HowTo-Outlook

Archive 10

Research shows using multiple anti-virus engines yields the most effective protection. Analysis of the results from five independent testing organizations shows no single anti-virus engine is effective across the spectrum of email threats.

The data from the research paper, “One Virus Engine is Not Enough”, shows that no single product catches a comprehensive range of email viruses and malware within a variety of compressed and uncompressed file formats. A more secure approach must employ multiple anti-virus engines to cover a broader spectrum of threats.

The professional anti-virus testing laboratories (ICSA Labs, West Coast Labs, Virus Bulletin, AV-Test.org, and Virus TestCenter) looked at the leading anti-virus engines – namely, those developed by Trend Micro, Symantec (Norton), McAfee, Norman, and SOFTWIN – for their overall virus detection rate, their ability to scan through compressed and embedded files, and their coverage of non-virus malware. Each product showed strengths in different areas, meaning that combining the capabilities of two or more products would enable organizations to make up for deficiencies in any single product.

View: One Virus Engine Is Not Enough
Thanks to: MSD2D.com

Microsoft will announce on Wednesday that it will offer two $250,000 bounties for information that leads to the arrest of the people who released the MSBlast worm and the SoBig virus, CNET News.com has learned.

The two programs attacked computers that run Microsoft’s Windows operating system, causing havoc among companies and home users in August and September. The reward, confirmed by sources in both the security industry and in law enforcement, will be announced in a joint press conference with the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service and Interpol that’s scheduled for 10 a.m. EST Wednesday.

The rewards are the first time a company has offered money for information about the identity of the cybercriminals.

View: Microsoft to offer bounty on hackers

In this presentation learn how to protect your PC by taking three simple steps.

Download: Protect Your PC (57MB video)

Office 2003 Critical Update: KB828041 offers the highest levels of reliability available for Microsoft Office 2003. This update fixes an issue in Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Excel 2003 and Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 that occurs when opening a file last edited and saved in Office 2000. Under this specific scenario it is possible for graphic content to be inadvertently lost on save. The Office 2003 Critical Update: KB828041 is part of Microsoft’s continued effort to provide the latest product updates to customers.

View: Overview of the Office 2003 Critical Update

Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it.
A full-file administrative update for use by IT Administrators is available on the Microsoft Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit Web site.

Download: Office2003-KB828041 client (English)
Download: Office2003-KB828041 client (different language)
Download: Office2003-KB828041 administrative (English)
Download: Office2003-KB828041 administrative (different language)

Don’t employ former hackers to safeguard systems, warn experts.

Companies should stop hiring hackers to beef up security – not for ethical reasons but because they are no good at it, according to experts.
Delegates at the RSA Security Conference in Amsterdam heard a panel of reformed hackers, police officers, members of the legal profession and corporate security experts launch scathing attacks on the abilities of most hackers.

The skills that make a good hacker are not the same as those required by an IT security officer, delegates were told. “Everyone thinks that if you know how to break into a system then you must know how to protect one. It’s rubbish. I could teach a monkey to break into a system in four hours,” claimed Ira Winkler, chief security strategist at Hewlett Packard. “While there are highly skilled technical hackers out there, they are the ones you never know about because they don’t get caught.”

But most hackers are IT professionals in their 20s and 30s, suggesting that companies may be late in their realisation that cyber-poachers do not make good cyber-gamekeepers. “Why would you want to employ a hacker with a criminal record, i.e. someone so bad they’d been caught?” asked Tony Neate, industry liaison officer at the National High Tech Crime Unit. “After all, if a bank is looking to employ a security guard they don’t try and find a former bank robber to guard their safe. Companies must be sure that they know their staff’s backgrounds.”

Checking employees was highlighted as essential, but there was a gap in the law as juvenile criminal records are sealed when the perpetrator reaches adulthood. But a quick search of the internet using a web or newsgroup search engine should reveal details of a person’s hacking history, if it exists.

View: Ex-hackers ‘rubbish at security’

This product shows the great results you can get when you customize a Windows SharePoint Services-based Web site using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. This template contains the custom Theme used in creating this site, and detailed instructions and necessary files to allow you to reproduce the look on your own Windows SharePoint Services-based site. For more inspiration, information and tools to help you customize Windows SharePoint Services-based Web sites with FrontPage 2003, visit the Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Customization Kit at http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/

Download: Windows SharePoint Services Template Package- Human Resources
Download: Windows SharePoint Services Template Package- Finance
Download: Windows SharePoint Services Template Package- Real Estate
Download: Windows SharePoint Services Template Package- Hospital

A quick and easy way to produce quality graphics and photos for the Web, no programming skill required. Create graphics by simply customizing the professionally designed templates, including animated banner ads, button bars and DHTML menus, headings, web page backgrounds and even complete themed page layouts. And because the templates are vector graphics there is no loss of quality. Webstyle has a built in photo album builder to generate stunning albums in just a few clicks. Webstyle 4 also includes one of the quickest photo editors available, auto thumbnail creation, plus seamless integration with FrontPage. All customers receive a CD which contains the software, over 1600 fully editable templates, tutorial movies and a collection of TrueType fonts.

Download: Xara Webstyle 4 (trial)

Widespread education needed as more consumers are targeted.

Web fraudsters are increasingly targeting consumers with password-confirmation scams, experts have warned.
The scam involves sending emails which purport to come from a service provider asking consumers to confirm their passwords at a website. Customers of several British banks were targeted last month.

The websites are cunningly constructed fakes. Once the password entries are made online thieves collect them. As well as banks, companies like eBay have also been targeted.

“A huge number of people are getting suckered by spoof websites, particularly in the US,” said Scott Schnell, senior vice president of sales and marketing for RSA Security. “Once they use the sites they are losing everything, all their personal information. This problem needs to be addressed.”

Schnell suggested that companies and the press should educate employees and the public respectively. Better identity management would also help, he added. “Someone being lazy or stupid, two essential human traits, can defeat the very latest risk management system,” said Jon Collins, associate at analysts Quocira. “Education is vital, there’s a fundamental misunderstanding about technology. When people go to these websites they aren’t thinking properly about threats.”

Financial institutions never ask customers for confidential information via email or to divulge such details at websites linked to by a web address in an email. Genuine banking websites are always prefixed with ‘https’. The ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’ and guarantees that details are being kept confidential.

View: Web hoaxes set to increase

Xara Modules are hosted Web page add-ins providing everything from customized graphics to Web forms and online databases. Other Modules let you edit your photos online and place remotely updatable text within your Web page. Xara Online provides a wide range of free Modules and a 15 day trial of their Premium Modules.

Download: Xara Online FrontPage Extension
View: Xara mainpage

Well the 30th I posted the link to the documentation on “Publishing a SharePoint Site Accessible to External Users”. Today Microsoft released it again!? Same version, same overview, different name, different download location. The last edit in the file was of the 26th so could it be that they simply lost the documentation and had to repost it??? I give them the benefit of the doubt and say “Unlikely”. Nevertheless, here’s the repost.

Many organizations require an efficient way to share files, folders, and resources and easily collaborate on the same document with people outside of the network. Using the Windows SharePoint Services solution in Windows Small Business Server 2003, organizations can now easily collaborate with users outside of the local network to satisfy this business need.
This document does not include information about publishing a SharePoint site accessible to external users using Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server.

Download: Publishing a SharePoint Site Accessible to External Users

Microsoft launched software for Pocket PC devices three years ago in the belief that people wanted to “do more” on mobile devices. In this presentation see the latest devices in 2003 that help you stay in touch while on the go.

Download: Stay in Touch While on the Go WMP presentation (300kbps)

W32.Mimail.C@mm is a Category 3 mass-mailing worm that steals information from infected computers. D and E variants have also reached the surface.

View: Mimail.C
View: Mimail.D
View: Mimail.E
Download: Free removal tool al Mimail versions

Will the dominant communication tool end up going the same way as carrier pigeons?

The future of email as the dominant form of electronic communication and collaboration is becoming less certain as spam and the use of instant messaging (IM) chip away at the technology.
According to analyst IDC, more than 20 billion spam messages are expected to be sent daily worldwide by 2006.

IDC’s report, Worldwide Email Usage Forecast, 2003-2007: Spam and Instant Messaging Take a Bite out of Email, estimates that spam represents just under a third of all external and internal email sent on an average day in North America in 2003, up from 24 per cent in 2002.

The rising torrent of spam is reducing email’s usefulness by forcing users and IT staff to expend time and energy identifying and deleting it, and preventing it from clogging inboxes.

The other prong of the attack against email comes from the value of IM’s immediacy and the growing awareness of its presence in the workplace. But it is rapidly becoming more similar to email in terms of corporate requirements for tracking and archiving of messages.

“To keep email at the collaboration centre stage, email proponents will need to do a better job of helping end-users manage email and use other collaborative tools in conjunction with email,” said Mark Levitt, research vice president for collaborative computing at IDC.

View: Spam and IM threaten email’s future

This updated version fixes an issue with the browsing functionality on Windows 98 and Windows ME.

Download: Outlook 2003 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup (English)
Download: Outlook 2003 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup (different language)

Use a Web camera to easily send and reply with a video email to your friends and family with just two clicks on the Video Email for Outlook 2003.

Download: Outlook 2003 Add-in: Video Email

Use "PFHTO781" to get a discount when ordering!

Archive 9

There could be all sorts of reasons why you want to revert back to an older version of Microsoft Office Outlook. One could be because your demo has expired. Also there could be all sorts of reasons why you need to be compatible with older versions of Microsoft Office Outlook like when your laptop holds a previous version of Outlook while your home computer holds Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.

View: Outlook 2003: Reverting back to /Being compatible with a previous version of Microsoft Office Outlook

Since this question has come up quite a few times now I’ve added it to my FAQ.

View: What is the Winmail.dat file?

This product shows the great results you can get when you customize a Windows SharePoint Services-based Web site using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. This template contains the custom Theme used in creating this site, and detailed instructions and necessary files to allow you to reproduce the look on your own Windows SharePoint Services-based site. For more inspiration, information and tools to help you customize Windows SharePoint Services-based Web sites with FrontPage 2003, visit the Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Customization Kit at http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/

Download: Windows SharePoint Services Template Package- Legal

Congress recently edged closer to passing the nation’s first law to curb e-mail spam, but those who work under the Internet’s hood are attacking the problem from another angle.

Rather than trying to flag and prohibit unsavory messages, as a Senate bill that passed last week would attempt, they are tinkering with the technical architecture of e-mail so that computers will be able to recognize good mail. Then, the theory goes, it is a relatively simple matter to block all other e-mail from getting through.

