Windows Server 2003 Networking - 8

Creating a New User

To create a new domain user account in Windows Server 2003, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start➪Administrative Tools➪Active Directory Users And Computers.

This fires up the Active Directory Users And Computer management console, as shown in Figure 2-1.

2. Right-click the domain that you want to add the user to and then choose New➪User.

This summons the New User Wizard, as shown in Figure 2-2.

3. Type the user’s first name, middle initial, and last name.

As you type the name, the New User Wizard automatically fills in the Full Name field.

4. Change the Full Name field if you want it to appear differently than proposed.

For example, you may want to reverse the first and last names so the last name appears first.

5. Type the user logon name.

This name must be unique within the domain. Pick a naming scheme to follow when creating user logon names. For example, use the first letter of the first name followed by the complete last name, the complete first name followed by the first letter of the last name, or any other scheme that suits your fancy.

6. Click Next.

The second page of the New User Wizard appears, as shown in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3:

Setting the user’s password.

7. Type the password twice.

You’re asked to type the password twice, so type it correctly. If you don’t type it identically in both boxes,  you’re asked to correct your mistake.

8. Specify the password options that you want to apply.

The following password options are available:

• User must change password at next logon.

• User cannot change password.

• Password never expires.

• Account is disabled.

9. Click Next.

You’re taken to the final page of the New User Wizard, as shown in Figure 2-4.

10. Verify that the information is correct and then click Finish to create the account.

If the account information is not correct, click the Back button and correct the error. You’re done! Now you can customize the user’s account settings. At a minimum, you’ll probably want to add the user to one or more roups. You may also want to add contact information for the user or set up other account options.

Setting User Properties

After you’ve created a user account, you can set additional properties for the user by right-clicking the new user and choosing Properties. This brings up the User Properties dialog box, which has about a million tabs that you

can use to set various properties for the user. Figure 2-5 shows the General tab, which lists basic information about the user, such as the user’s name, office location, phone number, and so on. The following sections describe some of the administrative tasks that you can perform via the various tabs of the User Properties dialog box.

Changing the user’s contact information

Several tabs of the User Properties dialog box contain contact information for the user. In particular:

✦ Address: Lets you change the user’s street address, post-office box, city, state, ZIP code, and so on.

✦ Telephones: Lets you specify the user’s phone numbers.

✦ Organization: Lets you record the user’s job title and the name of his or her boss.

Figure 2-5:

The General tab.

Setting account options

The Account tab of the User Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 2-6, features a variety of interesting options that you can set for the user. From this dialog box, you can change the user’s logon name. In addition, you can change the password options that you set when you created the account and set an expiration date for the account.

The following account options are available in the Account Options listbox:

✦ User must change password at next logon: This option, which is selected by default, allows you to create a one-time-only password that can get the user started with the network. The first time the user logs on to the network, he or she is asked to change the password.

✦ User cannot change password: Use this option if you don’t want to allow users to change their passwords. (Obviously, you can’t use this option and the previous one at the same time.)

✦ Password never expires: Use this option if you want to bypass the password expiration policy for this user so that the user will never have to change his or her password.

✦ Store password using reversible encryption: This option stores passwords using an encryption scheme that hackers can easily break, so you should avoid it like the plague.

Figure 2-6:

The Account tab.

✦ Account is disabled: This option allows you to create an account that you don’t yet need. As long as the account remains disabled, the user won’t be able to log on. See the section “Disabling and Enabling User Accounts,” later in this chapter, to find out how to enable a disabled account.

✦ Smart card is required for interactive logon: If the user’s computer has a smart card reader to automatically read security cards, check this option to require the user to use it.

✦ Account is trusted for delegation: This option indicates that the account is trustworthy and can set up delegations. This is an advanced feature that’s usually reserved for Administrator accounts.

✦ Account is sensitive and cannot be delegated: Prevents other users from impersonating this account.

✦ Use DES encryption types for this account: Beefs up the encryption for applications that require extra  ecurity.

✦ Do not require Kerberos preauthentication: Select this option if you use a different implementation of the Kerberos protocol.

