Windows 7 Display Switch
Having problems with displaying your screen through a projector or multiple displays? It’s not the ideal scenario to start a presentation in front of an audience or a packed board room and spend a number of minutes fiddling around with your laptop to get it to display the screen through the projector; I bet you start your presentation on the wrong foot!
Categories: Management Tags: display, displayswitch, displayswitch.exe, key, projector, screen
Update your cryptographic settings before August Patch Tuesday!
August’s Patch Tuesday is an important one, I would say critical! Patch Tuesday is usually the second Tuesday of each month, on which Microsoft releases security patches. A security fix or enhancement will be released which will block all applications that use cryptographic keys less than 1024 bits.
To further reduce the risk of unauthorized exposure of sensitive information, Microsoft has created a software update that will be released for the following operating systems: Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2. This update will block the use of cryptographic keys that are less than 1024 bits.
To read more and find the issues that you may encounter after applying this update go here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/pki/archive/2012/06/12/…d.aspx
Categories: Security Tags: 1024 bits, cryptographic, key, patch, Patch Tuesday, Technet, update
Encrypting File System
Encrypting File System (EFS) allows you to encrypt and decrypt files and directories transparently. Like its predecessor, Windows 7 supports EFS and it is very simple to apply. By just marking a directory to use EFS, any file created in that directory is encrypted. Read more…
Categories: Security Tags: API, DPAPI, EFS, EFS-encrypted files, encryption, file, key
BitLocker Security Modes
BitLocker can function in different modes which provide different levels of security. Which mode you choose depends on whether you have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) on your computer and the level of security you want to achieve. The TPM is a secure device built into the hardware of the computer to store cryptographic (encryption) keys. Different security modes can combine the usage of a TPM, a PIN number and a startup key. A startup key is a cryptographic file that is stored on a separate USB file. Go here for more info about the security levels of BitLocker.
Categories: Security Tags: BitLocker, cryptographic, encryption, key, PIN, startup key, TPM
Taskbar Thumbnail Preview Tweaks
The Aero theme in Windows 7 gives users the ability to preview thumbnails of opened applications when hovering over the respective icons in the taskbar. You can tweak both the size and the loading time of thumbnails by modifying the registry as shown below:
