Windows 7 has many features to help mobile users make the best use of local resources without compromising corporate information. We’ll show you how to take advantage of a few stellar features for users on-the-go.
Even at the best of times, workers on the go have a special set of challenges. Not only do these users have to tote their computing environment with them, but they have to cope with external factors that may threaten the security of the data on their systems – or just make it more difficult for them to get their jobs done.
Windows 7 can help. It contains a collection of goodies to make life easier for the mobile worker, including automatic default printer switch, enhanced offline file support, secure VPN-free access to office resources, and a new mobility control panel.
For example, there are few among us who, while working at home or remotely, haven’t groggily hit “Print” and sent output to the default printer back in the office. At best, it’s a nuisance, and an unnecessary murder of trees. At worst, it can put confidential information at risk.
With Windows 7’s location sensing capabilities, you can easily set the default printer for each location. Then when you connect to a different network, your default printer changes to match. If you’re awake enough to select the correct printer when you’re not in the office (say, a home device, or perhaps a PDF writer), Windows 7 remembers it for you, and switches to use that device the next time you’re on the same network. Or you can manually configure printers for each location.
All you have to do is go to the Devices and Printers screen, select a printer and then choose Manage Default Printers from the menu bar. Next, select the default printer for each network. Click the radio button next to “Change my default printer when I change networks.”
Figure 2. The default printer setting is controlled from the Devices and Printers dialog.
You can choose a physical printer or a pseudo printer (such as a PDF creator). As you can see in Figure 1, you can also specify how printing behaves if you’re not on a network, perhaps outputting to a directly attached USB printer, or writing to an application.
Once you click OK, the default printer automatically changes whenever you switch networks, and there will be no more embarrassing sending of printouts to the wrong place.
Printers aren’t the only pain point for remote staff.
Offline access to server-based files has been available in various Windows versions for some time, allowing mobile users the ability to work on their files while disconnected. However, the return to the office is usually accompanied by tedious and time-consuming re-synchronization of those files with the versions on the server. Windows 7 adds refinements to make the transfers to and from the server less painful.
Let’s say your user, Kim, has been working offline. When Kim reconnects to the network, the files aren’t immediately copied to the server at login. Instead, files in need of synching are first moved to a local cache, then synched to the server in the background. That drastically cuts down on the delay in system startup.
As well, if someone else worked on a file online while Kim is changing it offline, the synch automatically takes that situation into account, flagging the inconsistent versions and asking the user which to accept.
Administrators can control synchronization schedules, deciding when files should be synched to avoid causing network bottlenecks, and also specifying the “stale date” by which offline files must be resynched.
If the enterprise has deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate edition, mobile workers gain even more flexibility. DirectAccess is a secure VPN-free way to connect to the corporate network and – with the help of Windows Server 2008 R2 – to grant access to file shares, SharePoint, and Intranet sites. DirectAccess, based on IPv6, allows centralized management via mechanisms such as Group Policy whenever the system is on the Internet, regardless of whether the computer is actually logged onto the corporate network. DirectAccess takes advantage of IPSec for authentication and encryption, and also supports multi-factor authentication.
Before your company uses DirectAccess, be aware of a couple of prerequisites. The network does need to have a Windows Server 2008-based DNS server to support the AAAA records for the IPv6 nodes. In addition, if the remote machines need to connect to servers that don’t support IPv6 (a strong likelihood), you’ll require a device supporting NAT-PT to bridge the gap.
Organizations that must continue to use third party VPN clients rather than DirectAccess aren’t left out of the enhancement party. For them, VPN Reconnect makes the inevitable dropped connections considerably less annoying. It uses the Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) technology to provide consistent VPN connectivity, automatically re-establishing a VPN when users temporarily lose their Internet connections. Microsoft particularly targets mobile broadband users with this feature; if users are on a train, for example, the signal and thus the Internet connection will likely drop briefly when the train goes through a tunnel.
Figure 3. Windows 7 collects all the “road warrior” tools in one handy place.
Finally, the Mobility Center (Figure 2) offers road warriors a one-stop shop for dealing with frequently-used settings. At a client meeting? You can turn on presentation mode. Need to hook up an external display? You can set it up in Mobility Center, and you can also adjust screen brightness, check your battery or even turn off wireless.
The easiest way to find the Mobility Center is to enter “mobility” in the Start menu search field. Then pin it somewhere convenient, and get ready to hit the road.
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