Enterprise desktop

Check out the (Beta) Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

The Windows 7 Upgrade advisor is still in beta — as is the Windows 7 OS itself — but it’s recently acquired a pretty permanent-looking URL: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows…. System admins who may be thinking about upgrading current XP or Vista platforms to Windows 7 will definitely want to download and check out this interesting tool. FWIW, I plan to upgrade my production machine as soon as I can lay hands on the RTM version of Windows 7 (hopefully, not too long after its reported mid-July release date to OEMs for testing and slipstreaming into their factory install programs), if only to see if Windows 7 can’t arrest and repair some of my current problems with networking, the snipping tool, and the sidebar on that machine.

Once you download and install the program, you’ll launch it from the Start menu. Thir produces a startup screen.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Startup screen

Click the “Start Check” button to perform the upgrade review of the machine upon which the software is running.

On my speedy quad core machine, the program took about 3 mins to complete

Wait several minutes while the hardware check is underway.

When it’s complete, a report appears as shown. It will tell you what kind of upgrade you can perform (if any), indicate any components on your current OS that may not be available in Windows 7 (for my Vista Ultimate install that includes Windows Mail, now supplanted by Windows Live Essentials Mail, parental controls that are no longer supported in Windows 7, and Ultimate Extras which are likewise gone, gone gone).

When the check completes, a report defines your upgrade action plan

If you’re curious, you  can also click on the System Requirements link to see how well your system meets Windows 7 minimum install requirements.

Rates your system against minimum 32- and 64-bit Win7 requirements

If you’re even halfway thinking about upgrading any machines to Windows 7, you definitely want to install and get to know the beta version of this tool. At 6.3 MB, it’s a pretty speedy download.

No More Morro: Meet Microsoft Security Essentials

In the wake of numerous leaks about the upcoming product, Paul Thurrot was finally allowed to go public on June 18 about the replacement product for Windows Live OneCare. Formerly code-named “Morro” (for the famous beach in Rio de Janeiro), the product is almost into public beta, and will be called Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). His story about the product and its checkered history makes fascinating reading: check it out on his SuperSite for Windows. It looks like current plans are for general availability when Windows 7 goes into GA (on or about 10/22/2009). This offering will be free of charge, and will work with 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista and Windows 7 (32-bit Windows XP versions only).

In describing the product, Thurrot starts by listing what’s been rumored or reported about the product that isn’t true. Here goes my summary/recap:

• it’s not a “cloud computing AV solution” though it does support near-real-time updates
• There’s no managed firewall
• There’s no management facility for multiple computers on a home network
• There’s no application controls nor GPO capability

According to Thurrot, what MSE does have to offer essentially boils down to “OneCare minus the stuff that’s not related to fighting malware.” He also goes on to describe MSE as “small, fast, light, and effective.” Right after that he starts to elicit some incredulity when he says “…and since it’s built on the same award-winning underpinnings as Microsoft’s other security products you know you can trust it.” Wait a minute: is this for real. Yep! When I go off to look at the latest Virus Bulletin 100 (aka vb100) there it is with a vb100 sticker (but it appears that Thurrot is really talking about ForeFront which has also earned vb100s consistently starting as far back as June 2007 ).

I have to say that MSE appears to be a real boon, especially for users in need of low-cost/no-cost protection for virtual machines as well as real ones. According to Thurrot the public beta will commence next Tuesday on June 23. I think we’re going to have to check this out!

Meet A Key Figure Behind the Win7 UI: Julie Larson-Green

A great story in Western Australia Today  WAtoday.com.au) features Ms. Larson-Green, the person behind the ribbon technology introduced in Office 2007, who has since taken over ownership of the Windows 7 UI and its usability (called ”Windows Experience”) prior to the imminent launch of that new flagship OS in October, 2009. The story is entitled “Meet Microsoft’s antidote to Vista” and describes Larson-Green’s background, motivation, and focus in helping to prepare Windows 7 for beta testing and launch. Refreshingly her self-professed goal is to “…build an operating system that doesn’t require people to take computer classes or master thick manuals.” Larson-Green credits a work history that includes waiting tables and answering customer support calls at Aldus (now part of Adobe) for sensitivity to customer wants and needs, and empathy with their trials and tribulations.

