This guide assists IT professionals who participate in planning and performing Active Directory operations. It provides high-level operations planning information based on best practices learned from customers who have deployed Active Directory. This guide also provides the tasks and step-by-step procedures for maintaining an Active Directory environment.

This download provides the Microsoft Windows Installer Merge Modules (MSM files) needed to distribute the SOAP toolkit with your applications. The SOAP Toolkit can be used to add XML Web Service functionality to COM components and applications.

Windows 2000 SP3 Setup Error Message: The Application Failed to Initialize Properly (0x80000003)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2 Advanced Server

Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2 Professional

Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2 Server

SYMPTOMS

When you apply Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) on a debug version of Windows 2000 that has been upgraded to Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2), you may receive the following error message: Read More

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) provides the latest updates to the Windows 2000 family of operating systems. These updates are a collection of fixes in the following areas: application compatibility, operating system reliability, security, and setup. Windows 2000 SP2 includes the updates contained in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows 2000 SP2 (SP2). Windows 2000 SP3 is not considered a required upgrade. To determine whether to install Windows 2000 SP3, Microsoft recommends that customers review the Windows 2000 SP3 documentation

It seems that Microsoft now updated their servers with what appears to be the final version of Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. More information will be posted as it becomes available. Read more for the download link.

Well it seems that M$ have updated their DirectX 8.1b end-user Redistributable! because this release is dated 26 Jul 2002? No word on what's new.

This download provides the end-user Redistributable that developers may include with their product. The redistributable license agreement covers the terms under which developers may use the Redistributable. If you choose to distribute the Redistributable Code, you must include the files as specified listed in the Redist Directory Read Me file.

Download the Office XP Web Services Toolkit 2.0 which Brings the power of XML Web services to Office XP with this new toolkit, which now supports SOAP 3.0 and complex data types.

M$ have released the eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 Service Pack 1 that allows eVC4 users to target Windows CE .Net 4.0 and 4.1 devices. Must be installed on top of existing eVC4 installations.

Just got this Info from iexbeta.com in my email box.

Thanks to the folks over @ #Winbeta on DALnet for this info: Only a few days after the official release of the Windows .NET Server Release Candidate 1, an internal post-RC1 build 3667 has been leaked to the net! However, further details on this new build are not available @ this time.

Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac allows you to connect to a Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that computer from your Macintosh computer. To use Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac, you need network access and permissions to connect to a Windows-based computer running Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Services.

This update resolves the "DeadLock Occurs Between Two Threads of System GDI in Windows 2000" issue in Windows 2000 and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q322842. Download now to prevent your computer from not responding if you utilize user-defined fonts or characters.

This update provides a solution for corporate administrators who download Dynamic Update, and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q322069. Corporate administrators can download Dynamic Update 1.3 to a network installation share, so users can install Windows XP with the updates included in Dynamic Update 1.3.

The FrontPage PayPal Purchase Button Wizard is the quickest and easiest way to add e-commerce to your business Web site. Create payment buttons and shopping cart functionality in under an hour, and start accepting credit cards online with PayPal immediately.

Neowin reports:

Because most of us aren't used to this new XP yet, BetaOne said that they tried 75 keys or so and that it didn't work, well obviously after receiving, I decided to test this out, and found out why BetaOne was having trouble slipstreaming SP1 into a corp CD.

Everyone has forgotten that when MS made XP Retail and Corp (Pro) they used two algorithm's, and the beta of SP1 that is out is NOT for Corp, its for RETAIL, this I found after a friend messaged me and asked for help since he wanted to try slipstreaming and locked himself out, after having him test a corp key and to no avail I asked him to test a retail key I had laying around, and the system took it.

So it seems B1 was partly right, Slipstreaming doesn't work, because the keys do change, to retail. Which makes the most sense of this over-hyped bizarre whining of the warez world.

Planet-XP got their fingers on some nice screenshots of Windows.NET Server RC1 - German version. Head over and take a look here.

The rumor, which was started by a small technology enthusiast Web site, had Microsoft changing the product keys for all of its customers using volume licensing. This rumors has since spread across the Internet and been embellished in various ways, including a version from Thursday morning claiming that Microsoft was making the change so it could charge licensees yet again for SP1. "There is no truth in this rumor," Allen Nieman, the Lead Technical Product Manager for Licensing Technologies at Microsoft said Thursday. "We are not changing the way volume licensing customers install or deploy Windows XP. We are not issuing volume licensing customers new product keys. Volume licensing customers are not impacted by any of the changes we are making to activation in SP1. The only folks impacted by the changes we are making in SP1 are people with illegal copies of Windows." This leaves the impression that Microsoft is indeed adding some 'extra' to SP1. But it seems more like a WPA key blacklist or something similiar. Source: WinInformant

Neowin.net reports that Windows .NET Server Family build 3663 has been marked as Release Candidate 1 (RC1) and can be downloaded by testers now.

Just got the low down by Iexbeta.com about Windows 2000 SP3 RTM Final!

At long last, the highly anticipated Windows 2000 SP3 final has been leaked to the 'net by us! A HUGE thanks goes out to JZolloXP for supplying this! This build was downloaded yesterday off of the Windows Update Catalog. It was mistakenly posted a day early and we managed to grab it before it was pulled! It is possible that this is not the final build due to the fact that it was pulled off of the site, but it is still worth the download as it runs perfectly. The build number is unknown. The file size of the installer is 130,978,672 bytes. There is no word on what is new or improved in this build, but the System Properties and About Windows boxes do not display a build number for SP3. They merely say 'Service Pack 3'. A screenshot of this build can be viewed here. Feel free to download this final RTM build of Windows 2000 SP3 below.

Ibelite.com reports that Windows XP SP Build 1081 has been released at Beta Place. The file size of this build is 130,601,560 and it was built on July 19, 2002, meaning that this build is only 6 days old. The only two programs that have been updated in this build are Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. This is the first release of XP SP1 where Outlook Express is updated to it's corresponding build number.

On July 1st 2002 Microsoft announced it will no longer accept WHQL submissions for Windows versions 98SE and NT4. This announcement marks the next step in Microsoft's silent policy to move on with their technology and to further market Windows XP. Source: Microsoft