Dave just showed me this. What a great idea!
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Group Policy Preferences – TechNet Edge video
When Microsoft introduced Group Policy Preferences with Windows Server 2008, they gave sys admins the ability to easily do a bunch of common tasks (adding domain users to local groups, mapping drives, creating shortcuts, etc) in Group Policy without having to write scripts. I’m a fan of scripting, but I still see that as a good thing!
Yesterday TechNet Edge released a video about Group Policy Preferences, which I’d recommend you check out. It starts off slow, but then talks about how you can manage the scope of different preferences, so within the same Group Policy Object you could map a particular drive for everyone using a PC under the policy scope, plus additional ones just for users in particular security groups. This means that you can have a relatively complex arrangement of drive mappings for all the users you manage all in the same policy. 🙂
If you’ve not come across TechNet Edge before and you’re an IT Pro managing Windows systems, head over there now and see what you’ve been missing.
In case you missed them, James put some posts on this very blog a little while ago about using Group Policy Preferences to add domain users to local groups and mapping network drives.
Hyper-V Server 2008: First Impressions
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).
Hyper-V Server
Hyper-V Server is a dedicated stand-alone product, which contains only the Windows Hypervisor, Windows Server driver model and virtualization components, it provides a small footprint and minimal overhead.
This may be of interest to departments moving towards Virtualisation of their servers.
Life Without Walls
Microsoft’s answer to some peoples perception of Windows Vista (and the Apple Ad’s)
Security questions for online authentication – lying is the best policy!
When you sign up for practically anything online these days that has a password, you’ll be asked to provide answers for additional security questions, whether it’s for an additional level of authentication (for online banking), or just as a way of allowing you to authenticate to change a password that you’ve forgotten.
The trouble with these is that it’s relatively easy these days to find the answers to the most common security questions for another individual. In a world of social networks and Google, you can probably find out someone’s mother’s maiden name, where they were born and what their first school was fairly easily; perhaps they have a blog where you can find out the name of their pets, or other information that’s sometimes used.
The news that someone had gained access to Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account last month reminded me of this earlier post by Microsoft UK’s Steve Lamb, who tried to change his mother’s maiden name with his bank to avoid this very issue.
For a while, I’ve been using a legend, with a fake mother’s maiden name, first school, pets, etc, which only I know. This is of course something else that I need to remember, but if you’re going to take security seriously, you’re going to have to make a bit of an effort with it. Of course if you were going to get really serious about this, you’d have to use a different legend for each authentication system – it’s up to you how far you want to go – but I’d definitely recommend using a few little white lies to keep your online accounts safe.
x64 Computing on Campus
One of our OU Administrators was recently asking for feedback on using 64 bit versions of Windows. From what I have read it seems that x64 computing has truly arrived and I thought it was worth sharing my experiences with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista.
Previously use of Windows XP x64 edition and even Vista x64 to some extent was restricted to a handful of users with special hardware and dependant on special or modified versions of software and drivers.
This is certainly no longer the case (at least in my experience). I’ve been running Windows Vista x64 on a HP xw4600, Core 2 Quad with 8GB RAM and have never seen anything like it!
The performance increase given by the extra 4GB RAM which x64 allows is immense. I am able to run multiple Virtual machines 1 or more GB of RAM each without any noticeable reduction in performance.
I’ve also had no issues with mainstream software compatibility, Vista x64 seems to take running x86 applications in its stride. The software I am running includes Adobe Flash Player , 7-Zip, Adobe Reader, Apple QuickTime, Office 2007, Shockwave, ServiceCenter, Paint.NET, VMWare Workstation and CDBurnerXP.
Paul Thurrott wrote an interesting article describing his good experiences with Vista x64 nearly a year ago and there is little doubt that things have improved even more since then.
If you or any of your users need high performance computing then I would say that Vista x64 is a safe bet. The current low memory prices may also mean that existing x64 capable hardware with less than 4GB and x86 operating systems may be candidates for upgrade.
Everything Must Go!
Rather than email campus-support every time we have some new equipment to trickle down we’ve created a web page (see campus-support for URL) for *server room* and general equipment.
Desktops\cluster room equipment will still be trickled down in the usual fashion.
The page will be updated as new equipment becomes available so you may wish to bookmark it.
In the spirit of green IT I’m happy to add any surplus equipment from departments too, just let me know.
The Ultimate Steal returns
In addition to last year’s offering, Microsoft now give you the option to buy Visio and a Windows upgrade to Vista Ultimate.
By visiting www.theultimatesteal.co.uk, and confirming your identity as a student or member of staff with your university email address, you can purchase and download Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for only £38.95 – saving over 90%!
The offer is available from now until the end of June 2009.
Google join the browser race
Following on the heels of last week’s release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, Google has launched a beta of its own browser, called Chrome, for Windows. So far it looks like a very good first entry into the market and while there are issues with some types of multimedia content (the Silverlight site says it’s not compatible) and some sites don’t work because they don’t recognise the user agent string, it’s definitely worth a look.
Addendum: Check out the comments regarding the unusual install location. The way it’s installed means you can just move the Chrome folder and you’ve got a portable app! 🙂