Why the Windows 8 Preview does not look good for IT administrators

 Microsoft Released the latest Windows 8 preview.

I have been reading some of the Microsoft blogs, and although this release still has the Aero interface (That glassy look)…according to a blog post by a Microsoft Employee this will be gone in the final release:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/18/creating-the-windows-8-user-experience.aspx

He even went on to say: “…(The Vista and Windows 7 Interface) looks dated and cheesy now”

It was released 3 years ago – not 20. I don’t see it as dated at all.

From an IT perspective this is quite alarming. This attitude tells me they really want to abandon everything and go with Metro 100%. I remember the headaches when they changed Office.

Users would quite often ask for the “old way it worked”..or “Where did all the menus go?”. I know users that still feel they were more productive in the older versions of Office.

If the Metro interface will be the only way to interact with Windows, then you are going to have a load of pissed off users out there.

Lets look at the new version:

It has better driver support, and seems to be faster. Like the previous release, when you log in you are shown a tile view (This is called the Metro Interface) to navigate around:

You can get to the old desktop by clicking the “Desktop” tile in the bottom left.

The first thing you will notice, like the latest Windows 8 server preview, there is no start menu:

This fact is a source of constant frustration. Almost 20 years of clicking start is thrown out with this release.

Now that the start menu is gone, how can you easily get to the control panel?

There is no tile that says control panel, and when you go to the desktop, there are no links to it.

If things stay this way, imagine trying to walk a user over the phone to try and fix a simple problem…like say changing the DNS entries on their network card.

Thankfully our Remote Control 5 works perfectly with this release…so that might not be a problem if the computer is still on the network 

Eventually I made a shortcut on the desktop to the cmd prompt and used that to launch the control panel:

None of the control panel applets have changed, they are identical to Windows 7….so I won’t show them here.

Now back to what it will be like for the average user in your organization.

Most of the tiles you see on the main screen are links to Metro applications. These all run at full screen, and have a smoother look and feel to them.

I want you to look at a metro app running on my system. Specifically the weather app:

I have a question for you…do you see an intuitive way to go back to the main screen?

It is none of the arrow buttons.

I tried swiping the mouse from left to right, top to bottom…nothing seemed to work.

To get back you have to click at the very top (not even a few pixels down) and drag down (If you have a touch interface you can swipe with your finger this way too):

This is sure going to be an exciting change for users. I can just see it now…the power button as a new way to exit Metro apps.

On the positive side, I like what they have done with the task manager. I don’t have the Windows 8 Server preview to compare, but it looks like they have added more functionality to this release.

Look at the concise view they have of all system resource usage:

Many of the user interface design changes are very similar to the Windows 8 Preview I talked about a few weeks back..so I won’t repeat them again. Most of these are great improvements, but they are totally overshadowed by the huge change that the Metro interface brings to the table.

It really is a sad fact that the Metro Interface is a change will haunt you for years…just to make it look different.

I think it is a big mistake. If you don’t agree, ask yourself…when was the last time users in your company or organization were jumping for joy when you made a massive change to the way their computer worked.

For me the answer is never.

Why not go with both? Metro for touch based systems, and classic for mouse and keyboard.

Someone is going to make a mint creating a classic interface for Windows if Microsoft does not include one.

You can download a copy of the Windows 8 Preview Here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download

Windows Server 8 Preview

Microsoft has released a public beta of Windows Server 8. You can get a free copy from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/v8-default.aspx

It can’t run in most virtual environments, so if you are going to try it out…you will probably need a physical machine.

The first thing I noticed – There is no start menu:

While digging around I found this point very frustrating. I kept clicking that empty space on the far left of the task bar. I can bet if they leave it this way, there will be third party solutions to bring it back 

Because the start menu is missing, everything is accomplished through the server manager. This new interface is quite powerful. How many times have you jumped on a server and need to stop and start a particular service right away?

You can easily drill down to a service just by typing its name:

As you can see, I was testing our Remote Control – and thankfully it works perfect under this beta of Windows 8.

There are other dashboard controls just like this for events, performance, rolls and features, and even a best practices analyzer.

All the tools you would use in day to day administration are conveniently located on the tools menu of the server manager:

They are making changes to explorer too. Commonly accessed items are available right from the folder view:

Accessing the properties of a folder can now be done in one click:

When I first opened task manager I was shocked:

I thought “That’s it?” What are they doing?!?

But I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked the “More Details” button:

On another tab, they have beautiful performance graphs:

The users tab is great, it shows performance, memory usage by user:

It would really help when you are trying to figure out who is hogging all the resources on the Terminal Server 

I can imagine a lot will change before the final release, but it is worth checking out to see where Microsoft is headed with the next version of Windows.

