WIN01: Automate Windows XP Installs
Douglas R. Spindler
Learn how to automate the installation of Windows XP (or Server 2003) and cut your installation time dramatically. How much time do you waste installing XP and customizing XP on new machines? A typical installation takes around 45 minutes and requires a techie to answer questions during the installation process. Imaging-based solutions such as Ghost work well but are hardware specific, and a change in hardware requires a new image. In this session, you’ll learn about free software tools that let you completely automate the process, reduce installation time to under 15 minutes, and create a CD that is not hardware specific. You can master these skills in about a day, and AD or SMS is not required.

WIN02: Create a Secure Desktop with Group Policy
Darren Mar-Elia
There are a number of technologies within Group Policy, such as Software Restriction Policy, IP Security, IE security policy, Windows Firewall and general security policy that form the basis for securing Windows. This session will provide real-world examples of how you can use these features to create secure desktops within your Windows environment.

WIN03: Create a Virtual Test Environment
Rhonda Layfield
Do you currently have a test environment where you can easily test patches, service packs and upgrade existing software that is quick and easy to build? At first glance, it seems like an awful lot of work to build a parallel-but-separate test network that accurately reflects the structure of your production network. But you can create a complete virtual test environment easily and cost-effectively. Learn how to use CSVDE and LDIFDE to automatically create your entire Active Directory structure. See how DSACLS lets you create identical delegations, while GPMC can copy your Group Policy Objects over in a flash. You can do all of this and keep your test environment completely isolated from your production environment, and for a small fraction of the time and money it would take with a room full of servers and workstations.

WIN30: Deploying Windows Server Update Services
Dan Holme
The new Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) makes it easier than ever to keep systems up-to-date with critical software patches, security rollups, drivers, and software updates. And it’s not too soon, given the industry’s mutinous uproar in demand for accelerated lockdown of the OS and applications. This session will explore the options and best practices for managing, automating, and monitoring the distribution of patches and service packs using WSUS. Dan will equip you with a practical plan for rolling out and supporting WSUS in your organization.

WIN33: Don’t Be Afraid: It’s Only IIS!
Brett Hill
Do you break into a sweat if you have to go into the server room and manage an application that depends on IIS? There’s more to IIS than meets the eye and configuration errors can have serious consequences, but administering an IIS server can be straightforward. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist. This session explains the IIS basics—for those who don't have the time to learn the ins and outs of IIS to administer but have the task of occasionally troubleshooting IIS problems. This session includes practical “how-to” tips and techniques for quickly troubleshooting IIS, and how to avoid some common mistakes. While you’re doing any normal day-to-day administration on a server that has IIS, you can also quickly increase IIS security and performance with very little or no risk to your availability and features.

WIN04: File Replication Service
Rhonda Layfield
Have your Group Policies ever failed to replicate to a domain controller, or worse, gotten duplicate (“morphed”) Group Policy objects? Learn how to troubleshoot a mysteriously failed GPO by understanding how File Replication Service (FRS) replicates GPOs, step-by-step. (And there are a lot of steps!) At the same time, see how to get rid of the morphed GPOs for good. Most administrators today are familiar with how to perform an authoritative restore of Active Directory but what about an authoritative restore for FRS? It can be just as important, if not more so. Discover how to use Microsoft’s free FRSDiag, Ultrasound and Sonar tools, your essential weapons in the fight against FRS failures. And just to make your life more interesting, Server 2003 R2’s FRS is an almost complete rewrite of FRS. You’ll learn all about it when you attend this must-see talk.

WIN06: Group Policy in Windows Vista
Darren Mar-Elia
This session will review the new features coming in Group Policy with Windows Vista and will show how you can leverage them in your environment.

