Making 64-bit Vista SP1 Say It’s Vista SP1

Making a 64-bit copy of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 confirm that it is actually Vista SP1 might require a minimum amount of effort on behalf of the end user, such as right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties, but things are a tad different when an application is programmed to identify the operating system versions or the service pack releases. According to Scott McArthur, Support Escalation engineer with the Setup & Cluster team, Microsoft Corporation Enterprise Support, application compatibility problems can emerge when a program will look for the service pack version in the wrong location in the registry. The example given involved an application designed especially for Vista SP1 failing to install on an x64 copy of Vista SP1.

“The application was checking for the OS version in a registry value, specifically: HKLM – SOFTWARE – Wow6432Node – Microsoft - Windows NT – CurrentVersion - CSDVersion. On the x64 version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, however this value does not exist. The correct value does show up under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – SOFTWARE – Microsoft - Windows NT – CurrentVersion - CSDVersion however. This highlights an inherent problem with relying on the registry method to capture this information. As operating systems evolve, there is no guarantee that registry information will persist between operating systems, or in some cases there may be changes between service packs for the same operating system,” McArthur explained.

In this context, there are additional methods that can be used in order to avoid such a problem. WMI queries or application programming interfaces are excellent alternatives to make an application installer dig through the registry only to find nothing, even if the right operating system and service pack are in place. McArthur advised developers to turn to the GetVersionEx function in order to test the platform version. At the same time, there are additional functions designed especially for service packs.

McArthur enumerated, “szCSDVersion: A null-terminated string, such as “Service Pack 3″, that indicates the latest Service Pack installed on the system. If no Service Pack has been installed, the string is empty. wServicePackMajor: The major version number of the latest Service Pack installed on the system. For example, for Service Pack 3, the major version number is 3. If no Service Pack has been installed, the value is zero. wServicePackMinor: The minor version number of the latest Service Pack installed on the system. For example, for Service Pack 3, the minor version number is 0.”

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Tags:64-bit, application, Computer, Corporation, registry, service pack 1, Support, system, vista service pack 1, vista sp1, Windows, windows vista, Windows Vista, windows vista service pack

Get maximum performance from Windows Vista

Windows Vista includes a number of tools that you can use to pinpoint performance bottlenecks. Some of these, such as the System Health Report, the Windows Experience Index, and the Reliability Monitor, provide static snapshots showing the resources available to your system and where those resources might not be adequate to your needs. Others, such as the venerable Windows Task Manager, the new Resource Overview, and Performance Monitor (an improved version of the tool known in Windows XP as System Monitor), let you track a variety of performance metrics in real time.

In addition to these snapshot and monitoring utilities, Windows Vista incorporates the following forms of performance-enhancing technology: SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive

All three of these are designed to reduce the amount of time your system spends engaged in performance degrading disk IO. SuperFetch is a memory management technology that observes your computer usage patterns over extended stretches of time (noting the programs you run and the days and times you typically run them) and adjusts caching behavior to accommodate your own particularities. ReadyBoost uses external memory devices (such as USB 2.0 flash disks) to cache disk content of all kinds, reducing the need for time consuming hard disk access. And ReadyDrive is technology that supports the use of hybrid hard disk drives drives that incorporate nonvolatile flash memory (NVRAM) as well as conventional rotating disk media. Hybrid drives are particularly useful for extending battery life on portable computers, because they reduce the need for drive spin.

SuperFetch is useful to anyone running Windows Vista. You don’t need to do anything except be glad that it’s there. ReadyDrive should be of interest if you’re in the market for a new computer and hybrid drives are a purchase option. ReadyBoost, in contrast, is of no value unless you implement it by attaching a suitable external memory device to your system. For details, see “Using ReadyBoost” later in this article.

This tips will review these basic performance enhancing strategies:

Ensuring that you have adequate RAM
Ensuring that you have an adequate virtual memory configuration
Using ReadyBoost
Managing startup programs
Keeping your disks defragmented
Maintaining adequate free space on your disks
Avoiding tweaks of dubious value

Ensuring that you have adequate RAM

Random access memory (RAM) is the vital stuff that keeps Windows running smoothly. Having enough physical (main) memory helps reduce the operating system’s dependence on virtual memory, thereby minimizing the number of number of times Windows has to swap information between fast memory chips and your (relatively slow) hard disk. How much memory do you need?

