You can watch the zeollar.com session over here http://www.zeollar.com/Session/284
My deepest condolences to the Steve Jobs family, friends, Apple Family & everyone who’s been touched by his work.
As we continue to develop an email service with a solid foundation—fast performance, virtually no storage limits and aggressive spam tools—we’ve added advanced features for people to really use their inbox to the limit, our coming release will include a number of tools to make email better for even the most demanding user. For more advanced features currently in your inbox—check them out here.
For more visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/anotherlookathotmail/upcoming-features/
Also, visit Windows Live Team Blog http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/10/03/hotmail-declares-war-on-graymail.aspx
Microsoft IT deployed Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) which builds on BitLocker in Windows 7. MBAM offers an enterprise solution for BitLocker provisioning, monitoring, and key recovery. MBAM also helps to simplify BitLocker provisioning and deployments, improve compliance and reporting, and reduce support costs.
Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), a suite of technologies available as a subscription for Microsoft Software Assurance customers.
MBAM is designed to facilitate simplified BitLocker provisioning, key recovery, and compliance and audit reporting. MBAM accomplishes this by providing a simple administrative interface to BitLocker Drive Encryption (BDE), which in turn enables administrators to configure BitLocker encryption policies that meet the requirements of their organization. MBAM provides the ability to monitor compliance with established BitLocker policies, and access recovery key information in the event that either the user forgets their personal identification number (PIN) or password, or when system configuration affecting BitLocker prevents the user from using his or her computer.
Situation
When Microsoft IT began to install Windows Vista® in their client computer environment in late 2006 and early 2007, part of that implementation included the new BitLocker Drive Encryption technology. BitLocker technology required a level of integration with the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) that was not built into many hardware platforms used within Microsoft. TPM is an important part of an effective enterprise BitLocker implementation, as it is the preferred mechanism for securing BitLocker encryption keys.
Because of the early implementation and the deployment scenario, BitLocker-enabled clients required a certain amount of intervention and assistance from Microsoft IT support staff. Microsoft IT quickly discovered that managing multiple implementations of BitLocker in an enterprise environment involved significant troubleshooting and administrative resources. Microsoft IT had a limited set of tools to accomplish tasks such as implementing the encryption process, obtaining recovery keys, and ensuring compliance of BitLocker encrypted systems. These tools did not fulfill the Microsoft IT enterprise requirements. The result was that BitLocker administration was manual, tedious, and costly.
Complete Paper DOWNLOAD HERE
Microsoft IT installed a public key infrastructure to implement a security-enhanced communications and remote authentication infrastructure. This enabled the use of S/MIME signatures and encryption, helped secure Web connections by using Secure Sockets Layer or Transport Layer Security, helped ensure the confidentiality of stored data by using Encrypting File System, helped ensure the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted data by using IPsec, and enabled strong network user authentication by using smart cards.
Executive Summary
Many of the techniques and products available to help secure an enterprise network rely on some form of cryptography. A public key infrastructure (PKI) provides the certificates used by each party involved in a cryptographically secured electronic transaction. To help secure the Microsoft corporate network and certify its software, Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) needed to implement several initiatives that required cryptographic techniques. Today, these initiatives include:
· Certificate-based 802.1X wireless authentication.
· Smart cards for two-factor remote access authentication.
· Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) for digitally signing and encrypting email.
· Encrypting File System (EFS) for file and folder encryption.
· Internet Protocol security (IPsec) for the security of network transactions.
· Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for the security of web connections.
· Network Access Protection (NAP) for enforcing system health.
These initiatives required the presence of an enterprise-wide PKI to provide public key–based security services.
Running its own certification authorities (CAs) rather than using commercial, non-Microsoft services enabled Microsoft IT to more securely manage the infrastructure and reduce the costs associated with issuing certificates and managing an external CA relationship. Implementing an enterprise PKI enabled Microsoft IT to better secure its network-based communications.
Microsoft IT's easy-to-manage, standards-based, scalable PKI solution resulted in a method to exchange sensitive data, compatibility with other Microsoft applications, and lower infrastructure costs.
This white paper describes the production deployment and use of the PKI features available in the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. This white paper also offers lessons learned and best practices, and it includes a discussion on the future directions of the technology at Microsoft. It assumes that readers are technical decision makers and are already familiar with the fundamentals of public key cryptography systems, the benefits that such systems offer, and the components required to implement those systems. Links to additional sources of information about PKI are available in the "For More Information" section at the end of this paper.
Complete paper DOWNLOAD HERE
Yes. At Microsoft we virtualize servers.
At Microsoft, server virtualization has become a primary way to address data-center power consumption, to address space issues, and to rationalize server utilization. To optimize deployment and management of thousands of virtual machines, Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) has developed standards and best practices for configuring host servers, storage, and network infrastructure.
Why You Should Care:
1. MSIT adopted Hyper-V because it offered a clear business value in terms of cost savings and flexibility. These benefits drove MSIT toward machine virtualization in 2004.
