You probably ended-up with something like john-desktop. To change the hostname to something more exiting, you'll need to edit both the /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname files. This is best done in run level 1 (rescue mode), when practically no other software is running.

Here are the steps required:

1) Logout so you return to the login screen and then switch to a virtual console. Login and type sudo telinit 1. This will switch you to rescue mode. At the text menu that appears, use the cursor keys to select Root - drop to root shell prompt and hit Enter.

2) Type nano /etc/hosts. Identify your hostname within the file (it will most likely be on the second line) and change it to what you wish. Remember that hostnames only involve letters and/or numbers, and no spaces. You should also steer-clear of symbols. When you've finished making your edits, hit Ctrl + x to quit the program. Type y to save the modified buffer (ie save the file), and then hit Enter to actually save the file and quit the program.

3) Repeat the step above, this time editing the /etc/hostname file. This file contains only the hostname. Change it to exactly what you typed earlier (it must be completely identical!). Then save the file and quit nano.

4) Reboot the computer by typing telinit 6.

When the computer reboots you should find that your hostname is changed. If the computer shares files with other computers, they may find that any shortcuts they created to your computer's shared resources no longer work. They will now have to recreate them afresh by browsing for your computer as if you had just started sharing folders.

For example, let's say Firefox has crashed and won't respond to requests to quit. Open a terminal window, and type the following:

$ pgrep firefox

A three or (more likely) four digit number will be returned - something like 7198. All you need then do is type the following:

$ kill 7198

You might also try the killall command. This lets you specify the program name - killall firefox, for example.

The kill command has a more ruthless brother, designed to click-andkill GUI programs: xkill. Just type the command from a terminal window and, after the cursor has changed to a cross, click on the crashed program. It will be terminated instantly. If you decide to change your mind, right-clicking anywhere will cancel xkill. Bear in mind that xkill can also terminate components of the GNOME desktop, so if the panel stops responding, for example, it can be used.

This is where the hard disk powers-down after a period of inactivity. When data is requested after this, it spins up again, although there is sometimes a momentary pause while this happens.

It's possible to set your hard disk to spin down under Ubuntu, in order to save power and/or wear and tear (particularly on a computer left on most of the time), but you'll need to edit a configuration file. Follow these steps:

1) The configuration file containing the settings is hdparm.conf, so open it in Gedit by typing the following into a terminal window:

gksu gedit /etc/hdparm.conf

2) Look for the line that reads #spindown_time = 24 and remove the hash from the beginning of the line, so it reads simply spindown_time = 24.

3) Alter spindown_time time to any value you want. Each number is five seconds, so the default setting of 24 equates to 120 seconds (24 x 5 = 120 seconds). However, a value over 240 changes things - beyond 240, each unit equals 30 minutes.

So a value of 241 will spin down the disk after 30 minutes, a value of 242 will spin down the disk after 60 minutes, and so on. Setting the line to read spindown_time = 241 is a good choice, because the disk will spin down after 30 minutes of inactivity.

4) Save the file when you've finished and reboot for the changes to take effect. Remember that this doesn't mean the hard disk will spin down 30 minutes after you stop using the computer. It means it will spin down 30 minutes after all hard disk access has ceased. Often Ubuntu will do
things like flush its caches or run anacron jobs in the background, meaning the hard disk can't spin down until 30 minutes after these jobs have finished.

The first is to right-click the image file and select Open with "Archive Manager". The slight issue with this approach is that opening larger ISO files (DVD-ROM images, for example) can take some time, as can extracting files.

A better way is to mount the ISO image just like you an actual disk. To do so, open a terminal window and type the following (this assumes the file ubuntu.iso is in your /home folder):

$ sudo mkdir /media/ISO
$ sudo mount -o loop ~/ubuntu.iso /media/ISO

Note that the first command creates a mount point and doesn't need to be typed in future. Once the ISO image is mounted, an icon for it will automatically appear on the desktop. To unmount the image, type sudo umount /media/ISO in the terminal window.

Bah. Change your wallpaper by following these steps (note that Windows 7 Starter Edition owners can't change the wallpaper):

1) Right-click an empty part of the desktop and choose Personalize. Windows hops to the Control Panel's Personalization pane.

2) If you see a theme you like (use the scroll bar on the right to make sure you see all of them, including the high contrast options), click one of the Windows themes.

Each of the Windows themes consists of a slide show of the pictures you see, shuffled every 30 minutes. Although themes can specify different sounds and screen savers, the built-in Windows themes don't modify the sounds and they don't include screen savers.

If you want to see the details about each of the themes - in particular, if you really want to know where those gorgeous photos were shot - choose the theme and then click the Desktop Background link in the lower left corner. Hover the mouse over the picture to see its lineage.

3) If you don't see a theme that tickles your fancy, or if you want to roll your own backgrounds, in the lower left corner click the Desktop Background link.

Windows responds with the Desktop Background window, where you choose the pictures that you want to appear in a slide show by hovering the mouse over the picture and then selecting the box that appears.

4) Use the drop-down menu to tell Windows where to look for pictures or to select from the Windows 7 built-in collection of solid colors or photos or to pull out your highest-rated photos.

If you click a picture, it becomes your new desktop background. If you hover the mouse over a picture and select the check box in its upper left corner, you add the picture to the Windows slide show collection.

5) To enable the desktop wallpaper and background slide show, select more than one picture (or choose a theme that has more than one picture). That's all it takes.

6) (Optional) Change the speed of the slide show by selecting a forward speed in the Change Picture Every box.

7) At the bottom of the Desktop Background dialog box, in the Picture Position drop-down list, choose how you want to position the picture, if it's too small to cover your desktop.

Your options are

• Stretched to fill the screen
• Centered in the middle of the desktop
• Tiled over the desktop

8) In the Desktop Background dialog box, click the Save Changes button and then the Close (X) button to close the Control Panel's Personalization pane. Your new wallpaper settings take effect immediately.

Simply deleting the files isn't good enough because they can still be recovered using specialized software. Instead you must overwrite the entire disk with junk data.

In addition to wiping entire storage devices, you occasionally might want to wipe a file on your existing hard disk that contains personal data so that it can’t be recovered, either deliberately or accidentally.

Ubuntu's shred can help in both situations. It simply overwrites a file (or hard disk/removable storage) over and over again with random data, so that the original data isn't recoverable (even by extremely specialized data recovery agencies, or so it's claimed by shred's creators).

Wiping/Erase storage devices

Let's say you want to securely erase the data on a USB key stick, so that it can't be recovered. You would follow these steps:

1) First you must find how Ubuntu refers to the USB stick on a technical level. To do so, insert it so that its icon appears on the desktop and then make a note of its name. Then open a terminal window and type mount and look for the line in the output what refers to the USB keystick. For example, on my test PC, the keystick's label (name) was KINGSTON, so I picked out the following line (this line has been truncated for brevity):

/dev/sdb1 on /media/KINGSTON type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev, ...

I then made a note of /dev/sdb (note that the number at the end should be dropped; it refers to the partition on the USB key stick, and we intend to wipe the entire thing, regardless of partitions). It's very important you get this step right because there's no going back if you make a mistake! shred is irreversible.

2) After this, unmount the USB key stick by right-clicking it and selecting Unmount Volume.
3) Then, at the command-prompt, type the following:

$ sudo shred -v /dev/sdb

It's VITAL that you replace /dev/sdb with what you discovered earlier! This is one situation where typos can be disastrous.

