Author Archive
January 06, 2009 by
Jason
You will use the following tools when you prepare images and deploy Windows Vista throughout your organization:
Sysprep This is the updated version, modified for Windows Vista.
Setup A new installation tool for Windows Vista that replaces WINNT and WINNT32.
ImageX The new command-line tool for creating WIM images.
Windows SIM A tool for creating and modifying Unattend.xml files.
PEimg The tool for customizing Windows PE 2.0 images.
Windows DS The new version of RIS, which adds the ability to deploy Windows Vista images as well as Windows PE 2.0 boot images. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
January 06, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft is optimizing Windows 7 in order to increase performance, and, in this context, the dispatcher lock is one of the components that has got cut off . According to the Redmond company, fewer hardware locks are synonymous with boosted parallelism, namely a new level of efficiency when it comes down to taking advantage of modern processing architectures. This is valid for Windows Server 2008 R2, namely Windows 7 Server, and, naturally, also for the Windows 7 client, since the two operating systems share the same code base.
“With Windows 7, the dispatcher lock is replaced with several finer-grained synchronization techniques, thus effectively distributing resource contention. The main benefits for applications include increased system performance and more optimal use of available hardware resources,” Phil Pennington, Windows Server Technical Evangelism, revealed.
Evolving from Windows Vista, Windows 7 is embracing the many core CPU world, delivering the promise of enhanced performance through the advantage represented by parallel computing. However, in order for Win7 to be tailored to many core processors, the platform’s kernel had to be freed from past relics such as the dispatcher lock. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
January 05, 2009 by
Jason Just ahead of the public Beta of Windows 7, Microsoft has started recommending security solutions that can be integrated with the next iteration of its Windows client even at this early stage in the platform’s development. The first products designed to protect users running Windows 7 Beta come from Kaspersky and AVG, according to the Redmond company, which have promised to work with ISVs in order to produce security software compatible with Windows Vista’s successor since 2008. In this context, when it comes down to bulletproofing Windows 7, AVG and Kaspersky are ahead of the rest of the security industry with AVG Internet Security 8.0, AVG Anti-Virus 8.0, and the Technical Preview of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows 7, respectively.
“Before you install antivirus software, check to make sure you don’t already have an antivirus product on your computer. If you do, be sure to remove the product you don’t want before you install the new one. It can cause problems on your computer to have two different antivirus products installed at the same time,” a message from Microsoft explains. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows 7 | No Comments »
January 05, 2009 by
Jason Since 2007, Microsoft has been offering free copies of Windows XP and Windows Vista for download, in order to make up for a handicap specific to the Windows client, namely the fact that two different versions of Internet Explorer cannot be installed and run simultaneously on the same operating system. While it is cooking the first Release Candidate build for Internet Explorer 8, the Redmond company is also supporting Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 6, a context in which it is a pain for developers to test their content on all versions of IE.
The situation has caused Microsoft to come up with the Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC images, a solution designed to circumvent the limitations of IE running on Windows via virtualization.
With the Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC images, Microsoft is offering developers no less than four free copies of Windows packaged as Virtual Hard Disk Images and designed to integrate with the company’s free virtualization offerings. The four VHD downloads feature a new release date, just ahead of the end of 2008, although the launched products are similar to those made available in August 2008, following the availability of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Read More»
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
January 02, 2009 by
Jason
I read something on Slashdot today that continues to perpetuate the myth that there if you’ve activated Windows more than twice using the same consumer product activation key, you’re hosed because Microsoft Licensing Services won’t provide another activation for you.
Folks - This is just plain wrong.
