A First Look At Microsoft’s Istanbul 18 March 2005 Brien M. Posey

Istanbul has long been the code name for Microsoft’s next client for Live Communications Server. Just a couple of days ago, Microsoft announced that the official name for Istanbul will be Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. In this article, I will take a look at this new product.

Managing Active Directory FSMO Roles 15 March 2005 Mitch Tulloch

This article explains the function of Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) roles in Active Directory and outlines best practices for implementing and managing these roles on a Windows Server 2003-based network.

Performing Resultant Set of Policy Queries with the GPRESULT Tool 10 March 2005 Brien M. Posey

The hierarchical nature of group policies can make troubleshooting group policy related issues very cumbersome, especially on unfamiliar networks. One way to greatly simplify the troubleshooting process is to use Windows XP’s GPRESULT tool. In this article, I will introduce you to this tool and show you how to use it.

Upgrading Windows NT/2000 to Windows 2003 (Part 1) 8 March 2005 Ricky M. Magalhaes

This article covers the upgrading caveats that need to be considered when upgrading from Windows NT and Windows 2000 Network environments to Windows 2003. Issues encountered during installation and understanding the importance of the minimum requirements prescribed for installing the software, understanding the fundamentals described below will resolve and reduce problems that are usually encountered.

What I'm Reading These Days (Part 2) 3 March 2005 Mitch Tulloch

Here are five recent titles from O’Reilly that I’ve had a chance to look through and can recommend for your reading.