Rhyous

Today Microsoft® has announced that it has acquired FreeBSD®. FreeBSD is an open source operating system known for its very enterprise friendly license. Microsoft has recently embraced open source, moving .NET Core to GitHub, as well as announcing that a bash port that will run in Windows 10. However, this move was quite unexpected.

Microsoft is paying the FreeBSD Foundation approximately 300 Million for the FreeBSD brand, the open source operating system’s source repository, all forks, sub-brands (OpenBSD and NetBSD), websites, and communities.

Microsoft is in the process of negotiation full-time salaries for many of the developer volunteers.

Rumor has it that iXSystems may also be acquired either as part of this deal or as a separate deal. Interestingly enough, Microsoft is not paying for the source itself because that is already free for everyone.

In an interview with the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he made the following comment:

“With Apple using so much of FreeBSD’s source in their OS X operating system, we felt owning part of the OS X operating system’s source code could really help our Office development team to write a better Office port of OS X.”

We further questioned Nadella on how this affected their recent relationship with Canonical, who ported bash to Windows 10 for Microsoft.

“Canonical is behind Ubuntu, who is moving away from the Linux Kernel. Canonical has recently embraced the idea of UbuntuBSD. With this aquisition, Cononcial and Microsoft are going work close together over the next few years.

There used to rumors that older Windows Operating Systems used some FreeBSD code, we commented to Nadella. He responded with this quip:

“Only older ones? Where do you think we get all our great ideas for our networking stack. I would expect a lot of integration between Windows and FreeBSD, especially on the networking stack.”

Is there anything that FreeBSD has that you want to pull in as soon as you can.

“Well, we are jealous that they have ZFS and Windows does not. Unfortunately, this aquisition doesn’t help bring ZFS to windows. Oracle has the copyright on ZFS. I guess we’ll have to acquire Oracle next.”

That last statement, Nadella laughed.

We were also able to contact the President of the FreeBSD foundation, Justin T. Gibbs and discuss with him the acquisition.

Has Microsoft made any exciting promises to the FreeBSD Foundation in light of this acquisition? Gibbs quipped:

“You mean besides promising to not lay us all off? No, in seriousness, Microsoft has committed to the FreeBSD copyright. They are looking for improvements in IPv6 that we have already implemented. We are looking to make .NET a first class citizen and make C# the primary development language for Web Services, Cloud Services, and Desktop apps written for FreeBSD.”

Does Mono or Xamarin have a big play in that? Gibbs responded:

“Yes, it does. In fact, expect to see FreeBSD added to the list of projects creates when you start a new Xamarin Forms project in Visual Studio. Soon, when you write an App, it will run universally on Windows devices, as well as Android, iOS, OS X, and FreeBSD.”

What does the future look like for FreeBSD under Microsoft’s reign?Microsoft announces it is acquiring FreeBSD

“The future looks promising for FreeBSD under Microsoft.”

Too many people are paying for software to provide a complete return the windows Start pop-up menu. Well, Start is still there in Windows 8, it is just a little different. It is not a pop-up menu. It is hidden by default and only shows when you move your cursor to the bottom left corner.

I think many people would be happy if they simply had a shortcut to the Apps screen, which is equivalent to All Programs.

Well, lets create a shortcut and put in on the task bar. Follow these steps.

Note: Alternately, you can download and extract the zip file from here: AllPrograms.zip

Step 1 – Create the Windows 8 Apps Shortcut

1. Right-click on the Desktop and click New | Shortcut.
2. Where it prompts you to “Type the location of the item” enter this:
   %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{2559a1f8-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}
3. Click Next.
4. Name the shortcut what ever you want. “Start” or “All Programs” or whatever, it really doesn’t matter.
5. Click Finish.

Step 2 – Change the Icon for the Windows 8 Apps Shortcut

You may want to change the icon too.

1. Right-click on your newly created shortcut and choose Properties.
2. Click Change Icon…
3. Select a different icon from the list or download your own .ico file and use it.

Step 3 – Drag the Windows 8 Apps Shortcut to the task bar

1. Right-click on your newly created shortcut and choose Pin to taskbar.
2. Now if you want this icon all the way on the left, click and drag it there.

I love BSD and Linux and as an Open Source guy since 2001, many people expect me to hate Microsoft.  Well, guess what? I don’t hate Microsoft at all. I love the technology. I love most technology. So unlike many, I am not religious about my operating system. I am completely happy to spin up a Windows Server where it makes sense and a FreeBSD/Linux server where that makes sense. I am even known to run a PC-BSD desktop and avoid paying for a commercial operating system.

