Windows Live Essentials

Windows Live is the brand name for a set of services and applications offered by Microsoft. Broadly speaking, Windows Live is made of two parts: Windows Live Services and Windows Live Essentials. Windows Live Services refers to hosted applications/services that you can use over the Web. A good example of a Windows Live Services application is Hotmail; another example would be MySpace. Windows Live Essentials, on the other hand, refers to a suite of applications that users can download and install on their Windows computers. Examples are Messenger, Mail, and Photo Gallery. This section will focus on Windows Live Essentials.

The Windows Live Essentials suite includes the following key applications (as well as some add-ins to other applications such as the Windows Live Toolbar for Internet Explorer):
• Messenger
• Mail
• Photo Gallery
• Writer
• Family Safety
• Movie Maker

To download Live Essentials, go to http://download.live.com. You can download the main installer application, which will allow you to choose and download your desired applications on demand.



Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging application.
Windows Live Messenger offers the following functionalities:
• File transfers
• PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calls
• Photo sharing
• Sending SMS messages
Using Live Messenger, you can also send messages to other users even when they are offline .



Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail is the successor to Outlook Express (shipped with Windows XP) and Windows Mail on Windows Vista. Using Live Mail, you can read and send email from one or more email accounts, including accounts from providers such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!, and more.

Live Mail supports the POP3, IMAP, and HTTP protocols. The last one is particularly important for Hotmail users, because that service requires the HTTP protocol in order to be able to read your email using a mail client (unless you subscribe to the Hotmail Premium service). Also included with Mail are four other subapplications—Calendar, Contacts, Feeds, and Newsgroups (you need to press the Alt key to reveal the menu).

When you click the Sign In button in the upper right, Windows Live Mail will:
• Allow you to use your Windows Live online contact list (via the Windows Live Contacts application) and see when senders are online in Messenger
• Sync with your Windows Live calendars

Windows Live Mail Versus Live Hotmail
The popular, free web-based email service Hotmail was once called Windows Live Mail. It has since been renamed Windows Live Hotmail. The name Windows Live Mail now refers to the desktop version of the email application.

Subscribing to Microsoft Communities
To subscribe to a newsgroup using Windows Live Mail, click the Newsgroup icon in the bottom left of the Windows Live Mail window (or make the menu visible with the Alt key, then select Go->Newsgroups). The first time you go to the Newsgroups section, you will see a message indicating that you are not subscribed to any newsgroup. Click the View Newsgroups button to see a list of available newsgroups from the Microsoft Communities. Select the newsgroups that you are interested in and click Subscribe.

Working with the Calendar
To view your calendar in Windows Live Mail, click the Calendar icon in the bottom left of the Windows Live Mail window (or make the menu visible with the Alt key, then select Go->Calendar). The calendar will be displayed.

You can create a new Calendar by clicking the “Add calendar” link. Creating a new calendar allows you to organize the entries according to specific occasions. For example, you might have a calendar for company meetings and another for family matters.

You can also share calendars that you have created with your friends or the public. Before you can share your calendar, you need to sign into Live.com. Click the Sign In button in the upper right of the Windows Live Mail Window (if you see your Windows Live ID listed there instead of a Sign In button, it means that you are already signed in).

By default, three calendars will be created for you: My Calendar (your personal calendar), Birthday calendar (your contacts’ birthdays calendar), and Holidays (the holidays of the country you have selected).

However, to do so, you need to use the web-based version of Calendar. First, log in to http://calendar.live.com. You will be asked to sign in using your Live ID (the one that you signed into from within Windows Live Mail). Once you have signed in, you will be able to specify which calendar you want to share by clicking the Share link. You can then specify whom you want to invite to subscribe to your calendar, and the selected recipients will receive an email invitation.

Another interesting thing you can do with Windows Live Mail is subscribe to an online calendar. Subscribing to online calendars allows you to view the calendar of another party and be updated automatically when the party’s calendar is updated.

To subscribe to a calendar published by other users/organizations, click the Subscribe
link. You will be asked to either subscribe from a public calendar via a URL or import an .ics file. When you subscribe to a calendar via a URL, you will always get the updates performed by the calendar owner. An example of a calendar URL looks like this: http://cid-6d498f3bdb1fa52e.calendar.live.com/calendar/Trainings/index.html. If you choose to import the calendar via an .ics file, then you will only get a static calendar (i.e., you won’t see updates performed by the calendar owner). Calendars created in Live.com will be synchronized automatically with Windows Live Mail when you relaunch Windows Live Mail again (or simply press F5).



Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery is a photo management and photo sharing application that is tightly integrated with Windows Live Messenger. Using the Live Photo Gallery, you can organize your photos into folders, as well as tag photos and then upload them to Windows Live Photos and Flickr.

Windows Live Photo Gallery is the successor to Vista’s Windows Photo Gallery application. The names of your friends are taken from Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Contacts.



Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Writer is a blog-publishing application that allows you to publish your postings to blog publishing sites such as Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, and Windows Live Spaces.

When you first start Live Writer, you will be asked to create a new blog on Windows Live or use an existing blogging account. Once you have done this, you can use Writer to create a new posting and then publish it to your blogging account.

A nice feature of Windows Live Writer is WYSIWYG editing, and also that it supports rich content like images, maps, videos, and all major text-editing features like tables, alignment, and spellchecking.



Windows Live Family Safety
Windows Live Family Safety is a parental control application that allows parents to monitor their children’s activities on the Web. You can install Live Family Safety on all computers that your children use in your home. To activate Windows Live Family Safety, you will first be asked to log in using your Windows Live ID (such as your Hotmail email account). Once you have logged in, you will see the screen.

Select the account(s) to monitor and click Next. You will be prompted to match the Windows account with the name in Family Safety. Once this is done, click Save. You will now see that the default filter is Basic, which means that only adult websites are blocked. To change the filter, go to http://familysafety.live.com and you will be able to change the filter type to Strict, Basic, or Custom.

In order for the child to visit the page, he will need a parent (the one who signed in to Live Family Safety) to authorize the page using the password supplied during the signing-in process. Alternatively, the child can also email the parent the request.



Windows Live Movie Maker
Windows Live Movie Maker is a video creating and editing application. It is the successor to the Windows Movie Maker included with Windows Vista. The new Windows Live Movie Maker is now much more user-friendly.

Using Live Movie Maker, you can save your movies in Windows Media as DVD quality or Windows Media portable device format. Windows Live Movie Maker requires a video card that is at least as powerful as the ATI Radeon 9500 or nVidia GeForce FX 5900.

Source of Information : Oreilly Windows 7 Up and Running

Windows 7 Encrypting File System (NTFS Encryption)

As you have seen, BitLocker and BitLocker To Go encrypt the entire drive to protect the integrity of your filesystems. However, sometimes you may need to encrypt just selected files (or folders), not the entire drive. To do this, you can make use of the Encrypting File System, also known as the NTFS Encryption feature of Windows 7.

NTFS Encryption is available only in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. To encrypt a file (or folder), right-click its icon and select Properties. In the General tab, click the Advanced... button. Check the “Encrypt contents to secure data” checkbox and click OK twice.

You will be asked if you want to encrypt the entire file itself, or encrypt its parent folder as well (recommended). Select the option you want and click OK. The file will now be encrypted. If you click the Details button, you will see that the file has been encrypted using a certificate bearing your name (this is created for you automatically).

To allow other users to access your encrypted file, click the Add... button to add the certificates provided by the users. A user who possesses the certificate contained in the certificates list will be able to access your encrypted file.

When you select the certificate name, you will be able to back up the certificate to disk. Doing so allows you to pass your certificate to other users so that they can also access this encrypted file. However, giving your certificate to other users will allow them to access all your encrypted files and folders (that use the same certificate). So, think carefully before you give away your certificates.


Creating Certificates
When you encrypt a file using NTFS Encryption, Windows 7 automatically creates an encryption certificate for you if you do not already have one. However, you can also manually create your own encryption certificate using the “Manage file encryption certificates” application (just type “Manage file encryption certificates” in the search box of the Start menu).

By creating your own certificates, you can then encrypt different files using different certificates. Doing so allows you to share specific encrypted files with other users without compromising the integrity of other files.

If you already have a certificate created for you, you should see it now. To view other certificates on your computer, click the “Select certificate” button. If you want to create a new certificate, choose the “Create a new certificate” option and click Next. You will now choose the type of certificate you want to create. If you do not have a smartcard, you should select the first option, where you will create a selfsigned certificate stored on your computer. Click Next.

Your certificate will now be created. On the next screen, you have the option to back up your certificate to storage. Supply a path and a password for the backup. Click Next to continue.

Now you have the option to update your encrypted files with the new certificate and key (all your encrypted files will now use this new certificate). Select the drives or folders containing the encrypted files and click Next. That’s it! Your certificate is now created. The certificate is saved as a file with the .pfx extension.


