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HiED West ATU: ATS Newsletter – May 2007

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Microsoft News and Product Information

Security

· Improving the Intelligence of Your Gateway Security If you want to build a comprehensive SSL-secured access platform that will help you extend and manage the reach of your information systems, check out these resources and get in-depth guidance on edge solutions, including Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 and the Whale Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG).

· Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (July – December 2006) This Security Intelligence Report focuses on the second half of the 2006 calendar year (from July to December) and builds upon the data published in the first volume of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report that covers the first half of 2006. (https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6543860). Using data derived from several hundred million Windows users, this report provides an in-depth perspective of trends in the malicious and potentially unwanted software landscape. The scope of this second volume of the report has been expanded to include trends on software vulnerabilities disclosed in the second half of 2006.

How Microsoft Does IT

· Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) helps companies extend their authentication infrastructure across enterprise and organizational boundaries. Find out how the engineer who was responsible for the internal deployment of ADFS at Microsoft discuss ways to configure the ADFS components, including the federation server, federation server proxies, ADFS Web agents, and deployment challenges. We look at this real-world deployment of ADFS, explore both the business and technical scenarios that ADFS can help you solve, and describe the challenges you may face.

· How Microsoft IT Deploys Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging Join us to discover how Microsoft IT uses Unified Messaging to integrate voice messaging with an internal e-mail messaging environment. In this webcast, we detail the technical implementation and deployment strategy for deploying Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging features in the Microsoft enterprise messaging environment.

· How Microsoft IT Deploys and Manages Windows Mobile Options Since Windows CE emerged in the 1990s, Microsoft employees have continuously adopted and improved the Windows Mobile platforms. Currently, 75 percent of Microsoft employees use Windows Mobile powered devices to speed the pace of their business and information workflow. Details on Microsoft IT operational disciplines of device standardization; Windows Mobile and Microsoft Exchange Server application service extensions and Market procurement strategies and future service expansion objectives.

Windows Desktop and Server - Vista / 2003 / XP / 2000

· Simplify Group Policy Administration with Windows PowerShell In this article, I show how the Mi­cro­soft® Group Policy Management Con­sole (GPMC) APIs written for Windows Script­ing Host languages like VBScript (and COM-based scripting languages in general) can be consumed directly from Windows Power­Shell to simplify the way you manage Group Policy in your environment.

· Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs The Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs provides tested guidance and powerful tools to help you protect your organization’s most vulnerable data. The strategies outlined in this Toolkit are easy to understand, and the guidance shows you how to optimize two key encryption technologies already available to you in Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista: the Encrypting File System (EFS) and Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker).

· Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Partner Solutions Microsoft is dedicated to partnering with world-class organizations to deliver optimal solutions to our customers. Individuals and organizations seeking to get the most out of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 can choose from a wide range of offerings from independent software vendors (ISVs), independent hardware vendors (IHVs), and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Learn how our partners are using Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 today.

· Wireless Group Policy Settings for Windows Vista As an administrator, your job would probably be a bit easier if you could centrally configure and distribute wireless network settings to all the computers in your Active Directory network. Fortunately, Windows supports a special Group Policy extension for Computer Configuration that lets you do just that.

· Evaluate the Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" Public Beta The next generation of the Windows Server operating system gives you more control, greater flexibility, and increased protection for your server infrastructure while reducing time and costs. And when you download or order the beta software, you're automatically registered to access valuable beta resources assembled in one convenient Beta Central location. See also: What’s New in Windows Server “Longhorn” Webcast

· A Guide to Deploying Terminal Services In this article, I show you how to enable Terminal Services on an existing Windows Server 2003 installation, how to apply Terminal Services Group Policies, and how to use the Custom Installation Wizard to automate Microsoft Outlook profile settings. When we're finished, you will have a fully deployed Terminal Server to serve up applications to your users.

· Network Access Protection Platform Architecture The NAP platform provides enforcement for Internet Protocol security (IPsec)-based communications, IEEE 802.1X authenticated network connections, virtual private network (VPN)-based network connections, and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) address configuration and an architecture through which policy validation, network restriction, remediation, and ongoing compliance can occur via additional components supplied by third-party software vendors or Microsoft.

