Fixing Windows Vista 3 - Top Troubleshooting Tools
Do you think Windows Vista is slow, crash-prone, or unreliable? Join the crowd. Over the past year, reviews of Windows Vista by mainstream media outlets, the technical press, bloggers, and ordinary users have been, for the most part, scathing.
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7.5.2008 Microsoft Delivers Final Versions of Free Deployment Tools for Windows Vista
Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of six new deployment tools that will help expedite businesses’ migration to Windows Vista™. The recently released tools are the Microsoft® Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007, the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0, the Volume Activation Management Tool, the Key Management Service for Windows Server® 2003 and Virtual PC 2007.
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20.2.2007 Google offers Web Analysis Tools for free
Google is offering webmasters full-featured, powerful analytics package from Urchin to determine how many people are visiting their sites, to view the source of referrals to your site and what they're clicking on.
In March, Google acquired Urchin Software and promptly lowered the monthly cost of the company's hosted Web analytics service, Urchin On Demand, from $495 to $199. Today, the search company is re-branding Urchin under the name Google Analytics and making it available to everyone for free.
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14.11.2005 Academic Resource Kit – Free Tools and Resources from Microsoft
Whether you want to build an AJAX-based web application, or a Windows game, the Academic Resource Kit is a great place to start.
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9.2.2008 Tools to Automate RapidShare Downloading for Free Users With No CAPTCHA
RapidShare CAPTCHA has always been hacked no matter how tough they made it. Usually whenever RapidShare updates their CAPTCHA, it only took a few days for third party download tools to auto recognize it. One of the toughest CAPTCHA was with cats and dogs in them and it took 3-4 weeks to be cracked. A few days after the cats and dogs CAPTCHA has been cracked, RapidShare installed a new CAPTCHA system called TEABAG_3D.
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8.7.2008 Surf The World For Free WiFi Radar & WiFi Tools
Surf The World For Free WiFi Radar & WiFi Hack Tools ( Snip The WiFi Sopt , Brake Its Security , And Surf The Universe ) Surf The InterNet Freely Charged.
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29.3.2007 Windows 7 Performance Tools - Performance Tools Kit 4.1.1
Internet Explorer 8 will be not only an apex of performance, but also the next major iteration of the Windows client, according to Microsoft.
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1.9.2008 Microsoft: Some Free Vista (+SP1) to Go Along with the Free XP SP2 Downloads?
Free downloads of Microsoft's operating systems have been made available throughout 2007, and the Redmond company is ready to take it one step further.
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5.2.2008 Microsoft Makes Vista Migration Tools Available
Microsoft offers six free tools for corporate users to assess, plan, test, and deploy Windows Vista.
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24.2.2007 20 Hidden Windows Vista Tools
The default installation of Windows Vista weighs in at approximately 8 GB. In fact, Microsoft's latest operating system won't even install with less than 15 GB of space available on the hard drive.
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30.9.2007 12 Hidden Windows Vista Network Tools
Thanks to Steve Jobs for this article. Windows Vista delivers an impressive line up of network tools that can be used to keep the operating system connectivity on a short leash. The total of 12 command-line tools can be used to manage all aspects of Vista networking.
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4.6.2007 Vista System Tools Survived into Windows 7 M1
Microsoft already confirmed that Windows 7 will have Windows Vista as its foundation. Like it or not, Windows 7 will be nothing more than an evolution of the current Windows client.
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27.6.2008 Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools - RSAT for Vista Released
Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) enables IT administrators to remotely manage roles and features in Windows Server 2008 from a computer running Windows Vista SP1.
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25.3.2008 Download Windows 7 RTM UI Accessibility Tools and Automations for Vista SP3
Following the general availability of Windows 7, Microsoft has started backporting bits and pieces of its latest Windows client to previous releases of the operating system.
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2.11.2009 VOATK TOOLS V2.0 Final
Thanks to maxdata for this download. Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business Enterprise and Ultimate for Windows Vista 32bit and 64bit.
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18.5.2007 Ballmer: Enterprise Tools Market Ours For the Taking
It's not often that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks development tools. But Ballmer is all fired up about the pending Visual Studio Team System and future potential enterprise tool revenues.
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20.11.2005 Microsoft July Security Patch Tools
The Extended Security Update Inventory Tool is used to detect security bulletins not covered by MBSA including MS04-028 ..
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13.7.2006 Microsoft Delays Virtualization Tools Rollouts
In a blog posting this morning, Microsoft general manager for virtualization strategy Mike Neil revealed his company will be pushing back some milestone dates for some of its key virtualization products.
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12.4.2007 PC Tools ThreatFire 3.0.0.15 Beta
ThreatFire is an easy-to-use application designed to protect your computer against malware such as trojans, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers, and buffer overflows by intelligently detecting and blocking behavior consistent with that of malware.
