Category: Windows 7

We saw an interesting issue with connecting via Remote Desktop from a Windows client to another machine using Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2. After doing some troubleshooting it turned out to be ESET NOD32 version 4 that caused the extreme slowdown. The work around is to turn off ”HTTPS filtering” in the NOD console.

Microsoft have just released a hotfix for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that potentially can reduce CPU power consumption by ten percent for AMD processors, specifically ones supporting the power state C1E. This includes popular CPUs such as AMD Phenom and Athlon range of CPUs.

The hotfix can only be obtained by contacting PSS (Product Support Services) or by requesting it for instant download via the KB article below.

KB974090: An update is available that allows for a potential power saving in an AMD multicore processor that is running an x64-based version of Windows Vista SP2, of Windows Server 2008 SP2, of Windows 7, or of Windows Server 2008 R2

I and Danwei Tran from Microsoft Sweden have done a pod cast about the top ten features of Windows 7, intended for IT pros.  It’s in Swedish and you can find the intro show today and the first episode tomorrow.  Have a look at Danwei’s blog for links to the podcast.

One fairly common problem with Windows client is slow logons and this kind of problem is one of the most difficult to troubleshoot. Microsoft recently posted a two part guide on how to troubleshoot slow logons. Some really good reading!

Read more: So you have a slow logon…? (Part 1) (Part2)

In case you’ve missed it the second service pack for Windows Server Update Services was released a couple of weeks ago. Among many improvements you will notice official support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Read more about SP2 for WSUS 3.0 at the official blog.

Starting with Windows Vista the defragmentation utility is scheduled to run on all drives once per week. The defrag is done in the middle of the night but if the machine is not on at that time, the defrag will start after next power on.

Anyway, you can disable, change the schedule or in other ways modify the task centrally by for instance deploying a script file by using GPO:s. The following command line disables the scheduled defrag task from running.

schtasks /change /tn "microsoft\windows\defrag\ScheduledDefrag" /disable

The guys over at TrueSec will be hosting a live online webinar (for free) about Windows 7 on October 7th. The speakers are no less than Marcus Murray, Christoffer Andersson, Johan Arwidmark, Mikael Nyström and Hasain Alshakarti. More info and registration at  http://www.windows7summit.com.

Microsoft have announced the beta exam opportunity for taking the 71-685: PRO: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician and 71-686: PRO: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Administrator exams. More information at TechNet Betaexams. The live exams will go public in mid-November it seems.

Many users are frustrated to receive the below error message when trying to add network shares or mapped network drives to a Library in Windows 7.

This network location can't be included because it is not indexed.

The error message clearly state what the problem is but it is harder to find out how to solve the problem. You have two options to include the network drive or network share in a Library.

1. Make the network drive available offline by right clicking it and choose “always available offline”. If you cannot control the remote file server as suggested in solution 2 this is the option to use.

2. Make sure that Windows Search 4.0 is installed on the remote file server and make sure that the share or network drive you are adding is indexed on that server. This is the preferred method I would say.

Once either of these two solutions are in place you will be able to successfully add the network share or mapped network drive to your libraries.

Microsoft has just released the group policy reference Excel sheet for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The Excel sheet contain all group policy settings that exist and you can easily search and filter which settings are available for which operating system. Download the reference files here.