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After days of research and trial / error I was able to get my WD TV Live HD Media Player to see my network shares on Windows 7 Ultimate x64. Sorry about the pops in the audio. My wireless mic was about dead. I’ll rerecord the audio later. ANONYMOUS LOGIN TO ON On the WD TV Live go into Network Settings and verify Auto login to network share – On. Clear the login information once you’ve done that then hank the power, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in. If this does not resolve the log in screen issue proceed to the registry fix below. The fix works on Vista as well. REGISTRY FIX TO ADD ANONYMOUS TO EVERYONE GROUP 1. Navigate to the following in the registry editor. MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\ 2. On the right side, double-click on ‘everyoneincludesanonymous’ and change the ‘Value data’ from ’0′ to ’1′ 3. Double-click on ‘NoLmHash’ and change the ‘Value data’ from ’1′ to ’0′ 4. Navigate to the following in the registry editor: MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer \Parameters 5. Double-click on ‘restrictnullsessaccess’ and change the ‘Value data’ from ’1′ to ’0′ SCREEN SHOT FOR PERMISSIONS knoxcompguy.com

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I tried downloading both Windows 7 and Vista on the system, but it lags a lot. With windows xp it runs like a dream.

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What is an Operating System? A good answer would be “A set of programs that provide a GUI to interact with various devices in a computer”. This definition would hold good until a few years back, when an operating system is just a few icons and menus that you see when you switch on your computer. Operating systems provided file and device management using a Basic GUI. But with the development of computers, operating systems also evolved a lot. From simple file and device management solution, modern day operating systems should be stable and secure the data stored on a computer. The data stored on a computer can be anything from music, movies and photos to data that you have generated and stored in different files. It takes only a small virus, a power surge or a device failure to destroy data. Today’s operating systems try to anticipate such scenarios and issue warning messages and take pro-active steps to minimize the data loss. I would talk about Windows XP and Windows Vista because 80% of computers run on Windows Operating system and Windows Vista is an upgrade to Windows XP. Windows XP has been around for 8 years now and in considered one of the best operating systems released by Microsoft. When Windows XP was released it was considered a resource hogger. Windows XP required 128 MB of RAM to run smoothly. And there are many complaints from long installation times to frequent crashes. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 and things changed. Most of the security holes are fixed and Windows XP became stable. Windows XP was built to give a better user experience by easy installation and plug & play capability. After a few years with XP, internet threats have grown and Microsoft started bundling Anti-spyware products along with Windows XP. This didn’t help much, and since Windows XP is the most used, hackers tried to find ways to break into Windows XP systems. This triggered the need for a more secure operating system and there came Windows Vista into picture. Some of the problems with Windows XP are that password protection is not secure enough, users can use Bootable live CD’s like miniPE or Road Starter to bypass Passwords and access the file system. The other major issue is Internet Explorer 6 which is the number one target for hackers. By exploiting the security homes in IE6 hackers can take control of IE and hence the Windows XP box. And last but not least, when you try to search for a file under Windows XP, you have a terribly slow search tool. Now its Windows Vista which is structurally more robust and is much more visually appealing. Vista comes with Encrypted File System (EFS) which takes care of file level security. Vista allows one to encode an entire partition or hard disk with just a few clicks. In Windows Vista Internet Explorer runs with restricted permission. If a malicious piece of code enters the system through the browser it cannot do much harm, since Vista simply refuses to permit to run it. File Searching has improved a lot with Vista. But 2 of the night mares with Vista are getting your old hardware running and the annoying popup prompting you to allow or block any action you have performed.

Section 1: Security Development Lifecycle

The Security Development Lifecycle technique or SDL is a professional process that helps for making sure that the software are built from the

base to reduce security risk. The SDL implements a professional process of secure design, coding, implementing, testing, review and response for all Microsoft products specific windows Vista .The SDL removes the surface area for attacks, improves operating system and

application be bugless, and helps organizations high securely management and isolate the network.

We can say that The Windows Vista is the first client operating system to be Designed and developed from the first step to finish using SDL.More than 1,000 threat models were developed for Windows Vista to ensure identification and reduse of risks in different parts of the

operating system that required especial testing.

