Rather than re-inventing an explanation, AutoRuns has a great “elevator pitch” on their website:

This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

Typically Sysinternal tools are awesome, and this program is no exception. Even better, there is a command line version which allows you to easily output your system information to a text files. For hard core tweakers and power users, this is a must have utility.

One tool I have found to be very valuable is the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. In a nutshell, this tool scans your computer for common security problems (settings) and checks installations of data applications (SQL, MDAC, etc.) for updates and vulnerabilities. From the article “How To: Use the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer“:

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) checks for available updates to the operating system, Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), MSXML (Microsoft XML Parser), .NET Framework, and SQL Server. MBSA also scans a computer for insecure configuration settings. When MBSA checks for Windows service packs and patches, it includes in its scan Windows components, such as Internet Information Services (IIS) and COM+. MBSA uses Microsoft Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) technologies to determine needed updates. This Microsoft Update data source is obtained either directly from the Microsoft Update Web site or, if offline or in a secure environment, from an offline catalog file named Wsusscn2.cab.

It is not feasible for me to be an expert on all things Windows security, so this tool is very helpful in making sure servers are reasonably secured. The utility works on all versions of Windows Server and Windows Vista and is recommended for any Windows system administrators.

With Vista, emphasis was on security. And, yes, compared to Windows XP, Vista is indeed a more secure operating system. But, that left us with a LOT of bloat. Vista is slower than Windows XP and is a beast in system memory. If you downgrade any PC from Vista to XP, you almost feel like you’re using a brand new computer again. I know. I’ve done it.

In a press release issued by Gates in Tokyo, Japan, Gates makes some comments on Windows 7.

We’re hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I’m very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don’t have a lot of work to move that data back and forth.

Obviously we’d all love it if people had more PCs per average, and so making that simple is important. Also the effort to upgrade, I think that’s an area we got a lot of feedback in Vista, that we need to invest in that, and we’re going to make that very, very simple for people. So Vista is doing well, and we’re hard at work putting even more investment now in the version that comes after that.

So, he is speaking right to my heart. This also comes after Gates all but admitted Vista sucked at the last CES show in Las Vegas.

I’m hoping Windows 7 is better, for the sake of the brand. I’m a Mac guy now (and Vista played a large role in my conversion). However, Windows is still king and will be for the foreseeable future. I really do want it to do well.

One very handy trick I found is that you can copy virtual hard drives (.vhd) files and instantly get another environment. For example, you could build a new virtual PC hard drive and load XP with all the updates and then simply copy the VHD file to a new file name and, whola!, you now have two ready to go environments. All you have to do is just run through the virtual PC creation wizard and set it to use an existing hard drive (your copied VHD file) and you are ready to go.

If you have to deploy several environments quickly, this is a great trick to know.

This utility simply “tricks” your computer into thinking a program is no longer installed on your computer, so you can then go back and reinstall it. In my case, it worked perfectly as after the “reinstall” I didn’t have to activate my copy of Office 2007 again.

Usage is simple enough, just install the program and then run it. You are presented with a list of all programs which were installed using the Windows Installer Service and you just select which ones to delete the installation information for. Once you have done this, you should be able to reinstall the program with no problems.

This free utility is more for power users as it allows you to add, modify, extract and delete resources (i.e. images, sounds, etc.) in a compiled program. The usage is very simple, just run the program and then select the binary file to read the data from. You can’t get to everything in a binary file, just more of the “top level” stuff. Nevertheless, this is a great utility for power users and developers to have.

No installation is required, just download and run.

Warning: Modifying EXE’s and recompiling them can produce unpredictable results, so do so at your own risk!

I have a shortcut to Process Explorer in my Startup folder (Start > Programs > Startup) so that every time I log into Windows, it automatically starts. Setting the shortcut preferences to start minimized and using the option in Process Explorer to hide when minimized causes the program to launch and automatically minimize itself to the system tray. This way I can view the live usage graph without having to do anything and allows me to see if any “spikes” in system usage occur.

For anyone who like to keep an eye on their system’s resources, this is definitely a handy trick.

One tool I have found better than Task Manager is Process Explorer. This free tool allows you a much more detailed view of what is going on with your system. Additionally, it has all the functionality of Task Manager, including the ability to “kill” tasks.

One of really great features of Process Explorer is the ability to replace Task Manager (Options > Replace Task Manager). When you select this option, any way which you normally would invoke Task Manager (except by explicitly running it) will bring up Process Explorer instead. This is really something that once you do, you don’t want to go back.

Having used the first LTS release of Ubuntu myself (6.06) exclusively for a year, I see no reason to believe the ’successor’ will not be just as reliable. The only odd thing I see is the OS ships with a beta version of Firefox 3. This seems strange as I would think the developers of an LTS release would opt for the ‘tried and true’ release of Firefox.

This free extension features (among others):

• Support for Windows and Linux (possibly Mac).
• View splitting.
• Auto-preview of files as long as appropriate readers are installed.
• Search features.
• “Send To” and “Open With” functionality.

While I wouldn’t say this is a ‘must have’, it is definitely a neat idea. The only thing I would be concerned about is the the security aspect…