The Microsoft TechNet Australia Blog

Info straight from the Microsoft Tech Audience team in Australia, Yes we are real Microsoft people and we love geeks!

June, 2007

  • Vista 6 month vulnerability report - better than XP?

    Good report at Jeff Jones blog http://blogs.csoonline.com/windows_vista_6_month_vulnerability_report

    For those that only want the executive summary, here is a key chart that shows the publicly disclosed High severity vulnerabilities during the first 90 days of availability, broken down by vulns fixed and vulns unfixed.  Note that this chart is showing the reduced Linux builds that exclude non-default and optional components without equivalents on WIndows.  (clicking the chart also gets you to the full report.)
    High Severity Vulns, Fixed and Unfixed in First 6 Months of Windows, Red Hat, Novell SUSE, Ubuntu, Apple Mac

  • 8 steps to Windows Server 2008 planning

    Computerworld article outlining 8 important steps to plan for Windows Server 2008 in your organisation.

    'For data center managers, nothing spells "doom and disaster" quite like a server infrastructure change. Whether it's a new virtualization technique, an upgrade to network access-control software or new command line parameters -- enterprise server management is a daunting proposition.

    But what if those changes occur all at once? That's the scenario with Windows Server 2008 (WS2008). Formerly known as Longhorn, WS2008 is set to be released later this year. Just this week, Microsoft made available the Community Technology Preview of the operating system, which includes installation and some other options in addition to what's available in the Beta 3 release.'

    Read the full article here

  • MIT researchers complete wireless electricity test

    "MIT research team juices up a 60-watt light bulb using "WiTricity"

    The day may be coming when PCs, cell phones and many other devices will be run without a battery or electrical cord.

    Last week, an MIT research team announced that it had juiced up a 60-watt light bulb using "WiTricity," the name it has given a wireless electricity source it is developing.

    The team generated the WiTricity using two copper coils, one attached to a power source. The power coil emitted a field of magnetism to the unpowered coil, stimulating it to generate a current that powered the light bulb from seven feet away, said Andre Kurs, a graduate student in MIT's physics department who worked on the project."

    Read the full article here

    Sounds really interesting!

  • TechNet Vista Sidebar Gadget

    We have just released our new TechNet Vista Sidebar Gadget.  For those running Windows Vista make sure you download this today.  Big thanks to the Mabode Team and Niall Ginsbourg for developing this!

    The Microsoft TechNet Gadget for Australia and New Zealand delivers information from several of the common news feeds and security alerts.

    It supports up to 6 feeds with TechNet Highlights and Basic Security Alerts as default options. A range of other feeds are selectable with options for more comprehensive security alerts, Australian and New Zealand IT News and TechNet Virtual Labs.

    You can see items that have been read or unread at a glance. The security ticker glows red when there is something that you have not seen before.

    The integrated TechNet Search means you can type a search query and it will launch a web browser window with the TechNet Search results.

    Download Link

    Docked


    Fly out


    Desktop

  • Operations Manager 2007 Design Guide Available

    The Operations Manager team has made available this long awaited design guide which provides guidance on server sizing, performance and high availability configurations. 

    The Design Guide covers the design process from start to finish, and is intended to be read straight through. The guide starts off with a primer of OpsMgr, giving information on the design process and core OpsMgr components and concepts. At the end of this section the reader will have a foundation for indentifying their business, regulatory, and optimization requirements.

    Download from here
  • Windows Server Update Services 3.0

    This is the number 1 download from TechNet.  WSUS 3.0 delivers new features that enable administrators to more easily manage and deploy updates across the organization. This package installs both the WSUS 3.0 Server and WSUS 3.0 Administration Console components, for all Windows Server 2003 SP1 supported languages. Additionally, the WSUS 3.0 client is included in all supported client platform languages. You must install the server components on a computer running Windows Server 2003 SP1 and later. You may install the Administration Console on a remote computer running Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, or Windows Vista.  Get it here

    Additional Resources
    Release Notes for WSUS 3.0
    Installing WSUS 3.0 on SBS 2003
    WSUS TechCenter


  • Parody of Microsoft Surface

    A very funny parody of Microsoft Surface

  • Additional TechNet Update Sessions June

    As we have reached capacity at our upcoming TechNet Updates we are offering some additional sessions at some of cities (thanks to our branch support to make this happen).  Click on below to register:

    Brisbane 12th June 6pm – 8pm
    Melbourne 13th June 2.30pm – 4.30pm
    Perth 22nd June 9am – 11am
    Adelaide 26th June 9am – 11am

    Get in quick.
  • Coming up with the name Windows Server 2008

    View the video to see how we came up with the name Windows Server 2008.  So innovative.


    Video: What's In a Name?
  • Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 released

    We hope everyone had a great break over Queens birthday weekend.  For those using Virtual Server 2005, you will be pleased to know that Service Pack 1 has been released. 

    Download here

    New Virtual Server site

    What are the features?
    1. Support for hardware-assisted virtualization technology (AMD-V and Intel VT)
    2. Support for greater than 64 virtual machines on x64-based hosts
    3. VHD Mount command-line tool and APIs
    4. Interoperability with Volume Shadow Copy Service
    5. Support for additional guest and host operating systems
    6. Service publication using Active Directory Service Connection Points
    7. Host clustering white paper
    8. Virtual SCSI fix for Linux guests
    9. Larger default size for dynamically expanding virtual hard disks
    10. VMRC ActiveX control and Internet Explorer security zones
    11. New VMRC client option to enable video stretch in full screen mode
    12. IVMGuestOS::Get_OSName property returns more operating system information

  • Windows Home Server RC1 available now

    Windows Home Server Logo

    Windows Home Server Release Candidate 1 is available today.  Windows Home Server helps families with multiple PCs easily centralize, share and protect their digital pictures, music, documents and videos.  We have had a few guys in the office play around with Home Server in their homes and they are finding it really useful.  We particularly like the idea of having one central area for all of our files at home.

    Sign up for the Release Candidate here

    Windows Home Server Add-Ins

    Windows Home Server Site