Ravi Sankar: Windows

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is Released

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:13:57 GMT

Beta 2 version of Internet Explorer is now available. You can download it from here

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx

Technorati Tags: IE 8,Beta 2

Unable to Access Shared Folders in Windows Vista

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:26:28 GMT

There can be multiple reasons if you are unable to access shared folders in a Windows Vista based computer over the network. The following are two common reasons among them.

1) Make sure that File sharing option is turned ON in "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center"

2) Make sure that "Guest" user account is disabled. The actual interface to do this would vary depending on the version of Windows Vista you are using. But you should find the user account related settings under "Control Panel\User Accounts\User Accounts"

Technorati Tags: Vista,Folder Share

Microphone missing in Windows Vista?

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:58:30 GMT

I have been using ThinkPad T61P for quite some time with Vista Ultimate x64 bit on it. I was impressed with the quality of built-in speakers, but I terribly missed the microphone. Every IM client and voice recording application told me that "No audio devices are installed" whenever I tried to use the microphone. My first assumption was that the driver for microphone is missing. But device manager showed that all the drivers are installed. Then I was told by someone that there is no microphone in professional series laptops like ThinkPad. I somehow believed it as I could not spot the same anywhere on my laptop. But to my surprise; today I saw some of my colleagues using microphone in ThinkPad. This drove me crazy and I decided to get the microphone working in my laptop. And finally I managed to find the microphone in my laptop with five minutes of effort, something which I could not do for past few weeks. All I needed was a bit of determination. And here is what I did.

Control Panel --> Hardware and Sound --> Manage Audio Devices --> Click on "Recording" tab. --> Right click on the white space --> Select "Show Disabled Devices". See the diagram below

Technorati Tags: Vista,Sound,Microphone

Windows 7 Blog

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:43:56 GMT

Windows engineering team has recently started blogging about their work. It is a welcome move by the senior leaders in the engineering team to share their work and also seek feedback from the community. Here is the blog link http://blogs.msdn.com/e7

Technorati Tags: Windows 7

Two Simple Things in Vista which Made My Brother Angry

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:01:52 GMT

An evangelist at Microsoft can never stop working, even when he is away from work at a family reunion :) . I was meeting one of my brothers after a long time. I found him using a laptop with Vista as the operating system and thought of asking him about his experience with Vista. In the next few minutes he poured all the frustration he had with Vista onto me. Contrary to my fear that he would have faced some issues with application & device driver compatibility his major complaint was about the changes in user interface compared to Windows XP. When I dived more deep into his issues I figured out that he has three specific issues that is really causing all the frustrations.

The overall appearance of Windows Vista
The ability to start command prompt from any folder by a simple right click. He found a work around in Windows XP to do this, but it is not working in Vista.
He wants to add a couple of options to the "Send To" menu item when he right clicks on any file. He knows that the way to do this is by adding a shortcut in the "Send To" folder found under user profile. But he is not able to find the "Send To" folder.

Now I have to help him solve his issues especially because I asked him about his experience with Vista. Luckily I could figure out solutions to all these problems and I am sharing the same with all of you as many of you would be facing the same "problems".

If you really don't like the new appearance of Windows Vista you can switch that back to classic or standard Windows view by doing the following
- Right click any empty area (not on any file or folder) on your desktop and choose "Personalize" as shown below
- The above step should have taken you to Control Panel and you should select "Windows Color and Appearance" as displayed below
- In the next Window click "Open classic appearance properties for more color options"
- The window next should provide you various colour schemes and choosing "Windows Standard" or "Windows Classic" would help you get your Windows back to the old style. But personally I love using the "Windows Aero" colour scheme and it's awesome! So give it a try before you switch to classic or standard mode. In some computers "Windows Aero" is not available. In that case "Windows Vista basic" is the best option according to me.
Now the command prompt thing. If you want a command window to be started from any folder in Windows Explorer all you need to do is simply press the "Shift" button and right click on that folder, you will get an option to start the command window. See the picture below

3.Customising "Send To" was the next task. The "SendTo" folder is still found under the user profile. But the catch here is that all the user profile information is kept inside the folder "C:\Users" instead of "C:\Documents and Settings". So the "SendTo" folder for any user can be found under C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows. Also as usual "SendTo" is a hidden folder.