Following this, shred will wipe the key stick. It will probably take a long time to complete, but you'll see a progress report on-screen every few seconds.

By default shread overwrites the data 25 times, but you can speed up the process by using the -n command option, which tells shred how many times to overwrite. Unless you're expecting the CIA to come and visit, a value of -n1 should be good enough for most of us (the full command then becoming sudo shred -v -n1 /dev/sdb).

When the USB key stick has been erased, you'll need to reformat it, because the format component of the disk was part of that securely erased.

Wiping/Erasing a Hard Drive

Essentially the same method as described above can be used to wipe a hard disk but this time you must use Ubuntu's live distro mode on the install CD, so that the hard disk isn't mounted.

Boot from your Ubuntu install CD on the computer whose disk you want to erase and select to Try Ubuntu from the boot menu. When the desktop appears, open a terminal window and type the following (this assumes the computer has one hard disk fitted; note that you should remove any type of removable storage device before issuing this command, such as USB key sticks):

$ sudo swapoff
$ sudo shred -v /dev/sda

Any hard disk containing any operating system (including Windows) can be wiped in this way. To wipe a floppy disk, replace /dev/sda with /dev/fd0.

Wiping files

Wiping files rather than entire disks is simply a matter of specifying the file, this time adding the -u command option. For example, let's say you wanted to destroy partypicture.jpg beyond recovery:

$ shred -v -n1 -u partypicture.jpg

Note that there is no need in this case to precede the command with sudo because the file belongs to you.

NOTE:
If you read the shred manual, you'll see a warning that when completely shredding files on journaled file systems - such as the ext3 system used by Ubuntu - some trace of the file might be left behind. However, this is only an issue for ext3 file systems that use the data=journal mode. Ubuntu uses the data=ordered mode, which allows shred to completely destroy files.

$ sudo passwd root

Then type a new password that you'll use in future when logging in as root user.

In future you can switch to root user at the command prompt by typing su -.
You won't be able to login as root from the login window, however, unless you start alter a login preference. Click System > Administration > Login Window, then click the Security tab, and put a check in Allow Local System Administrator Login. Then close the program and log out and back in again as root (provide root as your username).

Note that running a GUI as root is about as dangerous as it gets but, then again, it's your computer!

The CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor applet takes care of this function but before it can be used some additional configuration is necessary.

Open a terminal window and type the following:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets

You'll see a warning about how enabling the cpufreq-selector program could be a security risk if it is given root powers. This is true but, as always, usability must be balanced against security. The chances of a hacker exploiting this are very slim. Hit Enter and then, on the next screen, use the cursor keys to highlight Yes and hit Enter again.

Following this, right-click a blank spot on the top panel, click Add to panel, and then select CPU Frequency Scaling Applet from the list. A new applet will be added, showing the current speed of the CPU. By leftclicking on it, you'll be able to set either the speed you wish the CPU to run at, or the power-saving mode it should use (these modes very in name and nature from chip-to-chip but what they offer should be obvious from their names).

If your CPU has more than one core, such as Intel's CoreDuo series, each core must be configured separately. For example, a dual-core chip will need two CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor applets. Just right-click the panel as explained above to add another. To alter which particular core each applet controls, right-click an applet, select Preferences, and choose the CPU core under the Monitored CPU heading.

Note that each core can run at a different speed compared to the other core and be switched to a different power-saving mode.

If for any reason you want to deactivate syntax highlighting, open gconf-editor and navigate to /apps/gedit-2/preferences/syntax highlighting and remove the check alongside enable on the right-hand side.

It can be used to replace Nautilus within the Ubuntu desktop for some operations although bear in mind that Nautilus windows will still appear sometimes, such as when using Nautilus CD-R/DVD Creator.

Switch to Thunar

Follow these steps to switch to Thunar:

1. Start Synaptic and search for and install the thunar and thunararchive-plugin packages. After installation, you can run Thunar by typing thunar in a terminal window.

2. To cause Thunar to open whenever you click an entry on the Places menu, you'll need to edit a configuration file: open a terminal window and type the following:

$ gksu gedit /usr/share/applications/nautilus-folder-handler.desktop

Scroll to the bottom of the file and look for the line that reads Exec=nautilus --no-desktop %U. Change it so it reads Exec=thunar %U. Then save the file and test the changes by clicking Places > Home.

Other recommendations

This tip works equally well for any alternative file manager. Others you might like to try are Konqueror (KDE's file manager), Dolphin (KDE4's file manager), and Rox-filer, a stripped-down file manager that's extremely lightweight.

Just use Synaptic to search for and install konqeuror, doplhin or rox-filer respectively. When altering the nautilus-folder-handler.desktop file above to make Rox-filer default, change the line to read Exec=rox-filer, without the %U; Dolphin and Konqueror still require the %U after the command.

Note that Rox-filer's configuration is carried out by rightclicking on a blank spot in its program window. It doesn't use a traditional menu system, like most application windows.

Command Line File Manager: Midnight Commander

If you want a lightweight command-line file manager, install Midnight Commander (search for and install the mc package using Synaptic). Then type mc at the prompt to start the program.

Once it's started, hit Alt +1 and then use the cursor keys to highlight Contents and hit Enter. This will display the help file explaining how to use the program. If you ever used Norton Commander, back in the days of DOS, you'll find Midnight Commander very familiar, because it's modeled on that product.

You can think of it as a small local network dedicated to your peripheral devices, eliminating the need for wires. Bluetooth devices can be directly connected through your computer's serial ports or through specialized Bluetooth cards connected to USB ports or inserted in a PCI slot.

BlueZ Bluetooth Linux Protocol

BlueZ is the official Linux Bluetooth protocol and has been integrated into the Linux kernel since version 2.4.6. The BlueZ protocol was developed originally by Qualcomm and is now an open source project located at http://bluez.sourceforge.net. It is included with Ubuntu in the bluez-utils and bluez-libs packages, among others. Check the BlueZ site for a complete list of supported hardware, including adapters, PCMCIA cards, and serial connectors.

Bluetooth Configuration

To configure Bluetooth on Ubuntu, choose System > Preferences > Bluetooth Preferences to open the Bluetooth Preferences window with two tabs, Services and General.

The Services pane has entries for Input Service, Audio Service, Network Service, and Serial Service. Use the check boxes to start or stop a service. Input Service and Audio Service are selected and running by default.

Add Network Service if you are using a personal area network (PAN). On the General tab, you can select such features as Authorization Requests, Automatic Hardware Detection, and Device Notification.

To enable the Bluetooth service, be sure that the Bluetooth service is checked in servicesadmin by choosing System > Administration > Services.

Bluetooth Modules & Drivers

BlueZ includes several modules and drivers, including the core Bluetooth protocols for Host Controller Interface (HCI) devices (HCI USB, UART, PCMCIA) and virtual HCI drivers, along with modules to support protocols for Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP), serial port emulation (RFCOMM), Ethernet emulation (BNEP), Synchronous Connection-Oriented (SCO) links for real-time voice, and the Service Discovery Protocol (SDP), which automatically detects services available for an application. In addition, extended services are supported such as PAN and LAN access over Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).

Configuration information is located in the /etc/bluetooth directory, along with the /etc/pcmcia directory for notebooks. The HCI information is saved in /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf, and RFCOMM configuration information is in /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf.

