This Week on Windows: Celebrate the countdown to 2018 with great deals at Microsoft Store

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/12/22/this-week-on-windows-celebrate-the-countdown-to-2018-with-great-deals-at-microsoft-store/#k0KSSbyqebvWQlwT.97

Step by Step Installation of Windows Server 2012

1- Insert the Windows Server 2012 DVD, and once you get the following message press Enter to boot from the setup

2- Wait for a while till the setup loads all necessary files (Depending on your machine, it will take couple of minutes)

 3- Once the setup files are loaded, the setup will start with the following screen. You can change these to meet your needs (the default values should be fine for now)

DNS server requirements for Exchange Server 2016

Exchange Server 2016 uses the following DNS records types:-

• SRV Record
• Host Record 
• MX Record
• SPF Record

SRV resource records

AD DS and Exchange Server Integration.

AD DS and Exchange Server Integration

North America MCT Summit 2018

Join other MCTs, industry experts, other MCTs, and guest speakers to learn a lot and have some fun. This is a premier opportunity to update your skills and network. Learn what you need to know to be successful.

https://namctsummit.com/

New Microsoft Pix features let you take bigger, wider pictures and turns your videos into comics

Microsoft has released two new features with today’s update to Microsoft Pix for iOS, an app powered by a suite of intelligent algorithms developed by Microsoft researchers to take the guesswork out of getting beautiful photos and videos.

The first of these features, Photosynth, helps create photos that take in more of the perspective or scene you are standing in front of, whether it is wide, tall, or both. It does this by allowing you to freely pan and capture from side to side, up and down, back and forth, and even go back to the start to include any parts of the scene you may have missed.

“The idea came after some frustrations I had when trying to take a picture of Snoqualmie Falls.

Discontinued and deemphasized features in Exchange Server 2016

Although Exchange Server 2016 includes several new features and functionalities, some features are discontinued or de-emphasized because they are replaced with appropriate new technologies.

The following Exchange Server 2010 features are discontinued:

• ·        The Unified Messaging server role, which is replaced by Unified Messaging services running on the Mailbox server role
• ·        The Hub Transport server role, which is now replaced by transport services
• ·        Exchange Management Console and Exchange Control Panel
• ·        Support for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and RPC over TCP client access
• ·        Outlook Web App no longer offers built-in spell check. Instead, spell check now works in the web browsers.
• ·        Outlook Web App no longer supports custom date on a message flag and customizable filtered views.
• ·        Anti-spam agent management in the Exchange Management Console
• ·        Managed folders, which are replaced with retention policies
• The following Exchange Server 2013 features are discontinued in Exchange Server 2016:
• ·        The Client Access server role, which is now integrated with the Mailbox server role.
• ·        The MAPI over CDO library, which is replaced by Exchange Web Services, Exchange ActiveSync, and representational state transfer (REST) application programming interfaces (APIs).
• The following features are deemphasized, which means that they will not be used in future Exchange Server versions:
• ·        RPC over HTTP, because it is being replaced with MAPI over HTTP
• ·        Database availability group support for failover cluster administrative access points
• ·        ThirdPartyReplication parameter on the Database availability group

Transfer of FSMO Roles

We can transfer the roles for some temporary maintenance issues on to ADC and again we can transfer back the roles onto DC.

We can transfer the roles in two ways

1. Command mode
2. Graphical mode

Transfer of roles through command:

On DC
Go to command prompt and type ntdsutil
Type: roles
Connections
Connect to server (name of ADC ex.sys2)
Q
Transfer schema master
Transfer RID master
Transfer infrastructure master
Transfer PDCQ
Q
Exit

Microsoft Ignite 2018: Pre-register now

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite/

Exchange Server 2019

Microsoft is planed to release Exchange 2019 On-Premises by 2018.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2017/10/02/exchange-server-2019/

Windows Hello for Business

In Windows 10, Windows Hello for Business replaces passwords with strong two-factor authentication on PCs and mobile devices. This authentication consists of a new type of user credential that is tied to a device and uses a biometric or PIN.

Windows Hello for Business lets user authenticate to an Active Directory or Azure Active Directory account.

if you have only office 365 subscription and windows 10 then also your user able to login through windows hello no need local AD.

Windows Hello addresses the following problems with passwords:

• Strong passwords can be difficult to remember, and users often reuse passwords on multiple sites.
• Server breaches can expose symmetric network credentials (passwords).
• Passwords are subject to replay attacks.
• Users can inadvertently expose their passwords due to phishing attacks.

Overview of Exchange Database Concepts and Architecture.

The mailbox database is the primary component in Exchange Server 2016. Unlike previous Exchange Server versions, which also contained public folder databases, Exchange Server 2016 works only with mailbox databases.

Mailbox databases contain data, data definitions, indexes, checksums, flags, and other information that constitute mailboxes in Exchange Server 2016. Mailbox databases hold individual users’ private data, and also contain the mailbox folders that Exchange Server generates when you create mailboxes for those users. You can host the mailbox database on a single server, or you can distribute it across multiple mailbox servers if you have deployed database availability groups (DAGs).

Exchange Server 2016 stores the mailbox database in a database file, also known as an Exchange database (.edb) file. In addition to the .edb file, Exchange Server 2016 uses a set of data files to host and maintain the mailbox database. These files include:

Discontinued and de-emphasized features in Exchange Server 2016.

Although Exchange Server 2016 includes several new features and functionalities, some features are discontinued or de-emphasized because they are replaced with newer technologies.

