Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Forefront Security for Exchange – Beta Refresh
On September 7, the Forefront Server Security engineering team released the Forefront Security for Exchange Beta refresh which includes support for 32-bit installations for evaluation with the Exchange 2007 32-bit beta.  While not supported in production, the 32-bit environment provides full product functionality for evaluation purposes.   The beta refresh also includes support for multi-node active/passive Exchange SCC clusters.   Click here to download
(http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/serversecurity/exchange/download.mspx)

Forefront Security for SharePoint – Public Beta
The Forefront Security for SharePoint beta is live!  Forefront Security for SharePoint helps businesses protect their Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 servers from viruses, unwanted files and inappropriate content. With a layered, multiple scan engine approach, Forefront Security for SharePoint helps stop the latest threats before they impact business and users.  The FFSS beta is available for public download from here. (http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/serversecurity/sharepoint/download.mspx)

Microsoft Antigen 9.0 Management Pack for MOM
Microsoft has released a new Antigen Management Pack for MOM which supports the 9.0 versions of Microsoft Antigen for Exchange, Microsoft Antigen for SMTP Gateways, and Microsoft Antigen Spam Manager.  The MOM pack supplies critical events and alerts on virus, worm, and spam activity to MOM 2005, and also monitors the health and availability of these products. There is more information here:
http://www.microsoft.com/antigen/downloads/default.mspx.

Q: Do you need a license for the MOM packs?
A: No, they are provided free of charge.

Q: Does the MOM pack for Antigen 9.0 work with Antigen 8.0?
A: No, there are separate MOM packs for each product.

Q: Why can’t I get the MOM pack for Antigen 8.0?
A: You can. It’s on the same page that is linked above.

Q: What products do the MOM packs support?
A: The MOM packs support Antigen for Exchange, Antigen for SMTP, and Antigen Spam Manager.  They do not currently support the SharePoint or LCS products

In a recently released publication, Gartner ranked Microsoft #1 in their ability to execute in their Magic Quadrant for E-Mail Security Boundary, 2006*. 

“Given its installed base of Exchange e-mail infrastructure users and the acquisitions of Sybari (soon to be called Forefront for Exchange) and Frontbridge (now called Exchange Hosted Services) — in addition to original investments in native anti-spam filtering — Microsoft is poised to become the de facto leader in the e-mail security market. Although its current market share is middling, it will be difficult to compete with the addition of anti-spam and antivirus services as part of both standard and enterprise licenses for Exchange 2007.”

*Gartner Inc. Publication Date: 25 September 2006/ID Number: G00142431

Wow.  This came out quietly.  And it’s only SLIGHTLY IMPORTANT.

Anyone that wants to read anything created in Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh while using Office 2000/XP/2003 will need this update.  The previous File Format compatibility pack that you could install in Office 2000/XP/2003 no longer works and you have to use this pack which is specifically written for Beta TR.

Seriously:  Download it and use it.  Or at least keep this link to it.  You don’t want to be in a situation where you can’t read a document just because you don’t have the Compatibility Pack installed.

DOWNLOAD:  http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/converter.mspx

Office Live Meeting product team are announcing Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005 – Service Pack 7 (SP7) is now available.  SP7 resolves various compatibility issues with Office Live Meeting 2005 on desktops running the Office 2007 system and Windows Vista. 

New features in SP7 include:

• The ability to show Office 2007 PowerPoint slides as part of an Office Live Meeting 2005 session
• The Import Document dialog box within Live Meeting 2007 now recognizes the pptx format
• The Office Live Meeting 2005 console can now be run on Windows Vista RC1 systems

Windows Vista and Office 2007 system users are strongly encouraged to install this service pack.  Your meeting attendees will need to install SP7 so they will also be able to view your Office 2007 system presentations in Office Live Meeting 2005.

Installation Instructions:
To install Office Live Meeting 2005 – Service Pack 7 click here.
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8BB36446-1465-4F52-B820-433B7ECDA7D6&displaylang=en)

Check this out.  4 monitors used with Windows Vista:

A skeptical employee here at Microsoft put this together and is now, I quote, "convinced that large screen multi-mon configurations are a real productivity booster."

