On a Windows XP-based or Windows Vista-based computer that has Windows SteadyState installed, all user accounts may be disabled, or the computer may restart repeatedly.

Consider the following scenario:

• You have an Authorization Manager store in an Active Directory domain environment.
• You add a user to a role in Authorization Manager.
• You log on to and then you log off from the domain on a Windows Vista-based or Windows Server 2008-based client computer by using the user account to that you added the role.
• The administrator deletes the user from the role in the Authorization Manager.

In this scenario, the user still can access the role.

When you use a user account that belongs to the “Network Configuration Operators” security group on a Windows Vista-based computer or a Windows Server 2008-based computer, some NetSH commands are unsuccessful. Additionally, you receive the following message:

The requested operation requires elevation.

This problem occurs even if you start the NetSH utility by using the “Run as administrator” option so that you can run the NetSH utility with “Network Configuration Operators” permissions.

For example, the following command is unsuccessful:

netsh interface ipv4 add winsserver “Interface Name” IPv4_Address

Note: In Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003, if the user account belongs to the “Network Configuration Operators” security group, the user can perform all NetSH commands.

After you upgrade a Windows XP-based computer to Windows Vista, you experience the following symptoms:

• One or more of the following Windows XP-related groups appear in the “Local Users and Groups” Groups folder:
  • HelpServicesGroup
  • Offer Remote Assistance Helpers
  • RS_Query
• One or more of the following Windows XP-related user accounts appear in the “Local Users and Groups” Users folder:
  • SUPPORT_388945a0
    Note: The 388945a0 part of this user account represents a combination of numbers and letters. This combination may differ on your computer.
  • HelpAssistant
  • WIIS_ComputerName

You expect only Windows Vista-related users and groups to remain on the computer after you upgrade to Windows Vista.

When you migrate user data to a new Windows Vista computer after you stop the InputPersonalization.exe process, the InputPersonalization.exe process may not start correctly. Additionally, you may lose personalization data and functionality.

Additionally, you may receive the following error message:

An error occurred in the Handwriting recognition personalization tool

Additionally, the following messages may be logged in the Application log:

Handwriting recognition personalization failed to initialize the store of handwriting samples that are used to personalize handwriting recognition.
Handwriting recognition personalization: Some or all of the handwriting samples that were collected to personalize the handwriting recognizer are unreadable

The thirteenth tip video by PCWizKid. A useful feature known as user account auditing is not turned on by default in Windows Vista. Turned it on and log all attack attempts to login to your PC.

User Account Control (UAC) is bound to be one of the more talked about features of Vista because it has a tendency to ‘get in your face’ with dialog windows every time you try to change or install something (see image below). Administrators will be quickly annoyed by this and likely look to disable it all together. Though it is easily turned off, before doing so, it’s best to know what the different options are, because you’ll want to find a balance between security and convenience. Keep reading →