The Security Program Guide contains online and in-person events that address your needs, including:
Our team has created consulting service offerings to help you reduce security risks. Please visit our website or contact your local Microsoft office for more information.
The Solution Accelerator for LOB Application Consolidation and Migration provides comprehensive, lab-validated guidance that is intended to facilitate deployment of applications based on the Windows Server 2003 platform. This Solution Accelerator includes guidance for assessing and determining the most appropriate Windows Server 2003 technologies to be used for consolidating and migrating Windows NT 4.0-based applications in heterogeneous environments. It also includes in-depth planning and prescriptive implementation guidance for application consolidation using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and the Virtual Server Migration Toolkit (VSMT). Now available for download at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/techguide/msa/solacc/lobsa/default.mspx.
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 includes a tremendous number of new policy settings, but there is an important issue around the use of .adm files that are shipped with the Service Pack. The .adm files in Windows XP Service Pack 2 will not load correctly on older versions of GPEdit and require fixes to be applied.
Note that this issue “only” effects administrative workstations – it has no impact whatsoever on the application of Group Policy!
By default, when viewing or editing a GPO in GPEdit, the timestamps of the .adm files in the GPO (stored in Sysvol) are compared with those on the administrative workstation (see KB 816662 for details). This means that the mere act of viewing an existing GPO from an XP SP2 machine will result in the new .adm files being uploaded to Sysvol - eventually used by any other administrative workstation (whether XP SP2 or not). Without fixes, this will produce error messages in older versions of GPEdit. This scenario is described in full in the following KB article which has just gone online: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=842933.
The KB article does not include a fix for all Windows version that this applies to as of this writing. Please check back regularly if the fix for your version is not yet included.
The Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack (Beta) provides support for SMS to create and deploy Windows Operating System images. The OSD Feature Pack allows the deployment of Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003 Operating Systems to systems currently running NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003 via SMS advertisements or CD based installation with the following features:
- Support for unattended image deployment to Windows Desktops
- Support to create and distribute OS images using SMS 2003 advertisements or CD triggered installations
- Fully integrated with SMS 2003 SP1 leveraging SMS inventory based planning and targeting, advertisement status and site to site content replication
- Built in imaging using advanced Windows Imaging (WIM) format
- Advanced image installation task scheduler supporting scripts to perform installation custom actions
- Includes Microsoft Windows Pre-Execution (WINPE) version 1.5
- Leverages the new Microsoft Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) 2.6 to capture and restore user state
Available now at http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/dpfbeta.asp
The itSMF USA, in their commitment to assisting business and technical managers to achieve IT service management excellence, announced their 4th Annual itSMF USA Conference & Expo 2004. This event is specifically designed to educate management level attendees on how standardized processes and best practices can be systematically applied across the entire range of IT service support and service delivery functions. These include assisting end-users, root cause resolution, managing hardware and software infrastructure, managing changes (planned and unplanned), and effectively managing IT costs.
Microsoft Corporation is once again the premier sponsor of the itSMF USA Conference. We encourage our customers and partners to attend this event. Ron Markezich (MSFT CIO) will be a key note speaker at this event, he will share Microsoft adoption of IT service management principles and the benefits achieved.
Microsoft Corporation has secured a discount for our customers and partners. Our priority code is 55MICRO. For additional information visit the event site www.itsmfevent.com.
MSN Sandbox is the place to play with new MSN technologies, look at prototypes, and peek behind the scenes at some of our new ideas.
Currently includes:
- Lookout Email Search Tool
- MSN Search Technology Preview
- Newsbot
- MSN Toolbar
- And more...
Microsoft IT Showcase gives IT professionals a unique, insider view into Microsoft's process of developing, deploying, and managing its own enterprise solutions. Find technical case studies, white papers, presentations and more, direct from Microsoft IT that highlight key business applications, deployment strategies, early adopter experiences, best practices, and initiatives at Microsoft. By sharing what we've learned with our peers, we help IT professionals make decisions about how best to develop, deploy, and manage Microsoft IT solutions in their own environments.
The Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) (Release Candidate) includes the following enhancements targeted at helping to tighten security, increase reliability, and improve scalability:
- Inventory encryption and client authentication
- Client certificate provisioning
- Configurable communications port
- Watson support for server diagnostics
- Support for a greater number of distribution points to reduce maintenance cost
- More granular control of intersite traffic
- Improved software distribution in multi-site hierarchies
- Folders structures for queries, packages, advertisements, and reports
- Ability to bypass inventory of the Windows directory for each inventory rule
- Client-side performance enhancements for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)-based inventory
- Critical patch management
The Release Candidate 1 build is now available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/sp1beta.asp. To download the SMS 2003 SP1 (Release Candidate), you must first register to participate in the SMS 2003 SP1 open beta program. To register, complete the following steps:
- Go to the BetaPlace Web site.
- Sign in with a Microsoft .NET Passport account. If you don't have a Passport account, you can create one.
- In the Guest ID box, type SMSInvite. The Guest ID is case-sensitive.
- Click the SMS 2003 SP1, DM, OSD and SDK link and follow the instructions to register.
Microsoft® Systems Management Server 2003 Capacity Planner is a tool that helps consultants, SMS administrators, and IT professionals perform scenario analysis on their existing and proposed SMS 2003 hierarchy. The Capacity Planner Tool User Guide describes how to use the Capacity Planner tool. The Capacity Planner tool analyzes the input you provide and suggests SMS site topology configurations and corresponding hardware configurations for site servers and site systems.
Available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=009e0c30-bded-4b95-a8f9-06037de85c57&displaylang=en
Get ready for the release of MOM 2005 by getting some hands on experience with MOM 2005 labs online:
- Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
- Managing Active Directory with MOM 2005
- Managing Exchange with MOM 2005
- Monitoring SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
- Planning and Deploying Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
- Administration and Configuration of MOM 2005
- Building and extending MOM using MCF and the SDK Part 1
- Building and extending MOM using MCF and the SDK Part 2
https://microsoft.granitepillar.com/mom2005/
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