When you jump to “Home” (I still have to get used to that) you’ll find the new RDP plug-in at the Solutions and Applications section.  Here you can configure the RDP behaviour like screen size, username, domain and port. When the setup of the global setting is done, it’s time to put the plug-in to test.

Just right click one of your virtual machines and check-out the context menu, you’ll see an extra option appears called Connect over RDP. Just select the new menu option and your RDP connection will initiate.

Password – you can now set a password to be used for all connections, allowing automatic logon.
Security Warning – Security Warnings can be disabled by ticking the relevant tick box.

Download is here;  http://xtravirt.com/vsphere-client-rdp-plug-in

They have created a little Jing movie which shows the new version of the Plug-in in action.

George Stathakopoulos, Microsoft Security, confirmed the news in a company blog posting. “Given the significant level of attention this issue has generated, confusion about what customers can do to protect themselves and the escalating threat environment Microsoft will release a security update out-of-band for this vulnerability” said Stathakopoulos. He also added that Microsoft will share specific timing of the release tomorrow.

The vulnerability was unveiled when Google went public that they were targeted in a sophisticated cyber-attack. The breach, involving Internet Explorer 6, resulted in the theft of intellectual property. Due to the attack, and the background behind it, Google announced it will no longer be providing censored results for its Chinese Google search engine. Currently Google offers censored search results as part of an agreement with the Chinese government.

Since the news of the un-patched flaw broke, Microsoft has been on damage limitation. This week Microsoft began urging businesses and consumers to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, explaining that the security benefits are far greater than that of Internet Explorer 6. Both the French and German governments warned their populations to cease using Internet Explorer due to the un-patched flaw. Currently the flaw exists in Internet Explorer versions 6, 7 and 8 but exploit code is only available for Internet Explorer 6. The patch, when released, will protect all affected versions of Internet Explorer.

Should you stop using Internet Explorer?

Microsoft has had a torrid time over the past week as governments and customers question the security of the popular web browser, Internet Explorer.

The issues began when Google went public that they were targeted in a sophisticated cyber-attack. The breach, involving Internet Explorer 6, resulted in the theft of intellectual property. Due to the attack, and the background behind it, Google announced it will no longer be providing censored results for its Chinese Google search engine. Currently Google offers censored search results as part of an agreement with the Chinese government.

The news created waves across the world and last week Microsoft admitted that an un-patched Internet Explorer 6 vulnerability was one of the vectors used in the targeted attacks against Google. To many the news wasn’t surprising. Internet Explorer 6, released in August 2001, is over eight years old. It has been subject to a number of high profile vulnerabilities over the years. The alternatives that exist in the marketplace today are not only much more improved in terms of features and standards support, but crucially, offer a greater safety net for online browsing. If you’re still using Internet Explorer 6 then quite frankly, you’re mad.

Ed Bott wrote, shortly after the admission by Microsoft, that any IT pro allowing IE6 use in a corporate setting is “guilty of malpractice” and I couldn’t agree more. However, unfortunately in a corporate setting it’s not always as easy as hitting an upgrade button. Most corporate infrastructure is based on a global directory, email and intranet websites as the core ways of communication between employees. Updating and maintaining internal only (intranet) websites is always a challenge for corporations as many will have been left untouched for years with code specific to aged Internet Explorer versions. Websites is only the beginning; there are also custom applications and systems that utilize Internet Explorer that could be incompatible with Microsoft’s latest versions.

This week Microsoft began urging businesses and consumers to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, explaining that the security benefits are far greater than that of Internet Explorer 6. However, for corporations and web designers there’s a continued reminder that for many years Microsoft ignored emerging and defined web standards in Internet Explorer, especially in version 6. Developers originally griped about the lack of standards support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) after the introduction of Internet Explorer 6 in 2001. At the time the software giant dominated the browser marketplace and many would argue its actions slowed down web development. Flash forward to 2010 and it’s a whole different ball game. Microsoft’s market share is slowly ebbing away thanks to competitive and promising offerings from both Mozilla and Google. Microsoft improved its web standards support in Internet Explorer 7 and 8 and now it plans to extend that with 9, due later this year. But is it too little too late?

