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On June 30, 2006, security updates, incident support, and the custom support agreement will no longer be available for Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows ME customers. Existing support documents will continue to be available through the Microsoft Product Solution Center websites.
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End of support for Windows 98 and Windows Me
Published: January 6, 2006 | Updated: January 18, 2006
June 30, 2006 will bring a close to Extended Support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me as part of the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy. Microsoft will retire public and technical support, including security updates, by this date.
Existing support documents and content, however, will continue to be available through the Microsoft Support Product Solution Center Web site. This Web site will continue to host a wealth of previous How-to, Troubleshooting, and Configuration content for anyone who may need self-service.
Microsoft is retiring support for these products because they are outdated and can expose customers to security risks. We recommend that customers who are still running Windows 98 or Windows Me upgrade to a newer, more secure Microsoft operating system, such as Windows XP, as soon as possible.
Customers who upgrade to Windows XP report improved security, richer functionality, and increased productivity.
Need to upgrade your software?
Learn how to upgrade to Windows XP Professional
Buying a new computer?
Consider a Media Center PC with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
A growing number of companies are searching for tested solutions that will enable their employees to work more efficiently in a wide variety of locations. With this growth, there is a real need for partners with expertise in developing solutions around the Microsoft® Office System.
For your customers who desire to make better decisions, work more productively, and collaborate in ways that allow them to better arm themselves against their competition, the Microsoft Office System, which has evolved from a personal productivity tool to a comprehensive system with programs, servers, services and solutions, will continue to be the platform that unleashes untapped revenues and business potential.
Through the Information Worker Partner Engagement Program you will have access to sales, marketing, and technical resources designed to assist you with delivering Information Worker solutions. Additionally, we will provide you with guidance on how to best begin taking advantage of these resources to most effectively support your Information Worker business.
Once enrolled in the Partner Engagement Program:
Get Trained — Guidance on how to get started is provided through Flight Paths, modules designed to lead you through sales, marketing and technical activities.
The Sales & Marketing Flight Path is designed to increase your ability to effectively bring an Information Worker solution to market and grow an Information Worker practice.
The Technical Flight Path leads you through achievement of the Microsoft Information Worker Solutions Competency, the best way to differentiate yourself as an Information Worker partner and grow your technical abilities to deliver Information Worker solutions.
Access Sales, Marketing, and Technical Resources — Increase your ability to effectively bring an Information Worker solution to market with resources to assist from design to delivery.
Share Your Sales Success — We encourage you to share your Office Professional 2003 sales success and become eligible to win incentive points and monthly awards.
Get ready now and start realizing the benefits.
Go to https://partners.microsoft.com/pep/cnp to enroll today.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/jan06/01-24PartnerSite.mspx
Supporting Partners: Microsoftpartnerevents.com Web Site Hits the Technology Sweet Spot
Interactive registration, coordination and information save time and money for Microsoft industry partners planning events.
REDMOND, Wash. , Jan. 24, 2006 — When Microsoft launched the Microsoft Partner Events (MPE) Web site, located at microsoftpartnerevents.com, the idea was to create a platform of solutions and services that Microsoft's industry partners could use 24 hours a day as self-service support for their Microsoft-related happenings.
Today the site is used by more than 2,700 partner organizations across the United States to facilitate events as diverse as wine tastings, golf tournaments, harbor cruises, classroom training sessions and banquets, as well as traditional technology briefings held at hotels, conference centers and offices. In less than two years since the site was created, partners have used it to manage more than 6,600 events.
“There was one event that went from one side of Niagara Falls to the other,” says Michael Moore, a program manager with MPE. “We’re consistently amazed by the creativity that partners have shown and the events they’ve produced. Because we keep the definition of ‘event’ kind of neutral, the site can be used in a lot of different ways, and so you see that creativity come out.”
Primarily created as a tool to provide Web-based event registration, e-mail reminders and participant tracking, microsoftpartnerevents.com also provides a content library of more than 50 topics, and helpful articles with advice for partners on marketing their events, presenting event content and driving demand through the recently added Partner Readiness Center.
“The Partner Readiness Center is a new feature designed to help partners plan and execute successful events through a series of trainings on organizing an event, along with templates, timelines, checklists, and other handy tools,” Moore said. “Additional resources help fine-tune soft skills such as marketing, sales and presenting, and show partners how to improve the quality of leads.”
Ready Registration for Partners' Events
The Partner Readiness Center shows how far the site has come in providing a holistic resource for partner events, but according to Moore, the registration functionality remains the site’s bread and butter.
“In terms of sheer usefulness, Web-based event registration is something that a lot of people take for granted,” Moore says. “It may seem simple, but to build that kind of Web functionality on your own can be an arduous process. We want to make this something that’s quick and easy for our partners. It gives them that professional look and feel that we know they’re looking for, and that their customers expect.”