The “Windows Vista Capable” and “Windows Vista Premium Ready” stickers that appear on some new hardware are based on standards expressed at the Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance site. According to these standards, a system needs 512 MB to be “Windows Vista Capable” and at least 1 GB to be “Windows Vista Premium Ready.” You should consider “Windows Vista Capable” to mean adequate (if barely) for Windows Vista Home Basic. For the more feature rich editions of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate treat the “Windows Vista Premium Ready” standards as a minimum. In any case, doubling these minimums will provide a better ride for most users.

You can gauge the adequacy of your computer’s physical memory by watching the Memory graph in the Resource Overview section of the Reliability and Performance Monitor (to open this tool, click the Start buttonPicture of the Start button , type perfmon, and then press ENTER). The blue line on the graph indicates the percentage of your physical memory that’s currently in use. If this line hovers in the sub arctic zone (say, north of 60 percent) most of the time under your typical working conditions, you might want to consider adding memory to your computer, particularly if you are also seeing the green line on the same graph, the line that indicates the number of hard faults per second your system is generating, spike off the top of the graph for extended periods of time. (A hard fault, which despite its name is not an error condition, is an instance where a block of memory needed by the operating system has to be fetched from the page file on the hard disk. A high number of hard faults per second indicates a large perhaps excessive reliance on virtual memory, with consequent adverse performance effects.)

Ensuring that you have an adequate virtual-memory configuration

Physical memory might be the vital lubricant of a happily humming Windows machine, but Windows is not designed to run on RAM chips alone, no matter how many of them you have. In addition to using physical RAM to store programs and data, Windows creates a hidden file on your primary hard disk and uses that file to swap pages of data out of physical memory when necessary. The “swap file” (these days more commonly called a page file) acts as an extension of main memory or, in other words, as virtual memory.

In a default installation, Windows creates the page file in the root folder on the same drive that holds the Windows system files. The size of the page file is determined by the amount of RAM in your system. By default, the minimum size is 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM, and the maximum size is three times the amount of RAM (twice the minimum). You can see the page file in a Windows Explorer window if you configure Windows to show hidden and system files; look for Pagefile.sys in the root of your system drive.

To see the current configuration of your system’s virtual memory, click the Start button, click Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, click Performance Information and Tools, click Advanced Tools (in the Tasks pane at the left side of the dialog box), and then click Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows. After answering the User Account Control prompt, you’ll arrive at the Performance Options dialog box. You’re nearly there; click the Advanced tab, and then click Change. The image below shows the Virtual Memory dialog box, with default settings for a machine with 2 GB of RAM (default, that is, except that we cleared the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box to make the rest of the dialog box easier to read).

By default, Windows creates a single page file in the root folder on the same volume that holds the Windows system files and manages its size for you. The Currently allocated number near the bottom of the dialog box shows you how large the file is now. If conditions on your system change (you run an unusually large assortment of memory-intensive applications, for example), Windows might expand the page file. It might then return the file to its original size (or a smaller size) if the demand subsides. All this happens without intervention or notification if you leave the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box selected.

If you don’t want Windows to do this for you, you have the following options:

You can move the page file to a different volume, if you have more than one.
If you have more than one volume, you can establish more than one page file.
For any page file, you can choose between System managed size and Custom size.
If you choose Custom size, you can specify an initial size and a maximum size.

You can remove a paging file from a volume by selecting the volume and choosing No paging file. (You can even get rid of all paging files this way, although doing so is not recommended, even on systems with a lot of RAM.)

Should you get involved in page-file management, and, if so, how?

If you have more than one physical disk, moving the page file to a fast drive that doesn’t contain your Windows system files is a good idea. Using multiple page files split over two or more physical disks is an even better idea, because your disk controller can process multiple requests to read or write data concurrently. Don’t make the mistake of creating two or more page files using multiple volumes on a single physical disk, however. If you have a single hard disk that contains C, D, and E volumes, for example, and you split the page file over two or more of these, you might actually make your computer run more slowly than before. In that configuration, the heads on the physical disk have to do more work, loading pages from different portions of the same disk sequentially, rather than loading data from a single contiguous region of the hard disk.

If you are short of hard disk space, you might consider setting a smaller initial page file size. You can use a handy script from Windows MVP Bill James to monitor current page file usage and session peak usage. This tool, a free download at BillsWay.com, was written for Windows XP but works fine in Windows Vista. If this script nearly always shows current and peak usage levels well below the current page file size, you might want to consider reducing the initial size to save disk space. On the other hand, if you’re not short of disk space, there’s nothing to be gained from doing this and you might occasionally overload your custom settings, thereby degrading the performance of your system.

