Everyday Nerd

So I‘ve been running Windows 7 RTM for a while now, and really liking it.  There are a few “gotcha’s”, and the $admin share is one of them.  Out of the box, Windows 7 (and Windows Vista) disabled File and Printer sharing, as well as the $admin share. Normally, in the home environment, the $admin share is not needed, but in the corporate world, it’s used quite regularly, especially with tools like psexec, IntelliAdmin tools, and certain software deployments.

This is how to enable the $admin share in Windows 7:

First, Folder and Printer Sharing must be enabled.  Open the Control Panel, and select Network and Internet.  Then click on Network and Sharing Center.

Look to the left side of the Network and Sharing Center, and click on Change advanced sharing settings.

In the new window, you can change each network’s sharing settings (Home, Public, and Work/Domain).  Expand the profile you want to modify, and click on “File and Printer Sharing”

Save your changes.

Next (I know, I wish it was just that easy…) you have to add a registry key.  Open Regedit, navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System – create a new DWORD:

LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy with the Value of 1

Reboot.  You can now access the $admin share remotely.

Recently Microsoft released an update (also in SP1 for Vista) to the RDP (Remote Desktop Client) that seemed to break the /console.  I found this out earlier this week when trying to connect to the console of a server, but would not – would only connect to the normal RDP non-console session.

Well, after verifying that my shortcut to with the /console switch was there, and I wasn’t going crazy, I ran mstsc.exe /? from the run line, only to find this:

/admin — Connects you to the session for administering a server.

Needless to say, I think Microsoft should have given some warning about this, or at least keep /console active until the next release – to give people a chance to the change.  But that is my opinion…

The remote control tool LogMeIn Free for Mac was released today after a few months of beta testing. I wrote about the beta version, which is substantially unchanged in its release, in “LogMeIn Adds Remote Control for Mac,” 2007-06-11. The program allows you to connect to any of a group of computers that you have set up or that others have given you access to after the installation of a lightweight client. Little configuration is needed once you’ve registered the software and set up groups of machines.

The software is a little clunky working within a browser window, but it can traverse network address translation (NAT) gateways, a feature that lets you connect to otherwise unreachable computers. Leopard’s Screen Sharing feature can tunnel with inconsistent success, too, via Back to My Mac and iChat AV 4. (Back to My Mac works among a set of computers you register with a single .Mac account; iChat Screen Sharing requires you to grant or request permission for a buddy to see your screen or vice versa.) For a run-down of other options, see the TidBITS article noted above.

The company, eponymously named LogMeIn, also announced a beta of LogMeIn Rescue with Mac OS X support, extending their existing support for Windows. This tool, designed for remote technical support, lets a customer install a tiny applet with zero configuration to allow remote control; the beta includes Mac OS X remote control. The software costs $99 per month per technician paid as a lump sum of $1,188 for a year’s subscription, or $129 per month per support person for a single month’s service at a time.

Both products require Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5.

Source: “LogMeIn for Mac Released” — TidBITS

VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a wonderful program.  I use it almost every day to remotely control other computers – PC, Mac, and even Linux!  I’ve had several people ask me; “What is the best version of Ultra VNC?” 

I personally use, and recommend UltraVNC.  Why you ask?  Look at the features!

• Comes with video driver for faster viewing
• Legacy and Windows Authentication (Both local and Domain Auth)
• Can disable remote users display and/or their keyboard and mouse
• File Transfer
• “Silent” server – can disable tray icon, so user doesn’t know they are being watched.
• Forbid user to shut down server
• Can Lock / logoff workstation when client disconnects
• Window Scaling – Great if you remote a machine that has higher resolution than yours.
• View only mode
• Works great for tunneling through SSH
• Optional Proxy / Repeater for going through firewalls

I personally use UltraVNC, and have deployed it to many machines that I service.  It comes with all the great features that Real VNC Enterprise version has, except that it is FREE!