Interesting news ...

When Is a Browser Not a Browser? When it's a Gazelle.

Microsoft Research has published a really interesting paper (<http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/gazelle-062909.aspx>) discussing the increased adoption of web based applications (be they cloud services or service applications like internet banking).

"Everyone accepts that applications need to run on operating systems,” Wang says. “However, this has not been the case for Web applications; they depend on browsers to render pages and handle computing resources. Yet browsers have never been constructed to be operating systems. Principals are allowed to coexist within the same process or protection domain, and resource management is largely non-existent.”

In the Gazelle model, the browser-based OS, typically called the browser kernel, protects principals from one another and from the host machine by exclusively managing access to computer resources, enforcing policies, handling interprincipal communications, and providing consistent, systematic access to computing devices.

Mary-Jo Foley sums up the impact of the work that Microsoft Research do, very well below.

It’s worth reiterating that Microsoft hasn’t said when, how or if it plans to commercialize Gazelle. It’s not accurate to call Gazelle the next version of Internet Explorer (or replacement for IE) or a future iteration of Windows. For now, it’s a Microsoft Research project only. (But most Microsoft Research projects do end up ultimately becoming commercialized in some way, often times years after they first debut.)

Taken from http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3231.

Gazelle could have a strong impact of future browser development Microsoft.  Then again ...

Microsoft Security Essentials makes the grade

Microsoft has offered limited downloads (75,000) of Microsoft Security Essentials beta - free antivirus/antispyware replacment for Windows Live OneCare.

it iw worth noting that this beta is available only to customers in the United States, Israel (English only), People's Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only).

Microsoft will limit the number of downloads for the beta of Windows Security Essentials, its new free antivirus software, when it posts the program later today.

Downloads will be capped at 75,000, a Microsoft spokeswoman said late Monday.

Microsoft has pitched the software as a basic antivirus, antispyware product that consumes less memory and disk space than commercial security suites like those from vendors such as Symantec and McAfee, and so is suitable for even low-powered PCs such as netbooks.

"Netbooks are one focus of Windows Security Essentials," said Alan Packer, the general manager of Microsoft's anti-malware team, in an interview last week. "We have tested it on netbooks, and a gigabyte [of memory] is actually plenty." He conceded that on systems with slower processors and limited RAM, however, the software will hit performance, especially when users run multiple applications at the same time. "I don't want to oversell here," Packer said. "There's definitely an impact on netbooks, and although we're trying to minimize [that], you're going to notice it's there."

Microsoft Security Essentials has passed its first anitvirus exam with "flying colurs".  Below is an excert from a ComputerWorld arcticle(<<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9134753&intsrc=news_ts_head>>).

 Microsoft's free security software passed a preliminary antivirus exam with flying colors, an independent testing company said today.

AV-Test GmbH tested Microsoft Security Essentials, the free software Microsoft launched yesterday in beta, on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, putting it up against nearly 3,200 common viruses, bot Trojans and worms, said Andreas Marx, one of the firm's two managers. The malware was culled from the most recent WildList, a list of threats actually actively attacking computers.

"All files were properly detected and treated by the product," said Marx in an e-mail. "That's good, as several other [antivirus] scanners are still not able to detect and kill all of these critters yet."

AV-Test also measured Security Essentials against a set of in-house false positives to see whether the software mistakenly fingers legitimate files, a nightmare for users, who can be left with a crippled computer, and a disaster to the reputation of a security company.

"None of the clean files were flagged as being malicious," noted Marx. "Very good."

AV-Test also examined the program's anti-rootkit skills and its ability to scrub a system of malware it finds with a limited number of samples and "found no reasons to complain," Marx said. "[Security Essentials] is able to remove found malware very well, but further tests against larger sets of samples are required before we can come to a final conclusion."

Marx put to rest the once-rampant rumor that Security Essentials would operate "in-the-cloud" by scanning PCs from Microsoft's servers. "The scanner works with the locally-installed anti-virus and anti-spyware databases -- it doesn't appear to use 'in-the-cloud scanning' methods," he said.

