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February 28  The new Beta of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center has been put up for people to visit and research.
It’s a web site focusing on malware that includes: - Published analyses of Active Threats (Trojabs, Worms, Viruses, Backdoors, etc.)
- Access to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report which gives perspective on software vulnerabilities and threats during the first & second half of the year
- Downloads of the latest virus definitions and updates from Microsoft’s malware prevention products such as:
- Windows Defender (Anti-spyware)
- Windows Live OneCare
- Forefront Client Security
- Forefornt Server Security
- Microsoft DaRT
- Online sample submissions of potential threats along with the ability to track a given submission through the eval process
LINK:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/beta/ BLOG:
http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/ February 27  It has been officially announced that support for the VB6 runtime will be extended through the lifecycle of Windows 7.
For more information you can check out the “Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7” on MSDN at (NOTE: This does not in any way change the fact that extended support for the VB6 development environment has been retired (http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2971) and that support is now only available through a custom support agreement.)  A cumulative update for Outlook 2007 which covers performance and calendar improvements has been released. The Outlook February Cumulative Update contains a large set of the fixes that release as part of the 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 (SP2), a full description of the Outlook 2007 improvements in the cumulative updates is here:
LINK: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=968009
After reviewing the article click the link at the top of the page, you will need to enter your email address, you will then receive an email with the download link and the password for extracting the update. Please Note: After you successfully install the update, the first time you run Outlook there will be a slight one-time delay as Outlook reprocesses your data files. After this initial process, performance will improve as described in this article. More Information: There is an Outlook Team Blog and the link to the article for this fix is:
http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/archive/2009/02/25/announcing-the-february-cumulative-update-for-outlook-2007.aspx  Learn how MOSS 2007 with PerformancePoint Services supports a collaborative dashboarding environment while working in teams to utilize the Dashboard Designer to build out a scalable-interactive “Dashboard in a Day”.
By attending this FREE Hands-On Lab, you will: - Use what you own: Learn how your investment in Microsoft SharePoint now also gives you PerformancePoint Services for free.
- Learn how to build end-to-end dashboard and scorecards that are centrally defined and deployed for the organization to consume corporate data.
- Become familiar with how PerformancePoint Services can bring together the power of the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack to your corporate portal
- Leverage your experience and collaborate with your peers to build out an interactive corporate dashboard
Who Should Attend:
This is an hands-on lab provides both hands on learning lab and a team collaboration environment for business analysts, report authors, financial analysts, and financial controllers who are: - possess a basic understanding of dashboarding and scorecarding
- are interested in creating scalable portals in a team environment
- are considering or planning to deploy KPI’s for scorecarding with contextual analytical reports for an interactive dashboard experience
Prerequisites:
To get the most from this course, you will need an understanding of reporting, dashboarding and scorecarding. Date/Time:
Monday, March 16, 2009 9:00 AM - Monday, March 16, 2009 3:30 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 8:30 AM Location:
Microsoft Office – Irvine
3 Park Plaza
Suite 1600 Irvine California 92614
United States Registration:
If you are interested in attending and are a customer of mine, please contact me for registration information – there is a password that is required. Only registered individuals will be allowed into the lab: NO WALK INS WILL BE ALLOWED. February 26  The Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating system includes changes to Windows Server® 2008 features and technologies that help improve the security of computers running Windows Server 2008 R2, increase productivity, and reduce administrative overhead. The following topics describe some of these features and technologies.
View the entire change list here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd391932.aspx  In August 2008, Microsoft Corporation commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine the total economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises might realize by upgrading from SQL Server 2000 or 2005 to SQL Server 2008. SQL Server 2008 offers many features that improve the performance, administration, integration, security and availability of SQL Server databases. In addition, it increases the productivity of Database Administrators (DBA) and developers to better manage and exploit data stored in SQL databases. This study illustrates the financial impact of upgrading from a previous version of SQL Server to SQL Server 2008.