Importing Certificates
When you receive a .pfx certificate from someone else, you can import it into your own certificate store in Windows by double-clicking the .pfx file. When you double-click a .pfx file, the Certificate Import Wizard will appear. Click Next to proceed. You will be asked to specify the location of the .pfx file. When done, click Next. Enter the password that was used to protect the certificate and then click Next twice. Finally, if the importing is successful, click the Finish button.

Source of Information : Oreilly Windows 7 Up and Running

Windows 7 BitLocker Drive Encryption

In Windows Vista, you had the BitLocker Drive Encryption feature that allowed you to encrypt the content of entire volumes. In Windows 7, Microsoft has extended this feature to include removable hard disks and thumb drives. This new feature is known as BitLocker To Go.

The encryption performed by BitLocker is transparent to the user—you will use the drive normally and Windows 7 will automatically encrypt the data on the fly when you write to the drive. Likewise, Windows will decrypt the data on the fly when you read from the drive.


BitLocker
The BitLocker Drive Encryption feature in Windows 7 (also available in Windows Vista) allows you to encrypt your hard drives so that it is safe from unauthorized access. Using BitLocker, all data written to a hard drive stays encrypted when it is stored on the drive. When the OS reads the data, it is automatically decrypted. However, if a BitLocker-encrypted drive is removed from a computer, its content will not be accessible unless the correct password is provided. This way, BitLocker helps protect the integrity and security of your data.

There are two types of hard drives you can encrypt using BitLocker: Operating system drive This is the drive where Windows 7 is installed in. Data drive(s) This includes internal data drives attached to your computer.

BitLocker is available only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. To encrypt the operating system drive using BitLocker, right-click the C: drive and select “Turn on BitLocker...” Alternatively, you can manage BitLocker on all your drives via the BitLocker Drive Encryption application in the Control Panel.

In order to use BitLocker to encrypt your hard drive containing your operating system, your computer needs to have the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip. BitLocker uses the TPM chip to store the keys that are used to decrypt your encrypted drive during bootup time. Alternatively, if your computer does not have the TPM chip, you can store the encryption key on a USB thumb drive. In this case, you need to insert your USB drive into your computer during bootup time.

Using BitLocker to encrypt your operating system drive also requires two partitions on the hard drive—one system partition (hidden boot partition) and one operating system partition. Fortunately, Windows 7 automatically creates these two partitions during the installation process.

For encrypting data drives, BitLocker requires the drive to be formatted using either the exFAT, FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS filesystems.


BitLocker To Go
BitLocker To Go is an extension of the BitLocker application that provides encryption support for removable hard disks and thumb drives.

BitLocker To Go is available only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. To turn on BitLocker To Go, simply insert your thumb drive into your computer, rightclick the drive icon in Computer and select “Turn on BitLocker...”.

Now you need to choose a way for the drive to be unlocked when it has been encrypted—using a password or a smartcard. The easiest way would be to choose a password; if you choose this option, supply a password. Click Next to proceed. In the next step, you have a choice to store your recovery key to a file or print it out. The recovery key is used to temporarily unlock a BitLocker-encrypted drive in the event that you forgot the password. Choose the desired option and click Next. You are now ready to encrypt your drive. Click the Start Encrypting button to begin the encryption.

Windows will now start to encrypt your drive. It will take some time, especially if you have a large-capacity thumb drive. When the encryption is done, a lock will appear on the drive icon. From now on, whenever you insert your thumb drive into your computer, you will be prompted to enter the password to unlock the drive. Enter the password and click the Unlock button to unlock the drive.

If you insert a thumb drive encrypted with BitLocker To Go into a Windows XP computer, you will be prompted to enter the key to unlock the drive. If you forgot your password, click the “I forgot my password” link. You will be prompted to enter the recovery key that you saved/printed earlier. Enter the recovery key and you will be granted temporary access to the drive before you change its password.

You also have the option to automatically unlock the drive on the current computer. If you choose this option, you will not be prompted to unlock the drive every time you insert the thumb drive into the current computer. You should choose this option only if you are sure that your computer is secure and that it is not easily accessible to other people. You can change the BitLocker feature of a drive by right-clicking the drive icon in Computer and selecting Manage BitLocker.

Source of Information : Oreilly Windows 7 Up and Running

Windows 7 - The Credential Manager

Windows 7 includes a feature known as the Credential Manager to help users save their credentials to a vault. Although this is not a new feature, in this version it has the ability to back up and restore the vault. In the Credential Manager, all the credentials are stored in a secure location known as the Windows Vault.

To use the Credential Manager, go to Control Panel->User Accounts and Family Safety->Credential Manager. There are three types of credentials you can store using Credential Manager:

Windows credentials
Stores the credentials of resources such as servers, printers, and the like.