2. Hyper-V is designed to service machine virtualization needs for server consolidation and virtual desktop infrastructures. Hyper-V allows multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run concurrently on the same physical server. Each VM has its own representation of hardware, an isolated OS and application environment, and a unique network and security identity.
3. Virtualization is an important part of MSIT’s strategy to standardize platforms, optimize IT, and create an automated dynamic environment.
4. Microsoft IT actively contributes to the quality and capabilities of Microsoft products. In the case of Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager, any production issues with a root cause in the product and any capability needs identified by customers or by MSIT staff is reported directly to the product development team.
For IT, it’s about striking a balance between user expectations and enterprise requirements. Consumer technology without a doubt poses some risks to the business—such as to security, privacy, and compliance. However, there are also many benefits to the consumerization of IT trend that businesses can capitalize on with the right approach. Let's understand that's Consumerization of IT.
For those of you who are wondering What is Barcamp?
Barcamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants. Barcamp is in essence a conference without a preset agenda. We prefer the term 'unconference' actually. A bunch of smart people meet up over the weekend, put up a schedule on a wall and spend the rest of their time taking up sessions and discussions with each other. There is no audience. Only participants. So host a session, help out with planning, ask questions, spread the word- Everybody is invited. There really are no walls. Here is the event page: http://barcampmumbai.org/index.php/BCM7
WHEN, WHERE & HOW: Date: October 2nd, 2011 Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Venue: Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering, JVPD Scheme, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai. (Map)
See you at the BarCamp.
Happy Camping.
In the recently concluded 12th Edition of Virtual TechDays Event, I presented DaRT 7 to the audience. In this post I will show how to create DaRT Recovery Image. For this recovery you will need Windows 7 DVD & DaRT Tools to be installed on your machine with specific platform (x86/x64)
First question would be where do I download DaRT 7. Well, DaRT is part of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) available as a subscription for Software Assurance customers. Find more information over here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/products/mdop/default.aspx
Additionally, for evaluation purpose you can obtain it from MSDN/TechNet Subscription. Lates version is Microsoft Desktop Optimization pack 2011 R2.
Once you download MDOP 2011 R2, you will find DaRT Installers. In this example I am demoing this on my Windows 7 x64 bit version of the OS hence I have installed x64 bit version of DaRT. I have installed MSDaRT70.msi
Once installed I can see the DaRT 7 available in Start Menu.
How to create a new DaRT Recovery Image
Step 1: Go to Start Menu –> All Programs –> Microsoft DaRT. Click on DaRT Recovery Image.
Step 2: Read the instruction on Wizart & click Next & point to Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Installation files.
Step 3: Click Next and on the next screen it will show Preparing Files for DaRT Recovery Image.
Step 4: Click Next to proceed and wait for few minutes. It will take approximately 2-3 minutes to prepare the files.
Step 5: Once done you will the following screen. On this screen you can enable or disable any tools available for Local User.
In this example I DO NOT want my local user to use the tool called Locksmith, which can be used to reset the password for the Local Computer Accounts.
Note: However, during the remote management support when the Helpdesk Engineer will connect to the machine remotely during DaRT 7 Recovery Image is booted, the Locksmith will be enabled for the Helpdesk Engineer to perform specific account password reset task.
Step 6: Click Next & I have ticked on Allow remote connections (All DaRT tools will be available to the remote help desk)
I will leave the port number field blank so that random can be generated.
Also, I will provide the Remote Connection welcome message
Step 7: Click Next and on this screen you can point to the Debugging Utilities for Windows to be used to Crash Analyzer.
In this case I am not adding these tools but you can choose to install them and include.
Note: You can download the Debugging Tools for Windows as a part of Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (ISO)
Step 8: Click Next and here you can select the latest definitions for Standalone System Sweeper Tool useful for scanning malicious and unwanted software.
At this time I will say No and continue.
Step 9: Click Next and you can Add Device Drivers for specific hardware, which will be loaded during the DaRT Recovery Image Boot Process.
You can point to .INF files (if any) In this example I am not adding any driver.
Step 10: Click Shoe Files and HERE YOU CAN ADD ANY OF YOUR ADDITIONAL FILES OR UTILITIES
In this example, I am going to add IMAGEX.EXE utility that I often use to work with .WIM Files.
This is the content before adding Files.
I have created a new folder called as Tools and included a file IMAGEX.EXE and this is the content looks like.You can close the Explorer Window once adding all the necessary files.
Step 11: Click Next and it will give you an option to save the ISO file. I will leave the default location.
Step 12: Click Next to prepare the ISO. It will take approximately 3-5 minutes to prepare the DaRT 7 Recovery Image depending upon the components & the files you have added.
Step 13: Click Next & now you have option to burn the same ISO to the optical media or create a bootable USB stick using The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool available at http://wudt.codeplex.com/
In this case I am not burning so removing the tick mark
Step 14: Click on Explore folder to get you ISO File.
Step 15: Click Finish and you have your DaRT 7 Recovery Image ISO ready to use.
In the next part we will see how can we test the new Remote Connection feature.
Happy DaRTing