Before we talk further, it’s always about the cost which entices the readers/bosses. Let me do a quick $$ breakdown:

(Sorry – the following will be in Ringgit Malaysia.)

SME (50 users)

- Decent System Administrator: RM3000 (monthly), or RM36,000 (yearly)
- Server hardware (with server redundancy, with license for 50 users): Rm15,000 (one time)
Total: RM51,000

For Microsoft Online Services (with Exchange, OCS, Live Meeting and Sharepoint)

- Rm33/user/month x 50 users x 12 months = Total: RM19,800

As you can see, Microsoft Online is a cheaper alternative to maintain your own IT infrastructure.

This is just a rough estimation.

What do you think?

For more information about Microsoft Online Services, you can click on this link.

This reference allows administrators to easily find existing group policies and implement them with relative ease.

All in all GroupPolicySearch is an extremely handy reference with the added coolness of being hosted in the cloud on the Azure platform .

Without going into too much detail – People have identified that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 does have a console built-in. This console is hidden (prob because its just built on top of CoD 4/WaW tech or for dev purposes) but can be unlocked using an injector tool to trick the game into letting you use it.

So what’s wrong with this? Well  MW2, with IWNet was never deployed to allow people to customize servers using console commands. It was meant to be a fair, basic and straightforward player matching system. By throwing console access into the mix the server host is able to change settings on the fly and thus radically change the game for anyone connected to his server.

If you go on youtube and have a hunt around you will see a raft of videos depicting servers where people have what would usually be unattainable “perks and abilities” (e.g. unlimited ammunition and flight)… Not to mention the ability for the server to switch between field of views and game modes at whim.

So today after learning about this hack for the first time, went exploring to see the mayhem for myself. Upon entering a hacked server everything appears routine but its quickly evident things are not normal – the biggest problem being that kills are worth about 5,000,000 xp a piece – thus ranking you to the highest rank (70) at the drop of a hat.

Now I know that most people are familiar with this by now, and most people feel cheated out of their rank… You are lead into what you would think would be a legitimate server you found through IWNet only to find you are ranked up against your choice….

…So how do we get our old rank back?

Well, this is where Windows (Vista/Se7en) comes in handy – provided you have system restore enabled.
Ill run over it very quickly since it isn’t exactly hard. (Close steam down first)

1. Navigate to your steam directory (for me: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam)
2. Open User-data folder and then the folder with in that (numbered string). Within that folder will be a folder named 10190 – Back this up!.
3. Right click on this folder and select Restore previous version, navigate through the dates to a time/date that’s appropriate (just before you were duped by hacked servers) and select the restore button. (If the restore button is not available you can simply double click on the the correct folder in the list (opens new window). Replace everything in the original 10190 folder with the contents of this restored folder – make sure you replace everything *rather important*
4. Navigate to the CoD MW2 main folder (for me: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2) and do the same as step 3 but for the players folder
5. Re-open steam and launch CoD MW2 Multi-player – This should upload your backup to the cloud and overwrite previous stats – Play a round and complete it to make sure everything is sync’ed accross.

Hopefully you can understand my (probably needlessly complicated) instructions – I know I managed to get my previous rank back to normal.
I would advise however, if you do search for games on IWNet, have a look at players before rounds begin – make sure its not full of prestige 10 players or look for irregularities such as 18 people in a 3rd person cage match.
If you have any questions/comments post em’ blow – I’m tired, time for bed

Patrick Squire – Post originally from here (for all those sites that just rip our content off)

The glitch is to do with the retail version only (as far as I know) and happens In Act II after you finish the gulag mission, where you get rescued by helicopter/rope  after rescuing price from the prison.

Just as you clip on a cut scene would usually display, but for some reason the game crashes with the following error.

ERROR: Could not find zone ‘dcburning.ff’

If you check your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2\zone\english (This directory will vary based on your OS/Language) The file exists – so what gives?

Truthfully, I don’t know either but the only fix is to rename or delete dcburning.ff and then validate the game on steam (Right click on Modern Warfare 2 – Hit properties > Click local files tab and select verify integrity of game cache) . The validation will fail and then download the file again -this time allowing your game to run correctly.

