If you've worked with Active Directory long enough, most likely you have run into situations where Active Directory domain controllers refuse to be demoted when you use the Active Directory Installation Wizard (dcpromo.exe). Even though everything else on your network seems to be fine, the demotion process will fail no matter what you do.
According to Microsoft this can happen if "required dependency or operation fails," such as network connectivity, name resolution or authentication. If you've determined that these are not the culprit, then certain problems with Active Directory may be the cause, such as Active Directory unable to locate certain objects or problems with replication service.(
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The Standard User Analyzer helps developers and IT professionals diagnose issues that would prevent a program from running properly without administrator privileges. On Windows Vista, even administrators run most programs with standard user privileges by default, so it is important to ensure that your application does not have administrator access as a dependency.
Using the Standard User Analyzer to test your application can identify the following administrator dependencies and return the results in a graphical interface:
• File access
• Registry access
• INI files
• Token issues
• Security privileges
• Name space issues
• Other issues
This tool also complements the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0. ACT 5.0 will include a User Account Control agent that you can deploy to user desktops to identify applications that require administer privileges. The Standard User Analyzer is designed to be run on the developer or tester’s workstation to test and troubleshoot a specific application. Issues identified with the Standard User Analyzer can also be entered into you ACT 5.0 database so you can track the application compatibility across your environment.
Download the Microsoft Standard User Analyzer
Microsoft has released Beta 2 versions of its new driver tools which are aimed at helping developers quash bugs in hardware drivers. Prefast for Drivers and Static Driver Verifier were released alongside the Windows Vista Beta 2 and Longhorn Server Beta 2.
The driver analyzer tools will help hardware vendors find possible flaws and bugs that could lead to security holes and reliability issues. The Static Driver Verifier will be used to tackle kernel mode drivers which when improperly coded can lead to the infamous blue screen of death (BSOD). The Prefast for Drivers tool will cover a wide gamut of peripherals including graphics cards and the plethora of USB peripherals on the market.(
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Well, it's been 12 hours since Microsoft released the largest slew of beta bits it has ever churned out, and the dust is still settlling. But I've been running 5381 as my sole OS since it was released last week, and I definitely have some observations. The news of two weekends ago was that Microsoft was paying bonuses for finding bugs in Windows over the Mother's Day weekend. At that time, I observed it was a hail-mary effort to make Beta 2 as pain free to consumers as possible. Yeah, that's my "I snort the Kool-aid every morning at breakfast" way of saying that 5381 was a dog, and MS needed to fix it or get beaten up like an ex-CTU agent. While I can't confirm anything, 5384.4 was built on the 18th of May (last Thursday) at 2:55pm... 4 days after that weekend bug bash. From what I have seen so far, this build delivers that. It's not without problems, but compared to what it could have been... it's much better that I expected.
Performance
Performance in 5384 has been fantastic. One of my bigger beefs with 5381 was the way the desktop presented itself on bootup. The desktop would already be visible for several seconds before the "Windows Start" sound would appear. Now, the "Preparing your Desktop" screen stays visible until my desktop is almost completely loaded... which is a much better experience. Performance is improved everywhere. IE7 ditched that REALLY FREAKIN ANNOYING flicker that made me want to punch my screen...which was really nice for my anger management classes. Creates far less homework for me.
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Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft is now talking up a few new features for Vista, including Transient MultiMon which is intended to make Windows smarter about what to do when external displays are plugged in or unplugged from mobile devices. Personally, I think the time has come for features like this one. I run into this particular headache every day when plugging in my external monitor. Although I've got it down to two mouse clicks to make XP aware of the extra monitor, realistically it shouldn't even require that. Windows should know as soon as I plug the external monitor in, and should even remember based on the monitor's firmware which monitor it is, and what my preferred positioning and resolution are for it. That way, I could be portable between a number of places where extra monitors are available to me, and Windows would know what to do in every situation.
