IT

Whenever I installed Vista Ultimate, one of the programs I would always install soon after was Stardock's DeskScapes, which is sort-of like DreamScene on steroids. Well, one of the 'feature points' of the new preview version of 2.0 of DeskScapes is support for non-Ultimate Vista installs.

If you want to .DREAM-enable your Vista, check out the download page here.

Now I just need to figure out how to convert a few of my .MPG files into the .DREAM format so that I can use my DreamScene video collection under Server 2008.

Anyone that wants to be a Server 2008 Core "ninja" will want to download this netsh reference guide...

I always tend to prefer a command line over a cluttered GUI for some configuration options, and the best part is that the command line is much more scriptable than any GUI.

The Windows Server® 2008 Network Shell (Netsh) Technical Reference provides a comprehensive command reference for networking technologies such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Network Policy Server (NPS), Network Access Protection (NAP), and Routing and Remote Access Services (RRAS), among many other technologies for which there are netsh commands. Netsh commands offer an alternative to configuring network technologies using the Windows interface. You can run netsh commands in batch files and scripts, and you can run them from the netsh prompt by manually typing commands. You can use netsh commands to configure both local and remote computers.

It looks like KB 948496 is getting pushed out as a High Priority, Non-Security update through WSUS and Windows Update.

This brings Windows 2003 SP2 in line with the defaults in Windows 2008, which disables TCP offloading.

Update: I previously stated that Receive-Side Scaling was also disabled by default in Windows 2008 - I was wrong! Thanks to those who pointed out this error!

If you are curious what your current settings are in Vista or Windows 2008, you can simple run netsh int tcp show global .

The results will look something like this (some options may be different than mine):

Receive-Side Scaling State: enabled
Chimney Offload State: enabled
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level: normal
Add-On Congestion Control Provider: ctcp
ECN Capability: disabled
RFC 1323 Timestamps: enabled

I have RSS enabled, Offload enabled, and CTCP turned on due to my system's specific configuration and broadband connections. CTCP helps out 3G networks. Ditto for Timestamps (usually).