Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft Southern California
Windows Vista and Office System Seminars
Fall-Winter 2006

With the upcoming release of Microsoft® Windows® Vista, and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, your Southern California team would like to invite you to a technical briefing covering the new features, tools, and technologies within these new products. This seminar series is being via invitation-only, specifically for our enterprise customers in Southern California.

Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange Server 2007: Desktop Search, Enterprise Search, and Exchange Server 2007 Features and Technologies
11/14/06, Thursday, 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Los Angeles
With Windows Vista and SharePoint Server 2007, significant updates were made to help users find and organize information. Exchange Server 2007 provides IT teams with tools to more easily manage enterprise messaging, and provides end users with performance improvements. The planned topics for this session are:

• 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.: Breakfast and registration
• 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.:
  Windows Vista integrated search: making it faster and easier to find information on PC’s, networks, and the Internet
  SharePoint Server 2007: using Office SharePoint Enterprise Search to incorporate business data along with information about documents, people, and Web pages to produce comprehensive, relevant results
• 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Lunch and Registration for Exchange session
• 12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.:
  Exchange Server 2007: new features to more easily deploy and manage Exchange installations, scripting, performance enhancements to deliver end user benefit

Audience: IT Managers and Professionals responsible for desktop support, collaboration infrastructure, and enterprise messaging
Prerequisites: Previous Windows and/or Exchange management experience

Registration url: <http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306425&Culture=en-US >
Event ID: 1032306425

To register, please use the registration link for each session, visit http://www.microsoft.com/usa/events, and search on the Event ID’s listed.

Microsoft invites you to an exclusive training opportunity:

Microsoft Windows Vista Hands-On Lab
November 1, 2006

The advancements in security and reliability of the Windows Vista^TM operating system along with its cost and operational efficiencies, give you and your users confidence in your company PCs. From the perspective of an IT professional, Windows Vista is easier to deploy, and less expensive to maintain, than any earlier version of Windows®. Join us for this one-day hands-on lab and see the new features for yourself, including:

• Deployment options including Windows Deployment Services, XImage, and System Image Manager
• Migrating users files and settings without their intervention
• How to make decisions for the implementation of User Account Control
• How to use the Windows Firewall as another layer of a defense-in-depth strategy to control and secure communications between network clients
• How to configure enterprise management
• Hands-on experience in creating and managing Quality of Service policies

Who Should Attend:

This course is for IT Professionals and Technical Decision Makers who need more information about the new features in Windows Vista.

Prerequisites:
To get the most from this course, you will need to be familiar with the Windows desktop environment.  RSVP:  This special, no charge training event will fill quickly and space is limited, so be sure to register as soon as possible to reserve your seat. 

Location
Microsoft Irvine
3 Park Plaza
Suite 1800
Irvine, CA 92614

November 1, 2006
8:30 am – 4:30 pm

Note:  This invitation is for my customers only.  If you are not a Enterprise customer of Microsoft’s and you choose to register, be aware that you may be bumped.

Click here to register
(http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306390&Culture=en-US)
or call 877.673.8368 with event code 1032306390.

Course Modules

• Configuring and Managing WDS
• Managing Windows Image Files
• Automating Installations
• Customizing Windows PE
• Migrating user state from Windows XP
• User Account Control
• Configuring Windows Firewall
• New Management Technologies
• Group Policy Management Features
• Managing Bandwidth with Policy-based QoS

Internet Explorer 7.0’s went gold and apparently I forgot to publish this DRAFT that’s been sitting Windows Live Writer for the past week or so.  Sigh.

On the bright side, this is a long time coming but this browser is out of sight!  It’s a must upgrade for anyone doing any serious browsing these days.  Even if you’re one of those folks that installed Firefox, you’ll definitely want to upgrade to IE7.0 if not just for the supportability.

