Windows SteadyState was a great technology designed for administrators that were responsible for computers used by many people (think labs, kiosks, internet cafes, libraries, community centers, etc).  The kind of place where people like to screw around with settings, download viruses, delete files...

It just does not get any easier than this.  Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell (Sysinternals gurus extraordinaire) have just published another amazingly useful (and free!) tool: Disk2vhd, which uses the power of Volume Shadow Copy Service(VSS) to turn your running version of Windows into a .vhd...

If you do demonstrations or webcasts from your computer, used the desktop screen sharing feature on Office Communicator 2007 R2 , or asked for remote assistance you may have inadvertently shown your desktop to your co-workers, a client, or the world. If you keep a spotless computer desktop (or are using...

If you are a long term Windows user, you right-click everything.  That right-click menu offers a lot of options, and it is comforting to see everything that you can do at any given time.  Heck… you can often Shift-right-click and get even MORE options. There is an interesting place within Windows...

I’ve been waiting for this guide for a while (‘cause that’s how I roll), but if you are interested in guidance on when/how to use Active Directory in your perimeter network, the AD team has released a guide for that: Active Directory Domain Services in the Perimeter Network (Windows Server 2008) The...

If you are like me, you haven’t fired up WordPad since somewhere around 1998.  It has virtually no functionality at all. Except… now it does.  I was listening to Windows Weekly , and Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte mentioned that WordPad is significantly improved in Windows 7.  I fired it...

If you are in charge of maintaining the security baseline at your company, you know that there are two key problems you face.  First of all, there are a LOT of security settings to tweak within Windows.  The services you harden and lock down on a Domain Controller are very different from those...

If you love technology, Windows Vista, and live in one of the following locations, you can be a Windows Guru! W Hollywood CA Los Angeles CA Downey CA Hawthorne CA Torrance CA Pasadena CA Burbank CA Rancho Cucamonga CA West Covina CA Chula Vista CA San Diego CA San Bernardino CA Riverside CA Irvine CA...

AWESOME news… two of the smartest people I have ever met are starting up a blog on Windows 7, and the engineering that has gone into it.  Steven Sinofsky is the Senior Vice President of the Window Engineering team, and was responsible for the masterpiece that is Office 2007 (which shipped on time...

I was playing around with Trika's skydrive (wait a minute, that sounded better in my head)... and see that she has uploaded three very nice looking posters showing the various courses, tests and certifications available for SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and Windows Server 2008. Apparently she...

Just a random bit of knowledge to share here :) If you open the Advanced Attributes of a folder (right-click on it, choose properties, then click Advanced...), you have the option at the bottom of the window to either compress the contents to save disk space, or encrypt the contents to secure data. Judging...

The latest version of the links below can be found here , or download a PDF version here . Don't ask me where they got that US-Army-looking-font in the PDF... it probably wouldn't have been my first choice ;) Group Policy Documentation Essentials These links help you get started with Group Policy. Learn...

One of the best parts of working at Microsoft is the amazing discussions and debates that take place on our internal Discussion Lists. A few months ago, the greatest security minds at Microsoft were undergoing a hot and heavy debate on Security by Obscurity . Does it make sense to rename the Administrator...

Aaaaah... to come full circle.  Microsoft's OSs started at the command line, went GUI, and you can now do more from then command-line than ever before.  Between PowerShell , the Windows Command Reference , and now the Netsh Technical Reference , you can script until you are blue in the face...

Although the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) has been around since 2005 (it shipped with Windows Server 2003 R2, is present in SBS 2003 R2), I have yet to meet anyone (even hard-core Admins) who have even heard of it. It is an excellent tool to have in your toolbox, especially as hard drives get...

If you are a sysadmin, you probably spend more time at the command line than the average user. If you have been looking for a handy reference as to the commands and syntax you can use, the Windows Command Reference will come in handy. Commands are listed alphabetically or by server role (in Windows Server...

Alright... not the sexiest acronym, but the new Branch Infrastructure Implementation Solution - BIIS (formerly the Branch Office Infrastructure Solution, or BOIS) has been released, with great information on all of the decisions and design criteria that go into architecting a Branch Office/geographically...

Have you ever been curious how Microsoft protocols such as SMB, CIFS, BITS, IPSEC, or NTLM work behind the scenes? Perhaps you are a Computer Science student, and you want to see how thing work in a commercially available Operating System, or perhaps you are a developer that works on a product that needs...

Great writeup by Daniel Petri : Ever have a performance problem, but don't know what performance counters to collect or how to analyze them? The PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs) tool is a new and powerful tool that reads in a performance monitor counter log (any known format) and analyzes it using...

Now is certainly the time to be a student!  As we announced earlier, you can pick up Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95 (91% off of retail), which is well worth it for the bibliography/works cited feature alone.  Even better, today we announced the DreamSpark program which enables students to...

Some highlights... Windows Media Services 2008 for Windows Server 2008 This software is an optional supplement to Windows Server 2008. In Windows Server 2008, the Streaming Media Services role (which includes the latest version of Windows Media Services) and remote administration tools are not included...

And it is all about SharePoint and OCS baby! http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/ Sharepoint A Smart Approach to Gathering Data in the Enterprise Information is one of the most important assets in an enterprise. But it can be a challenge to manage the mountain of data being gathered through e...

How do I back up AD? Seize an Operations Manager role? Recover a Domain Controller? Manage SYSVOL? There's a guide for that... Active Directory Product Operations Guide Process: Back up Active Directory Process: Non-authoritative Restore of Active Directory Process: Authoritative Restore for Active Directory...

If you need guidance on a Microsoft technology, we probably have a Solution Accelerator for that! Today's guide is brought to you by the letter "authentication" . Now... If you operate in a heterogeneous environment, you may one day be tasked with making your Linux boxes talk to Active Directory. The...

I see that Keith has some pretty sweet webcasts coming up for all those of you that live in a heterogeneous world. This is all part of the Windows Server Compare series of screencasts and webcasts that are coming out. TechNet Webcast: Windows Compare (Part 1 of 6): Reliability in Windows and Linux (Level...