IT

Check it out here.

No "real" content yet, just an announcement so far.

Thankfully, this has nothing to do with the buyout talks.

On May 5, 2008, Yahoo Inc. will move their servers that provide instant messaging (IM) federation with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and with Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. These changes may affect users of these products.

This change will affect only those users whose external firewalls accept traffic on TCP port 5061 only from known IP addresses. If your external firewall accepts incoming TCP traffic on port 5061 from any IP address, this change will not affect you.

You can read more about it, and the IP changes, here.

A great little add on for Exchange 2007 and Visio 2007 which will help automatically graphical representations of your Exchange 2007 site topology, including sites, servers, and connections for an organization. It looks like it will be very handy tool for consultants doing an Exchange health check to automate some of the documentation process of the existing environment.

Here is the "official" description from the download site:
The Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Connector makes it easy for Exchange administrators to visualize, explore, and communicate complex information. Instead of viewing single user data at a time, administrators can create data-connected Visio diagrams that display data at a glance and dramatically increase productivity.
The Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Connector is an add-in for Microsoft Office Visio 2007 that you can use to diagram a Microsoft Exchange Server site topology, including sites, servers, and connections for an organization.

Download it from here.

The Pro Photo Tools allow you to add, change, and delete common metadata properties for digital photographs. You can place photos on the Live Earth map and then drag them to the right location. The GPS information will be stored back into the photos. If you have a GPS device, can load track route files from the most popular formats (NMEA, GPX, and KML) and see them on the map. Then you can place your photos on the track route. Again, the GPS info will be stored into your file. When you have the right GPS location for your photos, you can automatically generate location info like country, state, city and even street names. Or if you know the location where a picture was taken, you can type it in and get the GPS location information automatically.

Download it from here.

Something interesting I noticed is that it looks like it only supports 32-bit XP and 32-bit Vista with an English locale. I'm curious to see if it will install and/or work under a 64-bit OS.

I often wondered why this essential Bitlocker tool was locked away previously as a 'request-only' KB article/hotfix, but you can now download it freely at this location here.

It is a very handy tool to have to install Bitlocker on your system after you have already installed an OS to an unencrypted volume.

I’m sure the folks at MMS (Microsoft Management Summit) already know this but check out the new features of the upcoming SCVMM release here.

If you don’t know what SCVMM stands for, it’s “System Center Virtual Machine Manager”.

If you want to join the Connect group for SCVMM v2 so that you can download the binaries, go here.

You will have to sign in with your Connect profile to be able to join that group.
Exciting stuff, especially for Hyper-V and Windows 2008.

Check it out the announcement here.

You can check out the Mac site here.

If I had a Mac, I would try it out to see what it is like, but hopefully some others can try it out and leave comments here? That would be great, because I'm curious how well it integrates with everything.

To make a rash generalization, there are definitely three groups of people when it comes to Office 2007. You could almost consider these the "#1 - Hate", "#2 - Accepts", and "#3 - Loves" Office 2007 ribbon acceptance spectrum.

#1. Longtime, hardcare Office users that have tricked out their setup so they can do practically everything with use of their keyboard and macros, right Charlie? For these users, most if not all of their macros break and they have to relearn/redo their way of life. I know Office 2007 lost some of these users to OpenOffice and other platforms due to the lack of a 'classic' or 'legacy' mode. These are the kind of users you don't want to lose, however, because they can be very vocal and very loyal if you treat them right.

#2. Middle of the road users that have used Office versions in the past but aren't opposed to change and don't have any specific needs that are broken by the move to Office 2007. There are a lot of people in this category. They may grumble or be annoyed with the changes at first but eventually figure things out and tend not to go back to the older Office suites. I find myself as a member of this group.

#3. Users that have never used earlier Office versions. They tend to pick up on the ribbon and the user interface right away. The uptake or initial learning curve seems to be less than the earlier suites.

Why am I going on and on about this? Well, there is a cool product out there by a fellow MVP that adds the ability, as close as possible, to get a 'legacy' mode in Office 2007. It is a program called Ribbon Customizer. The free version is all you need to do this. If you want to go crazy with ribbon modifications, grab the professional version.

It might not win back all the people in group #1, because it can't fix broken macros, but people who want the look and feel of Office 2003 as much as possible will love this program.

Note: I don't own or use this program but I have installed it a few times for friends and others that wanted the "Office 2003 feel", so this is definitely not a sponsored post or anything like that. I just post about stuff I think is cool or useful. Nothing more, nothing less.

Check out this update - KB 949260 - here.

Normally I’d write this off as a one-off or an isolated issue, but what caught my interest was the fact that it appears as a High-Priority Update to be installed on all your OCS servers in your organization.

