FYI: RDP 6.0 Client for Windows XP released

MS has RTW'ed a RDP 6.0 client that supports the Vista/Longhorn features. You can find it here

Oxios ToDo list v6.11

As you may know, I'm very fond of the little software add-on I have on my Smartphone called Oxios ToDo List. Well, recently I updated to v6.10 and then v6.11 - but both versions gave me problems with the edit task view, so I felt a little disappointed. Finally, I decided to figure out what the problem was yesterday evening (a Sunday). I uninstalled the product completed and reinstalled it - no change. I attempted to find an older version - but without luck. And finally, I did what I should have done right away - I took some screen shots and sent a mail to Oxios.

It is now 10 Monday morning. I have already received an email from Oxios telling me what the problem was. I have tested the fix (an old file ToDo.exe.0409.mui was left over) and replied that everything works just fine.

This story just to say, that this kind of support deserves all the credit it can get :)

SANS Top-20 Internet Security Attack Targets

SANS just updated their yearly report. Good stuff to be oriented about and a must read for anyone working with security. Especially interesting is the fact that new - and most likely less mature - technologies like VoIP are being attacked. E.g. Asterisk, the soft-PABX, had four vulnerabilities reported! As always, keep up your defenses!

EV SSL Certificates

They used to be called High Assurance certificates but now the name seems to be Extended Validation (EV).

Anyway, according to this entry in the IE blog EV SSL Certificates are Coming in January. Let us hope this will improve the trust in the web by the common user.

Daemon tools 4.06 x86/x64 with full Vista support

FYI: Daemon tools has been released in a new version that fixes the problems with the old version of daemon tools on Vista (It couldn't install).

Vista available on MSDN

FYI: Vista is now available on MSDN and Office 2007 has been there a couple of days (Vista has also been available on the Volume Licensing site for a couple of days now).

I'm still dualbooting though as my Logitech Quickcam Notebook Pro Camera is missing drivers for Vista, some of my LCS utilities doesn't work in Vista and LiveMeeting still isn't to stable.

PowerShell RTM'ed

According to the keynote this morning at TechEd IT-Forum in Barcelona, Spain by Bob Muglia, PowerShell is ready for manufacturing as of today. Cool!

I just found that it went public in the PowerShell blog.

Give me the RTM bits now please !

I'm really frustrated here ... I use the RSS reader in Outlook 2007 Beta 2 TR and it stopped working a few days ago so I can't read my RSS feeds. I also run Vista RC2 (A.k.a. a legacy OS or at least a legacy build ;-) and knowing that both products has RTM'ed I don't want to fix the problem - I want the Bits so I can reinstall my machine (Or at least my dual boot Vista partition).

Even though I'm a member of the Office 2007 TAP and member of the Vista Beta I have to wait like everyone else for the release on my MSDN. What is this - don't you know who I am (If you do please send me an e-mail and Cc. my shrink) ... I WANT THE BITS NOW .... please ;-)

Anti-exploit in Vista

Read this Michael Howard article that focuses on explaining what Address Space Layout Randomization in Windows Vista is all about but also covers other security mechanisms. The whole idea is to make a system more unpredictable to the attacker making the attack much harder to make. Hopefully, it will take a while before the bad guys catch up.

Protocols used when accessing Sharepoint in Explorer View

I have always thought, that accessing Sharepoint in Explorer View used WebDAV to do the work. But that is not always the case. WebDAV is actually quite restricted in how it can be used: It is limited to port 80 and consequently it can also not be used with SSL. So what is used instead? A protocol called FPRPC - FrontPage Server Extensions Remote Procedure Call. This protocol - designed before the standard WebDAV protocol was defined - is being used in all other situations. How can you tell the difference? Well WebDAV is a built-in network provider in Windows XP and you can map network drives to a WebDAV URL. Any Windows program can use WebDAV to access data. FPRPC on the other hand is a shared library only being used by programs taking advantage of it. This is typically the Office products. Windows Explorer is able to use both protocols, and in Explorer View you can tell the difference by looking at how Windowish it looks. 3D-icons and all the normal choices in the new menu signals WebDAV. A more flat view is FPRPC (this may be different in Vista).

Find you more in the whitepaper - Understanding and Troubleshooting the SharePoint Explorer View.