PCTips Box

In the first half of June 2008, when they gave a taste of the new features cooking for Internet Explorer 8 which are planned for integration starting with Beta 2, Jane Maliouta - IE Program Manager and James Pratt - IE Product Manager pointed out that IE8 would come with slipstream support by default. This is valid as early as the Beta 1 Build of Internet Explorer 8, but only with Windows Vista RTM, Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft has left Windows XP SP3 out of the IE8 slipstream equation, this is nothing new for XP, as slipstreaming was also not supported even with Internet Explorer 7.

“With IE8 and Windows Vista, you are able to integrate IE8 into the image file of the original operating system in about 15 minutes. No more booting the OS image, manually installing IE and re-capturing the image. The slipstreaming support also extends to IE8 cumulative updates and language packages. Slipstreaming IE8 into an OS image will only be supported on Vista and Windows Server 2008 platforms. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do not currently offer a solution for slipstreaming Windows components, which are built using update.exe,” Maliouta revealed. (more…)

Ever had the feeling that Microsoft is scrambling to salvage what little it still can out of Windows Vista? While continuously claiming that its latest Windows client is not a failure, and pointing to the 140 million licenses sold as of March 2008, the Redmond company seems keen on demonstrating that it can pull the operating system out of the sinking sands of public opinion. In this regard, Service Pack 1 is indeed used as a floating device, but a tad of marketing on the side can’t possibly hurt, can it? The focus for the time being, as far as Microsoft is concerned, is business users. Traditionally slow to upgrade to a new Windows release, corporate clients are now looking at Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 as alternatives to Vista upgrades. The software giant is working to push Vista SP1 down their throats even if XP SP3 continues to work, and despite the proximity of Windows 7. (more…)

Windows Vista RTM has had quite a rough ride throughout 2007, with Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Stave Ballmer acknowledging software and hardware incompatibility problems. And while Service Pack 1 is essentially designed to soften all the rough edges of the latest Windows client, Vista SP1 is not without problems of its own. In this regard, Microsoft informed of a glitch in the Configuration Data store on Vista SP1 and Vista RTM which when the user attempts to resume a copy of the operating system from hibernation is instead informed that the platform was shutdown.

“When you wake a computer that is running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) from hibernation, you may receive the following error message: ‘System was shutdown unexpectedly’,” Microsoft explained. “This issue occurs when the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store contains incorrect information for the Resume from Hibernate entry.” (more…)