The following Exchange Server 2010 features are discontinued:

• The UM server role is replaced by UM services running on the Mailbox server role.
• The Hub Transport server role is now replaced by transport services.
• Exchange Management Console and Exchange Control Panel are both discontinued.
• Support for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and RPC over Transmission Control Protocol (RPC/TCP) client access is discontinued.

Migrate PST files to Exchange and Office 365

Steps:

1. Give import/export privilege to the user (Exchange > compliance > import/export)
2. Office 365> import>  upload file over the internet >
3. Download Azure AzCopy tool for Azure uploading ( Microsoft Azure AZCopy Tool)
4. Copy the secure storage account key
5. Use Microsoft Azure AZCopy tool to upload your data
6. create CSV file
7. 
   
8. uploading files
9. access to the mapping file
   
   Reference : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Overview-of-importing-PST-files-and-SharePoint-data-to-Office-365-ba688e0a-0fcb-4bd7-8e57-2b669564ea84?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=1

Microsoft Office offline Installation of office 365 users

Download Office 365 2016 packages using Office Deployment Tool:

Link to download Office deployment tool.exe for Office2016 only:- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117

BMW and Microsoft work to create an even more productive ride with Skype for Business in new BMW 5 series

• 
  

image: https://mscorpmedia.azureedge.net/mscorpmedia/2017/07/Skype-for-Business-car.jpg

By Ulrich Homann, Distinguished Architect, Cloud + Enterprise
In today’s always-on culture, people need to be productive from anywhere – including their cars. Commute times are reaching record highs and people work from a variety of locations. This means that people need a way to capitalize on time spent in their cars. At Microsoft, we believe that cars should be more than just a ride, and also be a personal office on wheels, helping people be productive and giving them time back to enjoy their lives. Our partners at BMW share that philosophy and have positioned the company for a future where the nature of work is more mobile.
In 2016, Microsoft and BMW announced a partnership to build a platform called Open Mobility, which powers BMW Connected, BMW’s personalized mobility companion powered by the Microsoft Azure cloud. BMW and Microsoft took another step to help its drivers be even more efficient on the go. Following the launch of the new BMW 5 series in December 2016, BMW became one of the first auto manufacturers to commercially offer Office 365 communications and collaboration services through Microsoft Exchange to drivers who already rely on Office 365 at work and want to extend the services to their car.

Petya ransomware prevention & detection in Azure Security Center

This blog post was authored by Tim Burrell, Principal Engineering Manager, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center .
Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) published a blog post yesterday detailing a new ransomware infection that appears to have begun in Ukraine and spread from there to other places in Europe and beyond. MMPC analysis showed this to be a more sophisticated variant of Ransom:Win32/Petya and all free Microsoft antimalware products were updated with signatures for this threat, including Windows Defender Antivirus.
This post summarizes measures that Azure customers can take to prevent and detect this threat through Azure Security Center. See here for basic information on enabling Azure Security Center.

Prevention

Azure Security Center scans virtual machines across an Azure subscription and makes a recommendation to deploy endpoint protection where an existing solution is not detected. This recommendation can be accessed via the Prevention section as shown below.

Drilling into the Compute pane (or the overview recommendations pane) shows more detail, including the Endpoint Protection installation recommendation being discussed here:

Clicking on this leads to a dialog allowing selection of and installation of an endpoint protection solutions, including Microsoft’s own antimalware solution:


These recommendations and associated mitigation steps are available to Azure Security Center Free tier customers.

Detection

Azure Security Center customers who have opted into Standard-Tier can benefit from a new detection recently added to alert on specific indicators related to Petya ransomware running on an infected host - this is described in further detail below.
These alerts are accessed via the Detection pane highlighted below, and require the Azure Security Center Standard tier.

An alert for Petya ransomware will show up as shown below:

Drilling in provides more detail of the impacted VM and suspicious process or commandline that triggered the alert:

Note that although the detection alert relates to a specific host, because this ransomware attempts to propagate to other nearby machines, it is important to apply remediation steps to all on all hosts on the network, not just the host identified in the alert.
Please follow the remediation steps indicated in the Alert or in the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) blog.

Security

Step by Step Windows Azure Point to Site VPN

There are many scenario in which we have to work on Microsoft Azure Cloud doing experiments and LABs, or we have to setup some Application Server’s on which different people have to work like a team, such as a team of developer is working on a project which is hosted on Microsoft Azure plate from and the developers are located in different geo location. These kind of scenario for which Azure provides Point to Site VPN Secure connectivity so that every individual connect remotely with a secure SSTP VPN connection and perform his job.

A Point-to-Site (P2S) configuration lets you create a secure connection from an individual client computer to a virtual network. P2S is a VPN connection over SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol). Point-to-Site connections are useful when you want to connect to your VNet from a remote location, such as from home or a conference, or when you only have a few clients that need to connect to a virtual network. P2S connections do not require a VPN device or a public-facing IP address. You establish the VPN connection from the client computer. In this Lab, we will walk through the steps involved in setting up a remote P2S VPN with Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud plate form.

LAB Setup for Azure VPN

 

We need to following requirements before we start P2S VPN.

 

·       A valid Microsoft Azure subscription

·       Microsoft Windows SDK at client computers installed

·       Root and Client Certificate at client computers

·       Virtual Network in Azure

·       Network Subnet

·       Virtual Network Gateway in Azure

·       Gateway Subnet

Windows Azure Virtual Network

After successful login click New and search Virtual Network

 

Select Virtual Network, Select Resource Group and Click Create

 

Virtual Network Properties

Fill out Virtual Network properties as per your Network

 

Location you can chose as per your nearest Azure Data Center and click create it will take approximate 2 to 3 minutes and V Network will be created.

View Properties of Virtual Network  

You can view newly created virtual network settings, resource group and address space.