Support for Active Directory Shell (MMC) Property Page and Context Menu Extensions

Hyena can display the Active Directory shell property sheet for any directory object when the "Shell Properties" or "Properties" option is selected. This dialog will appear the same as it would in any MMC snapin for the same directory object. Hyena v6.6 can now display extensions to MMC property pages. Generally, property page extensions are used to add additional functionality to the Properties dialog for a directory object, such as adding a fingerprint identification page for user identification. In additional to 3rd party extensions, Microsoft also will add the Group Policy page (tab) to many directory objects as well.

The same mechanism that is used to display the property page extensions is also used to add context menu extensions. One extension that we have found and tested is the Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) which adds an RSOP option to OU context menus. 

Replacable Parameters in Manage Directory Attributes Function

The Manage Directory Attributes feature for Active Directory objects has been modified to allow the existing value of a directory attribute to be used when modifying other directory attributes. The syntax for specifying that the value of a directory attribute should be used as any portion of a new value for a directory attribute is:

%Active_Directory_Attribute_Name:Length%

The :Length portion is optional; if omitted, the entire directory value will be used.

For example, if you want to modify the value of the 'comment' attribute to be Building 118, Division , then followed by the value of the 'division' attribute, then the words ', Section 'A', use:

Building 118, Division %division%, Section A

The value of %division% will be replaced with the value of the 'division' directory attribute. To use only the first 6 characters of the division, use:

Building 118, Division %division:6%, Section A

Other Changes

• Added new dialog when opening backup event files. Hyena will now prompt for one or more backup event files which can be opened, provided that they are the same event log type. Hyena has no way of knowing what type of event log is stored in the files, so this information must be manually entered; the selection of event log types is loaded from the currently selected computer. The event description will now correctly be displayed for backup logs as well. 

• Added new dialog when copying window information to the clipboard that can control the columns copied and other options.  Previously used options are also automatically recalled. 

• Added new buttons on the OU toolbar for displaying and controlling the behavior of the Active Directory 'Find' dialog. The 'Find' dialog is the same dialog you would get by selecting the Find button on the OU context menu.  The 'Append Find' button can be used to add (append) the results of the find operation to the current window. 
  
• Added new registry options for renaming registry keys and saving registry key values to an external file.
  
  And there are a lot more changes !. For a complete list, see the What's New section in Hyena's online help file after downloading/installing.

• Hyena v6.5 New Features
  
  Active Directory Attribute Management
  
  One of the drawbacks to the conventional method used by Hyena and nearly all Microsoft applications when managing Active Directory objects, is the presentation of a dialog box to request user input. 
  
  
  Some of the disadvantages to the standard GUI dialog for managing Active Directory include:
  
   * Active Directory offers many more additional properties (attributes) than can be displayed on most GUI interfaces.
  *  Limited options exist for managing the attributes for multiple directory objects at the same time, resulting in lost time performing one-by-one updates.
  *  Extended schema attributes will not usually be available in Microsoft or 3rd party utilities.
  * Tools for direct access to AD attributes such as ADSI Edit are difficult and clumsy to use.
  
  
  Scripting solutions offer only a non-interactive method of updating directory objects. 
  
  Hyena's new Active Directory Attribute Management functions are designed to overcome these limitations and provide new capabilities for direct access and manipulation of AD objects. By utilizing advanced techniques and optimized directory access functions, this new capability will greatly enhance AD management, especially where multiple attributes need to be modified on a large collection of directory objects. 
  
  Viewing and Exporting Indirect Group Members
  
  Both Hyena and Exporter Pro have been modified to support viewing and exporting indirect group members. Indirect groups are groups that are included (nested) in another group. For example, the Domain Admins group is typically part of the Administrators group. Now, you can view, export, and manage any member or group that is included in another group without having to hunt and search for the included group. To visually view the indirect members of a group in Hyena, right click on the group, and select View Group Members->View Direct and Indirect Members. Hyena will show indirect members hierarchically indented under their parent group. 
  
  To export indirect group members, select the "Include Indirect (nested) Group Members" option by clicking the Set Options button on any Active Directory Group-object export template.
  
