HowTo-Outlook

Archive 24

Build a Project Data Service (PDS) extension using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. The download includes a C# base class that makes the building of custom PDS extensions easy, and guidance on best practices to follow when extending Project Server 2003.

The Project Data Service (PDS) is the API for Microsoft® Office Project Server 2003. PDS extensions provide the developer with a good mechanism to extend and enhance Project Server functionality. The download includes a base class for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET that makes it easy to write PDS extensions to access and update the existing Project Server database, access new databases, or communicate with other systems and applications using Web services. The documentation includes guidance on best practices to follow when extending Project Server.

Download: Project 2003 Sample: Managed Code PDS Extension for Project Server 2003

The Solution Accelerator for Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) Enterprise Messaging provides referential and implementation guidance to enable a customer or solution provider to adequately plan, build, deploy and operate a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 enterprise messaging system that is secure, available, reliable, manageable, and cost-effective.

Download: Solution Accelerator for Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) Enterprise Messaging

A new version of the mass-mailing MyDoom virus has hit the Net, aiming data attacks at Microsoft’s Web site and interfering with an infected PC’s ability to access downloadable security-software updates, antivirus companies said Wednesday.
“We are trying to understand (what the virus’ authors are doing), but they are basically trying to stop people from going to security sites,” said Sharon Ruckman, senior director for security response at security software maker Symantec.

MyDoom.B, the second version of the virus, is already spreading around the Internet, Ruckman said. It includes some changes to the e-mail that carries the virus, including new subject lines and a message that mimics an error from Sendmail software, a common e-mail gateway server.

The MyDoom virus, also referred to as a worm, started spreading Monday and has swamped companies with a large number of e-mail messages that appear to be errors returned from a mail server.

View full article: MyDoom variant targets Microsoft
View more details on Symantec

OptInRealBig.com LLC, which is being sued by Microsoft Corp and New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer over allegations of fraudulent activity related to spamming, is attempting to have the suit dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.

Scott Richter, who is president of the company and has been named the world’s number three spammer by SpamHaus.org, which tracks unsolicited commercial email, told ComputerWire the firm filed a motion to dismiss on Friday.

Richter claims that the state laws cited in Microsoft’s Seattle and Spitzer’s New York suits do not have jurisdiction over his company, which is based in Colorado.

Richter pointed to a recent court ruling that went against America Online Inc in Virginia, where it had sued a Florida resident for sending spam to its servers, which are physically located in Virginia. The court ruled two weeks ago that it did not have jurisdiction.

The Spitzer lawsuit cites 8,000 emails containing 40,000 “fraudulent statements”, meaning things such as misleading From: or Subject: lines. The suit is under fraud laws that predate the passage of the CAN-SPAM Act.

View full article: “Number 3 Spammer” Wants Microsoft/Spitzer Suit Dismissed

The Microsoft® Office 2003 Smart Tag SDK contains documentation, tools, sample code, and XML schemas useful for developers who are working with smart tags.

This download is for developers who are interested in creating solutions that use the smart tags available in the Microsoft Office System.

Download: Microsoft Office 2003 Smart Tag Software Development Kit (SDK)

I knew about the nomination a little over a month ago already but since today it’s official;

I’m MVP Office Systems – Outlook

Thank you Microsoft for your appreciation!

For the ones who don’t know about the MVP award

The Microsoft MVP Program is a worldwide award and recognition program that strives to identify amazing individuals in technical communities around the globe who share a passion for technology and the spirit of community. Microsoft MVPs are recognized for both their demonstrated practical expertise and willingness to share their experience with peers in Microsoft technical communities.

Who are Microsoft MVPs? Microsoft MVPs are a diverse group of individuals who are:

Recognized:They are acknowledged by peers and also by Microsoft for their active participation in Microsoft technical communities around the globe.
Credible:They have demonstrated practical expertise providing the highest quality information and content.
Accessible:They are active technical community leaders sharing their experience with peers.

View: MVP Program website

Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it.

This update addresses an issue where an insufficient memory error message is generated when trying to print from the Italian language version of Visio 2003.

Download: Visio 2003 Update: KB832362
View: KB article 832362

Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it.

Under certain circumstances Word 2003 can become unresponsive when the user saves a file or when Word automatically saves an AutoRecover file. This update corrects that potential error.

Download: Word 2003 Update: KB830000 (English)
Download: Word 2003 Update: KB830000 (different language)
View: KB article 830000

Review important dates and events in the history of Microsoft Corporation from 1975 to the present.

Download: Key Events in Microsoft History

W32.Novarg.A@mm is a mass-mailing worm that arrives as an attachment with the file extension .bat, .cmd, .exe, .pif, .scr, or .zip. When a computer is infected, the worm will set up a backdoor into the system by opening TCP ports 3127 thru 3198. This can potentially allow an attacker to connect to the computer and use it as a proxy to gain access to its network resources. In addition, the backdoor has the ability to download and execute arbitrary files.

The worm will perform a DoS starting on February 1, 2004. It also has a trigger date to stop spreading on February 12, 2004.

Also Known As:	W32/Mydoom@MM [McAfee], WORM_MIMAIL.R [Trend]

Type:	Worm
Infection Length:	22,528 bytes

View more details on Symantec

Microsoft Corp. today will introduce a new Web search feature as the software maker plays catch-up with Google Inc. in a critical area of Internet commerce, Monday’s Wall Street Journal reported.

Microsoft will begin offering customers of its MSN online service a software ” toolbar” for Internet browsers that has a window for searching the Web using keywords and phrases. The toolbar, which sits below the control panel on a browser, includes shortcut buttons to other Microsoft services such as Hotmail e-mail and its MSN Messenger product.

View full article: Microsoft Search Tool Takes On Google
Download: MSN Toolbar BETA
View: MSN Toolbar Details
View: Press Release by Microsoft

Recent patent applications filed by Microsoft are routine moves and don’t reflect a change in the company’s position on Extensible Markup Language, according to a spokesman for the software maker.

As previously reported, Microsoft has filed applications for numerous XML-related patents in the United States, Europe and New Zealand. The patents deal with the way its Office software processes XML, the fast-growing standard for exchanging data among disparate computing systems.

XML-based capabilities have been one of the main selling points for Office 2003, the recently released version of Microsoft’s market-leading productivity package. By saving documents as XML files, Office allows back-end computing systems, such as corporate databases, to retrieve and reuse data from those documents. XML support also allows Office to become a client for viewing and manipulating data from Web services and from complex enterprise applications such as customer relationship management (CRM) software.

View full article: Microsoft: XML patent moves are no big deal

Microsoft’s Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, is looking to classic comedy for clues on what to expect when he receives an honorary knighthood from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
“All I know about the ceremony is what I saw on Monty Python,” Gates told a conference in London Monday.

He was referring to the British cult comedy troupe, whose film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” featured the mythical King Arthur roving through medieval England recruiting knights.

Gates, co-founder and chairman of the software giant, will receive the honor from the queen in recognition of his contribution to enterprise.

The ceremony will take place at Buckingham Palace, but no date has yet been set.

View: Gates Looks to Monty Python for Tips on Knighthood

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is set to receive an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his services to global enterprise.

The Foreign Office announced early on Monday that Gates will become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. This is one of the highest honors that Britain can bestow upon those born outside the United Kingdom.

“Microsoft technology has transformed business practices, and (Gates’) company has had a profound impact on the British economy,” the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said in a statement.

However, unless he renounces his American citizenship, he won’t be able to refer to himself as “Sir Bill Gates,” but writing KBE after his name will be allowed.

View full article: For Gates, a knight to be remembered

He said it before and he’s saying it again but now with a “date”!

A spam-free world by 2006? That’s what Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates is promising.

“Two years from now, spam will be solved,” he told a select group of World Economic Forum participants at this Alpine ski resort. “And a lot of progress this year,” he added at the event late Friday, hosted by U.S. talk show host Charlie Rose.

Gates said Microsoft, where he has the title of chief software designer, is working on a solution based on the concept of “proof,” or identifying the sender of the e-mail.

One method involves a human challenge, or requiring the sender of an electronic pitch to solve a puzzle that only a flesh-and-blood person can handle. Another is a so-called “computational puzzle” that a computer sending only a few messages could easily handle, but that would be prohibitively expensive for a mass-mailer.

But the most promising, Gates said, was a method that would hit the sender of an e-mail in the pocketbook.

People would set a level of monetary risk—low or high, depending on their choice—for receiving e-mail from strangers. If the e-mail turns out to be from a long-lost relative, for example, the recipient would charge nothing. But if it is unwanted spam, the sender would have to fork over the cash.

“In the long run, the monetary (method) will be dominant,” Gates predicted.

View full article: Bill Gates’ Solution to the Spam Problem: Make Spammers Pay

Archive 23

It got another update

The Visio Viewer 2003 allows anyone to view Visio drawings and diagrams (created with Visio 5, 2000, 2002, or 2003) inside their Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later Web browser.

Visio users can freely distribute Visio drawings and diagrams to team members, partners, customers, or others, even if the recipients do not have Visio installed on their computers. Internet Explorer also allows for printing, although this is limited to the portion of the drawing currently displayed.

The Visio Viewer 2003 enables users to discover the advantages of using Visio drawings, charts, and illustrations in a Web-based environment. It is particularly useful for teams that need to collaborate from different locations.

Download: Visio Viewer 2003 (English)
Download: Visio Viewer 2003 (different language)

W32.Dumaru.Y@mm is a multi-threaded, mass-mailing worm that opens a backdoor, runs a keylogger, and attempts to steal personal information. It is very similar to W32.Dumaru.M@mm.

It uses its own SMTP engine to spread to email addresses that it finds in files on the infected system.

Also Known As:	W32/Dumaru.y@MM [McAfee], I-Worm.Dumaru.j [Kaspersky], Win32.Dumaru.Y [Computer Associates], W32/Dumaru-Y [Sophos], WORM_DUMARU.Y [Trend]
Variants:	W32.Dumaru.M@mm
Type:	Worm
Infection Length:	17KB

View: more details on Symantec

Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and the world’s wealthiest man, is to receive an honorary knighthood for “services to global enterprise”.

The recommendation that he receive the honour was made by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown. Buckingham Palace is expected to announce it tomorrow, when Mr Gates will speak at a conference on “Advancing Enterprise” organised by Mr Brown.

The controversial software company creator – whose commercial success has led to hatred of him among his competitors – is worth an estimated $40 billion (£22 billion). Microsoft is described as the “Evil Empire” by those who resent its grip on the computer industry.

Other Americans to have received the KBE include George Bush, the former president, Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, Steven Spielberg, the film director, and Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank.

Mr Greenspan is another speaker at tomorrow’s conference. The event has prompted resentment in the Prime Minister’s close circle, who knew nothing about it until a fortnight ago.

They are annoyed that the conference – which gathers together luminaries from the business and political worlds including Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, and Lord Browne, chief executive of BP – is taking place in Tony Blair’s most difficult week since he became Prime Minister in 1997.

“On the eve of Hutton and the university fees vote, this is Brown saying, ‘Look at all my powerful friends’,” said a Downing Street adviser.

Mr Gates has been a notable donor to charities and good causes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was created in 2000 to improve “equity in global health and learning”. He has donated nearly $26 billion to the foundation.

The foundation set up a £139 million scholarship scheme three years ago to attract the brightest students to Cambridge University. It has also invested millions of dollars in research for an Aids vaccine.

View: Queen to give knighthood to Bill Gates

This glossary comprises important terms and definitions for the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 product. In addition, the following terminology is in the glossary:
• Definitions of key components and processes within Exchange overall.
• Definitions of other processes and components from products that Exchange works with, such as Microsoft Active Directory directory service.

Generally, industry terms or definitions that would be in standard computer dictionaries, or in other Microsoft product glossaries have not been included.

Download: Exchange Server 2003 Glossary

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Microsoft Corp. today announced a technology partnership to create and implement information and communications technology projects that will help developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Under the agreement, announced at the Annual Meeting 2004 of the World Economic Forum in Davos by UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown and Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, Microsoft and the UNDP will work together to build capacity in developing countries around the world, by providing technology-enabled training for youth and adults in community education centers. By providing skills training, content, curricula and other new resources, this partnership will help expand UNDP’s ongoing development efforts and will encourage the exploration of creative, technology-based solutions to the world’s most pressing development challenges. The alliance will draw on the resources of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential program, the company’s global initiative to deliver computer literacy and job skills training to underserved communities.

