September 2006 - Posts

• Sysprep on Windows XP

  A while back I documented the process for doing a Sysprep on a Windows 2003 installation. Well, that same process works for a Windows XP installation. The sysprep GUI on Windows XP is slightly different, but you only need to make sure that the “MiniSetup” and “Pre-Activate” options are selected before pressing the Reseal button and shutting down the machine. Here are the instructions to run Sysprep on Windows 2003. Posted Sep 27 2006, 01:31 AM by Jaguilar with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Virtualization, Tools

• Video demos

  We just posted the last of three video demonstrations that I recorded. They are for the Informix 4GL to Java migration tool, JLCA Companion and the VB Upgrade Companion Enterprise Edition Demo. The videos outline the main points of each tool, how they work, and also contain a quick demonstration of a migration of a small application. You can check them on the Demos section of the downloads page. Posted Sep 09 2006, 04:28 AM by Jaguilar with no comments Filed under: JLCA Companion, Informix, Visual Basic Upgrade Wizard

• Visual Studio unattended install

  If you ever do a Visual Studio .NET 2005 unattended install, you’ll notice that the installation reboots the machine several times and won’t continue until you log back in – defeating in part the purpose of the UNATTENDED install. Well, this page over at Aaron Stebner's WebLog has some instructions that can help you make your installation REALLY unattended. It requires two things: first, remove some pre-requisites that end up on the vs_2005.ini files regardless of what you do (instructions here), and second, create a batch file that installs both the prerequisites and VS.NET. This is the code in the batch file for the unattended install on x64 boxes (run it from the VS dir): wcu\msi31\WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe /quiet /norestart wcu\dotNetFramework\x64\netfx64.exe /q:a /c:"install.exe /q" wcu\DExplore\DExplore.exe /q:a /c:"install.exe /q" setup\setup.exe /unattendfile vs_2005.ini For other machines, you may need to change the architecture of the .NET framework for the correct one (x86/x64). I made that batch file for an unattended install a few months ago at a 64–bit event where I had to install Visual Studio in around 30 machines, and it worked like a charm. YMMV Posted Sep 05 2006, 03:55 AM by Jaguilar with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Tools

• Excellent tip... Mounting a .VHD by double clicking on it

  Last Friday on the Virtual PC Guy's WebLog,  Ben Armstrong, Virtual Machine program manager at Microsoft, posted a registry code snippet to mount vhd files by double clicking on them, and dismount them by using the right-click menu. You can get the code from here. I also recommend that you check out VPC guy’s blog every once in a while – his posts are always useful and interesting. Posted Sep 04 2006, 05:29 PM by Jaguilar with no comments Filed under: Virtualization

• Vista RC1 Completed

  Windows Vista RC1 was completed today. From the Windows Vista Team Blog: It’s official — Windows Vista RC1 is done! ... You’ll notice a lot of improvements since Beta 2. We’ve made some UI adjustments, added more device drivers, and enhanced performance. We’re not done yet, however — quality will continue to improve. We’ll keep plugging away on application compatibility, as well as fit and finish, until RTM. If you are an ISV, RC1 is the build you should use for certifying your application. Right now it is only available for customers on the TAP program, but according to a post in the forum, they plan to make it available to MSDN and Technet subscribers. Posted Sep 02 2006, 02:09 AM by Jaguilar with no comments Filed under: News, Tools

• Volume Shadow Copy Service and Virtual Server ... what's in it for me?

  One of the features available in the latest Beta of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 is the support for the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). VSS is a feature of Windows 2003 server that takes “snaphots” of files, and allows you to quickly create a backup copy of a volume. For an application to support VSS, it needs to get to a consistent state, freeze, and the perform the shadow copy. Once the shadow copy is created, the application thaws and resumes operations. If an application does not have a VSS provider, VSS cannot guarantee that the resulting shadow copy will be consistent. That is one of the best features of this technology – the actual applications (called “Writers” in VSS-speak) are involved in the creation of the shadow copy, so they can verify that whatever goes into the copy can be later restored without any problems. By supporting VSS, backup programs (“Requestors”) can now tell Virtual Server that a backup is going to take place. Virtual Server can then make sure that the Virtual Machines are in a consistent state (I”m not sure if it suspends the VMs – I’m currently in the process of finding out that information), and tell the requestor that it is ready for the copy. According to the documentation, creating a shadow copy is very fast – for large volumes I’ve heard numbers of around 30 seconds to 4 minutes. This can also work for quickly cloning a Virtual Server host to another server, so that VMs can resume operations very quickly even if the system goes down. Posted Sep 01 2006, 01:01 AM by Jaguilar with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Virtualization