- Windows Vista sleep problems, revisited
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Posted by oVan on Saturday, April 21, 2007 | PermaLink | 4 commentsAs much as I was happy with the major improvement in sleep problems with Vista, I have put my feet back on the ground. After a few good sleep/shutdown/hibernate routines, suddenly it was stuck again.
After further investigation, I suspect that the LSI controller is also responsible for some of these problems. Contrary to "simple" SATA and IDE/ATA controllers, the LSI SAS and LSI SCSI controllers need much more time to activate all drives.
When Vista goes to sleep, it signals all processes of the coming event, and gives them only 2 seconds to save whatever they want to save at that point. Furthermore, Vista keeps a second copy of the LSI SAS/SCSI driver in memory, and when the sleep event is announced, that second driver is enabled because it is needed in the startup process. Due to the nature of the SAS/SCSI driver, it has to spin up all drives again before it can put them to sleep.
So after my post about updating the nVidia drivers, I have now changed my power plan settings to not spin down the harddisks after 20 min. I will keep them running all the time, until Vista decides to put the whole computer to sleep.
A quick test revealed that the machine goes to sleep without problems using those beta nVidia drivers and all disks running. I'll report later on if the change to the power plan resulted in a (near) perfect solution.Labels: beta, disk, driver, hibernate, LSI, LSI-Logic, nVidia, options, power, SAS, SATA, SCSI, sleep, update, Vista, Windows
- Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Beta 1 available
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Posted by oVan on Friday, April 20, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsYou can now download Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas", the succesor to Visual Studio 2005. It's available in 3 flavours: Express Edition, Full Edition, and VPC images for your Virtual PC 2007 setup.
The full version is currently only available for MSDN subscribers, but the Express and VPC versions are here. This is from the overview page over at MSDN:
VPC Images
If you prefer the convenience of evaluating prerelease software in a virtual machine environment, you can download VPC images that include pre-installed instances of the prerelease software indicated, including any required prerequisite software.
Note: If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress these self-extracting files.
Visual Studio Express Editions
Visual Studio Express Editions are lightweight, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn tools for the hobbyist, novice and student developer.
For more information, see Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Express Editions.Labels: beta, download, Express, Microsoft, Virtual PC 2007, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio Orcas, VPC2007
- VS2005 SP1 Update for Vista
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Posted by oVan on Wednesday, March 07, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsMicrosoft has made available the final version of Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Vista for download.
You can read the Release Notes here: Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista release notes
More details from the download page:Overview
If the machine participated in the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta, please be sure to uninstall the beta first.
During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability from previous versions of Windows. While we have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, some of the system enhancements, such as User Account Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows. These investments impact Visual Studio 2005. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Vista enhancements.
Many of the Windows Vista enhancements are documented at the Windows Vista Development Center.
This download installs the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista for the following Visual Studio SKUs:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual J# 2005 Express Edition (English Only)
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Controller
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Code Profiler
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team ExplorerLabels: beta, Microsoft, SP1, update, Vista, Visual Studio 2005, vs2005
- Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta
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Posted by oVan on Thursday, December 21, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 commentsYes, you can download the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta if you hate that message box of VS2005 telling you it needs an update that is not yet available to run on Vista. The title of this package is a bit misleading, though. It is not an update for Windows Vista Beta, it's a Beta Update for Windows Vista. In fact, they'd better named it Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update Beta for Windows Vista.
The final version of this update is expected in Spring 2007 if I remember correctly.Labels: 2007, beta, download, install, Microsoft, RTM, update, Vista, Visual Studio 2005, vs2005, Windows
- IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine
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Posted by oVan on Friday, December 01, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 commentsFrom a post by Pete LePage:
Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment. As Chris Wilson blogged about early this year, it’s unfortunately not so easy to do. There are workarounds, but they are unsupported and don’t necessarily work the same way as IE6 or IE7 would work when installed properly. As Chris said, the best way to use multiple versions of IE on one machine is via virtualization. Microsoft has recently made Virtual PC 2004 a free download; we’ve taken advantage of that by releasing a VPC virtual machine image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, IE6 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit to help facilitate your testing and development. The image is time bombed and will no longer function after April 1, 2007. We hope to continue to provide these images in the future as a service to web developers.