In addition, Microsoft and UNDP have agreed to work together in support of UNDP’s Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (SACI). In this sphere, Microsoft and UNDP will explore innovative opportunities to use technology to build capacity, facilitate e-government initiatives,and improve the delivery of basic services in countries most adversely affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

“Technology is a powerful tool that can help transform lives, economies and societies,” Gates said. “We’re committed to working closely with the UNDP to develop solutions that enable people to achieve their goals and strengthen their communities.”

View full Press Release: UNDP and Microsoft Announce Technology Partnership To Combat Poverty in Developing Nations

Microsoft announced on Friday that it expects to release the first major update for Office 2003 in late June.

Office 2003, the latest version of the company’s market-leading productivity package, was launched in late October amid considerable fanfare about its new capabilities, which allow the software to serve as a broad tool for consuming and manipulating corporate data.

Microsoft typically waits about six months after a major product release to put out the first service pack (SP1), a collection of previously released bug fixes and updates. The late June target for releasing SP1 for Office 2003 would put it slightly behind that pattern, but the new Office has been subject to relatively few bugs in its first three months.

The introduction of the first service pack is a milestone for major business customers, who often prefer to wait for the first roundup of patches before considering a new product stable enough to install.

Analysts have said the release of SP1 is likely to be less significant for Office 2003, however, as big businesses will still be testing the product’s extensive and complicated connections to back-end computing systems at that point. “The first service pack is kind of a bogus landmark” for Office 2003, Gartner analyst Michael Silver said. “Most businesses aren’t going to be anywhere near ready by the time that comes out.”

View full article: Microsoft sets date for Office revamp

There are three easy steps you can take to solve this for most situations. Please click here if you message is stuck in the Outbox.

View: FAQ article: Cannot Delete Message

It’s just over a month since new anti-spam legislation was introduced into the UK with almost universal condemnation that the new laws would have a limited effect in the fight against junk email.

The £5,000 fine for offenders has been branded by some experts as an “inadequate deterrent”. And even those who’ve welcomed the new legislation – which is part of an EU-wide directive – doubt it will have any real impact on combating spam.

For although there is one EU anti-spam law, how it is interpreted and implemented is up to each individual European country. Earlier this week, for example, Denmark fined a telecoms hardware company a record £37,000 for sending fax spam.

In the UK, on the other hand, spammers can expect to receive fines of up to £5,000 if the case makes it to a Magistrates’ Court. What’s more, the process of bringing legal action against spammers is so cumbersome and clunky that it could be at least a year before anyone makes it inside a courtroom.

The Information Commissioner, the body charged with administering the anti-spam law in the UK, declined to reveal how many complaints it had received in the first month, except to say that it had “received a steady stream of complaints”. In the UK at least, it comes as no surprise that some people simply don’t believe the new anti-spam laws will work.

Nevertheless, there are some who believe the new legislation is a significant step forward in the right direction.

View entire article: EU anti-spam laws are OK

A potentially devastating virus emerged last week, threatening to unleash the kind of widespread disruption the PC industry experienced last year with Sobig.F. But the Bagle.a virus, alternatively called Beagle and Bagel, petered out rather quickly this week after infecting hundreds of thousands of computers, according to security experts. The virus is categorized as a mass-mailing virus, which means that it replicates by spreading through email attachments.

But Bagle.a might be just the first in a series of related electronic attacks, and experts from Network Associates and Symantec are warning their customers to be on the lookout for permutations of the virus, which might be more virulent. The original versions of Sobig, for example, caused few problems, but Sobig.F was the fastest-spreading computer virus of all time, affecting millions of systems in September 2003. Bagle.a expires next week, leading some experts to believe that newer strains will materialize in a short period of time.
Bagle.a appears in email messages as an attachment and does nothing to hide the fact that it’s up to no good. The body of the email looks like this:

Test =)
(random characters)
—
Test, yep.

The attachment is always 15,872 bytes and can be renamed to virtually any name.

View: Bagle Virus: The Next Sobig.F?
View more info about Bagle on Symantec
View more info about Bagle on McAfee

The Welch Language board said that Microsoft will pay to make Welsh versions of Windows XP and MS Office 2003.
But a group of open source volunteers thinks that the Vole’s hand has been forced by a large chunk of free software available in the language.

Those include Mozilla, openoffice.org, Scribus, Gnome, KDE and Linux.

The volunteers said that over 90,000 phrases have been translated by unpaid volunteers, making a Welsh desktop running Welsh applications possible.

The Welsh Language Act gives the language parity with English. It’s been in force for 10 years.

The volunteers point out that Microsoft still hasn’t a version of Windows or Office for Scots Gaidhlig (Gaelic), which has 60,000 speakers. Nevertheless, there’s a move to give Scots Gaelic parity.

View: Microsoft to fund Welsh versions of XP, Office

Microsoft continues to build bridges between Office desktop apps and reservoirs of back-office data. The “Information Worker Bridge” project now under way seeks to make it easier for integrators or in-house developers to make Excel or Word de-facto front ends for back-end accounting, ERP or other applications, sources said.

In theory, this would take back-office integration beyond ODBC drivers and InfoPath, the Office application that lets people build dynamic forms on their desktops that tap into back-office XML data. “What they’ve done is figured out what the ‘connector ware,’ workflow sequencing control, and sync layer will look like, and built a series of APIs accessible from Visual Studio,” said one partner close to the project. Those APIs, which will enable developers to build links to backend sources, will “figure out format conversion, transcoding and routing, so what you ask for is appropriately responded to via Excel or whatever,” said the partner, who noted that this work, plus BizTalk Server 2004 acting as a broker, will facilitate integration.

View full article: Microsoft To Bridge Office, Back Office Apps

This Exchange Online Book provides an overview of Exchange 2000, the Outlook Web Access architecture, and the individual components that make up Outlook Web Access. It also provides developers with the processes to customize and extend Outlook Web Access for their own solutions.

View: Customizing Microsoft Outlook Web Access

Learn different methods of animating Microsoft Office Access 2003. These include using the Animation ActiveX control, the Timer control, and animating the Office assistant.

This sample accompanies the article “Animating Microsoft Office Access 2003” available from MSDN. This download includes sample files for use with the tasks presented in the article mentioned previously.

Download: Access 2003 Sample: Animating Microsoft Office Access 2003
View: Animating Microsoft Office Access 2003

A Danish company flogging telecoms kit has been fined a record £37,000 for sending spam. A Danish court handed down the Danish Krone 400,000 fine today after the company – Aircom Erhverv ApS – was found guilty of sending 15,000 unsolicited commercial emails.

Denmark, like the UK, is one of six European countries so far to have introduced new anti-spam laws based on an EU directive. In the UK, spammers can expect to receive fines of up to £5,000 if the case makes it to a Magistrates’ Court. Should they opt to have their case heard by a Crown Court then spammers face an unlimited fine. Of course, that legislation has only just been introduced in the UK and it could be at least a year before the first cases of spamming come before a court.

In the meantime, there’s always the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) to give offenders a ticking off. Like the one today, where a London-based spammer was told off for sending “several e-mails” for a prank telephone call service and for a CDROM.

View: Danish spammer fined £37k

Bagle.a, the first major mass-mailing computer virus this year, is starting to slow down after infecting hundreds of thousands of computers, security experts said on Tuesday.

The worm is programmed to stop contaminating computers on Jan. 28, but seems destined to drop off the security industry’s radar before that date. The program spreads through e-mail and infects the PCs of people who open the attachment.

The number of customers reporting a Bagle infection has declined since Monday, according to Weafer. Network Associates, a rival antivirus company, said it had an almost 40 percent fall in the number of reports received from its customers.

View full article: Bagle virus spread starts to cool off
View more info about Bagle on Symantec

Archive 22

Salesforce.com last week announced a new plug-in designed for Microsoft’s Office that lets users import data from its Salesforce.com hosted CRM services into Excel, Outlook, and Word.

Although most business intelligence (BI) vendors have developed client-side tools for use with their products, Microsoft Office—and the Excel spreadsheet in particular—remain important tools for many users. “Recent research suggests that end users continue to look to spreadsheets as the one key analysis tools to supplement their other BI tools,” writes Dan Vesset, a senior analyst for information access tools with IDC. “The familiarity with spreadsheet functionality and their inherent flexibility continues to make tools such as Microsoft Excel an integral part of most Business Analytics implementations.”

Salesforce.com says that the Office Edition plug-in is available to all its customers at no charge. Officials say that the plug-in installs seamlessly into any of several versions of Office—Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003—and creates new pull-down menus that allow users to sign into Salesforce.com and pull data from the CRM system.

View: Salesforce.com Plugs into Microsoft Office

Software colossus Microsoft filed a patent in New Zealand last year for XML based word processing files, it has emerged. That, suggests an NZ web site, might fly in the face of a general move towards XML, as sponsored by the WC3.

According to NZOSS, an open source site, the patent in question is 525484, which describes a “word processing document stored in a single XML file that may be manipulated by applications that understand XML”.

This patent was filed on the 24th of April last year, the web site said. It adds that there have been no objections to the patent so far.

View full article: Microsoft Patent for XML Based Word Processing Files (via The Inquirer)

This solution is designed to help technical decision makers and solutions developers/architects understand and learn about building Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ 2003 solutions. The document walks through the steps involved in creating an end-to-end solution to implement a typical business process—the Sales Report and Contract Generation for a fictitious company, Contoso Pharmaceuticals. The introduction describes the specific technical benefits that InfoPath provides. This document also serves as a roadmap for a series of tutorials that implement the Sales Report and Contract Generation Solution.

In addition to this document and the various tutorials, you can also order the companion DVD, which contains a virtual PC with all these solution components and infrastructure. The VPC is a good resource to get hands on training on the material covered in the various tutorials. As an alternative, you can download a small files package that provides the key pieces for the lessons.

This download includes all the sample files for the tutorials as well as a CHM version of the tutorials.

Download: InfoPath 2003: Contoso Sales Report and Contract Generation Solution

This sample accompanies the article “Performing Mail Merges Using XML Data in Microsoft Office Access 2003” available on MSDN.

Mail merge is a feature in Microsoft Office Word 2003 where you can merge boilerplate information, such as a form letter, with variable information, such as a database of names and addresses of customers. Using this feature, you can create documents that are almost exactly the same: the substance of the documents is the same for every customer, yet each document is customized to a particular individual in your database.

In the application discussed in this article, a Microsoft Office Access 2003 table created from an XML file, is used as a data store for the address information that is merged with a Word document.

Download: Access 2003 Sample: Performing Mail-Merges Using XML
View: Performing Mail-Merges Using XML Data in Microsoft Office Access 2003

This sample accompanies the article “Simple Sample of a Smart Document in Microsoft Office Word 2003” available from MSDN.

Smart documents offer a way for developers to add context to the data with which a user interacts. In the article, learn how one smart document sample was created.

The sample demonstrates ways that you can add controls in the Document Actions task pane that interact with the content in the document body. For example, when the user clicks into the top line of text in the document, the task pane presents help text and a text box that prompts the user to type a name. After the user clicks out of the text box, a message box is displayed with a greeting.

Download: Word 2003 Sample: Simple Sample of a Smart Document
View: Simple Sample of a Smart Document in Microsoft Office Word 2003

This book discusses how, when using S/MIME, encryption protects the contents of e-mail messages and digital signatures verify the identity of a purported sender of an e-mail message. In addition, this book provides guidance on how to implement S/MIME with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In addition, this book provides guidance and pointers to other resources where those are necessary.

Download: Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide

Microsoft has admitted it may have made a mistake in threatening Mike Rowe for using his Web site, mikerowesoft.com

Rowe, a student from Vancouver, registered mikerowesoft.com to front his part-time Web site design business in August 2003. Three months later, he received an email from Microsoft’s lawyers asking him to transfer the domain name to Microsoft. They offered to pay him a “settlement” of $10 (£5.55), which is the cost of his original registration fee.

