Save space when using two drives or dual-booting

Save space when using two drives or dual-booting

By Scott Dunn You may be able to free up some valuable space if you’re using two disk partitions, using two physical drives, or dual-booting between XP and Vista on the same machine. I’ll show you several steps you can take to eliminate duplicate files and get more out of your disks.

Decide on your multiple-partition strategy

Years ago, it was common for users seeking more reliability to divide a hard drive into two or more partitions: portions of a disk, each with a different drive letter. Back then, recovering data from drive d: was easier than from drive c: if the primary partition (containing Windows) became corrupted.

That configuration is rare today, because backup programs and disaster-recovery services have improved. But there are still three situations in which you might find yourself handling two or more partitions or physical disks:

1. Multiple physical drives (internal or external). When space grew scarce on your c: drive, perhaps you added an additional drive d: to get more room;

2. Separate code and data partitions. You created separate c: and d: partitions on a single hard drive, installing Windows on the first partition, but c: is now running out of space and you don’t wish to run partition-management software to change the size of the partitions;

3. Dual-booting. You installed XP and Vista on the same machine in a dual-boot configuration, which requires that the two operating systems be installed on separate partitions.

I explained how to dual-boot between Windows XP and Vista in the Feb. 14 newsletter. In a Feb. 21 article, it was explained that XP in a dual-boot system steps on some Vista data. In a nutshell, booting into XP (a) deletes any system restore points created by Vista, including the “shadow copies” that are created by Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, and (b) deletes all but the most recent Complete PC Backup, if that application was used to back up Vista.

Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and has published some workaround techniques, which were described in our Feb. 21 article. One workaround is to edit the Registry so XP cannot see the Vista partition, preventing XP from affecting it. The steps are explained in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 926185.

Having a good backup routine eliminates the need for Vista’s system restore points, shadow copies, and proprietary backup program. If you’re confident of your backup procedure, you don’t need to hide the Vista partition from XP in a dual-boot configuration. If not, the workarounds recommended by Microsoft are currently the only fixes that the company offers.

Reduce duplication with space-saving tips

Once you’ve determined which kind of multiple-partition system you have and whether to protect Vista from XP in a dual-boot configuration, you can start moving things around to save disk space. The following sections describe easy ways to eliminate overlaps and make more room for your own stuff.

Share virtual memory

If you’re booting into both XP and Vista, each operating system will use a portion of your hard disk as virtual memory. You can save space by having both OSes use the same pagefile: a file into which Windows swaps code and data.

If you use the Microsoft workaround mentioned above, Vista will be able to see the XP drive but not vice-versa. Therefore, it makes sense to use the paging file that’s already on the XP partition. If you have a separate physical hard drive, Microsoft says in KB article 314482 that you’ll get better performance if you put your virtual memory file on a different drive than Windows. Here are the steps to take:

Step 1. Press WindowsKey+R (Win+R) to open the Run dialog box.

Step 2. Vista only: Type SystemPropertiesPerformance and press Enter.

Step 3. XP only: Type control sysdm.cpl and press Enter. Click the Advanced tab and, in the Performance section, click Settings.

Step 4. In both Vista and XP, click the Advanced tab in the Performance Options dialog box. In the Virtual Memory section, click Change.

Step 5. Vista only: In the Virtual Memory dialog box, uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.

Step 6. In both Vista and XP, select the c: drive in the Virtual Memory dialog box (or whatever drive letter the currently running version of Windows lives on) and select System managed size. Click Set. The operating system needs to keep a paging file on the Windows drive to store a memory dump with debugging info when certain errors occur.

Step 7. Still in the Virtual Memory dialog box, select the drive that the two versions of Windows will use for the shared paging file. Enter amounts for the initial and maximum sizes. If you have enough disk space, set both the initial and maximum values to the same figure, which can improve Windows’ pagefile access speed. (See KB 314482 for Microsoft’s recommendations on optimizing the size and performance of paging files.) Click Set. Click OK until all dialog boxes are closed.

Step 8. Boot into the other version of Windows and repeat Steps 1 through 5 to ensure you’ve specified the same settings and drives for both OS versions.

Share IE cache files

Since you may browse many of the same Web sites in both versions of Windows, it makes sense for Internet Explorer to store its temporary files in the same location.

Step 1. Optional: If you want to create an entirely new folder for temporary IE files, create the folder now.

