PC Tips Box » Windows 7

Show A Hidden System Tray Icon In Windows 7

Jason — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:52:52 +0000

System tray icon has been taken quite seriously in windows 7, the windows 7 taskbar has been designed keeping in mind that system tray icons of the various third party applications should not occupy the task bar space. So, by default any program which has a system tray icon is hidden by default in windows 7 system tray.

In order to show a system tray icon in the task bar, here is how you can set it to show. Take your mouse over the arrow pointing vertically upwards, you can see the text saying show hidden icons

click the arrow pointing upwards on the windows 7 taskbar, and click the customize text.

After clicking customize it will open up action center where you can show the icon and notifications of a program [ as shown in the image below ]

For any program whom you want to show the system tray icon, select the option from the drop down saying Show icon and notifications and click ok button at the bottom.

That’s it Done, I hope you like this small but useful tip for many new windows 7 users, you can read more windows 7 tips written by us before

Tags: application, hidden, program, system, system tray icon, Task, tips, Windows, Windows 7, windows 7 tips

Microsoft Reacts to Windows 7 0-Day DoS Vulnerability

Jason — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:01:13 +0000

Microsoft has reacted rapidly to public reports of a zero-day denial-of-service vulnerability in its latest iterations of the Windows client and server operating systems, and is providing customers with guidance on how to block potential attempts to take advantage of the security flaw. In this regard, the Redmond company has underlined that no exploits or attacks have been detected for the denial-of-service (DoS) hole in the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol impacting both SMBv1 and SMBv2 in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. However, Proof of Concept (PoC) code was irresponsibly published in the wild, making it extremely easy for attackers to build exploits putting at risk users of Windows 7.

“Microsoft is aware of public, detailed exploit code that would cause a system to stop functioning or become unreliable. If exploited, this DoS vulnerability would not allow an attacker to take control of, or install malware on, the customer’s system but could cause the affected system to stop responding until manually restarted. It is important to note that the default firewall settings on Windows 7 will help block attempts to exploit this issue,” Dave Forstrom, group manager, public relations, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, revealed. “The company is not aware of attacks to exploit the reported vulnerability at this time.”

Users currently running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 need to know that Microsoft published Security Advisory 977544, in response to the details available in the wild of the DoS vulnerability. The advisory contains a section titled Workarounds, which advices Windows 7 customers to block TCP ports 139 and 445 at the firewall in order to bulletproof their systems against potential attacks.

“While Microsoft is not currently aware of active attacks, the company recommends customers review and implement the workarounds outlined in the advisory until a comprehensive security update is released,” Forstrom explained. Microsoft confirmed that the vulnerability was Windows 7-specific and that users running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 were not affected.

Tags: attack, attackers, DoS, firewall, malware, Microsoft, Security, security advisory, security update, TCP, Trustworthy, vulnerability, Windows, Windows 7

Windows 7 RTM in Over 35 Languages

Jason — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:35:24 +0000

There are more ways than one in which end users can translate Windows 7 into different languages. For some users, Windows 7’s Multilingual User Interface (MUI), including Windows Language Packs and Language Interface Packs (LIPs), is the most known way to translate the operating system. Deploying an MUI or an LIP will actually have Windows 7’s graphical user interface display all information in another language than the one that is default to the installation. But there are additional ways to translate Windows 7, not just elements of the OS but the actual terminology built around the platform.

On the Microsoft Language Portal, users can find equivalents of English technical jargon in their own language. The Redmond company is essentially offering the Windows 7 terminology for no less than 35 languages. However, the resources available on the webpage span across more than just terminology.

“On these pages you can search our localization glossaries and terminology database for over 90 languages, download style guides, give us feedback on terminology used in our products and find pointers to other languages and localization sites in Microsoft,” a message on the website reads.

Users that will try out the resource will see that the Microsoft Language Portal will not only access the translated versions of the various technical terms used across the operating system, but also definitions of the technologies that they describe. All in all, the page offers an excellent source of insight into Windows, and Windows 7 in particular.

“Following the general distribution release of Windows 7, we made the Windows 7 terminology and UI strings available for 35 languages on the Microsoft Language Portal. This allows any user of Microsoft products to search and discover Windows 7 terms and software translations. Simply enter the English term, your corresponding language and press search,” Microsoft’s Rob Margel reveals.

Customers interested in running Windows 7 MUI packs should know that the Multilingual User Interface packages have been available well ahead of the general availability of the operating system.

Tags: download, graphical user interface, installation, language, Language Interface Packs, language pack, language packs, languages, Microsoft, Multilingual, multilingual user interface, package, user interface, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 7 RTM

Seven Things to Try after Installing Windows 7

Jason — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:15:18 +0000

On October 22, 2009 Microsoft reached the final milestone of the Windows 7 release schedule, namely general availability. Customers worldwide have already started embracing the product, buying 234% more boxed retail copies of Windows 7 since the official launch compared to the first few days after Windows Vista GA. The NPD Group took into consideration only sales of Windows 7 through the retail channel in the US in order to note that Windows 7 retail sales were outpacing those of Vista, but it’s likely that actual sold licenses of the latest Windows client are more than reported by NPD, taking into account the fact that the platform is available pre-installed on OEM computers, as well as offered for download through online outlets such as Microsoft Store.

Windows 7 guarantees a completely revolutionary UX for users upgrading from Windows XP, and evolutionary, as Microsoft itself has put it, for those that migrate from Vista. Either way, the latest edition of Windows brings a consistent range of enhancements that set Windows 7 apart from its predecessors. Assessing the value associated with the innovations introduced in Windows 7 certainly leads to recommendation lists with more than seven items.