The question of whether to stop using Internet Explorer is one that many businesses and consumers are likely asking this week. Both the French and German governments warned their populations to cease using Internet Explorer due to the un-patched flaw. Currently the flaw exists in Internet Explorer versions 6, 7 and 8 but exploit code is only available for Internet Explorer 6. The reason IE 7 and 8 are both unaffected for now is due to the increased security of the software. Internet Explorer 7 introduced a phishing filter, protected mode to run the browser in a sandbox at low level security rights (vista only) and improved management of ActiveX controls. Microsoft improved security in IE8 by running the browser frame and tabs in separate processes and per-site ActiveX controls. Both IE 7 and 8 also include support for Data Execution Prevention (DEP) that prevents buffer overflow attacks.

So do these attacks mean you should stop using Internet Explorer? Simply put, no. Although it’s true that a vulnerability exists, Microsoft is currently working on a patch to resolve this as soon as possible. If you’re still running Internet Explorer 6 then it’s definitely time to upgrade. Neowin spoke to Cliff Evans, head of security and privacy for Microsoft in the UK yesterday. Evans urged consumers and businesses to “look at this vulnerability in a broader context and think about what the risk is.” He argued that although the vulnerability exists, it’s highly unlikely that the average business or consumer would be targeted by the type of attack Google experienced. Evans insisted that “normal organisations have little to fear” over the recent attacks and that Microsoft recommends all businesses and consumers upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, especially if they are currently using 6. I questioned Evans over corporations who may be stuck on Internet Explorer 6 for compatibility reasons but he urged them to look at their upgrade plans again. According to data from Net Applications (December 09), as a percentage of Internet Explorer use, IE6 maintains 36.57% and IE8 36.27%. Internet Explorer 7 lags behind with 27.11%. With Internet Explorer 6 still the most popular of all Internet Explorer variants, Microsoft is going to have a tough time convincing people to upgrade. Evans would not commit to a release date for the fix but said it was more likely that it would be distributed as an out of band patch shortly or as part of Microsoft’s monthly “patch Tuesday” which is due on February 9.

Source: http://www.neowin.net/

Microsoft Office 2010 will become available in a x86 and x64 version. Sharepoint 2010 will only be available in x64 version only.

Microsoft is planning to release the  Microsoft Office 2010 products in Q1 next year (2010).

More information about the Office 2010 products on http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/

Here’s a handy little app that I just stumbled across thanks to MakeUseOf: CNET’s TechTracker. If you use a lot of desktop applications, you may have trouble keeping up with which programs are in need of an update. Not only do updates deliver critical bug fixes and security patches, they often deliver great new features and improvements, too. But keeping up with tons of apps – especially if they’re shareware or freeware programs – can be difficult. That’s where TechTracker comes in.

On the 8th of October Technet_live was being held in The Hague, this included the Windows 7 introduction in the Netherlands. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft presented the Keynote. NGN-member Alex Warmerdam filmed the whole keynote with his mobile phone, and got to ask Steve Ballmer a question as well.

Since Active Directory was included as part of Window Server 2000, administrators have often asked for  a simple way to roll back mistakes, whether that is the incorrect deletion of the wrong user account to the accidental removal of thousands of objects by deleting an OU. Before the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 there were a number of ways using built-in or third-party methods to restore Active Directory objects, but typically they were not as quick or complete as say retrieving a deleted email or file.

Microsoft has included with their release of Windows Server 2008 R2 the facility, under the correct conditions, to enable a Recycle Bin for Active Directory and allow simple restoration of objects which have been erroneously removed. In this article we will briefly cover some of the options prior to 2008 R2 and then examine how to enable the new Recycle Bin and restore objects from it.

Pre-Windows Server 2008 R2

The 2008 R2 Recycle Bin for Active Directory is a great motivating point for upgrading your forest and domain(s) to the latest version, but this is not always a quick process in many enterprises so it is worth knowing what options are available prior to this version. Like many things it’s a lot better to examine and plan for possible resolutions before a significant mistake happens that you need to deal with. Retrieving Active Directory objects typically falls into two available categories, authoritative restore from a backup or tombstone reanimation.

Authoritative Restore

The Microsoft KB article 840001(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840001) details how to perform the restoration of a user account using a system state backup of a domain controller. Typically, you would use a global catalog so that you can also restore all group membership information.

Tombstone Reanimation

The above article also details how to recover an account when you don’t have a system state backup by using tombstone reanimation which was introduced with Windows Server 2003 – you can retrieve objects from the Deleted Objects container where they are kept after deletion until their tombstone period expires. Obviously regular system state backups of Active Directory are critical for your full disaster recovery procedures, but taking advantage of tombstone reanimation means you can get objects back quicker than having to go through the full authoritative restore process.

