| User settings like colors and wallpaper are loaded for new desktops |
New desktops can be created with the user's color scheme, wallpaper and other settings. If you switch desktops, the settings of the newly activated desktop will be restored and the settings of the previous desktop will be stored and reactivated once the old desktop becomes the active desktop again.
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| Password Protected Desktops |
Desktops can now be created by the desktop switcher as password protected desktops using integrated NT security (i.e., DACLs on the individual desktops). You can also create desktops in such a way that not even Administrators have access to a certain desktop. However, it is always possible to switch back to the default desktop, so SUperior SU doesn't interfere with the security settings that Windows itself makes for the default desktop.
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| Secondary Desktops can be closed automatically with the primary ("default") desktop |
Desktops can optionally be marked at creation time as "close with primary desktop". If you log out from the default desktop, these desktops are automatically destroyed. This way no orphaned desktops that you forgot to close should be hanging around when you do a fresh logon to a machine.
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| Remote Deployment of SUperior SU across the network |
Using the SUperior SU Remote Console, which is available as a separate download, you can remotely install and uninstall SUperior SU on other computers across the network. You can also query their current state and remotely reboot these computers, if necessary. The same mechanism will be available for the remote deployment of patches that might have to be made for the current version of SUperior SU, in case bugs are found. The mechanisms for all the remote capabilities use standard Windows networking features (SMB, WMI) and builtin security. They do not rely on any proprietary service running on the remote computers.
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| Windows Key combinations work on secondary desktops |
Windows-Key combinations like Windows-E or Windows-F, etc. ... work now on secondary desktops as well - including the Windows-Key itself (for invoking the start menu).
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| Navigation between desktops using hotkeys |
Using Ctrl-Shift-Page-Up and Ctrl-Shift-Page-Down allows for easy cycling through all desktops using hotkeys. Of course, the hotkeys can be customized using the SUperior SU control panel applet.
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| Navigation between desktops using a desktop preview |
Using the Ctrl-Shift-F11 hotkey will show a dialog that can be used to display a preview of all the desktops (unless they are password protected and you are not allowed to view a particular desktop) before switching to a particular desktop. Of course, this hotkey can be customized using the SUperior SU control panel applet.
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| Balloon Tooltip with user information of the current desktop |
A nice balloon tooltip is invoked on every desktop that becomes the input desktop, showing the current user name, domain name, desktop name and, if applicable, the current Terminal Services or Fast User Switching Session ID. This way, e.g. if you have left your computer and return, after you have just unlocked your machine, you instantly see the user under whose behalf the currently active desktop/shell is running. On NT 4 this feature is implemented with a rectangular tooltip-like window. Of course, you can turn this feature off via the SUperior SU control panel applet if it annoys you.
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| XP Visual Styles Support |
All desktop elements of SUperior SU itself, when running on Windows XP, employ the Windows XP Visual Style "Luna". Also, when creating a new desktop, the SUperior SU Desktop Switcher goes to great lengths in order to provide a Luna-enabled desktop for users who have turned on Luna (in most cases, this works perfectly, however for a number of well-known situations, this doesn't work - in that case the standard windows environment is loaded for the user).
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| Invocation of Desktop Switcher Dialog with hotkey |
Using the Shift-Ctrl-F9 hotkey, you can invoke the Desktop Switcher Dialog. Of course, this hotkey can be customized using the SUperior SU control panel applet.
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| Command-line SU improvements |
The command-line su utility that is part of SUperior SU can now create processes on another desktop even when running in a Terminal Services session. Also, the command-line su allows to specify the user name in the domain\user style or the user@domain style.
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| Huge number of supported platforms |
SUperior SU is now running on NT3.51, NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server and Windows Longhorn Build 4051. It also runs in Terminal Services Sessions on Windows 2000 Server Terminal Services or Windows 2003 Server Terminal Services, also under Windows XP's Fast User Switching or Windows XP Remote Desktop.
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| Ctrl-Alt-Del starts task manager on secondary desktops |
Unlike competing products, such as NetExec, SUperior SU can invoke Task Manager after pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del even on secondary desktops. In order to activate this feature you have to turn on the option "Smart Task Manager invocation on secondary desktops" on the second property page of SUperior SU's control panel applet (labeled "Desktop switcher").
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| Tools, tools, tools,... |
SUperior SU comes with a huge number of tools that help administrate all aspects of using SUperior SU on a computer. You can find all these tools in the "SUperior SU Administration" folder in the SUperior SU start menu entry. One of the most useful tools is the "SUperior SU Anti-CPU-Hog Wizard": Quite a number of applications that start from Autorun entries in the registry or the startup folder in the start menu, behave weird when running on a desktop other than the default desktop, and either crash prematurely or, even worse, consume a lot of CPU power. Using this wizard, you can prevent these applications from starting on secondary desktops.
Another tool worth mentioning is the SUperior SU Remote Query Console, that you can use to remotely query other computers for the version of SUperior SU that they have installed. It can also be used to remotely uninstall SUperior SU from other computers or to reboot them. You can also install SUperior SU on other computers using the SUperior SU Remote Console which is available as a separate download.
All the other tools in the "SUperior SU Administration" folder in the SUperior SU start menu entry should be pretty self-explanatory.
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| Vastly improved security |
| SUperior SU Version 2, unlike its 1.x versions and competing products like NetExec, doesn't use any shared system resources (like pipes, files, mutexes, events, ...) that have NULL DACLs that allow for a DoS attack. Instead, every shared resource employs strong DACLs that protect the resources with NT's security subsystem. Also, unlike NetExec, SUperior SU doesn't show any User Interface in the privileged LocalSystem Account. Therefore it is not possible to attack SUperior SU with a so-called "Shatter Attack". Huge parts of SUperior SU have been redesigned from the ground up and with true paranoia in mind in order to achieve the maximum possible security. |