Windows Vista™ Resource Kit
Get the definitive reference for deploying, configuring, and supporting Microsoft® Windows Vista™—with expert insights from Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and the Windows Vista Team.
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7.4.2007 Bill Gates Promises Windows 7 Will Be Less of a Resource Hog
There are but scarce details pointing the direction in which Microsoft is taking the development of Windows 7, and the operating system, for that matter.
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12.5.2008 Introducing the Windows 7 Resource Kit PowerShell Pack
Today, the Windows 7 Resource Kit should be available in stores, and the PowerShell Pack is available for download on code gallery.
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18.10.2009 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 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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26.2.2008 Microsoft Says Vista SP1 Needs to Speak the Same Language as Vista RTM
Microsoft says that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 needs to speak the same language as the RTM version of the latest Windows client. Otherwise there's no game.
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2.4.2008 Vista SP1 to Cure the Vista RTM Wow Hangover
When Windows Vista was unleashed in January 31, 2008, Microsoft was promising performance, security, innovation, all wrapped up under an umbrella of a Wow user experience.
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11.4.2008 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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11.10.2006 Can Vista SP1 help polish Vista’s tarnished image?
Call it complaining. Call it whining. The end result is the same: Windows Vista’s image is tarnished. And it’s corroding more and more rapidly as the weeks are going on. Thanks to pacpis for this news.
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21.8.2007 Vista SP1 Features the Same Sins as Windows Vista
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 comes with the same sins as Windows Vista. The service pack is not even out the door, and is already putting users at risk.
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16.1.2008 Will Vista SP1 Go Where Vista Never Went? Even with XP SP3 and Windows 7?
Throughout 2007, it became painfully clear to Microsoft that the main competitor for Windows Vista was not Apple's Mac OS X or even the open source Linux operating system but Windows XP, and, in fact, specifically XP SP2.
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1.3.2008 New Vista AutoPatcher - Vista update toolkit Alpha
Vista Update Toolkit Alpha (Windows Vista Updates Downloader) is a FREE program which downloads updates directly from Microsoft. All files are very useful with vLite!
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26.9.2008 Vista SP1 – Microsoft Could Not Have Given Less – Vista SP2 Anyone?
Microsoft had the chance to position the first service pack for Windows Vista as a panacea for the operating system, giving the platform nothing less than a fresh start and another take at the Wow.
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3.10.2007 Vista SP1 Rolling Over for Vista SP2
Vista SP1 did not do the trick for your RTM copy of the operating system? While such a scenario is highly unlikely, Microsoft is getting closer and closer to taking Windows Vista to the next level, again.
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7.12.2008 Vista SP1: Indictment of Vista 1.0?
Microsoft’s announcement that it is preparing a Vista Service Pack 1 beta in two weeks is curious on many levels. Although Microsoft delivers improvements via service packs I can’t help but consider Vista SP1 a do-over.
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30.8.2007 Vista RTM vs. Vista SP2
We are all well aware of the limping start of Vista on the OS market. Despite the fact that its launch had been highly anticipated for a good while, contrary to all Microsoft expectations, Vista was received with great reluctance and unwillingness on the part of XP fans.
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13.12.2008 Microsoft: Vista! Vista! Vista!
Microsoft has a single generalized answer to all life's problems, but especially end user protection, and that answer is of course Windows Vista.
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14.8.2007 Windows XP SP3 Twice as Fast as Windows Vista – Leaves Vista SP1 in the Dust
Forget about Windows Vista. And forget about Windows Vista SP1. Microsoft's latest Windows client has been quite sluggish to begin with. This in both consumer adoption and in terms of the performance it delivers.
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27.11.2007Windows Vista SP1 Product Guide
A comprehensive feature-by-feature guide to Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. With contributions from people who actually worked on the product, this
is the definitive resource to learn about Windows Vista. The Windows Vista Product Guide is available in XPS and PDF formats.
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22.03.200810 Ways Vista is more annoying with Windows 7 available
We all know Windows Vista got a bit of a bum rap. Its biggest sin was that it shipped earlier than it should and its reputation has never recovered.
However, with Windows 7 now out, those of us who have to switch between PCs now find ourselves discovering completely new things about Windows Vista
that are annoying -- because they are things that Windows 7 made so much better. Here's our list... #1 "Program not responding" Windows
Vista loved to throw programs under the bus for not responding. This was especially true of Windows Explorer which regularly would fade out a window
because it was trying to access a network resource.
Read full story.....
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05.11.2009Comparing Browsers' Memory Usage
The resource usage of browsers is an important aspect in modern-day computing, because the browser is taking on an ever more important role in
day-to-day computing tasks. Hence, it may come as no surprise that many complaints regarding browsers are not about rendering speed or rendering
quality, but about resource usage. Dot Net Perls ran an
interesting benchmark on
Windows Vista SP1, comparing 5 browsers to each other.
