Systems Center: Microsoft's Simple Strategy

April 2006

Find out how Microsoft's company-wide strategy will optimize IT knowledge and reduce complexity in the Windows stack. VP Kirill Tatarinov discusses Microsoft's roadmap for management products and the Dynamic Systems Initiative.

New & Improved, April 2006

By Blake Eno

Check out the latest products to hit the marketplace. PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Insightix's DID Collector

Paul’s Picks

By Paul Thurrott

Keep an eye on IE with Paul's review of IE 7.0 Beta 2. Plus, find out why Windows Live may prove promising for business users as well as consumers

Taking It to the Worm

By Roger A. Grimes

: A counterattack script was used by some administrators to try to stop the onslaught of the MSBlaster worm.

Limiting Security Risks of Running .NET on SQL Server

By William Sheldon

Learn how to mitigate the risks associated with .NET on SQL Server

Oracle Database 10g Express Edition

By Michael Otey

Watch out Microsoft—Oracle has become lightweight-database contender.

Using .NET on SQL Server

By William Sheldon

Learn about two powerful uses of .NET on SQL Server.

Spreading the SMS 2003 Gospel

By Anne Grubb

Chris Blasen, a University of Iowa IT manager, talks about how SMS has improved desktop security and saved administrators time as well as his department's unique SMS educational Web site.

What’s Hot, April 2006

By Blake Eno

Readers highlight favorite products: Stonesoft's StoneGate SG-200, PacketMotion's PacketSentry, and Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy Enterprise.

The Vital Few and the Trivial Many

By Ben Smith

The 80/20 rule is a well-known management principle. Here's how you can put it to use to reduce and retarget IT resources allocation.

Laying a Malware Trap

By Roger A. Grimes

If you want to catch that latest virus that's going around (to learn more about it), here are four methods you can use: port listeners, tarpits, honeypots, and virtual machines.

Specifying a WSUS Server to Use as the Basis for an MBSA Scan

By Randy Franklin Smith

If you specify a WSUS server to use as the basis for an MBSA scan, the scan will report only on updates that you want to roll out.

Don’t Wait Around for the Windows Components Wizard

By

In Windows 2003, the Windows Components Wizard can sometimes take a long time to appear. You can eliminate this delay in six simple steps.

Ask the Experts, April 2006

By William Sheldon

Find out why to specify a WSUS server to use as the basis for an MBSA scan, discover why deleting a meeting request from Outlook Sent Items doesn't delete the appointment from the calendar, and learn about using .NET with SQL Server.

Procrastination Potpourri

By Karen Forster

Notes about Storage Server, Exchange 12 and Monad, ISAServer, and how to vote in Windows IT Pro upcoming Readers' Choice awards.

Fight Spam for Free

By Devin L. Ganger

Use built-in Exchange 2003 features to battle spam in 3 stages.

Start Programs Simultaneously From Batch Files

By

If you want your batch file to launch several programs at the same time, you can use the Start command or the pipe symbol.

What You Need to Know About Microsoft's Storage Product Plans

By Paul Thurrott

Microsoft's storage partners should pay attention to Microsoft's new storage-related products and services which are intended to impact the competitive landscape of the storage market.

Don't Forget About Net Share

By Mark Minasi

Here's a peek at a unique tool that lets you create a file share, set its permissions, find out who’s using it at the moment, and document it—all from the command line.

Teaching Old Macs New Sharing Tricks

By

Despite their age, you can get pre-Mac OS X clients to share their data with Windows OSs.

iSCSI Storage Arrays

By Anne Grubb

iSCSI SAN technology, along with ongoing improvements in the disk capacity, performance, and storage-management capabilities of iSCSI storage arrays, has largely eliminated cost as an obstacle to implementing a SAN.

Instantly Stop Instant Messaging

By

If you use Active Directory in your environment, you can take advantage of Group Policy to stop users from running IM.

Neon LANsurveyor 9.5

By John Green

Looking for a networking-monitoring solution? Check out Neon Software’s easy-to-use, comprehensive LANsurveyor 9.5.

How Is a File Server Like a Racecar?

By Karen Forster

Readers ask why they should purchase Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, how the product eliminates redundancy in file storage, and what improvements were made in DFS.

Uniblue WinBackup 2.0 Server

By Trisha Pendley

This server-backup utility is user-friendly but lacks a few important capabilities.

Stop DCOM Error 10021 in 7 Simple Steps

By

If you use DCOM to enable the remote execution of COM objects, you might have encountered DCOM error 10021. Here’s how to correct that error.

Vendor Briefings, April 2006

By

Our editors share insights from their conversations with XOsoft, EMC, Softricity, and Whale Communications.

Circumventing Group Policy as a Limited User

By Mark Russinovich

Windows administrators need to be aware that if a user, even one running with a limited account, can execute just one program of their choice, they can circumvent many Group Policy settings

Neverfail for SQL Server

By Michael Otey

If you want a high availability solution for SQL Server, check out this Neverfail product.

Hidden Tools in Office 2003

By Michael Otey

Almost everyone uses Office, yet many of its components remain hidden. Here are 10 features you probably don't know about.

Fluentware Move My Printers 3.1.1

By John Green

This product simplifies the installation of printer drivers and the removal of obsolete drivers.

Understanding the Relationship Between Meeting Requests and Appointments

By Sue Mosher

Sue Mosher explains why deleting a meeting request from Sent Items doesn't delete the appointment from the calendar.

Radically Simplify IT

By Karen Forster

Microsoft is finally providing a consistent management UI and experience throughout the Windows stack. Karen Forster explores this strategy in an interview with Microsoft's Kirill Tatarinov.

Deploy an OS by Using SMS

By John Savill

The Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack extends Systems Management Server 2003's software-deployment capability to OSs. Learn the key steps for creating and deploying an OS image with this handy tool.

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