a Unix/Linux operating-system flaw, but it runs just as well on a Windows platform. Apache and PHP also run just as well on both platforms. There are methodological flaws in the statistics."(continue at source)
Google Inc. has announced Google Pack beta, a free collection of safe, useful software from Google and other companies that improves the user experience online and on the desktop. In just a few clicks, users can easily discover, install and maintain software to surf the web faster and safer, communicate better, and effectively manage information.
"We've heard from countless new computer owners that it can take days or weeks to install all the software they need to make their computer useful," said Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience at Google. "We developed Google Pack to give users a way to painlessly install all the essential software they need - pre-configured in a sensible way - in a matter of minutes. Better yet, users don't have to keep track of software updates or new programs - we maintain and update all the software for them."
Google Pack offers programs that meets Google's high software standards and are considered best in their class, including:
- Adobe Reader 7
- Ad-Aware SE Personal
- GalleryPlayer HD Images
- Google Desktop
- Google Earth
- Google Pack Screensaver
- Google Talk
- Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
- Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
- Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
- Picasa
- RealPlayer
- Trillian
Google Pack also includes Google Updater, a new tool that intelligently downloads, installs and maintains all the software in the Google Pack.
Download the Google Pack
Media coverage focuses on Microsoft Corp.'s competition with Google Inc., but Chairman Bill Gates sees IBM and not the Web search leader as its biggest challenger. Microsoft faces a host of competitors ranging from Sony Corp. to Apple Computer Inc. to Nokia in its quest to control the next generation of software, Gates said in an interview on Wednesday ahead of his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
"People tend to get over focused on one of our competitors. We've always seen that," said Gates, comparing the potential threat of Google's search capabilities to past competitors such as Internet browser Netscape and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java programing language. "I'm never going to change the press' view about what the cool company to write about is. That's Google number 1 and Apple number 2. Too bad for Nokia, Sony and all those others." (more)
Paul Thurrott writes: "This week, North America's largest trade show, 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), kicks off in Las Vegas with over 200,000 attendees. Yes, CES is a mess, and it's getting busier every year. And once again, I'll be there, covering the show live each day, Wednesday through Friday. I'm not sure whether to be excited or scared."
"Did I mention that CES is huge? It encompasses a space equal to more than 28 football fields with room for over 2500 exhibitors. Computer companies such as Intel and Microsoft have always had a big presence at CES. But this year's show will be notable because of the new presence of Internet giants such as Yahoo! and Google, both of which will present their services alongside the eclectic array of car stereo, home theatre, video game, and consumer electronics companies that have always plied their wares at CES." (more)
CES 2006 Photo Gallery
After enduring much criticism for deciding to wait until Patch Tuesday next week to issue a fix for the Windows Metafile exploit that's been making the rounds, Microsoft reversed itself and released the WMF patch on Thursday:
A remote code execution security issue has been identified in the Graphics Rendering Engine that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows XP Service Pack 1.
Security Update for Windows XP (KB912919)
Windows PE 2.0 is the core deployment foundation for Windows Vista. It is designed to make large-scale, customized deployments of the new Windows Vista operating system notably easier. When Windows Vista launches, Windows PE 2.0 will be available to all Windows Vista corporate customers. [Windows PE for Windows XP will remain exclusive to customers who have a Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) agreement.] Windows PE enables users to inject drivers, configure Windows Vista offline, provide recovery solutions as well as diagnose and troubleshoot system problems.
A pre-release version of Windows PE 2.0, built for Windows Vista, will be available for download and testing, in January 2006, for all corporate customers participating in the Windows Vista pre-release program.
Abstract
Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 2.0 provides powerful preparation and installation tools for the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. With Windows PE, you can start a subset of Windows Vista from a network or removable medium, which provides network and other resources necessary to install and troubleshoot Windows Vista. This document is an introduction to Windows PE, its capabilities, and its improvements over earlier pre-installation technologies. (more)
The Windows Vista homepage has been updated and looks fantastic!