Users will find that some of the new Windows 7 features and capabilities will come into focus more than others. Without having this aspect become a representation of the value they will bring to end users, there are things that customers will want to try ahead of anything else. Below is a list with seven of them, although in all fairness, users that will actually keep count will find that the limit of seven items “might” not have been respected entirely.

1. Windows 7 editions

As was the case with Windows 7’s precursor, Microsoft has bundled all editions of the operating system on the same installation media. This offers customers a chance to test drive other editions of the operating system, in addition to the SKU they actually acquired. The Windows 7 deployment process no longer requires the introduction of a product key, permitting the installation of any edition. This is an excellent change for end users to try additional releases of Windows 7, perhaps even on a secondary computer in their home. Windows 7 comes with an initial trial period of 30 days, which can be prolonged, if necessary.

At the time of writing this article, Microsoft continues to offer for download a free, trial release of Windows 7 Enterprise. Time-bombed to last for no less than 90 days, the Windows 7 Enterprise trial represents a chance to run the equivalent of the Ultimate SKU – the high-end edition of the operating system.

2. SLMGR-rearm

Of course, in certain scenarios, the initial grace period of 30 days offered by every edition of Windows 7 might be insufficient for end users to decide whether they want to buy the platform or not. In this case, the Redmond-based company provided a perfectly legal method to prolong the trial period to 120 days.

Simply enter “cmd” into the search box under the Start menu and right click the highlighted result selecting “Run as administrator.” In the cmd window, enter the following command: slmgr. This will open the Windows Software Licensing Management Tool with a list of commands that can be run. Windows 7 users will be interested in running slmgr /rearm, a command, which resets the initial grace period back to zero. If slmgr /rearm is used on the 30th day of the trail period, it will offer another month of free trial. Users will only be able to rearm Windows 7 a total of three times.

3. Windows Aero

Windows 7 comes with an overhauled graphical user interface that boosts the eye candy previously available in Vista to a new level. But it’s not all about the enhancements to translucency effects, it is also about the overhaul in terms of functionality. The new Taskbar (Superbar) introduces a new way to combine hosting icons designed to launch programs with applications already running. Thumbnail Previews along with Jumplists (mini Start menus for each app pinned to the Taskbar) make it easier for users to find and launch an application. But, of course, there’s more.

“Snap to it! Need to compare two documents side-by-side? Snap, a new feature in Windows 7, is a quick (and fun) way to increase your productivity. Snap allows you to resize open windows simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen – left or right. Then, the window will expand vertically and fill the screen, so you can easily position windows side-by-side,” Microsoft revealed.

“Shake away the clutter: Need to cut through a crowded desktop and quickly focus on a single window? With Windows 7, you can click a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every window except that one disappears. Jiggle again, and your Windows are back,” the company noted.

The Aero Shake, Aero Peek and Aero Snap features make organizing and managing opened programs, files, folders on the desktop a simple process. Overall, Windows 7 is less cluttered, and more user-friendly.

4. Windows Live Essentials

Don’t forget to stretch Windows 7 into the Cloud. With the advent of Windows 7, Microsoft is no longer including otherwise traditional Windows programs into the operating system. Vista’s successor no longer comes with an instant messaging client or a mail app. But via Windows Live Essentials, Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety and Toolbar are just a download away.

“Download Windows Live Essentials – the killer apps for Windows 7: Once you have Windows 7 installed, go to download.live.com to download free programs for email, IM, movie-making, photos and more,” Microsoft revealed.

Windows Live Essentials components are all offered as free downloads. And, in fact, as soon as they try to update Windows 7, users will find that Windows Live Essentials will be offered as an update. Through the clients packaged under the Windows Live Essentials brand umbrella, the software giant is simply offering basic apps that are key to performing mundane tasks.

Microsoft stated that Windows 7 and Windows Live Essential users can: “Organize your multiple email accounts in one place: Organize your multiple email accounts using Window Live Mail (including Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail Plus and Gmail) so you can receive email in one place, organized into separate folders. You can even add RSS feeds to stay up on your favorite sites and blogs.
Import and organize your photos: Your new operating system is a great excuse to finally organize the thousands of digital photos you’ve accumulated over the years. Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to sort your photos easily by tags, folders or dates, then clean them up with easy editing features, including auto-fix, sharpen image, panoramic stitch, and more.
Make a movie in less than five minutes: Now that you have your favorite photo and video memories on your Windows 7 PC, make them into movies and slideshows that you can share on the web (including easy publishing to YouTube and Facebook) or burn onto a DVD in high definition (if your camera supports it). Windows Live Movie Maker features the simple-to-navigate Windows 7 ribbon, and time-saving features like AutoMovie that automatically turn your photos, videos and music into an impressive movie – complete with titles and transitions.”

5. Microsoft Security Essentials

Users should make sure to run security software in order to protect their machines against an ever evolving threat environment. Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 is a free security solution from the Redmond-based company that will work with both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) flavors of Windows 7.

But for users that might want to go with other security vendors, there are additional security solutions available for download, also for free, including: PC Tools, BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition, AVG Antivirus 9.0, Avira Antivir Personal and Avast Antivirus.

6. Free Themes

“Personalize your PC: Make your Windows 7 PC your own by pinning your favorite programs to the enhanced Windows Taskbar, to easily preview and switch between Windows. Then, customize your desktop with one of the many new themes available in Windows 7 (or easily download a new one that suits your personality), and drag your favorite gadgets where you want them on your desktop,” Microsoft noted.

