A Better Windows World Tool Library - The Finale'
Well all good things must come to an end they say and so I have to say goodbye. Although I will not be posting regularly anymore I will drop by as a ‘guest blogger’ from time to time.
I thought it would be great to end with my final update to the tools library. So here is the last library update all 198 tools I have blogged about ( good and bad) in the last 20 months.
I just want to thank everyone who read my blog and allowed me to make your world…. A Better Windows World
Tool Names: A-Z Read more
iland Workforce CLoud pt.III: My walk in the 'CLOUD'
Yesterday I posted my interview with Dante and Justin from iland (read the interview) . I wanted to spend sometime today talking about the demo they setup for me to take a look at the iland Workforce Cloud. Read more
iland Workforce Cloud pt.II: The interview
Back in September I blogged about the iland Workforce Cloud. I thought that the Workforce Cloud was a truly great product for moving your company into the cloud easily and maintaining control over the process as well. Well since Sept. iland has made some improvements to the Workforce Cloud that has made a good product even better. I had a chance to interview Dante Orsini and Justin Giardina of iland about the Workforce Cloud. Read more
AxCrypt: Open Source tool for encrypting files
The ability to encrypt the entire hard drive for your CEO, CFO,etc. etc...is a great technology. Read more
But, while the ability to encrypt an entire disk has its advantages, there are times when you only need to encrypt certain files.
For instance bit-locker or other such tools would not be necessary for most users. As an IT Director I never had any real reason to encrypt my entire hard drive. But there definitely times I have needed to encrypt files.
Perspective Network Management
Script Logic's network montioring tool could not be named better. Nothing is more important to a network administrator than...perspective. And with the Perspective network monitoring tool you get exactly that, the ability to monitor, recieve alerts and even automatically remediate network issues with a single package.
Some great features of this new product are:
Cross-Platform Support Read more
Log-File Management
Monitoring Dashboards
Cloud Monitoring
Mobile Device Support
Traffic Analysis
Virtualization Support
VoIP Support and more
Hyena 8.0: A great Admin tool gets even better
I have made no seceret in the past of how much I like Hyena from System Tools. In terms of functionality, ease of use and price this is one of the best Remote Administration tools money can buy, flat out!
Well System Tools has managed to improve upon perfection with the latest release of Hyena v8.0! This latest version boast some great new features such as: Read more
Support for 64-bit Windows - Hyena now can take full advantage of the 64-bit processor and components.
FreeNAS: Open Source Network Attached Storage
Ever have a server laying around that is not quite old enough to trash but not quite new enough to use as a production machine. Are you dying to move from direct attached storage into something more flexible and robust? Why not turn that old server into Networked Attached Storage. Read more
Adesso WKB-4000BB: Bluetooth Keyboard
Back in Sept I wrote about the Adesso WKB-30000 wireless keyboard. I was impressed by the idea of a compact keyboard that had a lot of functionality.
A few weeks ago Adesso reached out to me and asked if I would like to get a closer look at their next offering. It is another small form factor keyboard, but this one uses Blue Tooth technology. I’m talking about the Adesso WKB-4000BB . Read more
RemShutdown: Shut down your systems remotely
One task I always dreaded when running on the backend systems, was making sure everyone shutdown and disconnected from the network. Now there are ways to disconnect users without taking down their systems.But if you are doing a server upgrade you might as well shutdown. Another issue is restarts...how many times do you tell a user you need to restart after this update. They yes you to death and never restart, then of course you have the system that crashes because another update has been done without restarting from the first update. Read more
Office 2010: Office Environment Assessment Tool
Thinking about moving to Microsoft's Office 2010? We'll there are many reason to do so, but perhaps you are feeling a bit concerened about meeting the hardware requirements....fear not!
Microsoft has released the Office Environment Assessment Tool which will check and report on the status of all the machines in your network to ensure your ready for Office 2010.
The tool includes an easy to follow administrative wizard which allows you to specify what information to collect and allows you to choose a UNC path or Shared folder for the report. Read more
everRun 2G: Keeps your applications highly available
High Availability has changed the way we now do business. But more than that it has changed the way users expect our business to run. This has made it more important than ever to keep our applications highly available.
In a recent paper I wrote titled “Making High Availability Pay for Itself” I wrote about how you can achieve these goals without emptying your pockets.