She focused on more centralized planning, and better coordination to create a more cohensive and intuitive look and feel for Windows 7. She also worked hard to eliminate the scores of pop-ups, alerts, and notification that system developers mean to be informative, but which bedevil ordinary users who simply want nothing more than to get them out of the way (to me, this finally explains the consolidation of alerts into the Windows 7 Action Center, and why only generic alerts get issued periodically–I hadn’t realized the noise had gone away, but had definitely noticed its reduction subliminally).

According to the story, Larson’s mantra is best stated as “user in control’ (hooray, what a simple but significant concept). The goal was “…to build an operating system people could use without studying first, one that would let them get right to reading the news or sending email without dragging them down a rabbit hole of setting and configurations. A system with manners…”

Larson-Green is already at work on Windows 8, though her group is still engaged in occasional tweaks to Windows 7 (though this will freeze solid in mid-July when the RTM version goes to OEMs for the October 22, 2009 release). Larson-Green says she plans to measure how well Windows 7 is doing “…by conversations she overhears at Best Buy and comments posted by bloggers.” Her hope is that people will like it. If my recent experiences in getting to know and writing about Windows 7 in the past three months are any indication, I don’t think she’s going to be too disappoointed.

Windows 7 Predictions: Hits and Misses

Of the many and varied sources of Windows information I read regularly, the coverage at OSNews.com is always interesting, often insightful, and even funny or mordant on occasion. That’s why I read Thom Holwerda’s recent story “Your Windows 7 Predictions: True or False?” with keen interest and close attention. It’s definitely worth at least a quick read, if not something more focused and leisurely. I found it great, not just because of what is presents, and which elements turn out to be true or right versus those that turn out to be false or wrong, but also because of what it says about the whole Vista experience, and the outsized importance that Microsoft operating systems enjoy in so many of our personal and professional computing lives.

The really intestesting parts of this story appear as much in the comments as in the main body. There are some fascinating reminiscences and ruminations on how Windows 95/98 yesterday (1995-1998) compares to the Vista-Win7 sequence (2007-2010) today. There are also some interesting observations on where the real boosts and benefits between Vista and Windows 7 lie: homegroups and libraries, faster boot-up and wake from sleep/hibernate, streamlined install, jump list/dock metaphor, and more.

To me, the really interesting aspect for all of this is that while familiarity and expoure do breed discontent to some extent, the hope and promise excited from any not yet fully known or explored newer version always appear to favor the new at the expense of the old. On the other hand, what’s going on with XP-Vista-Win7 is you’ve got an entrenched cadre of IT professionals and managers (especially in enterprises and large organizations) who don’t care as much about the (Vista and Win7) as they do about not fixing what’s not broken (XP), who must be tricked, coerced, or enticed to break with the old and start embracing the new.

Windows 7 has a lot of expectations to meet and  a lot of broken promises for Vista to fulfill. I’m very interested to see how it will all play out, especially in the more serious or business-like sectors of the IT marketplace.

Secunia Flags Flash10a.ocx as threat, but clean-up requires some contortions

Now that I’ve been running Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) on my Vista machines for about three months I’m starting to learn a little about this program’s behavior. Last Friday, Secunia notified users about an important update to Adobe Flash, part of which involved replacing an older version of its ActiveX control for Explorer with a newer version. This involved installing a package that included a file named Flash10b.ocx, which replaces Flash10a.ocx.

