Over the last few weeks we’ve started using a Macbook Air as one of our laptops, taking it to client sites to allow us to do the various jobs that come up. Here’s a few tips for companies looking to integrate an Apple into their Windows world.

Integrations what you need
You can add your macbook to your Active Directory infrastructure. This will allow users to log on to your Apple machine using their Windows logon details. It also supports mounting their home drive on the desktop of OSX so they can easily make files available between their Windows and OSX machines. Enabling the Mobile Account option in the OSX Active Directory settings allows your logon details to be cached in OSX and for you to log on to a Macbook when away from the office network.

The Evil Twin
Given that your colleagues are most likely all still using Windows you will probably need to install a copy of Windows, along with your usual apps, on to your Mac. You can either do this using the Boot Camp feature which allows you to boot in to either OSX or Windows, or you can run a virtual machine using VMWare Fusion or Parallels. I would recommend running a virtual machine unless you need to. It’s easily as quick as a Windows session running in Boot Camp and it also means that you can suspend the virtual machines and save the state of your session. You can also then run your Windows apps alongside your OSX apps, meaning you can still use Internet Explorer to access your companies ageing Exchange 2003 webmail while not rebooting your machine.

Don’t loose the key
If you are using a Macbook you would be well advised to encrypt your home folder in OSX with the FileVault feature. This will make it damn sight hardware for someone to access your data by whipping out your disk and putting it in to another machine. However if you have integrated your Mac with Active Directory then be warned, if you change your Windows password this won’t change your FileVault password, meaning you will be prompted for both, so keep the FileVault password save, even if you currently know it.

We’ve recently had a great period for OS releases. Windows is due out any day now, and it’s been in public beta for a long while, and OS X Snow Leopard has just been released with some nice, though minor, new features. All this new eye candy has led me to think again about the future of Windows.

I have to say that I love Windows 7. I’m not sure the user interface changes have gone far enough, but it’s lovely to use, fast, and very reliable, but it’s not the most important part of my machine.

Now, I’m not in any way involved with MS. No one up there (at Redmond that is) is reading a word I type. This is why I can safely say, without any fear of being bashed by a Windows logo wearing coder, that no one gives a hoot about the operating system. It’s true. Most people using a Windows based PC have Windows because it was installed on their machine when they brought it. They use applications which they run on their computer, but the concept of an operating system, and the importance that changes to it make to their day to day usage are lost on most people. We often ask people what version of Windows they are using only to commonly hear “I don’t know…” or “err 2007??”.

Now, this lack of understanding of what an operating is or does hampers the uptake of new versions of Windows. People don’t see why they should pay out for a new version when their day to day applications, which they use to do their work and to interact with people, will remain the same.

The solution? Give Windows away for free.

It’s not as daft as it sounds. Businesses would still pay for the business flavours of Windows, and the Microsoft applications (Office for example) would still be premium products. Giving Windows away would, in an instant, change the dynamics of an industry in which Linux, an open source free operating system, is an ever increasing player. End users would be more likely to upgrade the OS as new versions came out, making machines in general more secure and reducing attack and infection vectors thus lowering the number of machines under botnet control.

Neither can it hurt in the war against Apple, with Windows machines becoming that smidge cheaper nor, for once, making a Windows upgrade cheaper than an OS X upgrade.

In general Microsoft need to really reconsider their pricing in the light of fierce competition from Apple and Google and a front-page-stopping reduction in their flag ship product would certainly be a good start.

If you think this is bonkers, let me know in a comment. If you think this is clearly a stroke of genius, then also let me know.

We often have to ask users to send us emails as attachments, mostly so that we can check the email headers of a given email, and it’s useful to keep the source email intact. We’ve covered how to get hold of the email headers before, but here’s a quick guide on how to send an email as an attachment.

Here are instructions for both Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003

Outlook 2007

1) Create a new blank email as you would normally

New Message

2) Click the Attach Item toolbar icon. It may appear as a large icon or a small icon, depending on the size of your email window.

Large icon

Small icon

3) Choose the email you want to attach and click Ok.