Currently for my desktop, I run Windows 8.

I really, truly enjoy running Windows 8. I am running it on both my laptop and my desktop. I love the Metro interface and find it works quite well for me. I use it to easily find and run my applications, just as I used Start in Windows 7. I love having both a Metro and a Desktop interface as well as having both Metro and Desktop apps.

I hear general complaints on the web.

“I miss the Start bar.”
“It’s harder to launch my apps.”
“I hate the metro interface.”

Really. Why? It is actually easier to use.

“Start is missing.” – Debunked!

Is Start really missing? No. It is there, just it has to pop up. And guess what? It even says “Start”.

The difference between the Start button in previous versions and the Start button in Windows 8 is not a long list.

1. You don’t see a start button/icon until you move to the cursor all the way to the bottom left corner. However, the image that pops up does say “Start”.
2. The screen doesn’t pop up over your current desktop view, instead it opens using the full screen.
3. It shows both desktop apps and metro apps.

Well, are these three differences that big of a deal. Of course not. The first two are not missing features, just a different way to view things. The last one is actually a feature add.

Unfortunately, there are haters out there. Those who are religious about their operating system. Each operating system has those who are nut-job religious. Yes, I’ve seen nut-jobs for Microsoft, Apple OSX and iOS, BSD, Linux, Unix, Android. Heck, I’ve even seen nut-jobs for just one flavor of Linux (Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Slackware, Symbios, etc…). So naturally when nut jobs see a little blood in the water they attack.

Can improvements be made? Yes. I see no reason that Start has to be hidden by default. Historically, hiding or showing things has been an option. It is really the lack of the option that is all Microsoft missed. If so, that is not a big deal at all.

“It’s harder to launch my apps.” – Debunked

Windows 8 is the operating system for launching Windows applications. Historically, you have been able to launch apps in the following manner:

1. Directly click the executable.
2. Click a shortcut you can place anywhere (folder or desktop or Start bar)
3. Click Start then move the cursor to All Programs, move the cursor again, and then scroll through All Apps.
4. In Windows 7, they added the feature to click Start, just type in the first part of the program and the search would find the application for you.

Has anything changed in Windows 8. No, it hasn’t. I can still do all three with Windows 8.  What is different.

1. Clicking Start is displayed full-screen.
2. Getting to All Apps doesn’t require a lot of scrolling, instead it is Click Start. Right-click and choose All Apps.

These again are not feature losses but simply different views.

Go ahead and click Start, type in “No” and see that Notepad immediately shows up.

Go ahead and click Start, type in “Cont” and see that Control Panel immediately shows up.

It functions the same as Windows 7.

Is there room

“I hate the metro interface.” – Not debunked!

So let’s start with the fact that generic statements like this are just opinion and too general to really do anything about. What do you hate? Do you hate the full screen? Do you hate the way Metro Apps are opened? Lets take this to a more granular level.

“I hate seeing the full screen when I click start.” – Just opinion.

Well, this is opinion. No one can debunk or not debunk this. Personally, I don’t care either way. It works well for me, so I have no complaints.

Is there room for improvement? Yes.

I would like an option to see this in full-screen or in a window. Then those that hate it opening as full screen don’t have to have it open as full screen.

I would also like to be able to set whether to see the Start screen or the Apps screen is displayed when I click Start. However, this feature is easy to add using a shortcut. I will link to a post on how to create a shortcut to the Apps screen. You could even name the shortcut Start and put in on the bottom left.

“I hate that opening a metro app takes the whole screen”  – Not Debunked a real problem but fixable

Yes, metro apps take up the whole screen. Worse, some things, like pdf files, open in a metro app by default. I had to install Acrobat Reader to make this go away, but only for opening pdf files. Even worse is trying to figure out how to close a metro app for the first time.

This is really the only thing that bothers me about Windows 8. When I launch a metro app, it opens full screen and I have no option to make it just a window. The Metro app experience is not really that great for a desktop/laptop.

I want all my windows to be re-sizable and I want to have multiple windows up at once. So should Metro and Desktop modes be completely separated. Of course not. There is only one feature that is annoying. The fact that metro apps open full screen. Simply add an option to open metro apps in a window and now everything is fixed.

This is fixable. I may write a post on how to resolve this later. If I do, I will link to the solution here.