Specifying logon hours

You can restrict the hours during which the user is allowed to log on to the system by clicking the Logon Hours button from the Account tab of the User Properties dialog box.

 This brings up the dialog box shown in Figure 2-7. Initially, the Logon Hours dialog box is set to allow the user to log on at any time of day or night. To change the hours that you want the user to have access, click a day and time or a range of days and times and choose either Logon Permitted or Logon Denied.

Restricting access to certain computers

Normally, a user can use his or her user account to log on to any computer that’s a part of the user’s domain. However, you can restrict a user to certain computers by clicking the Logon To button in the Account tab of the

User Properties dialog box.

 This brings up the Logon Workstations dialog box, as shown in Figure 2-8.

To restrict the user to certain computers, select the radio button labeled “The following computers.” Then, for each computer you want to allow the user to log on from, type the computer’s name in the text box and click Add. If you make a mistake, you can select the incorrect computer name and click Edit to change the name or click Remove to delete the name.

Setting the user’s profile information

The Profile tab, shown in Figure 2-9, lets you configure the user’s profile information. This dialog box lets you configure three bits of information related to the user’s profile:

✦ Profile path: This field specifies the location of the user’s roaming profile.

✦ Logon script: The name of the user’s logon script. Logon scripts are a carryover from the early versions of  Windows NT server, which relied on logon scripts to configure the user’s computer when the user logged on. You can still use logon scripts, but profiles are the preferred way to specify the user’s logon configuration.

✦ Home folder: This is where you specify the default storage location for the user.

The Profile tab lets you specify the location of an existing profile for the

user, but it doesn’t actually let you set up the profile.

Figure 2-9

Resetting User Passwords

By some estimates, the single most time-consuming task of most network administrators is resetting user passwords. It’s easy to just think users are forgetful idiots, but put yourself in their shoes. We insist that they set their password to something incomprehensible, such as 94kD82leL384K, that they change it a week later to something more unmemorable, such as dJUQ63DWd8331, and that they don’t write it down. Then we get mad when they forget their passwords.

So when a user calls and says he or she forgot his or her password, the least we can do is be cheerful when we reset if for them. After all, they’ve probably already spent 15 minutes trying to remember it before they finally gave up and admitted failure.

Here’s the procedure to reset the password for a user domain account:

1. Log on as an administrator.

You have to have administrator privileges in order to perform this procedure.

2. Choose Start➪Administrative Tools➪Active Directory Users And Computers.

The Active Directory Users and Computer management console appears.

3. Click Users in the console tree.

4. In the Details pane, right-click the user who forgot his or her password and choose Reset Password.

5. Type the new password in both password boxes.

You have to type the password twice to ensure that you type it correctly.

6. If desired, check the User Must Change Password At Next Logon option.

If you check this option, the password that you assign will work for only one logon. As soon as the user logs on,  he or she will be required to change the password.

7. Click OK.

That’s all there is to it! The user’s password is now reset.

Disabling and Enabling User Accounts

If you want to temporarily prevent a user from accessing the network, you can disable his or her account. Then,  you can enable the account later , when you’re ready to restore the user to full access.

Here’s the procedure:

1. Log on as an administrator.

You have to have administrator privileges to perform this procedure.

2. Choose Start➪Administrative Tools➪Active Directory Users And Computers.

The Active Directory Users And Computer management console appears.

3. Click Users in the console tree.

4. In the Details pane, right-click the user that you want to enable or disable. Then, choose either Enable Account or Disable Account to enable or disable the user.

Deleting a User

Deleting a user account is surprisingly easy. Just follow these steps:

1. Log on as an administrator.

You have to have administrator privileges in order to perform this procedure.

2. Choose Start➪Administrative Tools➪Active Directory Users And Computers.

The Active Directory Users And Computer management console appears.

3. Click Users in the console tree.

4. In the details pane, right-click the user that you want to delete and choose Delete.

Windows will ask whether you really want to delete the user, just in case you’re kidding.

5. Click Yes.

Poof! The user is history.

