Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Interested in security? Want to protect your data in the real world?

See how Windows addresses security as a whole system, one layer at a time. Explore methods of developing a secure baseline and how to harden your Windows Enterprise architectures and applications from pass-the-hash and other advanced attacks.

VIDEO: “Advanced Windows Defense”

• https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015/BRK2311?ocid=player 
• https://myignite.microsoft.com/#/videos/3cdc6b4e-b89f-e411-b87f-00155d5066d7

POWERPOINT: “Advanced Windows Defense”
http://video.ch9.ms/sessions/ignite/2015/decks/
BRK2311_Ozkaya.pptx

2016 represents a major release for Office, across PCs, Macs, mobile phones and tablets with new end user experiences for simple users and power users alike.

The Office 2016 release also includes more manageability, security and deployment options for IT and for Office 365 ProPlus deployments you can even choose how fast you decide to enable these new capabilities in your organization.

• VIDEO: Office 365 ProPlus – What’s new in 2016 and beyond
  https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/Australia-2015/PRD335
• POWERPOINT: Slide deck for Office 365 ProPlus – What’s new in 2016 and Beyond
  http://video.ch9.ms/sessions/ignite/australia/
  2015/Clean_Arena2_AlistairSpeirs_
  PRD335_151119_1530.pptx

Office 365 Fundamentals examines the building blocks of Office 365 and the evolving role of IT Professionals.

Microsoft Office 365 is a combination of the cloud services and the latest productivity applications. The course starts with examining the Office 365 architecture from the prospective of the IT Professional, then takes the student through deploying Office 365 and finishes with rolling out changes to applications and services.

The course has 6 modules:

• Introduction
  Office 365 delivers the capabilities that users demand while allowing IT to stay in control. However, this change requires IT Pros to adapt their traditional client-server skills for the cloud computing era. In this track, IT Pros will see how new features come to Office 365 first, learn about the new tools and processes to migrate on premises workloads to Office 365, and prepare for the new operational role of IT Pros.
• Office 365 for IT Pros
  This session introduces IT professionals to the core foundations of Office 365 that enable the economy of scale and completeness of capability. Get an inside look at how the Office 365 team advances the software, operational processes and team responsibilities that go towards delivering an enterprise class service. Finally, see the management tools and reporting capabilities that IT professionals can use to manage and control their Office 365 environment.
• Getting started with Office 365
  This session details Microsoft’s recommended deployment methodology for Office 365. Deploying a cloud service is unlike a traditional client-server deployment project and requires new skills and methodologies. With Office 365, IT departments can quickly get up and running with a pilot and move to production with the right set of capabilities. Learn about the deployment process, tools and actions used to simplify the start of your Office 365 experience.
• Deploying Office 365
  This session details the options and considerations when expanding a pilot Office 365 environment into a production deployment. Unlike on-premises implementations, IT professionals can scale out their Office 365 tenants with ease. However, with added scale, it is important to start to automate user provisioning, add a production domain and set up the desired workloads.
• Office 365 Service Communications
  This session focuses on the Office 365 Service Communications rhythm.  As an always up to date service, maintaining communication channels between IT professionals and the Office 365 team is critical. Learn how Office 365 service alterations, upgrades, planned maintenance, and service health are communicated and how to engage with Microsoft.
• Office 365 Change Management
  Office 365 is continuously evolving service. This session shows how Microsoft roles out improvements to Office 365 and how to manage changes to Office 365 services and applications in your environment.

To enroll in the course, visit the URL below:

• TRAINING: Office 365 Fundamentals
  https://mva.microsoft.com/en-us/training-courses/office-365-fundamentals-8288?l=7z2okgxy_4904984382

Every year, you hear the same tired reporting that “the PC is dying” going all the way back to Steve Jobs declaration of 2010 being the beginning of the “post-PC era”.  In fact, the illustrious Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, made the comment “Why would you buy a PC anymore?” in a reference to the iPad Pro, which despite taking a page from Microsoft’s own Surface playbook, by any measurement hasn’t exactly lit the shelves on fire.

In any case, on the topic of the “PC dying”, Michael Dell disagrees.  And frankly, he has data to back it up:

“The post-PC era has been great for the PC. When the post-PC era started there were about 180m PCs being sold a year and now it’s up to over 300m, so I like the post-PC era,” he said.

“For the last 11 quarters in a row, we’ve been gaining share in PCs. Last year we outgrew HP and Lenovo. It’s a business with an installed base of 1.8bn PCs, 600m of them are more than four years old, and as we create new beautiful, thin, powerful PCs that are better than the thing you bought five years ago, people will replace the old ones. And we are getting more and more share of that opportunity each quarter that goes by.”

