Administration

Microsoft is currently trying to resolve why some users’ attempts to upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows Vista results in an endless reboot loop with the computer not updated to the new version and unable to restore Vista. Some of the borked computers may have had corrupted downloads of the Windows 7 upgrade software [...]

Vista is the Windows version to bypass - like Windows Mistake Edition (ME) was. The combination of Microsoft having to pull employees off of Vista to help write XP Service Pack 2 and discovering that the XP code base was unusable (Vista was written from scratch) meant that MS released a typical first effort in [...]

Remember the news stories a few months ago about the flaw in DNS that was discovered by Dan Kaminsky? This article from MIT’s Technology Review magazine explains the discovery and the decisions taken to patch and explain the vulnerability in an article that is a good overview of what happened.

Dan Kaminsky, uncharacteristically, was not [...]

Terry Childs is a 43 year old network administrator for the city of San Francisco. They pay him a $127,735-a-year salary - plus he made an additional $22,534 last year in overtime for coming in to cover emergency situations.
He was part of a team that built a fibre WAN that now stores [...]

To get this e-book you will have to sign up for some Microsoft offers - whether it’s as a Microsoft Certified Partner, as a System Builder, or in some other program - I don’t know. But if you walk the correct path :-) you won’t have to pay anything as I’m not currently [...]

I’m behind the curve on this as QuickTime 7.2 for Windows was released July 11, 2007 and there’s already been a security update for it. Apple added support for Windows Vista but dropped it for Windows 2000 (the latest version for Win 2K is 7.1.6 - available here and the security update for it [...]

Ever needed to know how to replace the motherboard on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000?
If Windows boots:
Boot Windows. Put the Windows CD in the drive and start Setup with the Upgrade option. Follow instructions until the computer reboots.
When it reboots, pull the plug. Replace the motherboard. Restart [...]

Sorry about the delay on this - with the disastrous return trip from my wedding behind me, I’ve been working on finding a job and a place to live, not blogging and email.
With Windows Server 2008, Microsoft promises better control, manageability, flexibility, and security. Some of the new or changed features are: [...]

Disabling unnecessary services is an important part of securing a computer. Download this Excel spreadsheet here - a free membership is required. If you don’t have Excel, a free viewer is available here.

This is the last part of Mark Russinovich’s three part series on the Windows Vista kernel. This article focuses on features and improvements in the areas of reliability, recovery, and security.[tags]Mark Russinovich[/tags]
One feature I’m not covering in this series is User Account Control (UAC), which comprises several different technologies, including file system and registry virtualization [...]

This tool covers updates and bulletins that aren’t covered by the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) tool.
The SMS Extended Security Update Inventory tool is a scan tool built for the sole purpose of helping customers determine SMS client computers that may need security updates that are not detectable using the existing SMS Security Update Inventory [...]

The latest release of the MBSA utility adds support for Windows Vista for the first time. The tool analyzes the security configuration of the computers you run it against (it can run against many computers on your network at the same time) and suggests actions to reduce security vulnerabilities. The checks available [...]

Find out how Microsoft did a large scale rollout of Windows Vista. This webcast takes place on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 @ 9:30 AM Pacific Time - registration is here.[tags]Windows Vista, enterprise[/tags]

OK, techs: how often would you have loved to be able to access a NTFS drive from a DOS boot floppy? It happens to me two to four times a year. Unfortunately, the only program that was capable of that before a short time ago was NTFSDOS Pro from Systernals. It came [...]

RTO Software has created a free tool for you network admins to scan for applications that may not have been updated to work with the recent changes in Daylight Saving Time (DST). For more information, go here.
UPDATE:

Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center
Webcasts for daylight saving time changes in 2007

Some countries (most notably, the U.S., Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, Israel, Egypt, and Sri Lanka) have adopted different Daylight Saving Time rules or different time zones this year. If you use Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista, you can get the patch either through Automatic Updates or Windows Update, but what if you [...]

Hank Cranmore runs MOBITECH4U.com, a computer consulting business in Jacksonville, Florida. In a recent post to a tech support mailing list I’m on, he was musing about the possibility of Session 2 and newer users possibly being vulnerable to viruses or spyware.
First, some background. Every user in Windows who logs on [...]

Unlike the earlier Virtual Server, Windows Virtual PC 2007 will not run on Windows 2000. (Sniff - an OS with almost all of the advantages of XP, none of the drawbacks, and ran well on boxes half as fast and with half as much RAM - I’ll miss you Windows 2000…)
As with the previous [...]

Microsoft has written the Fundamental Computer Investigation Guide for Windows. If you have suspicions and need more data - but you are not yet ready to call in someone for a complete forensic investigation - this guide will help you to investigate further using forensic principles. Using forensic principles will preserve evidence for [...]

Security researchers at Indiana University and Symantec have discovered a hack that allows an attacker to enter common home routers if someone visits a properly designed Web page and the router’s default password hasn’t been changed. The attacker can then wreak further havoc such as denial of service, malware infection, or identity theft among [...]