For the past nine months, several separate initiatives by technologists at e-mail and Internet provider companies have sought to crack the problem, but solutions have been elusive. A major hurdle is that spammers exploit the very attributes of e-mail that help make it popular: Anyone can send mail directly to anyone else and can do so anonymously if they choose. The result is that it can be difficult to sort good from bad. Not only can spammers devise fictitious Internet addresses to mask their locations, but increasingly they are forging the addresses of legitimate individuals and companies.

Microsoft Corp., America Online, Yahoo Inc. and EarthLink Inc. — the top Internet provider and e-mail account companies that joined together to work on the problem last spring — are close to an announcement on a “trusted sender” system. The approaches by the different groups vary, but they all hinge on retooling e-mail so that servers — the computers that power networks of other computers — can mark mail that is sent as trusted and identify those same characteristics when the e-mail is received.

View: E-Mail Providers Devising Ways to Stop Spam

Many organizations require an efficient way to share files, folders, and resources and easily collaborate on the same document with people outside of the network. Using the Windows SharePoint Services solution in Windows Small Business Server 2003, organizations can now easily collaborate with users outside of the local network to satisfy this business need.
This document does not include information about publishing a SharePoint site accessible to external users using Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server.

Download: Publishing a SharePoint Site Accessible to External Users (updated link to reflect the repost by Microsoft on November 3rd)

Michael Hanscom admits it probably wasn’t the best idea. He thought the photo on his personal blog of Apple computers being offloaded at a Microsoft loading dock might get a couple of smirks from friends. He never imagined it would cost him his job.

THAT’S PRECISELY what he says happened, though. Hanscom has found several minutes of Web fame this week as the latest example of how bloggers’ blend of personal and professional can backfire. Hanscom, who says he has kept an online journal since 1998, worked in Microsoft’s copy shop, taking printing and publishing orders from employees at the software giant’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
On Monday, Hanscom’s manager called him in and showed him an Oct. 23 post that featured a photo of stacked boxes of Apple Macintosh G5 computers under the title, “Even Microsoft wants G5s,” noted he had seen them on the loading dock of the building where he worked and remarked that a couple had fallen off their palettes. The close-cropped photograph reveals little more than a delivery truck and the pile of computers on a loading dock. Though Microsoft remains a target of derision for many Mac users, the company remains a major producer of software for Apple systems.

But the entry still raised hackles with Microsoft security officials, he says, who told his manager they couldn’t ask him to remove the post but instead wanted him off Microsoft premises. “I was told they saw it as a security violation,” says Hanscom, a longtime Mac fan who says he was amused to see Microsoft getting the machines. “I think they might have seen it as derogatory.

echnically, Microsoft didn’t fire Hanscom. The 30-year-old has worked for a temp firm, Todays Staffing, since he moved to Seattle from Anchorage in the summer of 2001 — mostly on contracts for Xerox, which runs Microsoft’s copy service. The Microsoft gig was Hanscom’s second posting with Xerox and he says he saw no hints that anyone was unhappy with his work. “My manager had nothing but good things to say,” Hanscom recalls. Even after he had Hanscom escorted off campus, “he was hoping to help me find something else.”
Microsoft would not comment on Hanscom’s dismissal. Spokeswoman Stacy Drake McCredy said the company did not discuss personnel or security matters.

View full story: Copy shop worker loses position after posting Mac photo
View: http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/even_microsoft_.html

PDC attendees talk about what areas they’d like to see Microsoft researching, and Rick Rashid shares his thoughts on the advances in traditional and non-traditional computer systems.

Eric Rudder talks about how developers can prepare for WinFX, and Gordon Mangione discusses important features in Yukon.

Download: PDC Highlights Day Two

Proposed new law is a start, but flawed, even advocates admit.

The first federal antispam law may be on its way to reality, but many antispam advocates say it won’t stem the flood into e-mail users’ in-boxes.

The Senate unanimously approved the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act last week. It requires e-mail users to opt out of unwanted commercial e-mail, instead of requiring e-mail senders to get permission before sending. That approach is backwards, say vendors of antispam technologies and at least one consumer advocacy group.

Only Partly There
The bill gives consumers little control over spam, says Ray Everett-Church, counsel for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE). Everett-Church says he is encouraged that the bill includes an amendment requiring the Federal Trade Commission to consider a national do-not-spam e-mail registry, but it doesn’t require the FTC to actually implement such a list.

A 1991 law authorized the Federal Communications Commission to create a national do-not-call telemarketing registry, which took effect in early October–12 years later, Everett-Church notes. The FTC has expressed concerns about creating and maintaining a massive do-not-spam list, and CAN-SPAM’s opt-out approach basically lets spammers continue to e-mail until they’re told to stop, he adds.

“Until the FTC decides whether or not they care to create a do-not-e-mail list, [CAN-SPAM] creates essentially carte blanche permission for spammers to send unlimited quantities of e-mail to the consumer,” Everett-Church says. “I’m deeply concerned that we may never see a do-not-e-mail list, and until such a time as we do, we will see an unlimited right to see spam.”

View: CAN-SPAM Law Won’t, Critics Say

Write it down in your Outlook Calendar and set a reminder for it as the new patch policy from Microsoft means that patches are released at the end of the month unless they are severe (then they are generally available within 24 hours).

This month there are updates for updates;

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-042: Buffer Overflow in Windows Troubleshooter ActiveX Control Could Allow Code Execution (826232)
Maximum Severity Rating: Critical
Recommendation: Customers should apply the patch immediately

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-043: Buffer Overrun in Messenger Service Could Allow Code Execution (828035)
Maximum Severity Rating: Critical
Recommendation: Customers should disable the Messenger Service immediately and evaluate their need to deploy the patch

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-045: Buffer Overrun in the ListBox and in the ComboBox Control Could Allow Code Execution (824141)
Maximum Severity Rating: Important
Recommendation: Customers should install this security patch at the earliest opportunity

Run Windows Update!

Check out some of the activities of the first day of the PDC. Attendees talk about what they are learning and excited about and Robert Hess interviews Jim Allchin about what he’s most excited about with Longhorn.

Should we make fun of the guy that thinks Yukon will be the one after Longhorn…???

Download: PDC Highlights – Day One

For the people addicted to the MSN6 games mess.be has developed some custom games and have updated their patch for the final release of MSN 6.1 (build 6.1.0155). Next to the default games from MSN you’ll have; Chess, Nine Men’s Morris, Reversi, Sea Battle, Yahtzee and Tetris as extra games available from the Launch Site button. You need to have your MSN6 closed before you apply the patch. Also the person you want to play with must have the patch applied.

Download: MSN Messenger 6.1 (English)
Download: MSN Messenger 6.1 (different language)
Download: Mess.be Games Patch v0.5
View: Mess.be games site

Freelance writer and software developer Eric Wilson has spent a decade supporting, writing about and developing Microsoft platforms. But last week he warned that buyers of Microsoft’s Office 2003, released last week, might be breaching his intellectual property rights.

Wilson, who writes regularly for Next, said technology in Office 2003 infringed patents he had applied for and, in an action reminiscent of the global recording and movie industries’ approach to piracy, said he would bypass Microsoft and instead pursue its customers for “additional royalties and special conditions”.

Microsoft Australia’s director of corporate and legal affairs, Chris Woodforde, said the software company was “very confident” no claim would succeed against Microsoft or its customers. He said that if Microsoft needed technology from a developer, they would buy it and not risk infringement.

“Eric’s a very respected developer and we’ve taken what he has to say very seriously,” Woodforde said.

“We’ve evaluated his claim and fully investigated and don’t agree with it.

“He has no issued patent and the reader view technology was available before he sought his patent.

“As a company that relies on intellectual property, we respect intellectual property rights . . . and if we thought there was going to be any liability to our customers we would do something about it. If this technology was available we would buy it.”

Full story: Developer claims rights breach in Office 2003

Bill Gates turned 48 today.

Virus firms warn of new email attachment-based malware.

A new virus threat called Sober could be causing a few headaches today, according to antivirus researchers.
The Sober worm, spotted in the last 12 hours, is a traditional attachment-based piece of malware that uses social engineering to trick people into activating its payload.

In contrast with the Flea virus discovered last week, which so far appears to have failed to bite, Sober hides its code in an HTML email. Microsoft Outlook users can activate the payload just by opening the email.

View article: Sober worm causes headaches
View: Info on Sober at Symantec

Archive 8

Microsoft Office 2003 leaves resellers largely unmoved.

The channel is not expecting a rush of corporate interest following last week’s launch of the Microsoft Office 2003 suite.
Although the launch is vital for Microsoft, as Office sales account for over a quarter of the company’s revenue, resellers do not believe there will be a spike in initial upgrade interest.

The new suite includes upgrades to the existing applications and new extensible mark-up language applications based around information sharing and collaborative working.

John Taylor, marketing director at VAR Trustmarque, said: “Some large companies may decide to upgrade immediately, but in general we’ll see a slow but steady rise in companies making the switch.

“The product has improved, but I’m not sure if it’s improved enough to be an essential upgrade.”

Angela Ashenden, senior analyst at Ovum, said the tight integration of the product would benefit resellers.

“This tight integration makes a lot of sense for Microsoft, but to get the benefits users should have the latest upgrades to get full functionality,” she said.

View article: Office has work to do

Yesterday evening I got my hands on the latest leaked copy of Longhorn (build 4051). I messed something with the files so it would take my Windows 2003 Beta key to install with and made it bootable so I could do a clean install on one of my test systems (it was about time that expired Exchange 2003 RC1 got formatted anyway).

After I was pleasantly surprised that my tweaking worked at first attempt the installer ran pretty smooth. The install screens are looking quite nice (although the background colours don’t look that good when booting with PXE). Also the hardware detecting wasn’t in the promised 10 minutes (more like half an hour) which is all with all no big deal as it obviously isn’t optimised yet.

When you finally get around to booting it up for the first time you are presented with a new Bliss wallpaper and a new skin called Slate. This skin looks a lot better than the old Plex one which was in previous builds. Slate isn’t, as you probably know already, going to be the final skin; that will be Aero. Also notice that the Start button doesn’t have “Start” on it anymore.

I never actually started up Outlook Express on the previous builds but I did in this. It looks quite nice with the new colours and the navigation is slightly changed. I couldn’t find any new options that fast but it is already marked as Outlook Express 7 although the file versions tell otherwise. The file versions are (as always) the same as those of Internet Explorer. This could be an early indication that there will be no functional development done to Outlook Express. Internet Explorer however did get some functional improvements already with a pop-up blocker as a very welcome new feature.

Screenshots always say more than a thousands words…

Windows Explorer

Games folder

Little error when requesting system info from the new Hardware and Devices overview

New Windows Event Viewer in MMC

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies uses a common set of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 services named Windows SharePoint Services, to take advantage of the performance, stability, and security features of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Use Windows SharePoint Services to create and maintain team sites. Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, a server product, is built on Windows SharePoint Services, and adds features used to build and manage integrated, large-scale portal solutions.

