My Notes to Myself and Others...

I have quite a few annoying habits, and some of them have to do with how I work with computers.
One of these little annoying habits is accessing specific locations and applications on a system from
the ‘Run’ window. Some of you may say that it’s so eighties since we have the search box in Vista
and 7 but I still like it. It’s a simple and quick process: Press Star+R write the location and you are
there.Better yet,if it’s an item you already used it’s stored in history so you don’t have to re-type
the full path or name-and this was the point where it got annoying…

When looking at the history of the Run command I found quite a few items that no longer existed
there, obviously I wanted to remove them. I tried highlighting them and pressing Del to no avail.
Eventually I found that the history items are stored per user in the registry,specifically at the following
path:HKEY_CURRENT_USER → Software → Microsoft → Windows → CurrentVersion → Explorer → RunMRU.

As you can see, the items stored in history are arranged in values(REG_SZ) from a to z. Every time you enter
a new item in the Run dialog box it is stored under a “free” letter. Once you hit Z, you can no longer add items
to your history.

Since I have deleted some of the files that they refer too, some of these values have become stale,yet they
still linger on, while others are still useful and I would like to keep them around. The simplest way to clear the
list form stale entries is to simply delete them from the registry (as usual, be very careful when messing around
with the registry as you may render your system unusable).

Once deleted, they will disappear from the list and allow new entries to be added.

I also noticed that the MRUList value has a list of the alphabet letters based on the order in which the values were created.

If you have been ever wondering which titles Microsoft offers for trial you
can look at the whole list at the following link.

BitLocker protection on removable drives is known as BitLocker To Go. When a BitLocker-protected
removable drive is unlocked on a computer running Windows 7, the drive is automatically recognized
and the user is either prompted for credentials to unlock the drive or the drive is unlocked automatically
if configured to do so. Computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista do not automatically recognize
that the removable drive is BitLocker-protected. With the BitLocker To Go Reader users can unlock the
BitLocker-protected drives by using a password or a recovery password (also known as a recovery key)
and gain read-only access to their data.

Download it here.

If you have been wondering what’s new in Windows Server 2008 R2, there is a free e-book
out that can help you. The eBook is short and to the point.

Download it here.

Quietly,without much fanfare Windows XP Mode (XPM) has RTMed.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/default.aspx

What can XPM do for you?

Microsoft wants you to move to Windows 7. An obstacle for moving to Windows 7
is an application that is a necessity for a business or home that might not
run under Windows 7 (or Vista). Such legacy applications might not be supported
under the current compatibility settings and to make things worse, the company
that has developed the application is no longer in business or will not develop an application
that is supported by Windows 7. To resolve this problem XPM was developed.

In laymen’s terms XPM allows you to run a Windows XP environment on your Windows 7
system. Technically, you are running a virtualized OS over your Windows 7 host. Virtualization
is nothing new, so what’s so special about XPM?

XPM adds the following features to standard virtualization:

1. USB support – Yes,it’s finally here, USB support inside your virtual environment. You
   can use your disk on key to save information and more importantly if your legacy application
   is dependant on some type of USB security plug you are set.
   
2. One Click launch – With this feature, the usability experience of applications installed inside the virtual
   environment becomes seamless. Once the application is installed, you can start it from your
   host and it will appear as if it running directly on your host.

Installing XPM

Installing XPM is as simple as one,two, three and four...ok,that wasn’t funny, but the installation
is a very straightforward process. You navigate to the download page you follow the four steps
described there:

1. Verify that you need XPM- Windows 7 provides ample quantity of compatibility options. Before
   you install XPM, you should verify whether they solve the issues that you are experiencing they provide
   a simpler solution to your problems.
   
   
2. Verify that your PC supports XPM – To run XPM, your processor has to support hardware assisted
   virtualization. To verify that this is the case, you should click the link provided at the second step of
   the process (or click here) and run the application.The Microsoft® Hardware-Assisted Virtualization
   Detection Tool will verify whether your processor supports virtualization by providing the following output:
   
   If you receive a different output from the application, please review the HAV Detection Tool - User Guide that
   provide an interpretation of the outputs and provides information on how to rectify the situation (if possible).
   
