Month: November 2006

I’ve just done a manual upgrade of my Office 2003 installation to Office 2007 RTM, the first thing I downloaded from my TechNet subscription.  It was painless.  I’m a little wary of downloading the Desktop Search functionality that Outlook 2007 wants me to download.  Maybe I’ll get around to that at some point … after taking a system restore point 🙂  So far, so good.  Rumour is that Vista will be out tomorrow, probably later in the day.  That’ll be next on the upgrade agenda.

The following updates will be available from Microsoft Update in the following few hours.  As usual, you should test them before deploying onto a production environment.

Critical

• MS06-067: This update resolves vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer that could allow remote code execution – Internet Explorer
• MS06-068: This update resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft Agent that could allow remote code execution – Windows
• MS06-069: This update resolves vulnerabilities in Macromedia Flash Player, from Adobe, that could allow remote code execution – Windows
• MS06-070: This update resolves a vulnerability in Workstation Service that could allow remote code execution Windows
• MS06-071: This update resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services that could allow remote code execution – Windows

Important

• MS06-066: This update resolves vulnerabilities in the Client Service for NetWare that could allow remote code execution. The Client Service for NetWare is not installed by default on any affected operating system version – Windows

As you may know, CPU manufacturers reached the limits of known physics by making CPU’s faster and faster.  They couldn’t scale up any more so it was time to scale out.  The result of hitting this wall was to add an extra core to the CPU, giving us dual core processors that have been shipping in PC’s and servers for a while now.  Today, Intel launched their first quad core CPU.  That’s basically 4 processing engines in one CPU.  Intel has posted loads on information on this new technology on their website.

A quad core will appear to your operating system as 4 CPU’s.  Microsoft don’t license per core so that won’t be a problem.  Where you will have licensing issues is where vendors license per core.  I’m fairly sure IBM do this with Lotus Domino … but hey … Notes Sucks!

I can’t claim to be a CPU guru.  Where I see this CPU really being useful is in systems where number crunching is vital, e.g. VM hypervisors, hefty simultation systems, etc.

The ADMX Migrator is an MMC snap in for converting existing group policy ADM templates to ADMX which is the XML equivilent for Windows Vista and Windows "Longhorn".  It’s available for download now.

ADMX offers:

• Multilanguage support.
• An optional centralised data store (maybe the one in the Desktop Opimisation Pack?).
• Version Control.

You can find out more about ADMX on the Microsoft website.

IT Fourm (the big MS conference in Europe) kicked off with it’s keynote presentation in Barcelona this morning.  Some announcements as reported by Bink:

• Windows 2003 SP2 RC1 was released.
• Windows "Longhorn" Hypervisor public beta will be released in Q1 2007 and will RTM within 180 days of the Windows "Longhorn" RTM.
• Windows Powershell has RTM’d and will likely be available for download today.
• Forefront Client Security is available as a public beta.

I only get limited time to play with stuff in my virtual lab between working 8 hours a day and commuting for another 3.5.  This is some of the stuff I’m looking to work on (or have worked on) and want to document and put up on this site.

I’m a big fan of SMS 2003 and MOM 2005 and that will continue with CM 2007 and OM 2007.  I’ve had some time to play with the beta releases in the past and I will definitely spend more time with them, hopefully starting this side of Christmas/New Years.  We can expect RTM releases in mid 2007.

I’ve had a very quick look at Exchange 2007 and like what I saw at a high level.  I’m scheduled to get some more hands-on next month.  That was supposed to happen early last month but my contract started the day before.  I’d like to have a look at some of Exchange in a bit more detail but I don’t know how much documentation I’ll get done.  Guys like Nathan Winters can do Exchange much better than me.

Vista will be available to Volume License with SA, MSDN and TechNet customer this month, maybe even next week.  Obviously I want to have a look at Vista.  My focus will start with OS deployment.  I really don’t think the Irish market is going to jump at Vista.  It’ll take at least 12 months at least before any demand gets going.  Still, Mark Minasi has a Vista security book on the way and a Mastering Vista book in his lineup.

I’ve spent a bit of time with Microsoft Sybari for Exchange 2006 on an Exchange 2003 cluster.  I’ve got that running on a virtual cluser in Virtual Server 2005 R2.  I’ve been meaning to document that for some time so that’ll be on the way soon.

Speaking of Microsoft Anti-Virus, Forefront Client Security is currently in private beta.  I’ve put in a request to sign up for the public beta.  I’m really looking forward to that release.

What I’m planning to do next is Windows Deployment Services (WDS).  I was hoping to include it in my Windows 2003/XP x64 SP2 document but that was starting to get too big without WDS being delved into.  I"m hoping I can get this working in a virtual environment.  I’ve got my RIS server working and I’ve upgraded to W2003 R2 SP2 so we’ll likely see how it goes next week.

I only get to work on this stuff on alternate weekends.  Somewhere I’ve got to fit in a life outside of IT: friends, family, sitting in bogs or ditches with my camera waiting for the right animal or birds to pass by and sleep, the latter being all to rare lately.