THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA" : Vista

Reinstall the only option?

bradley — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:30:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90&p=&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2f9%2f5%2fD%2f95D3883A-00A2-4A8A-A979-48D5AB9B1112%2fWindows7UpgradeAdvisor.msi

Checking on the compatibilty of a Vista laptop to be upgraded to Windows 7. Why? Because we can't install a Verizon usb wireless modem and the only solution we've found on the web for the issue where the secure sockets transmission service won't start is to "Reinstall the operating system"... http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Windows/Windows_Vista/Q_24290772.html.

Nice.

Not.

Or restore back to a restore point or backup when it worked, which I have no idea how long it's been horked up like this?

Looks like minimal upgrade issues, so I'm voting to wait for win7 RTM and then suffer the lesser pain of upgrading to Win7 rather than clean install Vista.

So run that Win7 advisor. Today is the last day to preorder the cheap versions of Windows 7 (home and professional version)

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Home-Premium-Upgrade/dp/B002DHLUWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1247327059&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-7-Professional-Upgrade/dp/B002DHGM50/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1247327059&sr=8-2

So why am I not getting Vista sp2?

bradley — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:47:00 GMT

So I have a few machines that I keep on manual MUing so that I can wallow and experience patching with the masses (the regulated patches, etc etc). So a machine I have was not offering up Vista sp2. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. So I asked and the brilliant Donna had the answer. I was keeping myself from Vista sp2. You see I had left the .NET 3.5 family patch that is rated "important" sitting there and had not installed it on this machine. And when you manually MU, any patch that is important keeps Vista from offering up the pre-patch.

Once I hid the .net 3.5 family patches so that I had no more "Important" patches to install, then the KB 955430 was offered up. Once I installed that, then I got sp2 offered up.

Remote registry and Vista

bradley — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:01:00 GMT

In order to remotely manage and patch Vista, you need to tweak and reenable the remote registry service.

To do this via group policy, build a policy that turns it on like this:

The group policy setting is under computer configuration, Windows settings,
Security settings, System services.

Scroll to "remote registry", define policy setting, choose to make it
automatic.

Voila.

You'll need to do the same for Win7

Translation ... ignore it. Supposed to be fixed in the next OS.

bradley — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:19:00 GMT

Windows Event ID 5038 from Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing:
http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=5038&eventno=8922&source=Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing&phase=1

Translation ... ignore it. Supposed to be fixed in the next OS.

Log Name:      Security
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing
Date:          12/11/2008 10:51:18 PM
Event ID:      5038
Task Category: System Integrity
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Audit Failure
User:          N/A
Computer:      BITZIEVISTA.Kikibitzrtm.local
Description:
Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid. The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid hash could indicate a potential disk device error.

File Name: \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\drivers\tcpip.sys
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" Guid="{54849625-5478-4994-a5ba-3e3b0328c30d}" />
    <EventID>5038</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>0</Level>
    <Task>12290</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8010000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2008-12-12T06:51:18.487Z" />
    <EventRecordID>9103</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="64" />
    <Channel>Security</Channel>
    <Computer>BITZIEVISTA.Kikibitzrtm.local</Computer>
    <Security />
</System>
<EventData>
    <Data Name="param1">\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\drivers\tcpip.sys</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Loggin' in Vista

bradley — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 02:43:00 GMT

Enabling auditing for the Vista KSOD - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA":
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/12/26/enabling-auditing-for-the-vista-ksod.aspx

One more thing about that auditing. The auditing log file on a Vista box is VERY chatty. The default file size of 16 megs gets filled up in about a 1/2 days activity on my workstation. Thus if you want to see if you can grab "it" in action, you'll either need to increase the log file or set it to archive off.

When it occurs, it should be a specific registry change that should jump out in the log files. Since normally RpcSs service isn't one that you can mess with, I changed another service and set up auditing to showcase what it should look like.

Vista Black screen of death -- we still need a reason

bradley — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 04:13:00 GMT

For background read here:

How to fix the Vista KSOD (blacK Screen Of Death) | LogBlog:
http://www.logicitc.com/blog/?p=102

SBSC & MSP Buzz » Blog Archive » Windows Vista Black Screen with Mouse Cursor Only Issue:
http://sbsc.techcareteam.com/archives/325

The good news is that Mark has a solid workaround that ensures that you don't have to reinstall Vista after it boots to one of these black screen of death issues.
The bad news is the underlying trigger is still not known/understood at this time.