Download: SharePoint Products and Technologies 2003 SDK: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server

Someone from the Outlook forum came across a quite old KB article where is stated that the article discusses a Beta test product that is not yet announced or released publicly by Microsoft.

View: KB 289988 OL2002: “Ask Me Before Sending a Response” Option for Message Receipt Is Active but Seems Not to Work

World Wide Web Consortium says InfoPath signatures cannot be trusted.

Microsoft and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are at loggerheads over competing standards for electronic forms which help automate business processes.
On Tuesday, Microsoft released InfoPath, its new XML-based application in Office 2003 allowing users to organise and share data.

But the security of its signatures has been called into question on a W3C discussion forum.

The W3C recently released the specification for XForms 1.0, which allows the creation of interactive forms to help automate the exchange of corporate data.

It is being backed by IBM and Sun Microsystems as a more open approach for heterogeneous environments that rely on interoperability.

Dr John Boyer, a research scientist at e-forms specialist PureEdge Solutions, and co-author of the XML DSig standard and the XForms 1.0 recommendation, said that businesses cannot rely on InfoPath signatures for security.

He claimed that, in under five minutes, PureEdge managed to change a signed InfoPath form from an ‘Employment Applicant Rating’ form to a ‘Prisoner Registration’ form.

Read full article: Microsoft in standards battle with W3C

Information rights management functionality could make employees careless, experts warn.

The launch of Microsoft Office 2003 has led to calls for more awareness and better enforcement of corporate email usage policies.
The new information rights management functionality in the latest version of Office is designed to protect against the unintended proliferation of sensitive information.

New features include the ability to limit which recipients can open, edit, copy or even print emails or documents.

But industry experts have warned that this could lull employees into a false sense of security about the management of sensitive corporate information.

Simon Stokes, head of e-commerce law at Tarlo Lyons, told vnunet.com: “The fact that the Microsoft technology allows you to manage email is good, but it does stress the need to have proper data retention and email usage policies and to make sure that employees’ email use is consistent with that.”

Read full article: Office 2003 sparks data retention row

This article describes how to deploy ISA Server 2000 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Feature Pack 1 as your advanced firewall server to protect your messaging environment. Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 are designed to work closely together in your network environment to provide a more secure messaging environment than previous versions of Exchange. When you use ISA Server to handle all inbound requests from client applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 and Outlook Web Access, your Exchange front-end servers no longer need to be located in the perimeter network.

Download: Using ISA Server with Exchange 2003

This reference explains how to use the PDS Application Programming Interface (API) to allow client applications to access Project Server portfolio data. Client applications can programmatically log on to Project Server and use Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to call PDS API methods. The PDS implements a SOAP listener, which receives method calls in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format and returns an XML response.

The PDS reference includes sample code and information about the following:

What’s New in the PDS for Project Server 2003
Using the Project Data Service
The PDS and Project Server Security Architecture
Writing a PDS Extender
PDS Methods XML
Using SOAP to call PDS methods
Programmatic Logon to Project Server
API Reference
Service for Enterprise Data Maintenance (EDM)
Error Codes
PDS Permissions
Field ID Values for Enterprise Custom Fields

Note This PDS reference is provided as a separate download for convenience. The topics are the same as the MSDN online topics in PDS Reference for Microsoft Office Project Server 2003. This PDS reference is also included in the complete Microsoft Office Project 2003 SDK download from the Microsoft Download Center. For additional information on using the PDS, see the complete SDK download or the MSDN online Microsoft Office Project 2003 SDK documentation.

Download: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003: Project Data Service (PDS) Usage and Methods Reference

The Microsoft Office Project 2003 SDK is designed for solution providers, value-added resellers, and other developers to help customize Project 2003, and to extend and integrate Project Server 2003 with other applications for Enterprise Project Management. It features articles, programming references, tools, and sample code, including extensive articles called Solution Starters.

Microsoft Office Project 2003 SDK contents:
Solution Starters provide extensive documentation and working applications with source code that show how to build and install extensions to integrate other applications with Project Server. All of the Solution Starters use components developed with the Project Data Service (PDS), and source code for PDS Extenders. The Solution Starters currently available are:

BizTalk Server Workflow Solution Starter integrates timesheet data using Microsoft BizTalk® Server with Project Server to enable quick changes in business workflow processes. The sample includes PDS Extenders that synchronize timesheet management between BizTalk and Project Server.
Project Server to Siebel Solution Starter integrates Project Server with the Siebel CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application. The sample includes a PDS Extender to generate projects in Project Server 2003 from sales opportunity and resource data in Siebel, a Siebel Business Service extension to synchronize Siebel with data from Project Server.

Project Data Service (PDS) Reference: The PDS is an extensible XML-based Application Programming Interface (API) for Project Server. The PDS Reference includes test tools and code templates for developing PDS Extenders and components that integrate with Project Server.

Project Server Integration includes the following articles:

Integration with InfoPath shows how Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ 2003 can be integrated with Project Server 2003 to bring more visibility, control, and participation to Enterprise Project Management.
Object Link Provider Reference: This section of the SDK contains information about the properties, methods, and interfaces of the Object Link Provider, to help extend the integration of Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint™ Services with Project Server

Download: Microsoft Office Project 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK)

The tool PSMigrat.exe is used to migrate Microsoft Project Server 2002 data from SharePoint Team Services to Windows SharePoint Services. PSMigrat.exe extracts the subweb information from SharePoint Team Services into one or more FWP files. For each site, PSMigrat.exe packages all of the site content (including documents and issues) into a CAB file and expands the file to perform additional operations. Then the tool SMIGRATE.EXE is run by PSMigrat.exe to add this information to the server running Windows SharePoint Services.

Download: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 PSMIGRAT Utility

This product shows the great results you can get when you customize a Windows SharePoint Services-based Web site using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. This template contains the custom Theme used in creating this site, and detailed instructions and necessary files to allow you to reproduce the look on your own Windows SharePoint Services-based site. For more inspiration, information and tools to help you customize Windows SharePoint Services-based Web sites with FrontPage 2003, visit the Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Customization Kit at http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/

Download: Windows SharePoint Services Template Package- High School

Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Microsoft Corp., today issued this statement in support of the U.S. Senate passage of the Burns-Wyden anti-spam bill:

“Microsoft is pleased with today’s passage of S. 877, the Senate anti-spam legislation championed by Senators Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. This bill is an important step in reducing the volume of spam by helping to stave off unsolicited and fraudulent e-mail that erodes trust in technology for consumers and costs businesses billions of dollars a year. Microsoft particularly supports the bill’s strong enforcement provisions that will better enable ISPs to prosecute spammers on behalf of their customers. In addition, today’s Senate action strengthens the protection of children online from illicit and pornographic e-mail, and with an amendment by Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Leahy (D-VT) it increases the criminal penalties for those who intentionally mislead or deceive consumers. These provisions not only make the overall bill stronger, but help give parents more peace of mind that stiff penalties have been put in place to ward off criminals and to better protect children on the Internet.

View PressPass: Microsoft Praises Senate for Passage of Burns-Wyden Anti-Spam Bill

Windows Messenger also got an update to build 5.0.0468.

Download: Windows Messenger (English)
Download: Windows Messenger (different Language)

Like mentioned yesterday MSN Messenger has gone final today. The final build number is 6.1.0155.

Download: MSN Messenger 6.1 (English)
Download: MSN Messenger 6.1 (different language)

The Microsoft Visio IFilter 2003 is a component used by the Microsoft Windows Indexing service and Microsoft Office SharePoint™ Portal Server 2003 to extract text strings from Microsoft Visio files (.VSD, .VSS, .VST, .VDX, .VSX, and .VTX formats). The text strings are then indexed by these servers and the resulting indices are made available to several client applications that provide a user interface to search for text strings in files. These search clients include Visio 2003 Find Shape, Windows 2000 and Windows XP File Explorer search, Office 2003 search, Microsoft Windows SharePoint™ Services 2003 search, and SharePoint Portal Server search.

Download: Visio IFilter 2003 Add-in: Text Search in Visio Files

Archive 7

A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to run programs and access data on a computer running Microsoft® Exchange Server 5.5 Outlook® Web Access. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.

Read: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-047
Download: Security Update for Exchange 5.5 (KB828489) (English)
Download: Security Update for Exchange 5.5 (KB828489) (different language)

Creating contacts is easy and before you know it you’ve got several dozen, hundreds of them in your Contacts folder. It is very likely that some of them have relations with one another like the same company. If you want to store company info with the contacts you just don’t want to open every contact and add the same information to it. Even worse; do you want to change the address for every contact when the company relocates? I know I wouldn’t!

The following method describes an easy way to manage general information for contacts that are linked with one another in some way.

View: How To Manage General Information For Multiple Contacts

Users who are counting on locking down document permissions via Office will have to work with beta RMS components for now.

When Microsoft officially takes the wraps off its Office System 2003 family on Tuesday morning, the company will be launching six different versions of its desktop suite, four new Office System servers and one service (its Live Meeting Web conferencing offering).

But there will be one offering missing from its line up: Its Windows Rights Management Services solution.

Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) —and its Office implementation, known as Information Rights Management — is the technology that Microsoft has developed to increase user control over documents and data. While RMS is technically a member of the Windows Server 2003 System family, not the Office System, it is via Office 2003 that most users will get their first taste of RMS.

Microsoft has been talking up its rights-management plans since earlier this spring. But the final RMS products just missed the cut-off date to be part of the Office System launch, say sources.

The RMS client has been available for download from Microsoft’s Web site since early September, and a near-final release of the RMS server has been downloadable since mid-September. The Rights Management add-on for Internet Explorer component of the RMS solution went to beta test in May.

Sources close to the company say that Microsoft could release its RMS solution to manufacturing as early as this week, and be launched officially early next month.

A Microsoft spokesman said that RMS is “still on schedule to go before end of calendar year 2003,” and declined to provide further specifics.

Microsoft has signed up a number of software and services partners who plan to support its RMS products. EDS, Avenade, Digex, Reciprocal and Omniva all are working on offerings that will build around RMS.

One Microsoft services partner, GigaMedia Access, announced on Tuesday a beta version of its RMS-related offering. The GigaTrust managed service (available for both individuals and enterprises) is designed to extend RMS to support clients other than Office 2003. GigaTrust will allow Windows XP and Windows 2000 clients to author and consume rights-management-protected content, company officials say, in a secure way.

GigaMedia is working on providing other rights-enabled portal-based content, say company officials, and are working to add rights-managed support for mobile devices.

View: No Final Rights-Management Support for Office 2003 — Yet

Earlier I posted you the tutorials for Producer 2003. Now that the Office 2003 suite has been released Producer is final as well and ready for download in several languages

Download: Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 (English)
Download: Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 (different language)
View: Producer 2003 Tutorials

A 60-day evaluation copy of Microsoft Office OneNote is also available now for download.

