Anyone who has had to work with repackaging applications to simplify deployment can appreciate that it can be an arduous task. Perhaps it is something as Admins we would love to avoid.

Yet at times it is necessary to repackage applications for installation, specifically when we talk about updating disk images, customizing installations and working with legacy applications that do not use the MSI installer.

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One of the unpleasant truths of being a network administrator is that when the time comes for a password to be reset, the little pop up reminder in Windows is not enough.

Most users ignore the warnings until…well until you drag yourself in one morning ( and without fail it will happen on a morning you have to drag yourself in) and find that 30- 40% of the firm is locked out of the network.

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One of the things I have always dreaded about server monitoring was all the labor of setting up the monitors. It was always a very laborious task and many times, it called for several tweaks before I got what I actually wanted from the package.

Now granted I worked with a particularly tight financial budget for IT, which is why many times I lean towards good tools that are not outrageously priced. My thoughts being that my situation was not the exception but rather the rule. I’ve said before gone are the days of the dot-com shiatsu massages, free snacks and sodas, weekly company paid lunches and a full bar and workout facility (I’m not kidding about that last one).

Server monitoring is certainly an important enough function to any company that the need exists for good tools that are intuitive and easy to use. PA Server Monitor is such a tool.

PA Server Monitor comes in three editions: free, lite and pro. We will speak about the Pro edition as it gives the best number of features for an administrator. To begin with, PA Server Monitor has a smart configuration feature, which automatically sets up monitoring of all servers. Bulk configuration allows you to make changes to the monitor features of your entire enterprise at once.

You can monitor many features of your environment including:
 Disk space
 Web pages
 Event logs
 Services
 Processes
 Mail
 File & Directory
 Citrix
 Environment
 Temperature
 TCP Ports
 etc.

As well as monitoring you can set actions, produce reports, e-mail alerts, schedule monitoring, view HTML output along with viewing a geographical status map and a server map which includes a status overview or your entire server infrastructure. This view uses the common green, yellow, red indicators to let you quickly know something is amiss.
PA Server Monitor Pro, also provides the ability to report when an issue is resolved and set escalation actions for unresolved issues.

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Many IT administrators in the Windows world are familiar with WSUS, Microsoft’s server based software update system. While this is a great tool for addressing Windows and Office software, it does not mange updates for the rest of the applications in your enterprise. There are many solutions to help with this problem of software updates. One solution I have found to be both relatively easy to use and inexpensive is called Secunia NSI (Network Software Inspector).

As the name suggests Secunia NSI is a software inspector that checks your network for systems for vulnerabilities such as applications that are unpatched, reached their end of life, or software versions that have known vulnerabilities running in your organization. The software runs a scan of all hosts and checks for applications (including Windows and Office) and reports back on the release date of the application, its last update. It also provides information on its rating, impact, a description and solutions. Along with providing updates, Secunia NSI has the ability to export results to XML and CSV formats, allowing you to create reports for management. Secunia NSI has a free personal computer version called Secunia PSI, as well as the OSI (Online Software Inspector). Secunia has a 30-day free trial , but for less than $30 per host, Secunia is a nice solution to make sure that all your software in your organization is up to par.

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It is very rare that you find a tool for your network that is as bold in explaining its function as this tool. So what is a PCDecrapifier?

Simply put this software examines your PC and removes all the pre-loaded “crapplications” that are added to your PC’s when you first purchase them.

Crapplications (I love this term almost as much as the product name), as pre-loaded pieces of software that are not necessary for your PC to run in fact in many cases they are some auxiliary programs that come along with the real software that we want.

Such as those applications that load icons into your task tray for quick access, or the ones that load update managers at startup even though they only produce updates for their product every three or four months.

Another one I love is the ones who add music management program to the download when all you wanted was the media player they provide. And let’s not forget the toolbar guys who add those browser toolbars to software you download or even purchase and hope that you just click next…next…next and install their crapplication onto your systems.

I won’t name names you know who you are, and so do we!

Now everyone’s version of what would be considered a crapplication is different. So what PCDecrapifier does is first ask you to create a restore point (just in case), next it examines the system. Shows you what is found and then allows you to choose what to remove.

The personal version is free and the commercial version is only $20 per technician. You can find the personal version here.

The site also provides instructions for downloading the commercial version. The commercial version adds the ability to automate itself and provides additional command line parameters for administrators.

