Vista

Windows Vista SP2 CPP Available

Chris Haaker — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:16:06 GMT

Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is now available to Microsoft TechNet subscribers through the download website. This is the Customer Preview Program (CPP) which will roll to general availability tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Vista SP2,Windows Vista SP2,Windows Server 2008 SP2,TechNet,Microsoft

IE8 Beta 1 Available

Chris Haaker — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:03:38 GMT

Released shortly after today's MIX '08 Keynote, a more standards-friendly IE8 beta 1 is now available for download.

Features include:

Activities - contextual services that provide quick access to external services from any web page.
Webslices - take "slices" of a web site offline or bookmark.
Choice of layout engine
CSS 2.1 compliance
HTML improvements
Improved namespace support
Platform performance improvements
Developer tools
Improved Phishing filters
Domain highlighting

Technorati Tags: Internet Explorer,IE8,IE8 Beta1,Mix 08

Wither Still No Native ADUC for Windows Vista SP1

Chris Haaker — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:54:28 GMT

So with the release of Windows Server 2008 I was really looking forward to some post or announcement from Microsoft with regards to the availability of native Active Directory management tools that can be installed on Windows Vista SP1 without any mods, kludges or scripts. You know, they just work out of the box. Like the good ‘ol days when you copied adminpak.msi from Windows Server 2003 over to Windows XP.

Now that I am running Windows Server 2008 as a workstation I don't necessarily have to worry about this. As soon as I installed the server features for Active Directory Domain Controller Tools I had all my faithful friends like ADUC back at my disposal. So of course, I thought I would just grab adminpak.msi from c:\windows and be on my way. And yet, in the back of my brain,I knew there would be no such thing. I hate it when I am right.

So while it doesn't effect me in the near term it is effecting lots of others I am sure. People who would like the real tools to bring over to Windows Vista SP1. Perhaps there is a way to copy over all the bits and bobs and do some voodoo DLL registration to wrap it up and get it going. If someone finds out, please let me know!

Tags: Windows+Server+2008, ADUC, Windows+Vista+SP1, W2K8

Windows Server 2008 as a Workstation Part III

Chris Haaker — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:46:25 GMT

Mary Jo Foley has an article on ~~bringing back~~ creating Windows Workstation 2008 (Part I) and proposing the idea that in the past there was a “server” version of NT4 and Windows 2000 and a “workstation” version that was the same product with limits on concurrent usage when running IIS, etc. She says that since Windows Server 2008 is the best version of Windows Server ever by a wide margin, why not capitalize on that an offer a “workstation” version.

Some people, especially in the consulting field or who are consulting ITPros, have long run a Server OS as their “workstation” often on laptops as well. I decided to give Windows Server 2008 a shot myself, especially after getting some guidance from the blog of Vijayshinva Karnure, (Part II) a Microsoft employee who wrote a great blog post on how he adapted Windows Server 2008 for his use as a workstation (on a laptop to boot).

I followed Vijay’s instructions for the most part. I started by enabling only the things I needed step-by-step in order to keep as much of the speed savings as possible. It only stands to reason that if you turn on every bell and whistle you find in Vista, you haven't gained very much. There is a debate in the comments of Vijay’s post about how the kernel is identical between Vista SP1 and W2K8. I believe this is true. However, W2K8 flies, were Vista SP1 merely jogged along. Don't get me wrong, Vista SP1 is a big improvement over Vista RTM, but W2K8 is even better.

Of course, there are a couple of things you have to give up. I didn't get the Hyper-V version as my Dell Latitude D620 doesn't have hardware virtualization. I am just running 32–bit Standard without Hyper-V. I turned on Themes and the Themes service so I can use Aero. That hasn't slowed it down yet. I also turned on the WLAN Auto Config service as I need wireless on the laptop. That one took me a second to figure out. Networking showed the adapter as lit up and seeing a signal, but disabled. Easy enough I thought: Just right-click and enable. I did this several times to no avail.

Another PITA is the IE ESC (Enhanced Security Configuration). In W2K3 you went in to Add\Remove Programs and Add\Remove System Components to remove it for administrators. In W2K8 you need to go to Server Manager (which is nice enough to present itself to you every time you log in) and then down to Security and click on IE ESC Configuration.

