Month: November 2007

Changing your logon screen (Windows Vista)

By erikr

Since I can remember myself I love customizing stuff. I love changing thins sothey reflect some individuality. Logon screen and desktops are obviously myfavorites when it comes to computers. I never had the time to check how the logon screen in Vista can be changed butby chance I bumped into this neat(free) tool(Logon Studio) from Stardock that allows you to change the logon screen with your own pictures.   So the next question is where do you get those cool pictures from…well, I get themfrom two websites that have very high quality(almost any resolution) pictures:http://www.gamewallpapers.comhttp://www.cgwallpapers.com The websites are not free … Continue reading Changing your logon screen (Windows Vista)

Outlook Sidebar Gadgets for Outlook

By erikr

When the Vista sidebar was released, I was a bit skeptical. It reminded me ofthe old Office toolbar(ok,but not a big hit-at least not with me). Lately I have startedto view it in a different light-you can actually have quite a useful gadget attached to it,youcan build a gadget that will provide directory information for your companies employeeor direct access to your IT staff. In addition to that two new gadgets were published on the Outlook teams blog: appointmentsand tasks. Take a look at the post.

Group Policy Preferences Overview (Whitepaper)

By erikr

This white paper introduces Group Policy preferences, a feature new in Microsoft Windows Server 2008, and describes how you can use Group Policy preferences to better deploy and manage operating system and application settings. Group Policy preferences enable information technology professionals to configure, deploy, and manage operating system and application settings they previously were not able to manage using Group Policy. Examples include mapped drives, scheduled tasks, and Start menu settings. For many types ofoperating system and application settings, using Group Policy preferences is a better alternative to configuring them in Windows images or using logon scripts. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=42e30e3f-6f01-4610-9d6e-f6e0fb7a0790&DisplayLang=en

All those cool posters in one place

By erikr

Ok,so we all love them. It’s nice to hang them in your office or cube…makes you looklike a pro. But where do you get them? In the past I links to some,but I found a post that has them all…well more or less:http://blogs.msdn.com/carloc/archive/2007/11/24/posters-posters-and-again-posters.aspx

Who locked that file?!?

By erikr

One issue that quite a few helpdesks and system administrators have to deal with is unlockingfiles that are accessed and changed by several users. A neat tool, from Sysinternals (what a surprise…)can be used to track down the “offending user”. The tool is called handle.exe. Once downloaded it will tell you who locks a specific file by using the syntax in the screenshot (I openeda file using word-you get the username and the locking PID).

Microsoft IT Showcase: Information Security at Microsoft Overview

By erikr

Discover the best practices and processes Microsoft IT uses to secure its network. Provides a brief overview of the many aspects of network security; including some of the technologies used to protect against viruses, unapproved access attempts and malicious attacks. Describes the threat analysis and business reasons why certain practices and procedures were put into action. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e959f26c-1f5c-4331-b1fb-6c720795704d&DisplayLang=en

File transfer improvements with Windows 2008

By erikr

There have been many complaints about file copying and transferissues with Vista. Based on information found in a post mad on the Windows Serverblog the lessons have been learned. According to the post, file transfer speed over thenetwork has been significantly improved (up to 45 times faster over Win2k3…). The full post.