Microsoft strong on security

Microsoft's been up to several things in the past week or so. Not the least surprising was the company's invite to Mozilla developers to come up to Redmond and make sure that Firefox and Thunderbird run correctly on Vista. Microsoft also took Small Business Server 2003 R2 out of circulation with a sudden recall. But the company tossed a few new things out there for IT managers, too, just to balance the scales. Unfortunately, they both require some upgrade time.

First there's an updated version of the Windows Firewall available. Fittingly, it's called Windows Firewall with Advanced Security -- no wisecracks, please. The straight Windows Firewall was decent enough as an incoming traffic filter, but Advanced Security adds a few new bells and whistles.

For one, you get a MMC (Microsoft Management Console) snap-in instead of the Control Panel configuration screen. This adds some good tools for admins rolling it out to several users because it allows them to use AD Group Policy to set configuration policies and perform software distribution.