I thought it would be interesting to see where things stand with Operating System usage in the Active Directory. These figures are based on 10984 active computer objects.
Windows Clients: 10398
Windows Vista: 472
Windows XP: 9894
Windows 2000: 32
Windows Server: 392
Windows Server 2008: 65
Windows Server 2003: 323
Windows Server 2000: 4
Other: 192
Windows 7 Ultimate: 9
No Operating System: 125
Mac OS X: 43
Samba: 17
One of the first ports of call (at least for me) when troubleshooting performance issues on standalone PC’s is to have a look at the start-up programs using ‘msconfig.exe.’ While msconfig.exe is fine for IT Pros it’s not the most friendly of things for the average end user.
I was recently helping out a friend over IM and explaining the concepts and working out which entries to remove was taking a long time. I did some research and found this handy command.
wmic startup get caption,command,description > outputfile
Simply get the person at the other end to run this command and then they can send you the full list for you to inspect.
A bit of a gotcha with using the Active Directory Users and Computers tool on Vista is that it (very sensibly) protects the objects you create from accidental deletion but (very annoyingly) doesn’t inform you that it’s done this. If you are using the AD Tools on Vista and you suddenly find that you can’t delete something you created, then check the Object tab on the object in question. If the “Protect Object from Accidental Deletion” box is checked as shown here within the red circle:
* You will need to select ‘View’ from the menu bar and then check ‘Advanced features’ first. *
… you’ll need to uncheck it before you can delete or move it.
Introduction:
Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) are an excellent set of tools for managing Windows Servers and Active Directory environments from a desktop machine.
Prerequisites
Windows Vista Business, Enterprise or Ultimate Editions
Windows Vista SP1
Administrator Account on local machine.
1. Browse to \\campus\software\ISS\Public\ActiveDirectoryTools\WinVistaAdminTools you can also download the tool from Microsoft [x86 or x64]
2. Choose either the x86 or x64 version.
3. Run the MSU File within the folder.
4. When the install is complete you need to enable the RSAT Features. Go to Control Panel and select ‘Programs and Features’ > ‘Turn Windows Features on or off’
5. Select the features you want to install and click OK.
6. There are a number of fixes required for the RSAT tools in order to reveal missing tabs and speed up the operation of the tool. Choose \\campus\software\ISS\Public\ActiveDirectoryTools\WinVistaAdminTools\32bit\fixes or \\campus\software\ISS\Public\ActiveDirectoryTools\WinVistaAdminTools\64bit\fixes as appropriate and run each of the hotfixes as applicable to your chosen installation of RSAT (32-bit or 64-bit). Inside the folder named ‘FixMissingRemoteInstallTab’ you need to run fix_rsatXX (x64 or x86) – this registers dlls. Note that you will need to run the fixes as an administrator.
9. The tools can then be found under ‘Administrative Tools’ in the Control Panel. You will need to right click and ‘Run as administrator’ if you are not logged on with your s-id.
As well as the Beta of Windows 7 (and it’s companion, Windows Server 2008 R2), Microsoft has also used the CES to announce the final availability of its Windows Live Essentials suite.
These are products that have been around in Beta and Release Candidate forms for a while. The announcement that they’re now final, should actually read that they were ready a little while ago – the final version is the same as the recent release candidate!
The suite includes the latest version of Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery (which is a great improvement over the Photo Gallery built in to Vista, includes Flickr support and works on XP), Windows Live Mail (also better than the version that ships in Vista) and the fantastic Windows Live Writer, which is the best blogging software available (sadly this blog’s host doesn’t support it, which is partly why I don’t post as much as I might!).
You can get the suite from download.live.com.
[Disclaimer: Though the title may suggest it, this post has no information about gaining money for nothing; only learning for free. If you have a fool-proof way of getting money for nothing, please add it as a comment.]
You may already know that Microsoft have compiled a huge collection of self-paced learning materials at the Microsoft Learning site. What you might not know, is that they regularly publish courses for everyone’s favourite price – FREE!
These free courses and clinics are usually introducing new features in new versions of products, or giving giving overviews rather than digging into deep technical detail, but a lot of the time that may be just what you want.
Some examples of free content that are currently available are:
Database Fundamentals in Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Introducing Windows Server 2008
ASP.NET for PHP Developers: Introduction to ASP.NET
They handily provide a catalogue of free products, which I suggest you have a look at. If you want to take up one of the free offers, you don’t have to complete the course right away; typically you just activate a subscription to the content, which may give you access to it for 3, 6 or 12 months.
Happy learning!
