With the MBSA 1.0 it was relatively simple to use inside corporate firewalls, you just had to get a single file from Microsoft and you were away. As I discovered just recently, things are a little more difficult in MBSA 2.0.

Firstly MBSA 2.0 uses the new Windows Update Agent(WUA) API which is described by Microsoft as “a set of COM interfaces that enable system administrators and programmers to access Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).” The WUA is typically installed by going to Windows Update or turning on Automatic Updates but since this may not be possible in a testing or development environment here is what you need to do:

1. Go to Updating the Windows Update Agent
2. Click on the link to download wuredist.cab (http://update.microsoft.com/redist/wuredist.cab)
3. Extract the XML file from wuredist.cab
4. Open the XML. (The XML file contains a list of node that store the latest version information and download link for WUA.)
5. Find the architecture node that machines your platform and copy the downloadUrl entry. (For most people that will be x86)
6. Paste into a browser and download the file.
7. Also look at the MUAuthCab entry and copy the url into a browser and download the file.
8. Place these two files into %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\MBSA\2.0\Cache

Now go ahead and get the latest version of MBSA 2.0 from Microsoft and install it (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx)

The final step is to download a file called wsusscan.cab into %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\MBSA\2.0\Cache. wsusscan.cab can be obtained from here.

Now you can fire up MBSA 2.0 and scan to your hearts content. As a word of warning, make sure you update wsusscan.cab on a daily basis so that you have the most up-to-date patch information at hand.

Ever wanted to know what all those cups of coffee are really doing to you, check this little gem out: http://coffeefaq.com/caffaq.html

Happy New Year!! While 2005 seemed like a year that went by in a flash it took a rather long time for 12:00 to come by. The night was spent with friends and family and I must say it was quite enjoyable. All the best to you all and have a happy and pleasant new year.

I was reading over at www.lifehack.org about a nice google hack. Ever had a site that your employer or university blocked. All you need is the following url and change www.expample.com to the site you'd like to visit.

http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.example.com

Well it is another hot summers day here at my parents place in Bundaberg. We spent the morning down at the beach in the water which has become a sort of Christmas tradition for our family. Now to spend the rest of the day eating as much as possible without being sick.

Merry Christmas to everyone!! Have a great day!

So delicious has joined the Yahoo team. For some ultimately strange reason, I just don't like Yahoo. I really cannot think of any definative facet of Yahoo that turns me off but still, I just dislike them. Now that delicious has joined them I am somewhat disappointed, is there anything else out there like delicious?

Having just gotten back from a week away I returned to find that my IPAQ had been shipped back to me. Excited I opened it up and tested the screen...it didn't work. Not only that but they had managed to put someone elses paperwork in my box. So after being bounced around the HP call centre for a while I managed to get a lady who left a message with the technician to call me back....the saga continues.

Update: So I finally got through to someone helpful at HP who without question said someone would be there shortly to collect my IPAQ to have it shipped back to NSW (Teleplan) for repairs. The scarry thing was that the delivery guy was at my desk within about 10min. I didn't even have the unit pack away yet....To be continued.

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
• Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
• Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
• Improvements to popup blocking.
• Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
• Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
• Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
• Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
• Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
• Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
• New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
• Many security enhancements.

I found this one over on Greg Huges' blog this afternoon. All you do is add encarta@conversagent.com as a contact in MSN Messenger then open a conversation window. The first thing I asked was, "what time is it?" Try it out, it is very cool!

I am definately not going to get anything done for the next few hours......

I've been working as a Tier-2 support person for some time now and there seems to be a number of tools that I use frequently to get out of trouble.

• HiJackThis - Removes browser HiJacks
• Ethereal - The best Packet Capture tool you can get for windows.
• Adaware - My preferred adware removal tool.
• Stinger - A tool developed by McAfee that is a stand-alone utility that detects and removes the most recent/popular viruses. It is the fastest virus scanning tool around.
• BartPE - A bootable CD that boots a reduced version of Windows XP. This is the ultimate debugging tool! It allows you to boot a PC into a Windows PE like environment and scan for viruses/adaware, backup files, browse the next, partition disks, restore deleted files....the list is endless.(A MUST HAVE!!)
• RootKit Revealer - If you don't know what a RootKit is then I'd suggest a bit of googling. This is the best tool to detect if you've got one.
• TCPView - An excellent utility from Sysinternals that lets you see all the active connections on a machine.

Stayed tunned, I'll update this post as I use the tools.