Download or order: 60-day evaluation copy of OneNote 2003

Because tomorrow should be the launch of the new MSN 9 Explorer which will include the final MSN Messenger 6.1

Download: MSN MEssenger 6.1 Beta build 6.1.0150

Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of the new Microsoft® Office System, along with research that shows how leading companies are already gaining a competitive advantage from Microsoft Office System productivity solutions. The research, conducted for Microsoft by Navigant Consulting Inc. (NYSE “NCI”), showed that information workers using the solutions gained an average of two hours in productive time each week without working longer hours, that the companies realized a median net present value of $4,000 per worker, and that the solutions paid for themselves in an average of just eight months. (Full details of the new research can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/officesystemlaunch.)

With six suites, 11 products, four servers, one service and Solution Accelerators, the new Microsoft Office System is evidence of Microsoft’s focus on helping information workers, the teams they work on, and the companies they work for become more productive and achieve their goals. The Microsoft Office System consists of the 2003 versions of the core Office suites and programs; updates to other information work programs such as Visio®, FrontPage®, Publisher and Project; two completely new programs, Microsoft Office OneNote™ and Microsoft Office InfoPath™; and four servers, including the new Office Live Communications Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. Added to that are additional services, such as Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and solutions that help people and their organizations make greater use of information, collaborate more effectively, and easily integrate business processes to increase individual, team and organizational productivity.

“The new Office System is a major leap forward for information workers,” said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect at Microsoft. “It makes information work more productive — and more profitable — by offering innovative new ways to communicate, to find and share information, and to manage complex projects.”

office2003

Microsoft Office System Launch Event with Bill Gates
56K | 100K | 300K

New Office Website
http://office.microsoft.com

Highlights on the website:

Product Info

Why is the new Office worth a look?

Read the overview

Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Office Professional Edition 2003

Get trial version

Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Recruiting
Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Recruiting is an integrated set of software components and prescriptive documentation that makes the recruiting process more efficient for recruiters, hiring managers, interviewers and recruiting assistants. It accomplishes this by enabling companies to quickly schedule interviews, create on-line customized interview plans and easily capture feedback on candidate performance.

Microsoft Accelerator for Six Sigma
Microsoft Accelerator for Six Sigma is an integrated set of products and services customized for Six Sigma practitioners. The accelerator can help Six Sigma project teams more effectively manage a large number of projects, more easily track their financial impact, optimize and track resources, and electronically share knowledge gathered across the enterprise. By helping the customer focus on reducing costs, business cycle times, and solving business problems using Six Sigma projects, the accelerator enables companies to effectively manage Six Sigma initiatives across the enterprise.

A judge sentenced an Arizona woman to 60 days home detention for intercepting her husband’s ex-wife’s e-mail, saying the penalty is a warning to others who might be tempted to do the same.

“Privacy is still a cherished value,” U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch said in sentencing Angel Lee, 28, of El Mirage, Arizona.

Lee pleaded guilty in March and admitted accessing at least 215 e-mails sent last year to her husband’s ex-wife, Duongladde Ramsay.

Officials said she fraudulently obtained the user name and password information for Ramsay’s e-mail account.

Matsch, best known for his role overseeing the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, bombing trials, has said the e-mail case involved a vicious divorce dispute over children. At Lee’s sentencing Friday, he said he considered sending her to jail but believed she needed to be home with her young children.

“I really apologize for what I did,” Lee told the judge. “She (Ramsay) has a right to feel the way she feels.”

Ramsay has compared Lee’s actions to someone breaking into her home and reading her diary.

View at CNN: Woman sentenced for reading e-mail of husband’s ex-wife

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES its latest upgrade to the all-conquering Orifice suite of programs tomorrow, and one of the features incorporated into the new Outlook will be an email “self-destruct” function, which, it seems, it could have done with during its court battle with the US Department of Justice.
During that trial, the court ordered Microsoft to hand over thousands of old emails, some of which turned up some very interesting stuff about how the Vole actively worked to annihilate its competitors.

Microsoft reckons its use of “Information Rights Management” to determine who is allowed to see emails and by which date emails should be deleted is supposed to increase security. We here, however, as journalists and chroniclers of the age, suggest that the software decreases security by allowing revisionist versions of our current history to appear, as the original documents are digitally shredded.

Even in the US, destroying emails can be a federal offence. Indeed, just this year brokers Morgan Stanley were fined $1.65m for failing to keep proper e-mail records.

View: New Microsoft Office allows emails to self destruct

On Tuesday, Oct. 21, at events in New York City and worldwide, Microsoft launches the new Microsoft Office System, a system of productivity programs, servers, services and solutions that help connect people and organizations to information, business processes and each other. PressPass is assembling a package of feature articles, transcripts, and virtual newsrooms to assist journalists.

Go to: Microsoft Office System Launch Virtual Pressroom

The USPS Electronic Postmark (USPS EPM) is a web-based service that allows users to digitally sign and timestamp electronic documents within Microsoft Word. This electronic proof, digitally signed by the US Postal Service, provides evidence to support non-repudiation of electronic transactions. The USPS EPM is designed to detect the tampering or altering of electronic data. This service is integrated as a Word extension within Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office XP.

Click to go to the United States Postal Service Web site.

Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 makes it easy to capture, synchronize, and publish audio, video, slides, and images. Producer 2003 is the current version of this popular add-on for Microsoft PowerPoint and is the ideal tool for creating engaging presentations, training, and business communications.

Download: Producer 2003 Final Release Candidate
View: Producer 2003 Tutorials

FrontLook DWT Browser enables you to acquire, browse and manage your Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 compatible Dynamic Web Templates (DWTs). Two Sample DWTs included.

There are three main components to the FrontLook DWT.

Browser: DWT Online Browser – enables you to browse and install online DWTs.

DWT Manager / Browser – enables you to browse and view the list of available DWTs on your hard drive. It also copies the DWT to the current web so that you can customize the DWT for that web without affecting the other webs that might use that DWT.

Two Sample DWTs to use on one of your webs.

Download: DWT Browser w/ Sample DWTs

Learn about Microsoft Office Access 2003 by using these sample files in conjunction with the article “New XML Features of Microsoft Office Access 2003” available on MSDN. See Related Links for more information.

This download contains several sample files. You can modify these sample templates to fit your needs.

Download: New XML Features in Microsoft Office Access 2003 Sample

Archive 6

With Live Communications Server 2003, people can connect to each other and to information instantly, whenever and wherever they need to. Live Communications Server 2003 offers a secure, reliable and easy-to-manage alternative to publicly available instant-messaging (IM) services. Enterprises can take advantage of the productivity gains that make IM popular, while helping to protect valuable intellectual property and corporate privacy.

Download: Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Reference Guide
The Reference Guide details the client configuration and policies, reference hardware and environment, Active Directory® directory service, and Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation extensions that are installed as part of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003.

Download: Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Release Notes 1.0a
The Release Notes Update contains new information for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition.

Download: Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Migration Guide
The Migration Guide provides a migration guide for organizations making the important move from Microsoft Exchange 2000 Instant Messaging to Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition.

Download: Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Deployment Guide
The Deployment Guide explains how to implement the best practices for planning, designing, migrating to, and deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition in your enterprise.

Early Adopter Customers Report An Average Productivity Gain of 25 Percent

Microsoft Corp. today announced that American Management Systems Inc. (AMS), Graphic Packaging International Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Virgin Entertainment are among the companies now achieving greater individual, team and organizational productivity using Microsoft’s communication and collaboration solutions. Enterprise companies participating in Microsoft’s early adopter program reported an average productivity gain of 25 percent through use of the communication and collaboration capabilities in the new Microsoft® Office System, which is scheduled for release Oct. 21.

Inefficient, expensive collaboration is a major business challenge in today’s economy. The Microsoft Office System meets the collaboration challenge head-on by delivering easy-to-use programs, servers and services that help streamline communication and encourage collaboration both inside and outside of organizations. Companies are adopting the user-centric technology in the Microsoft Office System as a way to increase individual, team and organizational responsiveness, as well as eliminate inefficiencies inherent in collaboration today. Customers report that the Microsoft Office System provides measured collaborative benefits such as shortening project cycle times, reducing the number of meetings teams have inside their organizations by one-third, cutting operating costs from 10 percent to 20 percent, and increasing customer satisfaction, customer retention and revenue generation by as much as 20 percent.

Microsoft products that contribute to enhanced end-user communication and collaboration include the 2003 editions of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office SharePoint (TM) Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Windows® SharePoint Services, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office Project 2003 and Microsoft Office Project Server 2003, and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003.

Read full article at PressPass: Information Workers at Companies Using Microsoft Office System Improve Communication and Collaboration

This zip files cotains all the files and images necessary to get you started in building a sports-related Web site using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003.

Download: Sports- Trading Card Dynamic Web Template

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates believes the computer industry will outgrow spam, and predicts that Wi-Fi will be a key technology both for homes and business.
Speaking at ITU Telecom World 2003, Gates said that Wi-Fi had taken off in the four years since the last event, and that it would find its way quickly into the enterprise and be key to developing the digital home.

“Wi-Fi in the enterprise is on the way to becoming a common sense tool to drive business productivity,” he said.

In residential areas Wi-Fi could drive “the dream” of the digital home, he added.

But security is still a major issue for Microsoft. Gates acknowledged that the “level of richness and maturity” needed to secure the wired and wireless digital world has yet to appear.

Gates said much of Microsoft’s $6.8bn (£4.1bn) investment in research and development was being focused on this area, and suggested radical changes in the way society approaches internet technologies.

He called on anonymity to be removed from internet protocols like SMTP, because it allows spammers to mimic other users, and suggested that passwords could be replaced by smart cards and biometric technologies.

“We have to know who is accessing the network. By being able to identify who the sender is we will be able to make the spam problem essentially go away,” he said.

Gates added that by the end of the decade the majority of homes in most developed countries will be connected to the internet by broadband.As Wi-Fi had been a surprise in the last four years, the service opportunities offered by broadband would “surprise us all”, he said.

One such service, IP-TV, would be offered by all major broadband operators this decade. IP-TV would offer a much richer user interface than TV “as we historically know it”, he added.

Read article at VNUnet: Gates foretells death of spam

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Migration Tool
SMIGRATE helps you migrate to Windows SharePoint Services from SharePoint Team Services when upgrading to Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 from Microsoft Project Server 2002.

Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 In-Box Documentation
Documentation about various Project data formats and setup scenarios that can be used out-of-the-box.

Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 ConnInfo Utility
The ConnInfo tool ensures that Project Server administrators maintain user roles and registry settings when moving Project Server data to a new database server.

Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Restore Single Project Tool
RestoreP can backup a single project from a saved backup and restore it to the Project Server database.

Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 WinHTTP Proxy Configuration tool
Proxycfg is required to configure proxy settings for Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 deployments.

And on top of the just released Rollup package comes some additional critical fixes.

MS03-047 : Vulnerability in Exchange Server 5.5 Outlook Web Access Could Allow Cross-Site Scripting Attack (828489)

MS03-046 : Vulnerability in Exchange Server Could Allow Arbitrary Code Execution (822363)

MS03-045 : Buffer Overrun in the ListBox and in the ComboBox Control Could Allow Code Execution (824141)

MS03-044 : Buffer Overrun in Windows Help and Support Center Could Lead to System Compromise (825119)

MS03-043 : Buffer Overrun in Messenger Service Could Allow Code Execution (828035)

MS03-042 : Buffer Overflow in Windows Troubleshooter ActiveX Control Could (826232)

MS03-041 : Vulnerability in Authenticode Verification Could Allow Remote Code Execution (823182)

Run Windows Update

It’s here!!! Finally

This update consists of previously released critical updates, for Windows XP, rolled into one convenient package. Installing this item provides you the same results as installing the individual updates. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Download: Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows XP (English)
Download: Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows XP (different language)

This patch resolves problems that were found in the Exchange Server 5.5 Information Store since SP4 was released.

Using the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 client to modify rules or to import rules into a mailbox that is located on a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 computer can result in a server-side rule with a malformed property. The execution of rules in this condition may cause the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service to unexpectedly stop responding.

More info: Information Store Intermittently Stops Responding and an Access Violation Occurs in EcDSDNFromSz (829418)
Download: Exchange 5.5 Information Store Patch 2657.74 (English)
Download: Exchange 5.5 Information Store Patch 2657.74 (different language)

Today I went to the TechNet MSDN Briefings 2003 in The Hague. Bill Gates was special host at this briefing to talk about the vision of Microsoft and how they created software with that vision and what will be the next steps for the coming years to pursue that vision even more.

Getting to The Hague was a hard task as the NS (Dutch Railways) were on a strike and no train stopped between Rotterdam and Leiden (The Hague is in between for the ones with no topographical knowledge of The Netherlands). Getting in the wrong room with just executives of companies that are Microsoft partners was real easy; I was there very early and with just nothing to do me and my friend just starting to walk around in the building to see if there was anything to do. With two security guards at every door we figured that if we went to places we shouldn’t be going we probably get halted. The reality was different; when we saw a fancy room with loads of people we just walked in. In fact we even got greeted by the security guards!

After a cup of tea a conference room opened and we got a presentation by a company that analyzes the behaviour of people and translates that into the vision of people in general. This presentation was followed by one from Bill Gates! I’ll spare you the details of the presentation as the pictures of the most important slides will speak for themselves.

Because we were in the Executives Circle session we missed the Key Note for the general public as the large conference room was completely sealed when Bill Gates entered (yep, now security worked!). All with all not too bad as he gave kind of the same presentation which we could follow outside on a TV screen. Quite fun to see him do the same presentation directly again after the first one.

The rest of the day I attended the following sessions;

Exchange Server 2003: mobility, RPC over HTTP and migration explained
Windows 2000 Active Directory Diagnostics, Troubleshooting and Recovery
Windows 2000 Security

I also included some pictures of the most important slides of the Exchange session.

I’ll post the full presentations when I’ve got them available.

View: Pictures of Bill Gates at the TechNet MSDN Briefings 2003 in The Hague

NetStores E-Commerce Add-Ins For FrontPage give Web Designers and Site Builders the tools to quickly add complete e-commerce capabilities including: shopping cart, search features, quick search, add to cart, and many ordering capabilities for conducting E-commerce. With the NetStores E-Commerce Solution, designers can quickly build and customize a Web site integrated with credit card processing, B2B, B2C, merchant accounts, without the need for additional software for their hosting platform.

Download: NetStores FrontPage E-commerce Add-in for FrontPage 2000 and 2002

In this edition of Insider, hosts Ari Bixhorn and Chris Flores give you an in-depth preview of the new Microsoft® Office System.

Learn how the new Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 can save you time and help you work more productively. Watch demonstrations of new and revamped Office technologies, plus see the new Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003 in action. Listen to Robert Rounthwaite as he discusses how Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 can help you combat junk e-mail, then watch a demo of the program so you can see for yourself.

Preview one of the best parts of the new Office: Microsoft Office OneNote™ 2003. See how it will completely change the way you take notes. Then watch how it works with a Tablet PC to make your standard notepad and pen virtually obsolete.

Download: Microsoft Insider: Office System Preview for Windows Media Player 9 (55MB)

Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 uses the Project Server Tracing Service to log application errors to the Event Viewer. The Project Server SetTracing Utility also allows you to redirect the tracing output to a log file, or to the Event Viewer and a log file. Directing application errors to a log file will output the errors to a format that you can send to Microsoft Product Support Services, making it easier for them to help determine the cause or causes of any errors your organization may be running into.

Download: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 SetTracing Utility

Microsoft Is Providing the Tools and Technologies Developers Need To Build Next Generation of Solutions for the Office System

Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Microsoft® Visual Studio® Tools for the Microsoft Office System, which brings the power and productivity of Visual Studio .NET 2003 and the Microsoft .NET Framework to business solutions built on the latest versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Office is the most broadly used client application in the world, used or customized by nearly 3 million developers and over 400 million users. With today’s launch, Microsoft is now providing professional developer customers with the compelling developer tools that they need to take advantage of the power and flexibility of the .NET Framework in their Office-based solutions.

In addition, the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Developer Extensions will be paired with Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System and offered at an upgrade price to users of the previous Office Developer Edition products. The Access Developer Extensions provide the tools and resources developers need to more quickly and easily create, test and deploy sophisticated Microsoft Access solutions.

“Developers wanting to build solutions for Word and Excel will find greater productivity with Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System,” said Eric Rudder, senior vice president of the Servers and Tools group at Microsoft. “The customization opportunities offered by Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System will help businesses achieve faster time to market for their internal and external applications.”

Read full Press Release: Microsoft Launches Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System

Quite a critical article about the new Microsoft Office 2003 Family;

Getting the most out of Microsoft’s imminent Office upgrade will require a host of other software updates

Firms wanting to reap the productivity and collaborative benefits of Microsoft’s Office System, which launches on 21 October, should be prepared for a long haul, according to experts.

“To gain full functionality, firms will have to switch their whole environment to Server 2003, SharePoint Portal 2003 and Exchange 2003,” said Clive Longbottom of analyst Quocirca. “Desktops should be the last piece of the puzzle.”

Longbottom said firms would need to set up good policies and procedures for collaboration with automated access rights to shared documents. He added that some firms would have to train staff to XML-enable documents.

Collaborative functionality is the jewel in the crown for the revamped Office, said Longbottom. “But Office will not become a corporate tool without changing procedures,” he added. “It is up to firms to decide where the value lies and how to make it work.”

Read article at VNUnet: Big changes for Office

I did some updating on my site over the weekend and I added Google search functionality to my website. The search link is added to the navigation.

I also changed all the pages of this web to reflect the style used on the main page and to have navigation as well.

Hope you like it!

Archive 5

Information worker productivity is at a tipping point, becoming a workspace for innovation, integration and teams, with Microsoft itself making a major transition and working with its partners to make this happen, Jeff Raikes, Microsoft’s group vice president on productivity and business solutions, said Friday.

Addressing several thousand attendees at the Worldwide Partner Conference, he took a swipe at Linux, open source and StarOffice, saying, “they simply accept the view that what they have is good enough. That view does not foster innovation. Being where we were with Office 1997 is not good enough for us,” he said.

Microsoft Office 2003 shows the new potential of information worker productivity, where services come together to dramatically enhance what people can do together, said Raikes.

Microsoft will release more products around information worker productivity this year than it has ever released before, with nearly 50,000 Microsoft employees already using Office 2003 internally, Raikes said.

Randy Schilling, president of Microsoft partner Quilogy Inc., took the stage to share his experience with Office System so far, saying it has fundamentally changed his business and the way it went to market. Quilogy’s customers wanted a simpler solution, and Office System offered them that, he said.

The company is already implementing solutions on top of Office System; for example, at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital it has simplified and reduced the number of applications used by nurses, doctors and staff from 60 to 10, Schilling said.

Read full article at eWeek: Microsoft’s Raikes Touts Office 2003; Takes Swing at Linux

The Microsoft Project 2002: System Policy Editor and Templates download includes the Microsoft Project 2002 system policy template. You must install the System Policy Editor and the template on your computer before you can create a system policy file.

Using the System Policy Editor, you can control which Microsoft Project 2002 options are available to your users. You can create system policies and easily distribute the settings from a central administrative installation point.

You need to have the Office XP Resource Kit installed before installing this download.

Download: Office XP Resource Kit
Download: Microsoft Project 2002: System Policy Editor and Templates

Sothink Glanda is a template-based tool designed to create Flash movies for your Web site in a fast and easy way. With a few mouse clicks, you can create a variety of animated effects such as buttons, navigation, splash pages, graphic logos. A WYSIWYG design panel and an integrated preview makes creation easy. It supplies hundreds of well-designed templates including animated buttons, text effects, motion backgrounds and greeting cards so you don’t have to start from scratch. A User manual is included in the software package.

Download: Sothink Glanda: Template-based Tool to Create Flash Movies (trial version)

Sothink DHTMLMenu can help Web designers create professional DHTML pop-up menus for Web pages without writing a single line of code.

Sothink DHTMLMenu generates robust code that works with different Web browsers. This eliminates browser compatibility problems. The pop-up menu can be fully customizable by changing the text, font, link, background, bullets, border style, pop-up effect and so on.

Sothink DHTMLMenu provides many pre-made effects, themes and templates.

Download: Sothink DHTMLMenu

This download contains information about managing Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, including:

Planning
Deployment Scenarios
Installation
Security
Configuration
Administration
Backup and Migration
Maintenance
Customization
Troubleshooting
Reference

Note This guide is a compiled Help file and opens in HTML Help.

Download: Windows SharePoint Services Administrator’s Guide

Download the construction update to keep your maps current in Streets and Trips. Save the file in the Data folder, located where you installed the program files for MapPoint or Streets & Trips. I.e. C:\Program Files\Microsoft MapPoint\Data\.

Download: MapPoint 2001 and Streets & Trips 2001 Construction Update
Download: MapPoint 2002 and Streets & Trips 2002 Construction Update
Download: MapPoint 2003 and Streets & Trips 2003 Construction Update
Download: MapPoint 2004 and Streets & Trips 2004 Construction Update

One useful but often forgotten feature of Outlook’s Contacts is the ability to map the contact’s address using MapPoint on CD or through a web site if MapPoint is not installed.

