Windows 7 – God Mode is in the house…

After finding this on CNET and confirming that it does indeed work, I have one question for Microsoft – Why didn’t they make this feature visible when the OS is installed. I’m not a fan of the multiple menus in the Control Panel as they has evolved over the past two generations of Windows (Vista, 7). I am, though, a fan of having access to all the configuration setting as this view shows.

To get the “GodMode” to appear just create a folder anywhere in the file explorer and name it the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

It is pretty cool…

P.S. Although Windows 7 and Windows 2008 share the same code base, this doesn’t work on Windows 2008 64 Bit Enterprise. I haven’t tested any other versions of Windows 2008.

Update: 1/7/2009
Here are more short-cuts to settings for Windows 7, often reffered to as developer commands.

{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33} Default Location
{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428} Biometric Devices
{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D} Power Plans
{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9} Taskbar Icons
{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70} Automatic Logon Credentials
{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4} Install Program from Network
{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966} Default Programs
{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43} Installed Versions
{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87} Wireless Network Connections
{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} Network
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} Hard Disk Drives
{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} Printers
{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B} Remote Connections
{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423} Firewall
{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC} Computer Performance Rating

Mounting an ISO in Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7)

If you ever need to mount an ISO file there’s a great utility that is also free that will make the task so easy.

The utility that we will use is called Virtual Clone Drive. This utility will let you mount .ISO, .CCD, .DVD, .IMG, .UDF and .BIN files. Download the utility and start the setup process.

Select Yes or OK at the hardware prompt and continue. You might have to restart your computer. Now you should be able to mount any ISO image by just double-clicking on the file. You can also right-click on the cd-rom drive to mount or un-mount an image.

Notes: If you are going to reinstall this utility, make sure you uninstall it first, or you’ll BSOD yourself repeatedly.  It has been verified that the latest version works on XP, Vista and Windows 7, 64 Bit Edition.

Changing OEM Logo In Windows 2008

If you ever need to deploy Windows 2008 to thousands of servers or just one and you want to add company logo to the image so you look like a detail oriented system administrator here’s the instructions.

1. Run Regedit.Exe
2. Navigate to HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation
3. If the OEMInformation key doesn’t exist you’ll need to create it. Right click the CurrentVersion key and from the drop down menu click New – Key. In the Key dialogue box type OEMInformation and press enter.
4. Create the following keys and modify them with the following values: a) Right click under the (Default) section and select New > String Value. Enter the Value Name: Logo and then enter the full path and name of your OEM Logo file such as C:\Windows\System32\foocompanylogo.bmp b) Add a new String Value and name it Manufacturer and enter the value of your company name like Foo Company.
   You can additionally add String Values for SupportHours, SupportPhone and SupportURL but these are optional.

Here’s what the registry keys will look like when you’ve done it correctly:

And here’s what the System Dialog Box looks like with the final customized OEM information:

ZoomIt (Windows)

While watching a video the other day I noticed the presenter was zooming in on sections of the screen while conducting a demo. I did a quick search on Google and found that the utility is actually called ZoomIt v4.1 by none other than Mark Russnovich and can be found here. And to add icing on the cake, the utility is free!

Red Hat Webinars

So I got directed to this list of free Red Hat Webinars. Never can beat the freebee education opportunities.

http://www.redhat.com/webinars/

Inside Windows 7

So here are a couple of videos from the Channel 9 website about Windows 7 features via interviews with Mark Russinovich.

Channel 9: Inside Windows 7, Part 1

Channel 9: Inside Windows 7, Part 2

Duplicate SIDs are OK now? A SID primer…

If you are an old die-hard Windows system administrator you’ll be just shocked to read this article by Mark Russinovich where he debunks the SID myth! Here’s a link to the article and here’s the introduction:

The Machine SID Duplication Myth

On November 3 2009, Sysinternals retired NewSID, a utility that changes a computers machine Security Identifier (machine SID). I wrote NewSID in 1997 (its original name was NTSID) because the only tool available at the time for changing machine SIDs was the Microsoft Sysprep tool, and Sysprep doesn’t support changing the SIDs of computers that have applications installed. A machine SID is a unique identifier generated by Windows Setup that Windows uses as the basis for the SIDs for administrator-defined local accounts and groups. After a user logs on to a system, they are represented by their account and group SIDs with respect to object authorization (permissions checks). If two machines have the same machine SID, then accounts or groups on those systems might have the same SID. It’s therefore obvious that having multiple computers with the same machine SID on a network poses a security risk, right? At least that’s been the conventional wisdom.

The reason that I began considering NewSID for retirement is that, although people generally reported success with it on Windows Vista, I hadn’t fully tested it myself and I got occasional reports that some Windows component would fail after NewSID was used. When I set out to look into the reports I took a step back to understand how duplicate SIDs could cause problems, a belief that I had taken on faith like everyone else. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that machine SID duplication – having multiple computers with the same machine SID – doesn’t pose any problem, security or otherwise. I took my conclusion to the Windows security and deployment teams and no one could come up with a scenario where two systems with the same machine SID, whether in a Workgroup or a Domain, would cause an issue. At that point the decision to retire NewSID became obvious.

I realize that the news that it’s okay to have duplicate machine SIDs comes as a surprise to many, especially since changing SIDs on imaged systems has been a fundamental principal of image deployment since Windows NT’s inception. This blog post debunks the myth with facts by first describing the machine SID, explaining how Windows uses SIDs, and then showing that – with one exception – Windows never exposes a machine SID outside its computer, proving that it’s okay to have systems with the same machine SID.

All I can say is “I knew it all along” but I still practiced SID changing techniques whenever I duplicated a system .