However, after the case received widespread coverage on the Internet, Microsoft has admitted it may have taken things too far and has promised to treat Rowe fairly. A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet UK: “We appreciate that Mike Rowe is a young entrepreneur who came up with a creative domain name. We take our trademark seriously, but maybe a little too seriously in this case.”

Under the law, Microsoft is required to take action to protect its trademark against widespread infringement. Struan Robertson, editor of legal IT Web site Out-Law.com, explained that if a trademark holder does not take action to protect its trademark whenever it is aware of a potential infringement, it risks losing that protection.

View full article: Microsoft: We took MikeRoweSoft too seriously

A virus writer accused of creating an MSBlast variant last year is to face a Romanian court this week and could be sentenced to 15 years in jail if convicted.

Dan Dumitru Ciobanu, 26, is alleged to have written a computer virus that spread over the intranet of a Romanian university in September 2003. The virus only hit 27 machines but Ciobanu still faces between three and 15 years in jail for “unlawful possession of a program and disturbing a computer system”.

Researchers from antivirus firm BitDefender helped identify Ciobanu after being drafted in by Romanian authorities. The suspect will appear before the Iasi county Court of Appeals this week.

Mihai Radu, communication manager at BitDefender, said in a statement that the case highlights the serious consequences of virus writing.

“Young people playing at virus writing should keep in mind that computer viruses are not games. When unleashing a computer virus, the author places property and people at risk,” he said.

View: MSBlast virus writer faces 15 years behind bars

Microsoft is considering an expansion of a program that would allow companies to see the source code underlying its Office software and other applications.

The company’s Shared Source Initiative, launched nearly three years ago, allows business customers, governments, business partners and academic institutions access to the source code, or software blueprint, underlying Microsoft’s Windows operating system and other products.

Currently, 20 of the company’s products are available under the program, including all versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. But Microsoft has yet to extend access to Office, its most profitable product, or to its server-based applications.

That could change this year. The software giant is “looking up the application stack” to determine which products it will offer next under the shared-source program, Jason Matusow, Shared Source manager at Microsoft, told CNET News.com. On the short list are Office, various server applications, the company’s development tools and even its catalog of game software. “We’re not holding anything back in terms of our thinking on this,” Matusow said.

“We’re looking at how we provide source code (for these products), and for which communities,” said Matusow. In addition to source code, Microsoft will supply documentation and development assistance, he said. The company is debating internally how to expand the program, and no time frame for the expansion has been set, Matusow stressed. Microsoft already offers a program to license the underlying Extensible Markup Language (XML) file formats in Office.

View: Show and tell for Microsoft

This download contains all Exchange 2000 and 2003 technical articles and books produced by the Exchange product team through October 2003.

Download: Exchange 2000 and 2003 – All Technical Articles and Books / Updated

Project Server 2003: Edit Site Utility
You can use the Edit Site utility to create a Project Server hosted deployment and to edit the properties for existing hosted sites.

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.

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

Project Server 2003 PSCOMPlus Tool
Use PSCOMPlus to specify the user accounts required by Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.

Project Server 2003 PSMIGRAT Utility
Use PSMigrat.exe to migrate from SharePoint Team Services to Windows SharePoint Services during a migration from Microsoft Project Server 2002 to Microsoft Office Project Server 2003.

Project Server 2003 SetTracing Utility
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.

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

Project Server 2003: View Backup and Restore Utility
The View Backup and Restore utility is a command-line tool that enables you to back up and restore the views that you create in Project Web Access.

Project Server 2003: View Effective Rights Tool
The View Effective Rights tool enables Project Server 2003 administrators to more easily troubleshoot problems related to security settings and access control.

Project Server 2003: Project Server Health Monitor Utility
The Project Server Health Monitor utility enables you to detect Project Server components that are not responding or that are responding slowly.

Project Server 2003: Project Server Data Population Tool
You can use the Project Server Data Population tool to load large amounts of custom outline codes, resources, projects and tasks, assignments, and tracking data into the Project Server database.

Project Server 2003: SmokeTest Utility
The SmokeTest utility performs a series of tests to verify the basic functionality of a Microsoft Office® Project Server 2003 installation.

Project Server 2003: Restore Single Project Utility
You can use the Restore Single Project utility to restore a single project to an earlier state.

Smigrate.exe is a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services utility that can be used to back up and restore a Web site on a server running Windows SharePoint Services. This utility is used when migrating a SharePoint Team Services deployment to Windows SharePoint Services.
Note SMIGRATE.exe requires CABARC.exe and EXTRACT.exe to be in the same folder in order to run.

Download: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Migration Tool

The latest variant of the MiMail worm is using a software downloader to spread its payload, in an effect to fool anti-virus software. The downloader arrives in inboxes as a file, called paypal.exe or paypal.zip, in an email headed ‘PAYPAL.COM NEW YEAR OFFER’. It offers a credit equal to 10 per cent of the host’s PayPal account if the user registers with their credit card details.

MiMail was created in Russia and first appeared on the internet at the beginning of August 2003. “To date, isolated incidents of infection by this malicious software have been reported in various countries throughout the world,” said Denis Zelkin, head of communications at Kaspersky Labs. “The new modification of the worm differs from previous versions only by the fact that it is compressed using UPX.”

Once activated the Trojan contacts a Russian web server and downloads the latest copy of the MiMail worm. This then harvests email addresses on the host and stores them in a file called outlook.cfg in the Windows folder. It also copies itself onto the registry so that it is reloaded with every reboot.

Major antivirus firms already have identity files on the malware and users are advised to update.

View: New MiMail sneaks past filters

Royal Mail today launched the UK’s first digital stamp, based on an online postage purchasing system called SmartStamp. Customers of the web-based service will be able to use their own PCs to create personalised stamps, pay for them over the internet and print them directly onto envelopes which can be posted in the usual manner. Subscribers will receive a CD-Rom containing an application to create mailing lists and address envelopes. The software can link to Outlook and use existing address lists.

When users are ready to pay they connect to the internet and submit an order. The cost of the stamps is then deducted from a pre-paid user account, which can be topped up with a credit card or by direct debit. Businesses and individuals will be able to brand SmartStamps with their own logo or designs.

Alison White, head of business products at Royal Mail, said: “SmartStamp will suit anyone working within a small or home office. “The optimum usage level is about 10 letters per day. If you send out this much post, then we recommend that you seriously consider using SmartStamp.”

View: Royal Mail posts digital stamps

Download: Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide

Archive 21

Note: when you already have the Project 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK) you don’t have to install this anymore

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 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.

Download: 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.

Download: Project 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK)

Download the construction information update to keep your maps current. Save the file in the folder 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

Corel’s new graphics suite includes a tool for exporting files into Office documents, and features improved text handling.

Corel launched CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12, the latest version of the company’s flagship application, on Wednesday. The new package will be available in February and includes support for Office file formats and new tools aimed at speeding up the design process.

Eighteen months after the last update, this latest version of the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite includes an “Export for Office” feature that allows graphic files to be easily inserted into Microsoft Office documents, such as text files, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.

View: Corel adds Office support to latest graphics suite

perhaps even moved personal goals like daily gym workouts to the “maybe next year” category. On the business side, however, there’s still plenty of opportunity to turn good intentions into effective action.

In keeping with its charter to share best practices with customers, the internal IT organization that in essence “runs” Microsoft has drawn up a Top 10 list of New Year’s resolutions aimed at helping businesses ensure IT success in 2004 (see list at right). To learn more about these guidelines and the reasoning behind them, PressPass sought out Ron Markezich, general manager of Global Technology Services for Microsoft IT, and Pete Boden, the group’s director of information security.

View full article: Microsoft’s Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for IT Organizations

A security issue has been identified that could allow one user to randomly access another user’s mailbox. To be protected against this problem, it is only necessary to install this update on Microsoft Exchange 2003 front end servers. However, Microsoft recommends that you install this update on all Microsoft Exchange 2003 servers in your organization. If you do so, then all servers will already be protected in case they are ever designated as front end servers.

Download: Security Update for Exchange 2003 KB832759 (English)
Download: Security Update for Exchange 2003 KB832759 (different language)
View: Security Bulletin MS04-002

There’s a new version of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh on the way. Slated for a mid-2004 release, the productivity suite includes old favourites Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, plus a handful of features completely new to the Mac, including Project Center for project management and Compatibility Reports for ensuring seamless information exchange with other platforms and older versions of Office.

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac is all about the view. The new Notebook Layout View in Word simulates the look of ruled notebook paper for easy note taking. And as a bonus, you can record audio notes directly into Word. The Page Layout View will come in handy for Excel users wanting to tweak margins, headers, footers and layout before printing.

Office 2004’s new Project Center lets you view all email, files, contacts, meetings and tasks associated with a project. Also, the Scrapbook feature gives you quick access to frequently used text, pictures and more, all within a one-click reach.

View full article: Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac: a first look

Subscribers to my newsletter already received this guide in their mailboxes last week. Click here if you also want to receive the latest news around Microsoft Office and tips for Outlook in your mailbox.

View: Tips For Cleaning Up Your Mailbox

The Office of the Information Commissioner has been criticised for telling recipients of spam that they should reply to junk mail sent from within the UK in order to opt out of receiving it.
Although the European Privacy and Communications Directive has adopted an opt-in approach, where users must give the green light to receiving email blasts, the Information Commission said that people should ask to be struck off lists if the mail originated in the UK.

A spokeswoman told vnunet.com: “We never tell people to reply to spam from abroad but they can exercise their right to opt out if the email comes from a UK company.” She added that the Commission would monitor the situation for abuse of this policy.

But critics warned that this is against recommendations which tell people never to reply to spam as it confirms that an address is ‘live’.

Steve Linford, founder of anti-spam organisation Spamhaus, insisted that people should never reply to spam. “How can people tell if it comes from the UK? The address won’t necessarily provide the clue,” he said.

View full article: Users baffled over junk mail advice

The download includes a set of template files you can use to create COM add-ins for Project 2003, using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. The Visual Basic COM add-in designer template for Project is based on the designer template for Microsoft Office System applications, with some customizations that are relevant to Project.

Download: COM Add-in Template for Microsoft Office Project 2003

Find out what the press is saying about the Microsoft Office System.

View: Microsoft Office System News and Reviews

Security companies are warning Internet users about a new Trojan horse program spreading via spam e-mail and masquerading as a Windows XP software update from Microsoft Corp.
The program, known as Xombe or Dloader-L, arrives as an executable attachment in spam e-mail messages purporting to come from windowsupdate@microsoft.com and installs itself on victim’s computers when users open the attachment.

View: New Trojan masquerades as Windows XP update
View: How to Tell If a Microsoft Security-Related Message Is Genuine

This technical article provides administrators of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with information on how to isolate performance degradations and how to use existing tools and products, such as Performance, Load Simulator, Exchange Stress and Performance 2003, Network Monitor, and Filemon, for this purpose. The information in this article can also be used to ensure that a server is not degrading over time because of hardware issues or malfunctions.

Download: Troubleshooting Exchange Server 2003 Performance

This guide explains how you can set OWA as the default mailer. I added a mirror of the guide in my Other Programs section.

View: Make Outlook Web Access Your Default Mailer
View: Make Outlook Web Access Your Default Mailer (mirror)

In addition to evaluation and design recommendations, this book describes improvements in Exchange 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. It also identifies network infrastructure, hardware, Microsoft Active Directory® directory service, and administrative concerns. In addition, this book discusses the considerations that help you design a highly reliable and consistently available messaging system, including storage technologies, clustering, server tuning, and client configuration.

Download: Planning an Exchange 2003 Messaging System (version 1.1)

Archive 20

We had to do a little sleuthing today. Many readers wrote in with problems that turned out to be related. A certificate which Verisign used for signing SSL certificates has expired. When applications which depend on that certificate try to make an SSL connection, they fail and try to access crl.verisign.com, the certificate revocation list server. This has effectively DOS’ed that site, and Verisign has now updated the DNS record for that address to include several non-routable addresses, reducing the load on their servers. Some applications affected include older Internet Explorer browsers, Java, and Norton Antivirus (which may manifest itself as Microsoft Word being very slow to start). Hope this helps a few people.

