Year: 2010

Looking for guidance specific to Windows 7 deployment? Check out what the industry’s leading experts have to say in this free Microsoft Press eBook with selected chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit on Deployment Platforms, Planning, Testing Application Compatibility, to name a few.  As an added bonus,  you’ll also get six new articles on Windows 7 from industry experts on migration, running Windows 7 in mixed environments, Certification and more.

Get it here

Don’t fall for phony phone tech support

Here’s another form of Internet fraud that combines a variety of other common scams—social engineering, fake security software, and phishing.

Cybercriminals have started calling people on the telephone, claiming to be from Microsoft, and offering to help solve their computer problems. Once cybercriminals have gained a victim’s trust, they can do one or more of the following:

• Trick people into installing malicious software on their computer.

• Take control of a victim’s computer remotely and adjust settings in order to leave the computer vulnerable.

• Request credit card information so that cybercriminals can bill for the phony services.

Microsoft will not make unsolicited phone calls to help you with your computer. If you receive a phone call like this, hang up.

If you think you might be a victim of fraud, you can report it. For more information, see What to do if you’ve responded to a phishing scam.

For more information about how to recognize a phishing scam, see Avoid scams that use the Microsoft name fraudulently.

Notice this is a reposted from this site

Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.6 RTM and Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) SP1 RC are now available with the release of the Managed Desktop Optimization Pack 2010

In Remote Desktop Services deployments, application conflicts can lead to silos of remote desktop session host servers. To avoid application conflicts, applications typically must undergo significant testing to determine which applications will collide and, therefore, must be separated and run on different session host silos—a time-consuming and costly process. Separating out multiple remote desktop session hosts to accommodate specific applications routinely results in servers being underutilized because each one is locked into a specific configuration, capable of serving only a limited set of non-conflicting applications. Often, 20 servers are required to support 1,000 users.
Microsoft Application Virtualization for Remote Desktop Services 4.6 helps consolidate remote desktop session host servers by offering the following features and benefits:

• Reduce app-to-app and multi-user application conflicts and hence the need for regression testing
• Accelerate application deployment by reducing the deployment risk
• Simplify profile management
• App-V for RDS 4.6 now supports 64-bit operating systems.

Download App-V 4.6

At MIX  it was announced how to build games and apps for the Windows phone, developers at the conference are being introduced to the Windows Phone 7 Series development tools and given a tour of the platform, which uses both XNA Game Studio and Silverlight.

Announce was  the availability of Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, which is specifically designed for building Windows Phone applications and is now available free in a single download at www.developer.windowsphone.com. Visual Studio 2010 Express includes an emulator that will allow developers to build and test their applications directly on their PCs in a virtualized Windows Phone 7 OS environment. That means developers won’t need the phone hardware to get started at building phone apps.

Dynamic Data Center

The Infrastructure Planning and Design team is working on a new guide: Dynamic Data Center.

Delivering dynamically scalable IT resources can provide dramatic benefits to nearly all aspects of your organization’s IT environment. The design process in the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for Dynamic Data Center allows your organization to strategically plan a Dynamic Data Center infrastructure that is designed for ease of manageability. Key benefits of the guide include:

· The infrastructure is designed using best practices to reduce the administrative burden of managing the Dynamic Data Center.

· A single set of requirements is tracked throughout the entire design process and then transferred to the appropriate supporting Infrastructure Planning and Design guides.

· The infrastructure design of the virtualization hardware and the management software includes determining the scaling and architectural limits of each component.

With this guide, you can design a Dynamic Data Center that will allow your organization to be responsive to changing market conditions by presenting new ways to develop, deliver, deploy, and manage applications and IT infrastructures.

Related Resources

Check out all the Infrastructure Planning and Design team has to offer! Visit the IPD page on TechNet, http://www.microsoft.com/ipd, for additional information, including our most recent guides.

Join the Beta

Get the beta by visiting the Connect Web site at https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=6556&SiteID=14.

IT pros with kids should consider volunteering their talents to schools, suggests one consultant who overhauled the IT lab at his son’s elementary school in Mississauga. Why Windows 7 was the answer for PCs that took 20 minutes to boot

Dad performs IT makeover at son’s school

When Mitch Garvis asked his son’s elementary school teacher to print a document and the teacher asked him to come back and pick it up the next day, he realized something was wrong with the school’s IT system.

“I asked, ’Can’t you just print it up now?’ He said, ‘Well, it takes about thirty minutes to log on and open the program and get it printed,” said Garvis.

An independent IT consultant based in Oakville, Ont., Garvis decided to tackle the issue and volunteered to overhaul the school’s computer labs and network.

The IT makeover involved 30 computers spanning administration, classrooms and the computer lab at Meadow Green Academy’s south campus.

Well done Mitch, Mitch is a good friend who is involved in the user community as a APCUG, Board of advisor, Past president of ITProToronto, and a Microsoft MVP.

