As most of you are well aware, I’ve been evaluating Windows 7 since last year. Actually, maybe “evaluating” isn’t the right word: I’ve been using Windows 7 day to day on all of my production PC hardware, giving up Windows XP and Vista almost entirely, since late 2008. And in this time, I’ve never run into any major issues, on any of the many, many PCs with which I’ve used Windows 7. This has been the most uneventful OS beta in Microsoft’s history, from what I can tell.

In fact, I’d go so far to say that Windows 7 has brought the NT mojo back to Microsoft’s desktop OS, and in a big way. (Side note: The Server team never lost its mojo.) And this is a big deal, as any NT old-timer could tell you.

NT was the OS that sort of looked like Windows, was sort of compatible with Windows hardware, and was mostly compatible with Windows software. But it wasn’t hobbled by the technical limitations of the DOS-based Windows versions that were so common a decade ago, and it wouldn’t go crashing down to the hardware every time an errant application decided to cough its way across an unprotected memory boundary. NT was solid–rock-solid–and it was the choice of administrators, developers, and power users of all stripes.

In retrospect, we should have known NT’s days were numbered. It was branded as Windows NT before it even shipped to the public for the first time. After Windows NT 4.0 shipped, Microsoft made the wrong decision and integrated the immature, buggy, and insecure Internet Explorer (IE) into the OS via an NT Option Pack, forever tarnishing NT’s previous bulletproof record. And after NT 5.0 hit the Beta 2 stage, Microsoft finally banished the NT name to the dustbin of history, announcing that it would brand the system as Windows 2000. NT was dead. (And I skipped out on the Windows 2000 launch, largely for that reason.)

Subsequent NT-based Windows versions suffered from various infamous issues. There was the Windows 2000 SP2 debacle. Then XP shipped as arguably the buggiest and most insecure Windows version of all time, a fact few remember today, but mostly because XP’s successor, Vista, is so bad. Here’s an OS that can’t even run well on netbooks, the most successful PC devices being sold today. Unbelievable.

And then there’s Windows 7. Sure, it looks like a prettier version of Vista. But it’s small and fast, usable and secure. It’s perhaps the first ever version of Windows that I can recommend wholeheartedly and without reservation to virtually anyone. It’s the first version of Windows since, well, NT, that I’m proud to use and point out to others, sure that there isn’t anything better out there. This is quite a turnaround.

In fact, it’s so much of a turnaround that the NT comparison is almost unfair. To Windows 7, that is. Because unlike NT, Windows 7 is also broadly compatible with all of the hardware and software currently in the market. In the future, I suspect, we’ll always look back on Windows 7 as the high-water mark of quality in the Windows product timeline. It’s never come together this well before.

I realize there’s no such thing as perfect software. But I’m looking forward to October in ways that I could never have imagined with previous NT-based versions of Windows. I just wish they could figure out a way to bring the NT name back. Now that would be perfect.

Source: http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/102255/windows-7.html

Today our entire online presence demands passwords prior to doing a given task from banking to paying bills to entering social networks and media. No logon or password, and you are stuck in no man’s land!

However, not any password will do. Today we need strong passwords that are not easy to decrypt and frankly often not easy to remember. I don’t know how many passwords and logons I use at any given time, but it’s a lot. However, there are some tricks of the trade which we will explore below.

Do not use the same password on multiple accounts. Obviously, if one of your accounts gets cracked, the hacker will have easy access to the others. A good password is an investment in protection your computer and vital information! So do not skimp on your investment.
Why Strong Passwords Are Needed
The answer is really a no brainer. The bad guys are extremely sophisticated at what they do. A strong password should appear to be a random string of characters to an attacker. It should be 14 characters or longer, (eight characters or longer at a minimum). It should include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

Hackers have many approaches to steal your passwords and thus your data. They use the so-called “dictionary” attack trying one word after another with the expectation that users at many sites will pick a word in the dictionary for their password. Obviously for good reason this is not a good idea.

