Would like to participate as a beta tester in Office12 ? Exchange 12 ? Windows Vista ?

   Use the following form to subscription :

   http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/beta/preregister.mspx

Windows Longhorn Server Beta 1 includes the core foundation and application programming interfaces (APIs) for server components. The goal of the beta 1 release is to gather feedback from original equipment manufacturers, independent hardware manufactures, system builders, independent software vendors, and developers who are participating in a private beta program.

Windows Longhorn Server will provide customers with:

• A rock-solid server foundation that is secure, manageable, responsive, interoperable, and compatible.
 
• A platform that supports rapid development and delivery of smart and connected applications.
 
• Agility, to increase operational efficiency and IT effectiveness.
 
• Policy-based networking, improved branch management and enhanced end user collaboration.

  To improve secure in systems with Windows 2000 SP4, and to facilite the patch management, Microsoft released today one security rollup package.

This update contains:

To download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C0A2CA36-1179-431C-80E6-60A494D3823D&displaylang=en

New release of SUS (Software Update Services) is now available.

What is new in WUS ?

• More updates for Microsoft products, in more categories.
 
• Ability to automatically download updates from Microsoft Update by product and type.
 
• More language support for customers worldwide.
 
• Maximized bandwidth efficiency through Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0. (BITS 2.0 is not installed by Update Services and is available on Microsoft Update.)
 
• Ability to target updates to specific computers and computer groups.
 
• Ability to verify that updates are suitable for each computer before installation—a feature that runs automatically for critical and security updates.
 
• Flexible deployment options.
 
• Reporting capabilities.
 
• Flexible database options.
 
• Data migration and import/export capabilities.
 
• Extensibility through the application programming interface (API).
 

The Windows installer 3.1 is one update of original release 3.0, and comes with Windows 2003 SP1. This package are avaliable in Microsoft website for customers of the following operation systems:
Microsoft Windows 2000 (SP3,SP4), Windows XP (SP1,SP2),Windows 2003
To download the update of Windows Installer

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=889482FC-5F56-4A38-B838-DE776FD4138C&displaylang=en

Issues that are addressed in Windows Installer 3.1  Windows Installer now logs null characters ("[~]") correctly when the characters are used in a registry value marker or in a service dependency. 
• The MsiGetFileHash function now works correctly for very large unversioned files. These files may be about 2 GB.
• The MediaSrcProp property of a patch is now set to the original launched-from location when the patch is installed. The MediaSrcProp property is set to the cached patch location for subsequent transactions. 
• The progress bar now works correctly even if the package contains a file that is larger than 2 GB. 
 Patching of isolated components now works.
• Target information for a custom action is no longer logged when the custom action fails if the custom action is marked to hide the target. 
• Error 1642 (ERROR_PATCH_TARGET_NOT_FOUND) is returned even if only one Windows Installer 2.0-style inapplicable patch is being applied. 
• Applying a full-file Windows Installer 2.0-style patch that contains companion files no longer requires access to the source media. 
• Windows Installer 3.1 performance has been enhanced during initialization of a package that contains many features. 
• Windows Installer 3.1 now correctly handles the scenario where a minor update package exists and an obsolete or superseded patch also exists. 
• Patch application now handles cases where the Sequence column of the Patch table is larger than 32,767.
• Windows Installer 3.1 now sends INSTALLSTART_ACTIONSTART messages for all actions. 
• In Windows Installer 3.0 and earlier versions, if you applied several major upgrade patches, subsequent installations occasionally failed. This issue is now fixed. 
• Windows Installer no longer incorrectly initiates a repair operation when a component contains a 32-bit assembly on a 64-bit computer. 
• The patch sequencer no longer incorrectly rejects a valid patch during administrative image patching. 
•
 Windows Installer 3.1 no longer skips script custom actions that are marked as asynchronous.