Windows 7 RC & Admin Tools
Jun2
This really isn’t new, but I needed a place to document it and this seemed like a good place in case I can’t get to Evernote ;-)
Using Windows 7 has been pretty stress-free for the day-to-day typical end user stuff, but for adminitration tasks there was a pretty big hole in 7’s functionality… until, now. By now, I mean I finally had a need to look up the fix… now. The problems discussed below were addressed a while back.
If you admin a Windows domain, you probably need the following (at a bare minimum):
- Active Directory Users and Computers (with the Exchange tab plugins)
- Exchange System Manager (you might still be using ‘03, ja?)
- IIS Management
- Network Service Management (DHCP, DNS, etc…)
These things didn’t really work on 7 with the tool installs that you may have been used to. Read on after the jump for a look at how to get these working on the latest 7 RC…
Eee: small, not ugly & surprisingly useful
Jun0
As part of a display unit for our Maserati store in West Palm Beach, I was in the market for an ultra-small PC that was cabable of simply running a Power Point slideshow on a continuous loop. We’re building a new facility for our Ferrari franchise and needed to display the artists’ renderings of the new building on a 37″ panel in the customer area of the Maserati sales floor.
I debated with myself over what would make sense for simplicity’s sake, and decided that the PC must accomplish the following:
- Be small and pretty
- Be damn near silent
- Run Windows XP (for both the slideshow and limited browsing functionality)
- Be cheap
I settled on the Asus Eee Box B202. Specs and more here.
It’s not overly ugly (the decals all come off). It’s the right size. It runs Windows. It was under $300 USD.
Overall, I’m extremely impressed. The next time someone tells me they need a very cheap PC for checking email, surfing the web and typing up the occasional letter or homework assignment, I’m going to have a hard time *not* recommending one of these.
And… the best part: It comes with a pre-fab bracket for mounting it directly on the back of your LCD panel. Freakin’ brilliant! For $300 this thing is really well-put-together and offers a whole lot of flexibility.
Don’t misunderstand… it is definitely under-powered and never in a million years would I want to do anything resource intensive on it. But, for everyday light use and displaying digital video, it’s great.
Well done, Asus.