Windows Vista Custom PC Design
Microsoft and Dell recently partnered up to create a super-cool custom PC in celebration of Microsoft releasing Windows Vista to manufacturing earlier this month.
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21.11.2006 How To Make a Custom Vista Disc AIO
odeeee report How To
Make a Custom Vista Disc All In One in our forum.
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26.1.2007 Windows 7 Will Consume Less Disk Space than Vista
Microsoft promises to optimize the amount of disk space that Windows 7 will consume in comparison to Windows Vista.
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20.11.2008 How To: Reduce Disk Space Used By Windows Vista System Restore
So you just bought a new notebook with Windows Vista and a roomy 120GB hard drive. But after using it for just a couple of days, you notice that you’ve only got about 90GB free.
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24.4.2007 How to: Create custom wallpaper collections in Windows 7
Do you love customizing your Windows desktop? If you do, you'll love this trick!
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28.7.2009 Windows Live Custom Domains - Free Email Hosting
A new service was added to the Windows Live Beta family today - Windows Live Custom Domains. The basic idea is that anyone with a domain can now point their MX record to the Live servers. What that means is that users can have Microsoft's servers hosting their own domain's email accounts for free.
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20.11.2005 Custom PC makers finally get Windows 7 preinstallation kit
On October 12, Microsoft provided system builders with the Windows 7 OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) tools and related documentation they need to preload and customize Windows 7 on multiple new PCs.
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13.10.2009 Over 10 Million Custom XP Downloads Get Chinese Pirates Jail Sentences
Chinese authorities cracked down on a group of four software pirates for offering a custom-built copy of Windows XP, which was downloaded in excess of 10 million times.
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24.8.2009 Insert disk....
How to archive on disk drives
Archiving on hard drives? Now that disk drives are cheaper per gigabyte than tape cartridges, you might be tempted to archive data on disk drives and stick them on a shelf.
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10.9.2008 Auslogics Disk Defrag 1.1.4.217
Auslogics Disk Defrag is a compact, manual defragmentation tool that supports FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS (with compressed and encrypted files).
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13.5.2007 Hard disk test 'surprises' Google
The impact of heavy use and high temperatures on hard disk drive failure may be overstated, says a report by three Google engineers.
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19.2.2007 Hitachi Ships 1TB Hard Disk Drive
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) has started to ship its 1TB hard disk drives (HDDs) introduced early this year commercially. But the hard drive that represents a milestone in desktop data storage costs a little less than two times higher compared to slightly less capacious one, which makes it not very affordable.
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6.4.2007 How to install Windows 7 on a virtual hard disk - VHD
If You want to test Windows 7, without impacting your current installation of Windows XP or Vista on your desktop? A possible solution is: Boot from VHD.
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19.6.2009 Windows Live Onecare beta ate my hard disk
A BRIT who downloaded Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare beta is claiming it ate his hard disk. The beta expired and he couldn't buy a licence.
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4.12.2006 Improved Disk Defragmenter in Windows 7 with Status Report and Free Space & Parallel Concurrent Defrag Support
Windows operating system comes with a built-in basic Disk Defragmenter, that can perform disk defragmentation process properly, which is performed to increase read and write access speed by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations, minimizing disk read travel time and maximizing transfer rate.
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2.8.2009 How can I install Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 to a virtual hard disk (VHD) file?
Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 add the ability for an OS to be installed onto a virtual hard disk (VHD) file to boot physical hardware. To do this, perform the following steps.
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17.2.2009 How to Install Vista Language Packs MUI on all versions of Vista + video tutorial
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, and Vista Business versions of the Microsoft licensing restrictions can only preserve a language!
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23.9.2008 The Vista Built-in Super Administrator Account Has Survived in Vista SP1
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is designed to evolve the RTM version of the latest Windows client from Microsoft, made available in November 2006 to business customers, and in January 2007 to the general consumers.
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15.2.2008 Vista SP1 Is Out, XP SP3 Old News, the Pink Edition of Vista Is In
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is now nothing more than water under the bridge, now that the service pack was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, shipping to general users on March 18.
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27.3.2008 Tell Hasta la Vista to XP - Time to Upgrade to Vista SP1
Like it or not, this is the right time not only to upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 but also to tell hasta la vista to Windows XP.
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30.6.2008 Instant Change Vista Product ID with Vista ProductID Changer
In past we have reviewed number of application to recover product key like Product Key Finder, WinGuggle, Windows product Key Finder.
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1.11.2009 Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2
Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.
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27.12.2007 Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista
32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB.
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4.1.2008 Vista Loader 2.1.3 - Windows Vista Activator 2008 Support SP1 with No Boot String
Vista Loader is one of the most successful Vista activation crack available to date, second only to physical modify (hardmod) the BIOS to include SLIC table to make BIOS Vista activation-compliant.
