Vista knowledge from the OEM team and others...
BCDEdit and debug setup
This blog is a short guide to provide some basic info regarding Boot Configuration Data Editor...
Date: 07/28/2009
Sterilizing a hard drive with diskpart.exe
Sometimes you need to ensure that a hard drive is completely sterilized (erased) and that all data...
Date: 06/24/2009
Windows Home Server Add-Ins
Windows Home Server has quickly become a mainstay tool in your electronic home as storage for your...
Date: 06/23/2009
Default file formats for USB removable media
If the drive is removable, supports hot swap, and the disk size is less than or equal to 32GB, then...
Date: 06/22/2009
Add Language Packs before Hotfixes when Creating Multilingual Vista Images
When asked to create a multilingual image for your company or organization, you may be tempted to...
Date: 06/14/2009
Tips for using Vista Package Manager (pkgmgr)
Vista Package Manager is command line tool to install, remove or updates Windows packages to an...
Date: 06/14/2009
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 release candidate available for download now.
The Virtualization team is pleased to announce the availability of the Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008...
Date: 05/06/2009
New program highlighting in the Start menu
Ever wonder why some programs are highlighted in the “All Programs” list of the Start menu? Start by...
Date: 04/27/2009
What is the solid state drive (SSD) option I'm seeing on some new laptops?
These new Solid State Drives (SSDs) are utilizing Flash Memory, also known as non-volatile memory...
Date: 04/22/2009
Running Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in's from the Start menu.
Items that end in an extension with .msc are Microsoft Management Console Snap-in's, but did you...
Date: 03/30/2009
Windows Home Server PP2 released!
Windows Home Server (WHS) Power Pack 2 (PP2) was released on March 24th, 2009 in English, with more...
Date: 03/30/2009
DPI Scaling (font size adjustment) does not work on some displays in Vista
You have your nifty new hand-held ultra mobile PC running Windows Vista, but you wish your font size...
Date: 03/24/2009
Using Resource Monitor to see impact of changing the Maximum Processor State
So you have a system with a processor with performance state control running Windows...
Date: 02/28/2009
Resolving issues with the Windows Media Center Store Update Manager and a corrupt data store.
If you've experienced an error just like this when using Windows Media Center you may have some...
Date: 02/27/2009
How to ensure reliable performance data from VM's when using multiple virtual CPU's.
If you're running Windows Server 2003 in a Hyper-V VM and have the VM configured to use multiple...
Date: 02/19/2009
How to separate out .DLL based services that use a shared generic service host process name (svchost.exe) for troubleshooting…
Have you ever had system resource issues where checking Task Manager in Vista seems to point to an...
Date: 01/30/2009
What is hybrid sleep in Windows Vista?
Hybrid sleep is a new power saving state for desktops running Windows Vista. Hybrid sleep is...
Date: 01/26/2009
Overview of Hyper-V features available with the Server 2008 R2 Beta
If you're a MSDN customer you can download the ISO's now and begin testing. If you don't subscribe...
Date: 01/08/2009
Information on Downloading and Installing Windows 7 Beta
Yesterday Steve Ballmer announced the public availability of the Windows 7 Beta. Customers with...
Date: 01/08/2009
How to enable to iSCSI ETW logging for Windows Server 2003 with initiator 2.08 and Windows Server 2008.
Event Tracing in MS iSCSI Drivers The following sections describe how to enable event tracing in MS...
Date: 12/31/2008
Updated OCUR tuner support after applying the Media Center TV Pack for Windows Vista.
Many of the OEM's are shipping the latest update to the Windows Vista called the Media Center TV...
Date: 12/31/2008
The space bar is the new F8 when it comes to Vista and Server 2008 boot options.
In Windows Vista or Server 2008 you now have an alternative and more options than just pressing F8...
Date: 12/05/2008
Preserving power configuration settings during SysPrep.
Manufacturers and system administrators might want to disable the automatic customization of power...
