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Windows 7 for XP ProfessionalsUpdating Support Skills from XP to Windows 7by Bink.nu's Raymond Comvalius
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Microsoft announced the release of Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, a new Windows product that increases access to affordable computing in educational scenarios such as classrooms, labs and libraries by allowing multiple users to simultaneously share one computer using multiple screens. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is now globally available to OEMs and will be rolling out to Microsoft academic volume licensing customers on March 1. In addition, Microsoft is announcing new partnerships that create a strong global ecosystem of hardware companies that give customers a breadth of choices to buy and use Windows MultiPoint Server solutions.
“We heard clearly from our customers in education that to help fulfill the amazing promise of technology in the classroom, they needed access to affordable computing that was easy to manage and use,” said Anthony Salcito, vice president of worldwide education at Microsoft. “That’s why we developed Windows MultiPoint Server — a solution that meets these needs and delivers an up-to-date, trusted Windows experience.”
Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is an operating system that enables multiple people to connect to a single host computer with their own monitor, keyboard and mouse through USB or a video card. Each person individually controls his or her own station with an independent and familiar Windows computing experience. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is the flagship product in a family of shared resource computing technologies, the MultiPoint solutions, which provide teachers and students with greater access to educational technology. Shared resource computing is an emerging category that allows a customer to tap into more of a computer’s capability to enable a single host computer to support multiple users simultaneously.
“Shared resource computing can multiply the number of student workstations available to schools, delivering more value while staying within the same budget,” said Bill Rust, research director at Gartner Inc. “Teachers can better align computing resources with instructional strategies while deploying fewer fully configured computers and reducing workstation support liabilities.”
More information on how to buy Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 and the Windows MultiPoint family of solutions is available at http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint.
In the past 2 weeks I noticed that on Microsoft download center Microsoft Security Essentials was re-published. But when I tried to install it, it stated that it was already installed, telling me it was the same version.
Now it is published again and now it is a new version (build) 1.0.1959.0.
Download and run it directly and it will upgrade.
Download details Microsoft Security Essentials
Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple. Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so you’re free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times. *Your PC must run genuine Windows to install Microsoft Security Essentials. Learn more about genuine.
Watch videos to help you get the most from Microsoft Security Essentials.
Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 (MBCA 2.0) can help you maintain optimal system configuration by analyzing configurations of your computers against a predefined set of best practices, and reporting results of the analyses.
Best practices are developed by a product development team or domain experts, and are packaged in the form of a best practice model. Models are available as separately-downloadable packages that can be run and analyzed by MBCA. MBCA lets users work with best practice models in a consistent, user-friendly way.
Download details Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0
The Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer performs an overall topology readiness scan of your environment and provides you with a list of decisions that need to be made before you deploy Exchange Server 2010.
You can use the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer to perform an overall topology readiness scan of your environment. When you run the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer, it provides a detailed report that will alert you if there are any issues within your organization, which could prevent you from deploying Exchange 2010. For example, the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer will notify you if you haven't deployed the minimum required Exchange service pack on all your existing Exchange servers. The checks performed by ExPDA are similar to the pre-requisite checks implemented (via Exchange Best Practices Analyzer) in the Exchange 2010 Setup program; in fact ExPDA is based off the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) engine. However, unlike Exchange 2010 setup, this tool focuses only on overall topology readiness and not the ability to run Exchange 2010 on the local computer. The scan also performs a deep analysis of each existing Exchange 2003/2007 server to verify that it has the necessary updates and configuration in-place to support Exchange 2010. The end report is structured as follows:
ExPDA is another component in our vision to provide a seamless upgrade experience that reduces the complexities in deploying Exchange 2010. To start planning your upgrade, please utilize the Exchange Deployment Assistant. The Deployment Assistant allows a customer to create Exchange 2010 on-premises deployment instructions that are customized to their environment. The Assistant asks a small set of questions, and based on the answers, it provides a finite set of instructions that are designed to get a customer up and running on Exchange 2010. Running the Exchange Server Pre-Deployment Analyzer is now a recommended step within the pre-requisites section of the Deployment Assistant.
Today Microsoft is launching Windows MultiPoint Server around the world. Windows MultiPoint Server is available for purchase through OEMs and Microsoft Academic Volume Licensing (VL) customers on March 1, for schools and educational institutions (mainly for use in classrooms, labs and libraries).