Bluetooth service
The Bluetooth service script, /etc/rc.d/init.d/bluetooth, is used to start and stop Bluetooth services. This script will start up the Bluetooth daemon for HCI devices, hcid, and run any detection and configuration tools, including sdpd for the Service Discovery Protocol, and rfcomm. It will also activate any serial Bluetooth devices, using hciattach to detect them.

From the command line, you can use the hciconfig command to configure Bluetooth devices and hcitool to configure Bluetooth connections. Use hciattach to attach serial devices to a serial port such as /dev/ttyS1, and use rfcomm to configure and attach RFCOMM devices. Use l2ping to detect a Bluetooth device.

Personal Area Network (PAN)
PAN allows you to use Bluetooth to implement a PAN supporting IP protocols, much like a wireless LAN for a small number of computers and devices. Bluetooth supports a much smaller bandwidth (1 to 2 megabits) than that used for a standard LAN, but it is sufficient for connecting and transferring data from handheld devices. Several devices and computers can be configured as PAN users, connecting through a central Group Network (GN) computer.

Alternatively, PAN users could connect to a gateway system operating as a network access point connecting the Bluetooth personal network to a large LAN network. The PAN nodes run their own service daemon, pand. Dial-up networking uses the dund daemon.

To make this tweak permanent, open your .profile file in Gedit (gedit ~/.profile) and add the command as a new line at the end of the file. Then save the file, and log out and back in to see the changes.

If you're working at the command-line and want to access shared folders then it's a little trickier. Once a shared folder has been accessed by Nautilus you'll find it mounted in the hidden .gvfs folder of your /home folder. But if the desktop isn't up and running, or if the shared folder isn't mounted, then it won't be accessible.

In such a case, you might want to use smbclient, which effectively lets you ftp into a shared folder, and use almost exactly the same commands to down/upload files as the command-line ftp program.

1) Start by using smbclient with the -L option to list the shared resources on the computer you want to connect to. You can either specify the computer's network name or the IP address.

You can find out the computer name on a Windows XP computer by right-clicking My Computer, selecting Properties, and then looking under the Computer Name tab for the Full computer name entry. You can also click the Change button to assign a new name if the existing one is too complex. To find out the IP address of a Windows computer, click Start > Run and type cmd. In the DOS box that appears, type ipconfig and, in the output, look for the line that reads IP addresss.

2) Here's how to list what's available on a computer with the network name keir-windows:

$ smbclient -L keir-windows

You might be prompted for a password. It was enough in my tests just to hit Enter at this stage. Then look in the output for listings under the Sharename heading. Those with disk in the Type heading alongside equate to the shared folders available on the computer.

You must specify a particular shared folder when you want to connect - you can't just connect to a computer and then switch to whichever folder you want to access.

3) Connecting to the shared folders is a little strange because the network name needs to be specified in an unusual way. Just like Windows, smbclient uses backslashes (\) for addresses (rather than forward slashes, as is typical with Linux/Unix), but these have a quite distinct meaning at the Linux command-prompt and this causes problems.

Backslashes are used to tell the shell not to interpret the next character you type in the way it normally does. Perhaps ironically, we therefore have to use another backslash to tell the command-line not to interpret the backslash in the way it normally does.

Confused? Don't be. The simple fact is that, when using the smbclient command to connect to a shared folder, one slash should be replaced by two slashes. So an address like \\keirwindows\
sharedfolder\, normally used under Windows, becomes \\\\keirwindows\\sharedfolder\\.

Here's how I'd connect to a folder called sharedfolder on the keir-windows computer:

$ smbclient \\\\keir-windows\\sharedfolder\\

4) If the share name has a space in it, or a strange character (such as an exclamation mark), they too will need to be escaped with a backslash. So to connect to the shared folder accounts 2009! on the computer called keir-windows, we would type:

$ smbclient \\\\keir-windows\\accounts\ 2009\!\\

Once connected you can manipulate files on the shared computer using FTP commands. As in ftp, type help for a list of commands.

1. Open Server Manager and choose Roles in the left pane. You will see a Role Summary view.

2. Click Remove Roles. Server Manager displays the Before You Begin page of the Remove Roles
Wizard dialog box. Make sure you read the instructions on this page before you proceed. You can avoid displaying this page each time you start the wizard by checking Skip This Page by Default.

3. Click Next. The Remove Roles Wizard displays a list of roles. The wizard automatically grays out any roles you haven't installed.

4. Put a check mark next to the role you want to remove. The Remove Roles Wizard adds steps to the process as necessary to remove the role completely. Not every role requires that you perform additional steps, so you may not see any additional roles.

5. Perform any required configuration. Click Next for each additional configuration step.

6. Perform Step 5 as often as necessary to configure the removal process for each role. Eventually you reach the Configuration Installation Selections page. This page tells you what the wizard will remove.

7. Verify the removal information, and then click Remove. You see the Removal Progress page. An indicator at the bottom of the page provides information on how much of the removal process is complete. When the removal process is complete, The Remove Roles Wizard displays the Removal Results page, where you can see the results of the removal process. In most cases, this page also tells you that you must reboot the server to complete the removal process.

8. Click Close. The Remove Roles Wizard asks whether you want to restart the server now. To prevent damage to your server, you normally should reboot immediately.

9. Click Yes. The server reboots. After the server reboots, you see a Resuming Configuration dialog box. Eventually, the Removal Results dialog box returns and you see the results of the configuration process.

10. Click Close.

This section describes the process of adding roles using the wizard. You'll find the removal process described in the "Removing roles on your server in Windows Server 2008" article. The following steps describe how to add a role:

1. Open Server Manager and choose Roles in the left pane. You will see a Role Summary view.

2. Click Add Roles. Server Manager displays the Before You Begin page of the Add Roles Wizard dialog box. Make sure you read the instructions on this page before you proceed. You can avoid displaying this page every time you start the wizard by checking Skip This Page by Default.

3. Click Next. The Add Roles Wizard displays a list of available roles. The wizard automatically grays out any installed roles so that you don't install them a second time.

4. Check each of the roles you want to install. When you select some roles, you see an Add Roles Wizard dialog box. It tells you that you must install another role to obtain the desired functionality.

5. Click Add Role Service as needed to install dependent roles. As you add roles, the Add Roles Wizard also adds configuration steps. These additional steps vary by role, so you may see many steps in some cases and only one or two in others. An overview page at the beginning of each configuration step tells you what to expect and details the purpose of each step. Individual steps perform specific configuration tasks for that role.

6. Perform any required configuration. Click Next for each additional configuration step. Sometimes a configuration step adds roles to the server. For example, if you choose Internet Printing in the Role Services step for the Print Services role, you see an Add Roles Wizard dialog box, to add the Web Server (IIS) role and Windows Process Activation Service feature when you don’t have these elements installed.

7. Perform Step 6 as often as necessary to configure each role. Eventually, you reach the Configuration Installation Selections page. This page tells you what the wizard will install.

8. Verify the installation information, and then click Install. You see the Installation Progress page. An indicator at the bottom of the page provides information on how much of the installation is complete. When the installation is complete, the Add Roles Wizard displays the Installation Results page, where you can see the results of the installation.

9. Click Close.

You can always restart the Initial Configuration Tasks window using the following steps:

1. Choose Start > Run. You see the Run dialog box.

2. Type OOBE in the Open field and press Enter. You see the Initial Configuration Tasks window for the type of setup you performed.