Conclusion

There was only one real problem, in that metro apps open full screen and you can’t run multiple apps at once. The rest are just options people want. If Microsoft makes these changes, the major complaints are resolved:

1. Allow an option to hide or display the Start icon.
2. Allow Start and Apps metro screens to be opened in windows.
3. Allow Start to be configurable to either open Start or Apps metro screens.
4. Allow a setting to make metro apps to be opened in windows and make it the default setting on desktops and laptops.

Wow! A brand new interface and really four features resolve the world’s major complaints, most of which are not really that big of complaints in the first place.

We haven’t yet discussed the new features in Windows 8 yet, such as Hyper-V, which saves me a lot of money on a separate VMWare Workstation license.

My Recommendation

Take another look at Windows 8!

Yesterday we learned how to Get the Current User’s Active Directory info. Today we will learn how to get a named user’s Active Directory info?

Get a named User’s Active Directory info?

The first steps are the same as yesterday.

Step 1 – Create a new Console Application project in Visual Studio.

Step 2 – Add a .NET reference to System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.

Step 3 – Populate the Main Method as shown below.

using System;
using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;

namespace NamedUserAdInfo
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string userName = "Rhyous";
            PrincipalContext context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);
            UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(context, userName);
            Console.WriteLine("Name: " + user.Name);
            Console.WriteLine("User: " + user.UserPrincipalName);
            Console.WriteLine("GUID: " + user.Guid);
            Console.WriteLine(" SID: " + user.Sid);
        }
    }
}

The only difference between the current user and a named user is that there is a static value for the current user called UserPrincipal.Current whereas for a named user, you need the user name.

Writing a program that does both

OK, so lets make a program that takes a parameter and does both. Here it is.

using System;
using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;

namespace GetAdUserInfo
{
    class Program
    {
        static UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.Current;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            ParseArgs(args);
            OutputUserInformation();
        }
        
        private static void OutputUserInformation()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Name: " + user.Name);
            Console.WriteLine("User: " + user.UserPrincipalName);
            Console.WriteLine("GUID: " + user.Guid);
            Console.WriteLine(" SID: " + user.Sid);
        }

        private static void ParseArgs(string[] args)
        {
            foreach (var arg in args)
            {
                if (arg.StartsWith("user=", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
                {
                    string[] splitArgs = arg.Split("=".ToCharArray());
                    string userName = string.Empty;
                    if (splitArgs.Length == 2)
                        userName = splitArgs[1];
                    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(userName))
                    {
                        Syntax();
                    }

                    // set up domain context
                    PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);

                    // find a user
                    user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, userName);
                    continue;
                }

                if (arg.StartsWith("user=", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
                {
                    Syntax();
                }

                // if arg not found treat it like /?
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Argument not found: " + arg);
                    Syntax();
                }
            }
        }

        private static void Syntax()
        {
            String fullExeNameAndPath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
            String ExeName = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(fullExeNameAndPath);
            Console.WriteLine(ExeName + " user=[username]");
        }
    }
}

Here are the sample projects.
GetAdUserInfo.zip

Get the Current User’s Active Directory info?

Here is how to get the currently logged in users Active Directory GUID and SID.

Step 1 – Create a new Console Application project in Visual Studio.

Step 2 – Add a .NET reference to System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.

Step 3 – Populate the Main Method as shown below.

using System;
using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;

namespace GetAdUserInfo
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Name: " + UserPrincipal.Current.Name);
            Console.WriteLine("User: " + UserPrincipal.Current.UserPrincipalName);
            Console.WriteLine("GUID: " + UserPrincipal.Current.Guid);
            Console.WriteLine(" SID: " + UserPrincipal.Current.Sid);
        }
    }
}

See Part 2 – Get a named User’s Active Directory info?

If you use Virtual Machines  in your lab (either with Hyper-V, VMWare Workstation, Virtual Box or other), you probably would love to have a list of steps to create a nice usable Virtual Machine. There are probably annoyances you have with your Virtual Machines that if you only knew how you could make them go away.

Also, it is frustrating to revert and have to redo settings, so knowing when is best to snapshot is also nice.

This document is to help you with just that: Creating the perfect Virtual Machine that is easy to use and avoids annoyances.

Note: I have been using VMWare Workstation since 2004. I have also used ESX, Virtual Box, and Hyper-V. I have worked with lab environments the most, but I have also worked with Virtual Machines in production and consider myself highly experienced.

