Windows Server - Technology : Windows Client

Internet Explorer 8 slow TAB opening after installing Java

Richard — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:32:00 GMT

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

Richard — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:38:00 GMT

Key Features	Windows® 7 Starter	Windows® 7 Home Basic (EM only)	Windows® 7 Home Premium	Windows ® 7 Professional	Windows® 7 Enterprise/ Windows® 7 Ultimate
Windows® Taskbar & Jump Lists	√	√	√	√	√
Windows® Search	√	√	√	√	√
Join a HomeGroup	√	√	√	√	√
Windows Media® Player	√	√	√	√	√
Backup and Restore	√	√	√	√	√
Enhanced Media Playback	√	√	√	√	√
Action Center	√	√	√	√	√
Device Stage™	√	√	√	√	√
Home media streaming, including Play To	√	√	√	√	√
Bluetooth Support	√	√	√	√	√
Fax and Scan	√	√	√	√	√
Basic games including Solitaire and Minesweeper	√	√	√	√	√
Credentials Manager	√	√	√	√	√
Personalization Support		√	√	√	√
Live Taskbar Thumbnails		√	√	√	√
Switch between users without having to log in and out		√	√	√	√
Connect to other PCs in your vicinity without a network access device		√	√	√	√
Use your PC’s internet connection to allow the other PCs in your home to connect without a router		√	√	√	√
Location and Other Sensors		√	√	√	√
Multi Monitor Support (screen extension)		√	√	√	√
Windows Mobility Center (w/o presentation settings) *		√	√	√	√
Aero® Glass & simpler window navigation			√	√	√
Aero® Background			√	√	√
Windows® Touch			√	√	√
Create a HomeGroup			√	√	√
Windows® Media Center			√	√	√
Create and Play DVDs			√	√	√
Remote Media Streaming**			√	√	√
Premium games including Chess Titans and Internet Backgammon			√	√	√
Snipping Tool, Sticky Notes, Windows® Journal			√	√	√
Windows® Sideshow (Auxiliary Display)			√	√	√
Windows XP Mode: Run many existing Windows XP programs seamlessly in Windows 7				√	√
Location Aware Printing				√	√
Join a Domain & Group Policy Controls				√	√
Remote Desktop Host				√	√
Advanced Backup and Restore (Network & Group Policy)				√	√
Encrypting File System				√	√
Windows® Mobility Center* (with Presentation Mode )				√	√
Offline Folders				√	√
BitLocker™ & BitLocker To Go™					√
AppLocker™					√
DirectAccess					√
BranchCache™					√
Multilingual User Interface Packs					√
Enterprise Search Scopes					√
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Enhancements^					√
Direct Boot from VHD					√

Windows 7 RTM Download time

Richard — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:41:00 GMT

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!!!

Richard — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:22:00 GMT

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

Windows 7 Build 7600 appear on the net!

Richard — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:28:00 GMT

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

Windows 7 RC download link.

Richard — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:00:00 GMT

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.

Windows 7 RC release in May?

Richard — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:12:00 GMT

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

IE 8 Release!

Richard — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:03:00 GMT

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

Richard — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:37:00 GMT

Office 2007 uses new file format with extension name as .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, many users do not understand why Microsoft update the new format, and thought that only Office 2007 can open and edit those file format. Please see below.

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.

Free Hard Drive / Hard Disk wipe tool

Richard — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:28:00 GMT

Many students and friends keep asking me for a free hard drive wipe tool, I found this one may be useful for yours.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php

CopyWipe™ is a utility for copying or securely overwriting (wiping/erasing) entire hard drives. CopyWipe can ease and expedite the transition to a new hard drive by copying the entire contents of one drive to another. CopyWipe can also help prevent confidential or private data from being recovered, by securely wiping the contents of a drive. A number of options are provided for wiping, most of which exceed governmental standards (such as DoD 5220.22-M, NAVSO P-5239-26, etc.); this allows the user to choose an optimal balance between security and duration of the wiping operation.

Windows 7 Wallpaper?

Richard — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:28:00 GMT

http://www.tech-exclusive.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/seven_shine_logo_1152_864.jpg

I'm a PC!

