Earlier this morning, Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2010. Woohoo! here’s
the jist:
Watch the Keynote and Channel 9 Live here: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/watch-it-live
Get the real bits here (if you have an MSDN license): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ca/subscriptions/default.aspx
Get the trial bits here:
-
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional
-
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
-
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
Get the Express versions here: http://www.microsoft.com/express/
All the important stuff you want/need to know about Visual Studio 2010 development: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ca/ff625297.aspx
Enjoy!
Tonight at the IT Pro Toronto we did a pre-launch
of the Infrastructure 2010 project.
Have you ever been in a position where you just don’t have a clear grasp of a concept
or design? It’s not fun. As a result, CIPS
Toronto, IT Pro Toronto, and TorontoSQL banded
together to create a massive event to help make things a little more clear.
To give you a clearer understanding of how corporate networks work. Perhaps
to explain why some decisions are made, and why in retrospect, some are bad decisions.
Infrastructure 2010 is about teaching you everything there is to know about a state-of-the-art,
best practices compliant, corporate intranet. We will build, from the ground
up, an entire infrastructure. We will teach you how to build, from the ground
up, an entire infrastructure.
Sessions are minimum 300 level, and content-rich. Therefore:
![i2010Proud[1]](http://www.syfuhs.net/media/blog/i2010Proud%5B1%5D_3.png "i2010Proud[1]")
Well, maybe. (P.S. if you work for Microsoft, pretend you didn’t see that picture)
A few minutes ago I just finalized my first CodePlex project. While working
on the ever-mysterious Infrastructure 2010 project, I needed to integrate the Live
Meeting API into an application we are using. So I decided to stick it into
it’s own assembly for reuse.
I also figured that since it’s a relatively simple project, and because for the life
of me I couldn’t find a similar wrapper, I would open source it. Maybe there
is someone out there who can benefit from it.
The code is ugly, but it works. I suspect I will continue development, and clean
it up a little. With that being said:
-
It needs documentation (obviously).
-
All the StringBuilder stuff should really be converted to XML objects
-
It need's cleaner exception handling
-
It needs API versioning support
-
It needs to implement more API functions
Otherwise it works like a charm. Check
it out!
While I was in California last week I decided to visit the new Microsoft Store in
Mission Viejo. While there, the managers graciously allowed me to take pictures
of the store. Frankly, they probably thought it was a little creepy. But
nevertheless, they said go for it, and I did.
Now, Microsoft did one hell of a job making it known that the store existed while
I was at the mall. While I was grabbing coffee in the food court, these stickers
were on each table:
Following that, as you head towards the store you see two large LCD screens in the
centre of the walkway. On one side you have a Rock Band - Beatles installation
running XBox 360 over HD.
On the other side was a promotional video.
Microsoft designed their store quite well. Large floor to ceiling windows for
the storefront, with an inviting light wood flooring to create a very warm atmosphere.
While there were hundreds of people in the store, it was very welcoming.
Along the three walls (because the 4th is glass) is a breathtaking video panorama.
I’m not quite sure how to really describe it. It’s as if the entire wall was
a single display, running in full HD.
In the center of the store is a collection of laptops and assorted electronics like
the Zune’s. There’s probably a logical layout, perhaps by price, or performance.
I wasn’t paying too much attention to that unfortunately.
At the center-back of the store is Microsoft’s Answers desk. Much like the Apple
Genius Bar, except not so arrogant. Yes, I said it. Ironically, the display
for customer names looked very iPod-ish here, and in the Apple Store, the equivalent
display looked like XP Media Center. Go figure.
One of the things I couldn’t quite believe was the XBox 360 being displayed overlay
the video panorama video. The video engine for that must have been extremely
powerful. That had to be a 1080P display for the XBox. As a developer,
I was astonished (and wondered where I could get that app!) A few of the employee’s
mentioned that it was driven by Windows 7. Pretty freakin’ sweet.
Also in the store were a couple Surfaces! This was the first time I actually
had the opportunity to play with one. They are pretty cool.
And that in a few pictures was my trip to the Microsoft store. There was also
a couple pamphlets in store describing training sessions and schedules for quick how-to’s
in Windows 7 that I walked away with.
Microsoft did well.
The other day while I was sitting in the airport in Washington, D.C., I had a random
thought. When the ZuneHD first hit the shelves people were talking about how
Mobile 7 might borrow the look and feel. It’s sleek, easy to use/easy to understand,
and is very simple. So I started thinking about what such an interface might
look like. This is something I did quickly. Nothing was provided by Microsoft.