Go check it out: Microsoft Windows Vista website
Quote from the website:We live in a digital world that is filled with more information, more things to do, and more ways to communicate with others.
Every day, millions of people around the globe rely on their Windows-based PCs to manage the increasing amounts of digital information in their lives. While the tools we use for managing this information are powerful and familiar, today's world requires more. You want your PC to adapt to you, so you can cut through all the clutter and focus on what's important to you.
Windows Vista brings clarity to your world, so you can more safely and easily accomplish everyday tasks and instantly find what you want on your PC. Explore entertainment, such as TV and music, on your Windows Vista-based PC like never before. And with Windows Vista, you’ll more conveniently stay connected to the people who are important to you, from home or while on the go.
Want to know more about Windows Media Player 11 and URGE (the new joint service from MTV and Microsoft)? Check out this excellent article Joli Ballew.
URGE might be the one service that draws me away from iTunes and Apple's Music Store. I can't wait to give it a try and see what happens.
Microsoft's updated Windows Vista website shows some new peaks at Windows Sidebar and Desktop Gadgets.
Windows Sidebar and Desktop Gadgets were also featured in Bill Gate's Keynote. As you can see from the above screenshot, the Windows Sidebar's UI has somewhat been updated. Demoed at CES was a few of the same Gadgets we've seen before such as the RSS Feed Gadget, Clock Gadget, and Photo Gadget.
Essentially, Desktop Gadgets are mini-applications that can be pinned to your desktop. Windows Sidebar serves as a place to "pin" you Gadgets. You can choose to use Windows Sidebar or just have your Gadgets free floating around your desktop. Expect to see a wide variety of Desktop Gadgets such as one for Windows Mail and Windows Media Player.
Just before the end of 2005, a simple trick was discovered that turns your Hotmail into the Windows Live Mail Beta without the need of an official invitation. The "exploit", which allows almost everyone to actually test and use Microsoft's nextgen e-mail service, has been posted all over the web and has still not been fixed yet. This leaves us with the impression that the company doesn't really mind tens of thousands of extra Beta users. On the other hand, Microsoft could decide to push a few buttons anytime soon and transform all these accounts back to their original state.
At this time we do not recommend applying this trick, but here it is anyway for the daredevils:
1) Log into your Hotmail account.
2) Make sure your country (Options > Personal > Profile) is set to United States and your language (Options > Personal > Language) to English. Save the settings.
3) Right-click here and copy the link.
4) Go to the browser window where you're logged into Hotmail and paste the link in the address bar. Hit enter and go to the URL.
5) Accept the agreement by clicking Join Mail Beta!.
In most cases, you'll be redirected to the brand new Windows Mail Beta interface (or try logging in at mail.live.com). Do not complain if you aren't. It worked for two out of the three accounts I "upgraded". And for your information, I did not take the risk to apply this to my main Hotmail account.
On the MSDN website you can find loads of Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) scripting samples.
You can find the samples in the %programfiles%\gpmc\scripts directory after you install the GPMC. The scripts can be executed from the command line. The scripts echo output to the command window and should be executed using the CScript.exe application.
Visit the GPMC Scripting Samples page on MSDN
Bill Gates highlighted Windows Vista as well as gives a vision on how personal computing technology will go in the future.
During his demo, Mr. Gates was able to integrate his information and data seamlessly across a cell phone, tablet PC, and his desktop PC that was connected to a 40 inch monitor that divided the display into 3 work areas.
During the upcoming announcements, Microsoft showed up the new Windows Media Player which is a lot cleaner than previous versions. The next Windows Vista explorer provides a host of useful features for modifying data such as being able to crop and do basic editing on images without having to load a graphics editing package.
Internet Explorer 7 was shown off with its Firefox-like tabs but with some very interesting twists.
Much of the push on Windows Vista so far has highlighted a cleaner, faster, more polished look combined with a heavily revamped plumbing underneath. GDI and the myriad of vulnerable networking APIs are gone and replaced with a new architecture.