Step 2. Most people will probably use the existing folder that IE created under XP. If so, make sure that hidden files and folders are visible in both versions of Windows. To do this, Press Win+R to open the Run dialog box. Type control folders and press Enter. Click the View tab. Select Show hidden files and folders. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and click Yes when scolded for unchecking the box. Click OK.

Step 3. Press Win+R to open the Run dialog box. Type control inetcpl.cpl and press Enter. Under Temporary Internet Files (IE 6) or Browsing history (IE 7), click Settings. If you are running XP and plan to continue using the current location for these files, make a note of the path next to Current location in the dialog box. Otherwise, click Move folder, select the folder that will hold your cache files, and click OK twice. Follow the prompts to let Windows log off and move the files.

Step 4. Boot into the other version of Windows and repeat Steps 2 and 3 to make both versions of the OS use the same folder.

Reduce application duplication

Both Vista and XP have a folder under which applications are installed by default. You’ll probably want to leave these folders in place for applications that you will only use in one version of Windows or the other.

On the other hand, many applications work well in both versions of Windows, including Microsoft Office 2007 and the Adobe Creative Suite. In those cases, you’ll save disk space by installing these applications into the same folder. You’ll have to run the installer twice to make sure all the necessary Registry entries are present in both XP and Vista.

You’ll still have some duplication of files that each application stores in the user’s profile. But at least the bulk of the application files themselves will reside in one place, saving disk space.

Again, if you use the workaround recommended by Microsoft to protect Vista’s system-restore data from XP, you’ll want to install most of your applications on the XP drive letter or partition.

Step 1. Run your application installer as you normally would, but use its “custom” option (or equivalent) to specify the folder where the application will be installed. Specify a subfolder underneath the Program Files folder on the XP drive.

Step 2. Boot into the other version of Windows and repeat Step 1.

Unify document organization in special cases

As I discussed earlier, you may not care about system restore for Vista, because you already use another backup product or a versioning tool like File Hamster. In that case, you can make Vista and XP both use the same Documents or My Documents folders on a drive that both can access.

Step 1. Create a folder for your documents on a drive that both Vista and XP can access, such as the c: or d: drive. Note: if you use a folder on the XP drive, booting into XP will delete any system-restore or shadow-copy data created on this drive by Vista, as described earlier.

Step 2. In Explorer, right-click the My Documents folder (in XP) or the Documents folder (in Vista) and choose Properties. In the Target tab (in XP) or the Shortcut tab (in Vista), enter the path to the desired folder and click OK. Respond to any on-screen prompts to decide whether to move existing files or just target the new folder.

Step 3. Boot into the other version of Windows and repeat Step 2.

For more dual-booting tips, such as ways to store chat logs, buddy lists, and Firefox profiles in a single location, you may find a Life Hacker article to be useful. This article discusses dual-booting between Windows and Linux, but you should be able to make the necessary translations to XP and Vista, if need be.

Readers receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for sending tips we print. Send us your tips via the Windows Secrets contact page.

Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here’s How section of that magazine.

Ultimate gets less support than XP Media Center

By Scott Dunn

My Feb. 21 story reported that Microsoft considers Vista Ultimate, an upgrade from Vista Home Premium and Vista Business, to be a “consumer product,” reducing the company’s support for Ultimate to a maximum of 5 years rather than 10.

What’s confusing to buyers is that Microsoft does give a full 10 years of support to another consumer product: Windows XP Media Center Edition.

Inconsistency plagues Microsoft support policies

As last week’s story revealed, Microsoft has recently imposed severe limits on the number of Vista Ultimate copies that buyers of the company’s Software Assurance program are licensed to install. The Redmond company is now actively discouraging the use of Ultimate in business settings, despite statements on its Web site describing the more-expensive Ultimate version as the product for “those who want to have it all.”

Because Vista Ultimate is a “consumer” product, the logic goes, it is only entitled to a maximum of 5 years of support, not the 10 years available under the extended support system, according to Microsoft’s Volume Licensing page for Vista Ultimate.

The longer, 10-year period known as “extended support” is typically available for business-oriented products, such as Windows XP Professional, Vista Business, and Vista Enterprise.

In that vein, a reader who wishes to remain anonymous points out an interesting fact:

• “Your story on Vista Ultimate volume licensing is good and should be promoted more. I would like to point out that in the case of XP Media Center, which is a purely consumer SKU, MS is offering the same support as XP Professional. Why discriminate against Vista?”

This statement is confirmed by Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle page, which shows that all versions of XP Media Center Edition are eligible for 10 years of extended support.

A Microsoft press release from 2002 lumps XP Media Center in with other consumer products.