Windows MultiPoint Server, based off Windows Server 2008 R2, is designed to enable multiple people (students) to share access to a single host PC through a “station” simultaneously. A station is a device that connects to a host PC running Windows MultiPoint Server via USB and connects to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Windows MultiPoint Server shares out an “instance” of Windows to a specific station via Remote Desktop Services (formerly known as Terminal Services) technology built in to Windows Server 2008 R2. If you have 1 host PC with Windows MultiPoint Server, you can support up to 10 people connecting to it and using it at the same time (hardware permitting of course). Each person independently controls familiar Windows experience.
Continue at source
See Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 in action.
Today, Microsoft is announcing three solutions that empower local language communities to discover, share and develop IT terminology in their native language. First, they are announcing the current list of languages that will be supported for the new releases of Windows, Office and, for the first time, Visual Studio:
• Fifty-nine new Language Interface Packs (LIPs) for both Windows 7 and Office 2010 • Four new LIP additions for Visual Studio 2010These new offerings are in addition to the 178 downloads available in 67 different languages for which there are already LIPs and CLIPs for earlier versions of Windows, Office and Visual Studio.
Full Story At Source
“We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com,” said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft. “Microsoft’s patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved.”
If you’re really looking to jumpstart your Bing Maps development you’re going to want to check out the new web application toolkit. The toolkit provides sample ASP .NET code for common scenarios such as pushpins on the Bing Maps Silverlight Control and creating a store locator. Read on the info I scraped from the site.
Web Application Toolkits help ASP.NET web developers quickly complete common tasks. Each Web Application Toolkit download contains reusable assets - e.g. controls, class libraries, endpoints etc. and a sample application that shows how to use them. Earlier this year we launched 7 Web App Toolkits; IE8 Extensibility, Bing Search, REST Services, Mobile Web Applications, Template-driven Email, Social Web Apps, FAQs. We received a great response from the community and had plenty of suggestions for new toolkits! Over the past couple of months we’ve been busy in the lab creating three new Web Application Toolkits and are excited to launch them today!
In this Web Application Toolkit you will find a set of reusable custom controls built in Silverlight, which integrated with the Bing Maps Silverlight Control, make a perfect fit for some of the most common location-aware scenarios. With this Toolkit, you will also find a sample Silverlight application showing how to use those controls when implementing a “store locator” scenario on a Web site.
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Infrastructure Planning and Design guides share a common structure, including:
Download details Infrastructure Planning and Design
Today Microsoft announced important updates for business customers considering Windows 7 deployment. Specifically, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2010 is now available and includes App-V 4.6, supporting Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 for RDS and Office 2010. The App-V support for Office 2010 means customers can do a one-touch deployment and do not have to wait for Office 2010 to deploy Windows 7.
Additionally, Microsoft released the MED-V 1.0 SP1 Release Candidate, which creates managed virtual machines running previous versions of Windows and Internet Explorer so users can upgrade to Windows 7. The RTM version of MED-V 1.0 SP1 will be available in April, but customers can start taking advantage of the technology now.
Along with these MDOP updates, Gavriella Schuster, General Manager of Windows Product Management, shared new information from Forrester around Windows 7’s Total Economic Impact (TEI), as well as details from IDC on Windows 7 deployment and how Microsoft partner Alinean’s ROI calculator can help companies determine the type of return they can expect once they’ve deployed Windows 7.
Lastly, several customers and MVPs that have provided extensive feedback and you’ll see examples of this in the various Microsoft blogs, as well as the independent MVP blogs.
Microsoft Blogs:
MVP Blogs:
By: Netanel Ben-Shushan, CSA/JNCIA-SSL/MCP/MCSA/MCSE/MCTS/MCITP
Abstract
This article will help you to learn everything that you need to know as a systems administrator (or SysAdmin) about this protocol and what can you do with him.
What's DHCP? And why it's recommended to use it?
Imagine that you're working as a SysAdmin for a large company with 500 desktop computers; you need to set to each desktop computer IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, DNS servers, and other network settings. How could you do that?
If you'll try to perform this task manually you're probably going to waste a lot of time on sitting on each computer 5-10 minutes, beside time, you can for example accidently enter wrong IP address to few clients, or to type the same IP address to few clients too.
