A lot of stuff went on while I was away on vacation. Visual Studio 6, Service Pack 6 is now available for download, or you can order it on CD for the price of shipping.

Service Pack 6
Microsoft Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++ 6.0 with Visual SourceSafe 6.0d addresses known issues with Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++ 6.0 and Visual Source Safe 6.0. This service pack does not contain fixes for Visual InterDev 6.0, Visual FoxPro 6.0, and Visual J++ 6.0, as the mainstream life-cycle for these products has ended.

Yesterday we posted the Visual C++ Toolkit 2003. This toolkit includes the full Visual C++ 2003 optimizing compiler. If you're already using Visual Studio .NET 2003, then you don't need to download this toolkit unless you just want to see what this is all about. The information page for the toolkit includes links to 4 articles that are designed to show different features of the compiler and it also includes a small FAQ that describes the toolkit in more detail. Here's a link:

Visual C++ Toolkit 2003

I see they picked this up already at ActiveWin. I'll add a headline link to the Visual C++ Developer Center on Monday.

Kang Su Gatlin is featured in a new episode of MSDN TV. This episode features some cool demos so it's really worth a look:

Using High Performance Features in Visual C++ In this episode, learn how to make use of some new features added to Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2005. These include adding OpenMP to your application, optimizing your application with Profile-Guided Optimization, and building a 64-bit application.

Nishant S has written an excellent introductory C++/CLI article for The Code Project. From the article:

What C++/CLI gives us?

• Elegant syntax and grammar -This gave a natural feel for C++ developers writing managed code and allowed a smooth transition from unmanaged coding to managed coding. All those ugly double underscores are gone now.
• First class CLI support - CLI features like properties, garbage collection and generics are supported directly. And what's more, C++/CLI allows jus to use these features on native unmanaged classes too.
• First class C++ support - C++ features like templates and deterministic destructors work on both managed and unmanaged classes. In fact C++/CLI is the only .NET language where you can *seemingly* declare a .NET type on the stack or on the native C++ heap.
• Bridges the gap between .NET and C++ - C++ programmers won't feel like a fish out of water when they attack the BCL
• The executable generated by the C++/CLI compiler is now fully verifiable.

I wanted to get this out early enough so that people can get it on their schedules. There will be a Visual C++ 2005 chat on Thursday, May 6th at 12:00 PM (PST). You can read more about it at the chat link below. Be sure to take advantage of the Add to Outlook feature to add this chat to your Outlook calendar. It should be a good one.

Visual C++ 2005 Beta is Almost Here Maybe Rome wasn't built in a day, but Quake II and PowerPoint running on .NET were. Did you know you could recompile your existing MFC, ATL, COM and Win32 C++ applications with /CLR and start extending them right away with the .NET Framework? The C++ team has been very busy in Visual Studio 2005. The language has been streamlined for .NET development and type system unification without giving up an ounce of Standards conformance.... Bring on your best C++ questions on our next-generation tools!

If you visit the MSDN Security Developer Center, you'll see a headline dealing with a published exploit we're tracking that takes advantage of an issue from MS04-011. Read the information page for the full scoop, but the bottom line is this: If you're running a Web server, you should patch your machines as soon as possible. If you are still evaluating the patch, you should disable PCT support through the registry as described on the page we're linking to and in KB Article 187498.

Information about code that attempts to exploit PCT in SSL
Microsoft is aware of reports of code available on the Internet that seeks to exploit certain issues addressed in our April 13 security updates. This so-called exploit code affects the Private Communications Transport (PCT) protocol, which is part of the Microsoft Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) library.

Today Microsoft posted a paper discussing IPSec to the download center. I've been reading it tonight with great interest. You can check it out here:

Internet Protocol Security for Microsoft Windows Server 2003
The Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system includes an implementation of the Internet Engineering Task Force's Internet Protocol security (IPSec). IPSec, which is also included in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, provides network managers with a key line of defense in protecting their networks. IPSec exists below the Transport layer, so its security services are transparently inherited by applications. IPSec provides the protections of data integrity, data origin authentication, data confidentiality, and replay protection without having to upgrade applications or train users.

Great news. TechNet now has a Security Bulletin RSS feed.

This page on MSDN describes the MSDN feeds available and has links to a few of the different feed readers. As always, the latest Security Bulletin information can be found on the Microsoft Security Bulletin Search page.

Three new security bulletins today:

Security Update for Microsoft Windows (835732): MS04-011
Cumulative Update for Microsoft RPC/DCOM (828741): MS04-012
Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express (837009): MS04-013
Vulnerability in the Microsoft Jet Database Engine Could Allow Code Execution (837001): MS04-014

Yesterday, I mentioned tomorrows Security Bulletin Webcast. Be sure to check that out for more information.

New security guidance posted on TechNet:

Securing Wireless LANs with PEAP and Passwords Securing Wireless LANs with PEAP and Passwords is the second security solution guide for WLANs from Microsoft®. The solution is designed to guide you though the complete life cycle of planning, deploying, testing, and managing a wireless security solution.