EFS - Enchrypted File System

As a first "real" post (that is, one that isn't who I am or the history of the world) I've descided to begin with series of articles that'll unvail some of windows's tools.
Windows is concidered large operating system.
comperd to light OS's like DSL (Damn Small Linux) windows size (over 6GB in Vista, 1.3GB in xp) is pretty big, that is mainly (but not only) because Microsoft cramped inside windows as much (basic) utilities as they could to let the user work "out of the box" without the need for 3rd parties, such as web browser, basic notepad, painter, file manager etc.
one of those tools is the EFS, or, Enchrypted Files System.
What is Enchrypted File System?
EFS is, just as it name may apply, a tool to allow users enchrypting files, making them unreadable by other people
How does it work?
Long time ego, during the second world war, germany had the need of sending messages to its sub commanders to lunch timed attacks, problem was - the british/franch/us forces were listening to all of the lines of communication and any transmition to the subs would've reveal where the subs are and when will the subs attack and where.
the german intelligence then invented theEnigma, without going into details, it was a basic encription machine that had levers putted in different placed (creating something similar to a "code") and used it to modify the input recieved by it thus making the data unreadable unless you put the levers on the same places (producing the same "code") and punch in the chrypted message in order to dechrypt it.

it may have been a basic machine, with several flaws, but it did lay down the basics for most future chrypting algorithems.
on EFS, the idea is basically remains the same, each file is enchrypted in a symetric key (a long code which is used for encrypting the file, and if you'll use the same key to "encrypt" the file again - it'll be decrypt), and then each key is crypted with assymetric key (unlike symetric, you can't use this key to decrypt the symetric key), the reason why this is done is because using asymetric key to encrypt files is slow process so its more logical to do do so on "2048" bytes (thats 2048 characters of code length) then on this 1GB file, the assymetric key is derived from your password and will change whenever you change your password, so periodicly changing your password will make sure its even harder to hack into your encrypted files.
Which Windows versions can I use to encrypt files using EFS?
EFS is supported starting windows 2000, however only starting windows XP and so on you can allow different users to access the encrypted data and means for data recovery also exist in windows XP and later versions only
EFS is NOT supported in any of the "home" editions (xp home, vista basic and vista home premium)
How to Enable EFS on windows (important prerequisits)
EFS is enabled by default, but the first thing we MUST do is designate a user that can act as data recovery user, in case our password is beeing reset, forgotten, user profile is deleted etc.
so to do that - login as the data recovery user (preferably "administrator"), open up CMD and punch in the next command:
cipher /R:EFS
this command will create 2 files:
efs.cer - which is the administrator certificate (the profe he is "administrator" and not some other user)
efs.pfx - the private key of the administrator, the "code" that he uses to encrypt files with, anyone having this file can impersonate him, so don't leave this file on the computer, copy it on removable storage and lock it away (it will become handy if the administrator user is deleted among other hazards that may make your data unavailable).
you'll need to punch in a password to protect the PFX, make sure to remember that one or it'll be useless
ok, after we got those 2 files, lets make sure our administrator can actually access any ecrypted file on the system.
go to start --> run, write in "secpol.msc"
on the screen you get, go to "public key policies" --> "encrypted file system", right click on that one and select "add data recovery agent. click "next", find the CER file, next, finish.
no right click --> properties on the new certificate you see on the right side of the screen. select "enable only the folowing purposes" and mark "file recovery"
congratulations - now you can fix things up in case they are screwed up.

How to Use EFS on windows.
this is quite easy actually, once the recovery agent is set up (or a "no recovery agent needed" policy is set up, but I wont explain how to do so as its idiotic and dangerous) all you have to do is right click --> properties" on a file or folder, select "advanced" and mark "encrypt content to secure data".

congretulations, your first file is now encrypted and your user (and the data recovery user) is the only one able to access it.
you may notice the file became green, that is the mark of encryption.
if you wish to add different users to be able to read the encrypted file, simply go back to properties --> advanced, no the "details" button is no longer grayed out, click it and you'll recieve the next screen:
you can see your username at the top ("all"), where you can add more users, and the data recovery user ("administrator") at the buttom.
note - if you want to add a user, you should add its CER file (like we did with the user "administrator" in the beginning) and not only punch in its name.
Thats all there is to it actually (from a user point of view, that is)
please note that:

• file can be encrypted on NTFS volums only, it can't work on FAT32
• if you encrypt file on NTFS volume and copy it to FAT32 partition, the file will be decrypted and anyone can access it
• same things goes for copying encrypted file to a NT4 based machine

any comments/questions are welcomed

This blog have been moved to http://ponline-space.net/
hope to see you there!

