papadi Development Blog

Windows Vista SP2 beta was released recently! This beta is available for download from Technet and MSDN both for subscribers and the public.
There are several enhancements in the service pack. Here is a list of things that, to my opinion, stand out from the list:

• Bluetooth 2.1 feature pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth technology
• Record data on Blu-Ray media
• exFAT file system now supports UTC timestamps, which enables correct file synchronization across time zones
• Resume performance when Wi-Fi connection is no longer available after resume from sleep
• Inclusion of Windows Search 4 for improved indexing performance,  improved relevancy in search, broader indexing scenario inclusion
• Single installer for both Vista & Server 2008. (I'm not sure what that means. One Service Pack for Vista and Server 2008? That would be really cool!)
• Inclusion of Hyper-V
• Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless. (I can't wait to find out what this is!)
• Reduction of resources required for sidebar gadgets. (I have to see this! Maybe this will make me bring back my sidebar which until now was always closed!)

And last but not least, SP2 includes all previously released security updates, and builds on the proven security benefits of Windows Vista. So if you install a new Vista instance you just need to install SP2 and your are safe and done.

These days there is a fuss about Windows Azure and Windows 7 and other kind of new cool things. Everybody is talking about them in PDC, at work, on the phone. But... have your heard of Windows Mojave? No? I wonder why...

Have a look! The Mojave Experiment.

Με το VirtualPC μπορεί κανείς να κάνει θαύματα! Ένα μόνο πραγματάκι με ενοχλούσε πάντα. Το μεγάλο μέγεθος των εικονικών δίσκων. Το VirtualPC έχει ένα Virtual Disk Wizard με τον οποίο μπορεί κανείς να συμπυκνώσει (compact) το μέγεθός τους, αλλά αν το τρέξετε μόνο του δεν θα πετύχετε και πολλά. Υπάρχουν διάφορα εργαλεία τρίτων που υπόσχονται να κάνουν καλύτερη δουλειά, αλλά πρόσφατα βρήκα και αυτό το άρθρο στο Technet το οποίο προτείνει τα παρακάτω βήματα. Το δοκίμασα και δούλεψε! Κατάφερα να μικραίνω δίσκους από τα 18 στα 12GB και από τα 13 στα 7GB!

Ορίστε τα βήματα :

1. Καταρχήν τα βασικά: Εκτελέστε τον Clean-up wizard για να διαγράψετε άχρηστα αρχεία και φυσικά καθαρίστε το Recycle Bin.
2. Κάντε defragment στο δίσκο. Ίσως μπορείτε να χρησιμοποιήσετε και το PageDefrag το οποίο κάνει defragment στο page file (δεν δουλεύει σε Vista).
3. ΤΟ ΠΙΟ ΣΗΜΑΝΤΙΚΟ: Χρησιμοποιήστε ένα εργαλείο για να μηδενίσετε τον μη χρησιμοποιούμενο χώρο. Όπως γνωρίζετε όταν διαγράφεται ένα αρχείο απλά μαρκάρεται ο χώρος του σαν διαθέσιμος, χωρίς να καθαρίζεται. Αυτό κάνει τον παραπάνω wizard του VirtualPC να μην μπορεί να αποδεσμεύσει αυτό το χώρο μια που νομίζει ότι ακόμα χρησιμοποιείται. Ένα εργαλείο που μπορείτε να χρησιμοποιήσετε για να καθαρίσετε αυτό το χώρο είναι το sdelete. Απλά εκτελέστε το εξής: sdelete -c c:
4. Τέλος χρησιμοποιήστε τον Virtual Disk Wizard του VirtualPC και συμπυκνώστε (compact) τον δίσκο.

Ελπίζω να σας φανεί χρήσιμο!

Recently my laptop's processor fan stopped working! Of course laptop had to be sent to authorized service point and I had to wait for it a couple of weeks. Sadly I couldn't take these couple of weeks off, so before sending the laptop to be repaired I removed the hard disk so that I could have access to my files. Until my laptop was repaired I had to use a desktop PC instead, and since the laptop's hard disk was SATA, I could easily plug it in to the desktop case. SATA data and power cables are the same both for laptop and desktop machines.

In the beginning I was thinking to use my laptop's hard disk as secondary drive, i.e. my Vista operating system wouldn't be used. I would have to work on a temporary environment, perhaps reinstall some tools there etc.etc. Really annoying stuff! The second thought was that I should give it a try to see how Vista would operate in this extreme scenario that the complete hardware was changed. So, I removed the desktop's hard disk completely, I plugged-in the laptop's hard disk and switched it on!

And... surpise-surpise

Vista launched normally! A window popped-up that displayed the progress of installing the new hardware. Of course that window included everything. From the processor and motherboard, to the graphics adapter and the USB mouse. After a few minutes Vista requested a restart and after that it was up and running! Of course activation was necessary due to many hardware changes, but apart from that the system was functioning and was performing better than before!!!

And there is more...

Today I got my laptop back from service. I plugged the hard disk back in, switched the laptop on, and Vista booted in 30 seconds without displaying any window about hardware changes and drivers being installed or re-enabled. Currently I can plug-in my hard disk to both my laptop and desktop PC and Vista works.

This is what I call a plug-n-play operating system!

Norton Ghost is a very popular backup tool, as you propably already know. The feature that distinguishes Norton Ghost from it's competitors is that it is designed to get a complete system backup, relieving yourself from the burden of selecting individual folders or features to backup. This also makes recovering a very simple and straighforward procedure, since you get your hard disk back with all programs working in just a few clicks.

Something you may not know is that Norton Ghost can create a virtual hard disk out for you backup files. This virtual hard disk can have either VMWare or Microsoft Virtual PC format! So it very easy to create a mirror of your system in a virtual PC format. I discovered this feature in version 12 - I don't know if this was supported before.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to change the text of every 'Save' button in all software of the world to 'Unsafe Store'. Maybe this way people can finally understand that backup really saves their data and 'Save' button just stores them temporarily.
Here is how Microsoft Excel™ would look! Don't you think it is now more obvious?

I have just evaluated Everest Home edition software which produces a detailed report of your computer. You can get a complete report of several aspects of your system like the operating system, CPU, motherboard, sound and video hardware, storage and partitions, networking and other peripherals. Other information include overclocking features, Power Management, detailed memory, BIOS and chipset characteristics, basic software and operating system version and settings. All this information can be extracted into a text, HTML or MHTML file.
Great tool to collect a detailed hardware and basic software report in your company, or to get system information from your client, in case of software debugging.
Homepage of Everest software: http://www.lavalys.com
The other side...
You have to buy the professional edition to use this tool in a computer registered to a Windows Domain!