Conducting in-depth interviews with an existing SQL customer that upgraded to SQL Server 2008, Forrester found that the organization achieved benefits, some easily measured for this ROI study and others, equally as valuable, that could not be quantified. Specifically, the benefits fall into the following categories: - avoided adding SQL Server 2008 servers – license and hardware savings;
- avoided adding storage;
- eliminated third-party software;
- avoided hiring additional IT employees;
- increased user productivity – business and IT;
- improved database performance and provided enhanced features;
- improved data security; and
- improved working experience
for the database administration team. Only the first five benefits were quantified as part of the ROI analysis. To fully understand the potential effect on their organizations, readers should consider all benefits, whether or not they could be quantified for this study. This customer provided metrics to quantify components of the first five benefits listed above. For the interviewed customer, Forrester found that upgrading to Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 delivered an anticipated ROI of between 162% and 181%.  The Forrester study is downloadable below.
Additionally, a quick summary of SQL Server 2008’s cost cutting capabilities are summarized in the .XPS document below. February 24  Please join us as we present some of the highlights of PDC!
We will be reviewing some technologies first discussed at PDC -- such as ASP.Net 4.0, jQuery integration, and C# 4.0. But we will not only be talking about the future. We will also discuss some recent releases that you can take advantage of now, including the current ASP.Net 4.0 codeplex releases. The sessions will be broken down as follows: | | | | AGENDA | | | TIME | TOPIC | | Hour 1 | Welcome / Learning ASP.Net 4.0 | | Hour 2 | jQuery and ASP.Net | | | Break | | Hour 3 | What’s New in C#4.0 | - Los Angeles
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 2:00 PM - Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Microsoft - Los Angeles
333 S. Grand Ave.
Suite #3300 (33rd Floor) Los Angeles California 90071
**Parking is available at Joe’s Auto Parks (Lots 220 and 240) located on the corner of Hope and Gen Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way (lot address: 220 S. Hope Los Angeles CA 90071); you will need to pay a parking fee of $12.00 (check or cash only) for the full day. Please note that Joe’s Auto Park is an unaffiliated, independent vendor and that Microsoft is in no way liable for any negligence or any damage that may be incurred by attendees who utilize this parking facility.
- Irvine
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 2:00 PM - Wednesday, March 25, 2009 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Microsoft - Orange County
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine California 92614
**Parking is available in building garage. Cost is $1.50 per 15 minutes, with a daily maximum of $18.00. Registration:
If you’re interested in attending and a customer of mine, please contact me for details on how to register. February 23  Please join Microsoft & Quest Software for an informative event: Managing System Updates in a Complex, Heterogeneous Environment. During this event, experts at Microsoft and Quest will show you innovative solutions for System Center that can help you easily manage your heterogeneous environment, increase efficiency, reduce costs, increase compliancy and mitigate risks.
Discover how Configuration Manager with QMX enables you to: - Centralize visibility and control
- Track all of your IT assets
- Manage and report on your configurations
- Reduce redundant tools and scripts
- Meet compliance mandates
You will also have the opportunity to tour the Microsoft Technology Center and view the integrated Configuration Manager & QMX solution in the Envisioning Center lab. - 8:30am-9:00am
Registration & Breakfast - 9:00am-9:30am
Overview of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 - 9:30am-10:00am
Overview of Quest's System Center Solutions - 10:00am-12:00pm
Deep dive into QMX for Configuration Manager - 12:00pm-12:45pm
Lunch - 12:45pm-3:00pm
MTC tour and Envisioning Center Demo Registration:  The BizTalk Adapter Packs is a set of modules that provide message passing & various other levels of integration with SAP, Siebel, OracleDB, OracleEBS and SQL WCF Bindings. These adapters can be used with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and R3.