The History of Windows Operating Systems - Part 2

In the previous blog post, we've covered just about all the important things happen before the rise of MS as a company that actually creates operating systems.
here we will discuss about the rise (and evolution) of windows, and after that, and thats a promise - I'll really start with getting more technical.
Quick versions overview - MS-DOS
As said before, MS-DOS started out based on QDos, and change its name on 1981.
since 1982, the release of MS-DOS 1.1, which was  a simple operating system, till the release of MS-DOS 3.3, the most "thrilling" improvement it had to offer was the support of floppy disks (it was actually a great thing, but I can't see anyone falls down from his chair over support in digital media of 720KB now that 16GB flash memories are wide spread)
MS-DOS 4 had a great improvement, and you could see the beginning of the future there, a GUI and mouse support on june 1988
version 5 wasn't thrilling, a full screen editor was finaly inserted, and the major improvement was the birth of QBasic, the succesor of GW-Basic.
DOS 6.1 introduced a new functionality, doublespace disk compression, the ability to double any disk space you had (well, thats how they introduced it, it was actually an on-the-fly disk compression), but this new functionality wasn't welcomed in open arms, many complaind on data loss due to the usage of the feature (and some of the complains were right)
Dos 6.22, the final MS-DOS release, although MS-DOS went up to version 8, the name "MS-DOS" as an operating system ceased to exist at version 6.22
So what about windows? 
 Windows 1.01 (windows 1.0 was never released) was introduced around the year of 1985 and was supported by DOS 3.1, it offered limited multi-tasking and graphic interface for users (it supported mouse as well) and had the folowing programs in it (count how many of them are still with us today): Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal, and Write.

Windows 2.0 was introduced 2 years later, it offered overlapping windows (unlike tilted windows view only), the ability to minimize/maximize windows and keyboard shortcuts, the real improvement came with windows 2.1 which supported extended memory (EMS) and kernel protected mode
 Windows 3.0 (1990) was remembered by the great improvement of memory usage and user interface (sounds like XP's annoucement, no? :) ), file manager was finally introduced and saved the trouble of going into DOS and find files there and offered, it was also the first version of windows sold preinstalled on Harddisks (much like OEM nodays)
Windows 3.1 and later 3.11, was the final version of windows not as an operating system (not so true, more details along the way), that was major upgrade to windows 3.0, in included workgroup support, true-type fonts, a 32 bit support (anyone remember we once used 8 and 16 bit computers?) and the introduction of internet explorer
 Couple of years past, and windows 95 was introduced, the first Windows to come as a stand alone OS... or is it? windows 95 was actually a major improvement of windows 3.11, it did boot the computer streight to it, giving the feeling as if its the OS, but "under the hood" it was actually MS-DOS version 7, the other new things in this version (and there were a lot) were standardization of windows creations (the title, close/maximize/minimize buttons etc.) that are still in use even until today, long filenames, the introduction of PlugnPlay and the registry, and as usual - major GUI improvement