Ironically, one of the reasons Microsoft cites when labeling Vista Ultimate a consumer product is the inclusion of features like Windows Media Center. It turns out that XP Media Center is getting official support for twice the number of years afforded to the newer, more feature-rich Vista Ultimate.

Microsoft has previously been criticized for promising “Ultimate Extras” that never quite materialized (as I reported most recently in a July 5, 2007, story). Many business users have also pointed out ruefully that effective management of Group Policy has never been included in Ultimate, as reported here on Feb. 21.

With Ultimate limited to only 5 years rather than 10 years of support, Microsoft increasingly seems determined to relegate its Ultimate operating system to second-class status.

I want to ride my bicycle

In an age when being “green” is everything, here’s an emerging art form that (in this video, at least) is purely white. In an interesting use of 4×6 white card stock, this short clip showcases an experimental technique called “stratastencil.” Let’s just assume that everything will be recycled afterward! Play the video

Should you trust Windows Update hardware drivers?

By Fred Langa I don’t trust Windows Update to install new drivers for devices that Microsoft isn’t responsible for. Check out my reasons in this week’s column and see if you agree.

Are the hardware drivers from Windows Update OK?

Microsoft’s mostly a software company, so how much should you trust Microsoft’s Windows Update when it starts nagging you about new drivers for your non-Microsoft hardware? That was the issue facing K. Asher when he wrote:

• “I’ve got an Athlon XP 3000 32-bit CPU. Windows Update has been repeatedly offering me an ‘optional’ hardware update for it since December 2007, so I went looking on the AMD site and found no driver update. What should I do?”

In my experience, the hardware driver updates offered via Windows Update (WU) tend to be very generic and aimed at broad ranges of hardware rather than at exact versions. They also can lag far behind the updates offered directly by hardware manufacturers. Plus, the WU hardware-sniffing routines also seem weaker and less specific than those found at the manufacturers’ sites.

For example, just this week WU offered me a driver update for a printer I don’t have. I’ve never even owned that brand of printer! The WU hardware-sniffer was simply wrong, and misidentified my hardware.

Obviously, installing a generic, old, or misidentified driver can actually make things worse for your system: a downgrade, not an update. And even if the WU driver works, there’s a good chance that a driver direct from the manufacturer might work better.

So, when WU offers me a hardware driver update, I do as K. Asher did: I go to the hardware maker’s site and use that company’s tools and info to determine whether or not my specific hardware really needs an update. If there’s a disagreement between WU and the hardware maker’s own site, I always defer to the manufacturer’s advice. They made the stuff — they should know what’s best for it.

By the way, you don’t have to be nagged forever about unwanted updates (and not just for hardware). Go to Windows Update and navigate to whatever update you want to suppress. Click the little plus sign (+) next to the title of the unwanted update. This will display a fuller description of that update.

At the end of the description, you’ll see a checkbox labeled Don’t show this update again. Click it and you won’t be bugged about that particular update in the future.

Deciding between Vista and XP for new hardware

Gus Persson is wondering which OS to choose for his new system:

• “I am thinking about getting a laptop PC. However, the only ones I see in my price range come with Windows Vista. I have heard that this OS is still buggy. Should I wait to buy or find a vendor that is still offering Windows XP?”

There are several issues to consider with Vista on new hardware. Of the truly valid criticisms of Vista, a key one is that it’s resource hungry: Vista’s additional security and aesthetic features do consume CPU power. This can be an issue on laptops because, to maximize battery life, they often use less powerful CPUs than desktop systems. A laptop running Vista may feel slower than the same hardware running XP.

But you know what? My primary, daily-use laptop originally came with XP and was later upgraded to Vista. Because I’ve used both OSes on the same hardware, I was able to directly compare performance. And once I tried Vista, I never went back to XP on that system, even though I easily could have. The small performance hit I noticed with Vista was more than offset by Vista’s many pluses.

Besides, if you want or need to, you can turn off many of Vista’s visual enhancements, giving you more speed and an XP-like look and feel, while retaining Vista’s core improvements.

A separate, oft-cited issue with Vista is a lack of driver support for older hardware. Some vendors still don’t or won’t produce Vista-compatible drivers for hardware that’s a few years old. But almost all new hardware is Vista-ready and either ships with Vista-compatible drivers, or has such drivers easily available.

In the case of laptops, a machine that ships with Vista preinstalled should have all the necessary drivers already in place. You just turn the machine on and it should wake up normally, requiring no special configuration at all on your part.