Hackers also use “brute force” attack by automatically trying every combination of letters, numbers, and symbols that can be used as a password. The shorter your password, the fewer the combinations they need to check.
What Makes a Good Password?
Microsoft has an excellent guide to creating passwords on their site.
http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.com/UDXMLL/090608-Strong-Passwords

Bottom-line, passwords should be at least 8 characters in length keeping in mind that the shorter your password, the easier it is to crack. Passwords should contain a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters (:~!@#$%^&*()_+{}[]|). Do not use a word that can be found in a dictionary whether foreign or specialty terms. Very importantly, the password should be different from your logon or any permutation of it. Also, don’t pick names or nicknames of people, pets, places, or personal information that can be easily found out, such as your address, birthday, or hobbies. And stay away from common keyboard sequences, such as gwerty1 or abc123. If you are thinking about making a password by just adding a digit to your favorite word, don’t do it, and Do Not Give Your Password To Anyone!
Why You Need to Change Your Password periodically?
It is a good idea to change your passwords on a regular basis. This way if hackers have been trying to crack your code they will be stymied as you have broken their pattern. It is just good common sense to protect your assets to the best of your ability and not get lazy about it. The strength of your password will help keep it good for a longer time. A password that is shorter than 8 characters should be considered only good for a week or so, while a password that is 14 characters or longer (and follows the other rules outlined above) can be good for several years.
Password Checker
Your online accounts, computer files, and personal information are more secure when you use strong passwords to help protect them. Test the strength of your passwords: Enter a password in the text box to have Password Checker help determine its strength as you type.
http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.com/UDXMLL/090608-Password-Checker

Can I Automate My Passwords Please? They Drive Me Nuts!
I’m happy to say that we have an affirmative answer. We think RoboForm is the best product in the market for this. You can manage dozens of user names and passwords with RoboForm in a secure way. It can even propose secure passwords to you, and encrypt them so no one can see what they are.

Better yet, you can also put your credit card info into RoboForm and automatically insert the number in a shopping cart in a secure way. We really like RoboForm and it works both in Internet Explorer and in FireFox. This one is a warm recommendation (and only $29.95)
http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.com/UDXMLL/090608-RoboForm

Source: Sunbelt Software / Cookbook – Solutions for the Novice (Vol. 2, #16 – June 8, 2009 – Issue #16)…

Don’t let this whole “virtualization” business put you off; aside from having a name that sounds like a pharmaceutical, Returnil is a very simple software to use that works really well. You can think of it as a system-wide “undo” function; once you turn it on, you can do whatever you want with your system; all changes to your primary partition will be temporary and will disappear when you restart the computer.

Here’s how to use this software:

Install Returnil: a very simple process. The only decision that is out of the ordinary is the option to create a virtual partition (the program will not need this partition, but you might; see point #4 below). During installation you can also set a master password to restrict access to the program.
Turn Returnil’s protection on, when you need to; no actual changes will occur on your primary partition once this happens; from this point onward everything occurs on a “virtual” copy of your system.
Do what you need to do: e.g. surf those dodgy internet sites, or install that piece of software that you want to test, or open the files you need to open, etc.
Save your data: you will have to save any files you are working with someplace other than the primary partition (e.g. a secondary partition, a thumbdrive, or upload your files on the internet, etc.) Or let Returnil create a virtual partition for you; its purpose is precisely to provide a place for you to save your data when protection mode is turned on, and you can set any size you want for it that you have space for on your hard drive. Any files/data saved on the primary partition will eventually be lost.
Restart the system: this is the only way ro turn Returnil’s protection off. Once this happens, any changes that happened when system protection was on will be gone; your system will look exactly the way it looked before you started.
Returnil works by cloning your system settings in memory and implementing any changes virtually into that cloned entity. By working within memory it purports to offer better speed and reliability than other virtualization solution. If you are wondering, as I did, how Returnil can handle, say, an 80 gig primary partition within 128 or 512 megs of RAM, the answer to that question as stated in the FAQ section of their website is something to the effect that since the actual 80 gigs will remain unchanged, there is in fact no reason whatsoever to hold this entire disk image in memory. My understanding of this is that, in fact, all the program needs from your actual system is a bunch of settings that it uses to replicate your it within a constructed virtual environment.

