Bart’s Blog

It’s been a while, but let’s get this one up and running again…

User account control is one of Vista’s interesting new security features. It offers so much more than the (for some anoying) elevation prompt when administrative privileges are required.

Many administrators disable UAC but this also disables all underlying technology:

• Mandatory Integrity Control (MIC)
• User Interface Privilege Isolation (UIPI)
• Internet Explorer protected mode
• Virtualization
• Installer Detection

and last but not least:

• ActiveX installer service

When deploying Windows XP for standard users we had to deal with the ActiveX installation issue. Some browser applications need to install an ActiveX control. Therefore the user needed either adlmin rights or call the helpdesk to apply for the ActiveX installation.

The UAC ActiveX installer service allows us to define all pre-approved ActiveX controls via GPO. This enables the user to install these controls in Standard USer mode via the installer service.

Windows Powershell delivers a shell environment where you can use a bunch of different objects (WMI, COM, .NET framework) and their methods and properties from a command prompt. The shell provides strong output formatting and redirection. Finally you won’t have to switch to Perl anymore to make use of stuff like regular expressions.

As a test, I tried to query an Active Directory via ADODB and the Active Directory provider. Just instantiate your COM objects from the command prompt and move through your recordset.

Have a look at the Microsoft Scriptcenter website for the latest news on Powershell.
The Vista Powershell is available for download.

WSUS 3.0 is avalaible for download.

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 delivers new features including an MMC-based user interface with advanced filtering and reporting, improved performance and operational reliability, flexible deployment options to improve branch office support, and more content access through the Microsoft Update Catalog site.

Get all the latest info from the WSUS techcenter.

You can use this compatibility pack with Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003.

Using this pack you will be able to open, edit and save the new file formats for Word 2007, Excel 2007 and Powerpoint 2007.

The pack can also be used with the Office 2003 ‘viewers’ to read the new file formats.

Download the compatibility pack.

Read more about the compatibility pack.

Virutal Server 2005 is able to run your virtual machines, but when you look at managebility and features the solution still has a long way to go.

Longhorns hypervisor based virtualization will offer a lot more!

Have a look at the hypervisor demo on Arlindo Alves’ Blog.

ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on LCD monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.

Windows XP, Windows Vista and text rendering in Internet Explorer 7 allow you to use the ClearType technology. If your LCD monitor is not correctly tuned for ClearType the result can be improved by one of these ClearType tuners;

1. On-line tuner
2. Powertoys tuner

To disable ClearType in IE7 go to the Advance tab in Internet Explorer options:

OK, I finally uploaded the IT Forum 2006 pictures to the Gallery section… It’s about time, I know.

Yet again, our yearly trip to the top event for Microsoft infrastructure professionals was a success.

Lots of interesting new products and technologies are coming our way (recently released or in beta):

• Windows Vista
• Longhorn Server
• Sharepoint Server 2007
• Exchange Server 2007
• Office 2007
• Application virtualization / Softgrid /Softricity
• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Configurations Manager 2007
• System Center Essentials
• WSUS3
• …

We sure got a lot of learning to do…

Check out the blog of my colleague attendees (Tom Swalus and Luc Van Steen):

During my beta tests with Windows Vista I discovered this nice freeware CD/DVD drive emulator tool.

Daemontools didn’t do the trick anymore under Vista, so I had to look for an alternative. Virtual Clonedrive is a product of SlySoft.

Just mount your ISO’s and access them from a virtual drive.

Features

• Supports all common image formats such as ISO, BIN, CCD
• Supports up to 8 virtual drives at the same time
• Easy to use – just double-click an image file to mount as a drive
• Virtual CloneDrive is freeware, you may use it at no cost.

The problem that I described in a previous post (http://www.petroons.net/blog/?p=84) no longer occurs with the final release of IE7.