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19.8.2007 Top 10 Windows Freeware tools for 2005
As we head into 2005’s home stretch, I thought I’d do a round-up of my top 10 pieces of Windows Freeware for 2005. Some of these aren’t new, but certainly what I’d consider essential. Some on the other hand, are new. I’ve tried to avoid the instantly popular ones like Firefox and Opera, although I did give way to Winamp and Konfabulator in the end. But hey, it’s my top 10. If you don’t like it, post your own.
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Microsoft tools keep bad Office files at bay
Microsoft released a pair of tools on Monday that help protect computers from Office 2003 files containing malicious software code.
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23.5.2007 The next generation of Microsoft application building and Web authoring tools
What are these new tools?
The Microsoft Office and Server & Tools teams are proud to announce the introduction of two great new tools for application building and Web authoring in 2006.
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11.4.2006 Download Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio 2008
Microsoft has made available for download the July 2008 Community Technology Preview of the Windows Live tools for Visual Studio 2008.
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29.7.2008 New Tests and Tools Cooking for Windows 7 Server Clustering Features
In parallel with the Windows 7 client, the successor of Windows Vista, Microsoft is also building the next iteration of the Windows server operating system.
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9.8.2008 Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office IntelliSense Code Snippets
IntelliSense code snippets allow developers to easily create and distribute their own customized code libraries. Using the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment and the power of IntelliSense, inserting these commonly used pieces of code is an effective way to enhance your productivity.
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18.1.2006 Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Community Technology Preview - Development Tools for WinFX
Overview
The Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Community Technology Preview - Development Tools for WinFX (CTP) provides developers with support for building WinFX applications using the final released version of Visual Studio 2005.
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20.1.2006 Windows 7 Beta Doesn't Play Nice with Windows Azure Cloud OS Tools
The promise for Windows 7 is that it will deliver an evolution when it will come down to stretching into the Cloud compared to its precursor, Windows Vista.
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16.1.2009 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition Server Tools
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition (SQL Server Mobile) is the compact database for rapidly developing applications in both native mode and the .NET Compact Framework that extend enterprise data management capabilities to devices.
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26.11.2005 Windows 7 and Windows 8 Bring New Performance Analysis and Diagnostics Tools
Microsoft insisted to put Windows Vista at least on par, if not on a superior level compared to Windows XP in terms of performance throughout 2007, in a strategy that proved little efficient
even though it also spanned to Vista SP1 and XP SP3.
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21.5.2008 Vista-For-Free coupon with Vista ready PC's
Microsoft and the world's leading PC vendors have reached an agreement to promote the long-awaited Vista OS by offering PC buyers worldwide a free upgrade coupon, as a way of encouraging them to buy a Vista-capable PC as early as possible, according to market sources, citing information leaked from Taiwan-based PC makers.
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11.10.2006Crash course on authoring Windows 7 Troubleshooting Packs
New to Windows 7 is the Windows Troubleshooting platform. This platform allows software developers to develop Troubleshooting Packs that automate the
troubleshooting and resolution of problems without having to resort to painful technical support queues or documentation runs. In a nut shell, a
software developer writes a bunch of PowerShell scripts to identify and resolve problems then packages them up and distributes the pack to
end-users.
At the end of this step-driven course, you will have used the Microsoft Troubleshooting Pack Builder (TSPBuilder),
written some PowerShell scripts, and learned of a way to distribute your compiled pack
(hopefully).
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12.01.2009Windows 7 to revolutionize PC troubleshooting
If the sound of helping family friends troubleshoot their computer problems makes you weep, then you have one more thing to look forward to in Windows
7. No, it wont help novice users find that obscure œany key, but Windows 7 will actually diagnose and fix many of its critical components as part of
the new œWindows Troubleshooting functionality.
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06.11.2008Troubleshooting tool for Java offered
Sun on Tuesday announced availability of Java VisualVM, an open-source GUI tool for troubleshooting and profiling Java applications. Users can view
detailed information about Java applications while they are running on a JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Billed as an all-in-one troubleshooting tool,
VisualVM integrates several command line JDK (Java Development Kit) tools and profiling capabilities. It enhances monitoring and performance analysis,
according to Sun.
"After eight months of frantic development since VisualVM Preview 1 was released, I'm happy to announce the general
availability of JDK 6 Update 7 Java VisualVM and VisualVM 1.0," said Luis-Miguel Alventosa, a Sun senior software engineer, in a blog. Offered as
part of Java Platform, Standard Edition (SE) Update 7, Java VisualVM provides a visual diagnostic tool for development and production environments. It
includes such technologies as jvmstat, which provides lightweight performance and configuration instrumentation to the HotSpot JVM, as well as Java
Management Extensions and the NetBeans profiler.
