Microsoft News from 2004

Microsoft General

Microsoft Extends Olive Branch to Corporate NT 4 Users [08/12/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
Though the oft-delayed end of support for Windows NT 4.0 will arrive December 31, Microsoft this week detailed the steps its corporate customers can take to continue receiving support for the OS. Among the steps are changes to Microsoft's Custom Support Agreement, which now adds an additional year of NT 4.0 custom support from its original time deadline to December 31, 2006...
 

Major Management Announcements at ITForum 2004, Copenhagen [25/11/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
Wondering what the major announcements were at last week's ITForum?  Here's a summary...
 

Virtual Server Migration Toolkit on the Way [05/11/04]
Microsoft will release a free toolkit later this week to help organizations migrate to Virtual Server 2005, the company announced Tuesday...
 

Microsoft Nixes Outlook, Outlook Express Access to Free Hotmail Accounts  [04/10/04]
Citing concerns about spammers abusing the service, Microsoft will announce today that the company is dropping a feature from its Hotmail service that lets nonpaying customers access their Hotmail email from Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express. The feature is based on a technology called Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), an extension of the HTTP protocol on which the Web is based...
 

With Release of MOM 2005, Microsoft Moves One Step Closer to System Center [07/09/04]
Last week, Microsoft released Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 to manufacturing. When combined with two as yet unreleased products--Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and System Center Reporting Server--MOM will constitute the software giant's all-in-one systems management package, known as System Center 2005...
 

Network World: Windows management plan taking shape [01/09/04]
Microsoft last week took its second significant step on its road to building a holistic management platform for Windows and providing corporate users with a utility computing platform...
 

New IE Flaw Also Affects Windows XP SP2  [25/08/04]
A newly discovered flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) affects various IE releases, including the version in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), leaving users of the incredibly buggy browser open to attack. The flaw, which security firm Secunia disclosed this weekend, affects IE 6, 5.5, and 5.01 and Windows XP SP2 and SP1....
 

New version of MBSA to be launched later this month for Windows XP SP2 Clients [12/08/04]
As detailed on this page it seem as though a new version of of MBSA (Version 1.2.1), will be released later this month to support Windows XP SP2 machines...
 

Network World: Key Microsoft patch tools delayed again [15/07/04]
Microsoft said Monday that the ship date for two of the key components in its lineup of patch management tools has slipped again, this time into the first half of 2005...
 

Microsoft Retiring MCP Exams [28/06/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
Microsoft have announced they are retiring 11 MCP Exams which mainly affect Developers although the SQL 7 Exams are in there.
 

Network World: Microsoft unwraps Win XP Service Pack [23/06/04]
After a few notable delays, Microsoft finally has shipped the latest beta version of Windows XP Service Pack 2, which the company has touted as a major milestone toward developing more secure software...
 

What You Need to Know About 64-Bit Windows [02/06/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
By late 2004, users will be able to choose from a variety of 64-bit Windows options for both workstations and servers and that run on numerous Intel and AMD hardware platforms...
 

Steve Ballmer Highlights SMS and MOM....and More [07/05/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
If you want to know what Microsoft is doing in the Management space and the importance that Steve Ballmer places on this then check out the following article:

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/

If you don't subscribe to this service I strongly recommend you do.
 

Microsoft Progress Report: Security [02/04/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
Microsoft have made great progress over the past year on making their products more secure.  In his email to subscribers of Microsoft's Executive E-mail service, Bill Gates outlines the progress made over the past year and gives an insight into what's coming such as a Firewall in Windows 2003 SP1, Dynamic System Protection (that allows a machine to detect when it's environment has changed and take appropriate action), the ability to automatically check that any machines connecting to your network meet a security standard and if they don't refuse connection amongst a whole host of others.

If you don't subscribe to this service I recommend you do.  This is well worth a read. You can read the full text of email at:

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/

Network World: Microsoft program: 'You patch, we pay' [31/03/04]
Under a new program, Microsoft is paying for security assessments of its customers' networks to help improve policies in areas such as software patch management and assuage fears about the security risks...
 

Microsoft Announces the SMS Alliance [25/03/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
One of the highlights from last week's Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) was the announcement of the SMS Alliance (or the Magnificent 7 as I like to call them), who are basically seven third party companies making SMS even better than it is "out-of-the-box".  Here's the official Press Release...
 

What's Coming From Redmond This Year and Beyond [17/03/04]
Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
In his Keynote speech at this year's Microsoft Management Summit, Kirill Tatarinov gave details of what we can expect from Redmond in the Systems Management space both this year and in the future...
 

Network World: Microsoft to make its software 'behave' [04/03/04]
Microsoft's revelation last week that it is adopting a new approach to computer security dubbed "behavior blocking" represents a radical shift in the company's software design strategy that could pay...
 

Network World: Microsoft offers security update CDs [25/02/04]
Microsoft has started taking orders for the Windows Security Update CD, a disc with all critical updates released through October 2003 for various Windows versions...
 

ENTmag.com: Microsoft Under Fire for Patch Delay [13/02/04]
The patch Microsoft released on Tuesday for one of the most severe flaws yet discovered in Windows has the company under renewed scrutiny about the length of time it takes to fix security problems...
 

ENTmag.com: A Microsoft Roadmap [15/01/04]
2003 saw lots of huge releases from Microsoft. While the coming year will be more subdued, you can be sure there’s still a lot on the way from Redmond...
 

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