WIN07: Group Policy Toolkit Secrets
Jeremy Moskowitz
Microsoft offers a wealth of tools that each do a specific job to help you troubleshoot Group Policy problems. In this session, we’ll walk through a toolbox full of goodies you can use to streamline your processes, troubleshoot easier, and get to the heart of what’s ailing your systems. You’ll learn about the log files you can turn on in a pinch and the Group Policy resource kit tools like PolicySpy, GPMonitor, and GPInventory. You’ll also learn about some free add-on tools from third-party vendors to help round out your toolkit!

WIN08: Hacking Your Network for Your Own Protection
Alan Sugano
How secure is your network? We’ll examine how hackers get into your network and countermeasures you can apply to protect against different hack attacks. We’ll look at some realworld examples of hack attacks, how the attacks were discovered, and changes that were made to keep the hackers out. Learn how to identify the holes in your network and how to patch them to make your network more secure and less of a target to potential hackers.

WIN10: IIS 7.0 Insights
Brett Hill
Prepare to be amazed. Microsoft IIS 7.0 is fundamentally a different product than any Web server Microsoft has created to date. Designed from the ground up with extensibility in mind, you can now deploy a complete Web server using Xcopy, use Windows Authentication against a database of users, use the native IIS manager over HTTP, and far more. IIS 7.0 lets you completely remove functionality from the server you don’t require or add new modules to extend capabilities to meet your business needs. You won’t want to miss this overview of IIS 7.0.

WIN11: Leveraging the Windows Security Log for Regulatory Compliance
Randy Franklin Smith
The Windows security log provides a wealth of information that facilitates compliance with the monitoring and audit trail requirements of  Sarbanes Oxley and other legislation such as HIPPA and GLBA. However, the security log is also cryptic, requires a detailed  understanding of the Windows security subsystem, and has no built-in reporting or collection functionality. In this technical session, you’ll learn the key event IDs for compliance, how to interpret patterns of events, about obscure differences between Windows 2000 and 2003 that can cause inaccurate reports and alerts, and more. You’ll receive a security log check list specially designed for compliance and sample LogParser scripts.

WIN13: Monitor Server Performance with MRTG
Douglas R. Spindler
Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) is a free tool for monitoring and graphing network and server performance statistics in real time. In this hands-on training session, you’ll learn how to install MRTG, configure it to collect performance data in real time, and display the data graphically on a Web page. MRTG is a neat little program that you can use to monitor just about any type of network or server performance stats over time. We’ve used it to monitor WAN link bandwidth, server disk usage, LAN throughput, and wireless activity.

WIN14: Networking Changes in Windows Vista
Douglas R. Spindler
Microsoft is overhauling the network stack in Vista and for the next generation of Windows Server. This major overhaul will affect you! And this session will help you get prepared. Microsoft has announced that Vista out of the box will implement several protocols that were optional in Windows XP and Server 2003. We’ll introduce you to new terms and the new protocol priority Microsoft has established. We’ve been working with Microsoft’s networking team, and you will get the latest and most up-to-date information. Expect to find changes to IP addresses, requirements for new DNS entries, elimination of DHCP server, and a new set of commands. The new stack can triple or quadruple LAN throughput, and modifications to the TCP/IP protocol will significantly increase traffic over a WAN.

WIN15: Practical Solutions for Advanced Delegation in Active Directory
Dan Holme
There are good wizards. There are evil wizards. And there are deceptive wizards like the Delegation of Control Wizard, which lures you into its spell with some great tricks, but masks the real power of Active Directory’s granular delegation model. Understand when the Wizard is your friend and when you need to send it packing to effectively tackle Active Directory administration. Large enterprise implementations have provided lessons into the real-world needs of administrators, from the CIO to the front-line help desk. Dan will share these experiences with you, leading a think-tank toward the creation of an effective administrative hierarchy. You will learn the (surprisingly complex) steps required to enable administrators at various levels to reset a password, unlock an account, manage user accounts but not administrative accounts, and more. And you’ll discover simple script-based tricks and tools for ensuring standardized and efficient delegation.

