This online book describes the fundamentals of TCP/IP in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

This online book is a structured, introductory approach to the basic concepts and principles of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite, how the most important protocols function, and their basic configuration in the Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 families of operating systems. This book is primarily a discussion of concepts and principles to lay a conceptual foundation for the TCP/IP protocol suite and provides an integrated discussion of both Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c76296fd-61c9-4079-a0bb-582bca4a846f&DisplayLang=en

Today I worked on a small MDT LiteTouch deployment solution at one of our customers. I thought this was going to be another easy day in the office.
After a day looking through log files, debugging and trying to figure out what was going on, I finally found the solution.

Thanks Jacques for posting this great tip.

When running WAIK 1.1 on a x64 Windows 2008 systems, you cannot generate a catalog for a captures x86 Vista or Windows 2008.
It’s a shame, really. But there is a workaround:

1. Copy the original catalog of your Vista x86 (INSTALL_WINDOWS VISTA ENTERPRISE.CLG) from your distribution share’s original OS (Distribution\Operating Systems\OriginalVistaEntSP1×86\sources) to the folder in which your imported your captured image (\Distribution\Operating Systems\MasterVistaEntSP1×86)
2. Rename the .clg file to a name that match your customized image in the form WIMFileName_ImageName (MasterVistaEntSP1×86_BUILD-VISTASP1CDrive.CLG in my case.)
3. Launch System Image Manager (do not use the Edit Unattended.xml button of Task Sequence Properties in MDT!)
4. Open your Unattended.xml file corresponding to the deployment task sequence of your captured image (\Distribution\Control\DEPL-VISTASP1X86 in my case). Ignore errors and message about catalog.
5. In the Windows Image pane (the catalog pane), right click the Windows Vista Vista and click Close Windows Image.
6. In the empty Windows Image pane, right click, choose Select Windows Image, change the file type to .clg, browse to the Operating Systems subfolder of your captured image and select the catalog file you just renamed (MasterVistaEntSP1×86_BUILD-VISTASP1CDrive.CLG).
7. Save your answer file

Now you can open it from the Edit Unattended.xml button of Task Sequence Properties in MDT!

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (RTM and SP1) now supports the use of SQL Server 2008 as a site database.  In order to upgrade a site-server database to SQL 2008 there are 2 hot fixes required:

• ConfigMgr 2007 RTM customers must apply hot fix KB955229
• ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 customers must apply hot fix KB955262

The following are requirements when performing a clean install on a SQL Server 2008 database:

• A clean install of ConfigMgr 2007 RTM on a SQL Server 2008 database is not supported.  You must first install SQL Server 2005, upgrade to SQL Server 2008 and then apply hot fix KB955229
• A clean install of ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 on a SQL Server 2008 database is supported, but should apply hot fix KB955262

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is now supported for Configuration Manager 2007 RTM and SP1

Support will be provided for client management, site server roles, and the administrator console running within a Hyper-V environment.   There are no hot fixes required for the release to support configuration scenario.  This applies to customers running Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V RTM installed.

Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0.03 is now supported on Configuration Manager 2007 RTM and SP1 with the ACT Connector

Customers leveraging the ACT Connector may download ACT 5.0.3 which released on September 2, 2008.  The following is a summary of the Application Compatibility Toolkit Connector:

Update Compatibility Evaluator: Update Compatibility Evaluator Now Supports Vista and Server ’08 in addition to Win2K, XP and Server ’03 that were previously supported.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 Support: We now support Windows Internet Explorer 8. The Internet Explorer Compatibility Evaluator as well as the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool are capable of identifying issues on websites and web applications when they are run on IE8.

Major Bug Fixes:

SUA:

• SUA Crashes if AppVerifier Log Entry is Badly Formed
• Failure to Create Shim Database Entry if Product Name Contains Special Characters: SUA was unable to create a shim database entry for an application if the application name contained special characters. This issue has been resolved in ACT 5.0.3.
• CorrectFilePaths Shim Fix: There was a bug in the Standard User Analyzer because of which the CorrectFilePaths shim (used to redirect the path to which files created by the application are written) was only shimming a single file-path relocation even if multiple files needed to be redirected. This has been fixed in the current version of ACT.

ACM:

• The Application Compatibility Manager no longer requires elevation of user privileges to run in Vista.

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is now supported on Configuration Manager 2007 RTM and SP1

The .NET Framework 2.0 is a dependency for the Admin Console and the Desired Configuration Manager (DCM) feature of the client.  Typically the .NET Framework is a side-by-side (SxS) installation so compatibility is not a concern.  However, the .NET Framework 3.5 install performs an upgrade to the .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.0 behind the scenes, this is now fully supported.

Source: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/dario/archive/2008/09/25/important-updates-regarding-sccm-2007-r2.aspx

Download the evaluation copy here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7376214F-CBA3-4E0D-81FE-AD52488BE3A3&displaylang=en

System Requirements:
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 Evaluation (you cannot install this version on a Volume License or MSDN installation).