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25.06.2008Apple opens App Store Resource Center for developers
Apple's App Store has only been around for a relatively short time, but it's grown phenomenally during the period of time that it has been
available. Unfortunately for the company, it may have grown a bit too fast, and as such, Apple seems a bit under prepared. Many developers face long
wait times for application approvals, some get their software rejection unfairly, and a vast majority get frustrated when they face long periods of
silence whilst their applications are inspected. Whilst the first couple of issues are being worked on, the third has been somewhat addressed today,
according to MacRumors, with the introduction of the App Store Resource Center.
Read full story.....
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19.09.2009Aero as resource hog? Not exactly¦
Ed Bott: In the midst of an
otherwise interesting account of one IT professionals experiences with Windows Vista, Andrew Garcia of eWeek lets fly with this
bit of misinformed commentary:
Aero Glass is an uninteresting resource pig, completely unworthy of all the resources it consumes.
Forty percent of my system memory is consumed out of the box right now, and Aero Glass is the largest consumer. For what exactly? A 3-D ALT-TAB screen
selection screen, translucent window edges and a handful of Sidebar widgets. This feature single-handedly hamstrings Vista installations with only 1GB
of RAM, making slower computers swap memory with just one or two applications open.
Its really hard to know where to begin pointing out
the errors in that one paragraph. But Ill try...
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14.02.2008Hidden 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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27.09.2007The Windows Vista Activation Forum
Do you have questions or issues regarding Windows Vista Activation? Then the
Windows Vista Activation forum is the thing
for you. The forum offers a new dedicated resource to assist in answering both technical and licensing questions regarding MAK, VAMT, KMS, planning,
deployment, operations and other aspects of Volume Licensing Activation v 2.0 in Windows Vista.
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23.09.2008The Basics of Windows Server 2008 FSRM (File Server Resource Manager)
FSRM (File Server Resource Manager) is a service of the File Services role in Windows Server 2008. You can use FSRM to enhance your ability to manage
and monitor storage activities on your file server.
The main capabilities of FSRM include:
- Folder Quotas
- File Screening
- Storage Reports
- Event Log Integration
- E-mail Notifications
- Automated
Scripts
For example, you can use FSRM to perform the following tasks...
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21.08.2008Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory
Mark Russinovich: This is the first blog post in a series I'll write over the coming months called Pushing the Limits of Windows that describes how
Windows and applications use a particular resource, the licensing and implementation-derived limits of the resource, how to measure the resources
usage, and how to diagnose leaks.
To be able to manage your Windows systems effectively you need to understand how Windows
manages physical resources, such as CPUs and memory, as well as logical resources, such as virtual memory, handles, and window manager objects.
Knowing the limits of those resources and how to track their usage enables you to attribute resource usage to the applications that consume them,
effectively size a system for a particular workload, and identify applications that leak resources.
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22.07.2008Microsoft Launches New Online Resource for Nonprofit Groups
Microsoft Corp. today announced the global availability of NGO Connection, a new online resource for thousands of nonprofit groups around the world.
Driven by feedback from nonprofit partners and years of experience working with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the online resource is designed
to assist NGOs to more efficiently use technology to achieve their goals as well as to encourage networking and coordination of NGO resources across
the world.
The primary goal of the new online resource is to provide a convenient and easy one-stop shop for technology
resources, knowledge sharing, community building and real-life examples for nonprofit organizations. By using simple, nontechnical terminology, NGO
Connection endeavors to make it easier for NGOs to access the complete range of Microsoft resources and offerings, and help them effectively use other
online resources for nonprofit groups. NGO Connection also will be localized into Arabic, French, German, International English, Russian and Spanish
in the coming months, bringing the resources of NGO Connection to an even wider audience of NGOs.
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09.07.2008Windows Vista SP1 vs. Windows Vista RTM vs. Windows XP SP2
Principled Technologies has released two Microsoft commissioned reports on Windows Vista SP1 performance. In these tests, Principled Technologies
measured responsiveness of Windows Vista SP1 vs. Windows Vista RTM vs. Windows XP SP2 when performing a set of common business and home tasks. The
results show that SP1 performs on par with Vista RTM and Windows XP.
The test show that as with Windows Vista RTM, overall performance is
on par with Windows XP. It’s important to remember that Windows Vista is a more advanced operating system, which includes many more capabilities
than Windows XP. By default, Windows Vista includes antispyware, a search indexer, and the shadow copy service. All these work in the background,
providing important services to customers, but they of course take up a portion of the PCs memory and processor resource.
On several common
business and home operations Windows Vista SP1 was noticeably more responsive after rebooting than Windows XP.
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28.02.2008McAfee: Businesses will dodge Vista in 2008
Vista uptake is unlikely to increase dramatically during 2008, according to security vendor McAfee, who said that businesses are "leery" of
upgrading from current Microsoft operating systems.
One reason businesses have not been keen to upgrade to Vista is the hardware
that is needed to handle the resource-hungry operating system, David Marcus, security research manager for McAfee Avert Labs, told ZDNet Australia
sister site ZDNet.co.uk.
"In 2007 there has been less than 10 percent market penetration for Vista," said Marcus. "There
hasn't been a huge adoption. Most people haven't upgraded because of the hardware upgrade needed."
