Nvidia has a Microsoft-like market share in the workstation market and judging by this latest announcement, the company has no intentions of giving up share anytime soon. The new Quadro FX 4700 X2 is based on the G92GL GPU, which is used in different variants for the Quadro FX 3700, GeForce 8800GT, 8800 GTS 512, as well as the (upcoming) 9800 GTS, 9800 GTX and 9800 GX2. In the world of Quadro cards, this chip debuted as Quadro FX 3700.

Both of the GPUs used for the 4700 X2 have their own gigabyte of video memory for a grand total of 2048 MB.

Full Article – http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36992/139/

Microsoft has been quietly building a platform to help its own product teams — and ultimately, those from other companies — turn product planning more of a science and less of a black art.

Microsoft calls the test bed the Microsoft Experimentation Platform (ExP). Here is how the EXP team describes its mission on its Web site:

“The Experimentation Platform enables product groups at Microsoft and later on will enable developers using Windows Live to innovate using controlled experiments with live users. The platform enables testing new ideas quickly using the best-known scientific method for establishing causality between a feature and its effects: randomized experimental design. The basic methodology in controlled experiments is to expose a percentage of users to a new treatment, measure the effect on metrics of interest, and run statistical tests to determine whether the differences are statistically significant, thus establishing causality.”

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1342

Many of the changes made in Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 occur behind the scenes and were designed to improve performance. As such, they may not be readily apparent unless you’re actively seeking them out and using a stop watch. Many Vista users were hoping for a few, possibly dramatic, changes in the graphical user interface. However, those types of changes just weren’t part of Microsoft’s plan for service pack 1.

Even so, there are indeed some changes in Windows Vista SP1 that you can actually see.

In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I’ll take a look at a few of these visible changes in SP1 and explore some of the advantages and disadvantage of these changes. As I do, I’ll offer some comparisons between the original release to manufacturing (RTM) version of the update and the SP1 version.

This blog post is available in the PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

Full Article – http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=662

The downtime experienced by Windows Server 2003 increased 25 percent to nine hours per server per year, while the reliability of mainstream server-based Linux distributions improved significantly, according to a Yankee Group survey.

The research firm’s survey also noted a significant rise in enterprise interest in Ubuntu, previously known primarily as a desktop operating system.

The 2007-2008 Global Server Operating System Reliability Survey presents a substantially different picture compared to the results of the last such survey in 2006, in which Windows administrators reported less downtime than their counterparts who used Linux — a result that stirred up controversy at the time.

Over 2007 and 2008, Linux distributions from Red Hat and Novell increased reliability by an average of 75 percent, respondents to the survey said.

Full Article – http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/hardware/soa/Windows-Server-reliability-crashes-in-2007/0,130061702,339288227,00.htm?feed=rss

In the Server Core installation option, there is a way to remove the server roles and optional features from the disk, to free up more space. In addition to reducing disk usage, this could be used to ensure an administrator doesn’t add a role or feature to a server that is supposed to perform a fixed function.

Warning: This is a one way operation, once you remove a role or feature there is NO way to bring it back. If you realize later that you need the role or feature the only option is to reinstall.

To do this:

1. Run: pkgmgr /up:

2. Reboot – you can remove multiple packages before rebooting.

3. Wait about 30 minutes for the disk cleanup to occur.

You will then see the disk space used by the role or feature is freed up, oclist will no longer show the role or feature as being available, and trying to install it using ocsetup will result in an error. Once again, read the warning above – there is no way to put the role or feature back, it is permanently gone from the system.

The role and feature packages available for removal are:

· Microsoft-Hyper-V-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-BLB-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DFSN-ServerCore~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DFSR-ServerEdition-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DhcpServerCore-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DirectoryServices-ADAM-SrvFnd-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DirectoryServices-DomainController-SrvFnd-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Server-Core-Role-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-FailoverCluster-Core-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-FileReplication-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-IIS-WebServer-Core-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-Internet-Naming-Service-SC-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-MultipathIo-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-NetworkLoadBalancingHeadlessServer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-NFS-ServerFoundation-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-Printing-ServerCore-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-QWAVE-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-RemovableStorageManagementCore-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-SecureStartup-OC-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-SNMP-SC-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-SUA-Core-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-Telnet-Client-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

If you are running on an x86 box, change the amd64 above to x86.