Hope this information helps everyone!

Technorati Tags: Vista,Command Promptrompt,Send To

How to turn hibernation ON in Vista?

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:56:22 GMT

Have you by any chance deleted the hibernation file while performing a disk clean up in Windows Vista? If you delete this file, the hibernation feature would be disabled and you won't be able to enable it again from anywhere in the Graphical user Interface (GUI). I wasted two days in searching for a setting in the GUI to turn the hibernation ON. Finally my friend/colleague Filinto helped me with this simple command line utility.

Technorati Tags: Vista,Hibernate,Hibernation

Windows Vista and Global Warming

Fri, 30 May 2008 18:50:57 GMT

You must be wondering what is the relationship between Windows Vista and global warming. Since Vista's hardware requirements are more than that of XP, you must be thinking that Vista contributes to global warming by spending more energy. Then you got it wrong, it's the other way. Read on to find out how's this possible.

Vista has got a number of improvements in efficiently utilising power. You can find those details here and I am not going to explain them further. But I am going to talk about something else.

Millions of PCs worldwide are running operating systems without advanced power management features needed for today's environment. This includes Windows XP as well. Large number of these PCs are running continuously without any break. Needed or not these PCs are never shut down during the course of a day. The actual number of such PCs vary from organization to organization and it is a fact that these PCs waste large amount of electricity causing money loss and global warming.

But how can Vista solve this problem? PCs with Windows Vista can be forced into power saving modes such as sleep, hibernate etc. after a period of inactivity. Similar settings used to exist in previous versions of Windows as well. But those settings had to be done at individual PCs, thus making it impractical to implement in large networks. In Vista these power management settings are available in the form of group policies so that they can be configured and applied centrally on large number of PCs. See the picture below to locate these settings in Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

Under Power Management you can see 30+ different settings related to sleep mode, power button action, hard disk, video etc. The picture below is a quick view of those settings.

Now let's do a simple math.

Assume that you are managing a network of 1,000 computers each consuming on an average 100Watts power.

If these PCs are not used for 14 hours a day the total energy wasted would be = 14*100*1000 =1,400 KWh or 1,400 Units of electricity.

If power management is implemented total savings per year would be = 1,400*365 = 511,000 Units, that's a lot of money and energy loss.

So my request to every system administrator reading this blog is to try out these settings in your network and save the world!

Technorati Tags: Vista,Power management

Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008

Fri, 02 May 2008 14:31:21 GMT

I am delighted to share my friend Pavan's work on terminal services features in Windows Server 2008. He has done some cool experimenting at work to publish applications using terminal services. Read on

Technorati Tags: Terminal Server,Terminal Services,Windows Server 2008

7 reasons why I love my Windows Vista Ultimate

Thu, 01 May 2008 02:08:11 GMT

1. I have a fairly large collection of photos. The Windows Photo Gallery is the best way to view and manage them

2. I am addicted to Aero. It’s so nice to view windows with Aero turned ON

3. File Tagging. Tagging files appropriately helps me organize same set of files in different ways

4. Instant search. I use this feature every second to locate my programs, e-mail, photos and virtually everything in my computer

5. Windows Sidebar. It’s a very handy tool for me as I have so many gadgets in it. Most commonly used are the clock (in fact I have multiple clocks), currency converter, whether forecast and some search gadgets. There are just too many gadgets available here

6. Network Speed. Copy large files between Vista/Windows Server 2008 machines is a lot (2-3x) faster than Windows XP

7. Games: It’s a pleasure playing games in Vista. Even the built-in games like Solitaire and Minesweeper are much improved

In fact there are lot more reasons for me to use Vista, like search folders, speech recognition and media centre. But I am yet to take full advantage of those features.

Technorati Tags: Vista

Uninstalling IE8 Beta1 in Vista

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:49:42 GMT

I decided to try out IE 8 beta 1 on the very first day itself. I could get most of the non-IE8 compatible applications working with IE7 compatibility mode of IE8. But there are still applications, especially the one uses ActiveX controls that are not really happy with even the IE7 compatibility mode. So I decided to uninstall the same after few days. As usual I went to "Uninstall a Program" in Control Panel to uninstall IE8. But I couldn't find one entry for IE8 there :(. It took me a while to realise that IE8 is considered as an update not as a program in Vista and so it's located under "View Installed Updates". So finally I got IE8 beta 1 uninstalled. Here is the screen shot.