Which is still the bigger concern in my book as until we get to the bottom of what 'this' is, it won't get it's ultimate fix and may impact Windows 7. "Something" is triggering this but it's not known at this time what "it" is. What I can tell you is that in all of my Vista machines 32bit, 64bit, desktop, laptop, clients that have it installed, I've not personally seen it. Nor am I seeing it bubble up a huge amount in the patching communities. So I'm not convinced that this is specifically caused by Vista all by itself.

So here's where I'd like to ask a favor. If you have been impacted by the "Black screen of death", I need you to ensure that the body count is counted by either setting up a SRX or posting in the managed newsgroups. We need to make sure that the "pain" is heard. Next, if you can, download the Sydi server inventory script http://sydiproject.com/download/ and email me the output (susan-at-msmvps.com).

If you are like me and have never EVER seen this issue as well in ANY Vista you have under your management, can you let me know that as well at the same email address? What I'm trying to see is the pattern between those that are being impacted and those that aren't.

There is a trigger. The question is what?

I'm not buying that it's "just Vista". If it were I'd see it consistently in Patching communities and I'm not. So until proven guilty, I want to find out more.

Windows Firestarter Meeting

bradley — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:33:00 GMT

Windows FireStarter Live Meeting

Friday, December 12, 8:30 AM Pacific Time
Attention developers and IT professionals! Do not miss this live virtual event where you will learn best practices for developing for Windows for standard users, delve into specifics around Windows security and BitLocker, and get a preview of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Don't forget this is "virtually" tomorrow:

Take a look at the agenda below:

Agenda:
	*Session Name*	*Speaker*
8:15 – 8:30	Kick off	Mithun Dhar
8:30 – 9:30	Keynote/Why Vista!	Chris Henley
9:30 – 10:45	The Case of the Unexplained	Mark Russinovich
10:45 – 11:00	Break
11:00 – 12:15	Building Composite WPF & Silverlight Applications Using Prism	Glenn Block, Bob Brumfield & David Hill
12:15 – 1:00	Lunch
1:00 – 2:00	Best Practices for Developing for Windows for Windows Standard User	Crispin Cowan
2:00 – 3:00	Windows Security and Bitlocker	Byron Hynes
3:00 – 3:15	Break
3:15 – 4:00	(Windows 7 + Windows Server 2008 R2) Teaser Session	Byron Hynes
4:00 – 5:00	Windows for everyone!	Bruno Terkaly

Networking in Vista

bradley — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:20:00 GMT

So what does networking in Windows 7 look like? Like that :-)

So to all those that get annoyed by Vista's networking can you give me specifics as to why you get annoyed and I'll see if those annoyances have been changed.

Service pack or not?

bradley — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:50:00 GMT

Microsoft exec: Windows 7 is no service pack | Beyond Binary - CNET News:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10112149-56.html?tag=mncol;posts

Okay Bill sweetie I realize that you need to put a stake in Windows Vista because if you breathe the word Vista around some users they immediately go into a technology meltdown and refuse to acknowledge that they've been dealing with change around computers for the last 20 years, but saying that it's not a service pack is stretching it. As is pointed out in this post, Windows 2008 R2 is calling it what it is. An R2 minor refresh. Okay so it's a bit like the Home and Garden decorating shows where you bring in the experts to redecorate the place but it's the same house.

Granted the UAC now has a scrolly bar where you can throttle down the alerts. And the gadget bar is undocked. But this isn't like the change from NT to 2000, nor from 2000 to XP. It's still Vista but fixed up and with a new name so that the marketing guys can start over and fix what they screwed up from before.

Be careful what you set as expectations as already I've had questions regarding if Windows 7 is so different if they should wait for this as they need a new computer. My answer is no, don't wait. Vista sp1 is out. Beta of sp2 is now out. And Windows 7 is merely rearranging the furniture and throwing down a new area rug. It's not a remodel job.

