Download Pick of the Week: WiseSoft Password Control

Hi All,
While thumbing through the lastest ission of Redmond Magazine I came across a suggestion for an Admin Password changing utility that can be give to Help Desk People. It is called WiseSoft Password Control. I installed the software on my Citrix PS 4 servers and published it as an app and it works a champ. Just for safety's sake I set windows file permissions on the executable so that no one else could "accidently" execute it. A nice feature of this utility is that it will let you disable and enable accounts also.
This is a FREE utility albeit you will be required to sign up for the website with a username and password and give up an email address to get it. To me it was definitely worth it.

Get it at:

http://www.wisesoft.co.uk/Products/PasswordControl/default.aspx

This site also has a few other useful utilities. One called NTFSFix that lets you do a global "fix" of permissions on user directories and one called scriptbuilder which helps you build and automate vbscripts.

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KB: Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 client update is available for download in the Microsoft Download Center

FYI:
Microsoft announced last week the Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 client update is available for download in the Microsoft Download Center.
This article discusses the Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 client update that helps you use the new Terminal Services features. These features are introduced in Windows Vista and in the Microsoft Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" operating system from a computer that is either running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2).

See

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925876/en-us

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Is your company ready for the new document retention rules?

Is your company ready for the new document retention rules? 

 

The government recently enacted and law went in effect today requiring corporations to retain emails, blackberry messages and cell phone databases.

Would you be able to provide this info today.  This ruling is a golden ticket in Citrix's sales peoples pocket! Having all the word/email docs at the datacenter makes it a little easier to comply to this ruling.

Here is a couple links and an article on it:

http://law.richmond.edu/jolt/v12i4/article13.pdfhttp://law.richmond.edu/jolt/v12i4/article13.pdf
 

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=274762http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=274762
 

Here is an article from todays Cleveland Plain Dealer
New e-records rules go into effect today
Companies must be able to hand over electronic data
Friday, December 01, 2006
Janet H. ChoPlain Dealer Reporter

If you got slammed with a court request for all of your company's electronic records, including e-mails, BlackBerry messages and cell phone databases, would you be able to dig them up and hand them over?

Starting today, you don't have a choice.

Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that govern electronic discovery take effect today, and they're far more expansive in terms of the kinds of data businesses have to keep, store and keep track of.

The new e-discovery rules require all businesses, both public and private, large and small, to hang on to e-mails, server backup tapes, home office computer data, BlackBerry messages, cell phone records and other electronic information - anything that could be sought in future corporate litigation, a fraud investigation, a mergers and acquisitions deal valuation or other proceeding. Penalties for non-compliance can include fines.

But some think the new rules could be as costly and burdensome for companies as complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which regulates corporate financial reporting and auditing.

Matthew Rechner, chair of the electronic discovery practice group and response team at the Cleveland law firm McDonald Hopkins Co. LPA, says the new guidelines formalize what the courts have been saying for years: that e-mails and other electronic data are relevant and can be requested as evidence.

Companies that update their policies can help insulate themselves against liability in future lawsuits.

"It's not something that happened overnight. This has been coming since the late '90s," said Tom Aleman, national service line leader for the analytic and forensic technology group at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services in Charlotte, N.C.

"Here now is written in stone: 'Thou shalt be ready.' "

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Download Pick: Vista Group Policy Adm to ADMX Migrator

A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry about the new Group Policy in Windows Vista (W2K3 R2 server/Longhorn) and how it uses ADMX files instead of ADM files. http://kenzig.blogspot.com/2006/11/article-getting-ready-for-vista-group.html

In reading I was complaing that there was no tool to edit or create ADM files and MS had no plans to create one. Guess the article and I was wrong as Microsoft just released the ADMX file convertsion tool per my announment below.. (note to self.. never say never)

Microsoft has recently released a tool to convert your current ADM file into an ADMX file for use on Vista Group Policy. It also includes an editor for ADMX Files:
From http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0f1eec3d-10c4-4b5f-9625-97c2f731090c&DisplayLang=en
The ADMX Migrator enables you to convert ADM files to the ADMX format and take advantage of the additional capabilities that it provides. The new XML-based format includes multilanguage support, an optional centralized datastore, and version control capabilities. You can select multiple ADM files for conversion. The ADMX Migrator creates a unique namespace which you can rename and will display a warning if a collision is detected due to duplicate names. Also, any items that cannot be validated against the ADMX schema are preserved in an Unsupported section. Please note that any annotations in ADM files are removed during the conversion process.Additionally, the ADMX Migrator provides an ADMX editor with a graphical user interface for creating and editing Administrative Templates. You can select settings from menus rather than entering them manually in a text file, speeding template creation and reducing the chance for error.
Get the file from the above link.

