October 2009 - Posts

Sherry Kissinger on ConfigMgr Hardware Inventory
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:48 AM

Sherry Kissinger (MOF fame) participated in a recorded WMUG virtual event using Microsoft LiveMeeting, on the 23rd of October 2009.

Some really good tips in there, so if you don't have your Inventory "wings" yet, or are just plain curious about what else you can do with Inventory, check out the recording here

Here is the event description page on the WMUG website: http://wmug.co.uk/groups/wmug_event_content/pages/wmug-event-23rd-of-october-2009-livemeeting.aspx

Big thanks to Sherry for presenting!

by Rob - MVP | with no comments

Filed under: Event, Sherry Kissinger

October 2009 - Microsoft Security Bulletins - Post-Deployment
Monday, October 26, 2009 9:53 AM

It's been a while since the patches went out, for us, and nothing in terms of support is coming in. All quiet over here. Only issue we had was the KB974571 patch which hosed down LCS\OCS. Everything else seems fine, LOB's all working, and pretty much the entire organisation has applied the latest (and largest ever) slew of patches.

We were bracing for a lot of support post-patch day due to the amount of patches going out. Grateful we are that nothing has come of it. Nice work MS.

by Rob - MVP | with no comments

Filed under: Patch, October 2009

1e Nightwatchman - Webinar with Steve Newby
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:21 PM

Steve Newby is hosting a Webinar on Nightwatchman Server, with 2 separate sessions running on the 22nd of October, and one on the 3rd and 12th of November 2009.

I lifted this from an email they sent me:

Following the global launch of NightWatchman Server Edition this week, we are delighted to offer you a place at our exclusive launch webinars.

During the 45 minute webinar we will show you how 1E is addressing energy efficiency in the server and data centre environments with NightWatchman Server Edition.

Sign up for the webinar and receive a copy of a new independent study into server energy and efficiency commissioned by 1E and the Alliance to Save Energy.

Why not register for our next webinar tomorrow? - Webinar registration

 

If this is up your street then defo worth checking it out, only runs for 45 minutes so is easy to fit in.

by Rob - MVP | with no comments

Filed under: 1e, Nightwatchman server

ConfigMgr SP2 RTM's for 22nd of October 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2:18 PM

Microsoft have pretty much confirmed that ConfigMgr SP2 will RTM on the 22nd of October 2009, in-line with the Windows 7 release.

Great effort guys, well done to the ConfigMgr product team for getting this release aligned with the Windows 7 release.

It's not available yet obviously, but expect to see it appear here

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/configurationmanager/en/us/default.aspx

We plan to put this in to the test environment the moment it is available for download. A few weeks of testing then it enters our production environment as it fixes a few things we're waiting on, as well as giving us access to Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 without the need for those patches previously supplied by MS.

All I have for you in terms of release information is a tweet from Jeff Wettlaufer: http://twitter.com/JeffWettlaufer/status/4998793961

 

by Rob - MVP | 1 comment(s)

Filed under: ConfigMgr 2007 SP2

Microsoft System Center Online Desktop Manager (BETA)
Sunday, October 18, 2009 10:37 PM

Defo worth a look folk:

Microsoft System Center Online Desktop Manager is a hosted IT management solution based on Microsoft System Center management technologies that provides the capability to secure, update, monitor, configure, troubleshoot and collect inventory from a single, Web-based console.

http://www.microsoft.com/online/system-center.mspx

by Rob - MVP | with no comments

Filed under: Online Desktop Manager

WMUG Event: Wally Mead presenting on ConfigMgr! 6th November 2009 on the HMS Belfast, London
Friday, October 16, 2009 12:20 PM

We sure have been busy lately, with a virtual and physical meeting taking place ... and now our next event is finally confirmed.

Wally Mead is back at WMUG!

Come and join WMUG for the Systems Management event of the year. For the second consecutive year WMUG are proud to present Wally Mead, Senior Program Manager for System Center Configuration Manager who will be spending the day with us presenting the following topics on the historic World War II battle cruiser HMS Belfast moored on the River Thames in London.

There is a limited amout of tickets available (75), so book now!

http://wmug.co.uk/groups/wmug_event_content/pages/wmug-event-6th-november-2009-hms-belfast-london.aspx

We also have another virtual event set for the 23rd of October with no less than Sherry Kissinger covering ConfigMgr Hardware Inventory. This is yet to be finally confirmed and once it has I'll be sure to blog it.