Outlook originally used maps on the Expedia website and Microsoft recently redirected the URL to mappoint.com. However, Outlook 2000 does not redirect properly and users are unable to use the external mapping service. If you use Outlook 2000 and don’t have MapPoint installed, you can edit the registry to enable another web-based mapping service.

Read full guide on how to do this at Poremsky.com: Customize Outlook’s Display Map of Address link

People who have already installed the October 2003 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer installed do not need to install this patch!

After you apply the cumulative security patch for Internet Explorer that is included in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-032, you may receive the following error message when you try to visit Web pages that are opened by JavaScript functions in frames or in windows:

HTTP 404 – File not found

This problem occurs because the cumulative security patch for Internet Explorer that is included in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-032 changes the base URLs of JavaScript functions to the direct scripting sites. If the JavaScript functions use relative URLs to open Web pages, this change will cause the URLs of the Web pages to be incorrect and you will receive the error message.

Download: Internet Explorer 6 SP1 Update: Error Message When You Try to Visit Web Pages That Are Opened by JavaScript Functions in Frames (English)
Download: Internet Explorer 6 SP1 Update: Error Message When You Try to Visit Web Pages That Are Opened by JavaScript Functions in Frames (different language)

Today at the HR Technology Conference & Exposition at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Microsoft Corp. introduced the Microsoft® Office Solution Accelerator for Recruiting software, designed to empower human resources (HR) departments to increase enterprise productivity. The Accelerator for Recruiting was created in response to feedback from customers who want to use Office System technologies, such as the Outlook® messaging and collaboration client and Word, to achieve highly efficient recruiting.

“Office Solution Accelerators help our partners readily build great solutions that give enterprises more value out of the software they already own by solving real-world business problems,” said Peter Rinearson, corporate vice president of the Information Worker Business Unit at Microsoft. “Our customers tell us that up to 50 percent of the time they dedicate to recruiting is spent on administrative duties such as scheduling. With the Accelerator for Recruiting, these tasks can be automated to maximize productivity. For example, a recruiter can schedule a whole set of interviews with just a few mouse clicks.”

Read full article: Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Recruiting Launched Today At the HR Technology Conference & Exposition

Microsoft has won a patent for an instant messaging feature that notifies users when the person they are communicating with is typing a message.

The patent encompasses a feature that’s not only on Microsoft’s IM products but also on those of its rivals America Online and Yahoo. The patent was granted on Tuesday.

Patent No. 6,631,412 could serve as a weapon in Microsoft’s battle for IM market share. Microsoft is investing heavily in IM as a springboard for selling communication software to businesses. Later this year, Microsoft plans to launch Live Communications Server, a software product that will initially offer IM for the enterprise and then expand into Internet voice calling and video services.

The software giant currently offers MSN Messenger as a free download off the Web, as well as Windows Messenger, the IM client for its XP operating system. Both services have amassed millions of users.

Having a patent can be a powerful tool, but only if it can be proven in a court that its owner has bulletproof claims to the invention, according to legal experts. Companies that challenge a patent have to prove the patent owner was not the first one on record for the invention.

Read full article: Microsoft pockets an IM patent

The Microsoft Office Project 2003 Workgroup Message Handler is a collaboration tool used by earlier versions of Project that works with the Workgroup Mail functionality. It provides a project manager the ability to communicate with the resources assigned to tasks by using e-mail. Workgroup Mail functionality has been removed as a collaboration option from Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003 and Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 and is no longer a supported collaboration method. The recommended method for collaboration is to use Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Project Web Access 2003.

Note Workgroup Mail is an unsupported feature of Microsoft Office Project 2003 and is not planned for future versions of Project.

If you have used Workgroup Mail in earlier versions of Project and were planning on using it in Project 2003, it can be re-enabled as an interim solution while you plan your move to an alternate method of collaboration for future versions of Project. It is important to note that Microsoft plans to discontinue Workgroup Mail in all future versions of Project, and prior versions of Workgroup Mail will not be supported. In addition, no technical support will be available for Workgroup Mail if any issues are encountered after re-enabling it for use with Project.

Download: Microsoft Office Project 2003 Workgroup Message Handler

InfoPath 2003 HL7 CDA Demo is based on a doctor visit scenario where the patient is received, examined, a diagnosis is made and a medication prescribed. The demo is comporised of two InfoPath 2003 solutions, the Physician’s Progress Note and the Pharmacy Order Forms. These electronic forms are based on the Health Level 7 (HL7) Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) standard and show how medical data can be retrieved, stored and transmitted electronically to streamline the paperwork normally associated with this encounter, reduce errors and imporove the quality of healthcare.

Download: HL7 CDA Demo
Download: HL7 CDA Demo documentation

Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. today announced a joint development project that leverages Amazon Web Services (http://www.amazon.com/webservices/) and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) capabilities of Microsoft® Office System programs to provide users with access to Amazon.com products and data while working in Microsoft productivity applications. The solution, called Amazon.com Research Services for Microsoft Office System, will be available for download in the Office Marketplace (http://www.office.microsoft.com/marketplace/) at no additional charge later this fall.

By integrating Amazon Web Services, Amazon.com Research Services for Microsoft Office System will provide Microsoft Office System users with convenient and seamless access to Amazon.com from within Microsoft productivity applications via the Research Task Pane. Users will be able to access Amazon.com information and make purchases without launching a browser or leaving their document, e-mail message or presentation. For example, a customer reading a bibliography in a Word document could easily click on a book title and purchase it from within the Research Task Pane without having to leave the Word document. Alternatively, a user will be able to add a footnote, bibliography entry and even cover art for books without needing to manually enter the information into a document.

The Research Task Pane, a feature in the Microsoft Office 2003 Edition desktop applications (Word, Excel, the Outlook® messaging and collaboration client, the PowerPoint® presentation graphics program and Access) and in Microsoft Office System products OneNote (TM) note-taking program, Publisher and Visio® drawing and diagramming software, uses industry-standard XML to enable users to retrieve and navigate relevant internal or external Web-based information, all from within Office programs.

Read full article: Microsoft Office System Connects Desktop Programs With Amazon.com

The Microsoft Office 2003 Web Services Toolkit brings the power of XML Web services to Microsoft Office 2003 applications. It has been updated to support Office SOAP 3.0, and features improved handling of complex data types.

Download: Office 2003 Web Services Toolkit

The US must model its anti-spam laws upon those in Europe if it is to effectively crack down on unsolicited email, the All Party Internet Group (APIG) has warned.
The parliamentary anti-spam group is sending a group of its members to Washington to persuade the US congress that unless there are similar global laws to outlaw spam, the problem could get worse.

APIG believes that the EU solution offers better protection than many of the bills currently in front of congress.

“We are not saying we have the right solution but it’s in everyone’s interest to find a solution,” said APIG treasurer, Brian White MP.

The group is concerned that the US might adopt an opt-out measure. This would be at odds with the EU directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, which will introduce the opt-in principle to EU member states.

“The US should adopt the opt-in line we have here in the EU, and this is the single most important measure in the report,” said Richard Allen MP, APIG’s joint-vice chairman.

He warned that if the US, which is currently considering a number of anti-spam bills, adopts one at odds with the EU, it could “potentially make matters worse, which is why we are going to Washington to beat the drum”.

Brian White feared differing laws would be leapt upon by spammers, who would use dissension to wriggle off the hook. “We want to make legislation complementary so spammers can’t play countries off against each other.”

Also in its report on spam, APIG warned that the UK Information Commission, which has to police the EU anti-spam laws, is under-resourced. If policing spam is to be effective, it advised, government will have to give the commission stronger powers to deal with spammers.

And the group criticised the Department of Trade and Industry for a loophole in the planned enforcing of the directive, which does not penalise spammers sending their junk mail to businesses.

The DTI has made “a very serious mistake in not prohibiting unsolicited business-to-business email”, said APIG, calling on the department to reverse this decision.

View: US needs Euro-style spam laws, says APIG on VNUNET

Archive 4

Ever had that when you are reading a webpage a new mail arrives that has a link in it and when you click on it it opens in the window you were just reading? Very annoying if you ask me. Follow the instructions in the “How To” to change this behaviour and let the link open in a new window.

View: Open link from Outlook in new window

This is probably already known by most of you but now it is in my FAQ as well.

View: Minimize Outlook to the Notification Area

Due to the addition of new features in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, it cannot save projects to an existing Microsoft Project Server 2002 installation without first making some minor modifications to the database schema. You can load and view projects from an unmodified Microsoft Project Server 2002 database in Project Professional 2003, but if you want to make changes or create new projects in Project Professional 2003 and save them back to Project Server 2002, you must download and run the four SQL scripts provided here. These scripts will add some additional fields to the database tables that are required by Project Professional 2003, but will be ignored by earlier versions, so users of Microsoft Project Professional 2002 or Microsoft Project Standard 2002 can continue to connect as normal to the upgraded Microsoft Project Server 2002.

Download: Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 Database Compatibility Scripts for Microsoft Project Server 2002

Microsoft Office Web Parts and Components is a collection of Web Parts, Web Part Page solutions, templates, and data retrieval services that work closely with Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 2.0 from Microsoft. These added features are particularly useful for large enterprises who have deployed Microsoft Office throughout their organization and who want to take advantage of the enhanced functionality and efficiencies these Web Parts and components provide for their sites.

Download: Office 2003 Add-in: Web Parts and Components (English)
Download: Office 2003 Add-in: Web Parts and Components (different language)

InfoWorld posted a good review about the new Microsoft Office 2003 family.

Microsoft reboots Office
XML capabilities in Word, Excel, and InfoPath help bridge the gap between desktop documents and databases, and give enterprises a reason to upgrade

InfoPath makes Office shine
Office 2003 offers little to individual users, but XML features should wow IT shops

OneNote makes tablet sing
Microsoft’s audio and digital note-taking tool is useful even to sloppy scribblers

Microsoft’s Office ‘system’ attacks collaboration from all sides
Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Live Communications Server cover the bases, but present a patchwork to users and IT

SPS 2003 offers tight Office integration, easy personalization
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 has many collaboration advantages, but issues such as pricey licensing keep it from being everything it claims

Live Communications Server 2003 limits instant messaging to authorized users
Microsoft’s release offers strong usability features with an eye to security

Download: Full review as in PDF-format

A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to execute commands on a computer running Windows Media Player. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.

