Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA)

The Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is designed to help you identify Group Policy configuration errors or other dependency failures that may prevent settings or features from functioning as expected.

Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2003 (KB940122)

Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB940122)

Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP (KB940122)

Windows Vista pre-SP1 wireless authentication hotfix

There are five issues relating to wireless authentication that are fixed with this non public hotfix (KB932063).

• IEEE 802.1X authentication that is based on Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) switching may fail.
• In a wireless profile, the information about the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) method that is selected in a user interface may be incorrect.
• A wireless profile that an independent hardware vendor (IHV) provides may be corrupted after you use the wireless profile user interface to edit the profile. When this problem occurs, you may receive an error message that Windows Explorer has crashed.
• Every time that you roam to a different wireless access point, you are prompted to provide a user credential. This problem occurs even if you have saved the user credential.
• You registered a Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) method that the IHV provided. When you try to authenticate against an Internet Authentication Service (IAS) server, the server may reject the authentication, and the IAS server may send an error message that the authentication has failed. The Onex.dll file crashes when this problem occurs.

But at least you can receive this hotfix via this web site. Contact Us: Hotfix Request Web Submission Form

Windows Vista pre-SP1 wireless authentication hotfix

There are five issues relating to wireless authentication that are fixed with this non public hotfix (KB932063).

• IEEE 802.1X authentication that is based on Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) switching may fail.
• In a wireless profile, the information about the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) method that is selected in a user interface may be incorrect.
• A wireless profile that an independent hardware vendor (IHV) provides may be corrupted after you use the wireless profile user interface to edit the profile. When this problem occurs, you may receive an error message that Windows Explorer has crashed.
• Every time that you roam to a different wireless access point, you are prompted to provide a user credential. This problem occurs even if you have saved the user credential.
• You registered a Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) method that the IHV provided. When you try to authenticate against an Internet Authentication Service (IAS) server, the server may reject the authentication, and the IAS server may send an error message that the authentication has failed. The Onex.dll file crashes when this problem occurs.

But at least you can receive this hotfix via this web site. Contact Us: Hotfix Request Web Submission Form

Compare Windows to Red Hat linux

When making a platform decision, many organizations focus on key attributes, such as total cost of ownership (TCO), reliability, and support. The chart below helps put these key criteria in perspective as you compare the advantages and disadvantages of Windows Server versus Red Hat commercial Linux.

Source: Compare Windows to Red Hat

Compare Windows to Red Hat linux

When making a platform decision, many organizations focus on key attributes, such as total cost of ownership (TCO), reliability, and support. The chart below helps put these key criteria in perspective as you compare the advantages and disadvantages of Windows Server versus Red Hat commercial Linux.

Source: Compare Windows to Red Hat

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB940006)

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 customers.

For a list of changes included in this update rollup see KB940006.

This is a cumulative update rollup and replaces the following:

• KB930809 Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB930809)
• KB935490 Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935490)
• KB935999 Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935999)

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB940006)

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 customers.

For a list of changes included in this update rollup see KB940006.

This is a cumulative update rollup and replaces the following:

• KB930809 Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB930809)
• KB935490 Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935490)
• KB935999 Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935999)

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2 Release Notes

Microsoft finally published Release Notes for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2. You may have noticed that they were “published” earlier but the they were Beta 1. A must read before implementation! Do NOT install it in production environment  since it is not supported.

Some of the important things from release notes:

• You must prepare Active Directory as a prerequirements to introduce Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2 into environment.
• You can either perform a clean install or upgrade RTM version or SP1 Beta 1 to SP1 Beta 2.
• You can NOT uninstall Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2. The only way to remove it is to uninstall Exchange 2007 from server and then reinstall RTM version of Exchange Server 2007.
• You can not use existing version of Forefront Security for Exchange. You must install Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 Beta 2 version.
• Remote Streaming backups are disabled by default in SP1!
• There are also some known issues with specific tasks in SP1, see Release Notes for details.
• In SP1 new High Availability Scenarios are introduced.
• You can only install Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2 on Windows Server 2008. There are also some issues with specific server roles. In my case with Mailbox Role.

I will post more details about installing Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2 on Windows Server 2008 later.

Re-enable Hibernate in Windows Vista

Well… If you run Disk Cleanup and if you select Hibernation File Cleaner it will disable hibernation in Windows Vista.

To re-enable hibernation run this from command line. And don`t forget to run as Administrator 🙂

powercfg -H ON

To disable hibernation in Windows Vista run this from command line as Administrator.

powercfg -H OFF

‘Hack’ the hackers…

What happens if you try to capture with hidden camera hackers admitting to crimes? What happens if you try this at DefCon? Nothing good I guess… Here is a video of Michelle Medigan from NBC News attempted to use a hidden camera at DefCon.

Here and here is complete story… 🙂