So what can you go to make sure it lasts as long as it can? I’ve gathered a few tips from around the web to help.

• Go without a pagefile (if you have at least 2GB of RAM)
• Disable automatic disk defragmentation (only Vista and Win 7)
• Turn off hibernation
• Put a halt to prefetching
• If this is a system with two drives move the location of your Temp directory path (and move the pagefile rather than disabling it as above).

Versions after Windows XP actually do make some changes to optimize, but it doesn’t hurt to check. And have fun with your new found (or bought) speed!

Since the release of Vista, you can use the command line utility slmgr for Windows activation when using a MAK (or Multiple Activation Key).

Windows Activation

1. Open a command window (as administrator)
2. And run…

slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
slmgr -ato

Office Activation

1. Open a command window (as administrator)
2. From C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14 run…

cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
cscript ospp.vbs /act

Who needs all that pointing and clicking anyway?

Here’s a short list of what’s been moved around (and yes, I’m writing this as much for me as anyone else)…

All Users:

• All Users Desktop, Favorites, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures & Videos – C:\Users\Public
• All Users Start Menu – C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
• Documents and Settings (just for completeness sake): C:\Users
• Templates – C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Templates

User Specific:

• Cookies – C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
• Default Outlook OST/PST folder – C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
• Quick Launch – C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
• Send To – C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
• Start Menu - C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
• Temp – C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Temp
• Temporary Internet Files – C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files

Whenever you try to run an unsigned PowerShell script, you get the following message: “File C:\Custom\Test.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see “get-help about_signing” for more details.”

I certainly believe Microsoft is doing the right thing with keeping PowerShell script execution secure with the proliferation of malware and 99%+ of Windows users don’t even know about PowerShell.

Changing the PowerShell security setting is a simple affair. Open PowerShell as an Administrator and run the following: Set-ExecutionPolicy

Your choices are:
Restricted (default) – Which stops all unsigned scripts from running.
AllSigned – This allows only signed scripts to run.
RemoteSigned (my recommendation) – Allows local scripts to run, but all downloaded or remotely executed must be signed.
Unrestricted (not recommended) – This allows all scripts to execute, whether from an e-mail, website or instant message.

Syntax: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

From a command line or in a script wmic bios get serialnumber will display or grab the Dell Service Tag.

Furthermore, you can use the WMI Command-line to retrieve all kinds of system data and even make configuration changes. Rob van der Woude‘s great site on scripting has a great primer and examples on using WMIC. TechNet Magazine also has a very useful article on gathering system data using WMIC in your environment.

Finally, checkout the WMI Admin Tools pack. It contains more than I want to type about here, but it gives you the ability to browse the various objects, classes and properties, plus a custom event viewer and much more. Check it out and make your (administrative) life better.

Click here for a full list of what’s available, all that is required is Silverlight for viewing.

I’m currently watching the eleven videos for Windows 7, part of my studies for an upcoming certification exam, and they’ve been pretty good so far. And of course, they’re free :)

After noticing that the pesky Acrobat Speed Launcher and other usual suspects were missing from the Run locations I ran a registry search for reader_sl.exe and with little delay was presented with the location below, which also hosted all it’s resource sapping pals as well.

HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Note: As always, the Registry can be a dangerous place, so do a backup/export before making changes.

Both cost my favorite price, free, and are well regarded in the security community.

The big news of course, is that MSE is now free to small businesses with 10 or less PCs. I’ve actually been recommending it to smaller businesses for a while and now they’ll be in compliance. (Now if only it was okay for servers…)

I was recently tasked with upgrading a server installation of Paychex Preview software, which according to documentation cannot be done on the host server, it has to be upgraded from one of the workstations via mapped drive. It seemed simple enough, until the point of the install “wizard” where it prompts for installation directory. It listed C:\RAPID, and had a dropdown menu so I could choose one of the mapped drives; but instead of listing mapped drives it only offered the local C:\ drive. No problem, the instructions on the screen said reboot if it doesn’t list your mapped drive. Wait a few minutes for the reboot… and no good, just C:\RAPID again; time to call support.

After starting a WebEx session, so the tech could see what I was saying was true, we copied the RAPID directory from the mapped drive to C:\, then ran the Paychex Preview software upgrade on C:\RAPID. When the upgrade was complete, it was just a copy and replace over the RAPID directory on the mapped drive and the deed was done. Oh yeah, don’t forget to run WS_Setup.exe from each workstation to create appropriate shortcuts to the mapped drive.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like Vista (I think I may be only one of eight people), but as an IT professional I should be using the latest operating system.

So I got started with swapping out the hard drive to start with a fresh install (always the best way to go), and tossed in the install DVD. The install went flawlessly and I followed with Windows Update, as one always should. Upon rebooting the system, it failed to start.

What followed was a large pain in the posterior: After attempting to do a System Restore (it failed, of course), I reinstalled. This time during Windows Update, I deselected some of the likely updates that may have caused the boot failure issue, same result. This process went on five times before I found the (in)correct update:Intel Corp – Display – Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family 16.6MB. Not surprising that it’s a video driver, since those are typically the drivers that will hose a Windows system most often (rather embarrassed it took five tries to find out the obvious). Anyway, the update was released in September, 2009 and is one version behind what is available on the Intel website.

Once I skipped the Windows Update version of the driver and installed latest display driver from Intel, I was in business, actually Windows 7 Professional (can’t MS marketing decide on a consistent nomenclature?).