Windows Security

Application Trust — Who do you trust?

As some new system or network need comes up either for myself, or for a client, I may find myself searching the internet for something to fill that need.  Obviously this must be done with care and more than a bit of due diligence.  There are in fact many excellent resources available from the internet — but when faced with finding a “new” supplier say for something like a utility — how do you decide who you can trust?  I’ve been considering this for quite some time now and realized that I have developed some pretty basic “first steps” to establishing some trust in the site or utility that I’m considering.

1. First impressions are lasting impressions for me - at least when it comes to a websites home page.  If I follow a link to an interesting utility, the page I land on will determine immediately whether I go any further.  I expect the page to provide information about the utility, I don’t want flashing “Buy Now” or “Download FREE Now!” buttons offering me a special discount (…why me?  Lucky number?  I don’t think so!).  A site failing this brings me to exit immediately.
2. Site References are important to me — things like “How did I get to this site?  Was it a link from the page of a website I trust such as TechTarget?”  Was it a link which the vendor has paid for — i.e. a purchased advertisement?  Are there references on other sites which describe experiences with the utility as to its effectiveness.  In other words, can I easily find anything about others experiences with the utility?
3. Recommendations from personal contacts plays a large part in my deciding to “trust” a sites offerings.
4. I recently downloaded a C++ script from a site I didn’t know and compiled it — a script to provide very basic IO and file creation and deletion information.  This was a case where even I with my limited knowledge of C++ scripting could see that what the program was doing would be “safe”.  The site I downloaded from wasn’t flashy, but it clearly met my requirements in 1 and 2 above.

With so much “free” available on internet pages a prudent approach to choosing downloads is essential.  Selected wisely, much valuable information, utilities or even “free” applications can save time and dollars.

Windows PowerShell Rocks

Nobody has ever accused me of adopting software or utilities upon their immediate release. Actually, as the plethora of articles about new product or product under development occur, I look them over briefly, but generally don’t give them much attention. With that said, it is no surprise that I had no clue that Microsoft was developing a new tool for administrators — Windows PowerShell.

Having worked within a UNIX and Linux environment for many years, I became very accustomed to creating powerful scripts to accomplish tasks. Even with the limitations of Microsoft’s command shell, I often would find that I could do things much more quickly at a command line than with a graphical interface. Now Microsoft has given me a whole new tool to learn — and I suspect I will find myself using the command line once again more and more frequently.

I only discovered Windows PowerShell today when I was reading the April edition of Microsoft TechNet Magazine. What caught my eye initially was an article regarding PII (Personally Identifiable Information). The article ( Really talking about security on your system) showed various examples of finding PII on your system using Windows PowerShell. As of this writing I am not finding the article on-line however, as it appears to be the March issue that is on-line at this time.

Getting the glimpse I did of PowerShell from the article had me quickly imagining many uses for the power which seemed to be available using this new tool. I searched for, downloaded and have now installed PowerShell on my XP, Vista and server 2003 systems.

If you have not investigated this free tool from Microsoft I’d suggest that you go for it! I have only begun to look at the functionality available, and I am impressed — and it generally takes a bit for me to be this way about a new product.