Get Ready for Windows 7

Get ready for

Windows 7

®
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1 an IT Management eBook
Get Ready for Windows 7, an Internet.com IT Management eBook. © 2009, WebMediaBrands Inc.
Contents…
Get Ready for Windows 7

This content was adapted from Internet.com’s Datamation, Enterprise IT Planet, and CIO Update
Web sites. Contributors: Andy Rathbone, Steven Warren, Dries Janssens, and Sonny Discini.

2 2 Windows 7 Review: Why I Like Windows 7

5 And the 3 Most Important New Features of Windows 7 Are…

5 7 7 Windows 7 IT Pro Feature Watch List

9 Gartner: Windows 7 OK for Vista Disgruntled

9 11
11 Windows 7 Security: Good, Bad or Ugly?

1 Solving Storage for Your SMB, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2009, WebMediaBrands Inc.
 Get Ready for Windows 7
Windows 7 Review:
Why I Like Windows 7
By Andy Rathbone
A
fter nearly eight years, Windows XP had grown
as comfortable as an old car. Just as I’d forgotten
about the growing number of dings on my car’s
bumper, I’d forgotten how many third-party tools
I’d used to prop up Windows XP. After adding CD and DVD
burners, search programs, Firefox,
three media players and a host of
other tools, my Start menu’s three
columns reached the far edge of my
desktop.
That’s why running Windows 7 for
the past seven months brought
back the excitement of driving a
new car. And for the first time, my
once trusted Windows XP began
looking like a car that needed much
more than a paint job.
It’s partially my own fault. Like many
others, I skipped Windows Vista.
And Vista, for all its faults, provided
a strong, secure base. Unfortunately, Microsoft ruined Vista’s
improvements by adding overly aggressive security, thick
layers of meandering menus, and a sense of being designed
by a huge committee.
Windows 7 strips away that ugliness to create something
that’s light yet strong, useful yet still playful. Windows 7
grabs me in a lot of ways Windows XP no longer does.
Wallpaper
Oddly enough, Windows 7’s new wallpaper provides a great
By draping this whimsy over Vista’s security underpinnings,
“ Microsoft’s helping make people feel both safe and creative with
their computers, a feeling that comes so naturally to Apple.
2 Back to contents Get Ready for Windows 7, an Internet.com IT Management eBook. © 2009, WebMediaBrands Inc.
example of how Windows 7 pulls off a difficult mix of being
both utilitarian and fun. Windows 7 softens Vista’s armored-
guard persona by adding a healthy dose of personality. Its
backgrounds come stuffed with groovy psychedelic land-
scapes, dreamy Dada-esque creatures, and candy-colored
anime art.
By draping this whimsy over Vista’s
security underpinnings, Microsoft’s
helping make people feel both safe
and creative with their computers,
a feeling that comes so naturally to
Apple.
Even if the backgrounds don’t
suit your fancy, you must admire
how Windows 7’s design team
deliberately chose wallpaper that
would have been shot down in a
traditional boardroom. That’s a big
change from Vista, where every-
thing seemed to fall to the lowest
common denominator.
Minimal Hardware
Demands
Vista’s bloat kept it from running on netbooks, the PC
industry’s single bright spot these days. Windows 7, by con-
trast, runs fine on most netbooks, as well as on older PCs.
Needing another test machine while writing Windows 7 For
Dummies, I installed Windows 7 on a Pentium III with 16MB
of video memory. Surprisingly enough, Windows 7 not only
installed, but its automatic trip to Windows Update brought
”
 Get Ready for Windows 7
the PC some new drivers, as well. That old Gateway PC will
never be a game machine, of course, but it works fine for the
essentials, e-mail and the Internet.
Chances are Windows 7’s slimmed down footprint will fit
well on your PC, as well, whether it’s a modern netbook or a
borderline antique.
Adjustable User Account Control
Probably the most welcome change is that Windows 7 tones
down User Account Control’s overly aggressive policing. But
if you still find yourself grinding your teeth more than work-
ing, a sliding control lets you adjust
Windows 7’s paranoia level to match