  
  
  Multi-Object Deletion Confirmation
  
  When multiple objects are selected and the Delete option is chosen, Hyena will display a Delete Confirmation dialog showing the objects selected for deletion. To aid in the selection of items in Hyena's right window, we recommend enabling the "Highlight Entire Row" and "Show Gridlines" options under Hyena's Tools->Settings->GUI dialog. Restart Hyena after enabling either of these options. 
  
  Active Directory (Windows 2003) Undelete Support
  
  Microsoft has added (minimal) support for undeleting Active Directory objects in Windows 2003. A technical article describing the mechanism to 'undelete' can be found in MSDN under the title "Restoring Deleted Objects". Hyena implements the 'undelete' functionality exactly as documented by Microsoft in this article.
  
  Using Multiple Filter Search Criteria
  
  Hyena's right window filtering functions (available when the green filter toolbar button is clicked) has been modified to support multiple filter search criteria. To specify that you want to search for multiple items, enter each item separated by a ';' character. To indicate that the string is a multi-filter search, also put a leading ';' at the start of the string. For example, to filter for only strings that contain "user" or "marketing", enter:

Improved Event Log Filtering Options

The Event filtering properties dialog has been modified for more functionality:

• An option has been added to include/exclude event IDs.  

• Some dialog controls and sizes have been rearranged for viewing all/more event log names.

• Multi-selection of event logs is now supported.  Together with the capability to view event logs from multiple computers, you can now view any combination of events from multiple event logs.

• A new option to save and recall the event filtering settings has been added. 

Exporter Pro Improvements
 

Exporter Pro v1.7, included in Hyena v6.3, now supports exporting of locally logged on user information, plus file and directory exporting options.  The new file/directory exporting options also allow exporting of NTFS security information.  For more information, see the SystemTools Exporter Pro help file (stexport.chm) in the Hyena installation directory, or use the shortcut for this file under Start->Programs->Hyena.

Support for Exchange 2003 Query Based Groups

Support has been added for Exchange 2003 Query Based Distribution Groups.  These groups will appear with a new icon, and can be seen under Universal Groups.  There is also a new option to create these types of groups as well.  Exchange 2003 must be installed to create query-based distribution groups.

Hyena v6.2 New Features

SystemViews ( tm )

Hyena's SystemViews is an innovative feature that allows for fast and easy recalling of previous views of the right list window.   This feature will be especially important to those users who need a method of easily going back to a previous display or that have a large number of objects (for example, domain user accounts) that take an extremely long time to retrieve and are needed for administration throughout the day.   These views can now be retained and restored with the click of the mouse or through a keyboard shortcut.

Improved Shared Settings Support

Previous versions of Hyena supported sharing Hyena's configuration settings with other users.   However, this feature required that nearly all of the settings be shared, even if it was desired to only share particular pieces of a configuration.   Hyena v6.2 now supports sharing any portion of a configuration.

More Filtering Options

The filtering option in Hyena's right window has been improved.   New options for filtering for blank values, exact matches, and 'not' equals searches have been added.  

Managing Non-Windows Devices

Hyena's Object Manager (File->Manage Object View) can now be used to add non-Windows devices (routers, hubs, Linux computers, etc.) to Hyena's views.   Hyena does not offer any functionality for these devices, but will populate and show the tools menu when these objects are right-clicked on.   The two different object types are the Router/Switch and the Network host/Device.   The only difference between the two different types are the icon used to show the object in Hyena's windows. 

Exporter Pro Improvements

Exporter Pro can now be used to export account and audit policy (under Other Exports) for both domains and individual workstations.   The storage of active templates (Active Directory, Registry, and WMI exports) has also been moved to the export configuration (. INI ) file, allowing for easier management of multiple export configurations.

Hyena v6.0 New Features

WMI Support^*

Hyena can display any WMI property from any WMI class and also provides access to common WMI methods.  Hyena also supports modification of most writable WMI instance information on one or multiple instances from one or more computers.

To help in understanding WMI and how it is integrated into Hyena, see the WMI section in Hyena's help file.

* Note: Full WMI functionality is only available in the Enterprise Edition.  However, all Editions have access to the WMI Win32_Process class which allows Hyena to remotely start and terminate remote processes.  WMI exporting functionality is also available in both Standard and Enterprise Editions.

