When you install the Windows 8 Developer Preview on Virtual PC in 64-bit windows. Your installation would fail with the blue screen of sad:
: (
Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn’t handle, and now it needs to restart
You can search for the error online: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
When you hit PrintScreen key, windows will take screenshot on the monitor and copy it to clipboard. But if you have dual monitors setup, you will find screenshot of both monitors are captured. You might wonder how to just capture the single screenshot on the monitor you are working on.
The answer is ALT + PrintScreen. Note that it will take screenshot of the active monitor on your desktop, the one has keyboard/mouse focus.
In addition, you can use CTRL + ALT + PrintScreen to capture the active dialog box or menu on your desktop.
Unlike IE8, in IE9, if you type an intranet site name in the address bar without http, IE9 will redirect you to the bing search page with the site name as keyword. IE9 also recognize you might want to go to an intranet so there is prompt pop up ask if you want to go to internal site.
This means one more click for many users. You can enforce IE 9 to go to intranet site directly for single word entry by following these steps.
After Microsoft releases Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 to public, Microsoft now provides single evaluation media ISO for Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 for free download. To download the official ISO just access http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd459137.aspx and logon with your windows live ID.
Or use this Direct Download Link
File Name: 7601.17514.101119-1850_x64fre_server_eval_en-us-GRMSXEVAL_EN_DVD.iso
File Size: 2.9GB
The expiration period expires after 180 days. After that the windows system will run with reduced functionalities and reboot every hour.
After you install SQL Server 2005 RTM on windows server 2008, the full-text search service cannot start. This is because the full-text search service depends on the NTLMSSP (NTLM Security Support Provider) service but the NTLMSSP service does not exist on Windows Server 2008.
To resolve this problem, simple install SQL Server 2005 SP3
SQL Server 2005 SP3 can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=ae7387c3-348c-4faa-8ae5-949fdfbe59c4
After you have installed a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, install and configure windows features, install your own app, and then run sysprep command to create an image that is ready to be deployed. When you boot windows for the first time, it might comes up with following message at the windows setup stage "Setup is starting services" window.
Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer.
After you restart the system, you might keep getting the same error.
This is usually caused one of windows features installed or configured not supported by sysprep. The workaround is move the configuration to post setup scripts.
Remote Server Administrator Tools (RSAT) is not compatible with Windows 7 SP1. If you install Remote Server Administration Tools on Windows 7 SP1 slipstreamed media, you will get following error.
The update is not applicable to your computer
That’s because current RSAT version only supports Windows 7 RTM. To workaround this issue, you can Install Remote Server Administration Tools before installing Windows 7 SP1. The SP1 upgrade will update RSAT to SP1 version. The other option is wait for official release of Remote Server Administrator Tools for windows 7 SP1, which will happen this April.
Update 4/8/2011: Microsoft released Windows 7 SP1 RSAT Tools to public today. The download link is here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d
If you use Windows Server 2008 R2 as work station for daily work. You might notice that outlook search very slow. This is because by default Windows Search Service is not enabled on windows server 2008 R2.
Other than rolls up all previous released windows patches since RTM, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 contains two new features. Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX.
Dynamic Memory is a memory management feature for Hyper-V VM administrators. Dynamic Memory allows administrator allocates a range of memory to indivual VMs and windows system will automatically adjust memory of each VM based on performance.
RemoteFX creates a local like experience for remote users, including windows Aero and 3D contents.
You can read more about SP1 from Windows 7 Team Blog
By default IPv6 is not enabled on windows XP Pro and Windows Server 2003. However, its very easy to enable IPv6 with netsh (net shell) command line tool.
netsh interface ipv6 install
netsh interface ipv6 uninstall
To verify if ipv6 is enabled, run ipconfig /all and see if ipv6 address is returned.
Note: you can use netsh to enable/disable ipv4, just change ipv6 to ipv4 in above commands.