Windows Search

We have received several inquiries about slow systems and slow outlook responses. Microsoft has added the Windows Search 4.0 as an update to windows systems. So one day you do not have it and the next you do. There have been several times that we have removed the Windows search but still see slowness in the systems.

I recommend controlling the Windows Search by adjusting the indexing to only needed locations. This can be handled via Group Policy or individually. In most cases when we have adjusted the indexing and turned off the tool bar on the start bar it seems to help speed up systems.

James Allen MCT, MCSE, MCP, MCTS, CCNA, CCNP, CCDA

Chief Technology Officer

303.370.1111 x1201

1768 Platte Street Suite 200 Denver, CO 80202

Windows 7 - Antivirus

I have been testing antivirus programs on Windows 7, the first couple where causing to many issues and were removed within the same day. The latest antivirus product was from BullGuard. Seemed to be behaving much better than the previous two programs. I have been running it now for 30 days or so but have been noticing that programs are starting to open much slower now. I tested the services for BullGuard buy turning off the antivirus program and all programs launched much better. So I decided to remove the program and test a new antivirus. Once removed the application requested a reboot. After restart none of my internet applications would work. I could ping the internet but could not get to the internet.

After several minutes of troubleshooting the issue it seems that BullGuard messes with the winsock stack and when removing requires a reset of the winsock. Shame on you BullGuard, if you are going to make an application that cuases issues with the winsock upon removal the least you can do is reset it upon removal.

My recommendation is do not use BullGuard

James Allen MCT, MCSE, MCP, MCTS, CCNA, CCNP, CCDA

Chief Technology Officer

303.370.1111 x1201

1768 Platte Street Suite 200 Denver, CO 80202

Technical Instructions

Someone in my past explained to me how to program an application to work, we started by discussing driving a car. If driving a car was the application and you had to write the program that would explain driving down the street what would the instructions be? Seems simple enough and in most cases you could explain the process and anyone with knowledge of a car could drive down the street. That is the rub, someone with experience driving.

Technical documentation or instructions seem to have this same flaw, they assume some knowledge that is not necessarily known. As an IT consultant I have run across a plethora of documents and instructions that assume knowledge that would require extensive use of the technology.

http://www.envnetworks.com

James Allen MCT, MCSE, MCP, MCTS, CCNA, CCNP, CCDA

Chief Technology Officer

303.370.1111 x1201

1768 Platte Street Suite 200 Denver, CO 80202

DNS Issue with Windows 7

Interesting item happened with Windows 7 connected to network with Windows DNS. The windows 7 system registered its name as "Same as Parent" in the domain zone for the domain. As you know same as parent holds special meaning when dealing with Active Directory, these A records represent the domain controllers for the domain.

The windows 7 system also seems to have some odd results when doing name resolution for internal named domains. I have found several times that I am unable to resolve names for "domain.local" FQDNS and find it attaches prefixes to those look ups. I am still working on why this seems to happen.

Still seems to be very stable environment, except for the F-Secure antivirus. Every time I have an issue if I turn off the F-Secure all seems to work fine.

Watch out for the A record registration in your environment!

James Allen MCT, MCSE, MCP, MCTS, CCNA, CCNP, CCDA

Chief Technology Officer

303.370.1111 x1201

1768 Platte Street Suite 200 Denver, CO 80202

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