Most system administrators can tell you about the importance of being organized but few can pull it off very well. We're always being pulled in different directions, by different people. There are always those fires that need to be put out ASAP, sometimes at the least opportune times. So it's hard to always make the most efficient use of your time and keep things organized. We'd like to see what are some of the ways our visitors try and stay organized. What are the tools and methods you use to keep track of projects, your personal calendar, tasks, your files, your notes, etc. We welcome our visitors to post a comment in this thread and let us know what are the ways you keep yourself on track. We'll gather up the best ones and share them in another post, and for a couple of the best ones we have something special to give away to you. (It's a secret) To get you started I'll give you an example of my personal tools:

There is one program I use on every system and mobile device that helps me keep track of things. The main one is Evernote. It's a great piece of software that runs on all my Windows boxes, as well as my iPhone and Blackberry. It can keep track of screenshots and sync them into the cloud and to all my other devices. I also have the Chrome plugin installed so when I find something I need to remember (for instance, steps to fix a problem) I can highlight it and with a couple clicks instantly import it into Evernote. Since there are clients on both my iPhone and Blackberry when I'm on the go and need to make a note of something I can write it down or snap a picture and sync it up into the system for later use. Evernote also gives you an email address that you can add to your contacts to forward important emails into the system with. I have that setup with both my personal email and business email, so important emails get dumped into Evernote for quick retrieval. Evernote helps keep my thoughts, findings and important documentation easily accessible.

There you go, it's that easy. So lets hear how you keep yourself organized!

Windows XP just won't die. Like the living dead, it has come back to haunt Microsoft. Despite Microsoft's best efforts to kill it twice with Windows Vista and Windows 7, enterprise IT administrators have continued to allow it to run free on their systems and have no plans to stop. According to Dimensional Research, 48% of companies surveyed say they plan to continue using Windows XP even after the 2014 date at which Microsoft will no longer support it. By 2014, Windows 8 should be out and Microsoft will be very close to plotting the release of Windows 9. But almost half of the enterprise world will still be on a nearly 14 year old operating system that by then will be four versions old. Microsoft has already pushed back the drop dead date for Windows XP support multiple times and allowed OEMs to continue offering it on new PCs much longer than they should have. Microsoft contributed to their problem by not making Vista a functional upgrade for a lot of businesses. However, Microsoft has actually delivered some innovation and compelling reasons for total adoption of Windows 7, which is still at about 6% of businesses. Is the problem that Windows XP is just so dang good that no one wants to move? That Vista and 7 were horrible? Or that the majority of system administrators are lazy? via Computer World

The number of businesses still using Internet Explorer 6 is painful to see. Coupled with the fact that all of them are on Windows XP or Windows 2000, it turns from pain into terror, especially when it comes to security. For a lot of system administrators, the reasons to stay outweigh the reasons to upgrade. Websites that break, plugins that won't load, old software that isn't updated anymore.Trust me, I've been there.

However, a lot of it boils down to lazy and poor practices of system administration. Yes, you're lazy and you're bad at your job. Internet Explorer 6 was released in 2001. Yes, 2001, most of us don't even drive cars that old, let alone unleash people on the "information superhighway" with a browser that old. It was designed at a time when security was not the issue it is today. It was designed to work on operating systems like Windows 98 and Windows ME. Would you let people use Windows ME on your network? No! So why are you letting them use a browser that was built for it?!

"But it's not our fault, we don't write the bad software, or the non-compliant websites."

You're right, you don't. But you have the responsibility and the power to keep your network, and the rest of the Internet safe. The replacement for IE6 has been out now for just under 4 years. Actually, the replacement for it's replacement has been out almost a year. Meaning all you lazy administrators had two chances to migrate your systems over to an updated browser. Yes, you're lazy. If you have applications that "require" Internet Explorer 6, the decision should have been made to dump them or upgrade them long ago.

A line in the sand should have been drawn that said you were not willing to support such an old and insecure piece of software. Why is this such a big deal? Because security threats targeting users of Internet Explorer 6 continue to threaten the security of the Internet, and of your own network. Just this week, Microsoft admitted that IE6 was one of the vectors used to attack companies like Google. Why is Google still using Internet Explorer 6? Or I guess a better question is, why is Google even using Internet Explorer at all, when they develop Chrome?

Either way, it's disappointing to see that a company like Google, who tends to be on the bleeding edge of updates, is doing something stupid like running a almost decade old browser. The most recent threat, has no effect on users of Internet Explorer 7 or 8, even on Windows XP. Actually, Jonathan Ness over at MSRC Engineering put together a nice little chart explaining what browsers and operating systems are at risk with the latest attack vector.

The short of it, if you're still running Windows 2000 on workstations, you should be fired. If you're running Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6, you should march into your CIO's office on Monday and demand that you at least figure out how to migrate to Internet Explorer 7 ASAP, meanwhile worry that your network isn't the next one to be attacked by these unpatched exploits. If you're running Internet Explorer 7, you should turn DEP on to prevent future threats, or see if migrating to Internet Explorer 8 is possible. But really, for the small group who has already migrated to Windows Vista or Windows 7, enjoy your weekend. To all my fellow sysadmins out there: Stop being lazy, and start securing your networks.