But of course that personalization goes much further than the simple customization of the taskbar. In this regard, the software giant has put together the Windows 7 Personalization Gallery, offering free themes and wallpapers for the operating system, on top of the content already included by default into the platform.

7. Windows Touch

Users looking to buy a new computer should consider machines with touch capabilities. Windows 7 is the first Microsoft operating system with native multitouch support, and a platform that will usher in a new era of pervasive Natural User Interfaces. A critical aspect of Windows 7 Multitouch is that Microsoft is not only offering a feature, but also a platform, which third-party developers can take advantage of with their own products.

“Multitouch in Windows Touch is a whole new world compared to single touch because you can do things that are of course single touch, but you can also include a new mode of interacting with your computer that is based on gestures. Typical examples of that are being able to zoom in to a picture, site, or page; or rotating things; or doing power taps with two fingers that let you define a whole new bunch of interactions you can have with your computer. It actually lets you, with your fingers, control things that would take either several clicks of the mouse or several clicks on the keyboard and do it in a more intuitive manner,” revealed Yves Neyrand, the director of test for the Windows Developer Experience team, ahead of the Windows 7 GA.

Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.

Tags: 32-bit, 64-bit, AntiVir, AVG, bitdefender, Computer, fix, Microsoft, Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0, security software, SKU, Software, virus, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 7 RTM, windows aero, windows client

Firefox 3.6 Beta for Windows 7

Jason — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:34:13 +0000

The first fully-fledged Beta development milestone of the next generation of Mozilla’s open source browser is currently available for download. Testers and early adopters that have been waiting for Firefox 3.6, codenamed Namoroka, to evolve from Alpha stage are now free to access, download, install and start test driving the Beta 1 build. In addition to being the first Beta for Firefox 3.6, the development milestone offered by Mozilla is also the first example of a third-party browser to embrace Microsoft’s latest iteration of the Windows client. Just like the native Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is designed to play nice with Aero Peek and Thumbnail Previews via the new Windows Aero Taskbar (Superbar) in Windows 7.

As you can see from the screenshot included below, Firefox 3.6 Beta users can now take advantage of the some of the same graphical user interface enhancements in Windows 7 as those running IE8. While Google and Opera are lagging behind when it comes down to tailoring their browsers to Windows 7, the same is not valid for Mozilla. And as Windows 7 became available for purchase on October 22, 2009, customers running the OS in combination with Firefox 3.6 will certainly enjoy the bells and whistles of the new Windows Aero GUI.

“The Mozilla community is proud to release Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 for download. This beta version of the next version of Firefox is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users. The Mozilla community appreciates your feedback and assistance in testing this preview of the next version of Firefox. Your beta software will update itself periodically, and eventually will be updated to the final release itself,” revealed Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s director of Firefox.

Mozilla was initially planning to release Firefox 3.6 Beta ahead of October 22, but the amount of blockers pushed back the release. Beta 1 of Firefox 3.6 was also delayed this week by the necessity to respin after a last minute issue was discovered. Mozilla is looking to offer Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate (RC) in November and to release the final version of the browser also by the end of the next month, although all pointers indicate that the complete Firefox 3.6 could slip in December.

Mozilla enumerated some of the changes in Firefox 3.6 Beta:

* This beta is available in more than 50 languages – get your local version.

* Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.

* Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.

* Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.

* Support for the WOFF font format.

* Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.

* Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Firefox 3.6 Beta (revision 1) for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 Beta (revision 1) for Mac OS X is available for download here.

Tags: Add-on, appearance, Firefox, firefox 3, Firefox 3.6, google, IE8, Internet, internet explorer, internet explorer 8, Mac, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Mozilla, mozilla community, OS X, Performance, Windows, Windows 7

Windows 7 RTM Drivers from Microsoft Hardware

Jason — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:27:41 +0000

Microsoft’s “Better Together” slogan apparently applies not only to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 but also to the latest iteration of the Windows client and the Redmond company’s peripherals. The vast majority of products offered by Microsoft Hardware features the Windows 7 Compatible logo and comes with device drivers designed to play nice with the successor of Windows Vista from the get go. Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22nd and hit the shelves last week on October 22nd, with Microsoft applauding strong support and compatibility for the OS.

The Redmond company even features a webpage dedicated to Microsoft Hardware products and Windows 7, advertising a match nothing short of the perfect marriage between peanut butter and jelly. More importantly, the Microsoft Hardware + Windows 7 page contains a collection of special offerings for customers. The software giant noted that the special deals on Microsoft were open to all customers.

Microsoft Hardware products including mice, keyboards, LifeCams, gaming devices and notebook accessories, all compatible with Windows 7, are also available at discount prices from a variety of online retailers including the Microsoft Store. The only exception to the Windows 7 compatible line-up of Microsoft Hardware items is the Fingerprint Reader, which does not play nice with the operating system, the company informed.

According to the software giant: “several Microsoft Hardware products make everyday tasks easier with the following features exclusive to Windows 7:

• Taskbar Favorites. Using many Microsoft keyboards, people can easily access their open programs by mapping keys to the location of applications on the improved Windows Taskbar. The icons in the Taskbar can be easily rearranged just by clicking and dragging, and Taskbar Favorites will instantly adapt to the icons’ new locations.

• Device Stage. Many Microsoft Hardware mouse and keyboard products will support Device Stage, a Windows 7 feature that gives customers quick and easy access to common tasks, including product information, registration, settings and more for popular device categories such as cell phones, cameras, printers, portable media players and input devices.

