Microsoft has given its customers an early holiday present with the first release candidate (RC1) for Windows XP Service Pack 3. Windows XP SP3 RC1 is a pre-release intended for post-beta testing. It also puts to rest the speculation that Microsoft will or will not release a third service pack for Windows XP.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is currently scheduled for full release during the first quarter of 2008, at which time its contents will be fully described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 936929: Release Notes for Windows XP Service Pack 3. Until then, the official description resides in the PDF file Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3. An excellent alternate source of ongoing SP3 information is Paul Thurrott’s Windows XP Service Pack 3 FAQ.

(more…)

People using the MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit books from Microsoft Press should also get a copy of the errata available online for each book. You should be aware of that there are numerous errors in both the text and code examples for several of the MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit books that were not fixed prior to publication.

The following erratas are available at support.microsoft.com and are found by either searching the Support Knowledge Base using the term “Self-Paced Training Kit” or by searching for the specific book’s ISBN number.

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-526): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Windows-Based Client Development Comments and Corrections

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-528): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Web-Based Client Development Comments and Corrections

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-529): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Application Development Comments and Corrections

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0—Application Development Foundation Comments and Corrections Part 1

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-431): Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005—Implementation and Maintenance comments and corrections

Microsoft offers several developer certifications and exams covering various Microsoft technologies including the .NET framework. There are several good reasons for pursuing Microsoft Developer Certifications and for choosing .NET as a framework for your Web and Windows applications:

1. The free Visual Studio Express editions – These are limited but still very functional editions of Visual Studio, which allow you to create applications using many of the topics in the exam objectives.
2. Suitability for beginners – Both the Visual Studio Express editions and several of the exams mentioned in this overview do not require you to be a seasoned developer/programmer. You don’t need to be a mathematician either, although both will obviously be an advantage.
3. Microsoft supports the multiple different languages (and corresponding Visual Studio Express editions) for developing in the .NET 2.0 Framework: Visual Basic, C#, C++, and J#. Depending on the exam, you must choose a language when you start the exam that will be used for the code segments in exam questions. You can usually choose between Visual Basic 2005 and Visual C# 2005, and sometimes Visual C++ 2005.
4. Although the majority is not created for the certification exams covered in this overview, the .NET framework, Visual Studio, and especially Visual Basic and C# are widely supported on the Internet.

The main downside is that the applications you create require the .NET framework, which typically runs on Windows only.

Before we go over the ‘current’ Microsoft Developer certifications let’s have a look at the older ones. The following two certifications are still available for version 1 and 1.1 of the .NET framework:

MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer)

This certification covered several topics over a total of 4 core exams: .NET solution architecture, Web development, Windows development, and XML Web services and server components, and one elective exam. For three of the core exams, candidates can choose between VB and C#.

MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developer)

The MCSD was overkill for many developers so Microsoft created the MCAD, which focuses on building, deploying, and maintain Microsoft Windows and Web applications, while the MCSD also includes analyzing and designing enterprise solutions. The MCAD requires two core exams and one elective.

For those who have a lot of experience with the .NET framework 1.0 and/or 1.1 could still go for the above and possible later upgrade to the following certifications. But in general, it’s better to pursue one of the following newer certifications:

(more…)

A happy Microsoft Windows Zero-Day Wednesday to you all! Microsoft had released its monthly and ongoing series of updates for Microsoft Windows and applications for May 2007. These updates address a total of 19 security vulnerabilities, including two known zero-day vulnerabilities. The zero-day vulnerabilities involve Microsoft DNS Server and Microsoft Word 2000, and exploits have been verified to be in use or have had proof-of-concepts released to the Internet.

The Microsoft DNS Server zero-day vulnerability involves a stack-based buffer overflow in its RPC interface, which allows remote code execution using the account privileges of the DNS Server. This vulnerability affects Windows 2000 Server SP4 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SP2.

The Word 2000 zero-day vulnerability causes Word to crash when performing an undisclosed action, possibly when opening a Word file containing the exploit.

There are also three known remaining zero-day exploits for Microsoft Windows or Microsoft applications that are active but still unpatched. Hopefully, these patches for these vulnerabilities will be released next month.

The remaining updates repair remote execution vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Applications (Word and Excel), Microsoft Exchange, and an ActiveX control associated with the Windows Cryptographic API. There is also a cumulative security update for Internet Explorers 6 and 7 which also fix several remote code execution vulnerabilities. These patches apply to Windows 2000, XP, Media Center, Vista, and Server 2003.

If you need to know more details about this month’s Microsoft Windows updates or the problems they address, please visit the links below. See you next month!

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for May 2007

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summaries and Webcasts

eEye Digital Security - Microsoft Patch Disclosure - May 2007