Archives
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PowerTip: Use PowerShell to Create Hash Table
Summary: Use a Windows PowerShell cmdlet to create a hash table.
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Phantom Elements in a Hash Table
Summary: Microsoft PFE and guest blogger, Chris Wu, talks about working with hash tables.
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PowerTip: Display a Blinking Message by Using PowerShell
Summary: Use this one-line Windows PowerShell command to display a blinking message.
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PowerShell Report for a Windows Failover Cluster
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to create a report for a Windows failover cluster.
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PowerTip: Add Computer to Security Group with PowerShell
Summary: Use Active Directory PoweShell cmdlets to add a computer to a security group.
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‘Twas the Night Before Scripting: Part 5
Summary: Tonight, our Admin friend learns to migrate group memberships.
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PowerTip: Show Group Members with PowerShell
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to get a list of group members in Active Directory.
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‘Twas the Night Before Scripting: Part 4
Summary: Dr. Scripto shows our Admin friend how to determine which groups a computer is a member of.
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Protection metrics – November results
In our October results, we talked about a trio of families related to Win32/Sefnit. Our November results showed progress against Sefnit and the installers and downloaders of Sefnit (Win32/Rotbrow and Win32/Brantall). In comparison to September, active Sefnit infections have been reduced by 82 percent. As with prior months, our rate of incorrect detections also remained low and performance stayed consistent.
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PowerTip: Create Computer Account in Active Directory with PowerShell
Summary: Use the Active Directory module to create a new computer account.
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Turkey: Understanding high malware encounter rates in SIRv15
In our most recent version of the Security Intelligence Report (SIRv15), we compared the encounter rates of malware categories for the top 10 countries with computers reporting the most detections in 2Q13. Amongst these countries, Turkey stood out with considerably high encounter rates in multiple categories. Encounter rate is the percentage of computers in a country that reported at least one detection of malware.
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Cmdlets Roasting on an Open Fire
Summary: Are there new cmdlets in the Active Directory PowerShell module in Windows Server 2012 R2?
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Summering 2013
Jul och nyår står för dörren och det är dags att blicka tillbaka på året som passerat. För mig personligen är 2013 det första hela året jag arbetade på Microsoft och det har varit otroligt intensivt och roligt. Jag imponeras ständigt av våra kunniga medarbetare, smarta tjänster och snygga enheter.
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‘Twas the Night Before Scripting: Part 3
Summary: Dr. Scripto teaches our Admin friend how to find cmdlets in a module and get Help.
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PowerTip: Set Custom Attributes in Active Directory
Summary: Use the Set-ADUser cmdet to modify custom attributes.
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‘Twas the Night Before Scripting: Part 2
Summary: Dr. Scripto helps an Admin learn how to easily modify custom attributes in Active Directory.
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PowerTip: Create a Secure Password with PowerShell
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to make a plain text entry into a secure password.
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‘Twas the Night of Before Scripting: Part 1
Summary: Dr. Scripto teaches a non-scripting Administrator to easily create users in Active Directory.
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New blog article about High Availability and Disaster Recovery with Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat
There's a new article posted by Richard Schwendiman about High Availability and Disaster Recovery with Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat: Lync 2013 Persistent Chat HA\DR Deep Dive Pt. 1 Abstract As everyone knows by now, with the release of Lync...(read more)
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PowerTip: Debug a Workflow with PowerShell 4.0
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell 4.0 to debug a workflow.
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Weekend Reading: Dec. 20th Edition–‘Biggest holiday season yet’ for Windows Phone and Windows Store apps
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on the momentum building behind Windows Store and Windows Phone Store app downloads, how Bing broke out of the (search) box in 2013 and a Microsoft researcher who uses data to power his predictions.
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Security Series: Using PowerShell to Enable BYOD–Part 2
Summary: Guest blogger and security expert, Yuri Diogenes, continues his series about enabling BYOD.
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The Future of Privacy Models and Legislative Frameworks
By Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer
In our data-rich world, there’s mounting concern that today’s privacy models and legislative frameworks are less effective in terms of protecting people’s privacy than when they were developed. It’s time to evolve our collective thinking about how societies can protect the privacy of individuals while providing for responsible, beneficial data use. More >> -
PowerTip: Use PowerShell to Discover Console Colors
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to discover console color assignment.
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Updates: Coreinfo v3.21, Disk2vhd v2.0, LiveKd v5.31
Coreinfo v3.21: CoreInfo is a command-line tool for reporting processor topology, NUMA performance, and processor features. The v3.21 release adds microcode reporting.
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New book about Azure Web Sites (WAWS) by Tejaswi Redkar
If you were looking for a great way to learn about Azure Web Sites, you’re going to love the new book by Tejaswi Redkar. Tejaswi is colleague of mine and serves as Director of business products at Microsoft. He’s been around for quite a bit and is a leading expert on many topics, and that reflects well in the book.
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Microsoft celebrates 83 retail stores in 2013 with more on the way
The following post is from Jonathan Adashek, General Manager, Communications Strategy, Sales & Marketing Services Group, Microsoft. It was originally published on The Fire Hose.
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ZeroAccess criminals wave white flag: The impact of partnerships on cybercrime
The following is a post from Richard Domingues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit.
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Windows 8-spel till julledigheten
Med spel från G5 Entertainment till Windows 8/8.1 kan hela familjen ta en välbehövlig paus från julstressen. Bygg din drömstad, lös mysterium i förtrollade tavlor eller spela klassiska Mahjong. Oavsett vad som lockar just dig bjuds du på mystik, äventyr och hjärngympa.
- G5 Entertainment har många spel till Windows 8 som passar hela familjen och är perfekta att spela under julledigheten. Med brädspel, pussel, problemlösande under tidspress och äventyr har G5 spel som passar alla, säger Larissa Corcoran, marknadschef på G5 Entertainment
Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings
Bellas liv omkullkastas när en mystisk tavla helt plötsligt står utanför hennes dag. Samma dag försvinner hennes son spårlöst. I Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings följer du med Bella på ett magiskt äventyr genom förtrollade tavlor och för arbeta med hjärnan för att lösa spelets pusselliknande problem.
Pris: Gratis
Ladda hem Enchanted Paintings här
Virtual City Playground
I Virtual City Playground får du möjlighet att bygga din drömstad. Och sen är det upp till dig att driva staden. Det innebär att det är du som ska se till att det finns en fungerande kollektivtrafik, att soporna hämtas och att sjukvården fungerar. Det är helt enkelt upp till dig att se till att invånarna trivs i din stad.
Pris: Gratis
Ladda hem Virtual City Playground här
Mahjong Artifacts
Ta en paus från julstressen och låt Mahjong Artifacts atmosfär från antika civilisationer lugna ner dig. Spelet ger dig bonuspoäng beroende på hur skickligt du löser de olika spelplanerna, du kan även samla troféer för olika prestationer. Spelet innehåller även olika twists i form av specialbrickor som erbjuder dig nya förutsättningar att lösa problemen som du ställs för.
Pris: 55,00 SEK
Ladda hem Mahjong Artifacts här -
Migrating Host-Named Site Collections
Summary: Guest blogger and Microsoft PFE, Chris Weaver, talks about using Windows PowerShell to migrate host-named site collections.
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PowerTip: PowerShell One-Liner to Find Short Aliases
Summary: Use this Windows PowerShell one-liner to find one-, two-, three-, and four-letter aliases.
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Store PowerShell Profile on SkyDrive
Summary: Guest blogger, JD Platek, talks about storing the Windows PowerShell profile on SkyDrive.
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PowerTip: Use PowerShell to List App Background Task Info
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to list app background task information.
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Lieberman Software’s Privileged Identity Management (PIM) solution now available on Windows Azure
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Microsoft board of directors update on CEO search
The following post is from John W. Thompson, a member of Microsoft’s board of directors.
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Former Microsoft executive tapped by White House to run HealthCare.gov site
Kurt DelBene, a former Microsoft executive, has been named senior advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and will lead and manage HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s health insurance website, in his new role.
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Here are David Rothschild’s data-powered predictions for 2014, from the Super Bowl to Hillary Clinton
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Office 365 hjälper Coop sänka kostnaderna
Låga matpriser och hållbar miljö är två viktiga ingredienser i Coops affärsidé. För att uppnå dessa mål har man tagit Microsofts Office 365 till hjälp. Utrullningen skedde just före sommaren och har redan gett resultat.
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Use PowerShell to Work with RODC Accounts
Summary: Microsoft premier field engineer, Ian Farr, talks about using Windows PowerShell to work with RODC accounts.
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Predictions for 2014 and the December 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast, Q&A, and Slide Deck
Today we’re publishing the December 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We answered 17 questions in total, with the majority of questions focusing on the Graphics Component bulletin (MS13-096), Security Advisory 2915720 and Security Advisory 2905247.
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PowerTip: Use PowerShell to Display a Routing Table
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to display your routing table.
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PowerTip: Use PowerShell to Find DNS Suffix Search List
Summary: Use Windows PowerShell to find a DNS suffix search list.
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SVT Nyheter till Windows Phone 8
I förra veckan lanserades appen SVT Nyheter till Windows Phone 8. Appen är ett snabbt och enkelt sätt att hålla sig uppdaterad med de senaste nyhetsartiklarna, tv-inslagen och livesändningar från SVT´s nyhetsbevakning.
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Be a real security pro - Keep your private keys private
One of the many unusual characteristics of the Stuxnet malware that was discovered in 2010 was that its files were distributed with a valid digital signature, created using authentication credentials that belonged to two unrelated legitimate software companies. Normally the signature would verify that the program was issued by the company listed in the signing certificate, and that the contents of the program had not been tampered with since it was signed. By using other companies’ authentication credentials to sign their own files, malware distributors are able to make it appear that their files have come from a more trustworthy source.
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Mark your calendars: Announcing Build 2014
The following is a post from Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Chief Evangelist, Developer & Platform Evangelism.
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Weekend Reading: Dec. 13th Edition – Microsoft introduces the Cloud OS Network
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on Microsoft’s new Cloud OS Network, Xbox One sales and a gift guide for goodies under 100 bucks to help you get through the holidays.
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BI-lösning i SQL Server ger Boxer lojala kunder
Konkurrensen på TV-marknaden ökar ständigt. Bara under de senaste två åren har den skruvats upp av nya film- och playtjänster på internet. Det är viktigt att få nya kunder, men kanske ännu viktigare att behålla de man redan har. För att möta konkurrensen förbättrar Boxer TV-Access sin kundkommunikation med hjälp av artificiell intelligens och en beslutsstödslösning byggd av Random Forest på Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise 2012.
