Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 coming November 24

Microsoft has announced that Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 will be available on November 24. I’m a little slow getting this posted – apologies.

Think of PP3 as the Windows 7 extensions to Windows Home Server, with a little bit of new Media Center stuff thrown in. One of the glaring omissions in the Win7 launch was a way to automatically get the Windows Home Server shared folders tied into your Win7 libraries automatically. Power Pack 3 takes care of that little problem, and adds several new features as well. More details on the WHS Blog.

If you have WHS set up for automatic updates (and, yes, as I explain in Windows Home Server For Dummies, I do turn on automatic updates for WHS), you’ll automatically get Power Pack 3 on November 24. If you suddenly discover that your Win7 computers have picked up the Server folders in their libraries, you know what caused it.

Windows 7 full install DVD won’t boot on some systems – Error 5

Reader JE writes:

I am an MSDN subscriber and as such have early access to the new Windows 7 release. I decided after playing with it on my test machine that I would install it on my wife’s machine. She is currently running Vista and I thought I would do a clean, fresh install of Windows 7 rather than an upgrade.

Easy enough, download the .iso file, burn it to a DVD, boot and install. Right?

All went well up to the Boot stage where the DVD refused to boot. Instead it gave me some strange code 5 error message.

JE searched high and low and finally discovered that the DVD was a good one, but for some reason it wouldn’t boot on his wife’s machine.

After much searching on the internet I finally found this on the German unawave site:

During the boot from the Windows 7 installation DVD on some PCs the error message “Error Code 5 – can not boot from disk” appears. Affected are primarily computer with older motherboards of the company “AsRock” or “MSI”. Other DVDs on these PCs can boot without problems; e.g. from a Windows Vista installation DVD. And the Windows 7 installation DVD is also OK, because this DVD can boot on other computers. Also the replacement of the DVD drive does not help. And booting from the USB stick does not help either. The error seems to be an incompatibility of “AsRock” motherboards with the DVD boot sector used by Microsoft in Windows 7 installation DVD.

As luck would have it, I had an MSI motherboard.

I followed their instructions which amount to pulling the boot sector off of a Vista install DVD and creating a new DVD with the vista boot sector and the Windows 7 files and all was well. It booted, it installed and no more problem.

Every new version of Windows brings its own, uh, special challenges and you can expect Windows 7 will be the same. I’ll keep you posted on inscrutable problems as they come to my attention.

The Best Cheap Video Cards

As I’ve described in my Windows Secrets Newsletter articles, there are two obstacles to turning a fairly-recent Windows XP machine into a Windows 7 powerhouse: memory and video cards.

If you’re contemplating changing your WinXP or Vista PC over to Windows 7, start by running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. That will tell you immediately if you have a show-stopper problem: no Windows 7 driver for a specific piece of hardware, for example, or no Windows 7 support for your favorite program.

Based on experience with more than a dozen old Windows XP machines, if your PC passes Upgrade Advisor muster, you should also make two hardware changes: bring your memory up to 1 GB; and install a decent video card. Memory’s cheap. So are good video cards.

Joel Durham at ExtremeTech just posted a thorough review of Budget Gaming Graphics Cards. In the $175 category, he recommends the ATI Radeon HD 4870. In the $100 category, he gives the nod to the  Radeon HD 4770.

From what I’ve seen, putting $30 of additional memory and a $100 video card in a fairly recent Windows XP machine creates a very competent Windows 7 machine.

Now the big question is… how much will Microsoft charge for Windows 7?

Microsoft will disable AutoRun and change AutoPlay

Remember all the angst over Windows AutoPlay and AutoRun? (For a detailed discussion of the differences between AutoPlay and AutoRun, start with this Wikipedia article.) AutoPlay was a major infection vector for Conficker. It’s always been a huge security hole in Windows.

