Windows Sysinternals Updates: Autoruns v9.37, AccessChk v4.23
Autoruns v9.37: This update adds support for viewing the Local System account’s profile and adds a new option, Hide Microsoft and Windows Entries.
AccessChk v4.23: Changes the behavior of object manager name parsing to make enumerating the objects in an object manager directory more straight forward.
Source- Sysinternals blog
Microsoft Answers Launches Beta
There’s a new web site just for Windows Vista users: Microsoft Answers (beta). On this site, designed as sort of a cross between a Q&A answers service and an online tech support forum, you can get your computer questions answered or you can share your own knowledge with the community. To use the site, you can do one of three things: search the site, browse the top questions and answers, or you can pose a new question to the community:
The site has the same clean and simplistic design that we’ve come to expect from all the new Microsoft services, like Windows Live for example. Thanks to this aesthetic, Microsoft Answers is very easy to use.
Why This is Awesome
Until now, getting computer help has meant searching the web for keywords only to stumble upon tech support forums where answers are often hit-or-miss (or sometimes even answered by very unhelpful trolls!). To get actual support from Microsoft professionals, the only other options has been delving into the more I.T.-friendly sites from Microsoft like TechNet. But with Microsoft Answers, getting help finally has a consumer-friendly face…and it’s staffed by actual Microsoft employees! Really! If you browse to this page and click on any of the folks listed under “Meet the Microsoft Answers Team,” you’ll see that that they are listed as Microsoft employees. That should certainly make you feel more comfortable about the quality of answers you receive.
If you end up asking a question, you don’t have to keep returning to the web page to see if it’s been answered. Instead, you can subscribe to your question to get automatically updated via your browser or email program (or RSS reader, of course!). How convenient.
If you have any burning computer questions, you should check out Microsoft Answers and see if they can help.
Source- Channel 10 Blog
IE December Out-of-Band release
Internet Explorer is releasing an out-of-band update available via Windows Update. Alternatively, you can receive this and all other Microsoft updates via the new Microsoft Update. I encourage you to upgrade to Microsoft Update if you haven’t already to ensure that you receive the latest updates for all Microsoft products.
This update addresses one remote code execution vulnerability. The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Internet Explorer validates data binding parameters and handles the error resulting in the exploitable condition. For detailed information on the contents of this update, please see the following documentation:
This security update is rated Critical for all released versions of Internet Explorer.
Source- IE blog
System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 SP1 Evaluation Edition
MDM is a Microsoft technology that helps Windows Mobile 6.1 devices work within the IT infrastructure of a company as trusted and managed members of the enterprise.
MDM consists of the following four main system components: MDM Device Management Server, MDM Enrollment Server, MDM Gateway Server, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 databases. The SQL Server databases must be installed separately.
These components work with key IT services to give managed devices access to selected business data. The primary IT services that work with MDM are the following: Active Directory Domain Service, MDM software distribution, certificate services, and line-of-business application servers, such as Microsoft Exchange.
To learn more about MDM, see System Center Mobile Device Manager TechCenter.
(Related Resources - _http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scmdm/default.aspx)
BizTalk Server 2009 Beta Available
The beta version of BizTalk Server 2009 has been released on the Microsoft Connect Site
Primarily, the new features include:
- Web service registry capabilities with support for UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) Version 3.0
- Support of current Microsoft Platform Technologies (.NET Framework 3.5 SP1; Visual Studio 2008 SP1; Windows Server 2008 and Windows 2008’s Hyper-V Virtualization and Windows 2008’s multi-site failover clustering; and SQL Server 2008)
- RFID support for key industry standards (including LLRP, TDT, TDS, WS Discovery and partial EPCIS support)
- Enhanced service enablement of “edge” devices through BizTalk RFID Mobile
- Enhanced service enablement of applications (through new and enhanced adapters for LOB applications, databases, and legacy/host systems)
- Enhanced interoperability and connectivity support for industry protocols (like SWIFT, EDI, AS2 etc)
- Developer productivity enhancements (support for Team Foundation Server, debugging support for BizTalk Maps (XSLT), pipeline components and XLANG Orchestrations, and enables support for unit testing via Visual Studio Test)
- SOA patterns and best practices guidance to assist our customer’s implementations (ESB guidance)
RTM of the final product is expected during the 1st half of 2009. The Roadmap for BizTalk is available here.
Source- MSDN Blog
Windows Sysinternals Updates: Process Monitor v2.03, Autoruns v9.36, Disk Usage v1.33, Process Explorer v11.31
Process Monitor v2.03: This update to Process Monitor, a real-time file, registry, process and network monitor, adds the ability to import and export configuration settings, shows an icon in the operations column depicting the event class of the operation, and fixes a symbol configuration bug on Windows XP.
Autoruns v9.36: Autoruns changes the Hide Microsoft Entries to only hide Windows entries, fixes a bug in the Find behavior, allows enabling and disabling entries using the space bar, and fixes a number of minor bugs.
Disk Usage v1.33: Du adds a new option, -u, that has it exclude duplicate hard-linked files from its summary.
Process Explorer v11.31: This update works around a bug in the latest Debugging Tools for Windows debug engine DLL and fixes a bug that could cause objects to show up as <unknown type> when Process Explorer was run without administrative rights.
Source- Windows Sysinternals Blog
TechNet Magazine January 2009 Issue Available Online
The January 2009 issue of TechNet Magazine is now available online.
Learn about Identity Lifecycle Manager 2, delve into Group Policy Preferences, get an overview of advanced SQL Server troubleshooting with Extended Events, discover a handy free utility for managing USB flash drives, and more.
Source- Technet magazine blog
December 2008 Monthly Bulletin Release
The new bulletins for this month are:
· MS08-070: Vulnerabilities in Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime Extended Files (ActiveX Controls) Could Allow Remote Code Execution (932349) which is rated “Critical”
· MS08-071: Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (956802) which is rated “Critical”
· MS08-072: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (957173) which is rated “Critical”
· MS08-073: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (958215) which is rated “Critical”
· MS08-074: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959070) which is rated “Critical”
· MS08-075: Vulnerabilities in Windows Search Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959349) which is rated “Critical”
· MS08-076: Vulnerabilities in Windows Media Components Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959807) which is rated “Important”
· MS08-077: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Could Cause Elevation of Privilege (957175) which is rated “Important”
In addition, today we’ve published Microsoft Security Advisory 960906 regarding new reports of a vulnerability in the Wordpad Converter for Word 97 files affecting Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SP2. We are aware of very limited and targeted attacks seeking to exploit this vulnerability. The advisory details workarounds that you can evaluate while we develop a security update for this issue.
Source- Technet Blog