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Cloud OS Network: Tieto och Microsoft stärker sitt samarbete
Tieto går med i Microsofts Cloud OS Network för att ytterligare utveckla tjänsterna i Tieto Productivity Cloud, som erbjuds i de nordiska länderna. Cloud OS Network är ett globalt konsortium bestående av molntjänstleverantörer som har tagit till sig Microsoft Cloud OS-visionen. Dessa organisationer erbjuder lösningar för infrastruktur och produktivitetstjänster som baseras på Microsoft validerade plattform utformad för att uppfylla företagens affärsbehov. Avtalet gör det möjligt för Tieto att fortsätta utveckla lösningar på Microsofts molnplattform.
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NPD numbers: Xbox One is the fastest-selling console in the US in November
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Microsoft Cloud OS Network lanseras idag
Idag lanseras Microsoft Cloud OS Network, ett globalt konsortium av mer än 25 molntjänsteleverantörer som tillhandahåller tjänster som bygger på Microsoft Cloud Platform: Windows Server med Hyper-V, System Center och Windows Azure Pack.
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Telecomputing går med i Microsoft Cloud OS Network
Telecomputing meddelar idag att de går med i det globala molninitiativet Microsoft Cloud OS Network, för att erbjuda ökad produktivitet och flexibilitet. Microsoft Cloud OS Network har många molntjänstleverantörer anslutna över hela världen och Telecomputing är en av de första i Sverige att ansluta sig till nätverket. Alliansen gör det möjligt för Telecomputing att kombinera sina lokala produkter och tjänster med Microsofts molnplattform, vilket ger nordiska kunder hög flexibilitet och lösningar som är anpassade efter deras behov.
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Service Providers light up the Cloud OS
The following post is from Takeshi Numoto, Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise Marketing, Microsoft.
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Enkelt att byta från Gmail till Outlook.com
Nu gör Microsoft det enklare än någonsin att byta från Gmail till Outlook.com. Den nya tjänsten hjälper dig att importera ditt Gmail-konto med alla dina mail och kontakter till Outlook.com.
När du ansluter ditt Gmail-konto kommer tjänsten att importera alla dina mail till din inbox på Outlook.com, strukturen på din inbox och läst/oläst-statusen kommer att bevaras. Även alla dina kontakter kommer automatiskt att finnas i Outlook.com. Om du vill kan du fortsätta att skicka dina mail från din @gmail.com-adress, direkt från Outlook.com.
Outlook.com har över 400 miljoner aktiva användare och är en modern mailtjänst som är anpassad att fungera lika bra med mus och tangentbord som på pekskärm. Med Outlook.com kan du enkelt chatta med dina vänner på Facebook och Google, du får tillgång till 7GB molnlagring på SkyDrive och kan använda Office webbappar, som till exempel Word och Excel.
Det är enkelt att byta från Gmail till Outlook.com -
Xbox One sells more than 2 million units in the first 18 days; Sold out at most major retailers
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Pennybridge förenklar välgörenhet med .net
Att utveckla en egen plattformslösning skulle ta för lång tid tyckte insamlingsföretaget Pennybridge. Valet föll på .net – ett ramverk med kort utvecklingstid.
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First prize for Nobel Media’s scalable and reliable website, run on Windows Azure
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Rotbrow: the Sefnit distributor
This month's addition to the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool is a family that is both old and new. Win32/Rotbrow existed as far back as 2011, but the first time we saw it used for malicious purposes was only in the past few months.
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Omphaloskepsis and the December 2013 Security Update Release
There are times when we get too close to a topic. We familiarize ourselves with every aspect and nuance, but fail to recognize not everyone else has done the same. Whether you consider this myopia, navel-gazing, or human nature, the effect is the same. I recognized this during the recent webcast when someone asked the question – “What’s the difference between a security advisory and a security bulletin?” The answer was simple to me, as I’ve been doing this for years, but the question was valid and it reminded me that not every person on the planet knows all of the ins and outs of Update Tuesday.
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#MVA Course – ITIL for IT Pros
Nathan Lasnoski a System Center: Cloud and Datacenter MVP recently worked with our Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) on developing a course on ITIL for IT Pros. This course provides an overview of the ITIL framework, service design, strategy, and more. By participating in this course, you will gain a deep and well-rounded understanding of ITIL for IT Professionals offered in System Center 2012 R2 and how these offerings help ensure success for your company.
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LeWeb’13 and ‘The Next 10 Years’: The digitization of nearly everything
The following post is from Satya Nadella, Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise, Microsoft.
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Microsoft och Inet i nytt samarbete om Windows 8
Microsoft och Inet inleder ett samarbete för att i Inets butiker praktiskt visa besökarna hur ekosystemet runt Windows 8 kan användas i hemmen.
– Vi är stolta över att samarbeta med ett av världens största IT-företag, både kunskapsmässigt och produktmässigt, och glada över att ge våra kunder möjlighet att uppleva det allra senaste, säger Johan Wahlberg, marknadschef för Inet. -
KB: System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager upgrade fails with ID: 4323 and "A member could not be added"
![KB[7]](http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-47-87-metablogapi/7041.KB7_5F00_720FC558.jpg "KB[7]")
When you try to upgrade Microsoft System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager (DPM 2012) Service Pack 1 (SP1) to System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager (DPM 2012 R2), the upgrade fails and you receive the following error message: -
Security Advisory 2916652 released, Certificate Trust List updated
Microsoft is updating the Certificate Trust List (CTL) for all supported releases of Microsoft Windows to remove the trust of a mis-issued third-party digital certificate, which could be used to spoof content and perform phishing or man-in-the-middle attacks against web properties. With this action, customers will be automatically be protected against this issue. Additionally, the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) 4.0 and newer versions help mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks by detecting untrusted or improperly issued SSL certificates through the Certificate Trust feature.
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New security features added to Microsoft accounts
The following post is from Eric Doerr, Group Program Manager, Microsoft Account.
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Computer Science Education Week begins Monday – Join us in an ‘Hour of Code’
The following post is from Satya Nadella, Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft.
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Första pris för Nobelprisets skalbara hemsida
Varje år vid denna tid riktas världens ögon mot Sverige, när Nobelpriset delas ut till ledande personer som förändrar världen till det bättre. När de prestigefyllda pristagarna tillkännages i oktober och när de får sina priser i december märks en 100-faldig ökning av besökare på www.nobelprize.org med trafik på upp till tre miljoner träffar på bara en vecka.
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Reforming government surveillance
The following post is from Brad Smith, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft. It was originally published on Microsoft on the Issues.
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Students everywhere count down the hours to ‘Hour of Code’
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Weekend Reading: Dec. 6th Edition – Microsoft stands up for customer privacy
In this edition of Weekend Reading, we’ve got stories on Microsoft’s role in protecting customer data, how 150,000 students, administrators and staff members in Canada have started using Office 365 and Microsoft Research’s first Artist in Residence.
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Microsoft omorganiserar och stärker sitt nordiska annonserbjudande
Microsoft Advertising har skapat en ny nordisk organisation för att möta den ökande efterfrågan från annonsörer och mediebyråer som planerar kampanjer. Syftet är att göra det enklare och mer effektivt för annonsköpare att nå en köpstark målgrupp via Microsofts attraktiva kanaler på lokal och nordisk nivå.
Internetanvändare interagerar allt mer med varumärken som engagerar och underhåller dem i relevanta och avskalade miljöer på olika plattformar. Med de nya organisationen möter Microsoft Advertising annonsörernas och byråernas behov att kunna köpa nordiska kampanjer på ett enklare och mer effektivt sätt. Den nya nordiska organisationen kommer ha kontor i Stockholm, Köpenhamn, Oslo, och Helsingfors.
- Vi vill göra det enklare och effektivare för våra annonsköpare att på ett relevant sätt bygga relationer med våra användare. Därför skapar vi en nordisk organisation där vi kan erbjuda attraktiva lösningar, lokalt och nordiskt, med en total räckvidd på över 10,8 miljoner säger Ulrik Krag, nyligen tillträdd chef för Microsoft Advertising i Norden.
Rikard Bildsten, tillträdde som ny Sverigechef för Microsoft Advertising i början av november efter olika roller inom Microsoft Advertising, är väldigt positiv till den nordiska omorganisationen.
- Jag ser verkligen fram emot att leda vårt säljteam under en spännande period. Vi erbjuder nya och kraftfulla annonslösningar inom både Skype, MSN, Xbox och Outlook.com. Det är särskilt roligt att vår nya e-postprodukt Outlook.com är så populär bland användarna säger Rikard Bildsten, Sverigechef på Microsoft Advertising.
Nettoräckvidden i Microsoft Advertising nordiska produktportfölj är hela 10,8 miljoner användare (Comscore, augusti 2013). Annonsörer och partners når användare på engagerande, relevanta och värdefulla sätt genom personlig kommunikation på Skype, underhållning och nyheter på MSN, spel, TV och video på Xbox, personliga email i Outlook.com samt sökningar på Bing – upplevelser som sammanvävs och förstärks genom Windows 8. -
Microsoft, Europol, FBI and industry partners disrupt notorious ZeroAccess botnet that hijacks search results
The following is a post from Richard Domingues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit.
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Advance Notification Service for December 2013 Security Bulletin Release
Today we’re providing advance notification for the release of 11 bulletins, five Critical and six Important, for December 2013. The Critical updates address vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, Windows, Microsoft Exchange and GDI+. The Critical update for GDI+ fully addresses the publicly disclosed issue described in Security Advisory 2896666.
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Attempts to schedule a mailed report in DPM 2012 fail with “Reporting Services Server cannot connect to the DPM database”
~ Mike Jacquet
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Ökat skydd mot övervakning i Microsofts tjänster
Microsoft vidtar åtgärder för att ytterligare säkra sina användares information från övervakning. Förstärkt kryptering av flera tjänster, förstärkta rättsliga riktlinjer och ökad transparens i koden kommer att implementeras under 2014.
