Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

Alun Jones of WFTPD fame pointed out a very curious problem with Windows Mobile Device Center (WcesComm):

If you run WMDC under Vista, you will no longer be able to run a FTPS server on the default FTPS port, which is properly registered as a reserved port for FTP SSL since October 1998.

For some reason, Windows Mobile 2003 uses this port with ActiveSync/WMDC.

If you have a Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows Mobile 6.0, you could probably just disable the 'Windows Mobile-2003-based device connectivity' service under Vista and the port 990 reservation goes away. I haven't tested it personally because I typically don't run FTPS on my Vista laptop.

8 new/changed Windows Live categories available to WSUS servers soon
Windows Live
Messenger Installation and Upgrades
Photo Gallery Installation and Upgrades
Mail Installation and Upgrades
Writer Installation and Upgrades
OneCare Family Safety Installation
Sign-in Assistant Installation and Upgrades
Toolbar Installation and Upgrades

Read more about it here for more details.

A very technical but very informative article on finding out who deleted a file or folder in a FRS or DFS-R environment.

Three things I took away from this article

#1: Audit information is very important for tracking this kind of activity. It is pointless to try to determine who deleted the file if there is no tracking information to dig through.

#2: Most of the information needed from DFS-R is available through WMI. FRS requires additional programs. Yet another reason to move away from FRS and recreate your replicas in DFS-R.

#3: Pre-Vista operating systems have a 300MB event log size limitation.

Use this link here.
Originally spotted here.
Note to Microsoft: This should be easier to find on your websites.

If you've never used it before, think of it like Task Manager on steroids, without the roid rage.

Changes in v11 (Vista items bolded)
New treelist control for better UI responsiveness
Asynchronous thread symbol resolution on threads tab of process properties
More flags on groups in security tab and SID display
Thread IDs on threads tab
On-line search uses default web browser and search engine
Vista ASLR column for processes and DLLs
Vista Process and thread I/O and memory priorities in process and thread properties
Vista Process and thread I/O and memory columns
PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION support on process permissions on Vista
Run as limited user runs with low IL on Vista
Reports information for all object types on Vista
Show details for all processes elevation menu item on Vista
Supports replacement of task manager on Vista
/e to launch elevated
/s switch to select a process at startup
Compiled w/ASLR, DEP
Faster startup
Miscellaneous bug fixes and minor improvements

Check it out here.

Update: Michael Wallendahl pointed out my error - I was calling the program Process Monitor when it is actually Process Explorer. I have a bad habit of switching the two. Thanks!

Found this very handy post on the VMWare forums which helped me out quite a bit with my experimental Fedora Rawhide/"FC 8 Test" virtual machines.

Steps involved:
1. Download the latest kernel sources from kernel.org
2. Download and apply the VMWare any any 113+ patch.
3. Extract the kernel sources.
4. (64-bit only) Apply the patch from the message post to revert a commit that broke 64-bit systems.

A good document on how to include "self-signed" drivers into an offline image for Vista and/or Windows 2008.

Why is this handy? Primarily for anyone doing BDD (Business Desktop Deployment), and/or someone that is getting tired of fighting 64-bit Windows unsigned driver issues and needs to roll out multiple machines before properly signed drivers are available.

The basic rundown:

Step 1: Export the registry entries that correspond to a test certificate
Step 2: Edit the exported test certificate .reg file
Step 3: Test sign the drivers
Step 4: Install Windows, and then insert the test-signed drivers and the test certificate

For the complete instructions, go here.

A good link to keep bookmarked in case you get cornered by a customer interested in Vista but needs to know what VPN clients work today.

Most surprising/disappointing is that there is no 64-bit Cisco VPN client planned for IP Sec VPNs (anything older than Cisco ASAs)