your own. It’s refreshing to feel in con-
trol of your PC rather than the other
way around.
With Windows 7,
Microsoft finally
Shortcut Keys
Once you learn a few shortcut keys, realized that people
they become addictive, and Windows
7 brings several welcome ones.
don’t need the same
For example, placing two windows level of security on
side-by-side on a crowded desktop
took a lot of mouse maneuvering in their home networks
Windows XP. In Windows 7, you
click the first window, and press
as they do on the
Win+Right Arrow to scoot the win- Internet.
dow against the right edge. Follow up
with a Win+Left Arrow on the second
window, and you’ve lined them up
side-by-side, ready for quick information swapping.
Windows 7 comes loaded with many other creative key-
board shortcuts, a sign that the team had time to focus on
subtle details rather than major overhauls.
Taskbar Jumplists
Windows 7 overhauled the taskbar with jumplists – pop-
up menus listing frequently accessed items and common
tasks. Need to see one of your favorite Web sites in a hurry?
Right-click the taskbar’s browser icon, click the favored site’s
name from the pop-up list’s “Frequent” section, and the
browser opens to that site.
Can’t remember the location of that helpful folder you
opened yesterday? Right-click the Explorer icon, click the
folder’s name from the jumplist, and start digging in. With
jumplists, Windows 7 adds a feeling of immediate gratifica-
tion that all too often went missing from Vista.
3 Back to contents
Libraries
After people amass a decade’s worth of digital informa-
tion, finding pieces of that information becomes the biggest
challenge. Windows 7’s libraries tackle the organization part
of that problem by letting one library show the contents of
several folders. Store your music in the Public Music folder,
for example, and those tunes automatically appear in every
user account’s Music library.
Libraries break tradition, and IT people will be doing a lot of
tutoring in the months to come. But once people grasp the
concept, they’ll be able to spend more time working with
“
their information rather than finding it.
Homegroup
With Windows 7, Microsoft finally
realized that people don’t need the
same level of security on their home
networks as they do on the Internet.
Homegroups let everybody type a
single password into their networked
PCs. Those PCs then join hands to
become a Homegroup, where every
PC on the network can share all the
music, pictures, and videos stored by
everyone else. Of course, anybody
can opt out of sharing their media.
But chances are, most people will
embrace this easier way to share
”
their vacation photos and music.
Windows 7’s a huge step forward from Microsoft Vista, and
it’s versatile enough to last for years to come. But Windows
7’s certainly not perfect.
As to be expected, Windows 7 is often too much about
Microsoft’s needs, rather than your own. For example, Win-
dows 7 no longer comes with an e-mail program, so Win-
dows 7 understandably pushes Microsoft’s new Windows
Live Mail program as a replacement.
Try to download Windows Live Mail, though, and the instal-
lation program tries to install Microsoft’s entire suite of Live
programs. Then the installer tries to hijack your Home page
to Microsoft’s ad-soaked MSN, and switch your search en-
gine to Microsoft’s Live Search.
And the program repetitively begs you to sign up for a
Windows Live e-mail address, no matter how many e-mail
addresses you’ve accumulated over the years.
If you’re upgrading Windows Vista to Windows 7, Microsoft
Get Ready for Windows 7, an Internet.com IT Management eBook. © 2009, WebMediaBrands Inc.
 Get Ready for Windows 7

switches your default browser to Internet Explorer 8, no

matter how many years you’ve been using Firefox. Internet
Explorer’s Favorites and Feeds areas come pre-stuffed with
links to Microsoft’s products.

In short, Microsoft’s trying to wring as much cash as possi-

ble from their enviable position of automatically landing atop
90 percent of the world’s desktops. There’s nothing wrong
with business making money, of course. One day, hopefully,
Microsoft will be a little less obnoxious about it.