One of the products I looked at was from a company called Marathon Technologies. Marathon has been working in the areas of Disaster Recovery, Fault Tolerance and High Availability for a while now. Read more
Windows 7 Remote Admin Tools: Controls Windows Server 2008 from your Windows 7 desktop
With the implementation of Windows 7, Microsoft has released its latest Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 and for the first time, I can imagine turning to Microsoft for remote management instead of all my favorite third-party tools. Read more
Is 128-bit Windows a reality or just a great story?
News of a leak about Microsoft’s Windows 8 sure has stirred something over the Internet. Some say Windows 8 won't happen until Windows 7 is perfected and others say that Microsoft has already begun recruiting employees to help build Windows 8. Read more
CodySafe Admin Pack & Launcher: The Swiss Army Knife of portable admin apps
I have written the past about portable applications that Admins can carry with them.
I came across a new 'suite' of portable applications that are being touted as the Admins Swiss Army Knife, and for good reason.
The CodySafe Admin pack hosts 75 portable administrative tools into a single suite that installs onto a portable device and takes up less than 63MB of space. Within this tiny package are tools for handling all of the most common Admin tasks such as:
• Data Recovery Read more
• Password Recovery
• Disk tools
• File & FTP managers
• Network Tools
• Security
DGard Network Manager: Complete network management in an easy to use tool
One of the things that have become a reality of our current economy is that IT needs to more with less. In some cases that means taking on more tasks within the network as well. IT departments that once were once extremely segmented are now finding that they have been contracted to minuscule sizes in some cases. Of course, some IT shops have always had that chief, cook and bottle washer scenario. In either case the only way to effectively manage a network (whether an SMB or Enterprise) is to have effective tools that help you to get the job done. Read more
SQL Server 2008 R2: November CTP Feature Pack
To ensure that SQL Server continues to live up to the promised hype. Micorsoft has released the Novemebr CTP feature pack. The feature pack is a collection of packages that will help to expand and improve SQL Server 2008 R2. Some useful packages that I saw in the CTP are: Read more
Windows 7: Installed on my Dell X1...Finally
Way back in August I blogged about installing Windows 7 on my Dell X1. Well the long overdue task is now complete. I have to say that the inital results are pretty impresive. Read more
Windows Server 2008 R2: Security Changes and Additions Part III
For our last installment in the Windows Server 2008 R2 security changes and updates, we have a slew of new features in the Identity and Authentication areas. Most of these changes are geared toward enhancing client that is running Windows 7; in fact many of these enhancements will only be seen if you have Windows 7 as a client.
Some of the new features and changes include:
Online Identity Integration Read more
Windows Server 2008 R2: Security Changes and Additions Part II
Another great set of changes and additions to Windows Server 2008 R2 security comes in the Authorization and Access Control areas. Some of the biggest (and most welcome) changes are to User Account Control (UAC)
User Account Control (UAC) Read more
In Windows Server 2008 R2, UAC has reduced the number of prompts for standard users. Some common Admin tasks that do not require UAC prompts are:
• Install updates from Windows Update
• Install drivers (via Windows Update or the operating systems)
• View (but not change) Windows settings
• Pair Bluetooth devices to the computer
Windows Server 2008 R2: Security Changes and Additions Part I
With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 there have been some major overhauls such as: Read more
Remote Desktop Services and File Classification Infrastructure to mention a few, some of the lesser known but yet no less important changes have come from additions or changes to security.
- About A Better Windows World
Ron Barrett is an independent technology author, speaker and consultant. Ron has been a technology professional for over 13 years, working for several major financial services firms and dotcoms. Ron is a specialist in network infrastructure, security, and IT management. He is the author of Office Communications Server 2007 R2: How-To , as well as co-author of Windows Server 2008: How-To and The Administrator’s Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers. Ron has been a co-author or technical editor for several other books on Windows administration. Along with book writing, Ron has contributed to several industry magazines such as Redmond, Datamation and Windows IT Pro. Beyond writing, Ron has spoken at several technology conferences for CPAmerica, AICPA and MCP’s TECHMENTOR.
Ron's latest book, Windows Server 2008 How-To has been selected as the September 2009 book giveaway on Microsoft Subnet. To enter the monthly book giveaway, visit the Microsoft Subnet home page.
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