harbar.net component based software & platform hygiene
Windows Vista

Things I want in Windows 7

There’s a bunch of cool stuff coming in Windows 7 if the things they showed and talked about at PDC make it into the final release. But there’s plenty of things which are reasonably basic which I believe would make things much better, especially on a laptop. I no longer have a desktop running Vista. My laptop is my desktop (and my laptop when on the road) and this is increasingly common. Don’t get me wrong there’s plenty of things I like about Vista and I’m not one of these XP is better fan boy freaks who hated XP...

Triple Boot MacBook Pro Update: Running the Vista x64 Partition in VMWare Fusion.

A while back I posted my popular article series, Triple Boot MacBook Pro, which described the steps necessary to configure a three-way system running Mac OS, Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64. At the time it was unfortunately not possible make use of VMWare Fusion’s killer feature – running a VM directly from the Boot Camp partition (no VHDs). This was due to a couple of “issues”, which have thankfully now been addressed by VMWare. This article explains the issues and details the remaining tweaks necessary to run the Vista partition under VMWare Fusion for a triple boot system.  

Application Pool Manager v2 (finally)

Yesterday during the opening PDC keynote I did the final release build of APM v2 and posted it for download. Unfortunately due to a combination of sucky wireless and power "issues" I have only now got around to posting an announcement here. Since the initial release of APM it's grown many arms and legs and it has been amazingly popular. By version 1.2 the code had become pretty disgusting and hard to maintain (even for something which does very little). Therefore this release is a complete from the ground re-write. It's actually been ready for quite a while but I was...

Apple Keyboard Layout for Virtual Machines

One of the freakiest things about running on an excellent MacBook Pro is the keyboard layout. Keys in the wrong place and a few missing ones like #, PrtScr and AltGr. Once you get used to it it's all good however. There's combinations and so forth to get at things you need. The trouble is just as you've gotten used to it, you fire up those development virtual machines and they don't know squat about the Apple keyboard. This is because the custom Input mapping installed as part of the Boot Camp package isn't installed on the VM. Arse! ...

Installing applications on Windows Server 2008 or Vista x64

You know the score - you've a couple of indispensable applications which refuse to install on your operating system of choice because the idjut vendor decided it would be a good idea to bake into the installer some sort of version check. This is usually when you're trying to use a 64 bit operating system or wish to install something on a server OS. I have a couple examples - Sony's Ereader is a must have for me, but the installer doesn't like 64 bit. Others include Live Messenger and LifeCam which refuse to install on Windows Server. It...

How to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 on Vista x64/x86 - The Bamboo Team Blog

Here's an *unsupported* way to get WSS SP1 up and running on Vista. Like I say *unsupported*!!! How to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 on Vista x64/x86 - The Bamboo Team Blog

Finally decent x64 drivers for Atheros WLAN in MacBook Pros

For those with the pre-Penryn MacBook Pros running Vista x64 you will no doubt be bloomin' annoyed by the conflict issue between the wireless driver and the sound card which results in white noise and annoying clicks and pops when using a WLAN connection. At last a complete fix for this is now available - via - wait for it - Windows Update! Now you could solve this previously for hunting down Atheros drivers from dodgy laptop forum type sites - but that's helva risky. This way is much better!

Triple Boot MacBook Pro

Running Mac OS X, Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64 on a MacBook Pro. This article series details a process for installing Mac OS X, Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64 on a MacBook Pro with complete driver support. While it is not the only way to setup such a system, this approach minimises the configuration necessary and avoids shell commands, and the need for third party boot loader utilities. The scenario this approach is intended to address is as follows: Primary OS for day to day use – Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Service Pack...

MacBook Pro Tidbits

I note that Vista 64 bit drivers and BootCamp 2.1 appear on the latest MacBook Pro install disk one and the release to web a couple days ago (also via Apple Software Update). This is great news!!!. This avoids the somewhat troublesome approach using the MacPro drivers and a couple of workarounds. In addition the annoying soundcard/wireless conflict which results in very annoying white noise on Vista has gone! W00t! These newer MacBook Pros of course have multitouch (bah humbug - although zoom is pretty cool) and re-arranged function keys. It's not all good news though as the whopping 170Mb update for...

Did the MacBook Pro thing

A month or so ago I joined what has become somewhat of a mini-trend amongst SharePoint types, and bought a MacBook Pro. It's not like us SharePoint heads are special (well, we are, but not because of this) and there were many others before us of course. I had been considering a new laptop for quite a while and since the switch to proper hardware and the release of BootCamp, Apples are now a more than viable option for running Windows. The primary purpose of this machine is to run Vista (obviously), and the specs available are extremely competitive. Now having said...

22 hours battery life... if only

After various comedy attempts to acquire a extended life battery for my stonkingly good VAIO SZ4 laptop, I had to resort to Sony Style despite being told a couple times by 16 year old store assistants, "Sony doesn't have any in stock". Anyway, I finally got one, and it's bloody good, it has a riser effect which makes the keyboard better and now I can get around 7-8 hours of battery. It also fits in the cheaper of the two slipcases which is great for shows etc. The only downside is the increase in weight - with this battery weighing...

