Today, I had to change the boot configuration for the first time under Vista. It is a test computer where I have Vista and Windows Server 2008 installed. I wanted to replace a Vista x86 installation with Vista x64, so I deleted the corresponding partition and created a new one. After I installed Vista x64, the Windows Server 2008 installation vanished from the boot menu. That was not very smart of Vista setup, but okay, it is not a big deal to add the entry again, or so I thought. With Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, I would just have edited the boot.ini, which I had done countless times before. Thus, I thought, it shouldn’t be a big deal to use bcdedit this time.

Well, after launching bcdedit /? on the command prompt, I wasn’t able to figure out immediately how to get the job done. I was in a hurry and didn’t have the nerves to study the help file, or even read the documentation to accomplish such a simple task, so I googled for GUI + Vista + boot.ini and found VistaBootPro. Search, download and installation cost me about 10 seconds. I needed another 5 seconds to add the entry of my Server 2008 installation to the boot configuration.

I do not know how long I would have needed to figure out the syntax of bcdedit, but I am quite sure it would have cost me much more time. Maybe I could have used this information again in a couple of months, but I am quite sure that I would have forgotten the syntax of bcdedit by then. Therefore, I suppose I will solve a similar problem in the future the same way I did today.

I described this incident in detail because I think it is a good example of the general weakness of command line tools. I have been complaining several times before about Microsoft’s new philosophy to count more on command line tools lately. It is okay to extend Windows with new commands, but this should not happen at the cost of GUI tools. Instead of ranting again against the CLI, I could have described VistaBootPro in this post. However, I think there is not much to describe; just launch it and use it.

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Vista has a couple of features that improve its manageability, such as the ability to restrict access to external media devices, easy deployment of printer drivers and, most noteworthy, the image-based installation. However, myriad third-party tools also offer those features for Windows XP. That’s why moving to Vista provides little or no ROI from a systems management perspective.

You can find this line of argument in several other parts of the article. The Vista features that are worth mentioning are also available for XP from third-party vendors. Two counterarguments refute Kennedy’s claims. First of all, third-party tools usually don’t come for free, at least not for corporate environments. Second, it usually costs manpower to deploy them. Of course, if you already have all the software you need, then Kennedy’ argument is valid. However, next time you pay the yearly license fees for your third-party tools, you might also take into account that you could have had those features for free, if only you had already deployed Vista.

My main critique, however, is that my view, this article hopelessly underestimates those new imaging capabilities. They are indeed Vista’s only killer feature for organizations. I blogged about the technical background of Vista’s new cloning capabilities almost two years ago. I think the reason that many neglect the importance of this feature is because it is difficult to understand that benefiting from it requires completely changing ones deployment techniques. Most IT shops have sophisticated deployment methods, which typically rely on unattended installations.

If you fully embrace Vista’s imaging technology, you can often do without scripting, and even software deployment is obsolete in many cases. The fact that you now can create images in a virtual environment is an enormous timesaver by itself. You can add any kind of setting or software to your master image within minutes, then press a button and all machines will have the new configuration including all applications. You have a PC that has a problem and you didn’t find its cause immediately? Just press a button to deploy the latest OS image, and this PC is like new within minutes.

Of course, that might imply that you have to change a lot in your overall infrastructure. For example, you have to ensure that end users can store data only in their user profiles, you have to work with roaming user profiles, you have to invest some time getting acquainted with Wake-on-LAN and, depending on your organization’s size, you might need third party software that fully supports Vista’s image-based deployment, and so on. But I think that once you master all these obstacles, you will save much time in the future.

We already worked like this to a certain degree with Windows XP. The main problem with XP is that the number of different images you need tends to skyrocket if you have different kinds of hardware in your network. No third party tool can really help you with this problem. XP was just not designed for imaging. The creation of new images is also quite complicated because you have to work on real hardware. Creating new Vista images with a tool such as VMware Workstation is much more convenient because you can work with snapshots, clone images within seconds, manage a whole library of different configurations, etc.