• Windows Flip. Many Microsoft mouse and keyboard users can easily see a thumbnail preview of all open windows with the press of a button. A full-screen preview of the application will automatically display, enabling the user to better identify and select the desired application.

• Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Live Photo Gallery. LifeCam users will be able to do more with photos and movies. With Movie Maker they can start a movie project with one click, and then upload video to social networking sites. Photo Gallery access will enable them to easily upload a photo that they can edit, tag and share with friends and family.”

Tags: cameras, device driver, Drivers, Hardware, hardware products, keyboard, LifeCam, manufacturing, Microsoft, Microsoft Hardware, microsoft keyboards, microsoft store, Network, notebook, printers, software giant, Support, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 7 RTM, Windows Server 2008

Windows 7 RTM Support

Jason — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:16:38 +0000

Windows 7 is an evolutionary Windows client release, according to Microsoft, and it was also fit that support for the OS would also be an evolution compared to what was available for Windows Vista. And Windows 7 comes in a world where Microsoft Support is much different from what it was when the company made its debut.

According to the software giant, “Microsoft Corp. was founded in 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Customer support in 1975 consisted of Bill Gates and Paul Allen.” The focus on customer support has grown tremendously for Microsoft, as the Windows operating system became ubiquitous, and as the company started offering additional products.

Official statistics from the Redmond company reveal that this year alone traffic to Microsoft online support exploded to approximately 1.2 billion. “Microsoft Customer Service and Support now manages 30 million support requests online, through e-mail and phone each year in 29 languages across a range of products around the world. There are more than 7,000 agents in over 60 locations available to help Microsoft customers,” the company explained.

And precisely in order to simplify support, Microsoft has included a variety of enhancements into its latest Windows client, designed to let users deal with the most basic of problems virtually on their own. In order to help customers resolve Windows 7 issues on their own, and reduce the weight experienced by Microsoft Support, the company has focused on taking support to Twitter, providing a comprehensive library of software “Fix its” automatic fixes, and even build diagnostic and repair tools into Windows 7.

“Windows XP had little built-in support, and Windows Vista included some diagnostics to assess network connectivity issues,” Lori Brownell, general manager of Product Quality and Online Support at Microsoft, stated. “But Windows 7 truly reflects broad customer feedback that has enabled us to build a comprehensive set of resources that solve customers’ most pressing problems and even keep them ahead of potential problems. For example, Windows Update searches for updates, like driver updates, automatically.”

For the latest iteration of its Windows client, Microsoft has embraced social media, offering the @MicrosoftHelps handle on Twitter. The goal of @MicrosoftHelps is designed to help customers access support that is neither costly, nor technically complex.

“Our social media agents are experienced and have extensive knowledge about searching and using resources to get answers to customer questions,” Brownell explained. “They will also bring customers with more complex issues into the support forums for help from customer support and Microsoft MVPs.”

In addition to Twitter, the company is also leveraging the now-traditional forum formula to offer Windows 7 support via Microsoft Answers. “Microsoft Answers makes it much easier for consumers to find simply written information about their PCs,” Brownell noted. “People can go there to find, use and share information that helps them get the most from their software.”

But ahead of anything else, Microsoft is most proud of the Windows 7 native support, included in the box. From the Windows Action Center, users can easily take advantage of over 20 automated troubleshooters designed to resolve basic problems with Windows 7. “These troubleshooters can diagnose and solve the most common problems reported by Windows users, including set-up and compatibility issues, hardware defects and the like,” Brownell promised.

Tags: diagnostics, driver update, experience, Library, Microsoft, problems, Repair, support microsoft, Technical, Troubleshoot, Troubleshooter, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 7 RTM, windows update

Windows 7 Product Guide

Jason — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:03:31 +0000

Following the worldwide launch of Windows 7, Microsoft has made available a resource designed to give customers an insight into the operating system. The successor of Windows Vista hit store shelves on October 22nd, 2009, and in concert with the actual bits, the Redmond company released the Windows 7 Product Guide. For users who want to understand all the changes that the latest iteration of the Windows client brings to the table, all the new features, functionality and capabilities, the official Windows 7 Product Guide is the best resource available. Furthermore, the software giant is offering the product guide completely free via the Microsoft Download Center.

Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, revealed that the Windows 7 Product Guide was designed to deliver customers as much information on Windows 7 as possible in an easy to digest style. “This easy to read guide gives you a clear overview of the features in Windows 7 without a lot of technical jargon that you might find in other content. The guide was designed to educate and inform readers about benefits you get from adopting Windows 7,” LeBlanc added.

With Windows 7 now available for purchase worldwide, some users will undoubtedly want to get the best out of their operating system. Fact is that the Windows 7 Product Guide is designed to help all customers become familiar with the platform, and to understand the depth of the innovation introduced by Microsoft with Windows 7. The Windows 7 Product Guide is available for download both in PDF and XPS formats.

LeBlanc noted that “the Windows 7 Product Guide has three major sections:

Introduction – Describes how Microsoft designed Windows 7, what editions of Windows 7 are available and what is new.
Windows 7 for You – Goes over features in Windows 7 that simplify everyday tasks, work the way you want, and make new things possible.
Windows 7 for IT Professionals – Explains how Windows 7 can make people productive anywhere, manage risk through enhanced security and control, and reduce costs by streamlining PC management. This section also has an overview of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack to help you learn about how this set of applications can help you get to a more managed and optimized desktop.”

Another Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.