View: Verisign Certificate Expiration Causes Multiple Problems
View: Verisign Support

Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 provides six Web Parts that allow users to access Project Server data from Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

This download includes the HTML Help file pj11WebParts.chm that explains how to use the Project Server Web Parts, and how you can easily change the views of standard pages in Project Web Access with URL options, and then quickly create customized Web Parts from the modified views. You can assemble the Web Parts into your own custom pages as shared documents, and add other components from your organization’s Web Part galleries.

The download also includes a Web Part .NET assembly that you can use on any server with Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server, even if Windows SharePoint Services is not provisioned by Project Server. You can use the .NET assembly that is provided in the download to create highly customizable Web Part Pages that allow you and your team to use Project Server data. The instructions also explain how to modify the C# code, create a strongly named key, and install your own custom assembly.

Download: Project Server 2003 Web Parts and URL Options

An anonymous reader notes: “SecurityFocus has published a hack that can be used to unlock Microsoft Word documents that have been password protected. The ‘secure’ file can easily be edited and the original password re-inserted, removing any trace of the modification. A ZDNet UK article says Dell uses password protected Word files to send quotes, which could make for a messy legal battle.” This feature, known as ‘Password to Modify’, is not the password protection on the document itself, just the protection that restricts unauthorized editing of the file. This hack allows someone to download such a file, edit it, and restore the password…effectively allowing changes to the file to go potentially unnoticed.

Note from Microsoft,
Form protection “is not intended as a full-proof protection for tampering or spoofing, this is merely a functionality to prevent accidental changes of a document”, request additional time to update Microsoft Knowledge Base article. Targeting beginning of January 2004 for release of this advisory.

View: Microsoft Word Forms Passwords Hacked
View: Microsoft KB article 822924

MicroWorld Technologies, Inc., makers of eScan and MailScan, the world’s premier “gateway” style computer virus protection software, has announced the company’s intention to continue providing security updates and anti-virus functionality for Microsoft Windows 95, 98 and Outlook 2000. Microsoft announced it is abandoning support, development and continued sales of the lines, deemed obsolete by the software giant, as of January 2004.

View full article: MicroWorld Technologies to Continue Security Updates For Microsoft Windows 95, 98 and Outlook 2000

In 1984, Microsoft’s then-CEO Bill Gates was quoted as saying, “the Mac is the only microcomputer beside the IBM PC worth writing software for.”

At the time, Macs were still shiny and new like, well, a freshly picked apple. Holding true to his word, Gates oversaw the development of two little applications called Microsoft Word and Excel, which would eventually become household names.

Twenty years later, Microsoft continues to deliver on Gates’ promise. At Macworld Conference and Expo 2004 in San Francisco this week, Microsoft announced plans to release Office 2004 for Mac and Virtual PC for Mac Version 7 in the first half of 2004. These new releases, and other products Microsoft makes for the Mac, are developed by an oasis of Mac-only developers in an otherwise Windows world at Microsoft: the Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU). The Mac BU has made its mark in the industry, and at Microsoft, in large part by transforming four applications — Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Entourage — into the most popular productivity suite for the Mac platform.

View: A Happy 20th Birthday to Microsoft Word and Excel for Mac
View: Work Just Got Better: Introducing Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac
View: Microsoft Timeline: 20 Years of Software Innovation on the Mac

Today I sent out the first newsletter. Since I announced it on my webpage a little over a month ago quite a few of you have already subscribed; Thanks for that!

Subscribers will have a week exclusive access to the “Tips For Cleaning Up Your Mailbox” guide before it shows up in the How To section.

Click here to subscribe to the newsletter so you’ll be the first to get access to the new How To articles as well.

Thanks again to all subscribers!

Robert Sparnaaij AKA Roady

Spammers beware — Microsoft intends to make you very unhappy in 2004.

Not content with merely adding new spam-filtering capabilities to its e-mail software, in the coming year Microsoft also intends to track down and take legal action against spammers, no matter where in the world the junk mailers are located.

Several of the viruses that targeted Microsoft products in 2003 are specifically tied to spammer activities. But Microsoft spokeswoman Erin McGee said that spam-spewing computer viruses are not the primary reason behind the company’s antispam campaign.

“Just the sheer volume of spam — regardless of how it was generated — was the impetus,” said McGee. “That and the rise in general consumer unhappiness, inconvenience and dissatisfaction with spam and the effect it’s having on their inboxes.”

Seventy percent of e-mail users who responded to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit research association, said that spam made their online experience unpleasant or annoying, and 25 percent said that spam has caused them to reduce their use of e-mail.

But spam is “much more than an annoyance,” according to Microsoft chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates.

In a statement, Gates said that spam also “costs businesses millions of dollars a year, and can encroach on families and children, exposing them to pornographic or fraudulent content.

“Microsoft is committed to eliminating the torrent of spam through sophisticated filtering technologies, and by working in partnership with law enforcement, our industry peers and government leaders at the state and federal levels,” Gates added.

View entire article: Spammers Top Microsoft Hit List

With this add-in you can permanently remove hidden and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from Word 2003/XP, Excel 2003/XP, and PowerPoint 2003/XP files.

Download: Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data

1991 brought us Microsoft’s first incarnation of Publisher, 1.0. While considered to be a very basic DTP application, it introduced thousands of people to the world of greeting cards, newsletters, WordArt and text boxes. 12 years later, Publisher has changed, matured, improved and grown. Not only has it grown in use, but in size. Originally Publisher 1.0 fit on 3 floppy disks (2 if you didn’t add the clipart). Microsoft Publisher 2002 weighed in at 1.2 GB. Now, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 now only measures at under 450 MB. But that comes with a price. No longer is Microsoft including the clipart CD, and requires web access to the Office 2003 only clipart. The Commercial Printing environment of Publisher was introduced in Publisher 2000 and has found yet another version that has opened up more possibilities for commercial printers with improved CMYK support as well as improved spot colors.

View entire article: Microsoft Publisher 2003 Review

There’s no rest for the weary. Microsoft is putting pedal to the metal to get Service Pack 1 for Office 2003 out by May, sources said. The current schedule is to prep a release candidate by April and final, or “Release To Web,” code by late May. This release is critical because many corporate accounts hold off on upgrading to new software versions until the first service pack is available.

The plan now is for SP 1 to include not only the hot fixes and patches that typically flow after the retail release of a product, but also fairly major new features for both InfoPath and OneNote, the sources said. InfoPath is the application that enables a user’s desktop applications — Word, Excel, etc. — to tap into back-end data via XML links. OneNote is a note-taking application that eliminates the need for keyboard entry. Office 2003 hit the retail shelves in late October, although volume buyers could get it a month earlier.

The release also will include fixes and security bolstering as part of the company’s continued security push, code-named Springboard, the sources said. “This is a date-driven release,” an insider confirmed. Some pointed out that the rush to finalize code appears to run counter to the company’s push to build in quality and security up front and not ship products until they are solid.

Officially, Microsoft is circumspect on the subject. The service pack “is still in the early development stages, so anything we say about it would only be speculation right now, as a lot can change during the development process,” said Dan Leach, lead product manager of the Information Worker Product Management Group, through a spokeswoman. “One thing we can say is that, thanks to new technologies like Watson, and feedback from over 600,000 beta testers, the newly launched Office System represents the most stable, reliable and secure version of Office Microsoft has ever produced.”

Microsoft has acknowledged that Watson and new tools including Service Quality Monitor (SQM) are key in the development of the Longhorn Office release, also known as Office 12.

View: Microsoft Plans Office 2003 Service Pack For May

It’s all change on the PC front during 2004, and practically everything that defines a “new” computer is set to change over 12 months, with many happening during the next six months.
A few things will stay the same, but mostly on the peripheral front. Let’s go through the list.

The two CPU manufacturers have some big changes afoot. Intel is about to replace the current socket 478 with socket 775 – and that change should happen in Q2. First we’ll see the Prescott 478, then the Prescott 775. AMD will also do the dance of the socket shift, moving from 754 and 940 pin sockets to mostly 939 pin designs. Both companies will change processes from 130nm (nanometres) to 90nm.

In the middle of the year, the memory that current PCs use will also change. The now venerable DDR will begin to fade away, with DDR-II replacing it. With that change comes a new DIMM format, and new motherboards to plug them into.

Motherboards will also have a total makeover. Intel is driving this move, and the BTX form factor will come to dominate in no time. That will have better cooling, better power distribution, better mounting, and probably a bunch of things Intel hasn’t told us about yet.

With the rise of new mobos will come new power supplies. Current [geddit?!?] power supplies are called ATX, after the ATX mobos they plug into. With the rise of 100+ watt CPUs, higher draw GPUs, lower voltage CPUs, and more sensitive electronics, you need more carefully controlled power, delivered in different ways. That means new power supplies.

With a new power supply and motherboard, you will also need a new case. The BTX spec redefines airflow, and how things are placed around the computer, and doing that is hard to accomplish without a new case design. So, shiny new cases for shiny new parts, probably with new kinds of windows, new LED placements, and new cold cathode colors. Be still, my beating heart.

View entire article: PCs to change radically in 2004

Make your own 2004 calendar
Download a template and customize it with clip art and your own engagements.

Get in shape for the new year
Use templates to help track your fitness goals, count calories, and more.

Plan ahead for taxes
Get your finances in order for the new year with this year-end tax plan template.

Another method of getting the News button back in Outlook 2003 is to add a registry key that machines running a previous version of Outlook also have. This will allow you to choose Microsoft Office Outlook as the default newsreader in Internet Options.

View: Getting the News button in Outlook 2003
Download: Outlook Newsreader reg-file

There was, for once, some substance in the hype surrounding the launch of Microsoft Office 2003, although the marketers could not resist going over the top with a breathy video proclaiming that it will turn us all into Shakespeare.

The new version is a step change almost as big as the one that brought the world to your desktop with links to the web, because the extensive support for XML turns Office into a potential front end for any database, online service or trading system.

That might not mean much to the average end user, but it is a major shift for developers of next-generation systems. There was, nevertheless, a feeling at the launch that Microsoft may at last be reaching the limits of its dominance.

Some of the new features for collaborative working are similar to what Lotus has been doing for years, and even XML is a weapon that can backfire. It is an open standard, and the more Microsoft promotes its use, the more opportunity there will be for rivals.

View entire article: Microsoft Office 2003: It Matters

Corporate and home PC users are receiving blackmail threats from Internet con artists who claim to have access to their PCs, security experts say. The blackmailers threaten to delete information or plant pornographic files on their hard drives if not paid. “It used to be that a hacker would hack into a company, steal data and ask for money — or otherwise they would sell the customer database to someone else. That’s the old style,” F-Secure research manager Mikko Hypponen told NewsFactor. “The new style is, you don’t do any hacking at all. You simply claim that you can hack people’s systems, and if they don’t pay, they get hacked.” This type of extortion demand is an example of hackers shifting their target from big companies to individual users — in many cases, office workers. “It’s much easier to con a home user or an office worker than an I.T. security admin or the top management of a company,” Hypponen said.

Small Payments
A blackmail threat could target any user connected to the Internet. The cyber blackmailer sends an initial e-mail claiming to have hacked a corporate network or to have broken into a home user’s system. The amount of money the hacker demands usually is modest in comparison to previous computer blackmail schemes. “We used to see ransoms like (US)$30,000 to $50,000 for customer database thefts,” Hypponen said. In contrast, “the ransom [demands] that we’ve seen in these new cases are around $25 dollars — something that anyone could easily pay.”

View entire article: New E-Mail Security Threat: Cyber Blackmail

Archive 19

The Bank of England says it has intercepted over 100,000 fraudulent e-mails masquerading as computer security software issued by the central bank. The bogus e-mail, which appears to come from a Bank of England administrator, instructed recipients to download a file attachment designed to protect individuals’ banking details from fraudsters.

The Bank of England said it received scores of queries from companies and individuals asking about the e-mail’s authenticity. It advised recipients to delete it immediately. The e-mail comes amid a string of e-mail and Web site hoaxes posing as banking institutions.

In the past few months, a rash of fake e-mails claiming to be from some of the world’s biggest banks have appeared in e-mail in-boxes, attempting to dupe banking customers into divulging their bank details. A spokeswoman from the central bank said technicians were working with the UK’s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit to determine what — if anything — the file attachment was capable of, and who may have sent it.

“It appears to come from somebody outside the UK,” the spokeswoman said. She added the email address used — admin@bankofengland.co.uk — does not exist.

