the windows 7 blog

Personalize your windows installation

2011-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

Personalize your windows installation

Boot Options: DEP and PAE

Click on Start, type cmd and press Enter. Copy the first of the following lines and then right click in the small window and choose Paste. Press Enter. You should receive a message that “the operation completed successfully”. Proceed with the following lines, one after the other

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot

bcdedit /set {default} device boot

bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot

bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot

bcdedit /set {current} nx AlwaysOff

bcdedit /set PAE ForceEnable

Windows Theme

Windows 7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always easy to decide which one you like the best. So why not choose a few, and let Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow?

Right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop Background, then hold down Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd like the images to be changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if you'd like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and enjoy the show.

Microsoft has also provided more regional wallpapers for you to try. Click Desktop Background > Browse, navigate to \Windows\Globalization\MCT, choose a region you like - MCT-AU\Australia, say - and click OK to see the new images.

If you don't see the MCT folder click on Start, type Folder and choose “folder options”. In the small window click on the View tab and put a check mark by “show hidden files, folders and drives” and uncheck “hide protected operating system files”, Click OK on the warning message, then click Apply and OK. On the desktop you might now see one or two Desktop.ini icons. You can delete those. Ignore any warning messages.

Copy any images you like in a new folder somewhere (your backup /software partition is a good place if they are on an internal drive). Go through the rest of the countries and choose the images you like.

There are countless backgrounds and images available on the web as well, either as Theme Packs or as individual images.

Back in the Personalization window at the bottom of the page click on Desktop Background. Click on the Browse button to browse to the folder where you have saved the images. Click on Select all and then choose the slideshow options (time and shuffle or not..........)

Back in the Personalization window, at the bottom of the window now click on Window Color. Change the color if you want to, but also click on Advanced appearance settings. Click on the arrow by Desktop and choose Border padding. In the Size box highlight 4 and type 0 (zero) instead. Click Apply and OK. Now click “Save changes” in the Color and appearance window.

Choose a screen saver if you want to use one.

When you are done and back in the Personalization window, right click on the Unsaved Theme and choose “save Theme”, give it a name and click Save. Close the personalization Window

Explorer tweaks and Folder settings

The menu bar (the one with File/Edit/View/Tools/Help) is no longer visible by default in Explorer. Thos options can be accessed by different methods, but if you want it back click on Start, type Folder and choose “folder options”. In the small window click on the View tab and put a check mark by Always show menus, click Apply and OK.

If you have left any partitions empty or have memory cards and other storage devices attached that are empty, these are no longer displayed by default in Explorer. To get them back either click on Tools in Explorer and choose Folder options or access the Folder options as described above and in the View tab uncheck “hide empty drives in the computer folder”

It’s generally a good idea to set up Explorer to display file extensions. In the Folder options window, in the View tab uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types". Click Apply and OK.

If you don’t want Explore to remember what you have previously searched for: click on Start, type regedit and press Enter.

In the left pane navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows. Right click on Windows and choose New Key. Name the new key Explorer.

Highlight the Explore key and in the right pane right click and choose new DWORD (32-bit) Value. Please note this is regardless if your system is 32 or 64 bit!). Name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions

Right click the new vaule, choose Modify and in the box type 1 and press OK. Close the registry editor

Add Take ownership, disable 8.3 names and last access, move apps into foreground immediately, put windows kernel in memory. All of these require registry changes so instead of doing them one by one, copy the following lines in notepad:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Explorer

; Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]

@="Take Ownership"

"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command]

@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"

"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas]

@="Take Ownership"

"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command]

@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

; NTFS, Disable 8.3 names and Last Access (speeds up disk access)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]

"NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:00000001

"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001

; Specifies the time, following user input, during which the system keeps apps from moving into the foreground.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

"ForegroundLockTimeout"=dword:00000000

;put the Windows Kernel in memory

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]

"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001

Click on File and Save as. At the bottom of the new window click on the arrow to the right of Save as type and choose All files. In the File name box type explorer.reg and save the file somewhere (your backup/software partition is good place). Close Notepad when you are done.

Open Explorer and navigate to the saved file and double click it. Answer Yes to any warning. Back in explorer right click on any folder and you will notice a new option “take ownership”.

Internet Explorer

Even if you choose another browser, you will probably have to use IE at least occasionally so take a few moments to set it up. Launch IE from the taskbar and click on Ask me later. Close all other dialogues that may open by default.