Any questions, please ask.

Using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Before you run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool, make sure that you have already purchased Windows 7 ISO download from Microsoft Store and have downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to your hard drive. If you have purchased Windows 7 but have not yet downloaded the ISO file, you can download the file from your Microsoft Store Account. [Jabez: If you purchased the boxed set, just create an ISO from the CD by using ImgBurn, and follow the steps below.]

To make a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file:

1. Click the Windows Start button, and click Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool in the All Programs list to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool.
2. In the Source File box, type the name and path of your Windows 7 ISO file, or click Browse and select the file in the Open dialog box.
3. Select USB to create a copy on a USB flash drive or DVD to create a copy on a DVD disk, then click Next.
4. If you are copying the file to a USB flash drive, select your USB device in the dropdown list and click Begin copying. If you are copying the file up to a DVD, click Begin burning.

Source: Microsoft’s site.

Just like they did for Vista, Microsoft are giving away free copies of Windows 7 as a “thank you for testing”.

After the Vista beta was complete, testers got the opportunity to download a Vista image to use with the CD key they were given. While this is still the case, Microsoft are giving away a few boxed copies as well .

The survey is up on connect now – sooo… If you were a Windows Se7en Technical BETA tester jump at the opportunity to get yourself a copy on Microsoft.

Oh, And I am pretty sure its open to Anyone on the Beta – not only to those who submitted bugs like the Vista Beta

Today I am proud to announce our forum is back online as a result of a partnership with winxperts.net.

We are not closing our doors we will still post great news, we have just identified the mutual sharing of forums to be the best for both parties drawing in more users for both sites as well as the ability for users to communicate with a greater member audience.

So what now:

If you already had a MSBLOG forum login, chances are you can login to the new forum (if you remember you password) .
IF YOU DONT HAVE A FORUM ACCOUNT, what are you waiting for come join and get amongst the discussion.

Check out the Forum HERE

As a treasured member of Microsoft’s technical communities, you are invited to join us in this first ever held round of major gathering, Community Technology Update in Kuching, Malaysia. The event is about sharing and bringing together like minded folks like you together and helping to drive community awareness and event.

The brainchild and initiative of 4 Musketeers (Chan Ming Man, Patrick Yong; Jabez Gan and Walter Wong) and run by the Kuching community and for the community, this half day ‘devInTown‘ affair will uncover the cool and latest technologies surrounding , Windows Presentation Foundation, LINQ and Windows 7 – delivered by our very own Microsoft MVPs. Each session will last for 45mins and will include a community sharing session whereby we will bring you up close and personal with the MVPs and hear them share their community experiences. We will wrap things up with an interactive Q&A session to answer all your burning technical queries.

For more information regarding this event, please take a look at this link.

Microsoft announced this week that it will begin providing on-demand access to the full versions of retail video games. That means titles like BioShock (6 Ggigabytes) and Mass Effect (7 GB) can be downloaded through the Xbox Live online gaming service, which has more than 17 million members. The growth of these type of bandwidth-draining services has been a major driver in Microsoft’s decision to build its own content delivery network.

This news is hot on the heels of the planned purchase of a new Chicago Data-center worth 185 Million.

Jeff Cohen, the general manager of Microsoft’s Edge Computing Network, discussed the company’s content delivery infrastructure in his May 11 keynote at the first Content Delivery Summit. Cohen said video delivery accounted for just 10 percent of Microsoft’s content delivery in 2007, but has since grown to 40 percent, consuming as much bandwidth as the company’s “large file” downloads of software and security updates.

“The content is exploding,” Cohen said at the event, part of Streaming Media East. But the barrier to entry for the CDN market is steep. ”It takes a huge amount of capital to get into this space, even for Microsoft.”

That’s why Microsoft uses its Edge Content Network to deliver about 40 percent of the content on its network, while farming out the remaining 60 percent to existing CDN partners including Akamai (AKAM), Limelight Networks (LLNW), Level 3 (LVLT) and ChinaCache.

