Get Rid of Active Setup Are you still using Active Setup to distribute per-user files or registry values? If so, stop! There are better ways to manage initial user settings. Read more
Solved: “Other” Eating Up Gigabytes of iPad Storage In preparation for next week’s MVP summit I wanted to fill my iPad with movies for in-flight entertainment when I noticed that a large part of my iPad’s storage capacity […] Read more
Half a Million Downloads of SetACL Last month SetACL reached the magic number of 500,000 downloads. That is a lot, especially for a command-line tool which is focused on a very specific aspect of system administration. […] Read more
How to Troubleshoot Failed MSI Installs I was given the Aventail VPN client software to install on a customer’s Windows 7 x64 computer. That failed miserably. Here is what I did to find the root cause […] Read more
What Remains of Magic Speed Improvements Doesn’t every IT pro dream of finding a secret switch, a switch that increases clock speed, doubles the amount of RAM or makes the PC boot faster? Some do, and […] Read more
How to Speed Up Your Windows 7 Boot Time by 20% [What I wrote here is wrong. Please read this follow-up article.] Here is a very simple way to reduce the time it takes to boot Windows 7 by around 20% […] Read more
Access Based Enumeration on Windows 7 Access Based Enumeration (ABE) is a well-hidden feature even in Windows Server, where it can be configured per share, but only in the Share and Storage Management MMC and not […] Read more
How to Make Google Chrome Search via SSL/HTTPS by Default A while ago I wrote about the dangers of using unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. Right now I am connected to such a network and trying hard not to give away authentication […] Read more
Geek Fashion This is what I’ll be wearing at next week’s WINone: And yes, the letters are made up of actual source code ;-) Read more
Analysis: Require Domain Controller Authentication to Unlock Workstation Among the many security options that are configurable via Group Policy, there is a setting Interactive logon: Require Domain Controller authentication to unlock workstation. For security reasons, this is often […] Read more
ShMgrate – An Analysis ShMgrate.exe is an executable file in Windows XP and Server 2003 and one of those files that are documented nowhere. I will try to shed a little light on this […] Read more
Permissions Windows Does Not Show You Sometimes it is good not to know the truth, but as an administrator you better know what is going on! Most IT pros know that Explorer lies a lot (on […] Read more
New File System ReFS in Windows 8: Quick Facts The introduction of a new file system is a big step even for Microsoft. According to this article in the Building Windows 8 blog ReFS will ship with the server […] Read more
Windows 7 IPv6 in Enterprise Environments If you roll out Windows 7 in an enterprise environment you may need to decide what to do with IPv6. As you probably know, Windows 7 comes with IPv6 enabled […] Read more
WLAN Security – Beware of (Unknown) Wi-Fi Hotspots In its issue 1/2012 German c’t magazine published an article about security in Wi-Fi networks. The authors describe how very easy it is to gain access to other people’s accounts […] Read more
How to Configure a File Server for Hosting User Profiles This article is part of Helge’s Profile Toolkit, a set of posts explaining the knowledge and tools required to tame Windows user profiles. Setting up a network share on a […] Read more
Customizing the Default Profile This article is part of Helge’s Profile Toolkit, a set of posts explaining the knowledge and tools required to tame Windows user profiles. Administrators frequently have the requirement to adapt […] Read more
Temporary User Profiles This article is part of Helge’s Profile Toolkit, a set of posts explaining the knowledge and tools required to tame Windows user profiles. Nobody wants a temporary profile. So why […] Read more
XenApp Reading List This is a very personal recommendation of what to read to become and stay an expert in Citrix XenApp. Learning the Basics Terminal Services for Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Advanced […] Read more
How I Do Off-Site Cloud Backup In my ongoing quest for the perfect way to back up my personal data I have tweaked the setup yet again. Most of what I wrote nearly three years ago […] Read more
Folder Redirection – Denial of Service Waiting to Happen This article is part of Helge’s Profile Toolkit, a set of posts explaining the knowledge and tools required to tame Windows user profiles. One of the problems inherent to roaming […] Read more
Pictures from an Exhibition I just returned from Citrix’ bi-annual Synergy event in Barcelona. I am not going to summarize the event here (others have done that better than I could, e.g. Gabe Knuth […] Read more
How to Build a Software Company Which values do I build my newly founded company on? There are many things I value highly – fairness, professionalism, quality, innovation, honesty – but one thing stands out: sharing. […] Read more
Does a Self-Respecting IT Pro Need Antivirus? Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report confirms a feeling I have had for a long time: I do not need antivirus. Let me explain why. Read more
Starting Up After many years of employment I felt the need to reduce the number of people who can order me around. I managed to get it down to two: my wife […] Read more
How User Profiles Will Help Make Windows 8 a Success Competition in the tablet market is fierce because the profits are potentially enormous (check Apple’s financial statements as proof). No wonder everybody is desperate to get their way in, some […] Read more
Tuning the Lenovo T520 – Upgrading Memory and Installing an mSATA SSD Disassembling the Lenovo Thinkpad T520 is easy, which makes upgrading the device a simple procedure. As described in my previous article I bought a T520 with only 2 GB RAM […] Read more
Finding the Perfect Laptop Computer For a geek, one of the most fun things is choosing a new toy. I experienced this once again when I needed to buy a new laptop computer. The selection […] Read more
Shortcut Magic Windows shortcuts aka LNK files have interesting capabilities. The shortcut target can be stored not only as a fixed-path string, but also as an item ID list. If a shortcut […] Read more
