Chapter 18: Fixing Common IT Problems

Chapter 18

Fixing Common IT Problems

IT professionals often have to struggle with getting configurations just right before and after deployment. They try to play by the rules, but they sometimes must bend them to get things to work well in their environments. Bending the rules often means using the registry to achieve a goal that's not usually possible. Chapter 4, “Hacking the Registry,” showed good examples of bending the rules. If you want to use Folder Redirection without Active Directory, for example, you have to hack the registry. This chapter follows that example with many more.

I could fill an entire book (I'd sure like to try) with the tricks that IT professionals use to get things to work the way they want them to. I've focused this chapter on the topics that I'm asked about most frequently, though. For example, I don't know many professionals who aren't frustrated with the Microsoft Outlook Express icons that keep popping up on users' desktops. This chapter shows you how to get rid of them. I also know that many professionals want to permanently remove some components from Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (Windows), and of course, this chapter shows you how to do that as well. Last, this chapter shows you how to run processes with elevated privileges, which is necessary if you want to distribute applications without the benefit of a software management infrastructure, and how to customize the logon process.

NOTE
With the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), many IT professionals are looking for information about configuring Windows Security Center and other service pack features by using the registry. Chapter 8, “Configuring Windows Security,” covers this topic in detail.