As for bugginess, I didn’t feel that Vista was unusually buggy to start with. With Service Pack 1 rolling out to the public in March, many of the most serious bugs discovered to date have been dealt with. So I wouldn’t say bugginess per se is a major reason to avoid Vista: after all, OSes from all software publishers, bar none, have bugs. There’s no escaping it.

On the other hand, if you really like XP, it’s still a fine, albeit aging, OS. With suitable care and feeding (using the kind of information you find in this newsletter), XP can be quite reasonably secure and robust.

I’m still running XP on several of my older PCs, which lack Vista-compatible drivers. I expect to use XP on those systems until the hardware dies or XP reaches end-of-life and is no longer supported.

(Although official Microsoft support for XP will start ratcheting down in 2009, Microsoft’s current plans call for security-related patches and updates for XP to be available until 2014. See the documents Microsoft Support Lifecycle and Microsoft Support Lifecycle for XP.)

If you really want XP, go for it. But for my new gear, I’ll choose Vista every time.

The best ways to convert incompatible file types

Gerald Smith’s question is ostensibly about video files, but it actually pertains to any situation where you need to share a file between two programs that won’t handle each other’s formats:

• “I love my Kodak digital camera; however, the videos it takes are stored in .mov format. I can find many free converters online, but none that work for .mov files. Are you aware of one that could turn an .mov into a Windows-friendly format for editing?”

Sure, Gerald. Actually, there are tools that will make the conversion in one step, and I’ll get to those in a moment. But first, let’s use your problem as an example to answer the general question: How do you handle any type of file (not just video) when the originating software and the target software don’t support each other’s formats?

If direct conversion to the desired format isn’t available, the trick is to convert in two or more steps: Find a conversion tool that will output the original file in any commonly-supported format, even if it’s not the target software’s actual native file type. Repeat until you either get to that native format, or at least to a format that your target software can import.

In our video example, .mov is an Apple QuickTime format. A quick Web search will turn up tons of software that can convert .mov files to .avi, an older video format that’s almost universally supported by video-editing software.

For example, although the free and excellent Windows Movie Maker won’t import .mov files, it can and will import .avi files. Once imported, it converts them internally to its native .wmv format.

So it’s a two-step process: .mov to .avi, and then .avi to .wmv.

One free utility that can serve as this kind of .mov/.avi go-between is RAD Video Tools. (If you need help with the tool, the Video Help site offers a brief, free tutorial.) A general search will turn up many similar tools.

Of course, a one-step conversion is even better. A Web search on the combined terms mov wmv convert freeware turns up several options, including Cocoon Software’s Quick Media Converter. It’s free, Vista-compatible, and converts in any direction among the following formats: MOV, MP4 for iPhone, iPod, PSP, Flash FLV, AVI, DivX, Xvid, WMV, DVD, VCD, MP3, 3GP, and TS. If you include commercial tools, you’ll have a huge range of choices.

The keys to converting any kind of file to any other format are: (1) use a direct, one-step converter if one is available, and (2) if one-step conversion isn’t possible, use the stepwise method of converting to an intermediate format that the target software can import.

With luck, you can do this in a single step. If not, use the first converter to output the file in a format that a second converter can turn into a format closer to the final format you desire.

Even if it takes several intermediate conversions, it’s usually possible to convert from just about any format to just about any other format!

Fred Langa is editor-at-large of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was editor of Byte Magazine (1987 to 1991) and editorial director of CMP Media (1991 to 1996), overseeing Windows Magazine and others. He edited the LangaList e-mail newsletter from 1997 to 2006, when it merged with Windows Secrets.

The storage landscape times, they are a-changing

By Mark Edwards Disk-drive storage capacity is growing at a rapid pace, but there’s a new player in town. In the not-too-distant future, we might find that good ol’ hard drives are a thing of the past; this week, I’ll tell you about new storage technology that’s growing by leaps and bounds.

The solid-state drive market heats up

Flash disk technology is great, because it’s lightweight, uses only a small amount of power, and is typically pretty fast in terms of access speed. Naturally, disk-drive manufacturers are looking toward using solid-state technology as a method of building bigger and better storage systems.

Samsung has been offering 32GB solid-state drives (SSD) since March 2006 and a 64GB SSD since March 2007. In January, the company announced that it will release a new 128GB SATA II SSD sometime this year.