You could use the procedure in the article which utilises the ldp.exe tool, but there are other methods around which you may find simpler.

• The article itself links to a Sysinternals tool, ADRestore (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963906.aspx), which is a command line tool for reanimating objects.

• The free ADRestore.Net, a GUI tool made by Microsoft PFE Guy Teverovsky. http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/guyt/archive/2007/12/15/adrestore-net-rewrite.aspx.

• Quest produces a freeware product Object Restore for Active Directory, an easy to use GUI tool. http://www.quest.com/object-restore-for-active-directory/ (Note: there is a commercial version with more features, Recovery Manager for Active Directory.)

• Quest also produces a cmdlet library for managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell (http://www.quest.com/powershell/activeroles-server.aspx). As of version 1.2 a number of the cmdlets had a Tombstone parameter added to them so that a search of objects would also include items which have been tombstoned. These results could then be piped through to the new cmdlet Restore-QADDeletedObject to undelete the object represented by the tombstone.  For instance the command Get-QADUser –Tombstone -LastChangedOn  ((Get-Date).adddays(-1)) | Restore-QADDeletedObject would restore all user accounts deleted yesterday.

The drawback with tombstone reanimation is that because most of the object’s attributes are removed at the time of the object’s deletion, a restored object using this method requires many properties of the account, such as address fields and group membership, to be manually repopulated. Whilst this is obviously preferable to re-creating an account from scratch it does not make for a quick overall process. However, you will at least get back the objectGUID and objectSid attributes which means there would be no need to re-configure a user’s workstation profile.

The original release of Windows Server 2008 introduced snapshot backups for Active Directory. You can take point-in-time snapshots of your Active Directory with the NTDSUTIL command line utility which utilizes Volume Shadow Copy to provide a snapshot. It is then possible to mount this snapshot using different ports on the same domain controller as the live Active Directory database and use standard tools to compare the two. This could really make the tombstone reanimation a lot simpler because after restoring the object you could view two versions of Active Directory Users and Computers side by side and view the properties of the restored object from a previous time, so making it simpler to repopulate properties.

The Directory Service Comparison Tool (http://lindstrom.nullsession.com/?page_id=11) takes advantage of these snapshots and makes the repopulation process more streamlined.

For those with Microsoft Exchange messaging environments, once you have the Active Directory account back, you can use the Reconnect Mailbox feature within Exchange to tie the restored account back up with the mailbox. This is of course providing you have a similar tombstone retention period for mailboxes that you do for AD accounts.

Active Directory Recycle Bin

The real reason you decided to read this article though was not so that we could spend time going over all the possible options for how you can piece together restored AD objects, but rather to find out how the Recycle Bin is going to make your life as an Active Directory administrator easier without necessarily the need for these different tools. The key differences from previous versions of Windows Server are that by default you get all of the attributes back and the tools to use are PowerShell cmdlets, which are quickly becoming a more essential part of every Windows administrator’s standard toolkit.

Firstly though the Active Directory Recycle Bin is not enabled by default and has certain domain and forest wide requirements before it can be enabled.

• Firstly, all domain controllers within the Active Directory forest must be running Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Secondly, the functional level of the Active Directory forest must be Windows Server 2008 R2.

Naturally organizations are typically cautious when upgrading Active Directory and these types of infrastructure projects don’t tend to happen quickly, but the Recycle Bin could be one of the features which gives you more weight behind a decision. You should also be aware though that enabling the Recycle Bin is a onetime only move, there’s no easy way to disable it again, so careful consideration of this decision must be taken.

It’s worth noting that if you are making a fresh forest install of Windows Server 2008 R2 the Active Directory schema will already include all of the necessary attributes for the Recycle Bin to function. If however you are upgrading your domain controllers from previous versions of Windows Server then you will need to run the well known procedure of adprep /forestprep and adprep /domainprep (for each domain) and possibly adprep /domainprep /gpprep (for Group Policy preparation)

before you can introduce Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers into the environment.

So let’s go ahead and run through all the steps we need to get the Recycle Bin enabled. Firstly, ensure that all of your domain controllers are running Windows Server 2008 R2 and then we need to use PowerShell; the great news with Windows Server 2008 R2 is that version 2 of PowerShell is installed by default and is placed directly on your taskbar.