Microsoft just announced that it’s disabling AutoRun in Windows 7, and changing the way AutoPlay works. The details are a bit hard to follow – the terminology is more than a bit obfuscating – but here’s what’s happening:

As I explained in my Windows Secrets column in January, it’s very easy to create a file called autorun.inf that can confuse the living daylights out of people. If you stick this custom-made autorun.inf on a USB drive or burn it on a CD, the commands in that file will cause Windows to display a (potentially infective) program on the AutoPlay menu, the menu that appears every time you insert a USB drive or CD into your computer (see screen shot).

In fact, autorun.inf controls what appears on the AutoPlay list if you stick it on any kind of removable media – USB drive, CD, DVD, SD card (so a card from your camera could infect other computers), and so on.

Microsoft is changing Windows so it behaves in two different ways, depending on whether the autorun.inf file is stuck on (1) a CD/DVD, or (2) any other kind of  media, notably a USB drive or SD card.

In the future, when Windows finds an autorun.inf file on a USB drive or SD card, it ignores the file. Nothing happens. You can create the most diabolically clever autorun in the history of mass infections, put it on a USB drive, and if someone sticks the drive in a properly patched Windows machine, it won’t do squat. AutoPlay doesn’t list anything from the autorun.inf, and nothing runs automatically.

In the future, when Windows finds an autorun.inf file on a CD or DVD, it shows the contents of the autorun.inf in the AutoPlay window, but the new, revised AutoPlay window warns you that the entry associated with autorun.inf is from the CD, not from Microsoft. The AutoPlay warning says “Install or run program from your media.”

And no matter where the autorun.inf file comes from, it can’t launch its own program. You have to do the clicking – point the gun at your own foot and pull the trigger.

The recently leaked Windows 7 Release Candidate, which should be widely available next week, already has those changes to AutoRun and AutoPlay. In addition, says Microsoft, “we are planning to release an update in the future for Windows Vista and Windows XP that will implement this new behavior.”

It’s about time.

Oh. There’s one little caveat. For those of you who suffer with U3 – the technology built into some USB drives that makes part of the drive look like a CD drive – Microsoft hasn’t figured out how to treat the whole USB drive like a USB drive. Instead, the CD part will be subject to the same handling as a CD. Quoth the Softies, “It is worth noting that some smart USB flash drives can pose as a CD/DVD drive instead of standard ones (see Wikipedia for an example). In this specific scenario, the operating system will treat the USB drive as if it is a CD/DVD because the type of the device is determined at the hardware level.”

Windows 7 secret unveiled: WinXP mode

Three weeks ago, I mentioned that Microsoft was planning a big, huge announcement about something new in Windows 7. Here’s what I said:

My guess is that Microsoft will announce some sort of Windows XP emulator that runs under Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. (No, they won’t call it an emulator, they’ll call it “Enterprise Desktop Virtualisation” but – with apologies to the developers who hate the term – it’s basically a fancy emulator.) That’ll make a lot of companies happy. But it’s not something I would call major.

Looks like Paul Thurrott was just authorized by his Microsoft handlers to spill the beans. Secret No More: Revealing Windows XP Mode for Windows 7.

Gawrsh. Where have I heard that before? Says Paul:

XPM is built on the next generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 product line, which requires processor-based virtualization support (Intel and AMD) to be present and enabled on the underlying PC, much like Hyper-V, Microsoft’s server-side virtualization platform. However, XPM is not Hyper-V for the client. It is instead a host-based virtualization solution like Virtual PC; the hardware assistance requirement suggests this will be the logical conclusion of this product line from a technological standpoint. That is, we fully expect future client versions of Windows to include a Hyper-V-based hypervisor.

Sorry, but that’s even less interesting than I thought it would be – and I wasn’t expecting much. Paul (Raf?) goes on to say:

XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site. (That is, it will not be included in the box with Windows 7, but is considered an out-of-band update, like Windows Live Essentials.)

Which means those of you running Windows 7 Home Premium won’t get it.

That’s OK. I don’t get it. Sure, running a WinXP emulation window on a Win7 desktop is kinda cool, but I don’t see a whole lot of advantage of this approach over, say, running a VMWare window – and I bet the processing overhead is excruciating.