The sheer usefulness of registration isn’t lost on Rob Lloyd of Microsoft Gold Partner Synergy Business Solutions, Inc. As client relationship manager for the Northwest-based business solutions firm, Lloyd manages an ongoing slate of classroom training programs that covers a tri-state area. At any given time, Lloyd may have 28 classes or more in the works, scheduled up to four months in advance.
“Imagine manually tracking registration for 28 classes,” Lloyd says. “Who’s registered, who’s not, who’s coming, who’s cancelled, who got what reminder. It’s really a great use of technology to be able to automate all of that. When you think of what goes into just one of these classes, there’s more to it than meets the eye, and this site has been very useful in helping to alleviate that pressure.”
Using the site, partners can set up an event for registration using supplied templates or their own custom design in a matter of minutes. Events managed through the site flow through to a customer-facing site, clicktoattend.com, where attendees can register, as well as find new events of interest. Both sites are very simple and easy for partners and customers to use.
“The site is helpful in increasing registration in our classes, because it’s so easy for customers to become a part of it,” Lloyd says. “They don’t have to call or e-mail. They can just click on the ‘register now’ button and enter a little bit of information.”
Once participants register, the site provides a confirmation e-mail, as well as reminder messages a week and two business days prior to the event. According to Moore, this is one critical feature the site employs to help ensure that events are well attended.
“Typical drop off in attendance that we see around this industry is about 50 percent,” Moore said. “So anything that we can do to try and mitigate that and make sure that more people attend once they register, we’ll do.”
Those efforts include the reminder messages, the support provided by the Readiness Center to help partners better market their events, and also a Microsoft Outlook feature that customers can use when they register, which puts the event on their Microsoft Outlook calendar with all of the pertinent details.
Hundreds of Leads Generated
Another frequent user of the site is Debbie Besaw of Interlink, a premier provider of services and solutions based on Microsoft products across the United States. Besaw runs events across six cities, as well as national webcasts on topics that span the entire stack of Microsoft technologies.
In all, Besaw coordinates upwards of 50 events each year through microsoftpartnerevents.com. She estimates that in 2005, these events generated more than 250 leads that created almost US$7 million in potential business. The company’s successful “Impact” technology briefing series runs regularly in Seattle, Denver, Portland and California. With so many events to manage, Besaw says, the MPE site has made her life much easier.
“We certainly run the gamut of events, but prior to the MPE site we had no web-registration capabilities of our own,” she says. “We either did phone-based registration, or worked with someone from Microsoft to set up registration through their internal system.”
According to Besaw, both of those prior methods had critical flaws that were solved by microsoftpartnerevents.com.
“Phone-based registration for a major event is just plain chaotic,” she says. “And using Microsoft’s internal system meant that they could not provide us with specific customer contact information, due to privacy rules imposed by law.”
Facing these challenges, Interlink jumped at the chance to try out the MPE site when it was launched, and for Besaw, the rest is history. "We became a pilot partner when the site came out in 2004, and by the end of that year we had managed four events through the system,” she says. “We hit our first 100-plus registrant webcast in December 2004.”
Reporting Forms for Partners
Another feature that Besaw appreciates is the site’s ability to create a readily available “paper trail” of registrants, complete with contact information. “We love the reporting format,” Besaw says. “It’s easy to view and download lists of registrants that we can then use internally and for post-event follow up.”
Using the site’s post-event management features, Besaw’s organization is able to pull lists of registrants and sort them by who attended and who didn’t. This allows Interlink to tailor their outreach to registrants after the event, offering supplemental materials such as PowerPoint decks to those who were unable to attend.
Another popular feature for Interlink is the site’s support for multi-partner events so that two or more companies can sponsor an event jointly with a unified look and feel. Both company logos display, and representatives from both organizations can log into the site, view registrations and keep tabs on what’s happening.
“In the past we’ve seen scenarios where one company is managing an event, and the other is left in the dark,” Moore says. “We’ve tried to eliminate that by creating this feature where partners can share an event and manage it together.”
Microsoft Across America
The Microsoft Partner Events site is yet another example of Microsoft’s continual commitment to partners under its Microsoft Across America campaign. It empowers partners with information and resources to help drive their success, so that any one partner of any type can extend their market reach, reduce costs, increase profitability, and deliver innovative solutions that help customers realize their full business potential.
The Microsoft Across America campaign also includes Technical Sales for Technical Specialists (TS2) seminars. The Microsoft TS2 offers firsthand information on Microsoft products and technologies, providing partners with unique insights on how they can make the most of their relationship with Microsoft.