Section 2: Kernel Patch

The most important security issue is out “operating system kernel”. These rootkits are usually very useful for unwanted software, like

spywares. Kernel patch Protection of rootkits can reduce the Risk and increase stability, reliability and performance in the system, include All User data and programs.

Handling of these problems were very difficult before, because 32-bit Windows drivers like windows XP are not identified and compatible

with digital signature and It has Unsupported and poor kernel.Windows 32-bit security products that provide blocking action capabilities modify the kernel through unsupported techniques .

Although the computer system moves from 32-bit to a 64-bit architecture but the smaller installed base of 64-bit software makes it

possible to making significant enhancements for security in the kernel and reduce the potential for rootkits .

What is Kernel Patching?

Kernel patching is the practice or trying for using unsupported methods or features to change or replace of kernel code. Kernel patching can

have different result in behavior during system instability and performance errors and problems such as the Blue Screen error that we know it can reach to lost user data. another issue that is very important in kernel patching is increase the mechanism versus malware developers and attackers for Windows Vista Operating system.

The biggest risk in kernel patching is about virus and spyware writers that use this technique with malicious for hiding their presence and

effects.

Of course Malware authors are motivated for patching the kernel because That’s a powerful and great mechanism for attacking the computers and data. What is Kernel Patch Protection?

There are many features of security in Windows Vista. But I want to emphasize Kernel Patch Protection is not one of them. I mean Kernel

Patch Protection created in x64 CPU architecture versions and Microsoft used it in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows XP Professional. but it not supported in x86 architectures or 32-bit systems. With increasing of using of 64-bit computers, The

Vista users will see more benefit from this technology. Actually Kernel Patch Protection monitors and looks if any resources used by the kernel or probably kernel code has been changed or modified by itself. Fortunately If windows vista detects or feels any unauthorized patch of data or code it will shut down the system

automatically. But we should consider that the Kernel Patch Protection can not prevent all viruses and malware . It can prevent one way versus attackers to system.

Section 3: Encrypting File System improvement:

We can say that The Encrypting File System or EFS is best tool for encryption of files in client and server computer. It helps users to protect their data from Unreal and unauthorized access by other person or computer or external attackers. In Windows Vista EFS includes many new security techniques and features.In Vista, EFS Technique supports “user keys storing” and also administrative keys on the smart cards. If smart card uses for login, EFS will operates in a Sign On mode, where it uses the login smart card for file encryption without require for the PIN. In windows vista through the process of creating and setting smart card keys performs their files from an old smart card to the new smart card . The utility program for smart card has these features as well.

EFS is available in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate.

Section 4: USB Device and Removable Devices Control:

As we know , connecting between Devices with computer is very usual in these days and users should have the ability to add new hardware to

the computer or use USB Devices or another removable storage devices.It can create two problems in system: First it may make harder

to maintain the computer when we install any unsupported device, and second it can create threats to data security as well. with a USB

Device or removable storage, with “autorun” technique can use by an attacker to install malwares or any malicious software on an

unattended system.

Fortunately Windows Vista manages or blocks the installation of unsupported or unauthorized parts or devices. These security configuration can applied independently on a client computer, or in

numbers of systems in a network. Administrator has a lot of power for setting these policies and controls in Windows vista. We can say that

The Group Policy settings are available special for manage and control for reading and writing action in removable storage devices like USB

Devices as a per user or per system base.

Section 5 : Windows Defender

As we know in these years spyware and other unwanted software like adware, bots and rootkits create big problems for systems and users.The progress of job for these type of software is Usually they installed without a user’s knowledge or confirmation and they can damage or corrupt personal information and passwords and send them

to third parties without the user’s permission.