Apparently the installer is not only supposed to add Flash10b.ocx to the %windir%\System32\Macromed\Flash directory, it’s also supposed to delete the previous version, Flash10a.ocx as well. The problem is, deleting ActiveX components you use requires that they be unregistered first. To do this for the aforementioned file, enter this string at the command line:

regsvr32 “C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\Macromed\Flash\Flash10a.ocx” /u

On the other hand, you could use your handy-dandy WinPE boot UFD to reboot the machine and delete this file without having to unregister, because you’re then running inside a different Vista runtime that isn’t using that ActiveX control. However, a double reboot takes at least 5 minutes on my Vista machines: once to boot into WinPE, and again to return to a normal Vista runtime environment after deleting the file. On the other hand, unregistering this ActiveX control takes less than ten seconds. Thus, it’s easier and faster to unregister the file first, then delete it without resorting to the UFD. You can even write a short batch file to automate the entire process, and deploy it around your network to Vista desktops.One more thing: before you attempt to delete this file, please close Secunia PSI as well. If you leave it open, it will hang onto a handle to this file. And of course, that too will prevent you from deleting it.

Those readers who’ve followed my advice and have installed PSI or CSI (the newly-renamed “Corporate Software Inspector” or CSI, that replaces the older NSI for Network Software Inspector) may benefit from this tidbit of information, if they haven’t figured it out already for themselves. As foibles go, however, this one’s pretty minor, and would only require Secunia to add a short note to this effect in their clean-up instructions. I’m still glad to have Secunia in my corner, though, and since I’ve started using their software inspectors my machines have kept up with patches, fixes, and updates on a more-or-less a same-day basis, except for occasional weekends or holidays when I choose not to check on my growing collection of PCs.

Vista SP2 RC On Its Way

On Wednesday, February 25, Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communications Manager for the Windows Client Communications Team, posted information to The Windows Blog to announce the Release Candidate (RC) for “Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.” Otherwise known as SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, this update is still in beta, but is now available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers for broad access and testing.

Important details of the RC version’s contents (and those planned for release when SP2 goes live later this year, probably in April) are spelled out in LeBlanc’s same-day posting entitled “Notable Changes in SP2 RC for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.” There’s also a TEchNet (dated 2/26/2009) document on SP2 available entitled “Hotfixes and Security Updates in Windows Server SP2 and Windows Vista SP2” as well. It’s probably worth a taking a look at these documents, but here’s my take on some highlights:

• As I mentioned in my previous blog, SP1 remains a mandatory pre-requisite for the install of SP2
• Users who wish to update to SP2 using Windows Update or Windows Software/Server Update Services (WSUS) have to patch the servicing stack to automate the SP2 install (see KB 955430 for details; the typical URL http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955430 is not yet working as I write this, however).
• Download sizes run fom 300 to 622 MB for standalone packages, and from 41-90 MB for Windows Update users (DVD info not yet available).
• Lots of interesting changes to setup and deployment, including a single installer for both Vista and Windows Server 2008, incompatible driver checks, improved error handling and messages, better logging, more secure installation, and post-release installer serviceability. As with SP1, there will also be an SP2 cleanup tool (Compcln.exe) to remove pre-SP2 files from machines, or to reduce the size of slipstream images used to install Vista and/or Windows Server 2008.

Anybody who’s interested who also has a TechNet or MSDN subscription can now sally forth and grab this beta. Because most enterprise admins have one or the other, if not both, this means you!

Here Comes IE8 RTM!!

One of my best sources for leaked info from Microsoft continues to be Malaysian-based site TechARP. Today’s blog is based on some recent reportage from them about the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 release. The latest date for release to manufacturing (RTM) is March, 2009, most likely sometime in the latter half of that month (details are expected on March 5, though it’s not yet clear if those details will be available only for internal consumption at Microsoft, or in the form of a more public announcement; interestingly TechARP promises to keep us posted either way).