See the full article here

Download Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/206383783/direct/01/ Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 helps you achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that simplify your administration, protect your communications, and delight your users by meeting their demands for greater business mobility. And when you download the latest software, you’re automatically registered to access valuable product resources assembled in one convenient location.

Evaluate Forefront Server Security Management Console http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/206383446/direct/01/            Forefront Server Security Management Console allows administrators to easily manage Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint and Microsoft Antigen, providing a web-based console to centralize configuration and operation, automate the download and distribution of signature and scan engine updates, and generate comprehensive reports. And when you download the 120-day trial software, you’re automatically registered to receive valuable resources delivered at strategic intervals throughout the software evaluation period.                                          

Download Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta                                                                                               

http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/206384120/direct/01/            Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 empowers your people to do their best work from more places – whether they’re using a PC, phone or web browser. It can maximize existing investments and help people accomplish more by bringing server.

Download Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Beta                                http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/206384022/direct/01/            Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Beta is the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Web that enables you to connect and empower people through an integrated set of rich features. Whether deployed on-premise or as a hosted service, SharePoint.

Download Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 RC           http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/206384218/direct/01/            Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 RC provides IT professionals in mid-sized organizations a unified physical and virtual IT management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment.

Evaluate System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2                                                                                                      http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/206383685/direct/01/            Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 provides a comprehensive, cross-platform management solution for the virtualized data center that helps enable centralized management of virtual IT infrastructure, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization of virtual IT infrastructure. And when you download the 180-day trial software, you’re automatically registered to receive valuable resources delivered at convenient intervals.

Download the Windows® 7 eBook
http://go.microsoft.com/linkid=9713986                                        Looking for guidance specific to Windows 7 deployment? Check out what the industry’s leading experts have to say in this free Microsoft Press eBook with selected chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit on Deployment Platforms, Planning, and Testing Application Compatibility.

Secunia Corporate Software Inspector (CSI) 4.0 BETA

– integrated with Microsoft WSUS for 3rd Party Patch Management

Using WSUS for automatic patching of 3rd party programs

Secunia is currently conducting public beta testing of the new patch management capabilities.

The goal with the Microsoft WSUS implementation has been to utilize the data collected by the Secunia CSI to automatically repackage 3rd party patches and updates. Currently we support fully automatic repackaging for more than 50% of the updates, more will be added as we get feedback from customers about their needs.

Patch Management

Secunia CSI now integrates with Microsoft WSUS, for easy deployment of 3rd party updates. Installing updates is simple and straightforward with the automatic repackaging feature and distribution approval via the CSI.
Patching of vulnerable software, in particular 3rd party software, which is not supported by Microsoft WSUS, has been a cumbersome and resource demanding process, causing many not to patch or only patch very few non-Microsoft programs.
With the seamless Microsoft WSUS and Secunia CSI integration, the patching process has been simplified and can literally be conducted with a few simple clicks:

• Inspect software on PCs
• Select insecure software to patch
• Approve automatic patch repackaging for Microsoft WSUS
• Approve distribution via Microsoft WSUS

Patch Management has never been easier and more straightforward than with the Microsoft WSUS and the Secunia CSI integration.
Existing patch management solutions require that customers use complicated tools for repackaging patches. However, due the information gathered by the Secunia Software Inspector technology, it is possible for the Secunia CSI to automatically repackage a majority of the patches.

Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6

The Infrastructure Planning and Design team has released an updated guide: Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6.

This IPD guide, updated for App-V 4.6, provides actionable guidance for planning your application virtualization infrastructure. With App-V, your organization can respond to the complex challenge of managing applications. This guide simplifies your App-V planning process; updates now include support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, including such features as BranchCache; support for 64-bit clients; and server-sizing data.

Strategically planning your infrastructure can help you avoid problems before they begin, allowing you to serve your customers more accurately and reliably, as well as saving you time and money.

Infrastructure Planning and Design series guides streamline the planning process by:

• Defining the technical decision flow through the planning process.
• Listing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options and considerations.

· Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.

You can download it  Here.

AD LDS is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory service that provides flexible support for directory-enabled applications, without the dependencies that are required for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). AD LDS provides much of the same functionality as AD DS, but it does not require the deployment of domains or domain controllers. In environments where AD DS exists, AD LDS can use AD DS for the authentication of Windows security principals. You can run multiple instances of AD LDS concurrently on a single computer, and have an independently managed schema for each AD LDS instance.

Installing AD LDS

1. Download AD LDS for Windows 7.
2. Run the downloaded AD LDS file to install the AD LDS binaries.
3. Refer to the following instructions for installing AD LDS instances:
   1. Create a new AD LDS instance: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=177373
   2. Create a replica AD LDS instance: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=177371
   3. Perform an unattended install of an AD LDS instance: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=177375

Get AD LDS  Here