- Vi vill att alla våra kunder ska känna sig trygga när de väljer våra tjänster och lösningar. Genom de här förbättringarna förstärker vi både integritetsskyddet och säkerheten säger Daniel Akenine, nationell teknikchef för Microsoft Sverige
Förstärkt kryptering
Microsofts produkter och tjänster är redan krypterade för att skydda användarna. Nu tar vi ytterligare åtgärder för att förstärka och förbättra krypteringen för tjänster som Outlook.com, Office 365, SkyDrive och Windows Azure.
Innehåll som skickas mellan användare och Microsoft, eller innehåll som skickas mellan våra datacenter kommer att krypteras som standard för att skydda informationen från övervakning och olaglig datainsamling. Bland annat kommer vi använda oss av metoder som Perfect Forward Secrecy och 2048-bitats nyckellängd.
Förstärkta rättsliga riktlinjer
Microsoft kommer även i fortsättningen att arbeta efter tydliga rättsliga riktlinjer när det handlar om att lämna ut information om företag och myndigheter som använder Microsofts tjänster. Vi strävar alltid efter att meddela det berörda företaget eller myndigheten när vi mottagit en ansökan om att lämna ut information. I de fall där vi åläggs med munkavel för att inte kunna göra detta kommer vi ta ärendet till domstol för att få ett beslut.
Microsofts ståndpunkt är att brottsbekämpande organ kan gå direkt till företaget eller myndigheten i fråga och begära ut informationen, precis som de gjorde innan informationen flyttades till molnet.
Transparens i koden
Microsoft kommer öppna nya center för kodgranskning och utbildning där vi kommer erbjuda statliga kunder en ökad transparens till vår källkod. Detta för att de själva ska kunna kontrollera integriteten och säkerställa att det inte finns några dolda bakdörrar i systemet.
Mer information finns på Microsoft bloggen
För mer information kontakta
Daniel Akenine, nationell teknikchef på Microsoft Sverige
daniel.akenine@microsoft.com
073-408 31 36 -
Protecting customer data from government snooping
The following post is from Brad Smith, General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft.
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KB: The DPM service crashes with Event ID 917 after you change a protection group
After you change a protection group in Microsoft System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager (DPM 2012), the DPM service crashes with Event ID 917 and the console shuts down. This affects only protection groups that are configured for long-term protection (for example, groups that are configured for tape backup), especially if those groups contain data sources that are SQL AlwaysOn databases. -
Windows Azure Services coming to Brazil
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced it will invest in the development of a new Windows Azure region in Brazil. The investment represents an important step in the company’s cloud expansion strategy and its commitment to the country and Latin America.
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Genetec broadens its business with Microsoft cloud
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Office 365 makes the grade with Canada’s second-largest public school system
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Canada’s second-largest public school board – the Peel District School Board – has deployed Microsoft Office 365 to more than 150,000 students, administrators and staff members.
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NORAD Tracks Santa project goes 3D, touch-device optimized with some help from Microsoft
The following post is from Roger Capriotti, senior director of product marketing, Microsoft. It was originally published on The Fire Hose.
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KB: Upgrade to DPM 2012 fails if you use a manually installed instance of SQL Server 2008 R2
You may discover that you cannot select the "Use the dedicated instance of SQL Server" option when you upgrade to Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 (DPM 2012) because the option is unavailable. When you point the installer to an existing local installation of DPM, you receive the following error message: -
Enabling trust in the cloud
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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See the most popular Bing searches of 2013
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Microsoft har Sveriges snyggaste kontor
Igår, den 28 november, hade Microsofts fastighetschef Lotta Bergius det stora nöjet att ta emot priset för Sveriges Snyggaste Kontor 2013, på en prisutdelningsceremoni på Oscarsteatern i Stockholm. Priset består av, förutom äran och uppmärksamheten, en skulptur av Ernst Billgren som nu står i Microsofts reception.
Tidigare i år blev Microsoft Sverige utnämnt till Sveriges bästa arbetsplats av Great Place To Work. Båda dessa pris är tillsammans en bekräftelse på att vi tänker rätt, inte bara när det gäller tekniken, utan även när det de övriga två delarna - platsen och personerna – som krävs för framgångsrika förändringsprojekt. -
Microsoft Releases Security Advisory 2914486
Today we released Security Advisory 2914486 regarding a local elevation of privilege (EoP) issue that affects customers using Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003. Windows Vista and later are not affected by this local EoP issue. A member of the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) found this issue being used on systems compromised by a third-party remote code execution vulnerability. These limited, targeted attacks require users to open a malicious PDF file. The issues described by the advisory cannot be used to gain access to a remote system alone.
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Installing ARR manually without WebPI
Microsoft’s Application Request Router (ARR) IIS Extension is a complex piece of software which integrates with several other components to do its job. These components are URL Rewrite, Web Farm Framework and ARR’s External Cache module. For things to work correctly, not only do you need all components, but they must also be installed in a specific order, which can be confusing. Several years ago, Microsoft introduced the Web Platform Installer (WebPI) mechanism, which makes it easy to manage installed components. It’s used with many things nowadays, and is also a good way to install ARR and all its components properly and easily.
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Our protection metrics – October results
Last month we introduced our monthly protection metrics and talked about our September results. Today, we’d like to talk about our results from October. If you want a refresh on the definition of the metrics we use in our monthly results, see our prior post: Our protection metrics – September results.
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Security and policy surrounding bring your own devices (BYOD)
As the proliferation of devices continues to capture the imagination of consumers, and has ignited what is referred to as bring your own device (BYOD) revolution, many IT departments across the globe are now facing increased security considerations. While organizations encourage BYOD for cost savings and productivity, it is also important to have robust security policies supporting BYOD.
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Gobble gobble! 8 apps you need to make it through Thanksgiving!
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Update Rollup 5 for System Center Advisor is available
Microsoft has released the on-premises client Update Rollup 5 for Microsoft System Center Advisor. This update is dated November 12, 2013. The article linked below describes the following information about the update: -
Join our ITPro Customer Panel and help shape future Microsoft Virtualization, Cloud, and Datacenter Management Products
Microsoft Windows Server and Systems Center Customer Research team is looking for ITPros to participate on an IT Pro panel. -
Molnsatsning lyfter SATS
En aggressiv molnstrategi med tyngdpunkt på produkter från Microsoft ger träningskedjan SATS en bättre IT-miljö. Därmed underlättas företagets fortsatta expansion samtidigt som kunderna erbjuds bättre service.
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Industridesigners möjliggör för fler att jobba hemma
Microsoft som under två år drivit initiativet Jobba hemma-dagen tar nu hjälp av tre inspiratörer för att lösa problem och utmaningar med att jobba utanför kontoret.
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Carberp-based trojan attacking SAP
Recently there has been quite a bit of buzz about an information-stealing trojan that was found to be targeting the logon client for SAP. We detect this trojan as TrojanSpy:Win32/Gamker.A.
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Windows Phone 8 växer med Instagram
Nu finns Instagram och Waze till Windows Phone 8. Apparna är bara två i raden av de nu över 190 000 apparna i Windows Phone Store.
- Instagram är den mest sökta appen till Windows Phone 8, så självklart känns det fantastiskt roligt att våra användare idag kan ladda hem den. Det är verkligen ett styrkebesked att allt fler utvecklare satsar på Windows Phone 8, dagligen utökas utbudet med nästan 500 appar, säger Anna Ström, affärsområdeschef för Windows Phone på Microsoft i Sverige -
Swedavias flygplatsapp för Windows Phone 8 och Windows 8
Nu lanseras Swedavias flygplatsapp även för Windows Phone 8 och Windows 8. I appen får resenärerna tillgång till en rad ”on the go” funktioner förknippade med resan. Resenärerna får enkelt information om ankomst- och avgångstider i realtid såväl som gate- och boardingtime. Nu går det också att snabbt ta reda på ankomsttiden för bagaget.
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Karlstad utsedd till Sveriges IT-kommun 2013
När Microsofts Marie Ygge delade ut priset Sveriges IT-kommun 2013 var det Karlstad Kommun som tog hem segern, för sitt framgångsrika arbete med att utveckla och förbättra kommunens verksamheter och service med hjälp av IT. Priset delades ut under Kvalitetsmässans invigningsgala på GöteborgsOperan igårkväll .
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Microsoft utser årets partner 2013
I går hölls Microsofts årliga partnerevent på Folkets Hus i Stockholm och dagens höjdpunkt var när årets partner 2013 utsågs. De priser som delas ut av Microsoft är uppdelade i åtta kategorier, och vinnarna har tagits fram bland Microsofts närmare 4 000 samarbetspartner i Sverige. Grattis till alla vinnande partner!
Årets Cloud Partner: Avanade Sweden AB -
Joining the Cloud Security Alliance Board
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Ransomware: Ways to Protect Yourself & Your Business
By Tim Rains, Director, Trustworthy Computing
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Backup the best defense against (Cri)locked files
Crilock – also known as CryptoLocker – is one notorious ransomware that’s been making the rounds since early September. Its primary payload is to target and encrypt your files, such as your pictures and Office documents. All of the file types that can be encrypted are listed in our Trojan:Win32/Crilock.A and Trojan:Win32/Crilock.B descriptions.
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Microsoft Next: Välkommen till Microsofts huvudkontor 27-28 november
Den 27-28 november bjuder vi in dig till vår hemmaplan med tvådagarskonferensen Microsoft Next. Ny teknik förändrar hur vi jobbar och utmanar våra tankesätt. Vilken roll får kontoret när vi inte längre behöver vara där? Vad kommer morgondagens medarbetare att kräva av sin arbetsgivare? Det Nya Arbetslivet handlar lika mycket om ledarskap och kultur som de tekniska lösningarna.
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Norrtäljeskola en av 80 skolor i världen att utses till mentorskola
Som en av 80 skolor i världen, och som enda svenska skola, utses Rodengymnasiet i Norrtälje kommun till mentorsskola i Microsofts internationella utbildningssatsning.- Rodengymnasiet använder inte bara teknik i skolan på ett innovativt sätt. De har också fått utmärkelsen för sin passion för innovativt lärande och för att man på ett föredömligt sätt på ett strategiskt vis bygger hållbar skolutveckling i vardagen, säger Eva Pethrus, ansvarig för Partnerskap i Lärande på Microsoft.- Vi är mycket glada över utmärkelsen! Våra duktiga lärare har alla hjälpts åt för att göra detta möjligt, säger Katarina Björk, rektor på Rodengymnasiet.Utnämningen innebär att lärare, elever och skolledare på Rodengymnasiet kommer att delta i internationella nätverk och kompetensutveckling som Microsoft anordnar. De får bland annat en inbjudan till Microsofts utbildningsforum i Barcelona i mars, för att dela med sig av sina lärdomar och inspireras av andra.Microsoft har utsett 80 mentorsskolor som representerar ledarskap och innovation i klassrummet, och som är fast beslutna att förbereda eleverna för 21st Century Learning. 250 mentorsskolor var nominerade från 75 länder.Ytterligare information om Microsofts syn på utbildning och vad som görs för att stötta lärande runtom i världen finns i Anthony Salcitos blogginlägg.Kontakt:Katarina BjörkRektor, Rodengymnasiet0176-717 64 -
Varför jobbar inte du hemma idag?
