Solving Windows Mobile device sync problem in WIndows 7 WMDM

Recently, I changed my HTC HD Windows mobile device to HD2. However, when I plug the HD2 to my Win7 x64 Ultimate, it won't detect as normal.
My HD have no problem to sync with my PC before....
THe HTC HD2 only detected as "Windows Mobile-device" and show error "Code 19" in the properties. I can't sync it with WMDC. I used over 24hrs to troubleshoot it....
Finally, I tried the following steps and my new HD2 finally got detected in WMDC and Device Manager!!!!

1. Uninstall WMDC and the "WMDC devices update" from Control Panel.[Suggested to choose the second option for reboot when it prompt you about the WMDC is running]
2. Open regedit, go to HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{eec5ad98-8080-425f-922a-dabf3de3f69a}
3. Delete the "UpperFilters" Key.
4. Remove all "0000", "0001", "0002"...etc subkey inside {eec5ad98-8080-425f-922a-dabf3de3f69a}
5. Do not remove the "Properties"
6. Delete the "UpperFilters" key  inside HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{25DBCE51-6C8F-4A72-8A6D-B54C2B4FC835}
7. Reboot
8. Download WMDC(drvupdate-amd64) from Microsoft.
9. Reinstall drvupdate-amd64.
10. Replug the device to your PC and it should be detected as normal.

Warning! Use the above steps at your own RISK!

Windows 7 use 0.0.0.0 as the default gateway problem.

I configure my Win7 PC to use DHCP for configuring IP address.
Recently, I discover my Win7 have two gateway and use 0.0.0.0 as the first one. Which make my PC can't connect to the internet.
We can use "route delete 0.0.0.0" and then "ipconfig /renew" to solve the problem. But it's too trouble to do that every time when I
start the PC.

So,  I search around the Internet and find out the problem is come from Adobe CS3. The solution is disable the "Bonjour" service from Adobe

1. Click on Start.
2. Type services.msc and press Enter. On Vista you may need to confirm the UAC prompt.
3. Find the Bonjour service. This may be tricky since it’s open source and may not display the same. But you can check suspected services for the typical path “C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mdnsresponder.exe”.
4. Right click on the service and select Properties.
5. Change the Startup type to Disabled.
6. Click the Stop button. You can then close the Services window.
7. Reboot the machine.

You can check this service by using the powershell command:

PS> get-wicomponentinfo | where { $_.path -ieq 'C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder.exe'} | get-wiproductinfo

ProductCode                            ProductVersion      ProductName
-----------                            --------------      -----------
{D0DFF92A-492E-4C40-B862-A74A173C25C5} 3.0                 Adobe Version Cue CS3 Client


Internet Explorer 8 slow TAB opening after installing Java

I got slow tab opening in IE8 after installing the new Java to my Windows 7.
The soluton is:

Open IE8 -> Goto- Tools->Manage Add-ons-> higlight "Java Plug-In's SSV Helper 2" -> Disable it.

Win7 Overview of Key Features by SKU

Windows 7 RTM Download time

ISV (Independent software vendor) and IHV (Independent hardware vendor) Partners will be able to download Windows 7 RTM from Microsoft Connect or MSDN on August 6th.

Microsoft Partner Program Gold/Certified Members will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English through the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal on August 16th. By October 1st, the remaining languages will become available to download.

Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers will be about to download Windows 7 RTM in English starting August 23rd. By October 1st, the remaining languages will become available to download.

OEMs will receive Windows 7 RTM software images beginning approximately 2 days after we officially RTM, as a little time is required to release and distribute these images.

Volume License (VL) customer with an existing Software Assurance (SA) license you will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English starting August 7th via the Volume License Service Center (VLSC). The rest of the languages for Windows 7 RTM should be available within a couple of weeks after that.

Volume License customers without a SA license will be able to purchase Windows 7 through Volume Licensing on September 1st as we announced last week at WPC09.

IT Professionals with TechNet Subscriptions will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English on August 6th and remaining languages by October 1st.

Developers with MSDN Subscriptions will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English on August 6th and remaining languages by October 1st.

and last: Windows 7 will be in retail stores and shipping on new PCs starting October 22nd.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM'd!!!

It's real! Win7 and W2K8 R2 RTM'd!

Read more from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-22Windows7RTMPR.mspx

Windows 7 Build 7600 appear on the net!

wooh! Is that RTM? How come the others on the internet can get more latest build than MVP?

New Windows Server 2008 R2 Build7268 appear on the internet..

New Windows Server 2008 R2 Build appear on the net..
I hope MS can make RTM avaliable to MVPs and Partner earlier so that we can test and give report on it.