In IE click on Tools and choose Internet Options

1. The general tab

- Choose your home page by typing the address in the Home Page box. You can have multiple home pages, just type each address on a new line

- Choose if you want to keep the browsing history and for how long. Also click on Settings and put a checkmark by “never” to never check for new versions of stored pages and a 8 for the size to be used for stored pages. You can also move the Temp folder out of the system partition: click on Move folder and place it where you want it.

- In the Search section click on Settings. At the bottom of the new window click on Find more search providers. Choose your favourite one. You can search for the name in the Search box, for example type Google and choose Google Search suggestion for the “international” version of Google. You will have to close the add-on window and click again on the Settings tab to see your new provider in the list. Set it as default and then you can remove Bing.

- In the Tabs section click on Settings. If you have multiple home pages, choose if you want all of them or only the first one to open when you launch IE. If you want to use IE in “single window mode” also put a check mark by “always open pop-ups in a new tab”. Click OK when done.

- There are options to customize Colors, Languages, Fonts and Accessibility just below the Tabs section.

2. The security tab: the only question here is whether to leave Protected Mode enabled or not. For security reasons you should leave it on. Bear in mind however that some sites and some applications might not work with protected mode on. If you run into problems this is where you can disable it. This is also where you can specify sites that you want to be treated as “trusted”, like your bank or work place, to ensure they will not be blocked by any of the security features.
3. The privacy tab:

- Most sites will want to set a cookie on your computer. Most of them are innocent but some can be used to “spy” on you. Then again some sites will have to have a cookie installed to work properly, some banking sites for example, some sites use that to remember your credentials (user name and password). You can add sites that you want to be allowed to set cookies by clicking on the Sites button. Type the address of the site and press on Allow, then press OK.

-Pop-up blocker: it is a good idea to leave this one on

-InPrivate: Put a check mark by “do not collect data for use by InPrivate Filtering”.

4. The Content tab: See if you need any of those features. I leave the autocomplete feature off for security reasons.

5. The Connections tab: only useful if you need to manually add a VPN connection, otherwise better left alone

6. The Programs tab:

-if you don’t plan to use IE as your default browser uncheck “tell me if Internet Explorer is not the default web browser”

-Add-ons: there are lots of those and some are quite useful. Above we have already changed the default search provider, some other I use are in the Accelerators category: Blogger for my blog, Google Translate, a currency converter, google maps, google preview, bugmenot, send with gmail

7. The Advanced tab: in the Security section but a check mark by all SSL and TLS options

To remove the search box in IE, copy and paste the following text in Notepad. Create an ietweaks.reg file as you did above for the explorer.reg file, then double click to add the change to the registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; IE7 Remove Search Box

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InfoDelivery\Restrictions]

"NoSearchBox"=dword:00000001

Firefox

If you plan to use another browser than IE, this is the time to install and configure it. I use Firefox for several reasons and this is how I install and configure it

1. Download the latest package and install it. Run firefox once to create a profile.
2. You can import settings from IE, but I have used FF before and have a backup so I am going to use that to configure the browser. The backup is done with a firefox extension called FEBE so the next step is to install FEBE.
3. Set up options for FEBE: what to backup, where and how often. Click on options, clik on Additional items and choose cookies, bookmarks, preferences, form fill history and permissions. In the directory tab choose where to place the backup. The Software partition is a good place, create a folder Firefox and you can place there all the extensions and the backups. Put a checkmark by Use timestamped directories and choose how many you want to keep. On the Schedule tab choose how often you want the backup to run. I set mine to once a week. That means that I set the backup reminder to 8 so if a backup is missed I will get notified the next day. Restart Firefox and go to Tools > FEBE > restore and choose what to restore.
4. Extensions: Change for currency conversions, Converter to convert measure units, Downthemall for downloads, Dragdropupload for easy upload of files and text, IEview to open pages in IE in case they don’t work well with FF, IMtranslator to translate text, Informenter for all that info that I enter everyday in various webforms, noscript for addes security, tabmixplus to control tab behaviour, respoof to spoof urls when needed. Google toolbar is no longer an extension; you can install it as a tool bar.

Windows Media Player

If you can still find it somewhere, download and install WMP9 Winter Fun Pack. This will install a plug in allowing you to export information about your songs/videos to an excel spreadsheet.

If you want to store your music outside the OS partition open Explorer , double click Computer, double click the C: partition, double click Users, double click your user name, right click on Music and choose Properties. Click on the Location tab and click on Move. Navigate to where you want the Music folder and when done click Apply and OK.