1 year has past, 1996, windows NT family comes to the world, this version of windows had the greatest stability jump between 2 version of windows, but it was achieved with great flexibility loss, all direct access to hardware were dissallowed and any process causing problems now was shutdown without taking the entire system with it, no PlugnPlay support was available, USB weren't supported as well and practically every program that used graphics (DOS games, and even DirectX!) couldn't work on this system... true, no future at all to the NT family... :)
however, some good freebies were given with this operating system, such as IIS, frontpage extensions and terminal services we all know and love (was added at 1998)
 another 2 years past - and another version of windows shows up, this time its the windows 98's turn, this was the first windows version to use WDM (Windows Driver Module), basically its a unified driver module that standardizing requirements and reducing the amount of code that needed to be written for hardware drivers across different windows versions (98 and up, and 2000 and up), lots of stability fixes (which made 98, and later on 98SE the most favorable windows version of its time).
by the way, this version of windows was based on the truely final version of dos - MS-DOS 8
 2 years have past, and its time for a new-born-windows OS of the NT family, windows 2000 came to set things streight after the bad impression NT4 left.
it brought us several nice things such as symmetric multi-processor support, 64bit support (for itanium servers) the wonderful MMC (Microsoft Management Console), the new NTFS file system along with encryption options (EFS), the unattendant installation, network shares&replications (DFS), the user mode and kernel mode options (=more stability more then anything else), basic and dynamic disk storage(have windows creating RAID without needed hardware), recovery console and ofcorse - the Active Directory, this was definatlly fixing the bad impression of NT4, this, and the "great success" of windows ME that came shortly after this one, basically killed the win9x family and left the NT family as the sole successor of the windows haritage
 cover your ears, duck and run, as the most disputed (probably even more the Vista) Operating systemis here!
Windows ME (millennium) was introduced in parallel with windows 2000 professional as an OS for home users, it brought us the oh-so-great windows movie maker and was the first(disregarding NT4) to disable DOS real mode (shutdown windows and boot in DOS mode), which got planty of costumers extremly annoyed, since DOS never really died at that point and was still widely spread, however, some good points were shown in that OS, the system restore, system file protection, uPnP (universal PnP) support, automatic updates, compressed folders (build-in support of zip), System monitor, built-in support for USB Mass storage device.
however, with all those impressive features list, Windows ME suffered a very short life span of about a year due to its instability and unreliability issues, users would come up with frequent freezes and crashes that didn't add to its popularity and it was evetually "chosen" as the fourth "Worst Tech Product of All Time"
 Windows XP was published on 2001 to save the name of microsoft, it is the successor of windows 2000 and windows ME (killing the 9x family in the process, as it still build on NT), it initially came out in 2 versions, for home and for office, later on had more versions of it such as tablet pc and media center editions, among its features you may find improved user interface (yes, its was one of their main concerns), plus the usage of product activation instead of serial for registered users, later on support for 64 bit computers was introduced and some security features were inserted, enhancing the controll of active directory over client computers.
some more minor changes were introduced such as faster boot process (able to boot before network interface initialized), fast user switching (able to have multiple users logged on at the same time), internal support at RDP and DSL support
 The server edition of windows family during the time of XP, windows 2003 was introduced, it contained significant improvement for old functions (AD improvement such as ADAM, IIS6, new version of MSMQ, internet explorer enhanced security etc.) the only new functionality was Support for a hardware-based "watchdog timer", which can restart the server if the operating system does not respond within a certain amount of time.
this lack of "umph" (as good as 2003 is) created the R2 expension pack, its actually called windows 2003 R2, but it really is an expension pack, new functions MS wanted to put in 2003 but didn't due to lack of time, the list included Identity and Access Management (Singal Sign On support for example), unix file system support and many more
 Finally we got to the present, windows Vista, the successor of windows XP as a client OS contains long list of changes, and for a good reason.. it took 5 years to develope, thats the longest time between 2 windows OS have ever been, among them you can find GUI update, Aero interface, superfetch, better indexing, directX10 (which'll be available for vista only), language support, and probably some other things I missed.
Although it actually lhave smooth looks and feel, and although everybody love a change every now and then, Vista have been severly criticized due to its hardware requirements, extremly slow file operation (mainly copy), the high price tag, DRM rpotection support, and ofcorse - the very annoying UAC that asks you every second if you are certain that you want to live
 and we are finally at the latest release of microsoft - windows server 2008. as you may have guessed, this is the server edition of windows vista, it includes all of vista's new features, such as BitLocker and IPv6, it also includes a major update to terminal services, allowing many important features such as running in application mode rather then in desktop mode and support in RDP via HTTPS, PowerShell is integrated into this version, it can "self heal" some NTFS corruption in can find, support virtualization (without 3rd paty software) and some other features
phew, that was a long one
next time we better start talking about administrating windows, because if there'll be any more history lessons I'll explode!
oh yah,  leave a comment :)

This blog have been moved to http://ponline-space.net/
hope to see you there!

The History of Windows Operating Systems - Part 1.

