TechNet Magazine: Utility Spotlight rss

All TechNet Magazine Columns

  • Utility Spotlight: Microsoft SharedView
    Greg Steen - July 2008
    Looking for a way to quickly collaborate with someone located in another city? Take a look at out how Microsoft SharedView, a free utility, lets you easily share documents and screens with members of a small group, even across physical boundaries.

  • Utility Spotlight: Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor
    Lance Whitney - June 2008
    Ready to upgrade the systems in your organization to Windows Vista? Find out how the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor can help you determine whether your systems are ready for Windows Vista and which versions they can support.

  • Utility Spotlight: SharePoint Capacity Planning
    Peter Skjøtt Larsen and Satish Mathew - May 2008
    Explore the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool and see how you can design a topology for deploying SharePoint and then revise that topology after running load and usage simulations.

  • Utility Spotlight: Web Capacity Analysis Tool
    Greg Steen - April 2008
    Web logs and traffic analysis can give you a good idea of the kind of traffic you can expect over time. But how can you determine what your infrastructure can handle? The free Web Capacity Analysis Tool can help you to see how your systems will perform under stress.

  • Utility Spotlight: Windows Server Logo Certification
    Venkat Krishnamachari - March 2008
    To help ISVs and customers gauge application compatibility, Microsoft created the "Works with Windows Server 2008" program. Here's a look at the free supporting test tools made available through the program that can help you ensure that applications will deliver a predictable experience.

  • Utility Spotlight: ADMX Migrator
    Lance Whitney - February 2008
    With Windows Vista, the format for Group Policy templates has changed to an XML-based structure. The ADMX Migrator utility can convert your legacy ADM files into the new ADMX format, as well as help you easily create your own custom ADMX files.

  • Utility Spotlight: Windows Easy Transfer Companion
    Lance Whitney - January 2008
    This free tool can simplify the migration of key applications from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

  • Utility Spotlight: The Microsoft Security Assessment Tool
    Lance Whitney - December 2007
    This free utility and electronic questionnaire can help mid-sized organizations identify and resolve network security risks.

  • Utility Spotlight: SMS Cmdlets for Windows PowerShell
    Don Brown - November 2007
    Find out how you can start using Windows PowerShell cmdlets to manage SMS 2003 clients from the command line.

  • Utility Spotlight: Virtual Machine Remote Control Plus
    Matthijs ten Seldam - October 2007
    The Virtual Server 2005 interface is a Web application, offering the conveniences of Web-based management. But sometimes you want a rich UI that behaves like a Windows application.VMRCplus gives you an alternative UI that offers easy configuration management and remote control of virtual machines, all from within a single application.

  • Utility Spotlight: PageDefrag
    Lance Whitney - September 2007
    The typical Windows defrag tool can optimize most of the files on your hard drive. But certain items, such the Windows page file and Registry hives, are beyond the powers of most defragging tools. This utility, created by Mark Russinovich for Sysinternals, saves the day by defragging the files that are left untouched by other tools.

  • Utility Spotlight: BGInfo
    Lance Whitney - August 2007
    Wouldn’t it be great if you could see everything you need to know about a PC—its name, IP address, gateway, free disk space, and so on—in a single place. You can, with this free tool from Sysinternals.

  • Utility Spotlight: SMSMap
    Jeff Tondt - July 2007
    Seeing the whole SMS hierarchy as a picture can help you quickly understand how your infrastructure is laid out. This handy tool automates creation of your infrastructure diagram in Visio via COM.

  • Utility Spotlight: Script Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista
    Michael Murgolo - June 2007
    While User Account Control offers an important improvement in security, the ability to elevate permissions is essential for accomplishing certain administrative tasks and functions. Here are some Elevation PowerToys that make elevation more flexible and powerful.

  • Utility Spotlight: Upgrade Toolkit for SharePoint Sites and Templates
    Luis Câmara Manoel and Peter Skjøtt Larsen - May 2007
    Upgrading to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can pose challenges if you use customized sites and templates. Explore a new Solution Accelerator that provides tools and guidance to help you get the job done.

  • Utility Spotlight: Autoruns
    Lance Whitney - April 2007
    The vast number of apps that run automatically at system start up can be a source of endless headaches. But with Autoruns, you can investigate every app that runs automatically, letting you troubleshoot conflicts, track down malware, and free up system resources.

  • Utility Spotlight: SyncToy
    Jay Munro - March 2007
    Face it, most of the users you support just don't back up there data. SyncToy provides an unintrusive way to ensure your users' files are always backed up and ready to be easily restored.

  • Utility Spotlight: Group Policy Inventory
    Greg Steen - February 2007

  • Utility Spotlight: Internet Explorer Administration Kit
    Lance Whitney - January 2007

  • Utility Spotlight: Robocopy GUI
    Joshua Hoffman - November 2006
    Traditional copy and paste works well enough for simple tasks, but for advanced functionality, you need Robocopy. But what if you're not a fan of the command line? Enter Robocopy GUI.

  • Utility Spotlight: File Server Migration Toolkit
    Jeremy Moskowitz - October 2006

  • Utility Spotlight: Access-Based Enumeration
    James D. Silliman - September 2006
    As a systems administrator, you've probably had users complain that they can't access certain folders they see in Windows® Explorer. The cause is often simple: the user doesn't have permission to open those resources.

  • Utility Spotlight: Scripting Trouble-Free Downloads with BITS
    Michael Murgolo - August 2006

  • Utility Spotlight: The Shared Computer Toolkit
    Jeremy Moskowitz - July 2006
    One of the most common requests I get at my Group Policy forum, GPanswers. com, is how to take machines and "lock them down. " People want to ensure their machines can’t be broken by Joe User or Harry Badguy.

  • Utility Spotlight: Automate Device Driver Integration
    Michael Murgolo - May • June 2006
    When you’re deploying thousands of Windows-based computers, configuring a single system and duplicating its hard drive (or system image) onto other corporate computers can save you a lot of time and free up IT resources.

  • Utility Spotlight: Server Performance Advisor
    Joshua Hoffman - March • April 2006
    Establishing solid configurations that are optimized for a server’s unique environment can often be challenging work, especially in large or complex environments. Once your servers are deployed, keeping an eye on performance to ensure that every server is running in tip-top shape can be a full-time job.

  • Utility Spotlight: WMI Code Creator
    Chris Scoville - January • February 2006
    As a systems administrator you’re surely no stranger to Windows®Management Instrumentation (WMI), which gives you access to a wealth of management information and allows you to automate administrative tasks.

  • Utility Spotlight: RunUpdates.cmd
    Joshua Hoffman - November • December 2005
    A great deal of time is often invested in determining the best ways to keep an infrastructure current, and rightfully so. In this month’s Utility Spotlight I take a look at a great way to make sure that desktops are as current as possible from the day they are deployed.

  • [Utility Spotlight: Limit Login Attempts With LimitLogin](cc160794(v=msdn.10).md "Utility Spotlight: Limit Login Attempts With LimitLogin

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    - Spring 2005
    Ever needed to limit concurrent user logins in an Active Directory® domain? Ever wanted to keep track of information about every login in a domain? If so, LimitLogin is for you.

  • Utility Spotlight: Analyze Security Descriptors with searchSd
    TechNet Magazine Staff - Winter 2005
    Your IT department is interested in conducting security audits. The group wants to have statistics generated about the usage of access control entries (ACEs) in their domain deployment. They want to be able to run a job every Sunday at 1:00 A.