Richard — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:12:00 GMT

MVP "I'm a PC" Video

Tip: Work Faster with New Hotkey Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 7 beta 1

Richard — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:48:00 GMT

Windows 7 beta 1 includes some handy new shortcut key combinations that allow you to navigate and manage the Windows workspace more efficiently. Here are 10 new Windows 7 shortcuts that will help you speed up your workflow (“Win” means the Windows Key):

Win+Home: Clear all but the active window

Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop

Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window

Win+Down arrow: Minimize the active window or restore the window if it's maximized

Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the active window to each side of the monitor

Win+Shift+Left/Right arrows: If you've got dual monitors, this will move the active window to the adjacent monitor

Win+T: Shift focus to and scroll through items on the taskbar

Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display

Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out

Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that particular application

Tip provided by Stephen Rose, the Senior Community Manager for the TechNet Springboard Series. Stephen supports Windows Client IT Pros (for Windows Vista and Windows 7) worldwide. He is an MCSE, MCT, and two time MVP in Setup and Deployment.

Tip: Burn a Disc Image from an ISO or IMG file in Windows 7

Richard — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:12:00 GMT

Burning disc image feature is one of my long awaiting feature in Windows! Finally, it come true in Windows 7! :

----

Windows 7 beta 1 introduces a built-in ability to burn discs directly from ISO and IMG files (this used to require a third-party tool). To burn a disc using an ISO or IMG file, simply do the following:

Place a blank unformatted CD or DVD into your CD/DVD drive.
Right click on the ISO or IMG file you want to use to burn a disc.
Click Burn disc image.
Next to Disc burner, click on the drop down arrow and select the CD/DVD drive with the blank disc you want to burn to.
Check the Verify disc after burning option if you want Windows to verify the disc image after burning the disc. Leave this option unchecked if you want to skip the verification. Note that you should skip verification if you are in a hurry, as this process requires additional time.
When it finishes burning the disc image to disc, click the Close button.

The DVD (or CD) is now ready to be used without your ever having to find, install, and use a third-party tool.

Changing Office 2007 CD KEY without Re-install it.

Richard — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:39:00 GMT

I found the following solution on the Internet. This describes an other error, but it gave me the ability to reenter a new Product Key.

Follow these steps:

Close all Microsoft Office applications.
Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration

Note You may also find another subkey that resembles the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration\{91120000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}
If you find additional subkeys that reference Microsoft 12.0 registration, open each subkey, and then identify the product by the ProductName entry.
For example: ProductName=Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
When you find the subkey for the product from which you want to remove the existing product license key, delete the following entries:
- DigitalProductID
- ProductID
Exit Registry Editor.

The next time that you try to run an Office application, you will be prompted for a new product license key. Then, you can enter the product license key.

Network and Sharing Center Operations Guide

Richard — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:57:00 GMT

Another guide reviewed by me:

Network and Sharing Center Operations Guide

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/7bd38516-8d1c-4eb5-aaed-cf9369c4a0611033.mspx

Acknowledgments

Produced by: Microsoft Windows Server User Assistance team

Project Writer: Dave Bishop, L. Joan Devraun

Project Editor: Scott Somohano

Technical Reviewers: Sen Veluswami, Alvin Tan, Amit Pethe

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Reviewers: Richard Wu, Wai Ho

Telnet Operations Guide

Richard — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:19:00 GMT

Telnet Operations Guide

haha! I help Microsoft to review their Telnet Operation Guide before. Now, it was published!

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/0bd3aaf1-3475-4676-b85d-7fd5531a9cbc1033.mspx?mfr=true

Look at the bottom of that page, you will see:

Acknowledgments

Produced by: Microsoft Windows Server User Assistance team

Project Writer: Dave Bishop, L. Joan Devraun

Project Editor: Scott Somohano

Technical Reviewers: Jeff Gollnick, Shamit Patel, Shanmugam Kulandaivel, Jay Munro

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Reviewers: Richard Wu, Wai Ho

Changing local admin password?

Richard — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:28:00 GMT

Changing local admin password?

I just find a good method to change the local admin password of client PC remotely from MCPMAG. By using this method, you don't need to put the new password in script in order to make it work. You may reference this:

SysInternals offers a free too called PsPasswd
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PsPasswd.html , which
allows you to remotely reset passwords on a range of computers
on your network. The tool will also report successes and
failures of changed passwords, and allows you to run a single
command against a list of computers. Since the password is just
included within the syntax of a command that you run, it will
never be stored as plain text in a batch or script file.