Certificate-based credentials
Stores certificate-based credentials, such as those from a smartcard.

Generic credentials
Stores generic credentials, such as online IDs.


Using the Credential Manager
Note that the Credential Manager is designed to work with resources (such as servers and websites) that make use of the Credential Manager API to retrieve the username and password from the Credential Manager. A good example is Windows Live Hotmail.

When you first log in to Windows Live Hotmail, you have an option to save the password to your computer. When you check the “Remember my password” link, the credential (Windows Live ID and password, in this case) is automatically saved into the Credential Manager.

If you log out from Hotmail now and try to log in again, you will see that your Windows Live ID is now displayed on the login page and that you can log in automatically (without needing to enter the password) by clicking the “Sign in” button. For websites that do not use Windows Live Login, Internet Explorer will store the ID and password pair in the Registry.


Linking Online IDs
In the previous section, you saw how Hotmail automatically signs you in using the credentials saved in the Credential Manager. The Credential Manager also allows you to link your login user account with an online ID explicitly (such as those given by your email service provider) so that you can sign in to these services automatically. This is done via online ID providers. An online ID provider associates your Windows login with an online ID so that when you access your online service you do not need to supply your username and password again.

To manually link your user account with an online ID, click the “Link online IDs” link at the bottom of the Credential Manager window. Click the “Add an online ID provider” link to locate an online ID provider.

You will be brought to a web page where you can locate an online ID provider. At this moment, only one online ID provider is available—Windows Live. Click the Windows Live icon.

You will be brought to a page where you can download the necessary program. In this case, you need to download the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant. Once the download is complete, proceed with the installation.

Click the “Link online ID” link to add an online ID. Enter your Live ID. You should now see the credentials you entered. Now when you use any of the Windows Live services (such as Hotmail and Messenger), you will see that your credentials are automatically filled in for you.


Backing Up the Credentials
A new feature of the Credential Manager in Windows 7 is its ability to back up your credentials to the filesystem. To back up the vault, click the “Back up vault” link. You will be asked to select a path to back up the vault. Click the Browse... button and specify the path and name of the backup vault. Click Next.

To continue, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete. You will now be asked to protect the file with a password. Enter the password twice and the vault will be backed up. To restore the vault, click the “Restore vault” link and supply the password used to protect the file.


Source of Information : Oreilly Windows 7 Up and Running

Windows 7 User Account Control

One of the most fiercely criticized features of Windows Vista is the User Account Control (UAC). Whenever a system-level change is made, Vista’s UAC displays a dialog box prompting the user to continue or stop. This happens regardless of whether it is a program that is making the changes or the user herself (even though she might be logged in as an administrator). And with the frequency that the UAC displays prompts, most users find it a nuisance rather than a useful security alert feature. Moreover, when the user ends up with too many UAC prompts, it actually defeats the purpose, as users simply give their permission without reading the prompts.

In Windows Vista, Microsoft only provided two options to control UAC—turn it on or turn it off. In Windows 7, Microsoft has fine-tuned the UAC so that you can choose when to be notified if changes happen.

To configure UAC, go to Control Panel and select User Accounts and Family Safety, and then select User Accounts. Click the Change User Account Control settings link.

Notice that you now have four levels to specify how you are notified when changes are made to your computer.

The four levels are:
• Always notify when programs install software or users make changes to the computer. This is the most naggy option, as all changes require the permission of the user (this is the option used by Vista).

• Notify only when programs make changes to the system. When the user makes changes to the Windows settings, there will be no prompting. This is the default level selected by Windows.

• Notify only when programs make changes to the system without desktop dimming. When the user makes changes to the Windows settings, there will be no prompting.

• The user is never notified. This option is not recommended.

When you select a particular notification level and click OK, you will be prompted to confirm the selection.

Source of Information : Oreilly Windows 7 Up and Running

Windows 7 File Sharing

File Sharing with Windows XP
Though the new HomeGroup feature in Windows 7 makes file sharing very simple, it is incompatible with previous versions of Windows. If you need to share files with Windows XP or Windows Vista computers, you have to rely on the old trusty filesharing mechanism:

1. To share files with other users and computers on the network, turn off passwordprotected sharing so that users can access the files without authentication.

2. Go to Control Panel->Network and Internet->Network and Sharing Center. Click the “Change advanced sharing settings” link.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and locate the “Password protected sharing” section. Turn off the password-protected sharing, as this will allow other users to access your shared file without needing an account on your computer. Click the “Save changes” button when done.