(taken from the Biztalk blog) We are pleased to announce the release of the Adapter Pack 2.0 Beta.As this is a public beta, customers can also download a 120 day evaluation version here .The features we added are listed below in brief . In addition, we are shipping a free to use migration tool which will help users migrate their projects which used older adapters to the Adapter Pack adapters (details below) Oracle EBS - 64 bit support
- Synonyms
- Added performance counters
- Notification support
OracleDB - 64 bit support
- Synonyms
- UDTs
- Notifications
- Polling stored procedures
- Performance counters
Adapter SDK - Display complex binding properties
- Display metadata wsdl in web control
SAP data provider - Support for more operators in Sap Queries
- SAP SSRS support in VS2008
Samples - New Samples for SQL and Oracle eBiz Adapters
The BizTalk Adapter Pack Migration Tool is a utility that helps developers migrate BizTalk projects using the BizTalk 2006 SQL or the BizTalk Adapter v2.0 for mySAP Business Suite to their corresponding WCF-based versions from BizTalk Adapter Pack v2! With the help of this utility you will be able to compile and deploy your application within minutes. Some of the highlights for the Migration Tool are: - Works on the source project files
- Generates equivalent schema definitions for the operations used in the existing project
- Generates new maps to convert messages from older formats to the new format
- Modifies any existing maps to work with the new schemas
- A new project is created upon completion, which uses the SQL and/or SAP adapters from the BizTalk Adapter Pack v2
The tool works for most common scenarios of maps and orchestrations, however it is only meant to be a starting step towards migration to BAP and we are open to receiving feedback to add scenarios. DOWNLOAD:
http://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/Downloads.aspx?SiteID=218  Many organizations are tempted to skip Windows Vista entirely and wait for the next release, Windows 7, which Microsoft plans to release in late 2009 or early 2010.
“Most organizations shouldn’t skip Windows Vista entirely… Skipping versions of Windows entirely generally increases the risk of having unsupported applications running on the selected operating systems.” - Taken from “Understand the Risks of Skipping Windows Vista”
Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00158795, Michael A. Silver, 11 July 2008, RA2 04022009 (http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/gc/reprints/microsoft/
microsoft_vol2_article2.pdf) (Note: Document requires Gartner Group Subscription) We’re giving away free individual copies of the Windows Vista Resource Kit eBook (2nd Edition)!
Offer ends this month. -----------------  Windows Vista® Resource Kit, Second Edition
Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Windows Vista Team
July 16, 2008
1696 Pages
9780735625969
Your definitive resource for deployment and operations—straight from the experts. In-depth, comprehensive, and fully updated for Service Pack 1, this RESOURCE KIT delivers the information you need to administer Windows Vista. You get authoritative technical guidance from those who know the technology best—Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals and the Windows Vista team—along with essential scripts and resources on the CD. Get expert guidance on how to: - Use Microsoft Deployment Toolkit best practices and tools
- Plan user-state migration and test application compatibility
- Exploit new Group Policy features, settings, and ADMX templates
- Configure software updates and client-security technologies
- Administer disks, file systems, file sharing, search, and Internet Explorer
- Install and troubleshoot printers, devices, and services
- Manage IPsec, IPv6, wireless, and remote connectivity
- Use performance monitoring and diagnostic tools to manage desktop health
- Resolve common startup, hardware, and networking issues
DOWNLOAD:
http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urws8un4p7 We’re giving away free individual copies of the eBook “Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!”. Offer ends this month. -------------------  Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!
By Patrice Pelland
ISBN: 9780735625426
272 Pages
Make building new programming skills fun and fast with a quick-start, project-based approach!