Download: Secrity Update for Windows Media Player 9 Series for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003
Download: Security Update for Windows Media Player 6.4, 7.1 or 9 for Windows Millennium Edition
Download: Security Update for Windows Media Player 6.4 for NT 4.0 Server
View: Security Update for Windows Media Player 9 Series for 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003

Run Windows Update

A number of security issues have been identified in Microsoft® Internet Explorer that could allow an attacker to compromise your Microsoft Windows®-based systems and then take a variety of actions. For example, an attacker could run programs on a computer used to view the attacker’s Web site. This vulnerability affects computers that have Microsoft® Internet Explorer installed. (You do not have to be using Internet Explorer as your Web browser to be affected by this issue.) You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Who should read this bulletin: Users running Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Impact of vulnerability: Run code of attacker’s choice.
Maximum Severity Rating: Critical
Recommendation: Customers should apply the patch immediately.
End User Bulletin: An end user version of this bulletin is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-040.asp
Affected Software:
Internet Explorer 5.01
Internet Explorer 5.5
Internet Explorer 6.0
Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows Server 2003

View: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-040

Run Windows Update

Microsoft released a patch Thursday for a newly discovered incompatibility between the new version of the company’s Outlook e-mail client and an older version of the Exchange mail server program.

Brian Holdsworth, senior product manager for Exchange marketing at Microsoft, said the company had received four reports of problems among customers running version 5.5 of Exchange in combination with a beta version of Outlook 2003.

In each case, the Exchange server had to execute a complex set of message-handling rules that eventually caused the server to choke, affecting message processing and server availability.

Microsoft created an Exchange 5.5 patch on Thursday to fix the problem, and engineers were working on an article describing the issue for the company’s Knowledge Base support site, Holdsworth said.

Outlook 2003 will be part of Office 2003, the update of the productivity software set for release later this month. Hundreds of thousands of beta versions of the software were distributed earlier this year.

Holdsworth said the issue appears to be rare, but customers experiencing problems with a combination of Exchange 5.5 and Outlook 2003 should contact Microsoft customer support to receive the patch.

“Right now, we think it’s a pretty small amount of customers that have this complex set of rules built up,” Holdsworth said. “As customers have an issue, they can apply that patch.”

View: article at Cnet

This article discusses the principles of designing an Exchange 2000 storage solution. It does not, however, provide a procedure for configuring and deploying Exchange 2000 storage solutions, nor does it discuss storage from a clustering perspective, although the principles outlined in this article are applicable to a clustered version of Exchange. This article focuses mainly on mailbox storage, but the principles and concepts apply to public folder storage as well.

Download: Storage Solutions for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server

Instantly add E-commerce/Shopping cart capabilities with unlimited products on unlimited web sites. Configurable checkout with auto-calculation of items, shipping and taxes, optional real-time processing. Easy to use with step-by-step Wizard and toolbar.

Works with any ISP that supports FrontPage Database connectivity. No other monthly or yearly service fees.
Compatible with FrontPage 2000, FrontPage version 2002, and FrontPage 2003.

Download: SalesCart Express trial

Microsoft® Excel 2002 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003 provide more OLAP PivotTable® functionality than earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, but the extra functionality may have a performance cost when you are using large data sets. This white paper describes these performance issues and some ways to minimize them.

Download: Excel White Paper: OLAP PivotTable Considerations

I came across a nice tool to remove duplicate e-mails. It looks quite flexible to me and does its work correctly. This can be very handy when imports or synchronisation goes wrong or when you recover bulk mail into the original folder. It gives you the options to mark messages with a flag, copy it, move it or even delete it (for the brave ones among us). Also you can let it apply to every message or just the ones you received the last couple of days. The tool is a 30 day demo and functional, registration is $15.

Download: Duplicate Email Remover
View: Screenshot
View: MAPIStore website

Around half of emails sent are spam, and this figure is set to rise to 60 per cent by mid-2004, industry experts have predicted.
Analyst Gartner has warned marketing firms to take immediate steps to differentiate their marketing messages from spam if they want to be succesful with email campaigns.

Gartner said that by 2005, content managers, rule-based software and ISPs will effectively blacklist 80 per cent of all email marketing campaigns, including permission-based email.

But for marketers the pressure to cut costs outweighs consideration for the email’s usefulness to customers, said Gartner industry analyst Adam Sarner.

“Before customers ignore this valuable medium, marketers must start again by clearly identifying their customer base, surveying their customers as to the types of email they would like to receive, and then deliver on the feedback and give customers a way to update their preferences frequently,” he said in a statement.

According to Gartner, email marketing can be an effective communication tool, with a well-crafted email receiving a response rate of as high as 15 per cent, compared with less than one per cent for banner ads.

“Because email can be effective and is less expensive than traditional marketing methods, by the end of 2004 more than 80 per cent of companies engaged in direct marketing will conduct at least one email marketing campaign,” added Sarner.

View: Three in five emails will be spam in 2004 at VNUnet

Presentation Broadcast for PowerPoint 2003 is an add-in for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 that makes it easy to synchronize the audio and video delivery of your PowerPoint presentations. Use this download to record presentations for playback and to record a presentation during delivery in person or to a remote audience.

Download: PowerPoint 2003 Add-in: Presentation Broadcast (English)
Download: PowerPoint 2003 Add-in: Presentation Broadcast (different language)

It’s version 6.1.0.128. Still a BETA but works for me. For the people addicted to the MSN6 games mess.be has developed some custom games and have updated their patch for this release. Next to the default games from MSN you’ll have; Chess, Nine Men’s Morris, Reversi, Sea Battle, Yahtzee and Tetris (new!) as extra games available from the Launch Site button. You need to have your MSN6 closed before you apply the patch.

Download: MSN Messenger BETA 6.1.0.128
Download: Mess.be Games Patch
View: Mess.be games site

Archive 3

This Add-In converts FrontPage into a powerful Web development environment that lets users rapidly create database-connected Web applications such as Portals, Stores, Catalogs, Employee Directories, Internet and Intranet systems, etc. It generates clean, customizable, industrial strength programming code in all popular server languages, including ASP and C#. You build your application through wizards, and CodeCharge Studio automatically generates both your HTML pages and server code.

Download: CodeCharge Studio Add-In

Catalog-CD Publisher with Portable Server allows you to convert your FrontPage-based Web sites into interactive CD/DVD presentations, from which your customers can order electronically. FrontPage-based layouts become web-styled presentations that can include broadband displays, databases, email forms, surveys, calendar of events, chat and other interactive functions. A few of the file types supported are ASP, HTML, XML, XSL, DTD, CSS, Javascript, PDF, MS Access database(s) and other portable file formats, that support web links.

Why Convert your Print-layouts to CD-ROM?
Because you can quickly and easily re-purpose your existing data into portable interactive broadband displays, which can be direct mailed to your clients. It’s an excellent direct marketing piece. The low cost CD-ROMs save on Printing, Postage, and Advertising Costs. These portable electronic catalogs can not only be put on CD-ROMs and mini-CD-ROMs, but can be downloaded over the web.

Download: Catalog-CD Publisher

NetPlugin Tags is a FrontPage Add-In tag inserter for your NetPlugin Store templates. It integrates itself within Microsoft FrontPage, making it simple and easy to create and customize your online store templates directly within FrontPage. With the NetPlugin E-Commerce shopping cart solution, designers can quickly build and customize an online storefront. The storefront can then be easily uploaded to your Web site by clicking the Publish button within FrontPage or using standard FTP.

Download: NetPlugin Tags

The Office HTML Viewer server provides support for users who want to view the content of files on document libraries, but do not have Word, Excel, or PowerPoint from Office 97, or a newer release of Office, installed on their local computer.

Download: Microsoft Office HTML Viewer Service for Windows SharePoint Services

FrontLook Site Search engine is a professional site search engine to help viewers locate your Web site information without leaving their site or exposing their viewers to annoying ads. The package is inexpensive, easy-to-use and lets users set up a site search engine on their FrontPage-based Web site with a look consistent with the look of their Web site, professional result summaries, search areas and easy-to-use controls for what pages are included in each search area. A Quick Search Form add-in is also included to insert a compact search form on any page taking the user to the search page to view their results.

The search engine supports both Boolean and exact matches of text and keyword meta-tags. Summary pages can be formatted to match the look a feel of the Web site. The Web site viewer has controls for page navigation, items per page, sort order, search area and search type.

FrontLook Site Search Engine can be configured by Microsoft FrontPage 2000, 2002 or 2003 and runs on a Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) server 4.0 or greater running Active Server Pages (ASP).

Download: FrontLook Site Search Engine 30 Day Demo
View: Frontlook

Getting your e-commerce site up and running could not be any easier. Simply enter a few product details and the wizard will generate the HTML and insert it into FrontPage for you. This shopping cart add-in for FrontPage makes it very easy to add all of the HTML needed by the Cart32 shopping Cart system.

Download: Cart32 E-commerce Add-in

Microsoft is showing around a prototype product, called the Ring Cam, designed to make Web conferences more like face-to-face meetings. Combined with Web-conferencing software that Microsoft acquired this year, remote-meeting participants would be able to view and hear a live, 360-degree image of participants in another location.

Few details are known about when products might result from the prototype. A Ring Cam–actually multiple FireWire cameras–would stitch together images from its surroundings. Software would isolate the audio and image of whichever participant is speaking, says Amit Mital, general manager of Microsoft’s real-time collaboration unit. That technology likely would be incorporated in Microsoft’s Office Live Meeting 2003 service, which is based on products it acquired with the recent purchase of PlaceWare Inc.

Microsoft’s challenge is to integrate the real-time technologies it’s developing–instant messaging, presence awareness, team workspaces, and now Web conferencing–over the next several years, Mital says.

Read the whole article at CRN
See the ringcam: Screenshots

Spam and viruses cause more problems for mail servers and email users than just about anything else. As part of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing initiative, Microsoft has built new anti-virus and anti-spam capabilities into Exchange Server 2003.

Exchange 2003 will not include any built in virus scanning engines. However, Microsoft has created a new virus scanning API for Exchange 2003. This API will allow companies such as Norton, McAfee, and Hauri to develop Exchange 2003-specific anti-virus software capable of scanning both inbound and outbound mail, and capable of notifying the sender of the infection.

Read the whole article: Exchange 2003 Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus Capabilities

The Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK) is designed for solution providers (SPs), value-added resellers (VARs), and other developers who are interested in developing solutions with InfoPath 2003.
The InfoPath SDK includes documentation and samples that demonstrate development techniques for customizing and implementing InfoPath features, including integration with Microsoft Office Access 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft BizTalk Server, Microsoft SQL Server, XML Web Services, Component Object Model (COM) components, and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO).

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 SDK contents:
Section 1: Getting Started
Section 2: Common Developer Tasks
Section 3: Best Practices
Section 4: Developer Sample Forms
Section 5: Tools
Section 6: Technical Articles
Section 7: InfoPath Developer’s Reference

Download: InfoPath: Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK)

You can order a trial copy of the Microsoft Office 2003 now. The shipment will begin late October. The evaluation kits are available worldwide for the cost of shipping and handling, $7.95 US for the first kit and $4.95 for each additional kit. Express delivery will cost more.