Windows Server 2008 Licensing Information

As too many students asking me for the licensing information on WIndows Server 2008, I suggest all of you to take a look at the following link first:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/client-licensing.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/licensing-faq.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303695.aspx

For licensing questions, I suggest contacting Microsoft Licensing Center for detailed explanation.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/contact-us.aspx

For licensing questions, please call 1-800-426-9400 (select option 4), Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. (PST) to speak directly to a Microsoft licensing specialist.

Worldwide customers can use the Guide to Worldwide Microsoft Licensing Sites http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/index/worldwide.asp to find contact information in their locations.

“Respond to all (known and unknown) client computers” setting behaviour

If you select “Respond to all (known and unknown) client computers”, and check the box “For unknown clients, notify administrator and respond after approval”, the result is:

When PXE booting a client, it will wait for you to approve it. Click Pending Devices in the WDS console, right-click the pending devices in the right pane and click Approve. The client computer continues with the network boot operation and a computer account object is created in AD DS to represent the physical device. Press F12 on the client and boot into a boot image. Before loading install images, you will be prompted to enter a domain user account name and password. This domain user account does not need to belong to a domain administrator groups.

Configuring When DHCP is on the Same Server

Configuring When DHCP is on the Same Server

And here are some procedures:

To configure Windows Deployment Services to run on the same computer as Microsoft DHCP

To configure Windows Deployment Services to run on the same computer as non-Microsoft DHCP

WDS documentation link:

WDS in Windows Server 2003:

• WDS 2003 Step by Step Guide - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=66145
• Deploying and Managing the Windows Deployment Services Update on Windows Server 2003 - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81031

WDS in Windows Server 2008

You can download this content at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=89381, or you can browse it using the following links:

• WDS 2008 Step by Step Guide - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84628 
• Deployment content - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81873
• Technical Reference content - http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/80e4c10d-bb4b-4337-81dd-aa98fe6db7351033.mspx?mfr=true 

Good articles on WDS Automating Setup and Sample Unattend Files

I found two useful articles from MS on WDS:

Automating Setup

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730695(WS.10).aspx

Sample Unattend Files

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732280(WS.10).aspx#Combined

Image group in Windows Deployment

An image group is a collection of .wim files that share common file resources and security. Servicing an image within an image group (such as applying a hotfix or a service pack or updating files) requires exclusive access to the entire image group. File resources are shared across the image group (single-instanced) even though the metadata of each image resides in a separate physical .wim file. Image groups contain two file types:

l  Res.rwm. Contains the file streams for images as defined in Install.wim, Install2.wim, and WinXP.wim. Note that each image group has its own Res.rwm file.

l  Install.wim. Contains image metadata that describes the content of an operating system image. The actual file resources for the image reside in Res.rwm.

Each image group will have a Res.rwm file created when the first image is added to the image group. All resources for all files reside in Res.rwm. The Res.rwm file is a .wim file that is renamed to differentiate the resource-only .wim file from the metadata .wim files and to speed up image enumeration. Because image enumeration only works on .wim files, the Res.rwm file will be skipped.

The .wim file format uses single-instancing technology, so the disk storage requirements for images within an image group are significantly reduced.

Problem on installing Windows Server 2008 on Dell Poweredge machine

Just saw a soluton on installation problem when installing WIndows Server 2008 on Dell Poweeedge machine:

When you find the installation process stop and display the following error:

"windows could not update the computer's boot configuration"

 Try:
First, if your Installation and Maintenance DVD isn't version 5.4, get that ISO and make your new DVD.
Second, when you use that disk to prepare your array for Windows 2008, do not install a utility partition!
Third, the installation that the disk does left you with a splash screen and it never moved beyond that, so I hit F11 on bootup and chose to boot from the Windows 2008 DVD.
Fourth, please also check the BIOS settings and see if the boot hard disk has been set to the proper hard disk. Besides, you can try turning off all the boot devices from the BIOS except for the CD/DVD and the hard drive and see how it goes. It is reported that similar issues may occur when some boot devices interfere the installation.

Windows 7 RC download link.

Finally, it arrived on Technet download:

You can download the Windows 7 RC build from the Microsoft sites without a TechNet or MSDN subscription here.

Exchange 2007 new recipient / users not appear in GAL

The reason is Offline Address Book not being updated. By default, Exchange generates the Offline Address Book once a day at 5AM.
Besides, an Outlook 2007 client picks up the GAL entries using web distribution from the web based oab virtual directory. The OAB data is delivered to the directory every 8 hours by default.

