[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill]

There has been a large amount of discussion in the community about the release of the Ripcurl update to allow Vista clients to participate in SBS domains (also known as the "Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 Compatibility (KB 926505)").  The updates you need are now available for download.

Getting Started

First, start with the 31 page white paper at here. The white paper includes links to the downloads you need, as well as the manual steps you have to perform on the client and the server.  The six downloads are:

1. KB article 926505 - Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 Compatibility - http://support.microsoft.com/?id=926505
• Direct download for the update - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9bf2f1e4-1b2c-471b-a284-e0c8c169fac3&DisplayLang=en
2. KB article 911829 - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=77013
• Enables OWA access from Vista clients
3. The User Profile WMI Manager - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=78007
• Allows for local user profile migration
• Needs to be installed manually on each Vista client before running Connect Computer
4. ISA 2004 SP2 - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=77017
• Only needed for SBS 2003 Premium.
• Many customers will have this already installed.  Also make sure that you have the latest
ISA roll-up patch - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb
5. The ISA Server hotfix from KB 917902 - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=77019
• Only needed for SBS 2003 Premium.
6. The updated ISA 2004 Firewall Client - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=77006
• Only needed for SBS 2003 Premium.

Notes, Highlights, and Gotchas from the White Paper:

• Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise are supported by the SBS Client Setup tools.  You can connect Home SKUs manually, but it's going to be a lot of work.  Since they can't join the domain, you'll have to manually enter passwords to access email, file shares, web sites, etc. from any of the Home SKU clients.
• Older software will not, of course, be deployed to Vista clients.  This includes older service packs, IE 6, ActiveSync 3.8 for all clients and Connection Manager in addition for 64 bit Vista clients.
• ActiveSync has been replaced by Windows Mobile Device Sync Center.
• If you have installed Office 2007, client setup does not install Outlook 2003.
• Office 2007 is not a free download.  Vista clients that do not have Office 2007 installed will have Outlook 2003 installed.
• Don't attempt to install the SBS fax component on Vista.  You will have to manually configure the Vista native fax client to connect to your SBS server.  We'll be posting a walkthrough on these steps shortly.
• A new GPO is added called Small Business Server - Windows Vista policy for Vista Firewall settings to allow access to resources on the SBS server.
• My documents redirection, if enabled, will automatically work with Vista clients, since Offline Files support is enabled by default in Vista.
• Remote Desktop is enabled by default and will allow connections from RWW to Vista client desktops.
• Power management is set to always on if the computer is plugged in (i.e. has a power supply) to ensure access via RWW.  The white paper has steps on how to modify these settings if you want to optimize on Vista's power management features.
• Remote assistance only works Vista-to-Vista or from Vista to XP/2003 clients.  Vista clients cannot request assistance from users on XP or 2003 machines.  Use Remote Desktop instead for these scenarios.
• You will need to manually install the SBS cert on Vista clients that are not joined to the domain.  The white paper has complete steps for how to manually import the cert.
• Bluetooth devices can cause problems with Connect Computer; disable them before accessing the site (i.e. attach a PS/2 or USB keyboard and mouse).
• After installing the hotfixes on the server, run gpupdate /force to make sure that policies will be applied to all clients.
• Spend some time with the troubleshooting sections at the end of the white paper- many known issues are covered there.