Windows OS

This hotfix and a registry setting will force Windows Explorer to revert back to using buffered synchronous I/O.

Some scenarios will perform faster with this registry setting, and some scenarios will perform slower. Unfortunately, there are many variables such as network speed, drive speed, memory speed, and driver code quality that will affect the overall outcome.

In general, though, I have seen file copies "go faster" with this fix and registry setting applied on my Thinkpad T60. Not terribly scientific, but worth mentioning.

Create a DWORD key of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\CopyFileBufferedSynchronousIo and set the value to 1 to enable. You will need to install this hotfix for Windows Explorer to use this registry value.

You can read here about the delay in the RTM of Windows 2008. It doesn't affect the launch date of Windows 2008.

Based on the amount of changes that went into the codebase between Beta 3 and the July CTP, this doesn't surprise me to a certain extent. It doesn't really change things overall. Since Vista SP1 and Windows 2008, for the most part, share a common codebase, this is a good thing overall. This will give WSv (Windows Virtualization/Hypervisor aka Viridian) some more time to mature.

I know that my Server 2008 VM builds always boot up much faster than any of my Vista RTM systems do, so when the Vista SP1 Beta launches in a few weeks, I expect my Vista systems will receive the same performance boost that my 2008 VMs have shown.

Now they just need one more Vista edition - Windows Vista Core.

I only have one suggestion to Microsoft for future product launches and PR: Underpromise and overdeliver

If WinFS and all the other aspects of Vista that ended up on the cutting room floor had never been talked about or hyped before they were fully mature and ready to demo, you wouldn't have seen so much bad press about what was left out.

Due to software assurance, they can't take an id Software stance of releasing products "when they are done", so that puts them a little bit in between a rock and a hard place.

In a comment on my previous blog entry about Windows Script 5.7, Paul Dempsey provided a link to the official release notes to Windows Script 5.7.

Highlights of that document:

We’ve switched from IExpress to Windows Package Installer technology. This provides for more flexible install, uninstall, and easier deployment. For example, this package may be uninstalled through Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

What’s New

In addition to the general improvements noted above, the following are some of the notable changes in this release.

JScript

- This package includes the improved garbage collector (GC) shipped with Internet Explorer 7 and Vista. The new GC can dramatically improve the performance of applications that create large numbers of objects, such as Ajax-style web applications. These performance improvements are now available to users of earlier browsers.
This work replaces and improves upon KB 919237. If you have implemented KB 919237, we recommend removing the registry keys.

- New progid JScript.Compact implements the JScript Compact Profile (ECMA 327). This is a profile of the ECMAScript language standard with a subset of features. See the ECMA 327 standard for more information.

- Update for new Daylight Savings Time rules.

VBScript

- VBScript defines a new global function GetUILanguage that returns the current default user interface language. This is the same value returned by the Windows API GetUserDefaultUILanguage. Script authors can now write code that is aware of the current user’s language preference.

- Fix crash when calling VBScript class objects from JScript.

- Fix problems with comparisons to NaN in some versions (KB 901104).

VBScript and JScript

- Support for large address space on machines with > 2GB RAM (KB 890048)

- Improved stack checking makes script more robust in the face of stack overflows.

- Fix miscellaneous TLS leaks and memory leaks, including using the RegEx object with more than 10 sub-matches.

Windows Scripting Host

- Fixed rare deadlocks in remote scripting. Prevents occasional hangs in remote scripts.

- Fixed propagation of error return codes in remote scripting. Error codes produced by remote scripts are more reliably returned to the client.

- Fixed attempting to load nonexistent wshenu.dll which created performance problem in login scripts.

Included KB’s

This release also contains fixes described in the following knowledgebase articles:

KB 831191, 834742, 836863, 890048, 892296, 901104, 903648, 906092, 917344, 919237, 925753, 933811, 933812, 933873, and 940284.

I tested this program out while it was still in the infant stage during the Windows Longhorn beta.

It has been released to the public now. If it looks, acts and behaves like the Exchange Best Practice program, it is because they share a lot of common code.

I suspect and expect that this will become a family of utilities based on the same backend, based on how much shared code there is between the two applications.