More notes on this program:

Making changes permanent: you cannot make changes made while in protection mode permanent even if you want to (unlike, say, Sandboxie). The only way to do this would be to re-do the changes normally with system protection off.
Testing software: while Returnil works extremely well for temporarily installing and testing programs within the virtual environment, programs that require a restart to install cannot be tested with Returnil as the restart switches off the virtual layer.
Deleting data: any deleted data or programs uninstalled while protection is on will actually be preserved and will re-appear when system protection is turned off and your machine is restarted.
The user interface: Returnil can be accessed through a system tray icon or a floating toolbar (see screenshot). You can use these to (a) turn system protection on, (b) mount/dismount the virtual drive, or (c) schedule system protection so it automatically turns on at specific times. You can also set a hotkey by which to activate system protection.
The verdict: as virtualization solutions go (see Altiris SVS and Sandboxie), Returnil is the simplest, most user friendly and intuitively comprehensible. As a user there are really only two things that you can do with this program; (a) turn system protection on, and (b) turn it off via a system restart. This not only makes Returnil extremely easy to use, but also contributes towards limiting any so-called ’leaking’ that sometimes occurs with virtualization programs where data meant for the virtual layer ’leaks’ into the actual system.

This one is my favorite amongst all the free virtualization solutions mentioned above that I have come across so far. I highly recommend it. [Thanks go to reader Brockman for tipping me off about this program].

Compatibility: Windows XP, 2003, VISTA 32 bit.

URL: http://www.freewaregenius.com/2007/10/10/returnil/ (bron) en http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/index_files/rvspersonal.htm.

Windows services are critical processes that support required server functionality, such as Active Directory, email, DNS, automatic updates, etc. Sometimes Windows services fail to start or accidentally stop, and server administrators constantly have to keep an eye on such situations to prevent costly system outages and user productivity losses. One example is Microsoft Exchange Server, which has several services, such as Information Store and SMTP; the failure of even one of these services results in suspended e-mail delivery or even lost messages until the services are started again.

NetWrix Services Monitor is a FREEWARE tool to monitor critical Windows services and optionally restart them after failure. The tool monitors all automatic startup services on multiple servers at a time and sends e-mail alerts when one or more services stops unexpectedly. The optional automatic restart feature ensures that all monitored services are up and running without downtime. The tool is lightweight and very easy to configure: install, enter computer names, and supply your e-mail address.

Features and benefits:

• One installation watches multiple computers at a time.
• Monitors all Windows services with startup type set to Automatic.
• Sends alerts by e-mail when services stop or fail to start at boot time.
• Optionally starts failed services.
• Optionally reboots computers when one or more services fail.

NetWrix Services Monitor is provided free of charge for use by organizations and individuals. We also provide free of charge technical support for the freeware version on the Support Forum.

URL: http://www.netwrix.com/windows_services_monitoring_freeware.html (bron)

The official date on which Windows 7 will be available for general purchase is October 22, 2009. The RTM code will be delivered to partners at the end of July.

In addition, Microsoft has confirmed its plans to make an upgrade option available for PC makers to offer customers who purchase a new PC with Windows Vista between the beginning of the “Tech Guarantee” period and the general-availability date.

I’ll update this post with additional details as they become available.

URL: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1021&tag=nl.e589 (bron) & http://tweakers.net/nieuws/60478/microsoft-windows-7-komt-uit-op-22-oktober.html

Corporate migration to Windows 7 may be less about evaluating the new Microsoft operating system and more about how to properly gauge the correct time to get XP off client desktops.

The equation corporate IT pros will have to figure out is how long it will take to get all their XP desktops to Windows 7 before XP support runs out or before application vendors quit producing XP versions of upgrades or new software, which some predict could come as early as 2012.

[ Microsoft this month told companies to kill Vista plans if switching to Windows 7 won't delay things too long. | Preparing for Windows 7? Get the overview you need in the Windows 7 PDF Report from InfoWorld's J. Peter Bruzzese. | And download our free Windows performance-monitoring tool. ]

Windows 7 is the shiny new operating system from Microsoft slated to arrive this fall to replace Windows Vista, which after 30 months has failed in the eyes of IT buyers.

Windows 7 offers a host of tantalizing corporate features such as AppLocker, DirectAccess, Branch Cache, and XP Mode, a virtualization technology that should buy time for users who migrate but must hold on to key legacy applications.

