Since many other operating system vendors are also adopting this MIT-developed authentication protocol, Kerberos Version 5 will increasingly become a centerpiece of enterprise-level interoperability. Kerberos provides secure user authentication with an industry standard that permits interoperability...

Group Policy tools use Administrative template files to populate policy settings in the user interface. This allows administrators to manage registry-based policy settings.  Looking for the admin templates for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012?  Here they are. Go get em @ http://www.microsoft...

Posters are a great way to wrap your mind around some of the subsystems (roles and features) that are part of complex products.  Here are some cool posters for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. Go get em @ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29189

DirectAccess provides users with the experience of being seamlessly connected to their intranet any time they have Internet access. When DirectAccess is enabled, requests for intranet resources (such as email servers, shared folders, or intranet websites) are securely directed to the intranet, without...

The Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) team is excited to announce the second Jump Start in a three-course virtualization series. This course is designed for VMware professionals looking to get up-to-speed with how Microsoft virtualization and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V works and compares with VMware vSphere...

Today we announced the final release of System Center 2012 Service Pack 1, which helps deliver on Microsoft’s Cloud OS vision to provide customers with one consistent platform for infrastructure, apps, and data – spanning customer datacenters, hosting service provider datacenters, and the Microsoft public...

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop, server and cloud migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information...

The Remote Desktop Services team just published some great videos explaining the new Remote Desktop Services available in Windows Server 2012.  You’ll find new videos on the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, VDI wizard, RDS VDI Deployment, and more. See the full blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com...

The Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) brings together the brightest IT professionals from around the world to increase their technical expertise through deep hands-on training, best-practice sharing, and interaction with innovators in desktop, device, and datacenter management, as well as cloud technologies...

When the winds and waves of Hurricane Sandy bore down ferociously on New York City, at least two Microsoft SMB customers were ready. Microsoft partner WorkITsafe had just helped these customers upgrade to the Windows Server 2012 operating system with the new built-in Hyper-V Replica feature. As a result...

  Over the last two years, we have worked with our MVPs to create and deliver real world training all across the globe via a Roadshow on Windows Server 2012 and supporting products like Windows Small Business Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011, and Windows MultiPoint Server...

iSCSI Target Storage Provider enables applications on a server that is connected to an iSCSI target to perform volume shadow copies of data on iSCSI virtual disks. It also enables you to manage iSCSI virtual disks by using older applications that require a Virtual Disk Service (VDS) hardware provider...

Raise your hand if you are getting a little sick of the phrase “consumerization of IT”.  I know I am.  But the concepts around it are interesting and they pose some interesting challenges for IT organizations as they are increasingly forced to support connections to the corporate network from...

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 introduce the latest operating system technology and software development platforms for use by app developers and enterprises worldwide. As part of further enhancing the security, reliability, performance, and user experience of Windows, Microsoft has introduced many...

Windows Server 2012 is generally available for evaluation and purchase by all customers around the world. Additionally, there is great news for organizations that are looking for a way to migrate virtual machines hosted on VMware vSphere to the Hyper-V host in Windows Server 2012.  The production...

The Beta of System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (“SP1”) enables System Center customers to jointly evaluate System Center 2012 with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. The Beta is for evaluation purposes only and not to be used in production as described in the EULAs associated with the product. No license...

Microsoft DirectAccess Connectivity Assistant (DCA) 2.0 can be used by computers running Windows 7 when connecting to internal corporate networks with DirectAccess in Windows Server 2012. It improves the DirectAccess connection experience, supports one-time password (OTP) authentication for DirectAccess...

These spreadsheets list the policy settings for computer and user configurations that are included in the Administrative template files delivered with the Windows operating systems specified. You can configure these policy settings when you edit Group Policy Objects. You can use the filtering capabilities...

Microsoft’s Private Cloud is built on the industry leading foundation of Windows Server and System Center. The System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) update enables System Center to run on and manage the final version of Windows Server 2012, released earlier this week . System Center 2012 SP1 brings...

For those of you that have been patiently waiting for the bits, they are now available on the MSDN and TechNet subscriber download centers. Ready to find out more?  Be sure to visit the Windows Server 2012 Launch site at http://www.windows-server-launch.com/Home .  You’ll see a wide variety...