Changes in CyberPatriot Scoring Engine v3
GUI Changes
The first noticeable changes are in the Coach Configuration Tool. The graphical user interface (GUI) has been redesigned for enhanced visual appeal and ease of use, additional tabs have been added to increase functionality, and more menu features have been added to greatly extend what can be done with the tool.
The new GUI is now resizable and relies more on the use of dynamically populated list views rather than dropdown boxes in order to display more information to the user. This feature is noticeable in the Installed Programs, Startup, Shares, Scheduled Tasks List View, and Services tabs in version 3 of the program. An alternative view exists for scheduled tasks called Scheduled Task Tree View, which corresponds more closely to the layout of the Microsoft Task Scheduler. Both Scheduled Task views work with the same data, though in alternate layouts and changes in one will be reflected in the other. In addition to these changes, the Users tab has been completely redesigned to show current users on the system and provides a more intuitive display for the configuration of each user. Another noteworthy change for the GUI is that all “Not Scoring” checkboxes have been changed to “Scoring” checkboxes, which is easier for users to logically understand.
New Features
Version 3 also introduces several new tabs that extend the functionality of the program. Inbound Firewall Rules and Outbound Firewall Rules correspond closely to the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, and provide a granular approach to scoring on firewall settings. For Windows server operating systems, a Roles tab is now provided, and for all other Windows Operating Systems, a Features tab has been added. In addition to these, a Summary tab has been added for the Coach’s benefit that shows all currently scoring items and the configuration settings for each one convenient list view. Any item in this listing can be removed by unchecking the Scoring checkbox. Also, the entire list can be exported to an HTML page for the coach to print or import into a Microsoft Excel workbook.
The most incredible new features of version 3 are provided as File menu options. New options for “Save as” and “Load Saved Configuration” allow for coaches to manage multiple configuration files, each with settings defined by the coach. These saved configuration files can be imported to new virtual machines that run the same operating system under which the files were saved. The tool also has an optional automatic save feature to provide a more streamlined user experience. Even better, the tool now features a “Match System Settings” menu option, which will change all the settings in the GUI to match with the current settings on the operating system. This feature allows coaches to see exactly how a virtual machine is configured before modifying settings to score on.
Added Operating System Support
In addition to these visual changes, behind the scenes the Coach Configuration Tool has been redesigned to work more dynamically and in a more modular fashion, so that it will be more extensible for future releases. Along with these changes came support for the newer operating systems, including Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Server 2012 (in addition to the previous support for Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2).
Faster Scoring Engine process
In the Scoring Engine Component of version 3, the methods of scoring check the system configuration using native Windows methods. These changes have yielded faster update times for the CyberPatriot Score Report when scoring on a small number of items. To make things easier, the Scoring Engine component starts up automatically when a new configuration is saved, and it also starts up whenever a user logs into the system, so a coach never has to worry about this background process because it should always run whenever it is applicable to do so.