As Neowin points out, it may well not be for absolutely everyone, but it does appear to be so. Confirmation will be needed from Microsoft but as of yet, they are not commenting on this. Still, if it works for you, you will have access to a wealth of Office, Windows and Dynamics software for three months for absolutely nothing.

Once you make your way through the online “ordering” process, you will receive an email confirmation shortly afterwards. This will provide you with download links and your access information to begin downloading.

Hmmph looks like the rest of us miss out.

This post was retrieved from Zack W’s blog @ http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration (check it out)- hopefully he dosen’t mind

[Update]: Ars Technica is reporting that this offer may not be for one year as first thought, but only three months. Never-the-less, it’s best to get in early and make the most of this while you can.

[Update 2]: It appears as though there are errors in requesting keys and we are hearing that this offer may have been limited to a select few rather than public. Microsoft has not officially responded to requests for comment. (Neowin)

Check out Kristan Keeny’s Site for latest update

“Microsoft is committed to ensuring that IT professionals and developers continue to have the platform and technologies to drive maximum value and business results. Getting the most out of IT investments is even more important in today’s economy,” Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte said in a prepared statement. “It is these very skills that make them so valuable and why we constantly strive to empower them with an integrated suite of products and technologies that help them anticipate and respond quickly to changing business requirements. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.” Veghte also confirmed that Windows 7 would ship before the end of the year. “With early RC testing and extensive partner feedback we’ve recived, Windows 7 is tracking well for holiday availability.”

Wow 2 Blog posts within a week…whats up with that?
Regardless of this miracle Microsoft just let the guys on the SP2 Beta that its RTM’ed and available for download-Here’s an excerpt of what they said to us:

Hello SP2 Beta testers…The following message was released…

 

Today we are proud to announce the launch of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.  Service Pack 2 (SP2) represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement.  It includes all of the updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards.  And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support.  For an overview of the changes introduced in SP2 check out the notable changes document.

 

Consumers with Windows Vista SP1 don’t need to do anything special to get SP2; simply turn on Windows Update and sometime during the coming months your computer will download and prompt you to install SP2.  Business customers with Windows Vista will find that the transition to Windows 7 will be significantly more straightforward due to the high degree of compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7.  If your Windows Vista SP1 deployment is already underway we recommend you continue with SP1 as planned.  Then you can deploy SP2 using your systems management infrastructure.  If you are in the early stages of deployment or still planning Windows Vista deployment our best advice is that you plan on testing and deploying Windows Vista SP2. 

 

So there you have it…Go grab a copy from Technet and check out the notable changes here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335036.aspx

Regards,

Patrick Squire

Today whilst opening up the default MSN homepage in I.E I was stunned to find that it had been hacked by “Peace Crew”.

I asked Nathan Mercer at MSFT what the story was and apparently the Hijackers stole the DNS entry from their registrar and redirected.

Windows Server had no part to play in this incident the attackers simply took the site down at a higher level. Looks like not everyone is immune to hackers then huh.

http://www.msn.co.nz

An output of their DNS entries shows:

Edit: Appears to be fixed now

Edit2: Looks like they took over a raft of New Zealand websites including WindowsLive.co.nz, MSN.co.nz, Microsoft.co.nz, Hotmail.co.nz, Live.co.nz next to HSBC.co.nz, Sony.co.nz, Coca-Cola.co.nz, Xerox.co.nz, Fanta.co.nz, F-Secure.co.nz and BitDefender.co.nz. (http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3185)

Do you want to get certified, but it’s too expensive? I have great news for you! From now till  April 31st, you can get a 10% discount off Microsoft certification exams. To get the 10% discount, just follow the easy steps below:

1. Go to http://www.learnandcertify.com/

2. Use the voucher code: MY3909BC

3. Schedule an exam and you are ready to go!

Again, this offer ends on April 31st, so what are you waiting for? Get certified now! And the above voucher is only for Malaysia.

A short blog post – But check out the list of Win 7 Secrets over at Tim Sneaths MSDN blog… Its deff worth a read!!!

