IT Pro Tips : Vista

Why I Can Hack Your Network in a Day

itprotipsadmin — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:01:00 GMT

By Mark Burnett

I watched a very interesting WebCast today called Why I Can Hack Your Network in a Day. The WebCast is from a TechEd 2007 presentation by Marcus Murry, a Swedish pen-tester. Marcus’ clever humor and knowledge of the hacking tools makes for an entertaining and informative session.

After a short intro, Marcus jumps right into doing actual demonstrations with commonly-used hacking tools. In his first demo he showed how easily he could build a Trojan using a tool called Beast. He attached the Trojan to Microsoft’s Rootkit Revealer tool and renamed it as “Tech Ed 2007 Rootkit Revealer Special Edition.”

TIP: Don't ever be fooled if you happen to find a 16GB USB flash drive just laying on the ground. It could very easily have been planted by someone who loaded it with Trojans. This is an extremely effective technique because whether the victim intends to keep it or not, chances are that they will at least plug it in to see who belongs to.

After the Trojan runs, Marcus showed how he could remotely steal files, upload his hacking tools, or even view the remote desktop.

He also did a number of demos on how he could crack both WEP and WPA using widely available tools such as Aircrack-ng. My favorite quote from this demo was “If I were sniffing TechEd I would know everything there is to know about you guys. I’m not; but I would.”

What was interesting and quite effective was that instead of the traditional PowerPoint slides with endless bullet points, he used Microsoft OneNote with diagrams and scribbles for the non-demo parts of the presentation.

The presentation went on to demo a number of other attacks using a variety of tools, including wireless sniffing with AirPcap, a Terminal Services man-in-the-middle attack and ARP poisoning with Cain & Abel, and HTML injection using Paros.

The fact is that we hear so much about all these attacks that we almost become desensitized to the threats. Even for someone like me with a number of years in the security business, seeing usernames and passwords popping never loses its impact. Despite all our progress in security, the fact is that we still have a long way to go before we are actually as secure as we think we are.

It is a very entertaining WebCast, and I highly recommend it to anyone of any level. You can view Why I Can Hack Your Network in a Day on TechNet.

Deployment Workbench Overview

itprotipsadmin — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Orin Thomas

In this TechNet labcast on demand you will learn about the Deployment Workbench (also known as the Windows Vista Business Desktop Deployment Solution Accelerator), a tool that can assist your organization in deploying the Windows Vista client operating system. A labcast is a hybrid of a webcast where you watch a presentation and a virtual lab where you perform a set of exercises to learn more about a product.

This labcast begins with an overview of what the deployment workbench is and what you can accomplish with the tools that it includes. The presenter explains that the philosophy behind the deployment workbench is to make the deployment of Windows Vista as simple as possible for the IT Pro. In creating the toolkit, Microsoft has packed together all of the tools you could possibly need to smoothen the rollout of operating systems in your environment. The screen shown when you open the Deployment Workbench is displayed in the exhibit.

Through the presentation, you will learn how deployment advice and documentation has been tightly integrated into the Deployment Workbench. This documentation has been created based on a significant amount of feedback provided to Microsoft, and the presentation explains how even administrators with significant experience deploying operating systems can benefit by reading this information. The index for this documentation is shown in the exhibit.

The presentation explains the process by which you can add components to the Deployment Workbench, increasing its functionality. The exhibit displays the component area of the Deployment Workbench.

The labcast then moves on to explain setting up distribution shares, which are network points that allow you to deploy particular operating systems to clients on the network. This is also a process that you will spend a lot of time on when performing the practical exercises that accompany this presentation.

If you are looking to deploy Windows Vista in a large environment, you should know about the Deployment Workbench. One of the best introductions you can get to the Deployment Workbench is this TechNet Labcast On-Demand. You can access this TechNet Labcast On-Demand by navigating to the following website address: Deployment Workbench Overview

Introduction to the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Tools (Part 2)

itprotipsadmin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Orin Thomas

Labcasts are combinations of traditional screencasts and virtual labs. The first part of the labcast involves watching a presentation on a particular technology, including a demonstration of how to use its functionality to perform common tasks. The second part of the labcast involves performing the same steps yourself, so that you get a hands-on feel for the information in the lesson you’ve just viewed.

