TechNet Flash - Volume 10, Issue 8: April 16, 2008

Note from the Editor

Greetings New TechNet Flash Subscriber,

The Microsoft Trustworthy Computing initiative now extends to security and privacy on the Internet. At the RSA Conference last week, we unveiled a vision for an industry call-to-action called End to End Trust. To learn more about this vision, read the white paper ”Establishing End to End Trust”, by Scott Charney, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Trustworthy Computing. You can also join Microsoft's End to End Trust forum and let your voice be heard.

With last week’s public beta release of Microsoft Forefront code name “Stirling,” you can now begin evaluating the next-generation integrated security system. Download the beta and you will automatically get access to valuable beta resources throughout the evaluation experience.

Speaking of security, the Windows Vista One Year Vulnerability Report analyzes the vulnerability disclosures and security updates for the first year of Windows Vista in the context of its predecessor, Windows XP, along with other workstation operating systems, including Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Apple products. Also check out the side-by-side comparison chart of first-year vulnerabilities for Windows Vista and other operating system products.

New from Sysinternals
The Sysinternals team has updated its Process Monitor utility, an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, registry and process/thread activity. The Process Monitor 1.30 update adds support for importing and exporting filters, records system information in log files, presents more information about specific operations, includes translation of additional operation error codes, and tracks CPU and memory activity that it displays in a revamped process summary. Also check out Mark’s Blog: The Case of the System Process CPU Spikes, where Mark Russinovich shows how he used Process Monitor to track down a device driver causing CPU spikes.

Digital Home Makeover Contest
Are you collecting digital media and looking for a way to pull it all together in your home? Make a video telling us about your digital lifestyle and why you need to "Get Connected." The winner gets a complete digital home makeover. The Microsoft Digital Home Makeover will include a new Media Center PC, Extenders for Windows Media Center, and the other accessories.

Thanks for reading,

Mitch Irsfeld
Editor, TechNet Flash

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/cc307899.aspx


Update Your Selected Topics

Ensure that the content most relevant to you is presented in this section.

TechNet Magazine: Deploying Windows XP with the WAIK

The Windows Automated Installation Kit was designed primarily for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. But did you know that it can also help you deploy Windows XP and Windows Server 2003? Here's what you need to know to get started.

Five Ways to Speed Up Your PC

This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.

TechNet Magazine: Where Is My PII?

Before you can effectively protect your Personally Identifiable Information, you must know where it's stored on your PC. Here's a look at how to write scripts that will locate personal data stored on your computer. You just might be surprised at what these scripts uncover.

Webcast: What's New with ISA and IAG and a Road Map for the Future of Edge Security (Level 300)

April 30, 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Join us for this webcast, in which we walk through new features of Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) 2006 Supportability Pack and Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 2007 Service Pack 1. We also talk about support provided by the Windows Vista operating system, pre-authentication with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), smart-card only authentication with Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD), and other performance improvements.

Windows Server Virtualization 10-Minute Tour

In this video, Keith Combs discusses a general overview of Windows Server 2008 Virtualization including how you create and manage virtual machines.

Webcast: Overview of the Next Version of System Center Virtual Machine Manager Beta (Level 200)

April 25, 8:00 AM Pacific Time
In this webcast, we cover management of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 clusters, and VMware ESX Server. We give a technical overview of the new features in Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager and provide a live demonstration of the product. Do not miss this chance to get a sneak peek at the new Microsoft virtualization management offering.

TechNet Magazine: Web Capacity Analysis Tool

Web logs and traffic analysis can give you a good idea of the kind of traffic you can expect over time. But how can you determine what your infrastructure can handle? The free Web Capacity Analysis Tool can help you to see how your systems will perform under stress.

Windows Mobile Series Webcast: Messaging and Collaboration for Small and Mid-Sized Companies (Level 100)

April 17, 11:30 AM Pacific Time
In this session, we address how Windows Mobile devices make it possible for mobile employees to access their Microsoft Office Outlook e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. See how, with the integration with Microsoft Exchange Server (hosted or on-premise) or Microsoft Small Business Server, you can open and edit Microsoft Office Mobile documents and access files via Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Windows Mobile Series Webcast: Get the Facts on Comparing Windows Mobile and Blackberry (Level 300)

April 18, 11:30 AM Pacific Time
Attend this session to hear a feature- and scenario-level discussion of two different mobile communications solutions: one using Windows Mobile with Microsoft Exchange Server, Direct Push, and Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager, and the other using a BlackBerry Enterprise Server infrastructure with BlackBerry Connect.