Windows Server 2003 Networking - 7

Understanding Windows User Accounts

User accounts are one of the basic tools for managing a Windows server. As a network administrator, you’ll spend a large percentage of your time dealing with user accounts — creating new ones, deleting expired accounts, resetting passwords for forgetful users, granting new access rights, and so on. Before get into the specific procedures of creating and managing user accounts, thissection presents an overview of user accounts and how they work.

Local accounts versus domain accounts

A local account is a user account that’s stored on a particular computer and applies only to that computer. Typically, each computer on your network  will have a local account for each person that uses that computer.

In contrast, a domain account is a user account that’s stored by Active Directory and can be accessed from any computer that’s a part of the domain. Domain accounts are centrally managed. This chapter deals primarily

with setting up and maintaining domain accounts.

User account properties

Every user account has a number of important account properties that specify  the characteristics of the account. The three most important account properties are

✦ Username: A unique name that identifies the account. The user must enter the username when logging on to the network. The username is public information. In other words, other network users can (and often should) find out your username.

✦ Password: A secret word that must be entered in order to gain access to the account. You can set up Windows so that it enforces password policies, such as the minimum length of the password, whether the password must contain a mixture of letters and numerals, and how long the password remains current before the user must change it.

✦ Group membership: Indicates which group or groups to which the user account belongs. Group memberships are the key to granting access rights to users so that they can access various network resources, such as file shares or printers, or to perform certain network tasks, such as creating new user accounts or backing up the server. Many other account properties record information about the user, such as the user’s contact information, whether the user is allowed to access the system only at certain times or from certain computers, and so on

The Administrator account

Windows comes with a built-in account named Administrator that has complete access to all the features of the server. As a network administrator, you’ll frequently log on using the Administrator account to perform maintenance chores. Because the Administrator account is so powerful, you should always enforce good password practices for it. In other words, don’t use your dog’s name as the Administrator account password. Instead, pick a random combination of letters and numbers. Then, change the password periodically.

Write down the Administrator account password and keep it in a secure location. Note that by “secure location,” I don’t mean taped to the front of the monitor. Keep it in a safe place where you can retrieve it if you forget it,

but where it won’t easily fall into the hands of someone looking to break into your network.

Windows Server 2003 Networking 6

Windows Server 2003 Networking - 5

Choosing a file system

Windows servers provide three choices for the file system to format the server’s disk: FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. In most cases, you should elect to use NTFS. Well, actually, you should use NTFS in almost all cases. Come to think of it, you should always use NTFS.

The name FAT refers to the file allocation table that was used in the original version of MS-DOS back when disco was still popular. FAT was a simple but effective way to track disk space allocated to files on diskettes and on small hard drives. The original FAT system used 16-bit disk addresses to divide the total space on a disk into 65,526 units called clusters, each of which could be allocated to any file on the disk. The size of each cluster could vary from as little as 2K to as much as 256K, depending on the size of the drive. When disk drives started to get bigger than 512MB (can you remember when 512MB was a huge disk?), FAT was upgraded to FAT32, which used 32-bit addresses for clusters. That allowed a maximum of 524,208 clusters on the disk with the size of each cluster ranging from 4K to 32K, depending on the size of the drive. FAT32 was a huge improvement over FAT, but both suffer from several inherent problems:

✦ Even with 32-bit addresses, FAT32 is stretched by today’s 100GB+ disk drives.

✦ Neither FAT nor FAT32 have built-in security features.

✦ FAT and FAT32 are inherently unreliable. Most users, at one time or another, lose files due to the unreliability of FAT/FAT32.

✦ FAT and FAT32 allocate space inefficiently on large volumes because the smallest unit of space that they can allocate must be large — as much as 256K in some cases.

Here are just a few of the reasons that choosing NTFS for Windows servers is a no-brainer:

✦ NTFS has built-in security features that track security information for individual files and directories.

✦ NTFS tracks clusters with 64-bit disk addresses rather than 32-bit addresses (FAT32) or 16-bit addresses (FAT). As a result, an NTFS volume can theoretically have something in the neighborhood of 18 million billion disk clusters, which should keep you going for a while.