Nobody has said anything about Mobile 7 design (at least, not at that point, but
nobody cared anyway). This is simply something I thought the interface might
look like.
Some things to notice are the list-like menu’s, and the bing search
at the bottom. Blah-blah-blah anti-trust, the point is search is easily accessible,
not necessarily just to Microsoft’s own search engine. It could be Google’s
search too. Also, there is the location-specific information at the top showing
the current weather. Also mimicking the Windows 7 interface is the idea of pinning
things to the home screen such as the Internet Explorer application.
There are some things that should probably change. It feels a little cluttered
at the bottom showing current messages and the appointments color is iffy. There
may not be any need for the middle separation either.
Just a thought…
The other day I had the opportunity to take part in an interesting meeting with Microsoft.
The discussion was security, and the meeting members were 20 or so IT Pro’s, developers,
and managers from various Fortune 500 companies in the GTA. It was not a sales call.
Throughout the day, Microsofties Rob Labbe and Mohammad Akif went into significant
detail about the current threat landscape facing all technology vendors and departments.
There was one point that was paramount. Security is not all about technology.
Security is about the policies implemented at the human level. Blinky-lighted devices
look cool, but in the end, they will not likely add value to protecting your network.
Here in lies the problem. Not too many people realize this -- hence the purpose of
the meeting.
Towards the end of the meeting, as we were all letting the presentations sink in,
I asked a relatively simple question:
What resources are out there for new/young people entering the security field?
The response was pretty much exactly what I was (unfortunately) expecting: notta.
Security it seems is mostly a self-taught topic. Yes there are some programs at schools
out there, but they tend to be academic – naturally. By this I mean that there is
no fluidity in discussion. It’s as if you are studying a snapshot of the IT landscape
that was taken 18 months ago. Most security experts will tell you the landscape changes
daily, if not multiple times a day. Therefore we need to keep up on the changes in
security, and any teacher will tell you, it’s impossible in an academic situation.
Keeping up to date with security is a manual process. You follow blogs, you subscribe
to newsgroups and mailing lists, your company gets hacked by a new form of attack,
etc., and in the end you have a reasonable idea of what is out there yesterday. And
you know what? This is just the attack vectors! You need to follow a whole new set
of blogs and mailing lists to understand how to mitigate such attacks. That sucks.
Another issue is the ramp up to being able to follow daily updates. Security is tough
when starting out. It involves so many different processes at so many different levels
of the application interactions that eyes glaze over at the thought of learning the
ins and outs of security.
So here we have two core problems with security:
-
Security changes daily – it’s hard to keep up
-
It’s scary when you are new at this
Let’s start by addressing the second issue. Security is a scary topic, but let’s breaks
it down into its core components.
-
Security is about keeping data away from those who shouldn’t see it
-
Security is about keeping data available for those who need to see it
At its core, security is simple. It starts getting tricky when you jump into the semantics
of how to implement the core. So let’s address this too.
A properly working system will do what you intended it to do at a systematic level:
calculate numbers, view customer information, launch a missile, etc. This is a fundamental
tenant of application development. Security is about understanding the unintended
consequences of what a user can do with that system.
These consequences are of the like:
-
SQL Injection
-
Cross Site Scripting attacks
-
Cross Site Forgery attacks
-
Buffer overflow attacks
-
Breaking encryption schemes
-
Session hijacking
-
etc.
Once you understand that these types of attacks can exist, everything is just semantics
from this point on. These semantics are along the line of figuring out best practices
for system designs, and that’s really just a matter of studying.
Security is about understanding that anything is possible. Once you understand attacks
can happen, you learn how they can happen. Then you learn how to prevent them from
happening. To use a phrase I really hate using, security is about thinking outside
the box.
Most developers do the least amount of work possible to build an application. I am
terribly guilty of this. In doing so however, there is a very high likelihood that
I didn’t consider what else can be done with the same code. Making this consideration
is (again, lame phrase) thinking outside the box.
It is in following this consideration that I can develop a secure system.
So… policies?
At the end of the day however, I am a lazy developer. I will still do as little
work as possible to get the system working, and frankly, this is not conducive to
creating a secure system.
The only way to really make this work is to implement security policies that force
certain considerations to be made. Each system is different, and each organization
is different. There is no single policy that will cover the scope of all systems
for all organizations, but a policy is simple.
A policy is a rule that must be followed, and in this case, we are talking about a
development rule. This can include requiring certain types of tests while developing,
or following a specific development model like the Security Development Lifecycle.
It is with these policies that we can govern the creation of secure systems.