To use PsPasswd, you'll first need a list of all computers in
your domain. To enumerate all computer objects in a domain,
you could run this script:

LogFile = "C:\computers.txt"
Const ForWriting = 2
Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2

Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"

Set objCOmmand.ActiveConnection = objConnection
objCommand.CommandText = _
   "Select Name, Location from 'LDAP://DC=mcpmag,DC=com' " _
   & "Where objectClass='computer'"
objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute
objRecordSet.MoveFirst

Set objFSO =
CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(LogFile, ForWriting)

Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
   objFile.WriteLine objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value
   objRecordSet.MoveNext
Loop

Note that the script will output to a file named "computers.txt"
on the C drive. This could be changed by editing the LogFile
variable assignment in the first line of the script. Note that
in your environment, you will also need to change the domain
referenced in line 12. In my example, I use mcpmag.com
(DC=mcpmag,DC=com).

Once you have a list of all computers, you can then run
pspasswd.exe to change the local administrator password on
all systems in the list. Here's the syntax that I used on my
test network:

pspasswd.exe @c:\computers.txt administrator P@ssword!

Following the @ symbol in the command syntax is the path to
the file containing all computer names. The next part of the
syntax is the name of the account whose password will be
changed, followed by the new password (P@ssword!).

Now here is the output that was generated from the command:

PsPasswd v1.21 - Local and remote password changer
Copyright (C) 2003-2004 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

\\PC1:
Error changing password:
The network path was not found.

\\BSODME:
Password for BSODME\administrator successfully changed.

Since the output will list both success and failures, you will
be able to note the systems in which the password was not
successfully changed. In my case, the system named PC1 was not
located. So I would have to ensure that PC1 was online and then
run the command a second time. (Note that PsPasswd can also be
run against a single computer.) Since the command relies on UNC
paths to connect to systems, you will need to ensure that the
target systems have File and Print Sharing enabled and that File
and Print Sharing is not being blocked by the system's firewall.
By default, the Windows XP Pro SP2 firewall does not allow File
and Print sharing. However, this can be quickly changed via
Group Policy.

As you can see, with a simple list of computers on your network,
remotely changing the local administrator password using PsPasswd
is a relatively painless process.

How to fix: Windows could not search for new updates Error Code 80245003

Richard — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:34:00 GMT

Here is the steps for solving the 80245003 error when you do Windows Update in Vista.

1. Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenence, then (under Windows Update) > Turn automatic updating on or off, then click "never check for updates"

2. Close Control Panel
3. REBOOT
4. Goto My Computer
5. Click on C: (or your Primary Drive)
6. Open the "Windows" folder
7. Rename the Folder called "SoftwareDistribution" to SoftwareDistributionOLD
8. Create a new folder named SoftwareDistribution
9. Close all windows and any running programs.
10. REBOOT
11. Go back to Step 1 (and back to > Turn automatic updating on or off), then turn the Automatic Updates back On.

12. Close all windows and any running programs.
13. REBOOT
14. then click on Start and type in Windows Automatic Updates
15. Click on the "Windows Automatic Updates" folder
16. Run Windows Automatic Updates.

Disable the Windows Update Service (Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services). Just stop the service.
Navigate to: C:\Windows (or whereever you Windows system is)
Find the folder named: “SoftwareDistribution”
Rename that folder to something like “SoftwareDistribution.old”
Create a new folder called “SoftwareDistribution”
Go back to your Services panel and start the Windows Update service
Rerun Windows Update

HyperTerminal for Vista

Richard — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:58:00 GMT

Microsoft has removed HyperTerminal from Windows Vista, if you need to connect to a Cisco router through a local COM port, you can get HyperTerminal from Hilgraeve, the company that Microsoft licensed the application through.

You could also use the old XP Hyper terminal. Just extract two files hypertrm.dll and hypertrm.exe. You can put them anywhere on the disk, no installation required. Of course, for that you need to have XP to extract files from.

Besides, puTTY and SecureCRT are great too! I would prefer puTTY as it is FREE! :-p
PuTTY can now connect to local serial ports as well as making network connections!!!

Hilgraeve HyperTerminal for Personal Use
puTTY