Windows Vista

Windows Internals (Inside Windows) Gets Welcome Update

Cover shot from Amazon Books

Here’s another caveat: the primary audience for this book is Windows system developers. They’re the people who will get the most out of its contents, and my lack of in-depth Windows system programming experience probably explains why my eyes glaze over and my mind goes on vacation as I look at certain sections in the book.

That said, there’s a tremendous wealth of information on Windows in here (and from what I can tell, it applies nearly 100% to Windows 7 as well as Windows Vista, thanks to relatively little changes in the kernel and other system facilities between these two most recent desktop Windows versions).  In particular, these are the topics that I found most interesting and illuminating as I flipped through the book for a first quick pass over its contents (I’ll report again from time to time as I dig more deeply into its contents):

• Chapter 2 System Architecture: learned a thing or two about device drivers, and how to find them, in this chapter.
• Chapter 3 System Mechanisms: the best coverage of the MS Hyper-V Hypervisor I’ve ever seen anywhere.
• Chapter 4 Management Mechanisms: as in previous versions, this chapter provides some of the best information about how the Windows registry is structured, and how it works, that I’ve ever seen. Worth the price of admission all by itself.
• Chapter 5 Processess, Threads, and Jobs: Here’s a tour-de-force illustration of Mark Russinovich’s knowledge of Windows internals, and how nicely the SysInternals tools work to reveal their inner workings.
• Chapter 6 Security: Provides a killer walkthrough of how Windows performs access checks and uses security identifiers (SIDs) for accounts, groups, and logons. Lots of good detail here on security minutae.
• Chapter 7 I/O System: includes great sections on Windows Plug and Play (PnP) operation and facilities, and ditto for ACPI/Power Manager.
• Chapter 8 Storage Management: Best discussions of both BitLocker Drive Encyrption and Volume Shadow Copy Servive (VSS) I’ve seen anywhere.
• Chapter 9 Memory Management: Another embarrassment of riches, and also worth the price of the book all by itself, especially the sections on physical memmory limits, working sets, and SuperFetch/ReadyBoost/ReadyDrive.
• Chapter 11 File Systems is worthwhile because it pulls info on all the Windows file systems together in one place and because it provides lots of great information on NTFS in particular.
• Chapter 12 Networking: lots of good information on the Windows IP stack, NetBIOS, MUP, NLA, LLTD, NAT, and more. I need to spend more time with this chapter to savor it more fully.
• Chapter 13 Startup and Shutdown: Great excursions into BIOS boot processes, BCD and Bootmgr, EFI boot stuff, plus more on ReadyBoot/ReadyBoost interaction. The great, great section on troubleshooting boot an startup problems is another gem.
• Chapter 14 Crash Dump Analysis: the second on “The Blue Screen” includes a list of the top 30 stop codes for Windows Vista, and included all my old familiars, for sure. The in-depth discussion of crash dump analysis includes basic and advanced sections, and is also sure to reward further study.

Anybody who works with Windows regularly and needs to understand its inner working will find their investment in this book amply repaid. It is worth every bit of the $38 to $70 you’ll pay for it by shopping online. My only beef about this book is that it’s a monster, at over 1,200 pages and 4.4 pounds, it’s a bit too heavy to read in your lap or hold in your hands for very long. You’ll want to plant this puppy on a table to flip through its many useful bits of information.

Here’s a full citation: Mark Russinovich, David A. Solomon, and Alex Ionescu: Windows Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition, Microsoft Press, 6/17/2009, ISBN-13: 978-0735625303.

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.

Bitten by the “Eval” nature of Vista SP2 RC?

In my frenzy to test and evaluate Vista SP2 for stability I built myself a test system around the slipstreamed version of Vista x64 SP2 RC available from MSDN for download to subscribers. And while my results were overall positive–FWIW, SP2 seems to add significantly to Vista stability and uptime–it appears that I’m now faced with a painful dilemma about when to scrub the machine and rebuild with the just-released production version.

So, off I go to find the expiration date for the RC. It turns out that whenever one exists, it appears in the “About Windows” information for any Windows release. I scratch my head a bit to figure out how to do this, then run winver at the command line: it does the trick nicely.

The fine print says I have until 4/1/2010 to replace this OS.

Upon seeing the details, I heave a sigh of relief for numerous reasons. First, there’s no compelling reason to act soon, with just under 11 months to go before this OS turns into a pumpkin. Second, there’s every hope that the commercial release of Windows 7 will be out before that date (and I may even be able to perform an in-place upgrade to x64 Windows 7 Professional from this version if the stars smile on me). Third, this being a test machine after all, circumstances (read: new work) may compel me to rebuild this machine for any number of reasons well before the expiration date arrives.

