• Windows XP

    Windows: Local Policies

    From Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP there are two utilities that can be used to create policy lists.  The first is Group Policy Object Editor, gpedit.msc.  The second is secpol.msc.  For the purposes of this document we will use gpedit.msc as it provides most of what is available in secpol and far more granular policies for workstation control.  To open GPO Editor click on start then click run and then type gpedit.msc.  Now you will be looking at two sections, Computer Configuration and User Configuration.  Computer Configuration controls global settings such as password policies and Log on Locally.  For the most part these can typically be left as-is.  The…

  • Windows Server,  Windows XP

    MS DST

    Who programs without taking into account leap years, daylight savings time and really, really complicated things like four digit years? http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_hu2?systemlist=w1 Just think, now we have 8,000 years to figure out how to program a 5 digit year…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Ubuntu,  Unix,  Windows Server,  Windows XP

    TrueCrypt

    Great encryption software, although there is no full disk encryption for the Mac from TrueCrypt I hope to see it eventually.  By the way, I didn’t mention this yet: it’s free. http://www.truecrypt.org/ UPDATE: While TrueCrypt does not do full disk encryption (FDE) for the boot volume still, it does do FDE for other volumes fairly easily and of course free.  If you need FDE for boot volumes on Mac OS X check out PGP and CheckPoint FDE.  PGP Desktop is easy to install and use and has a great command line interface.  CheckPoint though seems to be a bit more mature and has an easier methodology for mass deployment.

  • Windows XP

    Outlook 2007: The Hand

    So in Outlook 2007 there’s an occasional hand that comes up in my VMs that effectively locks up office (I can’t do anything so I need to restart it).  It’s not a Fusion issue though, it’s an Outlook setting.  To disable it, first enable the More Commands Toolbar.  Then, in the options for the toolbar, select Commands Not in the Toolbar and scroll down to Panning Hand and Add it to the toolbar.  Now when the hand comes up (because you’re panning) you’ll be able to click off of it.  It’s actually a cool feature if you have a really big document or zoom in on documents and need to…

  • Windows XP

    AppLocker

    smart-x.com has a product called AppLocker, which can be used to restrict what programs that a Windows computer can open.  Nice little product if you want an easy solution for application whitelisting that doesn’t require Active Directory.

  • Mac OS X,  Windows XP

    Firefox Settings

    From Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and hit the enter key.  You should then be looking at some settings for Firefox.  You can double-click on any of these and provide more granular settings that what is possible from the stock settings preference panel.  Have fun assigning the network.proxy.gopher_port for Firefox, I hear it comes in really handy.  😉

  • Windows Server,  Windows XP

    Windows XP: Hiding a User

    [Start] [Run] [Regedit] You can hide a user in Windows XP using the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersion WinlogonSpecialAccountsUserList Here, first create a data type of REG_DWORD with the name of the user as the value.  Then, set the value for this to 0 to hide the account.  Next, exit the registry and reboot the system to test whether your setting change worked.

  • Windows XP

    Need a Boot Disc?

    CDBurnerXP is a great tool that allows you to burn to a variety of media in Windows XP. You can create boot discs, create audio or data discs and even print cases and labels. Great little tool and free, free, free.

  • Windows XP

    Malware: The PC Users Worse Enemy

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal How to Know You Have it and What to do About Removing It What is it? Malware, short for Malicious software, is the macro concept behind names like “Adware”, “Spyware”, “Hijackers”, “Toolbars” and “Dialers”. Malware is a growing PC-related assault epidemic (doesn’t effect Macintosh too much yet). How you get it? Malware tends to sneak into your life (usually in a hidden or invisible manner) via third party software (software from less-than well known developers) disguised as added functionality to your work flow and your internet experience (and other bells and whistles) in order to execute many malicious tasks that are bad for business.…