Should you enlarge your page file? Most users won’t need to do this. But you might want to keep an eye on the green line in the Memory graph of Resource Overview, as described above in “Ensuring that you have adequate RAM.” If that line is spiking off the top of the graph a great deal of the time during your normal work, you might consider increasing the maximum size of your page file. (Disregard page file spikes and disk activity in general that takes place while you’re not actually working. This is likely to be the result of search indexing, defragmentation, or other background processes and does not indicate a problem with your actual work performance.)

NoteFor more information about page file management in Windows, we recommend the article “Virtual Memory in Windows XP” on the Windows Support Center website. Although the file magnitudes discussed in this article are pertinent to the Windows XP environment rather than to Windows Vista, the basic information about how Windows manages and uses page files is still useful and valid.

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Tags:configuration, flash memory, hard disk, Management, memory, pagefile, Performance, performance monitor, physical ram, Prompt, readyboost, ReadyDrive, ROOT, SuperFetch, system, System Health Report, Tip, Virtual, virtual memory, Windows, windows system, windows task manager, windows vista

Want to Speed up your boot up time

1. Boot up in no time

Make your PC leap out of bed with these simple tips. Does it seem like the more time you spend with your Windows XP installation, the longer your PC takes to pull itself out of bed when booting up?

It’s not a sign of old age; it’s the ever-growing accumulation of detritus that various applications and hardware deposit on your hard drive when you install them. Whether these items are functional or completely useless, they all take time to load.

Here’s how to trim the bloat and reduce the time it takes your PC to get ready for action.

2.Tools for faster boot times

Before you get started with this project, we recommend that you have the following:

a. A backup utility

b. an auto run detection app

c. A stopwatch

d. Clock your PC’s boot up time

Although nothing in the following steps is particularly risky, Windows XP is unpredictable enough to warrant a nod to Murphy’s Law. So, before you do anything else, run a thorough virus check, and then create a safe place to go back to using Windows XP’s System Restore utility. (Right-click My Computer, then click Properties > System Restore.) For added protection, perform a full backup of your hard drive.

Using a stopwatch, you’ll time how long your start-up takes before you make any changes. But it’s not always obvious when the boot up sequence is complete, so first place a shortcut to the Notepad applet in the Windows Startup group as a point of reference. Now, each time you boot up, Windows will open a Notepad window on the desktop.

i. Right-click the Start button and click Properties.

ii. On the Start Menu tab, click Classic Start Menu > Customize > Advanced.

iii. In the Start Menu folder, find the Notepad shortcut (in the Start Menu\Programs\Accessories folder) and drag it to the Startup folder under Programs.

If you time how long it takes for the window to appear before and after tweaks are made, you’ll know if you’ve accomplished anything. You can always remove the shortcut once you’ve completed your before-and-after timing comparison.

Exit Windows, then power off your machine. Wait a few seconds, turn the power back on again, and start timing. If the start-up sequence pauses for your username and password, stop the clock at the pause, then restart it after you’ve entered the information.

4.See what’s automatically running

As your PC boots up, Windows looks in several locations for instructions on how to launch the various applications and processes that load at start-up. Depending on the program, the locations for these instructions vary.

Many are in the Registry, a hierarchical database of user, application, and hardware-device information. Others are in a Startup group folder, and a select few could be in your PC’s win.ini file. We’ll refer to these locations collectively as the Autorun group, because the items they contain run automatically every time Windows starts.

To see which ones are in the Registry, go to Start > Run, then type in regedit.exe to enter the Registry.Don’t alter just anything in the Registry! Changes to the Registry are irreversible and could cause serious damage to your PC. Even advanced users can run into trouble in a hurry if they’re not careful. The Run keys are the most important for finding Autorun programs. You’ll find them by drilling down to hkey_local_machine/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion. If you double-click the Run folder, you’ll see some items that load when you boot your PC.

You can examine the items in the Startup group folder by going to Start > All Programs > Startup. Finally, you can see if anything is in the win.ini file by selecting Start > Run, then typing win.ini. Look for anything listed on a RUN= or LOAD= line. It’s unlikely you’ll find anything there, but checking won’t hurt.

5.Delete unwanted Auto run items

Use the powerful System Configuration Utility to easily (but not permanently) remove software from the boot procedure.

Now you can use Windows’ System Configuration Utility to trim the fat from the Registry Run keys and the Startup group.

a. To start the utility, select Start > Run, then type msconfig.

b. Select the Startup tab to show a list of items executed during boot up.

c. To see the entire Command column, stretch it to the right. A scroll bar should now appear at the bottom of the window, enabling you to view more of the Location information.

d. Scroll down the list to see if you recognize anything that shouldn’t be there. If so, all you have to do is clear its check box to remove the appropriate Registry command line or Startup group shortcut.

