Tag Windows

So, the finalists are in for the contest I mentioned recently OMG! @Veeam backup supports restoring you to @VMWorld2009 to determine who will be voted on their way to attend VMWorld in San Francisco!

I know I said I’d record a video, and yes I did actually record a video but because I wanted Gabe to win, I opted to not compete (Let’s just say.. I’m a pain in the ass competitor and had a strong chance of taking it from him and everyone else ;)) I may post my video later not for credit to win… but that’s not what we’re here to discuss!

The contestants are in! And you have the opportunity to vote for the best! (Gabe) and comment to win a Flip Camera! (Hey, are you telling me, register, vote, comment = win?!)

Then yes, that is exactly what I’m telling you!  Oh, and check out some really cool software which will help resolve a number of challenges in your infrastructure and virtual environment, that too.  Being that a Flip Camera is not the only free possibility, since they have the Free Veeam Monitor Free Veeam FastSCP and more!

So be sure to go out there, vote for the best of the best! (That’d be Gabrie Van Zanten ;)), comment, and win a Flip Camera! (Check out the goods, make your life and job easier, win!)

It’s all so very straight forward! And be sure to check out Gabe’s blog, it’ll be an investment you’re glad you made!

So, just click the “I love Veeam” above, Vote, Comment and you could win a Flip!

Disclaimer: I am not a shill, I have no affiliation with Gabe other than the best of respect for his contributions back into the community   Were I to compete with Gabe or anyone else on the team, I likely would have obliterated them as I tend to take things considerably too far, and have at my beck and call a series of video editors and production people. ;)  Just so you don’t think this is biased, he deserves to win :)

Wait, what? I’m not even sure what that means?!   Are you seriously telling me that Veeam will send me to VMWorld 2009 in San Franciso? Where do I sign up?!

Veeam Video Contest. Win a FREE trip to VMworld 2009 !

In this economy, who wouldn’t like to win a free trip to VMworld 2009 in San Francisco?

Tell us why you love Veeam and get a chance to win a free full pass to VMworld 2009 or Flip video camera!

How to participate

Between now and June 15,

• Create a video about any Veeam product you love. See Contest Rules for details
• Send us a link to your video at video@veeam.com
• Deadline to submit videos is June 15, 2009

And make sure to post your Video to the Veeam Forum!

And… Then you’re done!  If I don’t see any traction from you folks out there, I’ll have to post a video myself (oh my! will @CXI win a trip to San Francisco!?) Don’t challenge me, I might!  So, post post post! Check it out and get yourself a free trip in this economy, oh and VMWorld2009 should be cool too! ;)   If you need some ideas of what/how to post, hit me up on Twitter and I can help you out also… My idea of a video (for me) likely will be drastically different than you can imagine anyway.. :)

This is an absolutely amazing test, which is simple, easy, very understandable and straight-forward.

Did I pass? Eh, possibly – but I’m not going to bet my life on it.

If it’s so easy, why am I unsure? – so begins my Post Mortem :)

If you’ve ever looked at the internals of Windows before, and that means drilling down deep into User.dmp‘s, Memory.dmp‘s and looking at threads, processes, heaps and a number of things – Especially getting your hands dirty debugging windows – This test is right on par for you, almost a sub-100 level test on what is involved.

However, to the untrained ear (or eye) you’ll perceive this as a 900 level test, making you work your hardest while reviewing everything arcane, different and strange to you.

This all boils down to the unwritten rules of Power Curves such as to say, not everyone is suited to be an administrator, architect, collaborator, consultant, debugger, developer, engineer, evangelist, professional, technician or Technologist.

But that doesn’t stop us from trying.   And it is tests like this one which further stretches that line, while blurring it at the same time – exposing and opening up those possibilities without expert knowledge to embrace it and grow our technological community as a whole.

Good luck out there, keep growing.

And if you want to grow your Windows Internals knowledge – Here is a good place to start. 

Looks like it is upgrade time for Windows Home Server enthusiasts! (With appropriate backup ofcourse!)

The Windows Home Server team is proud to announce the availability of a Power Pack 1 Release Candidate for public beta testing. The update package can now be downloaded from https://connect.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver in the downloads section.

Please be sure to review the release documentation contained within the download package for Power Pack 1.
Please also be sure to check out the Windows Home Server forums for important support information, an up to date list of known issues and some great test ideas. They can be found at the link below.
http://forums.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver/default.aspx?siteid=50

Below is a set of instructions to prepare a home server for testing the beta of Power Pack 1:

Please turn on the Customer Experience Improvement for your home server. The information provided to the team through this program is invaluable in helping us understand how we are doing against our testing goals.

Please ensure that you have a backup of all of your files and data. If your data set is large (the larger the better for testing purposes) this will take a while, so you might want to get started now!
The Windows Home Server team

E-mail: whsbeta@microsoft.com

This pains all of us.
Which are the right drivers to use, download and install?

Constant complaints and gripes about what driver should we load, and what insane device is screaming with a yellow exclamation point – wanting to be installed!

Our good friends at Microsoft have (had) the answer!

The Microsoft Update Catalog!

Okay, so I’m here, and I have a search bar… So.. what do I fill in there?

This is where Device Manager comes into play. – Find yourself a driver or object which is suspect or in general you want to check out. – Wireless Drivers are always a challenge..

What you’ll want to do, is find the Hardware Id’s – this is where the cake is at!

At this point, take advantage of the shortest field available, and go as far as the first & – Such as:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4227

After searching, you’ll find it will return a large number of results. (21 results)

If you’re looking for a bit more granularity, try one of the slightly longer entries there.

By searching for PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4227&SUBSYS_10108086 now, we’re able to 11 results.

This can be very beneficial if you’re trying to do things such as – Run Windows Vista 64bit, use Windows Server 2008 as a workstation, and a number of things. This will further enable you to take advantage of the hardware that may be present without having to rely upon the OEM hardware manufacturers to provide you media they tend to never get around to.