Windows IT Pro UPDATE--Windows Desktop Search for the Enterprise Arrives

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1. Commentary
- Windows Desktop Search for the Enterprise Arrives

2. Hot Off the Press
- Microsoft Will Remove Sony Rootkit

3. Networking Perspectives
- Recovering from an Exchange Server Crash

4. Peer to Peer
- How to create multiple bootable disks
- Can I disable the Message Transfer Agent (MTA) on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003?

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==== 1. Commentary: Windows Desktop Search for the Enterprise Arrives ====
by Paul Thurrott, News Editor, [email protected]

Today, Microsoft released the enterprise-oriented version of its Windows Desktop Search (WDS) product, enabling managed corporations with an end-user search solution that covers the Web, local hard disks, and intranets. Microsoft first promised an enterprise version of WDS when it released the consumer-oriented version, called MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search, back in May.

Desktop search is a holy grail of sorts for information workers. Various studies suggest that users waste huge sums of time each day simply trying to find relevant documents on their hard disks or company intranet. A tool such as WDS for the enterprise can go a long way toward fulfilling this need, and if this new version is as good as the MSN-branded consumer version the company shipped in May it could be a winner. (See my review on the SuperSite for Windows at the URL below.)

During a briefing with Heather Friedland, the product planner for WDS at Microsoft, I was told that the software giant made several changes to its WDS product to make it more applicable to enterprises. First, Microsoft has split the MSN Toolbar product--which provides search toolbars for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Windows Explorer, and Microsoft Office Outlook--from the WDS tool, which ads an integrated search deskbar to the Windows taskbar. This separation means you can separately deploy any of the toolbars, the deskbar, or all to your users.

Unlike the unmanaged consumer WDS version, the enterprise version is designed to work with automated deployment tools such as Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), Active Directory (AD), or Group Policy, or via any third-party deployment product. That means it supports a wide range of configuration options, allowing administrators to specify which features are available, which document types can be searched, and so on.

The product has several new capabilities as well. The Outlook toolbar is better integrated into the Outlook client, providing search results directly in the application--not in a separate window as with the consumer version. The scope of user searches is now configurable by administrators, letting you not only specify one or more custom intranet search strings but also a name of the WDS deskbar that identifies that location. For example, in the consumer version, the deskbar lets you search locally or on the Web; with the enterprise version, users will see a third choice--named as you see fit instead of a generic label such as "intranet" or "local network." Finally, because WDS is easily extensible via a simple API documented on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), corporations can easily add search support for custom document types that they use inhouse. And a wide range of free and low-cost add-ons for WDS is already available on addins.msn.com.

One of the best features of WDS for the enterprise is the licensing cost: It comes free with each Windows 2000 or Windows XP license you've already purchased. You can deploy WDS for the enterprise to any 32-bit Win2K Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later system or Windows XP desktop, and Friedland told me an x64 version was in the works. For the free download and more information, visit the Microsoft Web site:

WDS – enabled for the enterprise
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/enterprise

MSN Search Toolbar with WDS Review
http://www.itprotoday.com/article/reviews/msn-search-toolbar-with-windows-desktop-search-review.aspx

Finally, Microsoft Tackles High Performance Computing
Back in May, I spoke with Microsoft Senior Vice President Bob Muglia, who oversees the Windows Server Division at the company. We spoke about several topics (see the URL below), but the one that interested me most involved those markets in which Windows Server 2003 wasn't effectively competing. There were only few of those markets, as you might imagine, but Muglia did highlight UNIX application migration and high-performance computing as two areas in which Linux, in particular, was outshining Microsoft at the time.

"One workload I think we've historically done poorest in is high-performance computing," Muglia told me. "But that's an area where we're making some ongoing investments too." Indeed. In September, Microsoft released the first beta of a product, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, which addresses this very market. And today, at IT Forum in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft announced the Beta 2 version. Microsoft expects to ship the final version in the first half of 2006.