Here’s what IE8 is supposed to deliver, as compared to previous versions:

• Improved performance and reliability that TechARP reports as “extensive”
• Enhanced and expanded visual search suggestions that not only govern general search, but also searches related to shopping, social networking, news and portal sites, sports, and other information categories.
• “Enhanced user experience, greater user privacy, and security enhancements.” This sound like straight-from-MS verbiage that could mean a lot and deliver very little. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

When MS does release IE8 to manufacturing, OEMs can then use it as a supplement at their option for subsequent Vista and XP installs. Thus, it could start showing up as a pre-installed Windows feature shortly thereafter. So far, no dates for public release via Windows Update are available, but that will be just a matter of time once RTM is set. For most major Windows components, this usually occurs within 60-90 days of RTM so we should expect widespread availability of IE8 in May or June of this year.

Interested admins should probably be even more interested in downloading the latest beta (2) version after reading this news. That download is still available on the Windows Internet Explorer 8 Home page. It’s still necessary to uninstall IE 7 on any test machines before installing IE8 on those machines; presumably this stricture will also apply to production machines once IE8 goes into public release. Time to get ready!

Another Use for WinPE: WinRE UFD To the Rescue

If you’ve ever messed with the Windows Vista Recovery Environment you know it’s helpful, but it can take quite a while for it to appear on-screen on a machine in need of repair or recovery. In fact, the functionality behind this display is a WinPE-based facility that’s bundled with the Windows Install Media, and invoked from a Windows Image file (.wim) when you select the “Repair an existing Vista system” from the install menu.

This low-res screen cap of the Recovery Environment describes your Vista Repair options:
here, you want to pick Windows Complete PC Restore.

On most of my Vista machines, it takes in excess of three minutes to get from the Vista install DVD to the System Recovery Options menu shown in the preceding screen capture, and it can sometimes take more than 10 minutes to pop up (as when finding and fixing boot-up issues, as it sometimes must). If you follow the instructions I provide in a recent story for Tom’s Guide “How to Make and Use a Bootable WinPE Drive” you will learn how to use the install media and the Windows Automated Instllation Kit (WAIK) to create a bootable UFD with the Vista Recovery Environment at your disposal. Unlike its DVD-based counterpart, however, this little gem usually presents itself on-screen in under two minutes, which lets you get to work far faster (on the notebook in question, the screen popped up in 1:07).

I was forcibly reminded of this yesterday, when I installed a new driver on one of my test notebook PCs, only to discover that the device went missing upon reboot, and that System Restore was also unable to roll back to the preceding restore point (I later learned this comes from a side effect of Norton security products, as documented in this Symantec page on the “Restoration Incomplete” error also produced during this process). What to do when restore points won’t work (and you don’t yet know how to fix that problem): use the Recovery Environment and a recent backup to restore your system to a pristine state. Luckily for me, I had just backed up my system the night before so I was back up and running in under 15 minutes, restore and all. This time, I skipped the IDT HD Audio driver update that started all my problems, and then went off to research exactly what happened, and why. In a roundabout way, all this led to today’s blog post.

Nevertheless, I was glad to have had this handy little tool at my disposal, which I’ve already used to repair Vista on a couple of machines since building the WinRE UFD in late January. You might want to add one of these to your toolkit. Any old UFD larger than 256MB will do: my WinRE UFD weighs in at 330 MB in all. Thus, a freebie or cheapie 1 GB UFD will work just fine for this purpose.

XP Downgrade Suit: Legitimate beef or frivolous complaint?

The latest Vista flap originates from a lawsuit filed against Microsoft Corporation stemming from fees assessed to Los Angeles computer user Emma Alvarado for downgrading a Lenovo notebook PC from Windows Vista to Windows XP. She had to pay an extra $59.25 to get Lenovo to make the switch, and is now claiming that “Microsoft has abused its market position to try to cash in on the popularity of Windows XP.” Microsoft’s rejoinder is pretty straightforward: they don’t get any of the money from the charge she was assessed so therefore there’s no basis for a complaint against them.

