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Celebrating 25 Years

ONLINE FORUM | Microsoft's Patrick Svenburg on Windows Vista

November 09, 2006 11:00 AM

Guest: Patrick Svenburg, Program manager for Windows Client Solutions in Microsoft Federal

Moderated by Joab Jackson, GCN Staff

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Q & A: 1
Moderator Joab Jackson: Good morning everyone. Thanks for joining us for today's online forum featuring Patrick Svenburg, program manager for Windows Client Solutions in Microsoft Federal. Patrick, a member of the Windows Vista Launch Team, will answer questions about the new Windows Vista operating system. Let's get started.

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Q & A: 2
Alexandria: How difficult will the install process be for a computer that is presently running XP and is Vista Compatible.

Patrick Svenburg: It depends on whether you are an individual user or if you intend to upgrade an enterprise PC with very specific requirements. Upgrading a home computer is very straight forward and installation process offers prescriptive guidance.

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Q & A: 3
Joab Jackson: Yesterday, Microsoft announced that Vista has been released to manufacturers. What does this mean? When will we get to see machines with the new operating system?

Patrick Svenburg: On November 8, 2006 Microsoft announced the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Vista. This is a significant milestone for Microsoft and our partners, and one we are very excited about. RTM signifies the completion of our development work and the start of the next phase for Windows Vista. Windows Vista will be available to volume license customers on November 30 with broad availability on January 30, 2007.

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Q & A: 4
Joseph Birney: Has VISTA been or shortly going to work with the Navy and other DoD Information Assurance program offices to accredit and certify the operating system under the DoD Information Technology Security and accreditation Process (DITSCAP)? If so, where will this IA be posted for inclusion into the System Security Authorization Agreements? When will this process be completed at the latest?

Patrick Svenburg:

DITSCAP is a process of risk assessment, management, and acceptance. Accreditation is the: “Formal declaration by the DAA (Designated Accreditation Authority) that an IT system is approved to operate in a particular security mode using a prescribed set of safeguards at an acceptable level of risk.”

An Air Force accreditation would not apply to an Army system. We can certainly reference agencies that have successfully accredited their networks with components that are built on Microsoft products but there is not a universal accreditation that would apply across DOD. What we do corporately is to ensure that our products do conform to established universal standards such as Common Criteria for our operating systems and selected products and FIPS 140-2 for the crypto. This gives the IT managers who make the implementation decisions confidence that if they build on our solutions they have a high degree of confidence that they can successfully take their systems through DITSCAP.



Patrick Svenburg:

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Q & A: 5
Bob: Can you tell us teh status of the FIPS 140-2 compliance for BitLocker? When is compliance expected?

Patrick Svenburg: The Cryptography Next Generation (CNG) and BitLocker are both nearing their FIPS 140-2 validations.

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Q & A: 6
Butch - Chesapeake, VA: I heard that Vista will not work with Wireless networks configured with WEP encryption. Is this true?

Patrick Svenburg: This is not true. It works very well, in fact I use it every day.

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Q & A: 7
Bob: Are their any cautions or concerns regarding running Office 2003 (or previous Office) applications on Vista?

Patrick Svenburg: You should have no concerns running Office 2003 of Windows Vista.

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Q & A: 8
Joab Jackson: What sorts of new services, functionalities and workflows could administrators and CIOs start to think about once Vista in place?

Patrick Svenburg:

This is an important question. Windows Vista offers improvement and new features and benefits across the board, however, it is up to the individual agency to prioritize on where they need to focus first.

One key area where we have seen a lot of interest is the Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption, a new technology which helps prevent sensitive data and intellectual property from falling into the wrong hands if a computer is lost or stolen. Windows BitLocker uses hardware-based data encryption technology that gives you greater peace of mind knowing that your agency intellectual property is safer. Also, since the entire hard drive is encrypted, Windows BitLocker reduces the cost associated with decommissioning old PCs.

Examples of other improvements include User Account Control (UAC) which enables users to change common settings without requiring administrative privileges. Standard users are prevented from making potentially dangerous changes to their computers, and can run most applications.

Group policies have been enhanced and expanded. For example, you can control device insertion to the point where you can prevent USB sticks from being used while allowing use of a USB keyboard and mouse. IE7+ offers protected mode browsing, tabbed browsing, RSS support, anti-phishing and improved printing features like fit-to-page.

Vista includes both IPv4 and IPv6 network stacks and greatly enhanced performance for both.



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Q & A: 9
John in San Antonio: In the past (Win 95) there were issues in installing a new OS on a machine with an older OS, as opposed to a clean (format disk) install. Are there issues like this for Vista?

Patrick Svenburg: You should not encounter any issues upgrading to Windows Vista assuming that you are upgrading from Windows XP SP2 or Windows 2000 SP4.

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Q & A: 10
Joab Jackson: What would be the most appropriate version of Vista for offices to use?

Patrick Svenburg:

There are two versions of Windows Vista suitable for government agencies: Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise. The latter version is a differentiated version for customers that have Software Assurance benefits covering a volume license agreement.

In addition to all of the features available in Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to provide higher levels of data protection using hardware-based encryption technology. It also includes tools to improve application compatibility and enables organizations to standardize by using a single worldwide deployment image.



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Q & A: 11
Mike Lee: What is Microsoft's strategy in positioning VISTA for the federal market?

Patrick Svenburg: We have worked very closely with Federal customers in the design and development of Windows Vista, incorporating their requirements. Windows Vista will be the most modern OS on the market when it ships and offers key improvements for federal customers in the area of security and compliance, desktop infrastructure optimization, and a more productive and mobile workforce.

