Acronis should not be used to create and format drive for Windows Vista and Vista 7

I know this sound funny, lets go back to where it all begins.

First, I got hold of a vanilla machine which comes with the default vendors OS plus one HDD with 1 partition. OK, not entirely true, the OS was downgraded from Vista to XP and the vendor actually have a recovery partition in addition to the normal OS partition. So, if you know me enough, I would love to have Windows 7 on this. And I may not want to kill the original OS. And to make things worth, in this environment, its not OK to burn CD/DVD or use a USB device.

Firstly, we got to make another partition for the new OS. So a few tools comes into my mind. Hiren. Nope, its a boot disc. OK, so we need one that can either work inline or via a reboot shell. Acronis Disk Director 10 was available. So here we have. I reboot and resize the parition and make a new partition for the new OS. The critical mistake I made was I created and formatted the new partition in Acronis. Fatal.

But there were no tell tale sign that something was wrong. Windows 7 can be installed without extracting the files. Just mount the ISO with Alcohol or Daemon Tool, then install to the new partition. Everything went smoothly. Until I started to use Windows 7 and many application starts to give warning error about corruption. One such message came from Live Messenger "MSNMSGR.EXE - File Corrupt". Using chkdsk /f, I manage to find lots of MFT and BITMAP errors. I thought fixing it with solve all the problem. After some reboot, more usage, the error came back again and again. I just could figure out what went wrong.

Now, lets take a look at this thread:
http://board.iexbeta.com/lofiversion/index.php/t63381.html

It seems that such problem exist as far as 2006 and these folk found the answer in 2008. And after 2 years later, I splatter all over the wall with this issue. After some chkdsk /r and reinstall, repair startup option etc, I final found the problem. It is Acronis. Apparently, it create a non-standard partition which create problem for newer OS such as Vista and Windows 7. To fix this, I will have to lose my new partition by removing it, then delete the partition and have Windows Disk Manager to recreate the partition. Everything went smoothly after which.

Although Acronis Disk Director was released in 2007, I believe Microsoft and Acronis should issue a incompatibility warning for this. It could had save me lots of time. I guess both parties probably at some point of time point fingers and did not want to highlight this problem, but I just hope no one else have to hard the wall so I posted this here.

Epson TX100 New Windows 7 drivers does not work with Vista

In a previous post, I mentioned the release of new Windows 7 drivers for the Epson TX100:

http://nemesisv.blogspot.com/2009/10/epson-tx100-new-drivers-with-full.html

what I failed to notice was that the Epson scan program (v3.4.9) only list Windows 7 compatibility. So what happen to Vista? I tried to installed it and every time it started, it crashes. At first I thought it was me. So I uninstalled clean and reinstall it. Same thing happened.

I cannot find the download online anymore, but I managed to find my previous files. So, I reinstalled the older version for Vista (v3.4.3a) and it works perfectly. I guess in moving ahead, Epson either has branched out the codes or totally forgotten that they still need to support Windows Vista.

Do take note of this. If you had installed and crashed and needed a old copy of the installation, let me know, maybe I can put it online.

Vista OEM Product Keys

Definition of OEM:

The term, OEM (original equipment manufacturer) refers to companies that make products for others to repackage and sell. Resellers buy OEM products in bulk, minus the costly retail packaging that comes with individually sold units. The product itself is essentially the same as its more expensive, retail-packaged sibling. OEM products are used in many industries, but are perhaps most prevalent in electronics.

Generally, dealers of OEM products add something of value before reselling the merchandise. An OEM vendor that does this is known as a \"value added reseller\" (VAR). A VAR might build components, sub-systems, or systems from quality OEM parts. OEM goods allow VARs a wide range of creative marketing choices, which permits smaller dealers to be competitive in the marketplace.

OEM software will have different product numbers than retail packages, and support may be provided by the VAR, rather than the maker of the software. Functionally, OEM and retail versions of software should be essentially the same.