This involves using a computer program to try millions of passwords until the right one is found. The two second delay when a bad password is supplied makes such an approach much more impractical.

However, if you - like me - sometimes seem to have one too many fingers and constantly mistype the password, you can reduce the delay to zero. This will mean that, upon a bad password being entered, you'll immediately be prompted to try again.

Start by opening the /etc/pam.d/common-auth password in Gedit by typing the following into a terminal window:

$ gksu gedit /etc/pam.d/common-auth

Then look for the line that reads auth requisite pam_unix.so nullok_secure, and add nodelay to the end, so it now reads auth requisite pam_unix.so nullok_secure nodelay. Then save the file and reboot the computer.

You should be able to test your change at the Ubuntu login prompt - deliberately try a bad password and see what happens. Note that this tip will reduce the bad password delay in all password entry situations, including when requesting sudo/gksu powers, and so on.

Locate Command

locate is partnered to a back-end program - updatedb - that is run periodically and automatically by the system to update the database of files. This highlights a weakness of the system - locate's results are only as good as the last time the database was updated. Therefore it's often a good idea to manually update the database using the updatedb command (as root - sudo updatedb) before using locate. There are several different versions of the locate software and the version provided with Ubuntu - called mlocate - is designed to update its database quickly by only looking for and adding new files. This means updatedb doesn't take long to run each time.

Using locate is easy. Just type locate and then the search word, or search phrase. If the search phrase includes symbols or spaces, enclose it in quotation marks. For example, to search for any files or folders that include fstab in their names, you would type locate fstab. To search for the file accounts 2008.xls, you might type locate "accounts 2008". locate can use wildcards. To search for any MP3 files on the system, you could type locate *.mp3.

Find Command

Using find is a little different. First you must specify the search location and then the search term. For example, to search for the file accounts 2008.xls in your /home directory, you could type find /home/username -name "accounts 2008".

You should replace username with your own details. To search the entire file system, specify the file system root instead: find / -name "accounts 2008".

Both locate and find use regular expressions (known as regexes) to specify search terms. It's beyond the scope of this book to go into this rather arcane field but several very good beginner guides can be found by searching Google. Regexes permeate all of Linux and spending some time learning how to use them can be very rewarding.

You can also set up e-mail hyperlinks that automatically address messages to co-workers with whom you routinely correspond, and you can attach Excel workbooks or other types of Office files to these messages.

The hyperlinks that you add to your Excel worksheets can be of the following types:

• Text entries in cells (known as hypertext normally formatted as underlined blue text)
• Clip art and imported graphics from files you've inserted into the worksheet
• Graphics you've created from the Shapes drop-down gallery on the Insert tab - in effect, turning the graphic images into buttons.

When creating a text or graphic hyperlink, you can make a link to another Excel workbook or other type of Office file, a Web site address (using the URL address - you know, that monstrosity that begins with http://), a named location in the same workbook, or even a person's e-mail address. The named location can be a cell reference or named cell range in a particular worksheet.

To add the hyperlink to the text entry made in the current cell or a selected graphic object in your worksheet, follow these steps:

1) Click the Hyperlink button on the Ribbon's Insert tab or press Alt+NI, or simply press Ctrl+K.

Excel opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog box in which you indicate the file, the Web address (URL), or the named location in the workbook.

2a) To have the hyperlink open another document, a Web page on a company's intranet, or a Web site on the Internet, click the Existing File or Web Page button if it isn't already selected; then enter the file's directory path or Web page's URL in the Address text box.

If the document you want to link to is located on your hard drive or a hard drive that is mapped on your computer, click the Look In dropdown button and select its folder and then select the file in the list box below.

If you've recently opened the document you want to link to, you can click the Recent Files button and then select it from the list box. If the document you want to link to is located on a Web site and you know its Web address (the www.dummies.com/excel2k.htm–likething), you can type it into the Address text box. If you recently browsed the Web page you want to link to, you can click the Browsed Pages button and then select the address of the page from the list box.

2b) To have the hyperlink move the cell cursor to another cell or cell range in the same workbook, click the Place in This Document button. Next, type in the address of the cell or cell range in the Type the Cell Reference text box or select the desired sheet name or range name from the Or Select a Place in This Document list box.

2c) To open a new e-mail message addressed to a particular recipient, click the E-mail Address button and then enter the recipient's e-mail address in the E-mail Address text box.

In most cases, your e-mail program is Windows Mail on Windows Vista or Outlook Express on Windows XP or Microsoft Outlook 2007 if you purchased a version of Microsoft Office 2007 that includes this personal information manager plus e-mail program.

As soon as you begin typing the e-mail address in the E-mail Address text box, Excel inserts the text mailto: in front of whatever you've typed. (mailto: is the HTML tag that tells Excel to open your e-mail program when you click the hyperlink.)

If you want the hyperlink to add the subject of the e-mail message when it opens a new message in your e-mail program, enter this text in the Subject text box.

If the recipient's address is already displayed in the Recently Used E-mail Addresses list box, you can enter it into the E-mail Address text box simply by clicking that address in this list box.

3) (Optional) To change the hyperlink text that appears in the cell of the worksheet (underlined and in blue) or add text if the cell is blank, type the desired label in the Text to Display text box.

4) (Optional) To add a ScreenTip to the hyperlink that appears when you position the mouse pointer over the hyperlink, click the ScreenTip button, type in the text that you want to appear next to the mouse pointer in the ScreenTip Text box, and click OK.

5) Click OK to close the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

After you create a hyperlink in a worksheet, you can follow it to whatever destination you associated with the hyperlink. To follow a hyperlink, position the mouse pointer over the underlined blue text (if you assigned the hyperlink to text in a cell) or over the graphic image (if you assigned the hyperlink to a graphic inserted in the worksheet). When the mouse pointer changes to a hand with the index finger pointing upward, click the hypertext or graphic image, and Excel makes the jump to the designated external document, Web page, cell within the workbook, or e-mail message.

REMEMBER: After you follow a hypertext link to its destination, the color of its text changes from the traditional blue to a dark shade of purple (without affecting its underlining). This color change indicates that the hyperlink has been used. (Note, however, that graphic hyperlinks do not show any change in color after you follow them.) Also, Excel automatically restores this underlined text to its original (unfollowed) blue color the next time that you open the workbook file.

WARNING: If you need to edit a hyperlink attached to worksheet cell or graphic object, you must be careful that, when getting Excel into Edit mode so that you can change the text, you don't inadvertently follow the link. When dealing with hypertext in a cell, you must click and hold down the mouse button a few seconds to select the cell (if you click and release immediately, you follow the link). When dealing with a graphic object you’re best off right-clicking the image and then clicking the appropriate editing command (Edit Hyperlink or Remove Hyperlink) on its shortcut menu.

open a terminal window and type cat /etc/lsb-release.

You can also click Help > About Ubuntu, although bear in mind this won't show the point release (for example, on my 8.04.1 installation, Help > About Ubuntu only mentioned the 8.04 release).

This trick can also be used to ensure that you've upgraded to a newer version when one is released.

If the camera connects via a serial, USB or parallel port, it's very likely you'll be able to use the gThumb software to access it. This can be found and installed via Synaptic (search for the gthumb package), and once installed will appear on the Applications > Graphics menu.

To setup your camera, attach it to your computer and switch it to data transfermode (if applicable). Then click File > Import Photos in gThumb. Then click the icon above the words No Camera Detected. All being well your camera should be automatically detected and you can click OK.