All this said, however, there is a moral to this story: When MS says you shouldn’t install an RC version on production gear, they’re not kidding around. You do have to be willing to bite the bullet sometime after installing one of these versions, and replace the install with something else (that is, a so-called “clean install” that wipes out all the work involved in setting up the machine with the RC and its accoutrement) in its stead. I’m glad that my primary work on this machine consists of building various VMs to use for testing inside Virtual PC 2007. Presumably I need only copy those constituent files to a backup drive, rebuild the underlying system, then replace them in the “My Virtual Machines” folder to keep on using them no matter which version or kind of host OS is running to support them. More on this later, I’m sure…

Vista SP2 is Done, Done, Done But Not Yet on Tap

BitTorrent is turning into an unofficial prerelease mechanism for Microsoft software these days. It’s cartainly become a nonpareil source for Windows 7 builds that’s right in synch with Microsoft’s own internal releases. Yesterday Vista SP2 was already available online in Torrent form hours before Microsoft’s own 6:49 PM Tuesday announcement “Windows Vista SP2 RTM” appeared in The Windows Blog. This release also includes a common installer and code base for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. For details on the changes that come with SP2, check out the associated “Notable Changes” document on TechNet (also dated 4/28/09).

I’ve been working with the 64-bit Vista RC version of SP2 for nearly three weeks and so far, it’s been remarkably stable. If my own experience is any guide, Vista admins can look forward not just to some nice boosts to functionality (Feature Pack for Wireless, improved Wi-Fi performance after sleep mode resumption, improved RSS feeds sidebar, and built-in support for burning Blu-ray media) but also to some increased stability as well. Enterprise versions will also benefit from improved power management for both servers and desktops, as well as better backward compatibility for Terminal Server License keys.

It’s not yet clear whether Microsoft will indeed get the downloads posted before April 30 comes and goes, as they had originally promised. If not, given that the bits are already available and in circulation on BitTorrent, I’d have to guess that they won’t show up much later than early next week in any case. Based on recent precedent, this means that SP2 should become available on demand from Windows Update some time in late May or early June, and will become a mandatory download later this year. A tool to block the SP2 download should also become available very soon, if not at the same time as the SP2 download, then some time soon thereafter.

Installing an OS on x64 Vista insides Virtual PC 2007

OK, so I’m climbing a learning curve with x64 Vista and Microsoft Virtual PC that is at times frustrating, at other times just plain weird, but always interesting and even sometimes moderately entertaining. I’m starting to get the hang of this whole Virtual Machine thing at long, long last and have learned some interesting lessons that may help those who have themselves yet to venture down this path.

The old aphorism: “When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” resonates with the first of my recent Lessons Learned with Virtual PC 2007. I’ve recently set up a baker’s rack in my office, and now have all of my test and experimental machines racked up next to my desk. Ordinarily, I use Remote Desktop Connection to access and work with those other machines from the comfort and convenience of my dual-screen-outfitted desktop. One of the first lessons I learned with Virtual PC 2007 is that the number of levels of indirection for mouse and keyboard when installing an OS into a new virtual machine is limited. That is, I actually have to use the mouse and screen on the Virtual PC 2007 host machine to install a guest OS onto that machine. I can open and load an existing VM via a remote session, but no joy in performing installation tasks. Good to know.

At this point, the biggest benefit to using VMs is that I can create a reference machine for some target environment, install all the patches and updates, add whatever other scaffolding I want (antivirus, antispyware, necessary apps, and so forth), then save that machine for re-use. I just need to remember to load that VM from time to time to update it, then save it again so it becomes my point of reference for continued/continuing reuse. I’ve also learned to be very specific in naming the virtual drives I create for such machines, so I can tell them apart, and to copy the “reference versions” (for later reuse) to another hard disk, so I can always get back to a pristine state by copying over the backup version from that drive to its primary location as needed.

This approach makes it much easier and safer for me to install and test software to write about it, and then to rid myself entirely of it after the work is done. I’m still running only one VM at a time and figuring out how to make things work, while discovering a whole new set of virtues for shared or networked drives (they’re easily accessible to both host and guest systems, and thus provide a perfect means of file/information transfer between the two otherwise distinct and independent systems). As I learn more about how to make this environment stand up and bark, particularly while working with Windows 7 (I’ll be installing Build 7001 shortly) I’ll keep reporting back with new observations and lessons learned.

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.

