MSOZACADEMICSo as Microsoft was kind enough to give delegates to the Heroes Happen {2008} events a copy of Windows Server 2008 and I have been in the market to build a new server, I figured this is the perfect oppurtunity.
I’ve decided to log my progress here, including getting some feedback as the best way to go.
WA MSPs Oren, Daniel and Luke joined the Microsoft Crew for Heroes Happen {2008} at the Perth Convention Centre today!
The event was to launch three major Microsoft products, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.
Following the Keynote were individual tracks for each product detailing the new features and technical aspects of each. It was very informative, and the new features look awesome.
Each delegate got a pack of goodies, including a full version of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise.
If you go to Curtin or UWA and would like a free 90-day trial DVD of Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite please contact us and we’ll organise you a copy.
More pictures of the event can be found on flickr.
If you want to register or be notified of Microsoft events like this in the future checkout this link.
The Disclaimer:
The following tip is a small no-no on a development / home machine but a huge one on, say, a production server.
Some Background:
In Vista and up (Server 2008 etc) there are three desktops available at any one time:
Funnily enough it is quite easy (given administrator permissions) to launch windows on both the System and the Login desktop, but more on that in a later post.
The Problem
The UAC (User Account Control) prompt actually launches on the System desktop for security reasons (programs running on one desktop can’t interact with programs on another desktop, thus reducing the chances of a program that automatically clicks “Allow” on UAC prompts). It firsts grabs a screen shot of the current desktop, applies the grey alpha and then pops up the window – all of which can take a bit of time, depending on the available resources on your computer.
The Workaround
Luckily there is a handy way to tell Windows to launch UAC prompts on the current desktop, meaning it only pops up the UAC prompt, without incurring extra penalties. Here’s how:
Why Not Just Disable UAC?
Let’s face it – UAC under Vista was in your face annoying. Now that SP1 is out in the wild though, the amount of prompts has been drastically reduced (just try creating a directory in an area requiring elevation and notice that there is only one dialog, down from three!) and UAC can get on doing what it does best – protecting you from malware.
On a single person machine, where you don’t have to worry about multiple users accessing things they shouldn’t touch, the main concern is malware. A malicious piece of software will not be able to execute anything requiring elevation without your say so – and with the lower amount of prompts, if Word suddenly starts requiring elevation you know something is wrong.
As Above, but for the Anti-UAC *nix Geek
UAC is sudo. You would never run your *nix box as root so why run your Win* box as administrator?
Does This Disable UAC?
No. It may seem as though this makes it way easier for any malware to click a button, but the UAC prompt is still a secure UI element. For an automated piece of software to click on it, it requires UI access via the exe’s embedded manifest (more on that later when we tackle writing UI Automation which needs to handle UAC) and a valid digital signature. To run, the automated software itself would require elevation – and you have already elevated a piece of malware, then it already has full access to the system anyway (it can just load a kernel driver and start mucking around in kernel space which you have no control over but has full control over you).
So to keep it basic: this will still give you 99% of the security that the previous UAC prompt gave you (just without the pretty graphics) and if you make sure to never elevate a process you aren’t sure requires elevation you will be fine.
Notes
Unlike fully disabling UAC, there will be no security centre warning messages when you disable this prompt – just a speed up.
