Configuring Windows 7 (Training Kit) - Part 61 pot

Offline Files is a feature relevant to portable computers that allows content that is stored on shared folders to be cached temporarily on mobile computers so that it can still be acces

Lesson 1: Managing BitLocker CHAPTER 11 573

3 Which of the following policies should you configure to allow a computer without

a TPM chip that is running Windows 7 Enterprise to utilize BitLocker to protect its hard

disk drive?

a Require Additional Authentication At Startup

B Allow Enhanced PINs for Startup

c Configure TPM Platform Validation Profile

D Configure Minimum PIN Length For Startup

4 Which of the following BitLocker policies should you configure to ensure that BitLocker

To Go Reader is available on all FAT-formatted removable devices protected with

BitLocker?

a Configure Use Of Passwords For Removable Data Drives

B Allow Access To BitLocker-Protected Removable Data Drives From Earlier Versions

Of Windows

c Choose How BitLocker-Protected Removable Drives Can Be Recovered

D Control Use Of BitLocker On Removable Drives

5 Which of the following tools can you use to determine the identification string

assigned to a BitLocker-protected volume?

a Manage-bde exe

B Cipher exe

c Bcdedit exe

D Sigverif exe

Lesson 2: Windows 7 Mobility

Correctly configuring the power settings of computers, especially when there are

many computers in use across an organization, can lead to substantial reductions in an organization’s energy requirements Refinements in the way that Windows 7 uses energy mean that an organization upgrading computer hardware from Windows XP to Windows 7 brings noticeable efficiencies in energy usage This can provide two important benefits for

an organization: reducing the organization’s impact on the environment and reducing the amount of money spent on electricity

Offline Files is a feature relevant to portable computers that allows content that is stored

on shared folders to be cached temporarily on mobile computers so that it can still be accessed and worked on when the mobile computer is no longer connected to the office environment When the computer reconnects to the environment that hosts the shared folder, the offline content is synced, updating the content on servers and clients as necessary

After this lesson, you will be able to:

n Manage Offline Files

n Manage Windows 7 power settings

n Configure Windows 7 power policies

Estimated lesson time: 40 minutes

Offline Files

The Offline Files feature of Windows 7 allows a client to locally cache files hosted in shared folders so that they are accessible when the computer is unable to connect directly to the network resource The Offline Files feature is available to users of the Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 You can use the Offline Files feature to ensure access when a client computer is out of the office or when a temporary disruption, such as a wide area network (WAN) link failing between a branch office and a head office, blocks access to specially configured shared folders

When a user makes a file available for offline access, Windows 7 stores a copy of that file within a local cache When the file server that hosts the file is no longer available, such as when a user disconnects from the network, the user can continue to work with the file stored within the local cache When the file server that hosts the file becomes available, Windows 7 synchronizes the copy of the file in the cache with the copy of the file hosted on the shared folder A user can make a file available offline by right-clicking the file and then clicking the Always Available Offline option, as shown in Figure 11-17 When the offline file cache becomes full, the files in the cache that are least used are dropped to make room for newer ones Windows 7 does not remove manually cached files unless a user specifically deletes them

Lesson 2: Windows 7 Mobility CHAPTER 11 575

FIgUre 11-17 Make a file available offline

Files available offline are shown as Always Available in Windows Explorer Figure 11-18 shows

a file available offline named Brisbane If a user modifies a file that she has made available

offline, that file synchronizes with the shared folder when the user again connects to the

network and the modified file replaces the one on the shared folder If the file on the shared

folder is changed and the file in the local cache remains unchanged, the synchronization process

overwrites the file in the local cache If both the file on the shared folder and the file in the local

cache have been modified, it is necessary to use Sync Center to resolve the conflict You will

learn more about using Sync Center to resolve conflicts with Offline Files later in this lesson

FIgUre 11-18 Brisbane file is Always Available

The Offline Files feature in Windows 7 has the four following modes of operation:

n Online mode Changes made to files are applied to the file share and then to the local cache Read requests are satisfied from the local cache Synchronization occurs automatically and a user can initiate synchronization manually This is the default mode

of operation

n auto offline mode When a network error is detected, Windows 7 transitions to auto offline mode File operations occur against the local cache Windows 7 attempts to reconnect automatically every two minutes If reconnection is successful, Offline Files automatically transitions to online mode

n Manual offline mode The transition to offline mode is forced when user selects the Work Offline item in Windows Explorer A computer must be returned to online mode manually by clicking Work Online in Windows Explorer

n Slow-link mode This mode is enabled by default in Windows 7 and triggered when the link speed falls below the default value of 64,000 bits per second This value can

be configured through policy In this mode, file operations are performed against the local cache Users can synchronize manually, but automatic synchronization does not occur Computer transitions to online mode when link speed exceeds configured value Some functionalities, like the Previous Versions of Files feature that allows you to retrieve the previous version of a file from a shadow copy on the server, are not available in auto offline or offline mode

Offline File Policies

You configure Offline Files through Offline Files policies, located in the Computer

Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files node of a Group Policy Object There are 28 policies, some of which are shown in Figure 11-19