6.Bust mysterious boot up apps

The Auto runs app displays a list of items that load during start-up. “Files not found” likely are remnants of uninstalled apps.

It’s not unusual for the System Configuration Utility’s Startup tab to display a Startup item with no name, making it next to impossible to determine whether it’s important. One way to find out is to disable that line by unshackling it.

If you’re running a safety utility such as Zone Alarm Security Suite, you may get a pop-up warning message that identifies the name of the item about to be changed. If so, just do a Google search on the name for more details?

If no alert appears, download the freeware app Auto runs to display a great deal of useful information about Auto run items on your system. Double-click any item on the list, and the utility opens the Registry Editor, highlighting the line linked with that item.

If that’s not enough info, right-click any highlighted Registry entry and select Google on the context menu to search the Web for more information about the tinted item.

7.Clock your new boot up speed

Does it right, and this boot up screen may become a remote memory. Once you’ve identified the items that don’t need to be launched every time Windows starts use the structure pattern Utility’s Startup tab or the Auto runs utility to clear the check boxes next to the names of these items. Then restart your computer to get a subjective feel for any speed development. Run a few of your often used applications just to make sure all’s well. If you discover you’ve by chance disabled something vital, just use either utility to recheck the box next to that item.

When you’re done, do a cold reboot and time the total start-up sequence, ending when your Notepad window launches. Contrast your before-and-after results to see how much time you neat as of the series. Depending on what you were able to remove, the speed difference will choice from modest to major. Either way, you’ll have a little less “stuff” dragging down your system, and more memory will be freed up for your utilize.

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Tags:auto run, autorun, backup, backup utility, boot, command, configuration, notepad, reboot, shortcut, speed, start-up, startup, system, system configuration, tweak, utility, virus check, Windows, windows startup, windows xp

Six Things to Consider Before Buying a Laptop

Laptops are complex little machines with a variety of configuration options which can lead to very confusing buying decisions. In this article, we are going to cover out factors that one should consider before purchasing a laptop. These 6 factors are the crux of any laptop purchase and by using these as a guideline, you can land the most appropriate mobile PC for your needs.

1- Weight
The lighter the laptop, the easier it is to move around. Prices usually have an inverse relationship with the weight of a laptop. Hence the lightest of laptops will almost (always) cost more than the heaviest ones.

Another relationship is the features of a laptop which would affect the weight of the laptop, which can be if it has a powerful graphics card, or a larger screen etc. The laptop will end up being comparatively heavier and more expensive. So keep a look out for that.

2- Power Consumption
Battery life is critical for users who are on the go. On an average workload, a regular low budget laptop would easily give you 2.5 to 3 hours of battery time. A fairly good machine would easily clock in 4 hours.

These are battery times for regular 6-cell batteries and 9-cell batteries have longer backup times. However, power consumption varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and model to model. Additional features usually result in a powerful drain on battery supply. If you are mostly mobile, power consumption becomes a critical factor to consider.

3- Processing Power
Laptops are almost more expensive than a desktop with similar specifications and so, it is essential to opt for a level of processing power that matches your current and near future needs.

For office work only, an entry-level processor such as the single core Celeron is more than enough. For multimedia enthusiasts and power users, a Core 2 duo or equivalent processor is recommended.

4- Warranty
Locally manufactured laptops usually have a sound local warranty that can span over a time period of a year and beyond. International warranties allow one to take a laptop to any country and in case of trouble, hand it to the sales and support outlet there for repair.

Most warranties allow non-physically damaged laptops to be repaired or replaced free of cost in the first year and cover parts and repairs in the following years at an approximate cost to the customer.

5- Operating System
For most users, the operating system (OS) plays a very important role. If one opts for Windows Vista, the laptop is likely to be more expensive mostly because the OS requires the latest hardware.

Of course, it is a feature rich operating environment but that is the price one pays for the latest and the greatest. Other than that, a user can choose from Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X.

6- Brand Matters
It is easy to choose unbranded systems for the sake of lower prices but that does not necessarily mean that one would get much value or quality. Most no-name companies have a lack of spare parts, precarious warranties and unstable configurations.

Make sure that you have read enough reviews and are sure about the quality of the manufacturer before you make a purchase decision

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Making 64-bit Vista SP1 Say It’s Vista SP1

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