The mantra with Compute Cluster Server is simple: "High-performance computing goes mainstream." If you think about the largely academic world of supercomputing today, you'll agree that it's one of the last vestiges of white lab-coated world that used to dominate all of computing. High-performance computing is expensive, complicated, and difficult to manage. Microsoft, a company dedicated to low-cost, easy-to-use, and simple-to-deploy-and-manage enterprise systems, clearly saw a market opportunity ripe for the taking.

The company might have made its move at the right time. With the cost per gigaflop at an all time low thanks to low-cost but high-performing commodity hardware, it's now possible to create clusters of PC-based servers on the cheap. To facilitate its end of the bargain, Microsoft designed Compute Cluster Edition to be familiar to Windows administrators, easy to deploy, and integrated with Active Directory (AD). And most of these systems will be sold in the sub-$50,000 market, which will open supercomputing up to entirely new (and larger) markets. As Microsoft puts it, now scientists, researchers, and engineers can focus on what they do and not waste their time being IT administrators as well.

I can't pretend to completely understand the research, engineering, and educational markets that have typically been served by supercomputing solutions, but Microsoft has already demonstrated that Compute Cluster Edition runs the same custom applications that these customers have come to expect. These applications are aimed at verticals such as manufacturing, automobile, aerospace, life sciences, and oil and gas, as well as industrial and academic markets.

Microsoft hasn't announced pricing and licensing and won't until next year, but the company told me it will be competitively priced with existing Linux solutions. Because the performance will be comparable with Linux systems as well, Microsoft expects deployment and management advantages, as well as its strong relationships with OEMs and ISVs, to give it a boost over the Linux competition.

Bob Muglia delivers the Windows Server roadmap
http://www.itprotoday.com/article/showcase/bob-muglia-delivers-the-windows-server-roadmap.aspx

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==== 2. Hot Off the Press ====
by Paul Thurrott, [email protected]

Microsoft Will Remove Sony Rootkit
After dithering for a few days over whether to categorize Sony's new audio CD copy protection system as spyware, Microsoft on Friday announced that the next update to its antispyware package would indeed remove the Sony code from users' PCs. Microsoft will include the removal code in an update to the recently renamed Windows Defender, formerly Windows AntiSpyware. Sony's system is based on a rootkit, typically used by malicious hackers to keep their malware hidden. Sony was using it to prevent users from pirating its CDs. Read the complete story at the following URL:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=48441

==== 3. Networking Perspectives ====
by Alan Sugano, [email protected]

Recovering from an Exchange Server Crash
Follow along as Alan gets a client's Exchange Server back up and functioning after a crash.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=48459

==== Events and Resources ====
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Developing your Service Oriented Architecture, Orlando, 1/31/06-2/2/06
As SOA reaches certain levels of maturation in its interoperability goals, we see how SOA makes enterprise requirements a reality. Hear case studies from AG Edwards ~ CNA Insurance ~ Sprint Nextel and more. Windows IT Pro subscribers will receive 20% off! For more info contact: [email protected]

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==== Instant Poll ====

Results of Previous Poll:
The voting has closed in Windows IT Pro's nonscientific Instant Poll for the question, "Will you be migrating to SQL Server 2005?" Here are the results from the 121 votes:
- 10% Yes, we're currently in the process of migrating
- 15% Yes, we're planning to migrate within the next 6 months
- 40% Yes, we'll migrate, but not anytime soon
- 21% We have no plans to migrate to SQL Server 2005
- 15% We don't use SQL Server (Deviations from 100 percent are due to rounding error.)

New Instant Poll:
The next Instant Poll question is, "Do you subscribe to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN)?" Go to the Windows IT Pro home page and submit your vote for a) Yes, and I find it valuable, b) Yes, but I don't find it valuable, c) No, but I plan to, or d) No, and I don't plan to.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/magazine

==== 4. Peer to Peer ====

Featured Thread: How to create multiple bootable disks
Forum user JohhnyBlue wants to know whether he can simply copy bootable disks or does he need to use a utility to create them. If you can help, join the discussion at the following URL:
http://forums.windowsitpro.com/web/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=47&threadid=44314&enterthread=y

Tip: Can I disable the Message Transfer Agent (MTA) on Microsoft Exchange Server 2003?
by John Savill, http://www.windows2000faq.com

Find the answer here:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=48451

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