The Remote Desktop Services Management Pack helps you manage your computers that are running Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 by monitoring the health of Remote Desktop Services role services.

The Remote Desktop Services Management Pack helps you manage your computers that are running Remote Desktop Services on Windows Server 2012 by monitoring the health of Remote Desktop Services role services.
Feature Summary
This management pack provides monitoring of the following Remote Desktop Services role services:

• RD Session Host
• RD Virtualization Host
• RD Licensing
• RD Gateway
• RD Connection Broker
• RD Web Access

This stencil contains more than 300 icons to help you create visual representations of your Microsoft Office and Exchange Server architecture.

Creating visual representations of your Microsoft Office and Exchange Server architecture is a helpful way to communicate your deployment. This Visio stencil provides more than 300 icons -- many depicting servers, applications, and services -- that you can use in architecture diagrams, charts, and posters. These icons are primarily centered around Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange technologies and features.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 is a shared resource computing technology that delivers low cost shared computing primarily for educational environments

Windows® MultiPoint Server 2012 is the third version of a Windows product primarily designed for educational institutions that allows multiple users to simultaneously share one computer. Users have their own independent and familiar Windows computing experience, using their own monitor, keyboard and mouse directly connected to the host computer. Windows MultiPoint Server 2012 enables more users to access technology at a lower total cost of ownership.

Designed for non-technical users, it is simple to manage and use. Based on the latest Windows technology it can run the latest Windows applications. Support can be obtained through Microsoft or an authorized partner, and schools have access to the latest updates with the confidence that they are getting the experience they expect.

Leonardo Amaya has created a Bink.nu news reader for Windows Phone, without me even knowing it! How cool is that.

“This is a simple news reader from Bink.nu. One of the most important news sites about the entire Windows ecosystem.”

Includes my twitter feed too Ver 2.0

-Added the ability to see a preview of the news.
-Added the ability to view on the web, pin to start and share news

Bink.nu Reader  Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

The Outlook Configuration Analyzer Tool 2.0 (OCAT ) provides a quick and easy method to analyze your Microsoft Office Outlook profile and mailbox for common configurations that may cause problems in Outlook. This can be very useful for busy Help Desk personnel when end-users call for help with Outlook or when you want to identify possible issues with Outlook proactively.

For any problems that are listed in the report, you are provided a link to a Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article that describes a possible fix for the problem. If you are a Help Desk professional, you can also export the report to a file. Then, the report can be viewed in the Outlook Configuration Analyzer Tool on another client computer where the tool is installed. The Outlook Configuration Analyzer Tool 2.0 also includes a command-line version that can be used to collect an OCAT scan without user intervention.

What’s new:

· Automatic downloading of new detection rules

As we create new rules to detect issues or to collect additional information about your Outlook profile, we will post a new updated rule file to the Internet. With the default OCAT version 2 configuration, OCAT will automatically check for a new rule file and provide a mechanism to update OCAT if a new file is found.

· Automatic downloading of OCAT installation files

As we update and fix the core OCAT application, we will post a new Windows Installer package file (.Msi) to the Internet. With the default OCAT version 2 configuration, OCAT will automatically check for a new installer file and provide a mechanism to update OCAT if a new file is found.

· Addition of the CalCheck tool

The Calendar Checking Tool (CalCheck) for Outlook is a command-line program that checks Outlook Calendars for problems. This tool is now included in OCAT to scan for and report on any known problems with items on your primary Calendar.

Please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for additional information about the CalCheck tool.

2678030 Information about the Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook (CalCheck)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2678030/EN-US

· Addition of new detection rules

To greatly enhance the list of known issues detected by OCAT, approximately 175 new rules were added since the first version shipped.

· Command-line version of OCATcmd.exe

OCAT version 2 includes a command-line version of OCAT (OCATcmd.exe) that administrators can use to scan computers in their organization.

· Office 365 resources added

To help Office 365 customers with Outlook problems, we added a link on the OCAT Welcome page to an article that provides a list of resources to help with top issues and how-to problems in Office 365. We also added detection rules specific to Office 365 issues.

· New modern user interface

The colors, fonts, and icons in OCAT were updated to mirror those found in Windows 8.

Download OCAT.msi

This spreadsheet details the security audit events for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

You can use Windows security and system logs to record and store collected security events so that you can track key system and network activities to monitor potentially harmful behaviors and to mitigate those risks. You customize system log events by configuring auditing based on categories of security events such as changes to user account and resource permissions, failed attempts for user logon, failed attempts to access resources, and attempts to modify system files. The information in this download can help you analyze the data included in event log data.