After you have installed Active Directory Domain Services the Active Directory specific cmdlets are available to use via a module; modules essentially are the evolution of snapins from version 1 of PowerShell. To access these cmdlets you can either open the Active Directory specific version of the PowerShell console from the Administrative Programs menu, or the method I would prefer, use the Import-Module cmdlet. (Tip: You could add the below expression to your PowerShell profile so that the cmdlets are available every time you open PowerShell)

PS> Import-Module activedirectory

Once complete all of the Active Directory cmdlets will be at your fingertips. As previously discussed we now need to get the functional level of the forest up to the level of Windows Server 2008 R2. The most common way to do this previously was through Active Directory Domains and Trusts.

Now though we can do this through PowerShell. The Get-ADForest cmdlet will return information about your forest and the Set-ADForestMode cmdlet will enable you to raise the current functional level – since it is such a significant change to your environment you will be prompted to confirm that you wish to go ahead.

Now that our forest is at the correct functional level we can enable the Recycle Bin, to do so we use the Enable-ADOptionalFeature cmdlet. This must be either run on the DC with the Domain Naming Master FSMO role or directed at that server with the –server parameter. Again you will be prompted to confirm your command since the action is irreversible.

Now that we have the Recycle Bin enabled it’s time to go check out how we recover some deleted objects. In this environment we have a very simple AD structure with a couple of test accounts to illustrate the example.

Let’s take the situation where an administrator accidently deletes the Users OU. One of the most common reasons this can happen is because it is actually possible to delete OU’s from the Group Policy Management tool, not just Active Directory Users and Computers – so an administrator might think they are removing a GPO and in a bad moment delete the wrong item and remove a whole OU. The administrator is prompted for what they are about to do, but I have seen it happen more than once!

The initial release of Windows 2008 Server actually included a new checkbox ‘Protect object from accidental deletion’. In the example of the OU below any attempt to delete the OU will be met with an Access is denied response and the administrator will actually have to remove the tick from that checkbox before the OU can be deleted.

However, what you would naturally expect to happen as a consequence of the Protect object from accidental deletion would be any user or computer account created in that protected OU would also be supported by the same mechanism. Unfortunately by default they are not, so as a good practise you would either need to build that into your account creation process or programmatically check and set that checkbox on all accounts in the OU on a regular basis.

Consequently, in the above example if we accept the warning to delete the OU we are greeted with an Access is denied message since the OU has protection set.

So we were saved from deleting the OU, but all of the unprotected child objects were deleted.

(For the purposes of this article I now remove the Users OU by first clearing the checkbox for protecting the object from accidental deletion.)

We can browse the current contents of the Active Directory Recycle Bin using the Get-ADObject cmdlet, directing it at the Deleted Objects container and using the –includeDeletedObjects parameter.

We can see from the resultant output that we have both the Users OU in there and the two user accounts. So let’s try restoring one of the user accounts back, to do so we need the Restore-ADObject cmdlet and supply the ObjectGuid property of the user account.

Oh dear, it failed to restore, but PowerShell tells us that it failed because the object’s parent no longer exists either, i.e. we need to first restore the Users OU. (Note: an alternative would be to use the  -targetpath parameter and re-direct the restore to a different OU)

To restore the Users OU we can use the same cmdlet (Restore-ADObject) as to restore users, just supply the ObjectGuid of the OU.

The Users OU returns.

Now we just need to get those user accounts back. Rather than have to type out the ObjectGuid for each account we wish to restore we can instead create a search which will match all of the accounts we wish to restore and then use the PowerShell pipeline to send those results to the Restore-ADObject cmdlet.

The user accounts are back in the Users OU.

If we check the properties of the account we can confirm that different from tombstone re-animation we get all of the properties back.

Active Directory Recycle Bin PowerPack for PowerGUI

Although the Recycle Bin is a great new feature within Windows Server 2008 R2 Microsoft is already getting feedback that there is no GUI for managing it. Whilst a lot of administrators are comfortable with PowerShell, some may still prefer to use a GUI based management tool for these tasks. Fortunately a great tool to plug this gap has already been provided by the community; PowerShell MVP Kirk Munro has created the Active Directory Recycle Bin PowerPack for PowerGUI (http://www.powergui.org/entry.jspa?categoryID=21&externalID=2461). This free tool has bundled up scripts using the previously demonstrated Active Directory PowerShell cmdlets and provides a graphical front end for administration.

Simply download the PowerGUI tool plus the Active Directory Recycle Bin PowerPack and import it into PowerGUI. Open up the PowerPack and you will have a graphical view of the current contents of the Recycle Bin with the ability to drill down through Organisational Units. Options for restoring single items or recursively are provided in the Actions column as well as alternate restoration paths and emptying items from the Recycle Bin.

