Microsoft Services Premier Support

TAM Newsletter October 2010

Microsoft news and product information from microsoft.com and product team blogs

How Microsoft does IT
Improving the IntelliMirror Service at Microsoft Through Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 To help
ensure that the Microsoft IntelliMirror service continues to offer a security-enhanced end-user data backup
solution that meets changing business needs, Microsoft Information Technology (MSIT) has implemented key
technology changes in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. This approach has
enabled MSIT to add functionality to the IntelliMirror service while still operating on a limited budget.
Implementing Volume Activation for Windows and Microsoft Office
Microsoft IT worked with a product development team to test and enhance product activation tools. The result
is Volume Activation 2.0, which automates and manages the activation process for volume-licensed editions
of Windows and Microsoft Office.
Microsoft IT Starts Migration of Microsoft.com to Windows Azure Platform The Video Showcase site on
Microsoft.com hosts thousands of videos and other rich media content that hundreds of thousands of
customers worldwide view every day. Learn how Microsoft Information Technology (MSIT) quickly built and
deployed the Social eXperience Platform (SXP) on the Windows Azure technology platform to enable social
media capabilities across Microsoft.com.
Security
Q&A from the September 2010 Out-of-Band Security Release webcast Below you will find the webcast we
conducted earlier this week as part of the MS10-070 Security Update which was released Out-of-Band. We
have also published the questions and answers from that webcast and linked them here. The response for
this webcast was amazing; however, due to time constraints, we were unable to answer all of the questions
that were asked during the live webcast. We have included those questions and the answers in this
document.
Microsoft Cloud Services
Technical Resources for Microsoft Cloud Services Microsoft offers a flexible set of cloud-based IT solutions,
including communications, collaboration, data storage, and infrastructure services on-premises, all in the
cloud, or a mix based on your business needs.
SQL Azure and On-Premise Solutions - Weighing your Options Since the introduction of SQL Azure, there
has been some confusion about how it should be used. Some think that the primary goal for SQL Azure is
simply SQL Server Somewhere Else. They evaluate a multi-terabyte database in their current environment,
along with the maintenance, backups, disaster recovery and more and try to apply those patterns to SQL
Azure. SQL Azure, however, has another set of use-cases that are very compelling.
New Features in SQL Azure As part of our continued commitment to provide regular and frequent updates to
SQL Azure, I am pleased to announce Service Update 4 (SU4). SU4 is now live with three new updates -
database copy, improved help system, and deployment of our web-based tool Code-Named "Houston" to
multiple data centers. Here are the details.
Hotmail vs. Exchange Online Ever since BPOS was launched, one of the questions that comes up over and
over is why would you pay for services that you can get for free? I think this is a great question and deserves
a closer look.
Windows Desktop and Server 7 / 2008 / Vista / 2003 / XP
Enable and Use TPM (Trusted Platform Module) Services The TPM (Trusted Platform Module) Services
architecture in Windows 7 provides the basic features required to configure and deploy TPM-equipped
computers.
Springboard Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal We are delighted to announce the world wide release of
the Springboard Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal on TechNet.
How To Verify or Check your KMS/MAK Product Key Many times you may have a product key but you need
to find out what type of key it is. We will use the VAMT 2.0 tool to accomplish this task.
An Introduction to WinRM Basics I would like to discuss a bit about the Windows Remote Management tool
(WinRM) for Windows Server 2003 R2.
Directory Services: AD LDS Schema Files Demystified When installing Active Directory Lightweight Domain
Services (AD LDS) instances, it is quite possible to paint oneself into a corner rather quickly. Thats because
LDS comes with minimal schema definitions. To truly make LDS useful to your applications, one must have
an understanding of how best to take advantage of the included schema definition files.
New ADFS Content on TechNet Wiki Adam Conkle has published some great troubleshooting, tips and tricks
and how to articles on TechNet that should help you in evaluating and implementing Active Directory
Federation Services.
Series Wrap-up and Downloads - Replacing DFSR Member Hardware or OS A few of you asked if the series
around DFSR server replacements would have a portable version. I banged those up in DOCX, XPS, and
PDF formats.
Remote Desktop Services: Announcing Support for Cached Exchange Mode in a Remote Desktop Session
Host Environment Cached Exchange Mode was not supported on Remote Desktop Session Host servers.
With the release of Outlook 2010, Cached Exchange Mode is now supported. See the document to find out
more.
Dont Fence Me In: VDI, Session Virtualization or Both? I wanted to discuss a question that is important to
our large base of session virtualization customers: How do you decide between virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI) and session virtualization? And if you have already successfully deployed session virtualization, should