Microsoft Knows that it is very important for users to use anti-spyware protection in system. As customer choice, Microsoft supports users for

having choice about what program install and run on their computer or from where it came or what it does and how we can to remove that.Based on these discuses and users complains about spyware, Microsoft decided to create and use anti-spyware solution or Windows Defender in Windows Vista. In fact Windows Defender will help for protection

and remove spywares, adwares, rootkits, control utilities and such these things that we call “malware.” In Windows Vista, Windows Defender helps us for protection of unwanted application and software installation. It prompts and monitors different aspects of OS when feels it abused by malware , like the Startup folder in windows and the registry file. If any software to

attempt for changing to one of the protected areas of the Vista , Windows Defender prompts and appeara a message the user for allow or reject that changes.Good news , Windows Defender is available as a free download plug ins for licensed customers of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Section 6 : Windows Firewall

Most of Windows XP users used from Firewall. A firewall is a critical first line for defense versus huge kinds of malware before they can

enter to user’s computer or our network.

When Microsoft XP released in the first version of that the built-in firewall be turned off by default. The reason was because of compatibility with some applications or probably third-party firewalls. Based on that Microsoft released the Windows XP with the disabled

firewall by default. Naturally , a lot of customers and users did not get any benefit from firewall protection whenever any network worms

arrived to their computer.

Windows Vista Firewall

Base on this experience and for prevent of such events, naturally the firewall in Windows Vista should be on as a default and also compatible with another software. because of that the Customers who want to use a third-party firewall can turn off the built-in firewall easily.

It means the firewall in Windows Vista will turn on by default at the beginning when Windows starts for user protection. Another issue is

that The Windows Firewall in Windows Vista also allows the administrator of network or single system to block some applications as a peer-to-peer sharing softwares or instant messaging softwares that usually nobody like them.

Section

7: Protecting the Kernel of Windows in 32-Bit vs. 64-Bit

Microsoft as a designer and developer of Windows vista tried the best for create more reliable and more secure product from attacks. In fact in basic level, It means that the design and development of kernel mode code in Windows Vista

needs to have a security-focused design and development, and then test and release. As I Mentioned Microsoft has been started this Method since 2002 Under Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) progress. The Microsoft development team had an important and clear goal for improving the reliability and security in new product . As a producer It has a risk because of application

compatibility should considered in during security platform. In 32-bit windows mostly Windows XP there is , over time, third-party

developers used unsupported in a lot of applications that used by users. Actually to simply using unsupported and undocumented interfaces , there is a technique that called “kernel patching” . I emphasize here that kernel instructions and data structures are responsible directly for manipulating to

modify , change and control of system behavior.

Windows 32-Bit Architecture in Kernel and User Mode .This technique is very useful for prevent with malwares but even without malwares the using of this technique can introduce instability and stability in the system.Advantage of supported interface is that If this kind of interface is used,and changed the developers are informed about that From Microsoft documents and he/she can update their code for handle the changes. In other hand , the changes to undocumented and unsupported interfaces can not tracked and will

reach to crashes or other unexpected problems and effects when the kernel patching technique is used. Unsupported patching techniques usually will patch the undocumented kernel interfaces and naturally without introducing this side it

can reduce security in the system. When some Software and Program packages try to chain together to using of unsupported patching techniques these issues will be important. for example, Some times the order of calls from a package to next package is undefined, the

same as its behavior when we want remove one package from that chain. This kind of problem is too complex and it can lead to other subtle problems that are very difficult to diagnose and mostly it happen frequently. Although , these

techniques will be bad computer science and techniques practice, and we can say it does not support most of computer science engineering disciplines.With malicious or malwares , rootkits can be much more dangerous, because of

allowing malicious program for hiding and protecting itself while controlling and monitoring all user, as well as controlling access and performing to all software, files, and connecting to network and even hardware. These activities of malwares can do to online theft for passwords of banks or IDs.Unfortunately, making compact or zip for kernel of 32-bit systems would have a risk for some attack techniques. but for reduce this compressing and risk rate Microsoft decided to implement and improve these changes in 64-bit Windows. Because of that we have “clean start” state in Vista with native 64-bit drivers and all software adapted to these changes.

Section 8: What was Vista security holes?

As we heard Kaspersky Anti Virus Company is one of the best company for prevent of Malwares and Viruses in these days. Their experts Labs have

predicted more that 90% of current and distributed of malware will run on Windows Vista.