Technorati Tags: IE8,Vista

RSAT has been released

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:39:24 GMT

Remote Server Administration tools (RSAT) for Windows Vista has been released. You can download the same from here for x64 and x86 versions of Windows Vista with SP1. RSAT consists of a number of management tools for remotely managing Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003. This is the next generation of "Adminpak.msi" shipped as part of Windows Server 2003.

Technorati Tags: RSAT,Windows Server 2008

Wal-Mart Ends Test of Linux in Stores

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:28:33 GMT

Computers that run the Linux operating system instead of Windows didn't attract enough attention from Wal-Mart customers, and the chain has stopped selling them in stores. Read on......

Server Core Cannot be Upgraded to Full Installation

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:18:21 GMT

Server core is one of the installation options in Windows Server 2008. I have been asked many times whether the core installation can be upgraded to full installation or not. The answer is NO. Also the full installation cannot be downgraded to core installation

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2008,Server Core

Linux Losing Market Share to Windows Server

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:50:15 GMT

A news I have been waiting to hear.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2207368,00.asp

What can make Windows Vista super performing?

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:05:18 GMT

I've heard many people saying that Vista is slow and XP was better. I don't disagree with them completely as the hardware requirements of Vista are not the same as that of XP. But right hardware is only one of elements in deciding the overall performance of a computer. I have been using Vista Enterprise Edition for more than a year now. Initially I wasn't really happy with the performance due to incompatible hardware and software applications. Today I am extremely happy with Vista and I can't even think of going back to XP. Most of the time my usage is very typical to that of a power home and business user. And I have used at least six different machines during this time to experience how Vista performs on different hardware. Let me try to share my experience and knowledge around Vista usage

Processor: Dual core is not really required. But I strongly recommend buying a dual core processor for both desktops and notebooks if someone going for a new computer. This is because dual core processors give better performance without much price difference compared to the single core ones. Plus it would provide ample room for your future needs. When it comes to old machines it's not a good idea to have Vista on a pre Pentium 4 age machine. In other words the processor should be of year 2005 model or later (both AMD and Intel) for ideal performance.
Memory: I would say that a minimum of 512MB RAM is required. 1GB provides good performance. But if you can afford, 2GB is my recommendation. Before you make up your mind on memory please check the price of a 2x1GB module. You may find it affordable. The memory modules available today are all DDR2/667MHz and they are far superior than its predecessors. Again, like I mentioned in the case of processors memory modules older than two years may not give the best performance
Hard Drive:The choices available today is just too much. One can find hard disks ranging from 60GB in notebooks to in excess of 600GB in desktops. What really mattered to me was the speed. 5400RPM gives reasonably good performance. But 7200RPM is better if you have demanding applications running on top of Vista. For superior performance one can think of 10/15K RPM. Another thing that can improve the speed is flash based cache attached to the hard drives. I think 4/8/16MB cache are available today. Though I haven't tried it out personally, a flash based disk should give better performance than a hard drive. Such disks are available today in select notebook models.

I am not going to elaborate further on hardware requirements. Probably you may want to refer to this checklist from Microsoft before you purchase the hardware.

Let me now spend some time on things other than hardware.

System BIOS: Make sure that the BIOS version of your system is the latest one provided by the computer manufacturer. Some manufacturers provide a software update tool to ensure that you have the latest BIOS version. But that's not always the case. In that case you may need to periodically check the manufacturer's web site to ensure that your machine got the latest BIOS. Many computer manufacturers have in fact released multiple BIOS updates after Vista was released.

Compatible Anti Virus Program: On many occasions the anti virus (AV) program is a cause of computer's poor performance. The simple reason being its lack of compatibility with the operating system. So make sure that the version of the AV you are running is certified to be compatible with Windows Vista. AV failing to start automatically is a good sign of its lack of compatibility with the operating system.

