Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Admittedly, I’ve had this problem with Windows Update forever:  It hasn’t worked on my system for a while and I could never figure out why.  It didn’t matter because all our systems at Microsoft have numerous risk mitigation vectors used upon them including Network Access Protection (automatic scans of the system for proper patch requirements, antivirus sig list version verification, firewall configuration, etc.), login scripts, and System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

One way or another, my systems gonna get patched… or I’m not going to get an IP address on the Microsoft network.

That being said, I’ve been wondering why Windows Update doesn’t work.  It’s kind of an annoyance to have something "not functioning" on your personal machine so I started doing some digging at 1:00AM and turned up this in the Windows Vista General Discussion in our community newsgroups:

Try this:

Change the value of the registry key UseWUserver (HKLMSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsupdateAU) from 1 to 0. 🙂 From what I understand, if this is set to 1, it uses the custom server defined in WUServer and WUStatusServer.

Uh.  What?  I checked this out and sure enough, group policy issued by the company must have configured a different Windows Update server internally as there appears to be an internal address in WUServer & WUStatusServer, both values in the WindowsUpdate key.

So anytime I attempted to use Windows Update on the Internet, BAM.  No go.  Makes sense…. but I wish there was some sort of message in the Windows Update Control Panel applet that told end users that this was the issue.  It’s not hard to display a little message in the Windows Update Control Panel applet that looks at HKLMSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsupdateAU and says:  "Hey – your network administrator has pushed down instructions to your computer NOT to use the public Windows Update servers but instead to use private Internal Windows Update Servers, thus if you’re not on your corporate network, you may receive error 80072EFD here."

And by the way, WHAT THE HECK IS A "80072EFD"?  Didn’t error codes like these without explanation go the way of the do-do?

If you want to get working on Silverlight, especially to prep for the release of 2.0, here is a list of useful resources to help folks get started:

• http://www.silverlight.net – Official Silverlight community site (downloads, videos, samples, tutorials, etc.)
• http://www.silverlight.net/ShowCase – list of notable live sites on the Web using Silverlight today
• http://www.silverlight.net/GetStarted – “Get Started” section of Silverlight.net, has links to the required bits, Visual Studio 2008, Expression Blend, Silverlight SDK, etc.
• http://www.silverlight.net/learn/learnvideos.aspx – Lots of useful videos including code and sample walkthroughs
• http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight – Silverlight section on the Microsoft.com site, has general info and news and links to tools and resources
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/silverlight – Silverlight developer center (samples, tutorials, links to more resources, etc.)

Some useful Expression resources:

Lynda.com is offering their Expression Blend v1 (6 hours) and Expression Design v1 (6 hours) free for everyone:

Expression Blend

• http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=384 – 3 hrs Blend RTM (WPF) training … great for more advanced topics
• http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=359  – 3 hrs Blend Beta … great for the foundation on Blend for WPF

Expression Design

• http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=339 – 6 hours of great content

4 hours of free training from Total Training are also available at www.microsoft.com/expression covering each of the four Expression tools. 

Calling out some live sites that are more aligned to rich applications (instead of media experiences):

• http://www.tafiti.com – Silverlight presentation of Windows Live Search
• http://www.popfly.ms – Silverlght-based Web mash-up application (for example, Facebook, Twitter, Virtual Earth, etc.)
• http://www.windowsvista.si/main.htm?lang=1033 – Windows Vista simulator
• http://community.netikatech.com/demos/ – Reusable 3^rd party controls very similar to WinForm controls (or Office 2003)
• http://labs.componentone.com/silverlight/controlgallery/ – Reusable 3^rd party controls for building business applications
• http://demo.softwarefx.com/Silverlight/Chart/Galleries/ – “Chart FX” demo of reusable data visualization controls
• http://sirius.intersoftpt.com/ – “Apple OS” like reusable controls

And many sample applications that have source code available for download (full list available at http://silverlight.net/samples):

