Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

In case anyone is wondering, Sean is a real, live PM working on IPv6 just like he says.

From: Sean Siler [mailto:sean@windows.com]
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 7:38 PM
To: Aaron Tiensivu
Subject: Out of Office AutoReply: Test message from commercial

Hello! I’m a PC – and I can’t answer your email right now. I’d like to say that I’m out climbing Mt. Rainier or biking across Europe with the Swedish Beach Volleyball Team, but in fact I’m probably just chained to a desk somewhere in the depths of Redmond pounding out product specifications.

Now that I have been in a commercial, Microsoft has given me access to super-secret “BillyG” level of executive resources. That’s right – I have my own email auto-responder!

This, as you have probably surmised, is my pre-prepared auto-response (All natural, no filler. No animals were harmed in the making of this response. Except for a ferret.) I really would like to have answered you myself, but if I did, (a) I’d probably get no work done, and (b) then I’d get fired, and (c) then I’d have no chance of doing any more of those really awesome commercials.

So let me try to prognosticate a few of your questions and answer a few of them.

Why did they put you on TV?
I think it’s my devastating good-looks and animal magnetism. No, really – there’s a ferret stuck to my leg right now.

But really – you aren’t even an actor!
No I’m not. But I play one on TV. I really am a Microsoft Program Manager. I work on IPv6, and other things that you haven’t heard of.

How did you get selected?
I auditioned along with a couple of hundred others. I guess I looked very Engineery. And the ferret probably helped.

Are you interested in more acting?
Oh no, I think that Engineering is MUCH more fun.

What’s with Windows Vista?
You’ve been watching those commercials again, haven’t you? Windows Vista rocks. Listen to real users, not actors.

-The Real PC, Sean Siler

In another frustrating move by a unified setup program, which I disagree with for the most part, the new Windows Live Wave 3 setup program will not allow installation on Server 2008 x64, even though it is technically running the same kernel as Vista SP1.

Not only can you not uncompress the ~140MB WLSetup-All.exe into individual .MSI files, which would be ideal, the web downloader, WLSetup-Web.exe, will not download the individual files on an unsupported OS.

I have, however, been able to install every single piece of Wave 3 on my x64 OS except the Family Safety product, which is strictly x86 only.

Unfortunately, this requires a supported OS, which in my case, was an XP VM. If you install all of the applications on a supported OS, you will have a new directory: %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\. The '.cache' directory will not show up in Explorer if you not have hidden files shown.

You will want to look into the %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\cache.ini file to find out which directory contains the Wave 3 binary that you want to install on your unsupported OS.

A cut-and-paste of the contents of my cache.ini:

[neutral::Watson-x86::any]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ddfb16b01c918f7
Name=DW 2.0 Client - x86

[neutral::crt80::any]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\e3d930001c918f7
Name=Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime

[neutral::Contacts-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\e6c900401c918f7
Name=Contacts

[neutral::SegoeFont::any]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ea4257601c918f7
Name=Segoe UI Font

[en::wlc-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ee1d7a801c918f7
Name=Windows Live Call

[en::signin-5.0::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\f0716da01c918f7
Name=Windows Live Sign-in Assistant

[en::WLXSuite-ship-14.0.5025.904::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\f35812c01c918f7
Name=Installer Beta

[neutral::choiceguard-w3::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\f3b23ad01c918f7
Name=Choice Guard

[en::Messenger-14.0.5027.0908-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\4c8400d01c918f8
Name=Messenger Beta

[en::Mail-14.0.5027.0908-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\8a2e8ee01c918f8
Name=Mail Beta

[neutral::WindowsXP-KB954708-x86-ENU::any]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\8e1f16a01c918f8
Name=Windows Imaging Component Hotfix

[en::PhotoGallery-5026.0905-en::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\d8e58ab01c918f8
Name=Photo Gallery Beta

[en::writer-14.0.5025.0904-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ee9819401c918f8
Name=Writer Beta

[en::familysafety-14.0.5025.904-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\f86841801c918f8
Name=Family Safety Beta

[en::olc-12.0.6237.1003-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\56559801c918f9
Name=Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

[neutral::searchenhancementpack::any]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ff77b9001c918fc
Name=Search Enhancement Pack

[en::toolbar-14.0.5023.902-ship::ship]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\8e923a01c918fd
Name=Toolbar Beta

[_CATALOG_]
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\wlc120.tmp
Type=CAB
Language=en
Build=ship

I'm sure as the files get revised, the file contents and version numbers will change. For now, you can use this as a 'cheat sheet' to find which product you want installed.

Ideally, I would like these available for download without jumping through hoops like this to get the actual binaries. I'm not a fan of unified installers like this.