3. Choose your OS and language – Please note that only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate are
   supported.
   
4. Start downloading:
   
1. Download XP Mode – The first download (and installation package) weighs ~500 MB and contains a VHD of
   a preinstalled Windows XP (SP3) system.
   
2. Download Virtual PC – Yes, you are downloading Virtual PC.
   
5. Start the installation – Yes, it’s actually a five step process…I lied:
   
1. Install XP Mode – You should start with installing XP Mode:
   
   
2. Install Virtual PC – This comes in the form of a standard update and will require a restart.

Configure XPM

Once you are done with downloading and installing you should start XPM, by opening the Start menu and writing
’XP Mode’ in the search bar.

When you start XPM for the first time you have to configure it:

1. Read and accept the license agreement.
   
   
2. The second screen is confusing in my opinion:
    
1. Installation folder – XPM uses two virtual hard drives. The first hard drive is the parent VHD which you
   downloaded in step 4 of the previous section. This VHD contains the basic installation of Windows XP (SP3),
   and is never changed.The second virtual hard drive is called a differencing virtual disk. The differencing disk
   contains all the changes that are done to the system (e.g. saved data, newly installed applications,etc.).
   The differencing disk is always dependent on it’s parent. When you set the path in the installation folder
   you actually set the location of the differencing disk.
   
2. XPMUser – This is the account that will be used to log-on to the virtual Windows XP machine. If you would
   like to refrain from entering these credential every time you start an application running on XPM make sure
   to check the ‘Remember credentials (Recommended)’ checkbox.
   
3. Updates – As with any OS, you should make sure that XPM is fully updated, unless one of the updates
   breaks the application you are trying to use.
    
   
4. Shared folders – When installing XPM you provide it access to the host systems folders. This might pose a security
   threat on your system, and you should make sure that applications installed inside XPM are trusted. On the other hand,
   in most cases you meant to install these application on your host anyway so the threat isn’t that big. If for some reason
   you are still worried you will be able to remove the sharing later on. 
   
   
5. During the installation a short tutorial is displayed (note the progress bar at the bottom of the page).
   
   
6. Upon completion of the installation, Virtual PC opens with Windows XP (SP3) loaded.
   

Using XPM

At this stage you are set and you can start using XPM. Note that since this is a virtual system, you should treat it
as a standard system. The first thing that struck me odd that this system has no anti-virus software pre-installed.
I am assuming that this is due to legal limitations9although this is an open issue for me), so the first thing I did is
to install Microsoft Security Essentials on my XPM and then updated it.

The second step (and the reason for this whole adventure) is to install the application that I couldn’t run on
Windows 7. For this demonstration I have chosen ‘Word 6 for DOS’ as the problematic application. The following
steps are taken to install the application:

1. Copy the problematic application into the XPM. As you can see from the screenshot below all the drives
   from my host machine ‘Transylvania7’ are mapped into the XPM.
   
   
2. I start the installation according to the applications basic instructions.
   
   
3. When the installation routine is complete, you can start the application and use it within the XPM.
   

Up to this point, I haven’t shown you anything that is new. What we have done here, you could have achieved in
the past. The major change with XPM is that you can run the application you just installed seamlessly from your
Windows 7 desktop.

Log off from the XPM and close it by clicking the red X on the top right of the window. Note that the system is hibernated.

To do this, you need to open the Start menu and enter the name of the application installed within XPM in the
search field. We actually installed two applications:

1. Microsoft Security Essentials
2. Word 6 for DOS.

The results for Security Essentials are show below:

As you can see , I have this application installed both on my host and inside XPM. The on inside XPM has the suffix
of ‘(Windows XP Mode)’. When I choose the XPM Security Essentials, they system is woken from hibernation
and a seamless window is opened, showing the application:

Note the XP styled window and the Virtual PC icon on the taskbar. And additional thing to note is that since Security
Essentials is a ‘resident’ application, it’s icon from tray inside XPM is also displayed by tray on the host(this became kind
of an issue later on).

