Year: 2009

Here with the Microsoft Power 4.

SQL Server, Webcast, Virtual Labs, and Visual Studio

Knocked off WebCast off his feet, with a great magic trick!

Windows PowerShell™ is a command-line shell and scripting language designed especially for system administration. Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell helps IT professionals control and automate the administration of Windows operating systems and of applications that run on Windows.

The simple command tools in Windows PowerShell, called cmdlets, let you manage the computers in your enterprise from the command line. Windows PowerShell providers let you access data stores, such as the registry and the certificate store, as easily as you access the file system. In addition, Windows PowerShell has full support for all Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes.

Windows PowerShell is fully extensible. You can write your own cmdlets, providers, functions, and scripts, and you can package them in modules to share with other users.

Windows® 7 includes Windows PowerShell 2.0. It also includes other cmdlets, providers, and tools that you can add to Windows PowerShell so that you can use and manage other Windows technologies such as Active Directory® Domain Services, Windows® BitLocker™ Drive Encryption, the DHCP Server service, Group Policy, Remote Desktop Services, and Windows Server Backup.

What’s new in Windows PowerShell?

The following changes are available in Windows PowerShell in Windows 7:

• New cmdlets. Windows PowerShell includes more than 100 new cmdlets, including Get-Hotfix, Send-MailMessage, Get-ComputerRestorePoint, New-WebServiceProxy, Debug-Process, Add-Computer, Rename-Computer, Reset-ComputerMachinePassword, and Get-Random.
• Remote management. You can run commands on one computer or hundreds of computers with a single command. You can establish an interactive session with a single computer. And, you can establish a session that can receive remote commands from multiple computers.
• Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE). Windows PowerShell ISE is a graphical user interface for Windows PowerShell that lets you run commands, and write, edit, run, test, and debug scripts in the same window. It offers up to eight independent execution environments and includes a built-in debugger, multiline editing, selective execution, syntax colors, line and column numbers, and context-sensitive Help.
• Background jobs. With Windows PowerShell background jobs, you can run commands asynchronously and "in the background" so you can continue to work in your session. You can run background jobs on a local or remote computer, and you can store the results locally or remotely.
• Debugger. The Windows PowerShell debugger can help you debug functions and scripts. You can set and remove breakpoints, step through code, check the values of variables, and display a call-stack trace.
• Modules. Windows PowerShell modules let you organize your Windows PowerShell scripts and functions into independent, self-contained units. You can package your cmdlets, providers, scripts, functions, and other files into modules that you can distribute to other users. Modules are easier for users to install and use than Windows PowerShell snap-ins. Modules can include any type of file, including audio files, images, Help files, and icons. Modules run in a separate session to avoid name conflicts.
• Transactions. Windows PowerShell now supports transactions, which let you manage a set of commands as a logical unit. A transaction can be committed, or it can be completely undone so that the affected data is not changed by the transaction.
• Events. Windows PowerShell includes a new event infrastructure that lets you create events, subscribe to system and application events, and then listen, forward, and act on the events synchronously and asynchronously.
• Advanced functions. Advanced functions behave just like cmdlets, but they are written in the Windows PowerShell scripting language instead of in C#.
• Script internationalization. Scripts and functions can display messages and Help text to users in multiple languages.
• Online Help. In addition to Help at the command line, the Get-Help cmdlet has a new Online parameter that opens a complete and updated version of each Help topic on Microsoft TechNet.

Two new types of service accounts are available in Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Windows® 7—the managed service account and the virtual account. The managed service account is designed to provide crucial applications such as SQL Server and IIS with the isolation of their own domain accounts, while eliminating the need for an administrator to manually administer the service principal name (SPN) and credentials for these accounts. Virtual accounts in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 are "managed local accounts" that can use a computer’s credentials to access network resources

Windows® 7 includes new features that make smart cards easier to use and to deploy, and makes it possible to use smart cards to complete a greater variety of tasks. The new smart card features are available in all versions of Windows 7.

What’s new in smart cards?

Windows 7 features enhanced support for smart card–related Plug and Play and the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) standard from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

This means that users of Windows 7 can use smart cards from vendors who have published their drivers through Windows Update without needing special middleware. These drivers are downloaded in the same way as drivers for other devices in Windows.

