My good buds on the Windows Search Team have asked me to relay some exciting new information regarding Windows Search 4.0:

Since Windows Search 4.0 (WS4.0) was released to the web on June 3rd, we've seen a good number of downloads, and a number of positive responses from customers who started using it.  Users are telling us that they're seeing better performance and reliability of search after WS4.0 is installed.  As a result, we feel it's time to make WS4.0 available to the broader audience.

In late July WS4.0 will become available for installation off Windows Update. Customers using Windows XP will see WS4.0 available as an Optional update, meaning they can manually install it from update.microsoft.com.  Windows Vista customers will see the update as a recommended update. Depending on the Windows Update settings on your Windows Vista SP1 client, WS4.0 may be installed automatically, updating the search capability in Windows Vista SP1. 

Not everyone will get it on the same day; the release of Windows Search 4.0 will be very gradual.  While every user will be able to install the update off the Windows Update site interactively, the automatic update may not come to your machine for some time. The update will go to a small percentage of Windows users each day, the percentage increasing gradually. If you want to have the update installed sooner rather than later, you can do it by opening the Windows Update control panel and installing the update manually.

It should be noted that installation of WS4.0 requires a reboot, and after that, your data is indexed by the newly installed search engine. This is done due to the significant performance and reliability work that was done for WS4.0, which required changes to the structure of the search index. As we observed in our internal testing, the indexing process doesn't take too long and won't lock your PC: any action you take in the UI or application activity on your PC will make the indexing process back off and release most of computer's resources.

For those organizations that prefer to take control over the deployment of WS4.0, we provide a mechanism to block the automatic delivery of WS4.0 to Windows Vista SP1 computers in environments where the Automatic Updates feature is enabled: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/953959. However, an update management solution remains a recommended method of managing the schedule of updates. Visit Update Management Solutions for more information.

Later this year we are planning to make WS4.0 available for installations via WSUS. Keep an eye on the Microsoft Update Team Blog for more information.

Studies show that malware has increased by 278 percent and it will only get worse before it gets better.

Malware has risen this year by an alarming 278 percent in the first half of 2008 due to in part by a large number of compromised websites. This astounding figure was reported by ScanSafe, a web security service. Can you image malware getting any worse than it already is? Well hold on to your butts because that is just what will be happening according recent reports and studies.

We managed to find that The ScanSafe Global Threat report is composed of a study of more than 60 billion scanned web requests in addition to 600 million web threats that were blocked from January through June 2008 on part of corporate customers worldwide. In this same report is where it was found that web-based malware has increased 278 percent during this period.

Who is affected by this substantial rise in malware?

Several big company websites were compromised this year such as Wal-Mart, Ralph Lauren Home, Business Week and others. It almost makes you feel as if you are not safe surfing any website now days. It is an inevitable circumstance that you run across a website that was or is currently hacked or has malware especially if you surf several websites on a daily basis. Basicly everyone who uses the internet may run accorss some form of malware of website that has been attacked at some point and time.

Where is all of this malware coming from?

Hackers and those who seem to have a lot of time on their hands have developed many ways of attacking websites. Many legitimate websites were attacked through automated attack tools which we discovered to have started running rampart in late 2007. Because many of the attacked sites are trusted or well known corporate sites, the attackers are able to spread malware to numerous users in a short time span. This gives the attackers plenty of time to spread the “love” before the vulnerability is discovered or the site is taken down.

Other means of spreading malware was discovered to come from SQL injection attacks or scripts that run in the background. Usually the SQL or Structured Query Language code is added to a web form input box to gain access to resources. This allows the data on the site to be changed and is the most common form of website compromise. ScanSafe found that backdoor Trojans and password stealers have increased as well. DNS exploits, which is a bit older than previously mentioned attacks, continue to rise in numbers as well.

We all have to protect our interest and stay up-to-date on the latest threats just about every day that we choose to use The Internet.

Have you recently been infected by malware from a trusted website. Have you visited a popular website this year and later found out that it was compromised by a hacker? Does this affect or change how much you use the internet?

I have been playing around with the SystemInfo command in windows, and I wanted a concise way to see what the uptime of my system was.

It is actually very simple. Get a command line, and type:



It will go through some calculations, and finally come back:



This is a very simple way to see if that server, or workstation was really rebooted.