We believe now that Vista appears to be much more secure than previous Windows XP but The researchers warned to Microsoft and users that as Vista becomes more popular in these days and it should increase protection of kernel vs hackers.

As we know the first pieces and parts of any operating system would be attacked by attackers .It should be PatchGuard that protects the Vista kernel that we talked about that.

Although the first thing as a aim can be the technology that it take access to the

kernel of operating system more difficult.

PatchGuard as we said or kernel protection tries to prevent or protect the Vista

kernel from illegal access and unauthorised user or softwares. It can lock the system completely if it detects any risky patch or code.

Unfortunately Some hackers could try to install malware to the kernel of vista in the test stage by using new method. Actually as a drivers they ran their software in kernel space of vista.

Section 9 : New Security vs. Convenience Usability

Sometimes with appearance of new features some of advantages will be lose.in fact One of the basic issue in security designing is keeping fair between security and usability. We can say If the security is too complex, then usable simply will

be gone. If a feature offers very good level of security protection level , if it is much more complex or it has poor design of usability it will be disabled by users or administrator of systems. When microsoft engineers and designers underestood that Windows Vista is very secure , they tried to create security capabilities and they enabled by default for usable enough for users for prevent of inconvinience. It’s great when you know the risks decrease by adding new security features and you can use as well as before or may be appear easier to use .

That was very hard and expert balance that you know How many softwares or applications will be need harder security and how many users wants to turn off security feature if their usability comes down?One of the great new thing in Windows Vista is User Account Control or UAC. In fact UAC is a “standard user that works” or “non-administrative user that can actually do things.” For doing some things such as change the local time zone on the windows XP , you had to have local administrator level. It means we can

say everyone did a login account to system he or she was a member of the local administrators level.

But in Windows Vista, one of the main goal of User Account Control was to protect users from attack of malware or another users. To achieve that goals for Vista, they defined a standard user for all end-user that they wanted to get their changing , but for protect some user that they really need to be an administrator

from something bad and risky. Totally The primary aim of microsoft was to protect the system from user with malicious and some users that they want to illegal access.

Section 10: Windows Defender

For that When you want to see the usability of vista ,The first thing may be that the system asked too frequently for permission. Microsoft before release of vista also worked and contacted with application and software vendors to making sure that they do not require elevation and verificatin from administrators side except whenever it is necessary.

Another example for comparing convenience versus security is the policy and strategy for enabling Data Execution Prevention or DEP in Vista. In fact DEP treats data as data even code as code, and then it blocks execution stage. The

benefit of this is it allows the data buffer to be overrun with DEP, so it is harder for attacker to execute the malware codes that was placed already in the data buffer . DEP is turned on in vista by default for the kernel Mode and it is a

excellent technique for protecting parts in the system mostly Internet Explorer. The problem is that it turns out that a third-party add-ons that generate a dynamically code and store that code in the data buffer and there is no way for

DEP to diagnose between this add-ons and malware. It mean we have more security or we can select application compatibility issues.

Conclusion:

Windows Vista can make our job easier and more secure our system. If we are a systems engineer or expert , surely we will find it nearly for develop to high level secure client platform. For nonprofessional users I think there is a little

problem for using windows vista just for unsupported some programs that they probably need and some hardware as well. From security point of view with these terms that I explained , windows vista is really one big successfully for

microsoft. Because with using of Security Development Life Cycle, Kernel Patch Protection , Encrypting File System, Preparing security for USB and Removable Device, Windows Defender ,Windows Firewall and a lot of

techniques that microsoft never pulished that it’s too hard attacking and cracking

and any abuse of probably holes in this product.I recommend to everyone for installing from today and enjoy from the latest operating system in the world.

Windows Xp Professional – a Complete Summary (contd.)