WIN16: Practical Solutions for Provisioning, Virtualizing, Automating and Securing Administration
Dan Holme
Join us for a unique and invaluable look at methods for injecting business logic into advanced Active Directory administrative processes. In this session, Dan Holme will illuminate the core issues, concepts, and solutions related to provisioning, virtualizing, and automating workflows without expensive third-party software. Learn how to apply group policy and scripting to improve processes, including new user provisioning, user termination, relocating a user to a new site or business, and subnet and site provisioning. Examine options for logging, tracking, and auditing such changes and for performing security sensitive tasks, such as user movement and deletion, in a least privilege context.

WIN17: Practical Solutions for Security and Manageability Through Roles, RBAC, and Least Privilege
Dan Holme
Envision an enterprise in which users are defined by their business roles and where resource access and configuration are instantly, accurately, and auditably applied. This vision can be yours! Role-based management and role-based access control (RBAC) enable an enterprise to realize least-privilege and a documented, auditable structure for resource security and directory and asset management. The pieces are familiar: groups, ACLs, scripts, user rights and OUs. Putting the pieces together in just the right way is challenging. The payoff is tremendous. Cut your learning curve by “role”-ing in to this exciting, one-of-a-kind session.

WIN32: Protect Your Data the NEW Way with Microsoft Data Protection Manager (DPM) and an iSCSI Storage Area Network
Douglas R. Spindler
This session is about two separate technologies, which, when used in combination, will make you rethink how you are protecting your data. Microsoft Data Protection Manager (DPM) is a software application designed for protecting file servers using disk-based backup and recovery technology or near line storage. iSCSI is an Internet Protocol used to carry SCSI command and "disk" data over Ethernet. Combining iSCSI with DPM is the foundation for quickly, reliably, and economically protecting data. But it doesn't stop there. iSCSI support is found in Windows XP and Server 2003. When your servers or users need additional disk space iSCSI provides the solutions. Have you been wanting to cluster your servers but don't have the budget? An iSCSI SAN will allow you to cluster for a fraction of the cost of a traditional SAN. In this session, you will learn how to integrate DPM into your data protection plan and how near line storage substantially reduces the time needed to back-up/restore data. You'll learn how about iSCSI works, the advantages and disadvantages, how to configure it in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, and how to secure it and cluster servers with it.

WIN18: Protecting the Intranet with 802.1x and IPSEC
Randy Franklin Smith
Given the increase of connected business partners and service providers, the risk of branch offices and subsidiaries where commensurate physical and logical security can’t be assumed, and the difficulty of protecting every network drop against rogue or unprotected systems, it’s more important than ever to control network access within your wired network. Thankfully, the technologies already exist but implementing 802.1x, IPSec, and authorized DHCP is a challenge. This session will show you how to leverage Windows built-in support for these protocols now. In addition, we’ll provide a roadmap to the future of Network Access Protection being built into Windows Vista and Longhorn Server.

WIN31: Secure Remote Access
Steve Riley
Remote connections extend your network’s perimeter far and wide across the globe, often into networks that you know very little—or nothing—about. Because remote access to corporate networks is critical for business these days, it’s absolutely essential that you take the necessary steps to protect your own network and your remote clients from threats that lurk along the way. Basic requirements include not only strong user authentication but also knowledge of the remote computers and configurations that erect barriers against attack. Depending on the needs of your user community, some might require the flexibility of full IP-based virtual private networks (VPNs), others might need only simpler Terminal Server or web-based “remote display” access. Technologies for secure remote access include Windows Routing and Remote Access Services (RRAS), VPN quarantine, strong authentication with smart cards, securing Terminal Server over the Internet, and Web-based remote access to internal services. Steve Riley will help you understand the unique security requirements for various kinds of remote access and how to deploy the appropriate technology safely, to keep your network assets and your information protected.

