In a recent article I wrote about the Standard User Analyzer, one of the tools available to mitigate app compat issues with UAC.  Some applications require a little more work to get them working and for these situations you can use the Compatibility Administrator which part of the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0.  Again it is a pretty straight-forward tool to use once you have collected the required information.  Now before you begin you need to use tools like Process Monitor to determine what is preventing the application from loading and operating properly.  Once you have done that you can use the Compatibility Administrator to create the shim.

Before you get started I’d suggest looking at the existing database within the tool as there are already a large number of shims created and more being added.  With that in mind launch the tool and click File –> New Database.

Enter a name for the program as well as the path to the executable and continue through the wizard.

There are a number of options you can set such as Operating System Mode and so UI mitigations.  Some of these may look familiar as a few of these options can be set in the properties of the executable but there are many more options here.

There are a number (currently 334) of compatibility fixes available and you can see the parameters for each to determine what settings the manage and simply check each you require.

You can also customize program identification.  This is great for applications that work on a particular OS but for some reason the vendor looks for a particular OS when installing.

Once you click Finish the database will be created.  You can test it by right-clicking the database and choosing Install.

Once installed you can test the application.  If it works you can save the database and install it on the other computers in your organization.

For more information see:

TechNet Virtual Lab: Mitigating Application Issues Using Shims

Download Details: Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0

Springboard - The Resource for IT Professionals

One of the biggest blockers to deployment in application compatibility.  Whether it is a new OS and existing applications or new applications on an existing OS these are they kind of things that drive you nuts.  There are many tools available now to help address these issues, one being the Standard User Analyzer.  With Windows Vista one of the app compat issues that arises is due to User Account Control (UAC).  With this you have two options, disable UAC (which is the worst thing you can do) or use SUA to test the application, detect issues and create shims to mitigate the issues.

“The Standard User Analyzer (SUA) tool enables you to test your applications to detect potential compatibility issues due to the User Account Control (UAC) feature in the Windows Vista® operating system.”

Let’s look at an example of this tool in action with a demo app called Stock Viewer.  When I try to click on the Trends button I get an error when running as a Standard User on Windows Vista.

The SUA tool is simple enough to use and to start we’ll launch it from the desktop icon and then enter the path to the Stock Viewer application.

We can then click Launch and use the application, in this case we’ll click on the Trends button again.  SUA will launch the application and you will get prompted to enter admin credentials to elevate the process at which time SUA will start collection information on what and where the application is accessing.

Once complete you can close the Stock Viewer application and flip through the tabs in SUA to see what the tool has found.

The last step is to click on the Mitigation tab and choose to Apply Mitigations.  At this point you can test the application again and if all is good you can then Export Mitigations as MSI and deploy that to the systems in your organization.

The result is a working application while running as a Standard User!

For more information see:

TechNet Virtual Lab - Mitigating Application Issues Using Shims

Standard User Analyzer Technical Reference

Springboard - The Resource for IT Professionals

A few weeks ago I posted about some of the tools Microsoft provides to help establish the costs and saving that deploying Vista can bring. One of the issues that I have is how do we get the numbers to fill in those forms; well MS has you covered there too. This tool is really useful.

With the MS Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator you can scan the computers in your network for information such as which OS and Service pack they are running, and if they are good candidates to upgrade to Vista. There are even some tools geared towards migrating your servers to 2008, and qualifying workloads that are good for virtualization. You can also generate some really nifty reports. These reports save a ton of time, and can help in presenting information to the managers in your life. In short this tool was designed with lazy admins in mind!

Note: When you install MS APSA you also need to install SQL server, and the installer will automatically download and install it for you during the installation. You also need a copy of Word 2007 and Excel 2007 for document generation.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solutions Accelerator

Once you have installed the MS APSA you can scan your network using the AD, NetBIOS names, or by specifying an IP subnet,

Once you have finished scanning your computers you'll be presented with reports, mostly organized in Excel spreadsheets. The reports contain detailed information about the computers scanned.

Reports are generated that cover a wide spectrum of information about upgrading your infrastructures including:

Assessment Results for Client Computers

This worksheet provides a summary of Windows Vista readiness information for computers that are already running a Microsoft Windows client operating system. For more detailed hardware inventory data, refer to the Hardware Inventory worksheet. For rows that report "Insufficient Data" refer to the WMI Status column for more information about why inventory data could not be collected.

Hardware Inventory Results for All Computers

This worksheet describes the complete inventory and assessment results. This includes the following information: basic information about the computer, Windows Vista readiness information, domain information, asset tracking information, and system hardware details.

Device Assessment Summary

This worksheet summarizes the hardware devices discovered on computers. It identifies whether a driver is available on the Windows Vista DVD, from Windows Update, or if you need to contact the hardware manufacturer to identify if a driver is available for Windows Vista. This summary worksheet has a row for each discovered device and provides the number of computers where the device was found. To identify the specific devices on each computer, refer to the Device Inventory Details Worksheet.

Device Assessment Details

This worksheet describes the hardware devices discovered on each specific computer. It identifies whether a driver is available on the Windows Vista DVD, from Windows Update, or if you need to contact the hardware manufacturer to identify if a driver is available for Windows Vista. A report generated with Microsoft Excel 2003 will display only the first 65,536 rows.

Windows Vista Capable Computers After Hardware Upgrades

This worksheet describes computers that are not currently able to run Windows Vista, and the hardware upgrades required for them to be Windows Vista Capable.