Gartner predicts that more than half of the corporate Windows user-base is skipping Vista and aiming at Windows 7. While that means XP users won’t have to tangle with Vista in name, it doesn’t mean they will avoid the application compatibility issues that gave Vista a black eye right out of the blocks in November 2006. Windows 7 is built on the Vista code base.

“If you are on XP, Windows 7 isn’t going to solve a lot of Vista’s migration problems,” says Brett Waldman, a research analyst for IDC. “Going from Vista to Windows 7 should be a much easier transition than XP to 7.”

Users who have deployed Vista have an easier path because Microsoft provides an upgrade option not available to XP users, and because they have already solved their application compatibility issues.

Microsoft says nearly all applications that run on Vista will run on Windows 7 and early testing by users is beginning to validate that claim.

In addition, hardware upgrades made for Vista are relevant for Windows 7 rollouts.

While those rollouts won’t be painless for Vista converts, it is those on the XP side who will have to tap into their planning and organizational skills.

The XP equation
The predominant migration questions among those coming off XP are “when” and “how.”

“What we are saying is that by the end of 2012 you should be off XP,” says Michael Silver, vice president and research director at Gartner. With most large corporations taking 12 to 18 months to test and pilot a new operating system, the migration clock is ticking.

“If I target the end of 2012 to get XP out then you have your migration window,” he says. “Organizations really need to be poised to do a lot of migrations on new machines and some existing ones in 2011 and 2012. That will be the mainstream of the migrations.”

Silver says Gartner’s recommendation is a conservative one that provides a 15-month buffer before XP support ends on April 8, 2014. Mainstream support for XP ended in April 2009, just a year after XP SP3 shipped.

Microsoft for its part told XP users this month that if they are just starting to test Vista that they should switch to Windows 7.

Silver recommends users in that boat switch only if it means less than a six-month delay in their current planning. “You don’t want to lose momentum. If you have already done lots of testing or might be set to deploy you should continue with Vista,” he says. “One of the big issues here is that Vista is a difficult decision politically at this point, but the folks that have migrated to Vista are generally happy.”

Hitching the migration horse to the Windows 7 wagon, however, doesn’t mean users won’t have to take along issues that polluted Vista acceptance.

Applications that were not compatible with Vista won’t work on Windows 7. The new XP Mode, available with professional, ultimate and enterprise editions, will give users a bit of a respite, but not a panacea.

With both Windows 7 (the host operating system) and XP (guest) running on a single machine, users will be forced to maintain and patch two operating systems per desktop.

Analysts such as IDC’s Waldman and Gartner’s Silver say it’s a short-term solution.

“To take full advantage of new enhancements in Windows 7, which is what users are paying for, the app needs to be built for Windows 7,” Waldman says. He says XP Mode is likely a one- to two-year Band-Aid.

Users are gearing up
“XP Mode might be the way we get around the fact that some of our institutional apps are behind the technology curve; it could be the answer,” says Jeff Allred, manager of network services at the Duke University Cancer Center. He said patch management tools will make it easier to manage two operating systems on a desktop and that XP Mode’s administrative considerations are not a showstopper

Allred is in the process of testing Windows 7, which he says is faster, more stable and seems leaner than Vista. “We are much happier with Windows 7 RC than Vista in its full shrink-wrap version,” he says.

He said a Vista migration would have meant upgrading 60 percent of his hardware, something he was not prepared to do. With Windows 7 and its smaller footprint, the majority of his hardware is already compatible.

The same is true for Wesley Stahler, senior system consultant at Ohio State University Medical Center, who is testing Windows 7 from an Asus Eee netbook.

He says the medical center is just now beginning migration discussions to move off XP.

“We have some clinical-based apps that work great on [Internet Explorer] 6, but on IE 8 [with Windows 7] not so much. Those are the thing we will have to look into,” he says.

He says XP Mode might help, but “as someone who has to maintain the environment I would prefer not to support two operating systems.”

Stahler says there are other features that are enticing or will help save money.

“Right now we are using two different products to do what BitLocker can do, so we could save money and administrative headache,” he says. BitLocker is a full-disk encryption feature introduced with Windows Vista and available in Windows 7.

Microsoft’s input
For its part, Microsoft is offering its range of migration tools to help with a move to Windows 7.

