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My Primary Windows Computer

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My primary Windows Computer is a home built one I put together about a year ago. It started out as a Vista PC build but soon got some significant upgrades to bulk up its processing power. Most of those original parts were recycled in a PC I built for my parents. Still, despite being recently purchased most of the parts are no longer available, having been superseded by newer models. Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.40 [...] Read the rest »

Optimizing A Windows Vista Virtual Machine

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The Team Fusion blog has an article about optimizing Vista on VMware Fusion 2. Since it’s from the VMware folks it’s titled as VMware specific, but it’s appropriate for any Vista virtual machine. Suggestions include: Disable System Restore Disable Screen Saver Optimize Power Management for Virtual Machine Disable Windows Sidebar Disable Remote Management Run Windows Disk Defragmentation Utilities OPTIONAL: Change to Classic UI Disabling system restore is something I hadn’t considered although I do severely limit the disk space it’s given. I like the option of bein able to roll [...] Read the rest »

Security Quest #17: Microsoft Edition

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Another second Tuesday of the month and another set of Microsoft patches. I realize it’s important to patch vulnerabilities as soon as possible and this monthly release schedule tends to go against that, but I like the consistency and ability to plan. Anyway, this week brought two patches. The first is MS08-001 titled “Vulnerabilities in Windows TCP/IP Could Allow Remote Code Execution”. This affects all supported desktop OS’s. It’s rated as Important for Windows 2000 and Critical for all flavors of Windows XP and Windows Vista. I didn’t have any [...] Read the rest »

Security Quest #13: Microsoft Patch Tuesday

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Yesterday was patch Tuesday for December and Microsoft released seven security bulletins. There weren’t any Office updates but there were updates for all supported OS’s – Windows 2000 Professional SP4 to Windows XP SP2, and Windows Vista – along with updates for Internet Explorer 6 and IE 7. All the updates are available through Automatic Updates or the Microsoft web site. Microsoft has said that exploits for the IE vulnerabilities are already being used. Click the bulletin number to go directly to the MS bulletin. I do not mention server [...] Read the rest »

The OS Quest Trail Log #17: A Virtual Week

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This week was almost all about Virtual Machines on the Quest. Parallels released a couple of beta updates and eventually the final production release this week. My biggest complaint about Parallels was that the Windows task bar appears in every space even when Parallels is assigned to one space. But the more I used Parallels the less this was a problem. Not because I didn’t mind the task bar, but because I’m not using coherence mode. I run my VMs one of two ways, either full screen in the Space [...] Read the rest »

Microsoft Stealth Updates

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Update 9/29 – see end of article. Microsoft has been found to be sending stealth updates to Windows PCs even if you’ve used the setting to be notified of updates but not to install them. The updates were first noticed by the folks at Windows Secrets and confirmed by ZDNet. Microsoft confirmed that they send updates to Windows Update itself if you have it turned on. And if you say you want to be notified of updates and not have them automatically installed they ignore you and just apply the [...] Read the rest »

Microsoft Security Updates

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Microsoft released nine security updates this past Tuesday. When it came time to run Automatic Update on my Windows XP SP2 virtual machine (running under Parallels) I got 12 updates, so Microsoft pushed more than the security updates. The updates broke down as follows (all links are to the Microsoft Knowledge Base article number listed): Security Update for Media Player 11 (KB936782) Security Update for IE 7 on Windows XP (KB938127) Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (KB928365) Cumulative Security Update for IE7 on Windows XP (KB937143) Security Update [...] Read the rest »

Windows 7 in Three Years

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http://news.com.com/Next+version+of+Windows+Call+it+7/2100-1016_3-6197943.html?tag=nefd.lede CNet has a story that Microsoft will be releasing the next version of Windows (known internally as Windows 7) in “roughly three years”. Let’s hold off on the snide comments for now. Read the rest »

Windows Home Server RTM

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http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/ Microsoft has released Windows Home Server to manufacturing (RTM). According to the Home Server blog post it should be available in a couple of months. Windows Home Server will only be available through hardware manufacturers. This seems to have the potential to be a really cool product from Microsoft that can serve as a media center and provide backup protection for files. The potential weak link here is the hardware manufacturers that will be designing the hardware. Read the rest »