B# .NET Blog

After attending a couple of preconference sessions, we're ready to go for lunch in a minute. After all, I decided to attend a part of Steve Riley's and Jesper Johansson's preconference on security, called “Be Secure: How to Build a Defense-in-Depth Strategy for your Environment - Today!”. The nice thing about preconferences is that you can taste a bit of it all ;-). For those of you attending the precon, please note that the precon materials won't be on the postcon DVD! So, if you need the stuff, go and grab the handouts for review at home later on.

One interesting new technology is called “Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP” which can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx. The technology includes a series of services and apps to make shared computers more reliable and less time-consuming to maintain. Examples of such systems are kiosks, internet cafes, shared computers in schools, etc. Some features include.

• A tool called “Windows Restrictions” that's well-suited to prevent access to various parts and settings of the OS, especially useful in environments that don't have an Active Directory domain instructure.
• Enhanced “Windows Accessibility” tools to help to maintain privacy on shared systems and to give users an overall familiar feeling with their (shared with other people) systems.
• For those of you who know differencing disks in Virtual PC, the “Windows Disk Protection“ tool eases the maintenance of computers by throwing away chnages made to the computer since the last boot. Critical updates and antivirus updates however are maintained on the system. When shutting down the tool should ask whether to keep changes or to discard them.

To download this new piece of beta-software, follow this link. Looking for some food right now. Cheers!