If you’re running Windows XP or Windows Vista on your computer you may be interested in upgrading to Windows 7. In some cases the hardware you have now will be able to run Windows 7 well. To begin with, know that Microsoft recommends a 1GHZ processor and 1GB of RAM for Windows 7. This post is being created on an old Dell Dimension 3000 machine with a Pentium 3 GHZ single-core processor with 1 GB of RAM.
I blogged on DISM in the past, but I continue to be impressed with this Microsoft utility’s capabilities. DISM is included with the Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 (WAIK), which can be downloaded from Microsoft at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26D3B3B34&displaylang=en
Dcdiag is an often overlooked tool that can discover problems in a domain controller’s configuration. If client computers can’t locate a domain controller or if domain controllers can’t replicate Active Directory, you can run tests with Dcdiag to look for a solution.
Microsoft created two ways to control local and domain security groups membership. One is Restricted Groups which can be set in the “Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Restricted Groups” node of a group policy object. Right-click the node and specify the group to be managed. Any group on the local computer or in Active Directory can be restricted in both the “Members” tab and the “Members of” tab.
One of Windows 2008 Active Directory’s most under-utilized features is the ability to precisely target computers with Group Policy Preferences. Group Policy Preferences are different than traditional policy settings because they can be reversed by a user and not reapplied when Group Policy is refreshed. Windows 2008, Vista, and Windows 7 all have special Client Side Extensions (CSEs) for preference settings. You can download KB943729 from the Microsoft Download Center to retrofit Windows XP.
A great feature of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions is Media Center. With Media Center you can record television to your hard drive if you have a TV tuner card. With the latest TV tuners you can record over-the-air and cable signals in High Definition, wide-screen format and stream Netflix movies via Internet steaming.
FTP Servers are an extremely useful way to store and transfer large files efficiently over any network including the Internet. Microsoft has featured an FTP Server in Windows Server for over a decade. Finally Microsoft added an updated and vastly improved FTP Server with enhanced security and manageability to Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a very hot topic right now. A VDI can deliver a pre-configured Windows virtual machine with all of the necessary applications on demand. This benefits highly regulated environments like banking and healthcare because they can configure their virtual desktop with precise security settings to comply with current laws. Also, legacy applications that won’t run on Windows 7 can run on a virtual desktop using an older version of Windows.
As the New Year begins, we should look for ways to make technology serve us better. As the world economy becomes more connected and more competitive than ever, we need to make our computer networks more secure, powerful andreliable. Upgrading your corporate desktops to Windows 7 helps make users more productive than they have ever been, but upgrading can also be a difficult and costly process.
Ever delete a user account accidentally from your domain? If you have, then you know how much trouble it can be to restore a deleted account. If an Active Directory forest has been upgraded to Windows Server 2008 R2 forest functional level (FFL), the Active Directory Recycle Bin can be enabled. The Recycle Bin uses […]