It is also possible to use the Configure recycle bin action to set the values for DeletedObjectLifetime, the amount of days objects reside in the Recycle Bin, and TombstoneLifetime, the amount of days objects can be restored using Tombstone Reanimation after they have left the Recycle Bin. In Windows Server 2008 R2 both of these values default to 180 days, in some earlier versions of Windows Server this value was 60 days and if you upgrade those domain controllers it will remain the same so you may wish to change the values – you can use the Modify action to do this.

For this example I have deleted from Active Directory the Resources and Users containers and the two user accounts which you can see nicely in the below screenshot using PowerGUI.

This time we will restore the account Joe Bloggs, but to an alternative location using the Restore to…. Action. (Remember: this is done in PowerShell using the –targetpath parameter of the Restore-ADObject cmdlet) Simply input the path to the Organisational Unit you wish to restore the object to. In this example we use the default Users container as the target location.

The user has been restored to the alternate location; this is particularly useful if we did not wish to bring back the entire OU(s) as we did previously.

If however, you do wish to bring back the contents of an entire OU and everything below it there is an action, Restore (recursive).

Using the Restore (recursive) action in this scenario brings back both the Resources and Users OU’s as well as the single account remaining in it, Jane Smith.

Hopefully in a future release of Windows Server this functionality will be provided out of the box, the most natural home would be a viewable container within Active Directory Users and Computers, until then the Recycle Bin PowerPack for PowerGUI will prove very useful.

Summary

One of the most requested features for a long time with Active Directory has been a Recycle Bin. Microsoft has finally delivered this with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2. It may not be a feature that enterprises get to use for a little while given the system requirements of all 2008 R2  Domain Controllers and your Active Directory Forest at 2008 R2 functional level, but it could be one of those compelling reasons that enables you to pursue an upgrade.

Administration is via the new Active Directory PowerShell cmdlets which Microsoft is using to provide a consistent command line interface across all of their products. Although currently there is no native GUI for these administration tasks, the Active Directory Recycle Bin PowerPack for PowerGUI enables administrators to leverage the underlying PowerShell functionality and provide a graphical interface for carrying out these tasks.

Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) is a secure application gateway, to manage, control, and optimize remote access for managed and non-managed endpoints, to corporate applications and resources. Forefront UAG RC0 provides a number of new features, including support for migration from Forefront UAG Beta 2.

Forefront UAG provides the following:

• Remote access: Using Forefront UAG you can allow and control access to internal resources and applications from a range of managed and unmanaged client endpoints.
• Application support: Forefront UAG provides broad application support for a wide range of Microsoft and third-party applications. Application optimizers, consisting of predefined settings and values, provide optimum settings for accessing a specific application via Forefront UAG.
• Access control: Forefront UAG provides granular access control, to ensure that only client endpoints complying with corporate health guidelines can access internal applications and resources.
• Authentication: Forefront UAG provides frontend and backend authentication mechanisms. Frontend authentication allows you to pre-authenticate users using a wide range of authentication mechanisms, ensuring that only authenticated traffic reaches published application servers. In addition, Forefront UAG provides a single sign-on experience for authentication to backend applications.

For additional questions visit our TechNet forum. Follow us on our blog too; we’re planning on providing you with lots more information on features and how to get it up and running.

Find more information about Forefront UAG as follows:

• To read the Forefront UAG documentation, visit the Forefront UAG TechCenter library (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd861463.aspx)
• To read about up-to-date issues, visit the Forefront UAG Product Team blog (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=156512)
• For Beta 2 support issues, visit the Forefront UAG forum (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=156513)
• Forefront UAG RC0 provides a number of new features, including support for migration from Forefront UAG Beta 2. If you want to migrate a Forefront UAG Beta 2 configuration to RC0, ensure that you run the UAG_RC0_4_0981_2.msp file after running Forefront UAG Setup.

Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a3f5729a-3989-4f60-980f-1b87dd198988

Google has released its third major revision of Chrome. The updated browser boasts a 150% (25% over its most recent stable release) increase in javascript performance since the launch of version 1. Other new features include a redesigned “new tab” page, an improved omnibox, themes capability, and HTML5 features.