WIN20: The Top 10 Problems with Group Policy and How to Solve Them
Darren Mar-Elia
This session will cover the top 10 most common scenarios that confuse and confound administrators, and it will provide explanations of the problems and how to solve them. The solutions presented here are based on the speaker’s extensive contact with Group Policy users on newsgroups and mailing lists.

WIN28: Total Desktop Smackdown with the Shared Computer Toolkit
Jeremy Moskowitz
Libraries, cafeterias, shop floors, kiosk machines. They're a giant security hazard. You need to lock them down to prevent transient users from logging on, being bad and infecting your network and potentially downloading and installing harmful software. So, how do you get the job done using only free tools? Microsoft's new Shared Computer Toolkit to the rescue. In this session, you'll learn how to lock down just one machine or one hundred. The Toolkit is in 1.0 release, but if you're willing to work though the rough spots, the payoff is tremendous. Take control of those machines and get back to real work, instead of playing "repairman."

WIN21: Troubleshooting DNS in an Active Directory World
Mark Minasi
Your Active Directory is acting up, but where do you look to find the trouble—Active Directory Users and Computers? Sites and  Services? Domains and Trusts? Nope, in most cases the problem lies in DNS. DNS failures can lead to logon problems, group policy mysteries, and more, as you’ll learn in this nuts-and-bolts session. You can’t be a black belt AD troubleshooter without an in-depth knowledge of how to make DNS work for AD, not against it. In this session, Mark Minasi, Windows networking techie and author of Mastering Windows Server series, reveals the most common DNS problems and puzzles and how to solve them.

WIN22: What, Me Worry? Developing a Security Awareness Strategy
Steve Riley
Effective security requires a harmonious blend of working processes, modern technology, and educated people. For many organizations, that last part can be very challenging. Most people know what they need to do to get their jobs done, but how many know that everything they do with a computer has security implications? Properly configured users can be your strongest line of defense. But configuring users is notoriously difficult. When the decision is between being secure and watching the dancing pigs, the dancing pigs win too many times. As more and more attacks target the humans at the computer rather than the software, having an educated user community has never been more important. Steve Riley will provide thought-provoking ideas, tips, and resources for raising security awareness in your organization.

WIN23: WiFi Security Scenarios
Randy Franklin Smith
WiFi is a proven technology for making companies more nimble but nobody denies the serious security implications of extending your internal network with WiFi. There are more options than ever for securing WiFi, but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. This session will compare each WiFi security scenario to help you identify the right solution for your needs, as well as provide you with a detailed roadmap for implementing the technology and alert you to important caveats and potential pitfalls along the way. Technologies and scenarios covered include 8021.x, WPA, WPA2, VPN over WiFi, IPSec, guest Internet access and more.

WIN25: Windows Logons Revealed
Mark Minasi
Every day we log on to our Windows systems. But what really happens when we do? How do our workstations and our domain controllers exchange logon information without revealing our passwords? For that matter, how are our workstations able to find DCs even on days when the local DC is sick? Let veteran Windows explicator Mark Minasi show you how logons work, how they sometimes don’t work (and how you can fix them), and how to better secure them. Mark will also give you the tools to understand where Microsoft’s logon protocols are and aren’t so secure.

WIN26: Windows Power Tools: Command-Line Gems
Mark Minasi
If you’re still doing administration from the GUI, you should take another look at the command line. While GUIs are nice for now-and-then tasks, you can get a lot more accomplished from the command line. Even better, you can stuff your favorite command lines into  Notepad to create the world’s simplest administration tool. The hard part, of course, is getting started. Mark Minasi, author of Windows IT Pro’s “This Old Resource Kit” and “Windows Power Tools” columns will explain the best Microsoft command-line administration tools.

WIN27: Windows Server Disaster Recovery
Alan Sugano
The server just crashed! Do you have the latest backup? Was the server a Domain Controller? Where’s the tape backup software? This session will discuss the different recovery methods, tips and tricks for quickly recovering a failed server. Learn the steps that are necessary to recover a server before it crashes. Don’t wait until a server crashes to learn how to recover it. Windows Server recovery can be tricky, especially when recovering a domain controller or server that is running additional services like Exchange.