Clear a forgotten Windows Password

A friend of mine forgot his password for his Windows 7 computer, and needed to get back into it. I remembered years ago when I was working as a contractor, there was a little Linux utility that would allow you to boot from a floppy and reset windows passwords
Lucky for him, that utility is still around, and it has been updated to work with Windows 7, and Windows 2008.
It is called the “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor”
The website can be found here:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
First, if you are going to use this utility, a word of warning. If a user has EFS encrypted files, and you reset their password, those files will become junk and you will never be able to open them again.
To reset passwords, download the latest zip from the website above, and open it up. There will be an ISO file that you can burn to a CD.
Boot to it, and you will see all kinds of commands scream across the screen. Then you need to answer some questions.
First, it will ask which drive your Windows install is on. You can see the drives and the selection numbers here:

Then it will ask you for the registry location. Just pick the default by pressing enter:

Now that it has all the info it needs, you select your action. We want to reset a password – so we pick the default by pressing enter (Password Reset)

And finally, what we have been looking for – editing the user data. Notice it has a registry editor too. Something that can come in handy with other issues. So pick the first option by pressing enter:

Then pick the user account you want to edit (Usually you can just hit enter here too – since administrator is usually the default)

OK. Here is where you need to stop and pay attention. Every option so far has been the default, and you could select it by hitting enter. If you don’t watch carefully…the final option that you want (clearing the password) is *not* selected by default. Quit is.
I am not the brightest bulb in the bunch, and I ran through it a few times by just hitting enter all the way through…and then tried to get in with no password. Grrr Not working. Until I slowed down and read each step, I realized my mistake.

Pick the clear password option. Option 1. Avoid the temptation to reset the password, and set to a new value. Many times this does not work. Just clear it, login with an empty password, and then you can reset once you are back in windows.
Notice too that you can elevate, and unlock accounts – comes in handy when users forget their password, and lock themselves out.
Can’t tell you how many times this little gem helped me look like a hero back in my contracting days. Glad to see it is still alive and kicking.

A Free Windows File Copy Alternative

If you have ever copied a large number of files on Windows, you know how frustrating it can be.

Sometimes a simple error can cancel a huge job.

Sometimes you might start a copy before leaving the office…only to find out that 10 minutes into it, Windows asks you if you want to replace a file.

Don’t even get me started with the estimated time to complete dialogs – totally worthless.

Found a solution – It is a free tool called TeraCopy.

The part I like about it is that it is lightweight, and it is only for copying files.

Nothing else.

You can easily access it from any folder or file. Right click, and send to TeraCopy…could not be easier:

What if you want to copy your files and then shutdown your system? You can easily tell TeraCopy to do that:

What about those replace or skip dialogs? You tell it what to do – without waiting 5 minutes for it to ask you:

Even better, you can pause, and resume file copies. Can’t tell you how many times I wanted to do this to take the load off the network for a minute or two:

This is an awesome little utility. Works on 2000 through Windows 7 x64.

You can download it from here:

TeraCopy Download Page

How To Change Security Question On Facebook For Account Security 2012

You can change your facebook security question by following these steps.

For this first go to facebook.com and click on Forgot your password?
and then on the below screen enter your email or username then click on search.

when they found you, on below screen click on This is My Account

On next screen click on "No longer have access to these"

On next screen they'll ask you for a new email-id, enter email-id and click on submit

Next they will ask you current answer to security question, enter it and click on submit

On next screen enter new password (but do remember your old password for this trick)

Now a message will so that your identity is proven

Once your password is updated on previous screen open one more tab in your browser open facebook.com.and login with your old passward. Then a message will so you that your account is temporarily locked. Click on "This wasn't me".

Then on next screen secure your account, click on"Secure my account".

Now click on continue

On next screen, create new password (remember this one )

now click on continue.

select your email and click on submit.

check "Only I know the password for *******"
(change your email account's password if needed)
click on continue

Don't wanna remove any app you use one facebook just click on continue

Now a screen shows that Set a new security question.now you can change your security question and

answer update it and click on submit

.your account is unlocked

Now You Can Login with your new password.

Lets enjoy friends....

Share wireless settings on a flash drive

I like to keep my wireless network secure. Too easy for neighbors to pick up my passwords, and info just by connecting to my network. Worse yet, they could download pirated music or cause all kinds of trouble on my Internet connection.

The problem with having a complex password is that it is hard for visitors to enter into their computer. Wife has some friends over, they need to use the Internet.

I am at the office. I get the phone call – “Ok, type 659872323865765798798756. Oh Sorry. It is 6. Then 5. Then 9. Oops lets start over”

Yea, not so fun when it happens a lot.

I found an easy way to share your Wireless settings from Windows 7 (A Windows XP machine can import them).

Start out by clicking on the wireless icon down by the time:

Then click on “Open Network and Sharing Center”

That will open a big ole window:

Find the option that says “Manage Wireless Networks” and click on it.

Now you should see a list of your wireless networks. Right click on the one you want to share and click properties:

Now, another window will pop up. Look for the option that says “Copy this network profile to a USB Flash Drive”

Walk through the wizard that shows up:

Once it is complete, it will place a program on the flash drive:

Now – To add the wireless network to a Windows machine, you just run that application and it connects automatically. From that point on, the wireless key is saved in its settings.