you replace it with VDI?
Cluster: What is new for NLB in Windows Server 2008R2? In Windows Server 2008 R2 several
improvements have been made to the Network Load Balancing (NLB) technology.
Networking: Are your client machines getting errors such as Network Path Not Found or The Specified
Network Name Is No Longer Available when connecting to a Windows 2008 Server share? I wanted to
resurface a continuing support issue with deployments that I first commented on back in December of 2009,
and again in a March post. After a very encouraging decrease in support incidents traced to this issue, weve
seen an upward trend again for the same issue perhaps a reminder will reverse the trend!
Network Location Awareness (NLA) and how it relates to Windows Firewall Profiles For each network
interface the PC is connected to, NLA aggregates the network information available to the PC and generates
a globally unique identifier (GUID) to identify each network.
IE: Add-ons: Detecting and Displaying Add-on Version Numbers Some add-on vendors asked how IE
determines and displays an add-ons version. This post answers this question so that all add-on developers
can design their versioning schemes to be compatible with IE features such as Manage Add-ons and the
Upgrade Advisor.
Putting sites at the center of the browsing experience, using the whole PC: IE9 Beta Available for Download
Our approach in designing a site-centric web browsing experience also involves using everything available
around the browser. We see all the pixels and code that people need for a significantly better browsing
experience already there on the screen.
PowerShell: Configure Remote PowerShell in SharePoint 2010 I was working on a requirement to run a SP
2010 PowerShell script from a remote machine on network. Yes the answer is PowerShell 2.0 which uses
WIN-RM for remote PowerShell execution. PowerShell 2.0 uses the concepts of WIN-RM which involves
piping the contents of the remote call and running it on the remote server.
Virtualization Technologies
P2V Migration for Software Assurance Explained By now the announcements have gone out for the Beta,
been blogged about and seen in other social networking channels, so I thought I would do something a bit
more in depth on this for the Springboard Blog.
MED-V: MED-V v1 Connection Settings and Credential Management Working in support, I get many
questions and issues related to how MED-V v1 handles user settings and credentials. Hopefully the
information in this blog will help explain how a lot of this works.
Hyper-V: Reducing the cost of virtualization using Microsoft Hyper-V and System Center My name is Elliott
Morris, manager of what's known within Microsofts Server and Tools Business as the "War on Cost team."
The teams role is to collect operational data from business and public sector customers to understand their
costs for deploying, operating and managing Microsoft server and desktop software.
App-V: Learning about App-V with TechNet Virtual Labs With the popularity of Microsoft App-V growing like
crazy it seems there's always a fresh stream of folks who are new to the product and looking for some
resources to help them get up to speed fast. If this is you, or you just want a refresher to make sure you're
making the most of the product, we have a couple virtual labs that should really fit the bill.
SQL Server
SQL Server 2008 SP2 is available for download today! Microsoft is pleased to announce the availability of
SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2. Both the Service Pack and Feature Pack updates are now ready for
download on the Microsoft Download Center. Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2008 includes new compatibility
features with SQL Server 2008 R2, product improvements based on requests from the SQL Server
community, and hotfix solutions provided in SQL Server 2008 SP1 Cumulative Update 1 to 8.
Behind the scenes of PowerPivots automatic relationship detection At times you will see a notification for the
automatic relationship detection appear at the top of the PowerPivot Field List, yet no relationships can be
detected. Why? This can be caused by multiple reasons, which are described below.
Case of using filtered statistics SQL Server 2008 introduces a new feature called filtered statistics. When
used properly, it can dramatically improve cardinality estimate. Lets use an example below to illustrate how
cardinality estimate can be incorrect and how filtered statistics can improve this situation.
Guest account in User Databases Andreas Wolter recently posted yet another reason to keep guest disabled
on user databases in SQL Server. He also points out some reasons why developers shouldnt have access to
production systems, but Id like to focus on the implications for guest.
Exchange Server
Configuration Improvements in Outlook Web App / Instant Messenger integration in Exchange Server 2010
SP1 Exchange Server 2010 RTM is the first version of Exchange that allows integration between Outlook
Web App and Office Communications Server's instant message capabilities.
Default settings for Exchange-related virtual directories in Exchange Server 2010 A while ago, we posted the
default authentication and SSL settings for Exchange-related virtual directories in Exchange Server 2007. The
settings below hold true for Exchange Server 2010 RTM and SP1.
Guidance Change: Calculating the Megacycles for Different Processor Configurations Formula As part of your
Exchange 2010 planning process, one of the areas you must focus on is the Mailbox server design. One