In September of last year, BitMicro announced its new E-Disk Altima E2A133BL SSD with a more traditional PATA (ATA-133) interface. That drive can hold up to 416GB of data. Then, in January, the company announced a new model, the Altima E2A3GM, a SATA drive that can hold twice as much — 832GB!

But both of those drives pale in comparison to the company’s latest announcement. BitMicro says that its new Altima E3S320 has an Ultra320 SCSI interface and can store up to 1.6 terabytes of data. Wow!

The SSD marketspace is going to become really hot, really fast. New players are already entering the market.

A new startup company, Pliant Technology, announced an SSD platform that it calls Enterprise Flash Drive (EFD). The company says this storage solution is “a new and advanced controller design and software architecture, and will integrate seamlessly into existing enterprise information systems.”

Look for that to appear on the market in the fourth quarter of this year. It sounds like Pliant will be competing with the likes of BitMicro.

So how hot will the SSD market get? According to data by consulting firm Web-Feet Research, which was presented by Samsung in a press release, the SSD market is expected to reach $570 million in 2007 and increase to $6.6 billion by 2010. The researchers at IDC think the growth will be slightly less: about $5.4 billion by 2011.

SSD technology won’t be cheap either, at least not in the short term. According to a report by EE Times India, Web-Feet Research says the average cost per gigabyte for SSD technology is U.S. $10, while regular hard-disk technology costs about 30 cents per gigabyte.

Based on some quick price checks I did at Newegg.com, Web-Feet Research seems to be right. Obviously, the price for SSD technology will need to come way down before consumers begin to embrace it en masse.

Will SSD replace HDD technology? It probably will replace most hard disk drives. But I doubt it’ll replace HDD completely — not anytime in the near future, anyway. For those you who are looking for bigger and better HDD systems, read the next item in this column.

The scoop on three new, gigantic laptop drives

If your laptop is low on disk space, or you have plans to use a lot of disk space in the future, you might be happy to learn that Fujitsu recently announced its new 500GB SATA laptop disk drive.

The new model, MHZ2 BT, is due out in May. While it won’t be blistering fast at 4200rpm, its capacity is impressive.

On the other hand, its size, which is a bit thicker than most laptop drives, might be a tad too big to fit into many existing laptops. Even so, Fujitsu hopes to sell approximately 20 million of them by the end of 2008.

Fujitsu isn’t the only company with a half-terabyte laptop drive. In January, Hitachi announced that it, too, would release such an offering. Hitachi’s TravelStar 5K500 SATA drive runs at 5400rpm and is available now.

Samsung announced in January that it will release by March its new Spinpoint M6 500GB laptop hard drive. The M6 spins at 5400rpm and has a smaller form factor than the new drives from Fujitsu and Hitachi. In fact, Samsung’s drive will probably fit into your existing laptop without any problem.

Keep in mind that these huge drives aren’t exclusively for laptops. They can be used in game consoles, low-profile desktops, network devices such as firewalls and content-filtering appliances, and even in “green” network servers that are designed to use less power than legacy server hardware. They’re also attractive, of course, for storing all of your multimedia files.

To give you an idea how much data a 500GB drive can hold, you could store as many as 125,000 4-minute songs, 178 feature-length movies, or 500 hours of digital video, according to Hitachi. Samsung says the same capacity can hold approximately 60 hours of high-definition movies or about 125 hours of non-HD movies.

Of course, your actual storage capacity will depend on the quality of your digital audio and video. Nevertheless, these drives undoubtedly hold a ton of data!

Adobe AIR is now available for desktops

Adobe Flash is used on countless Web sites to provide rich, interactive content. Naturally, Flash makes using a Web site a lot of fun.

One problem with Flash, however, is that it requires the use of a Web browser. This limits a Flash file’s capabilities, to some extent. For example, a browser might not allow a Flash file to access a PC’s local file system or interact with other applications on the desktop.

Adobe released this week a new product that breaks those boundaries.

Adobe AIR is designed to run outside of a browser. The technology allows developers to create applications using HTML, JavaScript, Flash, and other technologies that they’re already familiar with. For example, eBay is developing an AIR-based desktop application that can interact directly with eBay’s Web site.

Best of all, AIR is a cross-platform framework. It’s currently available for Windows and Mac OS X. Adobe says it will soon release a version for Linux.

If you’re interested, head on over and download AIR now at Adobe’s site. And if you’re a developer interested in creating content for AIR, check into Adobe’s AIR developer site.

AIR has been in beta testing for quite some time. With its release come several dozen applications that you can use right now.