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The Internet abounds with Web sites that offer volumes of information for Windows administrators. We all know of the popular ones like TechNet, IT World and trade publications like Network World. But the sites I'm about to reveal in this list of nine are smaller gems that tend to fly under the radar. I like to call them the "supporting players” in that they may not be the superstars on the team but you could never win a game without them. Each of these IT Web sites have saved my backside more times than I can count and I'm confident they will do the same for you. To see this whole list quickly, check out the slideshow.

EventID.net

This Web site is single handedly responsible for getting me out of the office on time and home to my family more days that I can count. EventID.net is a great resource for finding the answers to event ID‘s in the Event Viewer. The site has a database of over 9,000 events and contains links to knowledgebase articles and comments on fixes. The site is so valuable because these fixes are submitted by IT admins like you, me and people in the trenches who have tried and succeeded using the methods described.

The site allows you to search by event ID and source, so you can hone in on the issue even if you can't remember the source (or you don't feel like typing it all out). The site lists all the events and sources in alphabetical order.

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I know I have talked a bit about helpdesk products for the Windows Administrator. HelpdeskVNC (another product I heard about in small talk at TechMentor NYC) is a nice tool whether you have a full helpdesk staff or you have an environment where you are shorthanded and need to wear many hats.

This remote control desktop tool, easily installs and has a ton of great features (which I will talk about shortly), one of the things I liked most about it is the ability to use a repeater to pass through firewalls and connect to clients even when you are on the road.

I know there are other products that allow you to do the same thing, I have used most of them, what I like about this one is it has all the features they offer and more and it doesn’t kill your budget.

Some of the great features the newest version includes (they are currently up to Version 3) are:
- Reboot & reconnect to clients in Normal mode or Safe Mode
- Track session times to know how much time you have spent on fixing the remote system
- 128 bit RC4 encryption & compression for non-encrypted data to ensure security.
- Unlimited number of supportable hosts (licenses are based on support person)
- Server/Client file transfers
- Remote screen blanking/mouse blocking
- Ctrl-Alt-Del functionality (even works with Vista UAC enabled)
- HTTP links to download and launch files from a Web server
-
The Toolbar supports launching of regedit, msconfig, and even supports launching of your antivirus software and spyware software on the remote client with a single click. HelpdeskVNC also supports every version of Windows from Windows 9.x up to Vista. Although I do not know why you would have a Windows 98 machine in your environment.

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At TechMentor, last week one of the sessions I presented was calledUnified Messaging in Exchange 2007: You Need this Technology.

For those of you who are planning to move or have already moved to Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging (UM) is a great feature in Exchange 2007. UM is not a new technology it has been around for years. The idea of rolling it up into a server role in Exchange rather than using third-party applications that “plug-in” to Exchange makes good sense.

For those who are not familiar with Unified Messaging, the principal idea is to have a single in-box for e-mail, voice mail and faxes. However, there is a bit more to it, UM offers a feature called Outlook Voice Access (OVA). OVA allows users to retrieve reply or forward an e-mail, manage voice mail and faxes, check schedule or even cancel calendar appointments over any phone.

Nevertheless, UM is only half the picture, I like to think of it as “I’ll get to it - in time”, whereas Unified Communications (UC) is the other half. What I like to call “working in real-time”.

Unified Communications uses Exchange Server 2007 in conjunction with Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007). Together we expand the possibilities and add to the integration of analog (voice and fax) and digital (e-mail).

Using the Communicator 2007 client, UC users can add IM, voice & video conferencing and even collaborate with Live Meeting. Many of these features are simply a point-and-click function.

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In IT we can use all sorts of tools to automate and ease administration of the enterprise. The one thing we can never seem to control or automate is our user base.

Herein lies the base problem with our positions, if you are only as strong as your weakest link. Then all our networks are pretty weak. User education has long been a recommendation to help strengthen that chain.

But at a time when market conditions are bad and your boss is watching both the employee retirement plan and his own personal portfolio lose crazy amounts of money, asking for a training budget will probably not fly.

Likewise, the time it takes to put together a training program using PowerPoint slides, handouts and even labs is not conducive to a little luxury in IT that we like to call…SLEEP!

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The first tool I heard about this week at the TechMentor conference came about in a conversation with some fellow techies. The tool is called Net Orbit from Retina X Studios , in fact I wanted to talk about this tool purposely for that reason.

I think there is no better way to find good tools for your network than to just talk to others in the field. It is those in the trenches who have the best insight in these things. Point proven with Net Orbit this tool allows you to install a client on all the systems in your network and watch up to 100 systems simultaneously.

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I wanted to fill everyone in on how TechMentor NYC went. I was supposed to co-present the Unified Messaging talk with J. Peter Bruzzese. Peter took sick on the way up to NYC and ended up in the hospital.

