Yung Chou is a Windows 7 PC : Security

Hyper-V Security Guide V1.0 Now Available!

yungc — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:12:50 GMT

I had the opportunity to be one of the reviewers of the just published Hyper-V Security Guide . And want to invite those who are interested in virtualization security to download and review it as well. This document is about Hyper-V in Windows Server...(read more)

With Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008, How A Mid-Size Business Gets The Strength of Enterprise IT Without Paying Like Enterprise IT

yungc — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:07:00 GMT

is an enterprise-class server solution with a focus on the IT needs and priced to yield substantial cost savings over stand-alone products. For instance, the solution simplifies the licensing with a single server license and Client Access for all included...(read more)

The Nortorious 9 Blocked by UAC

yungc — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:46:00 GMT

User Account Control (UAC) , a technology introduced in Vista, is to prevent an application or process making changes to your computer without your explicit consent. Minasi's book, Administering Windows Vista Security: The Big Surprises , listed out the...(read more)

Dual Boot with BitLocker

yungc — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:30:00 GMT

Originally I configured my laptop as a dual-boot with Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 and total two partitions on the hard drive. So this is a configuring BitLocker with existing operating system scenario. The following are the high level steps which I did to put BitLocker on the machine. A follow-up screencast of this post is coming soon.

Boot into Vista SP1, download and install the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool.
Run the tool from All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/BitLocker to create a system drive (1.5 GB) for BitLocker.
In Control Panel, turn on BitLocker on C drive by following the process to enable TPM, reboot, etc. and let it finish the encryption. In my scenario, I stored the BitLocker recovery password in a USB stick. The encryption is likely to take hours, so plan accordingly.
Power off ad on, and re-boot a few times to test it out and make sure the system behaves in a consistently manner.
Boot into Windows Server 2008.
In Control Panel, turn on BitLocker on C drive by following the process to reboot, etc. and let it finish the encryption. In my scenario, I stored the BitLocker recovery password in a USB stick. The encryption is likely to take hours, so plan accordingly.
Power off and on, and re-boot in toVista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, and back and forth a few times to test it out and make sure the system behaves in a consistently manner.

When it’s all said and done, the included screen captures are what I see from either operating system. Notice when booting into Vista SP1, due to the encryption, I don’t see the drive information of the partition hosting Windows Server 2008. Similarly when booting into Widows Server 2008, the Vista Sp1 partition becomes not accessible. I also have a 2^nd hard disk mapped to the “data” drive which also becomes BitLocker aware.

Make no mistake about it. Keep the BitLocker recovery password safe and readily available. And very importantly, one should consider based on the dual-boot usage scenario, which partition BitLocker will be configured with first. There may be times we may also inadvertently change the hardware configuration without realizing it, and the system will come up with a black and white screen asking for the recovery password which is a set of 8 6-digit numbers. What has been happening to me is when booting from the partition that was not the first of the two to configure with BitLocker, apparently the on-board Trust Platform Module (TPM) thinks it's a change of system configuration and requests the recovery password. In my case, Windows Server 2008 was configured with BitLocker first and Vista (Enterprise SP1) later. So booting with Windows Server 2008 is business as usual, while whenever booting with Vista, TPM will intercept the process and request the recovery password for this drive.

Dual Boot with BitLocker - Vista SP1

System and drive information, and BitLocker configuration and Disk Management

Dual Boot with BitLocker – Windows Server 2008

System and drive information, and BitLocker configuration and Disk Management

Windows Server 2008 Event Subscription with Task Scheduling

yungc — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:58:00 GMT

A follow-up screencast of this blog is available here.

Event subscription has been one of the most requested server features by sys admins. Combined with task scheduling, this is a cost-effective and customizable tool to get a consolidated view of monitored activities and events in target servers, and timely issue alerts. In Windows Server 2008 subscribing and forwarding events with triggers to send out alerts can be done very easily as the following:

1. Create a subscription from Event Viewer.

2. Configure the subscription based on your requirements. The shown configuration settings are for demonstration and not necessarily recommended.

Select Computers

Select Events

Advanced settings

Make sure clicking User and Password and providing the user credentials.

3. Once configured, the subscription is listed as ready. Right-click to start running the task.

4. Now the subscribed events will be listed under the Forward Events log. Notice a subscribed event may take some time to show up in the log after it has occurred at a targeted server. If user credentials and minimizing the latency are specified, the forwarding should happen within a minute or so.

To schedule a task for sending out alerts upon the arrival of a subscribed event,

1. Start Task Scheduler from the Administrative Tools.

2. Configure the task based on your requirements. The shown configuration settings are for demonstration and not necessarily with recommended.

3. Once configured, the task is listed as ready. Right-click to start running the task.

24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 Webcast Series

yungc — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:19:00 GMT

Our team has been delivering Windows Server 2008 content and the following is a list of April’s webcasts. I recommend your reviewing of them as part of a daily or weekly training routine to bring your understanding of the features and capabilities offered by the product to a 300 level in a short and predictable period of time.