Sharing Resources:

Windows XP as a network operating system it needs to share its resources on the network. Sharing in Windows XP enables us to share folders and printers. By default out of the box Windows XP totally disables inbound connections. The first time you share a file or folder you will be asked to run the network setup wizard or if you know what you are doing then you can just turn on sharing. The first thing you need is do is to turn off simple file sharing in the folder options. One big trick which Microsoft does not tell you is that when you turn on network sharing all inbound connections are made as guests. So turning on network sharing turns the guest account on its own. Another issue is that all users with blank passwords cannot connect to your system. So if you as an administrator turn off the guest account then the users connecting to your machine must have an account setup on your local machine and also a password. Enabling sharing can be right clicking the file you want to share and go to properties and choose either network setup wizard or just enable file sharing. Microsoft actually changes your local security policies which can be accessed through security options in your local security policy. The first thing is that guest account in turned on. The next change is in network access where the default is guest account. You can change this to classic, as a result of which local users will authenticate as them. Share permissions can be bypassed by local access when the user has physical access of your terminal so they should be used in conjunction with local permissions. A better way is to use one only and not confuse it with the other, in most cases leave your share permissions open and concentrate on NTFS permissions. In a Windows XP setting you need to make sure you manage your shared resources. You can access this management console by right clicking on My Computer and choosing manage. You can then look into the shared folder listing and take a look at all shares even your hidden shares. This also shows you the all the files currently open or being used. You can also access this console by logging on as another user and then choosing administrative options from the control panel and then right clicking on computer management and selecting run as. You then select to log on as administrator only when using this tool. You can even choose to log on and connect to another computer remotely by right clicking computer management (local) listing and then choose connect to another computer. Finally select the machine or enter the name of the machine you want to connect to and then you can manage shared resources on that terminal remotely. You can even take a look at how many computers you are currently connected to remotely by looking into the session’s folder inside the management console.

Offline Files and Folders:

Microsoft has tried to solve the end user the trouble of not being able to access files incase he/she cannot connect to their files by introducing CSC or client side caching also know as offline files and folders. This gives us the ability to have the files and folders available to us without having to connect to the office. When you make changes to file and connect back online all changes will be synchronized with that shared file. However, it does not take care of conflicts, i.e. in a case when you have changed the file offline and it was also changed by another user when you connect back up the synchronization engine gives you an option to choose between which file you would like to upload. Configuring offline folder is very easy since all you have to do is to right click and choose them to make the file or folder available offline. Windows XP maintains a virtual path to that offline folder. You can disable offline availability by simply heading towards the sharing tab for that folder and file and clicking on caching and there you can turn off caching. You can even select automatic caching which makes that file available to other users. You can manually synchronize when you reconnect and even access your synchronization settings by accessing the synchronization option from the tools menu and choosing which files you would like to synchronize. You can even schedule synchronization. You can even look into more options inside the offline files tab inside the folder options window through the tools menu dropdown.

Configuring and Managing Printers:

Printing has become pretty powerful in Windows XP. Local printing is by far the easiest of all since it now operates on plug and play. As long as the drivers are signed you as user do not have to do much do except just use it. However, in a case of a non-signed drivers or an old printer you need to log on as an administrative user to manually install it. Once the printer is setup sharing is extremely easy and you can also set up permissions on that printer so that everyone cannot use it. Sharing a printer is extremely easy all you have to do is go up to the printer and right click and set up sharing. You can even add drivers to other operating systems where a user who has an older operating system can install drivers from your machine to make that printer available to him/her. You do have to make these drivers available on a network share for the other user to download. You can even publish your printer in the active directory to enable users for searches for quick printing. Normal users installing printers need administrative rights to install printers which are not detected through plug and play. You can set security settings for these printers by just right clicking on the icon and set up the print security settings through the security tab. You can even setup internet printing by using IIS and printer drivers for that printer and then print out to a URL or a web page which is assigned to a printer. You can start a print job by going to a web page as long as you have authenticated user rights to view that web page. You can install this service by installing IIS through add and remove windows components. If you talk to most network administrators you will find that most of their time is spent organizing and managing printers. Managing your printers inside windows XP is mainly done by print que itself. Only administrative users have the ability to pause and delete and change priority of print jobs. You can delete a print that is stuck and you might have to start up the spooler service on that machine to clear up all the junk. Print que can easily be accessed by just double clicking on the printer. In this window you can right click on the print job and either restart, pause or cancel it. You can go to printer properties through this window and then change the printer name and give a higher priority to it for executives or managers who need their print jobs to print faster and then set up another virtual printer connected to same device and give that printer another name and lower priority and for other people. The trick is to go the higher priority printer and remove the everyone from the security tab and add only the executive and manager groups. You can even create one printer icon to set up on multiple physical devices on different ports; this creates a print pool for high volume print environments. In this scenario the print look for the next available open printer to print to, incase the one before is busy.