This labcast, Introduction to the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Tools, explores the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 tools, which can help simplify the deployment of Windows Vista in your environment. The first part of the labcast presents information about the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) tools. The exhibit below shows the Windows System Image Manager, which is one of many components available in the kit.

By watching the labcast you will learn what Windows PE 2.0 is and how you use it during the deployment process. The labcast also covers how you can customize the Windows PE 2.0 environment to best suit your organization’s needs. The exhibit shows a list of Windows PE 2.0 components that can be added to a Windows PE image.

The labcast introduces Windows Image (.wim) files and explains their purpose. You’ll be shown how to manipulate .wim files using the ImageX utility. You’ll see how to mount content using the utility, allowing you to then manipulate images using Windows Explorer. The exhibit shows how the winpe image is mounted using the read and write option so that it can be modified.

The labcast finishes by covering other tools that are available in the Deployment Workbench. The exhibit shows the tools from the Deployment Workbench.

A big advantage of the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 tools is that they are all available for free download from Microsoft’s website. For those of you looking towards Windows Server 2008, you’ll be happy to know that the WDS role, included with all versions of Windows Server 2008, allows for the automatic deployment of WIM image files to multiple clients using multicast technology. So not only will you learn about Business Desktop Deployment 2007 tools by watching this labcast, you’ll also have a primer on how to set up.

To access this labcast, navigate to the following address: Introduction to the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Tools (Part 2)

Windows Vista Adoption

itprotipsadmin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By David Chernicoff

The How (and Why) To Get Going On Windows Vista Adoption article on Microsoft TechNet does a good job of answering the questions that an IT pro would have about getting Windows Vista deployed in their organization. The site breaks the process down into four segments.

By taking the FAQ approach to the issue, the site does a good job of laying out and explaining the advantages of using Windows Vista and the process of deployment.

Each FAQ question gets a succinct, to-the-point answer, while additional links to detailed instructions for different parts of the process can be found on each FAQ page.

Each of the four segments gets its own Content Library. This library, which is broken into four levels of expertise, allows the IT pro to pick and choose from among additional materials ranging from high-level overview documents to detailed step-by-step tutorials on implementing different features, functions, and tools applicable to each area.

This site and the huge amount of linked documentation really live up to the name, The How (and Why) To Get Going On Windows Vista Adoption. If Vista is in the planning stages at your company, or even if you have already deployed it, a visit to this site and its links is worth your time.

TIP: Keep an eye out for the links to the various "Microsoft Quick Start Guides" that can be found in the content libraries. These are the documents that let you get up and running fast.

Vista Case Studies

itprotipsadmin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Michael K. Campbell

With Vista SP1 virtually around the corner, more and more companies are likely to be gearing up for their own transition efforts. However, a large number of companies have already begun making the transition, and Microsoft has chronicled some of their successes. Therefore, if you’d like to get a feel for what some organizations have already experienced, then take a look at Deployment Stories – a brief overview, or introduction, to various case studies and their outcomes.

Acting as a high-level overview of some of the different types of deployment scenarios that real companies have dealt with, this resource points out some of the benefits that companies have seen in transitioning to Vista. It also serves as a link to Microsoft’s extensive catalog of case studies – focused, in this case, on Windows Vista (and, to a lesser extent, Office 2007).

Of course, the summaries listed in the screen-shot above are just that: summaries. If you click on any of the case studies, you’ll be presented with a better overview of the business problems at hand and how they were solved.