Download it here:  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

Here are some key features of "Internet Explorer 7":

• ActiveX Opt-in
  Disables nearly all pre-installed ActiveX controls to prevent potentially vulnerable controls from being exposed to attack. You can easily enable or disable ActiveX controls as needed through the Information Bar and the Add-on Manager.
• Simplified User Experience
  The Internet Explorer 7 frame is reorganized to make it noticeably simpler, more streamlined, and less cluttered with unnecessary items. This maximizes the area of the screen devoted to the webpages that you want to see and makes performing the most common browsing tasks easy.
• CSS Improvements
  Addresses many of the major inconsistencies that can cause web developers problems when producing visually rich, interactive webpages. Improved support for CSS2.1, including selectors and fixed positioning, allow web developers to create more powerful effects without the use of script.
• Security Status Bar
  Enhances awareness of website security and privacy settings by displaying color-coded notifications next to the address bar. Internet Explorer 7 changes the Address Bar green for websites bearing new High Assurance certificates, indicating the site owner has completed extensive identity verification checks. Phishing Filter notifications, certificate names, and the gold padlock icon are now also adjacent to the address bar for better visibility. Certificate and privacy detail information can easily be displayed with a single click on the Security Status Bar.
• Advanced Printing
  Automatically scales a printed webpage so that it’s not wider than the paper it will be printed on. Internet Explorer 7 also includes a multi-page print preview with live margins, resizing text to avoid document clipping, and an option to print only selected text.
• Application Compatibility Toolkit
  An application compatibility kit will be available for Internet Explorer 7, allowing IT pros and developers to understand any incompatibilities with their existing websites, applications, and deployments.
• Phishing Filter
  Proactively warns and helps protect you against potential or known fraudulent sites and blocks the site if appropriate. The opt-in filter is updated several times per hour using the latest security information from Microsoft and several industry partners about fraudulent websites.
• Toolbar Search Box
  Web searches using your favorite search provider can now be entered into a search box within the toolbar, eliminating the clutter of separate toolbars. You can easily choose a provider from the dropdown list or add more providers.
• Alpha Channel in PNG
  Supports transparency within the PNG image format, resulting in better-looking websites that are simpler to build.
• Cross-Domain Barriers
  Limits script on webpages from interacting with content from other domains or windows. This enhanced safeguard will further protect against malware by limiting the potential for malicious websites to manipulate flaws in other websites or cause you to download undesired content or software.
• Favorites Center
  Offers easy and fast access to Favorites, Tab Groups, Browsing History, and RSS Feed subscriptions. Expands out when needed, and can be pinned in place for even easier access.
• Group Policy Improvements
  Provides support for all aspects of Internet Explorer settings through Group Policy, greatly easing management across an enterprise.
• Delete Browsing History
  Allows you to clean up cached pages, passwords, form data, cookies, and history, all from a single window.
• RSS Feeds
  Automatically detects RSS feeds on sites by illuminating an icon on the toolbar. A single click on the icon allows you to preview and optionally subscribe to the site’s RSS feed, and then be automatically notified as content is updated. Read RSS feeds directly in the browser, scan for important stories, and filter your view with search terms or site-specific categories.
• Internet Explorer Administration Kit
  OEMs and deployment specialists can pre-package Internet Explorer with customized settings or additional programs for their users.
• Address Bar Protection
  Every window, regardless of whether it’s a pop-up or standard window, will present an address bar to the user, helping to block malicious sites from emulating trusted sites.
• Tabbed Browsing
  View multiple sites in a single browser window. Easily switch from one site to another through tabs at the top of the browser frame.
• Improved AJAX Support
  Improves the implementation of the XMLHTTP Request as a native Javascript object for rich AJAX-style applications. While Internet Explorer 6 handled XMLHTTP requests with an ActiveX control, Internet Explorer 7 exposes XMLHTTP natively. This improves syntactical compatibility across different browsers and allows clients to configure and customize a security policy of their choice without compromising key AJAX scenarios.
• International Domain Name Anti-spoofing
  In addition to adding support for International Domain Names in URLs, Internet Explorer also notifies you when visually similar characters in the URL are not expressed in the same language, thus protecting you against sites that could otherwise appear as known, trustworthy sites.
• Quick Tabs
  Provides easy tab selection and navigation by displaying thumbnails of all open tabs in a single window.
• Open Search Extensions
  In conjunction with Amazon.com, a set of RSS Simple List Extensions were submitted to the RSS community, and released under the Creative Commons license. Among other features, these extensions greatly simplify development of applications that interact with Open Search-compatible search providers.
• URL Handling Security
  Redesigned URL parsing ensures consistent processing and minimizes possible exploits. The new URL handler helps centralize critical data parsing and increases data consistency throughout the application.
• Tab Groups
  Tabs can be grouped and saved into logical categories, allowing you to open multiple tabs with a single click. A Tab Group can easily be set as the Home Page Group so the entire Tab Group opens every time Internet Explorer is launched from the Start menu.
• RSS Platform
  Provides rich functionality for downloading, storing, and accessing RSS feeds across the entire operating system, and enables more users than ever before to embrace RSS. Once a feed is subscribed to in one application, that subscription, and all the associated content, will be made available across the operating system for any application that wishes to consume it.
• Fix My Settings
  To keep you protected from browsing with unsafe settings, Internet Explorer 7 warns you with an Information Bar when current security settings may put you at risk. Within the Internet Control Panel, you will see certain critical items highlighted in red when they are unsafely configured. In addition to dialog alerts warning you about unsafe settings, you will be reminded by the Information Bar as long as the settings remain unsafe. You can instantly reset Internet security settings to the ‘Medium-High’ default level by clicking the ‘Fix My Settings’ option in the Information Bar.
• Page Zoom
  Enlarge or zoom in on individual webpages, including both text and graphics, to either focus on specific content or to make content more accessible to those with vision limitations.
• Add-ons Disabled Mode
  To help troubleshoot difficulties launching Internet Explorer or reaching specific websites, you have the ability to start in "No Add-ons" mode, where only critical system Add-ons are enabled.