View article: Bank of England hit by hoax e-mail scam

Not really Office related but still a nice article. I hope you can forgive me

For a man with a 65,000 square foot house, picture hanging could be a hassle. So Bill Gates has patented a method for doing it electronically – and it has applications beyond his abode.

What do you give the man who has everything for Christmas? Something simple like a nice picture frame is always a good fallback or, if he’s a geek, an electronic picture frame might work.

A patent assigned on Tuesday to William H Gates III, the richest man in the world, gives the rights over a system for electronically distributing art around buildings. US patent number 6,670,934 describes a hierarchical representation of spaces within an environment, in which each space can be further subdivided into subspaces.

It’s a system that is likely to be a must-have in a 66,000 square foot house such as the one Bill Gates had built for himself in Medina, a wealthy enclave near Seattle, in the late 1990s. With miles of fibre optic cable linking servers to lighting, music, and climate controls throughout the complex, the ability to control which electronic picture hangs above the 24-seat formal dining table should not be overlooked.

The art distribution system, as it is known, allows a user to create play lists of images. These images can then be displayed according to the running order, on displays such as TFT monitors in a particular space — say a house — and within all subspaces — for instance rooms — of that larger space.

An important aspect of the patent application is the ability for a user to control the system from devices distributed around the building.

View full article: Gates patents e-picture hanging

This patch resolves problems that were found in the Exchange Server 5.5 CDO since SP4 was released. See the More Information About This Download link in the Related Resources section for a list of the fixes that are included in this patch.

Download: Exchange 5.5 CDO Patch 2657.55

The Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals enables partners and organizations to rapidly create proposal development solutions to increase the win rate of sales teams.

Designed in response to feedback from customers who want to derive additional value from their Microsoft Office System investments, the Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals helps sales professionals to improve their proposal win rate by streamlining the proposal development process, facilitating the use of the latest approved product and legal information, and ensuring a systematic evaluation of bid opportunities. Using the extensive input from our customers, Microsoft designed the Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals to help sales professionals specifically by automating proposal process steps, leveraging a corporate knowledge base, establishing effective collaboration, and increasing project control. Furthermore, the Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals is fully integrated with Microsoft Office Word, so that sales professionals can quickly adopt the solution and work more productively with familiar software tools.

The Microsoft technology partners play a central role in delivering the complete, end-to-end proposal development solution to customers by integrating, configuring, customizing and consulting using the Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals.

Download: Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Proposals

A virus hidden in an e-mail purporting to warn of planned terrorist attacks is spreading in Malaysia, according to published reports.

Potential victims receive a message labeled “Urgent message to all citizens of Malaysia” that claims to warn of five planned terrorist attacks, with the times and places supposedly leaked by an anonymous Malaysian government source. The e-mail says it seeks to minimize the number of terrorist victims by spreading the information on the planned attacks.

The text of the e-mail contains a link that claims to connect to a Web site with important information regarding the supposed attacks. However, the Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT) said clicking the link actually triggers the installation of a virus, which attempts to connect to three different Internet hosts. MyCERT’s Web site said the virus was similar to the Backdoor.Tofger Trojan horse reported in early December 2003.

MyCERT also said, according to The Star, that the three Internet hosts to which the virus attempts to connect could have had their security compromised already. MyCERT has already notified the three hosts’ system administrators.

View full article: Malaysian e-mail virus exploits terrorism fears
View: Removal Instructions

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

Despite efforts to stem the billions of spam e-mails flooding inboxes, unwanted messages are still turning e-mail into a quagmire of misery. Spammers send out tens of millions of e-mails to unsuspecting computer users every day, employing a myriad of methods to ensure their pills, loans and “requests for our lord” pleas fox e-mail filters. Some are even turning to prose and poetry to fool the technological safeguards people put in place. But a group of researchers at Microsoft think they may have come up with a solution that could, at least, slow down and deter the spammers. The development has been called the Penny Black project, because it works on the idea that revolutionised the British postage system in the 1830s – that senders of mail should have to pay for it, not whoever is on the receiving end.

“The basic idea is that we are trying to shift the equation to make it possible and necessary for a sender to ‘pay’ for e-mail,” explained Ted Wobber of the Microsoft Research group (MSR). The payment is not made in the currency of money, but in the memory and the computer power required to work out cryptographic puzzles. “For any piece of e-mail I send, it will take a small amount computing power of about 10 to 20 seconds.”

If I don’t know you, I have to prove to you that I have spent a little bit of time in resources to send you that e-mail. “When you see that proof, you treat that message with more priority.” Once senders have proved they have solved the required “puzzle”, they can be added to a “safe list” of senders. It means the spammer’s machine is slowed down, but legitimate e-mailers do not notice any delays.

View full article: Microsoft aims to make spammers pay

Ever used the Taskbar option “Group similar taskbar buttons”? It is a new feature introduced with Windows XP and it is on by default. It could be handy sometimes but I lost the overview for Internet Explorer windows.

The guide explains how you can go from

ieregbefore

ieregafter

View: Internet Explorer: Remove “Microsoft Internet Explorer” from the title bar

W32.Sober.C@mm is a mass-mailing worm that uses its own SMTP engine to spread. The subject of the email varies and is written in either English or German. The email’s attachment name also varies, but it has a .bat, .com, .cmd, .exe, .pif, or .scr file extension.

The first time W32.Sober.C@mm is activated, it displays a fake error message, with the subject “Microsoft,” and the text “<file name> has caused an unknown error. Stop: 00000010×18.”

This threat is written in the Microsoft Visual Basic programming language and is compressed with UPX.

Type	Worm
Infection Length	74,346 bytes (minimum size)
Systems Affected	Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP
Systems Not Affected	Linux, Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX

More info at Symantec
Removal instructions

Recorded in Orlando, Florida on October 21, 2003, see Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer’s keynote presentation for the Microsoft Office System launch.

Download: Steve Ballmer Microsoft Office System Launch Video: Productivity in the Digital Decade (120MB)

Version 1.3
Includes an updated index and a new topic: “Security Considerations for Server and Site Configurations”.

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

Download: Windows SharePoint Services Administrator’s Guide

Microsoft Corp. and the New York State Attorney General have teamed up to fight unwanted commercial e-mail, or spam, a Microsoft spokesman said Wednesday.

A news conference to announce the cooperation has been scheduled for Thursday morning, according to a Microsoft media alert. At the event, Microsoft and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will announce legal action against spammers, sources familiar with the announcement said.

“This announcement is about a collaborative effort regarding spam,” Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said. He declined to give further details of the pact with the New York State Attorney General ahead of Thursday’s event.

The announcement comes days after U.S. President George W. Bush signed a bill into law establishing federal rules for commercial e-mail and penalties for unsolicited mass mailing.

In June, Microsoft announced it had filed several lawsuits, 13 in the U.S. and two in the U.K., against spammers. That announcement was made together with Washington State Attorney General Christine Gregoire and representatives of the U.K. data protection authority. Thursday’s announcement with the New York State Attorney General is expected to be similar to that one, the sources said.

View: Microsoft and New York State join to fight spam

The Visio file viewer got an update as well. No change log here either.

The Visio Viewer 2003 allows anyone to view Visio drawings and diagrams (files with the .VSD, .VSS, .VST, .VDX, .VSX, or .VTX extension created with Visio 5, 2000, 2002, or 2003) inside their Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later Web browser.

Download: Visio Viewer 2003

Archive 18

This will update MSN to version 6.1.0.207. No change log available so I don’t know what’s new (just some bug fixes I guess).

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

Microsoft Corp. today (sorry about the slow update, this was the 17th) announced the forthcoming Microsoft® Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley, the product of ongoing work, including input from experts from Big Four accounting firms, to help companies meet growing compliance requirements in a cost-effective way with software they already license. The accelerator, one of a series of accelerators aimed at helping companies handle key business issues, is designed to make it easier for publicly traded companies to more easily manage their internal financial controls.

Specifically, the accelerator helps address the recurring needs surrounding internal control documentation, monitoring and testing, as required by sections 404 and 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Although the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is U.S. legislation, regulatory compliance is an issue for companies around the world. The accelerator will support Japanese and other double-byte characters, making it ideal for global companies.

Microsoft will use the accelerator to help meet its own compliance needs. “Our pain points are similar to those of other companies, and this tool will go a long way toward reducing them,” said Scott Di Valerio, corporate vice president and corporate controller at Microsoft. “We’re working closely with the Microsoft product group, which is developing the accelerator to meet the world’s needs – but also our own.”

Built on Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, the Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley is the first deliverable under a larger compliance initiative from Microsoft. The accelerator, scheduled for March 2004 release, combines software components, templates and architectural guidance to help companies work with partners to create compliance solutions.

View entire article: Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley Will Aid in Corporate Financial Compliance

Download: Microsoft Office HTML Viewer Service for Windows SharePoint Services

The Research and Reference feature in Microsoft Office 2003 applications provides rich, integrated search functionality. Research and Reference is also a platform for organizations to build their own research and reference services and for third party research providers to build subscription services.

Download: Research and Reference in Microsoft Office 2003 (Technical White Paper)

Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it.

This update enhances the junk e-mail filter in Outlook to help provide a higher level of protection against junk e-mail. As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to reducing junk e-mail, periodic updates will be provided to Outlook users. This update is optional and simply provides a more up-to-date definition of messages that are considered to be junk or not junk.

For more information on this update, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (832333) Overview of the Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update: KB832333.

Download: Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update (English)
Download: Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update (different language)
Download: Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update (administrative)

The Release Notes Update contains new information for Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition. It contains all of the information in the release notes that shipped with the product, as well as, a new section containing the most up-to-date information.

Download: Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Release Notes 1.0b

Yes, finally I sad down and just took the exam and passed! Since I passed for my MCSA exam I didn’t feel like studying anymore but still kept taking my SQL book with me everywhere I go (but opening it… :-S). Since I didn’t want to drag that book along with me in 2004 anymore I simply had to take that exam. Now that I’ve passed I’m an MCSE!!!

Of course I had to study for it this week and didn’t had the time to update the site. I hope you can forgive me! I’ll be updating the news tomorrow and I’ll post a little Internet Explorer tip. I’m also going to begin with my newsletter now which will be sent out in the first week on 2004. No a subscriber yet? Subscribe here.

mcse
(official logo not yet available)

This utility removes the bssym7.ttf font included in Microsoft Office System 2003, which has been found to contain unacceptable symbols.

Download: Bookshelf Symbol 7 Font Removal Tool (English)
Download: Bookshelf Symbol 7 Font Removal Tool (different language)

This download contains the sample workbook that accompanies the Assistance Center on Office Online article How to use XML in Excel 2003. The workbook contains sample XML data that you can use to create a fictitious expense report.

Download: Excel 2003 Sample: XML File

The Exchange SDK Documentation and Samples assist developers building applications for Exchange. This release of the SDK includes new and updated information and sample code to help you develop collaborative enterprise applications with Exchange. The README file contains installation instructions and late-breaking information about the Exchange SDK Documentation and Samples.

Download: Exchange 2000 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2003
Download: Exchange 2003 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2003

Got the new Outlook 2003 but are you missing the news option on the Go menu? Follow the instructions in the FAQ to get the option back.

View: Getting the News button in Outlook 2003

You might have seen the banner already; HowTo-Outlook is now officially sponsored by Sperry Software. Sperry Software produces Add-ins for Microsoft Office Outlook and is officially listed at the Microsoft Office Market Place.

What are Outlook add-ins?
Add-ins are helper programs that integrate directly into Outlook. They enhance and expand the capabilities of Outlook. All of their add-ins are for Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2002 or 2000.

As a visitor of HowTo-Outlook you’ll now get an extra 5% discount when you use the discount code “BH93RF24”. This is on top of the 10% discount you get already when you buy 2 or more add-ins!

View: Complete overview of the Sperry Software Add-ins

Two thirds of spam originates from computers infected by viruses such as Sobig-F, according to MessageLabs. The email filtering firm blames Sobig-F, the world’s fastest spreading virus for a rise in both spam and viruses in 2003. At its peak, one in every 17 emails stopped by MessageLabs contained a copy of Sobig-F. By December 1, more than 32 million emails containing the virus had been stopped by MessageLabs, making Sobig-F the biggest viral nuisance this year.