Update: Rafael Rivera Jr. has provided a much more elegant method of providing support for unsupported operating systems:

#1. Download Resource Hacker.
#2. Open the Live installer executable (either WLSetup-All.exe or WLSetup-Web.exe) inside Resource Hacker.
#3. Locate CONFIG -> CONFIG0 -> 0
#4. Strip out the following XML, leaving the surrounding text:



#5. Compile the script.
#6. Save the modified executable.
#7. Run the modified executable, and the OS check is no longer there!

Although you should probably be using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 Update 1 (say that five times fast) for any new desktop rollout or DDPS session, the older versions are handy to have around for features/operating systems that get retired/depreciated over time.

If you have a need for any of these versions:

BDD 2.5 Standard
BDD 2.5 Enterprise
BDD 2007
Microsoft Deployment
MDT 2008

You can grab them from here.

Previous versions of the Zune software would install without any trouble on Server 2008, my desktop OS of choice, as long as the "Desktop Experience" feature was already installed on the system, which provides the missing Windows Media and related DLLs.

The new Zune 3.0 setup program will complain with "Can't install - Zune doesn't support your current operating system."

You can however, 'shortcircuit' the install by going into either the "x64" or "x32" directory of the unpacked archive, then going into the "packages" directory and directly running "zune-x64.msi" (for 64-bit) or "zune-x32.msi" (for 32-bit).

It is possible your system might be missing some of the prerequisites but thankfully they are included in the same directory in case they are needed.

If you attempt to launch the Zune client without the "Desktop Experience" feature of Server 2008 installed, you will get an instant crash of the Zune client upon launch. It is a tell tale sign that you are missing the necessary DLLs.

So, officially, Server 2008 is unsupported, but you can make it work if you need to, like I do.

It looks like this one came out around the same time as the Zune 3.0 software came out. Coincidence? Most likely!

The features are the same as the beta version of 3.2, as mentioned here.

Changes since 3.1:
Process Tracking: Categorize network traffic based on the name and ID of the owning process.
Extensive Parser Set: Parsers for over 300 protocols, including SMB 2.0.
Network Monitor 3.2 API: Create your own applications that capture, parse and analyze network traffic.
Improved Capture Rate: Drop fewer frames on high speed networks.
ContainsBin plug-in: Search frames for arbitrary byte sequences or strings.
Find Conversations: Quickly isolate related frames.
Support for frame truncation.
Indication of the number of dropped frames.
Streamlined UI toolbar

Download Network Monitor 3.2 RTM here.

iTunes 8 is a neat application but I still get frustrated every time I upgrade or install a new version. I have alternative means of watching for program updates, namely FileHippo.com's Update Checker, so I don't need Apple's update program clogging my StartUp registry key. I don't have any Apple mobile devices, so that is another group of programs I don't need installed. I also don't need 'iTunesHelper', 'QuickTime Task', or 'AppleSyncNotifier' loading on startup.

The biggest offender, however, is the Outlook plug-in. Whenever someone is complaining that their Outlook is crashing quite a bit, or will not shutdown in a timely manner, the first thing I ask is if they have iTunes installed on their machine.

Even though you can uninstall the Apple Mobile Device Support, the iTunes Outlook Add-in will stick around, which means you have to go into the 'Trust Center' of Outlook 2007 to disable or delete the COM Add-in. I like to keep my Outlook Add-in-less as much as possible due to potential memory leaks and strange problems can creep in without warning. Outlook does a good enough job by itself for that.

Honestly, I just want an 'Advanced' install option so I can deselect the items I don't want installed by default. I wish it was a required item for all programs in order to get the 'Certified for...' label.

Keep in mind, I'm only picking on iTunes right now because I upgraded my previously rock solid 7.7.x 64-bit install to 8 and the curse of the Outlook plug-in crash happened on my system. Plenty of other programs out there will add unwanted or unneeded 'features' without permission. Microsoft is just as guilty.

Other COM Addin offenders that I disable:
Streets and Trips add-in for email communication, MapPoint Office Add-In, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Colleague Import Add-in, Microsoft Outlook Mobile Service, Microsoft VBA for Outlook Addin, Send to Bluetooth.

Note: I'm not affiliated with FileHippo.com, but I use their update program quite a bit.

Join this webcast and get your questions regarding Vista performance answered, featuring Mark Russinovich of SysInternals fame.

Official description:
Join Mark Russinovich and a panel of industry experts for a LIVE virtual roundtable to explore your top of mind performance issues, common misconfigurations, and tips on how to fix them. From boot times and applets to disk performance and battery life, find out how to optimize Windows Vista and what you can do to improve overall system performance.

Submit your performance questions live during the event or send them in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

You can download a .ICS calendar invite from here and read more about it overall here.

Update: I will be on-site at the roundtable fielding questions from IT Pros and participating in the discussions where applicable! Get your questions ready for me!