In order to solve these "problems" you can use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (or DHCP) in your network.
DHCP allows you manage the networks' IP addresses scopes and other TCP/IP settings like DNS, Default Gateway, etc. from central place, this central place called DHCP server. Beside the management, if there's any problem you don't need to run between your clients, you just need to connect to your server and to check the DHCP settings, as I mentioned – the DHCP works from central place, so if there's a problem, it's probably from the server, so you know where to go in case of problem and your saving time.
The DHCP server can provide easily IP addresses to clients automatically so you don't even need to configure and set options in the client side, all you need is to setup DHCP server, configure scope options and some other TCP/IP settings in the server side and that's it. You can provide to your clients IP addresses from the selected range that you've configured and some other TCP/IP options.
Note: DHCP in my opinion can called "The next generation of BOOTP", because the BOOTP came first before the DHCP, and today we're using BOOTP in order to deploy operating systems by booting from the network. Beside this, DHCP was developed in order to support in large networks – something that BOOTP can't provide.
How DHCP works?
Without entering to the related technical information (DORA process) the DHCP client request from the DHCP server IP address for a while, the length of time that the DHCP client can use the dynamic IP address that the DHCP server provided can be called lease, just like the name: lease means that the client "rent" an IP address for a specific time from the DHCP server, if the client want to continue using the specific IP address the client needs to re-assign the address by renew the lease, this will happen before the expiration time of the lease if the client is still in the network.
More in depth, the DHCP service works by using the DORA (Discover, Offer, Request and Acknowledgment) process (you can trace on the whole process using a network monitor utility):
1. DHCPDISCOVER – The client broadcast a DHCPDISCOVER packet in order to locate a DHCP server in the network, in some cases that the DHCP server isn't in the same subnet of the client, you'll need to configure in your network devices (usually routers) a DHCP Relay Agent, in order to transfer the DHCPDISCOVER packet to the DHCP server.
2. DHCPOFFER – The DHCP server broadcast a DHCPOFFER packet to the client which includes an offer to use a unique IP address for the client.
3. DHCPREQUEST – The client broadcast a DHCPREQUEST packet to the DHCP server with an answer, and "asks" from the server to "rent" the unique address that the server offer to her.
4. DHCPACK – The DHCP server broadcast a DHCPACK packet to the client, in this packet the server acknowledge the request from the client to use the IP address, and provide to the client the IP address lease and other details such as DNS servers, default gateway, etc. if the server cannot provide the requested IP address or from some reasons the address is not valid the server sends DHCPNACK packet in stand of DHCPACK, more information about DHCPNACK is under the specific subject – DHCPNACK.
Note: DHCP service uses port 67/UDP in the DHCP server, and 68/UDP at the DHCP clients.
It's recommended to check that your firewall doesn't block these ports in order to able the DHCP server and clients to communicate, and also check that your network devices supports DHCP Relay Agent in case that some of your clients are in different physical subnet.
In some cases you'll notice another DHCP messages like these:
1. DHCPDECLINE – If the client recognizes that the IP address that the DHCP server offer to her in use, the client will generate a new request to another IP address (in the DHCPREQUEST step).
2. DHCPRELEASE – This message is commonly in use when the client "give up" and release IP address.
3. DHCPRENEW – This is the request packet to renew and continue "renting" the IP address lease.
4. DHCPINFORM – The DHCPINFORM is packet that the client send to the DHCP server in order to get more details from the server, for example DHCPINFORM can be send in order to locate another DHCP servers in the network.
DHCPNACK
The DHCPNACK or Negative Acknowledgment is a packet that the server sends if the IP address is not available in stand of DHCPACK (in use on other client for example) or the address is no longer valid. In case of DHCPNACK the client must restart the lease process in order to get an IP address.
DHCP Scopes, Exclude and Reservation
DHCP Scope is a range of IP addresses that you configure in your DHCP server as range of addresses that designed for distribution to the clients.
For example, if you set a scope with a range from 10.0.0.100-10.0.0.200, you can easily provide only from this range IP addresses to your clients.
You can also create more than one scope, but it's recommended to check that your scopes aren't duplicating one with each other's. At the scope creation process you can add some more TCP/IP parameters such as subnet mask, IP addresses lease time, router (default gateway), DNS servers, etc. so when the clients gets the IP addresses they'll get also the other parameters from the scope.