A second aspect of the campaign includes “Connections” – events that bring small businesses together to help drive success through resources, information and face time with experts. The Microsoft Partner Events site features registration tools for Connections co-presenting partner slots, in which a local partner can present alongside Microsoft experts on small business solutions.
The final aspect of Microsoft Across America literally brings technology to your doorstep with Microsoft Mobile Event Experience – a fleet of trucks 42 feet (12.8 meters) in length, loaded with Microsoft and partner hardware and software, that are scheduled for appearances at partner events around the United States.
“These trucks are available for qualifying partners to use in their own events,” Moore says. “We manage the process and the setup and registration around those trucks through microsoftpartnerevents.com.”
The trucks are currently available by invitation only, but plans are in the works to spin that feature into the general self-service area, where partners can apply to use the trucks through the site. According to Moore, that change is only the latest of many in the works for this truly effective web service that is constantly listening for feedback on ways to make life easier for Microsoft’s all-important partner community.
“A lot of these are relatively simple sounding features, but if you look at the fact that more than 2,700 Microsoft partner organizations in the United States are using this service, the resources it would take to support all those events for that number of organizations, it’s a huge time and expense saver that we’ve put in place here for the entire industry, and definitely a great benefit for our partners,” Moore says.
Visit www.ts2seminars.com to register for an event in your area!
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Small Business Edition
Discover Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. It’s the latest product targeted specifically for the small business market to help our partners identify revenue opportunities with their customers since Microsoft Small Business Server. During the interactive session, you’ll learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 3.0 Small Business Edition through live product demos, product updates and learn how position the product to your customers in the small business segment
Shared PC Toolkit
Enhance security to your customers with public internet access. Join us for the Shared PC Toolkit session where you’ll learn how to easily secure public internet access stations such as schools, libraries, internet cafes or businesses with public users. The session will demonstrate how to easily tighten security quickly and prevent downtime and reconfiguration on publicly, high trafficked used Windows XP personal computers.
Enhanced Windows Mobility with Exchange SP2
Experience the Windows Mobility solution. See how Windows Mobile combines the connectivity of a wireless phone with the power and familiarity of a Windows PC experience using the Windows Small Business Server platform to bring users an advanced mobile technology experience to serve growing business needs. During this session, you’ll learn how Microsoft Exchange SP2 and the messaging and security feature pack for mobile 5.0 affords users direct push for immediate mail, GAL lookup to allow for easier triage mail, and the latest security features that prevent automatic lockout and remote data wipe.
Leading Market Intelligence Firm Ranks Microsoft Partner Program at Top of Industry
Microsoft recognized for opportunities and benefits for partners
Mississauga, Ontario. - January 9th, 2006 -- IDC, the premier global provider of market intelligence for the information technology industry, has released a report that names the Microsoft® Partner Program as the industry leader in strategy and opportunities for partners.
The report, titled "Worldwide Software Channel Program 2005 Vendor Profiles,"* reviews and analyzes the partner programs of the top 25 vendors in the software market and places Microsoft Corp. in the lead in relation to its competitors. The Microsoft Partner Program is seen as being structurally strong and providing a competency framework that aligns with customer business issues. The report notes that Microsoft is continuing to deliver on the phased rollout of the Partner Program and making additional investments to improve its partner infrastructure.
The Microsoft Partner Program is the cornerstone of engagement for Microsoft's worldwide network of business partners and the vital link between the company's industry-leading platform and its partners. First launched in 2003, the program was enhanced in 2005 to strengthen the strategic advantage Microsoft's partners have in serving customers.
"It is exciting to receive this IDC validation of the great value that partners enjoy through their participation in the Microsoft Partner Program," said David Willis, Vice President, Small and Mid-Market Solutions & Partners, Microsoft Canada Co. "Our goal is that any one partner of any type can, through a business alliance with Microsoft, extend their market reach, reduce costs, increase profitability and deliver innovative solutions to help customers reach their full business potential. This report is evidence of progressive movement toward realization of that vision."
Partner Program Also Benefits Customers
The Microsoft Partner Program is designed for all partners that develop and market solutions based on Microsoft platforms, provide consulting or technical services for Microsoft systems, or recommend Microsoft technology purchases. The support, training and resources in the Microsoft Partner Program help enable industry partners to extend their market reach, reduce operating costs and help their customers achieve their full business potential.
"Partners have been quite positive about the introduction and development of Microsoft's partner competency and designation framework." said David Martin, Senior Analyst, Customer Segments, IDC Canada. ."Microsoft has raised the bar for its partners with the second version of the partner program and in turn, customers will benefit through more qualified and solution focused partners."