Installing and Configuring Windows 2000 and 2003 Server

Planning a Windows Server Installation

✦ The benefit of having so many clusters available is that the size of each cluster can be kept small. NTFS can efficiently use 4KB clusters for even the largest drives available today. ✦ NTFS drives are more reliable because NTFS keeps duplicate copies of important information, such as the location of each file on the hard drive. If a problem develops on an NTFS drive, Windows can usually correct the problem automatically without losing any data. In contrast, FAT drives are prone to losing data.

✦ The system that FAT uses to keep track of which disk clusters belong to a given file is prone to errors. In contrast, NTFS has more redundancy built in to its record keeping, so it’s less likely to scramble up your files.

✦ NTFS has better support for large drives and large files. Table 1-2 compares some of the maximums of the FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems.

Table 1-2 File System Limits

Planning your partitions

Partitioning enables you to divide a physical disk into one or more separate units called partitions. Each disk can have up to four partitions. All four of the partitions can be primary partitions, each of which can be formatted with a file system, such as NTFS or FAT32. Or, you can create up to three primary partitions and one extended partition, which can then be subdivided into one or more logical drives. Then, each logical drive can be formatted with a file system. Although you can set up partitions for a Windows server in many ways, the

following two approaches are the most common:

✦ Allocate the entire disk as a single partition that will be formatted with  NTFS. The operating system will be installed into this partition, and disk space that isn’t needed by the operating system or other network applications can be shared.

✦ Divide the disk into two partitions. Install the operating system and any other related software (such as Exchange Server or a backup utility) on     the first partition. If the first partition will contain just the operating system, 10GB is a reasonable size, although you can get by with as little as 4GB if space is at a premium. Then, use the second partition for application data or network file shares.

Deciding your TCP/IP configuration

Before you install the operating system, you should have a plan for how you will implement TCP/IP on the network. Here are some of the things you need to decide or find out:

What is the IP subnet address and mask for your network?

✦ What is the domain name for the network?

✦ What is the host name for the server?

✦ Will the server obtain its address from DHCP?

✦ Will the server have a static IP address? If so, what?

✦ Will the server be a DHCP server?

✦ What is the default gateway for the server? (That is, what is the IP address of the network’s Internet router?)

✦ Will the server be a DNS server?

If the server will host TCP/IP services (such as DHCP or DNS), you’ll probably want to assign the server a static IP address.

Choosing workgroups or domains

A domain is a method of placing user accounts and various network resources under the control of a single  directory database. Domains ensure that security policies are consistently applied throughout a network and

greatly simplify the task of managing user accounts on large networks.

A workgroup is a simple association of computers on a network that makes it easy to locate shared files and printers. Workgroups don’t have a sophisticated directory database, so they can’t enforce strict security. Microsoft says that workgroups should be used only for very small networks with just a few users. In fact, any network that is large enough to have a dedicated server computer running Windows 2000 Server or Windows

Server 2003 is too large to use workgroups. As a result, if you’re installing a Windows server, I recommend that you should always opt for domains. After you decide to use domains, you have to make two basic decisions:

✦ What will the domain name be? If you have a registered Internet domain name, such as mydomain.com, you may want to use it for your network’s domain name. Otherwise, you can make up any name you want.

✦ What computer or computers will be the domain controllers for the domain?

If this is the first server in a domain, you must designate it as a domain controller. If you already have a server acting as a domain controller, you can either add this computer as an additional domain controller, or designate it as a member server. You can always change the role of a server from a domain controller to a member server and vice versa if the needs of your network change. For small networks, I suggest that you use just one domain controller and designate the other servers as member servers. For larger networks, you may want to create several domain controllers to spread the work around.

Before You Install . . .

After you’ve made the key planning decisions for your Windows server installation, you should take a few  recautionary steps before you actually start the Setup program. The following sections describe the steps that you

should take before you perform an upgrade installation. Note that all these steps except the last one apply only to upgrades. If you’re installing a Windows server on a new system, you can skip the first steps.