Webcast: Speech Recognition and Grammar Generation in Unified Messaging for Exchange Server 2007 (Level 300)

April 18, 1:00 PM Pacific Time
In this discussion, we talk about the speech recognition feature of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, how grammar files are generated, and how the speech engine uses grammar files for speech recognition. We also briefly discuss regular expressions that are used to customize grammar files.

Deploy Proofing Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System

Proofing Tools enable users to edit documents in more than 50 languages and, for some languages, include spelling and grammar checkers, thesauruses, and hyphenators.

Download Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express

Search doesn’t have to be complicated. Deliver search solutions to your organization quickly and easily for free with Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express.

Free SQL Server 2008 E-Learning

With this online collection of learning resources, IT professionals and developers can learn about the new features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Integrating Office Outlook 2007 and PeopleSoft Using Visual Studio Tools for Office (3.0)

Learn to use the 2007 Microsoft Office System to extend the Office client and integrate PeopleSoft business data into the context of an information worker’s everyday experience.

Webcast: How Microsoft IT Does Secure Application Development

May 29, 11:00 AM Pacific Time
In this webcast, Microsoft IT’s Application Consulting and Engineering team discusses the state of the industry, application security challenges, and how application security fits into the development life cycle for IT.

BDPA - New York (BDPA-NY)

Join BDPA-NY on April 17 for its monthly meeting.

Puget Sound Small Business Server User Group (PSSBS)

Join PSSBS on April 17 for its monthly meeting.

West Sound Technology Professionals Association (WSTPA)

Join WSTPA on April 17 for its monthly meeting.

ISSA - Sacramento Valley Chapter (ISSA-SVC)

Join ISSA-SVC on April 17 for its monthly meeting.

North Texas PC Users Group, Inc. - IT Professionals (NTPCUG)

Join NTPCUG on April 19 for its monthly meeting.

Central Florida Computer Society (CFCS)

Join CFCS on April 20 for its monthly meeting.

Boulder .NET User Group (BUG)

Join BUG on April 22 for its monthly meeting.

Enterprise Developers Guild (DevGuild)

Join DevGuild on April 22 for its monthly meeting.

Wisconsin SharePoint User Group (WSUG)

Join WSUG on April 22 for its monthly meeting.

HPC Users Group

Register now for the High Performance Computing Summit on April 22 in McLean, VA.

BDPA - New Jersey (BDPA-NJ)

Join BDPA-NJ on April 23 for its monthly meeting.

Agile-Carolinas

Join Agile-Carolinas on April 24 for its monthly meeting.

Kansas City Regional Systems Management Users Group (KCRSMUG)

Join KCRSMUG on April 25 for its monthly meeting.

San Luis Obispo Society for Technical Communication (SLO STC)

Join SLO STC on April 28 for its monthly meeting.

Arizona Systems Management User Group (AZSMUG)

Join AZSMUG on April 28 for its monthly meeting.

NCSA Large Clusters Symposium

April 28 - May 1: Urbana-Champaign, IL

Waters Magazine Street Grid

April 28: New York, NY

BDPA - Richmond Chapter (BDPA-RMAC)

Join BDPA-RMAC on April 29 for its monthly meeting.

Quant Day with Microsoft, NAG, and Quanstar

April 30: Chicago, IL

DICE Alliance 2008

May 6 - 8: Mason, OH

Acord Loma Insurance Systems Forum

May 13 - 15: Las Vegas, NV

Platform Global Conference

May 19 - 21: Santa Clara, CA

Moldflow Users Group Conference

May 20 - 22: Detroit, MI

SOA Spring Health Meeting

May 28 - 30: Los Angeles, CA


Evaluation Center Updates

Evaluate Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 2

Download the new Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint with SP2 to protect Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 from malware and inappropriate content. New features include support for Windows Server 2008 and installable key word lists for automatically blocking documents containing profanity and discriminatory words in eleven languages. Download the trial today, along with our new evaluation guide.

Download Forefront Server Security Management Console Today

With Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console, administrators can easily manage Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint, and Microsoft Antigen. Download the 120-day trial software and receive valuable resources delivered at regular intervals throughout the software evaluation period.


Scripting for IT Pros

TechNet Magazine: Our Favorite Shell Games

Find out how what you can do with the Shell object. That might not sound exciting, but there’s some pretty cool stuff you can do with this object.

Hey Scripting Guy...

" How Can I Check to See if Two Lines of Text are in a File and, If They Aren’t, Append Those Lines to the File?

" How Can I Sort Items Retrieved From a Microsoft Outlook Folder?