Det var precis vad vi frågade stockholmarna i morgonrusningen! Som en start på nedräkningen till nästa års Jobba hemma dag ville vi ta del av stockholmarnas tankar kring att jobba hemma. Sedan bad vi våra främsta experter ge sina bästa råd hur man kan lösa de utmaningar som uppstår med hemmaarbete.
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Golfanläggningar lyfter med molnet
Golfservices Norden arbetar sedan starten 2011 med att ge golfanläggningar nöjdare medlemmar samt att öka anläggningarnas lönsamhet. För att detta ska vara möjligt är en väl fungerande IT-plattform en föruts
ättning. -
Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) 4.1 Released
Posted by TwC Staff
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know about many of the ways Microsoft works to improve security in our own products and services, as well as the broader technology industry. -
MBSA 2.3 and the November 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast, Q&A, and Slide Deck
Today we’re publishing the November 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. The majority of questions focused on the ActiveX Kill Bits bulletin (MS13-090) and the advisories. We also answered a few general questions that were not specific to any of this month’s updates, but that may be of interest.
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Febipos for Internet Explorer
In a previous blog post we discussed Trojan:JS/Febipos.A, a malicious browser extension that targets the Facebook profiles of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox users. We recently came across a new Febipos sample that was specifically developed for Internet Explorer - we detect it as Trojan:Win32/Febipos.B!dll.
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Make it FAST!
Going fast is always fun, but when it comes to your hardware, it could mean saving a lot of money on hardware and stretching your budget to the max. Software developers usually spend a lot of time and energy on making their product run as lean and efficient as possible, but ultimately, every customer uses his systems differently, and so there’s no one-size-fits-all. For this reason, most products allow you to tweak some settings to squeeze a bit more performance out of your system.
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New in Software Assurance: Problem Resolution Support Web
Hi everyone, this is Siddharth Jha from the DPM team and I wanted to bring a product support related update to your attention. -
New Lync Online Guided Walkthrough Helps Office 365 Admins Troubleshoot Sign-in Issues
Contributors: Darrin Hanson | Patrick Kelley | Premal Gandhi | Tim Lulofs | Peter Krebs Publication date: November 13, 2013 Product version: Lync Online The Lync Online Sign-in Guided Walkthrough ( http://aka.ms/LyncSignIn ) offers admins a customized...(read more)
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Authenticity and the November 2013 Security Updates
If you haven't had a chance to see the movie Gravity, I highly recommend you take the time to check it out. The plot moves a bit slowly at times, but director Alfonso Cuaron's work portrayal of zero gravity is worth the ticket price alone. Add in stellar acting and you end up with an epic movie that really makes you miss the shuttle program. Still, the movie has its detractors. Specifically, astrophysicist and geek icon Neil deGrasse Tyson has been critical about the movie's authenticity. To deGrasse Tyson, a lack of authenticity disrupts the movie-going experience.
Similarly, a lack of authenticity can disrupt your computing experience, which leads me to a couple of interesting items in this month's release. Two advisories this month deal with authenticity by focusing on certificates and cryptography. The first is Security Advisory 286725, which disables the use of the RC4 stream cipher. As computing power increases, cryptographic attacks that were once only theoretical become practical - this is the case with RC4, which was originally designed in 1987. That's the same year The Simpsons first appeared as shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show. Computing has changed somewhat in that time.
We've already taken this step in Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11, and now we're providing an update to disable its use in other operating systems as well. Rather than automatically disable the cipher, the update provides a registry key that allows developers to eliminate RC4 as an available cipher in their applications. The SRD blog provides a deep dive into RC4 and the implications of disabling it.
Security Advisory 2880823 also impacts cryptography and authenticity but addresses SHA1. We aren't going to surprise the world by saying we're turning off support for SHA1 today, but we are announcing a new policy for Certificate Authorities (CAs) that deprecates the use of the SHA1 algorithm in SSL and code signing certificates in favor of the SHA2 algorithm. After January 2016, only SHA2 certificates can be issued. The good folks over on the PKI blog go into more detail about the change.
We have an update regarding a cryptographic function as well, MS13-095 addresses an issue in Digital Signatures that could cause a web service to stop responding if it receives a specially crafted X.509 certificate. Since these certificates are used to ensure authenticity, having the web service go down during negotiation is suboptimal.
Of course, another way to help ensure authenticity throughout your computing experience is to use EMET. An updated version of the program is available today. Of the many improvements, there is an update to the default settings that includes two new application protection profiles for applications. There's also an update for the Certificate Trust profile that offers more applications protection. Full details about this release can be found on the SRD blog. It may not patch any holes, but it can make it harder to reach any issue that may exist on a system and, if your family is like mine, it will significantly reduce calls from relatives looking for tech support.
Of course it takes more than just authenticity to make a secure computing experience, which leads us to the other updates for November. Today, we released eight bulletins, three Critical and five Important, addressing 19 unique CVEs in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, and Office. For those who need to prioritize their deployment planning we recommend focusing on MS13-090, MS13-088, and MS13-089.
Our Bulletin Deployment Priority graph provides an overview of this month's priority releases (click to enlarge).
MS13-090 | Cumulative Security Update of Active X Kill Bits
This update addresses a remote code execution issue in an ActiveX control by providing a kill bit for associated ActiveX controls. We are aware of limited attacks that exploit this issue. The code execution occurs at the level of the logged on user, so non-admin users would face less of an impact. The remote code execution vulnerability with higher severity rating be fixed in today's release and we advise customers to prioritize the deployment of MS13-090 for their monthly release. As usual, customer with Automatic Updates enabled will not need to take any action to receive the update. Additional information about this vulnerability is available on the Security Research & Defense blog.
MS13-088 | Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer
This security update resolves ten privately reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. The most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited the most severe of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the current user.
MS13-089 | Vulnerability in Windows Graphics Device Interface Could Allow Remote Code Execution
This update addresses one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views or opens a specially crafted Windows Write file in WordPad. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user.
Last but not least, we are also providing an update for users of DirectAccess (DA) through Security Advisory 2862152. This security feature bypass issue would require a man-in-the-middle attacker to be successful, but if someone can snoop on your DA connection, it's possible they could impersonate a legitimate DA server in order to establish connections with legitimate DA clients. The attacker-controlled system could then intercept the target user's network traffic and potentially determine the encrypted domain credentials. This update, along with the new configuration guidelines available in KB2862152, helps ensure the authenticity of DA connections.
Watch the bulletin overview video below for a brief summary of today's releases.
Our risk and impact graph shows an aggregate view of this month's Security and Exploitability Index (click to enlarge).
For more information about this month's security updates, including the detailed view of the Exploit Index broken down by CVE, visit the Microsoft Bulletin Summary Webpage.
Jonathan Ness and I will host the monthly bulletin webcast, scheduled for Wednesday, November 13, 2013, at 11 a.m. PST. I invite you to register here and tune in to learn more about this month's security bulletins and advisories. We'll provide authentic answers to your update deployment questions, but no zero gravity effects will be employed.
For all the latest information, you can also follow the MSRC team on Twitter at @MSFTSecResponse.
I look forward to hearing your questions in the webcast tomorrow.
Thanks,
Dustin Childs
Group Manager, Response Communications
Microsoft Trustworthy Computing -
MSRT November 2013 - Napolar
We first noticed the new family we named Win32/Napolar being distributed in the wild in early August this year. It quickly became a big problem on our customers’ machines.
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ActiveX Control issue being addressed in Update Tuesday
Late last Friday, November 8, 2013, a vulnerability, CVE-2013-3918, affecting an Internet Explorer ActiveX Control was publically disclosed. We have confirmed that this vulnerability is an issue already scheduled to be addressed in “Bulletin 3”, which will be released as MS13-090, as listed in the November Advanced Notification Service (ANS). The security update will be distributed to customers tomorrow via Windows Update at approximately 10:00 AM PDT. Customers who have Automatic Updates enabled will not need to take any action to receive the update.
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Security Intelligence Report (SIR) v15 Now Available
Posted by TwC Staff
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Cumulative Update for Lync Desktop Client 2013: November 2013
Abstract: Microsoft Support has released a cumulative update for Lync 2013 Desktop Client for Windows, which includes new functionality. Author: Nikolay Muravlyannikov, Program Manager II Publication date: November 12, 2013 Product version: Lync...(read more)
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Updated Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Documentation Help File (.chm) Available on the Download Center
We've posted an updated Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Documentation Help File on the download center. The updated file includes all changes made to topics in the Lync Server TechNet Library since the release of Lync Server 2013, including bug fixes and updates...(read more)
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Clarification on Security Advisory 2896666 and the ANS for the November 2013 Security Bulletin Release
Today, we’re providing advance notification for the release of eight bulletins, three Critical and five Important, for November 2013. The Critical updates address vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Windows, and the Important updates address issues in Windows and Office.
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Microsoft Releases Security Advisory 2896666
Today we released Security Advisory 2896666 regarding an issue that affects customers using Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Office 2003 through 2010, and all supported versions of Microsoft Lync. We are aware of targeted attacks, largely in the Middle East and South Asia. The current versions of Microsoft Windows and Office are not affected by this issue. The exploit requires user interaction as the attack is disguised as an email requesting potential targets to open a specially crafted Word attachment. If the attachment is opened or previewed, it attempts to exploit the vulnerability using a malformed graphics image embedded in the document. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged on user.
While we are actively working to develop a security update to address this issue, we encourage our customers concerned with the risk associated with this vulnerability, to deploy the following Fix it from the advisory: -
Updates: RAMMap v1.32, Sigcheck v2.01
RAMMap v1.32: This fixes a bug in v1.30 that caused RAMMap to fail on Windows 8.