Let’s hope the company doesn’t pile it on so thick it ruins the

Windows 7 experience I’ve found so far. n

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 Get Ready for Windows 7

And the 3 Most Important New

Features of Windows 7 Are…
By Steven Warren

M
any businesses skipped the adoption of Win- tracing the computer for 60 seconds and saving an energy
dows Vista for just cause: they were happy with report locally. Additionally, you can also run parameters to
their stable versions of Windows XP. With Win- find out why specific computers will not go to sleep. All of
dows 7 now RTM you will see a strong adoption this control allows you to save lots of money in a corporate
by 2010 and here is why: green computing, mobile comput- environment.
ing, and Windows XP mode.
In order to save the most money on power consumption, you
The Kermit Factor need to be able to push out changes at a global level. This
Under the hood, Windows 7 does have some features that is where Windows 7 shines by allowing you a more granular
make it greener than its predeces- power management group policy
sor, Windows Vista. Today more setting. You can configure many
than ever, companies are focused power management settings,
on reducing costs. The simplest which in turn saves you money.
way to reduce overhead costs is to Windows 7 has much more control
reduce your power consumption. than its predecessors ever had.
Windows 7 has this feature. It is
a fact that Windows 7 is more en- Mobile Computing
ergy efficient than Windows Vista For corporate environments with
and Windows XP. a large mobile workforce, moving
to Windows 7 will have significant
One new feature is called timer advantages. First, Windows 7 now
coalescing. In modern processors, has a one-click wireless network
timer coalescing better schedules that allows you to choose your
the work your processor does. By network profile in one simple click.
grouping tasks sent to the pro- It is strikingly similar to Apple and
cessor core at the same time, the a great benefit for roaming mobile
processor can complete jobs quicker and then go back to users.
sleep.
One of the most useful features is the much improved bat-
Another great feature that will save your company money is tery life. In several tests I performed using the same laptop;
the ability to manage power consumption via group policy, I was able to get better battery life on Windows 7 when run-
WMI, and a command line utility called PowerCfg. Running ning a DVD movie―up to 25 percent better. When I reimaged
PowerCfg on a computer or pushing out to multiple com- my laptop with Windows XP and Windows Vista, battery
puters will allow you to identify energy efficiency issues by life suffered. As a bonus, I also enjoyed the 11 second boot

For corporate environments with a large mobile workforce,

“ moving to Windows 7 will have significant advantages.
”
5 Back to contents Get Ready for Windows 7, an Internet.com IT Management eBook. © 2009, WebMediaBrands Inc.
 Get Ready for Windows 7
time. So will you.
Microsoft introduced BitLocker disk encryption with Win-
dows Vista. This first pass of BitLocker only allowed you to
encrypt the volume that had the operating system installed.
The service pack 1 release extended this and allowed you
to encrypt other drives, as well. Windows 7 trumps that by
allowing you to take advantage of its fast-food BitLocker edi-
tion that enables you to encrypt USB thumb drives and other
removable media.
Another plus for mobile users is adaptive display brightness
that allows you to dim the display after a certain amount of
activity in addition to powering it off after five to 10 minutes
of non-use. This can all be managed via group policy as
well and is a huge cost savings considering laptop displays
are roughly 30 percent of a laptop’s total power usage. In
a corporate environment, this could add up to a significant
savings.
Windows 7 also provides new power management features
for wired and wireless networking. When users disconnect
the network cable, Windows 7 can automatically place the
adapter into a lower-power state. This feature is known as
D3. This will save you up to .5 watts.
When you reconnect the network cable, Windows 7 will put
the adapter back into a full-power state. This is called D0.
Additionally, Windows 7 enables wireless network control-
6 Back to contents
lers to enter low power modes, as well. All of this functional-
ity can be managed through power policy settings to give
the IT administrator more control over power usage across
the corporate environment. Windows Vista had this technol-
ogy but the low power mode support was not there.
XP Mode
With Windows 7, Microsoft introduces Windows XP mode.
Windows XP mode consists of a virtual based environment
and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with service pack
3 (SP3). It will be available, for free (via download), to users
of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate edi-
tions. This is Microsoft’s answer to corporations who are
reluctant to upgrade from Windows XP. If you have legacy
applications that work only on Windows XP but you want to
progress, Windows XP mode is your answer. You can run
your legacy applications seamlessly while taking advantage
of all the power consumption savings and other new features
Windows 7 has to offer.
At the end of the day, laptop batteries will run longer and
require less charging. Your corporate desktop machines will
require less energy when being used and save you money
while idle. Just these two simple updates will guarantee cor-
porate rollouts by 2010. The kilowatts saved will alone justify
the costs of the upgrade. n
Get Ready for Windows 7, an Internet.com IT Management eBook. © 2009, WebMediaBrands Inc.
 Get Ready for Windows 7