Vista feature: Transient MultiMon
Expect Longhorn Server Beta 3 in the first half of next year, but no Windows Server 'Centro' for mid-size businesses until 2008. And there might be a Windows Server Branch Office in the future, after all. Microsoft executives are sharing publicly more details on the company's Windows Server roadmap, especially Windows Longhorn Server and follow-on releases. Despite the fact that Microsoft has been pushing out regular test builds of Longhorn Server, "prior to the Beta 2 release, we hadn't really talked a lot about the functionality in Longhorn Server," acknowledged Jeff Price, a senior director on the Windows Server team, speaking at the company's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here on May 23.
Microsoft is releasing to testers Beta 2 builds of Longhorn Server, Windows Vista and Office 2007, starting this week. The Beta 2 build of Longhorn Server is build 5384, the same build number as Vista Beta 2. Microsoft is planning to release a Beta 3 build of Longhorn Server in the first half of 2007, company officials told WinHEC attendees. The final Longhorn Server product will ship in the latter half of 2007, company officials added. Until recently, a number of company watchers were expecting Microsoft to release Longhorn Server in the first part of 2007.
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The Hive writes: "Mr. Alllchin explained to us that if you are a user using a PC with 512MB of RAM and you plug a 512MB (or larger) USB Key and enable ReadyBoost - you will see a significant improvement in system performance. We actually asked him whether ReadyBoost really works as well as touted and he was adament on telling us it does. Of course, if you already have high amounts of RAM in your PC, its likely you won't see such a big performance increase while using ReadyBoost.
Now this evening we were told a very interesting concept behind Windows ReadyBoost. Apparently ReadyBoost wasn't just developed to add memory to your PC via your USB port.
Apparently ReadyBoost was designed to allow you to "barrow" memory from other PC's over a network as well. When Mr. Allchin told us of this concept, everyone flipped. Currently, he was mum on when and if we can expect the feature to arrive for Vista. But imagine going and barrowing some memory from unused PC's on your network? Or having a giant memory server serving memory when needed to boost performance when specific applications need it? This was great."
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The software giant has, for the first time, given PC owners detailed information on its minimum hardware requirements for Vista in an effort to help them prepare for the OS' January 2007 arrival. Microsoft, for the first time, is telling PC owners exactly what it'll take for them to run its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system. As expected, the software giant on May 18 unveiled its Windows Vista Get Ready Web site, along with a set of minimum PC hardware guidelines for Vista Capable PCs—which call for at least an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and a DirectX 9-capable graphics processor, but ask for more for those who seek to use all of Vista's features—and an Windows Upgrade Advisor application as part of a campaign to prepare people.
Vista, Microsoft's first major overhaul of Windows since 2001, promises numerous updates for performance, security and productivity. Given that it's long been expected to require more powerful PC hardware than Windows XP, consumers and business IT managers have been awaiting Microsoft's recommendations as they plan for upgrading to the OS, due in early 2007, or as they evaluate the purchase of new systems.
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In another move to make people ready as we're heading to the Windows Vista Beta 2 release at WinHEC, which begins tomorrow, some informations that are apparently the final Windows Vista prices, classified by product editions (SKUs) just leaked over the web. There you go:
Windows Vista Home Basic - 200€ or 255.55$ or 135.95£
Windows Vista Home Premium - 400€ or 511.10$ or 271.90£
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition - 500€ or 638.88$ or 339.87£
Windows Vista Business - 650€ or 830.54$ or 441.84£
Windows Vista Enterprise - 800€ or 1,022.20$ or 543.80£
I'd still like to remind you that Microsoft did not actually make them official, but the sources that told that are apparently good.
Microsoft is launching, on the eve of its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) a new program designed to attract new users in emerging markets. Microsoft's pay-as-you-go program, known as FlexGo, will allow users to pay for their computing time using prepaid cards, similar to cell-phone "Top Up" cards, and/or subscription services that are akin to cable rental arrangements. But will users in developing nations prefer to obtain more costly, but full-fledged PCs over time, as opposed to shelling out less for a less-capable laptop?
Cut-rate PC/hardware Windows XP Starter Edition bundles aren't Microsoft's only solution for bringing computing to the masses. Microsoft unveiled a new financing program designed to make PCs more affordable to emerging-market customers on May 22, the day before the kick-off of its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle. The new pay-as-you-go program and associated metering technology that enables it are known collectively as "FlexGo." In partnership with a handful of hardware, telecommunications, retail and financial services partners, Microsoft is launching this week full-fledged FlexGo trials in Brazil, and will add trials in India, China, Russia and Mexico within the month, Microsoft officials said.