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Upatre: Emerging Up(d)at(er) in the wild
The MMPC is constantly monitoring emerging threats that are impacting our customers the most.
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System Center User Group: Netherlands – Update & Announcement
Greatness of a small country: Client, Data, and Cloud Management
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New infection rate data for unprotected computers
In the previous Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, SIRv14, we introduced a new metric to measure the infection rate for computers protected with real-time antimalware software (protected computers) in comparison to computers that were not protected with up-to-date security software (unprotected computers). Using this new data, we wrote a feature story about the risks of running unprotected. Our customers told us that providing this data really helped measure the value of running real-time antimalware software. It clearly showed that security software can provide a significant contribution to a computer’s protection level.
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Service Manager 2012 R2 – Fixes included
Thomas Ellermann posted a great breakdown on the updates in R2 for Service Manager 2012. The focus in R2 for Service Manager was to tackle some of the critical customer and MVP collected bugs. Service Managers R2 release saw no major performance improvements but we are targeting Console and Portal performance in the next update (UR) cycles. With that in mind a few of the R2 fixes are associated to improving console and workflow stability, and that can help a great deal with performance.
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Infection rates and end of support for Windows XP
In the newly released Volume 15 of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv15), one of the key findings to surface relates to new insight on the Windows XP operating system as it inches toward end of support on April 8, 2014.
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RSA Europe 2013: Operational Security for Online Services
By Mike Reavey, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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New Security Intelligence Report, new data, new perspectives
Today, Microsoft released volume 15 of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv15). The report analyzes malware, exploits and more based on data from more than a billion systems worldwide and some of the Internet’s busiest online services.
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Update: RAMMap v1.31
RAMMap v1.31: This update fixes a bug in v1.30 that caused RAMMap to fail on Windows 8.
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Some thoughts about System Center 2012 R2
As I’m sure everyone is aware, last week we released System Center 2012 R2. With this new release, I thought it would be a good idea to call attention to a great article written by Steve Bucci, one of our top Senior Support Escalation Engineers here on our System Center team. He wrote the article back in February of this year and it talks about how System Center is a team of products, and how it’s important to remember that all these separate components were designed to work better together. To borrow a phrase from Aristotle, it’s one of those things where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Steve’s article brings up points that you may want to reconsider with the release of System Center 2012 R2 so if you get a free minute sometime this week I’d invite you to give it a quick read. -
Getting Seniors in the Game
By Trustworthy Computing Staff
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A New Era of Operational Security in Online Services
By Mike Reavey, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Our protection metrics - September results
Earlier this year, we started publishing a new set of metrics on our portal – An evaluation of our protection performance and capabilities. These metrics show month over month how we do in three areas: coverage, quality, and customer experience in protecting our customers.
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Introduction: Chris Betz, new head of MSRC
By way of introduction, I am Chris Betz, the leader of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). I’m stepping in to fill the shoes of Mike Reavey, who has moved on to become the General Manager of Secure Operations, still within Trustworthy Computing.
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Configuring Lync 2013 VDI Plug-in support for QoS
Abstract: This article leads the reader through the process of enabling DSCP marking for Windows access computers that run the Lync 2013 VDI Plug-in to deliver a great audio and video experience on networks where QoS has been deployed. Author: Lester...(read more)
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Updates: PsExec v2.0, RAMMap v1.3, Sigcheck v2.0
PsExec v2.0: PsExec, a popular utility for executing processes on remote systems, introduces a new option, -r, that specifies the name PsExec assigns to its remote service. This can improve performance when multiple users are interacting concurrently with a system, since each will have a dedicated PsExec service.
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Backup Service: General Availability Release of Windows Azure Backup
With the General Availability of Windows Azure Backup we have made several reliability improvements to ensure you are able to meet your offsite cloud backup needs. There will be no impact to your backups as Windows Azure Backup moves from preview to General Availability. You can continue managing cloud backups from familiar backup tools in Windows Server, Windows Server Essentials, or the Data Protection Manager component of Microsoft System Center. We recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of the Windows Azure Backup agent. Please follow the steps in the agent upgrade notification which would be visible in the backup console of your servers
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Update 2: Announcing the Release of the Lync Server Networking Guide v2
We've updated some of the queries to address the issues you identified and posted a new version of the files to download. Look for the 2013 KHIs to be added soon. An updated version of the Networking Guide is now available here: Lync Server Networking...(read more)
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10 Years of Cyber Security Awareness
By Jacqueline Beauchere, Chief Online Safety Officer, Microsoft
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Announcing the General Availability of System Center 2012 R2: Management Delivered
The Cloud OS vision combines Microsoft knowledge and experiences with today’s trends and technology innovations to deliver a modern platform of products and services that helps organizations transform their current server environment into a highly elastic, scalable, and reliable cloud infrastructure. Utilizing the software that powers the Cloud OS vision, organizations can quickly and flexibly build and manage modern applications across platforms, locations, and devices, unlock insights from volumes of existing and new data, and support end-user productivity wherever and on whatever device they choose. At the heart of Cloud OS is Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2.
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Join the conversation about Microsoft solutions content
Microsoft is getting into the solutions content business. What does this mean? Multiple teams across Microsoft are now focusing all or part of their time on developing and publishing lab-tested, multi-product, end-to-end solution content. For example...(read more)
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HOTFIX: An update is available that improves the reliability of offsite backup operations in the Windows Azure Backup agent
We published a new KB article that describes an update that is available for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Microsoft System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager. This update improves the reliability of offsite backup operations that you perform by using the Windows Azure Backup agent. We recommend that you install this update to upgrade to the latest version of the Windows Azure Backup agent. -
Cloud OS Community Relay (UK)
Join Microsoft and a panel of MVP speakers at the Cloud OS Relay, to learn about the Cloud OS and how this technology suite from Microsoft can transform your business. Speakers such as Gordon McKenna, David Allen, Damian Flynn, and Simon Skinner and more will be covering all things Cloud OS! The big topics of these sessions will be:
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10 years of Update Tuesdays
On October 1, 2003, Microsoft announced it would move to a monthly security bulletin cadence. Today, marks 10 years since that first monthly security update. We looked at many ways to improve our security preparedness and patch timing was the number one customer request. Your feedback was clear and we delivered a predictable schedule.
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October 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast, Q&A, and Slide Deck
Today we’re publishing the October 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We fielded 11 questions during the webcast, with specific bulletin questions focusing primarily on the SharePoint (MS13-084) and Kernel-Mode Drivers (MS13-081) bulletins. There was one additional question that we were unable to answer on air, and we have included a response to that question on the Q&A page.
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Redirect hides browser extension
While analyzing a malicious Chrome browser extension we recently came across a Virtool that tries to redirect the Chrome Extension page.
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Microsoft supports continuing work toward a 'Do Not Track' standard
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Our commitment to Microsoft antimalware
We are fully committed to protecting our consumer and business customers from malware. Our strong solutions provide the comprehensive defense needed against malicious code and attacks. Our support of antimalware partners helps in building a strong and diverse ecosystem to fight malware.
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Lync Server 2013 Certificate Authentication and Passive Authentication support for Lync 2013 Mobile applications
Abstract: Following up on our announcement today about new features available with updated Lync 2013 Mobile clients, we are excited to share more details about Lync 2013 Mobile client’s support for certificate authentication and passive authentication...(read more)
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MSRT October 2013 – Shiotob
This month the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) is giving some special attention to two malware families - Win32/Foidan and Win32/Shiotob.
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Trust and Transparency Continue to be Important for Cloud Customers
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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The October 2013 security updates
This month we release eight bulletins – four Critical and four Important - which address 25* unique CVEs in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, SharePoint, .NET Framework, Office, and Silverlight. For those who need to prioritize their deployment planning, we recommend focusing on MS13-080, MS13-081, and MS13-083.
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An update on the bounty programs
Back in June of this year, we announced three new bounty programs that will pay researchers for techniques that bypass built-in OS mitigations and protections, for defenses that stop those bypasses and for vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 11 Preview. This past Friday, we provided some additional details about the results of the IE11 Preview bounty program, which covered the first 30 days of the preview period. Today, we are announcing James Forshaw, a security researcher with Context Information Security, has been awarded the first Mitigation Bypass Bounty, which comes with a prize of $100,000.00. As a reminder, this is an ongoing program, so if you are interested in participating, check out all the details here.
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Lync 2013 Support added to System Center Advisor
Abstract: System Center Advisor is a free service that helps IT Pros avoid known issues in their Lync deployments as well as other workloads. This post is to announce the support for Lync 2013. Authors: Mohamad Saleem, Kaushal Mehta, Nick Rosenfeld...(read more)
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Advance Notification Service for October 2013 Security Bulletin Release
Today we’re providing advance notification for the release of eight bulletins, four Critical and four Important, for October 2013. The Critical updates address vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, .NET Framework and Windows. The Critical update for Internet Explorer will be a cumulative update which will address the publicly disclosed issue described in Security Advisory 2887505.
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Cloud Security: New Challenges, Same Principles
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Add desktop sharing to your application by using the Lync 2013 API
Abstract: Have you ever wanted to add a desktop sharing feature to your application so users can share their desktop, monitor, or a process with another user with the click of a button? This blog post introduces you to a new feature of the Lync 2013 API...(read more)
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Mevade and Sefnit: Stealthy click fraud
Recently Trojan:Win32/Mevade made news for being the first large botnet to use Tor to anonymize and hide its network traffic. Within a few weeks, starting mid-August, the number of directly connecting Tor users increased by almost 600 percent - from about 500,000 users per day to more than 3,000,000.
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System Center Community/MVP Update
As many of you have probably seen today, I have announced my resignation from Microsoft to go to a System Center partner company. Friday will be my last official day at Microsoft, but I don’t plan on changing my personal level of commitment to the System Center community. I’ll still be blogging, answering questions on forums, presenting at conferences, and working very closely with Microsoft on channeling the feedback I see on the community into building great solutions.
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Announcing the release of the Lync Pre-call Diagnostic Tool for Windows 8
The Lync PreCall Diagnostic Tool (PCD) is a client-based application that allows you to see how the current state of your network might impact the audio quality in an upcoming Enterprise Voice call. The PCD tool was originally released for Office Communications...(read more)
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End of support for Java SE 6
If you’re running Java SE 6, we have some news for you: Oracle stopped providing public updates to it after February 2013.