When you close the application the virtual environment will be hibernated again, please note that all processes communicating
with the host have to be closed for the system to be hibernated(hence the issue).

The missing Word 6 for DOS

Security Essentials seems to be working fine, yet once we try to run Word 6 for DOS from the host, it seems to be missing.
XPM publishes applications by monitoring the start menu, when it identifies that an application has placed a shortcut on the
start menu it will publish it to the host. Word 6 for DOS didn’t create a shortcut for itself on the start menu hence the
problem.

In this case, we will create a shortcut for Word 6 inside the XPM and drop it on the Start menu. Once done, we will log off
the XPM and turn it off(hibernate it).
 

Once done, when searching for Word we will see the published shortcut which we can use to start the application:

Advanced Configuration

To be able to access the more advanced settings of XPM, you have to first shut it down (note that until now you
have only logged-off and hibernated the system. To shut XPM down use the following steps:

1. Start XPM.
2. Choose the Ctrl+Alt+Del option from the menu on top
3. In the ‘Windows Security’ window choose the ‘Shut Down’ button
4. Choose ‘Shutdown’ from the drop down list

Once the system has been shut down, open the Start menu and choose ‘Manage Virtual Machines’.

Right click ‘Windows XP Mode’  and choose settings. The first setting enables you to change the name
of the VM and add notes to it.

The Memory branch will enable you to change the quantity of RAM used by the VM. Since the XPM uses Windows
XP 32bit you can’t use more then 3.7GB.

The Hard Disk 1 branch will display the locations of the hard drives set during setup (parent and differencing). You
can change their locations from here.

In addition to that, by using the ‘Modify’ button, you can either merge or compact the differencing VHD. Compacting
might be useful since it will shrink the size of the VHD by removing unused space from the file.

The DVD drive branch enables you to configure which DVD is tied into XPM.

Integration features define the relationship between you host system and the XPM. One of those relationships
is the mapping of the hard drives from your host into XPM.
 

Logon credentials enables you to set the account that will be used for the autologon feature and to remove
the password from being stored.
 

Auto publish enables you to control whether the system will automatically publish applications installed within
the XPM.

Conclusions

The goal of this post was to scratch the surface of XPM by reviewing it’s usability options. I ended up going
a lot deeper then I planned since this is without doubt a complex feature that is based on existing and used
technology but with a twist. after I wrote this post I still have several questions that need to answered such
as how does XPM treat AV software…Once I installed it everything seemed to be fine but I noticed that I could
no longer make XPM go away since it’s real time protection kept the system alive. After removing the AV software
the Security Center kept XPM alive since it was warning me that my computer is at risk…Well, I guess I still have
to work that one out.

I really love the Snipping Tool. It enables me to take screenshots without having
to install third-party software quite efficiently. I did encounter one very annoying
issue though when trying to capture context menus or the Start menu- while launching
the snipping tool these menus disappeared… :(

It seems that there is a solution for this issue. To capture a context menu, open the
Snipping Tool, open the menu you would like to capture and then press Ctrl+PrtScn.

The screen should fade and the familiar interface of the snipping tool should appear.

Note that once a screen is captured this will not work again, you will have to reopen the
snipping tool.

The Windows 7 product guide is a straightforward document that everyone can use
to understand how windows 7 can improve their productivity. This guide is at the
user level so it will be tangible by the majority of people.

Personally I found several tips in it, one of them is that by using the following combo
you can run an application in Admin mode: Ctrl+***+Double left Click on a taskbar
item.