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REDMOND, Wash. — May 21, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the industry’s first pay-as-you-go personal computing offerings powered by Microsoft® FlexGo™ technology, enabling more-flexible Microsoft Windows®-based PC purchasing options for customers in emerging markets. Customers can get a full featured Windows-enabled PC with low entry costs that they can access using prepaid cards or through a monthly subscription.
The pay-as-you-go business model makes PCs more accessible by dramatically reducing the entry cost and enabling customers to pay for their computer as they use it, through the purchase of prepaid cards. Market trials are starting first in emerging markets where inadequate access to consumer credit, unpredictable income and high entry costs prevent many consumers from purchasing a computer. The FlexGo technology supports Microsoft’s global commitment to help people realize their potential through the benefits of personal computers.
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The use of domain groups is essential for administration of resource access. Knowing which groups are available and the intent of the group is key to designing your group nesting strategy. Microsoft developed the groups within Active Directory such that the administration of all groups could be within Active Directory. However, with the migrations from Windows NT4, it has made it hard to implement the desired group strategy that Active Directory provides.
Knowing the capabilities of each group, as well as the limitations, you can now design a strategy that works best for you. Regardless, make sure that you don’t configure users and groups such that a security issue is created.(
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Microsoft is in talks to buy application virtualization software vendor Softricity of Boston.
"It's coming down to the final stretches," said one source close to Microsoft who is familiar with the discussions. "It's not a done deal yet but it's just last minute haggling kind of stuff."
That's not all. At its hardware conference for OEMs next week, Microsoft is expected to announce plans to accelerate the delivery of its homegrown virtualization hypervisor code-named "Viridian" and will formally debut plans for a virtualization management platform code-named Carmine. (
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Paul Thurrot has posted his review on the Windows Media Player 11 Beta which MS release a couple of days ago.
In this review, I'll be examining Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP, which is now available in a public beta version. I'll briefly look at MTV's URGE music service, by which Microsoft hopes to usurp iTunes' online music service dominance, and the iRiver clix, a wonderful portable MP3 that, yup, even makes the iPod look silly by comparison. However, I'll be reviewing these WMP 11 companions separately. Together, they present an interesting alternative to Apple's stranglehold on the market. A Microsoft renaissance in digital media? You never know.
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Virtualisation technology is the current darling of the software business, data centre managers and financial directors alike. Everyone likes its ease of deployment, maintenance, and usage -- but above all, they like the money it saves. The problem is though, how to quantify how much you've just saved.
Doing more with less has been the mantra of most businesses of any size ever since the Y2K debacle. Having to replace all those systems, sometimes from top to bottom simply because it was impossible to know whether or when a Y2K bug might strike, was hugely expensive. (
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Two days ago Google launched google notebook.
[Google Notebook] give[s] you an online “notebook” where you can organize all your research, add personal notes to it, and share it with others. Google Notebook surfs along quietly with you as you browse, letting you clip and annotate whatever text, images, and links that help answer your question, all without ever leaving the webpage you’re on.
Google notebook has similar functionality as
Clipmarks, another website contributing to the Web2.0 hype.
Visit Google Notebook
Citrix AIE works by redirecting registry keys, files, folders, and some system objects from common locations on the server to isolated locations. It works by installing and running the applications through an AIE filter application that redirects the objects as needed. However, the applications are still installed on the server. They still write the the registry and the file system. They still run with the rights as the logged on user.
Compare this to Softricity's application virtualization. With Softricity, the application doesn't touch the local file system or registry at all. Softricity can virtualize Windows services, execution rights, and a lot more stuff from this list.
Citrix released a
KB article explaining the limitations of it's Application Isolation Environment. But you can also read the extract on Brian Maddens website.
Microsoft wants PC owners to be ready for Vista.
To that end, the software giant will unveil May 18 a campaign designed to help people ensure their PCs can run the forthcoming operating system.
The effort, which comes ahead of the annual WinHec (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) that in 2006 kicks off in Seattle on May 22, will include the unveiling of a Get Ready Web site, which play host to an application that can assess PCs' readiness for the OS upgrade.
