Ever wondered why a brand new installation of Windows Server 2008 RTM shows that it already has Service Pack 1 installed?
The director of project management for Windows Server, Ian McDonald, mentions in his blog, the story behind this.
Here’s the long story shortened: Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are supposed to share the same codebases which means service packs and patches get released at the same time and both server and client will have a common set of patches, depending on the installed components, i.e. a patch for Active Directory will not get installed on a Vista machine and a patch for Media Player will not get installed on Windows Server 2008 (unless you have the desktop-experience installed).
Windows Vista got released early. Windows Vista SP1 is already out. Then came the release Windows Server 2008, which also has the same codebase. Hence Windows Server 2008 got released ‘with SP1′.
The first service pack to be publicly (separately) released for Windows Server 2008 will be Service Pack 2.
FACT: A clean install of Windows Vista will not have the Power Users local group.
The Power Users group in Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 was a little ‘too powerful’.
One of the main reasons why users were made Power Users was because this group had rights install software and device drivers. If you can install software and drivers, then this means you can elevate yourself to an Administrator or run programs in the SYSTEM context.
This is no longer a neccessity with Windows Vista because it includes a signed installer that allows normal users to install packages signed by a trusted root. (The “Trusted Installer” is a service that has a SID, so you’ll see it in the permissions list on various objects throughout the operating system.) The installer validates the digital signature certificate chain, then elevates itself to perform the actual installation. (Does User Account Control ring a bell?!)
At the end of the day, users get the ability to install and update approved software packages without being a “Power” user.
Microsoft has announced that the recent $100 price cut on boxed copies of Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate will extend to the Gulf region.
The recommended retail price for Vista Home Basic is now AED 399 ($109, down from $204), with Home Premium at 550 AED ($150, down from $244) and Vista Ultimate at 1,199 AED ($326, down from $407). This means – in the case of Windows Vista Home, the price cut brings the cost of a boxed copy in line with the cost of upgrading an existing copy of Windows!
The price of copies of the OS preloaded onto personal computers will not be affected.
If you’re facing problems logging in with your domain account to Windows Vista computer joined to a domain, and you’re wondering why you’re always getting logged on with a “temporary profile” on your Windows Vista computer, you need to read this post.
You’ve tried it all, deleting and recreating the profile, deleting the C:\users\%username% folder, etc. But the problem still remains.
This is because your domain user account is a member of either the Guests or Domain Guests local user group in the Windows Vista computer. Remove yourself from the group and feel the magic!
If that doesn’t work, here is another tip:
Open up Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
You will find one entry for each profile. Check the following for the user account in question:
Thats’ right. No more /console switch on the Windows Remote Desktop Connection tool, MSTSC.exe, starting from Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008.
This is because of the design enhancements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, by virtue of which you cannot connect to Session 0, which is the default session. Running services and user applications together in Session 0 poses a security risk because services in Session 0 run at elevated privileges and therefore can be targeted by malware that attack by attempting and exploiting a privilege escalation.
The new generation of the Windows operating system mitigates this security risk by isolating services in Session 0 and making Session 0 non-interactive to the user. In Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008), only system processes and services run in Session 0. The first user logs on to Session 1. Subsequent users log on to subsequent sessions (Session 2, Session 3 etc). This means that services (like printer drivers loaded by spooler service, UMDF drivers, user/window interactive services, etc) never run in the same session as users’ applications and are therefore protected from attacks that originate in application code. [More info]
Session Zero in Windows XP/Windows Server 2003: The first user logs in to Session Zero itself.
Session Zero Isolation in Windows XP SP3/Windows Vista SP1/Windows Server 2008: First user’s Session is not within Session Zero, a separate session is created, thereby improving security. Since there is no longer the ability to connect to Session 0, the /console switch is no longer required. But, what if I want to connect to Session 0 on a Windows Server 2003/XP or earlier machine using RDP 6.1? Let’s find out.
When I typed “mstsc /?” on my Windows Server 2008 machine, these are the options that are available to me:
Notice that the /console option is not available, but there is a /admin option. The /admin option lets you connect to Session 0 on a remote computer that doesn’t have Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 or Windows Server 2008 or later installed.
However, if you try to pull the /console switch on a Windows Server 2008 or Vista SP1 machine, you get an error “An unknown parameter was specified in the computer name field“.
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When you connect to a machine running Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 from Windows Vista RDP, you may have noticed the following warning:
“Remote Desktop cannot verify the identity of the computer you want to connect to.”
This is good, but it’s rather annoying to be notified each time you want to connect to a server! To turn off the warning, - Open the Remote Desktop Connection application and click Options. - On the Advanced tab, select the option Always connect, even if authentication fails.
You can always tell a Windows 3.1 user by the way he closes a window, even in Windows Vista. A Windows 3.1 user almost always closes a window by double-clicking on the left of the window. That’s because, back in the times of Windows 3.1, there was no close button on the right of the window.
Take a look at the left of a window in Windows 3.1:
The box with the big dash is called the control box and clicking on it will yield a menu showing options to minimize, maximize and close. Double-clicking on the control box closes the window! And that’s where it all began.
A user can activate the menu by pressing Alt+Spacebar. Why? Because the big dash on the control box is actually a representation of the spacebar. The MDI child window also has a control box, but with a smaller dash. So, how do we activate this menu? Yup, you guessed right – Alt+Hyphen!
It is rather interesting to note that the ‘double-click-on-the-left-to-close’ functionality is still available in Windows Vista, and probably forever in every release of Windows. The Alt+Spacebar and the Alt+Hyphen features are still available too, even though the control boxes don’t bear the dashes anymore. As for me, yes, I do close windows from the left at times. Ahem.
You like Windows Vista gadgets, but you feel that it clutters up your desktop, leaving lesser space for your desktop icons. You like to have the sidebar always on top, but at the same time you don’t want to reduce the screen area of your applications.
If you’re using dual monitors on Windows Vista, here’s a handy tip: You can use your secondary screen for the gadgets!
Why did I do this?
Well, this leaves more room on my primary (read: more important) monitor. My applications are free to roam the entire canvas and I always get the bigger picture. On my second monitor all the gadgets, the clock, the to-do notes, and everything is within easy view at anytime. If you’re an administrator, you can use the secondary monitor for Remote Desktop connections to servers. You can even use the Remote Desktop gadget to save time.
How did I do this?
Go to Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization. Open Display Settings.
Click on your second monitor and check the box “Extend the desktop onto this monitor“.
Go to Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization. Open Windows Sidebar properties.
Under “Display Sidebar on monitor“, choose the second monitor.
Windows Vista is getting its first Service Pack while Windows XP is getting its last.
The release candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 3 is available for download. Service Pack 3 is more of a rollup of hotfixes and updates rather than a feature/experience enhancement. In short, it contains things that make Windows XP more secure, more reliable and faster. The user will not see noticeable change in the experience in general.
The Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate is also available for download. There are large number of improvements for performance, security, reliability, interoperability, hardware compatibility, and deployment. There also some improvements for power consumption, desktop administration and is better geared for Windows Server 2008, the next version of Microsoft’s server OS.
Please note that Release Candidates are not the fully released versions and you will not receive support for it. Release candidates are for testing purposes. Please wait for the final release of the service pack before deploying to production systems.