Sign Up for Microsoft Update: Make sure that Vista and other applications from Microsoft such as Office are updated with latest security patches and other updates. This is perhaps the easiest thing to do because all Microsoft products can be updated using a Windows Automatic Updating tool. sometimes you get latest driver updates also through this tool.See the picture below. This is how I have configured my computer. To reach this settings page just search for update in your start button.

So don't forget to turn Windows Update ON. It's super important

Tweak your Windows Sidebar: Windows Sidebar is a nice but optional feature in Vista that allows you to add useful gadgets. But it can turn itself into a performance bottleneck unless properly used. Most of the gadgets are network programs pulling data from remote servers. So if there are too many gadgets or gadgets that are not responding added on to your sidebar you computer will take longer time to complete the startup process. The solution here is to make sure that only necessary gadgets are added to the Windows Sidebar and also to have a periodic check on the added gadgets to ensure that they are working properly. Sometimes I don't use them also.

Latest version of all drivers: Windows update provides latest updates to the most generic hardware drivers in your system. But you should check the computer manufacturer's web site to make sure that all hardware drivers are updated with their latest version. This is similar to the exercise I suggested for BIOS update.

Startup Programs: Over a period of time computer's performance is likely to degrade depending on it's usage. One of the most commonly found reasons is the large number of programs added on to startup programs. Many of the programs that we install are configured to start while Windows starts. As the number of such programs increases, the time required for Windows to complete the start up process also increases. This results in long waiting time before the computer becomes usable after powering it on.

In earlier versions of Windows msconfig was the command used to remove unwanted programs from the startup. This command works in Vista as well. But Windows Defender is a better tool to do this job. So click the start button

In the search bar type defender and hit enter to invoke Windows Defender. In the Windows Defender page click Tools and then Software Explorer.In the drop down combo box make sure that Startup Programs is selected. Click on . This appears near the bottom left portion of the screen. Now you can see all the start up programs in the list above. Identify the programs that you do not want to start along with Windows and remove them. Note that by removing a program from this list you are not uninstalling it. Typical programs that you f

Technorati Tags: Vista , Performance

ind here are instant messaging clients, CD writing software etc. Have a look at the settings in my computer.

Sharp decline in Apache market share

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:37:01 GMT

Apache is fast losing its dominance in web server market share. It's market share has gone below 50 per cent for the first time since netcraft has started tracking the web server share on the Internet. At the same time Microsoft's share has gone up to 34 per cent and is steadily growing. For a detailed report and analysis follow this link

Technorati Tags: web server, market share

Faces of Windows Server 2008

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:35:10 GMT

Watch this web page. Awesome!

Usage of PowerShell to automate tasks in a networked environment.

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:14:42 GMT

Here is an interesting blog on PowerShell usage by one of my friends

Technorati Tags: PowerShell, Management

Windows Server Core

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:11:48 GMT

"Server Core" is a new feature in Windows server code named as "Longhorn" (LHS). In other words it is one of the installation options in LHS. In "server core" you don't find the typical Windows GUI shell. It has a subset of various server roles available in a full installation of LHS. This helps system administrators to reduce the attack surface. Also this minimal installation option reduces the resource consumption. Have a look at this wonderful interface of "server core" :)

Technorati Tags: Longhorn, server core

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Released

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:44:12 GMT

Microsoft has released service pack 2 of Windows server 2003 (both 32 bit and 64 bit). It is also a service pack for Windows Xp 64 bit. So what is there in this service pack for a system administrator? I think the following are important improvements from a sys admin’s point of view

Ø It’s a collection of all security patches and updates till this date of Windows server 2003 and Windows Xp x64

Ø Windows Deployment Service (WDS) is the new version of remote installation service (RIS). So no more RIS in Windows Server. WDS supports Vista and Longhorn server deployments

Ø Icacls.exe This is an upgrade to Cacls.exe which sys admins have been widely using for resetting access control lists (ACL)

Ø Dcdiag.exe has been improved to include more options related to DNS testing

Ø Support for Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2)

Technorati Tags: Windows, server, service pack

Reference http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/cda7d603-fdd6-4a48-b045-89adac6e519e1033.mspx?mfr=true

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sp2/top-reasons.mspx