I always found it interesting to know how things started,
and since its about time I'll start posting articles about windows in a blog dedicated to windows (and other stuff), guess its a good idea to write a little bit about how it all started
In the Beginning... (or: "the first OS")
Computers have been used for a long time in many forms, but it was very different from how things work today.
users would've come with set of commands placed on card (or similar input device) and the computer would have done them in the specific order they were written, there was no option for users to run a specific command or see what the memory currently holds, or even add functionality to the program, unless it was specifically written in the program.
with the appearance of mainframes around the 50's, a more flexibility was required and around the year 1954 the first OS named "GM-NAA I/O" was introduced.
it was built by General Motors for internal use, and its main function was, like today's OS to link between the user and the machine's hardware, the problem was - it wasn't retail software, GM used the "OS" themselves, and when different companies realised the potential of having an actual interface to the machine, each company developed its own version of "Operating System"
once the OS's were created, new programs could be written and more power was given to the users (think batchs and scripts, or even debugging of programs!), but, and there is a big, no- huge, no- gargantuas ! but, in here (and I'm not talking about Jeniffer Lopez's :) ), if every company made its own OS, and each OS was created for the specific hardware it ran on, then suddenly there was a world full of computers, each with its own standarts that is unable to communicate with any other computer (even if it was the same model from the same manufacturer!).
And then Unix came (or: the revolution begines!)
at 1960, the ambition AT&T descided that having a single OS specified to a single machine that can run a single process isn't good enough for them, so they wanted a change and tried to write an OS that can actually run several processes in parallel, calling the ambitios project Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), which was still made for a specific computer (the  GE-645 mainframe computer).
however, the project probably seemed to ambitios and AT&T pulled it out.
around the 70's, one of Multics programmers descided to try and revive the project, so he rewritten it and began improving it for Digital company, naming the old-new project "Unics" (maybe as a joke on account of the failing project), later it was renamed to "Unix".
later on, Unix got another revolution, and on 73' it was rewritten again, but this time the different thing was it wasn't written in assembly (hardware specific language) but in a higher generation computer language called "C", that move made the OS amazingly portable and made sure it can run on nearly every hardware exist (aslong as there was a way to translate the c language to that specific machine code), which made digital very happy, as they could have make new hardware that was supported by the OS without much limitations. (for example - VAX servers at 1978)
Battle of the OS's (or: IBM's rising)
Up till that time, the main concern of computer manufacturers was the creation of big computers that ment for heavy duties (such as paychecks calculations, wether predictions etc.)
then IBM came with a revolutionary concept, a Personal Computer (PC anyone?), since they had no experience in the concept (no one had at that time actually), they turned to a small software company names Microsoft for ideas how a home computer should work and what OS would be best for it.
Microsoft, offered some pointers for the PC (such as having "Basic" language on the PC's ROM), but as for the OS were stumped, since they had no experience in it, but they did offer them to use the CP/M OS that was extremlly widespread then (over 600,000 sold copies), which had it setting the standarts of it time.
however, IBM and Gary Kildall couldn't agree on the licensing method, forcing IBM to withdraw there offer to give Kildall the contract for their PC OS, turning back to Microsoft for advice at 1981.
Microsoft then Descided to help IBM by purchasing a different widespread OS named QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) by the amount of 50,000$, adjusting it to the new computer and releasing it by the name "MS-DOS" (Microsoft Disk Operating System).
MS-DOS started out as a very similar operating system to the CP/M conceptually, but gradually it evolved more and more, introducing the revolutionary FAT file system and enhancing its capabilities.
during the mid-later 1980's CP/M turned from the leading to the back and modified so it'll be competiable to MS-DOS and changed its name to DR-DOS to reflect on that change, DR-DOS was concidered better then MS-DOS, but eventually died on its own.
ok, that was long enough, but brought me to where I wanted - the beginning of MS as a company based on operating system and not softwares as its name might imply.
next post will be the rest of the history, and it'll be all about microsoft - promise!
good day!
p.s.
sorry for the lack of pictures, I know its a lot more boring to read this way, next time it'll be better... I hope :)

This blog have been moved to http://ponline-space.net/
hope to see you there!

Operating Systems - Boot process (pretty long)

Before we begin
I had a feeling it might be a good thing to give you readers some background about computers and how they work.
this information is not specific OS(Operating System) related or company related, this is the way nearly every piece of hardware in the world works.
you might say "so what? I don't care what happens "under the hood" of my windows, I just want to know how to make things work", well, you are right, this is a very important issue, but still - understanding the basics is... well... the base of all problems solving, don't worry now, this wont be long (I hope :) )
"How does my computer boot" or... "what happens from the second I turn the computer on untill the OS logo appears"
as most of you know, whenever you turn your computer on, the computer gives a small "bip" sound, counts the RAM memory and gives us an option to enter some wierd menu (usually the message would be "press "Del" key to enter BIOS Setup")
now then, lets review:
the BIOS, which stands for "Basic Input/Output System", is the first thing that goes up when the computer is powered on, its primary function is to identify and initiate component hardware, the small "bip" sound tells us there are no crucial errors with the motherboard, cpu and display adapter (each hardware has its own distinguish "alarm" sound which'll indicate why the computer isn't working properly)
the BIOS has some more functions, msot common among them are HDD list connected to the motherboard, boot sequence (allowing the computer to boot from floppydisk or CD ROM rather then local hard drive), large memory support (for systems with over 3.5GB of RAM installed) etc. etc.
since the BIOS isn't a part of the Operating system, and it should recognize the HDD itself, I suppose its pretty obvious, but I'll say it anyway - the BIOS isn't piece of software, its a chip welded to the motherboard.