Open media player and right click on the arrow to the right of Library in the menu bar. Either put a check mark by Show Menu Bar and then on the Menu Bar click on Tools and choose options, or choose Tools from the right click menu and then choose Options.

1. Player tab: set updates to monthly
2. Rip music tab: choose where you want your music to be saved and choose how you want the file name. I set mine to Song_Album_Artist. The order is changed using the Move up and Move down buttons and I choose and underscore as separator to avoid problems with file naming conventions. Click Ok when done. Set rip settings to MP3 for compatibility reasons, adjust the quality as desired. Click Apply when done
3. Devices tab: some advanced configuration options are available under the Advanced button
4. Burn tab: Remove the checkmark by “use media information to arrange files in folders on the disk if you want to arrange the files in a certain order and not necessarily by track number/name. Click Apply
5. Performance tab: leave as it is, but if you experience problems with video and audio getting out of sync, this is where you can set the player to drop frames to keep the 2 synchronized.
6. Library tab: I want my files to have a consistent name and to be arranged in folders so I put a check mark by “rename music files using rip music settings” and “rearrange music in rip music folder”. Click Apply
7. Plug-ins tab: there doesn’t seem to be any good free plug-ins available for Windows 7
8. Privacy tab: I uncheck “automatically check if protected files need to be refreshed” and “set clock on devices automatically” and also everything under the History section. Click Apply when done.
9. Security tab: Leave as it is
10. DVD tab: set limit for content rating if you want to restrict what can be played
11. Network tab: Leave as it is

Click on Organize and choose the options you want to see in the left pane of WMP. For example I want to have an option to sort the music library by year so I put a check mark by Year in the Music category. I also want to see all my playlists so I put a check mark by All in the Playlists category. I will not use WMP to view pictures so I remove the checkmarks from the Pictures category

If the player has not done that already in the background, click on Tools and choose “apply media information changes”

TIME FOR BACKUP:Personalized. Clean up, defrag and backup. A Windows based backup will do at this point. If you have a bootable recovery CD from Acronis or Macrium or any other backup software, use that to create a backup.

Clean Install Windows 7 - Setup

2010-12-29T07:54:00.001-08:00

Preparation

Gather installation DVD and serial numbers for Windows as well as installation files and serials for any licensed applications. Have the motherboard and network card drivers at hand and any usernames and passwords needed for internet access. Decide on a partitioning scheme.

Ideally set up 3 partitions: one for the OS, one for user files (documents, pics, music, videos, email ) and one for backups and software and drivers.

If possible set up a separate partition for downloads.

Split the user files on 2-3 partitions if you have more than 50Gb in any of the categories.

Split the backups and software on different partitions if you have more than 50Gb of software and drivers.

The backup partition should be about 2.5 times as large as the OS partition + the combined size of the user files.

If you have several physical hard drives, move the backups on a separate drive, then move the partition(s) containing user files out of the drive that will contain the OS if space permits. Ideally the drive containing the OS should only contain the OS and the downloads partition. A second drive should be used for user created files. The Backups and software can be on an external drive, but make sure that drive is attached if you are going to use scheduled backups!

Disconnect all hardware not needed for the installation (network cards, external drives, internal drives except the one where the OS will be installed, printers, video cameras..). Insert the Windows DVD.

Install Windows

Reboot and when prompted press any key to boot from CD. If you don’t get this message and the computer doesn’t boot to DVD, check the boot order in bios: should be set to boot from CD/DVD

If you don’t know how to access BIOS on your system watch the bottom of the screen closely during a boot, a message should appear for a second or so telling you which key or combination of keys to press to access setup, for example Del or F2. If you can’t see any message Google for “how to access bios on NAME OF YOUR MOTHERBOARD or PC MANUFACTURER”, for example “how to access bios on a Rampage Extreme II” or “how to access bios on a dell computer”

· Choose your language, and keyboard, choose “install now”, accept the license

· Choose custom installation, choose the drive/partition where you want to install, click on “drive options” under the list of available drives. Delete existing OS partition and any other you will not need any more and then create a new partition for the OS, minimum 30GB, recommend 60Gb. Create additional partitions as needed until the whole drive is partitioned.

· Make sure the partition where you want to install Windows is selected, and then click on “next”. When prompted with dialog box saying “To ensure that all Windows features work correctly, Windows might create additional partitions for system files”, click on Cancel button.