4. Create a folder that you want to share. For example, create a folder on the desktop and name it Common Files.

5. Right-click the folder and select Properties.

6. Click the Sharing tab and click the Share... button. You will see the File Sharing window.

7. Click the drop-down arrow to select from a list of users who can access the shared folder. Once selected, click Add to add the user to the shared list. You can also configure the read/write permission for each user. Here, I am sharing the files with everyone on the network.

8. Click Share.


On the Windows XP computer, open the My Network Places window, and you should be able to see the various shared folders on the network. Double-click the one that contains your shared folder.

You will now be able to access the content in the shared folder.

Viewing Shared Folders from Within Windows 7
In Windows 7, to view shared folders from other computers, launch Windows Explorer and expand the Network item on the bottom-left corner of the window. All shared folders on the network will be listed here.


File Sharing with Mac OS X
If you want to share your Windows 7 files with Mac OS X users, use the SMB (Server
Message Block) protocol in Mac OS X.

The following steps outline how you can view shared folders in Mac OS X:
1. In Finder, select Go->Connect to Server....

2. Specify the “smb://” prefix, followed by the IP address (or computer name) of the Windows 7 computer and the “:139” port number. Click Connect.

3. If the connection is successful, you will be asked to log in to the Windows 7 computer. For sharing with everyone, select the Guest account and click Connect.

4. You will be asked to select the folder to mount in Mac OS X. Select the folder and click OK.

5. Finally, the shared folder is now available in Mac OS X.


Source of Information : Oreilly Windows 7 Up and Running

Virtualization Best Practices - Storage: How Many Drives Do I Need?

Storage can be one of the most complicated areas to plan for virtualization deployments. It’s rare that you’ll know exactly how large your VMs will grow, which may lead to either too much or not enough storage being allocated to a particular virtualization host. You can avoid both situations with some planning and monitoring.

When you’re planning a virtualization deployment, knowing the basics of the workload and expected growth is critical to ensuring that enough storage is provisioned to the host. However, the way that storage is provisioned is as critical as the amount. Allocating 2TB of storage to a host for VM usage may sound great; but if it’s two 1TB drives connected to a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) controller on the motherboard, it’s highly unlikely that it will perform under load.

Storage planning involves two main areas of concern: storage controllers and the number of drives connected to those controllers. The type of storage on the back end also matters:

Storage controllers. The number of storage controllers installed in the system is a common bottleneck. A VM will do as much I/O as a physical system. If a VM is doing significant amounts of I/O, it can and will saturate the storage controller. Performance will suffer for any other VMs that are using virtual hard disks (VHDs) available from that storage controller. That’s why it’s absolutely critical to have multiple paths available to the storage pool, for both performance reasons and failover in case of a loss of connection. Having multiple controllers available eliminates the single point of failure that can cripple a large-scale virtualization deployment.

Number of drives. As we mentioned earlier, provisioning storage for virtualization doesn’t always mean getting the largest drive available. In many cases, just as with many highperformance workloads, it’s preferable to have multiple smaller disks as opposed to fewer larger disks. Having multiple disks available lets you spread the work across multiple physical disks that are part of a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID).

Storage type. The type of storage connected to the host is of slightly less importance. As long as the storage is on the Windows Server 2008 hardware compatibility list, it will work with Hyper-V. This includes small computer system interface (SCSI), serial-attached SCSI (SAS), Internet SCSI (iSCSI), fibre channel, and even Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE) and SATA. You’ll see the difference in the rotational speed of the disk, as well as the amount of cache available on the disk. The performance gains from moving from a 7,200 RPM disk to a 10,000 RPM or even 15,000 RPM disk are significant and can increase even more past that level. Similarly, moving from 4 or 8MB of cache to 16 or 32MB will increase performance.

Volume management. When you pair storage with highly available VMs, the best practices get a bit more complicated. VMs that are made highly available as part of failover clustering have a limitation of one VM per logical unit number (LUN) if individual failover per VM is desired. This means you must carefully plan the provisioning of LUNs.

After your Hyper-V host is up and running, you should watch a few performance counters related to storage:
• Physical Disk, % Disk Read Time
• Physical Disk, % Disk Write Time
• Physical Disk, % Idle Time

These three counters provide a good high-level view of disk activity. If the read and write times are high (consistently greater than 75%), then disk performance is likely to be affected.
Additional counters to monitor include these:
• Physical Disk, Avg. Disk Read Queue Length
• Physical Disk, Avg. Disk Write Queue Length
High levels for these counters (greater than 2) may indicate a disk bottleneck.

Source of Information : Sybex Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Insiders Guide to Microsofts Hypervisor