IT Expert Voice

Mobile users face large obstacles in keeping up with reasonable backups. There are several solutions available, each with a common denominator that requires us to remember to perform backups in the first place.

In some cases, Windows 7 BitLocker aids your capacity to encrypt removable and backup media, depending on the media involved.

Portable Hard Drives

Ranging in size from small to huge, portable hard drives are a fairly easy way to keep backups in order—especially backups consisting of just data. Windows 7, as in prior Windows editions, contains the infamous Backup.exe software in Professional+ editions. Backup.EXE allows compressed and regularly scheduled backups (so long as you remember to plug in the drive); drives can also be BitLocker-managed and encrypted. You can do a quick backup of just data files (example, your /user directory), or mixtures of the whole enchilada and all the data, or just those files that have changed, in your favorite backup combo.

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Microsoft has finally gotten its client and server teams into a cadence that encourages building strong connections between client and server. Once you learn the combined strength of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you may get off the fence about migrating.

Even though Microsoft shifted to a common core technology for both its client and server Windows software a decade ago, the two development teams were never quite in sync when it came to releases, and therefore, it was difficult to coordinate special features that tied the desktop OS to the server.

But with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft finally got the two on a very close release schedule. Both entered beta in late 2008 and were commercially available in October 2009. They share quite a few common technologies, including:

• Scaling to 256 cores
• Fewer hardware locks and improved parallelism
• Timer coalescing, where multiple tasks can be executed at once, rather than one at a time, so the processor can go into a low power mode
• Windows Installer 5.0 supports installing and configuring Windows Services and provides developers with more control over setting permissions during software installation
• Usually the kernel handles all thread scheduling, but 64-bit Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 only allow for applications with large concurrent threading requirements, such as a database to do its own scheduling.

That’s just scraping the surface. Let’s dive into some of the major features wherein Windows 7 takes advantage of the server OS, and ways in which Windows Server turns on new functionality in the client OS. READ MORE

With Windows 7’s Trusted Platform Module support you can lock down Windows 7 PC’s hard drives and, potentially, far more. READ MORE

How Windows 7 stands between you and the bad guys (but not you and the good stuff) when you’re a laptop user – from antispyware muscle to flexible firewalls to virtual lockers for your most precious files. READ MORE

Do you worry that if your PC is stolen someone can steal all of your data? Then you should encrypt your hard drive. In this screencast, we look at how Windows 7 has beefed up BitLocker, its built-in encryption program.

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In earlier Windows versions, USB ports were a significant security vulnerability for enterprise computing. Windows 7 has several USB enhancements and has made flash drives fully manageable. Here’s what you need to know.
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Windows XP will soon be without support and Vista has overstayed its welcome, but Windows 7 is far more than a ho-hum OS newcomer. Here are 7 real ways Windows 7 will make IT’s day easier –from deployment forward.
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