I wonder what happens to WinXP drivers?

From the drivel file: Unfixable Windows 7 security flaw

There’s an article floating around the blogosphere that says two security researchers have discovered an “unfixable” security hole in Windows 7. A friend of mine just pointed me to it, with the usual Red Robbin/Sky is Falling spin.

Two minor problems. First, the “unfixable” security hole, or one just like it, exists in every PC operating system.

Second, in order to take advantage of the flaw, you have to be sitting in front of the PC.

Drivel. I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine why stuff like this gets airplay.

You all know the 10 Immutable Laws of Security, right? Microsoft posted it on TechNet about ten years ago:

Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it’s not your computer anymore

Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it’s not your computer anymore

Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it’s not your computer anymore

Law #4: If you allow a bad guy to upload programs to your website, it’s not your website any more

Law #5: Weak passwords trump strong security

Law #6: A computer is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy

Law #7: Encrypted data is only as secure as the decryption key

Law #8: An out of date virus scanner is only marginally better than no virus scanner at all

Law #9: Absolute anonymity isn’t practical, in real life or on the Web

Law #10: Technology is not a panacea

MSFT sales down 6%, profits down 32%, year-on-year

David Goldman, at CNN Money, puts it this way:

The company has had a difficult time combating slumping demand for its Windows operating system, as the economic slowdown has dragged PC sales down 7% to 9%, according to Microsoft’s estimates. The recession has also prompted many consumers to opt for cheaper, scaled-down “netbooks” that perform only basic tasks like e-mail and accessing the Internet. They typically run open-source operating systems like Linux, rather than Windows.

Sorry, but that isn’t true. Most netbooks run Windows XP. Preston Gralla (hi, Pres!), writing on  his ComputerWorld blog says, “A study by the analyst firm NPD Group has found that more than 90% of netbooks sold in November, December, and January shipped with Windows on them. Just as important is that only in December did netbook sales truly take off.”

Preston’s observation certainly matches what I’ve seen – although I’ve been very impressed by Linux on my Asus Eee 1000H.

“The trouble for Microsoft is that its cash cow is shifting,” said Carl Howe, analyst with Yankee Group. “PC sales are troubled, and they’re getting hurt by the move to cheaper notebooks.”

It’s gonna be interesting to see how Windows 7 turns all this around. Er, if Windows 7 turns all of this around. Maybe I’ve swallowed the Kool-Aid, but based on three months of continuous thumping on Windows 7, I’m convinced that it’s the best operating system to come out of Microsoft. Period.

Windows 7 = Kernel version 7.0? No way.

I just read another bit of drivel about Windows 7, referring to an MSDN article on drivers that mentions “Msft.NT.7.0″ and asking:

Has this changed? Is “Msft.NT.7.0″ just a way of expressing Windows 7 and not kernel version 7, if not, why not just say NT.6.1 in the INF? Or is the documentation incorrect? It remains to be seen.

Let’s see if we can get this straight. Windows 7 is so close to Release Candidate status, so close to shipping, that we won’t see any changes at all from the current builds, except ones directly affecting stability and preventing data loss. Changing a comma in a dialog box at this point is a Real Big Deal.

The only reason why I mention this (again) is that Brandon, a Microsoft employee, shot back on the blog:

We named it Windows 7 from the beginning, it wasn’t even marketing that originally chose that brand, it was our internal “code name.” The builds were versioned at 7.0. It broke compatibility for too many apps/drivers, so we changed the versioning APIs to report 6.1 to reflect the level of compatibility that should be expected by pre-existing software.

I thought we’d been over this. Windows 7 is Windows 7.0. There are far more important things than driver architecture that change (and hell, there are driver architecture changes in Win7).

So no, there is no “Windows 6.1 kernel” and never was. There’s just the Windows 7 kernel. This is how it’s always been, this article is just silly.

Bravo. It’s refreshing that MS finally allows its employees to stand up in public and shout “BS” when the “news” being spread is just garbage.

Brandon deserves a raise…