Given some of the bad press that Vista has gotten of late (some of it deserved) it’s nice to help put things into perspective by being able to see how well Vista has done in solving real-world problems for real companies. Of course, these case studies obviously have a bit of a marketing bent to them, but that doesn’t change the fact that each case study represents a tangible problem that was actually solved. In other words, reading through these can usually be a good way to determine ways that other companies are tackling some of the same problems that you’re currently grappling with.

TIP: You can search case studies by industry, geographic location, and company name alon with specifying your own, advanced search criteria. Just use the navigation option on the top-left of the case studies pages.

So, if you want to see the kinds of ROI and benefits that companies are getting from using Vista and Office 2007, or if you’d just like to keep tabs on the competition – or on other companies within your sector, then make sure to check out Deployment Stories and its accompanying links.

What is Windows Vista?

itprotipsadmin — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By David Chernicoff

What is Windows Vista? is an article that the IT professional can point his in-house developers to in order to get them up to speed with what they can do with Windows Vista as the client software they develop for.

The initial link on the page takes the reader out to the dedicated Windows Vista website, which provides a wealth of general information on Windows Vista.

The remaining eight links on the page take the reader to detailed overviews of the various Vista technologies, each with a table of contents similar to the one shown in the next figure.

The links take the reader to information about the .NET framework 3.0, visual interface development, the Windows Communication Foundation, developing for mobile Windows PC users, XML use and implementing RSS feeds, using the ClickOnce deployment technology and the Windows Installer, the Vista API set focused on reliability and availability, and, of course, security, explanation of the UAC model and utilizing Network Access Protection.

While the information in What is Windows Vista? is targeted at giving an overview to the developer making use of the Vista platform, the information contained in the document links is easily understandable by the IT administrator, giving them a good feel for what can be done with the Vista client.

TIP: The "See Windows Vista" link in the MSDN document links back to the main Windows Vista page, which is a good site to provide to non-technical users looking for basic information about Windows Vista and its capabilities.

Improving Desktop Security and Deployment (Part 6 of 7): Group Policy in Windows Vista

itprotipsadmin — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Mark Burnett

There is an interesting webcast on TechNet called Improving Desktop Security and Deployment (Part 6 of 7): Group Policy in Windows Vista that covers some of the new features that Vista brings to Group Policy. While there are about 1300 new settings in Vista, this webcast covers some of the most important and most interesting.

The webcast starts out explaining some of the new Group Policy infrastructure features, including improved processing and the use of the Network Location Awareness service to improve connectivity.

One new feature I found particularly interesting is the ability to now have multiple local GPO’s, which allows for some interesting configurations.

TIP: Use multiple local GPO's to apply different policy settings for different users. This allows for more secure configurations for shared computers.

The webcast has good coverage of some of the new security-related settings in Group Policy.

Group Policy now allows you to configure the Windows shell, printers, and power settings.

Another interesting feature is the ability to limit which USB devices users can install. You can set these restrictions based on the device identification string or device class. This can be very helpful if you have problems with users connecting cameras or MP3 players or if you want to prevent sensitive data from leaving your network.

And like all webcasts, this one has plenty of live demos. The presenter walks you through the entire process of managing and configuring GPO’s, with plenty of comments and tips that will certainly help you along the way.

If you manage a number of Vista machines, it would be worth your time to get to know the new Group Policy features. I think you will find the Improving Desktop Security and Deployment (Part 6 of 7): Group Policy in Windows Vista webcast very informative and interesting.

Addressing Five Windows Vista Gotchas

itprotipsadmin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Michael K. Campbell

With rumors now swirling that Vista SP1 will be released sometime around February 15th (no idea if those rumors are true though), it’s likely that many organizations will now get more serious about adoption.

In Five Windows Vista Adoption “Gotchas” and How to Get Beyond Them, Microsoft addresses some of the biggest concerns that enterprises have had when transitioning to Windows Vista. The best thing about this article is that it doesn’t sugar coat the content. Yes, Microsoft wants people to adopt Vista – but we all know that. The purpose of this article is therefore to help with that adoption process by outlining some of the key problem points that early adopters encountered with their transition to Vista.