In this lively, eye-opening, hands-on book, all you need is a computer and the desire to learn how to program with Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. Featuring a full edition of the software, this fun and highly visual guide walks you through a complete programming project—a desktop weather-reporting application—from start to finish. You’ll get an introduction to the Microsoft Visual Studio® development environment and learn how to put the lightweight, easy-to-use tools in Visual C# Express Edition to work right away—creating, compiling, testing, and delivering your first ready-to-use program. You’ll get expert tips, coaching, and visual examples at each step of the way, along with pointers to additional learning resources. DOWNLOAD:
http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urrs4gt63d  Technet & MSDN Events Unleashed: Windows Vista to Windows 7
Saturday, February 28, 2009 8:00 AM - Saturday, February 28, 2009 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
2/28/2009
8:00 AM - 1:30 PM
Welcome Time: 2/28/2009 7:45 AM Pacific Time
Recommended Audiences: IT Professionals, Developers
This event is taking place live in the Irvine, CA office. For those who cannot attend in person, we are also simulcasting via Live Meeting. We will be utilizing 2-Way Audio directly from Live Meeting so you shouldn't need to dial into a conference bridge. The Live Meeting link will be sent with your registration confirmation. Is Vista Still Relevant? Windows Vista - The Path to 7
With Windows 7 on the horizon, is Vista still relevant? This presentation will cover why Vista is the best path to Windows 7 readiness as well as discuss the key underpinnings in the Windows 7 OS and product evolutions with Server 2008 R2, IPv6 and beyond. Focus will be around top 10 things IT Pros should know about Windows Vista and its evolution in Windows 7. Welcome to Windows 7
This session will be an overview of the GUI and Feature improvements in Windows 7. This will include
• Task Bar/System Tray Improvements
• Aero Features
• System Improvements
• Control Panels and Features
• Desktop Improvements
• IE 8
• Under The Hood Windows 7 Deep Dive
Deep Dive One and Two will dig into Windows 7 and the new or redesigned under the hood features in the product.
The topics covered will be:
• Microsoft’s understanding of the needs of IT Pros when designing Windows 7
• Hardware Readiness
• Improved Applications
• Application Compatibility
• AIK
• VHD Images and Imaging
• DISM
• Dynamic Driver Provisioning
• Multicast Multiple Stream Transfer
• Streamlined Installation and File Migration
• USMT
• DHCP Hint
• Enterprise Application Compatibility
• Windows Troubleshooting Platform Registration:
If you are a customer of mine, please contact me for details on how to register.  <taken from the Windows Server blog>
Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 Beta is now available on the Microsoft Download Center.
Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 enables IT pros to manage roles and features that are installed on remote computers that are running Windows Server 2008 R2 (and, for some roles and features, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003) from a remote computer that is running Windows 7. It includes support for remote management of computers that are running either the Server Core or full installation options of Windows Server 2008 R2, and for some roles and features, Windows Server 2008. Some roles and features on Windows Server 2003 can be managed remotely by using Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7, although the Server Core installation option is not available with the Windows Server 2003 operating system. This is the next generation of the Admin Pack, aka Windows Server 2003 Administrative Tools Pack and Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1). Don’t forget, you’ll have to take all the old Admin Tools packs off your computer before you unleash Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 on it. And please, don’t try to run multiple copies of Remote Server Administration Tools on your computer, even if the copies are in different languages. What’s included in this release? Read on, gentle user… Server Administration Tools: - Server Manager (thaaaat’s right! You can use Server Manager to manage Windows Server 2008 R2 computers from a computer that’s running Windows 7. You’re welcome.)
Role Administration Tools: - Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Tools
- Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools
- Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools
- DHCP Server Tools
- DNS Server Tools
- File Services Tools
- Hyper-V Tools
- Remote Desktop Services Tools
Feature Administration Tools: - BitLocker AD Password Recovery Viewer
- Failover Clustering Tools
- Group Policy Management Tools
- Network Load Balancing Tools
- SMTP Server Tools
- Storage Explorer Tools
- Storage Manager for SANs Tools
- Windows System Resource Manager Tools
DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82516c35-c7dc-4652-b2ea-2df99ea83dbb&displaylang=en  Today, we announced that, on average, customers save $470,000 per year by using Windows Server Hyper-V. Not bad at all and very gratifying to see. Here's just one example provided today:
Saxo Bank had an average physical server utilization of just 20 percent and was deploying nearly 200 new servers per year before using server virtualization. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V allowed the bank to reduce the number of servers needed by 36 percent and realize savings equivalent to $1 million (U.S.), because of lower server hardware costs and associated reductions in space, power and cooling costs Another interesting part were the videos seen at the site. You can see/hear from Saxo Bank, Banverket, Rand Morimoto (who wrote a book on Hyper-V), and a video featuring Santa Barbara Web Hosting and Microsoft's Bob Muglia. Colleagues over at Windows Virtualization team blog have blogged that Microsoft's virtualization management stack is about 1/3 the cost of VMware's comparable stack. And who can forget how they let the chips fall in Vegas. I can't wait to hear more from customers running Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, and from those using live migration with a free product like the standalone Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.
