Windows Security Articles by Randy Franklin Smith

most recent | by year | by subject

Over the past 7 years, Randy has written scores of articles on a variety of security topics. Follow the links below for a sampling of Randy's most recent articles. You can find earlier articles archived by date or by topic. (Some articles require a subscription or monthly pass for online access.) Then make your plans to get even more from a seminar or onsite training.

September 2007

Granting Users the Authority to Unlock Other Users' Accounts
Do you want certain users to be able to unlock other users’ accounts without granting them the authority to reset users’ passwords? Find out how to use the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in to do just that.
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Figuring Out Which GPO’s Policy Is Taking Precedence
Are you able to assign short or blank passwords even though your Default Domain Policy is set for stricter requirements? Find out which policy is overriding the Default Domain Policy. <more>

Viewing Logged-on Users and the Programs They’re Using
Find out which tool displays every logon session and a list of programs users are currently using.
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August 2007

Granting Users Read Access to the Registry
Do you need to give users the authority to monitor the performance of your servers without giving them administrator authority? Find out how to grant users remote access to only certain areas of the registry. <more>

Distinguishing User Accounts from User Groups in an ACL
Learn how to tell whether the principal in the name column of an ACE is a user or a group.<more>

Getting Vista to Recognize Internet Connections
Do you have problems connecting your Vista computer to your VPN? Learn how to get Vista to enable your VPN connection. <more>

Checking the Security Event Log for Logon Failures Caused by Disabled Accounts
Here are the logon failure codes and event IDs that you need to watch for in the Security event log when looking for disabled account logon attempts.<more>

Access Denied
Answers to your Windows security questions.<more>

July 2007

Composing SDDL for Defining Custom Event Log Permissions
Do you need read access to the Security event log, but you can't have administrator authority? Learn how to grant an account read access using SDDL in Windows Server 2003. <more>

Computer Accounts in the Authenticated Users Group
Learn about the relationship between the Authenticated Users group and the computer accounts in a domain.<more>

Letting a User Log on from Only a Specific Computer
Do you want to make it so that a user can log on only from a specific computer? Here's how to do just that.<more>

Securing an OS by Using TPM
TPM isn't just for securing encryption keys—it also uses Platform Configuration Registers to authenticate the OS at start-up.<more>