Ed Bott's Microsoft Challenge, 11/16/00

I'm new here, but I'll give my wishlist:

A 'techie' version of Whistler might do well to have disk management features resembling Partition Magic. I doubt most consumers would care, however.
- DEFINITELY firewall protection would be welcome, something like Black Ice Defender.
- If MS had an antivirus group, maybe it would be good to build it into the OS; in the meantime, it might just do them well to offer promotionals for existing antivirus software (McAfee, maybe?).
- overclockers might appreciate CPU fan status monitors and temperature alerts.
- on the same line, a performance profiler could make suggestions as to what hardware or software is slowing down the system.
- DOS based registry checker/editor? (I suppose that's more Win9x than NT though)

Well, I could think of more I suppose but those are some ideas off the top of my head.

My vote would be for following:

A friendlier version of Performance Monitor is needed. Perhaps one that is extensible to include SNMP counters on non-pc equipment. It doesn't seem that it would be too difficult to create something that would allow you to enter the SNMP address of a remote counter and simply log it...like page count on a networked printer?

A version of the automatic registry backup & restore program that ships with Win98 is a must have for every future version of any MS OS. It automatically saves a copy of the registry at bootup and also allows you to backup and restore manually. I don't know why this wouldn't be included.

Having a firewall in a computer nowdays are essential, good firewalls are hard to find, so far i found that AtGuard firewall is the best for advance users. Norton Internet Security 2000 works exactly the same the AtGuard, although AtGuard came out ages before Norton. Anywayz, a firewall like AtGuard is much appreciated because at least there is the power to control your firewall. BlackIce Defender is an automatic firewall, it does not work as good as AtGuard, as far as i have tested.
Another thing is the DOS program. DOS is marvellous, i love it!! it's powerful and nice, doesn't take up much resources and yet it does the job. Windows ME and Win2K doesn't have DOS, which is why i don't upgrade my computer. DOS is just amazing, i just hope that it will come out in the next edition of Windows. Maybe more dos associated programs?
Guess that's it... ;-}

As a system administrator I would like the whistler to have some features s.a. a option to run in Charcter User Interface Mode or GUI Mode,which reduces the burden on specifically servers. I would also like to have most of the features s.a. Adding printer,User Administration,RAS and most of the features to be available from the CUI mode.

This type of feature makes the server more robust and stable as it takes less resources.

with best regards,
Sastry

I would like to see more diagnostic tools included in Whistler. NTDiag may be OK for checking out your Windows environment, but how many times have you spent hours running software diags only to find that when you replace the memory/cpu etc all your problems disappear? A tool capable of testing hardware to its limit and actually predicting whether or not the hardware will cause GP faults or page faults would be a major bonus to support engineers. We spent too much time troubleshooting 'random software errors' which just turn out to be a faulty stick of memory. So come on MS, give us the tools we need. :o) And whilst we're on 'random software errors', perhaps the guys at MS could do a little more with error messages... I'd like to see something a little more useful than "Sorry it crashed" for once. When I get an invalid page fault, I'd like to know why and where. Was it a page fault reading or writing to the memory? Was it reading or writing to the pagefile? Was it the fault of the software or the hardware? You know the sort of thing I mean.

Ebstar :o)

I would like to see more diagnostic tools included in Whistler. NTDiag may be OK for checking out your Windows environment, but how many times have you spent hours running software diags only to find that when you replace the memory/cpu etc all your problems disappear? A tool capable of testing hardware to its limit and actually predicting whether or not the hardware will cause GP faults or page faults would be a major bonus to support engineers. We spent too much time troubleshooting 'random software errors' which just turn out to be a faulty stick of memory. So come on MS, give us the tools we need. :o) And whilst we're on 'random software errors', perhaps the guys at MS could do a little more with error messages... I'd like to see something a little more useful than "Sorry it crashed" for once. When I get an invalid page fault, I'd like to know why and where. Was it a page fault reading or writing to the memory? Was it reading or writing to the pagefile? Was it the fault of the software or the hardware? You know the sort of thing I mean.

Ebstar :o)

I ( like poweruser and enterprise administrator ) allmost hate this wizard stuff around Windows 2000. In Win Nt 4 configuration was simple - 1 to 4 tabs, check mark here, here and OK.
Now ( on W2K) i get 5-8 pages wizard stuff.
It pissed me off.
My point is - can MS place somewhere selection for user skills? Default is on for dumb-home users ( sorry), and if I know where it lies, i can turn it to medium skilled everyday user or to advanced poweruser.

