Some weeks ago I wrote about P2V migration for VMware, discussing six different ways to do the job. The growing number of referrals to this post show that this topic is troubling many IT professionals at the moment. Even VMware linked to my site from their Technology Network. Some sites have other useful information about P2V migration which I am going to share in this post. It also provides a list of all P2V products and solutions I’ve found so far. Let me know, if you’ve heard of others. I will add them to this list then.

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Microsoft has a new blog about Windows Vista Security. I guess, the discussions there will be at least as vivid as in the IE blog. The first post is from Ben Fathi, Corporate Vice President, Security Technology Unit.

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Do you know the free Microsoft tool GPinventory? I only installed it now, after reading an article about it at WindowsITPro (subscribers only). GPInventory is very useful if you have to monitor Group Policy Objects (GPOs) deployment in a larger network. In addition, you can use it to gather many interesting information about the computers in your network using WMI queries.

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You can now download Exchange 2007 Beta 2. eWEEK has some screenshots, also on the new Outlook Web Access (OWA). Looks pretty much like Outlook. The review at eWEEK covers the big changes.

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ProcessWatchV2 is a simple, free tool which allows you to automatically:

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Jeff Jones complains about Linux advocates making a baseless assertion that Linux is more secure than Windows. To prove his point he compared vulnerabilities with varying degrees of severity for Windows XP SP2 and Red Hat Desktop 3/4. The results are shocking for every Linux fan. Although, I believe that his vulnerability summary is probably correct, it does not say much about security.

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If you use an imaging tool to deploy Windows, you probably know Microsoft’s free SysPrep tool which is part of the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Deployment Tools. It is useful to configure Windows after the cloning process. Most importantly, it creates a unique SID for the machine. SysPrep Driver Scanner is a free tool which scans a computer for system device drivers and adds them to the sysprep.inf.

If I remember it right, then the next version of Outlook will come with an integrated RSS reader. Perhaps there are users in your company who need a feed reader already now. If you use Outlook as a mail client, then Inclue, a free feed reader supporting RSS, ATOM and OPML, is an interesting option.

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The Neuber Software Security Task Manager rates the security risk of all running Windows processes. The rating is based on criteria, like the ability to record keyboard inputs, if its files are hidden or if the process could manipulate other programs. All in all, I counted 20 similar criteria. There are also criteria which reduce the rating, for example, if it was signed by Microsoft or if you commented the process.
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Smartline DeviceLock allows administrators to lock out unauthorized users from USB and FireWire devices, WiFi and Bluetooth adapters, CD-Rom and floppy drives, serial and parallel ports, and other plug-and-play devices. You can use Group Policy to centrally manage all devices. Check out this review at WindowsITPro for more information.

The Windows Automatic Updates feature is great, however those nagging reboot reminders can drive you crazy. I can only recommend to turn this off.

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Update: The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Vista SP1 replace the Adminpak.

The official name for the so-called Adminpak is Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Tools Pack. For earlier versions, the name of the setup file was admipak.msi, hence the name Adminpak. You will also often find Adminpack. It is a collection of free administration tools which allow you to remotely manage a Windows Server. Basically, they are the same management tools that are installed on a Windows server, the Adminpak just installs them on a workstation.

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If you only edit the registry, every now and then, you probably will get along with the Windows registry editor. However, the more you work in a Windows environment the more you will realize the need to change the registry for many important settings. This is especially true, if you use Group Polices to configure multiple PCs in your network. RegCOPA is a Registry editor, which has some useful features, if you have to access the registry often.

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VMware Server 1.0 is now ready for download. I’ve been waiting for this already for a while. Check out the release notes for the new features.

You can now download Virtual PC 2004 for free. I wonder how VMware will react to this. VMware Workstation certainly is a better product. However, I think that for many Virtual PC is sufficient.