Tags: Microsoft, Operating system, optimization, rtm, source, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 7 Product Guide, Windows 7 RTM

The Ten Things to Do First for Windows 7 – Part 2

Jason — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:54:54 +0000

The first part of this article are here.

6. Prepare for distributed security.

During your initial strategy meeting, set aside time to discuss how you want to handle the many distributed security features in Windows 7. You’ll want to determine a course of action early in the project because those decisions will have a substantial impact on your test matrix.

First, consider whether you want turn on the desktop firewall. When OS-based desktop firewalls were first introduced in XP SP1, many organizations turned them off with a Group Policy and that was that. The firewall in Windows 7 is much more flexible and warrants reconsideration. You can turn off the firewall while the machine is connected to the domain and turn it on when the machine is connected to a home/work network or to the Internet. You can define granular exclusions, too. Try a mix of options with the first wave of pilot users; take their feedback, along with input from your security team, to make a final decision on firewall settings. They’re completely configurable by Group Policy.

Second, do you want to use AppLocker to restrict applications permitted to run on your desktops? AppLocker allows you to put together a whitelist of approved executables that you can select individually by file hash, in groups by location or in groups by publisher (that is, signed by the publisher’s certificate). Once configured, these rules are downloaded by Windows 7 clients running the Application Identity service. From that point forward, only the whitelisted apps can execute. All other executables are forced to sit on the sidelines, kind of like me during my high-school athletic career.
Because AppLocker permissions are applied via Group Policy, you can tightly target the rules to computers based on OU, group membership or WMI filters.

Sifting through a mountain of applications trying to determine which should be on an AppLocker whitelist doesn’t sound like much fun, but the situation shouldn’t come to that. Most line-of-business machines have a fixed and limited suite of apps. Start there. After all, if you can keep the night crews from plugging flash drives into your factory kiosk machines to run games rather than build widgets, you’ve solved quite a few operational problems. Deal with the back-office machines later.

Finally, are you going to protect your laptops and flash drives with encryption? If your executives and managers and knowledge workers are out walking around with data drives filled with valuable intellectual property, then the answer should be a resounding yes. BitLocker allows you to encrypt the entire hard drive and all the data on it. BitLocker To Go extends this encryption to cover flash drives and other portable media. You really do need to deploy it.

Now, I’m not saying that you should simply flip on the BitLocker policy in Group Policies, encrypt a bunch of drives and walk away. As with any other encryption-based technology, you must carefully think through the options. Don’t be that person whom others tell stories about for years, as in “Remember when the CEO got locked out of her laptop an hour before the annual meeting and poor old hadn’t arranged for an enterprise recovery key?” It would be smart to engage a consultant who’s experienced with enterprise-level drive encryption and BitLocker implementations. The main thing is: Don’t let the complexity scare you. The alternative is even scarier. After all, the story people tell for years after the fact could be something like “Remember when we used to have a company before organized crime got its hands on the CFO’s laptop?”

7. Virtualize your desktops.

Imagine this: You’ve spent a few weeks or months designing your standard Windows 7 desktop image. You’ve worked hard to resolve technical issues and you’ve found ways to quickly move applications and user data between machines, reducing the migration’s impact. (The User State Migration Tool, part of the Automated Installation Kit, is a good place to start for this kind of work. For a walkthrough demo, visit tinyurl.com/usmtwt.) Your field technicians are trained. The help-desk team is mollified with all the guidance you’ve posted on its SharePoint site. You’re finally ready to start the rollout.

But wait. Rather than putting the operating system directly on the hard drive of each new machine, Windows 7 makes it possible to install the OS into a Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) file on the hard drive. The OS boots from the contents of this VHD, which becomes Drive C, and then sees the actual hard drive as Drive D. With proper planning, an OS installed this way could become highly portable. If John moves from Cincinnati to Chicago, the field tech in Cincinnati could copy the VHD over the network to a field tech in Chicago, who would plunk it down onto a machine so that John could get to work in his familiar desktop environment as soon as he steps out of his U-Haul truck.

If you think performance in this lashup would be less than stellar, think again. Check out the disk I/O stats at the Virtualization team blog.

There are some caveats. The first one involves hibernation, which doesn’t work at all for VHD-boot machines. That means that you may not want to use VHD boot for laptops. Also, you can’t boot to VHD on a drive encrypted with BitLocker, which also reduces its attractiveness for laptops.

It could be that the complexity of dealing with VHD-based deployments aren’t worth the benefits, but you should at least include them in your test plan. The steps to perform the legerdemain are too long for this article, but here are some places to go for instructions: You can use Max Knor’s method, described at here, which essentially boots to the Windows 7 Setup CD, finesses out to a command prompt, creates the VHD and then uses it as the target for the installer very slick. You can follow the walkthrough instructions on TechNet at here; or you can view this TechNet video: here.

Once you get proficient with these techniques, take a look at what Kyle Rosenthal at the Vista PC Guy blog has to offer in the way of instructions for using WinPE tools to build images. For example, the steps at vistapcguy show how to create a bootable flash drive with the WinPE tools and an installation image on it. Armed with that tool, you can quickly install your standard image on a machine without touching a single piece of flat plastic.

8. Evaluate enterprise features.

VHD boot, along with BitLocker and AppLocker, fall into a class of features that require Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate. The Enterprise SKU can only be obtained via a volume license agreement. If you own Enterprise or Ultimate, you should consider deploying a few additional features to improve security and streamline operations.