Peter is okay! Thankfully and he gets out today. In the midst of all this happening Peter asks me to go and do all his sessions. They were four sessions on Exchange Server 2007.

• Architecture
• Migrating from Exchange 2003
• Managing Exchange 2007 with Exchange Management Shell (Powershell)
• Unified Messaging in Exchange 2007

Needless to say I spent plenty of time with Exchange Server 2007 since it has been in beta. Nevertheless, I had just 1 day to prepare and I never saw the slides.

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I returned from TechMentor NYC to find an email from the Managing Editor of Datamation informing me that they put together a list of the Top 200 Tech Blogs. You can guess what I am going to write next... That's right Ron Barrett’s A Better Windows World made the list of the Top 200 Tech blogs. I was happy to be on the list, I was even more excited when I found out how high we placed on their list! I'm not telling -- your'e going to have to click the link to find out. One thing is for sure, no matter what list it is I could not have gotten even an honorable mention without everyone who has been reading and supporting my blog.

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Keith Shaw my colleague at Network World posted an interesting piece today. The new ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been released, see here.

It seems the first of the $300 million ($10 million going to Seinfeld) ad campaign dubbed "Windows, not walls" ads has hit...well a WALL.

In what I can only call the most confusing ad campaign ever, it features Jerry, Bill, a discount shoe store, cake, some subtext...and I don't know what else.

I went absolutely crazy when I saw the Mojave Experiment Now I have to say that was a work of genius compared to this advertisement.

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Sorry I forgot to post about this earlier. I guess you can see how busy I have been the last few months. I actually forgot to mention to all of you that I would be speaking at TECHMENTOR NYC. The session is titled "Unified Messaging in Exchange 2007: You Need this Technology" and I will be co-presenting this session with my Co-Author and good friend J. Peter Bruzzese.

The session will take place on Wed Sept. 10 at 3:45pm Here's a quick synopsis of what it will cover:

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They are at it again, this time the guys at Concentrated Technology are giving away a free Sanyo PLV-70 1080i 2200 lumens home theater projector, complete with a celing mount.

Check out the full set of features for the Sanyo PLV-70.

It is not often you can get something free that will help to make your world "A Better Windows World". This projector was valued at over $5000.00 when it first hot the market.

So drop in and give a comment and be entered for a chance to win http://concentratedtech.com/content/?p=211

Recent Posts

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It seems the newest Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 has made quite a stir this week. Many are dubbing it "InPrivate" filter as "Porn Mode".

This is a bit of a weird thing for me considering what has taken place over the past few years.

Users have been crying out for more secure web browsing and with the eventuality of SaaS products this has become even more pertinent.

Yet , Microsoft adds a feature that will allow you to Create a browsing session where cookies, history, passwords, form data and objects will disappear once the browser is closed and this is suddenly "bad".

Mozilla toyed with adding the feature in Firefox 3 and Safari has had it for some time. So apparantly this is a need for Internet users.

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Sometimes the best tools to help create “A Better Windows World” are the ones that help keep the underlying infrastructure running well.

In this podcast I provide tips for bandwidth-management service providers to help organizations successfully deploy these solutions.

After all, users with a quad-core CPU and 4GB of DDR3 memory in their computer will see no difference in data movement to and from their system if the bandwidth is being eaten up by most of the users in the organization listening to my podcasts.

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The first tool I wrote about for A Better Windows World was System Tools Hyena. Of all the tools I have come across thus far in my 11+ years in technology, this is one of my all-time favorites.
As I explained when I first wrote about Hyena, this tool has everything you need to manage Windows servers and desktops.

It even has native support for Exchange Server and Terminal Server account settings. The remote-control functions allow you to use clients like VNC for remote administration of servers and workstations.

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As promised, here is an update to the tools library I posted in July. Enjoy the full list of everything we have featured on A Better Windows World.

Tool Names: A-Z
Altiris Software Virtualization Solution
Amazon Kindle
Angry IP Scanner
Civil Netizen
ClamWin Portable

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In today’s market there are not many really good tools that do not cost you an arm and a leg to implement or that take forever to configure and learn to use since they are free.

ShieldsUp! Is a tool you may or may not be aware of that takes no time to learn and configure and is absolutely free. Provided by Gibson Research Corporation , ShieldsUp! Offers several different tests: File Sharing, Common Ports, All Service Ports ( the first 1056 ports anyway), Messenger Spam, Browser Headings, Custom port probes or Specific Port information.