Setting up a new Virtual Machine

Note: These steps provide general guidelines for when to snaphsot

1. Create a new VM in your favorite Virtual Machine Manager.
   Note: I have used VMWare Workstation and ESX, Virtual Box, and Hyper-V and find I like them all fine.
2. Use a very large disk image size, but do not choose to use allocate disk space now.
   Note: It is very frustrating to run out of space, so avoid this.
3. Delete the floppy disk if the hardware configuration has one.
   Note: VMWare workstation will annoy you to no end if you leave a floppy on the system.
4. Install Windows.
5. Note: Do not activate or enter a Product Key if it allows you to skip this step.
   Note: I will use Windows Server 2008 R2 for this example.
6. Create a snapshot called “Clean Install” here.
7. Apply all patches and updates and driver updates.
8. Add a secondary admin account in case you forget the primary admin account.
9. Create Snapshot called clean install with Patches.

Windows Activation

If this is to be a base OS to use to clone other Virtual Machines, never activate the base Operating System, only activate a Virtual Machine after it has been cloned and after you are sure the Virtual Machine will not be discarded as lab Virtual Machines can be discarded often.

Activation can be a delicate balance. You don’t want to active every time, but at the same time, you don’t to revert a virtual machine and have to activate again. As soon as you know you will use the Virtual Machine for a while, activate it and snapshot it. Hopefully you never have to revert to a state before it was activated.

Making the Virtual Machine Easier to Use

Allow the Virtual Machine to Shutdown from the Login Screen

1. Run gpedit.msc to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Click to expand Computer Configuration | Windows Settings |Security Settings |Local Policies | Security Options.
3. Scroll down in the right pane and right click on “Shutdown: Allow system to be shut down without having to log on” and choose Properties.
4. Click Enabled and then OK.

Disable the shutdown event tracker

Virtual Machines, especially in a lab, shutdown often and unlike production machines, tracking these shutdowns is not necessary, so lets turn this off.

1. Run gpedit.msc to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Click to expand Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates |System.
3. Scroll down in the right pane and right click on “Display Shutdown Event Tracker” and choose Edit.
4. Click Disabled and then OK.

Disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration

It is a pain in a lab to be prompted on every web site and for every download. Labs usually trade security for speed and agility.

1. Go to Server Manager.
2. Under Security Information on the right, click on Configure IE ESC.
3. Set the values to Off.
4. CLick OK.

Making the Virtual Machine more efficient

Turn off unnecessary services

If you need to run a lot of Virtual Machines and you need to squeeze every last bit of processor power out of your Virtual Machines, then they should only run the bare minimum they need to run.

Make a list of services you do not need but are running by default and disable them.

Note: Google search for “Services you can turn off in Server 2008” or whatever Operating System you are using.

Note: Often developers install Visual Studio, which includes SQL Express, and even if they never use SQL Express, they leave the service running. Stop such services and set them to manual so they don’t restart every reboot.

Software on the Virtual Machine

Install commonly used software

This one appears easy at first. However, it is different and there is more to it than you think.

1. Make a list of software you use on your Virtual Machine. Here are a few examples:
   Notepad++
   7zip
   Acrobat Reader
   Firefox or Chrome (or your favorite browser)
   etc…
2. Install your desired software.
3. Update your software.
4. Snapshot.

Delete Unique Values for Some Software

If you are going to use this as a base Virtual Machine to clone other Virtual Machines, then you don’t want anything that should be unique to be the same on each machine. Any software that has unique values should have those unique values removed. I’ve seen VPN software have unique values, the LANDesk Agent, etc… Remove these unique value before you Sysprep.

Using Virtual Machines with Active Directory

Using the Virtual Machine as a base

If you are going to create a base Virtual Machine that  you will clone often, just never join it to the domain. Instead, take the time to get the system perfect and sysprep the Virtual Machine so it will join the domain and prompt for a computer name on first boot.

Sysprepping a Virtual Machine

Sysprep is eithe ron the ISO or already installed.

1. Run c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe.
   (Or find sysprep on the ISO)
2. For System Cleanup Action, choose Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)
3. For Shutdown Options, choose Shutdown.
4. Click OK.
5. Snapshot once the machine has shutdown.

Prevent the Virtual Machine from ever losing a trust with the domain

When a Windows Virtual Machine is joined to the domain, reverting can cause a huge delay, especially if the snapshot is from a while ago, because a machine and the domain have a trust based on a system password (that is all under the covers) and this password can update. When reverting after the password has changed, your reverted state will no longer have a trust with the domain. This can be prevented.

1. Join your machine to the domain.
2. Apply DisablePasswordChange registry key.

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Netlogon\Parameters]
   "DisablePasswordChange"=dword:00000001
   

3. Create a snaptshot called “Machine joined to domain, DisablePasswordChange set”.

For more information, read this post: Virtual Machines, Snapshots, Domain Membership, and trust relationship

Change the domain password requirements to be easy or off

Again, in lab environments, security is often traded for speed and efficiency. You may want to allow passwords that are blank or two characters.