• http://silverlight.net/samples/1.1/SilverlightAirlines/Run/default.html – Silverlight Airlines
• http://silverlight.net/samples/1.1/chess/run/default.html – Chess
• http://silverlight.net/samples/1.0/Page-Turn/default.html – “Page Turn”
• http://silverlight.net/samples/1.0/Silverlight-Pad/default.html – “Silverlight Pad” sample app that shows XAML’s usage in Silverlight
• http://delay.members.winisp.net/SimpleSilverlightXpsViewer/ – XPS file viewer
• http://silverlight.net/samples/1.1/virtualearthviewer/ – Virtual Earth viewer

Announcing the Microsoft Forefront "Stirling" Technology Adoption Program
The Microsoft Forefront Technology Adoption Program team is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for participation in the TAP programs for the following products: Forefront Codename “Stirling”, Forefront Client Security (FCS), Forefront Security for Exchange Server (FSE), Forefront Security for SharePoint (FSSP) and the Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) integration with “Stirling”.

Nomination Start Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Program Timeline: November 27, 2007 to calendar year 2009

What is the Forefront TAP?
The Forefront TAP is the combination of the TAP programs for the following products:

• Forefront codename “Stirling”: a single product that delivers unified security management and reporting with comprehensive, coordinated protection across clients, server applications, and the network edge.
  Forefront codename “Stirling” provides centralized management for the next versions of Microsoft Forefront Client Security (FCS) and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA) as well as the current and next versions of Forefront Security for Exchange Server (FSE) and Forefront Security for SharePoint (FSSP).
  Forefront codename “Stirling” can not only manage those standalone Forefront products but it can also manage any combination of them and enable information sharing across those products to better protect customers against emerging and blended threats.
• The next version of Forefront Client Security: Microsoft’s unified virus and spyware protection solution for business desktops, laptops and server operating systems that is easy to manage and control.
• The current and next version Forefront for Exchange Server:  Microsoft’s multiple scan engines comprehensive, layered-solution, helping businesses protect their Microsoft Exchange Server messaging environments from viruses, worms, spam, and inappropriate content.
• The current and next version of Forefront for SharePoint: Microsoft’s multiple scan engines solution providing comprehensive protection against the latest threats, inappropriate content, and disclosure of confidential information—helping ensure documents are safe before they are saved to or retrieved from the SharePoint document library.
• The next version of ISA’s Firewall as part of “Stirling”’s coordinated protection and centralized management.

Who should apply to the Forefront TAP?
Anybody interested in participating in one or more of the individual TAP programs listed above should apply to the Forefront TAP.

Program description
This program is designed to provide collaboration with your company and Microsoft. Help shape the Forefront releases through direct collaboration between your organization and the Microsoft product teams.  The first phase of the program will validate the Forefront products using early beta builds in a lab environment. Your company will have the opportunity to provide design and performance feedback for the product. You can do this through the reporting of bugs and submission of Design Change Requests (DCRs), as well as provide general feedback for product group consideration.  This program will provide customers with support from the Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) as well as the Microsoft Forefront product groups.  The program timeline is aggressive starting November 19, 2007 and finishing in calendar year 2009.

How can I get additional information?
Attached to this email are additional documents that will help to further explain the Forefront TAP program. These documents include:

1. Microsoft Forefront TAP Presentation (non-NDA)
2. Program Description

Next steps
To start your nomination, please fill the Forefront TAP survey by:

1. Visiting the Microsoft Connect website
2. Signing into Connect with a Windows Live ID
3. Visiting the Available Connections page, and clicking “Apply” for the “Forefront TAP”

Microsoft will get back to you within two to three weeks.

Resources

• POWERPOINT:  http://www.evilkoala.org/Documents/ForefrontTAP-nonNDA.pptx
• FAQ:  http://www.evilkoala.org/Documents/Stirling_TAP_External.mht

If you have any questions regarding the program or the nomination process, please email Stirtap@microsoft.com.