Windows Server 2008 SP2 Hyper-V (and Vista SP2) update

With the focus (quite rightly on) Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the benefits/features of Windows Server 2008 (and Vista) SP2 have largely gone unheralded. SP2 was released three weeks ago and for Windows Server 2008 SP2 the virtualisaytion enhancements include

• final Hyper-V release is an integrated feature in SP2 making it easier and faster to deploy Hyper-V
• scalability enhancements for running on systems with up to 24 logical processors which enables support for up to 192 running virtual machines
• update for Hyper-V when managed with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
• updates for backup/restore of virtual machines with the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

Across both Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2

• integrates the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology
• improves performance for Wi-Fi connections after resuming from sleep mode.
• includes updates to the RSS feeds sidebar for improved performance and responsiveness.
• includes ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media.
• includes Windows Search 4.0, which builds on Microsoft’s search technology with improved indexing and search relevance. It also helps find and preview documents, e-mail (including signed e-mail messages), music files, photos, and other items on the computer. The search engine in Windows Search 4.0 is a Microsoft Windows® service that is also used by programs such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 and Microsoft Office OneNote® 2007. Autotuning Diagnostics in SP2 now interprets current network conditions when implementing Windows scaling. This feature includes full netsh support.
• improves Windows Media Center (WMC) in the area of content protection for TV.
• removes the limit of 10 half open outbound TCP connections. By default, SP2 has no limit on the number of half open outbound TCP connections.

Microsoft launches Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 beta

Surface in the wild - BMW product navigator

Two factor authentication and MS mobile devices (Smartphones and Pocket PC's)

There is increasing focus on the security capability of mobile devices.  This is due to the increase in use (the falling prices makes these devices available on "typical" plans) and increase in capability (simply email is no longer suffice, users want contacts and calendar synchronisation and more companies are adopting mobile applications).  As a result security is increasing important.

Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 is a flexible, end-to-end solution for single-point access of line-of-business (LOB) applications and corporate data on Windows Mobile 6.1 devices.* System Center Mobile Device Manager is designed for efficient control of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices offering reliable, low-cost, and consistent manageability that works well with your existing Microsoft infrastructure. Mobile Device Manager provides secure access to sensitive corporate data on Windows Mobile 6.1 devices in a seamless manner, resulting in a positive end-user experience. By using Mobile Device Manager, organizations are able to address evolving needs around security and management while providing end users with anytime, anywhere access to corporate data through Windows Mobile 6.1 devices. Mobile Device Manager addresses the needs of a mobile workforce in an organization through security management, device management, and a mobile virtual private network (VPN).

SC MDM 2008 offers

• Active Directory/Group Policy Domain Join
• Mobile VPN with Dual Factor Authenticated Access
• Communications and Camera Disablement with Active Directory Group Policy-based Targeting
• Application Allow and Deny
• Device Encryption
• OTA (over the air) Device Provisioning and Bootstrapping
• OTA Software Deployment
• Device Inventory and Reporting
• Helpdesk Console and Role-Based Administration
• Device Wipe

Below is a diagram outlining the deployment architecture.

There is more detailed information available from <http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/mobile/default.mspx>

Windows Server 2008 R2

Also announced at PDC was Windows Server 2008 R2.  There is information available from the Microsoft web site (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/r2.aspx).

There is a lot of information available on the web about the features of Windows Server 2008 R2. 

 bink.nu has some very detailed information on Windows 2008 R2 features such as:

Windows 7 information

There has been lots of excitement resulting from the PDC and HEC announcements concerning Window 7. The Engineering Windows 7 blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/) has a lot of detailed Windows 7 articles from the Windows Engineering team.  The current blog post (http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/11/11/action-center.aspx) covers the PDC and HEC announcements.

There is also information available from the Microsoft website (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/windows7.mspx)

It includes overviews of the key features that customers have been extremely enthusiastic about:

-          Directaccess (VPN-less corp access. Requires WinServer2008 R2)

-          Branchcache (reduced need for expensive WAFS)

-          Search (search federation)

-          Bitlocker (on USB keys, enforced via group policy)

-          Applocker (restrict what a user can install/run)

-          Enhanced VDI (Areo, Multimonitor, video support), plus boot from VHD