It is Friday morning in Tokyo, and there is a line out the door. If you didn't know any better you would think that they were lined up to get an autograph from the latest pop icon. However if you look at the sign on the door it does not say 'Tokyo Arena' or 'Tokyo Hilton.'... Continue Reading →
Out of Band Security Updates
If you run Windows Server this is very important. Microsoft released today a number of out-of-band security updates for Microsoft Windows. From what I have read, these patches (One of my servers has 14 applicable updates since 3am) will be applied to Windows clients as well as Windows Servers, but the vulnerability it protects is... Continue Reading →
Cloud-Based VDI!!! No.
I was having a conversation this week with a colleague about his plans to create a hybrid-cloud environment by moving many of his datacenter workloads onto Windows Azure. After all, it makes plenty of sense – eliminating new capital expenses and reducing ongoing operational expenses just makes sense. “And once we have tested it, we... Continue Reading →
WSUS: Watch out!
Here's a great way to waste time, network bandwidth, and storage space: download excess patches that you do not need. For bonus points, download languages you don't support. Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a great solution that has come a long way since it was introduced. However it gives a lot of us functionality that... Continue Reading →
1-2-3-4-5 BitLocker 9-8-7-6-5
I was sitting in a planning meeting with a client recently in which we were discussing ways of protecting end-user machines, especially laptops that were in and out of the office. The previous convention relied on BIOS locks that were proprietary to the hardware manufacturer, and required the end user to either enter two passwords... Continue Reading →
Windows To Go: Disk Behaviour
Recently I was explaining Windows To Go at a client site. We had a few interesting discussions about the power as well as the limitations of the security features. One attendee asked a couple of good questions: 1) Is there any way to block the ‘on-lining’ of your Windows To Go key in other installations... Continue Reading →
Managing Hyper-V Virtual Machines with Windows PowerShell
Warning: The following post was written by a scripting luddite. The author readily admits that he would have difficulty coding his way out of a paper bag, and if the fate of the world depended on his ability to either write code or develop software then you had better start hoarding bottled water and cans... Continue Reading →
Getting Started With Hyper-V in Server 2012 and Windows 8
You all know by now that I am a huge Hyper-V fan… I have been using it since 2008, but with the latest release I am unabashedly loving Microsoft’s Layer 1 hypervisor. The fact that it has been included in Windows 8 - as in, no different from the virtualization platform I use in my... Continue Reading →
Refresh Your PC – Save your bacon!
Thursday morning I did something to my main laptop that I really should not have done, and the results were disastrous. I succeeded in completely wrecking my installation of Windows 8. I was able to boot into the OS, but as soon as I tried to launch any application my system went into an endless flash-loop, and... Continue Reading →
User Account Options in Windows 8
Earlier today I discussed the Picture Password and PIN codes in Windows 8. What I didn’t mention is that for non-corporate users (who will still continue to log on using domain accounts) you have a new option in Windows 8… and that is to use your Microsoft Account to log on to your system. Cool,... Continue Reading →
Logon Options in Windows 8
The three-fingers salute is gone. Okay, that is not entirely true, but if your computer is not domain-joined, you will no longer need to press Ctrl-Alt-Del to log onto Windows. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be asked for a password… However, built into Windows 8 there are two new ways to log on: PIN... Continue Reading →
Client-Side Hyper-V: How Microsoft is changing the game
I have been a virtualization guy for a long time, so when Microsoft released Hyper-V 2.0 with Windows Server 2008 R2 I was among the first to ask why they weren’t including it in the client OS. In my opinion it was a no-brainer. With the launch of Windows 8 with the client-side Hyper-V, they... Continue Reading →
Windows to Go: Better (and easier!) in the RTM!
A couple of months ago I posted an article on Windows To Go (Windows To Go: This is going to be a game changer!) outlining the benefits and use cases for Windows to Go, as well as the steps to build your WTG key. In the RTM release of Windows 8 it has gotten easier... Continue Reading →
Wrong Product Key? Oh No!
Here’s a tip if you need to change your product key in Windows 8. It also works in earlier versions of Windows, but those versions have easier ways of doing it. In Windows 8 you need to use the Windows Software Licensing Management Tool (slmgr.vbs) Open a Command Prompt with elevated privileges (from the Windows... Continue Reading →
Making Your Windows 8 ISO work for You
Tomorrow is the day that a huge number of you will be downloading and installing the final bits (RTM) of Windows 8. You now have an ISO image of Windows, and you need to install it onto your computer. In order to do that you have to put it onto media – DVD or in... Continue Reading →
