It's been a while since I last posted to this blog.... a lot has happened. I started a new job with neudesic llc. A great consulting company based in Irvine, CA. Founded by exMSFT folks and lots of exMCS people like me there. I'll try to be better being more timely.. I noticed that my hits have dropped a bit, but not much. continue reading»

Hopefully this won't crash Vista... Since I don't have to attach it to the machine, I don't think it will. continue reading»

I just received a HP MediaSmart home server EX470. I was on the beta for Microsoft Home Server for about a year and have been anticipating the hardware from HP to be released. The whole story in on my new blog dedicated to this very cool system.

Check it out if you're interested in a device that will automatically backup all of the systems on your home network while you sleep, host and serve up all (non-DRM) songs in all the iTunes directories, centralize all of your digital photos, or access all of your data, including iTunes, remotely from any internet connection.

Read all about it here. continue reading»

Information Week has a great article on Vista Backup and Recovery strategies. Seven pages of great information about how to repair a boot record, do a total backup of your system, and even crash Vista by pressing the Windows key and E, the shortcut to bring up Explorer, for about 10 seconds. This floods with Windows queue with Open Explorer in a New Window command and quickly swamps the system. I'm sure if you waited for 30 minutes or so, it would come back and you could close all the windows. Another tip to recover your system, KEEP THE ORIGINAL INSTALL DISK. I don't know why anyone would throw it out, but I guess some people do. continue reading»

WASHINGTON, June 19 — Microsoft has agreed to make changes to its Windows Vista operating system in response to a complaint by Google that a feature of Vista is anticompetitive, lawyers involved in the case said today.



OH NO.... maybe Vista is a good thing. If Google cares, then maybe the government will start looking harder at Microsoft again. Shades of 1998 and that Janet person.



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Labels: Microsoft Antitrust Google Janet Reno

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Windows Vista's Windows ReadyBoost sounds too good to be true, and based on our extensive lab tests, it is. The technology promises to let you speed up Windows by plugging an inexpensive USB flash drive into your PC. But we found that while ReadyBoost may speed up Vista a tiny bit, it can also slow it down in some instances.



According to the article, about a 4% to 6% increase depending on the speed of the device you have. The problem is that it's difficult to determine the speed of usb flash drives until.you actually buy one and test it. As always, the more RAM the better but you MAY see a boost in performance in theory with an easy to install usb or flash drive.



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Here I sit, brokenhearted...but don't worry, there's nothing scatological about this situation. Unless you'd like to join me in calling Windows Easy Transfer (WET) a piece of something warm and steamy.



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I've had a different experience with Windows Easy Transfer but my situation was different. I was transferring from a Vista machine that was upgraded from XP and was successfully was running Office 2007. I did a backup of all my files (my docs, public files, etc) onto an external USB hard drive. I then went to my shiny new Dell Lattitude D820 and copied the files into the exact directories. I used Easy transfer on the old machine and ONLY transfered my mail and application settings. It only took a few minutes and the files size was about 1GB. I went to my shiny new D820 and pointed to the shared area on the old machine. Voila! All my mail worked perfectly, all my mail archives were there, and all my applications worked as before.

I have heard of other people who had TERRIBLE TIME CONSUMING experiences with Windows Easy Transfer so you may want to try my method first rather that wasting a few hours and then getting a failure. continue reading»