System Tools Hyena: tips and tricks

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.

Moreover, Hyena is an inexpensive administrative alternative to some more costly packages. Best of all, Hyena does what most of those expensive solutions do, and in my opinion, better. But enough gushing over Hyena, this is a tips and tricks piece. Therefore, if you have been on the fence -- perhaps not quite as convinced as I am about Hyena -- here is some food for thought.

In my last position, one of my least favorite things to deal with was local administrator accounts. Now, we rotated one-third of our machines at a time each year. As we did this, we changed the password we used for the local admin account. This password was important to include because much of our software needed local admin permissions to install and run accounting applications we installed.

So, at any one time we had three and sometimes four different local admin passwords to try in order to install updates to these programs. Here is where our tip comes in: With Hyena, you can change the local admin password on multiple machines at one time.
To do so, do the following:
1. Open Hyena and choose the group of computers from the list view in the right pane.
2. Next, select More Functions.
3. Select Set Account Password, and make the change.

Along with changing the local admin password, you can add a global group or user to a specific local group.
To add a global group or a user to a local group. follow these steps:
1. Open Hyena and choose the group of computers from the list view in the right pane.
2. Next, select More Functions.
3. Select Add Member to Local Group.

These tips can be a great help for alleviating cumbersome tasks that seem to take time away from what is really important -- having more time for Warhammer Online. Look for more tips and tricks to make your world A Better Windows World.

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Like this and want more? Check out the other tools I've written about in A Better Windows World.
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