Keep the Desktop Going

Keeping users' computers in large enterprises up-to-date is a mammoth task,

especially the never-ending upgrading of system software to prevent security

breaches. Herald the advent of the desktop economy; desktop management evolved

as a systems management discipline to co-ordinate application usage on desktop

and laptop computers.

The management of multiple user profiles is a challenge which vendors and

ISVs are actively tackling. The challenge has been to have centralized desktop

management systems which can scale to an enterprise of any size. New desktop

managers like Desktop Authority, guarantees desktop confuguration in the face of



extensive granularity of data in the enterprise-countries, locations, sites,
departments down to individual profiles with distinct default settings, client

configuration, custom scripts, log file configurations and alert messages can be

configured. The task of assigning scripts to particular users and groups has

been made idiot-proof today.

Now desktop management tools have abilities to remote control computers, worldwide

The latest desktop configuration tools make even logging client activity

easy, by dynamically logging such information based on several variables; for

example: date, time, operating system type and version, service pack version,

MAC and TCP/IP address, authenticating server, user ID, physical RAM, free disk

space, BIOS date, CPU speed or SID.

Many administrators consider Intel LANDesk Management Suite 6.5, as a good

solution in server and desktop management. The general lack of comprehensive

hardware support from major manufacturers in the past helped LANDesk attain this

reputation. And though long-awaited support from the manufacturers-in the form

of the proprietary products reviewed here-seems to have finally arrived, Intel

has significantly boosted the extent of its suite's capabilities.

The rapid advances in remote desktop management are removing the network

administrator from the scene. Remote desktop managers now automatically deliver

multiple client configuration properties at log-on without a network

administrator having to visit each desktop. Microsoft supports many Win32

platforms and many applications including Office, BackOffice, Small Business

Server, Terminal Server, Exchange Server, ISA/Proxy Server, Systems Management

Server and Citrix Meta-Frame. As per security access rules of each company,

specific domain controllers, member servers, dial-up clients and/or specific

computers can be excluded.

While security companies can afford to smile the implications on privacy are

slowly being addressed. For, your office computer is no more totally yours. IT

personnel have developed abilities to remote control computers and transfer data

— worldwide. The good news is that remote desktop managers now allow you to

manage files, shares, processes, services, registry settings and permission via

secure remote access from any Web browser without the need to install additional

client software.

Team DQ