If not you can click Choose from the Catalog, and select the model from the list. The Port dropdown should then be filled in automatically, but you should inspect it to make sure. Clicking OK will then cause gThumb to probe the camera and import thumbnails, which you can then download.

To make gThumb start automatically when you connect a USB camera, click System > Preferences > Removable Drives and Media. Then, in the Command text box under the Digital Camera heading, replace f-spot-import with gthumb --import-photos.

Note that this will cause gThumb to start whenever you insert any kind of digital photograph storage device, such as a memory card reader.

Start gconf-editor and navigate to /apps/gcalctool. Then double-click the accuracy entry on the right and change it to 2. Note that, following this, Calculator will still let you enter numbers with more than two decimal places, but it will always round-up the answer to just two decimal places.

You can access the data form only by adding its command button to the Quick Access toolbar. To do this, you must follow these steps:

1. Click Office Button > Excel Options > Customize or press Alt+FIC.
The Form command button you want to add is only available when you click the Commands Not in the Ribbon option on the Choose Commands From drop-down list.

2. Click the Commands Not in the Ribbon option near the bottom of the Choose Commands From drop-down list.

3. Click Form in the Choose Commands From list box and then click the Add button.
Excel adds the Form button to the very end of the Quick Access toolbar. If you so desire, you can click the Move Up and Move Down buttons to reposition the Form button on this toolbar.

4. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box and return to the worksheet with the data list.

You must separately prepare each domain controller to work with Windows Server 2008. If your domain controller appears as part of a forest, then you must prepare the forest first, using the procedure found in the Preparing a forest for installation article. The following steps describe how to prepare a domain controller for user with Windows Server 2008:

1. Log on to the domain controller as a member of the Domain Admins group.
You must have the required permissions to work with the domain controller files and save them to another location. If you don't have the required group access, ask someone who has the required permission to perform this task.

2. Copy the contents of the \sources\adprep folder from the Windows Server 2008 installation media to the folder used by the infrastructure master role holder. It's possible to use Windows Explorer to perform this task. You can also rely on command line utilities, such as these:

• The Copy command
• The XCopy utility
• The RoboCopy utility

Make sure to verify the copy after you complete it, to ensure that all the files have copied successfully.

3. Choose Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
If you're working with Vista using a remote connection, make sure to right-click the Command Prompt entry and choose Run As Administrator from the context menu, or else you won't have the proper rights.

4. Use the DVD command to change directories to the folder used by the infrastructure master role holder.

5. Type AdPrep /DomainPrep /GPPrep and press Enter. The AdPrep utility prepares your system to work with Windows Server 2008.

6. Allow the procedure to complete and the changes to replicate to the other domain controllers.

However, because the members of the forest rely on each other, you must be sure that the forest can work with all the domain controllers it supports and that the addition of a new domain controller won't cause problems.

You must prepare the forest to receive a Windows Server 2008 system because Windows Server 2008 provides additional functionality not found in previous versions of Windows. The following steps tell you how to prepare a forest to receive a Windows Server 2008 installation.

1. Log on to the machine that you have set up as the schema master as a member of the Enterprise Admins, Schema Admins, or Domain Admins group.

You must have the required permissions in order to work with the forest files and save them to another location. If you don't have the required group access, ask someone who does have the required permission to perform this task.

2. Copy the contents of the \sources\adprep folder from the Windows Server 2008 installation media to the folder used by the schema master role holder.

It's possible to use Windows Explorer to perform this task. You can also rely on command line utilities, such as these:

• The Copy command
• The XCopy utility
• The RoboCopy utility

Make sure to verify the copy after you complete it, to ensure that all the files have copied successfully.

3. Choose Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
If you're working with Vista using a remote connection, make sure to right-click the Command Prompt entry and choose Run As Administrator from the context menu, or else you won't have the proper rights.

4. Use the DVD command to change directories to the folder used by the schema master role holder.

5. Type AdPrep /ForestPrep and press Enter.
The AdPrep utility prepares your system to work with Windows Server 2008.

6. If you plan to install a read-only domain controller, type AdPrep /RODCPrep and press Enter.

7. Allow the procedure to complete and the changes to replicate to the other domain controllers before you continue to Preparing a domain for installation.

The AdPrep utility is a new application that Microsoft has added to the Windows Server 2008 media. You don't find this utility supplied with older versions of Windows. Microsoft provides details about this utility at this site.

Whitelist In this mode, network traffic is not allowed out of the computer unless a rule allows it. This is also known as a restrictive policy.

Blacklist In this mode, which is default, all traffic is allowed out of the computer unless a rule specifically forbids it. This is also known as a permissive policy.

Whitelist mode undoubtedly offers the most secure protection, but at the expense of having to create a rule for each type of outbound connection you're likely to make. You will need to make individual rules for connections emanating from all the software on your system: web, email, instant messaging, and so on.

NOTE: You will need to create two rules for web connections: one for standard HTTP, and another for HTTPS secure connections, such as those used by online shops, banks and email services. Additionally, some websites insist on using non‐standard port numbers, in which case they will be blocked to you unless you create a custom rule allowing that particular port.

You can switch between the modes by clicking the Policy tab in the Firestarter window, selecting Outbound Traffic Policy from the Editing dropdown list, and clicking the radio button alongside either entry.

Here's how to create an outbound rule regardless of what policy you decide upon:

1. Start the Firestarter configuration program, if it isn't already running, by clicking System > Administration > Firestarter. You'll need to type your password when prompted.

2. Ensure the Policy tab is selected within Firestarter and rightclick beneath the Deny Service (or Allow Service) heading near the bottom of the program window. In the menu that appears, select Add Rule.

3. As when creating rules, select the type of connection you'd like to allow/deny from the Name dropdown list. Ignore the sections beneath the When The Source Is heading - they are only for
use if Firestarter is managing Internet connection sharing on your computer.

4. To create a custom rule for a particular port number, manually type a name of your own choosing into the Name field (although this is a dropdown list you can still type within it), and type the port number into the Port box.

TIP If you've opted for a whitelist (restrictive) policy, at the very least you should create individual rules for HTTP, HTTPS, POP3, and SMTP. For a complete list of popular TCP/IP ports, that you can use to create additional rules, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_number.

5. When done, click the ADD button, and the APPLY POLICY button on the main toolbar. Then close Firestarter.

The new rule takes effect immediately. To delete a rule at a later stage, right-click it and select Remove Rule. Then click APPLY POLICY.

1. Choose Start > Run. You see the Run dialog box.

2. Type GPEdit.MSC (for Group Policy Edit) in the Open field and click OK. Windows displays the Local Group Policy Editor window.

3. Locate the Local Computer Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Driver Installation folder.

4. Double-click the Code Signing for Device Drivers policy.

5. Select Enabled.

6. Choose Ignore (installs unsigned drivers without asking), Warn (displays a message asking whether you want to install the unsigned driver), or Block (disallows unsigned driver installation automatically) from the drop-down list.

7. Click OK. The Local Group Policy Editor console sets the new policy for installing device drivers.

8. Close the Local Group Policy Editor console.

9. Reboot the server.

Theoretically, the changes you made should take effect immediately after you log back in to the system. However, to make sure the policy takes effect for everyone, reboot the server.

The following steps describe the process:

1. Choose Start > Programs > Accessories. You see the Accessories menu.

2. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator from the context menu.
Windows opens a command line with elevated privileges. You can tell that the privileges are elevated because the title bar states that this is the administrator's command prompt rather than a standard command prompt.

