Microsoft

If you are testing/installing Forefront Client Security on XP, you need to install the filter rollup documented here.

It looks like the KB article hasn't been updated because it still says you have to call MS to get the hotfix, but you can actually download the hotfix from here.

As a nice side effect, you'll get an updated XP kernel too.

Some places have been suggesting to use 'enablecredsspsupport:i:0' as a way to avoid getting prompted for username and password on RDP connections. The side effect is that it also disables Network Level Authentication support in Vista and Longhorn, which is a bad thing.

A great post and FAQ about RDP 6.0 auth issues can be found here.

PCMCIA Compact Flash adapters won't cut it due to the interface limitations. Most laptops you will run Vista on come with a Cardbus port (or 2) and due to all the devices built into these laptops, 9 times out of 10, you never use the port. You can slap it into the laptop and forget that it is even there for the most part, except for the speed increase, ESPECIALLY if you are doing anything that would typically cause a SWAP FRENZY like running many virtual machines on a laptop.

USB keys are handy when they aren't too slow for ReadyBoost (remember, not all USB keys are created equal). The only downside is that they typically will stick out like a sore thumb drive.

I've had the best performance with formatting my Lexar Lightning 4GB stick with FAT16 with 64K clusters. Why? ReadyBoost.sfcache is just one big file and there is no need for all the features of FAT32 or NTFS. I'm still curious why they didn't do ReadyBoost at the block level instead of the file level.

Either way, one thing that most people do not know is that ReadyBoost compresses all the content and typically gets really good compression ratios. It is almost like "Stacker"-on-the-fly for virtual ram. Sort of.

Another trick, now that VMWare Workstation 6.0 supports USB 2.0 in guest devices: Dedicated ReadyBoost devices for your guest machines. I am still working on trying out that idea but it should make Vista guests and Longhorn guests run faster overall. You can also get around the limit of one ReadyBoost device overall this way.

2007 has been crazy busy but it is a good busy. Some bad things have happened already but I am hoping it isn't the shape of things to come.

#1. I spent New Years Eve chasing a mouse in the house with the cats which there are a few differing accounts on what actually happened:

My wife recounts that night like this:

"I have to say, bar none, this was THE best way to wake up to 2007. I'm still laughing at the girlish screams coming from behind the closed closet door, trying to imagine Aaron dancing about with this mouse jumping at his feet."

Here is the actual account of the events, which I've edited for her:

"I have to say, bar none, this was THE best way to wake up to 2007. I'm still in awe of the warrior battle cries coming from behind the closed closet door, trying to imagine Aaron crushing this mouse jumping at his feet. "

#2. I've been on the road a lot working on Vista training, Citrix training and in March, Exchange 2007 training.

#3. Somewhat related to #2, a coworker passed on a promo code for the 71-236 (70-236) beta Exchange 2007 Configuration certification test, which I took last Friday, while sandwiched between 2 onsites. I have been doing a lot of Exchange 2007 labs on my laptop lately so I am hoping that I passed the test. It means one less certification test to take when the final version comes out.

#4. The cats chewed through the the air pump for the fish tank which promptly emptied the 20 gallon tank into our living room. The fish didn't make it but thankfully the carpet did.

#5. We're working on adopting a white Maine Coon cat in the upcoming weeks.

#6. My mom broke her foot due to years of being on prednizone (most likely) so she is on a different medicine for her Lupus which makes her severely immunosuppressed which is not good with 2 grandkids around.

#7. Lots of other stuff I am sure I am forgetting.

If you absolutely positively can't live without Powershell on Vista [like me], go here for some unofficial guidance on how to get it installed.

It is one of the last things I was missing from my XP setup on my laptop.

I don't have any Novell servers/networks handy to test this theory but in the newly released 4.91 SP3, there is mention of a "Passive Novell login" which uses the standard MSGINA to process logins. The biggest problem I had, to date, with trying to get Novell support working under Vista revolved around the NWGINA.

To enable passive mode login, set the following registry keys:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\NWGINA]
“PassiveMode”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Novell\Login]
“PassiveModeNDSLogin”=dword:00000001
“PassiveModeNDSLoginSilent”=dword:00000000 or 00000001
“PassiveModeNDSLoginRequired”=dword:00000000 or 00000001

Registry Setting Descriptions
PassiveMode: (0/1) default is 0
0 = normal mode
1 = passive mode

PassiveModeNDSLogin: (0/1) default is 0
0 = don't do Novell login
1 = do Novell login

PassiveModeNDSLoginSilent: (0/1) default is 0
0 = report Novell login errors
1 = don't report Novell login errors

PassiveModeNDSLoginRequired: (0/1) default is 0
0 = don't require Novell login
1 = require Novell login

If someone out there could force the install of this new version and enables PassiveMode, please let me know if that gives you Novell access. You will have to run any Novell scripts manually in PassiveMode and you might need to boot with signed driver checking disabled. Basically, hit [F8] when Vista is booting and disable signed driver checking.

Update: 4.91 will not work for sure, but there is a Novell client for Vista available now here.

From the beta newsgroups:

Changes since last Beta:

This build includes new features as well as key bug fixes as below,
. PXE boot support
. Installation is now supported on older platforms like Win 2K3 (std), Win XP(Home) etc
. Keyboard stuttering on laptops with 915 based chipsets is fixed
. Memory leak for folder sharing is fixed
. Audio stuttering inside Vista guest is fixed
. Fixes for DVD support
. LUA fixes
. Fixes for Virtual Machine Network Services Driver to bind to wireless cards
. Fix for installing Virtual Machine Network Services after host upgrade

You can read more about it here.

Don't use this alpha version for important data. Call "Test" command after each compressing operation.

What's new:
- Speed optimizations for LZMA, Deflate, BZip2 and unRAR.
- Some changes in error messages.
- Some bugs were fixed.
- New localizations: Bangla, Bashkir, Nepali.

Details about speed optimizations:
- LZMA in multithreading mode for dual-core CPUs
- BZip2 compressing and decompressing
- Deflate in Max and Ultra modes
- UnRAR code was rewritten. And it must work faster now.

Please check 7-Zip 4.44 for largest data sets (more than 2-4 GB) in solid / ultra mode. Call "Test" command after each compressing operation. Check also 64-bit version of 7z / LZMA for largest data sets more accurately, since MSVC 64-bit compiler has some bugs.

Looks like mainly bug fixes and better support for Vista as a host and client, compared to the last released version. If you have hardware virtualization support, make sure to enable it in your BIOS and within VPC 2007 for a performance boost, especially for hosts that don't have client tools installed yet (for instance an initial install).

Download it from here after signing into the MS Connect site and joining the Virtual PC 2007 beta.

Make sure to update your VPC client tools on your images.

I don't have the hardware to test this out but I swore Intel 915 graphics chips had Aero support in earlier builds of Vista.

If someone could test out the following on an Aero-crippled i915 laptop, we'll see if Intel is "lying" or not:

1. Install a pre-RC1 copy of Windows Vista (see #2 for reason why)
2. Enable the "Force Aero" registry hack
3. Change your display driver to "Intel Lakeport Graphics Controller"
4. Reboot (if needed) and enable Aero (if possible).