“Roll Back To Vista for Next Win7 RC” sez MS

An interesting report from ComputerWorld surfaced this morning — namely, a request from Microsoft for Windows 7 beta testers to restore Vista on their test machines before upgrading to the upcoming release candidate (RC) version of that software. This is a reworked version of a story that originally appeared in the print edition of the magazine on April 7, but I can only link to the Web version here. The original material comes from the Engineering Windows 7 blog, in a posting entitled “Delivering a quality upgrade experience” (I had real trouble getting this post to open, and was only able to access it via IE after numerous tries, never on Firefox).

Basically, the post asks beta users to roll their machines back to Vista before installing the next RC so that MS can benefit from a larger user base in evaluating the upgrade install from Vista to Win7, believing that this will represent the bulk of the user base’s own experience when the time comes for all of us to work with the final, commercial release of Windows 7. MS cites “telemetry” that they received during the install process to back up this claim, noting also that “most of you did clean installations onto new partitions” (that’s exactly what I did on every single one of my test machines, in fact).

Here’s what they say about the next release, quoted in full:

We’ve also learned that many of you (millions) are running Windows 7 Beta full time. You’re anxious for a refresh. You’ve installed all your applications. You’ve configured and customized the system. You would love to get the RC and quickly upgrade to it from Beta. The RC, however, is about getting breadth coverage to validate the product in real-world scenarios. As a result, we want to encourage you to revert to a Vista image and upgrade or to do a clean install, rather than upgrade the existing Beta. We know that means reinstalling, recustomizing, reconfiguring, and so on. That is a real pain. The reality is that upgrading from one pre-release build to another is not a scenario we want to focus on because it is not something real-world customers will experience. During development we introduce changes in the product (under the hood) that aren’t always compatible with what we call “build-to-build” upgrade. The supported upgrade scenario is from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Before you go jump to the comment section, we want to say we are going to provide a mechanism for you to use if you absolutely require this upgrade. As an extended member of the development team and a participant in the Beta program that has helped us so much, we want to ask that you experience real-world setup and provide us real-world telemetry.

In other words, they want even those users who’ve set up and tweaked their machines to full production status to start over again with the next release. Then, as a sop to those people who simply don’t want to wipe their Win7 partitions clean and start over, they provide a step-by step method to bypass the pre-RC build check that disables an upgrade install on such machines. Here’s a summary of the steps involved (consult the original blog for more details).

1. Download the ISO and burn it to a DVD
2. Copy the entire image to some storage location from which you’ll run the upgrade install (such as a UFD)
3. Browse to source directory
4. Open the file named cversion.ini in a text editor (such as Notepad)
5. Modify the Minclient build number to a value less than the down-level (current) build
6. Save tfe file with its changes
7. Run setup from this modified copy and version check is bypassed

Of course, MS wants the data on the “default scenario” (clean partition, or an upgrade to Vista) so that’s why they put hurdles in the way. Kudos to them for providing a workaround, and knocks for making it necessary. Interestingly, with nearly 60% of the Windows installed base running XP anyway, I find it fascinating that the focus here is on Vista. I’ll be very interested to see what kinds of tools emerge to address the real default scenario when that time comes!

TX Legislature Inveighs Against Vista

On April 2, ComputerWorld reported that the Texas Senate included a rider in its 2009-2010 state budget that blocks state agencies from upgrading to Windows Vista without first obtaining written consent from that body. State Senator Juan Hinojosa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, explained he included the rider “because of the many reports of problems with Vista.” He went on to say that in addition “…the XP operating system is working very well” and that his body is “…not in any way, shape, or form trying to pick on Microsoft.”

Interestingly, the rider requires Texas state agencies to otain written approval from the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) before acquiring any Vista licenses, even for PC’s that include pre-installed copies of this much-maligned OS. Alas, it’s too late for many existing installations. The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) reports that over 40 state arms has spent more than $6M on Vista purchases and upgrades, though the DIR itself uses Windows XP and Mac OS X. Given Microsoft’s overall clout, and the fact that it employs over 1,500 people in the state, with sales and development offices in most major Texas cities (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and others), it will be interesting to see if this injunction can withstand the budget reconciliation with the house version, and pressure from Microsoft and business interests allied with that company.

But those whose thoughts about Vista might have occasionally included the phrase “…there oughta be a law…” can now claim some legislative satisfaction, no matter how fleeting or transitory this ruling may turn out to be. Personally, I find it fascinating that the legislative machinery includes room for this kind of activity along with everything else that’s involved in keeping government going!

Vista Grows Market Share: Too Little, Too Late?