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Script to delete SIP profile for multiple Lync 2013 users
Author: Edwin Joseph Publication date: September 24, 2013 Product version: Lync Server 2013 Introduction When a Lync 2013 desktop client for Windows signs-in, to minimize the bandwidth consumption the Lync client retrieves a lot of information...(read more)
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Lync 2013 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Client scenarios
Abstract: The Lync team is excited about the new Lync 2013 VDI landing page on our Lync Interop Programs, so we put together a set of scenarios to help identify Lync VDI scenario between Microsoft Lync and our partner software. Author: Kaushal Mehta...(read more)
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Deployment Details for the Lync VDI Plug-in
Abstract: It can be difficult to work with Microsoft Lync Server 2013 VDI-Plug-in. In this post we describe how to avoid some possible issues in a Virtual Desktop scenario with the deployment of the Lync VDI-Plugin. Author: Christian Schacht Publication...(read more)
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Announcing the Lync Server 2013 Demo VM Set - Public Test Drive Version
The Lync Server 2013 demo VM set is now available on the Microsoft Download Center. This VM set is pre-loaded with more than 200 contacts with photos, and is integrated with Exchange Server 2013 Unified Messaging (UM), SharePoint Server 2013, and a Unified...(read more)
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Microsoft Releases Security Advisory 2887505
Today we released Security Advisory 2887505 regarding an issue that affects Internet Explorer. There are only reports of a limited number of targeted attacks specifically directed at Internet Explorer 8 and 9, although the issue could potentially affect all supported versions. This issue could allow remote code execution if an affected system browses to a website containing malicious content directed towards the specific browser type. This would typically occur when an attacker compromises the security of trusted websites regularly frequented, or convinces someone to click on a link in an email or instant message. Running modern versions of Internet Explorer ensures that customers receive the benefit of additional security features that can help prevent successful attacks.
While we are actively working to develop a security update to address this issue, we encourage Internet Explorer customers concerned with the risk associated with this vulnerability, to deploy the following workarounds and mitigations from the advisory: -
GigaOM Structure Europe Conference Kicks Off
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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New features in ARR (Application Request Routing) 3.0
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Happy Days are Here Again: Announcing the Release of the Lync Server 2013 Protocol Workloads Poster
Author: Greg Stemp Technical Review: Joe Davies Published: Sep. 16, 2013 Remember your last birthday, the one where you got the Rolex and the keys to the brand-new Lexus? Remember how you put on a brave face, smiled as best you could, and...(read more)
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September 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast, Q&A, and Slide Deck
Today we’re publishing the September 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. The majority of questions focused on Office bulletins, especially SharePoint Server (MS13-067). We received multiple Office related questions that were very similar in nature, so the questions have been merged, as applicable, with consolidated answers provided. We were able to answer six questions on air, and those we did not have time for have been included on the Q&A page.
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Building a Resilient Organization
By David Bills, Chief Reliability Strategist, Trustworthy Computing
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MSRT September 2013 - Win32/Simda
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Lovely tokens and the September 2013 security updates
Helen Hunt Jackson famously wrote, “By all lovely tokens September is here, with summer’s best of weather and autumn’s best of cheer.” I share Helen’s clear adoration for this time of year. As a sports fan, there are so many “lovely tokens” to enjoy. The baseball pennant race is heating up, college and pro football are underway, and various soccer leagues (real football to the rest of the world) continue. As a parent, there are the “lovely tokens” of my kids returning to school, which brings a reminder of summer’s passing and excitement for another year of learning, growing, and adjusting to a new routine. For me, the routine is set: the second Tuesday of the month is here and with it comes a round of “lovely tokens” to help protect our customers.
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CISO Perspectives on Compliance in the Cloud and Managing Risk
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Advance Notification Service for September 2013 Security Bulletin Release
In celebration of kids heading back to school, today we’re providing advance notification for the release of 14 bulletins, four Critical and 10 Important, for September 2013. The Critical updates address issues in Internet Explorer, Outlook, SharePoint and Windows.
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Understanding HADR in Lync Server 2013
Abstract: With the introduction of new features in Lync Server 2013, IT administrators and partners can provide users a rich unified communications experience that is highly resilient to single points of failure. However, failures can – and do –...(read more)
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Certificates on the rebound
When Christopher Bullock wrote about the certainties in life in his book The Political History of the Devil, he probably should have added a 3rd certainty…that your certificates WILL expire and you’ll have to renew them. I think we can forgive that, as he wrote the book in 1726 and websites weren’t as popular as they are today. However, the topic of certificate renewal is one that certainly plagues the nightmares of every seasoned system administrator.
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【大阪】新しい BYOD シナリオ デモ を大阪で行います ～ ID&IT カンファレンス 2013 @大阪
以前、以下の投稿をしました。 【BYOD】デバイス認証ができるようになった WS 2012 R2 ADFS －テスト手順書公開 http://blogs.technet.com/b/junichia/archive/2013/08/29/3593415.aspx 上記の手順書にそってセットアップしていただければ、新しい Widows Server 2012 R2 と Windows 8.1 によるデバイス認証（Workplace Join）の環境を構築することができます。 とはいえ、実際に動いてるところを見てからだなぁ...(read more)
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Fine tuning Dynamic Worker-Process Page-out on IIS 8.5
With the release of Windows 2012 R2, IIS now offers the option of configuring sites to suspend after they have been idle for a while (in addition to the option of terminate, which existed since IIS 7). We have discussed this feature in the past both in this blog, and during our TechEd North America presentation. This time, though, we are going to take a look into fine-tuning the settings for optimal performance.
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MAPP Partnership Expansion to Boost Threat Response
By Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
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Perfect Secrecy in an imperfect world
While security is on everyone’s mind, some organization with higher than usual security requirements have had some concerns regarding the encryption used in web-based transactions. Everyone knows that SSL encryption is pretty much the default for any web-based connection that requires security, but SSL itself is about much more than simply “have it/don’t have it”.
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Windows Azure Receives Important SOC 2 and CCM Security Attestations
Windows Azure receives important SOC 2 and CCM security attestations
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Update Rollup 3 for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager Service Pack 1 has been re-released
The System Center 2012 SP1 UR3 package for DPM was re-released on 8-20-13 and fixes the two issues mentioned in our original article here: -
Back-to-School More Safely with Bing
By Jacqueline Beauchere, Chief Online Safety Officer, Microsoft
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Optimizations in protecting SQL databases with high churn by DPM
This blog discusses solutions for the two issues,which might be encountered while protecting high churn databases using DPM.
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Still Running Windows XP? Upgrade Now to Reduce Security Risks
Still Running Windows XP? Upgrade Now to Reduce Security Risks
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Better Together - The New Windows Server 2012 R2 Innovations – Download Now
There are quite a few products that make up the Microsoft Cloud OS vision. Windows Server 2012 R2 is in preview right now and ready for your evaluation. We also have a strong management platform that make up the System Center family of products. They are designed to have tight integration with the core being Windows Server.
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Reversal of fortune: Sirefef’s registry illusion
I have mentioned in a previous blog that the use of the right-to-left-override (U+202E) unicode character is nothing new. This blog also went on to show the various file name tricks used by malware.
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August 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast, Q&A, and Slide Deck
Today we’re publishing the August 2013 Security Bulletin Webcast Questions & Answers page. We fielded 13 questions on various topics during the webcast, with specific bulletin questions focusing primarily on Exchange Server (MS13-061) and Windows Kernel (MS13-063). There were 3 additional questions during the webcast that we were unable to answer on air, and we have also answered those on the Q&A page.
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System Center 2012 R2 Available October 18th
In important news today, we are extremely excited that on October 18th, eligible customers will able to download Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2, and use the latest update to Windows Intune. This is the same day that Windows 8.1 will be available to consumers and businesses worldwide. Microsoft Vice President Brad Anderson details this exciting news in his latest blog, "Mark Your Calendars for October 18th, the R2 Wave is Coming".
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Support Tip: Mounted volumes within mounted volumes cannot be backed up in DPM
~ Jitendra Mishra | Support Engineer
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Leaving Las Vegas and the August 2013 security updates
Two weeks ago I, along with 7,500 of my closest friends, attended the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, NV. I can’t speak for everyone, but I certainly had a great – if not exhausting – time while there. While there were a lot of great talks, a personal highlight for me each year is the chance to meet and talk with the various people who attend. It was even more fun for me this time around, as we had some great new programs here at Microsoft to talk about.
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The original AppCompat (solving a 20-year-old mystery for me)
DOS v5.0, released in 1991, introduced the concept of DOS loading "high". That is, into the high memory area - that special 64kb area at the top of the first megabyte of memory.
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Online Safety—At Work and at Home
By Kim Sanchez, director, Trustworthy Computing
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Advance Notification Service for August 2013 Security Bulletin Release
Today we’re providing advance notification for the release of eight bulletins, three Critical and five Important, for August 2013. The Critical updates address vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer and Exchange.
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Building Resilient Cloud Services at Microsoft
Building Resilient Cloud Services at Microsoft
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IIS compression overrides the VARY header
***Update for December 17, 2013***
This issue is now fixed with an official update patch for multiple versions of Windows. To download the update, click here -
Autoruns v11.70, Bginfo v4.20, Disk2vhd v1.64, Process Explorer v15.40
Autoruns v11.70: This release of Autoruns, a powerful utility for scanning and disabling autostart code, adds a new option to have it show only per-user locations, something that is useful when analyzing the autostarts of different accounts than the one that
Autoruns is running under. -
New System Center Courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA)!
Hopefully everybody has been reading and enjoying the “What’s New in 2012 R2?” series from our VP Brad Anderson. If you haven’t been following along, check it out! http://blogs.technet.com/b/in_the_cloud/archive/tags/what_2700_s+new+in+2012+r2/
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New book about Windows Server 2012 R2!
My good buddy Mitch Tulloch just published a free eBook covering what’s new with Windows Server 2012 R2. The book has several pages covering IIS, and Mitch has done a terrific job covering it, as usual.
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Building a Secure Cloud
Building a Secure Cloud
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How to Create a Basic Plan Using the Service Administration Portal
This post is a part of the nine-part “What’s New in Windows Server & System Center 2012 R2” series that is featured on Brad Anderson’s In the Cloud blog. Today’s blog post covers Service Administration and how it applies to the larger topic of “Transform the Datacenter.” To read that post and see the other technologies discussed, read today’s post: “What’s New in 2012 R2: Service Provider & Tenant IaaS Experience.”
