1. EDITORS CORNER
   • Microsoft Certified Architect Program
   • Microsoft Professional Developer Conference
2. ADMIN TOOLBOX
   • Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
3. TECH BRIEFING
   • School Is In Session With Mark Minasi!
   • Hard To Solve APC PowerChute Problem Solved
   • Now, Where Is My WinXP Key Again?
   • IANAL - End User License Agreements
   • Be Your Own HotSpot
4. NT/2000 RELATED NEWS
   • Six Benefits Enhanced or Added to Software Assurance
   • Microsoft Reissues W2K Update Rollup
   • SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack
   • Windows Server 2003 Adds Some Storage Management
   • Monad Hits A Milestone
   • Fast Guide: Undocumented SQL Stored Procedures
5. NT/2000 THIRD PARTY NEWS
   • Patching Your Antivirus Software
   • Announcing VMware Workstation 5.5 Beta
   • Quest Announces Storage Suite for Exchange
   • Award Winning Vulnerability SNSI Scanner Updated
6. W2Knews 'FAVE' LINKS
   • This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff
7. PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
   • LanHound Wins "Oscars" for Packet Sniffers!

Microsoft Certified Architect Program

Last issue I talked about the still mysterious "MCTA" program. But actually, a more detailed explanation of the new certification path for Microsoft is available. Redmond states: "The Microsoft Certified Architect Program identifies top industry experts in IT Architecture. These architects can employ multiple technologies to solve business problems and provide business metrics and measurements to describe the success or failure of the projects they drive. The program is currently in beta, and is expected to open to the architect community in early 2006. Also, as per a judgment of the Canadian Court, the title "engineer" seems no more officially permitted in Canada, so there are some changes there too. More at:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919ED-MS_Architech
and
http://www.w2knews.com/050919ED-MS_Architech_Canada

Microsoft Professional Developer Conference

An enormous amount of news has been released in Los Angeles this week. Sunbelt has 5 lead developers getting trained there, and Gates & friends released a torrent of new stuff. For instance, it looks like Office 12 will have a more intuitive user interface (same as Vista's), more preview features, and server capabilities. Redmond promised a preview version to developers this fall. But better yet, they gave out a 'Community Technology Preview' (CTP) of Vista, which was build (count'em) 5219 (!). More to follow, Redmond said.

• They are also planning to spend a cool 100 mil on their new Windows Vista Partner Showcase Program, which is supposed to support MS's partners marketing efforts.
• They released their new Expressions graphics suite, planned to run on the Windows Presentation Foundation, which is a platform-level presentation and display engine.
• Redmond also showed Windows Workflow Foundation, obviously a combo workflow engine, programming model and a toolset that allows you to build workflow-enabled apps. It runs on both Windows client and server.

School Is In Session With Mark Minasi!

Popular author, keynote speaker, technical trainer and columnist Mark Minasi dissects XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 in this series of five, 15-minute "cram session" webcasts.

Mark has pored over more than a thousand pages of Microsoft documentation and consolidated the information into five key sessions, available to busy Windows administrators in a humorous, provocative and informative self-paced learning environment. Find out the good and bad about Microsoft's latest desktop and server operating system service packs from Mark in his inimitable style. Be sure to sign up for our Webcast Alerts list to be notified of future events:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TB-Webcast_Alerts

And attend Mark's webcasts today!
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TB-Minasi_Webcast

Hard To Solve APC PowerChute Problem Solved

A subscriber (name withheld on request) sent me this: " We have not talked in sometime I thought you would be interested in this PowerChute problem. We experienced this failure and came up with a solution. How many others will suffer the same fate?

APC has created a Java time bomb that is as effective as any Trojan yet devised. The Sun Microsystems Java Cryptography Extension expired and causes major server problems without errors in the logs.

Symptoms:

• Slow Reboot.
• Network connections is blank.
• Services cannot be stopped or started.
• Programs cannot be added / removed.
• The APC Agent is in a hung starting state.
• The server acts slower than normal on GUI functions.

Now, Where Is My WinXP Key Again?

QUESTION:
Is there a way to retrieve the XP install key without having to deal with Microsoft. I have my original XP upgrade disk but not the case and the key was on the case. - D.R.

ANSWER:
The easiest way is to use a freeware recovery tool called RockXP, which allows you to retrieve the product key that you used when you originally installed XP, and as an added bonus, will let you recover usernames and passwords that are contained in the Windows Secure Storage. You can download it from the Snapfiles Web site at
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TB-WinXP_key

From W2Knews weekly sister publication WXPnews. Subscribe here:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TB-WXPnews

IANAL - End User License Agreements

IANAL stands for I Am Not A Lawyer. But you practically need to be one to understand those agreements that you usually sign by clicking "I Agree" while you are running Install. They are usually complex legal documents. JavaCool Software has come up with a nifty tool that actually parses EULAs into key areas, like Advertising, Privacy, Search Terms, and assigns "interest levels" (basically, almost like a threat level). The basic version is free, and is available here:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TB-EULA_Analyzer

Be Your Own HotSpot

Six Benefits Enhanced or Added to Software Assurance

Microsoft is broadening the list of benefits available to its Licensing 6.0 Software Assurance subscribers to include three new pieces of desktop software, deployment assistance, enhanced support and extended training. Most of the new benefits take effect in March.