Two kinds of OEM Product Keys:

OEM SLP Keys:
* OEM SLP (System-Locked Pre-installation) keys are only issued to the big manufacturers such as Dell, Asus, Sony, etc.

* These are the only keys that are able to bypass activation that is, perform offline activation without contacting Microsoft.

* They will work with any OEM SLP system, regardless of the OEM system's brand i.e. Product Keys are not brand specific.

OEM NONSLP Keys:
* Similar to Retail, but distributed and supported by an OEM. Needs activation by phone or online and they are not brand specific. .

OEM COA Keys:
* OEM COA keys (Certificate of Authentication) are regular OEM keys that require activation, either by phone or online and they are not brand specific.
(you will find the sticker with the key underneath you Laptop or on the side of you PC)

* These keys will work in general same as Retail or Upgrade keys and can be used only once.

OEM SLP Product Keys activation:
* You need is an OEM SLP Product Key that matches the version of Windows Vista you have installed or are going to install.
(Home Basic, Home Premium, Business or Ultimate), plus the OEM certificate matching the SLIC table

* The OEM SLP Product Key does not have to match the OEM-brand certificate nor the OEM-brand BIOS ACPI_SLIC information.
(The only ones that need to match are the OEM-brand certificate and the OEM-brand BIOS ACPI_SLIC information.)

* SLP activation doesn't work with Vista Release Candidates or Vista Beta versions. Only the final version (RTM, Retail or OEM).

i.e.: A+B+C = Vista Activated Offline
OEM SLP Key + OEM Certificate + Full SLIC Table = Vista Activated Offline
If one (A,B or C) is missing, activation will fail!

Note: (the SLIC table can be emulated)

FAQ

Why so many different keys for the same edition of Windows Vista?
I believe it's mainly because different keys are issued to the same brand in different countries.
Also, like Volume Licensing, I believe Microsoft imposes a limit to the number of systems that can be shipped with the same license or OEM SLP key.
When the limit is reached, the Royalty OEM will buy a new license and a new key is then issued .

What is SLP 2.0?
This mechanism referred as 'SLP 2.0' ('system-locked pre-installation 2.0') consists in THREE (3) elements:

1. The OEM's hardware-embedded BIOS ACPI_SLIC information signed by Microsoft

Toshiba = “TOSQCITOSQCI00?
HEX: 54 4F 53 51 43 49 54 4F 53 51 43 49 30 30

2. A certificate issued by Microsoft that corresponds to the specific ACPI_SLIC information.

Something like 'oemname.xrm-ms'.

3. A special type of product key that corresponds to the installed edition of Windows Vista.

Is the OEM SLP license mechanism a crack?
There is no cracking here; the OEM SLP license mechanism was created by MS and is completely legitimate.

Where do these keys come from?
These keys were retrieved from OEM SLP systems that are being sold by the big OEM vendors.

Do I need to activate my Vista online when I use a OEM Product Key?
Yes, if you use an OEM COA Product Key or any other Retail or Upgrade Product Key
No, if you use an OEM SLP Product Key

Is MS going to black list the OEM SLP Product Keys?
No, these keys have been used by the big brands for thousand of computer with legally preinstalled Vista. If they black list those keys all these legal costumers would be affected too.

Why big manufactures can use OEM SLP Product Keys?
Large OEMs tend to ship large numbers of PCs with Windows preinstalled. The keep the process of installing the OS cost effective Microsoft has decided that these companies will be allowed to use the some key to preinstall Vista on their units.

Also, because of the direct relationship Microsoft has with those OEMS, the company has a higher degree of confidence that a genuine COA will be attached to each PC and that there will be accurate reporting of the number of units shipped preinstalled with Microsoft Windows.

I tried those Vista Ultimate keys here but getting an error saying something like to call Microsoft for activation?
Well, OEM SLP Key and/or OEM Certificate and/or Full SLIC Table is missing. Or the installed key is not matching your Vista Edition.