Top 10 Viruses of 2003, according to MessageLabs

Sobig-F (32,432,730)
Swen-A (4,184,129)
Klez-H (4,006,766)
Yaha-E (1,920,424)
Dumaru-A (1,129,061)
Mimail-A (1,052,481)
Yaha-M (862,682)
Sobig-A (842,729)
BugBear-B (814,865)
SirCam.A (511,578)

View entire article: Sobig-F blamed for massive increase in spam

Using the recovery storage group feature in Exchange Server 2003, you can mount a second copy of an Exchange mailbox database on the same server as the original database, or on any other Exchange server in the same Exchange administrative group. You can do this while the original database is still running and serving clients. The recovery storage group can also be useful in disaster recovery scenarios. This book provides information on how to determine if a recovery storage group is useful in your deployment, how to set up a recovery storage group, and how to troubleshoot common problems.

Download: Using Exchange Server 2003 Recovery Storage Groups

Download: Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Performance

Archive 17

Download the construction information update to keep your maps current.

Save the file in the Data folder, located where you installed the program files for MapPoint or Streets & Trips. For example C:\Program Files\Microsoft MapPoint\Data\.

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

Use templates for writing letters to Santa, creating cards and labels for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the New Year, and more.

View Microsoft Office website templates: Celebrate the Holidays

Congress yesterday passed a much-criticised anti-spam bill, after the House voted to approve minor Senate amendments. The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act does more harm than good in the fight against spam, according to critics.

The bill criminalises common spamming tactics, such as using false return address. But it overrides Californian laws which had allowed spam recipients to sue their tormentors. The bill requires online marketers to act on requests to “opt out” of future emails. This is much less strict than the ‘opt-in’ approach adopted by European Union legislation, which means e-marketers must seek the permission of consumers before they send out commercial emails.

Unfavourable comparisons between the two approaches has led anti-spam group Spamhaus to dub the bill the YOU-CAN-SPAM Act. The Can-Spam Act is expected to be signed into law by President Bush before the start of next year.

View: Congress passes anti-spam bill

Organised crime is moving online into spam and virus writing – which means attacks may become less common but more dangerous, a Russian antivirus expert has warned. As criminal gangs get involved, the ‘independent’ operators that currently dominate the spam and virus market will be squeezed out, reducing the total number of attacks.

The latest MiMail worms were the first in a new type of attack aimed at deriving financial profit from viruses and malware, according to Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of Kaspersky Lab and head of its antivirus research.

Recent MiMail variants collected and forwarded PayPal account details to the worms’ creators.

“The business of the mafia is business, and there could be a lot of money to be made from malware and spamming,” said Kaspersky. “As they consolidate control of the business of hacking and virus writing they will squeeze out independents. Spam will be an early target.

“If you are a spammer or malware developer, sooner or later the mafia will come knocking on your door.”

View entire article: Mafia muscles in on spam and viruses

Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and ENTmag.com have teamed up to create the Exchange Server 2003 Resource Guide. This FREE guide provides essential information on Exchange Server 2003 for IT professionals and IT managers who must make informed decisions about Microsoft’s major new messaging and collaboration system. Contents include:

Quick Analysis: Exchange Server Comparison
4 Dependencies of Exchange
Building a Case for Making the Upgrade
Exchange Server 2003 Configuration Spotlight
Knowledge Base Articles Worth Reading
Essential Links
Anti-Spam Features in Exchange Server 2003
Third-Party Products That Use the Anti-Spam API
The Best Microsoft Documentation on Exchange Server 2003
Exchange Server 2003 Skills Assessment and Certification
Exchange Server 2003 Training
Sins of Omission

Free download after registering
View: Exchange Server 2003 Resource Guide via Bink.nu

Microsoft will pull the plugs on MSDN downloads of a range of products, including Windows 98, Office 2000, SQL Server 7 and NT Workstation, next Monday. These contain the polluted Java which, according to the settlement with Sun, Microsoft has to stop supporting. So it’s all Sun’s fault, really.

Up to a point. The deal with Sun doesn’t actually require Microsoft to completely kill off its JVM finally until September of next year, so it’s clearing the decks early, and perhaps conveniently. The demise of Office 2000, SQL 7 and ISA Server 2000 in particular will help usher users along the company’s recommended upgrade paths. Microsoft will be issuing new, settlement compliant, versions of Office XP Pro, Publisher 2002, NT Server 4.0 and Small Business Server 2000.

Officially, the issue for Microsoft is one of support rather than availability. Windows 98 and NT 4.0 Workstation licences, for example, ceased to be offered through system builders earlier this year. Developers use the MSDN download facility, however, for support and backward compatibility purposes. Prudent developers will therefore be spending the next week grabbing images ‘just in case’, while the surreal-minded among you might care to conjure with the notion of Win98 ISOs showing up on P2P networks, with Sun lawyers in hot pursuit.

View full article: Wicked Sun forces final death of Win98, Office 2000, etc

In most organizations, unsolicited junk E-mail, or SPAM, is a huge problem. SPAM consumes Internet bandwidth, eats up disk space on your mail server, decreases employee productivity, and can expose your corporation to potential legal liabilities if the recipients find SPAM in their inbox to be offensive. In Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft has implemented a lot of features that help to address the SPAM issue. Exchange 2003 includes anti SPAM features such as real time block list service provider support, black lists and white lists, sender filtering, inbound recipient filtering, and the ability to restrict mail relaying.

Even with all of these built in features, it’s possible that the best Exchange SPAM protection may be yet to come. Microsoft intends to release an Exchange Server 2003 add on product in the first half of 2004 that is intended to dramatically increase Exchange’s ability to deal with SPAM. The product is called Exchange Intelligent Message Filtering.

Exchange Intelligent Message Filtering will be implemented at the Exchange Server level. The software will use something called Microsoft SmartScreen technology to analyze each individual inbound message. Each message is assigned a number which is the software’s SPAM confidence level for that message.

View full article: A First Look At the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter

Royalty-free XML schema promises to ease integration of Office into workflow applications.

Microsoft has opened up some of its Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas to customers and partners developing solutions based on Office 2003. The move will help firms implement document management systems using XML technology and is being offered under a royalty-free licence to encourage use of the XML specifications, Microsoft said.

The Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas, announced last month, are now available to firms looking to build products or solutions to work with the latest version of Microsoft’s productivity suite. The schemas available under the licensing agreements consist of WordprocessingML, SpreadsheetML and FormTemplate, which apply to Word, Excel and the InfoPath XML forms creation tool, respectively.

Microsoft said the initiative follows discussions with the Danish government over its plans to use XML to manage documents. “The Danish government’s use of standards-based XML technology shows its commitment to forward-thinking IT infrastructure and management,” said Microsoft’s European chairman, Patrick De Smedt. The Danish government wants to encourage better exchange of data across the public sector by creating a repository of XML schemas. Using Microsoft Office and XML may set a precedent for other European governments, he said.

One of the major new features in Office 2003, launched in October, is its support for XML. While Word and Excel are compatible with previous Office file formats, they can optionally save documents as XML files, using Microsoft-defined schemas that describe how data is stored within them. Other XML-enabled applications can use the schema to access the data in such documents.

View entire article: XML opens up Office 2003
View article below for download information

This download contains the Microsoft Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas and related documentation and now includes:

Overview articles on WordprocessingML (the XML file format for Microsoft Office Word 2003), SpreadsheetML (Microsoft Office Excel 2003) and FormTemplate XML schemas (Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003).
Reference documentation on the Microsoft Office 2003 schemas, detailing every element and types.

Download: Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas

It was a bit of a hassle but finally it’s here; the Outlook Newsletter!

A lot of credits go to my provider Hosting.nl and more specifically Guido Nijland who helped me a great deal with the script.

So what can you expect of the newsletter subscription?

News updates and links to the latest Microsoft Office updates and add-ins about every two weeks
How To article about once a month
Specials whenever I feel like one! These could be about anything as long as it is fun and computer related! Like at the moment I’m working on a review Windows XP vs. Mac OS X.
Got any other cool ideas? Send them to me! (See About page for address)

So when can you expect the first issue? Well basically that depends on two things; whether the live test succeeds and how much time I’ve got left to get the first issue out. I’m planning before Christmas and otherwise I’ll be one of the first to wish you a Happy New year!

One final thing;
I’ve been testing with the subscription all night but if you still found something broken about it please mail to me so I can look into it. So if you get an error please try again later it’ll be worth it, promise!

Till soon!

Robert Sparnaaij

Antispam organizations are the target of a new Internet worm outbreak that tries to knock them offline with a crippling data barrage, computer security experts said Tuesday.

Virus experts believe the worm, W32/Mimail-L, is the work of a vengeful spam e-mail peddler bent on paralyzing organizations that try to deal with spam, the torrents of get-rich-quick schemes and body-enhancement deals that clog in-boxes daily.

“It’s the third Mimail variation to come after us, except this one is trying to do more,” said Steve Linford, founder of The Spamhaus Project, a British-based group that singles out spammers. Spamhaus was hit by Mimail late Monday. According to antivirus and spam-filtering company Sophos, the Mimail-L program comes as an attachment to an e-mail purporting to be from a woman named Wendy who details an erotic encounter and then offers naked photographs. Clicking on the attachment activates the virus. Once triggered, the worm forwards itself to other e-mail users. The worm can also turn the affected PC into a “zombie,” which can then be remotely commanded to bombard one of eight targets, such as Spamhaus, with a disabling blizzard of data–a so-called denial-of-service attack.

View full article: New e-mail worm targets antispammers

Use a Web camera to easily send a video e-mail to your friends and family. It takes just two clicks on the Video E-mail for Outlook 2003 add-in.

NOTE: This is a new version, updated December 3, 2003, that fixes an issue with a link in the body of the video e-mail.

If you installed the previous version of Video E-mail, please uninstall the program first.

Download: Outlook 2003 Add-in: Video E-mail

With this 3rd party FrontPage add-in, you can create full-featured HTML help files as easily as making a Web site. Help Publisher can produce HTML Help 1.x and MS Help 2.0 format help files as well as publishing help topics to Microsoft Word for proofreading and the production of manuals. Automatically creates the help file’s table of contents from the web’s navigation structure and can even create an expandable/collapsible JavaScript contents for website hosted help. Automatic index generation from keywords associated with each topic page. Simple inclusion of context sensitive help and ‘See Also’ menus. Easy import of existing HTML Help Workshop projects and a comprehensive help file and tutorial are provided.

Download: Help Publisher for FrontPage

Tools to support deployment of Microsoft Office Visio 2003

Download: Microsoft Office Visio 2003 Resource Kit Tools

PCs that have been compromised by Trojans are being used by spammers to relay vast amounts of email and avoid detection. One third of all spam circulating the Web is relayed through PCs that have been compromised by Remote Access Trojans (RATs), according to corporate spam and antivirus company, Sophos.

Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for Sophos, said on Wednesday that the increasing use of broadband Internet connections and a general lack of security awareness have resulted in around one in three spam emails being redirected through the computers of unsuspecting users. “There are lots of people on cable modems and broadband connections that haven’t properly secured their computer. They don’t know it, but their PC is being used as a relay for sending spam to thousands and thousands of other people. We believe that 30 percent of all spam is being sent from compromised computers,” he said.

Cluley said that if a RAT is able to get into a PC, an attacker could take full control of that PC, as long as it is connected to the Internet. “They can steal information, read files, write files, send emails from that users name — it is as though the attacker has broken into the office or home and is sitting in front of that computer,” he said. There is also very little chance that the PC’s owner will have any idea their system is being used by a third party, said Cluley, who warned that an attacker could remove any traces of their activity, so that there would be no obvious record: “It is really just network and Internet bandwidth that is suffering — there is no permanent record left on the PC that you can look up — you wouldn’t see anything if you checked your Outlook sent items folder,” he said.

Sophos is also concerned that there may be a connection between the virus writers and spammers. Cluley pointed out that both groups have similar interests and he said he has known of worms that have attacked anti-spam Web sites: “Anti-spam Web sites have been knocked out by these viruses, why is that? We all suffer from spam. Virus writers are either working with spammers or they are the spammers,” he said.