Windows 7 IT Pro
Feature Watch List
By Dries Janssens

W
ith all the commotion surrounding Windows 7, PowerShell 2.0
one could almost forget that most companies Both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 will include
have not even made the leap to Vista. Does this PowerShell on steroids upgrade to the much loved origi-
Windows 7 have what it takes to make these nal PowerShell. A GUI that will look familiar to Visual Studio
customers skip Vista? Or will Redmond be forced to deploy users (complete with debugging features and color-coding),
every trick in the book to avoid a repeat of Vista’s less-than- and more than 200 new cmdlets should make even UNIX
stellar reception? users jealous. Additionally, PowerShell 2.0 will make remote
executing available to administrators, thus enabling them to
Users and Administrators at Odds execute scripts on multiple networked computers at once.
Illustrating the disconnect between IT professionals and
home users, the most publi- For an inside look at Power-
cized complaint about Vista Shell’s progress from Micro-
among end users is its most soft, be sure to bookmark the
heralded feature among system PowerShell Team Blog.
administrators: User Account
Control (UAC). Windows 7, on DirectAccess
the other hand, promises a fine- With DirectAccess, Microsoft
tunable checks-and-balances seems to be acknowledg-
system, which may prove more ing the growing number of
inviting to average because of telecommuters and the need
its less-intrusive behavior. to effectively manage their sys-
tems: mobile users will be able
For system administrators and to connect to the corporate
power users, Windows 7 may network without the hassle of
be tempting because of its having to set up a VPN.
seemingly endless list of new
features that may prove to be DirectAccess uses IPv6-over-
just a tad more useful than IPsec (IPv6 should already be
Vista’s Sidebar (which will on every administrator’s mind
disappear in Windows 7, although Gadgets remain). Below anyway, and the advantages are obvious: through Group
is a list of some of these features that I think are particularly Policy settings, mobile computers can be managed any time
promising. the computer has Internet connectivity (and not only when
the computer connects to the network). This ensures that

Additionally, PowerShell 2.0 will make remote executing

“ available to administrators, thus enabling them to execute

scripts on multiple networked computers at once. ”
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 Get Ready for Windows 7

even mobile computers stay updated and in line with local run. “Publisher rules” allow the administrator, through
policies. Group Policy, to fine tune installation rules based on an
application’s digital signature.

“
BranchCache
Is that the sound of your WAN breath- PC Safeguard
ing a sigh of relief? Whereas Microsoft has been offer-
ing the Shared Computer Toolkit (or
BranchCache allows the administra- BranchCache allows SteadyState for XP and Vista) as a
tor to enable intranet-accessed data
to be cached locally at the branch
the administrator separate download for those looking
for a reliable way to lock down their
office, resulting in “like-local” access
speeds. BranchCache’s Hosted
to enable intranet- computers in multiple-user situations,
PC SafeGuard will be integrated
Cache Mode hosts the locally cached accessed data to be into Windows 7. While few details
data on a branch office Windows
Server 2008 R2 system, while Distrib-
cached locally at has been released, it seems like PC
SafeGuard will be able to both lock
uted Cache caches the data directly
on branch PCs.
the branch office, (portions of) hard drives, and erase all
user activity after the user logs off.
resulting in “like-
Windows Troubleshooting
Platform
local” access Fine-Tunable UAC