Also, because of snapshots and reverting it will eliminate Virtual Machine problems if passwords never expire.

If your Active Directory server is also in your lab, you may be able to change the passwords requirements to be easy or even turn them off completely. If your Active Directory server is not in your lab, you may have to live with them.

Don’t clone machines joined to the domain

If you clone a machine joined to the domain, you have created two machines that have the same domain membership, which should be unique. If one machine changes, it can break the trust relationship for the other machine.

The only time you should clone a machine that is joined to the domain is when you plan to discard the Virtual Machine you are cloning from.

Other Steps

Everyone has unique needs, and these are supposed to be general needs. You should document your needs and add them to your Virtual Machine creation.

If you have an idea that isn’t listed here and it is a general step, please comment.

So I installed Windows 8 on my work computer.

Day 1 and 2 Review

1. I like that Hyper-V is included in Windows 8 Pro but don’t expect it to have anywhere near the features of VMWare Workstation. Even Virtual Box is more feature rich. No clipboard to copy and paste and no automatic screen resolution features are enough to drive me crazy.
2. I miss Start | All Programs. It is quite hard to get to “All apps” if you don’t now how. Press the windows button, or drag your mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen and click on a small popup to get to slide mode. Then right-click and in the bottom right there is an All Apps image you can click on.
3. I opened some slides in an XPS file and they opened on my left monitor. I found I could click and drag the slideset to the other monitor. The application started freaking out and flashing opened and closed on the first monitor.
4. When I open an application, I am not exactly sure how to close it. Is it like Android and IOS in that I just don’t close it?

Other than that, it feels like Windows 7 with a slightly different theme.

Day 3 Review

1. I tried to find the power off or restart option. I had to Google it. Rebooting the system was not very intuitive. Perhaps on a tablet, they will have the option come up when pressing the power button, like on my Kindle or my HTC Sensation phone, but when using this as a desktop, it annoying that I didn’t find it. I never expected them to put it in Settings. Here are the steps.

   Step 1 – Go to the very bottom right corner, until the right widget bar opens.
   Step 2 – Move mouse up  Settings.
   Step 3 – Choose Power from settings.

2. I feel that when using Windows 8 as a desktop, if you don’t know keyboard shortcuts, it is going to be a struggle.

Application and Development

1. Commercial apps. Like it or not the best apps, from MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and thousands more, exist only for Windows and most cross-platform apps just mean Windows and Mac.
2. Internal custom apps are almost all written for Windows only. And when they are web apps they often use SharePoint with IE only features.
3. Lack of enterprise product support for any operating system but Windows.
4. Rapid desktop application development on Windows with Visual Studio is orders of magnitude faster than on Linux with its best IDE, which is arguably Eclipse.

Infrastructure

5. Most existing desktop operating systems are already Windows.
6. Desktop Management solutions that Enterprise IT departments use to manage their workstations only manage Windows or if they manage multiple operating systems, they manage Windows the best.
7. Existing infrastructure (such as phone systems, etc…) integrate with Windows but not with Linux.

Employees

8. Existing Full-time employees (FTE) in IT are skilled in Windows and employee replacement or training costs are high.
9. The cost of Linux FTE in IT is higher than Windows FTE in IT.

Advertising

10. Most companies start small and grow to be an enterprise. When most companies are started, they are started by people who have never heard of or seen Linux.

Will this change in the future?

Maybe. Change is possible but it takes a lot of time and I don’t mean just years, I mean decades. And during these decades every OS vendor is going to fight to gain a monopoly in the enterprise desktop world.

If it does happen, the changes are for the following reasons.

1. To better support  mobile devices such as iOS and Android (which is sort of Linux)
1. As more applications become browser apps or cloud apps that work in any browser.
2. Cross platform development tools, such as Mono and Java and AIR are really improving.

For those who are pro-Linux because it is open source and you believe knowledge belongs to the world, the enterprise doesn’t care. This argument is completely irrelevant from an enterprise perspective. I care, though, if that makes you feel any better (though I am a person not an Enterprise).

What if a Startup uses an Open Source Operating System

Well, look at the 10 items above and you will see you can eliminate 2, 5, 7, 8, and 10. Half the reasons are eliminated by starting with an Open Source OS.  However, on the other hand, half the reasons still exist.

I have a previous post about installing telnet.exe in windows 7, however, I explain how to do it using the UI. You may need to install telnet.exe from the command line.