In addition to the roles and features listed in oclist, it is also possible to remove IME support as well as the supporting fonts by removing the following packages:

· Microsoft-Windows-ServerCore-EA-IME-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-ServerCore-EA-Fonts-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

Removing these will reduce the on disk footprint by ~200MB.

Windows Vista shipped to business customers on the last day of November 2006, so the end of November 2007 marks the one year anniversary for supported production use of the product. This paper analyzes the vulnerability disclosures and security updates for the first year of Windows Vista and looks at it in the context of its predecessor, Windows XP, along with other modern workstation operating systems Red Hat, Ubuntu and Apple products. The results of the analysis show that Windows Vista has an improved security vulnerability profile over its predecessor. Analysis of security updates also shows that Microsoft improvements to the security update process and development process have reduced the impact of security updates to Windows administrators significantly compared to its predecessor, Windows XP.

Note that this report is an update to the previously published Windows Vista 90-Day Vulnerability Report and Windows Vista 6-Month Vulnerability Report. However, since one year is a more informative time frame, this report contains the results of a deeper level of analysis.

Included in this document

• Executive Summary
• About the Author
• Overview
• Interpreting the Analysis
• The Security Researcher Ecosystem
• Windows Vista vs Windows XP
• Windows Vista – Year One
• Windows XP – Year One
• Side-by-Side Comparison
• Windows Vista vs Other Operating Systems
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
• Apple Mac OS X v10.4
• Side-by-Side Comparison
• Final Observations
• APPENDIX A: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
• Appendix B: Sources and Methodology
• Discovering Unfixed Vulnerabilities

Download Link – http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/compare/ReportsDetails.mspx?recid=54&tapm=A80S05B05

The possible release dates for XP SP3 are;

• April 14, 2008: Support is available for the release version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP
• April 21, 2008: Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers
• April 29, 2008: Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center
• June 10, 2008: Automatic Updates

Zune Marketplace is no iTunes killer. But maybe Zune VideoX will (at least attempt to) be.

After recently hearing about Microsoft’s grand entertainment-marketplace/service (codenamed eLive), now I’m getting word of yet another Microsoft entertainment marketplace, known currently as “Zune Video X” (for Video Experience).

One of the main movers and shakers behind the initiative is said to be Joe Belfiore. Corporate vice president of the Entertainment and Devices eHome Division. Belfiore was responsible for “development, business management and marketing of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and related devices, including Media Center Extender and the Media Center DVR,” last anyone heard of him. As Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Todd Bishop noted today, Belfiore is rumored to be working on something Zune-related now.)

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1341

Zune Marketplace is no iTunes killer. But maybe Zune VideoX will (at least attempt to) be.

After recently hearing about Microsoft’s grand entertainment-marketplace/service (codenamed eLive), now I’m getting word of yet another Microsoft entertainment marketplace, known currently as “Zune Video X” (for Video Experience).

One of the main movers and shakers behind the initiative is said to be Joe Belfiore. Corporate vice president of the Entertainment and Devices eHome Division. Belfiore was responsible for “development, business management and marketing of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and related devices, including Media Center Extender and the Media Center DVR,” last anyone heard of him. As Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Todd Bishop noted today, Belfiore is rumored to be working on something Zune-related now.)

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1341

Virtualization Nation,

Last week, I blogged about the importance of HA for unplanned host downtime. By the number of responses, this is clearly a hot topic. Today, I was going to discuss planned downtime, specifically, the differences between Quick Migration and Live Migration; however, after sifting through all that feedback last week I realized that we need to dispel some myths first…

After my last blog I received almost two dozen email telling me that VMotion was far superior for unplanned host downtime and that it was a much better HA solution because it could live migrate virtual machines. I’ve heard this fallacy espoused for many years and, folks, this simply isn’t the case.