I believe that it will take quite some time for Vista’s new imaging technology to receive the praise it deserves. The philosophy behind imaging-based desktop management is quite different from the traditional approach. Many IT administrators have to forget most of what they have learned about OS and software deployment. Those organizations that already have worked with imaging technology will adopt the new approach faster than those who swear by unattended installations.

So, yes, Vista will certainly provide ROI when it comes to systems management. But only if you are ready to invest some time to learn what image-based deployment really means.

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Task Scheduler:

Windows Vista’s Task Scheduler has some interesting new features. You can now launch tasks when specific events occur like insufficient disk space or if a user locks/unlocks the workstation or if the computer is in idle mode. Another nice feature is that tasks can be run in sequence. This prevents tasks from running simultaneously. And the credentials under which the task will be running can be stored in Active Directory now.

Windows Remote Management (WinRM):

WinRM is Microsoft’s implementation of the WS-Management standard, a web services-based (SOAP) protocol developed by some hardware and software vendors for sending and receiving management data to computer devices. Using WinRM you can remotely run scripts to perform all kinds of management tasks. WinRM is also available for Windows Server 2003. Microsoft Technet has a detailed introduction into WinRM. If you didn’t understand my short description you might have a look at this post at ANTIMAIL. In the middle of this text, you’ll find a simple example. It describes the use of WinRM to get information about the Spooler service.

Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0:

MMC is a framework used by most of Microsoft’s management tools. If you are system administrator, you probably know that many administration tools are snap-ins for the MMC. MMC 3.0 got some new features in Windows Vista. For one, you can now run multiple tasks in parallel. So if one task is not responding because it didn’t finish (or it simply hangs) you can go ahead with other tasks. Second, there is a separate Action Pane which gives you information about the object you want to manage. Third, adding snap-ins is easier now. Techrepublic has some screenshots.

Windows Installer 4.0:

Windows Installer is a Windows component which is used by most software vendors to install, update and remove programs. Thus the new features in Windows Installer 4.0 will affect most of the software installations. Microsoft says that it will be less likely that adding and removing programs will require a reboot. Windows Installer is able to restart applications which are in use, restoring their state after the installation. This is possible even if the computer has to reboot.

New command line tools:

Windows Vista has bunch of new useful command line tools. Computer Bits has a list of the new tools in Windows Vista Beta 2 with a short description of each.

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Diagnostics

Vista has several diagnostics tools which can detect problems and help users solve them. Such problems could be failing hard disks, faulty RAM modules, degraded performance or lack of network connectivity. Mitch Tulloch discussed some of the tools. Microsoft has a white paper about this topic.

Performance Diagnostic Console

This new tool includes the performance monitor which you probably know already from XP and it gives you an overview of the computer’s resources. There is a new interesting feature called Reliability Monitor. It allows you to keep track of the system stability by calculating a reliability index.

To start the Performance Diagnostic Console in Windows Vista Beta 2 you have to enter “perfmon” on a command prompt. You can check out this introduction and this step-by-step-guide from Microsoft.

Event Viewer

This utility got a major overhaul; most importantly is its event forwarding feature, i.e. the capability to centrally manage multiple event logs from different computers and to run queries across multiple logs. This article at Windows Networking goes into details and has some nice screenshots.

Group Policies

Windows XP SP2 supports about 1,500 Group Policy settings, Windows Vista has 3,000. Some of the new settings are related to new Vista features, for example, Bit Defender, some bring more control over the operating system. For instance, you can now remotely control USB devices using Group Policies.

Another major improvement is the network awareness of Group Policies. In Windows XP, Group Polices were only refreshed after reboots, when the user logged in or in periodic intervals. Now, they are refreshed whenever a network connection is detected.

New is also that replacement of ADM files by ADMX files. The “X” stands for XML. I’ve read that it is now easier to create templates for Group Polices.

Windows Vista will include the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) which can be downloaded already for a while.

I can recommend the articles at eWeek and WindowsSecurity.com for more information. You can also read this white paper at Microsoft Technet.

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