Windows Troubleshooting Platform speeds. Four settings will be available: “Never

aims to be a programmable platform — notify”, “Notify when programs try

”
it’s based on PowerShell — to facili-
tate user troubleshooting. The tool will
allow administrators to use, customize, and develop Win-
dows Troubleshooting Packs to target specific user issues.
Bitlocker to Go
Bitlocker’s drive encryption functionality is being extended
to include USB sticks. Administrators will have control over
password length, and can even prevent users from writing to
USB storage devices before Bitlocker protection has been
applied.
In this day and age of data leaks and insider threats, this is a
welcome new twist.
Applocker
Applocker greatly tightens an administrator’s control over
what applications users can, and more importantly, cannot
to make changes”, “Always notify”
and the current Vista-default behav-
ior of “Always Notify and Wait for my
Response.” Without a doubt, this flexibility will be loved by
some and loathed by others.
Windows Credentials
I have been using the excellent Roboform Password Man-
ager (which not only safeguards all your passwords in a
password repository, but also has the ability to automatically
log you in to website interfaces) for years. I’ll be very inter-
ested to see how Windows 7’s Windows Credentials stacks
up, as it is touted to have exactly those capabilities as well.
As you can see, Windows 7 promises a good mix of tools to
help administrators manage systems on their corporate net-
works and exert better control over their user environments.
Now, the wait begins. n

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 Get Ready for Windows 7

Gartner: Windows 7 OK
for Vista Disgruntled
By Stuart J. Johnston

A
s Windows 7’s commercial debut looms, one major
IT research firm is recommending that if corporate
IT shops aren’t already well along in deploying
Windows Vista, they’d be better off going straight
to Vista’s replacement -- Windows 7.
of VanDyke Software.
What the Amplitude study found is that only 23 percent of IT
shops surveyed are currently beta testing Windows 7, while
about the same number plan to after its official release.

“Organizations with a Windows Vista project well underway That still leaves 50 percent that have no plans to test Win-
should stay the course, but dows 7 at all at this point. The
most others should target view gets even tougher when
Windows 7,” the research the question comes around
report co-authored by Gartner to those who actually plan
analysts Michael Silver and to deploy Windows 7 -- 61
Stephen Kleynhans says. percent have no current plans
to deploy Windows 7.
The report reinforces another
one Gartner released in late Interestingly, those most ame-
March urging corporate IT to nable to moving to Windows
begin planning for Windows 7 7 are shops whose IT budgets
deployment as soon as it ships increased in 2009. Of those,
rather than wait for the first 57 percent plan to deploy
service pack before beginning Windows 7 while, of those
the process. whose budgets decreased,
only 37 percent had any plans
A recently released survey to deploy.
of 320 network and systems
administrators, though, found that quick migration to Micro- According to the Amplitude Research survey some 41 per-
soft’s forthcoming Windows 7 may not be as easy to accom- cent of respondents said their IT budgets declined this year.
plish as it is to talk about.
“The top two reasons for not deploying Windows 7 were
The Root of All Deployments ‘Feel more comfortable sticking with current versions of
The reason: money, of course. Windows (44 percent)’ and ‘Can’t justify the return on in-
vestment (33.3 percent),’” Amplitude said in a release.
The survey was performed by Amplitude Research on behalf

A recently released survey of 320 network and systems administrators,

“ though, found that quick migration to Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 7

