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Windows Vista SP1 will annoy Pirates

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:57:27 +0000

Microsoft revealed some changes to their Windows Genuine Advantage protection scheme for Windows Vista which determines if the copy of Windows Vista is legit. A non validated Windows Vista operating system would reduce its functionality after 30 days and make only security updates available for that system.

Service Pack 1 will change that behavior. On the good side the functionality will remain and will no longer be reduced, on the bad site this will be compensated by nag screens known from shareware programs that nag the user to buy the application after x days. Windows will use those nag screens and have a 15 second timer before the user will be able to click on Activate Later to continue his work.

Users will still only be able to download system security patches for the system, all other downloads will fail like before. Users who have been using the Bios or Clock Timer hack to activate Windows Vista illegally will face troubles as well. The Service Pack 1 will be able to detect those hacks but there will not be dire consequences either.

Those users will only face the same nag screens like all other users who did not activate their system in time. I think it is fairly interesting that users of non-activated Vista operating systems will get better deals to purchase a copy of Vista than users who bought the operating system from retailers.

Windows Vista Ultimate retails for $329 at Amazon currently while the offer for non activated versions can be purchased for $199. So, users who like bargains probably will download Vista, use it for 30 days and purchase it for a lower price afterwards.

via Ed Bott

Speed up Hard Drives under Windows Vista

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:35:44 +0000

The following article describes two ways of speeding up hard drives in Windows Vista. The first tip describes a way to speed up SATA drives and the second to speed up USB drives. Both options can be easily configured in the Device Manager. Advanced write caching features are supported by Windows Vista but not enabled by default. I’m not sure why Microsoft decided to disable the feature by default but it surely helps system performance to enable it. Just make sure you have an SATA drive installed.

So, open the Device Manger by either typing device in the search box of Windows Vista or typing devmgmt.msc from the command line. Go to the disk Drives tab and right-click the SATA drive and select Properties from the menu. Now select the Policies tab and check the box Enable Advanced Performance. You have to repeat the process if you have more than one SATA drive installed on your system

You have to perform almost the same steps to speed up usb drivers under Windows Vista. Open again the policies tab of the USB drive and select Optimize for Performance from the options there. This method has one little drawback, you need to Safely Remove the Hardware if you want to unplug the device from your system.

Both tips have been found at the How to Geek.

Microsoft Vista Internet Connectivity Test

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 08:03:01 +0000

You can use the Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool to test if your router supports various technologies that have been build into Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. The test itself seems to be working only on Windows XP or Windows Vista and requires the Internet Explorer which is using Active X for the test. The following features and technologies are tested with the Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool: Basic Internet Connectivity, Network Address Translator Type, Traffic Congestion, TCP High Performance, UPnP Support and Multiple Simultaneous Connection State.

The test itself could very well take up to ten minutes, mine took about seven I think. Every phase of the test is explained to give you an understanding of what is tested and how this technology is put to use in Windows Vista. Microsoft points out that the test should not normally affect the internet connection which I can confirm. I was downloading a large file while the test commenced and it did not stop or slow down the download.

My router passed all of the tests, what about yours ?

Found at Pimpyourwork

Fix to copy large files in Vista faster

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:53:39 +0000

Maybe you have already encountered the strange behavior that it takes much longer to copy large files in Windows Vista than in Windows XP. You thought that the change from XP to Vista would at least be not a disadvantage speed wise but Vista somehow seems to have a problem copying large files. This happens especially with mapped drives but it could also be that you witness network disconnects.

The problem is caused by a new feature called Auto Tuning which is by default enabled in Microsoft Windows Vista. What Auto Tuning does is that it reacts on changes in the network by tuning the receive windows size. The solution would be of course to disable Auto Tuning in Vista. Some users reported that disabling Auto Tuning had a positive effect on their ability to connect to services such as Windows Live Messenger which did not work before.

To disable Auto Tuning and speed up the copy process and avoid timeouts and disconnects do the following:

Open a command prompt and type the following: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

To turn it on again: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

found this at: One Tip A Day