The Developer problem

bradley — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:05:00 GMT

I am a consumer of software. I am not a coder. Thus I cannot walk in the shoes of my vendors as how easy or how hard it is to develop applications. I don't know how easy or hard it is to develop secure applications. But when a vendor tells a customer to disable something like UAC in Vista because it may have performance issues if it is left on, it begs the question if one can't debug coding for Vista, can they debug coding for XP?

If they can't debug performance issues in Vista, how do they debug performance issues at all? Do they just get lucky or something? Think about the bigger issue that is raised here?

When it comes to Vista this is one area that I think we as customer could push harder on vendors. We need to demand that our vendors code for Vista. We need to demand that Microsoft ensures that they provide tools to all coders so that they can code for Vista. And then they need to help us admins understand where our vendors are having issues.

But if a vendor comes back to you and says "well, it may have issues if you leave UAC on" I don't consider that software to be Vista ready. Is this a deal breaker? Perhaps not for some customers. But for me it's a telltale sign that they don't have the resources they need to code.

Not supporting UAC fully and completely means to me that they cannot code for non administrator rights. And if this is a key beancounter like application, we should know better.

Customizing Links

bradley — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:46:00 GMT

http://www.wictorwilen.se/Post/Customize-the-Favorite-Links-in-Windows-Vista-common-dialogs.aspx

One of the customizations I do for Vista's that are deployed is the Favorites Section. If you are migrating from Vista, the placement of the File open section makes one want to gravitate to that area that is more like a URL section. So what I do is to build short cuts in the User\Username\Links folder. Anything I put in that folder ends up in the favorites section on the file open section.

All you need to do is open this folder

Build your short cuts in there... say a short cut to a mapped drive....or even the shortcut to the desktop

Ends up in the favorite places section.

And whatever

Yes Virginia, that was a Vista Ultimate new game that was released today.

bradley — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:43:00 GMT

Yes Virginia, that was a Vista Ultimate new game that was released today.

Doing yourself in with Group Policy.

bradley — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:47:00 GMT

Doing yourself in with Group Policy.

I was setting up a new Vista 64bit on our network. Install went fine. One trick I had to to with the Vista 64bit that I didn't have to do with the Vista 32bit was that I had to launch msconfig and Disable UAC and then click the launch button.

I then installed all my sucky old accounting apps and then when back and turned it on. Once I did that all of my applications ran just fine.

The only time I have UAC issues is only during install, never during running.

So then the next problem I has was in RDPing to this Vista 64bit workstation. I would reboot and get locked out. Grrrrr.

So then I poked around the firewall settings and realized that in both my Vista 32 bit and my Vista 64 bit I had these 'blank' rules at the top of my applied Vista firewall settings. Hmmmmm.... that's weird that they are blank like that, and then in addition I had these deny rules up at the top. On the 32 bit version the deny was down a few lines, on the 64 bit it was at the top of the list.

If you looked at the rules, it was obvious to me that they were rules that I had added to the Windows "XP" firewall rule set for allowing ActiveSync to work (or so I thought). I went into the group policy of the server and deleted them out and took the rules back to the default rules (comparing them to another SBS 2003 [always have a default SBS to look at..like a virtual machine somewhere].

I did a gpupdate /force and voila. I can now RDP without a hitch and the group policy on the Vista now looks like it's supposed to.

No deny rules, all approval.

The moral of this story is, just because something worked in 32bit doesn't mean it will in 64bit, and if you added anything to those default firewall rules, start investigating there.

P.S. Thank you Kerry for the hint in the right direction.

Wanted -- a sucky program

bradley — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:30:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=24DA89E9-B581-47B0-B45E-492DD6DA2971&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d2dd7ee0-aaa2-402a-821d-43795d6cf139&displaylang=en

http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/6/9/D6943262-EF5A-4733-8247-9BF7A6FEF299/Application_Compatibility_Demo.wmv

So if you were at TS2 today and saw the demo of the Standard User Analyzer tool.. the top two links download the Application Compatibility Toolkit that includes the Standard User Analyzer that is in the Application Compatibility Movie link above.

Now I have a problem. I don't have any sucky apps that don't work with Vista anymore....