Tech Ed - Orlando

It's that time already - another June - (yet) another Tech Ed. If you are attending and want to hook up regarding WCM or any other Office SharePoint Server topics, you will likely find me loitering around the Technical Learning Center and at the WCM sessions. Feel free to email me if you have a busy schedule and require more formality! If you are building WCM solutions be sure to attend the Birds of a Feather chaperoned by Andrew Connell and myself. I've just arrived at my hotel - which has a bizarre "hollywood" theme - go figure. Looking forward...

April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista

Microsoft has released the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista. This update contains several improvements, and it resolves several issues. This cumulative update is intended for computers that are running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932818

Vista tweaks and utilities

Ahh, Windows Vista, isn't it nice - as I've mentioned previously finally a computing experience which fulfills the promise. Trouble is, for a front-end and platform hygiene kinda guy, there's a few annoyances that need fixed. So here are my favorite shell tweaks I use on my Vista boxes. Some are old, and some are new. Hopefully you'll see some you like. IE icon fixIn this release, the Internet Explorer link has vanished from the Desktop, and you can't get it back via the Desktop Icons applet. You could just add a normal shortcut, but you get the horrible...

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista

It's finally done and available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=90e2942d-3ad1-4873-a2ee-4acc0aace5b6&displaylang=en&tm

ReadyBoost and VMs

Love it! Frank just posted the common sense view on ReadyBoost and Virtual Machines with a nice graphic demonstrating the, as we say here, 'bleedin' obvious' :) Of course the problem with "common sense" is that it's stated far too infrequently and therefore is not 'common' enough. Lot's of people have blogged about using ReadyBoost to "speed up" thier VM expierence. Yeah right!! It's of no help to ya whatsoever (when in the VM). Get yourself a nice fast hard disk and some real memory, oh and a few more cores or procs :) A trip back to the reality of...

eXPired and Cisco VPN Client

Wubba! My office is now certified XP free! I am very happy... Since Vista hit late last year it's been a somewhat rocky road to becoming free of XP. First up the various drivers for the gadgets on Sony laptops (I have three) were very late and only became possible last week. Even now the european site doesn't have them based on model number etc. It's quite a challenge to get these all playing nice - requiring obtaining them for other models and such. Anyways these are all now sorted. Even the HDD protection util which is very troublesome. The second problem...

Microsoft Hardware Vista Support Updates

New drivers posted for various MS Hardware Devices at: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/windowsvista/support.mspx Includes for the first time LifeCam, XBOX60 controller, Habu and Reclusa, along with thier presenter mouse.

Windows Vista: The good, the bad, and the downright lame #3

The good: Hardware readiness.No doubt Microsoft has the inside skinny for drivers and such like, but the excellent new devices shipped to co-inside with the launch of Vista all work, and work very nicely. The new functions work as expected and is the new keyboard simply awesome for typing. This is the best keyboard since that on the Sony VAIO SZ1. Magnify on the mouse now works (it didn't in beta drivers) and I've previously mentioned the task switch button. Also working fine is the fingerprint reader, although on a domain joined machine, this is of little practical use. I am...

CES: Full Motion Desktop

Nice Windows Vista Ultimate Extras over here, including the full motion desktop resurrected from previous pre-release versions!

Windows Vista, the good, the bad and the downright lame #1.

The Good: I've long been bemused as to why the Windows "full fat" client didn't have an implementation of multiple clocks. Let's face it for time zone stradlers (or cricket lovers for that matter) this is a must have. Pocket PC had it in like '98 or whatever, and so does your Windows based phone - well I guess that's all the same thing right? Installing some nasty shell addon just for this essential feature was just rubbish, given the general quality of widget software (especially in the UI). Anyways, Vista has finally fixed this with it's "Additional Clocks". Simple, but all...

More thoughts on Windows Vista

Some more ramblings on my experiences with Windows Vista, primarily based on my "first love", usability... Personal Files The organisation model for a user's files is much more obvious and clean. Given the reliability improvements and built in decent backup software one could easily consider running from a single partition - especially on laptops. In addition the flexibility of 'Links' - basically a shortcut but now in a way its truly useful - a nod to Apple this. Windowing Using Windows is again workable without getting too frustrating. In XP it was basically maximised everything except on the monster monitor. Vista makes things more...

Windows Vista

At last Windows Vista is here! I don't know how many pre-release builds of this I've run, but I do know it's been alot. I've wanted the overall Vista experience for about a year - when it started fullfilling it's promise - and it's been a painful wait. This isn't a critisism of the "delay" muted often elsewhere, just frustration with not being able to take advantage of all the cool new stuff. So I slapped the upgrade on my brand new VAIO Ultra Portable, which had a default Sony install of XP and 1Gb RAM. Before installing I removed the tons of...