component in that design process will be determining your CPU requirements. To that end, we have
published guidance that identifies the megacycles / mailbox for each message profile that exists, for both
active and passive mailboxes.
Exchange How do I? videos It has been a while since we mentioned the Exchange video series we have
been creating. Seeing that we have been recording new ones over past months, I wanted to remind you of
those as they can be an excellent resource to help you learn how to do something in Exchange.
Exchange 2010 SP1 FAQ and Known Issues The starting point for SP1 setup/upgrade should be the What's
New in SP1, SP1 Release Notes, and Prerequisites docs. As with any new release, there are some frequently
asked deployment questions, and known issues, or issues reported by some customers. You may not face
these in your environment, but we're posting these here along with some workarounds so you're aware of
them as you test and deploy SP1.
System Center
IT Governance Risk & Compliance solution now available. This week Microsoft releases the IT Governance,
Risk & Compliance Solution Accelerator or IT GRC solution. IT GRC provides end-to-end compliance
management and automation for a customers desktop and datacenter computers to assist organizations to
simplify and automate IT compliance and risk management processes by helping IT Professionals configure
Microsoft products to address specific IT GRC requirements.
Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST) 3.0 Now Available! VMST 3.0 helps you reduce IT costs by making
it easier to update offline virtual machine libraries, templates and virtual hard disks with the latest operating
system and application patcheswithout introducing vulnerabilities into their IT infrastructure.
CM: Announcement: Client Installation and Assignment SuperFlow Released This SuperFlow provides
detailed steps on how to plan for, install, manage and monitor Configuration Manager 2007 clients. It also
includes troubleshooting information and further resources that you can use to learn more about client
installation and assignment.
Fix: The ConfigMgr 2007 database grows excessively large and DPs do not honor the "Number of retries" and
"Delay before retrying (minutes)" retry settings You may notice that an unusually large number of System
Center Configuration Manager 2007 status messages are generated causing significant growth in database
size. Further investigation also shows a large number of these entries repeating over and over again in the
distmgr.log: Compressed files for package xxx hasn't arrived from site xxx
DPM: Quick Tip: Troubleshooting Notification Emails in Data Protection Manager Data Protection Manager
2007 and Data Protection Manager 2010 notification emails may not be delivered to the configured list of
recipients although individual test mails are delivered successfully (Options -> SMTP Server -> Send test
mail).
New DPM2010 Storage Calculator links (Sep-2010) Please find direct links to DPM2010 storage calculators.
DPM backup of Exchange databases can fail because of Exchange circular logging Just a quick note on an
issue we've seen a time or two here in DPM product support. Backup administrators who have scheduled
System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) backups for Microsoft Exchange databases might run into
backup failures if circular logging is turned on for those Exchange databases.
Opalis: What is Opalis? Overview and technical information on TechNet.
Office SharePoint Technologies
Business Intelligence (BI) with PerformancePoint in SharePoint 2010 This is the fifth article of a series to
review the following five BI vehicles in SharePoint 2010. (The other articles are linked at the blog.)
Three Tips for Securing Executive Buy-In When Implementing SharePoint Here are three tips wed like to
share on how you can better secure executive buy-in when implementing SharePoint.
Investigate changes to content with custom audit log reports Audit log reports are a great way to begin to
diagnose changes to the content of a site collection. The reports provide information about what types of
changes occurred, such as Update and Delete, and when the changes occurred. Auditing must be enabled to
use audit log reports.
Top 6 New Features for SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflows What are my favorite new features for
SharePoint Designer workflows?
The SharePoint User Toolkit: a first step toward advanced SharePoint customization By using the free
solutions in the Toolkit, in a matter of minutes you can install a custom solution that would otherwise take
days or weeks to put together.
Microsoft Office System
Download our free Office 2010 migration guides Whether you're coming from an older version of Office and
just want to find the most frequently used commands in a program, or you're entirely new to Office and want a
quick overview of how the ribbon works and how to get to the most important things, each guide provides
helpful information that we've based on direct feedback from you our customers!
Access: Enhance the quality of your VBA code If you want to gain a quick overview of potential errors, you
can use the free TM VBA Inspector. This add-in lets you browse the entire VBA code of an application for
potential errors.
Power Tip: Maximize the use of TempVars in Access 2007 and 2010 The TempVars collection has the ability
to save you time, improve the reliability of your programming and provide you with new ways to share
information across your application.
Power Tip: Speed Up Microsoft Access and Visual SourceSafe Integration Using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe
(VSS) with Microsoft Access for system development is great for tracking old versions, maintaining a
professional Access development platform, and multi-developer environments. Being able to quickly see old
versions of individual objects, differences over time, and check-in and check-out objects to prevent multiple
developers from changing the same object are all wonderful features.
Download the free Access 2010 Migration Guide If youre considering migrating from Access 2003 to Access
2010 (or perhaps youre already in the process of doing so), theres a new resource on Office.com that gives
you a high-level overview of the changes in the new version: the Access 2010 Migration Guide.
Excel: Top 5 Ways PowerPivot Helps Excel Pros Im gonna give you my top 5 reasons as crisply as possible,
with links to more information as backup.
Auto Format PivotTables to Match Source Data That is to say, I want my pivot table to automatically
recognize the number formatting in the source and apply it without my help. So I got to work and created what
you're about to see here. You had better put on your sunglasses because the awesomeness is blinding.
Outlook: BCM for Outlook 2010 Microsoft is making BCM for Outlook 2010 available free to users who have
previous BCM versions and Outlook 2010. To see if you qualify, visit the BCM team blog.
Project: Tips and Tricks: Change the month the fiscal year starts on How do I change the month that the
fiscal year starts on?
Finding Project Server 2010 documentation Documentation for Project Server 2010 is spread across three
websites: TechNet , Office.com , and MSDN . Each of these sites addresses a different audience.
Visio: How to create a strategy map using containers The new Containers feature in Visio 2010 is great for
adding structure and organization to Visio diagrams. In this post, well walk through the creation of one
diagram, the strategy map, which is easy to make using containers.
New Structured Diagrams Whitepaper for Visio 2010 Microsoft has published a new technical article on
MSDN about the Structured Diagram capabilities of Visio 2010. Structured Diagrams help you organize the
contents of your diagrams using intuitive, logical relationships between shapes. These capabilities are
exposed as the Containers, Lists, and Callouts features in Visio 2010.
Word: Understanding the DOCX File Format Chris Rae, one of the program managers in the Office
Interoperability Group, has just published the first in a series of posts about how to get started if you're
interested in reading or writing Word's DOCX file format check it out here.
Object Model Considerations for Protected View in Word 2010
Weve got some great questions recently about macros and Protected View in Word 2010, and thought I'd
write something up to help anyone else who's looking at this issue - enjoy!
OCS / Lync Server and Client: Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer The Office
Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a great tool for testing, troubleshooting, and
performing diagnostics on Communications Server 2007 and 2007 R2 deployments.
Communications Server 2007 R2 SIP Trunking Documentation Roundup This article is a one-stop shop of
links to information about SIP trunking with Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
New Features in Lync Server 2010 Microsoft Lync Server 2010 includes a host of new features in several key
areas. These features provide significant improvements in deployment, management, voice, Microsoft
SharePoint integration, and conferencing.
Office Web Apps: Updates to Office Web Apps based on customer feedback Office Web Apps were
released in June, and some features have been updated based on customer feedback. Read more details in
Clip Art, Charts, Themes and Printing - Need We Say More? on the Office Web Apps blog.
Office Web Apps reach 20 million: New features today + 7 more countries In just over 100 days since we
launched, more than 20 million people have used Office Web Apps to view, edit, and share Office documents
from anywhere with a browser and an internet connection.
Embedded Excel and PowerPoint Available Now on SkyDrive On SkyDrive we just enabled the ability for you
to embed Excel content and PowerPoint presentations in websites such as your blog.
Forefront
Identity Lifecycle Manager wins GOLD in Information Security Awards This month, Identity Lifecycle Manager
2007 beat out IBM and RSA for Information Security Magazines 5th annual Readers Choice Awards, taking
first place for the Identity and Access Management category.
Information about the new Kaspersky 8 antivirus engine for Forefront and Antigen products Microsoft is
upgrading the multi-engine protection in all Forefront server security products to support a newer version of
the Kaspersky antivirus engine. The newer version Kaspersky 8 will provide customers with improved
scanning times and reduced signature file size. The new engine replaces the older Kaspersky 5 engine.
UAG: How to enable Remote Desktop Sharing (RDS/RDP) from corporate machines to DirectAccess
connected machines I had a customer ask how the helpdesk / support staff can connect to DirectAccess
(Windows7) connected machines. He asked because if they enabled Remote Desktop Sharing in the
Firewall in the Public or Private Profile, it enabled it for all hosts not just the corporate host via DirectAccess.
Another way of looking at this is: Where is the DirectAccess Firewall Profile?

Other Information
One Year of Microsoft Security Essentials Its been a busy year for Microsoft Security Essentials. As we
observed right after the first week of release, Microsoft Security Essentials had already detected threats on
over half a million computers. As Microsoft Security Essentials enters into its second year with over 31 million
installations, 27 million of those computers have reported infections to the Microsoft Malware Protection
Center (MMPC).
Windows Live: Windows Live Essentials 2011 available for download now Windows Live Essentials 2011
was designed and built to connect your PC to the services you use every day.
Microsoft Developer Information
Power Management Guidelines for Windows Developers Microsofts environmental sustainability team has
created a set of resources, best practices and tools for software developers to help better understand power
managements role in software application design. While power management may be a new concept to many
developers and organizations developing software applications, there are a number of things Windows
developers can begin doing today to make progress.
BizTalk Server 2010 released for manufacturing!!! BizTalk Server 2010 has been released to manufacturing
and will be available for purchase starting October 1
st
, 2010. The evaluation and free Developer editions are
now available for download from the BizTalk Server website.
ASP.NET Security Update Now Available Microsoft has released a security update that addresses the
ASP.NET Security Vulnerability discovered this past week. Read Scott Guthrie's blog post to get all of the
details you need to install it on your web servers!
Add custom toolbars to Expression Web 4 Expression Web 4 provides eleven toolbars on the View >
Toolbars menu, organized around particular activities, such as editing in Code view, and working with styles
or tables. The default toolbars are sensible unless you regularly use only a few buttons from each toolbar; in
that case, the default toolbars may clutter and waste valuable space in the application, especially when your
favorite buttons are on three or more different toolbars. To the rescue: the free Custom Toolbars add-in for
Expression Web 4 lets you create one or more toolbars to organize your favorite buttons and commands in
Expression Web 4.
AntiXSS 4.0 Released
How to Scan a Server using WACA? Web Application Configuration Analyzer v1.0 is the latest tool released
by our team that scans a machine for deployment best practices. Here is how you can use this tool to scan a
machine for these best practices.
SDL: Download the Simplified Implementation of the Microsoft SDL Learn which software development
security activities you need to perform in order to be SDL compliant. See also Download Microsoft SDL
process guidance version 5.0
ISV adoption of mitigation technologies On our Security Research and Defense blog we have previously
described the security benefits of mitigation technologies like Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and Address
Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)[1,2]. These technologies and others like them (SEHOP, GS, etc) are
designed to make it more difficult for attackers to reliably exploit software vulnerabilities.
Windows Phone 7: Windows Phone 7 Developer Events To celebrate, were launching two day events all
across the country. These events are packed with fast-paced learning that will help you stake your claim in
this exciting new frontier.
Visual Basic Comes to Windows Phone 7 You can now download the Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone
Developer Tools. Provided in this download are all the templates, designer support, emulator (and phone!)
support and IntelliSense for Visual Basic.
Windows Phone Training Kit for Developers RTM Refresh Windows Phone tools for developers are ready.
Now its time for you to start building your own Windows Phone application. There are no more excuses, no
reasons to postpone. Get the tools and start writing your app today!
VSTFS: VM Prep Tool for Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 GDR is now available! Lab Management
GDR is now available . In sync with this release, I am happy to announce that the VM Prep Tool for Visual
Studio Lab Management 2010 GDR in now available at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vslabmgmt.