· Internet Protocol Security Enforcement in the Network Access Protection Platform Network Access Protection is a platform for Microsoft Windows Server "Longhorn" (now in beta testing) and Windows Vista that provides policy enforcement components to help ensure that computers connecting to a network meet administrator-defined requirements for system health. Internet Protocol security (IPsec) is a set of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards that provides cryptographic protection for IP-based traffic. This document provides an overview of the Network Access Protection platform and IPsec, and how IPsec Enforcement in the Network Access Protection platform works to provide system health policy enforcement for IPsec-protected communication.

· Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) Version 3.0.1 Microsoft Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) version 3.0.1 migrates user files and settings during deployments of Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista. You can use USMT to perform unattended migrations and to migrate files and settings for computers with multiple users. Also, with USMT you have the ability to encrypt and compress the store. USMT 3.0.1 is intended for administrators who are performing automated deployments.

Exchange Server

· Overview of Exchange Server 2007 White Paper This whitepaper provides an overview of the new capabilities of Exchange that help executives, business users and IT professionals do more with less.

· Explore New Mobile Messaging Capabilities with Exchange 2007 Exchange Server 2007, together with Windows Mobile 6.0, ease the creation and targeting of policies for Windows Mobile devices that can help mitigate problems as well as provide a foundation for new capabilities for remote workers.

· White Paper: Domain Security in Exchange 2007 This white paper explains how to plan for and deploy the Domain Security feature set in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

· For more of the latest Exchange articles, see The Exchange Team Blog – you might make it a favorite link!

Microsoft Management

· Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003 Terminal Services Management Pack The Terminal Services Management Pack for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 monitors the health and performance of Terminal Services components. It includes a rich set of views, tasks, and reports, and provides monitoring for Terminal Services, the Licensing Server, and the Session Directory.

· Information Worker Management Pack The Microsoft Information Worker Management Pack monitors the health, reliability, and performance of Microsoft Office applications and certain Microsoft Windows applications.

· System Center Operations Manager 2007 Overview (white paper) System Center Operations Manager 2007 is the next step in the evolution of Microsoft operational event and performance monitoring solutions. This paper will provide an overview of the features and functionality included in System Center Operations Manager 2007. See Also: What's New? Why Upgrade to System Center Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

· Microsoft Office Programs and SharePoint Products and Technologies Integration – Fair, Good, Better, Best This white paper describes how different versions of Microsoft Office programs work together with the 2003 and 2007 versions of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies.

· Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as MS SQL, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive ‘best practice’ rules are applied to the topology.

· A Fresh Look at Compliance in SharePoint Server 2007 Whether you’re building a secure intranet library with sensitive documents, a DMZ-based extranet deployment, or a high-scale Internet environment, you’ll be pleased to find SharePoint Server is a rock solid platform with open authentication and membership providers and rich and flexible auditing and compliance capabilities.

· Reliable Repositories: Using Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint to Defend Collaboration When utilizing a Web application, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS), to facilitate such a core data repository while fostering a collaboration platform to unite virtual teams, the first thing that comes to mind when analyzing information warehouse security is the Web layer. However, there are numerous planes of security that must be inspected when assessing the inclusive threat background.

· Change passwords used for administration accounts (Office SharePoint Server) You can use this article to change the password information for several features, services, and Web applications in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Domain policies often require that domain account passwords be updated periodically. This change provides additional security if one of the passwords might have been compromised. Because you can configure the various features, services, and Web applications of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to run as a domain account, the passwords for these accounts must be updated for these features, services, and Web applications to continue to function properly.

· Design extranet farm topology (Office SharePoint Server) This article discusses specific extranet topologies that have been tested with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The topologies that are discussed in this article can help you to understand the options that are available with Office SharePoint Server 2007, including requirements and tradeoffs.

· Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog The official blog of the SharePoint Product Group – This is an active blog with the latest information and links to more SharePoint technical info.

· More recently published MOSS content

Microsoft Office System

· Microsoft XML Paper Specification Essentials Pack With the XPS Essentials Pack you can quickly begin reading and generating XPS Documents. It contains XPS Viewer EP to read XPS Documents and the Microsoft XPS Document Writer to output files to the XPS Document format. Additionally, the XPS Essentials Pack download includes providers to enable the iPreview and iFilter capabilities found in many Windows applications. Windows shell handlers are also included to enable thumbnail views and file properties for XPS Documents.