For example, Joom Edit lets you manage your Web content, if you happen to be one of the many people who use Joomla to drive your Web site. StockQ lets you stream stock-market quotes and manage your portfolio. If you use Google Analytics to track Web site traffic, the Google Analytics Reporting Suite might interest you. If you need a password manager application, check into Password Manager Suite.

And, of course, Adobe Media Player (currently in beta) is pretty attractive, too. Adobe says the application “lets you watch your favorite shows, anytime, anywhere.”

You can see a comprehensive list of available applications (including those I’ve just cited) at the Adobe AIR Marketplace. You’ll probably also see AIR application links begin to appear at many of your favorite Web sites in the relatively near future, so keep an eye out for those, too.

Mozilla forms subsidiary around Thunderbird

Many if not most of you use Firefox. I suspect that a lot of you also use Thunderbird. After all, it’s a great email client. Even so, it does have some drawbacks that keep many of you using Outlook. That might change in the future though.

Earlier this month, the Mozilla Foundation (the original makers of Firefox) announced that it had formed a new subsidiary company, Mozilla Messaging. The foundation sees a lot of potential around Thunderbird, its e-mail client, and the new company is expected to provide a more acute focus on the product.

David Ascher, CEO of Mozilla Messaging, says the company has already started hiring new developers. The messaging company was also fortunate to gain Marten Mikos as a new board member. In case you haven’t heard of Mikos, he’s the CEO of MySQL AB, makers of the tremendously successful, open-source MySQL database used on countless Web servers around the Internet. (MySQL was recently acquired by Sun Microsystems.)

According to Ascher, the initial purpose of the new messaging company is to focus on the development of Thunderbird 3.0, which is slated for release late this year. The upcoming release will, for the first time, include built-in calendar support along with improved search features and an improved user interface. To gain the calendar functionality, the company will integrate Lightning, which is currently available as an add-on calendar feature.

“As the number of [online] interactions grows, and as the number of ways in which we interact grows, the joy that communication can bring is too often replaced by frustration, confusion, or stress. Furthermore, as we transmit more and more digital data, privacy and control questions become more and more troublesome. One common short-hand for the above is to say, somewhat flippantly, that ’email is broken’,” Ascher wrote in his blog.

“In parallel, we’re going to be starting a multi-year process of improving the back-end architecture of Thunderbird. Over the years, Thunderbird hasn’t had the resources devoted to it that Firefox has, and it’s time to catch up, so that we can implement many of the features we have planned, and so that we can take advantage of the improvements to the Mozilla platform that were built for Firefox, but which we can leverage as well,” he continued.

I’ve been using Thunderbird for about 9 months. Actually, it’s a pretty good e-mail client as it is. Granted, I don’t need an integrated calendar or any of the fancy features or other bulk found in Microsoft Outlook, so Thunderbird works just fine for me. However, if Mozilla can improve Thunderbird, I’ll bet that millions of users will be all for it.

As for other possible projects, because instant messaging and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) are heavily used all around the world, I suspect that eventually we’ll see Mozilla Messaging come out with tools in those categories, too.

If you’re interested in the company’s projects and its progress over time, you can keep an eye on that at the Mozilla Messaging Web site. You might also consider watching Ascher’s blog.

Mark Joseph Edwards is a senior contributing editor of Windows IT Pro Magazine and regularly writes for its Security Matters blog. He’s a network engineer, freelance writer, and the author of Internet Security with Windows NT.

A parade of problem service packs for Windows

By Susan Bradley If you’re responsible for updating your company’s systems, you now face service packs (and related problems) for XP, Vista, and Microsoft’s .NET Framework — and even Mac enthusiasts have to deal with repercussions from the recent 10.5.2 OS X upgrade. If that weren’t enough, those of you who haven’t yet deployed the latest MS Office service packs will find plenty of quirks to chew on this week.

935796
Vista SP1 breaks a few security suites

If you’be been reading the headlines in several news sources lately, you’d think that Vista Service Pack 1 has it in for third-party security software. I don’t think the situation is that dire.

Microsoft recently posted Knowledge Base article 935796, which includes a partial but significant list of software that should be upgraded before or immediately after you install Vista SP1.

Some of the coverage I’ve read makes it sound like those who install Vista SP1 will face numerous issues with many programs. The reality, however, is that most of the affected vendors have already released updates.

Tables 1, 2, and 3 show the applications that will be blocked from running, won’t run successfully, or will run with reduced features after Vista SP1 is installed, according to Microsoft. The company’s KB article links to some fixes that have been released by vendors. In some cases, however, I’ve inserted into the “Resolution” column of these tables a better vendor page to link to.