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Q & A: 12
Minnesota: Is it worth the effort? Is Vista a step above XP Pro to the level that makes the risk acceptable? What are the key improvements as you see it?

Patrick Svenburg:

Yes, very much so. Windows Vista is the most secure version of Windows yet because it is the first operating system to go through the full Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) process from start to finish. Windows Vista has been developed with the highest attention to security and will be the first client-based operating system to go through the complete SDL.

Building on the significant security advances in Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista includes fundamental architectural changes that will help make customers more secure from evolving threats, including worms, viruses, and malware.

Also, new features such as User Account Control (UAC), Windows Defender, and Internet Explorer Protected Mode along with improvements to Windows Firewall and Windows Update work together to help shield Windows Vista PCs from malware. These and other security features work together to provide users with layered defense, or defense-in-depth.



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Q & A: 13
Joab Jackson: How can Microsoft Federal itself help in enterprise installations?

Patrick Svenburg:

Microsoft Federal has a dedicated Windows Client Team with technical and solution expertise to assist government agencies. This includes team members with security clearance. The Team actually keeps a blog at http://blogs.technet.com/federal-vista-team /

In addition, Microsoft Consulting Services as well as our certified partners are available to help with all phases of Vista migration, from planning, application compatibility testing, image creation and deployment.

I can also recommend some good links for more information to help agencies assess and prepare:

The TechNet Vista page: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/default.mspx

Security Guidance: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/guide.mspx

The Vista homepage: http://www.windowsvista.com /



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Q & A: 14
Joab Jackson: How could BitLocker help keep information secure?

Patrick Svenburg:

Many organizations today have a mobile workforce and those employees carry laptops with sensitive data. If one of those laptops gets lost, the data can potentially get in the wrong hands.

BitLocker offers full volume encryption which applies to the whole system partition, thus safe-guarding your data. BitLocker also has the additional benefit of reducing the cost associated with decommissioning old PCs.



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Q & A: 15
Mark, Washington DC: If I have multiple sites connected over slow WAN links, what is the best way to distribute my new VISTA image from a central location using SMS 2003? Can SMS multicast? Can I deploy it to one caching server at a site and then have it pulled from that location?

Patrick Svenburg: This is a complex discussion where we would need more information about your infrastructure, but as a baseline you should know Windows Vista includes a number of new deployment and managing technologies, including support for SMS and WDS. I suggest start reading at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/default.mspx

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Q & A: 16
Bismarck, ND: Will there be any advantages or efficiencies gained in running Vista on the new dual-core processor technology?

Patrick Svenburg: Windows Vista recognized dual core and uses it to its advantage.

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Q & A: 17
Tony, Maryland: Has the federal government expressed an immediate need to implement Vista? Will NIST have the opportunity to test the security controls within the OS for certification purposes?

Patrick Svenburg:

Yes, many agencies have expressed a very strong interest in Windows Vista, for various reasons. New functionality like the BitLocker Drive Encryption is expected to be a key driver. Integrated desktop search, new user interface, improved networking, more granular control via Group Policy are examples of other key areas of interest.

NIST and other agencies have worked with Microsoft to provide security guidance. For more info http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/guide.mspx



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Q & A: 18
Butch - Chesapeake, VA: What are the differences between Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium?

Patrick Svenburg:

There is a very detailed description of the different version up on http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx

In short, the Windows Vista Home Premium offers the new Aero interface and also comes with the Media Center functionality.



Patrick Svenburg:

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Q & A: 19
Minnesota: Is the core file system still NTFS?

Patrick Svenburg: Yes.

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Q & A: 20
Joab Jackson: Would you recommend a clean installation or an upgrade from the running copy of XP?

Patrick Svenburg: Either works. If you are doing an upgrade from XP, please be sure run the “compatibility check” as part of the installation process.

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Q & A: 21
Minnesota: Vista Enterprise is the only onw with BitLocker; can we add BitLocker to a business version as an option?

Patrick Svenburg: BitLocker is only available in Windows Vista Enterprise or Windows Vista Ultimate.

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Q & A: 22
Joab Jackson: We've been hearing a lot about virtualization of late. Do you think virtualization could be used in a desktop computer environment? If so, how would Vista help enable this?

Patrick Svenburg: Virtual PC 2007 is now a free download and EA customers with Software Assurance coverage has the right to use up to 4 instances on each desktop.

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Q & A: 23
Joab Jackson: How would should administrators work with “User Account Control” in light of various agency usage policies?

Patrick Svenburg: Since usage is normally set by Group Policies, most end users will experience minimal interaction with UAC, except when trying to install software or other actions that would require administrative rights.

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Q & A: 24
Owen Ambur DC: How does Vista leverage XML? For example, can XML metatags be used to provide for more precise categorization and query/retrieval of files?

Patrick Svenburg: Windows Vista, in conjunction with Office 2007, uses XML as a native document format and file properties can be modified with XML meta tags for indexing and search under Windows Vista.

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Q & A: 25
Joab Jackson: O.K., last question: What are the 10 things that people should know about deploying Vista?

Patrick Svenburg: There are a couple of new things that IT pros should keep in mind. There is a great article up on TechNet that all people interested in deploying Windows Vista should read: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2006/11/Deployment /

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Q & A: 26
Joab Jackson: O.K. That wraps up our Q&A Forum on Windows Vista. We got some good information today. Patrick Svenburg and the rest of the team of Microsoft Federal always have some great insights into Microsoft products. We thank you for joining us.

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