Backing up

Do a complete backup of the server before you begin. Although Windows Setup is reliable, sometimes  something serious goes wrong that results in lost data. Note that you don’t have to back up the drive to external media, such as tape. If you can find a network disk share with enough free space, back up to it.

Checking the event logs

Look at the event logs of the existing server computer to check for recurring errors. You may discover that you have a problem with a SCSI device or your current TCP/IP configuration. Better to find out now rather than in

the middle of Setup.

Uncompressing data

If you’ve used DriveSpace or any other disk compression software to compress a drive, you’ll have to uncompress the drive before you run Setup.

Neither Windows 2000 Server nor Windows Server 2003 support DriveSpace or other disk compression programs.

Uses of Multimeter For Continuity Testing

Introduction

Multimeters are a very useful tool for diagnosing problems with electrical systems. They are simple to use when you know how! I use my fluke multimeter nearly once a week to try and fix problems with electronic devices at home.   One of the most basic uses of a multimeter is to test for continuity. Testing for continuity basically means testing to see if there is an electric connection between two points. If two points are electrically connected they are said to be continuous.  This brief guide explains how to use a digital multimeter to find out if there is an electric connection between two points.

Preparation

Before you test for an electric connection you must do a few things:

- Make sure your multimeter is working. You can test this by brushing the two tips together and verifying that you hear a beep. The manual you received with your multimeter may have more information on testing your multimeter.
- Make sure the device or system you are testing is powered off. If there is already voltage in the circuit you will not get accurate readings.

Step by Step

When you are ready to test for continuity follow these steps in this order:  

- Set your multimeter to the correct mode. Look for the icon that looks like a sound wave or a Wi-Fi connection indicator. If you can't find it refer to the manual you received with the multimeter.
- Touch one of the probes off one of the points you are checking.
- Touch the other probe off the other point.
- If you hear a beep or a buzz, there is an electric connection between the two points.
- If there is not an electric connection you will not hear a beep or a buzz and the display will give a reading of 0.

Uses For Continuity Testing

Continuity testing can help you test your soldered connections to see if they were soldered correctly. A beginner who is not experienced in visually detecting problems with a soldered joint can get frustrated very easily because a joint can look like its soldered correctly but there may be no electric connection. Using a multimeter can quickly help you find out if the soldered connection is good or not.  

This test can also help you determine if a wire is broken in the middle. I recently had a problem with a pair of earphones. By testing with a multimeter I could see that there was no electrical current flowing between the ear bud and the iPod connection and this told me that the wire was broken somewhere in the middle…probably my fault for leaving the iPod in the bottom of my bag!  

Another basic use for continuity testing is to test if a short circuit has been created. You can use the multimeter to confirm that two points are not electrically connected and that a short circuit does not exist.

Metasploit with backtrack -2

BackTrack is the most popular operating system for security professionals for two reasons. Firstly, it has all the popular penetration testing tools pre-installed in it so it reduces the cost of a separate installation. Secondly, it is a Linux-based operating system which makes it less prone to virus attacks and provides more stability during penetration testing. It saves your time from installing relevant components and tools and who knows when you may encounter an unknown error during the installation process

1. On booting the BackTrack OS, you will be asked to enter the username and password. The default username for the root user is root and the password is toor.

2. On successful login, you can either work over the command line or enter startx to enter in the GUI mode.

3. You can either start the Metasploit framework from the Applications menu or

from the command line. To launch Metasploit from the Applications menu go to

Applications | BackTrack | Exploitation Tools | Network Exploitation Tools |

Metasploit Framework

4. Metasploit follows a simple directory structure hierarchy where the root folder is pentest. The directory further branches to /exploits/framework3. To launch

Metasploit from the command line, launch the terminal and enter the following

command to move to the Metasploit directory:

root@bt:~# cd /pentest/exploits/framework3

root@bt:/pentest/exploits/framework3 ~# ./msfconsole

introduction to metasploit framework -1

Let us start with a quick introduction to the framework and the various terminologies related to Metasploit framework:

Metasploit framework: It is a free, open source penetration testing framework

started by H. D. Moore in 2003 which was later acquired by Rapid7. The current

stable versions of the framework are written using the Ruby language. It has

the world's largest database of tested exploits and receives more than a million

downloads every year. It is also one of the most complex projects built in Ruby

to date.