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09.07.2008IIS: Troubleshooting High CPU performance issues - Part 1
One of the types of performance problems that can occur with IIS web applications is when the process hosting the web application (in IIS6 in Worker
Process Isolation Mode it is w3wp.exe) spins up the CPU utilization of the server. Usually this is associated with end users experiencing a long
period of waiting for the web content to be displayed in their web browsers. This scenario is generally referred to as a "high CPU hang".
Troubleshooting high CPU hang problems can be done with two tools: Performance Monitor, and a debugger. We use Performance Monitor to get
a 'perfmon' log of the high cpu behavior, and we use the debugger to get a hang dump of the process that is spiking the cpu. Then we analyze the
info in the perfmon log and associate it with the info in the debug dump file. Debugging user-mode dumps is a whole topic in and of itself which I
won't cover in depth here. Instead the emphasis here is on getting the right data at the right time to actually analyse. In Part 2 of this topic
I'll go through a sample analysis of a high CPU scenario.
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07.12.2007Free Sysinternals Windows utilities now available online, 24/7
Ed Bott: If you troubleshoot Windows PCs for fun or profit, then chances are youve used one or more tools from Sysinternals. Microsoft bought the
company and its amazing library of diagnostic, troubleshooting, and management utilities in 2006, and the collection has been continually updated ever
since. Its also still completely free.
A few weeks ago, I ran into Sysinternals co-founder Mark Russinovich at a technical
conference, where he told me about a new Sysinternals service that was in private beta testing. Today, I can finally break the news that
Sysinternals Live is now open to the public.
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29.05.2008Hidden Vista tools
If Sven Hallauer ever has a moment to reflect in his Redmond office, he can feel quietly pleased with himself.
As the release
manager for Vista, he had overall responsibility during the development period for the success of the ˜Most Secure Windows Ever project.
For Hallauer, however, the flexibility of the new operating system is just as important as the security features. In particular, Vista is
equipped with far better admin tools than previous versions. Previously, administrators were forced to add tools from Resource Kits, but now Vista
comes with a lot of tools already on board, as well explain later.
You can tell just by looking at the increased minimum hardware
requirements that theres a lot more in the new version of Windows. It used to be possible to keep an installation of Windows 95 under 200MB, but Vista
requires 40 times more hard disk space. Even in comparison to Windows XP, Vista needs five times more space.
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27.09.200713 free tools ease IT management
Finding the perfect tool to relieve a pain point or fill a gap can be invaluable to network managers. When the tool is free? Even better.
Freeware applications can be a simple utility such as Ping or a more complex set of tools that address many facets of IT management, such as
the open source network management software Nagios. In both cases, the tools are free and the benefits are plenty. Tristan Rhodes, network engineer at
Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, authors a
blog on the topic of open source
software and supports such free tools for both philosophical and practical reasons.
"I am an advocate for open source software,
and I am a network engineer who needs tools," he says. "We use a large number of open source network management and security tools."
Here weve compiled some favorite free software finds that have proven to ease IT management at no cost to their users.
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01.10.2007Mozilla collecting all web tools together in one directory
If you're a web developer, you'll hopefully be aware that there are many helpful (and free) tools designed to progress your quest for an epic
website; the only problem with this, though, is that you have to find them. There is currently no centralized directory for all such tools, but
Mozilla's fed up of this, and has set out to build one of their own, according to MoMB (via the folks at TechCrunch). Mozilla has posted an entry
on their official blog regarding the new site, with Ben Galbraith saying, "There are an immense number of tools that have been created to help web
developers. Unfortunately, you might never know this; there's no central index of these tools.
Read full story.....
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10.07.2009Fixing Windows Vista, Part 3: Top Troubleshooting Tools
Ed Bott: Do you think Windows Vista is slow, crash-prone, or unreliable? Join the crowd.
Over the past year, reviews of Windows
Vista by mainstream media outlets, the technical press, bloggers, and ordinary users have been, for the most part, scathing. And many of those bad
reviews were absolutely accurate. My co-authors and I just completed an extensive
post-Service Pack 1
revision of our book Windows Vista Inside Out. Over the past year, we installed, upgraded, and used Windows Vista on a broad
cross-section of hardware designs from nearly a dozen manufacturers. During that time, we experienced some of those same performance, reliability, and
compatibility issues ourselves. What we found was simple: With a clean install on well-supported hardware, everything worked just fine. But toss in an
incompatible application or a flaky video, storage, or network driver, and performance could suffer. Badly.
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07.05.2008Microsoft Delivers Final Vista Deployment tools
Microsoft Corp. today
announced the availability of
six new deployment tools that
will help expedite
businesse's migration to
Windows Vista. The recently
released tools are:
-Solution
Accelerator for Business
Desktop Deployment
2007.
-Application
Compatibility Toolkit
5.0.
