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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 … Continue reading BitLocker To Go Reader

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 … Continue reading Snipping tool trick

Ok, so this isn’t a new topic. It’s been around for quite a while but I have never encountered it, so now that I have- it’s time for a post about it. I have installed a new PC (Windows Vista 64bit) and connected it to my home network using a wireless NIC (Realtek RTL8168B/8111b). The wireless router I use is an Edimax BR-6215SRg. The same network has several other PCs connected to it wirelessly and one PC that is wired. When copying files to/from the new PC (HTPC) it seemed to simply freeze up. Even though I could move the … Continue reading Vista Gets Stuck During File Copy

Service Pack 2 beta(for TAP clients) has been announced for both Windows Vista and Windows 2008: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/10/24/windows-server-2008-service-pack-2-beta.aspx http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/10/24/windows-vista-service-pack-2-beta.aspx

Yesterday, Microsoft has released an out of band patch (in other words, not through the standard cycle of releases,which means it’s really important and there is no time to wait for the next cycle) for all Windows version. Such a release, obviously causes concerns (as does everything that is not routine). The patch is intended for all Windows versions, and it is supposed to plug a hole in the Server service (specifically RPC) that might allow an attacker to run arbitrary code under the system account (it also seems that the vulnerability is wormable). Enter PANIC!!! (or maybe not) First … Continue reading Let the Panic begin?! (or maybe not…) [MS08-067]

Yes I know,a bit late and no I don’t want to get a haircut(you know who you are). So after these cryptic messages do I have something new to tell you about this release?Not really,except that finally all those holding out until SP1 can finally install Vista andthat SP1 comes packed with a few new cool features (e.g. the ability to apply Bitlockerencryption to all volumes including flash based ones…). In addition to that you may also want take a look at the list of incompatible drivers thatmay block the SP from being installed:http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948343 So if you have the time … Continue reading Windows Vista SP1 available (since Tuesday)

The Windows command line interface is a powerful tool. Most people might shrug awayfrom it since they feel that it is not flexible enough…to those people I dedicate this post. Microsoft has a released a command line reference that can be found here.

This was an annoying one. In Windows 2003 you have the Administrative Mode terminal thatallows you to have two standard connection and one “console” connection using RDP (a total ofthree (3) concurrent connections). Well, that is true if the server has not decided to misbehave. In my case it did. After having two connections to the server (in any combination,console and standard)the server would not allow a third. Not only would it not allow a third connection but the client alsoprovided the oddest error message: Once one of the two connected would disconnect all of sudden the server was found … Continue reading Administrative Mode Terminal issues…

So since SP1 is finally final, I started playing around with it. One of the most importantfeatures for me was the ability to deploy it. So,wanting to hear it from the horses mouth,I downloaded the Windows Vista SP1 Guides for IT Professionals. After going over it I found a few points that surprised me: No option to slipstream. Integrating the SP into the OS is not possible althougha version that will have SP1 integrated will be made available (?!?). The SP can not be applied to an offline copy of Windows. This is kind of obviousif you read the previous … Continue reading Vista SP1 deployment rants…

The theory Mandatory Integrity Control (MIC) is an additional layer of security built into Vista andWindows 2008. This particular layer helps Windows protect itself from harmful intentional and unintentionalchanges to important objects. Among the objects protected we can find files, directories, registrykey, printers, and actually any object that has a security descriptor. The beauty of MIC is that it has been there in the background all along protecting you, yet you never knewit existed. You might have actually encountered it by trying to change a file that is protected by it, and eventhough you had the permission you couldn’t… The … Continue reading Mandatory Integrity Control (What,how and why do we care?)