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20.11.2007Survey: Half 'Have No Plans' To Deploy Vista
Migration to the Windows Vista operating system apparently isn't generating much enthusiasm among IT personnel in the enterprise. A
survey conducted in November of last year by market research firm
King
Research supports that notion. The study found that "90 percent of participants have concerns about the migration to Windows Vista."
What's worse, from Microsoft's perspective, is that future plans to deploy Vista seemed stunted too. Roughly half (53 percent) of
respondents said that they "have no plans to deploy Vista at this time." Other plans for Vista included installing it for testing (18 percent), new
machines only (14 percent) and other uses (two percent). Just 13 percent said they planned to be fully deployed on Vista.
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16.02.2008Windws Vista SP1 needs new hardware
Vista Service Pack 1 comes with an important update for gamers - DirectX 10.1. The catch? You need brand new hardware to support it, and NVIDIA
enthusiasts are left totally out in the cold.
One of the benefit Windows Vista brought to the gaming table was the next version of DirectX
– version 10. With the potential improvements to 3D gaming potentially outweighing the anticipated performance drop in running games on a more
resource-hungry operating system, most hardcore gamers waited until ATI and NVIDIA released their DirectX 10-capable GPUs before taking the plunge and
upgrading to Vista.
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14.01.2008Microsoft Australia installing new PC's just to run Vista
News poster Spy has had an
interesting conversation with
a Microsoft product support
specialist in Australia over
the phone. When asked whether
the representative was using
Windows Vista, the man
surprisingly replied he
wasn't. Possibly even more
shocking is the reason. It
seems the company is
installing the Ultimate
Edition of Microsoft's latest
operating system the next day,
as the new computers to run it
have recently arrived. What
kind of example is this
setting for Microsoft's
customers? "Don't bother
with Vista unless you have, or
are willing to purchase, a
brand new computer." So much
for the minimum requirements
for Vista! Of course, it is
Ultimate (what's wrong with
Enterprise?) which is a bit
more resource-intensive and it
is entirely possible that the
last PC upgrade was 5 years
ago, when XP was released,
meaning that an upgrade is
simply the logical move.
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06.03.2007Apple's .Mac to transition to MobileMe on Wednesday
Two days ahead of its release of the iPhone 2.0 software, Apple said it would debut its new online service for sychronized e-mail, calendars, and
resource sharing...
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08.07.2008TweakVista Beta Now Available
TweakVista is a utility that enables
users to optimize the
performance and behavior of
Windows Vista. The program has
been designed to allow both
casual, non-technical users to
safely use it as well as
contain a host of advanced
features for power users to
dig into the internals of
Windows Vista.
The
feature-packed utility
includes features such as:
- Security Handling:
Users can now easily and
safely adjust the way Windows
handles security prompting
including the new UAC (User
Account Control)
-
Memory Optimization:
TweakVista knows which
start-up services different
types of users will typically
use and offers recommendations
on what services to disable.
Users can easily switch
between different profiles
(including the default) based
on their needs to maximize
performance and memory use.
- Resource Control: Tweak
Vista has several features for
keeping an eye on and flagging
programs that use excessive
amounts of resources (memory,
CPU, or system handles) as
well as integrating seamlessly
with built in hardware
diagnostic reports...
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21.06.2007Google opens click-fraud Web site
Google has unveiled a Web site
"resource center" focused on
the thorny issue of click
fraud, which many consider a
potential threat to the
company's main source of
revenue: Pay-per-click
advertising.
Google developed the new
Ad
Traffic Quality Resource
Center primarily to give
its advertisers a single place
to find Google's information
about click fraud, said Shuman
Ghosemajumder, business
product manager for trust and
safety at Google, on
Friday.
In the pay-per-click
format, advertisers pay every
time someone clicks on their
ads, which are linked to a Web
page. Click fraud happens when
companies click on
competitors' ads to drive up
their ad spending. Another
common click-fraud practice is
for Web publishers to click on
their sites' ads to increase
their commissions. ..
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18.08.2007Microsoft sends Vista SP2 invites - beta release in 4 weeks
Thanks to a tipster we have learned Microsoft has started sending Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 invites to select testers today.
Earlier this week it was
revealed the company will release SP2 before Windows 7. Microsoft recently put a
placeholder online for the upcoming betas of Windows
Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2.
Microsoft will include Windows Search 4 in Vista SP2 along with Bluetooth wireless support
(including latest BT 2.1 fixes), support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU and additional application compatibility updates.
For Windows Server
2008 SP2, Microsoft will include Backwards compatibility with Terminal Services licensing keys, improved manageability features with DFS/FRS console,
and Storage Resource Manager, print server and spooler performance improvements for printers in Windows Vista and Server 2008 and improved error
reporting in DFSR to help identify incorrectly configured deployments which lead to failed replication.
Both builds are "anticipated" to
be released within the next four weeks.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
18.10.2008Mozilla Fixes Firefox Protocol Handling
This morning, Firefox 2.0
users were automatically
notified of the availability
of version 2.0.0.6, with the
promise that this time around,
a critical vulnerability
concerning how the browser
tries to parse malformed
resource identifiers, is fixed
for good...
betanews.com -
01.08.2007
