Core OS

I took this exam back in June during the beta period and received notification in the middle of the last night that I passed.

"Congratulations on earning your Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Configuration certification! We hope you enjoy the benefits of your certification and of membership in the Microsoft Certified Professional community."

Pretty cool, although I've been doing a lot of Hyper-V since the early beta builds in the TAP program and application streaming with Softgrid for a while, so this test was in line with a lot of activities I already do. Good to know that I passed because a few of the questions were pretty tricky.

You can read more about the exam here and here.

It looks like it is a WPF application with an updated look overall and a few menus are moved around.

From the help file, this is what is new, besides updated geography information, which looks like can still be 'backported' to earlier versions:

Send to Mobile
Now you can send information—such as the address of a business—from Streets & Trips directly to a handheld device, such as your phone. Then, you can access this information from your phone at any time during your trip.

Display Entertainment Online coupons
To save you money, Streets & Trips has partnered with Entertainment Online to present valuable special offers in many towns across the United States and Canada. Now you can see which Entertainment Online coupons are available for places on the map.

Online content
When your computer is connected to the Internet, Streets & Trips provides seamless links to the latest online content available for the places and businesses that interest you. This content includes restaurant reviews and ratings, addresses, articles, and more. Even when your computer is not connected to the Internet, you can still access information about places within the Streets & Trips program, which contains information on more than 1.5 million businesses and points of interest.

Forefront Client Security SP1 adds support for:
Agent protection on Windows Server 2008 – both Server and Core.
Server role support on Windows Server 2008 (server only) for FCS server components.
FCS Enterprise Manager on Windows Server 2008 (server only).

Read more about the announcement here. Originally announced here.

Soon (not live yet as of 08-26-2008), KB 951951 will have more technical information about FCS SP1.

Oh, if only I had this utility last year when I was wrapping my head around all the possible OCS edge server configurations and which ones would not work correctly or end up in the unsupported realm.

The Edge Planning Tool asks questions about your proposed or current edge server deployment. The tool uses your answers and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 best practices to generate the following reports:

* Settings that you can use to configure your certificates, DNS services, and firewalls
* Custom documentation for configuring your edge servers, reverse proxy, and next hop server
* A comparison of your answers to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 best practices

You can grab a copy here.

Originally spotted here, and here.

Needless to say, I'll be keeping this in my bag of goodies to generate reports with.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools is a free, easy-to use version of SQL Server Express that includes more features and makes it easier than ever to start developing powerful data-driven applications for the web or local desktop.

Download SQL 2008 Express with Advanced Services here and SQL 2008 Express with Tools here.

I'm not entirely sure how this Outlook 2007 plug-in works, but this Microsoft Research project seems to have the ability to alert you of delayed or lost e-mail that you have sent. I am still trying to figure out how it works, but so far it seems like a pretty cool, and free, add-on for Outlook.

Give it a try here.

Even though the hotfix refers to WiMax connections having trouble renewing DHCP client leases, I have seen this exact behavior within network traces using my Novatel U720 USB EVDO modem that is connected to my home's Forefront TMG server. For those that don't know, Forefront Threat Management Gateway is the 'renamed' ISA Server which is part of the Forefront "Stirling" release (Forefront v.Next).

Since my Forefront TMG server is Server 2008 based, it would make sense that this hotfix should help the inconsistent/quirky behavior after maintaining a connection for 24 hours. At that point, DHCP attempts to renew and 9 times out of a 10, goes into a "coma" and stays "stuck" in the "connecting" state.

I can work around that bug by disabling the NDIS support on the U720 and using a 'normal' PPP connection, but that comes with its own set of limitations, especially if I want to do multi-ISP bonding or any of the other fancy features that being in NDIS mode enables.

If you have had trouble with Vista/Server 2008 renewing DHCP leases on WiMax/3G connections, request and try out KB 955352.

The cause:
"This problem occurs because the Windows Vista-based DHCP client computer does not comply with RFC2131 when the client computer tries to renew an IP address that was previously used. When a DHCPNACK packet is received from the DHCP server, the client must invalidate its previous configuration for the interface. Then, the client must return to the initial state to start the renew process."

Helps prevent SQL injection attacks to IIS sites, among other new features:

1. W3C formatted logging: UrlScan v3.0 RTW has W3C formatted logs so that analyzing log files is more accessible by writing queries against them using Log Parser.

2. Allow rules for URLs and query strings: UrlScan v3.0 RTW gives you the ability to specify a "safe" list of URLs and query strings that will by pass all UrlScan checks. This gives administrators the ability to configure UrlScan to allow certain URLs that would otherwise trigger a UrlScan check.

Download it here. This is a newer release than the beta that came out a few months ago.

It is strange that a few weeks ago, the construction updates for Streets and Trips 2009 showed up on Microsoft's download center, but no mention of Streets and Trips 2009 anywhere else on the site. Now, without much fan fare it seems, they've released 60 day trial versions of Map Point 2009 and Streets and Trips 2009. I am hoping it is an improvement over the 2008 version because the perspective view seemed to be a 'last-minute addition' that was quirky at best, and the forced 'auto-reroute' feature made some people upset.

I ended up going back to Streets and Trips 2007 with the updated database from 2008 due to all the other quirks I had with 2008.

With that said, I have heard rumors that this release has a lot new to it compared to the past few releases, so I'm hoping this is true. If I weren't on an EVDO connection right now, I would download them both and give them a whirl in a VM. Unfortunately, I still can't seem to dig up any "What's New" information.

You can download Streets and Trips 2009 here and Map Point 2009 here.

According to the official statistics on Microsoft's site, 31 people have passed 70-656: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack: Configuration.

Which means, there are still 169 MDOP Charter Memberships up for grabs.

If you are one of the first 200, you get:

#1: MDOP Charter Member jacket (ooh!)
#2: MDOP Charter Member Glass Award (ahh!)

If you are lucky, the promotional code of "MDOP" is still valid and you can take the exam for free, like I did.

Other statistics that I found interesting because I have these newer certifications (worldwide numbers!):

MCTS (leaving out the tests that go towards MCITP):
4,276 certified in Business Desktop Deployment with the BDD
1,690 certified in Office Communications Server 2007: Configuration
820 certified in Office Live Communications Server 2005
567 certified in Windows Mobile 5.0: Configuration
488 certified in Forefront Client and Server: Configuration

MCITP:
5,068 Enterprise Administrators
2,748 Enterprise Messaging Administrators
2,771 Server Administrators

A nice collection of tools and API samples for use with WSUS 3.0:

ADImporter

This tool allows you to pre-populate target groups with computers from Active Directory. The sample application connects to the default Active Directory domain controller, and lists the OUs and computers in the domain. It also lists the computer groups available on the WSUS server. Using this sample, you can select computers from Active directory and "register" the selected computers with Update Services. Note that each computer registered must be configured to talk to the WSUS server independently of using this tool.

ApprovedUpdatesToXML

Creates an XML file with a list of approved updates and details of their approval including the groups that the update is approved for, and the approval action.

ApproveForOptionalInstall

Approves a specified update for "optional install". This causes the update to be registered in the "Add/Remove Programs" Control Panel applet (also known as "Programs And Features" in Windows Vista) of the client machine. The user can choose to install the update using the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet.

CleanStaleComputers

This sample application removes computers from the WSUS server that have not contacted the server in a specified number of days.

ComputerStatusToXML

Creates an XML file with a list of computers on the WSUS server, and the status of the updates approved for each comp