x(perts)64 : Vista x64

DQSD 4.1 64-bit Beta Releases to Web!

Charlie Russel — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:59:00 GMT

Old timers here will know that I simply love Dave's Quick Search Deskbar (DQSD). And that there was a semi-custom solution to running it in 64-bit that I used. Well, with a lot of hard work and persistence, we now have 64-bit support built into the...(read more)

DQSD v4 - With Support for x64

Charlie Russel — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:39:00 GMT

As anyone who has known me for a while will tell you, I can be qute passionate about applications I really like. Well, one of those little gems is an opensource project called "Dave's Quick Search Deskbar" or DQSD as it's commonly known...(read more)

"Slashes" in Vista/Windows Server 2008

Charlie Russel — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:16:29 GMT

OK, I knew that I could use "/" in PowerShell just about anywhere that Windows CMD wanted "\" - PowerShell is smart enough to figure out what I mean in almost every case. So: PSH> cd c:/temp works exactly the same as: PSH> cd...(read more)

Windows Home Server - Public Beta Includes x64

Charlie Russel — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:18:07 GMT

The public beta of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 is now available on the Microsoft Connect site for download. This is a major update for WHS - not only does it fix the corruption issue that has plagued WHS in certain scenarios, but it also adds full...(read more)

MS Non-Support

Charlie Russel — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:33:44 GMT

One of my favourite fellow MVPs, Barb Bowman , posted a rant today about the latest Microsoft product to ship with no support for 64-bit users. In this case, a "professional" photographic tools application, Pro Photo Tools v1 . For shame, Microsoft...(read more)

Connecting to Remote VMs with Hyper-V RC0

Charlie Russel — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:23:28 GMT

One of the changes in Hyper-V RC0 is that you can no longer use a mouse in a remote RDP session until you have the Integration Components installed into the VM. Well, that's a royal pain if you don't happen to be sitting at the console of your...(read more)

Hyper-V Release Candidate Released

Charlie Russel — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:13:06 GMT

For those of you testing or using Hyper-V as your virtualization solution, the good news is that they appear to be on track for a final release by the end of the summer. Microsoft has just announced the release of the Hyper-V RC. This update adds Vista...(read more)

iRotate Utility

Charlie Russel — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:05:05 GMT

I've got a dual monitor setup, running off an ATI 1650 video card. Not exactly hot stuff, but adequate for most of my (non-gaming) needs. But the ATI software is the PITS. It keeps losing track of which monitor is which, turning off the older SGI...(read more)

Windows Home Server - x64 Support Announced

Charlie Russel — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:02:00 GMT

The Windows Home Server Team Blog announced that Microsoft will soon be releasing (H1, 2008) a free, automatic, upgrade to Windows Home Server called "PowerPack 1" (PP1 for short.) PP1 has lots of new features I think are important, including...(read more)

Finding a Driver

Charlie Russel — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:53:00 GMT

There was a really useful post on the 64bit newsgroup today from Carlos about how to find a driver for a generic device. I'm going to paraphrase it here, but the basic process is to get the hardware ID from the device and use that to find the real...(read more)

Nvidia Chipset + 4 GB BSOD Fix

Charlie Russel — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:55:00 GMT

We've seen a few reports of BSODs in Vista with Nvidia chipsets and 4 or more GB of RAM. The stop code is 0xA and it's in Storport.sys. Well, a new KB is available. But before you start downloading and applying, please read the symptoms carefully...(read more)

The Multi-Core Fallacy

Charlie Russel — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:49:22 GMT

More is always better, right? Wrong! Before you start deciding that your life isn't complete without quad cores and multiple CPUs, it makes sense to understand how you use your computer. If you're like me, with currently Outlook, Word (6 different...(read more)

MVP Insider this month

Charlie Russel — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:34:08 GMT

http://blogs.technet.com/canitpro/archive/2007/11/01/mvp-profile-charlie-russel.aspx Too bad I don't think SteveB actually reads these things, so I don't think I'm likely to get an answer to my question for him. ;)...(read more)

Design a Laptop

Charlie Russel — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:12:00 GMT

So, HP has asked fellow MVP and ExpertZone Columnist Barb Bowman to help them design their next laptop. If you want to have input, post a comment to her blog . I have! This is your chance to help HP out-do the Acer Ferrari, my current favourite laptops...(read more)

Two Factor Authentication

Charlie Russel — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:18:00 GMT

I spent last night installing the latest version of AuthAnvil and RWW-Guard on our network. Between the two, we now have a far more secure environment that enforces Two Factor Authentication (TFA) for access to critical accounts and resources. Normal...(read more)

Bye-bye, 32-bit. 64-bit is here to stay (Server only?)

Charlie Russel — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:29:00 GMT

As reported here , Windows Server 2008 is the last 32-bit version of Windows. The next version, whenever that arrives, will be 64-bit only. So for all you lazy applications and hardware developers who can't be bothered to write 64-bit software or...(read more)

Vista x64 Drivers Available for Ferrari 5000

Charlie Russel — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:09:00 GMT

Well, I don't have a Ferrari 5000, I've only got the 4000, and those drivers aren't showing, yet. But for those of you lucky enough to have one of the 5000's, the Vista drivers are at: ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/ferrari_5000/driver/vista...(read more)

PowerShell for Windows Vista

Charlie Russel — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:37:00 GMT

Microsoft has released the Windows Vista versions of PowerShell for download! For those who haven't been paying attention, PowerShell (nee Monad) is the powerful new scripting language and interactive shell that combines the best features of UNIX...(read more)

Finally - ISA Client for Vista and XP x64 releases

Charlie Russel — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:58:00 GMT

Finally, Microsoft has released an ISA Firewall Client that officially supports XP x64 and Vista. The download is a single download for both 64-bit and 32-bit, and is the same for all supported versions of Windows, up to and including Vista RTM. So go...(read more)

Vista Bitlocker Command Line

Charlie Russel — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 18:41:00 GMT

Steve Riley's blog is one that I follow and read faithfully. In his latest installment on the BitLocker command line interface , Steve points out that while the current GUI for BitLocker (See my earlier blog on BitLocker ) only allows you to encrypt the...(read more)