Other Information

· Microsoft Network Monitor 3 Network Monitor 3.0 is a protocol analyzer. It allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it. This version is a complete overhaul of the previous Network Monitor 2.x version.

· Live Search Maps Add-In for Microsoft Office Outlook Live Search Maps Add-In for Microsoft Office Outlook adds maps, driving directions, traffic information, and travel time to the scheduling capabilities of Outlook

· User Profile Hive Cleanup Service The User Profile Hive Cleanup service helps to ensure user sessions are completely terminated when a user logs off. System processes and applications occasionally maintain connections to registry keys in the user profile after a user logs off. In those cases the user session is prevented from completely ending. This can result in problems when using Roaming User Profiles in a server environment or when using locked profiles as implemented through the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP.

Microsoft Developer Information

· Microsoft Pre-Release Software Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Beta 1.NET Framework 3.5 is planned to release at the end of 2007 and will ship with Visual Studio code name ”Orcas” and will also continue to be available for separate download from MSDN.

· Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard 1.1 The SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard provides a way to publish databases to T-SQL scripts or directly to supporting hosting service providers.

· Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 Beta Software Development Kit (SDK) contains documentation, samples, quickstarts and tools for developing Silverlight applications.

· Expression Studio Overview Introducing Microsoft Expression Studio, a suite of tools for creative designers that gives you the freedom to bring your vision to reality and boosts developer collaboration in the delivery of rich user experiences for the Web, Windows Vista applications and beyond. Expression Studio is now an essential part of the overall workflow for adding compelling user interfaces to the underlying power of the Microsoft technology platform. See also the FAQ

· The Windows Vista Developer Story: Developing for Windows Shell The Windows Shell is the container in which the entire Windows Vista user interface is presented, including the taskbar, the Desktop, Windows Explorer, and many dialog boxes and interface controls. New features and interfaces enable developers to build applications that fully use and extend the capabilities of the Windows Vista Shell as a programming environment.

· Windows Communication Foundation Messaging Fundamentals When you start pulling the layers away from Windows Communication Foundation, you find a sophisticated XML-based messaging framework that offers a world of possibilities when connecting systems using a variety of protocols and formats. In this month's column, I am highlighting some of the key messaging features we can thank for such flexibility.

· Improve Debugging And Performance Tuning With ETW Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) is a general-purpose, high-speed tracing facility provided by the operating system. Using a buffering and logging mechanism implemented in the kernel, ETW provides a tracing mechanism for events raised by both user-mode applications and kernel-mode device drivers.

· 3D Mesh Geometries Among the classes that contribute to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation, those in the System.Windows.Media.Media3D namespace stand out. These are the classes that are intended to bring three-dimensional graphics to mainstream Windows applications.

· Data Storage Architecture with SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (SSCE) provides a powerful yet lightweight data storage engine for building a variety of application types. This paper introduces data storage concerns for client applications and small-scale server applications.

· Developer Introduction to Workflows for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007 Get a high-level overview of how Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 implements the workflow capabilities of the Windows Workflow Foundation, and how Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 extends those capabilities with symmetrical Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 forms.

· What's New for Developers in Windows Mobile 6 This paper explains the new Windows Mobile 6 features and their purpose from a developer's perspective. This paper also explains the many new tools provided by the Windows Mobile 6 Software Development Kit (SDK), and provides some guidance on getting started developing Windows Mobile 6 applications.

Monthly Reminders of Good Information Sources:

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Recent Security Bulletins (Security Bulletin Archives)

Last 5 Published or Updated Security Advisories:

· Microsoft Security Advisory (935964)
Vulnerability in RPC on Windows DNS Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
Published or Last Updated: 4/19/2007

· Microsoft Security Advisory (935423)
Vulnerability in Windows Animated Cursor Handling
Published or Last Updated: 4/3/2007

· Microsoft Security Advisory (933052)
Vulnerability in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Published or Last Updated: 2/14/2007

· Microsoft Security Advisory (932553)
Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Published or Last Updated: 2/13/2007

· Microsoft Security Advisory (932114)
Vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2000 Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Published or Last Updated: 2/13/2007

For the entire list of published Security Advisories, visit the Security Advisory Archive Web site.

Security Guidance Center for Developer and IT Pros Get prescriptive guidance tools, training, and updates you need to assist you in planning and managing a security strategy that’s right for your organization.