Windows Firewall is one of the components which is enhanced greatly from windows XP to windows 7. In windows 7 it acts as two way firewall(Inbound/Outbound) with many advanced security features. This is also called as “Windows Firewall with Advanced security” in Window s7.
The more features, the more details you need it for troubleshooting issues. Since this version of firewall acts as a bi-directional one, you need good amount logging to troubleshoot network connection level issues on windows 7 and windows 2008 R2.
This article talks about how to enable this logging, location of log files, and few more options avaiLalble in logging.
Enabling Logging in Windows 7/Windows 2008 firewall.
It is pretty easy. If you want to enable on a single computer, just go to Start -> RUN -> and type wf.msc , this opens up “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security”.
Now Right click on “Windows Firewall With Advanced Security on Local Computer” and go to properties which opens below page.
Select “Customize” option under logging.
There browse for log files location where you want to place the logs and also choose the size limit for log files.
Your Logging will not start until you select “YES” for one of the following options. 1) Log dropped packets 2) Log Successful connections.
Click OK twice to complete your configuration.
This completes the configuration.
In my next post I will talk about how to analyze these logs files. Hope this information helps you.
Have you heard about “GOD Mode” in Windows 7? It sounds like a crazy and exciting stuff, right? Initially I felt the same when I came across this topic in one of technet support forums. After some reading I realized that is *not* exciting but a bit useful stuff.
Basically, when you view control panel, you will get few initial options and selecting one will take you inside and show you few more options which are under it. Basically its like a categorization. But with this “God Mode”, you can view all items in control panel in a single page. Nothing more.
Let’s see how to configure this in Windows 7 computer.
Create a folder and rename it to “God Mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}”
That’s sit. It converts the folder Icon to Control Panel Icon and clicking on which takes you to the single page view of all control panel items.
Well story not ended here. After trying above procedure, one question kept lingering in my mind — why it is called “God Mode” while it is not doing any “godly” things. I just replace the “God Mode” with my name — ha ha there is no change in functionality and it is still showing the things which it used to show when named as God mode. So there is no significance in that name and you can use any name you want but you should suffix it with the GUID which is related to control panel. Below is the sample screenshot which shows the view.
Today I came across this nice presentation on troubleshooting windows problem like sluggish performance and crazy behaviors. I recommend this video for Windows System administrator who are serious about developing their windows troubleshooting skills. I am big fan of Russinovich articles and have gone through some of his videos at PDC and they are awesome. Happy learning….
When you login to GMail next time, visit “setting” at the right top corner which takes you to your account settings page. There after a bit scrolling down you can see option to set signatures which supports RichText now. That means, you can put your favorites(or you branding) images in your auto signature. It also help you to format your signature font/size to much granular level than before.
Microsoft has announced Service Pack 1(SP1) beta for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta helps keep your PCs and servers on the latest support level, provides ongoing improvements to the Windows Operating System (OS), by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms based on customer and partner feedback, and is easy for organizations to deploy a single set of updates.
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta will help you:
Keep your PCs supported and up-to-date
Get ongoing updates to the Windows 7 platform
Easily deploy cumulative updates at a single time
Meet your users’ demands for greater business mobility
Provide a comprehensive set of virtualization innovations
Provide an easier Service Pack deployment model for better IT efficiency
To download SP1, first your should register yourself at this LINK and after successful registration it will display the options to update your computer either via Windows update or ISO. The ISO contains the SP1 for both 32 and 64 bit architectures of Windows 7 and 64-bit version for windows 2008 R2.
Today I enabled Outlook cached mode for mailbox and it started Syncing all my email items. But one thing I couldn’t understand is, in what order it is syncing the folders. I got to see few mails urgently and that folder is not yet synced. I quickly searched in internet and came across a simple trick to force sync the folder I required.
It is very simple, just select the folder that you want to Sync and press SHIFT+F9. Outlook will start Syncing your folder immediately.
ILO(Integrated Lights-out) is a technology that enables system administrators to remote control the server even when it is powered down. After reading my previous post on same ILO topic, one of my X-colleague contacted me for some readymade script which he can use to get the ILO version information. There this script took birth.
This scripts gets the ILO version of given remote server.
You have a windows XP computer? Do you know which version you should use? Or using a windows 7 computer? which version is available by default? What is the CTP version? There are many links..which one I should download?
Today I came across this nice article which rubs out all the confusions in identifying the correct powershell version for ones use. I am sure it will definately help you!!
Windows+E opens explorer, Windows+R starts run, and Windows +D shows desktop, etc….. Do you want to know all the keyboard shorts in windows 7? Hmm I also looked for it this morning and stumbled on below link which has the complete and segregated list.