When a PIV-compliant smart card is inserted into a smart card reader, Windows attempts to download the driver from Windows Update. If an appropriate driver is not available from Windows Update, a PIV-compliant minidriver that is included with Windows 7 is used for the card.

There are a number of auditing enhancements in Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Windows® 7 that increase the level of detail in security auditing logs and simplify the deployment and management of auditing policies. These enhancements include:

• Global Object Access Auditing. In Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, administrators can define computer-wide system access control lists (SACLs) for either the file system or registry. The specified SACL is then automatically applied to every single object of that type. This can be useful both for verifying that all critical files, folders, and registry settings on a computer are protected, and for identifying when an issue with a system resource occurs.
• "Reason for access" reporting. This list of access control entries (ACEs) provides the privileges on which the decision to allow or deny access to the object was based. This can be useful for documenting the permissions, such as group memberships, that allow or prevent the occurrence of a particular auditable event.
• Advanced audit policy settings. These 53 new settings can be used in place of the nine basic auditing settings under Local PoliciesAudit Policy to allow administrators to more specifically target the types of activities they want to audit and eliminate the unnecessary auditing activities that can make audit logs difficult to manage and decipher

What are the benefits of the new and changed features?

New Control for UAC’s allowing user to configure the way that UAC work.

For Server 2008 r2 the built-in Administrator account in Windows Server 2008 R2 does not run in Admin Approval Mode The built-in Administrator account in Windows Server 2008 R2, which is the first account created on a server, does not run in Admin Approval Mode. All subsequently created administrator accounts in Windows Server 2008 R2 do run in Admin Approval Mode.

For Windows 7 the built-in Administrator account is disabled by default in Windows 7. If the built-in Administrator account is the only active local administrator account during an upgrade from Windows XP, Windows 7 leaves the account enabled and places the account in Admin Approval Mode. The built-in Administrator account, by default, cannot log on to the computer in Safe Mode

For enhanced convenience, Windows® 7 enables administrators and users to use fingerprint biometric devices to log on to computers, grant elevation privileges through User Account Control (UAC), and perform basic management of the fingerprint devices. Administrators can manage fingerprint biometric devices in Group Policy settings by enabling, limiting, or blocking their use.

What’s new in biometrics?

A growing number of computers, particularly portable computers, include embedded fingerprint readers. Fingerprint readers can be used for identification and authentication of users in Windows. Until now, there has been no standard support for biometric devices or for biometric-enabled applications in Windows. Computer manufacturers had to provide software to support biometric devices in their products. This made it more difficult for users to use the devices and administrators to manage the use of biometric devices.

Windows 7 includes the Windows Biometric Framework that exposes fingerprint readers and other biometric devices to higher-level applications in a uniform way, and offers a consistent user experience for discovering and launching fingerprint applications. It does this by providing the following:

• A Biometric Devices Control Panel item that allows users to control the availability of biometric devices and whether they can be used to log on to a local computer or domain.
• Device Manager support for managing drivers for biometric devices.
• Credential provider support to enable and configure the use of biometric data to log on to a local computer and perform UAC elevation.
• Group Policy settings to enable, disable, or limit the use of biometric data for a local computer or domain. Group Policy settings can also prevent installation of biometric device driver software or force the biometric device driver software to be uninstalled.
• Biometric device driver software available from Windows Update.

This will be a a group of blogs dealing with what has changed in Windows 7

Windows AppLocker is a new feature in Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 that replaces the Software Restriction Policies feature. AppLocker contains new capabilities and extensions that reduce administrative overhead and help administrators control how users can access and use files, such as .exe files, scripts, Windows Installer files (.msi and .msp files), and DLLs.

AppLocker rules specify which files are allowed to run. Files that are not included in rules are not allowed to run.

A interesting feature of Applocker is that you can say allow application x and all new versions so that you can allow users to get upgrade without having to recreate new rules.

If you do not know love magic (I used to do this professionally) and during the event I was doing some magic at the MCT booth. For some fellow MCTs. Here is the Video some posted of the impromptu  Magic I did during the meeting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NGqpgqTArM

I also took some folks to the Magic Castle

Where I am Member.

Come see me  speak at Tech- Ed talking about Windows Server 2008 and Client and NAP better together. I will be speaking Friday at 9am In room 502.