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Although we hear a lot about the consumer benefits of Windows 7, Microsoft has not ignored businesses when designing its features.

It is, as one would expect, a graceful corporate domain citizen, chatting politely with Windows Server 2003 and 2008 and running KiXtart login scripts and standard group policies with equal aplomb.

My major complaint is that, like Vista before it, its wireless support excludes Cisco LEAP. Yes, I know there are issues with LEAP, but companies that have deployed it can't make it disappear overnight, and unless they were among the few switching to Vista, they've likely left it alone since it's well supported in Windows XP.

Users with supported Intel network adapters can use the Vista version of Intel ProSet to get LEAP support; others may be out of luck (check with your computer or wireless network interface vendor). Since company bigwigs tend to get cranky if told they can have a new operating system only if they're willing to sacrifice wireless connectivity, that LEAP gap could be a showstopper.

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A screenshot of Windows 7 BitLocker drive encryption

However, other enterprise features will make admins and helpdesks smile. On the security side, Bitlocker, the full-disk encryption we first met in Vista, now has a sibling, BitLocker-to-Go. It permits encryption of removable devices such as USB keys. Another addition to the Windows 7 Locker room is AppLocker, which lets admins use Group Policies to control what applications are allowed to run on a system. That will go a long way toward keeping insecure user downloaded software off company systems, and out of security administrators' hair.

Support personnel get a new tool as well: the Problem Steps Recorder. And it does precisely what its name suggests. When a user calls about a nebulous error (and all support folks know those calls), it's easy to explain to the user how to fire up the Problem Steps Recorder (smart admins will put a shortcut to it on the desktop when they're building the corporate image), reproduce the error and e-mail the recording to the helpdesk, who can then see precisely what was happening at every step, click by click, screen by screen. The user can annotate the recording as it goes along to add useful additional detail. When the recording is complete (it's a compiled help file, if you're wondering), it's saved in a zip file for easy e-mailing.

At the helpdesk end, the recording can be viewed as a slide show, or just browsed. There's a lot of additional information inserted by the program, so even if the user isn't too forthcoming, the recording can be a goldmine.

You need Windows Server 2008 R2 to take advantage of a few of the additional goodies. BranchCache, for example, helps users in remote offices get better response and save bandwidth by locally stashing copies of files requested from a remote server to either a local Server 2008 R2 server (Hosted Cache mode) or to local PCs (Distributed Cache mode). The next user who requests a cached file will get it from a local source, rather than over the slower remote connection to the server.

DirectAccess not only allows VPN-free access to the corporate network through a server running Windows Server 2008 R2, it lets the administrator manage those client systems remotely using standard tools like GPOs, any time they're connected to the Internet.

Windows 7 Problem Steps Explorer

Great when you need help but can't figure out what's wrong, this tool records a user's every step, which can then be e-mailed to a helpdesk

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Connections are encrypted using IPv6 over IPSec, and both computers and users can be authenticated as required. Multi-factor authentication is also supported.

There are a few wrinkles in the use of DirectAccess that administrators need to know about. For one thing, since it requires IPv6, there needs to be a DNS server that supports AAAA records (which is likely a Windows Server 2008). And if users want to connect to older servers on the network that can only cope with IPv4, a device supporting NAT-PT is required to bridge the gap.

If DirectAccess is not in the cards, but remote connectivity is necessary, standard VPN clients get a boost thanks to VPN Reconnect. It automatically and transparently restores a VPN connection after its Internet connection briefly drops. Usually, once the Internet is back, users need to manually re-establish their VPN links, a time-wasting annoyance.

All of these features, except the Problem Steps Recorder and VPN Reconnect, are only available in Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate editions.

Customers are not left completely without advice on enterprise use of Windows 7, with or without Server 2008 R2. Several free toolkits are available for download that offer assistance in determining application compatibility, via the http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722055 per cent28WS.10 per cent29.aspx?ITPID=mscomen , tools for the deployment of both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 in the Deployment Toolkit 2010 , and the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit for Windows 7 enterprise, which inventories existing systems and evaluates their suitability for Windows 7. It also identifies machines with outstanding security issues such as out-of-date or missing anti-virus software.

Lynn Greiner is a freelance writer and techie who has been chronicling and working in IT since 1971. She has been involved in testing and evaluating Windows since version 3.1 .

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