Since Google has released Chrome it has taken a 2.8% market share. It is expected that the market share will continue to grow as more people become aware of the browser. Also, Google has been marketing its browser heavily to users who also use other Google products such as Gmail or Google search.
The browser marketplace is packed with heavy hitters from Microsoft, Apple, and Google. All of which are backed by massive corporations with seemingly unlimited resources. Other well known browsers that also provide serious competition to Chrome are Firefox and Opera.
The competition in the browser market place keeps all the competitors on their toes as they try to gain or maintain their current market share. With Google releasing an updated browser you can be sure that their competitors are watching closely.

Download Google Chrome 3 here: http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/195.21/chrome_installer.exe

Source : http://www.neowin.net

Users can browse in the visual search by products, sports, consumer electronics, famous people, entertainment, reference and many more categories. The updated search makes it easier for users to find what they are looking for through the stylish 3D flip image layout.

Bing now helps users sort through their choices by “Most popular on Bing”, eliminating choices for you to help decide on what to buy. The decision engine can now help expand your search by taking your queries and turning out wider results. Bing will take queries such as “NFL Players” or “MLB Players” and locate as many results of player’s images by face. Bing can also help narrow down user’s queries by sorting players by position, team, salaries and more.

Bing Visual Search requires Microsoft Silverlight to be installed to use the newest version of Bing.

Test out the new beta of Bing at http://www.bing.com/visualsearch

Now that we have released Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 to manufacturing, we wanted to share our plans to make the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 7.0 client available to Windows XP and Windows Vista. RDC 7 will ensure that when connecting to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 from an XP or Vista machines you are able to take advantage of the rich, advanced RDP7 features such as Media Player Redirection, True Multi-monitor support, etc

Note: If you use RDC 7.0 to connect to XP or Vista you do not get new Windows 7 features like Windows Media Player Redirection etc. There is no way to get these features when connecting to XP or Vista.

The new RDC 7.0 clients will be available in Q4 CY09 by using the Microsoft Download Center and WSUS and will be available for Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2), and Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3) operating systems.

The following sections describe what the user experience will be when connecting to Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 from a variety of operating systems using RDP 7, RDP 6.1, or RDP 5.2.

Connectivity

This section describes the set of remote resources available to users from each operating system/client combination.

Access to Remote Desktop sessions

User can connect to full remote desktop sessions.

Access to RemoteApp programs

Users can connect to RemoteApp programs rather than a whole desktop. This allows RemoteApp programs to be displayed seamlessly on the user’s local desktop even though they run remotely.

Access to personal virtual desktops by using RD Connection Broker

Users can access to personal virtual desktops when using the new Remote Desktop Virtualization Host in Windows Server 2008 R2. Personal desktops are assigned to users on 1:1 basis and maintain state over time.

Access to virtual desktop pools by using RD Connection Broker

Users can access virtual desktop pools when using the new Remote Desktop Virtualization Host in Windows Server 2008 R2. Pooled desktops are shared between multiple users and all changes a user makes are typically rolled back when the user logs off.

Launch applications and desktops from ‘RemoteApp and Desktop Connections’

Users can subscribe to all their RemoteApp programs and desktops which are then listed in their local Start menu. The list is automatically updated as items are added or deleted.

Launch application and desktops from RD Web Access

Users can launch RemoteApp programs and desktops from an ActiveX enable browser

Status & disconnect system tray icon

A single system tray icon enables users to see all their remote connections. The user can disconnect all or individual connections using this icon. The icon appears only when launching RDP connections which are associated with a RemoteApp and Desktop Connection feed.

Experience Features

This section describes the user experience when connecting to Windows Server 2008 R2 from each platform/client combination.

Windows Media Player Redirection

Windows Media Player Redirection enables content hosted in Windows Media Player to be redirected to the client for decoding on the users’ computers. This improves the quality of the video and ensures that video and audio are always in sync. This works for both full Windows Media Player and Windows Media Player controls hosted in Web pages.

Bidirectional Audio

You can redirect audio recording devices such as microphones on the client computer. This is ideal for applications like Windows 7 voice recognition and applications that record audio.

True Multimonitor Support

In Windows Vista & Windows Server 2008, Terminal Services supported only monitor spanning. Remote Desktop Services now includes true multi-monitor support for up to 16 monitors. and works for both Remote Desktop & RemoteApp programs. It is not compatible with Aero Glass support.

Aero Glass Support

Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 did not support Aero Glass remoting for sessions. This is now supported in Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services (but is not compatible with multi monitor support).

Enhanced Bitmap Acceleration

Bitmap acceleration improves the remote display of graphics-intensive applications like PowerPoint, Flash, and Silverlight.