My friend Jim asked me if I had any information on HD-DVD writers… as in where he could buy one.  He wanted to burn HD video content to platters that he could share with his relatives all of whom have HD DVD players by virtue of the either their Xbox 360s or their low cost Toshiba A1 standalone HD DVD player models that went for $99 each at Walmart and Best Buy.

WHAT ABOUT 3XDVD?
I told him that he should consider 3XDVD.  3XDVD technology allows you to write HD-DVD-compatible high definition (720p) video content that is readable on HD-DVD players on to conventional DVD media.  The resolution is the similar to traditional HD-DVD 15GB media (many movies are only available in 720p anyway) except that since your maximum capacity is either 4.7GB or 9.1GB, you’re going to have only half the capacity available.  However since the encoding technology being used for HD-DVD (VC-1) is superior in compression to the weak compression of the MPEG1 codec used in SD-DVDs, you should be able to fit a good amount of video onto a single traditional blank DVD without needing HD-DVD media.

For a discussion on 3XDVD, try these locations:

• http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8718.cfm
• http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070219-8882.html

BURNING YOUR OWN HD DVDs/3XDVDs:
In order to burn your own 3XDVD discs, get a copy of Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus ($79.99, but 30-day free trial available).  Ulead’s DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus is by far the best software for creating HD-DVD compatible DVDs and this functionality comes built into the product at no extra charge.  Be sure to download and install both updates for Ulead MovieFactory 6 Plus before you start.

Instructions for Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus

1. Get a high-definition recording in MPEG format
2. Open the .MPG in HD Patch. If the reported Bitrate is more than 25000000 (25Mbps), then change it to 25000000 and click "Patch Stream." If the reported Bitrate is less than 25000000, no change is required and you can exit the app. Screenshot.
3. Launch ULead DVD Movie Factory Plus and choose "New Video Project." Screenshot.
   For HD-DVD compatible DVDs: From the "Create Video Disk" dialog, choose HD-DVD.
4. Click the "Add video files" button (second icon, top left) and select the the .MPG file you saved in step four. If Movie Factory asks you to change the project settings to match the video, select yes. Screenshot.
5. Click Next.
6. Select a title screen template (just like Powerpoint). Right-click to edit the title and text on the title screen. Screenshot.
7. Click Next.
8. Click "Burn" to create the disk.

How much space do you need for a given HD TV show?
Typical space consumed per 60 minutes (with commercials) of HDTV:

• ABC – 4.4-6.50 Gb (varies by content and provider)
• CBS – 6.0-8.0Gb (varies by content and provider)
• NBC – 5.2-8.0 Gb (varies by content and provider)
• FOX – 4.4-5.0 Gb (up to 5.6Gb for sports)
• HBO – 4.4-4.8 Gb
• Cinemax – 4.4-4.8 Gb
• Showtime – 4.4-4.8 Gb
• Starz – 3.5-4.0 Gb
• UHD – 4.0-5.0 Gb
• Discovery – up to 8.0Gb (varies widely by provider )
• Hdnet – up to 8.0Gb (varies widely by provider )
• Hdnet Movies – up to 8.0Gb (varies widely by provider )
• TNT – up to 8.0Gb (varies widely by provider )

  (This general process & numbers were shamelessly stolen from a TiVo Community forum, the exact location of which I can’t recall.)

Incidentally, during his search for an HD DVD writer, this is what he turned up after making 6 or so phone calls researching the topic:

1. Toshiba is now selling a laptop ($3K) that does burn DVDs.
2. The PC internal burners are now being produced for demonstration and will be generally available in May 2008.
3. There is a single company (Lite-On) that is selling a Blu-ray burner for $819; this has dropped down from $949 previously.

Microsoft Search Server 2008 is a full-featured enterprise search & indexing platform for corporations looking to provide its people with the ability to search it’s intellectual property, information, documents, and web-published content across all systems, file repositories, mail stores, web sites, and databases.