Policies create an organization-level standard. Standards are the backbone of
security.
These standards fall under the category of semantics, mentioned earlier. Given
that, I propose an idea for learning security.
-
Understand the core ideology of security – mentioned above
-
Understand that policies drive security
-
Jump head first into the semantics starting with security models
The downside is that you will never understand everything there is to know about security.
No one will.
Perhaps its not that flawed of an idea.
This post has had a few false starts. It’s a tough topic to cover, as it’s a
very controversial subject for most people still. Hopefully we can enlighten
some people along the way.
From a high level perspective, the UAC was developed to protect the user without necessarily
removing administrative privileges. Any change to the system required a second
validation. On older versions of Windows, an application running with administrative
credentials could change any setting on the box. Viruses and malware became
rampant because of this openness, given that the average user had administrative credentials.
Most average users balked at the idea of having a limited user account, so Microsoft
came up with an alternative for the new OS, Vista – a second form of validation.
You told the computer you wanted to make a change, it asked “are you sure?”
Logically it makes sense. Consider an instance where a devious application wanted
to change some setting, and because Windows wanted to verify it’s ok to make this
change it asked “are you sure?” If you responded no, the change didn’t happen.
Simple enough. However, here we start running into issues. There are three
perspectives to look at.
First, the end user. Simple changes to basic settings required validation.
This annoyed most of them, if not all of them. They didn’t care why it was asking,
they just wanted to delete shortcuts from their start menu. Their reaction:
turn off UAC. Bad idea, but security loses when it comes to usability in the
case of the end user.
Second, the irate IT Pro/Developer. Most people working in IT make changes to
system settings constantly. Given that, the UAC would be seen many times in
a day and it would, for lack of a better word, piss that person off. They didn’t
care what security it provided, it was a “stupid-useless-design” that shouldn’t have
been created. Their reaction: turn off UAC. Once again security loses
when it comes to usability.
Third, the knowledgeable IT Pro/Developer. Not a lot of people fell into this
category. However, these tended to be the same type of people who fit into the Lazy
Admin category as well. When managed properly UAC wasn’t all that annoying
because it wasn’t seen all that often. Set-it-and-forget-it and you don’t ever
see the prompt. If you created the system image properly, you don’t have to
constantly keep changing settings. It’s a simple enough idea.
But…
Application compatibility is a pain. Most applications didn’t understand the
UAC, so they weren’t running with a validation and generally broke when they tried
to do things they really shouldn’t be doing in the first place. These are things
like manipulating registry keys that don’t belong to them, writing to system folders,
reading data from low-level system API’s etc. This was reason #1 for disabling
UAC.
And now…
With the general availability of Windows 7 in about 2.5 hours from now, it seems like
a good time to discuss certain changes to UAC in the latest version of Windows.
The biggest of course being when Windows decides to check for validation.
Windows 7 introduces two new levels of the UAC. In Vista there was Validate
Everything or Off. Windows 7 added “Do Not Notify Me When I Make Changes to
Windows Settings”. This comes into effect when the user makes a change to a
Windows setting like display resolution. Windows is smart enough to realize
it’s the user making the change, and allows it. It’s second additional level
is the same as the first, except it doesn’t hide the desktop.
Now we get into some fun questions.
-
How does Window’s know to not show the prompt? It’s fairly straightforward.
All Window’s executables that were released as part of the OS are signed with a certificate.
All executables signed with this certificate are allowed to run if user started.
This is only true for Window’s settings though. You cannot implement this with
3rd party applications. There is no auto-allow list.
-
How does Window’s know it’s a user starting the application? Lots of applications
can mimic mouse movements or keyboard commands, but they occur at a higher application
level than an actual mouse move. Input devices like mice and keyboards have
an extremely low level driver, and only commands coming from these drivers are interpreted
as user input. You cannot spoof these commands.
-
Can you spoof mouse/keyboard input to accept the UAC request? No. The
UAC prompt is created in a separate Windows desktop. Other well known desktops
include the Locked screen, login screen, and the Cardspace admin application.
No application can cross these desktops, so an application running in your personal
desktop cannot push commands into the UAC desktop.
Mark Russinovich has an excellent article in TechNet
Magazine that goes into more detail about changes to the UAC. Hopefully
this post at least covered all sides of the UAC debate.
Got this list in an email earlier today. Not sure the original source, as it
was a copy/paste job, but holy crap what a list. If someone can point out where
it originated I will attribute it as necessary.