If you’re an individual user and you find that can’t activate your copy of Windows XP/Vista because you’ve used up your previous activations on your existing consumer product activation key and:
- You reformatted/reinstalled Windows on your PC
- You made a hardware change to your machine
- You upgraded to a new PC
…you can virtually always get another activation through Licensing Services in the US simply by calling the Microsoft Windows Vista Consumer Product Activation Phone Number at 1-866-740-1256. (Assuming of course that you aren’t abusing the privilege.) Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista, Windows XP | No Comments »
January 02, 2009 by
Jason Almost everyone who has worked with computers for any length of time at all has run into at least one situation in which a problem left a PC unbootable. What if you could return the machine to a bootable state just by inserting a USB flash drive though? Believe it or not, it is actually possible to install a bootable copy of Windows XP onto a flash drive and then boot a PC off of the flash drive. From there, you can use applications that you have installed on the flash drive (anti virus, anti spyware, disk repair, etc.) to fix the PC’s problem. In this article, I will show you how.
What’s the catch?
As with most cool new techniques, there are a few catches. For starters, not every PC is capable of booting from a USB flash drive. For the most part, computers manufactured within the last two years are generally able to boot from a flash drive. Older systems may require a BIOS update, or might not be able to boot from a flash drive at all.
Another catch is that not every flash drive will get the job done. The primary factors that limit your use of a particular flash drive are capacity and speed. Technically, speed isn’t really a limiting factor, but booting Windows will be painfully slow unless you use a flash drive that supports USB 2.0. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 1 Comment »
January 01, 2009 by
Jason A couple of updates is all that it takes for occasional stop errors affecting Windows XP-based computers to not be a nuisance at all. According to Microsoft, all versions of Windows XP, including Service Pack 3, can return a stop error message that kills the restart process. However, the company emphasized that the issues were occasional at best, and that, in this context, end-users might not even come across the restart failures. Still, when it comes down to reboot cycling tests, the problems are more likely to occur.
“When you restart a Windows XP-based computer, you may receive one of the following Stop error messages: Stop 0×00000050 (parameter1, 00000000, parameter3, 0×00000000) - PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and Stop 0×0000008E (0xc0000005, parameter2, parameter3, 0×00000000) – KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED,” Microsoft explained. “The parameters in these Stop error messages may vary, depending on the actual configuration. The symptoms of a Stop error may vary, depending on your computer’s system failure options.” Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | No Comments »
December 29, 2008 by
Jason Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista extends the operating system’s support for drivers that play nice with all Windows operating systems. Even as early as the first Beta of SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the upgraded Windows Driver Model is permitting developers to get a taste of what the gold bits for the service pack will offer in terms of driver compatibility. According to Microsoft, the Registry Callback feature of WDM was kicked up a notch.
“Microsoft developers have upgraded and improved the Registry Callback feature of the Windows Driver Model (WDM). They have added 6 enumerations and 3 structures to the kernel architecture that will give you more flexibility in working with registry keys for filter drivers,” a member of the Windows Driver Kit team revealed.
At the start of December 2008 Microsoft made available for download the first Beta bits of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP1. The Redmond company revealed that the 6 fresh enumerations added were: RegNtPreRestoreKey, RegNtPostRestoreKey, RegNtPreSaveKey, RegNtPostSaveKey, RegNtPreReplaceKey, and RegNtPostReplaceKey. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
December 28, 2008 by
Jason
This December Microsoft has prioritized the update releases for Windows Embedded operating system. In this context, the company delivered the patches for security vulnerabilities in the platforms, but did not offer the package of optional refreshes. The explanation offered by the Redmond company indicated that the work poured into the finalization of Windows XP Embedded Service Pack 3 and Windows Embedded Standard 2009 caused the optional updates for December to be discontinued, according to Gina Bentley, the Servicing and Support program manager for the Vertical Industries and Embedded Windows (VIEW) group.
“We are putting the final touches on the December Security roll-ups to bring these products up to date with all security releases since they went into code freeze,” Bentley explained on December 12. “We want you to have everything you need to start creating your new device images built with Windows Embedded Standard 2009! We gave extra consideration to this roll-up release, and that, combined with holiday schedules, means that we opted to take a break and not release an Optional Update package for December.” Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | No Comments »
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