3. Type BCDEdit /Export C:\BCDBackup and press Enter.
BCDEdit displays the message This Operation Completed Successfully. This command saves a copy of your current boot configuration to the C:\BCDBackup file. Never change the boot configuration without making a backup.

4. Type BCDEdit /Set LoadOptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS and press Enter.
BCDEdit displays the message This Operation Completed Successfully.

The Driver Disable (DDISABLE) option tells Windows not to check the signing of your drivers during the boot process. Be sure to type the BCDEdit command precisely as shown. The BCDEdit utility is very powerful and can cause your system not to boot when used incorrectly. If you make a mistake, you probably have to open a command prompt using your boot CD and then fix the problem by using the BCDEdit /Import C:\BCDBackup command. This technique modifies only the current boot configuration. If your server has multiple boot partitions, you must make this change for each partition individually.

5. Restart your system as normal to use the new configuration.

In fact, Active Directory is the most important database on your server. When this database becomes corrupted, it can prevent your server from booting because Windows can't find the settings it needs. Choosing the Directory Services Restore Mode option tells Windows to attempt to fix Active Directory - at least enough to let you boot the server. After you boot the server, you can restore any backup you have to fix the problem completely.

You find Active Directory used only on domain controllers If your server isn't a domain controller, it doesn't have Active Directory installed and you should never use this option with it. When you use the Directory Services Restore Mode option, Windows performs the following tasks:

1. The server begins booting as if you had selected a Safe Mode option.

2. The server then performs a check of the hard drives on your system. This check looks for any problems with the hard drive that could have caused the Active Directory corruption (using the ChkDsk utility).

3. After a few more configuration tasks take place, you see a normal login screen. Supply your credentials and you see a Safe Mode screen - not the normal GUI.

4. Use any Active Directory GUI or command line tool to make repairs to Active Directory. You can also restore any backup you made (assuming the backup is available in Safe Mode).

5. After you finish the repairs, type Shutdown /r and press Enter at the command prompt or choose Start > Shutdown.

When you're working at the command line, Windows displays a You Are About to be Logged Off dialog box. After about a minute, the server reboots. When working with the GUI shutdown, you see the normal Shut Down Windows dialog box, where you can choose any of the standard shutdown options. You can use Windows Server 2008 in its normal mode at this point and continue any repairs you need to make to Active Directory.

When ClamTK is run for the first time it's necessary to update the virus database. In future this will be done automatically and periodically in the background, without any need for user intervention.

To manually update the database, ClamTK needs to run as root user, so open a terminal window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and type the following:

gksu clamtk

Click Help > Update Signatures. Once ClamTK reports the signatures are up to date, close the program window.

TIP: You can update the virus database at the command‐line by typing sudo freshclam. Don't worry if, while doing this, you see a warning that ClamAV is out‐of‐date - this simply means that the version offered in the Ubuntu repositories is lagging a little behind the main releases. This is not an issue.

Additionally, you can choose to let some inbound connections through, but only if they originate on the local network (i.e. within a particular IP address range). This can be useful in the case of shared folders, for example, where other computers in your workplace or home may wish to access files on your computer.

Here are the steps required to create an in-bound rule:

1. Start the Firestarter configuration program, if it isn't already running, by clicking System > Administration > Firestarter. You'll need to type your password when prompted.

2. Click the Policy tab in the program window, and ensure Inbound Traffic Policy is selected in the Editing dropdown list.

3. Under the Allow Service heading in the lower-half of the program window, right-click and select Add Rule from the menu that appears.

4. In the dialog box that appears, select from the Name dropdown list the type or program that you’d like to allow through the firewall. For example, to allow BitTorrent connections, select that in the list. To let others access shared folders on your computer, select Samba (SMB). Note that the Port field will be automatically filled in once you make your selection. You can edit this if you wish, but there should be no need.

5. If the rule relates to inbound connections from the Internet, ensure the Anyone radio button is selected under the When The Source Is heading.

6. To limit the type of incoming connection to the local network, and not the entire Internet, click the IP, Host or Network radio button. You'll then need to find out the network range that your computer is part of. To do so, right-click the NetworkManager icon at the top-right of the screen, and select Connection Information. Look in the IP Address line within the dialog box that appears, and make a note of the first three numbers. On my test PC, this line read 192.168.1.5, so I made a note of 192.168.1.

7. Back in Firestarter's rule creation dialog box, type the numbers, followed by a period, then a zero. So, in my case I typed 192.168.1.0. Then add a forward slash, and type 24. On my test PC the entire line read 192.168.1.0/24.

8. Once done, click the ADD button, and then the APPLY POLICY button on the toolbar. Then close Firestarter.

9. However, if you're adding a rule to allow access to Samba shared folders on the computer, another step is necessary to let other computers "see" the shared resources across the network. Click Edit > Preferences within Firestarter and, on the left of the dialog box that appears, click the Advanced Options entry in the list. Remove the check from Block Broadcast From External Network. Click ACCEPT when done.

The new rule will take effect immediately. To delete it at a later stage, start Firestarter, right-click the rule, and click Remove Rule. Then click the APPLY POLICY button.

You can add the public key to your system in the following way:

1. The key is usually offered for download at the same place you'll find the package - it will have an .asc or .gpg file extension. Right-click it and select Save As, then save it to disk. Be sure to
download the key only from the package creator's website, and not a mirror site. After all, it's possible the key may also have been tampered with.

2. In the Software Sources program, click the Authentication tab and click the IMPORT KEY FILE button. Then navigate to the file you saved. Click OK when done.

To import the key at the command-line, type the following, replacing keyfile.gpg with the name of the downloaded file:

sudo apt‐key add keyfile.gpg

NOTE If the packages you attempt to install come from a third party repository and aren't digitally signed, you may see a warning during installation saying the packages can't be authenticated. This is there to warn you that you’re installing non‐official packages, but is usually nothing to worry about.

MMC path\file.msc /a

The following list explains the options for MMC:Path\file.msc. Replace path with the path to the console file specified by file.msc.

• You can use an absolute path or use the %systemroot% variable to reference the local computer's path to the Windows Server 2008 folder. Using %systemroot% is useful when you're creating shortcuts to consoles for use on different systems (where the system root folder might be different).
• /a. Use the /a switch to enter author mode and enable changes to the console. Opening an existing console with the /a switch overrides its stored mode for the current session.
• /32. This starts the 32-bit version of MMC. This is only needed when you want to run the 32-bit version on a 64-bit Windows version.
• /64. This starts the 64-bit version of MMC. This option works only on a 64-bit version of Windows.

For example, let’s say that you want to open the DNS console in author mode to add the DHCP snap-in to it. Use this command to open the DNS console in author mode:

MMC %systemroot%\System32\dnsmgmt.msc /a

TIP: You can right-click an .msc file and choose Author from the context menu to open the file in author mode.

After opening the DNS console, you add the DHCP console using the Add or Remove Snap-In command in the Console menu.

TIP: If you prefer, you can open the MMC in author mode and then add both snap-ins using the Add or Remove Snap-In command in the Console menu.

Windows 2008 Server provides several preconfigured consoles for performing various administrative tasks. Most of these console files are stored in \systemroot\System32 and have .msc file extensions (for Microsoft Console).

Windows 2008 Server places several of these consoles in the Administrative Tools folder, which you access by clicking Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools. In essence, each of the preconfigured consoles contains one or more snap-ins geared toward a specific administrative task.

