Elan Shudnow's Blog » Vista

Vista SP1 causes a loss of functionality for certain applications

Elan Shudnow — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:02:40 +0000

Thanks to a coworker of mine, Mike Nelson, for pointing this out to me:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935796

Server 2008 and Vista SP1 RTM

Elan Shudnow — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:09:49 +0000

Server 2008 as well as Vista SP1 have finally RTM’d. You can read more at the following URL:
http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/02/04/windows-server-2008-rtm.aspx

Moving the WinSxS and SoftwareDistribution (Windows Updates) Directories

Elan Shudnow — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:26:18 +0000

A coworker of mine, Matt Wade, has detailed the steps on how to move the WinSxS and SoftwareDistribution (Windows Updates) directory here; thanks to a forum post created by Paul here.

For those who do not know what WinSxS and what issued it has caused, read Aaaron Tiensivu’s (another coworker of mine) blog post here.

In short, WinSxS is a directory which allows you to have distinct versions of the same DLL files. In previous versions of Windows, we all remember the annoying times when we installed a new application only to find it used a shared DLL file that another application needed. The bad part was, that both application used a different version. This could possibly cause the previously installed application to break if you chose to overwrite the DLL file. WinSxS’ existence was to prevent this behavior from occurring in Vista.

The problem here, is systems with smaller C:\ capacity get filled up very fast due to the WinSxS directory taking up a lot of space very fast. Thanks to Matt, we finally have a guide to help free up some of that space on C:\.

2007 Office System Administrative Templates (ADM) SP1

Elan Shudnow — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:21:34 +0000

This download (direct download) includes updated Group Policy Administrative Template files and Office Customization Tool OPA files for use with the 2007 Microsoft Office system programs. It also includes an \Admin folder with an updated Office Customization Tool, and ADMX and ADML versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office system Administrative Template files for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems, the ADM files are replaced by ADMX files, which use an XML-based file format to display registry-based policy settings. This download also includes a workbook (Office2007GroupPolicyAndOCTSettings.xls) that provides information about the 2007 Office system Group Policy settings and OPA settings.

For more information about ADMX files, see Managing Group Policy ADMX Files Step-by-Step Guide on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.