…

Read more from his interview below:

• THE TELEGRAPH: Michael Dell: ‘The post-PC era has been great for the PC’
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/dell/11991738/Michael-Dell-The-post-PC-era-has-been-great-for-the-PC.html

Looking for any information about any element of Microsoft’s cloud?  You’ve come to the right place:

<excerpt from the Microsoft Trust Center announcement>

Today we’re pleased to announce that we have created a single Microsoft Trust Center at www.microsoft.com/trustcenter, which unifies the trust centers of our enterprise cloud services—Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Office 365.

…

The Microsoft Trust Center gives everyone a single view into the commitments that we put at the heart of our trusted cloud: security of operations, data protection and privacy, compliance with local requirements, and transparency in how we do business. Now, customers can view a single page documenting which of our services comply with such standards as ISO 27018 or HIPAA, or our data location policies across services.

It should be noted that no other cloud service provider has the depth & coverage of Microsoft in the areas of security, privacy, compliance & transparency for attestations, evaluations, & reporting. 

The site for all of this information is located at:

• SITE: Microsoft Trust Center
  http://www.microsoft.com/TrustCenter
• ANNOUNCEMENT: Cybertrust Blog – “A Single, Unified Trust Center for the Microsoft Cloud”
  http://blogs.microsoft.com/cybertrust/2015/11/23/a-single-unified-trust-center-for-the-microsoft-cloud/

Here’s a quick registry hack found on Windows Central that will enable you to throttle maximum CPU utilization on your Surface Pro/Book to minimize power usage and extend the life of your battery even further.

1. Click start and type "regedit" (no quotes) to open the "Registry Editor"
2. Navigate to HKEYLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power
3. Change the value of "CSEnabled" from 1 to 0.
4. Click OK, exit the registry editor & reboot.
5. Log back in and check your Power Options, you should have all of the hidden Power Themes & advanced options.

*Maximum processor state settings will modify the throttling settings.

This is particularly useful when you’re using the Surface Book in clipboard mode and want to maximize the battery of the tablet portion of the Book.

In case you missed it, we released the Beta 2 for SharePoint Server 2016 & Project Server 2016.

It introduces the following:

1. Profile synchronization with Microsoft Identity Manager
2. Data Loss Prevention
3. Extensible Hybrid App Launcher
4. Profile Redirection

Taken from the announcement blog:

Learn more about what’s new in SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2 here. For more information on deploying SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2 and additional product resources see our deployment guide.

…

You can download SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2 today via the Microsoft Download Center and share feedback directly with our engineering teams through the SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview Forum. We also welcome feature requests and feedback via the SharePoint Server Suggestion Box on UserVoice, @SharePoint on Twitter and in the comments below. We’re eager to hear your feedback and use it as we continue to drive towards our final release in 2016.

For more on the betas, read the announcement FAQ:

• BLOG: Announcing SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2 and Project Server 2016 Beta 2
  https://blogs.office.com/2015/11/18/announcing-sharepoint-server-2016-beta-2-and-project-server-2016-beta-2/

In case you missed it, Windows 7 with supported service packs, went out of mainstream support on 1/13/2015. 

This means no further design changes or functional fixes/updates are made for the OS.

More importantly, extended support (security fixes, per-incident support) for Windows 7 Enterprise and Professional exists until 1/14/2020. 

This is only about 4 years away, meaning that all workstations & running applications will need to be tested & upgraded to a supported OS by then to ensure continued availability of security fixes & incident-paid support – just as was done for Windows XP.

More on Windows 7’s coming expiration is available here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle?C2=14019

Here’s a free tool from Microsoft Research that I forgot to post a couple months ago called “Photo Story”. 

It similar in nature to the old Photo Story application we used to have for Windows that automatically chooses the best representative photos of an event and organizes them into a themed video, complete with stylized music and editing, that you can easily share via email or social media.

Here’s a short video that explains what Photo Story for Windows Phone does:

You can download the free app here:

• DOWNLOAD: Photo Story for Windows Phone
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/photo-story/9nblggh1z351
• OVERVIEW: “New app creates stylized story compilations from your photos”
  http://blogs.microsoft.com/next/2015/08/13/new-app-creates-stylized-story-compilations-from-your-photos/

(I’m on vacation.  Which means I’m gonna try to get some of these posts out of the way that have been sitting cached up for ever.  So here we go.)

———

Are you a Halo fan?  Ever wondered where some of those epically cool posters come from that some of us Halo fans have in our offices, homes, cubes, etc?  Here’s where you get them from:

• REDBUBBLE HALO POSTER STORE
  http://www.redbubble.com/shop/halo+posters 

They have Halo 5 posters as well as classic posters from Halos 1-4.