Vulnerability: It is a weakness which allows an attacker/pen-tester to break

into/compromise a system's security. This weakness can either exist in the

operating system, application software, or even in the network protocols.

Exploit: Exploit is a code which allows an attacker/tester to take advantage of

the vulnerable system and compromise its security. Every vulnerability has its

own corresponding exploit. Metasploit v4 has more than 700 exploits.

Payload: It is the actual code which does the work. It runs on the system after

exploitation. They are mostly used to set up a connection between the attacking

and the victim machine. Metasploit v4 has more than 250 payloads.

Module: Modules are the small building blocks of a complete system. Every module performs a specific task and a complete system is built up by combining several modules to function as a single unit. The biggest advantage of such an architecture is that it becomes easy for developers to integrate a new exploit code and tools into the framework.

50 Things You Didn't Know About XP

50 Things You Didn't Know About XP

1. You can rename several files at one time within Explorer. A long overdue feature, in my opinion. Super simple to do, too! Oh, I won't tell you how right now - I'll save that for an upcoming GnomeTIP.
2. The tiles view is there for getting quick picture dimensions. A godsend for those of us who work with the Web. When you select an image, its dimensions will also be displayed in the Status bar (if it's turned on).
3. Check out the Details view if you have a ton of similar files in the folder. In one glance, you can view the number of pages, bitrate, details, etc. Of course, it depends on what it is you're trying to view.
4. ClearType is a great reason to upgrade to XP. While it does have a noticeable impact on 2D performance, the view is spectacular. And it's not just for LCD screens, contrary to popular belief. Font smoothing is so twentieth century.
5. Your removable drives are automatically added to the SendTo menu. I can't figure out how to get them outta there, as I never really use my floppy or Zip drives.
6. EXIF support is built into the Explorer shell. This will allow you to see embedded information from untouched digital photos. Again, another awesome feature for shutterbugs.
7. Details view in MP3 folders is a must. It's very much like WiMP - in the sense that you can view all sorts of song details from within the Explorer window.
8. Being a neat freak, I appreciated the new 'Align to Grid' feature for the Windows desktop. Now I don't have to right-click and Arrange every time I move a stupid icon. Try as you might, you can't drag desktop icons off of the screen with this option turned on.
9. Man, you gotta play with the 'Show in Groups' Arrange option. It's truly neat, and depending on how you have the folder set up, it'll provide different sorting options (alphabetically by file type, general file type, etc.) Very, very cool.
10. When you see the shutdown dialog pop up, hold onto the SHIFT key if you wanna flip energy saving modes (from Suspend to Hibernate).
11. Just like WiMP will grab album images and lyrics from songs, it will also now grab cover shots and detailed information for your DVDs.
12. When you put in a CD with MP3s on it, XP will ask you what you want to do with it. It does the same (basic) thing when you insert a picture CD or plug in a digital camera. Very friendly.
13. Icons in the System Tray are now displayed in high color. It's about time! Oddly enough, when you configure the System Tray (by right-clicking on the Taskbar and selecting Properties), in the Notification area, someone forgot to update the old icons for Paint, Network, Calculator, etc. I get paid to notice these things, ya know.
14. ZIP file support is finally built into the OS. Yes, I know Millennium Edition had it, too. But I hate that OS.
15. No powertoys ship with the CD, although they will be available from Microsoft's site after October 25th. They are a MUST for any user, experienced or not. Super Fast User Switcher, PowerToy Calculator, Alt-Tab replacement, Virtual Desktop Manager, Photo Toys, TweakUI, Command Window Here, Slideshow generator, Magnifier, HTML Generator, and TimerShot.
16. ID3v2 is supported throughout the OS (in WiMP 8.0 as well as in the Explorer shell). To edit an MP3's information, pull up its properties and flip to the Summary tab.
17. You can store / save your current Theme to the My Documents folder. Send the niftier ones to your friends! On the surface, this feature appears to be backwards compatible with classic Desktop Themes.