In an apparent effort to simplify the Start menu, Microsoft includes only some of these consoles in the Administrative Tools folder. However, you can open any console by double-clicking its file. When you do so, the MMC loads first and then opens the console. You also can open the MMC and add snap-ins to your own consoles. This gives you the ability to create a custom console containing whichever group(s) of snap-ins you use most often or that are targeted for specific administrative tasks.

Internet Information Services integration

Exchange is also integrated with IIS to provide for high-performance mail protocols, SMTP protocols, and POP protocols. Exchange also provides a browser interface to access the Microsoft Outlook Web Access client.

Active Directory integration

Active Directory, which is covered in more detail in the final chapters of this book, is an enterprise directory service that is highly scalable and fully integrated with Exchange at the system level. Exchange takes full advantage of the Windows Server 2008 Active Directory; with but a single point of administration, it enables users to control all messaging services seamlessly.

All directory information, including users, mailboxes, servers, sites, and recipients, is stored in Active Directory. Administrators benefit from the unified administration, experience no user-interface changes, and require no retraining after switching to Active Directory. Integration features of Exchange Server and Active Directory include the following:

• Unified administration of Exchange Server and Windows Server 2008 enables an administrator to manage all user data in one place using one set of tools.
• Security groups in Windows Server 2008 can be automatically used as Exchange distribution lists, removing the need to create a parallel set of distribution lists for each department or group.
• Active Directory's schema extensibility enables the management of distributed information and easily configurable Exchange user and server information.
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a native access protocol for directory information.

Distributed services

Distributed services enable subsystems to use storage, protocol, and directories on different computers, providing for scalability for millions of users. This system is extremely configurable, providing extensibility and flexibility for system architecture.

Security

Exchange Server offers you the only messaging system that is fully integrated with the Windows Server 2008 security model. Administrators use the Windows Server 2008 security model to define the permissions for all messaging and collaboration services, including public folders. This means that administrators can learn a single permissions model for managing both Windows Server 2008 and Exchange and can create a single set of security groups to apply to either Windows Server 2008 resources or Microsoft Exchange objects. This helps simplify your domain administration, and Exchange Server enables permissions to be set at the item or document level. Security descriptors can be set for messages and components. These features provide for new levels of security.

Single-seat and policy-based administration

Microsoft Exchange uses a graphic administration and monitoring system that integrates with Windows Server 2008's Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to provide single-seat administration.

The MMC does not provide you with management capabilities, but with a common interface that enables you to manage all your needs. The Microsoft Exchange System Manager, Microsoft Active Directory, and Internet Services Manager are snap-ins that provide the management for Server 2008. Policy-based management provides the administrator with the capability to perform single operations made up of hundreds of objects. Policies are a set of objects defined by the administrator. The administrator can also define recipient policies that could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of users, groups, and contacts in Active Directory.

SMTP message routing

Exchange Server supports SMTP, POP, LDAP, IMAP, HTTP, NNTP, S/MIME, and X.509 version 3. This versatility enables Exchange Server to act as an organization's gateway to the Internet. Providing high-performance routing of e-mail services, SMTP is, by default, the transport protocol for routing all message traffic between servers, within an Exchange site and between sites. Your organization's use of SMTP results in increased performance and new opportunities for integration with the Internet.

Exchange Server's message algorithms have been enhanced to provide fault-tolerant message delivery and to eliminate messages that bounce, even when multiple servers or network links are down. This provides for increased message bandwidth and performance. SMTP routing provides customers with considerable flexibility in designing a reliable, high-performance messaging backbone by using Exchange Server.

Internet mail content

Exchange Server can significantly increase performance of e-mail, because you use e-mail clients to store and retrieve Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) content directly from the base, without any form of content conversion. Client software such as Outlook enables you to stream data in and out of the database.

This process helps performance immensely. All the features discussed in the preceding sections provide low cost-of-ownership, which makes Microsoft Exchange Server a valuable asset to every organization.

Review the Active Directory topic ‘"Introduction to Active Directory" in your Windows
Server 2008 Help guide.

• Make sure that you review the role of a domain controller.
• Review concepts about security.
• Review concepts about Domain Name Service (DNS) namespace planning and integration with DNS.
• Verify that the server has an NTFS partition.
• Verify that DNS is correctly configured.

Promoting member servers to domain controllers either creates new domains or adds additional domain controllers to existing domains. In creating the first domain, you must have already created one domain controller in that domain. The act of creating the domain controller also creates the domain.

If your organization needs additional domains, you must create one domain controller for each additional domain. New domains in a forest must be either a new child domain or the root of a new domain tree. If you decide to create a child domain, the name of the new domain must contain the full name of the parent. To hierarchically organize domains within your organization, make sure that you use the domain tree structure. If you would rather create the root of a new domain tree, make sure that its name is not related to the other domains in the forest.

To improve the availability and reliability of network services, add additional domains to a single domain. You can create new domain controllers across the network or from backup media. Windows Server 2008, Windows Enterprise Server 2008, and Windows Datacenter Server 2008 all support Active Directory. AD uses a structured datastore for logical, hierarchical organization of directory information. The datastore is also known as the directory, and it contains information about Active Directory objects. Active Directory objects include shared resources such as servers, volumes, printers, and the network users and accounts.

Active Directory is tightly integrated with security through logon authentication and access control to objects. This makes managing directory data and organization throughout the network easy for an administrator. Schemas also help administrators with daily tasks by setting constraints and limits on instances of objects. Schemas consist of classes of objects and attributes contained in the directory. Global catalogs consist of the information about each and every object in a directory; therefore, a global catalog provides easy access to directory information regardless of which domain of the directory actually contains the data.

The following list summarizes the Active Directory features that are enabled by default on any domain controller running Windows Server 2008:

• The selection of multiple user objects and the capability to modify common attributes of multiple user objects at one time.
• The capability to drag and drop Active Directory objects from container to container or to a desired location in the domain hierarchy. You also have the capability to drag objects to group membership lists.
• Enhanced search functionality is object-oriented and provides an efficient search that minimizes network traffic associated with browsing objects.
• The capability to save queries, enabling you to save commonly used search parameters for reuse in Active Directory Users and Computers.
• Active Directory command-line tools, which give you the capability to run directory-service commands for administration scenarios.
• You can now create instances of specified classes in the base schema of a forest and instances of several common classes, including country or region, person, organizationalPerson, groupOfNames, device, and certificationAuthority.
• The inetOrgPerson class is added to the base schema and can be used in the same manner as the user class.
• You can configure replication scope for application-specific data among domain controllers running Windows Server 2008.
• The capability to add additional domain controllers to existing domains by using backup media, thus reducing the time necessary for an administrator to create additional domain controllers.
• Universal group membership caching to help prevent the need to locate a global catalog across a WAN.

Active Directory can provide a companywide network solution with one domain, reduced sign-on capabilities, and one single point of management. Active Directory helps eliminate unnecessary domains and reduces server hardware and maintenance costs.

Two approaches to installing a domain controller are possible. First, you can raise the machine as a member server and promote it post-installation — and even post-burn-in. Alternatively, you can promote it to domain controller status during an automated installation. The latter option naturally requires a script.