For some reason I also cannot burn DVD’s with my DVDRW drive. I can read them but it will not burn files from the shell. I haven't had time to try a third party tool yet.

And the final bummer is that no Windows Live components (like Live Writer) will install. I had to go back to BlogJet for this post.

However, I am still quite happy with the speed that this installation is performing at. My boot time, logon time and overall responsiveness is much improved. Let’s see how it looks two weeks from now!

Tags: Windows+Server+2008, W2K8, Vista+SP1, Performance, Windows+Workstation

Hallelujah! Shell RunAs for Windows Vista

Chris Haaker — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:34:31 GMT

One of the missing things from Windows Vista that most perplexed me (or frustrated the monkey cr*p out of me) was the lack of the RunAs shell extension. Following proper administrative best practices, I don't log in to my laptop with domain administrative privileges, I have a separate account for that. Running something like ADUC was never easy, and UAC in Vista often got in the way. If you turned it off, you could not get prompted to run an application under a different set of credentials. You could set it under the local security policy to always prompt for credentials, and then enter your other set of credentials. of course, then you get prompted to enter your credentials for everything under the sun. Its a good security practice, but boy does it get old quick. Very quick. This utility returns the traditional right-click RunAs functionality to the explorer shell. Enjoy. Rejoice.

Technorati Tags: Windows Vista,RunAs,UAC

RDP to /Console After Vista SP1

Chris Haaker — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:03:05 GMT

Having trouble making that connection to the console session via RDP? If you have applied SP1 to your Windows Vista installation the switch has changed! Instead of "mstsc /console" it is now "mstsc /admin." Go figure. Personally, I would just add a "console" checkbox as one of the options in the expanded connect configuration on the client. Why do you have to go and be all mysterious Microsoft?

Technorati Tags: RDP,Terminal Services,Console Session,/console,Windows Vista,Vista SP1

Spread the "Love"

Chris Haaker — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:45:00 GMT

Phishing attacks are nothing new and you can usually spot them in your email with half of your brain tied behind your back. You've seen them - bad grammar, syntax and spelling. The obvious links to knock-off URLs. The pleas from Nigerian-Kings-in-hiding. Today in my GMail I received a note from Hallmark that I was the recipient of a e-card. Now, Valentines Day was a week ago so this seemed suspicious, but my mother is not above sending these cute little e-cards every once in a while so I took a look. "Click here" it tells you, but prior to clicking, I always hover on the link to see the source URL. Where do you think it went? Not to Hallmark I can tell you!

This is a simple, but effective step in determining if the email or link you receive in an email is legitimate. While not foolproof, it goes a long-way to determining what might happen when you click on a link. Running Windows Vista with User Account Control turned on to prompt for a user name and password with administrative privileges is also huge in controlling the effect something like this would have on your system should you decide to click on the link and accept the download of "love.zip." Its no news that people across the intertubes have endlessly complained about UAC (even the Mac commercials pan it) but it is a small price to pay to what happens when on your computer. Like it or not, the Windows platform is the most highly targeted OS for attacks. Practice the digital equivalent of "safe sex" when you are online.

Technorati Tags: love.zip,Hallmark,phishing,GMail,Virus,Vista,UAC,User Account Control

SyncToy Beta 2 Released

Chris Haaker — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:50:35 GMT

Microsoft's most awesome power toy for keeping many a file synchronized with your USB drive or laptop has been updated. SyncToy Beta 2 has been released and is full of all kinds of updated goodness. The UI remains largely the same, but it looks like a lot of our feedback has been incorporated in to the new edition. If you are upgrading be sure to read the warning during the install. Make sure you have freshly sync'd beforehand.

Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.

True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.

Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.

Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).

Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.

Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.

Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.

The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.

Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.

Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.

64-Bit compatibility

Folder pair rename

Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents creates under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded.

Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.

Removed combine and subscribe actions.

Technorati Tags: SyncToy , Sync data

Windows Vista SP1 Released to Beta Testers

Chris Haaker — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:27:31 GMT

Nick has the details on the Windows Vista SP1 Beta release. I am downloading it now and will provide details as NDA permits.

Dude I Feel Your Pain ...

Chris Haaker — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:35:15 GMT

Jeff, I feel ya. And this was after the installation of the performance and reliability patches that were recently released. Truly mileage may vary ...