System Information and Comparison review

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The System Information and Comparison was reviewed by Cnet on Download.com. We received a respectable 4/5 which reinforces our belief that this application is a must-have for all IT departments wanting to get accurate data and detailed information on system hardware and software.

 

“Simple, comprehensive, and easy-to-read, this system-information utility quickly gathers hardware and software specifics. System Information and Comparison’s tried-and-true file tree-style interface makes it easy to scan through extensive information about your system. A simple, single-page Help screen more than adequately describes the program functions.

Experienced to expert users needing accurate snapshots of system hardware and software information should give this utility a test drive.”

 

The complete review can be found on Download.com. More details and info can be found on the product page.

New release- Active Directory Change Notifier 2.0

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The new version improves the user interface and introduces domain-level monitoring features. Version 2.0 simplifies the installation process and improves the UI. Other improvements include better monitoring capabilities and more granular reporting. These enhancements are invaluable to administrators wanting to implement a more proactive Directory Services management approach.

More details can be found here.

Server 2008 and the RODC (Read-Only Domain Controller)

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Speaking to several people about the Server 2008 migrations, there were a lot of questions and reactions to the new Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) option. Some confusion too, as some thought this is similar to Windows NT 4.0’s Backup Domain Controller (BDC) type technology.

 

The difference between a RODC and a BDC is apparent when there are more than two DCs per domain. In Windows NT 4.0 you could only have 1 read-write Primary Domain Controller (PDC), and the other DCs had to be read-only BDCs. Windows Server 2008 allows you to choose which DCs are read-writable and which are read-only with a great degree of freedom. By example, if you have 30 DCs in your domain, you can have 26 regular DCs and 4 RODCs.

 

One reason for having an RODC is if you have a DC that is not physically secure. In that case, not only could data be obtained from the DC, but malicious data could be injected into the vulnerable DC. With a normal read-writable DC, such damage would replicate throughout the domain and maybe even through the entire forest. By having an RODC the damage could be localized.

Exchange- Web Access, and blocking your attachements

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If you use Exchange Server 2003, you can block attachements for the Web Access. Attachments extensions can be configured through the registry on your Exchange Server. OWA is originally installed with the default set of extensions, shown below.
–Level 1: attachments with file extensions prohibited from being accessed by OWA:
Location: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWeb\OWA
Value: Level1FileTypes
Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: ade, adp, app, asx, bas, bat, chm, cmd, com, cpl, crt, csh, exe, fxp, hlp, hta, inf, ins, isp, js, jse, ksh, lnk, mda, mdb, mde, mdt, mdw, mdz, msc, msi, msp, mst, ops, pcd, pif, prf, prg, reg, scf, scr, sct, shb, shs, url, vb, vbe, vbs, wsc, wsf, wsh
–Level 2: attachments with extensions accessed only if saved to the client’s file system first:
Location: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWeb\OWA
Value: Level2FileTypes
Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: ade, adp, asx, bas, bat, chm, cmd, com, cpl, crt, exe, hlp, hta, htm, html, htc, inf, ins, isp, js, jse, lnk, mda, mdb, mde, mdz, mht, mhtml, msc, msi, msp, mst, pcd, pif, prf, reg, scf, scr, sct, shb, shs, shtm, shtml, stm, url, vb, vbe, vbs, wsc, wsf, wsh, xml, dir, dcr, plg, spl, swf
If you’re interested in more Exchange management solutions, we can help. The Active Directory Manager provids an easy to use interface and customizable, comprehensive Exchange reports.

Blog Upgrades

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I wanted to post a quick note as some of you might have noticed some links changing and the blog being down on-and-off for the past few days. We’ve upgraded the blog (behind the scenes, version updates, etc) to allow better flexibility and more feature. Throughout the upgrade we’ve noticed several widgets not working so we had to recreate them. Also, our original articles had been erased, so we had to repost them- that’s why most of them have an October date right now.
We apologize to all who experienced the downtime (or dead links)- everything should be working fine right now.

Server 2008 Backup

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Recently, someone asked about that Windows Server 2008 Backup feature and I wanted to include a quick note about it on the blog as well.
The Windows Server 2008 Backup feature can be installed separately, and has a couple of subsets- Windows Server Backup and Command-line Tools. Through the helpful interface you can run your scheduled backups, but there are some changes worth noting:
-only direct attached storage (disks) with NTFS formatted volumes can be backed up
-you can only select to do a backup for an entire disk volume (even if you choose the Custom backup type). Yeah, it’s an all-or-nothing type of deal
-you can’t pick individual files, folders or Windows system state for backup
-you need to have a different location for your target backup
-you can no longer perform a backup to tape
Windows Server 2008 Backup has many new features and Microsoft does a good job of outlining them in the on-line help- check it out for more on this topic.