Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 Released

Microsoft has announced the release of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2008 for IT managers. This release is for those companies who have already purchased the Desktop Optimization pack along with Windows Software Assurance agreements with Microsoft.

The current release updated two products of the optimization pack – Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 6.0 (DaRT) and Desktop Error Monitoring 3.0 SP1 (DEM).

DaRT is a collection of very handy and powerful tools used for troubleshooting unbootable PCs. The collection includes tools such as Locksmith to reset a local administrator password, Hotfix uninstaller that can uninstall a bad hotfix causing PC to crash, a file recovery tool to recover deleted files from the recycle bin and an anti-spy/malware tool called Standalone System Sweeper tool that can run on an unbootable PC and receive spyware definitions update via USB drive.

DEM on the other hand is a monitoring application, that can be installed as a server on your network and the workstations run a smaller version of DEM that will monitor application and system crashes on them. The crash events gets reported to the DEM server on the network and the collected data can be utilized for further debugging and troubleshooting by IT managers.

» More on this @ [Windows Vista Team Blog]