stuart test blog

[tags]security,passwords,hacking,cracking,microsoft,complex,best-practices[/tags] As a follow-up to the secure USB drive post, I wanted to give some pointers on how to create secure, complex passwords. Complexity… In a Microsoft environment, a complex password must be at least six characters long, cannot contain three or more letters from the user’s username, and must contain characters from at least […]

Microsoft’s new integrated infrastructure management product, System Center Essentials 2007, has recently been released in NZ. It’s a management solution for small and medium sized businesses that provides similar functionality to Microsoft’s enterprise products like SMS and MOM, with additional features relevant to the smaller businesses. This should turn out to be popular in NZ […]

This is about to be huge…! Microsoft Launches New Product Category: Surface Computing Comes to Life in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts First commercially available surface computer from Microsoft breaks down barriers and provides effortless interaction with information using touch, natural gestures and physical objects. Surface Computing Website: www.surface.com First look at surface […]

Jeff Jones (Strategy Director in the Microsoft Security Technology Unit) has written a post about Server Core and how its reduced footprint increases security dramatically. The key here is “reduced attack surface area” as all of the most insecure areas of a server have been removed, such as IIS, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, etc… […]

Now that I have a new Server Core installation ready for setup, I read through the Step by Step guide a bit more and continued on to the initial setup. Change the admin password As I mentioned in a previous post, when you create a new Server Core installation you are greeted with a logon […]

Well this is interesting – my first, first-hand experience with Server Core. There’s only one command prompt window rather than the two that was present in previous betas. There is still a GUI, and you can run several apps such as Notepad, Task Manager, Regedit, which are probably the three most useful GUI apps I […]

Most people are expecting Longhorn to eventually become officially known as Windows Server 2008, but it looks like Microsoft have inadvertently let the cat out of the bag by posting a link to the “Windows Server 2008 Reviewers Guide” on the WinHEC press site. Eagle-eyed Mary Jo Foley picked up on it and grabbed a […]

Big news this week was that Microsoft have had to drop postpone some key features from their new virtualisation software currently in development. Mike Neill, GM of virtualisation strategy went on the defensive with a lengthy blog post detailing all of the cool things about Microsoft’s new virtualisation platform, codenamed Viridian. But if you kept […]

For the Exchange 2007 architects out there, Microsoft have released a comprehensive (over 500 pages) document detailing the architectural changes from previous versions of Exchange. I’m looking forward to reading through this in a comfy chair, in front of the fireplace… Download link: Technical Architecture of Exchange 2007 Abstract Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 introduces several […]

Since moving into the contracting/self-employed market, I’ve splashed out a bit on my home office setup. First I bought an HP Advanced Docking Station for my nx8220 notebook which provides full connectivity for audio, gigabit networking, DVI connector, plus a bunch of extra USB ports. Then I invested in a new monitor to upgrade my […]