SystemTools Hyena 8

Using the built-in Windows administration tools to manage a medium to large Windows 200x network or Active Directory environment can be a challenge. Add multiple domains, hundreds or thousands of servers, workstations, and users, and before you know it, things can get out of hand. Hyena is designed to both simplify and centralize nearly all of the day-to-day management tasks, while providing new capabilities for system administration. This functionality is provided in a single, centralized, easy to use product. Used today by tens of thousands of system administrators worldwide, Hyena is the one tool that every administrator cannot afford to be without.

Hyena uses an Explorer-style interface for all operations, including right mouse click pop-up context menus for all objects. Management of users, groups (both local and global), shares, domains, computers, services, devices, events, files, printers and print jobs, sessions, open files, disk space, user rights, messaging, exporting, job scheduling, processes, and printing are all supported. For an example of a typical enterprise-wide view in Hyena, click here.

In addition to supporting standard Windows system management functions, Hyena also includes extensive Active Directory integration. In fact, Hyena can be used on any Windows client to manage any Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP/Vista, or Windows Server 2003/2008 installation.

Hyena also includes full exporting capabilities and both Microsoft Access and Excel reporting and exporting options. All of these features are part of the Standard Edition of Hyena.  

The Enterprise Edition adds support for:

• Terminal Server user properties and session administration.
• Exchange 2000/2003/2007*/2008 Server mailbox integration and properties management.
• WMI integration.

New Features:

Improved 'Manage Directory Attributes' Capability

Hyena can now modify Active Directory attributes using multiple values from existing directory attributes. Instead of using complex scripts to perform this action, now full or partial values from one or more attributes can be used to update Active Directory.

For example, to change the 'DisplayName' attribute of a user to be the contents of the first name, underscore, then the last name, and with the user having a first name of "Blake" and a last name of "Edwards", use:

    %GivenName%_%sn%

    ...to produce "Blake_Edwards"

To use the first four (4) characters of the last name, use:

    %GivenName%_%sn:4%

    ...to produce "Blake_Edwa"

Enhanced Active Directory User Group Membership View

Active Directory user group memberships now can be viewed more easily, including the capability to view user group membership for multiple users. By using the powerful sorting and exporting capabilities in Hyena, this information can now be quickly and easily managed or reported through Microsoft Excel.

New Advanced Settings

Two new advanced settings have been added, which can be set under Tools->Settings->Advanced.

Re-Enabling RAS (Dialin Tab) for Windows 7

Due to changes made by Microsoft in Windows 7, current release versions of Hyena will forceably disable the RAS (Dialin) properties when viewing the User Properties. This was done to prevent errors when attempting to view or save any dialin settings, since these errors were creating a large number of support incidents. These errors were the result of Microsoft changing Windows 7 system components that essentially disabled the RAS functionality. When used on Windows 7, Microsoft's own Active Directory Users and Computers snapin will also not display any RAS/Dialin settings.

Microsoft may have either addressed these issues, or this may only be a continuing issue when a Windows 7 client is used to manage a pre-Windows 2008 domain. To allow the possibility that some configurations can still be used to manage user dialin settings, the user properties Dialin tab can be re-enabled on a Windows 7 client by setting to true the Advanced setting ForceWindows7RAS. Note that you must still also turn on the option to show user RAS (dialup) information on the Tools->Settings->User dialog. This setting also has no effect on the Shell Properties for a user as these dialogs are still controlled by Microsoft.

If changing this setting, Hyena must be restarted. When enabled, the Hyena user properties dialog will have a Dialin tab. If an error is encountered when trying to view or save the Dialin settings, then the client does not have the right Microsoft support libraries to manage RAS settings. Turning this advanced setting back off will prevent the errors.

Hiding Junction Points

Microsoft uses file system Junction Points (called "Reparse Points") to provide backward compatibility for some Windows folders. These folders are usually pointers to another location and are therefore usually, but not always, inaccessible. Attempts to access the contents will result in 'Access Denied' errors. Hyena will now display these junction points with an alternate icon image, with a shortcut arrow, next to the folder, similar to what is done now in Windows Explorer when run on Windows 2008 or Windows 7. Normally, these directories are hidden by default in Windows Explorer, but they can be displayed by using the View menu options.

Hyena will by default display all system files and folders, including junction points. To turn on or off the option to view these special system pointers on directory displays, use the HideFileReparsePoints setting.

System Requirements:

• Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7