Language Bar Docking

RemoteApp allows users to use their docked Language Bar with their RemoteApp applications just like they do with the local ones.

This productive functionality was previously unavailable, and users had to resort to the floating Language bar. To use the RemoteApp docked Language bar users must use a Windows7 client connected to a Windows Server 2008 R2 server.

Easy Print

Easy Print allows users to print to their local printers from remote desktops and programs without needing to install print drivers on the host. Easy Print is now supported when connecting to Windows 7 client.

Security Features

This section describes the security features available when connecting to Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 from each platform/client combination.

Per-user filtering of RemoteApp programs

RemoteApp programs displayed in RD Web Access can be filtered so that a user will see only the applications to which he or she has access.

Web SSO & Web forms-based authentication

RD Web Access now uses forms-based authentication to improve the user experience. Web SSO ensures that once a user is logged on no additional passwords are required for RD Gateway, RD Session Host servers and RemoteApp programs.

RD Gateway-based control of device redirection

In Windows Server 2008, it was possible for non-Microsoft Remote Desktop clients to override the gateway device redirection controls. In Windows Server 2008 R2 device redirection settings defined in RD Gateway it cannot be overridden.

RD Gateway System and Logon messages

System and logon messages can be added to RD Gateway and displayed to the remote desktop user. System messages can be used to inform users of server maintenance issues such as shutdown and restarts. Logon messages can be used to display a logon notice to users before they gain access to remote resources

RD Gateway Background Authorization & Authentication

Background authentication and authorization requests are performed after a configured session timeout has been reached, sessions for users whose property information has not changed are not affected, and authentication and authorization requests are sent in the background.

RD Gateway Idle & Session Timeouts

Configurable idle and session timeouts with RD Gateway provide better control of users who are connecting through RD Gateway. An idle timeout provides the ability to reclaim resources used by inactive user sessions without affecting the user’s session or data. This helps free up resources on the RD Gateway server.

NAP Remediation with RD Gateway

NAP remediation allows you to manage remote clients by updating them with the latest software updates and settings. This helps keep remote clients in compliance with network security policies.

More Information

For more information about the new features in Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services, see “What’s New in Remote Desktop Services,” available on Microsoft TechNet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=131925).

Fortunately for us, the 30-day grace period can be extended up to three additional times — to a total of 120 days — using a Microsoft-supplied utility called the Software License Manager (slmgr). This tool conveniently ships with Windows 7.

How to use slmgr to extend the free-trial period of Windows Vista was first reported by WS editorial director Brian Livingston on Feb. 15, 2007. Because Windows 7 includes slightly different versions than Vista, the procedure has some new wrinkles. Listen up.

How to extend Win7′s trial to a full four months

In a nutshell: If you install Windows 7 and don’t enter an installation key, the 30-day activation clock starts. To see how many days you have left, click Start, right-click Computer, and choose Properties. At the bottom of the dialog under Windows Activation, you’ll see the number of days left in your trial period.

When that number gets perilously close to zero, you can extend the free period another 30 days via the following steps:

• Step 1: Click Start, All Programs, Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. Enter your administrator password.
• Step 2: Type the following command and press Enter:slmgr -rearm

  Note the space after slmgr and the hyphen in front of rearm.

• Step 3: Restart Windows 7.

Once the OS restarts, the Properties dialog described above will indicate that Windows 7′s activation grace period has been reset to a full 30 days.

You can run the -rearm trick a total of three times. If you perform a -rearm at the end of each 30-day period, you end up with 120 days of full, unfettered Windows 7 use without having to supply an activation key in the interim.

How to install Win7 Ultimate now, pay less later

When the activation grace period runs out — whether it’s in 30 or 120 days or somewhere in between — you need to feed Windows 7 an activation key. That’s when many Windows 7 customers will find themselves in trouble.

Let me clarify up front that the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions of Windows take the same keys. A key that works for 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium also works for 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. However, different keys are required for Ultimate vs. Pro vs. Home Premium.

(I assume you won’t want to install the exceedingly limited Windows Home Basic, which is intended primarily for developing countries. And you won’t be installing Windows Home Starter, because you can’t buy a key for it. The Starter version is available only when preinstalled on a new netbook.)

Say, for example, you install a free trial of Windows 7 Ultimate. However, when the time comes to pay the piper, you want to shell out your shekels only for Win7 Home Premium. (That’s the version most individual users will choose, and it’s considerably cheaper than Win7 Ultimate — which isn’t worth spending more for, as I see it.)