To change this to 30 minutes, for example, use the following command:
Get-OABVirtualDirectory | Set-OabVirtualDirectory -PollInterval 30

To force a complete OAB update, you can use the following commands:

get-offlineaddressbook | update-offlineaddressbook

update-filedistributionservice %CAS server name%

Run the update-filedistributionservice command for each CAS server.
Of course Outlook 2007 cached-mode users still have to download the OAB again if they want the new information or simply wait 24 hours for it to happen automatically.

In Outlook:

- On the client go to Outlook 2003/2007 | Tools | Send/Receive | Download Address Book….
- Uncheck Download changes since last Send/Receive
- Make sure Download Full Details is checked
- Click OK, wait for the download to complete (depending on your bandwidth and size of OAL, this may be close to instant, or it may take a few minutes)
- Check if the user appears in the GAL

Windows 7 RC release in May?

Many internet blogs and websites stated Win7 RC will come out on May. Let's see!

IE 8 Release!

Download here:

http://www.microsoft.com/ie8

or

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx

Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of the Internet Explorer, will be announcing the availability of Windows Internet Explorer 8 at MIX09 in his keynote address on March 19.  You can watch the keynote and other happenings live at MIX09 by visiting: http://live.visitmix.com/Default.aspx

Background

Internet Explorer 8 takes a big step forward in browser innovation focused on the way people use the web today. Faster, easier, safer and more reliable than ever before, Internet Explorer 8 is the best version of Internet Explorer we’ve released to date. For example, through Accelerators and Web Slices we are optimizing the browser experience by removing repetitive, time consuming actions, and Internet Explorer 8 offers protections against malware that are far superior to the protections in other browsers.

 Some new features in Internet Explorer 8 include:

·         Accelerators. Accelerators give people easy access to the online services they care about most from any page they visit and allow users to browse faster by eliminating most of the clicks required to access desired content and services.

·         Web Slices. With Web Slices, people can see the information they want to see most often without going away from the page they are on. Appearing in the Favorite bar, users can identify Web Slices with updates when in bold and they can see a rich Web Slice visualization of their content with access back to the source Web page.

·         Instant Search Box. The enhanced Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 is more helpful, making it easier for people to find content of interest and increasing the relevancy of search results. As users type a search term, they can see real-time search suggestions, including images and rich text, from their chosen search provider.

·         Smart Address Bar. Provides matches as the user types across History and Favorites searching against all parts of the URL string (and the page title) instead of just the beginning. Allows mistyped entries to be removed from the Address Bar.

·         Enhanced Tabbed Browsing.  Tabs are grouped and color-coded so people can quickly discern which are related. It is easy to group or ungroup tabs or reopen closed tabs.

·         Performance improvements. We’ve reduced the time that people must wait when starting the browser, opening a “new tab” and loading a page.

·         SmartScreen Filter. Built upon the Microsoft Phishing Filter, the SmartScreen Filter helps protect against a broader set of phishing threats and helps protect from sites that attempt to download malicious software. The SmartScreen Filter is now easier to use with enhanced user interface and warning messages to reduce users’ click-through to confirmed sites.

·         Domain Highlighting. Internet Explorer 8 highlights the domain name of the URL string in the Address Bar in bold text, making it easier for people to tell which site they are on and aid them in identifying phishing sites and other deceptive sites. The domain name is in black, standing out from other characters in the URL, which are gray.

·         Cross-Site Scripting filter. Helps protect users and systems from attacks that can lead to information disclosure, cookie stealing, account/identity theft or otherwise masquerading as the user without permission.

• InPrivate. InPrivate helps to protect people’s data and privacy from being retained locally on the PC they are using. This protects against third parties who might be in a position to track their online activities.  The consumer has the ability to use either of the features (InPrivate Browsing or InPrivate Filtering) independently.
  • InPrivate Browsing. When activated, InPrivate Browsing helps ensure that History, temporary Internet files and cookies are not recorded on a PC after browsing. When in InPrivate Browsing, toolbars and extensions are automatically disabled and browsing History is automatically deleted when the browser is closed.
  • InPrivate Filtering. InPrivate Filtering helps protect privacy by enabling the consumer to block content coming from third parties that are in a position to track and aggregate their online behavior. Users are provided with notice, choice and control of which third parties to allow and which ones to block.

For a comprehensive look at the features in Internet Explorer 8, please see the fact sheet available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/windows/factsheets/IE8FS.mspx

Get the facts: About Office 2007 File Format

• By installing “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats”, Office 2000-2003 can open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the new file formats of Office 2007.
• .docx, .xlsx, .pptx is XML-based file format with compression of ZIP technology.
• Open XML already is an international open standard.  It’s certified by ISO (as ISO 29500) and ECMA (as ECMA-376)
• Open XML is platform independent and easily coexists with other document file formats, including Open Document Format (ODF).
• Open XML has important features supporting long-term document retention, preservation, and accessibility.