· Setup will now start. After a while the computer will reboot. Do not press a key to “boot from CD” or you’ll have to restart the installation! Setup will continue after the first reboot and configure registry and services before a second reboot. Once again, don’t press any key to boot from CD!

· When asked for a user name, type the name you want to use. Choose a computer name. Don’t enter a password at this time, especially if you want to use the built-in Administrator account later on. Type your product key if you have one, otherwise leave this blank. Uncheck the “automatically activate” check box. Choose “ask me later” for Windows updates.

· Set up date/time and time zone. Choose Home network for the network if prompted. Click on skip if asked about a homegroup. Another couple of screens and you are in the desktop! Do not allow windows to update itself or to activate, ignore messages about security for now. Eject the installation DVD.

Enable the built-in Administrator (optional)

Click on Start, right click on Computer and choose Manage.

In the left pane click on Local Users and groups, in the right pane double-click Users. Double click Administrator, remove the check-mark from “account is disabled”, give it a name and click on Apply and OK.

Close all open windows. Log off ( click Start then on the arrow next to “shut off”). Log in as the built-in Administrator.

Repeat the above steps until you have the list of users in the right pane. Delete the first user.

Disable Autostart on error

Click on Start, right click on Computer and choose Properties. In the left pane click on Advanced System Settings

In the new window click on the Advanced tab, then in the Startup and Recovery section click on Settings.

Uncheck Automatically restart and click on OK. Click OK again. Close all open windows and shut the computer down.

Install Hardware

Reattach all peripherals and reboot.

Click on Start, right click on Computer and choose Manage. In the left pane click on Disk Management. Check that all your drives/partitions are listed. Format and assign letters and labels (names) to partitions if necessary (to acces the format and naming options right click on a partition or an unformatted area and go through the options as applicable)

When you are done with drives and partitions, in the left pane click on Device Manager

Look for devices with Question marks, or devices listed under Other Devices. Those are the ones for which you have to install drivers.

· If the manufacturer of the device has provided you with a file that ends in .exe, double click the file to install the driver.

· If the drivers are in a file ending in zip, right click the file and choose Extract all. Choose where you want the files to be extracted, for example in a folder on your Backup drive. In device manager right click on the device that needs the driver you have just extracted and choose “update driver software”. Click on “browse my computer for driver software”. Now browse to where you have extracted the files and click Next.

Reboot when all devices are installed.

Networking

The bottom right of your screen should look like this on a wired network:

The middle icon is the network icon. On a wireless network right click to see available networks. Click on connect by the network you want to connect to and provide the password when required.

Click once on the network icon to see what network you are connected to, click on the link to open “Network and sharing center”.

If you want to share files/folders over the network or use files/folders shared by others, set up your shares or make sure you can access the network shares now.

I don’t use the public folders or the Homegroup options, so I just use the good old right click and choose Properties then click on the Sharing tab and go through the options from there...........

Activate Windows

Click on Start, right click on Computer and choose Properties. At the bottom of the page click on Activate Windows now

TIME FOR BACKUP: CLEAN INSTALL. Clean up, defrag and backup. A Windows based backup will do at this point. If you have a bootable recovery CD from Acronis or Macrium or any other backup software, use that to create a backup.

Applying tweaks

2008-12-17T05:21:00.001-08:00

Skip Rearm: location has changed from HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SL to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform
Defender: not listed in the start up list in msconfig. In the register, the value in HKLM\System\ControlSet001\Services\WinDefend Start was still set to 2 after I had set it to disabled in Services. I have now manuallychanged it to 4 (disabled)
Drivers: on a fairly new machine all hardware and peripherals were recognized and installed OOB.
1. Mobile phone: not installed automatically, no updates on line. Pointed to the Vista:\Windows folder (I dual boot with Vista) and Windows Mobile Device Centre was installed
2. Old (10 years!) TV tuner card: installed the W2K drivers when pointed to the correct folder
3. Printer (old, 5-6 years): had a question mark, pointed to online update and it installed some newer driver
UAC: Start > Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Windows Solution Center > User Account Control Settings in the left pane. There are 4 available settings
3. As above but don't dim the desktop

4.Never notify

I've set it on 3, and will see how things go when I start installing apps.........

Windows 7: loads of new services - Part two

2008-12-12T06:10:00.001-08:00

Sensors MTP Monitor Service: This service allows MTP sensors to communicate sensor data. If this service is stopped or disabled, MTP sensors will no longer function.

