Gemplus PC Twin Smart Card Reader driver for Windows 7

can be found here: http://support.gemalto.com/?id=46

Getting started with Developing for Windows 7

Getting Ready for Windows 7

• Part 1: Why Be Ready for Windows 7?
• Part 2: Microsoft Programs to Help Get Apps Compatible
• Part 3: Three Must Do Features For Your Users
• Part 4: Getting Ready for Windows 7

Windows 7 Training Kit For Developers
(includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos on: the Windows 7 Taskbar, Libraries, Multi Touch, Sensors and Location, Ribbon, Trigger Start Services, Instrumentation and ETW, and Application Compatability - including Version Checking, UAC Data Redirection, Session 0 Isolation, Installer Detection, User Interface Privilege Isolation, High DPI)

Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
(provides documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools)

Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework
(Managed Wrapper for accessing Windows 7 features from .NET)

How to backup your Windows Live Writer configuration (e.g. to another computer)

If you want to save your Windows Live Writer configuration, including Blog settings, Draft blogs, Recent blogs, Plugins, for example while moving from one machine to another, the free Windows Live Writer Backup is your friend.

Download: Windows Live Writer Backup

Screenshot:

What is the C:\Windows\Panther directory?

Windows Vista and 7 setup log files are located in different locations on the hard disk. The Panther directory is one of them, as you can read here.

Can I delete it safely?

If you performed an upgrade installation of Windows the Panther folder can easily fill up multiple gigabytes. Deleting (or renaming it at first) showed no negative effects.

Understanding Windows 7 upgrade paths

ZDNet created a way easier upgrade matrix than Microsoft's original one.

Need a new GUID quickly?

http://newguid.com is your friend.

Cannot install Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Applies to:

Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Symptoms:

• Using Windows Update you get the error:
  
  0x800B0100
  TRUST_E_NOSIGNATURE
  No signature was present in the subject.
  
• Using the stand-alone installer for SP2 you get the error:
  
  "You need to install Windows Server Service Pack 1 before continuing"
  
• Or you cannot see/modify roles and features anymore.

How I solved it:

1. Run this tool (KB 947821).
   
2. Check %SYSTEMROOT%\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log for reported missing items (starting with "missing:") to find out which updates are blocking.
   
   In my case the resulting log included the following lines:
   

   Checking packages.
   (f) CBS MUM Missing 0x00000002 servicing\packages\Package_for_KB961371_server_0~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.1.4.mum  
   (f) CBS MUM Missing 0x00000002 servicing\packages\Package_for_KB961371_server~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.1.4.mum  
   (f) CBS MUM Missing 0x00000002 servicing\packages\Package_for_KB961371~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.1.4.mum 

   Checking component store
   Summary:
   Seconds executed: 270
   Found 3 errors
     CBS MUM Missing Total Count: 3
   

3. Either find the missing files on another machine OR download those updates from Microsoft and extract the .mum and .cat files from the update package (in my case: KB961371)
   (you can rename a .msu file to .cab and extract its contents.)
   (one of the .mum/.cat files should be missing in the package that you are looking for. Use update.mum and update.cat and rename them)
   
4. Copy the .mum and .cat files to C:\Windows\servicing\packages.
   (To be able to do so you need to take ownership of the folder and grant your user account full control. After copying the files set the owner back to "NT Service\TrustedInstaller")
   
5. Run the stand-alone installer for SP2.

Good luck & enjoy SP2!

(Thanks to Glafkos Charalambous as well as to the many people writing and answering on this topic on the TechNet forums)

What is the difference between VSS Full Backup and VSS Copy Backup in Windows Server 2008?

Thankfully the Storage Team at Microsoft ("File Cabinet") has an answering post on their blog:

"If you are using only Windows Server Backup to protect the applications, you can use any option to backup the data.

However, if you are using a third party backup application, you should not use VSS Full Backup because it will delete the logs at the end of the backup. If the third party backup application relies on those logs to take incremental backups, it would take full backups all the time – a less than optimal situation…"

(See also this TechNet forum post for more clarification.)

Poster: LINQ queries explained

My fellow VSTS MVP Marcel de Vries published a great poster explaining the various options a developer has when using the powerful LINQ queries.

Download poster at: http://www.infosupport.com/linq

Disabling time synchronization in VMware

Sometimes it might be useful to set the date and time in a virtual machine explicitly. Therefore you need to turn of the automatic time synchronization with the host system.

To do so set the following options in the virtual machine's configuration file (.vmx) using your favorite editor:

tools.syncTime = FALSE
time.synchronize.continue = FALSE
time.synchronize.restore = FALSE
time.synchronize.resume.disk = FALSE
time.synchronize.shrink = FALSE
time.synchronize.tools.startup = FALSE

Source: http://geekswithblogs.net/AJGB/archive/2006/10/19/94498.aspx

For more info see:
Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines

P.S. For disabling the time synchronization with Virtual PC 2007 see:
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/11/28/disabling-time-synchronization-under-virtual-pc-2007.aspx

Windows requires activation after cloning a VM

Even if your base image is activated correctly the clones created from it might require an activation.

A simple workaround is to force VMware to generate a new MAC address. This will probably cause Windows to ask you to re-activate your base image. Once this is done you can clone it without having to re-activate it again.

Turn off beep sound in virtual machine

As described here:

sc config beep start= disabled

Converting Virtual PC virtual machines to VMware

The most reliable way to convert your Virtual PC/Virtual Server/Hyper-V virtual machines to VMware is to use the "VMware vCenter Converter" (available free of charge).

The History of Microsoft

See how it all started on Channel 9…

• The History of Microsoft - 1975
• The History of Microsoft – 1976
• The History of Microsoft – 1977
• to be continued

You can subscribe to this episode here.

Unable to print or preview in Windows Vista

Problem description:

When trying to print or print preview a page in Internet Explorer you receive an permission error about the Temp\Low folder.

Solution:

Equipped with administrative privileges change the integrity level of the "Low" subfolder %Temp% to low (as explained here):

icacls Low /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low