Mark's Stuff

My Foray Into Weblogging. Using this to store interesting items for later review.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Keep Vista from Changing Folder View : Steve Smith's Blog

For future reference.  This actually works!

Keep Vista from Changing Folder View : Steve Smith's Blog

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Microsoft Tag now can do black and white

Microsoft Tag can now do black and white tags, as well as color.  All the current readers already can handle the b&w.  And you can use both a b&w and color tag for same link.

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Microsoft Tag : Feature: Microsoft Tag Black and white!

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Wednesday, March 04, 2009

NOD32 changes licensing

Looks like Nod32, my favorite recommended antivirus solution, is changing their licensing just a bit, but will cost me bucks.

First, a little about what I am trying to do.  I run a pretty decent laptop with Windows Vista, 4gb ram, and anywhere from 2 to 7 hard drives (1 internal, of course, and the others on USB).  As a software development consultant, I run a number of virtual machines. Some are for unique setups for clients (their VPN, or older version of Visual Studio or Windows); some for testing purposes (e.g. clean systems for testing setup packages, older browser versions); some with server OS's (Windows server 2003 or 2008) with older SQL server, or SharePoint development.

Trying to have an antivirus solution properly licensed for all these virtual machines is a pain.  The only av product I found that allows virtual machines to share the same license as the host is Nod32.  So besides the very reasons to use this product (fastest, smallest memory footprint (100mb), and best detection (it heuristic engine has never missed an in-the-wild virus, ref), having to buy only one license makes it a very good fit for me.  And it is one of the few client antivirus products that will install on server OS's.

Starting with their version 3.0, the server OS's were no longer permitted for a single-user license, only a business edition license could install Nod32 v3 on Windows Server 2000/2003.  This was not too much of a problem, as we were permitted to use the previous version, v2.7, on the servers and was still supported.

Now here is the new problem.  Nod32 v4 was released this week.  And when my license it renewed, the new username will not be permitted for v2.7.  Nod32 v4 will still not allow installation on Windows servers with single-user license.  I will have to buy a new business edition license to be able to install on Windows servers on virtual machines.  But business licenses have to be purchased with a minimum of 5 users, at (currently) $42.99/user ($214.95), as compared to $39.99 for home/single-user.  So in order to install Nod32 on my server VM's, I need to buy for 4 unneeded/unused users.

My options are somewhat limited.  No one else allows licensing on virtual machines except as a separate machine and license (and since I have about 15 virtual machines, buying licenses for them is not an option).  AVG free edition is not an option, because it does install on server OS's.  Looks like I have to buy wasted business user licenses.

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