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How to Integrate Your Billing System with the Usage Metering System
This post is a part of the nine-part “What’s New in Windows Server & System Center 2012 R2” series that is featured on Brad Anderson’s In the Cloud blog. Today’s blog post covers Service Provider experiences in enabling the billing and chargeback of Tenant Resource Utilization and how it applies to Brad’s larger topic of “Transform the Datacenter.” To read that post and see the other technologies discussed, read today’s post: What’s New in 2012 R2: Service Provider & Tenant IaaS Experience.
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Creating Usage Analytics Reports using Excel
This post is a part of the nine-part “What’s New in Windows Server & System Center 2012 R2” series that is featured on Brad Anderson’s In the Cloud blog. Today’s blog post covers Service Administration and how it applies to the larger topic of “Transform the Datacenter.” To read that post and see the other technologies discussed, read today’s post: “What’s New in 2012 R2: Service Provider & Tenant IaaS Experience.”
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Using Server Inventory Reports to Help Stay Compliant with Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA)
This post is a part of the nine-part “What’s New in Windows Server & System Center 2012 R2” series that is featured on Brad Anderson’s In the Cloud blog. Today’s blog post covers Service Administration and how it applies to the larger topic of “Transform the Datacenter.” To read that post and see the other technologies discussed, read today’s post: “What’s New in 2012 R2: Service Provider & Tenant IaaS Experience.”
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Are you prepared for the BlueHat Challenge?
Today we are kicking off a new challenge so you can showcase your security prowess and, if we can, help you build some more. Our BlueHat Challenge is a series of computer security questions, which increase in difficulty as you progress. Only the rare and talented engineer will be able to finish the Challenge on the first attempt. It’s not a contest, so there’s no cash involved here, but there will be some great answers we’ll recognize publicly and you could win yourself a big chunk of bragging rights. You can find complete details about this new program over on the Security Research & Defense blog.
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Important Update on DPM 2012 SP1 Update Rollup 3–Issues and Workarounds (Update: UR3 has been re-released)
The recently released Update Rollup 3 for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager Service Pack 1 (DPM 2012 SP1) has 2 issues that impact protected server agent upgrade and the ability to modify protection groups. In light of this discovery we have temporarily suspended availability of the update through Microsoft Update. -
Application Request Router (ARR) 3.0 is here!
Good news, everyone! After a long time in Beta, ARR 3.0 is finally out and about. Thanks to tremendous work done by Jenny Lawrance from the IIS Dev team and Pandian Ramakrishnan from the IIS Test team, Application Request Router is here, and has some terrific new features.
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Cumulative Update for Lync 2013: July 2013
Microsoft Support has released a cumulative update for Lync 2013, which includes the Two-factor Authentication feature, as well as new functionality for the Lync 2013 Desktop Client. Author : Tim Rich, Microsoft Technical Writer Publication date...(read more)
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The evolution of Rovnix: Private TCP/IP stacks
We recently discovered a new breed of the bootkit Rovnix that introduces a private TCP/IP stack. It seems this is becoming a new trend for this type of malware.
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Enabling Management of Open Source Software in System Center Using Standards
This post is a part of the nine-part “What’s New in Windows Server & System Center 2012 R2” series that is featured on Brad Anderson’s In the Cloud blog. Today’s blog post covers standards-based management of open source software with System Center and how it applies to Brad’s larger topic of “Transforming the Datacenter.” To read that post and see the other technologies discussed, read today’s post: “What’s New in 2012 R2: Enabling Open Source Software.”
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Dynamic IP restrictions deny action settings.
Like most settings in IIS, the options for deny-action settings in Dynamic IP restrictions can be adjusted from the IIS UI, or via PowerShell. In the UI, this is how it looks like:
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Update Rollup 3 for DPM 2012 Service Pack 1 is now available
UR3 for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager SP1 has been released and is now available for download. This update rollup contains fixes for the following issues: -
Update Rollup 3 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 is now available
Update Rollup 3 (UR3) for System Center 2012 SP1 has been released and is now available for download. This update rollup contains fixes for System Center App Controller, Data Protection Manager, Operations Manager, Virtual Machine Manager and more. You can get all the details as well as a download link here: -
Lync Online: Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Communication Between Lync Online Users and Their Federated Contacts
Are you looking for help to set up communication between Lync online users and their federated contacts? This guided walkthrough—based on analysis of Microsoft Support cases—walks you through the essential steps. Contributors : Peter Krebs...(read more)
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A fresh face for the Microsoft Malware Protection Center
Today we launched our new Microsoft Malware Protection Center website.
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Hook me up!
Who doesn’t LOVE reading log files? Probably those who have really busy servers that generate hundreds of mega-bytes of logs every minute. Even though the log format of IIS is standardized and many tools can parse them easily, this still presents three challenges:
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New book on System Center Data Protection Manager
Our MVPs Steve Buchanan, Robert Hedblom, Islam Gomaa, and Flemming Riis wrote a great book on System Center Data Protection Manager and is now available in stores… check it out.
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Log a rhythm
Even before the day logs were just a piece of wood used to measure the speed of a ship, captains have looked for ways to know what’s going on under the deck, and with the new version of IIS in Windows Server 2012 R2 we have kicked the logging ability of IIS multiple notches up.
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What’s New in System Center 2012 R2? Catch the In the Cloud Blog Series!
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DPM: How to plan for protecting VMs in private cloud deployments
Windows 2012 help customers in maximize their ROI of their hardware investments and manage them efficiently. Windows 2012 can support various Hyper-V deployments including Hyper-V over CSV, Hyper-V over Remote SMB and Hyper-V Stand alone. This provides efficient and flexible deployment capability that meets various customer needs.
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What is a Session Border Controller (SBC) and Do I Need It?
This article discusses the functionality of Session Border Controllers, including scenarios where they can be used and how they can be implemented. Author : Steven van Houttum, Lync MVP Publication date : July 8, 2013 Product version : Lync Server...(read more)
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Lync Online Media Port Changes Offer Better Bandwidth Management
Lync Online media ports are now split into three separate categories, giving you much better control over network bandwidth. This article applies to midsized business or enterprise customers with an internal proxy or firewall server. Author : Rob Pittfield...(read more)
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Integrating Lync, SharePoint and Exchange for Value-Add Solutions
The Office Content Group is now introducing a new type of content guidance, one that directly addresses Office Server (Lync, SharePoint and Exchange) integration to solve larger business problems. Check out this article for details. Author : Office...(read more)
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Registration complete!
As I mentioned before, one of the things we had a particular interest in addressing with this release of IIS as part of Windows Server 2012 R2 was its scalability when handling a large number of sites. A key ingredient for this is what we call site “activation” or “registration”. This refers to the interaction between IIS and the Windows HTTP protocol stack (http.sys). When the system loads and the various services start, the HTTP stack and IIS work together to establish queues, which listen for incoming requests.
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Lync Windows Store App: Better Than Ever
The second update to the Lync Windows Store app is now available in the Windows Store. Check out the new features. Authors : Phillip Garding, Lync Senior Program Manager Published : July 2, 2013 Product version : Lync 2013, Lync App, Windows...(read more)
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Expanded Lync Server Support Options
This article provides an overview of the new Lync Server support options for Lync Server customers and Lync Certified Support Partners. Author : Mayank Verma, Senior Partner Marketing Manager, Lync Business Group, Skype Division Published : June...(read more)
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Update: Autoruns v11.62
Autoruns v11.62: This release fixes a bug in version 11.61’s jump-to-image functionality.
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Viewing Vobfus infections from above
Win32/Vobfus is a family of worms that spreads via removable drives and downloads other malware, and a family that is causing people a lot of pain lately. Vobfus was initially discovered in September 2009 and became prevalent with its use of the MS10-046 .LNK vulnerability. The .LNK vulnerability has also been used by Chymine, Sality, and Zbot, though it is no longer used by Vobfus.
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Lync Online Users Are Unable to Sign into Lync Mobile Clients Due to Lync Online SSL Certificate Updates
Lync clients on a Windows Phone 7 device (and possibly other devices) are not able to sign in to Lync Server due to a missing root certificate chain for Baltimore root certificates. Check out this article for the step-by-step solution. Authors : Moustafa...(read more)
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IIS at TechEd–introducing and demonstrating the new features
In the next few weeks, I’ll be posting several additional posts about the new features in IIS 8.5, and we will be posting documentation on our main site http://www.iis.net, as well as on TechNet. We have also presented about the new features as part of TechEd, both in North America and Europe. If you are anxious to learn about the new features and see them in action, both presentations are available to view and download. The content is very similar in both, other than the personal style and preferences of the presenter, of course. Here are the links:
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New feature in IIS 8.5: Idle worker-process page-out
With the release of Windows Server 2012 R2, we are including a new version of IIS – version 8.5, which contains several new and exciting features. In the next few weeks, I will be discussing them and how they can benefit your organization.
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People-Centric IT with the System Center 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview
Hello from the System Center team and all of you participating in TechEd Europe 2013. We wanted to take this opportunity to provide more technical details on System Center 2012 R2, Intune and Windows Server 2012 R2 so you’ll see some new blog posts today and later this week. Let’s start first with Windows Server 2012 R2.
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Build, save and print your own custom book of TechNet Library articles
Everyone knows there is a lot of great information in the TechNet Library, but what if there was a way to save and organize a custom set of articles with only the information you really want? Or maybe you do a lot of work offsite where you may not have direct access to TechNet and need to take those articles with you on your phone, tablet or laptop for reading offline? Well now you can do all of that. With the Print Multiple Topics beta for TechNet you can build your own custom book of TechNet Library articles, group them in a collection that persists across web sessions, and then print them or export them to a file for later viewing. You’ll need a current browser and a Microsoft ID so assuming you have those already here’s how to get started. -
Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Preview is Now Available for Download
Today at TechEd Europe 2013 we announced availability of the System Center 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2 previews. You can download these products right now from the evaluation center.
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Updates: Mark's TechEd Sessions, Autoruns v11.61, Strings v2.52, ZoomIt v4.5
Mark’s TechEd Sessions Available On-Demand: Mark delivered four top-rated sessions at Microsoft’s TechEd US conference two weeks ago, and the recordings are available now for on-demand viewing. In Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, he gives an overview of the deployment and operation of Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks; in Windows Azure Internals Mark goes under the hood of Windows Azure to show its physical and logical datacenter architecture and operation; in Case of the Unexplained you’ll see how to use the Sysinternals tools to solve impossible problems; and in Malware Hunting with the Sysinternals Tools you’ll learn how to use Sysinternals tools to identify and clean malware infestations.
