x(perts)64

Windows Home Server PP1 Releases to Web!

2008-07-21T17:53:57Z

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 is finally here ! Available for download if you're in a hurry, or wait and it will get pushed down via WU/MU, this is an essential upgrade for anyone using WHS. Or considering it. Not only does it add support for 64-bit Vista clients, but it has the data corruption fix included as well. In the process of fixing the Drive Extender (DE) corruption issue, they've actually made huge gains in speed and stability. I've been using PP1 on my network for months...(read more)

USB in Hyper-V Child?

2008-07-17T00:24:00Z

It's still early days yet, but I think I've found a simple and very satisfactory solution to the problem of no USB support in Hyper-V. FabulaTech's USB Over Network product is simple to install - you install the Server side of it on whatever physical machine will host the USB devices, and the Client side on whatever virtual machine needs access to the USB devices. You can install as many copies of the Client application as you want - it's only the Server that requires a license key...(read more)

Hyper-V RTM Is Here

2008-06-26T18:22:19Z

The Hyper-V RTM is here, and should be downloadable today, according to this TechNet blog . As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a big fan of Hyper-V and I'm really glad to see it RTM. This may be a MS v1.0, but it's a solid product that brings serious hypervisor-based virtualization down to a price point for the rest of us. And, frankly, I like it better in a myriad of ways than the major competitors. Yes, there are things I want that aren't there yet. But this is a real winner...(read more)

"Slashes" in Vista/Windows Server 2008

2008-06-22T05:16:29Z

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 c:\temp This works the same for executing commands and in PS1 scripts, making life easier for those of us who learned our scripting (and our command lines) at the Korn (or Bourne or bash or even C) shell prompt. And, I might add, this works in every...(read more)

Windows Home Server - Public Beta Includes x64

2008-06-11T04:18:07Z

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 support for Vista 64-bit clients. I've been working with this for months now, getting more and more excited, but unable to talk about it. FRUSTRATING! But the wraps are off now, and I can tell you that the fixed WHS ROCKS! Seriously. It's faster...(read more)

Guest Blog - Kevin Beares, SBS Community Lead

2008-05-27T23:46:29Z

The Windows Small Business Server 2008 WW Community Survey is live This is the third year we have published an SBS WW Community Survey to the SBS Community. We have learned an amazing amount of information from the people who have taken the time to tell us what they thought. Some things we kind of knew already, but other things were not as clear before we had received the feedback. Because of the previous surveys, we have made some adjustments in our community engagement. To name a few; we really...(read more)

MS Non-Support

2008-05-01T20:33:44Z

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. It's your OS. Support it! Barb is, as usual, right. Charlie....(read more)

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008

2008-04-30T16:42:22Z

SCVMM 2007 is Microsoft's outstanding product for managing multiple Virtual Server instances across your enterprise. Frankly, I loved it. It made dealing with VS so much easier, and allowed me to build a library of solutions that I could quickly and easily deploy on any server in my environment. It was a huge time saver, and really easy to work with. All in all, one of the best Microsoft "version 1" products I've worked with. But then I moved my environment to Hyper-V , since I...(read more)

Connecting to Remote VMs with Hyper-V RC0

2008-04-27T18:23:28Z

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 server. However, there is a workaround - run the VMConnect application locally on you Vista 64 desktop (or laptop), but use it to connect to the remote session. When you install the Hyper-V Remote Management components on your Vista box, it installs...(read more)

A Lighter Moment

2008-04-21T18:42:06Z

I ran across a perfect commentary on how the life of a Microsoft MVP works, in this comic on the xkcd site. Of course, it was sent to me originally by my wife. Wonder what she was trying to tell me......(read more)

Finally - Adobe to support 64-bit in next version of PhotoShop

2008-04-03T17:52:55Z

Adobe has finally announced that PhotoShop CS4 will have a 64-bit version. Gee, took them long enough. The C-Net article on this is here . Charlie....(read more)

Hyper-V RC0 and Integration Components Workaround

2008-03-31T14:05:56Z

If you've upgraded to RC0 of Hyper-V, you can run into a problem creating a new VM that is based on Server 2008 RTM, since the Integration Components (IC's) are out of sync. This means you won't have the drivers for the new synthetic NIC, for example. And if you're working over an RDP session to the parent partition, you'll have major mouse problems in the VM as well. So, the workaround is to get the new IC's loaded into the VM as quickly as possible. To do that, you have...(read more)

Unwanted Services when installing iTunes (for SHAME, Apple!)

2008-03-24T17:22:00Z

OK, we've all complained about unnecessary services and silent installs, but to give them credit, Microsoft has done a pretty good job of cutting back on that sort of thing. Heck, they even allow installing a server without a GUI, finally. So I recently broke down and bought an iPod. I had a Zune, and it was pretty lame, but when the new software (v2.x) got installed, it became totally useless. Time to break down and buy an iPod - at least it also supports Audible books, which is a big plus for...(read more)

Hyper-V Release Candidate Released

2008-03-19T14:13:06Z

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 SP1 and XP SP3 support, and includes the Hyper-V Manager for Windows Vista SP1. If you've been using the beta version of Hyper-V that shipped as part of Windows Server 2008, or an earlier version, you'll have some specific steps to follow to...(read more)

32-bit Memory in x64 Windows

2008-03-18T15:55:30Z

In the public 64-bit Windows newsgroup , we often get questions about memory usage, and a recent post there made me realize that there are some basic misunderstandings about the relationship between memory, virtual memory address space, and RAM. 32-bit Windows uses a flat memory address space, thus is limited to 4 GB of memory addresses. This is divided up 2 GB for individual user programs, and 2 GB for the operating system. It doesn't matter if you have 4 GB of RAM, or 512 Mb of RAM, it's...(read more)

Arctic Cooling

2008-01-29T17:14:50Z

Interesting review of Arctic Cooling's CPU heatsink/coolers on AnandTech today. I've been using and very much liking the Freezer Pro line of coolers from them for a while, finding them extremely quiet and very effective. Well, Anand agrees with me, and honestly, he's much more thorough and scientific about it. I have used these coolers on Opteron, Athlon 64, and Intel 775 socket motherboards, and they're now part of my standard order when building a new system. I've personally...(read more)

Hyper-V on Server Core

2008-01-17T01:41:16Z

While I'm talking about Hyper-V and Server 2008, let me thank Ben Armstrong for a great post on how to get Hyper-V setup and configured on Server Core. Of course, as I just posted , I needed a bit of Terminal Server RemoteApps help to get it all working. Charlie....(read more)

Windows Server 2008 RemoteApps is COOL

2008-01-17T01:24:00Z

Originally known as "TS Rail", the RemoteApps feature of Windows Server 2008 makes Terminal Servers an absolute essential on everyone's network. There is no way I won't have a TS running full time from here on out, and RemoteApps is the reason. So, what's so cool about it? Utter transparency. The application behaves just as if I were running it on my local machine, but I don't have to have it loaded there - just on the terminal server. And it's a great workaround for...(read more)

iRotate Utility

2008-01-08T20:05:05Z

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 1600SW that I have connected to the DVI output (through a converter to the older technology that SGI used), and generally getting totally horked if I change anything - either through the "Personalization" applet or through the Catalyst application...(read more)

Windows Home Server - x64 Support Announced

2008-01-07T21:02:00Z

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 a new option for backing up the server itself to an external disk, but the most important new feature is support for Windows Vista x64. WHS is an exciting product and one I use every day to keep my desktops backed up. But until they release an update...(read more)