Download

Finally news on IE 10 for Windows 7, a preview is released:

Sorry be a bit more patient as the download links are not live as I write this:

IE 10 Worldwide-Languages

This report summarizes the study conducted by Mozaic Group, an independent market research firm among iPad users in the U.S., at Microsoft’s request, to obtain their reaction to the web browsing experience with Internet Explorer 10 on a Windows 8 tablet vs. Safari on the iPad.

Download

See also:

Penn Schoen Berland’s iPad Users Browsing Experience Research

This report summarizes the research study conducted by Penn Schoen Berland, an independent market research firm, among iPad owners in the U.S. to explore their overall experience with browsing on the iPad.

Download

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky will be leaving the company and that Julie Larson-Green will be promoted to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller retains her roles as chief financial officer and chief marketing officer and will assume responsibility for the business of Windows. Both executives will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

These changes are effective immediately.

“I am grateful for the many years of work that Steven has contributed to the company,” Ballmer said. “The products and services we have delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at Microsoft. We’ve built an incredible foundation with new releases of Microsoft Office, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface, Windows Server 2012 and ‘Halo 4,’ and great integration of services such as Bing, Skype and Xbox across all our products. To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings.”

Julie Larson-Green

“It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company,” Sinofsky said.

Since 1993, Larson-Green has worked on and led some of the most successful products for Microsoft, including the user experiences for early versions of Internet Explorer, and helped drive the thinking behind the refresh of the user experience for Microsoft Office. For Windows 7 and Windows 8 she was responsible for program management, user interface design and research, as well as development of all international releases. She has a master's degree in software engineering from Seattle University and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Western Washington University. In her new role she will be responsible for all future Windows product development in addition to future hardware opportunities.

Tami Reller

“Leading Windows engineering is an incredible challenge and opportunity, and as I looked at the technical and business skills required to continue our Windows trajectory — great communication skills, a proven ability to work across product groups, strong design, deep technical expertise, and a history of anticipating and meeting customer needs — it was clear to me that Julie is the best possible person for this job, and I’m excited to have her in this role,” Ballmer said.

Reller joined Windows in 2007 from the Microsoft Dynamics Division where she held a number of leadership positions. She began her career in technology at Great Plains Software in 1984 while still in college, and was the company’s chief financial officer at the time the company was acquired by Microsoft in 2001. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Minnesota State University Moorhead and an MBA from St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. In her expanded role she will assume the lead in driving business and marketing strategy for Windows devices, including Surface and partner devices, in addition to her current marketing and finance responsibilities.

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for November 2012

What is it?

Offline access in Outlook Web App for Exchange 2013 lets users use Outlook Web App even when not connected to a network.

Offline access is newly available in Outlook Web App on the following web browsers.:

• Internet Explorer 10
• Safari 5 or greater (supported on Mac desktops only)
• Chrome

For more information about the offline user experience, see Using Outlook Web App offline.

What data is available offline?

Mail

• Users will be able to see all their folders, and content in all offline-supported folders.
• Offline-supported folders include:
  • Inbox
  • Drafts
  • Any folder viewed from the browser in the last week
• For each offline-supported folder, users will have 3 days of content or 150 items, whichever is larger.
• Attachments are not available when offline.

Calendar

• Reminders will pop-up for meetings and appointments
• Current month and upcoming year of calendar
• Multiple calendars are not available when offline

People

• All Contacts
• Anyone the user emails often or has emailed recently
• The Auto-Complete cache (the list of matching names that appear as someone is added to a message)

What user actions are supported offline?

Continue at source: Offline access in Outlook Web App 2013 - Exchange Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Volume license editions of Office 2013 client products require activation. This download enables IT administrators to set up a Key Management Service (KMS) or configure a domain for Active Directory-Based activation. Either of these volume activation methods can locally activate all Office 2013 clients connected to an organization’s network.

If you want to activate volume license editions of Office 2013, Visio 2013, or Project 2013 with a KMS host or Active Directory-Based activation, you need to first install Office 2013 Volume License Pack. When an Office 2013 volume edition client is installed, it will automatically attempt to activate via either Active Directory by using its existing domain pairing or a DNS-discoverable KMS host on your organization network. To set up Active Directory-Based activation, you must be running Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, or newer.

All volume editions of Office 2013 client products are pre-installed with a Generic Volume License Key (GVLK) key, which supports automatic activation for both KMS and Active Directory-Based Activation, so you will not need to install a product key.
This download contains an executable file that will extract and install KMS host license files. These license files are required for the KMS host service to recognize Office 2013 KMS host keys. On Windows Server 2012 and volume license editions of Windows 8, you can use your same KMS host key to set up Active Directory-Based activation.