To install telnet.exe on Windows 7 from the command line, run this command:

C:\Windows\system32>dism.exe /online /Enable-Feature:TelnetClient

Now telnet to a machine:

c:\> telnet 10.1.1.1

Yes, it is that easy. Of course, you may think about using ssh these days as telnet just isn’t that secure. However, telnet is used for other things, such as port testing.

You can telnet using a different port or test that a port is open just by adding the port number.

c:\> telnet 10.1.1.1 3389

Ok, so our customers are tired of having us have an IIS prerequisite in our product installer. They want us to install and configure IIS for them.

So I found this article: Installing IIS 7.0 from the Command Line

I am testing the command line provided in this article in a command prompt. I have verified the command prompt is running as Administrator.

On Windows 2008 R2, it failed with this error: -2146498548

So if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Well, I don’t actually need everything in the script. So I tested this command line:

start /w PkgMgr.exe /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;

This command succeeded. The resulting installed IIS Roles and Services are these.

Note: This output is give by running this command: servermanagercmd.exe -query

[X] Web Server (IIS)  [Web-Server]
     [X] Web Server  [Web-WebServer]
         [X] Common HTTP Features  [Web-Common-Http]
             [X] Static Content  [Web-Static-Content]
             [X] Default Document  [Web-Default-Doc]
             [X] Directory Browsing  [Web-Dir-Browsing]
             [X] HTTP Errors  [Web-Http-Errors]
             [ ] HTTP Redirection  [Web-Http-Redirect]
             [ ] WebDAV Publishing  [Web-DAV-Publishing]
         [ ] Application Development  [Web-App-Dev]
             [ ] ASP.NET  [Web-Asp-Net]
             [ ] .NET Extensibility  [Web-Net-Ext]
             [ ] ASP  [Web-ASP]
             [ ] CGI  [Web-CGI]
             [ ] ISAPI Extensions  [Web-ISAPI-Ext]
             [ ] ISAPI Filters  [Web-ISAPI-Filter]
             [ ] Server Side Includes  [Web-Includes]
         [X] Health and Diagnostics  [Web-Health]
             [X] HTTP Logging  [Web-Http-Logging]
             [ ] Logging Tools  [Web-Log-Libraries]
             [X] Request Monitor  [Web-Request-Monitor]
             [ ] Tracing  [Web-Http-Tracing]
             [ ] Custom Logging  [Web-Custom-Logging]
             [ ] ODBC Logging  [Web-ODBC-Logging]
         [X] Security  [Web-Security]
             [ ] Basic Authentication  [Web-Basic-Auth]
             [ ] Windows Authentication  [Web-Windows-Auth]
             [ ] Digest Authentication  [Web-Digest-Auth]
             [ ] Client Certificate Mapping Authentication  [Web-Client-Auth]
             [ ] IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication  [Web-Cert-Auth]
             [ ] URL Authorization  [Web-Url-Auth]
             [X] Request Filtering  [Web-Filtering]
             [ ] IP and Domain Restrictions  [Web-IP-Security]
         [X] Performance  [Web-Performance]
             [X] Static Content Compression  [Web-Stat-Compression]
             [ ] Dynamic Content Compression  [Web-Dyn-Compression]
     [X] Management Tools  [Web-Mgmt-Tools]
         [X] IIS Management Console  [Web-Mgmt-Console]
         [ ] IIS Management Scripts and Tools  [Web-Scripting-Tools]
         [ ] Management Service  [Web-Mgmt-Service]
         [ ] IIS 6 Management Compatibility  [Web-Mgmt-Compat]
             [ ] IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility  [Web-Metabase]
             [ ] IIS 6 WMI Compatibility  [Web-WMI]
             [ ] IIS 6 Scripting Tools  [Web-Lgcy-Scripting]
             [ ] IIS 6 Management Console  [Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console]
     [ ] FTP Server  [Web-Ftp-Server]
         [ ] FTP Service  [Web-Ftp-Service]
         [ ] FTP Extensibility  [Web-Ftp-Ext]
     [ ] IIS Hostable Web Core  [Web-WHC]

This is almost enough but I also need these more than the default. I also need the ones below that I have put an “I” in.

