How to remove Windows Cardspace from the control panel of Windows XP
Today I was messing around with some policy settings at a customer site and they asked if I could disable the Windows Cardspace component in the Control Panel, of course I googled around first, but couldn’t find any usefull info, so I started looking in the registry myself, here’s how you do it.
- Start Regedit.exe and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ policies \ NonEnum
- Create a new DWORD value named {78CB147A-98EA-4AA6-B0DF-C8681F69341C}
- Double-click {78CB147A-98EA-4AA6-B0DF-C8681F69341C} and set its data to 1
- Close Regedit.exe
When you need to disable it centrally (like me) just use the Group Policy Preferences from Windows 2008 / Vista (which can be used on a Windows 2003 domain as long as the policy has been made on a 2008 or Vista machine)
Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder Script
Yesterday I wrote about the Problem Steps Recorder and how it can help us lazy IT admins who have to screenshot some setups/manual actions for recipe files or documentation in general. When I was messing around with the PSR I found out one really annoying fact: the PSR window is always on top in all the problem report screenshots.. That's not really nice for our documentation now is it? So I wrote this quick Auto-IT script that Starts PSR>start recording>wait until ESC key is pressed>stop recording>ask where to save file
Download the script from here
Here is the code (simple ofcourse
)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Problem steps recorder script
;; V1.0 HHO Login Consultants
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
#include <Misc.au3>
Run("psr.exe")
WinActivate("Problem Steps Recorder")
WinWaitActive("Problem Steps Recorder")
Send("{ALTDOWN}a{ALTUP}")
WinSetState("Problem Steps Recorder", "", @SW_HIDE)
while 1
if _IsPressed("1B") then ExitLoop
WEnd
WinSetState("Problem Steps Recorder", "", @SW_SHOW)
WinActivate("Problem Steps Recorder")
WinWaitActive("Problem Steps Recorder")
Send("{ALTDOWN}o{ALTUP}")
Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder
When you have to help out users with their problem, nothing is more frustrating then the users' inability to clearly state what their problem is, and how they got to the point where it went wrong. Fortunatly, Windows 7 packs a really really really awesome tool that will get rid of those problem once and for all: the Problem Steps Recorder.
![]()
This nifty little tool records the users' screen and outputs all relevant information in a MHTML document, which will contain all screenshots and steps needed by the helpdesk user. Thanks to Ment van der Plas for pointing this tool out to me
You can start Problem Steps Recorder by Start>Run>psr.exe and try it out
This tool is also very very very interesting for all us lazy IT guys, who don't want to screenshot their installations for recipe files etc
Windows Vista Resource Kit book is available for free
In case you’ve missed all the blog entries about it, Microsoft Press has made available the full text of the Windows Vista Resource Kit book, downloadable as a PDF file. See http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urws8un4p7 for the details.
Chapter 12 in this book is all about deploying with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008. There are some nice examples on how to automate LTI deployments, as well as configuring ZTI deployments. In total there are 58 pages of MDT goodness in there
.
There are plenty of familiar names in the acknowledgements section, including a few names (Michael Niehaus, Jerry Honeycutt, Tony Northup, Doug Steen, Dave Field) that have worked with the MDT team over the years on the MDT documentation.
Project Virtual Reality Check
Do you wonder about virtualization? Are you seeking for the best virtualization platform for your specific environment? Project VRC shows you the way!
Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) is a joint venture of Log•in Consultants and PQR, who have researched the optimal configuration for the different available hypervisors (hardware virtualization layers). The project arises from the growing demand for a founded advice on how to virtualise Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop (VDI) workloads. Through a number of researches, Log•in Consultants and PQR show you the scaling possibilities for Terminal Server environments as well as Virtual Desktops.
See www.virtualrealitycheck.net for more details!
Login VSI
It is official
Login VSI 1.0 is released. Now everybody can start benchmarking.
The Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI) is a free and platform independant benchmark for Virtual Desktop Infrastructures and Terminal Services. This 1.0 release has been fully tested, the workload has been carefully tuned, and now publication of your own results is allowed. As usual, login VSI is a free download from loginconsultants.com.
