Best Practices

• Use a standard user account as your information worker day-to-day account so that you can understand how to better provide needed services for your users who (should) run that way already.

• Make implementation of Service Hardening a factor in application purchasing decisions. Insist that your vendors implement similar technologies in their products.

• Make technologies such as Windows Installer 4.0, which minimizes reboots and eases patching, factors in application purchasing decisions.

• File a complaint with any vendor that does not provide an HTTPS download site for their ActiveX controls.

• Investigate which ActiveX controls are used on your users' desktops and provision them using the ActiveX Installer Service.

• Make all your users standard users and teach them how to install ActiveX controls using the ActiveX Installer Service.

• If you are a Software Assurance (SA) customer, investigate whether you can leverage the MSDOP to provide lower Total Cost of Ownership, better manageability, and higher security. Even if you purchase OEM systems you can add SA coverage within 90 days of the purchase, and you need only five units to get it.