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Tag Archives: Windows 7

Never A Better Time To Baseline

If you’re preparing to install Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, now would be a good time to give Microsoft’s Attack Surface Analyzer a spin. ASA takes a baseline snapshot of your system state and then lets you take another snapshot after any configuration change or product installation and displays the changes to a number of key elements of the Windows attack surface, including analysis of changed or newly added files, registry keys, services, ActiveX Controls, listening ports, access control lists and other parameters.

Ideally, you’d take your baseline after a fresh install of your workstation or server from known, good media/images and after your own base configuration changes.

This would also be a good thing to do when building your base VM images so you can then validate their state as you duplicate and modify VDIs.

The installation of a Service Pack is a pretty radical change to your environment. If you run ASA prior to the SP install you can see if there are any significant changes to your system’s security profile after the bundle of patches and hotfixes are put down. You could also use the SP1 event to baseline post-install, provided you’ve done as thorough of a malware & rootkit sweep as can be done (you still cannot truly trust the results).

It may take some discipline to run ASA regularly on your personal systems every time you update software or drivers. IT shops should have an easier time scripting ASA during system deployments as well as application code updates. In either scenario, this free tool from Microsoft should help make you a more informed user and also aid you in building and maintaining more secure systems.

See also: MSDN SDLC blog post on the new Attack Surface Analyzer

Quick Hits :: 2011-02-09

Security

  • VSR uses some high-ish profile attacks from 2010 to provide fodder for the VAR community :: Security Risk: Top Hacker Attacks of 2010. I include it as the examples they provide should make it easier for folks doing presentations where they need to show real-life attacks (without sifting through the individual entries at the various data breach web site databases). [Vertical Systems Reseller]

Windows

  • Windows 7/2008 SP1 looms large. OEMs, VLCs & MSDN/TechNet subscribers get it on February 16th and the rest of the masses can give it a go on February 22nd. It looks like it has a decidedly enterprise-y focus, but one can hope it continues Microsoft on the path to robust desktop & server experiences :: Announcing The Availability of Windows 7 and Windows Server R2 SP1 [Microsoft]
  • Autoruns – the ability to automatically perform tasks when certain devices are made available to Window systems (e.g. USB sticks) – are a boon to malware writers. While Microsoft has somewhat mitigated the threat they pose in more modern versions of their operating systems, it can be tricky to make older systems safe. With the latest round of Patch Tuesday updates, they included a way to disable Autoruns in older systems. W00t! Microsoft Update Offers an Easier Way to Turn off Autoruns [PC World]
  • Succinct and informative article by Chris Sanders on how to determine if your systems is being actively compromised. Chock full of screen shots and examples of what to look for. While not exactly aimed at the general Windows community, it does provide a solid introduction to core tools that technically-inclined users should make room for in their toolboxes :: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Determining-You-Actively-Being-Compromised.html [WindowsSecurity.com]

Programming

  • Pageforest helps you ship complete web applications without having to write any server-side code. You can build your application using HTML[5], CSS & javascript and the Pageforest service provides application hosting, user authentication & data storage. You only use client-side javascript and are free to include jQuery, Prototype or any other frameworks that you need to include in your app. Hosting is currently free and the site includes a full IDE to help you get started coding :: A Pure JavaScript Web Application Platform [pageforest.com]

‘Spaces’ for Windows

UPDATE [2011-02-05] Added VirtuaWin to the list thanks to a tip by @ken5m1th.

I’ve been setting up a relatively new 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate machine and decided to see if the virtual desktops landscape had changed much in the recent past. It’s amazing that with all of the feature duplication between OS X, *nix (esp Ubuntu) and more modern Windows systems that the ability to create, manage and use more than one desktop is not yet a built-in feature that one can just enable.

Poking around, I saw a few contenders, including:

Given that this is a built-in (i.e. I don’t have to pay extra for it) feature on two of my other operating systems, I immediately excluded the ones I’d have to pay for, even though a couple of them looked pretty snazzy.

I started with Finestra since I’ve used it in the past (under it’s old name) and was greeted with numerous “shortcut key conflict” errors and some .NET soft-app-crashed and working with the taskbar icon. It did it’s job, but it also made Xshell completely lose its window when I quit the switcher.

I decided to give Microsoft’s offering a go next as you’d think that they could use some of there seekrits to make for a very rich desktop switching experience. Unfortunately, it felt more like an app that I might have written (no polish, kinda clunky but functional). A big plus is that it did not require going through a slow install process. Download->run>->try->quit. I wish more software for the Windows platform was like that.

The last one I tried and have stayed with is WindowsPager. I was immediately impressed that it had a 64-bit compiled version and also that it did not require an arduous installation process.

WindowsPager lets you move individual windows from one desktop to another with a right-click in the title bar and presents a spiffy and functional mini-desktop view in the taskbar:

There are also many more ways to move around and place objects on individual desktops (you can see all the features in WindowPager’s documentation).

For the time being, I’m sticking with WindowsPager and am happy to have added functionality that really should have been there in the first place.

(Haven’t given VirtuaWin a go yet, but it looks like it might be a decent contender.)

HDMI Overscan Tweak For Wimpy Windows Font Display

CATALYST Control Center

Overscan setting

I recently hooked up a Windows 7 box to my Dell ST2310 monitor and was surprised at just how horrid the fonts looked, especially since my MacBook Pro looks fantastic using both DVI and HDMI with the display. I even tried all the ClearType tweaks to no avail.

Then, it suddenly dawned on me – when I started viewing some iTunes videos – that the OS was not taking advantage of the available screen real estate (in full screen view mode).

I tried to go minimal with the Windows 7 install, as I find that too many utilities, tray icons and services still manage to clog up the works. To solve this problem, I had to grab the ATI CATALYST Control Center software to do more detailed tweaks.

It turns out that the problem was with the overscan settings. The original, default setting by the built-in Windows 7 drivers had the slider right in the middle. I had to move it all the way to the right (full overscan) to both reclaim viewing space and font crispness.

Believe it or not, Engadget has a pretty good breakdown of the in’s-and-out’s of overscan if you’d like further reading. I blogged this mainly to help folks out who may be as frustrated as I was.