(Little secrets built into Win 7 that increase productivity and make it a more easier/powerful tool to use .  )

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx

For the very first time, we’ll showing a 2 hour Microsoft client and server platform demo-relay and *drum roll* a sneak preview of Windows 7!

Go to www.microsoft.com/malaysia/events/technetmsdn/ to reserve a seat. Please note that agenda(especially keynote) in the website is not updated, we’ll have the website updated with finalized topics by end of this week.

Our first session of Hands On Lab is listed as below:

Topic: Overview of Hyper-V & System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
Date: 20th December, 2008
Time: 9AM – 1PM
Location: APIIT, Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil
Fee: FREE

Objectives

Virtualization is the future of IT world. In this seminar will briefly describe the overview for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology and the power of System Center virtual machine manager 2008. After this seminar, the participants should have more basic understanding on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology and as well as System Center Virtual machine manager 2008.

Source: http://elite.net.my/blogs/announcements/archive/2008/11/26/Announcing-Hands-On-Lab-Sessions-by-ELITE-_2D00_-An-overview-of-Hyper_2D00_V-_2600_-SCVMM.aspx

Edit*: The beta for CoD WAW has now cloed – however the following information still does apply to some users of the RTM game.

I know this isn’t really related to Microsoft in any way but the public beta for Call of duty World At War has just come out and I am a huge fan. You can download yourself a free copy of the game if you go to http://www.callofduty.com/ and register to get a serial number and a download link.

If you are running a Vista machine you will most likely run into some difficulties when running the game for the first time after installation. These errors are:

-Message box displaying missing d3dx9_37.dll (or something along those lines)
-Message Box displaying: “Error during initialization: Unhandled exception caught”

To remedy these problems do the following:

The Missing DLL file (d3dx9_36.dll) is attributed to an outdated version of Microsoft DirectX. Simply point your browser to here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en) to download the Microsoft DirectX 9/10 web download application. This will determine the version of DirectX installed on your system and apply the latest SDK updates accordingly.

After this install is complete the error should no longer appear and the game should run fine.

The second error: “Error during initialization: Unhandled exception caught” is a stupid error attributed to the Way the game uses the Windows Vista playback Device.

To remedy this problem click:
Start>Control Panel>Sound

Right Click on the default playback device (e.g. Speakers) and click properties. From there select the Advanced tab.
To eliminate this error the default playback format must be set at 24 bit 48000Hz (Studio Quality). Simply select this from the dropdown list and apply the settings.

Try launching the game now-Everything should run fine.

 Any Questions or comments-don’t hesitate to post them below.

-Patrick (>DDC<Ping)

Edit: Looks like the beta has closed down-we’ll soon see if these errors happen in the full version released in the states today & New Zealand on friday

Edit2: Thanks to xGame (see his comment below):
to any1 having problem with “error during intialization…” in xp go to: control panel->phone and modem options->modems->remove the modem/modems you are not using

Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers.

To build these applications and services, developers can use their existing Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 expertise. In addition, Windows Azure supports popular standards and protocols including SOAP, REST, and XML. Windows Azure is an open platform that will support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments.

 What is the Azure Services Platform?

There is a new logo for .NET now, so it is change from

into

The following are the blog from the .NET Team about the new logo.

Why did we do it?

We needed a logo that was in sync with the key values that we want .NET to stand for: consistency, robustness and great user experiences. We also wanted a logo that conformed to the design principles that are driving Microsoft’s brand identity evolution and is reflected in newer brands such as Silverlight, Surface and more.  Finally, we needed a logo that is more strongly aligned with the portfolio of brands that .NET is most strongly aligned with: Silverlight, Visual Studio and the AppPlat server products.

The result is a design we refer to as the “wave.”  The design is strong, simple and distinctive. The suggestion of the letter ‘N’ in the design will become instantly recognizable over time as shorthand for the .NET brand name.

It’s one of many things we’re actively doing to renew our commitment to the future around the overall Rich Platforms we have today.

Hope all have fun at PDC2008 and you’ll see glimpses of what I mean there

Onwards and embrace the new .NET logo!