Visit the Windows Vista
Brien M. Posey from WindowsNetworking.com has written two excellent articles about tweaking the registry settings of Windows Update. Although Windows Update and WSUS are both generally pretty simple to configure, you can sometimes gain a higher level of control over them by making a few minor modifications to the Windows registry.
Registry Keys for Tweaking Windows Update (Part 1)
Registry Keys for Tweaking Windows Update (Part 2)
We are busy making final preparations for the 2007 Microsoft Office Beta-2 release. While the 2007 Microsoft Office Beta-2 release will be a public release, we plan to release this to you on BetaPlace (http://beta.microsoft.com) soon. In a departure from previous beta releases, the Beta-2 downloads will not be hosted on the BetaPlace download server but will located on the Microsoft Office Preview web site.
There will be no upgrade from 2007 Microsoft Office Beta 1TR to the Beta-2 build. It will be necessary to uninstall previous versions of 2007 Microsoft Office before installing 2007 Microsoft Office Beta-2. The server products will have no upgrade capability from the refreshed Beta-1 versions to the Beta-2 versions.
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Confused about the future of Windows Vista, and what it'll mean to you and your organization? Join the club. Microsoft has been touting the operating system for about five years, but there have been so many delays, miscommunications, and downright myths about it that it's hard to separate fact from fiction. (
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Exchange is the “killer app” for most organizations. Without e-mail, productivity slows and in some cases grinds to a halt. This is especially true for remote users whose only communications with the home office might be through email. Front-end servers are easily overloaded and with the growing popularity of remote access options such as OWA, OMA, RPC and EAS, load balancing front-end servers is starting to become more popular in an effort to increase performance and provide high availability.
Many organizations cluster their Exchange back-end servers in an effort to provide high availability. This article will cover two methods you can use to load balance your front-end servers in an effort to maximize performance and availability. (
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Task Manager is basically a troubleshooting tool that can provide quick and dirty information about what applications and processes are running on a machine, CPU utilization, memory usage, network utilization, and so on. Let's take a tour of how Task Manager has been enhanced on the Vista platform based on the February CTP build that's widely available to beta testers. Note that for purposes of the demos below we're logged on to Vista using an administrator level account not a standard user (user account protection may result in different prompts for standard users).
This article looks at new capabilities in Windows Vista for managing processes and scheduling tasks and how administrators can use these capabilities for maintaining and troubleshooting systems. (
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Bobbie Harder has recently published an excellent article about the WSUS Automatic Update Client. Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) clients can be configured to provide update installation and reboot behavior best suited to your environment and your business needs.
You can use Group Policy or Local Group Policy to modify Automatic Update configuration on your WSUS clients to determine what notification, download, install, and reboot behavior your WSUS managed clients will experience in updating from WSUS. Although there are policy settings for WSUS that control additional configuration, this article focuses on configuration options that define update notification, download, installation, and post-install reboot behavior.
For the remainder of the article, please see
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/sectip/st0506.mspx.
Modifying user attributes in AD can be time consuming when you have a large number of users to edit. You can use VBS to speed the process, and Windows 2003 domains have some ability to mass edit AD users. ADModify is a free tool that allows you to mass edit users in Windows 2000 and 2003 domains. (
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In a few short years, Google has turned from a simple and popular company into a complicated and controversial one. Mathematically confident drivers stuck in the usual jam on highway 101 through Silicon Valley were recently able to pass time contemplating a billboard that read: “{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com.” The number in question, 7427466391, is a sequence that starts at the 101st digit of e, a constant that is the base of the natural logarithm. The select few who worked this out and made it to the right website then encountered a “harder” riddle. Solving it led to another web page where they were finally invited to submit their curriculum vitae.
If a billboard can capture the soul of a company, this one did, because the anonymous advertiser was Google, whose main product is the world's most popular internet search engine. With its presumptuous humour, its mathematical obsessions, its easy, arrogant belief that it is the natural home for geniuses, the billboard spoke of a company that thinks it has taken its rightful place as the leader of the technology industry, a position occupied for the past 15 years by Microsoft.
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RESELLERS have received a missive from Microsoft lovingly gift-wrapped by Volish gnomes.