If you installed a trial of Win7 Ultimate without knowing the secret, you’re stuck. The Home Premium key won’t activate an Ultimate PC. Your only option is a complete reinstall of Windows using the version that matches your bought-and-paid-for key — Home Premium, in this case.

The best solution is to install in the first place the version you probably want to end up with. If you expect to pay for Windows 7 Home Premium, you should install Windows 7 Home Premium. The same goes for Windows 7 Professional, which is for use in corporate domains.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to install either Windows 7 Home Premium or Pro from a Windows 7 Ultimate CD: simply delete a single file. Hard to believe, but true.

Convert Win7 Ultimate to Pro or Home Premium

Here’s the crux of the matter: If you put a DVD containing Win7 Ultimate in your PC and run the installer — either by booting from the disc or running the setup program from inside Windows — you end up with Win7 Ultimate. No surprises there.

However, if you first delete a tiny file named ei.cfg before making the installation DVD, the Win7 installer will give you the choices shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Delete or rename ei.cfg before burning a Windows 7 installation DVD, and a menu then allows you to select which version to install.

In fact, no matter which Win7 installation DVD you have — Ultimate, Pro, or Premium — if you delete the ei.cfg file from the disc, you’ll be offered the same choices and can install any version of Windows 7.

At the moment, only a small number of people have received a physical DVD containing Windows 7 Ultimate. Instead, most current Win7 users downloaded an .iso file, which includes everything on the Windows 7 Ultimate DVD: boot settings, file-structure details, etc. You burn the .iso file to a DVD. Then you either boot your PC from the DVD or run the setup program within an older version of Windows to kick the Win7 installer into gear.

If you have a Windows 7 Ultimate .iso file, it’s easy to delete ei.cfg. First, get a 30-day trial version of the gBurner utility, which is available from the program’s download page at CNET’s Download.com. Then install and run gBurner, open the Windows 7 .iso file, and delete (or rename) \sources\ei.cfg. Piece o’ cake, although it can take 20 minutes to save the altered .iso file.

You can then use either gBurner or Alex Feinman’s ISO Recorder program (available from Alex’s site) to burn a version of the .iso file without ei.cfg to DVD.

What if you do have a physical Windows 7 installation DVD, but you don’t have an .iso file? In that case, use either gBurner or ISO Recorder to rip the DVD into an .iso file. Then follow the instructions above to delete the ei.cfg file and burn a new DVD.

Get the right version of Windows 7 going now and you won’t have to reinstall it — or pay an exorbitant price — later.

Source: windowssecrets.com

With that – Windows Server 2008 R2  RTM code is on track to be available to our partners sometime in the 2^nd half of July. Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be broadly available about the same time as the Windows 7 GA date of Oct 22.

Download the evaluation version below. Images are ISO formats. Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions are available via the same download Windows_Server_2008_R2_RC_EN.iso

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=a4e21e2e-e992-4aec-9ed4-086de21632a2&displaylang=en

If you are a TechNet subscriber, please visit the Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate TechNet Subscriber download page.
If you are a MSDN subscriber, please visit the Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate MSDN Subscriber download page.

On Wednesday April 29^th , the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) was achieved! Windows Server 2008 has seen great success and SP2 will make it that much better! SP2 includes all updates delivered since the release of Windows Server 2008, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards.

IT Professionals will see numerous benefits from SP2, the key benefits are below:

o SP2 provides the Hyper-V virtualization environment as a fully integrated feature of Windows Server 2008, including one virtual instance Windows Server 2008 Standard, four free instances with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and an unlimited number of free instances with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter.

o SP2 improves backwards compatibility for Terminal server license keys

o SP2 includes additional power profile improvements over Windows Server 2008 RTM

Last, but certainly not least, there is a single service pack that applies to both Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista for x86 and x64 versions. Now IT Professionals only have to deploy, manage, and support one package for both client and server!

We understand that some customers may not be ready to deploy SP2 when it becomes available for download, which is why we have the Service Pack Blocker Tool available for you. The Service Pack Blocker Tool allows you to block the installation of SP2 on all or some of the machines in your infrastructure for up to 12 months after general availability of SP2. The download package includes tools for using group policy, remote script execution, or a signed executable to accomplish this. All the pertinent information can be found on the Blocker Tool link above.

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP2 will be available for download publicly in Q2 2009.

Thanks!

Justin Graham
Windows Server Team