How to change the product key?
Launch command prompt window with elevated privileges (Admin mode)
type:
slmgr -ipk

Windows Vista / Windows 2008 SP2 x64

Sorry I missed out on the previous post. The links were for the 32 bits version only.
Here is the 64 bits version of the SP2:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=656c9d4a-55ec-4972-a0d7-b1a6fedf51a7&displaylang=en

Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 2008 SP2

Strangely both of them are using the same file... In any case, here it is finally:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a4dd31d5-f907-4406-9012-a5c3199ea2b3&DisplayLang=en

This download if for 5 major languages. I bet you the English only is much smaller.

Toshiba Memory Flash Drive Cannot enable Vista Readyboost

I am sorry I have to mention Toshiba. It can probably happen to any other brands, but so far I had only been able to see Toshiba ones which actually happened.

Before I go on, let's put this straight. If the packaging says its Vista Readyboost compatible, it should be. Otherwise, no matter what you do, it will probably not be. Notice I mentioned probably, because I had a red Sandisk flash drive which actually IS compatible, but is not advertised as such.

The only problem arises when you actually plug in the flash drive and found that Vista complain it does not meet the minimum requirement. Btw, I had mentioned before, the requirement is only 2MB/second.

I was very upset when I gotten the Toshiba drive and found that I was ripped off. The biggest problem was I bought the 4GB drive solely for the purpose of Readyboost. 4GB is the max you can go on Windows Vista, but do note that in the future in Windows 7, this limit has been removed. Next, when I attempted to RMA the item, Toshiba told me that it was from an "unauthorized" dealer and advise I go back to the shop I bought from, which turns out to be Playcraft. They are only located in the far west, which will probably cost me more than this flash drive to go.

So, I had to take the matter into my own hands. I was so frustrated I thought I might as well "destroy" the drive by overwriting it with zero or something similar using a DOS hard disk wiper tool. And that I did. There are many which you can use, I used Acronis in this case. What I did not was to create the partition back.

I booted back into my Windows Vista and it detected the unformatted drive. I simply create a "simple volume" and remount the drive with a drive letter. Suddenly and "automagically", Readyboost prompt pops up saying it is ready to be use with Readyboost.

Unbelivable? I think so too. And I really wondered what they did in the first place that made the drive NOT Readyboost compatible? Maybe I should had checked the drive before I did the HDD wipe on it... In any case, I hope this helps you out there solve similar problems.

Windows Vista Ultimate going to be uncracked once again

Microsoft has just announced that a new patch will be delivered specificly to Windows Vista Ultimate only which may (I do not use the word WILL yet, because nobody is sure, for all it's worth, the patch may not work properly) disable the softmod used by many pirates to install OEM version of Windows Vista Ultimate.

This has the same effect when SP1 was launched together with 2 of such checks.

Read more about it at:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/022509-microsoft-renews-vista-anti-crack.html

Sound Wars : A New Hope

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Nah, not really...

I am not sure if I bitched about throwing my Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 away when Vista launched. It was sad that DirectX did not support sound acceleration. However, its even more sad that this good card did not have Vista driver and Hercules did seems like to go out of the sound card market then.

However, the card laying around for some time, probably 2 years, I finally manage to sell it off on ebay. While I was packing it to be shipped off, I thought I might as well do some extra services for the buyer by downloading the latest (last) driver for him. Little did I know that I was in for a surprise.

The last dated driver was in 2003. But I saw a new entry now. In 2007, they actually released Vista driver for this? What do you know? There is hope for this card in Vista 32 anyway... I had since some time moved on to Vista 64 and this would had been throw out again.

In any case, releasing a driver 4 years after the product was something I truly say I had not seen. Maybe thats the premium about owning a Hercules card. anyway, lucky buyer who bought from me.

Grab the driver update at:
http://ts.hercules.com/eng/index.php?pg=view_files&gid=2&fid=23&pid=18&cid=1

Windows 7 to ship in 2009!

Yes, although its in Beta 1 now. There will only be one more test release - RC. Then it will be RTM in 2009!

Everyone who buys Vista after 1 July 2009 will get free upgrade to Windows 7!

Time to change hardware again!