[X] Web Server (IIS)  [Web-Server]
     [X] Web Server  [Web-WebServer]
         [X] Common HTTP Features  [Web-Common-Http]
             [X] Static Content  [Web-Static-Content]
             [X] Default Document  [Web-Default-Doc]
             [X] Directory Browsing  [Web-Dir-Browsing]
             [X] HTTP Errors  [Web-Http-Errors]
             [ ] HTTP Redirection  [Web-Http-Redirect]
             [ ] WebDAV Publishing  [Web-DAV-Publishing]
         [ ] Application Development  [Web-App-Dev]
             [ ] ASP.NET  [Web-Asp-Net]
             [ ] .NET Extensibility  [Web-Net-Ext]
             [I] ASP  [Web-ASP]
             [I] CGI  [Web-CGI]
             [I] ISAPI Extensions  [Web-ISAPI-Ext]
             [ ] ISAPI Filters  [Web-ISAPI-Filter]
             [I] Server Side Includes  [Web-Includes]
         [X] Health and Diagnostics  [Web-Health]
             [X] HTTP Logging  [Web-Http-Logging]
             [ ] Logging Tools  [Web-Log-Libraries]
             [X] Request Monitor  [Web-Request-Monitor]
             [ ] Tracing  [Web-Http-Tracing]
             [ ] Custom Logging  [Web-Custom-Logging]
             [ ] ODBC Logging  [Web-ODBC-Logging]
         [X] Security  [Web-Security]
             [ ] Basic Authentication  [Web-Basic-Auth]
             [I] Windows Authentication  [Web-Windows-Auth]
             [ ] Digest Authentication  [Web-Digest-Auth]
             [ ] Client Certificate Mapping Authentication  [Web-Client-Auth]
             [ ] IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication  [Web-Cert-Auth]
             [ ] URL Authorization  [Web-Url-Auth]
             [X] Request Filtering  [Web-Filtering]
             [ ] IP and Domain Restrictions  [Web-IP-Security]
         [X] Performance  [Web-Performance]
             [X] Static Content Compression  [Web-Stat-Compression]
             [ ] Dynamic Content Compression  [Web-Dyn-Compression]
     [X] Management Tools  [Web-Mgmt-Tools]
         [X] IIS Management Console  [Web-Mgmt-Console]
         [ ] IIS Management Scripts and Tools  [Web-Scripting-Tools]
         [ ] Management Service  [Web-Mgmt-Service]
         [I] IIS 6 Management Compatibility  [Web-Mgmt-Compat]
             [I] IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility  [Web-Metabase]
             [ ] IIS 6 WMI Compatibility  [Web-WMI]
             [ ] IIS 6 Scripting Tools  [Web-Lgcy-Scripting]
             [ ] IIS 6 Management Console  [Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console]
     [ ] FTP Server  [Web-Ftp-Server]
         [ ] FTP Service  [Web-Ftp-Service]
         [ ] FTP Extensibility  [Web-Ftp-Ext]
     [ ] IIS Hostable Web Core  [Web-WHC]

So the article was somewhat correct. Turns out this command line works:

And this command line satisfies all my requirements.

I completely believe that the phones and tablets like the new T-Mobile 7″ Samsung tab are going to be continue to be huge industries and will not go away as the Palm Pilot did. However, will they continue to explode exponentially as many believe? Or is there a plateau coming?

I just reviewed the Motorola Xoom and it was a great tech toy. However, it wasn’t much more than a casual gaming tool. There is a crucial flaw that has yet to be solved with phones and tablets: Typing.

No matter how fast you can type on a phone or tablet, you will never type as fast as you can on a keyboard. Might there be a solution better than a keyboard that we just haven’t discovered yet…maybe…but even if we discover it will it work on a phone or tablet?

There are certain uses for a phone:

1. Making calls
2. MP3 player
3. Texting
4. Casual gaming
5. Visual browsing (such as checking the whether)
6. Reading email (notice, I didn’t put writing email)
7. Pocket Portability
8. GPS and Navigation
9. Quick low quality photos/video

There are certain uses for a tablet

1. Book reader
2. MP3 player
3. Casual gaming
4. Visual browsing (such as checking the weather)
5. Reading email (notice, I didn’t put writing email)
6. GPS and Navigation
7. Quick low quality photos/videos

However, will the Laptop and Desktop be taken over by a tablet?  What about 20″ to 27″ monitors? Some of use need so much real-estate we have multiple monitors.  Here are using for a computer that a tablet does not solve.  For those of you thinking of going 100% to phones and tablets, you may just want to hold on.

Here is a list of requirements and uses that are met by a desktop or laptop that the phone and tablet haven’t really solved yet.

Note: I am not going to repeat the items on the list for the smart phones and tables but be aware that the only feature the phone or tablet has that a desktop or laptop doesn’t have today is pocket portability.