Note: It seems that I have been caught using Windows XP again. Can't help it...so much faster than my Vista box. The above command will not work for 2008, or Vista. This is because Microsoft has changed the output of SystemInfo. To get very similar info for those two operating systems you can use: "systeminfo | find "System Boot Time"

Update #2: On Windows 2003 it is different too: "systeminfo | find "System Up Time"

PrinCiple:–Your files in duo/produo/MMC is stored in multiple (disk) blocks.
So if you format using 16K block, the space used will be 16K eventhough your file is just 1K.
If you buy DUO/PRO-DUO, it is usually preformatted with 16K block. Therefore a lot of space is wasted as most installed program files are usually less than 2K.

ProCeDure:–
You will need a card reader to do this:-
edit:u can also do it by connecting u r phone via usb

1. Connect card reader and copy all your files in the memory card to computer disk.
(Make sure you set the show all/hidden/os files to “on”)
2. Do a format of the memory card using command line “format” and use the /A=size option.
Alternative, you can use the Disk Management in Adminstrative Tools to format.
Make sure you select FAT16. For 256MB memory card, smallest block you can use is 4K, 128MB is 2K, 64Mb is 1K and 32MB is 512B.

(Note: You cannot use the phone “format ext.mem” to do this as the format just clear the allocation table and does not change the block size)

3. Copy back all files to memory card.

Now you will find that you will have more space.
I have installed many software to to my 256MB memory card and it is nearly full. After doing above, I got an “extra” 32MB.

For those who have problem with command line format::

Just use the Disk Managament to format

1. Goto Start->control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer management->Disk management
2. Select your memory card/usb drive. Right-click and select “Format”
3. Select “FAT”. Choose Allocation size. For 256Mb MMC select 4K, 128Mb MMC select 2K, 64Mb MMC select 1K and 32Mb MMC select 512B

We have talked about enabling BitLocker Active Directory integration in a previous post now we will take a look at prepping your domain to implement this integration.  To take advantage of the several of the more compelling feature such as RODCs and Windows 2008 domain controllers we first need to extend the AD schema in our current environment. These additions also allow you to add take advantage of feature in Windows Vista such as group policy client side extensions, and storing BitLocker keys in Active Directory.

WARNING: Extending the Active Directory Schema makes permanent irreversible changes to Active Directory. Make sure that you have made proper backups, and tested the update steps in a test environment before proceeding to apply these changes in a live environment.

The schema updates are located on the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 DVDs. They are located in the:

[DVD-DRIVE]\sources\adprep folder.

The first schema updates need to be applied to the Active Directory Forest. In order to apply them you need to run the adprep application from the domain controller that holds the schema role master. To run the forest schema updates use the following command:

adprep /forestprep

You will be asked to confirm that all domain controllers have been upgraded to at least Windows 2000 Server with SP4. Once confirmed the ldf files will be applied to the forest schema.

After Adprep has completed the schema updates:

Once the forest updates have been updates, the next step is to run the adprep for each domain in the forest. This should be run on the domain controller that holds the Infrastructure operations master role. The command to run is:

adprep /domainprep

Finally if you plan on taking advantage of RSOP planning mode you will need to run adprep /domainprep /gpprep to fix the permissions for GPO objects in the domain. Again this should be run from the Infrastructure Master.

That's it! Now your environment is ready for Windows Server 2008 domain controllers, Bitlocker, Client Side Extensions and more!

If we look at standard operational procedures, we would see most jobs and workloads relying so much on manual labor. But that was yesterday’s news. These days, we have seen the power of technology as some tasks have shown the latest injection of computers and systems to make jobs accurate and faster.

This is not to say that man cannot do routine work on his own. But the real competitive leverage these days is being fast and efficient. Apparently this has become the benchmark for companies to be at par with modern companies and also a means of getting them a step ahead. In the corporate world, you cannot afford to nap and if you do, chances are you will find yourself tailing other companies that are the frontrunners for success.

While the presence of a computer desktop may seem like a threat to most workers today, it should not. Computers are innovations and they are in now way present to take the place of hands-on labor. This is the wrong perception that most people put in their minds today. Rather than cooperate and enjoy the fruits of making their work easier, they make it harder by treating these fruits as banes to their livelihood.

This is crab mentality that many just cannot figure out. Rather than make life easier, they take at the influx of computers and gadgets as a step towards a different direction. So rather than enjoy and even look forward to gaining additional knowledge from these technology developments, they are showing that they have resistance and may even lose the opportunity to advance in knowledge and experience. In job requirements these days, you will notice that computer literacy is a must. Perhaps people should look at this chance as working to their advantage.