Read: Microsoft Office System Product Evaluation Kits FAQ
Order: Microsoft Office System Product Evaluation Kit

Back-ups can be lifesavers! The updated add-in is the same as the previous version but now also supports Outlook 2003. If you also want to schedule your back-up at specific times you might want to take a look at my script in the Download section. I already spoke with someone from Microsoft to implement it in a future release. Also with the open-file back-up functionality in Windows XP the possibility is there to let the back-ups occur when Outlook is open. This way backing up could be completely transparent. Well, we’ll see what future versions will bring us. For now the updated back-up feature is already more then welcome.

Download: Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup
Download: My own schedulable script

Microsoft Corp. and Monster, the leading global online careers property and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide Inc., today announced a technology alliance designed to help job seekers build professional resumes. Through the alliance, Monster’s downloadable Extensible Markup Language (XML)-enabled “smart” document templates can be seamlessly installed in Microsoft® Office Word 2003, enabling job seekers to upgrade the quality of their resume. The templates will be available via the Microsoft Office Online Web site, which is visited by nearly 25 million unique visitors per month.

Read: Press release at Microsoft

I added an overview of the command ID’s in Outlook to the Downloads section. Command ID’s are the underlying numbers for the Toolbar buttons and menu options. These numbers correspond with a certain built-in action. The ID’s can be used to create custom menu’s or disable certain buttons by using Group Policy. Disabling Toolbar buttons can be very handy for network administrators to prevent users from using certain functionality like printing (and help saving the Rain Forest! ;-). A guide on how to disable button’s will be available soon.

Download: Command ID overview Outlook 2002
Download: Command ID overview Outlook 2003

Create any cross-browser, popup or drop-down menu with AllWebMenus, the dhtml menu / javascript menu builder that requires absolutely no DHTML/Javascript experience.

DHTML/JavaScript menus are designed with a treelike approach. Users can tailor their menu by using the Properties Pane or by choosing a predefined appearance from the Style Gallery. The menu can be either vertical or horizontal (pop-up or drop-down menu), it can be movable, stay visible while scrolling, contain static or animated images, borders, colors, and much more. Once everything is set, you can use the insert-menu-into-Web-page command to add your menu in the Web page in a fast and easy manner without any code.

Download: AllWebMenus

As already introduced below today Microsoft unveiled their Office Solution Accelerator Program.

As part of its mission to deliver ongoing value to customers with the Office System, Microsoft Corp. today announced the Microsoft® Office Solution Accelerator program, a new set of offerings built on and designed for the Microsoft Office System. The accelerators are intended to help customers quickly realize more value from their Microsoft Office System software investments, and to assist industry partners in continuing to grow their businesses into new areas.

Read: Press release at Microsoft

Archive 2

Microsoft plans to announce new specialty software packages on Monday based on the upcoming update of its Office productivity software.

The new packages, which will combine Microsoft software with third-party add-ons and services, will be sold by Microsoft partners under the Office Solution Accelerator Program. The program is part of a broad effort by Microsoft to court partners to help exploit new enterprise capabilities in the upcoming Office System.

Read the full article at CNET

The new version of MSN Messenger is announced to be released on October 23. As Microsoft often changes the release date of their products it cannot be said if this is really going to be the release date. Check out the website to find out about the features or even try them out yourself by downloading the BETA.

View: New in MSN Messenger 6.1
Repost Download: MSN Messenger 6.1 Beta

I added a link in the How To section to a Microsoft website which shows the command line options you have for the Microsoft Office 2003 setup.

When you run Setup for Microsoft® Office 2003, you can use command-line options to change some of the parameters that Setup uses to install Office, such as display settings and default values for Setup properties.

View: Setup Command-line Options

With the upcoming release of Microsoft Office it’s good to know what happens when you upgrade your Outlook from previous versions. The article is an old release and marked as BETA but it still applies.

View: Upgrading to Outlook 2003 from Previous Versions

There is a demo of the new Hotmail. It displays some new features which are mainly anti-spam related. Hotmail will look a lot more to Outlook Web Access as well. To check out the demo make sure you are logged on to Hotmail first.

Logon to Hotmail
View: MSN Hotmail demo

As mentioned at the beginning of this week Microsoft launched into web conferencing with Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Office Live Meeting 2003 is essentially a Web conferencing service that allows you to hold meetings over the Internet, such as team meetings, sales calls, training sessions and customer demonstrations. Office Live Meeting 2003 also allows you to access the desktop of other PCs using the service. There is no need to install servers in order to share content and applications with other people.

Read: Full article at Bios
View: Live Meeting website
View: Live Meeting demo
Read: Press release at Microsoft

Forgot to mention this last week as the mail ended up in my spam folder :-S. The PDF converter will let you text based pdf-files convert to Microsoft Office Word documents. This can be very handy if you don’t have or lost the original document. Actually there is no need to save the original document at all as the conversion is very smoothly. This way you won’t have to check if the pdf-file is the same version as your original doc-file and edit the wrong doc-file by mistake.

ScanSoft PDF-converter

An update on the virus that pretends it is the latest patch from Microsoft is spreading. The mail is starting to look pretty good and can easily fool people who don’t realize that patches from Microsoft are never spread by e-mail. Make sure you are running the latest virus definitions by visiting the website of your virus scan developer.

Read about the virus on Symantec
Screenshot of the E-mail

Today at WPC Expo 2003 in Tokyo, Microsoft Corp. and Toshiba Corp. announced an agreement to deliver Microsoft® Office OneNote (TM) 2003 preinstalled on all new Toshiba laptops and Tablet PCs worldwide. OneNote 2003, the new digital note-taking program from Microsoft, will be available to customers preinstalled on Toshiba portable computers when the Microsoft Office System is launched Oct. 21, 2003, in New York.

Read the press release

It’s not a complete overview of all the new functionality but this article discusses the most important new administrative and security features in Exchange 2003.

Read the article

This download is a collection of background and design templates included with PowerPoint 4.0 and later versions. Strangely enough they made 3 separate packs for it of just a couple MB’s in size while they just released rollup packages for Exchange documentation of tools (see below). There is also a new PowerPoint viewer which can deal with PowerPoint 2003 files.

Download: Template Pack 1
Download: Template Pack 2
Download: Template Pack 3
Download: PowerPoint 2003 Viewer

This download contains all the Exchange 2000 Server white papers through August 7, 2003.

View: whitepaper overview
Download: all whitepapers

This package contains all the Exchange tools and updates bundled together in a single download.

View: tools and updates in the package
Download: all Exchange tools and updates

And the Office family grew with yet another product: Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Participants log into a central Web site, where they can then concurrently view a presentation, exchange notes or ask questions through chat software, and collaboratively edit documents. A number of companies use it for remote training seminars.

Read the article at CNET

In an animated video to promote PDC we hear some interesting “facts” about the characters who are now in the Halo videogame. The video is about two squads, red and blue, in heavy combat when all of a sudden one wants to leave as he has to go to PDC (Professional Developers Conference 2003) in Los Angeles. So they stop their war and talk about their life at Microsoft. Pretty funny video with the introduction (or actually replacement) of a very cool Clippy!

Download: Red vs. Blue PDC Video
View: Professional Developers Conference 2003 website

Archive 1

Extra games for MSN6 (Sep 13)

For the people addicted to the MSN6 games mess.be has developed some custom games. Next to the default games from MSN you’ll have; Chess, Nine Men’s Morris, Reversi, Sea Battle and Yahtzee as extra games available from the Launch Site button. You need to have your MSN6 closed before you apply the patch.

Download patch from mess.be here
Main mess.be games site

It doesn’t happen too often but sometimes Microsoft releases something ahead of schedule (well, their latest schedule then). As of Monday, September 15 Microsoft Office 2003 can be downloaded from MSDN for those with Select, Enterprise Agreement and MSDN subscriptions. The retail release is still scheduled for October 21.

Read it at CNET

I guess someone lost his job today at Microsoft. The question is whether he lost it before or after he leaked Office 2003. From the screenshots posted everything looks quite the same as after the Technical Refresh. Anyway, see the new build numbers by clicking the link below.

Screenshots at ExtremeXP

This patch is rated critical so run Windows Update immediately! Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME are not effected. There is also a tool available which enables you to scan your network for unpatched computers. It will also scan for computers that doesn’t have the “Blaster” patch installed.

Bulletin: MS03-039: A Buffer Overrun in RPCSS May Allow Code Execution (824146)
Scan tool: KB 824146 Scanner for MS03-026 and MS03-039 Patches

Run Windows Update

As we are approaching the release of Office 2003 the Resource Kit Tools are already there to get you ready for deployment.

Download: Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit Tools

Well, better late then never right? Some info on the file;

Publish date: September 9 2003
Signature date: September 3 2003
EULA date: July 17 2003
Last Knowledge Base review date: April 23 2003
Executable date: May 1 1995
Oldest file in the executable: September 20 1994

So we are about 9 years later… will this be the final release? (talking about “Extended Support Phase”)

Download it for your archive here

Microsoft added some new Exchange documentation.

Exchange Server 2003 Administration Guide
Exchange 2003 Deployment Guide
Working with Store Permissions in Microsoft Exchange 2000 and 2003

With the launch of Office 2003 coming up it’s good to know what new feature’s it brings and how it can help you at home and in your organisation. A quick tour shows you how Office 2003 is safer and more effective than ever.

Take the tour

Don’t like the new Outlook Web Access interface? Well I doubt it but if you really want to go back to basics with your interface you might want to try to connect to Exchange by using good old Hyper Terminal or Telnet.

Read the article

This download contains a video demo of the new Microsoft Office Online website. It’s pretty funny to see that the web address in the video still says http://officebeta.microsoft.com. Anyway check out the new site and download this demo to see where you can find everything.

New Microsoft Office Online website: http://office.microsoft.com
Microsoft Office Online Demo for WMP9, 300kbps
Microsoft Office Online Demo other formats

Hope you like it!

To download directly from Microsoft press here

Bulletin: MS03-035:	Flaw in Microsoft Word Could Enable Macros to Run Automatically (827653)
Bulletin: MS03-036:	Buffer Overrun in WordPerfect Converter Could Allow Code Execution (827103)
Bulletin: MS03-037:	Flaw in Visual Basic for Applications Could Allow Arbitrary Code Execution (822715)
Bulletin: MS03-038:	Unchecked buffer in Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer Could Allow Code Execution (827104)

How To section: Using command line switches

FAQ section: About mailboxes, addresses and aliases

Archive 10

Archive 9

Archive 8

Archive 7

Archive 6

Archive 5

Archive 4

Archive 3

Archive 2

Archive 1

Popular How-To Guides

Popular Tips

Related Ads

Main Pages