Energy Star has free software available to allow you to manage Windows XP Professional’s Power Management settings to save on electrical costs for a company. 

They call it a GPO, but it’s only kind of a GPO – for those of you who know what GPOs are.  A GPO is created only used to set the Login Script & create a set of duration values (like when to turn off a display) which are read by an executable.   Essentially what it does is it runs as a login script which executes a .EXE.  The .EXE reads some registry values then sets parameters on the Windows XP Professional machine as set by Group Policy because WinXP’s native GPO interfaces do not permit for the adjustment of Power Management settings.

EZ Group Policy Object Software
Network administrators at organizations using the latest Microsoft servers (Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 servers) and operating systems (Windows 2000 or XP) often use Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to manage their organization’s desktops. However, as currently designed, GPOs cannot alter a computer’s power management settings.

ENERGY STAR’s free EZ GPO tool allows a network administrator to centrally control power management settings using GPOs. In addition to setting monitor power management, EZ GPO can also activate "system standby," which places the computer (CPU, hard drive, etc.) to sleep.*

General Information
EZ GPO is a free tool for network administrators who manage Windows client workstations using GPOs under Active Directory. EZ GPO:

• Provides centralized control of user power management settings to network administrators
• Sets appropriate power management settings for both the computer monitor and PC box.
• Uses the existing functionality on Windows 2000 and XP.
• Requires no special hardware or network processes.

How it Works

• Installs with an automated installer that contains a binary application that runs as a service and also one that runs on login under each user’s account.
• Reads the desired power management settings that are set using GPOs in integer and string value format.
• Changes power management settings using Microsoft’s core Application Programming Interface.
• Intelligently selects only capable computers when activating "system standby." (Computers generally capable of using system standby reliably run Windows 2000 or higher with Pentium 4 chip sets capable of S3 standby mode.)

How to Install:

• Install the ADM GPO template located at GPO/EZ_GPO.adm.
• Enable the "Base Options" policy by choosing the defaults.
• Enable and configure the "Options" policy if needed.
• Enable the "Simple" policy and configure the values (in minutes).
• Install the binary GPO/bin/EZ_GPO_Tool.exe on the client work stations (an installer is provided and can be used in most situations).
• Log out and then back in with a user who is set up to have the group policy.