Ease of Access keyboard shortcuts
-
Right Shift for eight seconds: Turn Filter Keys on and off
-
Left Alt + Left Shift + PrtScn (or PrtScn): Turn High Contrast on or off
-
Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock: Turn Mouse Keys on or off
-
Shift five times: Turn Sticky Keys on or off
-
Num Lock for five seconds: Turn Toggle Keys on or off
-
Windows logo key + U: Open the Ease of Access Center
General keyboard shortcuts
-
F1: Display Help
-
Ctrl + C (or Ctrl + Insert): Copy the selected item
-
Ctrl + X: Cut the selected item
-
Ctrl + V (or Shift + Insert): Paste the selected item
-
Ctrl + Z: Undo an action
-
Ctrl + Y: Redo an action
-
Delete (or Ctrl + D): Delete the selected item and move it to the Recycle Bin
-
Shift + Delete: Delete the selected item without moving it to the Recycle Bin first
-
F2: Rename the selected item
-
Ctrl + Right Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word
-
Ctrl + Left Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word
-
Ctrl + Down Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph
-
Ctrl + Up Arrow: Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph
-
Ctrl + Shift with an arrow key: Select a block of text
-
Shift + any arrow key: Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or
select text within a document
-
Ctrl + any arrow key + Spacebar: Select multiple individual items in a window or on
the desktop
-
Ctrl + A: Select all items in a document or window
-
F3: Search for a file or folder
-
Alt + Enter: Display properties for the selected item
-
Alt + F4: Close the active item, or exit the active program
-
Alt + Spacebar: Open the shortcut menu for the active window
-
Ctrl + F4: Close the active document (in programs that allow you to have multiple
documents open simultaneously)
-
Alt + Tab: Switch between open items
-
Ctrl + Alt + Tab: Use the arrow keys to switch between open items
-
Ctrl + Mouse scroll wheel: Change the size of icons on the desktop
-
Windows logo key + Tab: Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Aero Flip 3-D
-
Ctrl+ Windows logo key + Tab: Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the
taskbar by using Aero Flip 3-D
-
Alt + Esc: Cycle through items in the order in which they were opened
-
F6: Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop
-
F4: Display the address bar list in Windows Explorer
-
Shift + F10: Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
-
Ctrl + Esc: Open the Start menu
-
Alt + underlined letter: Display the corresponding menu
-
Alt + underlined letter: Perform the menu command (or other underlined command)
-
F10: Activate the menu bar in the active program
-
Right Arrow: Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu
-
Left Arrow: Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu
-
F5 (or Ctrl + R): Refresh the active window
-
Alt + Up Arrow: View the folder one level up in Windows Explorer
-
Esc: Cancel the current task
-
Ctrl + Shift + Esc: Open Task Manager
-
Shift when you insert a CD: Prevent the CD from automatically playing
-
Left Alt + Shift: Switch the input language when multiple input languages are enabled
-
Ctrl + ShiftL: Switch the keyboard layout when multiple keyboard layouts are enabled
-
Right or Left Ctrl + Shift: Change the reading direction of text in right-to-left
reading languages
Dialog box keyboard shortcuts
-
Ctrl + Tab: Move forward through tabs
-
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Move back through tabs
-
Tab: Move forward through options
-
Shift + Tab: Move back through options
-
Alt + underlined letter: Perform the command (or select the option) that goes with
that letter
-
Enter: Replaces clicking the mouse for many selected commands
-
Spacebar: Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box
-
Arrow keys: Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons
-
F1: Display Help
-
F4: Display the items in the active list
-
Backspace: Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open
dialog box
Windows logo key keyboard shortcuts
-
Windows logo key: Open or close the Start menu.
-
Windows logo key + Pause: Display the System Properties dialog box.
-
Windows logo key + D: Display the desktop.
-
Windows logo key + M: Minimize all windows.
-
Windows logo key + Shift + M: Restore minimized windows to the desktop.
-
Windows logo key + E: Open Computer.
-
Windows logo key + F: Search for a file or folder.
-
Ctrl + Windows logo key + F: Search for computers (if you’re on a network).
-
Windows logo key + L: Lock your computer or switch users.
-
Windows logo key + R: Open the Run dialog box.
-
Windows logo key + T: Cycle through programs on the taskbar.
-
Windows logo key + number: Start the program pinned to the taskbar in the position
indicated by the number. If the program is already running, switch to that program.
-
Shift + Windows logo key + number: Start a new instance of the program pinned to the
taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
-
Ctrl + Windows logo key + number: Switch to the last active window of the program
pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
-
Alt + Windows logo key + number: Open the Jump List for the program pinned to the
taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
-
Windows logo key + Tab: Cycle through programs on the taskbar by using Aero Flip 3-D.