Remote Connectivity:

Microsoft’s new operating system has enabled us to a whole new variety of remote connections and telecommuting. As internet connections become faster and faster telecommuting is becoming a much stronger and feasible option for many executives constantly on travel or working from home. With Windows XP you can maintain multiple connections for your home office and other environments. Dial up networking is extremely easy to configure on Windows XP. All you have to do is go to control panel and head to network setup and internet and then choose to create a new network connection on your machine. Virtual private networks in networking use the same strategy in network. The concepts are almost the same except that instead of dialing a phone number you are dialing an IP address. VPN’s use a little different technology that usual. You use PPTP (Point to point tunneling protocol) or L2TP (Layer two tunneling protocol). L2TP uses certification authority where both ends should have matching certificates. By default data encryption is turned on when using a virtual private network. Check the properties of a new VPN connection to change its settings and add or remove more options and protocols. You can even add smart card authentication for a VPN connection as authentication.

Internet Connection and Utilities:

As more and more homes today have more than computer we find the needs to have one single internet connections for each one of them, since we are trying to avoid the clutter at home or office. Internet connection sharing gives us the ability to have one internet connection and share it over the network. Internet connection sharing provides NAT (network address translation), DHCP and DNS for the client computers connecting to main gateway computer. You can access this from the advanced tab of tour internet connection. A new feature in Microsoft’s Windows XP is ICS (Internet discovery and control). This new feature allows the client to initiate a connection even when the main admin is not connected or dialed in to the connection. The user then can see all the stats on his computer through yours like the time and speed of the connection. You can turn on port forwarding for running web servers. You as an admin can make sure that users cannot share their own internet connection using ICS for other users. You can use group policies to make sure that ICS cannot be turned on for members of your group or domain. ICS uses a new feature known as UPnP (Universal Plug and Play).This is has no relation to hardware plug and play. ICS goes out and looks for internet connections available for sharing on the network. However, UPnP is not installed by default and has to be installed separately through the add remove windows components inside networking services. This scans available internet connections in the network automatically. In order to set up ICS you need to go to the connection which connects you to the internet and head towards the properties of that connection and go to the advanced tab to turn on ICS. Internet connection firewall is slimmed down version of firewall. Only requests made inside the network are entertained by the gateway computer and all other requests made from outside are dropped if the matching sending request from inside cannot be found. It is highly recommended that you use internet connection firewall on your network. However, it is not at strong as other third-part firewalls which stop applications from connecting to the internet. Make sure you turn on this firewall link on the connection connecting outside to the internet and not inside since you might block all users connecting through that computer. You can take a look at advanced settings for port forwarding and other services like FTP.

Web Services:

Windows XP professional has IIS 5.1 included in it. You can install IIS through add remove components. The IIS included in Windows XP pro is almost as powerful as the professional series version of IIS. You can take a look at IIS by running Internet explorer and then typing localhost which will pop by default the documentation of IIS as well. Internet explorer lets you setup security zones for various websites which you can add security zones like trusted websites. In this case the security and permissions will be set to a minimum for these sites. You can choose security settings to prompt for ActiveX controls for a more control over the internet applications. You can manage IIS through the computer management console in administrative tools inside the control panel.