* System standby places an inactive PC box into low-power sleep mode of 2-4 watts. Active PC boxes can use around 55 watts. The energy savings from activating "system standby" are equal to or greater than the savings from activating monitor power management. Please contact ENERGY STAR before activating "system standby" across your organization. Certain custom database applications and software/patch updating configurations may not be compatible with "system standby."

For software download & more information:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_pm_ez_gpo

One of the significant business value benefits of Windows Vista is its centrally-managable Power Management. 

In English, Windows Vista out-of-the-box provides the ability to save corporate customers actual money in the way of Electrical Power savings. 

How is this done?  Through the usage of Group Policy, (a set of rules that get pushed down over the network to a Windows Vista workstation) administrators can specifically tell specific groups of workstations (or ALL workstations) to minimize the usage of power on components of workstation hardware – getting as specific and fine-grained as the hard drive, the CPU, the graphics adapter, the display, etc.  And these rules can be time-specific.

For example:

1. An organization may want to have all their workstations go to "sleep" if no one’s using them after 6:00PM.  Windows Vista now makes that possible out of the box when using the Professional or Enterprise Editions of the product.
   
2. An IT group may want to have workstation display’s "Energy Saver" (sleep) features of their monitors kick in if the machines aren’t being used for 15 minutes during the day, which can be useful during lunch.
   
3. A company may choose to have the CPU shift down to a slower clock speed and the have the hard drive spin down when they aren’t in use.

With the cost of electricity these days, workstation power consumption actually becomes extremely relevant because it’s a perpetual cost:   Every year, this cost is associated with TCO of a workstation’s life. 

The question however arises, "How do I measure Windows Vista’s the power savings?"

Enter "Kill A Watt".
http://www.supermediastore.com/kilwateldet1.html

Kill A Watt is a benchmarking tool that tells you how much power in watts is consumed by a given device.  In this case, it would be a workstation & it’s monitor. 

You can actually see the variation in power consumption if you compare managed Windows XP Professional OS’s versus managed Windows Vista Enterprise OS’s on the same hardware.

So if you’d like to do a simple shootout of how much power Windows Vista can save you, try getting one of these little devices.  They’re generally only about $25-$30.

References for Power Management
Check out these discussions on Power Management in Windows Vista through Group Policy:

• Power GP Part 1:  http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2006/08/30/452916.aspx
• Power GP Part 2:  http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2006/09/06/454458.aspx
• "Power Management in Windows Vista" Powerpoint:  
  http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-174cf47d23cd/CPA075_WH06.ppt
• Value of Power Mgmt:  http://www.energystar.gov/powermanagement

(Irvine Event – October 24th:
http://www.netpro.com/events/roadtoagility/irvine.cfm)

Organizational Agility: the ability of an organization to sense environmental change and respond efficiently and effectively to that change. (Gartner, 2006)

Directory and Identity: On the Road to Organizational Agility is dedicated to advanced instruction on how the spectrum of Microsoft Identity and Access Management technologies, including Active Directory, MIIS and ADFS, can help you achieve organizational agility by empowering your Windows infrastructure and the people and processes who rely on it each and every day.

Join us for in-depth training and discussions on…

• Active Directory disaster recovery
• The upcoming release of Windows Vista
• improved infrastructure security
• Controlling and auditing changes for corporate compliance
• Establishing a robust identity solution through MIIS and MOM
• And more!

Each FREE one-day event will be an opportunity to interact with IT Professionals and Developers in a hands-on, collaborative setting, sharing progress and intentions, taking input, and providing peer-to-peer networking opportunities.

Attendance is completely free, but space is limited.

Register now for the Directory and Identity Roadshow near you.

Consider this "Office Licensing 101".  The question on some customer’s minds is:

"We have an Enterprise Agreement.  (Or "We have Office with Software Assurance")
What edition of Office 2007 does my company get when Office 2007 releases?"