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Modernizing Your Datacenter with Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Last week there was a flurry of information and activity around TechEd North America. So many announcements and sessions, so little time. Several of the product groups posted information on what they have been working on, and we wanted to make sure and bring your attention to “Transforming your Datacenter with Software-Defined Networking (SDN)” on the Windows Server blog.
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Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 support in previous System Center products
We get a lot of questions regarding support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 in the previous versions of our System Center products, and while this information is published in the TechNet Library it’s fairly spread out and at times difficult to find. With that in mind, I’ve compiled a short description of the support for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 with these older System Center products. Obviously there are a lot of details I did not include so you’ll want to check your specific scenario for details but the links here should help in that regard as well. -
Final reminder: the future of IIS at TechEd North America!
If you’re attending TechEd North American in New Orleans, come check out our presentation about the future of IIS. Myself and Ahmed ElSayed will be presenting about the new features that the IIS product group have created, focusing on scalability and manageability.
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Updates: Autoruns v11.6, Procexp v15.31, Procmon v3.05, Sigcheck v1.92
Autoruns v11.6: Autoruns is a utility for enumerating and disabling executables and DLLs configured to activate in dozens of autostart registration points. This update fixes some minor bugs and adds Authenticode SHA1 and SHA256 hash reporting to Autorunsc output.
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KB: VM backups in Data Protection Manager fail with "change tracking information is corrupt" error
Just a quick FYI on a new Knowledge Base article we published today. This one talks about an issue where protection of virtual machines on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster host fails with error ID 30156 “The system cannot find the path specified (0x80070003).” -
KB: Restoring a SharePoint default.aspx file in Data Protection Manager fails with Invalid Pointer (0x80004003) error
Just a quick FYI on a new Knowledge Base article we published today. This one talks about an issue where attempts to restore a SharePoint default.aspx file using DPM Item Level Recovery (ILR) fails with internal error code: 0x80990E14. This is a fairly unique situation that normally only comes up in testing but we thought it would be good to let you know about it just in case you happened to come across it. You can get all of the details here: -
Uploading a custom operating system to Azure Virtual Machines
Azure virtual machines comes with a massive gallery of virtual machine images, so you can pick your OS from a variety of options, from Ubuntu to Windows Server 2008 R2. In some situations, you might want to upload your own virtual machine into Azure. For example, if you have a pre-existing server that has a complex configuration in place, it might be easier to just upload the VHD as-is rather than re-create everything on a new VM. For such a situation, Azure allows you to upload your own VHD file, and use it as the basis for a virtual machine. Here’s a guide for doing this.
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How to setup DPM 2012 to protect SharePoint 2010
Microsoft’s own Chris Butcher posted a couple great videos that walk you through how to protect SharePoint 2010 using System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager. It’s a two part series which run about a half an hour each and you can check them out below. -
Updates: Accesschk v5.11, Procdump v6.0, RAMMap v1.22, Strings v2.51
AccessChk v5.11: AccessChk, a command line utility for
dumping the effective permissions and security descriptors for files, registry
keys, processes, tokens, object manager objects, now prefixes Windows 8
application container SIDs with the word “Package”, and includes several minor
bug fixes. -
DPM and System State Backup Explained
Chris Butcher | Senior Support Escalation Engineer
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MVP Speaker Series Presentation on “Backup That Really Works”
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Servant…here to serve YOU!
Jonas Hovgaard, a developer from Denmark has released a terrific piece of software called Servant. Servant is a web-based administration tool for IIS, which can be used instead of the Internet Information Services management tool (InetMgr) to manage and administer most of the daily operations of IIS. This is how it looks (screenshots courtesy of Jonas Hovgaard):
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Meet my co-presenter for TechEd US - Ahmed ElSayed!
I got some great news! Joining me for the presentation on IIS in TechEd New Orleans will be my dear colleague Ahmed ElSayed! Ahmed is a Software Developer who graduated from The American University in Cairo, Egypt, and is now a member of the QA team for IIS.
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SC 2012 SP1 – DPM: Leveraging DPM ScaleOut feature to protect VMs deployed on a big cluster
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See you at TechEd 2013!
June marks the annual TechEd convention, and this time, Microsoft will be taking over New Orleans, Louisiana. As the program manager for IIS, I will be presenting on June 6th and shedding some light on what our product team has been cooking for our avid users!
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Support Tip: Hyper-V hosts fail and log Event ID 5120 when being backed up
Michael Vargo | Senior Support Escalation Engineer
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SC 2012 SP1 – DPM: Efficient Protection of Windows 2012 Dedup Volume
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SC 2012 SP1 – DPM: Windows 2012 VM Mobility – Uninterrupted Data Protection
One of the important features enabled in Windows 2012 is the ability to live migrate VMs anywhere. Whether the VM migrating within a cluster, across clusters, standalone to standalone or standalone to cluster or vice versa, VM will not be paused or interrupted at the time of VM live migration. This efficiency enables fabric administrators manage their fabric and load balance the environment and ensure that their private cloud deployments are running optimally. While this provides freedom and flexibility for fabric administrators, this poses management problem for backup administrators. As the fabric administrator leveraging these capabilities to optimize the fabric performance and taking these decisions independently backup administrators will not be aware of this until backup software fails to find the VM and so failing the backups. This kind of dynamic fabric provides problems for the backup administrators.
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Welcome!
Welcome, everyone, and thank you for visiting my blog. My name is Erez Benari, and I’m the program manager for IIS in Windows Server. As my team and I continue developing the next version of IIS, I will be posting information and guides here to help you make the best of IIS.
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Reduce backup storage consumption of private cloud deployments using System Center 2012 SP1 – DPM
System Center 2012 SP1 - DPM has enabled data protection for Windows 2012 Private Cloud deployments. Customers have been looking for a way to exclude some of the VHD/VHDX that have temp data or downloads or page files which have no value @ recovery time. Based on this feedback, we have introduced a new feature called “exclude VHDX”, where customer can configure DPM to exclude some of the VHDs on their backup. All backup admin has to do is run the following command on DPM server.
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You’re invited to help us celebrate an unlikely pairing in open source
We are just days away from reaching a significant milestone for our team and the open source and open standards communities: the first anniversary of Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. (MS Open Tech) -- a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.
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Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1–DPM updates
Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available and includes the following updates for Data Protection Manager: -
Updates: Autoruns v11.5, Du (Disk Usage) v1.5, Procdump v5.14, Procmon v3.04, Ru (Registry Usage) v1.0
Autoruns v11.5: This update to Autoruns, a utility for managing autostarting applications and components, now reports the image timestamp of executables and the last-modified timestamp of other file types and autostart locations to help with forensic analysis. The jump-to-entry feature is also improved to navigate directly to files rather than their parent directory.
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It keeps on getting better – Hortonworks highlights native Windows support for Apache Hadoop
Any time you can open up a platform to more options for interoperability, it’s a great thing. It’s even better if the platform is as popular as Apache Hadoop and the new option is one that has been accepted as a popular choice. And earlier today, HortonWorks announced another interoperability achievement for the Apache Hadoop project on their blog by highlighting how Hadoop now runs natively on Microsoft Windows platforms:
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How to provide redundancy for End User Recovery (EUR) of Distributed File System (DFS) shared data using DPM
Hi, Michael Vargo here, and I wanted to take a minute and talk about how you can provide redundancy for End User Recovery of DFS shared data using Data Protection Manager. -
A collaborative snapshot of community-driven Web developer tools
Today Scott Guthrie blogged about new releases of Microsoft’s Web developer tools that reflect a snapshot of improvements and contributions from the open source community and Microsoft Open Technologies Hub (The Hub). The latest updates from ASP.NET SignalR and Web API are good to go thanks to our cool collaboration.
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VM Depot repository off to a flying start
It's been just one month since Microsoft Open Technologies announced the early preview of VM Depot, a community-driven catalog of open source virtual machine images. Today we are proud to announce that the community has rallied to our call and already produced over 100 images. We are thrilled at the reception this preview has received and there are more images appearing every day. VM Depot, even in preview, is already a valuable resource for open source projects and their communities. On VM Depot the community can build, deploy and share their favorite Linux configuration, create custom open source stacks, work with others and build new architectures for the cloud that leverage the openness and flexibility of the Windows Azure platform.
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Updates: Pendmoves v1.2, Process Explorer v15.3, Sigcheck v1.91, Zoomit v4.42
Pendmoves v1.2: This update to Pendmoves adds support for 64-bit directories.
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Update: Autoruns v11.42
Autoruns v11.42: This release fixes a bug in the parsing of network file paths introduced in v11.41.
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Git now fully supported and integrated into Team Foundation Service
Here is great news for open source developers: Brian Harry announced today at the Microsoft’s ALM Summit that Git is now fully integrated into Visual Studio as well as the Team Foundation Service, Microsoft’s cloud-powered Application Lifecycle Management tool.
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It's an exciting day for me
I've been involved with open source software for just shy of 15 years now. During that time I've seen open source software become a fundamental part of technology innovation. It is that technology innovation that has fed me and my family for many years. I like to think I've given back and played a small part in the growth of open source software through my code contributions and my open source strategic consultancy services. But, today I am presented with an opportunity to give back even more. From today onwards I will be joining Microsoft UK, where I’ll be serving a global role supporting the amazing team at Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. -
Updates: Autoruns v11.41, Handle v3.51, Movefile v1.01, Procdump v5.13, Sigcheck v1.9
Autoruns v11.41: This Autoruns update reports the hosting image target of link shortcut references.
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Updates: Autoruns v11.4, ProcDump v5.12, SDelete v1.61
Autoruns v11.4: Autoruns v11.4 adds additional startup locations, fixes several bugs related to image path parsing, adds better support for browsing folders on WinPE, and fixes a Wow64 redirection bug.
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For your OSS image building and sharing pleasure … meet VM Depot from MS Open Tech
By Gianugo Rabellino
Senior Director Open Source Communities
Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. -
Hunting Down and Killing Ransomware
Scareware, a type of malware that mimics antimalware software, has been around for a decade and shows no sign of going away. The goal of scareware is to fool a user into thinking that their computer is heavily infected with malware and the most convenient...(read more)