-
Ctrl+Windows logo key + Tab: Use the arrow keys to cycle through programs on the taskbar
by using Aero Flip 3-D.
-
Ctrl+Windows logo key + B: Switch to the program that displayed a message in the notification
area.
-
Windows logo key + Spacebar: Preview the desktop.
-
Windows logo key + Up Arrow: Maximize the window.
-
Windows logo key + Left Arrow: Maximize the window to the left side of the screen.
-
Windows logo key + Right Arrow: Maximize the window to the right side of the screen.
-
Windows logo key + Down Arrow: Minimize the window.
-
Windows logo key + Home: Minimize all but the active window.
-
Windows logo key + Shift + Up Arrow: Stretch the window to the top and bottom of the
screen.
-
Windows logo key + Shift+ Left Arrow or Right Arrow: Move a window from one monitor
to another.
-
Windows logo key + P: Choose a presentation display mode.
-
Windows logo key + G: Cycle through gadgets.
-
Windows logo key + U: Open Ease of Access Center.
-
Windows logo key + X: Open Windows Mobility Center.
Windows Explorer keyboard shortcuts
-
Ctrl + N: Open a new window
-
Ctrl + W: Close the current window
-
Ctrl + Shift + N: Create a new folder
-
End: Display the bottom of the active window
-
Home: Display the top of the active window
-
F11: Maximize or minimize the active window
-
Ctrl + Period (.): Rotate a picture clockwise
-
Ctrl + Comma (,): Rotate a picture counter-clockwise
-
Num Lock + Asterisk (*) on numeric keypad: Display all subfolders under the selected
folder
-
Num Lock + Plus Sign (+) on numeric keypad: Display the contents of the selected folder
-
Num Lock + Minus Sign (-) on numeric keypad: Collapse the selected folder
-
Left Arrow: Collapse the current selection (if it’s expanded), or select the parent
folder
-
Alt + Enter: Open the Properties dialog box for the selected item
-
Alt + P: Display the preview pane
-
Alt + Left Arrow: View the previous folder
-
Backspace: View the previous folder
-
Right Arrow: Display the current selection (if it’s collapsed), or select the first
subfolder
-
Alt + Right Arrow: View the next folder
-
Alt + Up Arrow: View the parent folder
-
Ctrl + Shift + E: Display all folders above the selected folder
-
Ctrl + Mouse scroll wheel: Change the size and appearance of file and folder icons
-
Alt + D: Select the address bar
-
Ctrl + E: Select the search box
-
Ctrl + F: Select the search box
Taskbar keyboard shortcuts
-
Shift + Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance
of a program
-
Ctrl + Shift + Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator
-
Shift + Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program
-
Shift + Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group
-
Ctrl + Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group
Magnifier keyboard shortcuts
-
Windows logo key + Plus Sign or Minus Sign: Zoom in or out
-
Ctrl + Alt + Spacebar: Preview the desktop in full-screen mode
-
Ctrl + Alt + F: Switch to full-screen mode
-
Ctrl + Alt + L: Switch to lens mode
-
Ctrl + Alt + D: Switch to docked mode
-
Ctrl + Alt + I: Invert colors
-
Ctrl + Alt + arrow keys: Pan in the direction of the arrow keys
-
Ctrl + Alt + R: Resize the lens
-
Windows logo key + Esc: Exit Magnifier
Remote Desktop Connection keyboard shortcuts
-
Alt + Page Up: Move between programs from left to right.
-
Alt + Page Down: Move between programs from right to left.
-
Alt + Insert: Cycle through programs in the order that they were started in.
-
Alt + Home: Display the Start menu.
-
Ctrl + Alt + Break: Switch between a window and full screen.
-
Ctrl + Alt + End: Display the Windows Security dialog box.
-
Alt + Delete: Display the system menu.
-
Ctrl + Alt + Minus Sign (-) on the numeric keypad: Place a copy of the active window,
within the client, on the Terminal server clipboard (provides the same functionality
as pressing Alt + PrtScn on a local computer).
-
Ctrl + Alt + Plus Sign (+) on the numeric keypad: Place a copy of the entire client
window area on the Terminal server clipboard (provides the same functionality as pressing
PrtScn on a local computer).
-
Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow: Tab out of the Remote Desktop controls to a control in the
host program (for example, a button or a text box). Useful when the Remote Desktop
controls are embedded in another (host) program.
-
Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow: Tab out of the Remote Desktop controls to a control in the
host program (for example, a button or a text box). Useful when the Remote Desktop
controls are embedded in another (host) program.