In the case of unplanned downtime, VMotion can’t live migrate because there is no warning. Instead you must have VMware HA configured and the best it can do is restart the affected virtual machines on other nodes which is the same as what is provided with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Failover Clustering.

Full Article – http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2008/04/14/hyper-v-quick-migration-vmware-live-migration-part-2.aspx

Virtualization Nation,

Last week, I blogged about the importance of HA for unplanned host downtime. By the number of responses, this is clearly a hot topic. Today, I was going to discuss planned downtime, specifically, the differences between Quick Migration and Live Migration; however, after sifting through all that feedback last week I realized that we need to dispel some myths first…

After my last blog I received almost two dozen email telling me that VMotion was far superior for unplanned host downtime and that it was a much better HA solution because it could live migrate virtual machines. I’ve heard this fallacy espoused for many years and, folks, this simply isn’t the case.

In the case of unplanned downtime, VMotion can’t live migrate because there is no warning. Instead you must have VMware HA configured and the best it can do is restart the affected virtual machines on other nodes which is the same as what is provided with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Failover Clustering.

Full Article – http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2008/04/14/hyper-v-quick-migration-vmware-live-migration-part-2.aspx

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) on Tuesday confirmed that it plans to release a third service pack for SQL Server 2005 by the end of the year.

In a Tuesday blog post, Francois Ajenstat, Microsoft ‘s director of SQL Server marketing, announced that Microsoft will deliver SQL Server 2005 SP3 after the release to manufacturing of SQL Server 2008, which is currently slated for Q3.

“Our goal is to get SP3 released in the market in [calendar year] 2008,” wrote Ajenstat.

Ajenstat said the decision was made “in the spirit of transparency” and to give customers as much advance notice as possible for testing and planning deployments. This statement is somewhat ironic in light of the cone of silence Microsoft has traditionally maintained around service pack release dates.

SQL Server 2005 was one of many obstacles that Microsoft VARs faced in getting their customers’ systems in line with the myriad requirements of Windows Vista.

Full Article – http://www.crn.com/software/207200912

Finally, IIS 7.0 has a PowerShell Provider!

The IIS7 PowerShell Provider allows you to

• Create Web-Sites, Web Applications, Virtual Directories and Application Pools
• Change Simple Configuration Properties on Web-Sites, Application Pools, Web Applications and Virtual Directories
• Add and Change Complex Configuration Settings
• Query Run-time Data (Web-Site State, Application Pool State, Currently Executing Requests)
• Execute Advanced Configuration Tasks, Scripting, Integration with other PowerShell Snap-Ins and features
• Search and Discover Configuration Settings

Tech Preview 1 of the IIS 7.0 PowerShell Provider can be found here:
x86: http://www.iis.net/downloads/1664/ItemPermaLink.ashx
x64: http://www.iis.net/downloads/1665/ItemPermaLink.ashx

Within hours of Microsoft redirecting its UK users from Live Search Maps to Multimap last week, user dissatisfaction spread like wildfire.

On Monday, April 14, Microsoft responded and restored full Live Search Maps access to disgruntled users.

Microsoft bought Multimap in December 2007 and made it a subsidiary of its Virtual Earth and Search teams.

Full article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1335

One of the big topics of discussion on my recent visit to Citrix’s Advanced Products Group office in Sydney was their “portICA” technology. PortICA is the name of the technology that “ports” the ICA protocol stack from Presentation Server / Terminal Server to a workstation OS. In other words, portICA lets you use the ICA protocol to connect to a Windows XP or Vista host acting as the server (for a VDI or blade PC scenario). Citrix is using PortICA instead of the built-in RDP-based remote desktop option in their upcoming XenDesktop product. (Note: All of the portICA technology described in this article is part of Citrix XenDesktop 2, currently in beta, scheduled for a May release.)

Full Article – http://www.brianmadden.com/blog/BrianMadden/Accessing-Windows-XP-and-Vista-via-Citrix-XenDesktop-ICA-portICA-How-does-this-really-work