Date: 11/21/2008
Changing USB device behavior when resuming from S3/S4
Since Windows Vista was released, there have been a handful of fixes that have come out to address...
Date: 10/21/2008
Troubleshooting and resolving memory leaks faster with UMDH and other debugging tools.
"You probably can’t avoid tech support problems entirely, but by using tools that Microsoft’s Global...
Date: 10/07/2008
Enabling the IME during OOBE on Windows Vista.
If you're setting up a system to run Chinese Vista with Office 2007 installed and you're not able to...
Date: 10/03/2008
Announcement regarding changes to the Professional support level.
Microsoft Customer Service & Support (CSS) is changing its Professional support model to deliver...
Date: 10/01/2008
Creating a GUI cheat sheet for commonly used WinDbg commands.
There is an undocumented feature in WinDbg that may be useful for remembering WinDbg commands and...
Date: 09/30/2008
How to run an ETW trace through a reboot.
In Windows Vista and Server 2008, you can use the AutoLogger feature to trace a component during the...
Date: 09/23/2008
Associating WinDbg with .DMP files and other tips.
During a discussion here about debugging in Windows we got onto the topic of extensions and tricks...
Date: 08/25/2008
How to SysPrep for Small Business Server 2003 R2
imagex\SBS 2003 R2 sysprep: After the 1st CD - stop and run setup with /OEM switch. Compete the...
Date: 08/19/2008
Understanding How You Use This Blog
Greetings Blog Readers, My name is Ed Jolly, and I am a director in the Commercial Technical Support...
Date: 08/05/2008
Enabling hibernation in Windows Vista when the option isn't presented by default.
Q: I’ve installed Windows Vista on my laptop but I do not see hibernation listed in the Shutdown...
Date: 07/30/2008
Resources to help get you started with Hyper-V RTM on Server 2008.
As you're probably already aware, Hyper-V was released not too long ago. There are a number of...
Date: 07/29/2008
Setting up dynamic partition mirroring on GPT disks in Server 2008.
In this helpful how to KB from our very own Doug Iman, he decribes at great length what is required...
Date: 05/30/2008
BreakOnSysRq applies to USB (kbdhid) keyboards as well...
If you happen to be debugging and hit the PrtScn / SysRq key on the debugee you may have noticed...
Date: 05/14/2008
Windows Server 2008 == Windows Vista Service Pack 1
As is probably well known, Microsoft spends a tremendous amount of time and resources on marketing...
Date: 05/05/2008
Vista tips and tricks... changing boot options on the fly.
There are a number of boot options that can be used in Vista and Windows Server 2008 that can be a...
Date: 04/22/2008
We are hiring...
Want to debug the most difficult problems against the largest, most complex piece of software ever...
Date: 04/08/2008
Troubleshooting Certificate Enrollment
AutoEnrollment & MMC Enrollment Enrollment Dependencies: The Certificate Template has been...
Date: 04/07/2008
Managing Group Policy in Windows Vista
Hi, my name is Bob Newhouse and I will be discussing managing group policy with Windows Vista. To...
Date: 04/04/2008
Be green with Windows Vista Power Management...
Windows Vista has a new tool for investigating and configuring Power Management features. For this...
Date: 04/04/2008
Details on DFS failover fixes included in KB933860 and Vista SP1.
Hello All, Vista SP1 is here and if you are wondering how Vista SP1 can resolve potential issue on...
Date: 03/27/2008
Windows Vista clients cannot access network shares over a VPN or dial-up connection
You may find that although Windows Vista clients can successfully connect to a VPN or Dial-up RAS...
Date: 03/27/2008
Smart Card Logon and Authentication
If the certificate has been revoked you will see the following at the bottom of the output: The...
Date: 03/26/2008
Windows Vista SP1 is here!!!
Yes you heard correctly - The long anticipated release of Windows Vista SP1 is here. Currently you...
Date: 03/19/2008