Attach item window

4) You will see the email added to the email window as an attachment.

An attached email

Outlook 2003

1) Create a new blank email as you would normally

New message

2) Click the drop down arrow next to the paperclip icon on the toolbar. Choose Item from the drop down list.

Drop down list

3) Choose the email you want to attach and click Ok.

Attach item window

4) You will see the email added to the email window as an attachment.

An attached email

In Exchange 2007 you are really required to use a multi-name based certificate to secure access to the various client facing components (Outlook Web Access, SMTP, IMAP, Outlook Anywhere etc).

Here’s a quick guide on how to go about it.

1) First, generate your certificate request (CSR file) and use it to register your multi-name certificate. Digicert and Certificates For Exchange can help with that. You will need to generate the certificate request using the New-ExchangeCertificate powershell applet using the Exchange Management Shell.

A basic example of the command usage is below, but why not cheat and use the very handy generator tool at Digicert.

Don’t forget that Microsoft recommends that your certificate includes support for the the following ‘alternative’ names. In this example your internal server name is JOLLYROGER, your internal domain name is DOMAIN.LOCAL and your external FQDN for the server is MAIL.DOMAIN.COM;

2) When you order your certificate you will need to copy the contents of the CSR file in to the certificate ordering screen of your certificate provider. You can use Notepad to open the CSR file, it’s just plain text inside.

3) Once the certificate is approved you should receive a CRT file. Save this to your C drive and then you will need to run the following command in the Exchange Management Shell

This will apply the certificate to IIS, POP and IMAP so it will affect OWA and Outlook Anywhere as well.

You should now be able to use Outlook Web Access and Outlook Anywhere without any warnings about the security settings.

Signatures help to maintain a consistant look to your emails. Here’s a guide guide on how to create a new signature in Outlook 2003.

1) Click the Tools Menu then click the Options menu item

Options menu item

2) Click the Email Format tab and click the Signatures button

Mail Format tab

3) On the window that appears click New

Signature window

4) Enter a name for your signature. Choose “Start with a blank signature” and then click Next.

Name your signature

5) Enter the text of your signature, typically your name. When you are done click Finish.

Enter your signature text

6) Click OK until you get back to the Options window. Make sure that your new signature is selected in the “Signatures for new messages” drop down menu. If it isn’t then click the drop down arrow and choose your signature. Then click OK.

Select your default signature

7) You can now create a new email and you should see your signature.

Your signature

Sometimes an email can drop in to your inbox but appear to have been sent earlier on in the day, sometimes it can even appear to be from later on in the day, and it can be useful to find the cause (if for no other reason that to be sure your mail servers aren’t grinding along). All the information you need is ‘headers’ of the email. These are lines of information added to the email as it passes from one mail server to another and can help show where delays or issues have occured. Quite often your administrator or ISP will ask for the email headers to help diagnose an issue.

Here’s a quick guide to how to retreive the mail headers in Outlook (2003 & 2007).

1) Find the email you want to check and right click it and choose Options from the menu.

Choose Options

2) From the Options dialog that appears highlight the text in the “Internet Headers” section by left clicking at the start of the text and dragging the mouse over the text as you move down. The text will auto-scroll and highlight as it goes. When you are done right click the text and choose Copy. (You can also click the text and press CTL+A to Select All before pressing CTL+C to copy the text).

Internet Headers

3) You can now paste the email headers in to Word or in to an email to send on. In this example we have pasted them in to an email window, but it may be more reliable to paste the headers in to Word.

Emailing the information

You can then send the information on to your, now very grateful, ISP or Administrator.

We’ve been playing with the release candidate of Windows 7 here and are really looking forward to it’s release on the 22nd of October.While exploring we found this list of new keyboard shortcuts available in Windows 7 which really do make using the new features of Explorer much easier. The original article can be found here.

Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the active window or restore the window if it’s maximized
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the active window to each side of the monitor
Win+Shift+Left/Right arrows: If you’ve got dual monitors, this will move the active window to the adjacent monitor
Win+T: Shift focus to and scroll through items on the taskbar
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that particular application