WINDOWS 7 PLANNING

Microsoft and its customers have one thing in common: Both are anxious to move on to Windows 7. Customers are doing their part by thoroughly testing the software and reporting bugs. And Microsoft is doing its share by fixing bugs and building tools to make the migration smoother.

That's where the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) toolkit comes in. This little beauty is being tweaked for Windows 7. The idea is to ping the entire network of PCs and see which are ready for a Windows 7 upgrade. Those that don't stand up will be given a list of upgrades.

http://www.1105newsletters.com/t.do?id=2133185:957895

Testing Begins for Vista SP2 Release Candidate

Microsoft has advanced to the next testing phase for its Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems by issuing Release Candidate "Escrow"-build versions of Service Pack 2. Various news accounts, published this week, suggest that the build is being made available for testing.

The releases apparently are only available to private testers via Windows Update. The Escrow build, reported as "6002.16659.090114-1728," represents a final bug-fixing stage. It signals that no new features are being planned for the forthcoming RC version, a near-final release.

Resource: Testing Begins for Vista SP2 Release Candidate

Top 10 changes to security in Windows 7

Microsoft has released a public beta of its next client operating system, Windows 7. Everybody’s talking about the interface changes: the new taskbar, omission of the sidebar, a new look for Windows Explorer. Under the hood, there are more changes, including new and improved security features. Let’s look at 10 security features that have been changed or added in Windows 7.

The Windows 7 buzz encompasses a host of interface enhancements, but there are plenty of new and improved security features as well. Here’s a rundown of 10 key changes you should know about.

Resize a Vista partition without damaging data

There are many reasons why you might want or need to resize a partition, but generally speaking partitions can not be resized without damaging data. That is, until Microsoft Windows Vista. With Vista, resizing a partition that already contains data is not only possible, it's fairly simple. The only gotcha involved is that Microsoft has, with good reason, obfuscated the process from the untrained eye. Naturally I will give this warning. Although this method is tested and proven, that is not an absolute guarantee. Data can get lost when strange things occur. So with that in mind, your data is in your hands and you might want to do a data back up first. With that being said, let's get going.

Resize a Vista partition without damaging data

Vista: Still Heir to the Throne?

While much of the buzz about Windows Vista in the trade press and among analysts has been negative, a few numbers have popped up that seem to support the beleaguered operating system.

Windows XP has proven to be an unrelentingly popular operating system, but it wasn't always the star of the Windows show. Computerworld in August compiled numbers that showed that XP was running only 6.6 percent of corporate PCs in the United States and Canada in September 2003, almost two years after its October 2001 release. Vista, on the other hand, had an 8.8 percent worldwide enterprise market share at the end of June -- 19 months after its November 2006 release to enterprises -- according to Forrester Research Inc.

Of course, those comparisons aren't strictly apples-to-apples. For starters, the 2003 XP market share is a North American figure, while the Vista number is a worldwide percentage. Beyond that, the XP number originally came from AssetMatrix, a company Microsoft later bought.

Most notably, however, and perhaps most importantly, XP is much older now than its predecessor and primary competitor, Windows 2000, was in 2003. Windows 2000 debuted in February 2000 and was therefore not quite four years old in late 2003 when XP had only 6.6 percent market share. By comparison, XP will turn seven this month -- and, unless drastic changes happen before press time, Vista will still have less than 10 percent of the enterprise market.

In short, XP's market share is unprecedented for an OS of its advanced age.

"XP is the most mature operating system that has ever had 90 percent penetration in business," says Paul DeGroot, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash. "We're now talking about a system that's seven years old, and is still used by a majority of businesses."

That might not be the case forever, though. Forrester, in an August report, stated that Vista was gaining a foothold in the enterprise, and argued: "IT operations folks are at a critical inflection point and should deploy Windows Vista to:

1. stay current with Microsoft's and independent software vendors' support lifecycles;
2. help minimize today's security, management and productivity challenges; and
3. better position your business to eventually embrace 'Windows 7.'"

Related article: So You've Decided to Skip Vista...

The Secrets of Sysvol | Migrating Group Policy

You already know that Windows Server 2008 brings a lot of changes. You've probably heard about the product's Read Only Domain Controllers (RODCs), Server Core and fine-grained password policies. There's another factor that almost no one seems to know about: Server 2008 replaces a vital piece of Active Directory. This change is along the lines of replacing the engine in your car as you're driving 70 miles per hour down the highway: If done badly, it could shut down Group Policies and negate your log-on scripts.

20 Things Windows 7 Must Include

Windows Vista, the OS that everyone loves to hate. Despite its enhanced security, improved CPU scheduler and excellent stability, it's still the flawed gem in many critics' eyes. But can Microsoft win back the XP crowd with its upcoming Windows 7 offering? The fact is, they have to.

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Firefox 3 Still on Fire, But First Bugs Reported

The new version grabbed a full 4 percent share of the browser market in less than two days, according to Net Applications, a group that specializes in tracking browser usage. Net Applications attributed the stunning start to the fiercely loyal Firefox users, but believes it still has to be considered a remarkable development -- remarkable in that it's difficult for any software company to draw users to its products these days. Putting it in some perspective, Net Applications noted that in the month of May, Apple's Safari had a 6.25 percent share and Opera only had 0.71. Seems another company up in the Great Northwest with another browser has the rest of the market.

Spoiling the fun, however, were the first reports of bugs found in version 3. How critical the newly discovered flaws are has yet to be determined as of this morning. A few blogs reported that one is related to a buffer overflow. Mozilla is reportedly working on a fix.

Nevertheless, the pent-up demand for version 3 is dizzying. According to the Mozilla, downloads peaked at 14,000 per minute on late Wednesday. If you want a distraction from the routine tasks of your day, watch the Mozilla download counter as millions more continue to flock to the site.

Vulnerability Found in New Firefox 3 Browser

It took only five hours from the release of Firefox version 3.0 for a researcher to report a critical vulnerability in the open source browser.

The Zero Day Initiative of TippingPoint Technologies, which received the vulnerability hours after the new browser's June 17 release, said the vulnerability is a critical one that an attacker could exploit to execute arbitrary code on the compromised computer.

The Zero Day Initiative is a clearinghouse program that pays researchers for newly discovered vulnerabilities and passes them to vendors so that they can make fixes or issue patches created before the vulnerabilities become public.

The volunteer Mozilla project developed Firefox version 3, which is the fourth major release of the browser. The project said there are more than 15,000 improvements in the latest version, including a smart location bar, the ability to zoom in on a portion of a Web page, improved security and an integrated tool to manage add-ons. It also requires less memory.

According to TippingPoint, the vulnerability affects version 3.0 and 2.0x of the browser, meaning developers did not introduce it in the new release. It has been reported to the Mozilla project, which is working on a fix.

"Not unlike most browser-based vulnerabilities that we see these days, user interaction is required, such as clicking on a link in e-mail or visiting a malicious Web page," TippingPoint reported.

It is not releasing any other details of the vulnerability until a fix is available from Mozilla. The company will report the fix once it has been released.