We don't know how much postage it cost Microsoft or which work force was used to scour the beautiful English countryside for the contents of the package. But after all these efforts, it's pretty clear that the message is in the medium.
Let's Beat The Cheats |
Box Contents |
The Rock |
No Place To Hide
Sysinternals released a new version of Process Explorer.
What's new in Version 10.1:
- Vista process cycle counters in process properties and as column
- Service permissions viewing and editing
- Workaround for .NET runtime handle leak
- Many new I/O columns and process properties
- System and per-process I/O bytes history graphs
- I/O history minigraph
- Memory commit history minigraph
- Optional I/O history tray icon
- Windows 64-bit for Itanium support
Microsoft is readying an addition to its Office Live services lineup that will target mobile devices. Code-named Project Bronx, the technology could be released to beta later this month, according to a post on the Neowin.net Web site. A Neowin poster described Bronx as "an effort within Mobile Information Worker group that aims to bring Microsoft Office experience to all mobile phones using SMS." The poster said that Microsoft was soliciting testers for the technology, which will be part of the company's Office Live initiative.
Office Live is the name of the family of service add-ons to Microsoft Office that the company began beta testing earlier this year. Unlike Microsoft's burgeoning group of Windows Live set of services, the Office Live services so far have been aimed at PC, rather than device makers. On the Windows Live side of the business, Microsoft has introduced some services, such as Windows Live Search Mobile, which are being designed for cell phone and PDA users.
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A member of AeroXperience's Forum has posted instructions on how to enable the new Windows Vista Boot Screen that supposedly replaces the empty black screen with the gray status bars we've seen for quite some time:
1. Boot into Vista
2. Once it's started, press "Win+R" to open the "Run" dialog, and type in "msconfig".
3. Once it's opened, swith to "Boot" and make a tick to "No GUI Boot".
4. Click on "Apply" and "OK" and reboot your PC.
If you have done anything right you should see Vista's new Bootscreen:
(screenshot)
Windows Vista Beta 2 is fast approaching. If the latest "Beta 2 Preview" is any indication (and by definition, it probably is) then there are some changes coming from previous builds. Most changes are in preparation for beta being more broadly available, but there will still be changes between Beta 2 and RTM.
When you install 5381.1 and later on a machine that has a WDDM-capable graphics card, you'll notice that Glass won't be on by default, as in previous builds. It won't even turn on when you check the "Enable Transparent Windows" box in the "Personalize | Visual Appearance" dialog. I couldn't figure out how to fix it... until I did some digging. But it basically said that Windows Aero (formerly Aero Glass) will only be supported on copies of Windows Vista that have been validated by Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). Also, the WinSAT tool (the Performance Rating Tool) must verify a specific minimum performance level for the graphics card before Glass will be available.(
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Microsoft on Tuesday plans to release three patches for several of its software products, including at least two critical updates for known vulnerabilities, according to the company’s monthly security update.
Microsoft plans to release one critical patch for its Microsoft Exchange messaging server and two patches, at least one of which is critical, for Windows.
All the updates may require a restart and will be detectable using Microsoft’s Baseline Security Analyzer tool. The Windows patches also can be detected through Microsoft’s Enterprise Scanning Tool, the company said.
Microsoft releases security updates for its software products on the second Tuesday of every month, a day that has become known as "patch Tuesday" by security experts.
Also on Tuesday, Microsoft plans to release an updated version of its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center. However, the tool will now be distributed using Software Update Services, the company said.
Use Jetstress to verify the performance and stability of a disk subsystem prior to putting an Exchange server into production. Jetstress helps verify disk performance by simulating Exchange disk Input/Output (I/O) load. Specifically, Jetstress simulates the Exchange database and log file loads produced by a specific number of users. You use Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, and ESEUTIL in conjunction with Jetstress to verify that your disk subsystem meets or exceeds the performance criteria you establish. After a successful completion of the Jetstress Disk Performance and Stress Tests in a non-production environment, you will have ensured that your Exchange 2003 disk subsystem is adequately sized (in terms of performance criteria you establish) for the user count and user profiles you have established. It is highly recommended that the Jetstress user read through the tool documentation before using the tool.