18. I think I've rebooted this computer less than ten times, yet XP's boot process (from BIOS to desktop) is faster than it's ever been. Let me time the sucker. Hold on - this should only take a minute. I take that back! It took me 45 seconds to get back up and running again.
19. MSConfig is back, baby! Windows 2000 users will appreciate its return. Of course, X-Setup works just fine on XP, too.
20. In folders designated for pictures, the Tasks pane will give you an option to print them. Choose your images, layout, printer, etc. If you have a photo printer, this is a spectacular feature. If you choose not to work with the Tasks pane, you can simply open an image in the Windows Viewer and "print" from there to get to the same wizard.
21. You'd be surprised at how much alpha blending of icons improves the experience. No matter what wallpaper or background color you're using, they'll always look smooth. If you wanna XPify your icons, grab Microangelo.
22. SNTP / NTP time synchronization is now built into the Date and Time applet. With it, you can connect to any Internet time server. Never miss a meeting again!
23. When Explorer crashes, the icons are restored in the System Tray. Finally! I verified this the other day when I ran into that weird gray screen problem.
24. XP comes with a basic slideshow screen saver - perfect for showing off your recent vacation photos!
25. The Task Manager now has Networking performance indicators. Right-click on the Taskbar and select 'Task Manager' for more.
26. You can now turn off thumbnail caching to save disk space (via Folder Options). With TweakUI, you can change the default dimensions of the thumbnail images!
27. Internet Explorer now has built-in support for Google (as long as you're using the search assistant).
28. They finally updated the card "backs" in Solitaire. And considering how many people play it on a regular basis, it's a notable improvement.
29. Go directly to the Start Menu properties by right-clicking on the Start Button. Switch to the "classic" Start Menu if the new one annoys you. The "Highlight newly installed programs" feature is nice for download maniacs.
30. XP's movie maker truly sucks; you can't do ANYTHING with it. No transitions beyond a simple fade, no export options other than Windows Media, etc. Save your money and get a TRUE video editor. Better yet - use iMovie on the Mac. Just don't think you're gonna film a businessman flying around your neighborhood and wind up producing an award-winning film using Windows XP. It ain't gonna happen with this crapplet.
31. Microsoft's marketing campaign is a bit misleading; you can't play DVD movies without purchasing a third-party decoder first. And while MP3s can be played out of the box, ripping music into this audio format is possible only through (again) third-party software. I'll be going with Cyberlink, as I've always liked their products.
32. Even with XP's built-in Internet Connection Firewall features, Gnomies are still recommending Tiny Personal Firewall (freeware). Ian Lepko added: "When I enabled it and went to Steve Gibson's site, it passed every one of the tests perfectly!"
33. Most of you have heard about the automatic grouping of open applications in the Taskbar (when you have several instances running, Windows will put them under the same Taskbar button). However, here's something else I discovered: open Internet Explorer, then Notepad, then Internet Explorer again. Look at that! It puts the same apps next to each other, no matter the order in which they were opened.
34. Someone at Microsoft forgot to update the individual Administrative Tools and Offline Web Pages folder icons, They still be ugly. Under the "Customize" tab of the folder properties dialog, you can assign a different icon for each and every folder. Sweet!
35. The Windows help system has a wealth of new features. In one swoop, you can perform queries against the local database as well as the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Nice! Although, I don't think the MSKB integration is working yet. For one, it doesn't return any results on basic terms. Plus, it defaults to searching for Windows 2000 specific issues. Anyway, click the last icon in the toolbar (the document with a red checkmark in it). Tweak away!
36. The OS only comes with three Visual Styles - which are lame to begin with. The Plus! site may have more available in time, but who really knows? At least the folks at Stardock are offering an integrated version of WindowBlinds, which apparently runs more efficiently than Microsoft's code.
37. I thought it was rather shortsighted that XP doesn't allow you to associate WMA sounds to your events. I mean, they're shoving the format down your throat in every other application. Why not here, too? Anyway, system (default) sounds have received a much-needed upgrade. I love 'em!
