Windows 7 is here!

Interested in upgrading to Windows 7? Download and read this Microsoft document first.

Enjoy,
Newsha

Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista SP2 Beta...

Windows Vista/Server 2008 SP2 is in Beta and due to release any hour to TechNet & MSDN subscribers. The public/official release will follow sometime after April 2009. Read this for an overview of what to expect.

Cheers,
Newsha

Windows Vista Screen Flickering...

Your mobile computer's screen might flicker and flash black screens after you log in. If this is happening, you can turn off "Microsoft Transient Multi-Monitor Manager" (TMM) which would remedy this.

TMM is turned off by default on desktop systems, but for mobile systems, it is turned on. Read more about TMM here. Your mobile system will continue to detect external display devices fine.

Disabling TMM on your mobile computer will address this screen flickering. Here is how you can disable TMM:

Go to Start and type 'Task Scheduler' in the search box - and then run it. Click "Continue" at the UAC prompt. When the Task Scheduler window opens, follow the screen capture below to disable TMM. Once you have disabled TMM, close Task Scheduler; log off and log back in - note that the screen flickering has stopped after you log in.

(Click to enlarge)

Cheers,
Newsha

WARNING: Do not install the Windows Vista Audio CODEC update...

Microsoft released an update for Windows Vista Audio this past week.

Do not install this update on your Dell Systems running Winodws Vista SP1 as it will disable your sound device entirely. The update is called "IDT - Audio - IDT High Definition Audio CODEC".

If you did install this update and have lost your system audio, you won't be able to uninstall the update; but there might be a way to restore your audio by rolling back your audio driver to a previous version. Please refer to this article to rollback your audio driver: Restore a driver to its previous version.

I hope this update did not affect your systems adversely or if it did, that you have successfully restored your system sound by rolling back the driver.

Cheers,
Newsha

Windows Vista Springboard...

Thinking about migrating to Windows Vista (fianlly)? Start here for recommended experiences, materials and resources.

Enjoy.

Windows Vista Policies...

There are 2,494 policies you can modify on Windows Vista. Here is the reference file.

Wondering about Windows Server 2008 policies? There are 2,746 of those! Here is the reference file.

Enough said!

Windows Vista Backup...

One of the nice feature of Vista is its Backup & Restore center. In addition to the Shadow Copy features, make sure you use Vista's backup features to protect your data and system.

Note: Make sure disk fragmenter and the backup schedules don't overlap, otherwise your back up could fail and you might see errors similar to this:

File backup failed. The error is: The backup location cannot be found or is not valid. Review your backup settings and check your hardware configuration.

Cheers,
Newsha