may not be as easy to accomplish as it is to talk about. ”
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 Get Ready for Windows 7
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Still, there are plenty of variables that have to be taken into
account. Nothing is cut and dried, and surveys can yield dif-
fering results.
For instance, in a survey of 475 IT firms with 1,000 or more
employees, conducted in February and March, and released
this week, another Gartner report found only 12 percent in-
dicated they have outright canceled a planned client project
since October 2008.
That doesn’t mean that some projects haven’t been post-
“
poned, however.
And a survey released in April by
ChangeWave Research, found that 53
percent of 2,000 IT buyers it polled
At this point,targeting
plan to skip Vista altogether and will Windows 7 would add
go directly from XP to Windows 7.
less than six months
Meanwhile, Silver’s and Kleynhans’
report also outlines other important
to the schedule and
issues that may slow corporate adop- would result in a plan
tion of Windows 7.
that is more politically
“Between waiting for vendor support
and testing, planning, preparing, and
palatable, better for
piloting, few organizations will be able users, and results in
to begin large-scale production de-
ployments until 12 to 18 months after greater longevity
”
the RTM, in late 2010 or early 2011,”
their report says. That could mean a
late payday for Microsoft.
In fact, that’s significantly later than Microsoft is hoping for
-- not exactly the picture of explosive enterprise sales right
out of the chute, although shops with a preponderance of
Windows XP machines may move earlier and thus help fuel
early purchase orders.
“With more than half of organizations planning to skip Vista,
most organizations will have to move to Windows 7 to main-
tain a supportable environment as Windows XP ages. We
advise organizations to move off of Windows XP by the end
of 2012 to avoid application support problems, even though
Microsoft will support Windows XP into April 2014.”
If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
Silver’s and Kleynhans’ report highlights some reasons for
economic optimism.
“Consumers and small and midsize businesses are more
10 Back to contents Get Ready for Windows 7, an Internet.com IT Management eBook. © 2009, WebMediaBrands Inc.
likely to run what ships on new PCs, so they will be early
adopters of Windows 7,” the report says.
Meantime, another analyst agrees there’s a lot of pent up
demand among consumers and small businesses, but he
cautions that nothing is ever really simple.
“This is a complicated subject because it takes a lot of plan-
ning and you’re investing in deciding whether or not to roll out
an operating system,” Michael Cherry, lead analyst for operat-
ing systems at Directions on Microsoft, told InternetNews.
com.
“Every organization is going to be dif-
ferent … [and it’s] a time when busi-
nesses are sitting on their wallets,”
Cherry added.
So what other advice do Silver and
Kleynhans have to offer?
“Organizations that have not prepared
to deploy Vista [should] skip Vista
and target Windows 7,” the report
says. Their rationale is that preparing
to deploy Vista will require the same
amount of effort as preparing to de-
ploy Windows 7. Why do it twice?
“At this point, targeting Windows 7
would add less than six months to the
schedule and would result in a plan
that is more politically palatable, better
for users, and results in greater longevity.”
However, Silver and Kleynhans also have recommendations for
organizations that are already in the midst of deploying Vista.
“Continue with Vista, but plan to switch to Windows 7 in late
2010 or early 2011, especially if you’re switching to Vista
through a hardware refresh,” they said.
In fact, during his opening keynote at Microsoft’s TechEd 2009
technical developers conference in Los Angeles, senior vice
president of Windows Bill Veghte said that the company is
now sure it can deliver Windows 7 in time for the holiday sales
season. However, he also added his own advice to the mix.
“If you’re just starting your testing of Vista, with the release
candidate and the quality of that offering, I would switch over
and do your testing on the release candidate, and use that
going forward,” Veghte said. n
 Get Ready for Windows 7