Note Jetstress is only supported when running with Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 or newer versions of ESE.DLL. Also, due to this support limitation, Jetstress is only supported on Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, Advanced Server, Datacenter and newer Windows OS platforms (Windows NT 4.0 and older builds are not supported).
Download the MS Exchange Jetstress Tool
Even though Windows permissions have been around for a long time, I still run into seasoned network administrators that aren’t aware of the new changes that came with Windows 2000 so long ago. When Microsoft released Windows 2000, they released a new version of NTFS, which was versioned 5. The new NTFS permissions were essentially the same logical control as the older version that was available in Windows NT, however, there were some radical and essential changes that occurred to control how the permissions were inherited and configured for each file and folder.
Since NTFS permissions are available on every file, folder, Registry key, printer, and Active Directory object, it is important to understand the new methods and features that are available once you have Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows 2003 Server installed to control resources.(
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Imagine stopping at a gas station to fuel up your car, selecting Standard grade unleaded gasoline, and then filling up your gas tank. Imagine then that your car fails to start and that you discover that someone maliciously tampered with the gas pump to make it distribute diesel gasoline instead of unleaded.
Next, imagine that you get a phone call from someone claiming to be a security representative of your bank telling you there has been suspicious activity on your credit card. The bank representative then asks you to verify all of your personal information (including your mother’s maiden name and social security number) and your credit card number.
You later discover that there are indeed fraudulent, suspicious charges on your card, but that they took place after you provided an identify thief, the “security representative”, all of your personal data. (
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Coming from the UAC Blog:
Johnny AppCompat here, Product Manager for Windows Vista Application Compatibility. User Account Control in Windows Vista is a great improvement for IT Pros in implementing a true Standard User across their organization. However, with the implementation of UAC, you may also run across some Application Compatibility issues you need to address, so I thought we’d better give you a head’s up on what tools will be available, how you can get them ASAP, and how you can help us make them better.
First up for IT Pros is the Application Compatibility Toolkit version 5.0. This toolkit will be loaded with goodies! It will help you analyze your portfolio of Applications, Web Sites, and Computers, evaluate operating system deployments and the impact of operating system updates, centrally manage application compatibility evaluators (for Inventory, UAC, IE, etc.), help rationalize and prioritize applications, allow you to add and manage custom issues and solutions and deploy automated mitigations to known compatibility issues. (Yep, including those identified with the User Account Control evaluator). You’ll even be able to share your testing results with others through the Online Compatibility Exchange.(
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The list of serious unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser keeps getting longer and longer.
Less than a week after researcher Michal Zalewski went public with a new zero-day vulnerability that could be used in code execution attacks, the software maker has acknowledged yet another flaw affecting fully patched Windows systems.
The new IE flaw was discovered by Secunia researcher Andreas Sandblad during code analysis into the Zalewski warning. In fact, Secunia initially reported its findings to Microsoft as a "successful exploit" of that bug, but according to Microsoft's internal investigations, Secunia actually found a new problem. "This is potentially a new, privately reported, exploitable vulnerability," a Microsoft spokesperson told eWEEK.
Secunia has since updated its advisory with a note that its discovery is a "variant" of the bug reported by Zalewski. (continue at source)
OK, group policy is not new in Vista but there are some big changes you may be interested in! The control Group Policy gives over 2000 and XP clients has been much improved and you will have more control than ever over Vista.
The first thing you'll notice is that Vista has over 3,000 group policy settings. Compare that to the 1500 settings in XP SP2 and approximatley 1200 in Windows 2000 and the power of group policy over Vista becomes quite apparent. Up to 80 percent of these additional settings are security related further emphasising the security push Microsoft is making.(
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It is interesting how some of the best security features in Windows receive either no attention, or get criticized for the strangest reasons. Case in point: Windows Firewall is one of the best firewalls out there, and yet much of the talk about it are complaints that outbound filtering is disabled by default.
I believe there are a lot of incorrect assumptions and outright myths about outbound filtering, but more about those further down. Let's look at the positive side first.
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Microsoft Corp.'s long- awaited release of the upgrade to its flagship Windows operating system will likely be delayed again by at least three months, research group Gartner Inc. said on Tuesday.