Partners agree that the resources available through the Microsoft Partner Program provide them with strong benefits and enhance their business opportunities. "The broad support we receive from Microsoft gives my business the tools we need to offer total solutions that meet our customers' unique business needs," said John F. Payes, Director Microsoft Global Alliance, Nakisa Inc. & President IAMCP "The Microsoft Partner Program delivers on opportunity."
The full report is available online at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst
About Microsoft Canada
Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Co. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Headquartered in Mississauga, Microsoft Canada has 10 regional offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. For more information on Microsoft Canada, please visit www.microsoft.ca
* Source: IDC, "Worldwide Software Channel Program 2005 Vendor Profiles," #34472, December 2005.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Canada's Web page at www.microsoft.ca
©2005 Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft, FrontPage and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Threats and Countermeasures: Security Settings in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
The Threats and Countermeasures guide provides you with a reference to all security settings that provide countermeasures for specific threats against current versions of the Microsoft® Windows® operating systems. This guide is a companion to two other Microsoft publications: The Windows Server 2003 Security Guide, which is available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=14845, and the Windows XP Security Guide, which is available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=14839. Many of the countermeasures that are described in this guide are not intended for specific computer roles in the companion guides, or in some cases for any roles at all.
The chapters of this guide are structured in a way that approximates how the major sections of settings are displayed in the user interface of the Group Policy Editor. Each chapter begins with a brief explanation of what is in the chapter, followed by a list of subsection headers, each of which corresponds to a setting or group of settings. (These settings are listed in the Microsoft Excel® workbook that is available in the downloadable version of this guide.) Each subsection provides a brief explanation of what the countermeasure does, and includes the following information:
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Vulnerability. Explains how an attacker might mount an attack if the setting is configured in a less secure manner. |
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Countermeasure. Explains how to implement the countermeasure. |
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Potential Impact. Explains the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation. |
Who Should Read This Guide
This guide is intended primarily for consultants, security specialists, systems architects, and IT professionals who are responsible for the planning stages of application or infrastructure development and the deployment of computers that run Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Server 2003 with SP1 in enterprise environments. This guide is not intended for home users.
Guide Overview
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Threats and Countermeasures Guide
This chapter provides a brief overview of the Threats and Countermeasures Guide and explains how the guide is structured.
Chapter 2: Domain Level Policies
This chapter discusses the domain level Account policies, including password policies, account lockout policies, and Kerberos policies.
Chapter 3: Audit Policy
This chapter describes the different settings that apply to auditing and provides examples of audit events that are created by several common tasks.
Chapter 4: User Rights
This chapter details the user logon rights and privileges that are assigned by settings in User Rights Assignment section of the Group Policy editor.
Chapter 5: Security Options
This chapter discusses numerous computer security settings, including those that relate to digital data signatures, Administrator and Guest account names, access to floppy disk and CD-ROM drives, driver installation behavior, and logon prompts.
Chapter 6: Event Log
This chapter discusses the Group Policy settings that can be used to define attributes that relate to the Application, Security, and System event logs.
Chapter 7: System Services
This chapter describes all of the system services that are included with Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.
Chapter 8: Software Restriction Policies
This chapter provides a brief overview of software restriction policies, which are a new feature in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Software restriction policies provide a policy-driven system that allows you to specify which programs are allowed to execute and which are not.
Chapter 9: Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Administrative Templates
This chapter discusses the Administrative Template sections of Group Policy that include registry–based settings that govern the behavior and appearance of computers in a network environment.
Chapter 10: Additional Registry Entries
This chapter provides information about additional registry entries for the baseline security template file that are not defined within the Administrative Template (.adm) file.
Chapter 11: Additional Countermeasures
This chapter describes how to implement certain additional countermeasures—for example, how to secure accounts.
Chapter 12: Conclusion
This chapter of the guide recaps the important points of the material in a brief overview of everything discussed in the previous chapters.
Related Resources
For additional information about the security settings that are described in this guide, download the companion Windows Server 2003 Security Guide at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=14845.
You can read other security solutions from the Microsoft Solutions for Security and Compliance (MSSC) team at www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/sectip/st0805.mspx.
Give Us Your Feedback
The Microsoft Solutions for Security and Compliance (MSSC) team would appreciate your thoughts about this and other security solutions.
Have an opinion? Let us know on the Security Solutions Blog for the IT Professional.
Or e-mail your feedback to the following address: SecWish@microsoft.com. We respond often to feedback that is sent to this mailbox.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Consulting and Support Services
There are many services available to assist organizations in their security efforts. Use the following links to help you find the services you need:
For Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centers, Microsoft Certified Partners, and products from independent software vendors (ISVs) using Microsoft technologies, search the Microsoft Resource Directory at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43094.
To find consulting and support services appropriate for the needs of your organization, visit Microsoft Services at http://support.microsoft.com/msservices.