Entries tagged with windows vista - TechNet Edge

Screencast: Windows PowerShell introduction

jeffadude — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:34:00 GMT

Windows PowerShell is without a doubt one of the most important tools we have released for administrators for some time. However it's often overlooked and a lot of IT Pro's I talk with think it's perhaps better suited to developers.

In this Screencast I go through the basics to get you started. I'll also post the sample files I've used at my blog which is http://blogs.technet.com/jeffa36

Enjoy!

jeffa

Windows Vista Complete PC Backup and Restore

KingCobra — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:55:00 GMT

It’s been a while since I brought up a great feature in Windows Vista (not present in Windows XP) called Complete PC (CPC). Available in Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions, Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore is a image-based backup tool that will help you out of a tight spot if you need to recover your entire system.

While file restore is useful in cases of file loss and data corruption, Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore is most useful for disaster recovery when your PC malfunctions. This feature helps you create complete PC backups, and then in the event of a serious system issue or data loss, Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore can restore your entire PC environment, including the operating system, installed programs, user settings, and data files.

You can restore your PC back to its original state or onto another PC. Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore can be initiated from within Windows Vista or from the Windows Vista installation CD, if the PC is not able to start up normally from the hard disk. This feature is also now integrated into Windows Server 2008 and part of the backup and recovery toolset on that platform.

Checkout the FAQ from the team that developed the feature. It’ll answer some questions about security, network backups, etc. If you really must have a Powerpoint slide deck on the subject, check this out.

Here’s a screencast on Complete PC. Don’t forget you can view this full screen by double clicking the video during playback or using the button on the player toolbar.

Vista 30, Rootkits 0

KingCobra — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:21:00 GMT

I’m glad to see some positive press on Windows Vista. Security is a tough business and when you’re on the desktops of millions of computers, everything is magnified to the Nth degree. A couple of recent articles and postings are getting a lot of attention. See “Vista's Despised UAC Nails Rootkits, Tests Find” by John E. Dunn. This of course got picked up on the popular site Neowin.

Since a lot of you aren’t yet running Windows Vista, here’s a quick refresh on the tech. In Windows Vista, there are two types of user accounts: standard user accounts and administrator accounts. Standard users are equivalent to the standard user account in previous versions of Windows. Standard users have limited administrative privileges and user rights—they cannot install or uninstall applications that install into %systemroot%, change system settings, or perform other administrative tasks. However, standard users can perform these tasks if they are able to provide valid administrative credentials when prompted. With UAC enabled, members of the local Administrators group run with the same access token as standard users. Only when a member of the local Administrators group gives approval can a process use the administrator’s full access token. This process is the basis of the principle of Admin Approval Mode.

See the TechNet article, “Understanding and Configuring User Account Control in Windows Vista” for a detailed review of UAC. If you want to see it in action, see the four minute video.

Windows Vista SP1 outperforms Windows XP SP2 in file copy

mkleef — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:22:00 GMT

Its interesting that people seem to think that Vista underperforms in every area of the system which is quite an incorrect perception. In this demo I show how Vista outperforms Windows XP and I show the under the covers process traces of just how it achieves it.
Demo environment consists of two images. One Vista SP1 and the other Windows XP SP2 both on the same HDD IO and communicating across my home wireless network to a Windows Server 2008 box on my main LAN. Once the two images get going latency gets introduced and things start to slow down....except Vista doesnt slow down. Watch and see!

Las Vegas Windows Server 2008 Launch event - Paul Chrisco

KingCobra — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:22:00 GMT

Matt Hester and I just got back from Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada where we attended the Windows Server 2008 launch events on both locations. We took along our video cameras for the ride and captured some customer and partner conversations.

Checkout the conversation I had with Paul Chrisco of Chrisco Consulting. Paul is the owner of his firm and as you can clearly see in the video, a straight shooter. Anyone that starts a business from scratch needs confidence, and Paul’s confidence in himself and his business comes across very nicely as well. The video is just over 10 minutes in length. Enjoy.

Vista Deployment and the Windows Deployment Toolkit

Joey — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:59:00 GMT

When Windows Vista shipped, there was a great set of tools and documentation called the Business Desktop Deployment kit (BDD). I loved this toolset, but it was a bit intimidating with the amount of documentation and guidence.

Things have changed significantly with the addition of a new checklist and wizard driven deployment toolkit now named the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). Hey it deploys servers too! I decided we should take a closer look at the tools so I grabbed my camera and sat down with Michael Niehaus and Jeremy Chapman to talk about what has changed in the Vista deployment tool set and how the deployment tools really make it easy to get started in your Vista deployments.

For more information on Vista deployment check out the roundtable discussion hosted by Mark Russinovich:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/cc307852.aspx?ITPID=epg0308

Or check out the Vista deployment website:
http://www.microsoft.com/deployment.