The research note, released to clients on Monday, said the new Windows Vista operating system is too complex to be able to meet Microsoft's targeted November release for volume licence customers and January launch for retail consumers. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company disagreed with the Gartner report and it was still on track to meet its launch dates.
Vista is the first major overhaul of its operating system, which sits on 90 percent of the world's computers and accounts for nearly a third of Microsoft's total revenue, since Microsoft rolled out Windows XP nearly five years ago. Microsoft originally targeted a 2005 launch for the new Windows, then pushed the release out to 2006 before announcing in March that Vista would again be delayed to improve the product's quality. Gartner targets a Windows Vista release in the April-June quarter of 2007, nine to 12 months after Microsoft conducts a second major test, or "beta," release for Vista during the current quarter.
"Microsoft still wants to get it out as soon as possible, but slipping from January to March is nowhere near as bad as slipping from shipping before the holidays to after the holidays," a group of Gartner analysts wrote in the report.
Placing Windows user accounts in the Power Users security group is a common approach IT organizations take to get users into a least-privilege environment while avoiding the many pains of truly running as a limited user. The Power Users group is able to install software, manage power and time-zone settings, and install ActiveX controls, actions that limited Users are denied.
What many administrators fail to realize, however, is that this power comes at the price of true limited-user security. Many articles, including this Microsoft Knowledge Base article and this blog post by Microsoft security specialist Jesper Johansen, point out that a user that belongs to the Power Users group can easily elevate themselves to fully-privileged administrators, but I was unable to find a detailed description of the elevation mechanisms they refer to. I therefore decided to investigate.
AttachmateWRQ and NetIQ Corporation (Nasdaq: NTIQ) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which NetIQ will be acquired by AttachmateWRQ. Under terms of the agreement, AttachmateWRQ has agreed to pay $12.20 per share in cash to NetIQ shareholders. Based on the number of shares of NetIQ common stock and common stock options outstanding on April 27, 2006, the transaction is valued at approximately $495 million.
AttachmateWRQ, the result of the merging of Attachmate Corp. and WRQ, Inc. in 2005, is owned by an investment group led by Golden Gate Capital, Francisco Partners and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners. Upon completion of the acquisition, NetIQ will operate as an AttachmateWRQ business unit and will no longer be publicly traded.
This acquisition brings together two leading companies with complementary strategic visions and technology, and a shared commitment to customer satisfaction. Together, AttachmateWRQ and NetIQ comprise a $400 million company, serving over 40,000 customers in over 60 countries, with near complete market penetration of the Global 10,000. AttachmateWRQ, with NetIQ, is uniquely prepared to provide mission-critical enterprise software to enable customers to extend, manage and secure their IT infrastructures. (Continue at source)
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Step into the Exchange Server 2003 Virtual Lab for Free It's simple: no complex setup or installation is required to try out Exchange Server 2003 running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module.
You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks any time. As part of the TechNet Virtual Lab, you will have full access to Exchange Server 2003 through modules:Virtual Lab Express:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-Distribution (
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This copy of Microsoft Windows XP is not genuine - Want to bypass and remove this warning ?
Windows XP Pirates have again found workaround methods to bypass the new Microsoft Anti-Piracy effort - Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications that notifies you through annonying pop-up messages if your copy of Windows is not genuine.(
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On the website of Jon Galloway you can find a way of testing the latest Internet Explorer 7 without installing it. You need Windows XP SP2 for it to work.
Visit the website of Jon Galloway
Get the tools and information you need to prepare for Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new desktop operating system. Tune in and see how Windows Vista advancements in security and reliability, along with its operational efficiencies, give you and your users confidence in your organization's PCs.
During these free webcasts, we introduce you to key Windows Vista product features and explore deployment, security, management, and productivity. Live webcasts also include a question and answer session. View one webcast, view a few, or view them all – the information will help you prepare for Windows Vista.
Visit the Windows Vista Webcasts
Microsoft® Windows Vista™ (now in beta testing) includes many improvements for connecting to IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN networks.
These improvements include a new set of dialog boxes to more easily connect to or configure connections to wireless networks, new support for non-broadcasting wireless networks, and a new way to configure wireless connections at the command line using the Netsh.exe tool.(
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