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Posts tagged windows
It’s not a netbook!
Jun 15th
Q: How do you make the world stop buying so many netbooks?
A: Stop calling them netbooks.
That’s the bizarre advice from Microsoft, suggested by one corporate overlord at this week’s Computex trade show in Taipei.
His beef? The term “netbook” implies a notebook that is useful only for surfing the net, but since today’s mini-notebooks do so much more than just that, the term should be retired.
His suggestion for replacing the term? The exquisitely Microsoftian “low cost small notebook PC.”
Semantics in this space are getting increasingly complicated, though whether you call them netbooks, mini-notebooks, smartbooks, or, ahem, low cost small notebook PC, most of these machines do pretty much the same stuff. (The only real difference in this group is the smartbook, a term which is now being used to describe a notebook-type machine that runs a smart phone operating system like Android or, someday, the iPhone OS.)
But Microsoft is doing everything in its power to move the market away from $400 netbooks and toward $1000-plus traditional laptops. Windows 7 Starter Edition, the egregiously stripped-down version of the company’s upcoming OS, will be so severely hamstrung that Microsoft has offered the stated goal of encouraging users to upgrade to a more premium version of Windows 7.
The etymological approach is another step in that direction, I suppose, a subtle jab that your computer isn’t powerful enough. The term “netbook” sounds kinda cool. “Low cost small notebook PC” sounds like something designed for a child.
As with many of Microsoft’s great ideas, my hunch is that manufacturers will nod enthusiastically at the suggestion… and summarily ignore it.
Viva la netbook!
10 security threats to watch out for in 2009
Apr 22nd
We’re well into the new year now, and we’re beginning to see trends emerging on the security front. Some of the threats we’ll see this year will be similar to those in years past (after all, many of the basic con games now being perpetuated online were around long before the advent of computers and the Internet). However, attackers are becoming much more sophisticated in their methods to circumvent the increased levels of security built into operating systems and applications. Here are 10 security threats that are likely to become more prominent in 2009.
1: Social networking as an avenue of attack
Social networking has experienced a boom in popularity over the last few years. It’s now finding its way from the home into the workplace and up the generational ladder from the young folks into the mainstream. It’s a great way to stay in touch in a mobile society, and it can be a good tool for making business contacts and disseminating information to groups. However, popular social networking sites have been the target of attacks and scammers. Many people let their hair down when posting on these sites and share much more personal data (and even company data) than they should.
Think you’ll solve the problem just by blocking social networking sites on your company network? Not so fast. As Steve Riley pointed out in his recent talk on attack progressions at the 2009 MVP Summit, today’s young professionals are growing up with social networking, and they expect to have it available to them at work just as older employees expect to be able to use their office telephones for reasonable, limited personal calls. In addition, you lose the business benefits of social networking if you shut it down completely. After all, companies didn’t shut down e-mail because it could present a security threat. A better approach is to educate your workers about social networking practices and develop policies governing social media use. As an example, take a look at Intel’s Social Media Guidelines.
2: More attacks on the integrity of the data More >
10 seriously annoying default configurations
Apr 22nd
We all have them: Stupid default configurations that we either have to change or live with. Some of them may seem pointless and irritating, although there’s usually some situation where they make sense. Regardless, when configurations are wrong for us, they get under our skin more often than they help us get on our way. Here are 10 of the default configurations that aggravate me the most.
1: Keyboard failure, press F1 to continue
I know it has been fixed for a long time, but all former Compaq server administrators will remember this one. How silly of a message that the server would sit there with its tongue hanging out waiting for us to acknowledge this error with the object of the error. Truth be told, this was my motivation for writing the top 10 irritating defaults.
2: Windows Server 2008 interactive installation name
For Windows administrators who perform an interactive installation (where you boot from the CD), the default computer name is less than intuitive. To be fair, it is a standard name associated with boot environments, but the interactive installation removed the ability to set a computer name. I think we’ll have to get used to names like WIN-IU7JC1B15RI. However, this can be configured with an installation answer file or Windows Deployment Services.