Gotcha #1: Hardware Compatibility

This section starts with a frank acknowledgement that Vista requires decent hardware, and then provides a link and some information about downloading, installing, and using the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

Though I’ve already installed Vista on my own hardware in the past, I found the Upgrade Advisor easy to use, and pretty thorough in terms of the feedback it provided about my software and hardware.

In addition to providing a bit of information and background on how to use the Upgrade Advisor, the remedy for this gotcha also describes some rollout strategies and prioritization efforts that organizations can use to transition into Vista adoption.

Gotcha #2: Business Applications

Again, with a frankness that I really enjoyed (i.e., instead of typical marketing), this section acknowledged that application functionality is one of the biggest impediments that many organizations will have in transitioning to Vista. Accordingly, it outlines how to use the Application Compatibility Toolkit, which offers application analysis, prioritization of potential problems or concerns, along with a database of known work-arounds. This section also makes mention of the Application Compatibility Factory and outlines ideas around leveraging virtualization in order to address difficult problems with application compatibility.

Gotcha #3: In House Applications

This section outlines the importance of educating in-house developers and making them aware of the architectural and security changes in Vista.

TIP: Gotcha #3 explains how the Application Compatibility Toolkit can be used by developers to help test setup packages, websites and applications for Vista compatibility.

Gotcha #4: User Account Control

This section starts by admitting that Microsoft has taken a lot of flack over UAC, going so far as even to mention that Apple made fun of it in one of their commercials. With that in mind, this section then describes the rationale behind UAC and how it benefits organizations and end-users. It also lays out ways to educate end-users about how to successfully use UAC and provides information about configuring applications for successful deployment when UAC is involved.

Gotcha #5: End-User Preparation

The final gotcha in this article discusses the very real problem that many organizations will face in terms of how end-users will end up coping with a new environment. Not too surprisingly, this article points to the need to proactively educate users before any transition – in order to ensure the least amount of end-user disruptions. But this section of the article also talks about using the Enterprise Learning Framework to help enterprises prioritize the most relevant topics and coordinate curriculum that helps end-users during the transition.

If you’re serious about deploying Vista within your organization and either don’t know where to start, or have identified some actual hurdles, Five Windows Vista Adoption “Gotchas” and How to Get Beyond Them is a frank and honest look at the best way to address some of the more common "gotchas" – and hopefully we’ll see additional, no-nonsense, articles like this in the future.

Backup and Restore in Windows Vista

itprotipsadmin — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Mark Burnett

Today I watched a terrific TechNet webcast: Improving Desktop Security and Deployment: Backup and Restore in Windows Vista. What I liked about the webcast is that it covers in detail the new backup and restore features of Windows Vista.

File backup and restore in Vista uses Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) as the core technology to facilitate simple backups. The webcast explains how each component works together in the backup and restore process.

Shadow copies are snapshots of files that Windows stores in a special location on the hard drive. Vista stores file changes at the block level so that users can restore any version of their files. Windows uses up to 15% of a disk for shadow copies that it can use in the backup and restore process.

The webcast explains and demos complete PC backup, which is a Windows Vista feature that performs block-level backups that you can store on another hard disk or DVD.

More than half of this webcast consists of actual demos so you can see exactly how the process works. The presenter walks through the process of doing both file-based backups and complete PC backup, then later restoring backup files.

The webcast also goes into great detail on the Windows Recovery Environment and the various repair options available to users.

Finally, the webcast demonstrates how to do a system restore from a system restore point. Restore points, created at the block level, represent daily system configurations, or the state of a system before installing applications or drivers.

TIP: A system restore is reversible so you can undo and return back to where you were before the restore.