I'd like to see GoBack, a program that lets systems be restored to their state at a given point in the past, integrated into Whistler (I think there's something like it in Windows Me). It can really save your bacon if a badly behaved app or driver, or user stupidity (hey, we all do dumb things!) destroys critical application or OS files (tho the Windows file protection helps some). It also makes it safer to test new software, since you can get your system back exactly as it was before installation without spending ages doing tape or CD backups.

Another utility I won't do without is Quick View Plus, which is an immense improvement over the integrated Quick View, and lets me check out the contents of files quickly and easily, without opening their associated app.

As an administrator, one of the features I'd like to see included is the ability to use more utilities from the command line. Removing the burden of the GUI increases the performance.

One personal caution I have is not to include non-OS tools inthe OS. These are better left as add-ons. They can integrate into the OS upon installation, but it does not have to be included in the OS. Leave MS to build the OS and allow 3rd party vendors or even other departments at MS to include or ship thetools. Firewalls, AV software, browsers are all worthwhile products but just add a burden if the included product is not the product of choice. Removal is difficult or impossible and leaving the program installed, even though not active, has caused conflicts.

Each new release of Windows (these days) appears to arrive on a wave of *needed* quantum improvement and, while the urgency of such improvement has never been greater, far too many innovators (Microsoft included) have lost any ability to keep thingsin perspective. Exponential growth in the technology being a given, proportionate energy and resources need to be invested in the realization of pluggable software.

Granted, UI improvements are welcome, sometimes desperately so, but sometimes they are not. It is more important that an interface evolve naturally, over time and out of need than to be forced down the consumer's throat. This is especially so when we're talking about the USER interface on a SERVER. Microsoft needs to ensure that the next Advanced Server can be configured and maintained with the most minimal user interface.

While it was a welcome sight to see an OS from the drawing board in 1993, Microsoft needs to help the Developers, Analysts, Administrators, Engineers and Architects leverage the skills they continue to hone on WIntel -- less all at once and more along the way. Are we really ready for another architecture change? Do we really need it?

To this end, then, Whistler really *must* have just one utility: Add/Remove.

1. AN EASY WAY TO PROXY A SMALL NETWORK. I've never had any good luck or speed with ICS. Sygate on the other hand works well with all MS Operating Systems. With Broadband becoming so popular it should be standard.
2. AN AUTOMATIC DISK PARTITIONER. This one would create the "C:\" partition and then an "E:\" partition for data storage. That way when the operating system corrupts, crashes, or malfunctions it would be easier to retain all data on the "E:\" drive and. This would be automatically set up for disks having more than 2 gigs available for the "C:\" partition. The rest of the hdd would go to "E:\" and maybe even "F:\" for another swap file. ALSO, having the option to create more drives on the fly during installation w/out using third party software or FDISK before install.
3. A PROGRAM FILES INSTALLATION DRIVE SCANNER. When you run out of space on "C:\", it would scan for other drives and ask where you want to install the program instead; if one is found. Then remember that location for future use and interact with the software to change the default folder to the new location (D:\ for instance).

4. A PICTURE VIEWING PROGRAM. With Digital Cameras so popular it would make sense to have a better picture viewer than IE. ACDSee is a great example. At least ACDSee ?light? would suffice. That way even people who don?t have cameras but have pictures could view ?Slide Show? style.
5. A BUILT-IN, ON-THE-FLY UTILITY THAT WOULD CLEAN OUT THE *.TMP FILES FROM THE TEMP FOLDERS IN YOUR SYSTEM. This would happen every time the computer was rebooted or turned on. Of course, this is all part of preventive maintenance.
6. A SMART UTILITY THAT WOULD DEFRAG THE PC EVERY 1 OR 2 WEEKS DURING BOOTUP. With the option to bypass, but then would be reminded every 3 hours while the computer is on. Like a Task reminder in Outlook, only w/out the interval setting of your choice.

Microsoft RegClean should be integrated along with some kind of disk imaging software (like Norton Ghost). Also there are some interesting admin tools that come with the reskits, i.e. Registry Monitor (regmon.exe) for troubleshooting the registry and Windif.exe is excellent to compare directories etc., - maybe they could incorporate some of the less "dangerous" ones into the OS?

It goes without saying that an integrated Firewall - something similar to ZoneAlarm, Black Ice Defender or eSafe desktop which is a firewall and anti-virus combined would be extremely helpful.

I'm sure I'll think of a hundred other things as soon as I post this ..