Windows 7 Product Guide Download

A few days ago we discussed the option of being able to download Windows 7 instead
of getting a box and DVD…well, I guess it didn’t take long(Microsoft Store):

Every time a new product is released, I ask myself where should Is tart to learn it.
The answer to that is never simple, yet Bill Boswell has put together a very interesting list
for Windows 7 in his article for TechNet Magazine.

If you have the time, it might be a good idea to join considering that the speaker
is an MVP:
Dave Edson,  Microsoft Office Visio MVP, Visibility.biz

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032423227&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

I want one of these…Then I will start learning how to play… :)

It’s been a long time since I had last posted. A lot of things changed, both in my personal
life and in general. One of the things that changed is that people are really excited (in a
positive way) about the upcoming release of Microsoft’s new OS.

I believe that this new wave of positive excitement was incited by Microsoft’s hard work
on correctly marketing Windows 7. One such move is opening a Cafe in Paris to create
additional buzz around the release.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/23/microsoft-to-open-cafe-in-paris-to-build-windows-7-buzz-pics/

As time passes, the Internet becomes an integral part of our household thus having
the technical items used to conduct it (e.g. router) stylized and integrated into
fashionable items doesn’t come as a big surprise.

On the other hand this one has me creeped out and longing for one all at once:

http://futurerouters.com/

One thing that I have found to be a nuisance in Win7 is the way it handles Messenger. In the
past messenger used to hide on the icon tray, and you could open it by double clicking on it.

Windows 7 has changed this and Messenger occupies a slot on your taskbar. Personally, I find
this uncomfortable. The solution, is to run Messenger in Vista compatibility mode. Find the
Messenger icon, right click it, and choose properties.
Choose the compatibility tab and select Windows Vista from the drop down box.

At this stage restart Messenger,and it will go back into hiding… :)

I love hi-tech toys,and I always said that it’s odd that there is no options
for my computer to sense whenever I “leave” it and lockup…Well now there is.

If you have a Bluetooth enable phone, then by using a piece of software from
Phoenix you can teach your computer to lock and unlock-handsfree…

http://www.phoenixfreeze.com/

I am not sure what is the exact sentiment that this ad is supposed to
stimulate but it made me smile…

Documenting server rooms isn’t fun, not to mention having to draw out a neat Visio
schema… Well, it seems that those days are over as Microsoft releases an add-in for
Vision that will enable you to pull information from an Excel file and build out a Visio
schema for your server room. Note that it doesn’t stop there, this add-in can pull information
from your servers (e.g. CPU utilization, RAM, IP address).

For additional details click on the following link.

This Solution Accelerator provides instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of computers running the Hyper-V role on Windows Server® 2008. It covers three core topics: hardening Hyper-V, delegating virtual machine management, and protecting virtual machines.

Download

There are hundreds(exaggerating here?) of such lists floating around the Net and the printed media,
so why should I add one more? Well first of all because I want to, and because,
it’s a bit odd to see that the tables have turned-when Vista was released all you could find
was posts and lists of 10 reasons to hate Vista,today the world is different.

In general the current mood of the media seems to be favorable towards Microsoft in general
and Windows 7 specifically.

I have started using Windows 7 since build 7000 (released to the general public) and
have found it to be great (now what does that mean, am I also affected by the hype?).It seems
that Windows 7 has worked out most of the quirks that affected Vista and gave it such a bad
name (which I can’t always say was justified).

So my top 10 things to like about Vista in no particular orders:

1. Speed- Not a feature yet in a world where everyone is in a hurry to get things done
   I found it very refreshing that everything in Windows 7 seems to be quicker, from the
   installation to running applications.
   
2. Control over UAC– UAC was/is a necessary evil. No one can say that UAC is a
   a good feature from a user experience perspective, on the other hand it hugely boosts
   your ability to secure your environment since it is much more than that annoying pop-up
   we have learned to hate. Instead of simply turning it off, Windows 7 provides us with
   a relatively simple tool to “tune” the UAC.
   
