Windows Tip: Two Vista tips and a story

February 23, 2007 —

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Today I've got two tips for you concerning Windows Vista, plus a story from a reader to lighten up your day.

First, if you're planning on deploying Windows Vista, be sure to check out the following article that was just published in the Knowledge Base on Microsoft TechNet: KB 933305: Applications that have earned the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo or the "Works with Windows Vista" logo. Using this article you can determine which applications from third-party vendors have been certified by the Windows Logo Program as working with Windows Vista. What's really interesting when you read this article is not which vendors' apps are on the list but which vendors aren't listed, such as Adobe, Symantec, McAfee, and so on.

Second, you may have noticed by now that Group Policy in Windows Vista has two sets of policy settings for Windows Firewall: new settings found under Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Windows Firewall With Advanced Security, and the old settings first introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2 that are found under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Network Connections\Windows Firewall. If you configure the old policy settings and apply them to Windows Vista machines, will they work? Yes. What if you configure both the new and old firewall settings and they conflict? The magic rule in that case is that the most permissive settings win, and not the most restrictive as you might expect.

Now here's the story, which was sent to me awhile ago by reader Jens-Henrik S

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