Windows Vista

Managed Software Installation in Windows Vista and 7

In Windows XP, a domain client computer would display messages like “Installing Managed Software Windows Defender” “Apply Computer Settings”.

In Windows Vista all of this disappeared and was replaced with “Please Wait”. In my opinion this was a bad move because users can get anxious that something is wrong quickly and sitting with the Please Wait message is tempting users to hit the power button.

I noticed sometime ago that Windows Server 2008 displays the correct messages to the user at start-up such as “Applying Default Domain Policy” and “Installing Managed Software X”

I didn’t realise however that it was possible to get this functionality back in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Open your GPMC and navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System

In here you will find a policy named Verbose Vs Normal Status Messages. Enabling this policy has the following effects according to the GMPC information:

Directs the system to display highly detailed status messages.

If you enable this setting, the system displays status messages that reflect each step in the process of starting, shutting down, logging on, or logging off the system.

This setting is designed for sophisticated users that require this information.

Note: This setting is ignored if the “Remove Boot / Shutdown / Logon / Logoff status messages” setting is enabled.

Slipstream Integration for Windows Vista DVD

So I know that Windows 7 is Release Candidate now, but that doesn’t mean people don’t still want to install Windows Vista, and what a better time to rebuild your Vista box if you don’t fancy the step to 7 than now?

I spent a few hours last night working on my Vista image on my WDS (Windows Deployment Server) and I’m really happy with it. I’ve never really meddled with the Vista DVD much in the past because I got confused by the Windows Image format and how to service it initially but once you get your head round it, it’s really easy.

I’ve now got a Vista DVD with the following integrated:

  • Service Pack 2 RTM
  • Internet Explorer 8 RTM
  • Remote Server Administration Tools

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Long Time No Post, but PDC Rocks

So it’s been a while since I wrote anything on here since my latest outbursts against Virgin Media due to their inability to provide us with broadband, and low and behold we still don’t have our super fast 20MB internet.

Virgin rescheduled us for late October and the day before the appointment called to cancel because there is no T-Piece outside our property and they need to get council planning permission to install the piece so we are now going to be waiting until November 14th.

Why on earth they couldn’t have just seen in advance that they needed this piece and that they could have done the work in the three weeks between our first and most recent appointments I don’t know! Bless their little cotton socks.

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Using NTBackup in Vista

So it’s official that with all of the nice new features and pretty things in Vista that the new backup utility sucks especially if your interested in scheduling things from the command line.

Reason? The new Vista backup utility only allows you to backup entire volumes or specified mount points using their GUID, so what happens if you want to backup only a few selected folders?

The answer is to use NTBackup from Windows XP or Server 2003, however this isn’t as simple as copying the ntbackup.exe file from the XP System32 directory.

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Windows 7 at D6 Conference

So I’ve just been checking out the much hyped news that Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer will be showing off Windows 7 and annoucing it officially at the D6 conference and like most of the other people who have looked this up since its publish online during the night are dismayed by the lack of information they actually gave.

Looking at the videos online of the event, Ballmer shows off a multi-touch application which appears to be a modified version of Microsoft Virtual Earth, but using some variant of the Microsoft Surface technology, while they also showed a Paint applicaton and a Photo Viewer both using multi-touch.

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