Paint keyboard shortcuts
-
Ctrl + N: Create a new picture
-
Ctrl + O: Open an existing picture
-
Ctrl + S: Save changes to a picture
-
F12: Save the picture as a new file
-
Ctrl + P: Print a picture
-
Alt + F4: Close a picture and its Paint window
-
Ctrl + Z: Undo a change
-
Ctrl + Y: Redo a change
-
Ctrl + A: Select the entire picture
-
Ctrl + X: Cut a selection
-
Ctrl + C: Copy a selection to the Clipboard
-
Ctrl + V: Paste a selection from the Clipboard
-
Right Arrow: Move the selection or active shape right by one pixel
-
Left Arrow: Move the selection or active shape left by one pixel
-
Down Arrow: Move the selection or active shape down by one pixel
-
Up Arrow: Move the selection or active shape up by one pixel
-
Esc: Cancel a selection
-
Delete: Delete a selection
-
Ctrl + B: Bold selected text
-
Ctrl + +: Increase the width of a brush, line, or shape outline by one pixel
-
Ctrl + -: Decrease the width of a brush, line, or shape outline by one pixel
-
Ctrl + I: Italicize selected text
-
Ctrl + U: Underline selected text
-
Ctrl + E: Open the Properties dialog box
-
Ctrl + W: Open the Resize and Skew dialog box
-
Ctrl + Page Up: Zoom in
-
Ctrl + Page Down: Zoom out
-
F11: View a picture in full-screen mode
-
Ctrl + R: Show or hide the ruler
-
Ctrl + G: Show or hide gridlines
-
F10 or Alt: Display keytips
-
Shift + F10: Show the current shortcut menu
-
F1: Open Paint Help
WordPad keyboard shortcuts
-
Ctrl + N: Create a new document
-
Ctrl + O: Open an existing document
-
Ctrl + S: Save changes to a document
-
F12: Save the document as a new file
-
Ctrl + P: Print a document
-
Alt + F4: Close WordPad
-
Ctrl + Z: Undo a change
-
Ctrl + Y: Redo a change
-
Ctrl + A: Select the entire document
-
Ctrl + X: Cut a selection
-
Ctrl + C: Copy a selection to the Clipboard
-
Ctrl + V: Paste a selection from the Clipboard
-
Ctrl + B: Make selected text bold
-
Ctrl + I: Italicize selected text
-
Ctrl + U: Underline selected text
-
Ctrl + =: Make selected text subscript
-
Ctrl + Shift + =: Make selected text superscript
-
Ctrl + L: Align text left
-
Ctrl + E Align text center
-
Ctrl + R:: Align text right
-
Ctrl + J: Justify text
-
Ctrl + 1: Set single line spacing
-
Ctrl + 2: Set double line spacing
-
Ctrl + 5: Set line spacing to 1.5
-
Ctrl + Shift + >: Increase the font size
-
Ctrl + Shift + <: Decrease the font size
-
Ctrl + Shift + A: Change characters to all capitals
-
Ctrl + Shift + L: Change the bullet style
-
Ctrl + D: Insert a Microsoft Paint drawing
-
Ctrl + F: Find text in a document
-
F3: Find the next instance of the text in the Find dialog box
-
Ctrl + H: Replace text in a document
-
Ctrl + Left Arrow: Move the cursor one word to the left
-
Ctrl + Right Arrow: Move the cursor one word to the right
-
Ctrl + Up Arrow: Move the cursor to the line above
-
Ctrl + Down Arrow: Move the cursor to the line below
-
Ctrl + Home: Move to the beginning of the document
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Ctrl + End: Move to the end of the document
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Ctrl + Page Up: Move up one page
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Ctrl + Page Down: Move down one page
-
Ctrl + Delete: Delete the next word
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F10: Display keytips
-
Shift + F10: Show the current shortcut menu
-
F1: Open WordPad Help
Calculator keyboard shortcuts
-
Alt + 1: Switch to Standard mode
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Alt + 2: Switch to Scientific mode
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Alt + 3: Switch to Programmer mode
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Alt + 4: Switch to Statistics mode
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Ctrl + E: Open date calculations
-
Ctrl + H: Turn calculation history on or off
-
Ctrl + U: Open unit conversion
-
Alt + C: Calculate or solve date calculations and worksheets
-
F1: Open Calculator Help
-
Ctrl + Q: Press the M- button
-
Ctrl + P: Press the M+ button
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Ctrl + M: Press the MS button
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Ctrl + R: Press the MR button
-
Ctrl + L: Press the MC button
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%: Press the % button
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F9: Press the +/’“ button
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/: Press the / button
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*: Press the * button
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+: Press the + button
-
-: Press the ‘“ button
-
R: Press the 1/x— button
-
@: Press the square root button
-
0-9: Press the number buttons (0-9)
-
=: Press the = button
-
.: Press the . (decimal point) button
-
Backspace: Press the backspace button
-
Esc: Press the C button
-
Del: Press the CE button
-
Ctrl + Shift + D: Clear the calculation history
-
F2: Edit the calculation history
-
Up Arrow key: Navigate up in the calculation history
-
Down Arrow key: Navigate down in the calculation history
-
Esc: Cancel editing the calculation history
-
Enter: Recalculate the calculation history after editing