View: Hijacked PCs blamed for a third of spam

Archive 16

Either enterprises are spending four times more cleaning up after virus and worm attacks this year, or they significantly underestimated their costs last year, according to new research.

It costs four times more to clean up after a virus than previously thought, according to a survey of large enterprise IT departments. Compared with previous estimates, costs associated with cleaning up after a virus or worm attack have increased by more than 400 percent over the past 12 months, to £122,000, says The Corporate IT Forum, which represents the corporate IT user community.

The Forum surveyed its members, which include more than half of the FTSE 100 and 250 companies, after the MSBlast worm this August. The figure of £122,000 is four times that estimated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) last year. According to the survey, three out of four IT departments spent around 365 person-hours repairing damage caused by the attack. However, 35 percent of organisations were hit far worse, with each losing an average of 3,080 person-hours.

David Roberts, chief executive of the Corporate IT Forum, said the costs associated with worm and virus clean-up are much higher than expected, especially for smaller companies that do not have the resources required to implement a strong security policies: “Our research is just the tip of the iceberg. The companies surveyed have better than average security and incident response policies in place. Organisations with relatively poor protection will be being hit even harder as they will suffer more downtime and wider business disruption — as well as getting more viruses in the first place,” he said in a statement.

View: Virus damage costs increase fourfold

This toolbox assists the XML content author and developer working with the new XML features of Word 2003.

The Word XML Toolbox requires that .NET Programmability Support is enabled. For .NET Programmability Support to be installed during the Office 2003 setup, the PIAs require the .NET Framework 1.1 already be installed. It is recommended that you install the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 before you install Microsoft Office 2003. With the .NET Framework 1.1 already installed, a complete installation of Office 2003 will install all of the PIAs.

Download: Word 2003: XML Toolbox for Microsoft Office Word 2003

The Visio Viewer 2003 allows anyone to view Visio drawings and diagrams (created with Visio 5, 2000, 2002, or 2003) inside their Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later Web browser.

Download: Visio Viewer 2003

With this update you can use Windows Small Business Server 2003 to run Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003.

Download: Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003 Update: Windows Small Business Server 2003

After demonstrating a prototype in July called Outlook Connecter for MSN, Microsoft is finally ready to invite customers into the beta program.

The beta is designed to seamlessly integrate Microsoft’s Outlook 2003 productivity software with MSN services ranging from photo sharing and contact management to online scheduling. The test is scheduled to run throughout the month of December into January.

In a message to invited testers, Microsoft beta coordinators stressed, “Since this beta has such a short window of opportunity to submit bugs and feedback, it is very critical that we have high participation in the first 2 weeks of the beta. Please make your decision carefully.”

The invite also notes that a valid credit card number is required during installation, but no charges will be made during the beta.

The guest ID “MSNOLC” is needed in order to access BetaPlace and apply to test Outlook Connecter for MSN.

View: Outlook Connecter for MSN Set for Beta (source: WinBeta)

Only about 35 percent of large businesses plan to move up to the latest version of Microsoft’s Office software next year, according to a new survey of chief information officers.

The Merrill Lynch survey polled CIOs at 75 U.S. companies and 25 European ones on a number of issues, including whether they were “likely to upgrade to Office 2003 in the next year.” A total of 65 percent said “no,” a result Merrill Lynch attributed to complex new server-based functions–including capabilities based on Extensible Markup Language (XML)–included in the new version of the productivity software. “Without a new killer app in Office, the upgrade cycle looks to be gradual until new XML-based technologies take hold in the broader market,” according to the report.

A Microsoft representative said initial sales of Office 2003 are in line with expectations and well ahead of early results for the previous version of the software, Office XP. “Customers should always make sure they see value in their software purchases,” the representative said. “Microsoft’s job is to show them that value in Office, and that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing with the Microsoft Office System. We’re confident that as more companies evaluate the Microsoft Office System, they’ll see for themselves the value in the investment.”

The survey results are in line with predictions accompanying the launch of Office 2003 in October, when analysts noted that businesses would need to do significant testing and resource planning before taking advantage of XML functions and other server-based tools.

View entire article: Slow uptake seen for Office 2003

Looming competitive and regulatory pressures factored into Microsoft’s recent decision to reveal formerly secret pieces of its latest Office software, according to analysts.

Microsoft announced that starting Dec. 5, customers and partners will be able to view the unique Extensible Markup Language (XML) dialects, or “schemas,” used by three of the most common Office applications: Word, Excel and InfoPath.

Microsoft has made extensive XML support one of the key selling points for Office 2003, with the widely adopted standard promising more fluid exchange of data between Office documents and enterprise computing systems.

The software giant attracted growing criticism for its refusal to reveal the XML schemas Office would use. Without access to the schemas, customers were ensured only of basic data interchange, without access to sophisticated formatting and organizational information included in Office documents.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research, said such concerns became more widespread once the software hit the market, and Microsoft had to respond.

View full article: What’s behind Microsoft’s Office moves?

Overwhelmed and infuriated by a torrent of unwanted e-mail, consumers, industry and government are rising up against the scourge we all know as spam.

More than half of all e-mail sent today is spam, which puts a heavy strain on networks and wastes time, money and other resources of consumers and businesses. And 70 percent of e-mail users say spam has made their online experience unpleasant or annoying, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found. One-quarter say that spam has caused them to reduce their use of e-mail.

The anti-spam legislation the House passed on Saturday is an important step in defense of a vital part of the nation’s technology infrastructure. The Senate, which passed a similar bill last month, is expected to adopt the House language, and the president is expected to sign it into law. All are to be congratulated for acting to preserve the Internet as an efficient medium for global communication and commerce.

This legislation expands the tools available for curbing deceptive and fraudulent spam. It prohibits use of misleading subject lines, false return addresses and phony routing information — favorite ploys for defeating spam filters, luring unwary recipients and avoiding detection. With strong criminal and civil penalties, it extends protection to consumers nationwide and adds clout to legal actions like those that Microsoft and others have brought under state laws against deceptive spammers.

But laws alone are not enough. A comprehensive solution must combine strong laws and enforcement with industry cooperation, technological innovation and the empowerment of informed consumers.

View full story: A Spam-Free Future By Bill Gates

Of all the accomplishments in the annals of technology, Fred Cohen’s contribution is undeniably unique: He introduced the term “virus” to the lexicon of computers.

The University of New Haven professor used the phrase in a 1984 research paper, in which he described threats self-propagating programs pose and explored potential defenses against them. When he asked for funding from the National Science Foundation three years later to further explore countermeasures, the agency rebuffed him.

“They turned it down,” said Cohen, who is also principal analyst for research firm Burton Group. “They said it wasn’t of current interest.”

Two decades later, countless companies and individuals are still paying for that mistake. The technology industry has yet to find a blanket solution to the ever-growing list of viruses and worms that constitute the greatest risk to computers on the Internet. Every year, companies lose billions of dollars when forced to halt work and deal with infectious digital diseases, such as Sobig and Slammer.

View full article: A 20-year plague

This solution starter shows how to add data from Project Server, as well as external data, to the Portfolio Analyzer cube, and how to create or modify views of the cube using Project Web Access. The documentation explains how to add new data dimensions to the cube from existing project view tables, how to extend the view tables and cube staging tables, and how to add data to the cube from external sources such as Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint™ Services.

The samples include three examples of extending the Portfolio Analyzer cube, with test applications and instructions on how to install the samples so that the extensions are executed every time the cube is updated.

The sample code and documentation in the solution starter includes the following:

Adding a Pay Period Dimension: update the cube staging tables with additional data from Project Server view tables, manually add a dimension to the Portfolio Analyzer cube using SQL Server Analysis Manager, and add the pay period dimension to a view of the cube in Project Web Access.
Adding Windows SharePoint Services Data for Risk Analysis: add a modified template for task issues and risks to SharePoint Services, extend the view tables and cube staging tables, and automatically populate the tables and create new risks and issues cubes whenever the Portfolio Analyzer cube is rebuilt. Add new views for analysis of risks and issues to the Portfolio Analyzer page in Project Web Access.
Adding Task Information for Earned Value Analysis: add task earned value data to the cube. Add a new view to chart earned value fields such as task BCWP, ACWP, BCWS, and a number of other cost fields over time for a project portfolio, and also filter by the data by Enterprise Task Outline Code.

Note The Portfolio Analyzer OLAP Extensions Solution Starter is provided as a separate download; it will also be included in the Microsoft Office Project 2003 SDK download from the Microsoft Download Center.

Download: Project Server 2003: Portfolio Analyzer OLAP Extensions

Alert: Microsoft has found an issue in Windows SharePoint Services that may cause problems during new installations or content database creation. Please refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base Article KB833019 for more information and workarounds to this issue.

View: Knowledge Base Article KB833019

Microsoft has made a knowledge paper available that details how to fix the recently reported Exchange security hole.

Microsoft has issued a knowledge paper on how to fix the flaw in Exchange Server 2003. Last week Microsoft announced it had received notification of a flaw in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 that either denied users access to Outlook Web Access or, worse, gave them full access to someone else’s account.

Andrew Cunningham, Exchange product manager for Microsoft Australia, told ZDNet Australia that investigations by Microsoft had revealed the issue came to light when someone ran Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services on an Exchange Server. “It’s not a common scenario,” Cunningham said. “Most organisations have a dedicated Exchange application and a dedicated SharePoint scenario as well.” This issue arose because SharePoint turned off the Kerberos authentication, which is set on by default on the Exchange Server.

Microsoft has issued a paper detailing how to fix the problem, which involves turning the Kerberos authentication back on for the Exchange server, and also running it on SharePoint. The paper is available from Microsoft’s Web site. “We’ll continue testing to close [the investigation] off,” said Cunningham. “To see whether we need to make changes to the code, or whether any other knowledge-based articles need to be released.”

View: Microsoft issues Exchange flaw fix
View: Configure Windows SharePoint Services to Use Kerberos Authentication

A former Microsoft Corp. employee accused of stealing more than $6 million worth of company software and reselling it was sentenced Tuesday to 17 months in prison for mail fraud.

Kori Robin Brown, 31, of Spokane, Wash., will also be subject to three years of supervision after release, under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman. Brown pleaded guilty to the mail fraud charge in July.

Brown, a former administrative assistant at Microsoft, is one of three employees recently accused of taking advantage of an internal Microsoft system that allowed employees to order and receive Microsoft software for business purposes for free.

Prosecutors said Brown got software worth more than $6 million and resold it to a third party for between $50,000 and $100,000.

The flaws came to light last year after federal authorities charged another Microsoft employee, Daniel Feussner, of stealing software with a retail value of $9 million and using the sales proceeds to buy expensive cars and jewelry. Feussner, who was awaiting trial on charges of wire, mail and computer fraud, died in February after drinking antifreeze.

An internal Microsoft investigation led authorities to Brown and another employee, Richard Gregg, 43, of Bellevue, Wash., who is accused of stealing software valued at $17 million. Gregg pleaded not guilty in June to similar wire, mail and computer fraud charges. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 12.

Microsoft fired all the employees.

View: Ex-Microsoft Employee Sentenced for Fraud

Try the latest version of Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services

30 day free SharePoint trial
5 user accounts
10 MB disk space

Sing up: SharePoint Trial
View: SharePoint Trial website

The objective of the Solution Accelerator for Intranets is to enable partners and enterprise customers to quickly build comprehensive intranet solutions that provide enterprise search and document management, Web-based team collaboration, and tight integration with the Microsoft Office System.

The Solution Accelerator for Intranets is a collection of documentation that presents a prescriptive, tested, and supported approach to designing, deploying, operating, and growing a highly-available intranet solution. In the development of such a solution, the accelerator documentation addresses issues that are not discussed in the product documentation, such as service readiness planning, resource requirements, and capacity planning. Topics such as monitoring, backup and restore, planning for growth, and disaster recovery are also covered.

Download: Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Intranets version 2.0

Archive 15

Known before as the Enterprise Implementation Framework (EIF), the new Planning & Design Toolkit (PDT) for the Microsoft Office EPM Solution is a set of tools and material that assists the EPM planning team with collecting information and data related to the how the EPM solution will be used within the enterprise.