Also Microsoft last week released the final version of a list of all of the group policies that will be available for VISTA at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=41dc179b-3328-4350-ade1-c0d9289f09ef&DisplayLang=en

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Link Pick: FIRE! Want to see what happens when a laptop battery explodes?

Check out this safety video over at PCPitstop showing a demonstration about what happens when a laptop battery explodes. At one point flames shoot up to over 6 feet!

http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcsafety/video.asp


Would you be prepared to put this type of fire out at your organization?

Never Fear! Computer reseller news just posted this story about 6 laptops that don't burn! Check it out at:
http://www.crn.com/sections/coverstory/coverstory.jhtml?articleId=194400947

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Download Pick: Spike Explore

Citrix recently released a new utility to their KB called Spike Explorer. Sounds like a very good tool to add to your toolkit!

SpikeExplore extends the functionality of QSlice.exe—it captures the spiking thread details and user dumps of spiking processes. Spiking thread details are saved to Microsoft Word .doc files.

SpikeExplore Features:

It has a user-friendly GUI.
It supports three types of dump creation options using the File menu (multiple select is possible):
It creates user dumps of selected processes.
It creates Word documents with the user dumps of selected spiking processes along with thread details.
It creates Word documents with the user dumps of all spiking processes along with spiking thread details. It currently dumps all processes that consume more than 10 percent of the CPU.
It supports a pop-up File menu to create user dumps and spiking thread details.
It provides toolbar buttons for the three dumping menu items listed above for the File menu (refer to the second bullet above).
It is supported on x86 systems, 32-bit Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server.
It updates the CPU usage of the machine and individual processes every second.
Note: CPU usage for this tool is around 0 to 1 percent.
By default it uses NTSD.exe as the default debugger to create user dumps. It also provides the option to change the default debugger to other known debuggers (for example, windbg.exe or userdump.exe).

Get it at:
http://support.citrix.com/kb/entry.jspa?entryID=11689

--
Jim Kenzig
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Services
http://www.thinhelp.com
Citrix Technology Professional
Provision Networks VIP
CEO The Kenzig Group
http://www.kenzig.com
Blog: http://www.techblink.com

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Listing of Microsoft related Blogs

Here is a listing I was supplied from my MVP lead of Microsot related Blogs that I thought would be great to

pass along to you all!

http://blogs.technet.com/adfs_documentation	ADFS
http://blogs.technet.com/evand	Exchange Server
http://www.identityblog.com	Identity & Access
http://windowsvistablog.com	Vista
http://blogs.technet.com/efleis	Active Directory
http://blogs.msdn.com/brettsh	Active Directory
http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis	User Account Control
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsvistasecurity	Security
http://blogs.msdn.com/uac	User Account Control
http://blogs.msdn.com/ts	Terminal Services
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich	Windows Internals
http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver	Windows Server
http://blogs.technet.com/steriley	Security
http://blogs.technet.com/security	Security
http://blogs.technet.com/secguide	Security
http://blogs.technet.com/server_core	Longhorn Server Core
http://blogs.technet.com/bitlocker	Bitlocker
http://blogs.technet.com/longhorn	Longhorn/Vista
http://blogs.technet.com/technetcontent	Technet
http://blogs.technet.com/ad	Active Directory
http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy	Group Policy
http://blogs.technet.com/netmon	Network Monitor
http://blogs.technet.com/authentication	Authentication
http://blogs.technet.com/federal-vista-team	Vista
http://blogs.technet.com/perfblog	Vista Performance
http://blogs.technet.com/fsmo	Active Directory
http://blogs.technet.com/cryptography	Cryptography
http://blogs.technet.com/sysinternals	Sysinternals tools
http://blogs.technet.com/accessdenied	Security
http://blogs.technet.com/eventlog	Event Log
http://blogs.technet.com/shawnrab	Security
http://blogs.msdn.com/si_team	Bitlocker
http://blogs.msdn.com/spatdsg	Active Directory
http://msexchangeteam.com/default.aspx	Exchange

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