Enabling Hibernation in Windows Vista

For desktop, in some cases, Hibernation has been disabled. There are many reasons why this is so including BIOS settings etc... However, there is a way to set it on if you are sure you want it and it works.

First, you have to ensure its not already on. Look for the file Hiberfil.sys. If you use the Disk Cleanup function, sometimes this file is delete and Hibernation, as a result, is turned off.

If the file is missing, do this :

1. Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
2. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
3. When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.
4. At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off, and then press ENTER. Actually I found that powercfg /h on will work too.
5. Type dir c:\hiberfil.sys. You should see the file now.
5. Type exit, and then press ENTER.

Then, obviously, if you want to turn it off, replace the on with the off.

Now, the next step is that if you have not reboot, the hibernation function is not yet enabled on you shutdown menu in Vista. And if you are stuck with a damn long process which can be paused, but cannot be resumed if you restart.. then its time to force a hibernation immediately.

To do that :
1. Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
2. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. Note that it may or may not need administrator rights to hibernate the computer.
3. When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.
4. At the command prompt, type shutdown.exe /h, and then press .

Oh, you have pressed. There it goes. If for any chance you want to abort the shutdown, just execute shutdown.exe /a. This is a damn good way to do debugging for the RPC worm if you remember.

Thawte Free Email Certificate vs Vista IE7

For a long long time, Thawte hsa not came out with a solution to allow easy installation of their free email cerifitcations on Vista / IE7. Vista has already launched SP1 and Thawte is still there...

Well for those who did not know what a email certificate is... Imagine SSL.. Ok, even more plain, the padlock you will see on the browser when you do you internet banking... Well, thats encryption. SSL is basically encryption. But you need a SSL certificate to do the encryption. Email certificate is somethign very similar. But on top of being able to do encryption, email certificate also allow you to identify yourself. This mean when you friend / client receive a email signed by your email certificate, they can be sure its you. If the email ash been tampered, changed, edited, forwards etc.. the signing will fail and you will see a X on your email client. What? You are still using Lotus Notes? Man, get a real email client, FCS!

Anyway, back to this issue of using Thawte Email Certificates. Its FREE. Thats one plus point. And so far I tried many, like komodo etc.. And evne one which I will not name, who issue email cert, but their own SSL cert is kinda expired or blacklist... This is the type of CA you should avoid. In any case, Thawte has the advantage.

Sometime back in Dec 2007, thawte posted a "solution" to the Vista IE7 problem.
https://search.thawte.com/support/ssl-digital-certificates/index?page=content&id=S:SO5558&actp=search&searchid=1215093218617
Well if you do not know whats the problem, it can only means you are not using Vista or are using IE7 or below on XP. anyway, the problem is there is no support for creating the private key to make the certificate.

Anyway, if you follow the instruction above, you will hit the Error: "424 Object required" error.
Thawte suggest your try :
https://search.thawte.com/support/ssl-digital-certificates/index?page=content&id=SO5657
OK, stop right here. This is the step I strong advice you DO NOT do. Whats is the point of using a certificate when you have to cripple your security on your browser to get the certificate in the first place?

This is my approach :
Grab a machine with Win XP. Yes, a VM is good. Always keep Win XP VM around.
Go through the process and request the cert, then complete it by installing the cert.
Now, you will have to export the cert.
Ok, this is the tricky part. Listen carefully, or you will find that you cant import your cert properly later...
YOU NEED TO EXPORT YOUR PRIVATE KEY.
Choose that... then the rest you can play around with... use a good password. But I strongly suggest after importing sucessfully onto your Vista that you delete the exported keys away.

Put all your *.PFX together and bring it to your Vista machine. Open IE options and then import them. Just let IE decide where to put the certs. It should end up in the Personnel folder. Otherwise, you done it wrongly. See the CAPITAL above. Once all yoru cert if done, go ahead and sign some email with your Outlook and smile.

I try to be brief here cos I figure most of us knows what we are doing. If you have problem wit hthis instruction, please post a comment and I will try to help you out. For Firefox, the procedure is different, so lets just worry about IE / Vista here.