In some cases, you'll need to prevent the client using some addresses, for example if your scope is from 10.0.0.1 up to 10.0.0.100, and your servers using 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.10, you can exclude these IP addresses from the scope and exclude the DHCP to distribute them to the clients, in most of the DHCP servers this option called exclude.
Reservation is a great option if you're planning to provide specific dynamic IP address from the DHCP server to unique DHCP client. If for example in the 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.100 scope you want to provide for specific client a unique address that will be always of the client, you can easily set reservation for the client using a unique identifier – the MAC address, the MAC of Media Access Control is a unique hexadecimal physical address for network adapters.
DHCP & DNS
When you're installing DHCP server you can configure the DHCP server to set DNS updates to any DNS server that support dynamic updates. More information about the combination between DHCP and DNS you can find right here.
Active Directory & DHCP Servers
In Microsoft Windows Server with Active Directory you need to authorize your server in order to work with the DHCP service.
In the past you could install few DHCP servers – as you wish, this action occurs problems like server crashing, etc.
In the new Windows 2000 Server/Server 2003/2008 you must authorize your server in order to start the DHCP server, if there's an authorized DHCP server in the Active Directory environment and a non-authorized server trying to start the DHCP service in order to distribute IP address, the server will failed in this task and the DHCP service in the local computer will stop.
DHCP Relay Agent
DHCP Relay Agent is any kind of host (usually a router or server) that listen to DHCP/BOOTP broadcast from clients on subnets without local DHCP servers.
The DHCP Relay Agent forwards the packets from the clients and the DHCP server that sitting on different physical subnets to each other in order to supply 'connection' between the DHCP Server to the clients, and opposite (from the clients to the server).
In conclusion
Using DHCP service can easily help you as a System/Network Administrator to manage you clients by assigning, tracking and re-assigning IP addresses.
About the author
Netanel Ben-Shushan is an IT Consultant & Trainer from Israel, who works mainly with Microsoft, networking and information security systems. He's the creator of www.ben-shushan.net, a personal website in Hebrew with technical guides and articles. Beside he's website, Netanel is also writing a Hebrew weblog at Microsoft Israel's blogging community.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq “YHOO”) announced today that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now turn their attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.
Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.
“This breakthrough search alliance means Yahoo! can focus even more on our own innovative search experience,” said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. “Yahoo! gets to do what we do best: combine our science and technology with compelling content to build personally relevant online experiences for our users and customers.”..................Continue At Source
Back in November 2009, we introduced the Outlook Social Connector and announced our first partnership with LinkedIn. The Outlook Social Connector is a set of new features that bring together communications history, contact information, and professional and social networking information into the Outlook experience. Most importantly, it brings all of your friends, family and colleagues into one place, making it easier than ever to stay in touch with the people you care about.
Today we’re expanding that reach in two ways:
1. The LinkedIn download for the Outlook Social Connector is available today at www.LinkedIn.com/outlook. 2. We’re announcing new Outlook integrations with Facebook, the leading social website in the world, and MySpace.
Stay tuned to the Outlook team blog for availability of the Facebook and MySpace download for the Outlook Social Connector at http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/
Looks like MIX10 will bring information on Internet Explorer 9.
From the MIX10 website:" As General Manager of the team, Dean Hachamovitch is responsible for the design, development, and release of Internet Explorer. We welcome Dean back to the stage as one of our MIX10 keynoters in Las Vegas next month. After all, what would our premier web conference be without a browser update!? Dean will talk about changes and improvements that have been made to Internet Explorer 9 since PDC09, and his talk is sure to include a couple of surprises. "
Continue At Source http://live.visitmix.com/News/Internet-Explorer-9-at-MIX10
As some of you may have noticed (we heard from you on Twitter!) we had an issue with the Windows Live ID service between 9 and 10AM PST this morning. Due to the failure of one server, Windows Live ID logins were failing for some customers, and this increased the load on our remaining servers. We took the problematic server offline and brought a new server into rotation. We identified the root cause and fixed it in less than an hour, but it took a while to resolve the logjam that had built up in the meantime, and to redistribute the load to normal levels.
As with all incidents like this, we will fully investigate the cause and will take steps to prevent this from happening again. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused to you, our customers and partners.
From WindowsTeamBlog