BranchCache allows you to cache file transfers either at a central server in a branch office or as part of a peer network of desktops. When a client initiates a file transfer, it first checks to see whether the file is locally cached and whether the file hash matches the hash at the authoritative source. If so, it copies the file from the cache. This not only speeds things up for users, it also reduces network load across the WAN, a benefit that’s sure to put a smile on the face of the network folks. (They’ve been known to smile. I’ve seen it.) I urge you to try BranchCache in your pilot testing to evaluate whether your mix of apps and associated file traffic would benefit.

Next, you could take the VHD-based quasi-virtualization I discussed in the last section to the next level—true virtualization—by deploying a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI, on Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. In a VDI, each desktop session exists as a separate virtual machine and users connect via RDP. This setup contrasts with the more mainstream Terminal Services way of publishing a desktop, where all users swim in the same pool of application images. In Terminal Services, if somebody makes a boo-boo, then everyone else suffers. Have you seen “Caddyshack”? Enough said. (You can also avoid unfortunate interactions in a terminal server by virtualizing your applications. Check out the App-V tools in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.)

VDI can get a little expensive. The cost of supporting user virtual desktops with a full complement of memory and network access on a server can exceed the cost of the PCs. But for disaster recovery in a distributed desktop environment, you can’t ask for better protection.
Another Enterprise feature, DirectAccess, allows users to connect through a Windows Server 2008 R2 gateway to the corporate network without the use of a VPN. A user can flip open her EVDO-enabled netbook while sitting in an airport and immediately start working on documents stored on corporate servers. Selling this feature to your security team might take some time, though. (Now there’s a group that never smiles.)

9. Build compatibility safety nets.

One issue that you should definitely hash out at your meeting of big brains is whether your organization is ready to deploy 64-bit desktops. New machines deployed as part of a refresh cycle are virtually certain to be 64-bit capable. You’re probably putting at least 2GB of RAM into them at today’s RAM prices, more likely 4GB if you were able to convince Finance to approve the slightly higher unit costs. The machines are likely to have dual-core processors, possibly even quad-core, with enough video memory to support Aero. These machines will perform very well with a 64-bit OS.
Even if all your current line-of-business and commercial apps are still 32-bit, it makes sense to install the 64-bit version of Windows 7, if for no other reason than to help future-proof your investment. Clearly the world is moving toward a 64-bit standard, and you want to be ready when vendors decide to start jettisoning backward compatibility.

If you decide to roll out 64-bit desktops, test thoroughly for issues with device drivers, anti-virus suites, management agents and so forth. If you currently have 32-bit print servers, you’ll need to populate the print queues with 64-bit drivers. As an alternative, you could deploy new x64 Windows Server 2008 or R2 print servers and populate both sets of drivers as you build the queues. The printer-migration wizard in Windows Server 2008 R2 will help with this task. It’s worth the effort to deploy new R2 print servers because the print model has been improved to keep drivers in their own memory space so that a bad driver won’t take down the spooler.

The most significant potential show-stopper is the need to run legacy 16-bit applications, which won’t run at all on a 64-bit host. Your best option in this case is to use a trick that hothouse farmers in Minnesota have employed for generations to raise tomatoes: Build an environment that fools the plants into thinking they’re in Dallas instead of Duluth. That is: Use XP Mode to put an instance of x86 XP SP3 on your x64 Windows 7 desktop.

Applications installed in the XP Mode virtual machine can be launched from the Windows 7 Start menu just as if they were natively installed so that your users won’t get confused by living in two universes. (This trick actually comes from a special RAIL hotfix, not directly from XP Mode, so you can do the same Start Menu trick by installing the RAIL hotfix, then running Virtual PC with 32-bit Vista or Windows 7, if you like.)

By default, the XP Mode virtual machine runs under a local account inside the virtual machine. The account is called User. You set the password for this account during install time and the password is set to never expire. Alternatively, you can launch the virtual machine and join it to the domain and logon with your domain credentials. You can load Exchange 2003 ESM into XP Mode along with the older admin tools to have a fully compatible admin environment. And did I mention the seamless cut-and-paste between host and virtual machines? Sweet.

XP Mode requires hardware-based virtualization, either Intel VT or AMD-V. Steve Gibson at Laguna Hills, Calif.-based Gibson Research Corp. (famous for SpinRite and ShieldsUP!) offers a free utility called SecurAble (grc.com/securable.htm) that will quickly tell you whether a machine meets the criteria.

If you have hundreds or thousands of PCs, you’ll need a centralized management package to handle this alternate environment. This is Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), one element of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. At the client, MED-V 2.0 works similarly to XP Mode by installing a virtual machine that requires virtualization support in hardware. On the back end, MED-V offers a variety of tools for building and deploying packages to the virtual machines. For more information, see this Windows team blog posting at tinyurl.com/medvblog.

10. Remove your users’ local-admin rights.

If you haven’t already pried away your users’ local-admin rights, now is the time. Yes, I know it’s hard. Laptop users are especially difficult to wean because the help desk can’t walk them through complicated fixes over the phone. But there’s also that “shadow” IT organization—department gurus and admin wannabes who find applications that meet certain tactical needs, then scurry around with thumb drives installing the apps with no regard for interoperability testing. And don’t even get me started on the kind of trash that average users install on their machines when they have local-admin rights. It’s amazing how the most unsophisticated user, incapable of so much as a password reset without help-desk support, can find a way to install complex multi-tiered client-server front-end applications if the reward involves shopping or sports.

Even if you muster the political strength to deny local-admin rights to the majority of users, as soon as you take those rights away, apps start to break. An astounding number of applications insist on writing to protected portions of the file system and Registry.