Customers who sign up for Software Assurance will get Windows "Eiger," Virtual PC Express and Windows Vista Enterprise Edition among other new benefits. Read more at ENTMag:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919RN-Software_Assurance

Microsoft Reissues W2K Update Rollup

The second version of the W2K SP4 update rollup is meant to fix a wide range of bugs. The first version was pretty grim. See the KB article below for the ugly detail. So, last Tuesday they reissued the W2K SP4 Update Rollup to fix most of the rather embarrassing glitches. It arrived just short of three months after MS first shipped the Update Rollup that contained more than 50 security patches and system reliability fixes.

Immediately after the June release, W2K SP4 users started screaming bloody murder that it broke third-party security apps and caused systems to freeze. Here is the KB article:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919RN-W2K_SP4_Update_Rollup

SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack

The ServerWatch site has a good write-up! "The Systems Management Server 2003 Operating System Deployment Feature Pack delivers the benefits of Windows PE reduced installation time, improved hardware support, and scripting capabilities without its inherent availabi- lity problems. -- The previous article of this series "Deploying Windows XP, Using the Windows PE", presented an alternative approach to traditional methods of unattended setup of Windows XP, based on Windows PE technology. You can find this article and a host of other good schtuff at the serverwatch site:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919RN-ServerWatch

Windows Server 2003 Adds Some Storage Management

The new W2K3 Revision 2 includes a lot of new storage resource and SAN management features. You can find it later this month on MS's website. The new features include:

• FSRM (File Server Resource Manager)for storage reporting and provisioning, which includes a quota system. It will work with disk arrays from different vendors.
• A low-end Storage Manager GUI for SANs (Fibre Channel -and- iSCSI).
• Samba has been made redundant with integration of NFS support into Microsoft Services for Unix.
• Centralized file replication for branch offices through re-written distributed file service and better compression facilities.

Monad Hits A Milestone

Microsoft has released a second beta for Monad, the company's alternative to the Linux and Unix command line scripting languages. Article over tat SearchWin2000.com:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919RN-Monad

Fast Guide: Undocumented SQL Stored Procedures

Patching Your Antivirus Software

Don't let your antivirus software be the weak link in your security chain. Patching it to keep it up to date is as important as patching your OS. Interesting article at the SearchWindowsSecurity site:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TP-AntiVirus_Patching

Announcing VMware Workstation 5.5 Beta

VMware announced the availability of VMware(r) Workstation 5.5 Beta, the latest version of VMware's desktop application for software developers/testers and IT professionals.

They have taken an exceptional product and improved it with new features and capabilities that increase individual productivity and flexibility. New capabilities include full support for select 64-bit guest operating systems and experimental support for 2-way Virtual SMP.

Now they want to know what you think of it! As a beta tester, you can provide them with real-world testing and product feedback that will ensure the final release provides the functionality and quality that you expect from VMware Workstation. Download the beta, use it, and give them your feedback!
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TP-VMwave_55_Beta

Quest Announces Storage Suite for Exchange

Quest Software announced general availability of the new Quest Storage Suite for Exchange. The Storage Suite brings together Quest products used by hundreds of organizations into a new offering accessible via the familiar Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The suite enables efficient management and control of messaging data to help customers lower storage costs, meet compliance and electronic discovery needs, and manage e-mail system usage.

The Storage Suite uses the new Quest Management Console for Exchange for integrated Exchange Server administration. Based on MMC, the Quest Management Console allows users to manage both Quest and Microsoft native tools from a single integrated console, improving overall productivity.

The Storage Suite provides traffic analysis and reporting; conso- lidates e-mail storage; archives business communications and discovers and recovers data quickly. It includes:

• Quest MessageStats - Performs business-critical traffic analysis and reporting.
• Quest Archive Manager for Exchange - Manages mailbox growth and archives critical communications.
• Quest Recovery Manager for Exchange - Discovers and recovers message-level items quickly.

Award Winning Vulnerability SNSI Scanner Updated

Here's a notification of the latest update of the Sunbelt Network Security Inspector (SNSI) version 1.6.39.0 (released September 16, 2005). Sunbelt Software recommends you download the new SNSI version 1.6.39.0 and scan and patch your machines today!

To get the latest SNSI version, visit:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TB-SNSI
To update from within the SNSI console, select Settings, enter your full registration key and click on Check Now button. To Purchase NOW, visit:
http://www.w2knews.com/050919TP-Buy_SNSI New vulnerability updates for this release include:

Vuln   Name
H131   OpenView NNM 7.50 Web authentication bypass - HP-UX 11
L941   "Httpd - ""SSLVerifyClient"" directive/byterange filter
L942   Mozilla - Domain name processing - RHE
L943   Exim - Regular expression handling - RHE
L944   Firefox - Domain name processing - RHE
L945   Xfree86 - Pixmap image parsing - RHE
M60    Java JRE insecure file creation - Mac OS X
N53    Cisco - Firewall Authentication Proxy for FTP/Telnet Sessions
S331   Patchadd unable to install T-patches - Solaris 10
S332   Krb5_recvauth Library - Solaris 7 - 10
S333   StorEdge authentication bypass - Solaris
S334   Iplanet Messaging Server  - Solaris 2.6, 8 - 10
S335   Veritas Volume Manager instability in ufs logging -Solaris 9 - 10
W2604  Windows Genuine Advantage Tool Not Installed
W2605  Windows Updating Software Outdated
W2606  Adobe Reader 5 Core Plug-In Vulnerability
W2607  Adobe Acrobat 5 Core Plug-In Vulnerability
W2608  Oracle Collaboration Suite Multiple Vulnerabilities - Windows
W2609  Eventlog Information Disclosure Vulnerability
W2610  Service Enumeration Vulnerability

This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff

LanHound Wins "Oscars" for Packet Sniffers!