Windows Server 2008 RC0 is now available

Hi folks,


the so waited Windows Server 2008 RC0 is now available for download. This release includes the first public release of Windows Server virtualization (codenamed Viridian).

Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate helps IT professionals to increase the flexibility and reliability of their server infrastructure while offering developers a more robust web and applications platform for building connected applications and services.

Download Here:
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Standard Edition
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Datacenter
Windows Server 2008 RC0 Enterprise
Windows Web Server 2008 RC0

NOTE: This product requires a valid product key for activation, and expires on April 7, 2008. (Support: ReadMe & Release Notes)

Additional Resources:
Changes in Functionality from Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides
Windows Server 2008 Security Guide
Windows Server 2008 Technical Library
Windows Server 2008 Technical Overviews

Other useful links:
Windows Team blog
TechNet Tech Library
Free e-learning
Product information


You can either download on the link below a VHD image of WIndows Server 2008 beta 3 for use with Virtual Server 2005 R2 :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9aa65956-4a13-46a3-9711-82939a041792&displaylang=en

Just to remember you that Windows Server 2008 will be launched jointly with Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 on Feb. 27, 2008.


R-Tape Loading error,
Luís Rato

Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 has been released

Hi guys,

for those who don't already know, Office 2003 Service Pack 3 has been released a few days ago.

With Office 2003 service pack 3 your Office suite will work better with Windows Vista, you will be able to exchange files with Office 2007 system, it includes security updates that have been released separately and has stability improvements based on Microsoft product support feedback and Microsoft online crash analysis.


This service pack has major security changes as well to harden the Office suite and reduce the attack surface and possible threats.
Some of these changes can be found on the add-ins, ActiveX controls and COM add-ins that use the QueryInterface() method. When an Office 2003 program is started some tests are performed to validate response of the QueryInterface() method and if the test fails the functionalities may be reduced or even blocked.

Follow the link below for additional details about add-ins, ActiveX controls and COM:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938814

Also to improve security the Office 2003 Service Pack 3 integrates two tools that were already released during this year such as MOICE (Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment) and File Block.

"When MOICE and File Block are used together they are an effective mitigation strategy for customers when the threat of attack using certain Office types exists. This enables customers to continue using Microsoft Office with a high degree of assurance that the files being opened are considered safe and will not infect users with malicious software."

About MOICE:
"The Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment (MOICE) uses the 2007 Microsoft Office system converters to convert Office 2003 binary documents to the newer Office open XML format. The Conversion process helps protect customers by converting the Office 2003 binary file format to the Office open XML format in an isolated environment. In summary, MOICE provides a mechanism for customers to pre-process potentially unsafe Office 2003 binary documents, by virtue of the conversions process it provides customers with a greater degree of certainty that the document can be considered safe."

About File Block:
"The File Block Functionality for Microsoft Office 2003 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system allows administrators to restrict via registry and Group Policy specific Office file types that can or cannot be opened when using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Blocking specific Office file types allows administrators to temporarily deny users the ability to open certain files, such as when a threat of attack from a given Office file type exists."

For complete details about MOICE and File Block check the security advisory 937696 on the link below:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/937696.mspx


Because there are a few changes on the default behavior of Office applications to improve the security were some features are now disabled by default and the COM access is more restricted, before any mass deployment in your corporate environment or any critical workstation, you should test and validate on lab the compatibility with any custom components that use Add-ins for business applications or workflows.

For a complete list of changes on the default behavior of Office applications just check the Office 2003 service Pack 3 download link.

Links to download the Service Pack 3 of Office 2003 suite, applications and viewers:

Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Proofing Tools
Visio 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Project 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
OneNote 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Outlook Live 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Word Viewer 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)
Excel Viewer 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)


R-Tape Loading error,
Luís Rato

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

Office Communications Server 20007 is available since 29th of August and you can now download the trial version at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb684921.aspx.


Introduction
Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 is the first Microsoft product to combine enterprise-ready IM (instant messaging), presence, conferencing, and VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony in a fully integrated unified communications solution. Office Communications Server 2007 provides richer presence capabilities, enhanced support for group IM, and improved deployment and management than its predecessor, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1. To existing features, such as federation and public IM connectivity, Office Communications Server 2007 includes real-time conferencing hosted on servers inside your organization’s firewall and a full-featured, software-powered VoIP solution that can stand on its own or integrate easily with an existing PBX infrastructure.
Like Live Communications Server 2005, Office Communications Server 2007 is available in two editions, Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition:

·Standard Edition.
Hosts all server components, as well as the database for storing user and conference information, on a single computer. Standard Edition provides full functionality for small organizations.

·Enterprise Edition.
Separates server functionality from data storage to achieve higher capacity and availability. An Enterprise Edition pool typically consists of two or more Front End Servers, which are fronted by a hardware load balancer and connected to a Back-End Database. (It is also possible to deploy a single Front End Server without a load balancer.) Optionally, certain conferencing components can be deployed on separate computers for higher capacity and availability. Enterprise Edition is appropriate for medium, large, and very large organizations.