Now you can install IE7 on your main machine for development, and get all the advantages of IE7, like the RSS platform, native XMLHTTP stack, and improved security, while still running IE6 simultaneously in the VPC on the same computer. Most importantly, you don’t even have to buy an additional Windows license. The VPC image runs in a virtual machine that offers all of the functionality of a full IE6 installation without giving it any access to its host machine’s hard drive, registry, etc. You can make as many modifications as you want to the virtual machine without affecting your host installation at all.
Included in the VPC image are:- Windows XP Professional SP2 + high-priority fixes through November 2006
- Internet Explorer 6.0
- Internet Explorer 7 Readiness Toolkit 2.0
While we’ve released a VPC image today with Windows XP SP2, we’re also investigating creating other VPC images, for example IE5, IE5.5, IE6 and IE6 SP1, as well as versions of IE on different language operating systems.
Get more information on Virtual PC 2004
Download Virtual PC 2004
Download the Internet Explorer 6 Testing VPC Image
One more note - VPC 2004 doesn’t run on Windows Vista, but this image will work fine with VPC 2007, which is in beta now. You can get this free beta via Connect.
Happy testing!
PEte LePage
Product Manager
Transmit your pdf docs into charts with pdf to excel software. Also using a pdf server will save you time. Get the details of a pdf file conversion tool and how it was created. If you are using all Microsoft applications then you can convert pdf to doc as well. Here you can get useful tips on purchasing new programs and what to look for.Labels: 2004, 2007, activated, beta, download, free, IE6, IE7, license, PC, RSS, SP2, Virtual, Vista, VPC, Windows, XMLHTTP, XP
- Office 2007 Product Key Fun
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Posted by oVan on Monday, November 13, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 commentsDid anyone notice that the developers at Microsoft have chosen special product keys for the Office System 2007?
When traversing the registry for remains of the beta versions that were blocking the install of the RTM version (see previous post), I noticed that the product keys all end in "0000000FF1CE" (e.g. 30120000-006E-0409-0000-0000000FF1CE).
At first sight, nothing special to see... however, if you read it in the language many hackers use for their patches, warez and keygenerators, it reads "OFFICE" with the O replaced by zero and the I replaced by a 1.
Just thought it was fun...
Btw: If you still can't install Office 2007 after removing all the products mentioned in my last post, you should scan the registry for "-0000-0000000FF1CE". By manually removing those entries, setup should start without any problems. No warranties of course, you're on your own there...Labels: 2007, B2TR, beta, install, key, keygen, Microsoft, Office, patch, product, Professional, registry, RTM, System, warez
- Office 2007 RTM: Installation Problems
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Posted by oVan on Monday, November 13, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 commentsMicrosoft Office 2007 Professional has been released to manufacturing (RTM), and is available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers as of today.
When installing Office 2007, you may encounter the following problem:
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Setup Errors
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Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s):
The 2007 Microsoft Office system does not support upgrading from a prerelease version of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. You must first uninstall any prerelease versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office system products and associated technologies.
Correct the issue(s) listed above and re-run setup.
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OK
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According to the Installation Read Me page (the cd doesn't contain up to date information, only a link to this page at the Office website), this may be caused by the Office 2003 Web Components. Here's the explanation:
The Office 2003 Web Components feature installed with Office 2007 Beta2 causes the Office 2007 product to block its installation. Users should use Add Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel to Remove the Office 2003 Web Components, and then install the final Office 2007 product.
However, after uninstalling this product, you can still get the same error message. Googling further on the Microsoft website, I came across the following list on this page of programs that you should remove also:- 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS (Beta)
- 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF (Beta)
- 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as XPS (Beta)
- Microsoft Expression Web Designer Beta 1
- Microsoft Expression Web Designer CTP1
- Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats (Beta 2 Technical Refresh)
The above list is not mentioned on the ReadMe page, so I doubt a lot of users will find this information. Hey, maybe we should just remove all programs? :-)
APPLIES TO- Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
- Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
- Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
- Microsoft Office Professional 2007
- Microsoft Office Standard 2007
- Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
- Microsoft Office Basic 2007
- Microsoft Office Groove 2007
- Microsoft Office Access 2007
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
- Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007
- Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007
- Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007
- Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2007
Keywords: kbuninstall kbsetup kbexpertisebeginner kbtshoot kbprb KB927222Labels: 2003, 2007, B2TR, beta, Expression, install, KB, Microsoft, MSDN, Office, PDF, Professional, RTM, System, TechNet, Technical Refresh, web components, Web Designer, XPS