xp – TechVirtuoso

Why lazy sysadmins and IE 6 make the net unsafe

January 16th, 2010 at 11:14 AM 3 Comments Michael Stanclift

The number of businesses still using Internet Explorer 6 is painful to see. Coupled with the fact that all of them are on Windows XP or Windows 2000, it turns from pain into terror, especially when it comes to security.

For a lot of system administrators, the reasons to stay outweigh the reasons to upgrade. Websites that break, plugins that won’t load, old software that isn’t updated anymore. Trust me, I’ve been there. However, a lot of it boils down to lazy and poor practices of system administration.

Yes, you’re lazy and you’re bad at your job. Internet Explorer 6 was released in 2001. Yes, 2001, most of us don’t even drive cars that old, let alone unleash people on the “information superhighway” with a browser that old. It was designed at a time when security was not the issue it is today. It was designed to work on operating systems like Windows 98 and Windows ME. Would you let people use Windows ME on your network? No! So why are you letting them use a browser that was built for it?! (more…)

Microsoft highlights MED-V features for Windows 7

January 7th, 2010 at 1:33 PM No Comments Michael Stanclift

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), is a component of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance customers. It allows administrators to provide a virtualized desktop image to users and manage them from a central console. The upcoming Service Pack 1 for MED-V will expand support for Windows 7 (both 32 and 64-bit) as a host platform. Considering most large companies held off on upgrading to Windows Vista and opted to wait for Windows 7, this technology will help boost the migration since they can do so and run older programs that may no longer be supported or have not been certified for Windows 7.

In V1 SP1, MED-V continues to employ Virtual PC 2007 as the virtualization engine but unlike the consumer “Windows XP Mode” it does not require hardware-assisted virtualization like Intel VT or an AMD-V to be present in the processor. This allows even those with lower end or older processors to take advantage of enterprise desktop virtualization.

Microsoft has put together a screencast demonstrating running a MED-V workspace using a V1 SP1 client in the Windows 7 environment.