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15.5.2008 x64 Vista SP2 JPG Rendering Performance Inferior to x86 Vista SP2's
The JPG rendering process on 64-bit flavors of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is inferior to that on the 32-bit variants of the operating system.
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10.6.2009 Microsoft to Kill the Grace Timer and OEM BIOS Windows Vista Cracks with Vista SP1
With the advent of Windows Vista, cracks also became available being designed to bypass the activation process of the operating system.
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4.12.2007 New Vista OEM Activation Hack - Vista Boot by gkend
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article on his blog and to our forum members to clecha, Nighthief and fitterphil120 for most of the findings. One again the “Chinese” come up with a new method to trick out the Vista Activation. We have seen Softmode and VistaLoader, however “ Vista Boot by gkend” does promise even more.
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21.5.2007 Windows Vista on Super Nintendo, As Real As Vista on PSP
We're puzzled and confused... How can a console that's at least ten times less powerful than the acclaimed PSP cope with Windows Vista's requirements?
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15.8.2007 Vista RTM vs. Vista SP1 - Office 2007 benchmarking
Enough with benchmarking the OS - let’s see if Office 2007 is any faster on Vista SP1.
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26.2.2008Windows Vista available on Volume Licensing
Thanks Tom Warren and
Bink for
this information that was
relayed to me yesterday
(shortly before my power
outage), but better late than
never! We can reveal that
Windows Vista is available for
Volume License users, shortly
ahead of the scheduled Nov.
17th release to MSDN
subscribers.
The
following flavours were
released:
- Windows Vista
Business 32-bit English Disk
Kit MVL DVD
English
- Windows Vista
Business 32-bit English Disk
Kit MVL DVD
UPG
- Windows Vista
Business 64-bit English Disk
Kit MVL DVD English
- SA Win Vista
Enterprise 32-bit English Disk
Kit MVL DVD English
- SA Win Vista
Enterprise 32-bit English Disk
Kit MVL DVD UPG
English
- SA Win Vista
Enterprise 32-bit English Disk
Kit MVL MVLS Only DVD Language
Packs
- SA Win Vista
Enterprise 64-bit English Disk
Kit MVL DVD English
- SA Win Vista
Enterprise 64-bit English Disk
Kit MVL MVLS Only DVD Language
Packs
The site
appears to be non-responsive,
it's probably being
hammered!
neowin.net -
16.11.2006It's Another Vista TCO Study
Microsoft is flaunting a new Windows Vista total cost of ownership study thatno surprisepresents rosy findings.
Wipro
Technologies and GCR Custom Research produced the report, which findings Microsoft presented in a conference call this afternoon. Microsoft's PR
agency dispatched the wrong dial-in number, causing the meeting to start considerably late. My afternoon was packed, so I snatched a PDF of the
LiveMeeting PowerPoint and moved on to other things. A fuller white paper is now available.
The report focuses on Vista TCO
benefits for mobile PCs. GCR concluded that Vista would reduce mobile PC TCO by $605 annually, or 14 percent, compared to Windows XP.
Reports of this type are always suspect, because they are custom commissioned by vendors. When I was an analyst, I worked on several custom
reports used by companies for internal purposes, meaning to improve the business strategy. External custom reports have an inherent bias because the
client is paying for them for a broader marketing objective.. Would Microsoft promote a commissioned report that found Vista TCO to be less than
Windows XP or, gasp, Linux? The answer is obvious.
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06.09.2007Debugging a Per-User Installation Error on Windows Vista
Chris Jackson: Yesterday, a friend asked for some assistance debugging an issue with Windows Installer. It was one of those situations where you've
looked at the problem so closely, so many times, that you just needed another set of eyes. (They're close to shipping, so they've been doing nothing
but look at bugs, probably for a while.)
Some background:
What they're doing is a rather interesting use of
Windows Installer. They're using it to drop a setup.exe and then run it. So, they have a custom action of type 0xC02, which is a deferred custom
action, promoted to not use impersonation, which runs as an exe. This custom action spawns another version of itself (with different arguments), and
then the process exits so the installer can complete. The second version of this custom action then wants to uninstall the msi, as well as launch the
setup.exe. So, the msi is just a way to package up the setup.exe.
And, with UAC, it was breaking.
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25.10.2007How To Create a Bootable DVD for Windows Vista (or any Windows for that matter)
If it's been a while since you've needed a boot disk for your Windows machine, you may just be struggling with how exactly to do it. It's not like
the old Windows 98 boot floppy where I could just go into Windows Explorer and make one with a couple of quick clicks of the mouse. However, you need
not worry, since the current process is surprisingly well documented by Microsoft.