For the last few months we’ve been developing a new version of the Windows Vista Base Policy. The current version, which has not been updated since Vista’s release , has suffered from a number of problems, particularly with Folder redirection. These have now been addressed and we are pleased to invite you to help us test the new Policy before its full rollout in the few months of next year
These improvements will allow seamless switching between Windows XP and Vista machine on CAMPUS and will make the rollout of the Vista OS viable for the majority of campus users.
To apply the Policy apply to a machine use ‘TEST 0 Windows Vista Base Policy.’ Please note that the test policy should replace the original policy.
All standard Vista user folders are now redirected to the Network and any duplicate folders are removed but only if they are empty.
This means that users who have accidently saved files to their local machine will not lose them upon the new Base Policy being applied. The table below shows details on the redirection paths. Notice that where applicable, folders have been redirected to the exact location of their Windows XP counterparts i.e. ‘My Music ‘ rather than ‘Music.’
This means that users moving between XP and Vista are using the same folder and will not see duplicates under drive H:\ or C:\Users
|
Windows Vista Folder Name |
Description |
New Location |
|
Contacts |
Default Location for Users’s Contacts |
\\towerx\homex\username\Contacts |
|
Desktop |
Desktop items, including files and shortcuts |
n\a |
|
Documents |
Default location for all user created documents |
\\towerx\homex\username\Documents |
|
Downloads |
Default location to save all downloaded content |
\\towerx\homex\username\Downloads |
|
Favourites |
Internet Explorer Favourites |
\\towerx\homex\username\Favorites |
|
Music |
Default location for user’s music files |
\\towerx\homex\username\My Music |
|
Videos |
Default location for user’s video files |
\\towerx\homex\username\My Videos |
|
Pictures |
Default location for user’s picture files |
\\towerx\homex\username\My Pictures |
|
Searches |
Default location for saved searches |
\\towerx\homex\username\Searches |
|
AppData |
Default location for user application data and binaries (hidden folder) |
n\a |
|
Links |
Contains Windows Explorer Favourite Links |
\\towerx\homex\username\Links |
|
Saved Games |
Used for Saved Games |
\\towerx\homex\username\Saved Games |
The existing base policy removes the ‘Documents’ label from the Start Menu and replaces it with the full UNC path to the users home directory. This is unhelpful and unsightly. The new Base policy renames the ‘Documents’ label Documents (H:\). This will provide a consistent point of reference for support calls. The Drive map label will also have the same name.
My Pictures and My Music shortcuts reference the new redirected (correct) location.
The computers network name also appears on the start menu providing an ‘at a glance’ view of the computers name.
To help distinguish Campus Managed Desktop machines branding has been added.
The University crest now replaces the default logon pictures.
The Crest is also visible on the Start Menu
System Properties have also been updated.
Local Administrators
When using ‘Run as Administrator’ the UAC dialog box will list all local administrators on the machine.
Offline Files
Offline files are now automatically Encypted.
System Drive Permissions redesigned.
The new policy sets stricter permission for the system drive preventing creation of folders by non Administrators as well as creating the C:\TEMP folder on which so many of our packaged applications depend.
Feedback.
We really need feedback on your experiences with the new Policy. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with any comments, questions or issues.
http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Filter-Pack-For-Windows-Search/
“With the the Microsoft Filter Pack installed, Windows Search 4.0 is able to search within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office 2007 documents based on the text they contain”. Sounds useful to me.
Dave
We received some information on Vista Service Pack 2 in a session today.
As you might expect, the news is not all that thrilling. Vista SP1 is already the most stable, feature packed OS Microsoft have released to date so this is really only a Service Pack in the traditional sense.
Hyper-V Server 2008 is a free virtual server offering basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for, test, development and basic Server consolidation.
I have been giving Hyper-V Server 2008 a quick run through.
Installation
The installation is built on the PE model just like Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 so working with the disks is very easy.
After the installation things will still look familiar.
User Interface
The User Interface at the on the physical machine is made of of 2 simple command Windows. One for managing the Server and the other, an ordinary command Window.
All basic operations such as joining the Domain, setting the Computer Name and an update schedule can be called from this menu. At this point you can also enable Remote Desktop.
Creating a Virtual Machine.
Fortunately you do not do this using the Hyper-V Server ‘Interface.’ You need to use the Hyper-V Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. Once connected you can create the First Virtual machine.
First Impressions
Hyper-V Server 2008 seems like a simple and efficient way to run Virtual machines. The footprint of the Hypervisor is tiny in terms of RAM and Hard Disk usage and the amount of patching compared to Server 2008 should be greatly reduced which means more uptime.
The downside is that unlike other versions of Server 2008 each Windows guest VM requires it’s own license. You see a feature matrix of the different versions of Hyper-V here.
In summary, this product would be a good choice for departments working with test servers and an good way to get the most out of your older server hardware while making Migration to new hardware easier when the time comes (i.e. put the guest machine on another Hypervisor).