Security

Windows Vista has the built-in ability to automatically reduce the potential of security breaches in the system. It does that by automatically enabling a feature called User Account Control (or UAC for short). The UAC forces users that are part of the local administrators group to run like they were regular users with no administrative…

What is the Windows File Protection (WFP) in Windows 2000/XP/2003? A major cause of incompatibility and crashes in W2K/XP is the fact that an application might overwrite dynamic link library (DLL) files with a similar name belonging to other applications. Often, these are DLL files that get placed in the %systemroot%\System32 folder during an application’s…

What is a Trojan Horse and what threat does it pose? Since "Trojan Horses" (or Backdoors) have been in the news just recently, the term probably sounds familiar to you. But perhaps you’re not quite sure what a Trojan Horse is and what damage it is capable of doing to your system. Trojan Horses, of…

Note: In order to successfully use this trick you must first use one of the password resetting tools available on the Forgot the Administrator’s Password? page. The reason for that is that you need to have the local administrator’s password in order to perform the following tip, and if you don’t have it, then the…

How can I easily discover who’s the user that encrypted a file? The Windows Explorer user interface (UI) shows which files are encrypted but not who encrypted them, causing a lot of confusion when trying to access specific files needed by other users. As an administrator, you could rectify the situation by decrypting the files….

How can I install the Certificate Authority (CA) service in Windows Server 2003? Windows Server 2003 can be used as a Certificate Authority (also known as CA) to provide extended security by offering support for Digital Certificates. Digital Certificates can be granted to users based upon their roles and group membership. For example, a regular…

How should I post messages to newsgroups without getting spam and viruses? Featured Product: Free AntiSpam for Exchange! DNS Blacklist checking & more – GFI MailEssentials. A fully functional 30-day trial is available for download. Newsgroups allow you to “post” messages (called a “posting”), respond to others’ posts, and even download files they’ve left there…

How can I disable EFS on Computers Running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003? The following procedure will show you how to use Group Policy to disable EFS on computers running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Open the GPO that you want to edit. You can use Active Directory Users and Computers or the…

What are the new EFS features in Windows XP? Featured Product: Passware Kit – Password recovery software pack for the world’s most popular office application files including Excel, Word, Windows 2003/XP/2000, Access, Outlook, QuickBooks, Lotus Notes, etc. Download FREE version now! Microsoft Windows 2000 introduced the capability for data recovery with the implementation of Encrypting…

In today’s digital world one of the most important pieces of personal identity is the user’s private password. Passwords are used to protect various aspects of our digital life such as our AD user account (used to log on to network resources), email accounts (such as Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail and others), credit card accounts, online…