24 Hours of Windows Server 2008

Live Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 10 of 24): IIS 7.0 Diagnostics and Troubleshooting (Level 300)

Friday, April 4, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 11 of 24): IIS 7.0 Web and Applications Support (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 12 of 24): Migrating and Upgrading to IIS 7.0 (Level 300)

Friday, April 11, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 13 of 24): Server and Print Management (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 14 of 24): Windows PowerShell (Level 300)

Friday, April 18, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 15 of 24): Windows Deployment Services and Microsoft Deployment (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 16 of 24): Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Features (Level 300)

Friday, April 25, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 17 of 24): Migrating to Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008 (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:30 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

On-Demand Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 01 of 24): Overview (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 02 of 24): Server Virtualization with Hyper-V Features and Architecture (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 03 of 24): Managing Hyper-V (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 04 of 24): Presentation Virtualization with Terminal Services RemoteApp (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 05 of 24): Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services Web Access (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 06 of 24): Deploying and Migrating to Terminal Server (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 07 of 24): IIS 7.0 Overview and Architecture (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 08 of 24): IIS 7.0 Advanced Management (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 09 of 24): IIS 7.0 Centralized Configuration (Level 300)

Group Policy On-Demand Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 01 of 14): Introduction to Group Policy (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 02 of 14): Applying Group Policy (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 03 of 14): Creating and Editing Group Policy Objects (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 04 of 14): Managing Group Policy with GPMC (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 05 of 14): Managing Group Policy Operations with the GPMC (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 06 of 14): Group Policy Processing Behavior-Initial Processing of GPOs (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 07 of 14): Group Policy Processing Behavior-Using Objects to Affect GP (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 08 of 14): Group Policy Administrative Templates (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 09 of 14): From Basic to Advanced: Security (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 10 of 14): From Basic to Advanced: Security Templates and IPSEC (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 11 of 14): Designing and Planning Group Policy (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 12 of 14): Managing Your Group Policy Environment with GPMC (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 13 of 14): Troubleshooting Group Policy (Level 200)

TechNet Webcast: Group Policy Fundamentals (Part 14 of 14): Group Policy Best Practices (Level 200)

Active Directory

On-Demand Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 01 of 11)—Active Directory Logical Concepts—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 02 of 11)—Active Directory Physical Concepts—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 03 of 11)—Active Directory Replication and the Operations Masters Role—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 04 of 11)—Installing and Managing DNS—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 05 of 11)—DNS Features and Configuration—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 06 of 11)—Interoperability and Migration from Novell Directory Services—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 07 of 11)—Migrating File Resources from NetWare to Active Directory 2003—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 08 of 11)—Deployment and Interoperability with NT 4.0 and Windows 2000—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 09 of 11)—Administration Features—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 10 of 11)—Replication Features and Forest to Forest Trusts—Level 200

TechNet Webcast: Active Directory Inside Out (Part 11 of 11)—Group Policy Management Console and Software Restriction—Level 200

Test Drive Windows Server 2008

yungc — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:10:00 GMT

There are a number of significant workloads including server management and reliability, web, virtualization, and security that Windows Server 2008 delivers. You now have an opportunity to test drive and experience the product here on functionalities as highlighted below.

· Application Anywhere presents a combined solution with Application Virtualization (i.e. terminal services solution) and IIS 7.0. The TS Gateway, and TS RemoteApp in Windows Server 2008 offers a seamless integration experience for remote users accessing remote desktop and hosted applications.

· The process to set up failover clustering for high availability in Windows Server 2008 is much improved and straightforward. Both novice and experienced system administrator will appreciate from the streamlined operations and friendly UI.

· PowerShell is the next generation command prompt providing the ability to script with object-oriented functionality. System administrator can now operate on object instances directly from a PowerShell command prompt.

· Network Access Protection (NAP) is a main delivery in Windows server 2008 security. The ability to restrict remote access based on specified policy makes the state of a client connecting to a managed network predictable. The predictability is

· Not all virtualization solutions are created equal and there are four types of virtualization in Microsoft’s view. Server Virtualization (or Server Consolidation) is to rum multiple virtual machines within a single OS instance. Presentation Virtualization is a terminal service solution by presenting a remotely run application as a local one. The above mentioned two are included in Windows Server 2008. Application Virtualization and Desktop Virtualization employ additional component including SoftGrid and Virtual PC/Server, respectively.

Why is IIS 7.0 better architected and fundamentally more secure?

yungc — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:03:00 GMT

Web is one of the main areas of technological innovation in Windows Server 2008. IIS 7.0 set up is with a modular design to include more than 40 installable features. IIS 7.0 setup allows installing only those needed feature modules as to deploy a thin, task specific server with minimized footprint and attack surface.

In Windows Server 2003, IIS 6.0 is installed and secure with only static files are served by default. ISAPI extensions and CGI components are disabled to begin with and not functional until explicitly enabled, as opposed to IIS 5.0 (of Windows 2000) in which all features were installed and enabled by default. Nonetheless, the CGI feature, for instance, of IIS 6.0 is always installed regardless. The implication is if a software update for CGI becomes available, an IIS 6.0 server will need to apply this update, despite CGI is not enabled. Architecturally this suggests that IIS 6.0 installation remains monolithic since disabled feature are still installed, loaded into memory, consuming CPU, and requiring patching and updates. IIS 7.0, on the other hand, is fully modularized with only selected features are installed. Those disabled components are not installed, require no patching, and need no updates.