Like most IT professionals, you’ve got more to do than is humanly possible. We can help. Well, our utilities can. Every month the Utility Spotlight column presents a handy utility that can help you get your work done. We’ve compiled 10 of our most useful...

IT Professionals rely on all sorts of tools to get the job done.  There's system monitoring, system tweaks, automation, log parsers, diagnostics, security apps--the list goes on and on.  Did you know that TechNet Magazine has a Toolbox column...

Microsoft Research India created a program called Split Screen that allows two users to share a monitor while running separate instances of the operating system on each side. The Split Screen program sets up a single PC with two keyboards and two mice...

IT professionals often find themselves with objectives that should complement each other but often compete instead. Security and compliance are two such organizational goals, where the achievement of one should enhance the other. But that’s not usually...

If you've picked up a newspaper or turned on a television in the past year, you know that pretty much every company seems to be talking about their environmental efforts. Well, this has a significant impact on IT. IT departments consume huge amounts of...

Writing a script that outpu ts data in tabular format is using VBScript is just plain hard, not to mention lots of work. But in this month’s column, the Scripting Guys show you how to do it   with minimal effort using Microsoft.CmdLib object. (This...

The firewall in the original release of Windows XP was adequate, but really left a lot to be desired. But over the years, the Windows Firewall has received a number of makeovers and continual refinements. By the time Windows Vista was released, the...

For millennia, humans have used various methods to hide information in transit, validate the sender, and authenticate the message. Now one method for handling all three has been developed and is becoming widely used—Secure Multi-Purpose Internet Mail...

The Microsoft datacenter located in Quincy, WA is an environmentally sustainable facility that runs entirely on hydroelectricity.  But the power source is only one factor that makes this facility "green".  Dave Ohara recently went...

One of the most common questions customers ask is, "Why should we upgrade to Windows Vista?" There are a lot of reasons to upgrade, but the new security features are among the most compelling. Security was a top priority during Windows Vista...

In this installment, Pav Cherny explores the advantages and implications of delegating administrative contr ol over SharePoint sites to individual departments while maintaining centralized administrative control over the SharePoint infrastructure. Our...

If you're looking for ways to ease the burden on your IT department and reduce the TCO for your computers, you might want to try an application lockdown . This can have tremendous results, greatly reducing the amount of time your IT staff spends dealing...

Last year's security issue of TechNet Magazine took you on a short tour of some of the features of Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption in order to show how it was implemented in the initial release of Windows Vista. (See Keys to Protecting Data with BitLocker...

Are you finally ready to start planning your organization's upgrade to Windows Vista—but filled with questions about whether your clients meet the hardware and software requirements, what compatibility issues you might face, and even which edition of...

You may be familiar with the Elevation PowerToys created by Michael Murgolo, which he discussed in the June 2007 issue of TechNet Magazine.  In the June 2008 issue, he's back with an update to his Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista. You'll find...

Is security by obscurity security at all? That idea is met with derision from many professionals—and just as passionately defended by others. This article serves as a forum for both sides of the argument, focusing in particular on whether or not it’s...

The June 2008 issue of TechNet Magazine is now available online. Security, security, and more security. The June issue is our annual Security Issue, and we delve into a variety of security-related topics. In the June issue, we have some security all-stars...

What do you do when students outnumber the computers available in a classroom setting? Read about how Microsoft Research India has developed a solution, called MultiPoint, that allows multiple mice to be used simultaneously on one computer. And that means...

If you haven't yet begun thin king about moving all of your users who run as Administrators to Users, you should. And that means you! In this installment of The Desktop Files, Wes Miller looks at the risks of running as Administrator and explores the...

I just wanted to point out that the June 2008 installment of the Windows PowerShell column is now available on the TechNet Magazine site. The column includes our first streaming video .  In this video, Don Jones demonstrates how you can easily add...

The Microsoft Scripting Guys visit the Louvre, take up art criticism, and follow up on a previous column that showed how to use regular exp ressions in a script to do a search. As the Scripting Guys are the first to admit, search alone is not enough....

System Center Essentials 2007 is specifically designed to meet the challenges faced by the midsize business, where IT pros often perform a broad range of tasks. Essentials is designed to simplify traditionally complex tasks, and it enables IT pros to...

Just a quick note to point out that we published another installment of the online " Sustainable Computing " column. Mitch Irsfeld recently headed to Los Angeles to check out the U.S. finals for the 2008 Imagine Cup . In this year's competition, students...

Web-based collaboration is changing how people work together and share information, and SharePoint can help that happ en. SharePoint is powerful, but its complexity can make deployment quite challenging. Happily, our new SharePoint column gives you a...

While Windows PowerShell is a powerful tool, it does have a notable shortcoming that is largely due to timing.  In the May installment of the Windows PowerShell column, Don Jones explains why the first version of Windows PowerShell offers less than...