I wonder why I searched and cannot find this solution on Google...

Bitlocker Drive Prepartion Tool

In the early days of Windows Vista. Bitlocker is so much work, most people will give up before completing it (and end up with a corrupted HDD maybe). The problem IS (yes, still there because Microsoft has not really address it) nobody told you how the HDD should be properly partitioned for Bitlocker. This was not even mentioned in the Windows Vista installation. You will only come to realized this after fully installed and you tried to enable Bitlocker. Back then, the only answer (unless you ahve Partition Magic, Partition Manager etc) wil lbe to reformat you Windows Vista and restart.

The ideal installation should consist of these (to be politically correct, I lifted these from Microsoft) :

1. Have at least two partitions. One partition must include the drive Windows is installed on. This is the drive that BitLocker will encrypt. The other partition is the active partition, which must remain unencrypted so that the computer can be started. Once you've encrypted the drive Windows is installed on, you can also encrypt additional data drives on the same computer.
2. Be formatted with the NTFS file system.
3. Have a BIOS that is compatible with TPM and supports USB devices during computer startup. If this is not the case, you will need to update the BIOS before using BitLocker. For more information on updating your BIOS, see Update the BIOS for BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Take note of point 3. Thats hardware limitation. Most laptop can do it. If yours can't and it says Vista Ultimate compatible, sue them.

Now, let's talk about present day. There is hope. Just download something known as Bitlocker Drive Prepartion Tool. It will shift you partition and create the additional partition required for Bitlocker. You can either split or merge to make the space. This tool handles it pretty well. After a reboot, you will be ready to enable it. Make sure you follow the steps to save BOTH the key and the recovery key. Make copies of it in as many places as possible and stored them security. Storing it with your dog, for example, will not be "securely".

So, here is the full details and how you can get the tool. Basically, Windows Update :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930063

Enable Vista Bitlocker Today!

Before there was BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool, life was hell with Bitlocker. Its only after installation of Vista completed you release that the only way to enable Bitlocker was to format and reinstall. Well, BS or not, those days are gone. Actually you can technically do some tricks using partioning software and copying files in protected mode...

Anyway, with BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool now, all you need to is to run through the wizard and it will merge or split up a 1.5GB free space for Bitlocker. If you dun use TPM, you need 1 more step to edit the Global Policy. After that, reboot and you can enable Bitlocker. Its also wizard based helping you make your keys and print your recovery codes.

So, what are you waiting for? Wait, before rushing in, do a full backup. JIC.

BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930063

Take Ownership for Vista

I had posted the takeown.exe utility some time ago where you can change the ownership to the current user in Vista quickly. however, recently, I had found a easier way. Just install the following registry. You will then end up with a Take Ownership option in your right click context menu. This is much quicker and much easier to use.

Download :
http://rapidshare.com/files/80231813/TakeOwnership.zip.html

If somehow you wanted to remove this, just double click on the remove registry file and its gone.

Windows Vista SP1 RC

Yes, with Office 2007 beinglaunched, here comes Vista SP1. However, this is still RC as like Windows Server 2008. So the final is expected to have some changes perhaps.

Download using Windows Update at :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9de6260e-4275-482d-9524-de850c4dd91c&DisplayLang=en

Or get the whole Standalone CD for all languages at :
http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/3/c/b3cf192f-7f49-4da7-a740-07818dc8c7aa/Windows6.0-KB936330-wave0-X86.exe

Windows (Vista) does not use my default drivers!

well, it happened to me. After I hacked around to use the Widcomm stack bluetooth in Windows. Well, thats another story, but the Widcomm stack is truly a bless.

Anyway, if you insert USb stick or some hardware and it can't find your driver. And you find that you can manually point it to C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32, then you know that Windows no longer uses the default path.

I heard this is a common problem with Daemon tools.

I dig around and finally found this solution :

Navigate to C:\windows\inf (substitute a different drive letter for whichever one your OS is installed on) and find the file infcache.1

You will need to have windows set to show hidden and system files most likely. Since this is Vista, you also may need to go to the properties and permissions for the file and take full control. Once that is done, delete the file.