WIN24: Windows-Linux Integration: Authentication Services
Jeremy Moskowitz
You’re starting to get Linux desktops, and you want single sign-on, but you’re committed to leveraging Active Directory to do it. If you have existing Unix or Linux, you might have a tough time getting to AD unless you know a few tricks. In this session, we’ll describe and demonstrate how AD can be the focal point of your authentication network, some tips on how to configure Linux clients, and how the SAMBA (an application which makes Linux play nicely with Windows) fits in to the picture. If you’ve got Linux and Windows authentication headaches, this is the session for you.

WIN29: You've Been Hacked: Now What?
Alan Sugano
No one wants to admit they’ve been hacked. But the chances of your company getting hacked are increasing. We’ve seen an alarming increase in the number of hacks in the last year. In this session, we’ll discuss Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Hacking Forensics, Law Enforcement Contacts, and steps to develop a Hacking Recovery Plan. Just like a Disaster Recovery Plan, a Hacking Recovery Plan should be an integral part of any IT Department’s Strategic Plan. Don’t wait until your company is in panic mode after a hack attack. Develop the plan ahead of time to reduce recovery time and gracefully recover from an attack.

SPECIAL EXCHANGE COURSES

EXTR04: Troubleshooting Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2003 (SOLD OUT)
Covers the Exchange Database Architecture and the tools and process used to recover an Exchange Server 2003 environment. In this one-day workshop the student gets hands-on experience in recovering an e-mail environment.

EXTR05: Troubleshooting Message Flow with Exchange Server 2003 (SOLD OUT)
Reviews the Exchange Transport architecture, message flow improvements in Exchange Server 2003, message flow dependencies, Active Directory (a messaging dependency), troubleshooting tools, DNS issues that affect Mail Flow, Recipient Update Service, and troubleshooting mail flow.

EXTR06: Troubleshooting Performance with Exchange Server 2003 (SOLD OUT)
Covers performance monitoring concepts, monitoring performance strategies, and the performance monitoring process. These topics are followed by a review of the tools and how to isolate the performance problem.

WINDOWS KEYNOTE

WINKEY: Hastening La Vista: IE7, Vista, Longhorn and Beyond
Mark Minasi
It's been since October of 2001 since we got a new version of Windows desktop... but that's about to change.  Late this year, Microsoft will ship "Windows Vista," better known to us geeks as NT Workstation 6.0.  It'll include yet another all-new GUI, IPv6 networking whether you're ready or not, tools to let you more easily manage today's almost-terabyte discs, and, well, you can find out the rest by coming to the talk! Veteran Windows pundit Mark Minasi tells you what's new, what's good, and what's not-so-good about the next Microsoft desktop OS. But that's just the start... because 2007 brings Longhorn Server, also known as NT Server version 6.1. It'll have all of the Vista goodies, and tons more. There's a new AD, increased 64 bitness, some nifty new Terminal Services and, well, you'll just have to go to the talk to find out THAT stuff too. Anyone can tell you about the next Windows, but only Minasi can make you smile while he seeks to "explain the pane!"

WINKEY2: Windows Vista System Integrity Technologies
Steve Riley
For most of the history of computing, operating systems have lived in their own little bubbles of trust. Every part of an operating system pretty much assumed that every other part was exactly what it claimed to be and performed only what it claimed it could do. Recent attacks, though, have shown that such implicit trust is no longer suitable for computers that connect to hostile environments. A far more trustworthy operating system is one where the principle of least privilege is enforced throughout and where all operations are verified before taking action—seriously reducing the chances of malware taking over the operating system and thereby improving the operating system’s integrity. Windows Vista will ship with several new system integrity technologies, including code integrity, secure startup, service hardening, mandatory integrity control, and Internet Explorer protected mode. Steve Riley will explore how these technologies work to thwart malware’s attempts to take over your computer.