What may seem, at first, to be a complex task
is actually fairly simple. There are essentially seven steps to create a bootable DVD or bootable UFD (USB Flash Drive), all of which are command line
based. While the seven steps are relatively straightforward, the Microsoft article outlining those steps has a slightly obscure title: "
Walkthrough:
Create a Custom Windows PE Image." Anyway, this Walkthrough, for all intents and purposes, is a step-by-step how-to for creating a bootable DVD
disk.
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11.12.2007Windows 7 upgrade chart available
Microsoft has made available the official Windows 7 Upgrade chart, via allthingsd which indicates which previous versions of Windows are available for
an in-place upgrade to Windows 7, and to which version they can upgrade. You can view the chart below: As you can see from just a glance at the
chart, it's relatively confusing. Windows 7 offers no direct upgrade path from XP, which was announced very early on in the Windows 7 development
life cycle. Very specific upgrade paths from other versions of Windows Vista exist also. You can perform a "Custom Install" which is pretty much a
clean install, but you have the option to install Windows 7 to another disk without overwriting data.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
10.08.2009Google Rolls Out Custom Search Engine for Businesses
Google on Tuesday plans to
make its Custom Search Engine
available to business users.
Custom
Search Engine Business
Edition offers the same
Web site search technology
present in Google's free
Custom Search Engine, except
with no ads.
Google's custom search
allows the creator or
administrator to limit queries
to a certain set of documents,
such as those on one (or more)
Web sites. The service, free
and supported by ads for
consumers, costs businesses
anywhere from $100 per year to
$15,000 per year or more at
Web sites that field lots of
queries.
Custom
Search Engine Business Edition
also includes an XML
application programming
interface (API) for
customizing search result
presentation, technical
support, and the ability to
display search results under
the company's own logo rather
than Google's familiar red,
yellow, blue, and green...
winbeta.org -
17.07.2007Vista Running on Eee PC
Asus Eee PC is, as expected, getting hacked every which way, and Brit
Paul O'Brien has managed to squeeze the bloated Windows Vista onto the little Linux laptop. Using
vLite, a tool to customize a Vista install before actually installing it, Paul shrunk
Vista Home Premium and put the custom disk image onto a USB stick.
He then booted the Eee from the thumb drive, installed and “ here's the clever bit “ shifted the
gigabyte-gobbling Side by Side (SxS) directory off the main drive and onto an 8GB SD card.
winbeta.org -
14.12.2007Desktop Security: Create Custom Login Experiences With Credential Providers For Windows Vista
Credential providers in
Windows Vista allow you to
customize the logon experience
and integrate the
authentication methods that
best meet your organization's
needs. With this article,
learn how to write your own...
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27.01.2007Home media server runs embedded Vista
Crestron has announced a digital media server that runs an embedded version of Windows Vista. The ADMS (Adagio Digital Music System) includes a DVD or
Blu-ray disk drive, up to 1TB of RAID hard disk storage, Internet Explorer, plus HDMI, S/PDIF, and component outputs, says Crestron.
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19.09.2008AOL to Offer Free Custom
E-Mail Domains
Following in the footsteps of
Microsoft and Google, AOL said
Wednesday that it would begin
providing a custom e-mail
domain services for its
customers beginning in
September. Like its
competitors, AOL My eAddress
would be provided at no
charge...
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09.08.2006Engineering Windows 7 : Disk Space
Windows disk space consumption has trended larger over time. While not desirable, the degree to which it's been allowed is due in large part to
ever-increasing hard drive capacity, combined with a customer need and engineering focus that focused heavily on recover ability, data protection,
increasing breadth of device support, and demand for innovative new features. However, the proliferation of Solid State Drives (SSDs) has challenged
this trend, and is pushing Windows 7 to consider disk "footprint" in a much more thoughtful way and take that into account for Windows 7.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
21.11.2008Best Practices for
Partitioning a Hard Disk
Columnist Mitch Tulloch
explains how to choose a disk
partitioning scheme that helps
you be better organized, more
productive, and helps ensure
the integrity of your data...
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04.01.2006AOL to Launch Custom Domain
Service
AOL has plans to offer a
custom domain service,
BetaNews has learned. The
offering, called AOL
MYeAddress, will begin as a
beta test later Thursday, with
an official launch coming this
summer...
betanews.com -
19.05.2006Fujitsu Exec says solid-state disk doesn't measure up
While most major disk-drive manufacturers have developed or are already selling solid-state disk drives or hybrid drives, which use a combination of
flash memory and spinning disk, Fujitsu Ltd. has chosen not to develop a product for market. Joel Hagberg, Fujitsu's vice president of business
development, said his company does not plan to launch any solid-state disk-drive products over the next two years because the value proposition of the
technology is not compelling enough and won't be until technology breakthroughs change solid-state disk's performance and reliability.
neowin.net -
09.07.2008Microsoft Vista Undelete
Sparks More Facts
The Inquirer's recent
examination of the
'undelete' technology in
Windows Vista has become more
important since Apple formally
announced 'Time Machine' in
Leopard, the next iteration of
OSX.