3: Microsoft Office Recently Used File List value of 4
There is nothing more irritating than using a new installation of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint (2003 or earlier) and seeing a deprived recent file list on the File menu. I change this right away by going to Tools | Options | General to access the option to increase the number of recently used files — but the maximum is 9. Office 2007 finally loosened up this restriction, and you can set those apps to list as many as 50 of your most recently used files. The option is a little harder to find, though: Click the Office button and select Advanced in the left pane. Then scroll down to the Display section and enter the setting you want for Show This Number Of Recent Documents.
4: Windows Server 2008 using IPv6 and IPv4
I’m glad it’s available for use in the product, but does anyone know anyone actually using IPv6? It surely is not a mainstream protocol in use. I believe it will be adopted sooner in other regions of the world, but I don’t think it should be enabled by default yet. One good tool to get started in managing Windows Server 2008’s network stack is the Netsh tool.
5: Folder does not exist. Do you want to create it?
This technically a safety step, but how frequently do we select no to this question? Further, this is usually not the last question of a Windows installation wizard, so there is an opportunity to go back in the installation and change the installation path. As a side note, it’s a good practice to keep all of your installed applications in a designated area. For example, installing all applications and components not part of the operating system to a drive other than the C drive can manage the system drive space better. By using a different drive letter to contain the third-party installed software, storage provisioning for the C: drive can be standardized easier.
6: Voice-prompt-only service phone numbers
This one never ceases to amaze me. My previous job required quite a bit of travel. During weather or flight interruptions, I would often call the airline directly from my mobile phone rather than wait in the line equal to three aircraft’s worth of passengers when I needed re-accommodation. The service numbers were usually voice-prompt driven, which makes no sense in an airport, as there are incredible amounts of background noise. I became an expert of saying “Yes” and “No” very loudly and gaining the awkward attention of my fellow passengers. Number entry dialing is often possible but hard to find if it is not mentioned.
7: The Windows beep device
This is annoying for many reasons. For one thing, it doesn’t adhere to Windows sound volume settings for default configurations. This is especially irritating for administrators like me, who connect to multiple systems through tools like Remote Desktop and have the beep transferred as well. But the beep can be disabled. Simply go into Device Manager, choose Show Hidden Devices from the View menu, go to the Non-Plug and Play Drivers section, double-click Beep, and choose Do Not Use This Device (Disable) from the Device Usage drop-down list in the Beep Properties dialog box. After the next boot, beep is no more!
8: The entire default Internet Explorer browser configuration on Windows Server
Is it just me, or is the default installation useless? Even adding sites to the trusted sites list and local policies for the trusted sites doesn’t allow proper behavior of some legitimate sites. Ironically, Windows Update will work with all of the installations required. I find myself installing an alternative browser, such as Opera, Firefox, orSafari. To be clear, I don’t install it on every server — simply on those where browsing functions are required and it makes sense to do so. As a side note, this is a good trick to getting crude Explorer functionality in Windows Server 2008 Core installations.
9: Windows Server 2008 default folder view
I sure love the folder view in Windows Server 2003, XP, and prior editions. But Vista and Windows Server 2008 have really messed with my mind. I’d like to get a show of hands: Who actually uses Documents, Pictures, and Music as favorite links? My favorite link is the folder and computer. Just let me see my file system. I know what I am doing, most of the time!
10: VMware vCenter Server’s certificate store
The default installation of VMware’s vCenter Server product is two years. For many people, there are quite a few surprises on day 730 of their server virtualization bliss. The good news is that you can correct this situation before it gets you. There are plenty of topics on the VMware Communities forums, as well as this whitepaper from VMware on the replacement process.
What annoys you?
And the list goes on. There are always going to be things that annoy us — and some default configurations may get administrators downright mad. Do you have some software configurations that hit you the wrong way? If so, share them below.