CASE STUDIES FROM MICROSOFT.COM OPERATIONS

WINGEN: Global Load Balancing and Infrastructure Design for Resilience: The Server Infrastructure of www.Microsoft.com, Microsoft Update, and the Download Center
Paul Wright
Microsoft.com is one of the busiest Web sites in the world, and a constant target for hackers. These sites include www.microsoft.com with 13 million unique users, 70 million page views per day, early product adoption, and the highest availability on the Internet; Windows Update with 200M unique client scans per day, 12,000 ASP.NET Req/sec and more than 1 million concurrent connections; and Downloads with more than 150 million downloads per day and up to 80Gbps of egress bandwidth consumed. Dive into the MSCOM Ops infrastructure design and scalability strategies with the team responsible for infrastructure architecture and security in this largescale and highly visible environment. Find out how we use our architecture to adopt new technologies such as the 64-bit OS platform in production with no loss in site availability. Dig in to how we utilize Global Load Balancing and manage egress. From one IT Pro to another, get an inside look at the architecture, replication, and management of website configuration and content, and the network topology MSCOM Ops uses to create true 99.9 percent availability.

WIN09: IIS 7.0 Adoption on Microsoft.com
Chris St. Amand
How does Microsoft.com run prerelease software on the busiest corporate Web site in the world and maintain 99.9 percent availability? Find out what goes on behind the scenes of early product adoption and the current status of Microsoft.com’s IIS 7.0 project.

WIN12: Monitoring and Reporting for the Enterprise
Scott Gaskins
In the world of Enterprise Operations, there is a great deal of diversity in systems and processes that need to be monitored and managed. Homogeny of environments is almost unattainable and real-time, proactive monitoring and long-term trend reporting are critical success factors to surviving this fast paced world. How do you decide what to monitor? How do you decide which monitoring solutions to use? Come and learn how this is done today for Microsoft.com and what we envision for the next generation of monitoring and reporting.

WIN19: SQL Server 2005 Adoption
Brad LeRoss
Have you been contemplating upgrading your database environment to SQL Server 2005? You’ve heard about the new features, now hear how the Microsoft.com Operations team upgraded their environment and lessons learned along the way. You’ll hear how an operations team evaluated the benefits of upgrading, with before and after benchmarks from our production environment. You’ll learn how Micosoft.com is utilizing database mirroring, peer-to-peer transactional replication, and log shipping to maintain one of the most  visited sites on the internet.

SharePoint Bonus Track

SHA02: Backup and Restore Tips and Tricks for SharePoint
Michael Noel
One of the more confusing aspects of administering a SharePoint environment is understanding the myriad of different methods that are available to backup SharePoint Sites and Portals. This session focuses on demystifying the SharePoint backup and restore processes, and discusses the pros and cons of various backup techniques with tools such as STSADM, SMIGRATE, SQL database backups, and the integrated SharePoint Portal Backup tool. In addition, undocumented tips and tricks for backing up individual SharePoint Sites using a combination of scripts and tools that can help an Administrator quickly restore individual documents and content without a complex restore process are outlined and discussed.

SHA01: Best Practice Maintenance for SharePoint Portal Server 2003
Michael Noel
This session covers best practice procedures for maintaining and optimizing a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 farm. Particular emphasis is given to maintenance techniques for the critical SQL database environment that SharePoint is dependent on, including advanced topics such as creating SQL database maintenance plans, archiving SQL SharePoint data, and other tips and tricks to help manage a distributed database SharePoint farm. In addition, prescriptive guidance about which maintenance tasks to perform on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis are presented.

SHA03: Extreme SharePoint Scalability
Robert Ginsburg
In this session, you'll learn about the evolution of a WSS extranet service that was built to grow to 250,000 users. Some of the discussion topics include: server loading, application layer fault-tolerant design elements, authentication, security, and administration. Demonstrations will show the art of creating and testing customer SLA's as well as planning for their expansion.