In other words, this service monitors MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) sensors (such as a cell phone with a GPS receiver) to communicate sensor data to programs.

As it is, there are lots of problems with existing GPS devices connected to Windows:

1. Most devices usea NMEA proprietary format to provide information, Windows Location Platform gives free open APIs standard

2. These devices are connected via COM so only one app can use location data at one time. Windows Location Platform enables concurrent access to several apps at the same time

3. Location-aware apps do not work without GPS. Windows Location Platform has support for different location sensors (read providers):
GPS
IP Geo Location
Wi Fi Triangulation
Cell Tower Triangulation
Any new kind of a location provider

And if you do not happen to have any of the above solutions, you can still use "Default Location Provider" which enables user to enter his location into one place where it will be then used by every app

This service is absent from build 6952!

Windows Biometric Service: The Windows biometric service gives client applications the ability to capture, compare, manipulate, and store biometric data without gaining direct access to any biometric hardware or samples. The service is hosted in a privileged SVCHOST process.

There is a comma absent in that text. What the mean is that the Biometric Service itself will not gain direct access to the biometric hardware; it will simply connect the corresponding software to the hardware. The point is to try to unify the way biometric sensors are installed and interact with windows/the user.

WWAN AutoConfig: This service manages mobile broadband (GSM & CDMA) data card/embedded module adapters and connections by auto-configuring the networks. It is strongly recommended that this service be kept running for best user experience of mobile broadband devices.

Once again, if the device manufacturers implement the correct Windows APIs and instructions for drivers requirements, this will be a vast improvement over the existing situation where the user experience is a new one each time a new mobile broadband device is connected. This service will also simplify the task of roaming from one mobile broadband network to another, much the same as roaming between wireless networks has been improved: the user does not need to launch a new application and perform several steps in order to connect the device to the internet, all the user will be required to do is specify which device to use and if necessary enter appropriate credentials (username and/or password)

Windows 7 Build 6956 torrented

2008-12-10T03:37:00.000-08:00

How can IT journalists not "get" the frenzy enthusiasts feel about a new build of a future operating system?

The article from the Inquirer states:

"some users have fiddled enough with the virtual disk image and the 6801 build install to create a fully installable ISO."
That would be the Chinese, again.

And further down:
"We still don’t know what the fuss is about, though. Once you’ve overcome the ISO hurdle, jumped over the activation timer and ran through the WGA protection gate, you get Windows 7 Beta 1 out in two weeks time reinstall... quite frankly, why bother?"

Because by that time you've had one month to pla with this buil. What works, what doesn't, start writing guides and how-tos. It is a VERY time consumming process, but it is what saved Vista in early days, when the only way to install some hardware was by using modified drivers, written by enthusiasts, or one specific version of an older driver that Vista would accept, once again which one determined by relentless and endless testing by enthusiasts. NVIDIA, printer manufacturers, SoundBlaster and others probably waited until the RC/RTM versions and were more than 6 months behind releasing truly vista-compatible drivers. Not to mention Microsoft who never quite got right the list of compatible software and devices, although wikipedia has had a continously updated list since Vista Beta 1.
In other words, we want to reassure all future Windows 7 users that we are hard at work testing hardware and software to ensure the will have a positive experience once Windows 7 finally hits their desktops (by which time we will be busy scouring the torrent sites for alpha builds of Windows 8 :))

Windows 7: loads of new services - Part one

2008-12-06T02:37:00.001-08:00

No more ready boost: no loss at all, really.

3 services have been renamed:

SL UI Notification Service is now SPP Notification service
Software Licensing is Software Protection
Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0 is now Windows Font Cache Service

20 new services

Adaptive brightness: This service monitors ambient light sensors to detect changes in ambient light and adjust the display brightness. If this service is stopped or disabled, the display brightness will not adapt to lighting conditions.

What the description doesn't say is that this service will only ever be useful if your PC comes equipped with said sensor. If you do have one though, below is a screen shot (borrowed from http://www.istartedsomething.com/) of how a map would look without and with this service enabled while viewed in outdoor settings.

AppID service: Determines identity of an application.

OK, that was MicroSpeak for you: each word is simple and clear, all the words together form a correct sentence and you don't know anything more about the subject than you did before you started reading that sentence.

I know what appID is, I know of several was it is used and needed (licensing – related tasks mostly), but why does it have to be a service?

I'll have to do some digging on this one.....

Digging done: Disabling this service will prevent Application Control Policies from being enforced.

