Tag: Windows 7

At last the Microsoft  Certified Professional page show that I have passed both Windows 7 beta exams, named 71-685 Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician and 71-686 Windows 7 Desktop Administration. These exams went live November 20th with the numbers 70-685 and 70-686 and if you have already taken 70-680 i recommend you look into these two new exams.

Previous information telled us that to become a MCITP for Windows 7 one would need to pass not only 70-680 and 70-686 but also an external test from a third party source. Now it seems that this has changed and to become “Enterprise Desktop Administrator 7” all you need is passing 70-680 and 70-686. At least that’s what it says on my transcript and the notes about the third party demand has been pulled from the leaning site. More information about the 70-686 and 70-685 exams!

When installing Windows 7 on the HP nc4400 range of laptops it will likely hang at “completing installation”. Microsoft says it is a known compatibility issue with this particular model and HP are working on getting a BIOS upgrade out the door. Stay tuned!

Windows 7 already contain RDC version 7.0 but now Microsoft has released the 7.0 client for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Some of the benefits of using the RDC 7.0 connecting from Windows XP or Windows Vista are:

• Windows Media Player Redirection.  This feature lets you play even a HD file on the remote machine without any lag as the video and audio is processed on the local machine.
• True multi monitor support!
• Performance improvements. This is alone a good reason to use the latest RDC 7.0 client.
• Many more new features and improvements, read more at RDS blog.

Note that the above features only work when you connect from Windows XP or Windows Vista with RDC 7.0 to a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 machine.

 Download and more information at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969084

The Infrastructure planning and design guide for DirectAccess has just been RTM:ed and can be downloaded from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=164151. If you’re planning on implementing DirectAccess read this document! ;)

Just a quickie about troubleshooting installation issues. You are not always stuck if the installation fails as you can always get to the log files if the setup for instance appear to have hung. Do this by pressing Shift + F10 to bring up the command prompt. Insert a USB memory stick and copy the log files from the hard drive to the USB memory stick and then analyze them on another machine! This KB article documents where you find the various setup log files.

There is an issue with using “previous versions” (shadow copies) in Windows 7 when using it on folders stored on a Small Business Server 2003. The issue is that you cannot get to the previous versions. Read more about the solution at the SBS blog.

Documentation from Microsoft regarding the new feature AppLocker in Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2) early stated that to be able to use AppLocker you must have a “Windows Server 2008 R2 Domain Controller to host the AppLocker rules”. I have seen this information several times since then and at a seminar I payed a quick visit to yesterday regarding Windows 7 this particular questions was raised.

Of course I had to make sure what’s really going on here and I have now verified that AppLocker works perfectly fine in environments where there are only Windows Server 2003 DCs or Windows Server 2008 DCs. I can see no reason what so ever for AppLocker to require a Windows Server 2008 R2 DC to function. The only requirement is that you’re running Windows 7 Enterprise or Windows 7 Ultimate edition to be able to use th powerful feature of AppLocker.

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.

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.