Windows 7 simplifies the switch to standard-user operation. Background processes redirect changes away from protected areas into user-controlled areas. That alone should resolve many issues that you might have encountered with standard-user operation with XP. There are also some simple but critical improvements that help standard users, such as the ability to change time zones, a task that required local-admin rights in XP and Vista. Ditto for changing screen resolution, doing an ipconfig /refresh to get a new DHCP address and installing optional updates.

The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) contains a Standard User Analyzer (SUA) Wizard to help with vetting your apps. SUA provides an elevated-privilege launch platform for an application. Then, while the app installs and runs, SUA ferrets around inside looking for subtle issues that could keep it from running as a standard user. When it’s done, you receive either a clean bill of health for the app or a list of items that need remediation.

Tags: Bootable, boots, command, Computer, DHCP, Drivers, firewall, help, Microsoft, Network, password, Performance, registry, WIM, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008

The Ten Things to Do First for Windows 7

Jason — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:15:28 +0000

When you run your thumb down the list of new features and improvements in Windows 7 (see the feature comparison chart at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare), you’re bound to wonder how you’re going to get your arms around all that new technology so that you can deliver it to your users without too much disruption.
Following are 10 steps that can help you accomplish that goal.

1. Get to know Windows 7 on a first-name basis.

Obviously, the first step is to gain personal experience. And that means more than just puttering around in the lab. Install Windows 7 on every workstation in your organization and on the machine you use at home for remote-access trouble calls. Force yourself to find ways to make everything work.

Most tools for managing Windows servers from Windows 7 are included in the Windows 7 Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), which must be downloaded separately. At this writing, the final RSAT package hasn’t been finalized. The release candidate is available at here.

Don’t be surprised when your Administrative Tools folder doesn’t get populated immediately after you install the RSAT package. The RSAT tools come in the form of a Windows Feature set that must be separately enabled using the Programs and Features applet in the Control Panel. See Figure 1 for an example. For an unknown (but, I’m sure, entirely valid) reason, you must separately click each feature to select it. The parent check blocks don’t automatically select their children.

The Active Directory RSAT tools will work with Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 domain controllers, although some features, such as the Active Directory Recycle Bin, require Windows Server 2008 R2 functionality level.

Managing Exchange 2003 from a Windows 7 workstation isn’t quite so straightforward: The Exchange System Manager (ESM) console that comes with the Exchange 2003 installation CD doesn’t run on Windows 7. There’s a special version of ESM designed for Vista that you can download from here. This console will run fine under Windows 7, but the installer makes a specific check for Vista (Windows version 6.0.0) that fails on Windows 7. You can use a free Microsoft tool called Orca to modify the MSI file to remove or modify the version check. Orca comes as part of the Windows Installer SDK; download instructions are at here. However, I think you’ll find it much simpler to load ESM in XP Mode. More on that later.

2. Learn Windows PowerShell.

It’s safe to say that the single most important skill a Windows administrator will need in the coming years is proficiency with Windows PowerShell. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 both have Windows PowerShell version 2 baked into the operating system and it’s enabled by default. You should plan on installing Windows PowerShell v2 on your remaining servers and desktops so that you can use one script technology to manage your entire fleet. (Note that you won’t be able to install PowerShell v2 on Exchange 2007 servers or workstations. These machines require PowerShell v1.1. But even v1.1 gives you access to a wide range of functionality.)

Even if you’re a die-hard GUI administrator who hasn’t opened a command prompt since Y2K, you’ll find that most new GUI tools from Microsoft are now taking the form of graphical front ends on top of Windows PowerShell cmdlets. Many of these tools will tell you the underlying command string if you know where to look for it. That’s an easy way to see how the cmdlets work.

Many great Windows PowerShell references are available, including the outstanding book “Windows PowerShell in Action” (Manning Publications, 2007), written by Bruce Payette, a member of the Microsoft Windows PowerShell team. A new edition is forthcoming; you can pay a few dollars to read the early chapters, reserve a copy when it’s released and get an e-book of the first edition at the publisher’s Web site, manning. Also check out “Windows PowerShell Pocket Reference” (O’Reilly Media Inc., 2009) by Lee Holmes, another Windows PowerShell team member. And visit the Windows PowerShell team blog at blogs.msdn. There, you’ll find one of the most interactive developer teams on the planet. Every word on this blog is worth reading. Twice.

You can use these AD cmdlets to manage domains running Windows 2003 and Windows 2008, but you’ll first need to install the AD Management Gateway Service (also known as AD Web Services, or ADWS) on at least one domain controller. At this writing, ADWS is in beta; it can be downloaded from connect.microsoft.com.

The ADWS service requires Windows Server 2003 SP2 (regular or R2) or Windows Server 2008 plain or SP2. You’ll need to install the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (here) and a hotfix (here) that enables support for the Web service flag in Netlogon. (The hotfix is baked into Windows Server 2008 SP2.)

If you work in one of those organizations where getting changes approved for domain controllers takes a lot of time and effort, and you’d like to start using Windows PowerShell to manage Active Directory while you still have your youth and vitality, take a look at the free Active Directory cmdlets from Quest at quest.com.

3. Plow through licensing.

If your organization didn’t deploy Vista, you may not be familiar with the latest volume-activation requirements in Windows. If you’re an admin in an enterprise with more than 25 desktops and/or five servers, if your organization takes advantage of a volume-license program such as an Enterprise Agreement or Select Agreement, and if you purchase Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate (or you upgrade to those versions as part of Software Assurance), you should do the following: Print out a short stack of Volume Activation documents from here, pour yourself a few ounces of a bold Tuscan wine and start studying.