Still a bit of MicroSpeak, but seems more related to Group Policy Settings, like who is allowed to run which apps and with what type of credentials

Encrypting File System (EFS): Provides the core file encryption technology used to store encrypted files on NTFS file system volumes. If this service is stopped or disabled, applications will be unable to access encrypted files.

This one is started, on Automatic, and if you try to stop it the computer will just reboot. SEE COMMENT BELOW

EFS has been around since W2K, never before was it a service. It has also gained the name "delayed recycle bin" due to the frequency with which users get locked out of their encrypted files. While data encryption is arguably a necessary evil in an enterprise, it is a disaster waiting to happen on a home PC.

Investigate if the service can be rendered harmless via GPO or other methods.

It has returned to being a normal kind of service that can safely be stopped and disabled.

HomeGroup Listener: Listener Hosting service for HomeGroup.
HomeGroup Provider: Network provider service for the HomeGroup.

Obviously related to the new "home group" flavour of network. Will probably prove helpful to home users who have had trouble configuring shares on the home network, and more geeky users might also use the feature as it really simplifies the sharing of files.

Credential Manager Service: Provides secure storage and retrieval of credentials to users, applications and security service packages.

Only useful for logins to network resources that require a password. Potential security problem and most enterprises use smart cards/key-generators/short lived passwords.

Disk Defragmenter: Provides Disk Defragmentation

Why is this a service all of a sudden? Check if Defrag still works in Vista with task scheduler disabled.

Peer Distribution: This service caches network content from peers on the local subnet.

Kind of live offline files: network data is automatically cached locally. Useful on slow/busy networks, most useful though in enterprise settings where the first user retrieves the data from the far-away-server, but all subsequent users on the same subnet (location) will retrieve the data from the first user which is bound to be faster and to free server resources.

It seems this service is absent from the list until such time as offline files are created

Pong Service for Wireless USB: The PngSvc service hosts the cable based association module for Wireless USB devices. Cable association involves establishing trust between a Wireless USB device and host by exchanging a secret key over a USB cable. If this service is disabled, then a Wireless USB device will not be able to perform cable based association with the host and hence will not be able to function. If you intend to use any Wireless USB devices, it is strongly recommended that you not disable this service.

Why is this a service all of a sudden?

RPC Endpoint Mapper: Resolves RPC interfaces identifiers to transport endpoints. If this service is stopped or disabled, programs using Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services will not function properly.

Obviously this service is paired with the RPC Locator service. Is this Microsoft trying to break-down services/applications that call on too many functions in smaller chunks?

No longer present in more recent builds

Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service: Provides support for the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) to connect to remote computers using VPN. If this service is disabled, users will not be able to use SSTP to access remote servers.

That's half of the new services, the other half will be described in upcoming posts…..

(USD 2.64)

Testing Windows 7

2008-11-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

First build to be released, 6801. And so the fun begins........
I have set up my "test lab". With limited resources one has to make do, so W7 got installed in a VM and as dual boot with Vista on my desktop PC and my laptop.

Lab setup:

VVM: Vista Ultimate running in VMWare on the desktop
W7VM: Windows 7 running in VMWare on the desktop
VD: Vista Ultimate on the desktop
W7D: Windows 7 on the desktop
VL: Vista Business running on an Asus R1F
W7L: Windows 7 running on an Asus R1F
Above machines on a network where VD/W7D are on a wired connection, VL/W7L are on a wireless connection and 3 other PCs run Vista Basic, XP Professional SP2 and XP Home SP2. All machines share a printer connected to the VD/W7D.
A second network is available if need be, wireless only.

Installation

All 3 installs went without incidents.
In VMWare W7 installed without any problems and VMTools have been installed and work. Sharing partitions, copy/paste from physical to virtual, connecting/disconnecting peripherals, everything just worked.
On the desktop the only device that was not recognized OOB was a very old TV tuner card. Pointed the driver update wizard to the folder with the XP drivers for that card and one reboot later no more unrecognized devices......Prett impressive for a pre-beta OS.
On the laptop there were 2 drivers not found, the touch chip driver and the biometric coprocessor. For the first one the built-in solution manager pointed to the correct download page for the driver, and for the second one I have pointed the driver update wizard to the Windows/System32/Driver Store folder on the Vista partition and once again no more unrecognized devices.
The only thing I never got to work in Vista, the software for my old HP PSC 2175 printer, doesn't work in W7 either. My accepted work around, Omnipage standard edition, installed and works in all 3 installs.