Windows OS

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.

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.

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.

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).