The Microsoft marketing department has decided to label a few of the incredible Windows features in Windows 7 and Windows 8 as ‘To Go’. Prime examples, of course, are ‘BitLocker-To-Go’ (encryption of removable drives) and ‘Windows-To-Go’ (running Windows from a removable drive). This week, I’m labeling the Windows Sidebar (Windows Vista) and ...

Whenever a worm utilizes the normal access and daily tools systems admins use, there is a significant problem. After all, shutting down the attack vector suddenly isn’t that easy. So, without making dramatic changes to your environment, how can you rest assured?     About Win32/Morto.A One of the latest threats to use ...

Microsoft has included numerous features in Active Directory the last couple of years. Also, more and more technologies in products like Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and the Windows client (Windows Vista, Windows 7) have an Active Directory opt-in to store information in Active Directory. All this bountiful integration, however, comes with ...

One of the fun things I get to do is co-organizing the Flaming Dog Lanfestival, where my main responsibility is to design, build and manage the networking infrastructure. About the Flaming Dog Lanfestival Last year Michiel de Jongh and I organized the Flaming Dog Lanfestival for the first time. This event is sponsored by OGD, our employer. In ...

A while ago I wrote a blog post on BitLocker Drive Encryption and why I thought it wasn’t ready for prime time yet. While reading up on BitLocker I found out two of my eight reasons are history or will be history in the near future.   BitLocker Drive Encryption Central Management Steve Lamb wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago on ...

Treehugger magazine has a very clear statement on Microsoft Windows XP and its ''high-performance'' yet ''energy-consuming'' default settings this week. They boldly state Microsoft Windows XP wasted $25 billion of Energy with the help of Foreign Policy. About Treehugger and Foreign Policy Treehugger is a fast-growing web magazine, ...

The Group Policy Settings Reference for Microsoft Windows Vista is available here (as the SBS diva pointed out). Now we can finally look at the Group Policies that will be available for administrators instead of guessing on the information that was available for Beta 2 and RC 1. The Instructions page of the reference gives a small introduction: ...

Microsoft Windows Vista has been designed from the ground up to be easy to deploy. The guys introduced a couple of new technologies to help you accomplish an organization wide deployment. Along with the technologies that we already had to our disposal, these are bundled in the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop ...

Microsoft made version 1.0 of the Microsoft Windows Vista Security Guide available on the same day the product went Release to Manufacturing. The guide provides instructions and recommendations to help strengthen the security of desktop and laptop computers running Microsoft Windows Vista in an Active ...