Closer investigation reveals a somewhat more murky situation, however. The most popular version of Windows Vista for notebook PCs these days is Windows Vista Home Premium Edition. But only Windows Vista Business Edition and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (and presumably also Windows Vista Enterprise Edition, though it’s not available in a retail SKU) are eligible for downgrade to Windows XP, and only to the Professional version of that older operating system. In fact, most downgrade charges can be assigned to two cost categories:

• Fees from the vendor for actually performing the downgrade operation–or rather, for performing a clean install of Windows XP Professional on the notebook being purchased.
• Fees for upgrading Windows Vista from the default version included with a notebook PC at no extra charge–presumably Windows Vista Home Premium edition in most cases–to either Windows Vista Business Edition or Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. In fact, Microsoft does profit from any such charges (which not all notebook vendors assess) that may be included in a downgraded notebook’s purchase price.

The real question then becomes: is requiring purchase of a “downgradable” version of an OS an abuse of monopoly power? I’m no lawyer (and to legal professionals, that means that anything I say next means exactly nothing), but this is a situation that appears to cut both ways. Consumers are free to choose any options they like when they purchase a notebook PC. But likewise, Microsoft is under no obligation to make older versions of its OS available to buyers at the same prices as current versions.

Personally, I believe it’s fair to charge for downgrading a system because it requires a different build process from one that goes default all the way. It’s the difference that sparks the charge, not the fact that one build is inherently more expensive or difficult than the other (both involve imaging a disk, but the XP downgrade requires a different image from the Vista Home Premium default image; likewise, buyers who simply upgrade Vista to Business or Ultimate must also pay for that privilege).

I guess the suit will have to go to court so a judge can decide if it has enough merit to go to trial. That said, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft can be compelled to make downgrades purely a matter of preference and paying operational costs, or if they can indeed require buyers to upgrade an OS merely to make it eligible for downgrade. For companies and organizations that still standardize on XP, this is more than a matter of simple curiousity: it will have a tangible effect on the cost of purchase for XP-equipped notebook and desktop PCs. What do you think?

No More “Extras” for Ultimate Versions

Among the litany of complaints against Windows Vista, Microsoft’s failures to deliver on its promises to produce and release “Extras” for the Ultimate edition have been held up and railed against repeatedly since that version shipped in January 2007. The idea behind the Extras sounded good: from time to time, Microsoft would release special premium software only to owners of Windows Vista Ultimate via Windows Update.

Alas, the idea promised better than Microsoft’s execution was able to deliver. Aside from a single security add-on for BitLocker and EFS enhancements, a few games (Hold Em! poker and Tinker), and some sound and visual schemes, nothing noteworthy ever emerged in the Extras area  on Windows Update. As I search through my update history, in fact, I see exactly just over half a dozen Extras entries therein: one for enhancements to BitLocker and EFS, three related to DreamScene, one each for Hold ‘Em and Tinker, plus a related sound scheme for that last game.

At first, Microsoft made much of the Extras as an important value add for Vista Ultimate. Later on, they began to backpedal on this subject significantly. And although an Ultimate edition is planned for Windows 7, no Extras will be included in that go-round–see this coverage on the subject at Ars Technica–personally I don’t think that’s where the value-add for the Ultimate edition comes from anyway. The real value add comes from Media Center and image backup. To me the latter is almost worth the price differential all by itself, because it makes purchase of third-party image backup or ghosting utilities unnecessary, and because it’s so nicely integrated with the Windows Repair Environment available through the Vista installation media.

I think Microsoft has made a wise decision to forgo the Extras with Windows 7. They had problems delivering on their hyped-up promises for Vista, and have decided to focus more on core OS functions in the next release. Frankly, I’d like to see a return to earlier Windows install configurations, where the installer shows you what you can install along with the OS, and you get to choose what you do and don’t want to go along with it. Hopefully, that’s the direction that a leaner, meaner Windows 7 will take Microsoft’s desktop operating system.