1. Keyboard and typing
   1. Writing email
   2. Writing documents
   3. Creating spreadsheets
   4. Writing code, yes, even writing code for tablets
   5. Writing blog posts (like this one)
2. CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drive (yes, people are going to still want to play there DVDs and Blu-Ray movies 10 years from now)
3. Monitors
   1. 17″ or larger monitor
   2. Multiple monitors
   3. Viewing multiple applications simultaneously
4. Local storage of data.
5. Serious desktop gaming
   1. Joysticks
   2. Short-cut keys
6. Peripherals
   1. Printers
   2. External drives
   3. Cameras and Video cameras
   4. Projectors
   5. Custom peripherals (like those that are designed for one company, telescope, craft vinyl cutters, industrial equipment, etc…)
7. Ethernet, no not everywhere has wireless yet and some secure facilities will never have wireless or allow VPN from a 3G/4G device. Some places don’t allow web-cams or camera devices and unfortunately you can’t take your camera out of your phone or tablet.

We have been using desktops for three decades. Smart-phones and tablets are in their infancy. Many problems, including millions of custom problems for companies in all industries, have been solved using laptops and desktops. To replace desktops and laptops, these problems will have to be solved.

Many problems have solutions already.For example, blue-tooth and wireless technology can allow for peripherals but there are a lot of devices already out there that are not blue-tooth or wireless capable.

But another road block is in the way. Adoption.

Adoptions takes a long time.  First the manufacturers have to adopt a technology, design new products, produce them, distribute them.  Then consumers have to buy the new technology and if they already own an older version, that older version often has to go through its life cycle which can take a lot of years. I still have an HP LaserJet 5L from the late 90s that works perfectly. No, I am not going to invest in another laser printer until this one dies.

So will someone still be running a desktop or laptop with Windows XP/Vista/7 in 2020. Certainly.  Will they probably own a smart phone or tablet as well.  You bet!

If you are using Windows and you are using Internet Explorer 9, you are becoming a minority.

W3Schools has a browser statistics site that basically is made by tracking the browsers that hit it.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

It is probably not exactly accurate because most poeple who go to W3Schools are probably in some way technical and doing some type of development, most likely for the web.  If there was a statistic built from the browsers that accessed the most popular pages on the web: Bing.com, MSN.com, Google.com, Yahoo.com, Youtube.com, Facebook.com, etc… then that would be accurate. But we make do with what we have.

This page shows that IE has a little over 1/4 the market share to start 2011, while it held over 1/3 the market share at the first of 2010.

So why am I telling you this, in my review of Internet Explorer 9?

Because I am telling you to get ready for the percent of IE users to rise again with the release of IE9.

So far, I have the following positive feedback.

• Feature that weren’t working before, such as rounded corners on the red borders of the boxes on my blog, are working.
• The browser opened with amazing speed. Yes, I didn’t just say speed, I said AMAZING SPEED.
• The About:Tabs page that opens by default in a new tab is quite awesome and is pretty close to a replacement for the Speed dial
• The cleanthiness of the browser is refreshing.

The negative feedback I have so far is simply one:

• I tried to find a plugin but found the plugin page hard to find and I could not find a way to search for IE9 plugins.

Right now I dual boot between FreeBSD and Windows 7.  When I am booted to FreeBSD, I will use Firefox. Normally in Windows 7 I also use Firefox.  Right now, I am not going to install Firefox in my new Windows 7 install in my dual boot scenario unless I start to dislike IE9.

Hey all,

I was going to write an article on this, but it was so easy, there is no need for one.

Windows 7 doesn’t know how to deal with PC-BSD, but PC-BSD knows how to deal with Windows 7.

So all I had to do was install Windows 7 first (I chose a 50 GB partition) and then I installed PC-BSD on the remaining space. I did click to install the PC-BSD boot manager as it is not selected by default, and now I can dual boot Windows 7 and PC-BSD.  Which is a must for a guy who’s job is writing C# on windows.

I just got a new 250 GB 7200 RPM laptop hard drive for $45 bucks from NewEgg.

I plan on installing Windows 7 SP1, FreeBSD 8.2, and PC-BSD 8.2.

You know what would be interesting is to link /usr/home on FreeBSD 8.2 and the PC-BSD 8.2 OSs so that my /usr/home/jared is the same directory on both.

I found this article on stripping down Windows.  I have wanted to remove unnecessary services from Windows 7 for a while.  I want to save it for later.

I explains how to remove unnecessary prettiness and services that take a lot of CPU power.

Speed Up Windows by Stripping It Down