Windows Vista Premium Ready Computers After Hardware Upgrades

This worksheet describes computers that are not currently able to run Windows Vista or are already Windows Vista Capable. This worksheet provides the hardware upgrades required for the computers to be Windows Vista Premium Ready.

Discovered Applications

This worksheet describes the applications discovered through the inventory process and provides a count of the number of times that inventory found a particular version of the software.

The solution accelerator also generates a highly detailed report based on the information retrieved from the network scan. This includes a gap analysis so you can get a good idea of what steps to take.

Finally you can even run performance benchmarks on a list of computers (you need to prepare the list in a text file) So that you can gage the load that workstations and servers are under in order to determine how they should be upgraded, and if they are good candidates for virtualizaiton.

The best part about this application is it's FREE! You can download the applications here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=67240B76-3148-4E49-943D-4D9EA7F77730&displaylang=en

Don't forget to check out the Windows Springboard website which contains a ton of great resources for deploying Vista: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8418918

One last thing, I have a bunch of copies of Windows Vista SP1 Ultimate, to get your copy all you need to do is post your Springboard related question or comment in our TLA forums: http://thelazyadmin.com/forums/25/ShowForum.aspx At the end of this week I will send out a copy of Vista to the most thought provoking post. So don't just sit there get posting!

I posted a few weeks ago about some Vista Springboard. Continuing that series of posts, I wanted to talk about the first part of Springboard program which is: Discover. Now I'm sure many of you have already "Discovered" Vista, I thought I had too, but the great thing about the springboard site is it concentrates a great deal of information into nice digestible categories.

So as most readers have probably already discovered the technical aspects of Vista, I wanted to highlight some of the great tools that are provided. If you have ever been asked to deliver a report on how much is something is going to cost, and to figure out its ROI, and TCO, and all those non technical acronyms that our favourite accountant is concerned with, If your like me your eyes gloss over, and your brain starts hurting.

Fortunately Microsoft know's that we're all lazy admins, so they made us a great tool: Microsoft Windows Vista Cost and Benefit Estimator.

First the calculator starts out by asking some simple questions. For instance how many computers do you have in environment. Then what the current OS distributions are.

Once you have entered in your information a highly detailed report will be generated that also includes a laundry list of benefits. These are the kinds of numbers that impress decision makers, and that can take hours to generate. Now a big Disclaimer that most of the data is generated based on the information you enter in to the tool. This means you need to be confident in the information so that the report generated is going to accurate.

example of benefits:

So take a look at the tool: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/ROItool/Default.aspx

And don't forget to discuss your Vista deployment issues in the Forums. To encourage some lively discussions, the best posts, answers and contributions (as decided by a qualified panel of qualified judges, err.. Lazy judges) will receive a copy of Windows Vista SP1, You have to post to win! 

Windows Vista Springboard is a micro site on the Microsoft Web site dedicated to helping IT Pros get Vista deployed into their environments.

Now before going any further with regards to Vista Springboard, I want to say that I am a strong supporter of Windows Vista. Their are some big benefits, and some big steps forward with Vista. The most important aspect of Vista is that it helps me be a lazy admin.

Now I'll also be honest and realistic, there are a lot of people that don't like Vista. There are many reasons why people won't like Vista, some of the reasons are legitimate, however most reasons tend to be rooted in a haze of bad perception. What I mean by that is Vista has a perception of lacking value, or in other words people will ask "What is my compelling reason for upgrading to Vista?" This goes for Home users, Office users,  IT pros, and especially IT managers and decision makers.

This is where the Vista Springboard program comes into play. IT people are busy people, and even though we would all like to be Lazy Admins, in reality my guess is that your not really that lazy at all. The problem with Vista is that there isn't one feature that people say WOW I need that! There are a few features that come close (I'm thinking BitLocker, Windows Search, UAC, Windows Imaging) But not of these features by themselves really sell the idea of Vista. I like to say that when you start looking at all the features, and starting to figure out how each little feature saves time, resources, the benefits start to add up. As the benefits add up, you start to realize that there isn't one compelling reason to install Vista, but a few hundred small reasons soon add up to a conglomerated compelling reason!

Now all that being said I still don't feel I have said anything really new, I can hear you all yelling at the monitors YES, WE KNOW THERE IS LOTS OF COOL STUFF, but where to do I start to get a handle on all this??

This is where Springboard comes into play. The site is designed to provide information about Vista at the right detail level, based on where you are in your considerations for, and hopefully deployment of Vista.

The site breaks down into 4 sections, which align with how IT environments will typically approach a new set of technologies.

Discover Windows Vista:  Windows XP is good enough. Why should I care?

Explore: How do I learn what's in it for me and if it's worth the effort?

Pilot: Will it work in our environment; how do I prepare?

Deploy: What best practices can we get to minimize our risk?

Over the next few weeks I'm going to focus on some of the cool articles, and talking point that we can find on the Springboard site. You can check it out too, just follow the link below. In the efforts to create a conversation around these articles, I have created a new forum to talk specifically about all things Vista, and especially around the Vista Springboard program. To motivate the conversation I have some great giveaways for TLAers who participate in the discussion/debate. Just remember, I am always up for a great debate, however formal debate rules apply, argue against the idea, not person. Also keep it clean, we can be passionate without the colourful metaphors.

Check out SpringBoard: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8418918

Discuss Springboard in the forums: http://thelazyadmin.com/forums/25/ShowForum.aspx