-
F3: Select Degrees in Scientific mode
-
F4: Select Radians in Scientific mode
-
F5: Select Grads in Scientific mode
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I: Press the Inv button in Scientific mode
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D: Press the Mod button in Scientific mode
-
Ctrl + S: Press the sinh button in Scientific mode
-
Ctrl + O: Press the cosh button in Scientific mode
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Ctrl + T: Press the tanh button in Scientific mode
-
(: Press the ( button in Scientific mode
-
): Press the ) button in Scientific mode
-
N: Press the ln button in Scientific mode
-
;: Press the Int button in Scientific mode
-
S: Press the sin button in Scientific mode
-
O: Press the cos button in Scientific mode
-
T: Press the tan button in Scientific mode
-
M: Press the dms button in Scientific mode
-
P: Press the pi button in Scientific mode
-
V: Press the F-E button in Scientific mode
-
X: Press the Exp button in Scientific mode
-
Q: Press the x^2 button in Scientific mode
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Y: Press the x^y button in Scientific mode
-
#: Press the x^3 button in Scientific mode
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L: Press the log button in Scientific mode
-
!: Press the n! button in Scientific mode
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Ctrl + Y: Press the y√x button in Scientific mode
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Ctrl + B: Press the 3√x button in Scientific mode
-
Ctrl + G: Press the 10x button in Scientific mode
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F5: Select Hex in Programmer mode
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F6: Select Dec in Programmer mode
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F7: Select Oct in Programmer mode
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F8: Select Bin in Programmer mode
-
F12: Select Qword in Programmer mode
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F2: Select Dword in Programmer mode
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F3: Select Word in Programmer mode
-
F4: Select Byte in Programmer mode
-
K: Press the RoR button in Programmer mode
-
J: Press the RoL button in Programmer mode
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<: Press the Lsh button in Programmer mode
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>: Press the Rsh button in Programmer mode
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%: Press the Mod button in Programmer mode
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(: Press the ( button in Programmer mode
-
): Press the ) button in Programmer mode
-
|: Press the Or button in Programmer mode
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^: Press the Xor button in Programmer mode
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~: Press the Not button in Programmer mode
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&: Press the And button in Programmer mode
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A-F: Press the A-F buttons in Programmer mode
-
Spacebar: Toggles the bit value in Programmer mode
-
A: Press the Average button in Statistics mode
-
Ctrl + A: Press the Average Sq button in Statistics mode
-
S: Press the Sum button in Statistics mode
-
Ctrl + S: Press the Sum Sq button in Statistics mode
-
T: Press the S.D. button in Statistics mode
-
Ctrl + T: Press the Inv S.D. button in Statistics mode
-
D: Press the CAD button in Statistics mode
Windows Journal keyboard shortcuts
-
Ctrl + N: Start a new note
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Ctrl + O: Open a recently used note
-
Ctrl + S: Save changes to a note
-
Ctrl + Shift + V: Move a note to a specific folder
-
Ctrl + P: Print a note
-
Alt + F4: Close a note and its Journal window
-
Ctrl + Z: Undo a change
-
Ctrl + Y: Redo a change
-
Ctrl + A: Select all items on a page
-
Ctrl + X: Cut a selection
-
Ctrl + C: Copy a selection to the Clipboard
-
Ctrl + V: Paste a selection from the Clipboard
-
Esc: Cancel a selection
-
Delete: Delete a selection
-
Ctrl + F: Start a basic find
-
Ctrl + G: Go to a page
-
F5: Refresh find results
-
F5: Refresh the note list
-
F6: Toggle between a note list and a note
-
Ctrl + Shift + C: Display a shortcut menu for column headings in a note list
-
F11: View a note in full-screen mode
-
F1: Open Journal Help
Windows Help viewer keyboard shortcuts
-
Alt + C: Display the Table of Contents
-
Alt + N: Display the Connection Settings menu
-
F10: Display the Options menu
-
Alt + Left Arrow: Move back to the previously viewed topic
-
Alt + Right Arrow: Move forward to the next (previously viewed) topic
-
Alt + A: Display the customer support page
-
Alt + Home: Display the Help and Support home page
-
Home: Move to the beginning of a topic
-
End: Move to the end of a topic
-
Ctrl + F: Search the current topic
-
Ctrl + P: Print a topic
-
F3: Move the cursor to the search box
Over the weekend, good friend, Mitch Garvis decided it was necessary to rebuild his
home network. Now, most home networks don’t have a $25,000 Server at the core.
