Luca Lorenzini's blog : tools

WSUS 3.0 SP2 Beta Program now available on Microsoft Connect!

lucalor — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:54:27 GMT

I am very pleased to announce that WSUS 3.0 SP2 Beta is available today, January 26, via the Connect Site. All you have to do is sign in to your Connect account or sign up now in order to participate in the Beta program.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 Beta Overview

New Windows Server and Client Version Support

· Integration with Windows Server® 2008 R2

· Support for Windows 7® client

· Support for the BranchCache feature on Windows Server® 2008 R2

WSUS Beta Feature Improvements and Fixes

Auto-Approval Rules

· New functionality lets you specify the approval deadline date and time.

· You can now apply a rule to all computers or to specific computer groups.

Update Files and Languages

· This release provides improved handling of language selection on downstream servers. A new warning dialog appears when you download updates only for specified languages.

Cross-Version Compatibility

· The user interface is compatible between Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 for WSUS 3.0 on both the client and the server.

Software Updates

· Stability and reliability fixes for the WSUS server, such as support for IPV6 addresses greater than 40 characters.

· The approval dialog now sorts computer groups alphabetically by group name.

· Computer status report sorting icons are now functional in x64 environments.

· Fixed setup issues with database servers running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008.

Thank you very much in advance for your participation. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) Beta is publicly available

lucalor — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:53:00 GMT

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization is one of the six technologies in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. MED-V 1.0 provides deployment, management and user experience capabilities for Virtual PC images in a corporate environment, and the beta can be downloaded here. A short survey will need to be answered before downloading the software.

Microsoft Security Assessment Tool 4.0

lucalor — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:23:46 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CD057D9D-86B9-4E35-9733-7ACB0B2A3CA1&displaylang=en

Overview

The Microsoft Security Assessment Tool 4.0 is the revised version of the original Microsoft Security Risk Self-Assessment Tool (MSRSAT), released in 2004 and the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool 2.0 released in 2006. Security issues have evolved since 2004 so additional questions and answers were needed to ensure you had a comprehensive toolset to become more aware of the evolving security threat landscape that could impact your organization.
The tool employs a holistic approach to measuring your security posture by covering topics across people, process, and technology. Findings are coupled with prescriptive guidance and recommended mitigation efforts, including links to more information for additional industry guidance. These resources may assist you in keeping you aware of specific tools and methods that can help change the security posture of your IT environment.
There are two assessments that define the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool:

Business Risk Profile Assessment
Defense in Depth Assessment (UPDATED)

The questions identified in the survey portion of the tool and the associated answers are derived from commonly accepted best practices around security, both general and specific. The questions and the recommendations that the tool offers are based on standards such as ISO 17799 and NIST-800.x, as well as recommendations and prescriptive guidance from Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group and additional security resources valued in the industry.
After completing an Assessment, you will gain access to a detailed report of your results. You may also compare your results with those of your peers (by industry and company size), provided that you upload your results anonymously to the secure MSAT Web server. When you upload your data the application will simultaneously retrieve the most recent data available. To be able to provide this comparative data, we need customers such as you to upload their information. All information is kept strictly confidential and no personally identifiable information whatsoever will be sent. For more information on Microsoft's privacy policy, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/info/privacy.mspx.

Terminals

lucalor — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:28:49 GMT

http://www.codeplex.com/Terminals

Terminals is a secure, multi tab terminal services/remote desktop client. It uses Terminal Services ActiveX Client (mstscax.dll).
The project started from the need of controlling multiple connections simultaneously. It is a complete replacement for the mstsc.exe (Terminal Services) client.

IE Proxy Manager (TrayIcon)

lucalor — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:28:08 GMT

http://www.codeplex.com/ieproxy

Project Description
IEProxy is a easy to use proxy Manager for the Internet Explorer and all depending applications. You can quickly add, delete and change (switch) your proxy settings by using the system tray. Requiements: Windows XP/Vista; .NET 2.0

Visual Round Trip Analyzer

lucalor — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:24:07 GMT

Brief Description

Tool to view web page performance
Web page performance visualizer and analyzer

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=119F3477-DCED-41E3-A0E7-D8B5CAE893A3&displaylang=en