Submitted by Steve Schimmel – Blog: NetWrix

Logon auditing is one of the biggest priorities for most organizations because it provides clear visibility into user activity and required by most security standards and compliance regulations. Tracking and analysis of both successful and failed (invalid) logon and logoff events across an entire network can be very complicated with built-in Active Directory tools.

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RegScanner is another nifty NirSoft tool that allows you to search the Windows Registry more conveniently than with the built-in regedit utility. The main difference is that RegScanner’s displays all found entries immediately and you don’t have to jump from hit to hit. This display method is much more efficient than regedit’s, particularly if RegScanner finds many entries for your search term, because you can skim quickly over the search results without having to press the F3 key until your fingers go numb.

Search Windows Registry

Perhaps even more interesting is that RegScanner offers some very useful search options. For instance, you can limit your search to keys that were modified within a certain time range. This is helpful if you installed a program recently and you only want to find Registry keys that belong to this program.

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This article describes how you can turn Windows Server 2008 R2 into a workstation. You may wonder now, why anyone would prefer Windows Server 2008 R2 instead of Windows 7 on their workstation. Although Microsoft doesn’t recommend using Windows Server 2008 R2 as a workstation OS, there are many good reasons to do so:

For me, the biggest advantage is that I can run HyperV on it. There are many virtualization products that run under Windows 7, but none of them runs as smoothly and as seamlessly as HyperV does. With almost any of those products, I ran into stability, performance, or manageability issues.

Besides that, I see configurations where people run Windows 7 and a virtualized Windows Server 2008 R2 on their workstation. Very often, this Server has only a single limited task; e.g., delivering AD services, run SharePoint, etc. If they would use Windows Server 2008 R2 instead of Windows 7, there would be no need to have a virtualization environment at all. The spare resources could be used elsewhere.

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A while back I reviewed WuInstall Pro, a patch management tool that allows you to push Windows updates to client computers. The publisher of the command line tool hs2n has added an important new feature, which I will discuss in this post.

One of the disadvantages of WSUS is that clients can only pull updates. With WuInstall , you can push urgent updates to clients at your convenience. This lets you control exactly when Windows clients and servers receive specific updates.

Actually, WuInstall also pulls the updates from a WSUS server or Windows Update. However, since the updates are installed whenever you run the command on a client, you can write a script that centrally forces machines to download and install updates immediately. Thus, essentially, you can push Windows updates to clients with WuInstall.

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BitLocker to Go is a new feature in Windows 7 that encrypts data on USB sticks or flash cards. So whenever you lose an USB stick with sensitive data on it, you can be sure that nobody can read the data. However, one downside of BitLocker to Go is that there is no version for other operating systems, like Windows XP. This somehow contradicts the function of BitLocker to Go, because many people use USB sticks to transfer data between different computers. However, those computers may run on different operating systems, e.g. Windows XP, and because of the limitation of BitLocker to Go in Windows 7, you are not able to transfer the data to these PCs.

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The SysKey utility, also called the SAM lock tool, is a built-in Windows tool that allows you to secure the Security Accounts Management (SAM) Database. It can be helpful for preventing hackers from cracking Windows passwords, and it is also a way to stop some cleaning lady cracks.

I will first show you what you can do with the SysKey utility and then discuss how much extra security SysKey protection really brings.

The SAM database is part of the Windows Registry and stores information about user accounts such as user names and password hashes. The corresponding Registry file is located in c:\windows\system32\config. Since Windows NT 4 SP3, the SAM file is partly encrypted. The SysKey utility allows you to move the SAM encryption key off the computer and/or configure a startup password.

Using the SysKey utility

To launch the SysKey utility, type “syskey” at the Start Search prompt of Windows Vista or Windows 7, or use the “run” option of the Windows XP Start Menu.

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I think the Kon-Boot “hack tool” demonstrates perfectly that hacking a Windows machine can easily be performed by a cleaning lady if she has been equipped with the right boot CD. In only a few seconds, she could create a new account with admin privileges. The good woman doesn’t even have to stop shoving her vacuum cleaner around while performing this hack, bypassing all your firewalls, antivirus programs, monitoring solutions, and intrusion detection systems.

Why would a cleaning lady be interested in hacking your computers, you might wonder? Well, your company simply doesn’t pay her enough to resist the generous offer of the nice guy with the thick glasses who explained to her so patiently how to insert the CD. After all, it can’t be that bad to just turn on a computer for a few seconds. Even her vacuum cleaner consumes more power. She probably doesn’t know that the nearsighted young man works for one of those fast-growing industrial espionage syndicates that has been hired by one of your company’s competitors from far east (or far west).

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Microsoft currently offers a beta version of the Microsoft Fix it Center. This application has one purpose: It should automatically fix some computer problems and support the user in finding a solution for those problems it can’t solve. As every administrator knows, fixing hardware or software problems can take up a lot of time. So having a tool that automatically fixes various problems would be any administrator’s heaven. But is the Microsoft Fix it Center really a ticket to heaven?

First you have to download it here. During setup, the tool checks your software and hardware configuration. Depending on this configuration it offers to install different so-called troubleshooters. After you choose which of these troubleshooters to install, you are asked if you want to create an online account. (The benefit of having an online account is that you have access to Fix it Center Online.) Here is a picture of the Troubleshooters that were selected for my system:

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In this article, I describe 12 ways for resetting the administrator password on Windows 7, Vista, or Windows XP. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Make sure you use the right procedure for your situation.

If you forgot the admin password and have no other account with administrator rights, things can get tricky. The methods and free tools explained here can reset the Windows password for all Windows versions—that is, for Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008 R2. In this article I only talk about the Windows client editions, but the methods also work for the corresponding server versions. The methods described here are not for resetting lost domain administrator passwords.

As system administrator, you are usually confronted with this problem if users have admin rights on their machines. Even if you don’t have to reset a password now, you should get acquainted with this issue. Rest assured that sooner or later a user will bug you with this problem. I must admit that I managed to forget my password more than once.

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