After this, just plug in your device and ta-da.

Taking Ownership in Vista

Ever happen to find some of the files you cannot access (not because of ANSI or unicode)? That's because there are information embedded in the NTFS format. This is especially true if you copy over your files from your WinXP because the upgrade to Vista.

Sure, you can access them as Administrator mode, but you do not want to click ok several timesfor each file. Even worse, you will find that you cannot even save bookmark if you copied your favorites directory over.

Microsoft has anticipated this and has provided a tool know as takeown. To verify you have this problem, right click the file and look at security tab. You should see that there is a unknown owner who has some strange number (that was you on the other OS). Anyway, you can manually change this for EACH of the file or you can use takeown.

The format is as such :

TAKEOWN [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] /F filename [/A] [/R [/D prompt]]

Description:
This tool allows an administrator to recover access to a file that was denied by re-assigning file ownership.

Parameter List:
/S system Specifies the remote system to connect to.

/U [domain\]user Specifies the user context under which the command should execute.

/P [password] Specifies the password for the given user context. Prompts for input if omitted.

/F filename Specifies the filename or directory name pattern. Wildcard "*" can be used to specify the pattern. Allows sharename\filename.

/A Gives ownership to the administrators group instead of the current user.

/R Recurse: instructs tool to operate on files in specified directory and all subdirectories.

/D prompt Default answer used when the current user does not have the "list folder" permissio
on a directory. This occurs while operat recursively (/R) on sub-directories. Vali
values "Y" to take ownership or "N" to sk

/? Displays this help message.

NOTE:
1) If /A is not specified, file ownership will be given to the current logged on user.

2) Mixed patterns using "?" and "*" are not supported.

3) /D is used to suppress the confirmation prompt.

Examples:
TAKEOWN /?
TAKEOWN /F lostfile
TAKEOWN /F \\system\share\lostfile /A
TAKEOWN /F directory /R /D N
TAKEOWN /F directory /R /A
TAKEOWN /F *
TAKEOWN /F C:\Windows\System32\acme.exe
TAKEOWN /F %windir%\*.txt
TAKEOWN /S system /F MyShare\Acme*.doc
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /F MyShare\foo.dll
TAKEOWN /S system /U domain\user /P password /F share\filename
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Doc\Report.doc /A
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Myshare\*
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Home\Logon /R
TAKEOWN /S system /U user /P password /F Myshare\directory /R /A

As you can see the simplist way is to run takeown /f * /r to assign all files and sub folders in this directory to you. Well, if you find errors, start your command prompt in administrator mode and access the user id in takeown.

Britannica Upgrading to Vista

Finally I had enough of running the trial on the old hardware on Britannica. Its time for an upgrade and that includes these parts :

1. Motherboard (478 to 775)
2. CPU (P4HT to Core2Duo)
3. RAM (DDR to DDR2)
4. Graphics (AGP GeForce 6600GT to PCI-X GeForce 7900GS)

So that ends up me with the following hardware :

1. Asus P5B-VM
2. Core 2 Duo 6400
3. Kingston 2x1GB DDR2 667
4. Leadtek PX 7900GS

Well, how does it fair? Fantastic. I just need to get some time to run benchmarks. BTW, does benchmarks works in Vista? Hehe, I got a Vista benchmark of 5.1 now!

Windows Vistalization Project

What is Vistalization? Its the process (for poor people like me) to make Windows XP looks like Windows Vista.

Here are some of my results so far. Its actual screenshot. No modification.

Canon Canoscan 4200F for Vista

Yes, finally to say this scanner pays off. It was a gamble to buy it and hope that vista drivers will come out. But finally it is there. I wont post the link here, but you can easily find it at support from http://www.canon.com. Do take note that you need to download both the application (for your buttons to work) as well as the driver.

Direct link to Canon Support for 4200F :

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=SupportDetailAct&fcategoryid=235&modelid=10445