Table 1. Software blocked from running by Vista SP1 until upgraded.

Table 2. Programs that don’t run after you install Vista SP1.

Table 3. Programs that lose functionality after you install Vista SP1.

I don’t think the number of items you see in the above tables is a cause for alarm. When Redmond released XP SP2 in August 2004, the list of affected programs was much larger and the disruption that was caused was more serious.

In fact, many of the same programs that are discussed in new KB article 935796, such as third-party firewalls, were also fodder years ago for article 884130 about XP’s SP2. To a significant degree, several of the problems back then were caused by the service pack’s debut of the XP firewall. Microsoft issued a separate article, 842242, simply to document the impacts the new firewall had on third-party software.

I believe Vista Service Pack 1 deserves some share of criticism, but many of the stories that were written in reaction to Microsoft’s list of incompatibilities are overplaying the normal disruption that results from a service pack. As with XP SP2, I believe Vista SP1 will make our systems more responsive as soon as we work through a few kinks.

Bottom line: just stay cool and retool.

937287
Vista SP1 prerequisite still missing in action

I wrote in a special Patch Watch column on Feb. 21 that Microsoft had pulled patch 937287 from automatic distribution. New information has emerged about the problems this patch can cause and how you can avoid them.

If you own a laptop running Vista, read this article carefully, because most of the reports of problems involve laptops. Yes, it will be necessary for you to install patch 937287 before you can install Vista Service Pack 1. But there’s a specific way to install it that should prevent any trouble from affecting you.

I urge you to manually install the updates that KB article 937287 refers to, rather than installing these patches using Automatic Updates. Visit the KB article, select each update, and manually install them separately, not at the same time as other software.

In my tracking of this patch, it appears that installing 937287 all by itself has never caused problems. Installing it with other updates may have bad consequences, such as repeated reboots, as I described on Feb. 21.

I personally have not seen issues resulting from this install. In reviewing the comments of individuals who’ve reported problems, however, it appears that a laptop was the victim in many cases.

If you’re stuck in the endless reboot situation, you should review the guidance in KB article 949358 to get your machine back into operating condition.

I’m disappointed that people are facing a frustrating support situation on this subject. Microsoft, while operating as an international company, has its best support coverage in the United States and Canada. Users beyond those borders who’ve been affected by this problem may end up having to call long-distance to get the help they need.

If you’ve been affected by this bug, and you haven’t been able to get the help you need — either through your OEM or through Microsoft — drop me a line via the Windows Secrets contact page.

Vista 64-bit users got SP1 earlier than expected

Some owners of Vista who are running the 64-bit version of the operating system were surprise recipients of Service Pack 1 recently. A publishing glitch on the Windows Update server sent out the service pack early to that subset of users. Reports I’ve seen indicate that no major issues erupted for the early SP1 recipients who installed it.

The service pack isn’t due to be offered to the general public on Microsoft’s download site until March. It isn’t expected to become available via Windows Update until April. The 64-bit download no longer seems to be available, and the only way to get it now (prior to its general release in March) is through TechNet or MSDN via subscription.

Why do some people run 64-bit Vista? Because they use applications that require industrial-strength processing and larger memory requirements.

The 64-bit software, which requires 64-bit hardware, isn’t limited by the 4GB memory ceiling that the 32-bit operating system is restricted to. Most of the retail packages of Vista ship with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the software.

You may harbor fantasies of installing the 64-bit version of Vista and downloading the 64-bit service pack in order to get SP1 before other people do. If so, you first need to review your mission-critical software to see if it’s supported on the 64-bit platform.

Interestingly enough, the addition of Vista SP1 on a 32-bit PC changes how the system displays its installed memory. On a system with 4GB of memory installed, for example, Vista SP1 reports 4GB instead of a smaller amount. According to KB article 946003, Vista previously reported the amount of memory installed minus any used as video memory. SP1 reports the total amount of physical memory installed, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. After Vista SP1 is installed on a 32-bit PC, the operating system reports the actual amount of physical memory, without deducting any that is used for graphics.

Leopard updates may come back to bite you

Macintosh owners are working through issues with Mac OS X 10.5.2. The MacFixIt Web site reports several problems, including incredibly slow load times when opening Office 2008 documents. In addition, the site reports video issues, along with reports of general sluggishness after the recent Leopard graphics update. I have not seen this in my testing.