On March 23, Sam Diaz blogged for ZDnet that Vista’s market share has apparently climbed past 30% for the first time, according to an analysis by Web traffic monitoring company StatCounter. According to that latter company’s CEO, Aodhan Cullen: “Based on daily data Windows Vista has only topped 30% a few times before and only for a maximum of three days running. This is the first time it has broken through 30% on a weekly basis suggesting that it is gaining some consistent traction in the US.” Based on an analysis of 4 billion pageloads monthly, this data also makes some other interesting observations possible:

• XP still predominates with a market share in excess of 55%.
• Vista traffic spikes on weekends, while XP predominates on weekdays. This underscores the presence of Vista in the consumer category, probably pre-installed on newer PCs, with the continuing presence of XP in the workplace.
• Mac OS numbers show slightly in excess of 8%.
• By extension, this puts Linux, Unix, and other OSes at about 7%.

While Vistaheads (like me) might be tempted to take some heart from this upsurge (which has climbed steadily since hovering around 10% until last fall), the real news here is that a big loyal installed base of XP continues to rule the workplace. With free support for XP scheduled to end on April 14, 2009, does this mean that companies will be boosting MS support coffers with paid support while waiting for Windows 7 to ship?

I don’t see how it’s possible to come to any other conclusion. It will be interesting to watch the Vista numbers for movement in the coming months, as businesses — especially smaller ones — start to realize what the end of free XP support really means, and to weigh the risks and costs of switching to Vista sooner or paying for the privilege of switching to Windows 7 later.

Windows 7 Comes Off Pretty Darn Well

Now that I’ve gotten Windows 7 (the latest beta build: 7057) up and running on a couple of computers, I understand most of the recent hoopla it’s garnered a whole lot better. It is indeed quick and easy to install: under half an hour in all cases, working from an ISO download I burned to DVD after downloading it from MSDN. Windows 7 does consume fewer resources and run faster than Vista, just like other recent reports indicate. Also, it does a decent to stellar job of recognizing hardware and getting itself installed with a minimum of user input and activity involved. I selected a language, confirmed my time zone and locale, provided a key, and indicated I was using a home network. That was the entire extent of my interaction with the PCs upon which I installed this software (one notebook, one desktop, just to get the full flavor of Win7 in my test environment).

I also now understand that Windows 7 is a whole lot more like Vista than it is unlike Vista, though it does look completely different, and organize the desktop as well as access to programs, services, and so forth a bit differently. It worked perfectly with all the software I threw at it with only two exceptions: it wouldn’t run PerfectDisk 10 for defrag (analyzing a drive produced the generic catchall “Error 0″ notification) nor would it run Unknown Devices 1.2 (when run on Vista, this program reports “I don’t know what OS this is exactly, so I guessed where the PnP info is, and I’m right!” I’m guessing this means PnP data has moved in Windows 7 or it probably would have worked, too. That said, HunterSoft/Zhanguo.com’s Unknown Device Identifier worked fine on Windows 7).

Unlike Ed Bott’s recent report on installing and living with Build 7057, Windows 7 didn’t recognize all the devices on my HP HDX18-1001xx, as it did on his Dell XPS 420. It only missed on 7 items though, including two Intel ICH9 chipset elements (Thermal Subsystem 2932 and SMBus Controller 2930), the notebook’s built-in HP Webcam and Validity Fingerprint scanner, the ENE CIR Receiver (for IR remote control support), the ATSC/Analog TV tuner card, and the JMicron memory card reader (MS, SD, SD/MMC, xD). A quick trip to the HP Customer Care Web pages for my notebook made downloading the necessary 32-bit Vista drivers a snap. All installed without a hitch. I was even able to use my old tried and trusted DriverAgent tool to check and confirm driver status, as shown here:

DriverAgent Works Nicely with Windows 7

Most impressively, the wireless networking and Bluetooth elements on the system worked flawlessly as soon as the system booted “for real” after the install completed. This is the first time in my experience that wireless connections have worked as quickly and painlessly with Windows as they did here, Vista and XP included.

All this experience and my (mostly successful) navigation of the Windows 7 UI confirms my belief that Windows 7 is incredibly Vista-like. This definitely explains why MS is touting Vista as the right point of departure for getting to know Windows 7, because these two OSes are more alike than they are different. It’s also made working with and getting to know Windows 7 a whole lot easier and faster than I expected it to be.

My next project is to install Windows 7 on an Asus Eee PC 1000HE, but I’m waiting on a USB enclosure for a DVD drive to arrive by mailorder before I can get started on that project–which I’ll be documenting extensively in an article for InformIT.com. Stay tuned here for the high points, and for more information about my Win 7 adventures. So far, so good, however.