Unfortunately Apple's Time
Machine requires a separate
disk, dedicated to the
backing-up of data on your
primary drive. Useful in the
case of a hard-disk failure,
but not exactly the cheapest
option. It also seems to have
an esoteric GUI, which may or
may not work well in real-word
usage.
Windows
Vista's alternative backup
application is very similar,
albeit without the
over-the-top interface, and
also comes with a Shadow Copy
feature that's integrated
into the normal file/folder
menus, and has some
interesting attributes of its
own.
Click on "Read
More" to view the rest of
this article
jcxp.net -
17.08.2006Microsoft's Domain Service
Goes 'Live'
Microsoft said late Tuesday
that its Custom Domains
service had officially
launched, making it the third
Windows Live project to come
out of beta. The service
allows a customer to use a
custom domain name with
Windows Live Mail and Hotmail...
betanews.com -
28.06.2006Vista and ExpressCards: An Update
Robert Larson: I have heard from some people that they are not able to get an Sil3132 based eSATA ExpressCard to see an attached drive. I thought it
was just a driver issue until recently I was testing a new Dell Inspiron 1420 notebook and experienced the same issue. I could get the driver to
successfully to install on Vista-32, Vista-64, and Windows 2008 RC0. But only Windows 2008 RC0 actually saw an attached disk drive.
I tried everything, updated the firmware of the eSATA card, the latest drivers, different cards (but same 3132 chipset). Nothing worked on
Vista-32 or Vista-64.
I decided to download Vista SP1 and try that.....Voila, it worked the first time. It even loaded the latest
version of the drivers from Windows Update.
I will try and see if I can find a hotfix that addresses this issue and post it, but
wanted to let you know that if you are having this problem, try installing Vista SP1 on a new disk and see if that solves it.
Note that I installed Vista SP1 slipstreamed as part of a new install, I have not tried an upgrade in place.
BTW, if you are
trying to get a Sil3132 card to work under Windows 2008 RC0 x64, go to
www.siliconimage.com and get the latest drivers from their site. Use the Vista-64 drivers, they work fine....so far ;-)
winbeta.org -
01.10.2007Workaround Discovered For "Clean Install" With Vista Upgrade
DailyTech has posted a 7-step
workaround courtesy of Paul
Thurrott (via Microsoft
internal documents) on how to
perform a clean install with a
Windows Vista Upgrade DVD. Per
Microsoft's new licensing
requirements for Vista, users
are required to install a
Windows Vista Upgrade from
within Windows XP and to make
matters worse, the Windows XP
license is forfeited. The
process may be tedious, but
few will argue when they
compare the price differences
between the upgrade and retail
versions. Here we go:
- Boot from the
Windows Vista Upgrade DVD and
start the setup
program.
- When prompted
to enter your product key, DO
NOT enter it. Click "Next"
and proceed with setup. This
will install Windows Vista as
a 30-day trial.
- When
prompted, select the edition
of Vista which you have
purchased and continue with
setup.
- Once setup has
been completed and you have
been brought to the desktop
for the first time, run the
install program from within
Windows Vista.
- This
time, type in your product key
when prompted.
- When
asked whether to perform an
Upgrade or Custom (advanced)
install, choose Custom
(advanced) to perform a clean
install of Vista. Yes, this
means that you will have to
install Vista for a second
time.
- Once setup has
completed for the second time,
you should be able to activate
Windows Vista normally. You
can also delete the
Windows.old directory which
contains information from the
first Vista
install.
neowin.net -
31.01.2007Windows 7 HD and SSD Performance Analyzed
Today we're going to look at how various types of disks perform under Windows 7, both of the traditional platter based variety and new solid state
disks. We're not only curious about how disk performance changes between the operating systems, but if Windows 7's new solid-state specific
optimizations and tuning give you even greater performance compared to Vista.
winbeta.org -
29.05.2009Another Windows Vista SP1 Feature From TechEd
In one of the later session
during TechEd last week I
learned of another very cool
feature coming to Windows
Vista with Service Pack 1.
During his talk Wes Miller,
who is writing a ton for
TechNet magazine these days
mentioned that setup will now
be able to run either 32-bit
or 64-bit installs.
What does this mean?
Well basically a lot less
work for anyone who has to
deal with both 32-bit and
64-bit images. After SP1 you
will be able to deploy either
version of the OS from a
single DVD.
So
what?
Well the
reason this is a big deal is
if you are doing anything
custom with Windows PE then
you currently have to maintain
two boot wims (one 64 and one
32) and in extreme cases where
you have custom code you have
to maintain to codebase sets
because 64-bit WinPE doesn't
support 32bit code due to the
lack of WOW support .
It wasn't clear if WDS
would also offer this
capability, but it would make
sense.
winbeta.org -
15.06.2007