Regards

?il

I very much would like to suggest using an imaging program integrated in the new version such as (PQ-Drive Image) also the build in firewall such as Black Ice.

Microsoft,"Keep up the good work!"

The NOS market is indeed interesting. Half of the people want more features, while the other half complain about "bloatware" and monopoly. Fewer features coupled with better development from third parties might be the best solution.
To counter that opinion, though, I'd like to be able to tweak ACLs from the Repair Console CLI.

I'd like the way it dispays graphics to be different. I have a program called picaview. You can right-click on the file and a thumbnail will apear in the menu.

Also, I'd like to right-click a .bmp and have the option to convert it to a .gif or a.jpg (Like in AcDess)

I believe MS needs to pay the guy who wrote SISOFT product lines and maybe even help him out and build a TOP of the line version for Whistler!

For thoes of you that have never seen or heard of the program, Get it.. there is a free version too. Best system information program available that I know of.

http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/

I also would like to add that Win2K both Professional and Server do not turn of the PC when using the command SHUTDOWN. I learned this problem is related to the hardware that is not supported by Win2K on some of the PC's. I would find it useful if this problem will be solved with the new version.

In spite of that I still think that Microsoft is doing a very good job!

So far, there has been a lot of nice ramblings about what people want, but only a few truely usable suggestions.

Well, here is mine, take it as you will.

I would like to see a way for mobile users to participate in a Primary domain (domain A) and several secondary domains (domain B, domain C, etc) without having to leave one domain to join another.

This could be incorporated into the "Hardware Profiles" currently in use in Windows 2000 Professional and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation as a operational variable.

Incorporating this and allowing the user to choose their profile at startup would give a mobile user the ability to connect to different domains depending on their location without having to reconfigure their network settingsevery time.

1) Integrate Support Tools right into the system. Reason: Hate to assemble the system from pieces. Why not integrate it into the familiar Add/Remove Windows Components.
2) Personal Firewall capabilities: Ability to easy block out the unneeded traffic, (I know there's a Packet Analyzer in Server version, but what about a Workstation connected via cable?), dynamically filter various ports, tune up logging, filter log results. May be designated as a part of ICS and likes. (So it doesn't install when not using Internet).
3) Antivirus? Great idea; WindowsUpdate.com as the source of weekly virus DB updates. McAfee's DB is not the most extensive. Provide antivirus updates along with software/driver updates. The most powerful virus DB I know of is, I think, AVP from Central Command (www.avp.com) - detects even newest Russian trojans. Include adaptive algorithms for searching unknown YET viruses by behavior, not only by pattern.
4) Include command-line analogs of MOST unix-like utilities. MS already gave us nslookup, tftp client. Please go on.
* And vice versa: Network Admin GUI diagnostics/info utility named CyberKit (www.cyberkit.net), very well done, has all those ping/tracert/whois/nslookup/time client/port scanner REALLY DOES deserve to be integrated into Whistler - it's SO useful for a network admin. It's rather small, too. (#1 TO THE WISH LIST!)
5) Registry Fixes? Regedit must be able to do this in command line already. Not only export/import the whole registry. Should work in ANY mode.
6) MFT Defragmentation. Page File defragmentation. Make them into standard DEFRAG (which already does the great job).
7) Resolution switching? Isn't that what QUICKRES was designed for?...

To answer the question directly, I require at least a seven character passwords with at least one numeric character and one capitalized character and force users to change their passwords every 3 months.

But there are other options available to ensure at least moderate security. It boils down to this, most companies approach security by restricting access to specific resources when they should be allowing access to needed resources. Security has multiple layers and passwords are the last line of defence. If all other criteria are met, the password is the last attempt to verify authenticity. By only permitting access to your resources when they are needed, you are denying access in any other circumstance, by default. No administrator should ever allow full access to their systems to every IP address. It's quite obvious that remote administrative access should only be allowed from the IP addresses handed out by the ISP of the administrators and if you really want to be technical about it, there's no reason why an administrator working remotely shouldn't have a static IP address. It is silly to limit security to a password.

Anyone looking to protect their network should be looking at solutions like packet filtering, intrusion detection and logging. With these implemented, it is possible to control access by IP address and port number. It can protect against fraggmented packets, IP spoofing, redirects an DoS attacks. If that is insufficient, an intrusion detection system can actively monitor connections and alert "suspicious" activity to allowed IPs and ports. In the event your system is compromised, syslog files stored remotely can indicate what took place and help you secure that hole. Passwords are justthe tip of the iceberg