Both editions support the full suite of IM, presence, conferencing, and VoIP features.


Check the link below for complete details about Office Communications Server 2007 Technical Overview:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=09b218ea-6ff6-4679-a117-9767ab98990a&displaylang=en

Office Communications Server 2007 Reference Architecture


Please see the following links for information about planning, deployment, migration, operations and support regarding Office Communications Server 2007.

Office Communications Server 2007 Downloads
Office Communications Server Technical Library


R-Tape Loading error,
Luís Rato

AD Explorer - Advanced Active Directory viewer and editor

Greetings everybody!

Microsoft has released Active Directory Explorer (AD Explorer) which is a very cool tool to view and edit Active Directory Objects and attributes.
There are already a few tools that we are familiar with, like LDP.exe and ADSIEDIT.MSC (Windows Support Tools).


LDP is the oldest one, with a difficult interface but is very powerful to do some special tasks like cleaning lingering objects in Windows 2000 AD, all the old school guys love it and use it almost every time.

ADSIEDIT is another Active Directory viewer and editor, with an easier interface where you can navigate through the Domain, Configuration or Schema AD partitions.

However both these tools had one limitation, you were unable to easily look at the Active Directory objects attributes, you always had to double click or open its properties to look inside the object attributes. The AD Explorer has some new features that every AD Administrator will love.

Just take a look for details below:

Introduction
Active Directory Explorer (AD Explorer) is an advanced Active Directory (AD) viewer and editor. You can use AD Explorer to easily navigate an AD database, define favorite locations, view object properties and attributes without having to open dialog boxes, edit permissions, view an object's schema, and execute sophisticated searches that you can save and re-execute.

AD Explorer also includes the ability to save snapshots of an AD database for off-line viewing and comparisons. When you load a saved snapshot, you can navigate and explorer it as you would a live database. If you have two snapshots of an AD database you can use AD Explorer's comparison functionality to see what objects, attributes and security permissions changed between them.
AD Explorer works on Windows 2000 and higher.




You can download AD Explorer on the following link:
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/AdExplorer.zip

R-Tape Loading Error,
Luís Rato

Virtual Hard Disk conversion tools

Hi folks,

I have been out for 3 weeks in Bellevue, Redmond and Seattle and since I came back I spent all my time with family and with loads of work, which means no much time for blogging stuff.

As a start I would like to talk about some useful tools for those who deal frequently with Virtualization environments. I am certain that some of you have been on a situation where you wanted to use a VMWare Virtual Hard disk on Microsoft Virtual Server of Microsoft Virtual PC and you were unable to do it.

There are a few free tools that you can download to help you out with Virtual Hard Disk format conversion.


TOOL TO CONVERT VMWARE VIRTUAL HARD DISK TO MICROSOFT VIRTUAL HARD DISKS (VHD):

WinImage:

WinImage is a shareware tool that allows you to convert VMware virtual hard disks (VMDKs) to Virtual PC / Virtual Server virtual hard disks (VHDs).

Features:
· Create a disk image from a removable drive (like USB drive), CD-ROM, floppy;
· Extract file(s) from a disk image;
· Create empty disk images;
· Inject files and directories into an existing disk image;
· Change a disk image format;
· Defragment a disk image;
· A powerful "Batch assistant" mode that lets you automate many operations;
· And many more!

WinImage is shareware. You may evaluate it for a trial period of 30 days. After 30 days, if you wish to continue using WinImage, you need to register. Click here to download WinImage.

Download the WinImage tool from the Link below:
http://www.winimage.com/download.htm

TOOL TO CONVERT MICROSOFT VIRTUAL HARD DISKS (VHD) TO VMWARE VIRTUAL HARD DISK:

VMWare Converter:
Use the intuitive wizard-driven interface of VMware Converter to convert your physical machines to virtual machines. VMware Converter quickly converts Microsoft Windows based physical machines and third party image formats to VMware virtual machines. It also converts virtual machines between VMware platforms. Automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware Converter.

VMware Converter can be run on a wide variety of hardware and supports most commonly used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems. With this robust, enterprise class migration tool you can:

· Quickly and reliably convert local and remote physical machines into virtual machines without any disruption or downtime;
· Complete multiple conversions simultaneously with a centralized management console and an intuitive conversion wizard;
· Convert other virtual machine formats such as Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server or backup images of physical machines such as Symantec -Backup Exec LiveState Recovery or Ghost 9 to VMware virtual machines;
· Restore VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) images of virtual machines to running virtual machines;
· Clone and backup physical machines to virtual machines as part of your disaster recovery plan;

Download the VMWare Converter tool from the Link below: http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/

R-Tape Loading Error,
Luís Rato