If you’re going to advertise your computer operating system on TV, it’s a good idea if the software being displayed is current.  And not take a shortcut because you’ll think no one will ever notice.

Let’s take Miriam and Kevin, who have been flogging Windows 7 on Australian TV.

Now if we zoom in on the Outlook email clients, Miriam has unread emails from September 2007, and Kevin from February 2009.  Emails from Microsoft people.  I expect the Microsoft Australia have used “demo” accounts.

Conclusion: Microsoft Australia couldn’t be bothered going to the effort to have current emails.

The proof: Microsoft America DID take the effort with the equivalent US ads:

Which summed up my Windows 7 PC.

The FAIL bit was that when I’d do a large USB file copy, without fail (no pun intended), I’d get a DRIVE IS NO LONGER RECOGNIZED error.

Then all my USB ports would fail to work.  To recover, meant rebooting my computer.

The problem got REALLY annoying.  I’d be copying podcasts to my MP3 player, and it’ll fail.  Or when I was trying to sync my Windows Mobile phone, and it’ll fail.

Microsoft released a patch late January, and since then I have been USB crash free.  You can read all about the patch here:
You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM

Had this error while trying to update a Windows 2000 SP4 test box.  As it’s a test box, it has the bare minimum installed.

Microsoft’s solution?

• clean the Internet Explorer cache
• Delete some files in the WindowsUpdate directory
• Delete some DLL’s.

None of those worked.

The actual solution which worked for me? Install Internet Explorer 6.

Other things I could have tried?  Autopatcher, which I wrote about here. Except that Autopatcher no longer supports Windows 2000. 
Or apply the patches one by one, after running an MBSA scan? Maybe.

IE6?  Well I did say it was a test box.

SMS 2003 going extended support is not a real surprise.  It’s replacement, Microsoft SCCM 2007, has been out in the market place since November 2007.

It isn’t that big a problem for the IT Shop I work in.  Our SMS 2003 infrastructure is mature, and we’re running stable client operating systems.

And as I wrote in “Lonely little SMS 2003 PCK files”, SCCM is on the (distant) horizon, so I have hope.

When I say hope, I mean that Windows 7, which all our customers want, will force the replacement of SMS 2003.

Windows 7 is not compatible with SMS 2003.

People familiar with Wise Package Studio “Setup Capture” can leave now.  Everyone else read on!.

Windows System State Analyser analyser allows you to take a “before” and “after” snapshot of your Windows 7 computer.  This is amazingly useful when you need to answer the question:

“What changes did that program I installed make to my computer?”

Of course, you do need to snapshot before you install the program you want to check on.

The quip about Wise Package Studio?

Application packagers, ie. people who create program install scripts, have been using the Setup Capture function for years.  They’ll typically do this to capture all the files that a program installs onto a computer, so they can re-package it into a better installer format.

You can read all about Windows System State Analyser here.

… to the virtual machine.  Check the values provided and try again.” error

It sucks as an error message.  Would it take too much programming effort to make it more meaningful Virtual PC team?

What does it mean?

It means you have a Virtual Hard Disk file larger than 127.5GB.  Which Virtual PC does not support.
You might have created this with the Microsoft Disk2VHD tool.
To confirm the “disk is too big” problem, open the Settings on an existing Virtual PC, and try to attach the drive:

In other words, we’ve captured a 160GB hard disk, and Virtual PC won’t let us use it.

But we can fix it, it’s a two step process

First we use DiskPart, and then we use VHD Resizer.

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I saw Ed Bott’s “Microsoft’s Grinch kills Windows 7 Family Pack”, and then saw today’s Dilbert:

It kinda fits.  Ed talks about Microsoft removing the Windows 7 Family Pack offering.  From my past experience, Microsoft pricing is hard to understand, with it’s multiple ways to buy and license a product.

But don’t you worry, you can become a Microsoft Certified Professional for Licensing Solutions!

Acquiring and managing software licences can be complex and daunting. That’s where your expertise can help. Providing licensing solutions and services to businesses opens opportunities for you to attract customers, develop continuing revenue streams and expand your services business. Learn how attaining the Licensing Solutions competency can help grow your business.

Desi Dhaba
Authentic Indian restaurant.  One of the blokes at work recommends it.  Will have to give it a try. 134 Flinders Street, Melbourne.
I’ve tried it, curry was good, but I’ve had hotter.  Next time I’ll ask for “Indian Hot”.

Disk2vhd

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk – Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online.

Free e-books: Windows 7 troubleshooting tips
Mitch Tulloch, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and lead author of the just-published Windows 7 Resource Kit has created two free books worth grabbing copies of “What You Can Do Before You Call Tech Support.” & Deploying Windows 7.  His website is here.

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Released Under GPLv2
Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

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Windows 7 uses your BIOS version to determine what hardware drivers should be downloaded to your PC.

So updating my BIOS is one of the first things I do before I install a new operating system.

Problems arranged from:

• Changing from SATA IDE emulation to AHCI on an installed Windows 7, causes Windows 7 to Bluescreen.
  sidenote: can’t boot from my SATA CD-ROM drive when it’s in SATA AHCI mode.
• SATA AHCI support?  The Windows 7 installer would freeze during the “completing the installation” phase.
  Solution: Set SATA to IDE emulation, run the Windows 7 installation.  At the first reboot, set the BIOS to AHCI.  Windows 7 continues install.
• Partition sizes incorrect.
• External drives not being detected.  I’m calling it a Windows “undocumented feature”.

It’s been sweet, once I got past those issues..  Oh, apart from the time it takes for data to be retrieved off my (now working) USB drives.