Keep in mind, if you want to roll back to a previous OS X version, that there are several ways to do so. If you’re running the Leopard platform, be sure to enable the Time Machine backup software so you can roll your system back, if need be.

Notice, however, that the MacFixIt site also says the 10.5.2 update derails Time Machine for some users.

XP SP3 released to public as test version RC2

XP Service Pack 3 is not yet available as a finished product. But Release Candidate 2 of XP SP3 now has a test version available.

The Microsoft download page details how to get RC2. Keep in mind that, if you install the release candidate, you must remove it before you install the final version of XP SP3. RC2 is a test version only.

The upgrade’s release notes explain that the service pack is mostly a rollup of previously issued security patches. This should make XP SP3 an uneventful release, compared to the traumatic effects XP SP2 had on security programs and other applications.

The most significant change in XP SP3 enables the operating system to be controlled by Network Access Protection, a new technology in Server 2008 that enforces update policies.

Office 2003 SP3 poses difficulties for macros

You probably know by now that service packs are not my favorite kind of fix. Today (Feb. 28), one of my least favorites is beginning to be automatically distributed via Microsoft Update: MS Office 2003 SP3.

Microsoft and Apple state that their service packs are more widely tested than their security patches, but I think SPs have at least as many problems.

What’s worse, a security patch or a service pack?

In my view, Microsoft Office service packs are much worse because of one major issue: you can’t uninstall them easily. The only way to roll back an Office service pack that’s disrupted your system is to uninstall the Office suite totally and then reinstall it.

That poor design has made a mess for several firms that have contacted me. They report that their custom macros, which worked perfectly before Office 2003 SP3 was deployed, no longer work after that service pack is installed.

Take my advice. When you’re dealing with MS Office service packs, be sure you have original media before installing, just in case you need to roll Office back to a previous version. Next, stage your rollout. Do this by choosing one person to get the service pack. Let that guinea pig test your outfit’s macros and functions before you consider a wider deployment.

If your macros are derailed by an Office service pack, and if you have a Microsoft support representative, alert him or her to your issue and why it’s keeping you from deploying SP3. If you don’t have a Microsoft support contract, you can try posting a question in one of the Office newsgroups, which may be able to help.

More information, including a list of several Knowledge Base articles about problems with Office 2003 SP3, is provided by the Microsoft Update blog. The MU team points out that the automatic distribution process is spread out across several days. Not everyone will see SP3 offered to them on Feb. 28.

Bottom line: test the Office service pack before you deploy it on your systems. You can obtain SP3 from the Microsoft Download Center, if you want to beat the rush before it arrives automatically on your systems (and a lot of other people’s) in the near future.

.NET service packs raise other headaches

I’m seeing reports in the patching communities that .NET service packs are still causing problems. When folks have issues with .NET 3 Service Pack 1, it compels me to ask them why they have that service pack on their systems in the first place.

Unless your line-of-business application or other software requires .NET 3, you can probably remove it. First, try to remove .NET 3 manually. That won’t always work, but if it doesn’t, I have an effective solution that requires a little extra work.

Aaron Stebner’s blog has a clean-up tool that helps root out the .NET 3 mess when you really get stuck. Note that once you use this tool, however, you’ll need to reinstall the versions of .NET your applications need. The manual removal process that I counsel you to try first won’t usually require the reinstallation of prior .NET versions.

More often than not, people installed versions of .NET they don’t really need because Microsoft Update offered them as options. People installed an optional version because they thought it was necessary.

Keep in mind that the second pane of the Microsoft Update window is for optional uploads. Unless an application has a specific requirement for .NET 3, you don’t need to install it. The same goes for all other optional uploads.

If you decide that you need .NET 3 SP1, it’s available from Microsoft’s Download Center.

Install Service Pack 1 for Office 2007 last

Office 2007 SP1 is the final service pack we confront this week. In my testing, the only gotcha I needed to dance around was the installation order. You must be careful to install Office 2007 SP1 after other patches on systems with components from both Office 2003 and 2007.

I haven’t had any issues with this service pack, but just as with Office 2003 SP3, you cannot uninstall Office 2007 SP1. This means you need to use one machine in your office to test what mayhem the service pack might cause before you deploy it to all machines.

To obtain Office 2007 SP1, visit the Microsoft Download Center.

The Patch Watch column reveals problems with patches for Windows and major Windows applications. Susan Bradley recently received an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award from Microsoft for her knowledge in the areas of Small Business Server and network security. She’s also a partner in a California CPA firm.