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If you are brave enough you probably already tried Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Beta 2. ;-)

So if you want to install Forefront Security for Exchange don`t use RTM version of Forefront Security for Exchange. Microsoft provided special version for Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 Beta 2.

Overview
Forefront Security for Exchange Server SP1 Beta 2 integrates multiple scan engines from industry-leading security firms into a comprehensive, layered solution, helping protect your Microsoft Exchange Server messaging environments from viruses, worms, spam, and inappropriate content.

This new release provides support for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and Windows Server 2008, as well as content filtering and manageability enhancements. These enhancements include:

• Seamless support for organizations running IPv6.
• Improved content filtering with installable keyword lists that can be used to eliminate email containing profanity in eleven supported languages.
• Improved integration with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager through new management packs (available in Q4 2007) that allow administrators to proactively monitor the state of their Exchange 2007 protection.
• Increased flexibility for scanning or blocking high compression zip files and RAR archives.

Note: Forefront Security for Exchange users who are running Exchange 2007 RTM and wish to upgrade to Exchange 2007 SP1 must first upgrade to Forefront Security for Exchange SP1.

You can download it here.

The Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is designed to help you identify Group Policy configuration errors or other dependency failures that may prevent settings or features from functioning as expected.

Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2003 (KB940122)

Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB940122)

Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows XP (KB940122)

When making a platform decision, many organizations focus on key attributes, such as total cost of ownership (TCO), reliability, and support. The chart below helps put these key criteria in perspective as you compare the advantages and disadvantages of Windows Server versus Red Hat commercial Linux.

Source: Compare Windows to Red Hat

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 customers.

For a list of changes included in this update rollup see KB940006.

This is a cumulative update rollup and replaces the following:

• KB930809 Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB930809)
• KB935490 Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935490)
• KB935999 Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935999)

Microsoft finally published Release Notes for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2. You may have noticed that they were "published" earlier but the they were Beta 1. A must read before implementation! Do NOT install it in production environment  since it is not supported.

Some of the important things from release notes:

• You must prepare Active Directory as a prerequirements to introduce Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2 into environment.
• You can either perform a clean install or upgrade RTM version or SP1 Beta 1 to SP1 Beta 2.
• You can NOT uninstall Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2. The only way to remove it is to uninstall Exchange 2007 from server and then reinstall RTM version of Exchange Server 2007.
• You can not use existing version of Forefront Security for Exchange. You must install Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 Beta 2 version.
• Remote Streaming backups are disabled by default in SP1!
• There are also some known issues with specific tasks in SP1, see Release Notes for details.
• In SP1 new High Availability Scenarios are introduced.
• You can only install Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2 on Windows Server 2008. There are also some issues with specific server roles. In my case with Mailbox Role.

I will post more details about installing Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Beta 2 on Windows Server 2008 later.

Well... If you run Disk Cleanup and if you select Hibernation File Cleaner it will disable hibernation in Windows Vista.

To re-enable hibernation run this from command line. And don`t forget to run as Administrator :)

powercfg -H ON

To disable hibernation in Windows Vista run this from command line as Administrator.

powercfg -H OFF

What happens if you try to capture with hidden camera hackers admitting to crimes? What happens if you try this at DefCon? Nothing good I guess... Here is a video of Michelle Medigan from NBC News attempted to use a hidden camera at DefCon.

Here and here is complete story... :)

A download pack is available on Microsoft.com Download Center containing a stencil and template for Exchange Server 2007. It works with Visio 2003 or 2007.

I was Nero user for a long time. Today I tried Nero 7 and uninstall it almost immediately. Why? OK I deselected everything except Nero Burning Rom. Everything went fine except it takes ages to install. Next annoying thing was when I opened Internet Explorer. WTF? Nero installed Ask Toolbar although I deselected everything except Nero Burning Rom and during setup there was no prompt that it will install Ask Toolbar. For me this is for sure NOT acceptable.

One more funny thing from Nero website:

4. Why is the Ask Toolbar offered by default?

Nero is sure that its users will enjoy and benefit from such a great value-added bonus. The Ask Toolbar makes searching the web easier and even includes links to Nero’s web pages, which always have useful information and tutorials for Nero users.

Yea right. Nero is for sure as hole for thinking that. The bottom line was that I uninstalled this crappy software. I will give a try to some free alternatives. I only need it occasionally for Audio CD or Image burning. Data burning is OK under Windows Vista.

David Vidmar published a great post about free CD/DVD burning alternatives.

The Unified Communications Team released funny video of their "VoIP As You Are". A must see! ;) Poor old PBXs... Anyone noticed bottles of water at Microsoft TechEd 2007 in Orlando? Even water says VoIP As You Are. Must be something cool I guess... ;)

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 is RTM. Here is official news at Microsoft PressPass.

The following products have been included within the RTM:

• Office Communicator 2007
• Office Communications Server 2007
• Office Live Meeting Console 2007
• Communicator Web Access 2007
• Microsoft RoundTable 2007
• Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server