We don't recommend the latter option unless you are really confident about your machines and their configuration or you have a huge rollout. If you are an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), you would not need to be concerned about domain controllers and Active Directory because the domain specifics, such as creating a new tree or forest or joining existing trees and forests, is done on the customer's network. Conversely, if you, as a consultant or network engineer, have created an extensive unattended or remote installation regimen that automatically raises the machine as a domain controller, you know what you are doing.

For now, you have several reasons to not promote during or just after initial installation. First, promoting a domain controller is a time-intensive operation. (Active Directory goes through extensive self-configuration before the installation completes.) Second, if you experience a problem with the machine, you must demote the domain controller, which can be a complicated process. Third, after you have installed and raised a domain controller, you do not want to demote it because of a hardware problem or risk trashing your domain controller.

If Active Directory is demoted, it tears down everything that it created and restores the machine to the control of the registry and the local SAM. In fact, it is like watching a movie in reverse. Active Directory asks you for a new administrator account name and password for the rollback. All configuration changes made to the machine, such as desktop settings, are restored to the default, newly created settings. After you reboot the machine, you are back to where you started. You do not even get earlier changes that you made to the registry because the registry is essentially reinstalled after Active Directory comes down (because it is wiped out if you promote the server).

A good reason lies behind this. Everything configured on a domain controller is stored in the directory databases, and after the registry is restored, you can re-promote it from scratch.

To promote a role server into a domain controller, you need to add the following items to your checklist:

• Domain name
• An administrator's password
• Network protocols
• IP address
• DNS IP addresses and host names
• NetBIOS name of host
• Role service information

The checklist for a domain controller is as follows

• Domain name. If you are creating a new domain, you need the name of the parent domain that you are installing under or the existing tree name (or the forest name if you are installing a new domain tree). If you are adding a domain controller to an existing domain, you need to have that name handy as well.
• An administrator's password
• Network protocols
• IP address
• NetBIOS name of host
• DNS IP addresses and host names

It is also relatively straightforward to demote a domain controller to a simple role server or remove any number of roles and features from a server.

Server Manager is the key configuration console you will use for installing server roles and features on your server. It can be configured to open automatically as soon as you log in to the
Windows console or desktop.

Types of roles

Let's look at the various roles and features you can install on Windows Server 2008.

Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)
AD CS role services install on a number of operating systems, including Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 Server. Naturally the fullest implementation of AD CS is only possible on Windows Server 2008. You can deploy AD CS as a single standalone certification authority (CA), or you can deploy multiple servers and configure them as root, policy, and certificate issuing authorities. You also have a variety of Online Responder configuration possibilities.

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
This is the role in the Windows Server 2008 operating system that stores information about users, computers, and other resources on a network. AD DS is also used for directory-enabled applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server.

Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS)
AD FS employs technology that allows users over the life of a single online session to securely share digital identity and entitlement rights, or ‘"claims" across security and enterprise boundaries. This role - introduced and supported on all operating systems since Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 - provides Web Single Sign-On (SSO) services to allow a user to access
multiple, related Web applications.

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)
This service is ideal if you are required to support directory-enabled applications. AD LDS is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) compliant directory service.

Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS)
This service augments an organization's security strategy by protecting information through persistent usage policies. The key to the service is that the right management policies are bound to the information no matter where it resides or to where it is moved. AD RMS is used to lock down documents, spreadsheets, e-mail, and so on from being infiltrated or ending up in the wrong hands. AD RMS, for example, prevents e-mails from being accidentally forwarded to the wrong people.

The Application Server role
This role supports the deployment and operation of custom business applications that are built with Microsoft .NET Framework. The Application Server role lets you choose services for applications that require COM+, Message Queuing, Web services, and Distributed Coordinated Transactions.

DHCP and DNS
These two roles install these two critical network service services required for every network. They support Active Directory integration and support IPv6. WINS is not classified as a key role for Windows Server 2008, and you install it as a feature, discussed later.

Fax Server role
The fax server lets you set up a service to send and receive faxes over your network. The role creates a fax server and installs the Fax Service Manager and the Fax service on the server.

File Server role
This role lets you set up all the bits, bells, and whistles that come with a Windows file server. This role also lets you install Share and Storage Management, the Distributed File System (DFS), the File Server Resource Manager application for managing file servers, Services for Network File System (NFS), Windows File Services, which include stuff like the File Replication Service (FRS), and so on.

Network Policy and Access Services
This provides the following network connectivity solutions: Network Access Protection (NAP), the client health policy creation, enforcement, and remediation technology; secure wireless and wired access (802.1X), wireless access points, remote access solutions, virtual private network (VPN) services, Radius, and more.

Print Management role
The print services provide a single interface that you use to manage multiple printers and print servers on your network.

Terminal Services role
This service provides technologies that enable users to access Windows-based programs that are installed on a terminal server. Users can execute applications remotely (they still run on the remote server) or they can access the full Windows desktop on the target server.

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
UDDI Services provide capabilities for sharing information about Web services. UDDI is used on the intranet, between entities participating on an extranet, or on the Internet.

Web Server role
This role provides IIS 7.0, the Web server, ASP.NET, and the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).

Windows Deployment Services
These services are used for deployment of new computers in medium to large organizations.

Features

Server Manager also lets you install dozens of features on Windows Server 2008. These so-called features are actually programs or supporting layers that support or augment the functionality of one or more roles, or simply add to the functionality of the server. A good example of a feature is the clustering service. Now called Failover Clustering, this feature can be used to support mission-critical roles such as File Services, Printer Services, and DHCP Server, on server clusters. This provides for higher availability and performance.

Other features you will likely install include SMTP Server, Telnet Client and Server, Group Policy Management (for use with Active Directory), Remote Assistance, and more.

However, even if an app is capable of full-screen mode, it isn't always shown as an option, and defining a global keyboard shortcut key will force even reluctant apps to go fullscreen. To do so, open Keyboard Shortcuts (System > Preferences) and look in the list for the entry that reads Toggle Fullscreen Mode. Then click in the Shortcut column of the entry and type your preferred keyboard combination (I recommend Ctrl + Alt + f ). Then close the Keyboard Shortcut program window, and test out the new shortcut in your favorite application. It works with nearly every application. The only ones I found didn't work were those that rely on dialog box interfaces, such as Ekiga.

Should you need to, you can manually start your own additional X servers for users. Assuming you've created a new account, switch to a virtual console (this won't work from a terminal window!), and then login as the new user. Then type the following:

$ startx -- :1

A desktop GUI will then start for the new user. To switch back to the already logged in user's desktop, hit Ctrl + Alt + F7 . To switch to the new user's desktop, hit Ctrl + Alt + F9 .

The above step can be repeated to create yet more concurrent desktops for other users: for example, to concurrently run a desktop for a third user, just switch to the next virtual console, login as that user, and type startx -- :2. That user's desktop will then appear, and you can switch to other desktops as described above, and back to the third user’s desktop by hitting Ctrl + Alt + F10 .

If you're working on a virtual console and want to kill the GUI for any reason, typing the following will kill GNOME Display Manager (gdm), which "owns" the desktop processes:

$ sudo killall gdm

To get the GUI back following this, start gdm again:

$ sudo gdm

$ ls > output.txt 2>&1

This will send both the output and error output (if any) of the ls command to output.txt. If you want to capture the command you typed, and any other command-line detritus (including output), use the screendump command. The following will send everything currently on the current screen (command-line prompts included) to a text file called output.txt:

$ sudo screendump > output.txt

The command has to be issued as root because of permission issues but the resulting file will be owned by you.