The Open Secret To A More Secure And Customizable Windows

The Open Secret To A More Secure And Customizable Windows

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is the operating system (OS) manufacturer's way of making system administration seamless, intuitive, and more enjoyable for the professional tasked to maintain, customize, and secure a network of computers on a daily basis. Whether the administrator is running a limited local area network (LAN) with six computers or a full-fledged wide area network (WAN), the console manager, as it is often called, is an invaluable tool to use. It is definitely a time saver especially when compared with having to use cryptic command codes or developing scripting to maintain the health of one's computer network.

Even for a single computer, the MMC would still be useful. For example, one can create a module for handling PC performance or monitoring events. At the same time, the application is versatile enough to tackle a server or multi-server function. Just imagine no more scripting or complicated commands to remember. Administrators can just email customized modules to users who can active these on their computers right away.

Compared with UNIX or Linux, there are no complicated command lines to remember. Indeed, these non-Windows operating systems have now adopted graphic user interfaces (GUI), but for someone who is looking to use an OS that is several years old, finding a true GUI could be likened to looking for a needle in a haystack. MMC is available for Windows 2000 systems and onwards.

It would be a good idea to get acquainted with the console from Windows XP. The first thing to remember is that all the good stuff is accessible by going to the Control Panel, then Administrative Tools. From there, the user can select the Event Viewer or the Computer Management console. Other consoles are Component Services, Data Sources, Microsoft .NET Framework Configuration, Microsoft .NET Framework Wizards, and Services. However, these are not the only consoles available. For example, from Start then Run, one can enter the short name of the module then click OK. This will take the user to the specific module. Just some of the other modules that can be accessed in this manner are dfrg.msc for Disk Defragmenter, ntmsmgr.msc for Removable Storage, secpol.msc for Local Security Settings, and gpedit.msc for Group Policy. Again, just enter these short names in the Run box to access the appropriate module.

The fact that the Administrative Tools window does not show all the modules available is the only aspect of the console manager that is not intuitive. Other than this, it is all good. For a complete list of all the short names for the consoles, consult the online documentation from the developer's website. Obviously, it will take some time to familiarize oneself with tweaking all the individual modules. This is the beauty of the system because once the IT professional becomes familiar, he or she can customize each panel according to one's desires or the needs of the department.

About a decade ago, one criticism coming from UNIX camps was that user permissions or read and write settings of the Windows OS lacked flexibility. The console manager addresses this shortcoming. To illustrate, author mode is the system administrator's access level, which is full. At the user level, various access modes can be used, depending on the computing resources that the administrator is willing to grant to specific groups. Computer administrators everywhere should be thankful that the software giant is making inroads towards helping make their jobs easier.

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