Here’s the quick answer.   If your company has the Office Suite on either Software Assurance or your company has an Enterprise Agreement (with the Desktop CAL which implicitly means your org has Software Assurance), you get the following analogous product when we release the Office 2007 Suite:

• OfficeStd2003+SA ——-afterOffice2007releases——> OfficeStd2007+SA 
  OfficeStd2007+SA ——-payPROStepUptoUpgrade—–> OfficePro2007+SA
  OfficeStd2007+SA ——-payENTStepUptoUpgrade—–> OfficeEnt2007+SA
• OfficePro2003+SA ——-afterOffice2007releases——> OfficePro2007Plus+SA
  OfficePro2007+SA ——-payENTStepUptoUpgrade—–> OfficeEnt2007+SA

(For more on the differences between each Edition of Office 2007, go here.)

For instance: 

"1000 Office Standard licenses on Software Assurance"
If your company have a 1000 licenses of Office Standard on Software Assurance, with Office 2007 releases, you will get the right to deploy 1000 licenses of Office Standard 2007 in place of whatever licenses you have deployed.

If your company wants Office Professional 2007, they may pay a "PRO step up" fee for each existing Office Standard license to convert these licenses to "Pro", so you can deploy Office Professional 2007.

If your company wants Office Enterprise 2007, they may pay an "ENTERPRISE step up" fee for each existing Standard license to convert these licenses to "Enterprise", so you can deploy Office Enterprise 2007.

———————–

For those of you who are lost and are wondering, what’s Software Assurance (SA)?  What’s an Enterprise Agreement (EA)?:

Definition:  "Software Assurance"
Software Assurance (SA) is a special, low-priced fee that is paid ANNUALLY (usually a 3 year contract) in addition to the costs of a traditional software license.  SA gives a company the right to upgrade to whatever analogous version of the product that gets released during the duration of the contract.  SA licensing also provides a TON of additional, very tangible benefits to customers such as complimentary Training, Discounted Employee Purchasing of Microsoft products, Home Use Licensing, Microsoft eLearning computer-based training, etc.  In fact, recently a huge new benefit of SA licensing was added to the glee of our SA customer:  The opportunity to purchase the Desktop Optimization Pack. 
Read more here:  http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1352.entry?_c11_blogpart_blogpart=blogview&_c=blogpart#permalink

Definition:  "Enterprise Agreement"
An Enterprise Agreement (EA) is a special contract established between a customer and Microsoft that provides them with discounted licensing that sometimes exceeds that of traditional volume discounting.  In addition, EAs are paid for over a period of time, usually 3 years, allowing people to spread the cost of their licenses over a longer period of time.  EA customers purchase (among other things) two specially packaged/discounted licenses:  Desktop Client Access License (CAL) and the Core Client Access License CAL.  The Desktop CAL consists of a Windows Desktop OS License & an Office License.  (Std or Pro… depends on the contract)  The Core CAL traditionally contains Windows Server CAL, SMS CAL, Exchange CAL, and a Sharepoint CAL.

Unified Communications
Programs and Events, offered by Microsoft and QuickStart

There’s a lot of content available to individuals interested in Unified Communications training.  Some of this is free, some of it is paid for so please check to make sure you’re signing up for what you want.

NOTE:  I believe that if you attend the one of the webcasts, we may be able to provide free training if you ask to "follow up" on your evaluation after the webcast so be sure to do the eval.

One-hour Webcasts (NO COST)
Each month QuickStart and Microsoft’s Unified Communication Team will host an hour-long webcast on the new Microsoft Unified Communications platform. Microsoft Unified Communications products deliver rich, intuitive and seamless communication capabilities that enhance productivity and collaboration by streamlining how people communicate. They form a complete software solution that enables effective communications across e-mail, instant messaging (IM), voice, data, video, and Web conferencing, with enterprise-grade security and reliability.

