Exchange 2010 added to WSUS

Microsoft has added a new category to WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) for the recently RTM’ed Exchange 2010.

WSUS: New Product Family Name for Visual Studio

According to the WSUS blog “Very soon, the "Visual Studio" product family will be renamed to "Developer Tools, Runtimes, and Redistributables".

Microsoft plans to distribute various developer-related products through Windows Server Update Services, including Report Viewer 2005 and Report Viewer 2008.

Any updates for Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008 will be available under this new category.

Source: TechNet Blogs

Download System Center Essentials 2010 Beta

Microsoft has just released the beta version of System Center Essentials 2010. This is the second version of the product, which is heavily based on Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) but provides additional features for midsize businesses.

One of the new features in this release is the ability to automatically distinguish between physical and virtual servers and manage them accordingly.

Microsoft® System Center Essentials 2010 provides IT professionals in mid-sized organizations, a unified physical and virtual management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment.

What’s new in System Center Essentials 2010

Watch this video (11:13) from Tech-Ed 2009, containing a live product demo.

In order to download the beta (819.2 MB - 4851.1 MB) you need to register first.

The Essentials 2010 Beta can be evaluated for 180 days and allows for management of up to 50 servers and 500 client computers.

FCS update re-offering problem resolved

It seems like the WSUS team continues to face problems publishing updates.

This time, an update released for Forefront Client Security installed successfully without issues but afterwards another FCS update of previous version (1.0.1703.0) would be offered to the client. If the Client Update for Microsoft Forefront Client Security (1.0.1703.0) package attempted to install, it would fail as there would already be a later version of the FCS Antimalware engine on the system.

Consequently, the KB971026 update would be continually offered and continually fail to install.

Microsoft has re-released the (older) Client Update for Microsoft Forefront Client Security (1.0.1703.0) package. WSUS Administrators should sync their servers to get the updated metadata.

The issue did not affect home users running Forefront Client Security as part of an enterprise benefit, since Microsoft Update did not seem to face the problem (or was very quickly fixed).

Source: Forefront Client Security Support Blog

Forefront Client Security update released

As Microsoft announced yesterday, an update for Forefront Client Security anti-malware client has been released today. This update fixes several issues, including a new shortcut scanning behavior that allows overriding network location link (.lnk) scanning.

Even though .lnk scanning override is included with the update, it has to be explicitly enabled by the Administrator either through the local policy or through Active Directory by using a Group Policy administrative template (ADM) file, since this option is not manageable through the Forefront Client Security management console. Detailed information on how to achieve this, alongside more information about this hotfix, is available at Microsoft Support KB971026.

The updated client requires that definition update version 1.59.3.0 or a later version is installed.

Forefront Client Security (FCS) update coming to WSUS

After today’s heat about Morro / Microsoft Security Essentials (here and here), Microsoft is releasing an update to Forefront Client Security v1:

Improvements to the FCS  kernel-mode driver

A change in how the component object model (COM) is used in Software Explorers. There is an issue present, only in Windows 2000, that causes it to crash.

A change to how the FCS engine scans shortcut files(.lnk). The engine can now be configured to query the path to which the shortcut points; if the path is on the local computer it will scan the referenced location, if it is a network location it will not scan the reference

Source: WSUS Product Team Blog

New WSUS Product Categories for Office Communicator R2 releases

There are 2 new product categories being added to the WSUS Products and Classifications dialog, both under the product family “Office Communicator Server and Office Communicator”.

The two new categories are:

Office Communications Server 2007 R2:

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 product category will include updates for the Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2, including service packs, critical and security updates.

Office Communicator 2007 R2:

The Office Communicator 2007 R2 product category will include updates for the Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2 , including service packs, critical and security updates.

Source: WSUS Product Team Blog

WSUS 3.0 SP2 RC Program now available

Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 Release Candidate is available today at the Connect Site (available to all registered and authenticated users of Connect.)

WSUS 3.0 SP2 RC Overview

New Windows Server and Client Version Support

·       Integration with Windows Server® 2008 R2

·       Support for the BranchCache feature on Windows Server 2008 R2

·       Support for Windows 7 client

WSUS Feature Improvements

Auto-Approval Rules

·       Auto-approval rules now include the ability to specify the approval deadline date and time for all computers or specific computer groups.

Update Files and Languages

·       Improved handling of language selection for downstream servers includes a new warning dialog that appears when you decide to download updates only for specified languages.

Easy Upgrade

·       WSUS 3.0 SP2 can be installed as an in-place upgrade from earlier versions of WSUS and will preserve all of your settings and approvals. The user interface is compatible between WSUS 3.0 SP1 and SP2 on the client and the server.

Reports

·       New Update and Computer Status reports provide the ability to filter on updates approved for installation. You can run these reports from the WSUS console or use the API to incorporate this functionality into your own reports.

Software Updates

·       Stability and reliability fixes for the WSUS server, such as support for IPV6 addresses greater than 40 characters.

·       The approval dialog now sorts computer groups alphabetically by group name.

·       Computer status report sorting icons are now functional in x64 environments.

·       Fixed setup issues with database servers running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008.

·       A new release of Windows Update Agent is included with WSUS 3.0 SP2 that provides improvements and fixes, such as support for APIs called by non-local system callers in a non-interactive session.

Source: Technet Blogs

New WSUS Product Family - Live Search

Hello WSUS Admins,

Shortly we will be publishing a new top level category (product family) for WSUS – Live Search. The Live Search product family will include updates for all Live Search products. Under this product family we will be creating a category for:

• Search Enhancement Pack – For all updates relating to the Search Enhancement Pack

Source: Technet

Get ready for Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2

Hello WSUS Admins,

The MU team has published information about the upcoming release of Vista and Win2k8 SP2 through WU and WSUS. You can find more information on their blog post here.

Just a heads up to prepare for Windows Vista  and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2. It will be available in the coming weeks on the Download Center (DLC) and also through Windows Update and WSUS. On April 28^th, we announced the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. SP2 includes all updates that were released since SP1. It also includes support for new types of hardware and other technology improvements. For more information on the changes with SP2, see the notable changes document on TechNet.

Here’s a short list of the tools and guidance that’s available for SP2:

· If you’re managing systems that connect directly to WU, you can use the updated Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit to prevent WU from offering SP2 to your client computers.

· For more information about SP2, refer to the SP2 Frequently Asked Questions on TechNet.

· For help with deployment related questions, you should read this blog post on the Windows team blog.

Source: Technet Blogs

"Windows 7" appears in WSUS

Here is a screenshot from my WSUS server today morning.

Notice the "Windows 7 Client" category in the Windows family of products.

Update: officially announced on August 21st at WSUS Product Team's blog.