ShieldsUp! Does not only do a stellar job at testing these security holes, they provide you with information on how to fix them.

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In a day and age when we speak a lot about Server virtualization and consolidation, we need to take a step back and think about the client side of virtualization. One of the challenges all us IT Admins face from time to time is keeping the many applications that exist on a single machine running without any “one” application breaking.

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Today's IT department is faced with the constant question of which platform wins the battle for the corporate network's heart and mind. I won't get into the debate of which platform will reign supreme in the next 5 - 10 years. Quite frankly I do not even want to think that far down the line. (But, can you guess my vote, given the name of this blog, A Better Windows World?) But no matter what your personal preference, the reality is that most corporate networks are a heterogeneous mix of two or more operating systems, with servers and with desktops. So the question really becomes, "What tools can we use to bridge the gap between Windows and the rest of your network?"

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News of Microsoft’s plans for a new OS codenamed ‘Midori’ could signal the end of an era.

No, I am not talking about the end of the Windows operating system, but something much more self-centered, the end of “A Better Windows World”.
Of course Windows 7 is not due out until 2010 so it will be a few years before we need to be concerned. I know all my faithful readers along with me breathe a sigh of relief over the news.

Word around the IT circles is that the next generation of OS may not in fact bare the famed Microsoft Windows name. Microsoft has leaked that the next-gen OS, which is in the very early stages, is being built to address common problems that Windows is not able to address.

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You may have heard by now about Microsoft's Mojave experiment. In a marketing campaign designed to show users that you cannot always believe the negative press you read. Microsoft invited 120 XP users to experience their newest Operating System codenamed Mojave .

After showing off some of the great new features and getting some favorable reactions. They then told them they were actually previewing Windows Vista. Of course, many of the former skeptics were surprised by the fact that the OS they just enjoyed so much was Windows Vista.
There you go point proven; you can't judge a book by its cover.

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When we talk about tools to make technology better we often overlook what is right under our noses. I have been working with Windows Vista since the early Beta stages. I have written articles about the user battle that seems to be raging between Windows XP and Vista .
I have even had the privilege of being named a Windows Vista Master in Que Publishing’s Tricks of the Windows Vista Masters by J. Peter Bruzzese.

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We have spent a number of weeks looking at tools to make “A Better Windows World” (do not get mad at me, I told that was not going away). Well looking at the tools posting I believe we have reached a good number of tools thus far.
I thought now would be a good time to go back and take the opportunity to post some tips. So I will make it a part of the weekly posts to add one or two posts per week that focus on either a some tips or tricks on some of the tools we feature here.
The tips and tricks will vary from features you may or may not know. To tips and tricks that you will find you cannot live without.

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"If it sounds good, you'll hear it; If it looks good, you'll see it; If it's marketed right, you'll buy it; but if it's real, you'll feel it." - Kid Rock

I've gotta go with Kid on this one... I hope you'll feel it as I expound on the subject of Office Communication Server 2007.

I was recently interviewed by CS Techcast for their weekly podcast special. The guys talked with yours truly about OCS 2007, since we talk about tools to make "A Better Windows World" the podcast seemed like a good launch to this week's blog.

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When we are talking about tools for "A Better Windows World", there is no way I could avoid talking about Hyper-V. What Hyper-V means to the Windows enterprise I will touch upon in the later weeks. I wanted to however share first what I thought was an interesting and quite frankly expected response. Sun's Senior Director of xVM Vijay Sarathy commented on the release of Hyper-V and how Sun’s xVM is offering support for all major operating systems (including Windows). Vijay also had some tough questions for Microsoft about its Hyper-V release.

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"Slow and steady wins the race," said the turtle. Locking down a shared access computer ensures you sleep at night. I must admit when I first saw the Windows Steady State tool. I thought it was a bit parochial. Microsoft, after all, is touting this tool as an answer to shared systems used in libraries, schools, Internet cafes and such. But that is why we have the Group Policy Management Console. Then I thought about the little Internet café by my house and the township library. Both have about a half dozen computers, which are used constantly. Yet neither is part of a client/server network infrastructure. One is a collection of separate systems getting DHCP addresses from a wireless router. The other is more a workgroup lacking a server to handle the Policy based management.

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I cover a broad range of tools on A Better Windows World. So it makes sense to publish an index by tool name and category to make it easier for you to find the ones you need. Here is a list of the tools featured on my blog so far. Please bookmark this page. I will update it regularly. Enjoy

Tools by Name: A-Z
Amazon Kindle
Angry IP Scanner
ClamWin Portable
ClipTraining

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