SHA04: How Does It Work - An Admin-Level Overview of SharePoint
Darrin Bishop
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services are gaining wide adoption in the IT world, but only a small percentage of administrators and developers really understand how these technologies actually work. In this session we are going to look at how it all works and give you the knowledge you will need to customize and troubleshoot your portal. You will learn how a request for a page is handled as well as where key files and directories are located, such as the templates, images, binaries and style sheets. We will throw in some interesting web.config settings, key databases and configuration files and you will walk away with a solid understanding of these servers.

SHA05: How to Leverage ADFS to Connect Your SharePoint Extranet to Your Partners
Robert Ginsburg
ADFS enhances IIS authentication services to include extranet users, but how do you map those users to SharePoint resources? How can you track usage? How can you leverage SAML to connect Web Parts to non- WSS services? In this session you will learn how to configure ADFS to provide WSS authentication and how to use that authentication with other systems.

SHA06: Integrating Office 2003 and SharePoint
Kevin Laahs
SharePoint products and technologies provide a set of collaboration services that can be consumed by other applications. Microsoft Office System (and in particular Outlook 2003) leverages these services. In this session, we take a close look at the integration points and how they work from a technical point of view. We’ll also cover how you can leverage these services in your own applications and extend the Office offerings—for example, adding a button to Outlook to add personal appointments and contacts to a Windows SharePoint Services hosted list.

SHA08: Managing SharePoint Portal Server User Profiles
Kevin Laahs
The SharePoint Portal Server User Profile is involved in many operations such as person discovery, audience targeting and My Site creation. Out of the box it can also be synchronized with the Active Directory. In this presentation we take a close look at the importance of the profile, how you can manage it and techniques for synchronizing the profile with other repositories.

SHA09: Searching with SharePoint
Kevin Laahs
This session takes a look at the search technologies that both Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS) employ and covers real-life deployment scenarios and challenges. We explore the architectures in both products, deployment options for ensuring a rich end-user experience, how search in a Shared Services environment works, how to customize the search experience, and how to build your own applications that use the search capabilities.

SHA10: Templatepalooza
Robert Ginsburg
With the exception of Search and User Profiles, SPS is a series of integrated WSS site templates. In this session we will discuss and create a WSS application that is composed of distinct, related site templates. Site hierarchy, administration, navigation and content management will all be demonstrated.

SHA11: Up and Running - Now What Do I Do?
Darrin Bishop
You were handed the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 install DVD, did some research and finally have your portal up and running. Now what? This is an all too often common scenario for an administrator. Left alone the portal more often than not becomes an interesting experiment but not a real investment. The first half of this session will focus on the visionary aspect of your portal. We will look at various uses and implementations of SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services to start your own vision of what your portal could be. The second half of the session will focus on the common follow-on technical tasks including disaster recovery, configuration of search and indexing, and integration that are needed to bring your portal to life. If you find yourself staring at a basic portal and wondering “Now what?” then this session will get you heading in the right direction.

SHA12: Web Parts for Admins
Darrin Bishop
If you thought Web Parts were for developers only, think again! Developing new custom Web Parts for SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services is a developer task, but configuration, security and deployment are administrative functions. In this session we will cover the how and why of Web Parts from the administrator's perspective in order to make your life easier. We are going to start by looking at how users interact with Web Parts, Web Part Pages and Web Part galleries by adding, deleting, personalizing and connecting Web Parts. After covering the user interaction with Web Parts, we will overview exactly what a Web Part is and how you as the administrator of the system can secure, install and configure Web Parts. You will understand where to deploy a Web Part's assembly and definition file to achieve your administrative goals. Attend this session and you will receive a clear understanding of Web Part technology and all the pieces that go into a successful custom Web Part deployment.