Windows 8 Syncs Settings Across Devices Using Live ID

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Will Smith

In a typically detailed post on the Building Windows 8 blog Monday, the Windows 8 team underlined the advantage of using a Windows Live ID to sign into different Windows devices. According to Katie Frigon, the group program manager of the You-Centered Experience team at MS, doing so will let users have “a truly personal experience that seamlessly bridges their online and offline tasks, is simpler to set up and use, and persists across their set of Windows 8 PCs.” Hit the jump for more. Continue reading →

VM Backup – Backing up Virtual Machines with Windows Server 2008 R2 & Hyper-V

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Will Smith

Overview

Virtual machines are basically made of files. They contain configuration files, virtual hard disks, snapshot files and saved state files. While running computers are virtual machines can benefit from virtualization, a lot of thought needs to be taken in order to protect the contents of the virtual machines and the VMs themselves, so that if something goes wrong, you can perform a pre-defined list of steps to successfully restore the VMs to a functional and running state.

We will cover the fundamentals of VM backup in a future article. However, in this article we want to focus on one of the basic methods of VM backup – using Windows Server Backup. Continue reading →

Fix “RPC Server is Unavailable” Error in Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Disk Management

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

One of the coolest features of the Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Manager application, is the fact that you can now remotely connect to a server running Windows Server 2008 R2, and manage roles, features, services, disks and other aspects of the remote server. This was not possible in Windows Server 2008.

The steps needed to enable remote management are listed in my Enabling Remote Management in Windows Server 2008 R2 article.

A few days ago I was asked by one of my readers about a strange error he was getting. It seems that whenever they tried to connect to a remote server and use the Disk Management snap-in, they got this error:

Virtual Disk Manager

The RPC server is unavailable

Continue reading →

Enabling Remote Management in Windows Server 2008 R2

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

Windows Server 2008 R2, unlike Windows Server 2008 RTM, has a nice feature that allows you to remotely manage it, from another server or from a Windows 7 workstation, by using Server Manager.

Note: Windows Server 2008 RTM also has remote management capabilities. You can easily manage these servers by using almost any MMC Snap-In. However, the fact that you can use Server Manager to do it is new in R2.

This is useful when using both regular-type installations, and Server Core installations. Read more about Server Core on the site.

By using Server Manager to remotely manage Windows Server 2008 R2 servers, you can manage the following scenarios: Continue reading →

Quickly Defragmenting Partitions in Windows 7

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

When you make frequent writes and deletions from your hard disk, your disks will become fragmented with time. Fragmentation means that files are not consistent and not contiguous, and thus fragmentation of the disks will result in lower I/O performance. While in NTFS performance degradation is a lot lower than it was in FAT or FAT32 partitions, in order to prevent loss of performance over time, it is best to perform routine defragmentations of your partitions and hard disks.

There are several methods of performing defragmentations of partitions and hard disks. In this article I will list two of them. Continue reading →

The Ultimate Guide to Installing Windows 7

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

So, you’re ready to install Windows 7? Read on to get guidance on how to approach this installation and make sure your copy of Windows 7 is properly installed.

Planning the Installation

As with any OS installation, we must first plan the installation process. When you run the Windows 7 Setup program, you must provide information about how to install and configure the operating system. Thorough planning can make your installation of Windows 7 more efficient by helping you to avoid potential problems during installation. An understanding of the configuration options will also help to ensure that you have properly configured your system.

Here are some of the most important things you should take into consideration when planning for your Windows 7 installation:

Check System Requirements
Check Hardware and Software Compatibility
Determine Disk Partitioning Options
Complete a Pre-Installation Checklist Continue reading →

Windows Recovery Environment (RE): The Solution When A Computer Won’t Boot

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) is an extensible recovery platform based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE). When the computer fails to start, Windows automatically fails over into this environment, and the Startup Repair tool in Windows RE automates the diagnosis and repair of an unbootable Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 installation.

Windows RE provides two main functionalities:

1. Automatic diagnosis and repair of boot problems using a tool called Startup Repair.

2. A centralized platform for advanced recovery tools. Continue reading →

Free Tool to Manage Windows Server 2008 R2 Core with a GUI: Visual Core Configurator

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

As you probably know by now, in Windows Server 2008, the Server Core installation provides a minimal environment for running specific server roles, which reduces the maintenance and management requirements and the attack surface for those server roles.

In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Core installation does not include the traditional full graphical user interface (GUI). Therefore, once you have configured the server, you can only manage it locally at a command prompt or PowerShell (in R2). It is also possible to manage the server remotely using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Snap-Ins, command-line tools that support remote use, or the new PowerShell remote management capabilities. Continue reading →

Manage Windows Server 2008 R2 Core with SCONFIG

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

The Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 and R2 provides the following benefits:

Reduced maintenance – Because the Server Core installation option installs only what is required to have a manageable server for the AD DS, AD LDS, AD CS, DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Services, Print Services, Web Server and Hyper-V server roles, less maintenance is required than on a full installation of Windows Server 2008.
Reduced attack surface – Because Server Core installations are minimal, there are fewer applications running on the server, which decreases the attack surface.
Reduced management – Because fewer applications and services are installed on a server running the Server Core installation, there is less to manage.
Less disk space required – A Server Core installation requires only about 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of disk space to install and approximately 2 GB for operations after the installation.
Lower risk of bugs – Reducing the amount of code can help reduce the amount of bugs. Continue reading →

Enable “God Mode” in Windows Server 2008/R2, Windows 7 and Vista

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Will Smith

When you want to customize your workstation (and sometimes, even your server), you usually turn to “regular” configuration tools such as Control Panel applets, the computer’s registry, command line tools and even the computer’s local Group Policy. In most cases, using these tools allows you to get the job done and configure your computer the way YOU want it.

However, there are times where you need to make one small tweak, one small change, and you simply cannot find the correct Control Panel applet to make the change you need.

Here is where this tweak comes in action. By using it, you will be able to enter what is called “God Mode”, and you will get all the possible Windows tweaks conveniently located at your finger tips, all in one place. Suddenly you will get every setting and option right in front of you, ready to be used without having to browse among different settings before getting what you are looking for. Continue reading →