-Windows Vista
Hardware Assessment
1.0.
-Microsoft
Volume Activation 2.0
tools.
-Virtual PC
2007.
Windows Vista was built from
the ground up to simplify how
people work together, find
information, reduce IT costs,
improve security and enable
mobile environments, said
Shanen Boettcher, general
manager of Windows Client
Product Management at
Microsoft. With the
availability of these new
tools, there is nothing
holding back businesses from
making the move to Windows
Vista and immediately taking
advantage of those
benefits.
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22.02.2007Adobe releases time-sensitive betas of Creative Suite 4 tools
The latest betas of Adobe's Dreamweaver, Soundbooth, and Fireworks tools are now available for free download. But unless you already own CS3,
they'll only give you a brief peek at the product, before the 48-hour self-destruct timer goes off...
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27.05.2008Free T-Mobile Hotspot for Vista Users
As part of its promotional
efforts surrounding the launch
of Windows Vista, Microsoft
said Wednesday that for 90
days after the debut of the
next-generation operating
system, customers would be
able to use T-Mobile Hotspot
Wi-Fi for free on laptops
running Vista...
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25.01.2007Installing and Using the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Vista
There are some things in life that will always be the same. Taxes will be due April 15 (in the US). The United States of America will always celebrate
Independence Day on July 4th. Grant will always be buried in Grants Tomb. And, Microsoft will continue to make decisions and provide solutions that
make us all shake our heads. If you run Windows Vista, you were shaking your head and in many cases, very upset about the situation of not having the
proper tools to perform administration of your Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 network and Active Directory environment. Now, with the
recent release of the Remote Server Administrative Tools (RSAT), the wait is over. This article describes some idiosyncrasies, installation steps, and
tools that are available in the new RSAT for Windows Vista.
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20.08.2008Troubleshooting KMS Activation - Part 1, the client
Windows activation is simple and straightforward if you understand the components. I have had a few customers that stumbled when getting a KMS online
and in every case it has been an issue with name resolution, network connectivity, or they simply did not understand how to use the keys.
Activation is designed to help you with deployments and sustain your environment even in the event a key gets lost. KMS is the simplest
of all the activation methods because you only need to worry about putting a key in one machine. You can then deploy new machines without having to
ever worry about keys unless your device will be off the network for more than 6 months.
This is the first of a two part series
to break down KMS troubleshooting in to a process that should help identify exactly what is at fault. I don't want to mislead or instill fear to
those who are just starting out - the process is normally simple by design. However, for those who have run in to trouble, I'd like to publish a
guide that will help you isolate and correct the issue you've encountered without spinning your wheels. Part 2 will be published next week with a
focus on troubleshooting the server.
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08.10.2007NewsGator drops all charges, releases RSS clients for free
The maker of some of the most popular RSS and Atom tools for both Windows and Mac stunned everyone yesterday by declaring all of its consumer-grade
software to be available free-of-charge...
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11.01.2008PC Tools launches beta of iAntivirus for Leopard
Despite its x86-sounding name, PC Tools has launched the free beta of iAntivirus, a piece of protective software designed for identifying and stopping
Mac-exclusive malware...
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02.07.2008Free Antivirus Offered to
Vista Testers
With Windows Vista Beta 2
slated to become public
through a Customer Preview
Program in the coming weeks,
testers may find themselves
facing a major problem: many
antivirus suites don't yet
work with the new operating
system. Computer Associates is
aiming to remedy this issue by
offering free copies of eTrust
EZ for Vista...
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27.05.2006An Overview of Troubleshooting Memory Issues - Part Two
In our
last
post, we looked at some common memory issues and how to troubleshoot them. Today we're going to go over excessive paging and memory
bottlenecks.
We've talked about issues with the page file in several posts - something to bear in mind is that although you want
to have enough RAM to prevent excessive paging, the aim should not be to try to prevent paging activity completely. Some page fault behavior is
inevitable - for example when a process is first initialized. Modified virtual pages in memory have to be updated on the disk eventually, so there
will be some amount of Page Writes /sec. However, when there is not enough RAM installed, there are two issues in particular that you may see - too
many page faults, and disk contention.
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29.01.2008Device driver updates causing Vista to deactivate
After weeks of gruelling troubleshooting, Ive finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA -- something as small as swapping the video card
or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.
Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little
notice (three days) and your PC will go into "reduced functionality" mode, where you cant do anything but use the web browser for half an
hour. Youll then need to reapply to Microsoft to get a new activation code.
Read full story.....
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24.10.2007MS to Offer Free, Discounted Vista
Microsoft is set to offer
either free or discounted
Vista upgrades to those who
purchase new computers during
the holiday season, press
reports indicate. To qualify
for the coupons, a PC would
need to be purchased after
October 28 of this year...
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07.10.2006