Windows 7 Security:
Good, Bad or Ugly?
By Sonny Discini

L
ucky for us, much of the long-awaited security function- Windows Filtering Platform
ality made its way into the beta build of Windows 7, so Windows 7 introduces something called the Windows Filter-
let’s take a look at the features. ing Platform (WFP). The idea is that third parties can take
advantage of aspects of the Microsoft Windows Firewall in
Old Friends, New Twists their own products. Microsoft says “third-party products also
Returning from Windows Vista are Kernel Patch Protection, can selectively turn parts of the Windows Firewall on or off,
Service Hardening, Data Execution Prevention, Address enabling you to choose which software firewall you want to
Space Layout Randomization, and Mandatory Integrity use and have it co-exist with Windows Firewall.”
Levels.
While this sounds nice on
Windows XP SP2 gave us the paper, I can’t see a vendor
Security Center. Windows 7 teaming their product with
discards this and in its place is the Windows firewall. Smart
an Action Center that incor- money says they’ll just use their
porates alerts from 10 existing own and ignore the Microsoft
Windows features: Security solution.
Center; Problem, Reports, and
Solutions, Windows Defender; One nice thing to note about
Windows Update; Diagnostics; Windows 7 is that it makes it
Network Access Protection; easier to configure that all-im-
Backup and Restore; Recovery; portant home network. When
and User Account Control. users hit network problems,
they curse the firewall and
In Windows 7, users can adjust they’re often right to. Windows
consent prompt behavior 7 addresses the problem by
using a slider control, if they taking over home network
have administrative privileges. setup and making sure the
Microsoft says they’ll still be firewall doesn’t interfere.
protected against malicious software, even if they never see
another alert. While this may or may not be true, users have We also see that scrollbars were removed in the configura-
been conditioned to see alerts whenever something is hap- tion settings screen, as has the Software Explorer feature,
pening. Without them, perhaps a false sense of security will and real-time protection in Windows 7 has been improved to
develop on the part of the end user. reduce the impact on overall system performance; a wel-
come change from the bloat of Vista.

One nice thing to note about Windows 7 is that it makes it

“ easier to configure that all-important home network.
”
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 Get Ready for Windows 7

An Inclusive BitLocker
Vista sailed in along with a fleet of new security features,
among them BitLocker, a whole-disk encryption tool de-
signed to protect your data even after an attacker makes off
with your laptop. BitLocker utilizes a chip called a Trusted
Protection Module (TPM). The Vista TPM transparently
decrypts the drive once you’ve authenticated yourself with a
password or smart card. A laptop thief can’t break into the
on the computer and control how they log on to Windows 7.
And System Restore includes a list of programs that will be
removed or added, providing users with more useful informa-
tion before they choose which restore point to use. Restore
points are also available in backups, providing a larger list to
choose from, over a longer period of time.
I’ve seen more problems caused by System Restore than

locked drive, even after booting
to a different OS or moving the
drive to another computer.
BitLocker drive encryption also
supports removable storage
Biometrics enhancements
devices, such as flash memory
drives and portable hard drives
has been added in Windows
configurations, allowing
7. This means that users can
keep sensitive data on all of
their USB storage devices as
well as the physical drives on
the host mentioned above.
“
solved by it; I’m not a big fan.
Still, users often resort to it
when trying to clean up a real
or imagined malware problem.
In Windows 7, you’ll at least
have a clear idea of what
include easier reader collateral damage may result,
as it lists all programs and
drivers that would be removed
users to manage the or brought back by invoking
a particular System Restore
fingerprint data stored point. It’s way better than
on the computer and guessing at the right restore
point and hoping for the best,

As a side note to Bitlocker,

control how they log on which is what you have to do
now.
using groups, you can ban to Windows 7.
writing to any removable drive Another enhancement is Ap-

”
that isn’t BitLocker-protected.
It’s a very useful tool against
the very real problem known as
podslurping. With this policy in place, employees can still
bring in the virus-of-the-month on an unprotected drive, but
they can’t take away an unprotected copy of the personnel
database. It’s also helpful to know that BitLocker to Go also
allows users to securely share data with other users who
have not yet deployed Windows 7.
That said, the testing I performed proved otherwise. I could
not get this to work so I went to Microsoft and they con-
firmed that this is an issue in the beta build but will be fixed
before final GA release.
pLocker, accessed through
Local Security Policy. It’s a
way to control which programs
users can and can’t use, and it’s a lot more flexible than
Vista’s Software Restriction Policies. Still, it’s not for the
average user. Most IT shops should be pleased with this
enhancement. I can see it being tailored to just about any
corporate need.
Virtually all the changes in the security area are simply
tweaking and improving on existing Vista features. But then,
that’s what Windows 7 is all about, right? While the en-
hancements seen thus far in the beta are nice, they aren’t
stunning. n

Biometrics, System Restore and AppLocker

Biometrics enhancements include easier reader configura-
tions, allowing users to manage the fingerprint data stored

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