FIgUre 11-19 Offline Files policies

Lesson 2: Windows 7 Mobility CHAPTER 11 577

Several important policies available in this node include:

n administratively assigned Offline Files Lists all network files and folders that are

always available for offline use without requiring user interaction

n Configure Background Sync This policy applies in slow-link mode and determines

how often background synchronization occurs

n Non-Default Server Disconnect actions Determines whether the computer

automatically goes into offline mode when computer detects that it is disconnected

from offline file servers

n encrypt the Offline Files Cache Ensures that the offline files cache is encrypted

n Configure Slow-Link Mode Enabled by default on Windows 7, allows the computer to

use slow-link mode

n Configure Slow Link Speed The bandwidth value in bits per second where a network

is considered slow

Transparent Caching

When you enable transparent caching, Windows 7 keeps a cached copy of all files that a user

opens from shared folders on the local volume The first time a user opens the file, the file

is stored in the local cache When the user opens the file again, Windows 7 checks the file

to ensure that the cached copy is up to date and if it is, opens that instead If the copy is

not up to date, the client opens the copy hosted on the shared folder, also placing it in the

local cache Using a locally cached copy speeds up access to files stored on file servers on

remote networks from the client When a user changes a file, the client writes the changes

to the copy of the file stored on the shared folder When the shared folder is unavailable, the

transparently cached copy is also unavailable Transparent caching does not attempt to keep

the local copy synced with the copy of the file on the remote file server as the Offline Files

feature does Transparent caching works on all files in a shared folder, not just those that you

have configured to be available offline

Transparent caching is appropriate for WAN scenarios and has several similarities to the

BranchCache feature that you learned about in Chapter 8 Some significant differences

are that clients on the local area network do not share the cache and that file servers

hosting the shared folders do not need to be running Windows Server 2008 R2 to support

transparent caching It is also possible to use transparent caching on clients running

Windows 7 Professional and on clients that are not members of an AD DS domain, something

that is not possible with BranchCache Windows 7 triggers transparent caching when the

round-trip latency value exceeds the amount specified in the Enable Transparent Caching

policy, shown in Figure 11-20

More Info traNSpareNt CaChINg

To learn more about the transparent caching features of Windows 7, consult the following

Microsoft TechNet Web page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd637828.aspx.

FIgUre 11-20 Enable Transparent Caching

Offline File Exclusions

Administrators can configure Offline File policies to exclude specific file types from being available offline You can do this by configuring the Exclude Files From Being Cached Policy,

as shown in Figure 11-21 File types are specified in the policy through their file name

extension For example, to block all Windows Bitmap files, use the extension designation

* bmp When you configure this policy, users are unable to create files of this type in folders configured to be available offline

Using Sync Center

You can use Sync Center to synchronize files, manage offline files, and resolve synchronization

conflicts manually Sync Center is located within the Control Panel or by typing Sync Center

into the Search Programs and Files text box on the Start menu Clicking Manage Offline Files opens the Offline Files dialog box, shown in Figure 11-22 This dialog box is also available using the Offline Files control panel Using this dialog box, you can disable offline files, view offline files, configure disk usage for offline files, configure encryption for offline files, and configure how often Windows 7 should check for slow network conditions

Lesson 2: Windows 7 Mobility CHAPTER 11 579

FIgUre 11-21 Offline file exclusions

FIgUre 11-22 The Offline Files dialog box

A sync conflict occurs when changes occur to a file made available offline both on the file server and within the local cache For example, Kim Akers makes a file named Brisbane doc available offline Kim takes her portable computer home and works on the file over the weekend Sam Abolrous goes into the office on the weekend and works on the copy of Brisbane doc stored on the file server When Kim reconnects her portable computer to the network, Sync Center notifies her that there is a sync conflict Kim can then use this tool to resolve the conflict between the file she modified at home and the file Sam modified on the file server

You can see a list of files where there has been a problem during synchronization if you click View Sync Conflicts in Sync Center, as shown in Figure 11-23

FIgUre 11-23 View sync conflicts

When you click Resolve within the View Sync Conflicts area, you can choose among three actions:

n Keep the local version The version of the file that is stored on the local computer will

be kept This version overwrites the changed version of the file on the file share

n Keep the server version The version of the file that is stored on the file share is kept, and the changes made to the local version are lost

n Keep both versions The version on the local computer is renamed and then saved to the file share The version of the file on the file share keeps the original name

Figure 11-24 shows these options as applied to the earlier example of Kim Akers and the modified offline file

Configuring Shared Folders for Offline Files

Users can make files available offline only if the shared folder that hosts these files supports offline files You can configure a shared folder on a computer running Windows 7 to support offline files by performing the following steps:

Lesson 2: Windows 7 Mobility CHAPTER 11 581

FIgUre 11-24 Resolve the conflict

1 Edit the properties of the folder that you want to configure to support offline files

2 On the Sharing tab, click Advanced Sharing

3 In the Advanced Sharing dialog box, click Caching This brings up the Offline Settings

dialog box, shown in Figure 11-25 Use this dialog box to choose between allowing

only the files that a user specifies to be available offline, all files to be available offline,

or no files to be available offline

FIgUre 11-25 Configure offline settings

quick Check

n What are some of the differences between transparent caching and BranchCache when it comes to shared folders on remote networks?

quick Check answer

n Transparent caching does not require file servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 Transparent caching does not use a shared file cache Windows 7 Professional supports transparent caching Transparent caching can be used with computers that are not members of a domain.

Windows 7 Power Configuration

Power plans are collections of settings that specify how a computer running Windows 7 uses energy A new computer running Windows 7 comes with three power plans named High Performance, Balanced, and Power Saver Many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) also supply their own custom Windows 7 power plans that they may precisely optimize for a specific hardware configuration In general, the High Performance power plan allows hardware to run at its maximum speed but uses more energy, and the Power Saver plan configures hardware devices in such a way that they use less energy with a corresponding reduction in performance When a portable computer is running on battery power, it runs for a shorter amount of time before the battery drains completely when configured to use the High Performance power plan compared to when the same computer is set to use the Power Saver power plan You can use the Power Options control panel, shown in Figure 11-26,

to select a power plan for a client running Windows 7 The default power plan for a newly installed client running Windows 7 is Balanced

FIgUre 11-26 Select a power plan