Those who were worried that Vista was just Windows XP with a new look have nothing to fear, it's a very definite change for better.
The most interesting bit in Bill Gates' Consumer Electronics Show keynote (from a pure news perspective) were some of the hints dropped about forthcoming Windows Live services.
Gates and his cohorts touted new phones from Philips and Uniden that will be able to be used to call buddies on Windows Live Messenger via VOIP. And they showed off new Live.com TV gadgets for managing entertainment on Media Center PCs and Microsoft IPTV set top boxes.
There also is a Windows LiveTV Recommendations service in the works, that will allow customers to rate shows, improving their TV personalization experience over time. No word on availability on the new Media-Center-related services.
Microsoft will stay at the top of the growing corporate e-mail market, thanks partly to its software's new wireless push capabilities, according to a new report from The Radicati Group. The study found that Exchange, Microsoft's e-mail platform, currently has 23 million more seats than Lotus Domino, IBM's e-mail platform. The addition to Exchange of push wireless e-mail, which is part of the Service Pack 2 upgrade, should keep driving users to Microsoft in the future, Radicati predicted.
Spam will continue to be a problem regardless of which platform enterprises use. In 2005, spam traffic totaled 91 billion messages per day, the report found. By 2009, spam is expected to reach 228 billion messages per day, Radicati said. (more)
Microsoft Corp. and Nissan North America Inc. have jointly developed a concept car that's equipped with an Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system. The URGE car enables people, while parked, to play the game "Project Gotham Racing 3" using the vehicle's steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal. The game, developed by Bizarre Creations Ltd., is shown on a flip-down 7-inch LCD screen.
The URGE is scheduled to make its debut Jan. 9 at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. A survey of 2,000 teens and young adults found that a majority listed technology and gaming as among the "most important attributes in their first car," Bruce Campbell, vice president of design for Nissan, said in a joint statement. (more)
Microsoft has admitted to removing the blog of an outspoken Chinese journalist from its MSN Spaces site, citing its policy of adhering to local laws. The blog, written by Zhao Jing, also known as Michael Anti, was removed from MSN servers on Dec. 31, according to investigative journalist and former CNN reporter Rebecca Mackinnon. She claimed that the blog was actively removed by MSN staff rather than being blocked by Chinese authorities.
A Microsoft representative told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that it blocked Anti's MSN Space blog to help ensure that the service complied with local laws in China. "MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms and industry practices. Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users. Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements," the representative said. (more)
Many corporate networks are just like this today—instead of relying only on a firewall at the perimeter (outside wall) of the network, there are firewalls installed on individual clients and servers (rooms) also to act as another layer of defense against attack. And on networks that run Windows XP on the clients and Windows Server 2003 on the servers, there’s a ready candidate for which host-based firewall to use: Windows Firewall. After all, it’s free!
Unfortunately having firewalls on clients and servers means extra management work as well, but Group Policy can handle that as far as Windows Firewall is concerned (another great reason for deploying Windows Firewall on hosts instead of third-party firewalls from other vendors). Still, there are times when you want to check or modify the configuration of Windows Firewall on some hosts because of problems of some sort, and the command-line tool Netsh.exe is just the thing to do this with.(continue at source)
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team released its year-end summary of computer vulnerabilities. While Windows is regarded as the most insecure operating system, the US-CERT found four times as many vulnerabilities specifically related to Unix and Linux. Of 5,198 reported flaws, 812 were for the Windows, 2,328 for Unix and Linux, and 2,058 more affected more than one operating system.
Notably missing from the list of Windows vulnerabilities is the recently discovered Windows Metafile issue. No vulnerabilities were listed for Apple's Mac OS X, however several had been disclosed during the year. Also, since OS X is based on Unix, it is vulnerable to some of the flaws associated with its core operating system.
We’re pleased to announce the creation of the ISA Server product team blog. Although this blog will focus on technical articles and discussions regarding ISA Server topics, we’re interested in discussing just about anything related to ISA Server in the blog.