This webcast definitely was interesting and shows how much you can do with nothing more than the built-in backup and restore features. Understanding these features could mean the difference between recovering from a problem and having to reinstall the OS from scratch. You can watch the webcast at

Improving Desktop Security and Deployment: Backup and Restore in Windows Vista

Group Policy in Windows Vista

itprotipsadmin — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Mark Burnett

As a security professional, dealing with group policy is a big part of my job, so I was anxious to watch the webcast TechNet Webcast: Group Policy in Windows Vista that covers the many new Group Policy enhancements and improvements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. With nearly 1,300 new settings, Microsoft has definitely put some effort in this area.

The one thing I liked the most is that the webcast acknowledges the common customer pain points, which can be significant in some scenarios. The fact that they recognize these problems is a good indicator that they are working to fix them.

The webcast does a great demo of how you prepare Active Directory for the new policies, walking through each of the prep tools you need to run.

Windows Vista and Windows 2008 both include the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) and the webcast has informative demos on using the GPMC. What’s interesting is that administrative templates now use an XML format and also have support for multiple languages.

For example, in the webcast, the presenter shows how you can create an administrative template in English and edit the settings in another language, in this case French.

With 3000 new Group Policy settings, the presenter obviously couldn’t cover all settings, but he did cover some of the biggest changes, such as firewall settings, shell configuration, QoS, printers, and device installation policy.

I found the new device installation policy settings most interesting because you can know precisely which devices or device classes users can install. This is particularly useful in organizations where it is important to keep data from walking out the door. According to the presenter, this was one of the most requested features for Windows Vista.

TIP: Use the new Group Policy settings to prevent users from connecting removable drives, MP3 players, and cameras but still allow any necessary peripherals. This helps keep sensitive data from leaving and viruses and other malware from entering the network.

If you work with Group Policy, take the time to watch the webcast TechNet Webcast: Group Policy in Windows Vista . There are some significant changes in Group Policy and it would be well worth your time to get up to speed.

Windows Vista Built-in Diagnostics

itprotipsadmin — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:01:00 GMT

By Richard Lane

Help! Windows Vista crashed. This TechNet Virtual Lab on Windows Vista Built-in Diagnostics shows how Vista’s Reliability and Performance Monitor can help to uncover the source of the problem, showing failure information and software installation history at a glance. A Virtual Lab gives you actual hands-on experience but over a remote connection.

This concise, introductory exercise only takes a few minutes to run through, but could save hours of frustration. A key point is that another Vista feature, Remote Assistance, means that technicians can often accomplish what is needed from their own desks.

If you are like me, you hate having to complete lengthy forms and registration procedures just to view some web content. This is great: one simple form and you are in.

I took a short break while TechNet built the lab. Behind the scenes a new virtual machine is being prepared, since I will be working with a real Vista installation.

While I was waiting, I downloaded the lab's manual and took a quick read through.

TIP: While the manual is open, save it to your hard drive. The steps will be useful in future troubleshooting.

I hit Start Your Lab to open the Virtual Labs console, a separate browser window which contains the virtual machine and the exercises.

On the left of the console is the Virtual Machine. It is very smooth and works just like a local installation of Vista, except a little more slowly.

Over on the righthand side are the instructions for completing the exercise. This lab has only one exercise – I said it would not take long to complete!

The first task is to run a batch file to set up the lab. It is not really part of the diagnostics, but it got me familiar with working in the virtual machine.

The lab got me to use Vista’s instant search to find and run the Reliability Monitor. I liked that, as search is one of Vista’s best features.

Next, the Reliability Monitor starts, and the exercise guided me through clicking on the various incident types, including warnings, information, and crash reports. I had not previously realized that all this information is so close at hand on every Vista desktop.

The final step is to check the detail for each incident and to use common sense to work out what has most likely gone wrong and how to fix it. In this case, you luckily don’t need to look up any of those hex codes under Failure Detail; otherwise it would be a much longer lab!

There wasn’t a lot of deep technical detail in this lab, but in a way, that is the point. A few minutes glancing at this diagnostic tool, perhaps from the comfort of a remote connection, is often all it takes to get a user up-and-running with a reliable machine again.

TechNet Virtual Lab Express: Windows Vista Built-in Diagnostics.