I just installed Symantec Backup Exec 11d and was somewhat surprised that there are no major changes to the core product, the good old backup tool that copies your files to tapes. Then, why did Symantec release a new version? The major changes come with Continuous Protection Server (CPS), which was originally planned as a stand-alone product. Since version 10d, CPS has become a component of Backup Exec. It seems that Symantec focuses now on Continuous Data Protection (CDP) . This raises the question, whether conventional backup tools will soon vanish from our server rooms.

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You can now download Microsoft’s new command line shell and scripting language. If you don’t run an English Windows version, make sure that you also get the Multilingual User Interface Package. It is interesting to note that there is not yet a version for Windows Vista. You can download Windows Powershell 1.0 RC2, but it is only for Vista RC1. There seems to be a big interest in Powershell, judging from the number of comments in the relatively new Powershell blog. However, I think, most Windows administrators will need some time to make friends with the idea of going back to the command line, like in the good old times of MS DOS. Okay, Powershell is a bit more powerful.

Microsoft Forefront Client Security Beta (formerly Microsoft Client Protection) can now be downloaded at Microsoft Connect. The final of Microsoft’s malware protection software for business desktops, laptops and servers is scheduled for the 2^nd quarter of 2007. I just skimmed over its product description. Forefront Client Security (FCS) could be a very interesting solution for mere Windows shops.

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If you are sys admin you probably know the Sysinternals tools. You might have heard that they were bought by Microsoft a while ago. Meanwhile the tools are available at Microsoft’s Windows Sysinternals technet site. If you don’t know about Sysinternals tools, I highly recommend having a look at them. Many of them are must-have-tools for system administrators. You can download now the complete Sysinternal Suite. I discussed Sysinternals Process Explorer and Sysinternals Autoruns some time ago. There also is a new tool, called Process Monitor, which combines the functionality of Filemon and Regmon.

I was quite surprised when someone from Microsoft told me that DPM v2 Beta 1 not only allows backups of Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint, but also supports tape libraries. This would make DPM v2 a serious competitor to backup tools like Symantec Backup Exec or CA ARCserve. It made me quite curious to try DPM v2. Microsoft’s latest CDP solution certainly is an interesting backup tool. However, Beta 1 has one major shortcoming.

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BareTail from Baremetalsoft is a free Windows tool that allows you to view large log files in real-time. It displays new entries immediately after they were added. BareTail doesn’t load the complete file before it is displayed. This way you can work with very large files without any delays.

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Every year or so, I search for a new way to highlight and annotate text in Web pages. As an IT professional, I am a knowledge worker. So I don’t just read information on Web pages, I work with them. Since Web browsers only allow you to read Web pages, I often convert the more important ones to a PDF and work with them in Adobe Acrobat (the full version, not the Reader). There, I can highlight text, create annotations, and search through all my documents, annotations, and highlighted text with ease. However, this method has become obsolete since I found Diigo. Diigo is the most powerful social bookmarking service I’ve ever seen. It has many features and I will introduce some of them in this post.

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Yesterday, Microsoft started a virtualization program offering Windows Server 2003 R2, Exchange Server 2007 (beta), and SQL Server 2005 installed as trial software on virtual machines for download. I downloaded the VM with Windows Server 2003 R2 to try this new service today.

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If your desktop machine runs Windows and you have to edit files on a Linux server, then you usually work with an SSH/SFTP client like WinSCP. The problem with such tools is that they don’t allow you to access files the way you’re used to under Windows, i.e., with Windows Explorer or from other Windows applications. What you need is a tool that enables you to map a folder on a Linux box to a Windows driver letter. SftpDrive and WebDrive are two easy-to-use tools that do just that. You’ll see that this makes working with files on a Linux machine much more convenient.

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Some time ago, I wrote an article where I compared the capabilities of Firefox with Internet Explorer in a corporate environment. My conclusion was that Firefox is no rival to IE in this field. I planned to check the situation again after Firefox 2.0 and IE7 came out, but a NetworkWorld article convinced me that it is not worth the time. It seems that the situation is pretty much the same.

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