April 2005 - Posts
Hey Folks,
How many of you are aware of http://www.kbalertz.com. Its really cool site I have been using for more than a year. It emails you links to all the new articles based on your selection to your email.
“kbAlertz.com is an e-mail notification system that scans the entire Microsoft Knowledge Base every night, and e-mails you when updates or additions are made to the technologies you subscribe to. Since we scan the entire knowledge base, we also have a pretty good search system for you to use on the left menu.
Subscribing is easy. Simply fill out your e-mail address and password below. Then, select the technologies that you're interested in. That's it. Now you'll be kept up to date when Microsoft publishes updates to your favorite technologies!!“
Very recently, Microsoft has added RSS Feeds feature to the support knowledge base. RSS feed for KB's. 
http://www.support.microsoft.com/gp/rsshelp
MS also has added a new subscription feature where in you will be notified for the new downloads & Microsoft Download Notifications: Downloads? Sign Up to Be Notified
More on http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/render.aspx?displaylang=en&content=notifications
Happy Reading!
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
MVP - SUS / WSUS
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"
In continuation to my blog, Windows 2003 Server Service Pack# 1 Known Issues with SUS!!! here you will find some more information on what you need to consider before you actually install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, you need to take care of some applications which may fail due to the tightened security. Read more on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 application compatibility
Happy Reading!
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
MVP - SUS / WSUS
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"
Blogs I read: Here you will find a list of Microsoft Blogs I read & I suggest these readings for IT PRO Folks;
- Microsoft Community Blogs
- MSDN Blogs
- TechNet Blogs
- Microsoft Exchange Team Blog
- WSUS Product Team Blog
- WSUSwiki
- Windows Server Blogs
Blogs I recommend reading;
- myITForum Blogs
- MVP Blogs
- Indian MVP Bloggers - Maintained by Anand M
- MVPBlog.com - Presented by Sudhakar Sadasivuni
- Alexander's TechGalaxy.net
Happy Reading!
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
MVP - SUS / WSUS
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"
So, day- 2 was not so bad. Being a Windows Server MVP, we had a session on PKI which was boring with just little content. Later in the evening, we had a session on Tuning Terminal Service performance by Dan Fox and I really learned some good things out of this session.
Caveats:
- Don't enable /PAE Switch in boot.ini on a Terminal Server, because those switches change the partition between the application memory space and kernel memory space. These switches gives each application 3GB of memory, which in turn only leaves 1GB for the kernel—a disaster in Terminal Server environments! . It has got some issues. More on http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?ID=69
- Disable Network Drives and Network Printers from User properties Terminal Services Tab. It eats your network bandwidth and CPU too at the time of logging in to windows.
We also had a session on Microsoft System Center - Data Protection Manager aka DPM this was really rocking..!! It's a new concept and the application is still on BETA. One thing to remember that is it works on Windows Server 2003 and only backup your File Server which Microsoft has really to think on! I gave some feedback to the PM, Karandeep Anand of DPM group and let's see how it goes in future. Join the DPM Community
Read the DPM Product Overview & Get Answers to Frequently Asked DPM Questions
Happy Reading!
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
MVP - SUS / WSUS
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"
Hey All,
As I have blogged earlier, I am in Singapore to attend Asia Pacific Regional MVP Summit. It's really exciting here and I met couple of MVP's from India, Srilanka, Australia ... and I am mingling with them. We really had a good session today from speakers like Cally Ko, Sean O` Driscoll, Manish, Lori and some other evangelists too. We had a good demo on Longhorn. I got to learn about Exchange 12 & Office 12, it looks to be promising.
Hectic day and later in evening we spent our time in Singapore Night Safari. Oh let me tell you we had good fun right after the dinner along with Indian MVP's. It was good to see Sean on the stage with tremendous foot-work (dance dance) and some good performance even without the laptop with him...it was really fun to see him and the FIRE SHOW was fabulous. May be someone will POST the pictures too.
Then we all went for Night Safari and it was good to see the the Elephants, Tigers, Lions and many beautiful animal creatures.
It's almost 1 AM in the morning.
Happy Reading!
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
MVP - SUS / WSUS
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"
Hello folks,
I will be attending MVP ASIA PACIFIC Regional Summit in Singapore starting from 4/23/2005 - 4/27/2005. More on http://www.asiamvp.net/location.htm
I would like to know if any one is attending the Summit.
Happy Reading!
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
MVP - SUS / WSUS
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"
Windows Update stops responding if you click Install to download and install updates for Windows XP or Windows 2000
If you scan for updates for your Microsoft Windows XP-based or Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer at the Microsoft Windows Update Web site, Windows Update may display a list of updates that are available for your computer. However, if you click Install on the Install Updates Web page to download and install the updates, the progress indicator stops responding, and you cannot download the updates.
More on http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=896227&SD=tech
My name is Mohammed Athif Khaleel. Please call me Athif. 
Born in India, in state of Andhra pradesh on April 16, 1981. I have completed my studies and I am a graduate with Bachelors in Commerce (C.S).
Right from my graduation, I had deep interest into Windows Networking and then started attending courses like MCSE, CCNA ,CCNP e.t.c. Currently, I am working as Technical Support Anaylst, for ATOS ORIGIN in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
I love exploring Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), WSUS, SMS. Putting a whole bunch of information about me seems terribly narcissistic. Let my posts on the following resources describe who I am:
Ah! I am glad to be awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, MVP on Thu, 24 Mar 2005.
If you're looking for an expert, my current field of expertise is really in Microsoft Product Technologies like Windows Server 2003, Exchange, Active Directory, SMS, WSUS, ISA, ...Windows & Exchange Migration and Network administration.
I may write some informative articles, best practices, troubleshooting guides as time permits me.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my bio as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you.
If you any queries/suggestions please ping me at Md.AthifKhaleel AT WSUS.info. You can also google Athif for more information - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Athif
Happy Reading!
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs
"Save the Internet. Keep all Systems Patched"
Hello Folks,
I just installed Windows 2003 Server Service Pack# 1 and there are some issues with SP1 Vs Software Update Services, SUS.
1. When you hit windowsupdate icon from Start Menu, you are redirected to
http://ws03sp1.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/default.aspx?ln=en-us
instead of Windowsupdate.com and update doesnt work. Sometimes you are then redirected to http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/v5consumer/default.aspx?ln=en-us
I get a feeling that SP1 is designed to support V6 of Windowsupdate which is in BETA. More on http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/betathanks.htm?
2. Posted on microsoft.public.softwareupdatesvcs: After installing SP1 we're getting the following warning.
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1004
User: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Description:
Detection of product '{AFF0D9D3-6F0D-437E-9327-98108B4A8644}',
feature 'WU', component '{D31B2119-C240-4F8B-B13C-20EF38B2E070}'
failed. The resource 'Y:\Applications\SUS\wusync\WUSyncSvc.exe' does not exist.
Suggestions:
Try granting the NETWORK SERVICE permissions to read and execute on WUSyncSvc.exe.
You can "fix" it by granting access permissions to the \inetpub\wwwroot\autoupdate\administration directory, as well as the \sus\wusync directory.
There might be some other issues too. If you see any such issues, then let Microsoft know at microsoft.public.softwareupdatesvcs
Good day,
Mohammed Athif Khaleel
MVP - SUS / WSUS
Windows Server Update Services Wiki
http://www.wsuswiki.com/Athifs