Some of the things he notes is:

• SIDESHOW REAL ESTATE:
  Sideshow (the bar with constantly updated news and message content on the far left monitor in the photo) finally has enough real estate to store everything that he likes to have available to him at the blink of an eye.
• HORIZONTAL INBOX:
  Dedicating a horizontal display (on the far right) for nothing but email is very productive.  It eliminates the need to actually open mails, since the preview screen has enough real estate to show everything about the email, and it keeps from ever having to switch application contexts. 
  …personally, I suspect that this configuration makes it possible to use another peripheral to switch between applications:  Your neck.  All you have to do, instead of constantly using your overworked mouse hand, is turn your head.  It’s an intuitive way of switching between applications – just turn your head to get to Outlook.
• FLIP3D:
  Flip3D, the feature of Windows Vista that allows you to scroll between multiple applications within a 3 dimensional environment that is called up by hitting WINDOWS+TAB works very well in this configuration of 4 monitors, moving applications from one monitor to another.
• TABS CONSOLIDATE BROWSING, ELIMINATE SCROLLING:
  Internet Explorer, is very productive now since with the inclusion of tabbed browsing, there’s little need to switch between windows.  Tabs switch pages quickly and easily, and more importantly, they always maintain the same window dimensions since the IE window in the 2nd to the left display is always maximized.
  He also notes that since the maximized window has so much real estate, it’s rare for him to have to scroll which is yet again, less work for the poor mouse hand.
• VIDEO MOVEMENT: 
  Video movement from screen to screen is very smooth and seamless.  He says moving a video from one area to another works exactly as it should.

He also comments on the "haters" that say this is no different from Windows XP:

Some people say, “yeah, well you can do this on XP too.” What I’ve noticed that’s different on Vista that makes a difference over XP is 1. Windows tend to stay where you put them better; 2. Watching video (or DX anything) in full screen on one monitor and then working on a window in another monitor does not cause the DX app to drop out of full screen; 3. The fonts are so much more legible.

This is all done with about $3000 in displays today.  With the upcoming drop in monitor costs over the next 12 months, he believes this will be a massive boon for users.

9.3 million pixels rules.  Something to consider for the Executive desktop if you really wanna "wow" them with Windows Vista.

For those of you who know who comedian Demetri Martin, you’ll be pleased to know that he’ll be entertaining you throughout the launch of Windows Vista through various outlets.  For those of you who DON’T know who he is, well, you’re definitely no longer the MTV generation ‘eh?

We’ve hired him to inject his edgy comedy into our launch.  Here’s the first site:
http://www.clearification.com/

I’ve posted some of his comedy for on my video site.  I’ll update this later with the stream links if I get the time.

First of all, no corporate customer I know should actively encourage the usage of Quicktime.  Wow.  That’s a pretty bold statement isn’t it?  I mean, what’s wrong with Quicktime?  What’s wrong with installing just one more client application?  It’s just a media player right?  WRONG.

HUH?  WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
Quicktime like any application is prone to vulnerabilities however there’s no integration between Quicktime and any standard patching system like Microsoft Update or Systems Management Server.  Being that Quicktime is so rarely used for business purposes (it’s primarily used these days for movie trailers and miscellaneous entertainment videos) is that something that any IT department really wants to have to patch on an ongoing basis?

LOTS OF PATCHES
This isn’t a small number of patches folks.  For those of you thinking that it’s "not that big a deal", you should check out the list of patches that have been released over the past year or so.  For example, just this September 13th, 2006, Apple released a major set of vulnerability updates for Quicktime 7.x.  For a listing of all patches, check this link out:  http://secunia.com/product/5090/?task=advisories

WHAT TO DO?  CONVERT IT!
Simple.  If anyone needs to see a Quicktime video, CONVERT IT.  Convert it to MPEG or Windows Media.  This is an easy process if you know how.  For a cheap and reliable method of converting Quicktime videos to a more managable, readable format, grab the program "MPEG4 DirectMaker" from Artech365.  http://artech365.com/mpeg4maker/index.htm

It will require that you yourself install QuickTime 7 (you won’t need to buy it) and possibly some other free tools.  Check this page for a list of tools that you might want to install.  Note that MPEG4 DirectMaker will convert more than just Quicktime videos to Windows Media format – it will also convert DiVX videos, Real Media (.rm), 3GP camera phone video files,  MPEG1 files, and other formats.
http://artech365.com/mpeg4maker/down.htm

WHAT TO DO?  USE QUICKTIME ALTERNATIVE
If you’re a consumer, you might consider using Quicktime Alternative which is a small Quicktime viewer that runs within Windows Media Player.  It’s a pretty good solution for folks that just want to run something small to see a single video in .MOV format.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

For those of you who blog, this is an update you should look into.

