PCTips Box

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 might very well deliver users from the Reduced Functionality Mode black screen of death kill switch, but the prerequisite updates for the service pack are doing a wonderful job at cutting access to the operating system. Following Microsoft’s monthly patch cycle non-security updates released on February 12, 2007, containing two of the remaining prerequisite updates for Vista SP1, Vista users began complaining about installation failures. Some Vista machines, after the implementation of updates via Automatic Updates are thrown in an infinite reboot loop, while stuck on displaying the following message: “Configuring Updates Stage 3 of 3 0% complete. Do not turn off Computer.” (more…)

Windows Vista comes with a collection of built in network diagnostics tools from the Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) to the Network and Sharing Center. Essentially Microsoft built Vista to identify problems all on its own, come up with a resolve and then fix the problem. At the basis of the self diagnosis mechanism is the Network Diagnostics Framework, a feature integrated by default into the operating system designed to identify and isolate context sensitive problems and repair them automatically or provide guidance for the end user in troubleshooting common networking issues. And yet, in some scenarios all the mitigations set up by the Redmond company in Vista will fail miserably.

Microsoft confirmed that Windows Vista-based machines can experience a variety of issues when connecting to a wireless network environment. (more…)

The Safely Remove Hardware mechanism is by no means something new to Windows Vista. In fact the feature has only survived into Vista with little to no enhancements. Essentially, Safely Remove Hardware is an integer part of the Vista model for managing Plug and Play devices, designed to notify the operating system that a certain item will be removed. The feature will make sure that there is no more interaction between Windows Vista and the Plug and Play hardware attached in order to streamline the removal of specific devices without having to shut down the operating system and without leading to loss of data.

“Some Plug and Play devices can be installed or removed while the system is running. For example, USB, IEEE 1394, and PC Card devices can be added to and removed from a fully powered system. When such hardware is added or removed, (more…)