If you want to keep an eye on what events we have planned, or ones past, visit the WMUG Events page: http://wmug.co.uk/groups/wmug_event_content/default.aspx (RSS feed is here http://wmug.co.uk/groups/wmug_event_content/rss.aspx)

by Rob - MVP | with no comments

Filed under: WMUG Event, Wally Mead, October 2009

October 2009 - Microsoft Security Bulletins - Our pre-deployment
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:37 PM

For the October 2009 patch deployment, a few of the patches are not included in our patch bundle, but what we did bring down added up to 1.7GB.

There is also a warning that MS09-056 KB974571 can break LCS\OCS (Thanks to Peter Hunt for passing this info on to me from another of his collegues based in Tokyo)

Not deployed to production yet, so no smoke signals from other teams on anything else breaking.

by Rob - MVP | 1 comment(s)

Filed under: October Security Bulletin

Gary McKinnon loses final legal challenge in the high court
Friday, October 09, 2009 1:07 PM

Looks like Gary is heading to the states ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7839338.stm

If extradited and convicted in the US, the Glasgow-born computer enthusiast, who now lives in Wood Green, north London, could face up to 70 years in prison. (OUCH!)

In a BBC interview in 2005 he said: "I found out that the US military use Windows and having realised this, I assumed it would probably be an easy hack if they hadn't secured it properly."

Using commercially available software, Mr McKinnon probed dozens of US military and government networks. He found many machines without adequate password or firewall protection. So, he simply hacked into them, he said. (OOOPS!)

I hope Obama is feeling charitable, since he got his Nobel Peace prize, and let's him off!

by Rob - MVP | with no comments

Filed under: Garry McKinnon

Using BING
Friday, October 09, 2009 10:48 AM

The last few weeks I've switched the default home pages on my various machines to Bing instead of Google. Am trying to get out of the habit of typing Google then pressing Ctrl-Enter (to wrap www. and .com around it) and instead type Bing. It's been quite a few years of typing Google so the habit is hard to break.

Anyway, I've been using Bing now for a few weeks solid. Most of the time I'm using the search engine to eek out stuff I know is "out there", and when Bing doesn't bring it back I double check with Google.

All in all i'm getting more and more confident with the results from Bing, and I like the interface. I'd say my success rate using it is around the 75\85% mark (for what I search for, mostly technical geeky stuff) and I'm not having to fall back to using Google that often.

I have to say, although Bing is surfacing the data I need, I am still switching to Google now and then. I'm no search engine guru, and I, like most of us just see a front end, type stuff in and get\want results. I don't care how it works behind the scenes, but I get the feeling Bing is closing down the gap that exists between the two search engines.

So, now I'm using two search engines, one for the main search (Bing), and the other (Google) as the fallback if the former doesn't bring back what I want, or doesn't bring anything back. I'm happy to continue doing this.

I like how I get taken to Wikipedia articles without leaving the BING UI, and I also like the daily changing wallpaper with interactive hotspots. I very much like this feature :-) I would suggest giving Bing a go, and comparing a few search results of your own. Don't get put off by Google returning twice as much data, often it's just junk\background noise anyway, that you wouldn't click through.

by Rob - MVP | with no comments

Filed under: Google, Bing

October 2009 Microsoft Security Bulletins
Friday, October 09, 2009 9:38 AM

I was expecting a larger than normal patch deployment for October as this is a five-week cycle due to the day it fell on, so this month we have a LOT of patches going out.

Bulletin ID	Maximum Severity Rating	Vulnerability Impact	Restart Requirement	Affected Software*
Bulletin 1	Critical	Remote Code Execution	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
Bulletin 2	Critical	Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008
Bulletin 3	Critical	Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003
Bulletin 4	Important	Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008
Bulletin 5	Critical	Remote Code Execution	Requires restart	Internet Explorer on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2
Bulletin 6	Critical	Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2
Bulletin 7	Important	Spoofing	Requires restart	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2
Bulletin 8	Important	Remote Code Execution	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003
Bulletin 9	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008
Bulletin 10	Important	Denial of Service	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2
Bulletin 11	Critical	Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Office Outlook 2002, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Visio Viewer 2002, Visio Viewer 2003, and Visio Viewer 2007
Bulletin 12	Critical	Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Silverlight 2
Bulletin 13	Critical	Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Developer Tools, and Microsoft Forefront

What does this mean to us that have to turn the handle? Probably a very large deployment package that needs to go out to all our DP's. If your secondaries are low on disk space I'd suggest freeing some up in readiness for this months deployment. Using my crystal ball, I can envision this deployment package being several hundred MB's. Also, if you haven't already then you should be looking at removing some of those old deployment packages (2007\2008), and rolling the non-superceded patches in to a sustainer deployment package to whittle down the size of your existing deployment packages.

Check out the October Security Bulletin to get more information on these patches

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-oct.mspx

by Rob - MVP | 1 comment(s)

Filed under: October Security Bulletin