Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and earlier versions of Windows used proprietary .ADM files to store custom Group Policy settings. Windows Vista provides similar functionality using .ADMX files, which are XML-based.

Windows Vista provides limited support for .ADM files (they appear under Classic Administrative Templates in the Group Policy Object Editor). You don’t need to worry about migrating the standard .ADM files provided by Microsoft to Windows Vista, because those are already built-in. If you created custom .ADM files, however, you can migrate them to Windows Vista using a free tool called ADMX Migrator, which was developed by FullArmor. ADMX Migrator is available from the Microsoft Download Center and can be installed on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 1), and Windows XP (with Service Pack 2). It provides both graphical and command-line interfaces.

Notepad is still one of my most commonly used applications. Alberto Escobedos provides instructions for replacing Notepad with Notepad2, a free download. Notepad2 provides more sophisticated editing, it opens large files MUCH MUCH faster, and it deals with special characters much better.

Alberto provided high-level instructions that are perfect for IT guys. Here are my slightly more explicit instructions, for those who want the upgraded Notepad but might not be familiar with changing permissions:

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You can uninstall most programs by opening Control Panel and then clicking Uninstall a program (under Programs). Oddly, not all programs are listed there.

MyUninstaller is a free tool for removing software that might not be listed. I needed it because I was trying to install Office 2007 and it gave me an awful error message about having needing to uninstall a beta version of Office 2007–but none were installed, and none of the software I needed to remove was showing up in the Uninstall A Program window. MyUninstaller did list some incompatible components (I have no idea how it got installed) and launched the uninstaller for me.
Thanks to Scott Hanselman for pointing me to this tool.

In Windows Vista, administrators can stage drivers to the Driver Store. Once a driver is in the Driver Store, any user can install the driver without providing administrative privileges or responding to a UAC prompt.

Cool stuff if you’re in IT. If you’re planning to deploy Vista computers and you want to stage drivers so they’re accessible to users after the client computers are setup, use the “Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system” (affectionately known as “BDD 2007“). I helped write some of the docs for that project.

If you want to stage drivers after clients are setup, you can use a script with the PnPUtil.exe command (included with Vista). Here’s the usage information:

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To quickly copy the full path of a file to your clipboard, hold down the Shift key, right click a file, and then click Copy as Path. The full path to the file is placed on your clipboard.

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Question:

Hi Tony,

I have been reading you vista clues and I appreciate the help.

Is there a way to run a batch file on vista to set the “Run as administrator” on an exe.

We have a exe that is delivered to our customers monthly. The exe writes files and expects them to be were we installed the product. Of course, with vista this is not true. I can fix this problem but setting the Run as administrator.

The applications are built under XP so I can not set this property before I packages, so what I was thinking was as part of my install/update

Install the exe on vista and then run a batch program to set it as run as administrator. I can not have the customer do this manually.

Do you think this will work? Do you know how to do this?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

Answer:

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Windows Vista can automatically schedule file backups that back up your most important documents. It does not, however, give you a wizard to schedule Complete PC backups.

Complete PC backups store your entire hard disk (well, your system volume), so if your hard drive dies at some point, you can do a quick restore and be up and running again in minutes. That’s better than file backups in many ways, because all your applications will be restored, and none of your files or settings will be lost.

It’s so useful, you should schedule automatic Complete PC backups to an external hard disk. Just follow these steps:
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