An Overview of Deploying Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005
Learn how to deploy Microsoft’s Live Communication Server 2005. We’ll go over steps you’ll need to consider for setup, rollout and user adoption.
Tuesday, November 7 – 10:00 AM
For more information visit:  http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=112230

Microsoft’s Unified Communications Platform for Financial Services
Looking for new ways to reduce the costs of delivering your financial services products? Would you like to enable Internet-based real time client meetings to go over documents? Come learn how Microsoft’s Unified Communications can make it possible. We’ll see how we can bring home loan closings to the web and enable much faster document processing.
Tuesday, December 12 – 10:00 AM
For more information visit:  http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=112231

Four-day Deep Dive (Instructor-led Training)
(Note that there is a charge for this training.)
Hosted by QuickStart Intelligence

Implementing Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005
Live Communication Server 2005 is rapidly becoming an important part of how organizations are communicating and collaborating more efficiently through Instant Messaging, and integration with telephony technology and Microsoft Office. This new four-day course provides IT professionals with the skills to implement, manage, configure, and troubleshoot Live Communication Server 2005. Attendees should have at least a year or more experience implementing and supporting a Microsoft Windows® 2000/2003 Active Directory® environment before attending. Upon completion they will also be eligible to take exam 70-262 toward the new MCTS: Live Communications Server 2005 certification.
For more information visit:
http://www.quickstart.com/courses/course.asp?cat=Live%20Communication%20Server&type=116&course=7034

———————–

About your presenters:
Please join the Microsoft Unified Communications Team to learn more about how software working in conjunction with your PC, phone and internet connection can bring instant productivity to your teams! Your Microsoft representative is an expert in Instant Messaging, Presence (availability status), telephony integration as well as web conferencing. Each technologist brings multiple years of experience in the real time collaboration market and can provide answers to your communications questions.

I wasn’t going to publish this but there are so many people that are reading inaccurate & somewhat slanderous reports about a "purported bug" or the "first flaw in Internet Explorer 7.0" that I want to clear the air with anyone that’s reading this:

Secunia, in their rush to "security flaw publishing fame" around what they perceived to be a security flaw in the newly released Internet Explorer 7.0, have misidentified the vulnerability’s source/cause. 

They claim it’s a flaw in Internet Explorer 7.0.  It’s really a vulnerability in Outlook Express.  Read more here:  http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2006/10/19/information-on-reports-of-ie-7-vulnerability.aspx

There are a few supposed experts that are saying, "Well, gee. How was Secunia to know?"  Y’know, if they had brought this SPECIFIC IE7.0 ISSUE to Microsoft’s attention beforehand and let them evaluate the issue before they decided to create a media frenzy, maybe they wouldn’t be backpedeling like they are now. 

The excuse that they’re making is that they reported the issue for IE6.0 in April 2006 and didn’t hear anything from Microsoft so, "How would they know that the problem would be related to Outlook Express?"   Y’know, this is kinda like saying, "we assumed it was an IE problem back in version 6.0… we assumed the situation was the same for IE 7.0."  And we all know what happens when we "assume" right?

3Sharp did an evalation of the antiphishing technologies in Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefox/Google, Netcraft, eBay, Earthlink, GeoTrust, Netscape, and McAfee.

Here’s the rankings and the associated ratings (based on both accuracy as well as false positives):

1. 172 Internet Explorer 7.0 (Beta 3)
2. 168 Netcraft Toolbar
3. 106 Firefox/Google
4. 92 eBay Toolbar
5. 76 Earthlink ScamBlocker
6. 67 GeoTrust Trustwatch
7. 56 Netscape 8.1
8. 3 McAfee SiteAdvisor  (Yes "3" and that’s not a typo)

What does this mean?  Well, if you’ve got parents that use a computer and you want to ensure that they don’t get lured into phishing sites and the like, Internet Explorer 7.0 is a great upgrade for their browsing experience that’s free and does the best job available on the market today.

Source:  Microsoft IE 7.0 Tops List of Antiphishing Tools
(http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=25340)