Thursday 24 December 2009

Windows 7 and Application Pool Identity Accounts

Creating a new Application Pool in IIS creates a new security identifier (SID), which is a virtal account. The new identity takes the same name as the AppPool, so a new AppPool with the name 'NewAppPool' creates a new security identifier with the name 'NewAppPool'. You can now use this virtual account so secure your files and folders. However, because the identity is a virtual account it will not show up as a user in the Windows User Management Console.

To use the identity to secure your folder, you need to do the following

  1. Open Windows Explorer

  2. Select the file or directory.

  3. Right click the file and select "Properties"

  4. Select the "Security" tab

  5. Click the "Edit" and then "Add" button

  6. Click the "Locations" button and make sure you select your machine.

  7. Enter "IIS AppPool\NewAppPool" in the "Enter the object names to select:" text box.

  8. Click the "Check Names" button and click "OK".
You can now configure the permissions for the "NewAppPool" identity.

A better article on this from learn.iis.net

Monday 21 December 2009

Turn Off UAC in Windows 7

I find the UAC prompts quite annoying in Windows 7. He is how to turn the propmt off:
  1. Go to Start Menu -> Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Account.

  2. Click on User Account Control settings link.

  3. Slide the slider bar to the lowest value (towards Never Notify)

  4. Click OK

  5. Restart the computer to turn off User Access Control.

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Hide Live Messenger from the Windows 7 Taskbar

I've just installed Windows Live Messenger and it annoyingly sits in the taskbar rather than the system tray like on Vista and XP.

The trick is to tell Live Messenger to run in Vista Compatibility mode.
  1. Ensure Windows Live Messenger is not running.
  2. Go to Start Menu and locate the Windows Live Messenger shortcut.
  3. Right click on the Windows Live Messenger shortcut and select Properties.
  4. Select the Compatibility tab.
  5. Tick the check box for Run this program in compatibility mode for under “Compatibility Mode”, and then select Windows Vista from the drop down list.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Run Windows Live Messenger.