" How Can Retrieve a List of All My Computer Accounts, Grouped By OU?

See more Scripting Tips

See previous comics in the TechNet Flash Web-based archive.


Support and Troubleshooting

How-to Articles

" How to obtain the latest service pack for the 2007 Office server products

" How to use the System Configuration utility to troubleshoot configuration errors in Windows Vista

Hotfixes

" FIX: You may experience slow performance when convoys are used in an orchestration in BizTalk Server 2004

" FIX: Error message when you try to delete the rows from the table in SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition or in SQL Server Compact 3.5: "Major Error 0x80004005, Minor Error 0. Attempted to divide by zero"

Knowledge Base Articles

" Description of Windows Server 2008 Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista Service Pack 1

" When you start a Windows Vista-based computer or a Windows Server 2008-based computer, the computer stops responding on a blank screen

See a selection of new Knowledge Base articles on the TechNet Web site. KB articles feature an Article Translations box in the right column. You can select a language from the drop-down list and read the article in the selected language.

Also available via RSS


System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1 (English only) Now Available for Volume License Customers

Volume license customers can now download the slipstreamed version of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1 (English only) via the Microsoft Volume License Services (MVLS) Web site. Recently released for download were the evaluation and upgrade versions of Ops Mgr 2007 SP1 for French, German, Japanese, and Russian.

New and Updated Management Packs (MPs) on System Center Pack Catalog

A number of new and updated System Center Operations Manager 2007 MPs were recently released to the System Center Pack Catalog for System Center Operations Manager 2007, including Windows System Resource Manager 2003, Exchange Server 2003, Windows 2003 Cluster (update), SQL Server 2000/2005 (update), and AD Server 2000/2003 (update).


Upcoming Webcasts

Application Compatibility Toolkit for Windows Vista (Level 300)

April 17, 8:00 AM Pacific Time
Learn how the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) can be used to migrate applications to the new operating system. We cover the phases of the application migration process and include a demonstration of the ACT tools and features. Beyond migrating to a new operating system, ACT also helps enterprises assess the impact of Windows updates.

How Microsoft IT Executes with Its IT Lifecycle

April 24, 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Find out how Microsoft IT Lifecycle drives consistency and simplicity with a single set of standardized processes based on the Microsoft Solutions Framework and Microsoft Operations Framework. Microsoft IT Lifecycle provides a structured approach that fosters cross-team collaboration and establishes a framework for standardized, repeatable process solutions and governance.

More Webcasts


Security

Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) - Detailed Process Guidance Now Available

As part of its commitment to a more secure and trustworthy computing ecosystem, Microsoft is making the details of the SDL process generally available online for the first time. IT policy makers and software development organizations can use this content to enhance and inform their own software security and privacy assurance programs.

Forefront Special Promotion

For a limited time, get up to 35 percent off the estimated retail price of Microsoft Forefront Client Security.

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for April 2008

Security Center


On Demand

TechNet Radio: A Look Inside SQL CAT

With the launch of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on the way, the SQL Customer Advisory Team (CAT) team has been working hard preparing lists of best practices, recommendations, technical white papers, and technical end-to-end case studies on customer implementations.

Microsoft IT Compliance: Policy, HBI, SOX, and PCI

Join this webcast to learn how Microsoft developed High Business Impact (HBI) information policy that complies with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards.

More On-Demand Sessions


Virtual Labs

Managing Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Network Bandwidth with Policy-Based Quality of Service

At the end of this lab, you will be able to adjust the priority of network traffic based on application name, IP address, port, and protocol; implement Quality of Service (QoS) controls using Group Policy; and monitor QoS controls to ensure that they are functioning. Note that this lab is built using beta software. Some steps in this lab document may not function as expected at all times.

Managing Windows Vista Using New Management Technologies

After completing this lab, you will be better able to manage event logs, subscriptions, and views; configure event subscriptions; and analyze system performance and reliability using reliability and performance reporting.

More Virtual Labs


What’s New with TechNet Plus Subscriptions

DVD Image of Windows Vista SP1

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available in all 36 Windows Vista languages via the stand-alone installer and Windows Update. For TechNet Plus subscribers, the DVD image of Windows Vista with SP1 is available for download in some languages now, and will be available in all 36 languages by the end of April 2008. Not a TechNet Plus subscriber? Subscribe here.


Received TechNet Flash from a Friend?

The TechNet Flash is full of pointers to in-depth technical information that we encourage subscribers to forward to friends and co-workers. If you've received this issue from someone via e-mail and would like to receive the freeTechNet Flash newsletter biweekly, all you have to do is register.