Windows Live Writer Beta Build 145 is a client-side tool that allows you to blog with all the traditional tools of a "FrontPage" or a "Word" without being as "heavy" as those applications.  It’s an installable Windows application based on the .NET framework that allows people to post blog entries to Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress, and other blogging systems.

• Imagine… no longer having to use the crappy editing systems of most of these blogs.
• Imagine… being able to write your own entries offline on an airplane without an Internet connection.
• Imagine… a WYSIWYG interface that allows drag & drop graphics, left/right/center justification, and all that jazz.

This is a really good tool.  And it’s a free download.  They’ve updated it to polish the edges of the program so a lot has been adjusted to make it more friendly.  The speed is a bit better and they’ve fixed some really annoying things like the automatic "shortening" of cut & pasted URLs.  The product team has a blog and they’ve explained what they’ve added/adjusted to the app there.

BLOG:  http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

DOWNLOAD:  http://g.msn.com/8SEENUS030000TBR/WriterMSI

Interesting.  This a combo USB attached mouse and VOIP phone.

Personally, I think that VOIP software working in tandem with a Bluetooth headset is a better solution but I can see a lot of folks getting hot and bothered over this being that it’s a pretty interesting form factor.

I doesn’t really matter for right now:  The phone’s only available in Japan for now.

Wow.  We acquired DesktopStandard.
http://www.desktopstandard.com/

DesktopStandard makes tools that help people better use Group Policy to manage applications that aren’t traditionally supported for management through Group Policy.  This technology will very likely be emerging within System Center Configuration Manager a.k.a. SMS 4.0.

Here’s the press release.

—————————-

DesktopStandard Corporation Is Acquired by Microsoft
Customers can continue to purchase DesktopStandard products

Portsmouth, NH – October 2, 2006 – DesktopStandard Corporation, the leading developer of Group Policy-based enterprise desktop management products, today announced it has been acquired by Microsoft Corp. The addition of DesktopStandard demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to help customers leverage the value of policy-based management and maximize the value of their investments in Microsoft Active Directory.
"It’s hard to find a dissatisfied DesktopStandard customer," says Larry Orecklin, General Manager, Microsoft’s Windows Enterprise Management Division. "DesktopStandard solutions have helped Microsoft customers manage complexity and recognize value from their Active Directory deployments. Through this acquisition, we plan to enhance Group Policy and make desktop management easier so our customers can achieve a higher level of agility and business value."
"Since our inception in 1997, I have enjoyed working with and learning from our customers. Joining with Microsoft will allow DesktopStandard to more quickly meet our goal of helping customers extend Group Policy to handle the majority of their distributed management tasks and to provide a more manageable environment for doing so," said DesktopStandard’s CTO and cofounder, Eric Voskuil. "Customers will benefit now and into the future as our innovative team joins Microsoft in building the future of model-based management technologies." Voskuil will join Microsoft’s Windows Enterprise Management Division in the role of Software Architect.
DesktopStandard will continue to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft while the DesktopStandard technology is transitioned to Microsoft. Customers can continue to purchase GPOVault®, ProfileMaker, PolicyMaker™ Standard Edition and Share Manager from DesktopStandard and existing partners. ProfileMaker will be available only from existing DesktopStandard partners. Microsoft will continue to support customers according to the terms and conditions of existing agreements. Microsoft is not acquiring the PolicyMaker™ Application Security business.
PolicyMaker Application Security will be exclusively available from BeyondTrust Corporation, formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of DesktopStandard. BeyondTrust is focused on enterprise security products that eliminate the need for security administrators to place trust in computers or users. BeyondTrust will continue to develop, sell and support PolicyMaker Application Security under the product name, BeyondTrust Privilege Manager.
John Moyer, DesktopStandard’s CEO and cofounder, states, "It is an exciting opportunity to move forward with BeyondTrust at a time when organizations are focused on increasing protection from zero-hour exploits, data theft, and unauthorized malicious use." Moyer will be joining BeyondTrust in the position of CEO. "By enabling the security best practice of Least Privilege with BeyondTrust Privilege Manager organizations find that they not only achieve these security goals, but also increase business productivity and regulatory compliance."
To learn more about BeyondTrust Privilege Manager or any of DesktopStandard’s Group Policy-based desktop management products, please:

Read the acquisition FAQ

Read the full press release

From all of us at DesktopStandard, thank you for being part of the DesktopStandard community. We look forward to continuing to work with you.