This beta version of the PDT is designed to provide an experienced analyst with the information necessary to:

Conduct interviews in order to gather requirements for the deployment.
Evaluate potential risks to the successful deployment of EPM.
Design the right configuration to meet the organization’s needs.
Obtain (via hyperlinks) any additional information the analyst might need in order to fully understand the implications of design decisions.
Create a logical design specification that can be used by the IT resources to configure the system.
Define the processes and standards critical or important to a successful implementation of EPM.
Point the reader to resources for configuring the system.

Note: The PDT is not a substitute for a proper implementation team. It is critical to have team members with proper skills and backgrounds, such as a senior consultant, involved in the implementation process.

Download: Office 2003 Enterprise Project Management Solution Document: Planning and Design Toolkit

This download contains information about using Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, including:

Startup and Settings
Customizing the Portal Site
Personalizing the Portal Site
Working with Alerts
Searching the Portal Site
Working with Areas
Working with the Site Directory
Working with Backward-Compatible Document Libraries
Managing the Portal Site
Working with Windows SharePoint Services

Download: Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Help

Microsoft is retiring its six-year-old NetMeeting online conferencing application and instead will push Office Live Meeting, formerly known as PlaceWare, for online meetings. NetMeeting helped pioneer online conferencing when it was released in May 1996, before the advent of instant messaging (IM) and other services for real-time online communication. The software still ships as part of Windows and some of its features, such as whiteboarding and application-sharing, are used by the MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger IM applications. But NetMeeting has served its purpose and will gradually be phased out, Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said. Microsoft has already stopped development work on NetMeeting and links from MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger will be cut in future updates to those products, she said. Instead, Microsoft’s IM applications will link to Office Live Meeting, Drake said. “Since buying PlaceWare we will focus our real time collaboration efforts on Office Live Meeting,” she said. Microsoft completed the acquisition of PlaceWare Inc. in April and launched a new version of the service in September.

Microsoft also plans to remove NetMeeting from its Web site, Drake said. The NetMeeting directory already appears to be gone, which means that users have to type in the IP address of the person they want to conference with. Drake could not give a time-frame for the NetMeeting phase-out, saying only that it would be “gradual.”

NetMeeting has been used mostly for online conferencing between small groups of people. Large companies like Dow Chemical Co. supported NetMeeting on thousands of PCs as a collaboration tool to save travel costs, according to a March 1998 Microsoft announcement. Some businesses still use NetMeeting, although IM and Web conferencing products outclass it in terms of usability, analysts said.
“Should the industry mourn the loss of NetMeeting? No,” said Mike Gotta, senior vice president at Meta Group Inc. “It was significant on the timeline and was widely used because there was no big alternative. For those who standardized on NetMeeting, this will force them to make what is a good decision anyway, which is to get off it.” Robert Mahowald, a research manager at IDC, agreed. “It was never a very good conferencing tool. It was the kind of thing IT was reluctant to touch and users had to set up themselves,” he said. NetMeeting died when better, competing products such as IBM’s Lotus Sametime came out, he said.

NetMeeting’s retirement is unrelated to a patent infringement lawsuit involving the product that Microsoft lost earlier this month, the company said. A jury ordered the software maker to pay US$62.3 million in damages for infringing on a technology patent held by a division of manufacturing and technology company SPX Corp. SPX subsidiary Imagexpo LLC sued Microsoft in October last year for infringing on its patent with the whiteboard feature of Microsoft’s NetMeeting. Microsoft contests the accusation.

View: Microsoft retires NetMeeting

Not Microsoft Office related but I still wanted you to post this impressive list for all the hardware and/or Lord of the Rings lovers

Meet the real star of Lord of the Rings – a 1,600-box server farm.

Gollum is real. So is Shelob. And Middle-earth did exist – just a long, long time ago. At least that’s what Weta Digital, the visual effects house behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy, wants you to believe. Its mantra for the final instalment: photorealism. The Return of the King, which opens in theatres December 17, will feature almost 50 percent more f/x shots than The Two Towers and will be composed of more data than the first two movies combined. Churning out scenes like the destruction of Barad-dûr and the Battle of Pelennor Fields (with thousands of bloodthirsty CG Orcs) took 3,200 processors running at teraflop speeds through 10-gig pipes – that’s one epic render wall. What else went into making Frodo’s quest look so good? By Weta’s account, more than you might think.

WETA BY THE NUMBERS

HUMANPOWER
IT staff: 35
Visual f/x staff: 420

HARDWARE
Equipment rooms: 5
Desktop computers: 600
Servers in renderwall: 1,600
Processors (total): 3,200
Processors added 10 weeks before movie wrapped: 1,000
Time it took to get additional processors up and running: 2 weeks
Network switches: 10
Speed of network: 10 gigabits (100 times faster than most)
Temperature of equipment rooms: 76 degrees Fahrenheit
Weight of air conditioners needed to maintain that temperature: 1/2 ton

STORAGE
Disk: 60 terabytes
Near online: 72 terabytes
Digital backup tape: 0.5 petabyte (equal to 50,000 DVDs)

OUTPUT
Number of f/x shots: 1,400
Minimum number of frames per shot: 240
Average time to render one frame: 2 hours
Longest time: 2 days
Total screen time of f/x shots: 2 hours
Total length of film: Rumored to be 3.5 hours
Production time: 9 months

View: The Wall of Fame

Get the Windows® SharePoint™ Services download today. Windows SharePoint Services is the Windows Server 2003 component that helps organizations increase individual and team productivity by enabling them to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration.

Sites based on Windows SharePoint Services, called SharePoint sites, take file storage to a new level, providing communities for team collaboration that make it possible for users to collaborate on documents, tasks, and events, and make it easier for them to share contacts and other information. Windows SharePoint Services enables managers of teams and sites to manage site content and user activity easily. The environment is designed for easier and more flexible deployment, administration, and application development.

New and Improved Features
New features in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services include:

Microsoft Office InfoPath™ 2003 integration
Flexible deployment scenarios
Document libraries
Meeting workspace sites
Lists
Document workspace sites
Surveys
Templates
Threaded-view discussion boards
Extensibility

Improved features include:

Microsoft Office System integration
Microsoft Office FrontPage® 2003 integration
Administration features
Backup and restore
Search capabilities
Web discussions
Alerts
Browser-based customization

Download: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (English)
Download: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (different language)

I don’t know which is worse; being spammed or all the spamming news lately. Even when you try to fight back spam you’ll loose. Sad but true. Hopefully the Anti-Spam Bill will pay off real soon!

View: Dutch blogsites fight cyberwar against spammer
View: Spam vigilante faces jail

This guide provides information about the Microsoft® Office Project Server 2003 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 SP1, including monitoring scenarios, deployment steps, operations tasks, and reference content.

Download: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Management Pack Guide

Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp., today issued the following statement in support of the House’s passage of the S. 877 anti-spam bill:

“Today’s passage of the anti-spam bill is a milestone in the battle against spam, and a major step toward preserving e-mail as a powerful communication tool. Microsoft applauds both houses of Congress for their efforts to get a strong bill to the president before the end of the year. This legislation is a critical component of the broader fight against spam, and complements the industry’s own anti-spam technologies. It will help consumers regain control of their inboxes, and support e-mail service providers in their battle to contain the spam menace.

“With this legislation, the spammers who deluge computer users with billions of unwanted e-mails will face significant penalties for their illegal actions. Microsoft particularly supports the strong enforcement provisions, and the ban on falsifying the origin of e-mail solicitations and illegally obtaining lists of e-mail addresses, both of which will help Internet service providers prosecute spammers.

View full Press Release: Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates Lauds Passage of Anti-Spam Bill

Congress moved significantly closer to the first-ever federal protections against unwanted commercial e-mails with the House passing a bill Saturday that would impose new limits on sending irritating offers on the Internet. Final approval by lawmakers could come before Thanksgiving.

The measure would outlaw the shadiest techniques used by many of the Internet’s most prolific e-mailers and include penalties up to five years in prison in rare circumstances. But it also would supplant even tougher anti-spam laws already passed in some states, including a California law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

Passed on a 392-5 vote, the House bill largely mirrors “Can Spam” legislation the Senate approved last month. Supporters hoped slight differences between the two measures could be resolved before Congress adjourns for the year. The Bush administration has supported anti-spam efforts.

View full story: Congress Passes Bill That Will Limit Spam

Microsoft’s recently-announced anti-spam add-on for Exchange Server 2003 may be a first step in the company’s assault on enterprise junk mail, say analysts, but the move is neither a threat for third-party software makers already in the market, nor of much use to large corporations.

On Monday, Microsoft said that it would offer Exchange Intelligent Message Filter, an add-on to Exchange Server 2003, sometime during the first half of 2004. Based on the SmartScreen anti-spam technology already used by Microsoft’s Hotmail and integrated with the newest edition of its Outlook e-mail client, Exchange Intelligent Message Filter will scan incoming e-mail and delete or set aside suspected spam.

Microsoft will rely on Hotmail users to submit spam examples, which will be analyzed by the Redmond, Wash.-based developer to determine what is and isn’t spam, then update its filters accordingly. Additionally, the SmartScreen technology, and thus the Exchange add-on, can assign a spam confidence level to messages based on the regularity of word associations, and ‘train’ itself to better spot spam by monitoring what kind of messages users designate as junk mail.

View full story: Microsoft’s Anti-Spam Moves Lack Teeth

Microsoft is investigating a potential security issue with Exchange Server 2003, which would be the first since the e-mail server was launched last month. The potential flaw lies in the Outlook Web Access (OWA) component of Exchange Server 2003. A network administrator at a Nashville, Tennessee, provider of investment performance reporting tools found that users logging in to OWA could be logged in to another user’s mailbox at random and have full access privileges. “This seems to be a major security flaw and we have had to shut off OWA indefinitely because of the issue,” the network administrator wrote in a posting to NTBugtraq, a well-known security mailing list.

A preliminary investigation by Microsoft indicated that the issue occurs only with Kerberos authentication disabled, which the vendor said is uncommon. “We recommend that our customers ensure that Kerberos authentication is enabled, which is the default configuration,” Microsoft said in a statement Friday.

Microsoft has already developed a patch, which is currently being tested, the network administrator said in an e-mail message. Microsoft would not comment on any patch because it is still investigating the issue. “Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, including providing a fix and additional mitigation information if either is warranted,” the vendor said.

View: Microsoft investigates possible Exchange 2003 flaw

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.

Download: Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Recruiting
Download: Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Recruiting Documentation

This will bring your version up to 6.1.0.203

Download: MSN Messenger 6.1 for Windows 6.1.0.203 (English)
Download: MSN Messenger 6.1 for Windows 6.1.0.203 (different language)

Microsoft Office Web Components are a collection of Component Object Model (COM) controls for publishing spreadsheets, charts, and databases to the Web. They are also used to view these items when published, as well as data access pages.

If you have Microsoft FrontPage®, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Excel installed, Office Web Components allow you to publish interactive data as part of a Web page. Using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.01 or later, Office Web Components allow you to view a published control (spreadsheet, chart, or database) on a Web page. With Internet Explorer version 5 or later, Office Web Components allow you to view data access pages.

The Office Web Components tool provides view-only functionality for users who do not have Office XP installed. By installing this tool, users can view published components and data access pages on the Web without having to install Office XP.

If you have already downloaded and installed the previous version of the Microsoft Office XP Web Components prior to August 14, 2001, refer to the instructions in the Before you install section.

Download: Office XP Tool: Web Components (English)
Download: Office XP Tool: Web Components (different language)

Microsoft executive Joe Eschbach plans to leave the company after just a year on the job. Eschbach, recruited by Office chief Jeff Raikes from Adobe Systems a year ago to help spur the expansion of Microsoft Office, plans to leave Dec. 1.

In a statement, Microsoft credited Eschbach for his role in last month’s launch of Office 2003. “Joe played a critical role in overseeing the launch of Office 2003,” the company said. “We are sad to see him leave.” Microsoft said Eschbach, a corporate vice president, will be replaced by Chris Capossela, a 12-year Microsoft veteran and head of the company’s Project unit.

Eschbach’s hiring had fueled speculation that Microsoft was trying to develop a “PDF killer.” His departure–to pursue “new opportunities,” according to a company representative–comes shortly after mobile phone unit executive Juha Christensen said he would leave Microsoft to start his own company.

View: Key Office exec to exit Microsoft

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