3. Built-in wallpaper changer- After you stop laughing,think about it for a second. Seriously,
   for how long have we been waiting for this feature? It’s not much of a productivity booster
   nor is it a huge leap in technology but it’s finally here.
   
4. BitLocker to Go- Bitlocker was introduced by Vista and it grew an got better. Instead
   of just encrypting your fixed disks (and with some gymnastics some of your removable
   disks), with Windows 7 you can encrypt your removable disks. Bitlocker protection to your
   ”mobile” drives which are at a higher risk of being stolen. Once the removable disk
   is encrypted you can connect it to any other system and access it’s data by providing some
   type of authentication:
   
   
   
5. The Taskbar- Much has been said about the new taskbar but in my opinion there is only one
   ability that turns the taskbar into a killer application:being able to receive a quick preview of your
   open windows on the desktop while browsing the thumbnails on the taskbar. This ability saves
   time and makes my life a lot easier.
   
6. HomeGroup- A simple user interface that enables Windows 7 systems to share information between
   Windows 7 computers (most likely to be used in a home). Setting up a simple home network
   between Windows 7 takes no more than a couple of clicks…
   
7. Problem steps recorder- A tool to be used by many frustrated IT support personnel and their
   relatives. This tool enables us to record a step by step scenario of something that we are trying to
   do and fails or on the other hand succeeds (to be used as a reference by the recipient). The result
   of the recording is a ZIP file that has an MHT file inside it (viewable by IE).
   
8. Boot from VHD – Yes, you can actually boot up from a VHD file and you can actually mount a VHD
   file from the Disk Management  snap-in.
   
9. Default printer based on locations –Windows 7 will identify your location (office/home) and set
   the appropriate printer as the default printer.
   
10. External display support- We no longer need to rehearse extremely difficult acrobatics to make
    external displays such as projectors show our screens. Simply press Win+P and you will be provide
    with a list of options that will solve all of your external display issues.

During the compilation of this list a good feeling about Windows 7 engulfed me. It seems that this OS
is good and to some extent more importantly, it is being perceived as a good OS. So,see in you in April
with the RC installed!

Missed it,well here it is:

Microsoft has created a new FTP service that has been completely rewritten for Windows Server 2008. This new FTP service incorporates many new features that enable web authors to publish content better than before, and offers web administrators more security and deployment options. This new FTP service supports a wide range of features and improvements, and the following list contains several of the improvements in this version:

• Integration with IIS 7.0: IIS 7.0 has a brand-new administration interface and configuration store, and the new FTP service is tightly integrated with this new design. The old IIS 6 metabase is gone, and a new configuration store that is based on the .NET XML-based *.config format has taken its place. In addition, IIS 7.0 has a new administration tool, and the new FTP server plugs seamlessly into that paradigm.
  
• Support for new Internet standards: One of the most significant features in the new FTP server is support for FTP over SSL. The new FTP server also supports other Internet improvements such as UTF8, IPv6, and adaptive networking bandwidth usage.
  
• Shared hosting improvements: By fully integrating into IIS 7.0, the new FTP server makes it possible to host FTP and Web content from the same site by simply adding an FTP binding to an existing Web site. In addition, the FTP server now has virtual host name support, making it possible to host multiple FTP sites on the same IP address. The new FTP server also has improved user isolation, now making it possible to isolate users through per-user virtual directories.
  
• Extensibility and custom authentication: The new FTP server supports developer extensibility, making it possible for software vendors to write custom providers for FTP authentication. Microsoft is using this extensibility feature to implement two new methods for using non-Windows accounts for FTP authentication for IIS Managers and .NET Membership.
  
• Improved logging support: FTP logging has been enhanced to include all FTP-related traffic, unique tracking for FTP sessions, FTP sub-statuses, additional detail fields in FTP logs, and much more.
  
• New supportability features: IIS 7.0 has a new option to display detailed error messages for local users, and the FTP server supports this by providing detailed error responses when logging on locally to an FTP server. The FTP server also logs detailed information using Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), which provides additional detailed information for troubleshooting.

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