Changes for Login VSI 1.0:
• Publication of Login VSI results is now allowed when the Login VSI publication guidelines are used;
• The workload is now tuned and can be categorized to be medium/heavy load of a typical knowledge worker (this is in comparison to average Terminal Server deployments);
• The CPU workload may be categorized as medium/heavy (above average);
• The Memory workload is now medium (slightly above average);
• Many typical beta bug fixes, Login VSI is now battle proven in the benchmarking project: “Virtual Reality Check” by PQR and Login Consultants;
• Improved schema to calculate the optimal performance index;
Workload sample Video: checkout http://www.vimeo.com/2749006 to review the workload at 200% speed.
Lets thinapp IE7 and IE8 together
Its, Monday morning so time for some fun!
A customer asked me if it was possible to install Internet explorer 8 beta, and still be able to use Internet explorer 7 for old applications (in their test environment). Of course I answered and immediately started testing. As you all know Microsoft app-v does not support sequencing internet explorer so the best thing to do was use VMware’s Thinapp. My base image is an Windows XP SP3 machine, SP3 does not install IE7 or IE7 updates unless you already installed IE7 before upgrading to SP3 (see Microsoft KB) To successfully sequence IE7 to work together with IE8 download the following files:
• WindowsXP-KB957095-x86-ENU
• WindowsXP-KB958644-x86-ENU
• Nlsdl.exe (microsoft)
• idndl.exe (microsoft)
• IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe
These downloads will definitely save you some time finding out exactly witch updates you need, after this the Thinapp part is pretty straight forward.
• Install updates
• Start capture
• Install IE7
• Stop capture
• Revert machine
• Install IE8
• Start the tests
Because this is a fast proof of concept test, I challenge you to drop some improvements in the comments to make it even better.
Vista and 2008 SP2 BETA
I was just browsing the web and stumbled accross this. Whoohoo, Vista and 2008 SP2 Customer Preview Program!.
Wait... what?! Vista and 2008 SP2 BETA?
That's right! A single service pack that covers both Client and Server!
This is actually pretty nice! This reduces the management of service packs for both server and client. Just service packs ![]()
So what's actually in there?
Well... seeing as after you installed a fresh Vista SP1 machine you almost get crushed by updates. Here's a list of hotfixes included in service pack.
Other then that there are a few new features:
- Support for new types of Hardware and emerging standards, including Bluetooth 2.1, the ability to natively record data on Blu-Ray media, support for ICCD/CCID smart cards, and support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU
- Wi-Fi setup and maintenance is simplified with the addition of Windows Connect Now (WCN)
- The ex-FAT file system is enabled, supporting UTC timestamps to ensure correct file synchronization across time zones
- Windows Search 4.0 is included, which provides users faster and more relevant results. Windows Search 4.0 also allows Group Policy integration, which provides administrative control over search parameters
- End users should also experience improvements in resume performance when a Wi-Fi connection is no longer available
Get your copy here!
EDIT:
You can also get the SP2 update through Windows Update. Use the script below to enable the update:
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP2 /f reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP2 /f reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP2 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d 93F7D954-DF91-22E6-99AB-4D8AF54E813A /f
MDT 2010
I just read this article, which announces the beta of MDT 2010 coming out soon
According to the article it will have:
- Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Well, that was to be expected. I already installed Windows 7 on a VPC, but the installation process looked the same as Vista/2008. So there's probably some extra features/roles/components you can select in the task sequences, but I don't think this will be too exciting
- Deployment Workbench and script architecture improvements.
I'm very curious about the script architecture improvements!! Will they have changed to Powershell instead of VBScript? I do hope so, because i'm still looking for a reason to start learning Powershell!
- Documentation improvement
Right, nothing to add to that
I signed up for the beta, and will get a download link as soon as it's available!
I will be writing an article about MDT 2010 as soon as I get to take it for a spin.