When you eventually declare yourself completely confused, download an excellent webcast by product manager Kim Griffiths, who does a great job of explaining the program’s nuances. You’ll find the webcast at here.

In brief, to deploy Windows 7 desktops using volume licenses, you’ll probably need to install a Key Management Server (KMS). I say “probably” because you may not have enough machines in your organization to support KMS activation. A KMS won’t begin doling out activation approvals until it receives requests from at least 25 desktops and/or five servers. That’s to prevent unscrupulous vendors from using the same volume-license key for multiple small clients. Once activated, a client must reactivate every six months. Despite what you may have read elsewhere, there’s no reduced functionality mode in Windows 7. If the activation key expires, the desktop background simply goes black and a notification balloon states that the operating system isn’t genuine.

If you have fewer than the required number of devices for a KMS, you can obtain a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) that’s stocked with activation allocations based on the number of volume licenses you purchase, plus a fudge factor that allows you to add machines between true-ups. An MAK key is authenticated by a Microsoft hosted service, so you’ll need Internet access following the OS installation.

A change introduced with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 now allows virtual machines to count against the KMS minimum for activation. This helps to boost your device count if you’re a small shop that uses lots of virtual desktops and servers.

If you already have a KMS for Vista and Windows Server 2008, you’ll be able to download an update for activating Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines.

4. Focus on strategic improvements.

Once you’re familiar with system administration using Windows 7 tools and you’ve set up the technology to activate your desktops, it’s time to start planning for deployment to end users. The most important thing to do at this point and I know you don’t want to hear this is to hold a meeting.

Steady … steady. Stay with me. This will be a different sort of meeting. You’re going to gather all your IT cousins who have been working with Windows 7. Not just architects. Not just desktop folks. Not just the server team or help-desk technicians or internal developers or project managers. You want representatives from every team. Think of it as an ecumenical council. Make it an all-day affair. Tell all potential attendees that only the cool kids will be on this bus, so they certainly don’t want to miss out.

Do yourself a favor before the meeting: Arm yourself with numbers. That’s because, at some point, somebody is bound to say: “We really should put together an enterprise application catalog that we can use to do our compatibility testing. And can all our machines really run Windows 7?” Then the group will spend an hour or two talking about how to assemble the catalog or why it can’t be done or how John on the desktop team already has a spreadsheet with that information but he hasn’t refreshed it in a while and it doesn’t include the machines in Europe, the Middle East and Africa—and so forth and so on.

5. Expand the deployment scope.

Some of the best features in Windows 7 may require a few changes to your infrastructure. For example: High on my list of favorite features is the combination of Federated Search and Libraries in the new Explorer shell. These work together to provide a centralized and flexible view of distributed data.

The key to using Federated Search is finding or building connectors to Web-based data repositories. A connector is a set of configuration items inside an .OSDX file. These items point at a Web site and describe how to handle the content. Here’s an example of a Bing connector:

?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
opensearchdescription xmlns=”http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/”
xmlns:ms-ose=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/”>

shortname>Bing

description>Bing in Windows 7.

url type=”application/rss+xml”
template=”http://api.bing.com/rss.aspx?source=web&query=
{searchTerms}&format=rss”/>

url type=”text/html” template=”http://www.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}”/>

/opensearchdescription>

When you right-click an .OSDX file, Explorer shows a Create Search Connector option in the property menu. Click it and the connector gets added to the list of items under Favorites. Initiate a search of the connector by highlighting it and typing terms into the search field in the upper-right corner of the Explorer window. In a few seconds, Explorer populates the results pane.

Connectors are simple to build. Convince your internal developers to put a few together for your intranet servers (company portal, SharePoint farm and so on). Point them at the long list of sample connectors at SevenForums (here), a massively useful independent site for all things Windows 7-ish. Distribute these connectors to your users using your standard package deployment tools. You can then use them to build a standard view of your distributed Web data.

Although Federated Search can handle Web site content well enough, organizations tend to struggle when it comes to delving into the terabytes upon terabytes of files sitting on file servers. This means that users who have only the vaguest notions of drive mappings and network data storage may need to spend hours sifting through their W: drives trying to find, for instance, the reports they wrote last month.

That’s where Libraries come into play. Libraries aggregate files from a variety of sources into searchable objects. The default libraries in Windows 7 include the usual assortment of personal data types and locations—Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos—and it’s simple to expand this list to include server-based repositories. Just right-click, select New Library and add a UNC path to a shared folder.

One catch: The target folder must be indexed. On Windows Server 2008 and higher, install the File Services role. Then, under Role Services, install the Windows Search Service. On Windows Server 2003 SP2 servers, install Windows Search 4.0, a free download from here. In addition, due to a limitation in the Search interface, you won’t be able to specify DFS paths even if the ultimate target of a DFS folder is an indexed file server.

There’s no command-line utility for creating libraries and, at this writing, no Windows PowerShell cmdlets, either. The Windows 7 SDK includes tools for working with libraries programmatically, so it won’t be long before little utilities begin appearing. Keep an eye out for them.

One note about the default action of Libraries: Explorer displays Libraries in the Common File Dialog to enable users to save files to a Library by dragging and dropping. If you have multiple links under a library, one of them must be configured as the default target.

this article part 2

Tags: activation key, command prompt, Control, download, functionality, Library, Microsoft, Support, Tutorial, Virtual, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 7 SDK, Windows Server, Windows Server 2008

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