I highly recommend it for your arsenal of tools for doing Active Directory audits and health checks.
In fact, I am using it right now at a client site in our discovery process.

Read about it and download it from here.

Unrelated sidenote: Never eat pretzels after having wisdom tooth removal. I had 4 removed overall last Friday and made the mistake last night of eating some pretzels. In the middle of the night, I really regretted it because a piece of pretzel had found its way into a bad area. I haven't posted much lately due to feeling pretty awful the past few days.

This application is going into my bag of tricks for debugging temperamental servers or workstations. You can take a snapshot of the system state, sort of like what Windows does for the actual System State data, and compare it to another system state from another point in time. Note that it does not use or require actual System State snapshots created by Windows, so you can create these dynamically on the fly very easily.

Perfect for finding out what applications put in your registry and file system.
Perfect for debugging esoteric Softgrid or Terminal Server problems.
Perfect for debugging cluster servers that are supposed to be setup practically identical, but could potentially be setup differently.

Plus, I'm sold on the price - Free.





I first read about it here and have been playing with the application for the past few hours.

You can download the program here.

Rod Trent from myITForum just left me a note that System Center Configuration Manager 2007, the artist formerly known as Microsoft SMS, has been released.

KB 940848 will most likely become a required preinstallation checkpoint for SCCM 2007 due to the following issue with the current shipping versions of MMC with Windows Server 2003:
Some items on a shortcut menu are missing when you right-click an item in an MMC snap-in.
For example, when you right-click the Task Sequences node, the following menu items are missing:
*New*
*Import*
*Create Task Sequence Media*
*Give feedback*
These menu items appear only if you right-click this node again.

It also fixes an issue with unexpected termination of MMC.EXE with a generic Visual C++ error as the only indicator of a problem.

Either way, if you are going to deploy SCCM 2007, request KB 940848 beforehand. It will save you some headaches.

Anthony Bailey tipped me off to this earlier today.

Changelog for "Codename Moviestar" from previous Flash 9 versions

Support for H.264 video and HE-AAC audio codecs (new Aug. 21).

Enhancements to full-screen mode to use hardware scaling for improved video performance and quality on systems running Windows 2000 and newer or Mac OS X 10.2 and newer.

Faster rendering of vector graphics on multi-core CPUs.

Higher quality and performance for downscaling large bitmaps (SWF 9 only).

Support for caching common platform components, such as the Flex framework, to reduce average application sizes.

Support for full-screen mode on Linux.

Recursive calling to and from JavaScript via the ExternalInterface API is now permitted (not available in Opera or Netscape).

Runtime errors can now be thrown from JavaScript to ActionScript via the External Interface API.

HTTP requests from the Flash Player ActiveX Control in some versions of Internet Explorer did not include the Accept-Language header. The ActiveX Control now always inserts this header.

Support for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) in the Windows plug-in.

As always, you will want to uninstall the previous version of the player before installing the new release.

If you are looking for a downloadable version of the Internet Explorer ActiveX Flash component, you can download it from here.

Novell Netware client for Vista 32-bit and 64-bit has been released here.

Highlights

Support for Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) 1, OES 2, NetWare 5.1, NetWare 6.0, and NetWare 6.5
File system integration with NSS and non-NSS volumes via NCP
Login script processing
Notification area (Red N) options
Integrated login with Windows Vista (single username and password)
NMAS client integration
Forgotten password recovery options
LDAP contextless login support
DFS junctions
Support for 802.1x wireless authentication
DHCP options
OpenSLP support
Shell extensions for Windows Vista file browser
File caching/shared open mode support
Auto-reconnect
Cluster failover support
Property pages, NCIMAN, and updating Client settings

As time goes on, you will see more references to WinRM, especially with Windows Server 2008. Windows 2003 R2 had a form of WinRM that has now been updated to support the WS-Management industry standard.

Who should be interested in this? People that manage servers remotely and need a firewall friendly protocol to use. People that are looking into deploying Windows Server 2008 and especially Windows Server 2008 Core. People that need to interface with the BMC adapters on servers from remote.

Anyway, KB 936059 updates Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 WinRM components to bring them more in line with what Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are using.