Tool Grouping

Hyena now allows tools to be grouped into submenus.  Hyena will automatically transfer all existing custom tool settings to a file named TOOL_CMDS.DAT, which can be found in the same location as other Hyena configuration files.  This new tool command file provides a structure that permits the tools to be grouped and displayed on submenus. 

Access to Microsoft Hotfix Information

The Computer Properties->Hotfix dialog has been modified to support viewing the online Microsoft Hotfix Support database.  Either double-clicking on any 'Q' or 'KB' hotfix, or clicking the View Hotfix Information button will access the Microsoft Support web site.

Exporting Selected Active Directory Objects

Hyena now supports exporting information on selected Active Directory objects.  Previously, only domains, computers, and OUs could be selected for exporting.  For example:

• Display a list of Active Directory objects from an OU, such as users, in Hyena.
• Select as many objects as needed.
• Select Tools->Exporter Pro->Export Selected Objects.
• Select the Directory templates to export and select Start Export.

Exporter Pro v1.5

Exporter Pro, included with Hyena, has been improved to support exporting WMI information, user rights, network protocol information, and security information.

Hyena v5.x New Features

Improved Exporter Pro Features (v5.7) - Originally introduced in Hyena v5.5, Exporter Pro has been enhanced with more options for easier administration and customization.   Exporter Pro v1.2, included with Hyena, also now supports exporting 'true' last logon information for both Windows NT and Active Directory domains.   Hyena also now has tighter integration with Exporter Pro, providing simple and easy selection of objects in Hyena to be immediately sent to Exporter Pro.   Exporter Pro adds registry, scheduled tasks, network, and Active Directory exporting capabilities to the already extensive collection of export options in previous versions.  The registry exporting module provides for customizable templates to export nearly any set of registry values.  Predefined templates for exporting system configuration, service pack, and hot fixes are provided.  User-definable Active Directory query templates enable unlimited exporting options for Active Directory-enabled domains.  Exporter Pro licensing is included with all Hyena v5.5 and later licenses.

Improved Active Directory Shell Integration (v5.7) - Hyena v5.7 can now display the standard Active Directory shell context menu functions for most objects in addition to the full shell property pages.

Wake-On-Lantm (WOL) (v5.7) - New integration with industry-standard WOL-enabled computers has been added in Hyena v5.7.   What is WOL ?   Quite simply, it is a technology that allows a computer that is turned off to be remotely turned on.

Improved Active Directory 'Find' Integration (v5.7) - Previous versions of Hyena could display the standard Active Directory 'Find' dialog, but were limited to what could be done with the results.   Now, Hyena v5.7 supports selecting and returning the resulting objects back into Hyena.

Service Installation (v5.7) - Hyena can now install services on one or more computers using a simple wizard-based service installation process.

Improved Timeout Control (v5.5 )

Standard Active Directory Shell Property Pages (v5.2)

Hyena can display the standard shell property pages for all Active Directory objects.  In the image at left, the new Domain Properties dialog is shown, which is the same standard property page for domain objects used by MMC.

This high degree of Active Directory integration gives Hyena several advantages:

Familiar interface for management of object properties as found in MMC snapins.

100% compatibility and functionality.

Improved support and functionality when user has restricted/delegated rights.

Access to Security dialog for complete management of Active Directory object security.

Increased support for more objects, including Active Directory shares and printers.

Active Directory Security Listing
(v5.2)

One of the most powerful features in Active Directory is the security model, which provides for very flexible and powerful capabilities for assigning granular rights to directory objects.  The capability to delegate selected non-admin users to reset account passwords, for example, is a common action for many installations.

But, as every Active Directory administrator knows, once assigned, its very difficult to keep track who has been assigned which rights...and to which object ?

Hyena's new Active Directory Security Listing view presents a detailed list of all security rights for any number of selected directory objects in Hyena's right window.  Need to create a quick report of which accounts and groups have been given ResetPassword rights to all OUs ?  This can now be done in a few minutes in Hyena. 

Other Changes

There are too many to list !.  For a complete list of all changes in Hyena 6.x and 5.x versions, see the Whats New! section of Hyena's help file.

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