Watch the Video and then see if you can find a sucky program to try this out on

Engage Consumers, Spark Conversation

bradley — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:04:00 GMT

Microsoft Ads: First Phase To “Engage Consumers, Spark Conversation”:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/04/microsoft-ads-first-phase-to-engage-consumers-spark-conversation/

"The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows – a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses, but will always be marked by humor and humanity."

I have been living and countering the Vista perceptions for going on 9 months since I rolled out Vista to several partners here at the office.

I have been countering comments from my fellow CPAs who have resisted Vista, I have blogged about how to get crappy accounting programs to run on Vista. I have described ways to get crappy programs to work without turning off UAC goodness. I have explained why turning off UAC is a bad thing and all the other slings and arrows that Vista has lived through.

I counter the "bash Vista de jour" blogosphere comments especially when folks are in the "I've heard _fill_in_the_blank_ about Vista" camp or in the "I used it on my 4 year old crappy PC and it doesn't work as well".

Earlier this week in the blogosphere it was Google Chrome-mania on the tech sites. Today it's "Okay, what exactly WAS that with Bill and Jerry last night?".

I can counter the slings and arrows of Vista. I can prove it's a solid platform. I can demonstrate that it works. I can't counter Jerry when I can't even figure out what the message is here.

Congratulations AD agency, you got a buzz going. Whether it turns out to be a good conversation buzz long term, I'll let you know. I'll reserve my opinion for now.

Two things 'not' to turn off in Vista

bradley — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:08:00 GMT

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/3586741/4752294/137215/2/

Two things not to turn off

1. Tablet pc functions. Disabling this turns off Snipping tool. An extremely helpful tool on Vista.

2. Error reporting.

Anyone who claims that your report just ends up in a big ol' pile of reports on the same problem and it doesn't do any good hasn't clicked on the Problems resolution tab in Vista in a while. It does help to not only alert Microsoft of trending issues (because Lord knows we don't call Microsoft and alert them) but it also does it more effliciently and effectively than anything we can do verbally. Every piece of software I see built today has this reporting feature.

It also points out that the author hasn't done their research in understanding how this information is used. Mark Russinovich in the Windows Internals book talks about how great this feedback information is.

From the little things you learn about Vista

bradley — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:36:00 GMT

Just found out today that on Vista you can go into the Start button, right mouse click on properties, launch the Start menu tab

Then go into customize.

See that "Printers" and "Run" commands? Check them and then they will pop up on your start menu.

P.S. I knew run was there... didn't realize the printers button was hiding under there as well. Duh!

Vista and RWW and enabling files and folders

bradley — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:40:00 GMT

So you have a Vista workstation and you use Remote Web Workplace and you want to transfer files and folders between the remote computer and you and it's not working...

The trick is that you have to run IE as Administrator which turns off protected mode for that session and then it will work.

Interestingly enough you don't get a script error anymore, you just get a blank screen... http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2007/12/21/rww-error-on-vista-clients.aspx

Sometimes you just have to find the right person to deal with your issue

bradley — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:04:00 GMT

So we had this old old Lotus then Excel Macro that worked with Windows XP and Excel 2007 but once we went to Vista the macro didn't run fast enough to work like it should. It was a home grown macro and we needed it fixed for a certain need.

So I pinged two vendors that advertised that they were Excel Macro gurus. The one "guru" came back and said he didn't work with Vista. Okay. I wonder if I had said "no, sorry not Vista, it's Mojave Operating System" if he would have tried working on it. :-)

In our case, Bill from SmarterNotHarder http://www.smarternotharder.biz/ was able to fix our macro so now it works perfectly (and way way way way cheaper than us trying to debug it).

Thank you Bill for your great work, excellent service and for making that macro even more efficient than it was. Sometimes you just have to find the right person to fix your problem. :-)

Aaron Stebner's WebLog : Link to System Update Readiness Tool for Windows Vista that can help fix Vista OS update install errors:

bradley — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:38:00 GMT

Aaron Stebner's WebLog : Link to System Update Readiness Tool for Windows Vista that can help fix Vista OS update install errors:
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2008/07/28/8786504.aspx

That's a keeper of a post. If you have issues installing patches on Vista, check that out!