Product team members (developers, testers, writers, and program managers) will post tips and hints, tricks that we learn as we develop, test, use, and maintain the product. Our goal is to post periodically on topics dealing with areas of ISA Server that may not be covered in other areas (too small a niche for a book or white paper, too much information for a Knowledge Base article). (more)
ISA Server Product Team Blog
Mark Russinovich writes: "Since the release of the first antivirus products many people have believed in a conspiracy theory where antivirus companies generate their own market by paying virus writers to develop and release viruses. I don’t subscribe to that theory and trust the major security vendors, but recent trends show that there’s a fuzzy line between second-tier antispyware vendors and the malware they clean."
"The most innocuous of malware-like antimalware behaviors is to advertise with web site banners and popups that mislead average users into thinking that they have a malware problem. Most of the advertisements look like Windows error dialogs complete with Yes and No buttons, and although the word “advertisement” sometimes appears on the dialog background, the notice is usually small, faded and far from the area where users focus their attention. Even more unlike Windows dialogs, however, is the fact that clicking anywhere on the image, even the part that looks like a No button, results in the browser following the underlying link to the target page." (more)
Google will unveil its own low-price personal computer or other device that connects to the Internet. Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap, perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars. Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called "Google Cubes", a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets.
Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, will give a keynote address Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Analysts suspect that Page will use the opportunity either to show off a Google computing device or announce a partnership with a big retailer to sell such a machine. (more)
Microsoft Corp. is working hard to make sure the latest version of its e-mail, calendaring and messaging server, Exchange 12, appeals to both enterprise IT administrators and end users. The first beta of the product, released earlier this month, offers enhanced administrative controls as well as a unified messaging feature that will deliver fax, voice mail, e-mail and speech recognition.
Due for release in late 2006 or early 2007, Exchange 12 follows Microsoft's push to make its products more componentized and role-based. As such, it will be based on five server roles, including unified messaging, edge transport and client access, according to Jeff Ressler, director of product planning for Exchange, in Redmond, Wash. The modularization of Exchange 12 will simplify installation for IT administrators by allowing them to choose which of these roles to install on which server. (more)
Coming from Longhornblogs:
If you're testing 5270's Media Center functionality, you're now out of luck. The newsgroups are abuzz with testers angry over the fact that the MCE expired on Jan 1, 2006. Just 30 days to test MCE? We're waiting for an official response from Microsoft, because Monday was a holiday. We'll see what happens this week, but with CES2006 just hours away, you can bet this one's gonna get talked about. Remember the screenshot debacle of WinHEC '05? Why do these things always get times aroud trade shows?
Microsoft now believes that the much focused next version of Exchange, should be ready by 2006-2007 time frame. This decision came after Microsoft discarded the plan to come up with the minor version of Exchange Server that was expected this year (2005). Well, the good news is Exchange 12 will include 64 bit support, and the bad news is not the 32 bit.
The highlights from Exchange 12 are 64 bit support, database improvements & e-email/voice/fax integration according to the Microsoft officials. Exchange 12 will continue to rely on the Jet Database store which is similar to the current Exchange 2003. Microsoft had recently dropped the plan to integrate SQL database with Exchange 12, though the plan is to unifying the SQL Server and Exchange Server stores over time. In short, Microsoft is giving you as many challenges as it's solving with Exchange 12 version.(continue at source, found via the weblog of Eileen Brown)
On behalf of the Techlog crew, we would like to wish you a happy new year and all the best of luck in 2006! Techlog will continue to provide news and updates on Microsoft, their products and their technologies. Stay tuned this year to see articles about: Windows Vista, Exchange 12, ISA Server 2006, next version of MOM (v3) and service packs for current products like Windows Server 2003 and ISA Server 2004. In 2006, Techlog will also begin with posting blogcasts about Microsoft and their solutions. Thank you for visiting our site and we hope to see much of you in this new year!
Kind regards, Techlog crew.