And here is the other oddity that doesn’t seem to be documented very well – which basically requires a LOT of client updates, and makes it sound like someone figured out how to spoof OCS/LCS packets:

This update package replaces the OCS2007-KB946763-x86-Server.msp update package KB 946763 - Update package for Communications Server 2007 (Web Components, Admin Tools, Web Conferencing, Audio Video, Mediation, Archiving, and Server): January 31, 2008

Note: The authentication protocol that is used by Communications Server and its clients has been updated to require a signature in all messages. This includes the first message that carries the challenge response. The version number of the protocol that is advertised in the challenge response has increased to version 4. Challenge responses that use version 4 of the protocol must contain a signature. The signature is a digest of the identifying headers in the message that is calculated by using the session key. To make the Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook work correctly, this update for the Conferencing Add-in must be installed.

Additionally, to make sure that all other clients work effectively against this update, the following hotfixes must be installed on the clients:

KB 948738 - Update for the Conferencing Add-in for Outlook: April 11, 2008

KB 946764 - Windows-based Live Meeting 2007 client update package: April 11, 2008

KB 946164 - Update for Communicator 2007: April 2, 2008

This hotfix includes all earlier fixes that address "Stop 0x000000AB" issues.

KB 951749 replaces 907242, 910362, 918673, 923035, 924806, 925919, 931282, 939442, 944916, and 946068.

The following memory pool leaks were plugged in GDI32.dll, Win32k.sys and Wgdi32.dll:
Gadd, Gcac, Geto, Gffv, Gfnt, Ggb, Gglf, Ggls, Gh*5, Ghtc, Ghx, Ghx4, Ghx7, GhxE, Gl*5, Gla4, Gla5, Glx4, Gpat, Gpfe, Gpff, Gpid, Gqnk, Gsp, Gtmp, Gtmw, Gtvp, Gump, Gxlt, knlf, Uscm, Usd1, UsdE, Usgh, Usjb, Usqm, Usrt and Ussy.

Needless to say, if you want to maximize the up-time and stability of your terminal server, I would investigate/test/install this hotfix! This typically only affects heavily loaded terminal servers or servers that are not rebooted for long periods of time. You could think of these leaks like a slow leak of air in your car tire. Left unchecked, eventually, it will cause problems.

I've been writing up a blog entry for this all week but haven't quite completed it yet. I've wanted to post it earlier but this week has been one big Murphy's Law in one way or another. I do this site in my free time and my free time has been non existent for the most part since flying back to Michigan.

XP SP3 is a solid release and everyone out there running XP SP2 should install it, especially if you are doing a new install. It is a great way to avoid 100+ updates post install, if you haven't slipstreamed them into your SP2 build already.

Things that could have gone better

#1. They should have released XP SP3 to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on the same day as the RTM announcement. This has potential to turn into a PR problem, especially after how Vista SP1's release was handled. I understand the technical reasons why Vista SP1 was trickled out, but as far as I know, the same situation doesn't exist for Windows XP. It is disturbing how quickly SP3 showed up on Torrent sites.

#2. KB 888111 was originally planned to be included for support for HD Audio but the decision seems to have been reversed. If you are looking to get your HD Audio chipset working with SP3, read this thread. Update: I was looking at an old thread - KB 888111 is included with SP3. Never mind!

#3. FAQ.htm mentions SP2 instead of SP3.

#4. Some setup text files inside the RTM build are still labeled SP3BTA instead of SP3GDR.

With that said, enjoy the updated Remote Desktop Client (RemoteApps!), faster performance, network access protection, crypto updates, 1000+ bug fixes, keyless installs and other little polishes that SP3 has to offer. Don't let these little quirks scare you away.

Go to Connect and use invitation code: Cust-YCKP-QFH6

Read more about it here.

Not sure what ADMT is? Here is the description of ADMT 3.0:
The Active Directory Migration Tool version 3 (ADMT v3) simplifies the process of restructuring your operating environment to meet the needs of your organization. You can use ADMT v3 to migrate users, groups, and computers from Microsoft® Windows NT® 4.0 domains to Active Directory® directory service domains; between Active Directory domains in different forests (interforest migration); and between Active Directory domains in the same forest (intraforest migration). ADMT v3 also performs security translation from Windows NT 4.0 domains to Active Directory domains and between Active Directory domains in different forests.

Mostly of interest to tech support people and debuggers, but there is a known issue with the shipping kernel of Windows 2008 that in certain cases, does not include system page directory information in the dump file it creates during a crash. Most people won't be interested/need this update, but for those tracing problematic system issues, it can be an important omission.

Read more about the update and download the updated kernel here.

Snippet from the announcement:
Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.

Read more about it here.

Also noteworthy is that the UAA (HD Audio) hotfix - KB 888111 - is included in the RTM build.

If anyone discovers the build number, please comment here on it!

Update #1: Readers have posted that the build string seems to be 2600.xpsp.080413-2111, which would mean it was built on April 13th and then passed all the QC tests.

Update #2: Build number is 5512.