Windows Vista

Disclaimers and Warnings
This guide was written specifically about Windows XP and Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder version 2.01, but should also work on Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and with newer versions of MJBK.
Read all of this guide carefully and back up your data before starting the Product Key recovery. I’m assuming you have [...]

Microsoft is currently trying to resolve why some users’ attempts to upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows Vista results in an endless reboot loop with the computer not updated to the new version and unable to restore Vista. Some of the borked computers may have had corrupted downloads of the Windows 7 upgrade software [...]

Windows 7 will be released publicly on October 22, 2009 - unless you buy a ‘white box’ computer - then you can get it on October 13, 2009.
Microsoft has released the official Upgrade Chart for migrating from Windows XP or Windows Vista to 7.
BUT:
Upgrading an OS is like taking the chassis out from under a [...]

Vista is the Windows version to bypass - like Windows Mistake Edition (ME) was. The combination of Microsoft having to pull employees off of Vista to help write XP Service Pack 2 and discovering that the XP code base was unusable (Vista was written from scratch) meant that MS released a typical first effort in [...]

I was reading the latest edition of Vista News when this caught my eye:
Is there a way to fix Vista Explorer’s address box?
QUESTION:
Okay, I know it’s a “feature” but I hate it - the new format for the path/address in Vista Explorer. I want my old familiar format (c:\Data\Publications\New) instead of the new one with [...]

Microsoft has released a new version of Internet Explorer 7 that “addresses customer feedback by removing the Windows Genuine Advantage check”. FINALLY! It makes the internet safer for all of us if the hacked versions of Windows can install IE7 too. Download it here.

I’m behind the curve on this as QuickTime 7.2 for Windows was released July 11, 2007 and there’s already been a security update for it. Apple added support for Windows Vista but dropped it for Windows 2000 (the latest version for Win 2K is 7.1.6 - available here and the security update for it [...]

Here’s an article from MSDN Magazine on building Windows Vista sidebar gadgets - you may find it useful for the contest. They include code samples.
Contents
What Is a Sidebar Gadget?
XML Definition File
The Main HTML File
JavaScript
Docked and Floating
Flyouts
Options Dialog
Reading and Writing Settings
Localization
What Happened to Alert and Confirm?
Debugging
Packaging Your Gadget
The MSDN Magazine Ticker

Disabling unnecessary services is an important part of securing a computer. Download this Excel spreadsheet here - a free membership is required. If you don’t have Excel, a free viewer is available here.

This is the last part of Mark Russinovich’s three part series on the Windows Vista kernel. This article focuses on features and improvements in the areas of reliability, recovery, and security.[tags]Mark Russinovich[/tags]
One feature I’m not covering in this series is User Account Control (UAC), which comprises several different technologies, including file system and registry virtualization [...]

The latest release of the MBSA utility adds support for Windows Vista for the first time. The tool analyzes the security configuration of the computers you run it against (it can run against many computers on your network at the same time) and suggests actions to reduce security vulnerabilities. The checks available [...]

Find out how Microsoft did a large scale rollout of Windows Vista. This webcast takes place on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 @ 9:30 AM Pacific Time - registration is here.[tags]Windows Vista, enterprise[/tags]

Hank Cranmore runs MOBITECH4U.com, a computer consulting business in Jacksonville, Florida. In a recent post to a tech support mailing list I’m on, he was musing about the possibility of Session 2 and newer users possibly being vulnerable to viruses or spyware.
First, some background. Every user in Windows who logs on [...]

This is part two of Mark Russinovich’s three part series on the Windows Vista kernel. This month’s article focuses on memory management, startup and shutdown, and power management.
Last month, in the first installment of this three-part series, I looked at Windows Vista kernel enhancements in the areas of processes and I/O.
This time I’ll cover [...]

This applies to Windows Vista Ultimate and Window Vista Business only - no other versions of Vista. If Vista Ultimate or Vista Business came with your computer - OR you bought the full retail version of those (NOT an upgrade version), OR your organization has a Volume License Agreement using one of those versions [...]

Thanks to Tim Hodkinson for the link that led to this post. There’s more problems to the Vista EULA than meet the eye - and Microsoft has a very good chance of not being able to enforce it in both Washington state and the state of Maryland. Mark Rasch is a former head [...]

Before Microsoft bought Systernals, Mark Russinovich was the leading expert on Windows who didn’t work for Microsoft. Now that he works for them and can access the source code, his articles will be even more cogent.
This is the first part of a series on what’s new in the Windows Vista kernel. In this issue, [...]

Way to go Alex! You’re a Canadian - publish the code and let Microsoft be damned!
…the code I’ve written does not work out of the box on a Vista RTM system. Although it can be effective when combined with a reboot, this doesn’t provide any advantage of any of the myriad other ways that [...]

If you are considering adopting Windows Vista in your business, you may want to have your lawyer examine the license to see if it conflicts with any of your existing contracts. Dan Shearer explains why:
Contracts common in certain industries cut across the Vista licence.
The Vista licence embodies technical surprises that may contradict your clients’ [...]

Michael Geist writes this critique of Vista’s far more onerous licensing terms - he is a Canadian law professor and an expert in Internet law.
With Microsoft’s Vista set to hit stores tomorrow, my weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) looks at the legal and technical fine print behind the operating system upgrade. [...]