• Need to index Lotus Domino databases? 
• Want to search FAX documents in .TIF format?
• Have a SQL database with content you’d like to be able to search?
• Got a large farm of web servers and file servers each with security privileges that you have to respect when delivering search results to users?
• Want to search an UNLIMITED number of documents with massive scale-out scalability?
• Need to integrate with Active Directory user privileges and security credentials?

Check out Search Server 2008… it’s easy to set up for the Enterprise and a great value.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/searchserverexpress/download.aspx

COMPARISON:  (When to either consider the ‘Enterprise’ version of "Search Server 2008" or "Sharepoint Server 2007")
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/default.aspx#compare

AT&T is providing an updated ROM for their 8525 phone which delivers Windows Mobile 6.

Note that it will only be available from November 1, 2007 to February 1, 2008, after which the ROM will be no longer available as a download.

HTC strongly suggests that users create a back up copy of this ROM and keep it in a secure place as all new and refurbished 8525 devices will come loaded with Windows Mobile 5 rather than Windows Mobile 6.

So get it while you can – you’ve been warned.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE:
http://www.america.htc.com/support/8525/software-downloads.html

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 released to the web today. 

Improvements in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 include:

Anywhere Access

• Integrated Exchange Unified Messaging functionality with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
• Outlook Web Access additions, including public folder access, S/MIME support, personal distribution lists, and mailbox rules editor.
• Webready document viewer supports Microsoft Office 2007 documents in addition to Microsoft Office 2003 documents.
• Extended language support in Outlook Web Access with Arabic and Korean spell checking.

Operational Efficiency

• Support for Windows Server 2008 deployments, including benefits in flexible clustering, native virtualization, advanced networking, and simplified management.
• Additional tools in the Exchange Management Console, including public folder management and configuration options for clustering and POP/IMAP access.
• Improvements to the Exchange Management Shell syntax and import-export PST in the move-mailbox command.
• Wider variety of web services for application development, including public folder access, delegate management, and folder level permissions.

Built-in Protection

• Addition of Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) for site resilient high availability deployments.
• Extended Exchange ActiveSync policies for mobile policy enforcement.
• Information rights management pre-licensing by the Hub Transport role.
• Secure Real Time Protocol (SRTP) support in the Unified Messaging role.
• Support for IPv6 when using Windows Server 2008.

Links

• Feature List
  Here’s the full list of new features of SP1:
  LINK:  http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7844544
• Download
  LINK:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=44C66AD6-F185-4A1D-A9AB-473C1188954C&displaylang=en
• Readme
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2600CAB1-BF60-49BD-BEF5-CB80083275AD&displaylang=en

Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 is designed to help you back up your Windows environment. In this webcast, we focus on how System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 can provide continuous data protection for the latest generation of collaboration services, including Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 introduces a whole new level of Windows data protection and recovery. Join us to see how System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 delivers continuous data protection for your Microsoft application and file servers through a seamlessly integrated secondary disk and tape solution on the Data Protection Manager server.

Discover how System Center Data Protection Manager enables better backups and rapid, reliable recoveries for both you and your users, while helping you to significantly reduce the costs and complexities associated with data protection.

Presenter: Jason Buffington, Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation

WEBCAST:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032356636&CountryCode=US

There are over 140 Windows Mobile phones available from 48 different device makers through 160 mobile operators in 55 countries around the world.  This represents the truly sensational growth of our business from just one phone from one carrier in one country only five years ago.  The new phones are absolutely phenomenal to use, and I’ve highlighted several of the most exciting below.