Remote Desktop:

One of the big technologies Microsoft is trying to push is telecommuting. However, the biggest drawback to this is internet bandwidth. Microsoft’s answer to this is remote desktop. This uses Microsoft terminal services but you can only connect one user at one time on one machine. If a user is logged on locally it will log him off if another user is trying to connect to that machine. IIS 5.1 enables the user to connect to another computer using a browser and without any client. The administrator can create a group for users to connect to their desktop remotely. He can also remove this ability from group using his security policies. One setback can be blank passwords for remote logons, blank passwords are only entertained for physical console logon’s and may create problems when connecting remotely. You can remove this restrain through the local security policy setting but it may cause to be security loop hole. Setting up remote desktops is as easy as going to the remote tab of properties through My Computers and checking it on. You can then add users or groups you would like to give the ability to connect using remote desktop. You can then access your computer remotely by going to communications tab under accessories and then choosing remote desktop connection. You can then connect to your computer and even play around optimizing your settings to suit you best. You can also do this through the web using internet explorer. You can use the IP address or your computer name (http://[computer name]/tsweb) if DNS is setup. You want to make sure that you have the required ports opened up and the ability to setup VPN connections. You can even transfer files from one computer to another. Remote assistance request has been added to standard help menu in Windows XP which enables a user to connect to another user running Windows XP.

System Performance:

Windows XP lets the user tweak performance to his/her own standards. Applications performance in Windows XP can be controlled through the system control panel. You can also tune processor and memory operations to your liking. You can access these through system properties under My Computer and right click to properties or just hitting Windows key + pause. You can then go to advanced tab to go a long list and tabs of performance enhancements and settings. You can create shortcuts to applications for compatibility among different operating systems. If an application was written for earlier version you windows you can create a shortcut to that application and put in the name for the application. You can then right click to go to properties and then choose the compatibility tab to choose to run this program under other Windows operating system. Finally you need to monitor this entire performance enhancement and a way to log settings where you can compare this some standards. Some of the usual standards are like processor time should stay below 85% consistently. Periodic or un-periodic spikes are acceptable during loading of heavy software. Also interrupts should remain steady; if this number keeps going skyward this indicates a bad piece of hardware. Other things you might want to look at are hard drives through disk performance monitors. It can also show how your network is performing. If you are on a switch then this is pretty much useless though.

Windows Backup:

Backup is something no administrator can avoid to go without. Windows backup utility is standard backup program so incase of disaster you can restore all your information. Windows XP has introduced a volume shadow copy in where all applications and documents open at that time will stored as is using a snapshot of the system. The first thing you need to do is backup the local system state along with volume shadow copy and the drives you want to create the backup for. Only administrators and backup operators group can backup the system completely. Backup operators along with the administrators are the only one who can backup all the files on the system even the files they do not own. However, normal user can backup only his/her files. You can access the Windows XP back program through accessories and then system tools. This enables a lot of option including scheduling backups. Windows backup needs to logon using a user account to run a scheduled backup program so you want to make sure that this program runs with user account with full administrative access or a member of the backup operators group. If you haven’t prepared tapes since Windows XP backup utility does requires prepared tapes you can go into the settings of the backup command inside that schedule backup and add a /um command at the end for unmanaged media.

Disaster Recovery:

If all else fails and your system in a state you cannot do a normal start up there are tools provided by Microsoft’s Windows XP to recover as much as possible. Windows XP offers you several boot options like the safe mode to get you inside the base clean operating system with most functions in operation. You also have safe mode with networking or command prompt. You can then try to identify the problem or some installation that caused you to stop booting. You can then use last known good option to go back to previous operable state. You can also turn on the boot log which writes all the information into the log file saved as Ntbtlog.txt. Microsoft also has provided us with GUI based utility known as MSCONFIG enabled from the run menu. You can run through the options in this GUI based window. There is also the recovery console which you can access from the Windows CD, but if you want recovery console has bootup option you can just drop in the Windows XP CD and run this command through the prompt. “cd:i386winnt32 /cmdcons”. This will install it on the hard drive and you can access it the next time you boot. When you bootup you do need to logon as a local administrator for you access the files inside and finally you reach a completely DOS based console. Some of the commands you can run are fixboot and fixmbr for trying to fix the boot sector. The recovery console has restricted disk access, since it can be a wide open security loop hole. You can access disk media such as floppies but you can only copy from the floppy not into a floppy.