Cost Savings with Microsoft Virtualization Cost Savings with Microsoft Virtualization Watch this video to see why the economic crunch is leading many businesses to choose Microsoft’s virtualization solution over the competition.  <taken from the Hotmail blog>
We are happy to announce that POP3 technology is now available to Hotmail users in the United States and Brazil in addition to the countries who rolled out the functionality last month (United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands). If you don’t see your country or region in this list, never fear, we’ll be rolling POP3 out to more parts of the world later this year. What is POP3? It is a protocol that allows almost any e-mail software program that you’ve installed on your mobile phone or PC* to get messages from your e-mail inbox on the web and deliver them in the designated program. Although you always could access Hotmail on your web-enabled mobile phone by going to mobile.live.com, now that Hotmail has POP3, you can get to it more conveniently using the e-mail software on your PC or mobile device* such as a Windows Mobile phone, iPhone, or BlackBerry. When you set up Hotmail in the e-mail program on your PC or mobile device, you may be asked for the following information: POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)
POP SSL required? Yes
User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25 or 587)
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes In addition to POP3, Microsoft offers additional technologies that can provide you with an even richer experience of your e-mail. Try viewing your Hotmail using Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Office Outlook via the Outlook Connector, or Windows Live for Windows Mobile phone. Looking for help with Hotmail? Visit the Windows Live Hotmail Solution Center! The Solution Center has instructions on how to set up your e-mail software to send and receive Windows Live Hotmail messages using POP3. You’ll also find instructions on how to set up Hotmail on the web to give you POP3 access to a non-Windows Live e-mail account. If you have problems using POP3 access, Windows Live Hotmail Solution Center also has links to report a problem with Hotmail. We hope you enjoy the many ways in which you can access your Windows Live Hotmail! - The Windows Live Hotmail team * If supported by your device and e-mail program  It's a new era for radio. Personalized, mobile, and free.
Pandora Radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your Windows Mobile handset. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it. Already a Pandora user? Even easier. Just sign in. Pandora on Windows Mobile is fully integrated with Pandora on the web. Enjoy all your existing stations - and create new ones right from your Windows Mobile handset. How to get it:
Point Pocket Internet Explorer on your Windows Mobile device to http://www.pandora.com.  <taken from the Sharepoint Team blog>
The current version of SharePoint gives an administrator the ability to look into what is actually happening on a farm, how many users are active, how heavy are they using the system, what type of requests are coming in, what kind of clients, etc. Much of this information is captured in the IIS logs.
Mike Wise who works on the Customer Advisory Team specializes in SharePoint capacity planning and architecture and his goal is to make SharePoint capacity planning more of a science and less of an art. His whitepaper is the first step, concentrating on the descriptive side of the task and showing one powerful technique that can be used today to make SharePoint performance and capacity measurable. You can count on seeing more papers, reports, and calculation methods building off his technique in the coming months. Topics covered in the whitepaper: - Preparing the Analysis Machine
- Preparing the Server Logs
- Initial Queries
- Counting Users
- Load Balancing
- User Types
- Request (RPS) Distribution over Time
- Distinct Users over Time
- User Agent Distribution
- Browser Usage Patterns
- Office Client Web Service Usage
- Slow Home Page Percentages
- Import IIS Logs into SQL
You can download the whitepaper here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f159af68-c3a3-413c-a3f7-2e0be6d5532e&displaylang=en&tm
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