Here’s a quick demo of what’s possible:
DEMO:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/startdoingmore/default.aspx?WT.mc_id=sdmvan

———————————-

Verizon 

Verizon Q9M by Motorola

• Music player with VCAST™ for instant over-the-air-downloads, so you can rock out to the songs you want, wherever and whenever you want
• Multitask – listen to music while you email or surf the Web
• Slim, stylish design
• Two home screens providing one touch access for all multimedia or messaging needs1-one for play and one for connecting
• Cellular and Wi-Fi Internet connectivity
• Supports personal email accounts such as Hotmail®, Gmail®, Yahoo!® and AOL®
• Stay in touch with email and text messaging
• Shoot pictures and video and send them in a multimedia message
• Optimized QWERTY keyboard for fast, accurate typing
• Up to 4 GB removable memory
• Fully loaded with Windows Mobile® 6

AT&T

AT&T Tilt by HTC

The AT&T Tilt’s touch screen slides to reveal a QWERTY keypad, after which the user can tilt the screen up from the keypad level to a maximum of 40 degrees. The variable screen angle can be positioned perfectly whether users want to read and create emails, browse online or play games.

The AT&T Tilt supports Bluetooth® 2.0, which allows up to six Bluetooth devices to be wirelessly connected simultaneously to the device one of which can be a Bluetooth stereo headset for listening to music. With its innovative slide-out QWERTY keypad design, 3-megapixel camera, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system, 3G data speeds from AT&T’s UMTS/HSDPA-based BroadbandConnect network, and complete global connectivity, the AT&T Tilt leads the smart device market.

AT&T Duo by Pantech

Introducing the first smart device from AT&T with 2 sliding keyboards – a 12-key numeric keypad and a QWERTY Keyboard. The Pantech Duo is a Windows Mobile® 6 Standard (non touch screen) device which offers exciting features including access to work and personal email, camera, media player, and Bluetooth ™, all in a compact and easy to use design.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile Shadow ™ comes loaded with the following features:

• Send and receive messages from personal and work e-mail.
• Surf the internet quickly and conveniently from your phone and access the information you need now.
• Use this phone in any of the countries where T-Mobile provides GPRS service.
• Familiar and easy to use Windows Mobile® experience
• Add more memory for multimedia files, data, and more.
• The quick, quiet way to stay connected.
• Send pictures from your phone to others.
• Send and receive instant messages with Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, or ICQ.
• Stay in synch with your Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks in Microsoft Outlook
• Keep track of appointments and even set reminders to make sure you’re on time.
• Lets you store your phone book on T-Mobile’s network so even if you lose your phone, you don’t lose your contacts.
• Lose the wires and keep your hands free for more important things – Bluetooth lets you connect your phone to your headset or computer wirelessly.
• Call someone with simple voice commands when your hands are busy.
• Play your favorite music wherever you are.

Sprint

Sprint Touch by HTC

• All In One Smart Device with Windows Mobile 6
• Easily manage work and play with the versatile Touch. This go-anywhere Windows Mobile 6 device combines a smarter phone with wireless email, built-in web browser and rich media capabilities.
• 2.0 megapixel camera and video camcorder
• Capture high-resolution images with the digital camera and zoom. Create your own video clips and easily share them with family and friends.
• 512MB MicroSD Memory card included
• Store data on the included 512MB removable memory card. Up to 4GB cards supported and available for purchase.
• Phone as Modem
• Use the included USB cable or Bluetooth Wireless technology to connect to a PC allowing Internet and email access.
• Bright Main Display
• See brilliant images, text and graphics on a 2.8" screen covering a range of 65,000 colors

On December 11th, we’ll be releasing a 800 Microsoft point download ($10) called the Heroic Map pack for Halo 3 for Xbox 360 that will contain 3 new multiplayer maps:  Standoff, Rat’s Nest, and Foundry.

As everyone knows, the multiplayer on Halo 3 is what makes the game so phenomenally long lived.  People will be playing Halo 3 for the next 5+ years in tournament form and casually.  And with additional maps, players will always see changes in game dynamics and never really get bored of the gameplay.

As usual, the map pack will be charged for initially for the first few months until late spring at which time it’ll be made available as a free download for people that don’t want to spring for the $10.

Taken from:  http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12983

Rat’s Nest Map