This one did. Given that, we decided to do it right. The network
architecture called for Virtualization, so we decided to use Hyper-V. The network
called for management, so we decided to install SCCM and Ops Manager. The network
called for simplicity so we used Active Directory.
However, we decided to up the ante and install this all on Server Core. Now,
the tricky part is that we needed to install Active Directory. The reason this
became tricky was because there is no documented procedure out there on how to install
a new Forest on Core. There are lots of very smart people on the internet that
described how to install new domains part of existing forests, but not new forests.
So we got to work.
After running dcpromo a few times we realized we couldn’t create the Forest by throwing
commands at it. It occurred to one of us that we should try creating an unattend.txt
install file. After a few tries, we figured out the proper structure of the
file, and after 10 minutes of watching the CLI spit out random sentences, we had a
new domain.
The structure of the file is fairly simple, but you need the correct variable data.
We used the following unattend.txt file to create the new domain:
[DCInstall]
InstallDNS=yes
NewDomain=forest
NewDomainDNSName=swmi.ca
DomainNetBiosName=SWMI
SiteName=Default-First-Site-Name
ReplicaOrNewDomain=domain
ForestLevel=3
DomainLevel=3
DatabasePath="%systemroot%\ntds"
LogPath="%systemroot%\ntds"
RebootOnCompletion=yes
SYSVOLPath="%systemroot%\sysvol"
SafeModeAdminPassword=Pa$$w0rd
Now: Once the file was created we put it in the root of C: on the server core machine,
and typed the following command:
dcpromo /unattend:c:\unattend.txt
Surprisingly it worked. After checking with Microsoft, this is a supported option,
and it’s not a hack in any way. It’s just undocumented.
Until now.
Reference: Mitch Garvis, SWMI, http://garvis.ca/blogs/mitch/archive/2009/10/12/creating-a-new-domain-forest-on-server-core.aspx
October 15th Evening SQL Server DBA Event: Disaster Recovery –
Edwin Sarmiento, MVP for SQL Server
Speaker: Edwin M. Sarmiento, MVP for SQL Server
Date: Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Venue: Microsoft Ottawa Office
RSVP: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=142063
Session 1 (6:00 PM to 7:10 PM): Understanding and communicating business-orientated
disaster recovery concepts and objectives
So you have a database maintenance plan that does a backup of your databases and you’re
pretty sure that it works fine. But is that really enough? Are you sure that you will
be able to meet your service level agreements if and when disaster strikes? This session
will explain the need for understanding and communicating business-orientated disaster
recovery concepts and objectives to the business stakeholders. This will include defining
your RPO and RTO and how it affects your disaster recovery plan.
Session 2 (7:20 to 8:30 PM): Disaster Recovery for the Paranoid DBA
In the first session, much have been said about disaster recovery in general. In this
session, we will look at bringing the concepts down to SQL Server. This session will
focus on dealing with a recovery situation for a SQL Server 2005/2008 database, an
instance or an entire server. Topics covered will be backup schemes, partial backups
and piecemeal restores, page-level recovery and a thorough understanding of how to
troubleshoot a "Suspect" database.
Speaker Bio:
Edwin
M. Sarmiento (MVP for SQL Server) works as a Senior SQL Server DBA/Systems
Engineer for The Pythian Group in Ottawa, Canada.
He is very passionate about technology but has interests in music, professional and
organizational development, leadership and management matters when not working with
databases. He lives up to his primary mission statement – "To help people
grow and develop their full potential as God has planned for them.".
Refreshments:
Pizza and pop will be provided.
Note: No one will be admitted by building security after 5:55 PM, and the
event will start promptly at 6:00 PM.
OttawaSQL.net is a community group of Ottawa area developers and IT professionals.
We share an interest in Microsoft’s data technologies especially: SQL Server,
SharePoint, PerformancePoint, Workflow Foundations, LINQ, ADO.NET and Entity Framework.
