Vista Tips and Tricks (Part 4)

The Standard User Analyzer (from the Application Compatibility Toolkit) and Complete PC Backups

Here is a trick that might help you to get around some of the frustration caused by UAC.  There is a tool called the Standard User Analyzer that you can download as part of the Application Compatibility Toolkit.  The tool essentially looks at the needed access that an Administrator would have (that a Standard User doesn’t have) to run a particular piece of software or a hardware device and then it performs a process called “mitigation” which will simply loosen the access for that software/hardware for a Standard User (as you can see

in Image 1).  So, the standard user remains locked down from Admin rights and the UAC remains enabled, but the user has access to what they need (without the annoying ‘over the shoulder’ credentials).  There is a great RTF that goes along with the tool when you download the kit.

Complete PC backups make VHD files.  One of the cool features to the Complete PC backup process is that the resulting backup file is a .vhd file.  If that extension looks familiar to you, it might be because you have been working with Virtual PC, the free downloadable tool from Microsoft that allows you to install virtual OS’s to work with.  Now, before you get too excited into thinking that you can now book up with the Complete PC backup file and see a duplicate of your OS, that isn’t going to happen.  The .vhd file, however, is mountable.  You can configure another virtual OS to view that .vhd file as another drive.  You can then access files that have been backed up without having to restore the entire system.  Even better, you can use a tool called vhdmount to mount the .vhd file without having to use a virtual OS.  This tool from Microsoft allows you to mount the .vhd file directly from your host OS.

Read the rest of the series:

Vista Tips and Tricks - Part 1

Vista Tips and Tricks - Part 2

Vista Tips and Tricks - Part 3

Don't miss the final part!

Vista Tips and Tricks - Part 5