38. In Windows 2000, you really couldn't make a boot disk. Sure, you could create a set of setup disks, but nothing like a simple boot floppy. Right click on the Floppy drive icon, select format, then place a checkmark in the 'Create an MS-DOS startup disk.' The MSDOS.SYS file contains 'W98EBD' - which leads me to believe that the files were taken from Windows 98. This won't do you much good if you have an NTFS drive.
39. When was the last time you forgot your password? Uh... don't forget it for Windows XP. At least, until you create a password recovery disk. Under Related Tasks in the User Accounts Control Panel applet, click Prevent a forgotten password.
40. The Kodak Imaging Application that came with other versions of Windows has been replaced by the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. It has a few built-in options, but you can't easily view the image at its full size. While this replacement is good enough, I miss the Kodak app already.
41. Brian Livingston won't upgrade to Windows XP. One of the reasons is because it doesn't support plug-ins. That's not true - it stopped supporting Netscape-style plug-ins, but Apple updated their QuickTime control within days of IE6's release. It's a moot point, dude. He's also quoted as saying: "Users can get a new Java download, but its 5MB size will discourage many." The first time you run Windows Update, it'll ask you to install Microsoft's JVM - which works just fine. You've downloaded MP3s larger than 5 megabytes, so what's the complaint?
42. Yes, you can hide inactive System Tray icons, but why on Earth didn't they line up the double-arrow indicators with those in the main Taskbar area?! Another oversight by the design team, I'm certain.
43. Window transparency works much better in XP than it ever did in 2000. Again, this speed difference could be attributed to the video driver being used. If you want an application to test your transparency, check out Metapad. I use it instead of Notepad, anyway.
44. Microsoft should have licensed Quicktime and RealMedia decoders. Every one of these companies wants to install their jukebox on my system. Bah! Humbug. At least they included the classic 6.4 player (accessible by entering MPLAYER2 on the Run command line).
45. Passport is all over the place in Windows XP. However, you don't have to sign up for a new e-mail account if you don't want to. Just use your current e-mail address and make a Passport password for it. Since I'm not sure what Microsoft plans on doing with Passport, I just used my secret Hotmail account. You can change this any time via the User Accounts applet in the Control Panel.
46. Managing file associations is a dream. Right-click on a file, locate the updated 'Open With' cascading menu (which now uses a program's default icon), then click 'Choose Program' if you wanna change how the file is opened. Plus, if you don't know what program to associate a file with, there's a nice hyperlink included in the dialog to take you to a helpful Microsoft Web page. Super easy, man.
47. The desktop properties dialog is extensive, but scattered. For instance, the Themes tab is the first you see, yet you have to flip to the Appearance tab in order to change how your interface works.
48. The volume mixer looks weird. Call me a stickler for details, but the Main play control is not the same width as the other controls. Not to mention, they didn't replace the yellow speaker icons for the other controls. And as if that wasn't enough, you can no longer tap ESC to quickly close the window. They should have left well enough alone.
49. Are you the type of person who notices speed increases (and decreases)? Well, as far as file operations are concerned, this is the snappiest version of Windows I've ever used on Oogie Boogie. In Windows 2000, I'd select a few files on the desktop, delete them, and then two seconds later, their icons would disappear. When I do the same thing in XP, the removal is immediate. Likewise, it takes far less time for me to open the Recycle Bin when it's filled with items now.
50. The default search "doggie" is annoying for power users; thank goodness the new TweakUI will allow you to easily switch back to the "classic" Windows 2000 search feature. I don't know if this is a bug I uncovered; when I browse for a folder when I'm doing a Search, it shows me two "My Documents" folders. They each have the same folder structure inside of them. I redirected the My Documents folder to my D drive, but that shouldn't have messed anything up.
51. "Fifty-one?! I thought this was only supposed to be a top 50 list?" Well, it is. I just added this note to encourage you to subscribe to any one of our newsletters for even more technology tips and tricks. Use the form you see right here: