Following its decision earlier this month to drop Vista?s ?kill switch,? which puts Vista in reduced functionality mode if the license key fails to validate with the WGA system, Microsoft will also tweak its product activation and anti-counterfeit technology in XP with the release of Service Pack 3.

According to the company, new installations of Windows XP SP3 will give users the same optional 30-day grace period currently offered to Windows Vista customers instead of requiring the activation key during the installation process itself. After the 30-day grace period expires, users will have to enter a valid product key and activate the system before they can log on. As with previous service packs, no product key will be requested or required to existing Windows XP installations being upgraded to SP3.

This ISO-9660 CD image file contains all security and critical updates for Windows released on Windows Update on October, 2006. October 2006 Security and Critical Releases ISO Image does not contain security updates for any other Microsoft products.

This CD image is intended for corporate administrators who manage large multinational organizations, who need to download multiple individual language versions of each security update and who do not use an automated solution such as WSUS. Use this image to download multiple updates in all languages at the same time.

Caution: Be sure to check the individual security bulletins at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security prior to deployment of these updates to ensure that the files have not been updated at a later date.

As we wind up 2007, I thought I’d share with you an emailed security communiqué sent last week by Ed Gibson, Chief Security Advisor at our Microsoft UK office in Reading, providing a gentle reminder to take the necessary precautionary measures to ensure you’re safe when using the Web.  As Ed mentions, if you’re running Windows Vista, you already have numerous tools at your disposal to help keep your PC and data safe when you’re online.  Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to ensure those apps and tools are up-to-date, and now is as good a time as any.  So until 2008 … 

“Keep Everything Clear of the Doors”

You’ve seen it, read it, heard it so many times you’ve blocked it out…routine, mundane…but instinctively you take the necessary precautions.  And the idiots who think they can beat the doors for gosh sakes…some make it, most don’t…when will they learn.  Even though, I suspect the next time you hear this spoken over the intercom in the Underground, or read the warning label on the inside of the carriage you’ll take just that extra second to really make sure everything is clear of the doors.  “Why?”, you ask.  “Because

…

Windows Server 2008 is just around the corner. With Major launch events announced in all around the word on or around February 27th It’s time to get geared up and ready to answer those tough questions. I’ll be honest with all you lazy admins out there, it looks like 2008 is not going to be a very lazy year.

First of all there is a bunch of new certifications coming our way. So the first thing we’ll have to get ready for is updating our skills! Microsoft has all sorts of material, and of course the writers here at TLA are going to be working double time to make up for all the slow number of posts for 2007.

Here is a quick road map on 2008 certs.

Upgrading from MCSE you will want to get to you local testing canter and write Exam 70-649: TS: Upgrading Your MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008, Technology Specialist. This will let you pass the 3 major Technical Specialist exams in one shot.

70-640: TS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring

70-642: TS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring

70-643: TS: Windows Server 2008 Applications, Configuring

Once that is out of the way you can complete

…

Windows Vista was released to manufacturing and to businesses in November 2006, and the operating system hit the shelves only at the end of January 2007.

Launched with a fatuous $500 million worldwide marketing campaign under the slogan “the Wow starts now”, Vista managed to miss the Wow by a long shot. In fact, not only did the majority of Windows users not adopt the rather limp Wow on the spot, but they also turned around to Windows XP and are now failing to let go. And with Microsoft having made available the public Release Candidates of both Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3, the question emerged whether or not the third and final service pack for XP is the true upgrade for Vista.

Microsoft’s position is, of course, to wait for the RTM versions of Vista SP1 and XP SP3 before making up your mind. Of course that, more or less subliminally, the Redmond company has delivered strong signs that Vista is here to stay and ignoring it is a move equivalent to ignoring the inevitable. The option of Windows 7 lingers on a distant horizon, but the successor of Windows Vista is still…

According to Microsoft, Window Vista is the most secure Windows operating system available on the market.

The Redmond company has now been shy about downplaying the relevance of previous Windows iterations in order to push Vista to the foreground in terms of security. It is in fact an old drum that Microsoft has been beating repeatedly even before Vista hit the shelves, in an effort to focus consumers on the latest Windows platform. Unlike Mac OS X and Linux, Windows is, by no means, a landmark of the security landscape. Vista came to fix this aspect. According to Russian antivirus maker, Kaspersky, Microsoft did good, but not enough.

“Even the latest operating systems, such as Windows Vista, cannot block all types of leaks on their own (although, from Windows XP SP2 onwards, Windows has included a firewall. Firewall functionality was significantly expanded in Windows Vista). According to the results of testing conducted in March 2007 by Guillaume Kaddouch, Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit using default settings blocked only 9 leak tests (the leak tests blocked are shown in green in the results table)”, revealed Kaspersky’s Nikolay Grebennikov, Deputy Director of the Innovation Technologies.

In…