Monthly Reminders of Good Information Sources:

Security Page Links to Key Information
Malware Protection Center The Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) provides world class antimalware
research and response capabilities that support Microsofts range of security products and services. With
laboratories in multiple locations around the globe the MMPC is able to respond quickly and effectively to new
malicious and potentially unwanted software threats wherever and whenever they arise.
HotFix & Security Bulletin Search
Microsoft Solution Accelerators are free, authoritative resources to help IT professionals proactively plan,
integrate, and operate IT systems.
Microsofts Support Lifecycle policy provides consistent and predictable guidelines for product support availability
at the time of product release.
BlogMS Monthly - Articles Published in September 2010 BlogMS consolidates a large number of highly relevant
and up to date information sources across the Microsoft product and online services portfolio. You can expect to
find important announcements and details of Microsoft news, product releases, service packs and important
support issues.

Microsoft Premier Online https://premier.microsoft.com The Microsoft Premier Online (MPO) site is a secure Web site
for the exclusive use of Premier Support customers. Note some of the links below may only be available to Premier
Support customers. If you currently have Premier Support and dont have access to MPO, please let your TAM know.
Your TAM can get you access to the site.

Premier Twitter: Microsoft Premier is now on Twitter! This account will share new proactive offerings and product
information, links to important articles on TechNet or Microsoft Blogs, important lifecycle updates, and security
alerts. Start following us today by visiting here!

Support WebCasts

List of Upcoming WebCasts: http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/upcoming.mspx
List of Previous WebCasts for on demand viewing: http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/ondemand.mspx
See the Top Ten List of the most popular webcasts.

Recent Security Bulletins (Security Bulletin Archives)
Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for September 2010
Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for August 2010
Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for July 2010
Last 5 Published or Updated Security Advisories:
Microsoft Security Advisory (2416728)
Vulnerability in ASP.NET Could Allow Information Disclosure
Published or Last Updated: 9/24/2010

Microsoft Security Advisory (973811)
Extended Protection for Authentication
Published or Last Updated: 9/14/2010

Microsoft Security Advisory (2401593)
Vulnerability in Outlook Web Access Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
Published or Last Updated: 9/14/2010

Microsoft Security Advisory (2269637)
Insecure Library Loading Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Published or Last Updated: 8/31/2010

Microsoft Security Advisory (977377)
Vulnerability in TLS/SSL Could Allow Spoofing
Published or Last Updated: 8/10/2010

For the entire list of published Security Advisories, visit the Security Advisory Archive Web site.

For the latest information and resources, see https://premier.microsoft.com