Microsoft also has added tools to its Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), specifically to ease the management and deployment of Windows images.

The Windows System Image Manager lets users do low-level customization of an operating system image. The tool works with System Center Configuration Manager, which adds an administrative UI that lets users replicate information across their network. Integration with System Center management tools supports rollouts that scale to enterprise deployments.

Windows 7 also features updates to Microsoft’s ImageX command-line tool, which lets users capture, modify and deploy Windows images. The tool is rolled into Configuration Manager and given a GUI interface.

Deployment Image Servicing and Management also is part of WAIK and is used to apply updates and drivers to Windows images.

Microsoft also is updating its User State Migration Toolkit with a new feature for hard-link migration, which keeps desktop data on the machine during the operating system upgrade, cutting deployment time from hours to minutes.

And the forthcoming Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 is an updated version of the Business Desktop Deployment Kit that shipped with Vista. It is now integrated with System Center Configuration Manager and builds off WAIK tools. Microsoft will release version 6.0 of its Application Compatibility Toolkit once Windows 7 ships.

“The capability to centralize and bring into one admin console the ability to customize and deploy an [operating system] with applications and updates is where the Windows division with System Center is a great story,” says Jeff Wettlaufer, senior technical product manger for System Center.

Now the only other story left to tell is if Windows 7 will deliver on its promises.

Follow John on Twitter: twitter.com/johnfontana

URL: http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/windows-7-alluring-wont-solve-xp-migration-problems-192?page=0,0

Microsoft heeft voor Windows 7 een oplossing voor dit probleem gevonden in de vorm  van XPM, ofwel XP Mode. Hiermee draait Windows XP onder Windows 7, in een virtuele omgeving. Virtualisatie is al lang geen onbekend verschijnsel meer. Al eerder was het mogelijk om een besturingssysteem binnen een host-OS te draaien.  XPM is dan ook een voortzetting van Microsoft Virtual PC. Andere bekende voorbeelden zijn VMWare en VirtualBox.

Technisch is er dus weinig nieuws onder de zon. In vergelijking met MS Virtual PC is wel nieuw dat programma’s die onder XPM draaien zelfstandig op de desktop van Windows 7 verschijnen. Het hoofdvenster en de taakbalk van Windows XP zijn dus niet zichtbaar. De onder XPM draaiende programma’s zullen uiteraard wel een XP-achtig uiterlijk hebben, waarbij te denken valt aan de bekende blauwe titelbalk uit XP’s Luna interface.
De in de virtuele omgeving geïnstalleerde programma’s verschijnen ook in het startmenu van Windows 7.

Een mogelijke toepassing voor XPM is Internet Explorer 6. Deze browser wordt nog veel gebruikt. Ontwikkelaars van websites kunnen op deze manier dus makkelijk testen of hun sites nog compatible zijn met IE6, zonder daarvoor een aparte XP-machine met de browser te hoeven gebruiken. De browser integreert ook naadloos in de Windows 7-desktop, en kan dus eventueel naast IE 8 draaien.

Programma’s  die ouder versies van Internet Explorer als onderliggende “engine” gebruiken kunnen  op deze manier ook probleemloos in een Windows 7-omgeving  worden geïnstalleerd.
Voor gebruik van XPM moet de processor virtualisatie ondersteunen (de meeste moderne processoren van AMD en Intel doen dat).

XPM wordt niet meegeleverd met Windows 7, maar is als gratis download beschikbaar voor gebruikers van Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise en Ultimate.
Je krijgt dan een volledig gelicenseerde versie van Windows XP SP3, die in een virtuele omgeving binnen Windows 7 gebruikt kan worden.

Microsoft Word onder Windows 7 (voorgrond), en gevirtualiseerd  onder Windows XP (achtergrond), gebroederlijk op één Windows 7 desktop.

Om uit te vinden of je processor virtualisatie ondersteunt kun je gebruik maken van het programma Securable.
In één oogopslag kun je daarmee zien of je straks gebruik kunt gaan maken van de XP Mode van Windows 7.
Securable is gratis, en hier te downloaden.

(Screenshot en bron: Paul Thurrott/Windows Supersite.)

URL: http://sevenbits.nl/nieuws/win7_xp_mode.html