What next?
well, not much left, because the BIOS did nearly all of our job, it detected the basic hardware on our computer, made sure its good to go, descided where to boot the system from (boot sequence, remember?) and told the computer "boot up from floppy/cd/1st hdd/2nd hdd/usb/network (delete the unnecessary)"
lets say the first HDD was chosen, now the question to be asked is "how does the computer find the Operating system?"
it sounds like an easy question ("simply find the XXX file and run it"), well, basically its true, but what if the HDD is divided to 5 different partitions? with 5 different copies of "Windows XP" to run? and how does the computer knows which file to run? he's not THAT smart, and that system works for over 20 years!
well then, lets begin with some (more) background and move our way up from there.
HDD, or any storage media for that matter is basically divided to cells, each one with its on unique number (called "address"), and each one can hold a file or a part of it.
the most important cell in the HDD is the first one, cell addressed as number 1, it even got its on cool name, "MBR", or "Master Boot Record", this cell isn't holding any file, it hold a pointer to the OS boot file (or "cell address" of the Boot Loader (the application that run the OS))
so in the most common example of 1 computer with 1 HDD with 1 partition the BIOS will tell the computer to load from the 1st HDD (as no other is present), and its MBR will point us to the correct boot loader.
now lets get a little more complications in the equasion, and divide our HDD to 5 partitions
now what? how does the BIOS knows which one to load?
well, the secret is, the BIOS doesn't really know the HDD is divided, it still tells the comptuer to load from the MBR, which points us to the boot loader, only this time the boot loader is smarter, it gives us an option to select from which partition to load the OS, but its not a part of the BIOS.
in case of several HDD's, its a little bit different, the BIOS will be the one to tell the computer where to boot from (remember? 1st HDD, 2nd HDD etc.), only after that the MBR'll kick in and load the boot loader.
whew, that was long enough, and not a word on windows... maybe in the next post :)
till then - take care (and leave some comments!)

This blog have been moved to http://ponline-space.net/
hope to see you there!

Welcome to Windows World (adminwin)

Disclaimer:
First of all, I'm sorry for the confusing URL, as the one I was aiming for was unfortunatly taken... maybe I should change the name? (feel free to tell me in the comments)

Welcome Ceremony:
OK, so welcome to my blog, its one I wanted to open several years ago, but never had the time, or will
but now its changed, and I've descided to free about 3 days a week to write an article about administrating windows, so this blog should be filled with a lot of information soon enough :)

Why am I publishing this:
as a first post, I'de like to tell you a little bit about myself, this should give me a chance to get a good impression, and should give you some idea whether you should read this blog or not.

About me:
My name is Kobe, I'm 25 y/o and working in the computer industry for the past 7 years (9, if you include working as a freelancer)
I started out as a programmer, mainly used C/CPP/VB and some web applications, but after a while I got bored with the lack of interaction with real people and descided to go on a route that'll still keep me in computers, but will involve more people to talk to, and so I turned to system administrating.
so since the age of 19-20 I've become a full-time system administrator, dealing with 3 different operating systems, OpenVMS, Linux (gentoo, ubuntu and redhat) and Windows (dealt a bit with Sun Solaris's Unix, but not enough to say I know this OS).
out of all the 3, windows became my primary specialization, as back in the year 2000 we had no one that actually can handle this OS, and I evolved with it ever since.
along with my primary job, I've joined some forums (such as experts-exchange) and helped a lot to people with random problems, which added some knowladge to my arsenal (and turned out to be fun as hell), and that was when I descided to open this blog.
and today, about 2-3 years after, its finally open

What should you expect to find in here:
Well, as a past programmer, you should find lots of posting about scripting (and as such, naturally about scripting against Active Directory)
not many posts would be about security and content filtering programs or any 3rd party programs, as I never tool much interest in them (not more then I have to anyway), but they will be here
several posts on client windows problems and ways to fix them, as I still help in the different forums most of the questions relate to client problems, and I hope that this blog will eventually turn out to be great reference for me and other people.

Well... I want to be honest here, Basically - I don't really have a plan for posts, I'll usually post about the most recent interesting thing I've done, thats why not always the posts would be in an order you'de expect, but I will try to make some order using the labels

so... all that is left is to say "happy blogging" to me and "happy reading" to you, and if you find something interesting feel free to link to it and/or leave a comment, I'll definatlly reply anyone in here. and if you'de want a special article, leave it as a comment to THIS POST, I'll check it periodically and tell you when it'll be written

This blog have been moved to http://ponline-space.net/
hope to see you there!