Update 2: Transcripts are now available.

In Windows Server 2008, "Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer" is not listed when you run the vssadmin list writers command.

When you perform a backup of the Hyper-V virtual machines, the following event is logged to the Hyper-V-VMMS event log:

Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS-Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VMMS
Event ID: 10107
Description:
An error occurred while identifying the Hyper-V VSS writer. Check for any corrupt or invalid configuration files and try again.
In this scenario, the backups of the virtual machines may be inconsistent because the Hyper-V VSS writer is not used during the backup job.

This problem occurs because of corrupted or invalid virtual machine configuration files.

You can grab the update from the KB 956697 webpage.

The tabs in Communicator 2007 host an instance of the Windows Internet Explorer Internet browser. When a tab is clicked, Communicator automatically passes the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) address for the current user as well as one or more contact SIP addresses. This enables developers to create Web applications that consume the SIPs and present relevant, SIP-tailored information to the end user, all within the Communicator client.

This sample consists of virtual directory containing files that Communicator uses to configure the tabs, as well as a sample Web application that is displayed in a custom Communicator tab.

The next version of Windows Live Messenger (what used to be MSN messenger) is rumored to be WPF-enabled and there is already a version of the Yahoo messenger available as a WPF application, so it makes sense that there would be an SDK available and example applications to use WPF with Office Communicator 2007.

You will be seeing more WPF applications as time goes on and they tend to look 'prettier' than normal applications, so it is neat to see the API getting some traction.

Description of the MOC WPF SDK:
This sample demonstrates using the Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 SDK to integrate presence and communication features into Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) clients. The controls are designed to be used in applications developed using the Microsoft Visual Studio development system.

I have a few OCS related posts in the wings but I've been tied up with travel, work and home activities, so they are currently stuck in Draft mode. I'm still behind on many items I need to complete before I can even think of finishing off those articles.

With that said though, this announcement from MS is worth an entry because it will make my life in the upcoming months that much easier. I've been doing a lot of Cisco/MS integration work this year, and there have always been many interesting gotchas.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (aka CallManager) versions 4.2, 5.1 and 6.1 are now certified for Direct SIP connectivity with Office Communications Server.

Direct SIP allows connectivity between the OCS mediation server and the Cisco IP-PBX without the need for a gateway, meaning that Office Communicator users can be enabled for Enterprise Voice (i.e. Office Communicator is a full soft-phone, not just click-to-call or RCC) without significant upgrades or hardware replacements.

Read more about it here.

Short and sweet:

If you are looking for Greasemonkey functionality in Chrome, check this site out here.
If you are looking for an easy auto-updater for Chromium, check this site out here and check out the release directory here.

If you think your Chrome install updated over the weekend, it most likely did. The original version released was build 1583, and the build out now is 1798.

I'm sure buried in the EULA somewhere is that it can update behind your back without any notification too.

If you want to be riding the bleeding edge, download the newer snapshots from here.

As of a few hours ago, the Chromium build number is up to 0.2.152.0, whereas the current installed version of Chrome on my system seems to be version 0.2.149.29.

Much like the Firefox trunk builds, Chromium installs into a different directory than Chrome, so you can run them side by side if you wish.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a new hypervisor-based server virtualization product (like ESXi), will be released within 30 days and be available at no cost via the Web.

Microsoft will demonstrate live migration feature of Windows Server 2008 R2. And the next version of Microsoft Hyper-V Server (the one after 2008) will have live migration capabilities.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will be released within 30 days [not a surprise], which will manage Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 or VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.

Microsoft’s global server OEM partners ... report that nearly 100% of their customers who order Windows Server 2008 with hardware are also choosing to have Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V included with their order.

Dedicated virtualization lab established within the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center.

Originally spotted here.

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature included in modern Microsoft Windows operating systems that is intended to prevent an application or service from executing code from a non-executable memory region.

Hardware and software data execution protection (DEP) is a good thing to have enabled for all processes when you can get away with it.

Money 2007 and Money Plus shipped with the inability to launch if you have DEP enabled.

Now, I admit, many programs out there are not DEP-clean yet, but with the security push MS has had ever since Windows XP, you would think they would not ship a product that crashes on launch with DEP enabled. Money SP1 fixes this problem, but you still need to disable DEP in order to auto-update to SP1 from RTM.

Other somewhat recent DEP offenders: The Adobe Flash IE plug-in - only newer versions allow DEP to be enabled without taking out your browser with it.

If you want a command-line way of disabling DEP with an Admin command prompt, use this, with a reboot:
bcdedit /set {current} nx AlwaysOff

Once you have updated to Money SP1 and want to re-enable DEP (for everything):
bcdedit /set {current} nx AlwaysOn