It looks like I should have waited a day for my previous post on Windows Vista RC1 and then the press release would have been out. It looks like up to 5 million customers world wide will get a copy of the code. It sounds like there will be some DVDs coming in select magazines and through other chanels including MSDN and TechNet.

The press relases says there is also pricing information at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx but I didn't find it right away. I assume it will be like most other products from Microsoft or any other software vendor, the price you pay really depends on how many licenses you are willing to purchase.

I spent some time this weekend downloading RC1 of Windows Vista. I currently have it installed on a second laptop and am trying to put it through its paces. If I find out anything earth shattering (or just something that I am sure I will want to know later) I will post it here.

Oh, how can you get it? Well I got it off of the MSDN Subscriber downloads page. It was listed as one of the new postings so I went ahead and snagged it. I am not sure if they have a pay-to-play program for people who are not MSDN subscribers.

For years I have been using a virtual machine (either VMWare or Virtual PC) for trying out beta software or doing demos. I usually create the VM and add just specific software to it. I then keep it around for a couple of weeks or a month and get rid of it. Recently I had a problem with a smart card and had to reformat my machine a couple of times in the period of about a month. On the second time I decided to try to put my development environment into a VM that I would keep around. I figured that it would allow me to backup the environment and I wouldn't have to worry about the smart card messing up my machine again. By the time I loaded up all of the software I use (and of course my mp3 collection) the VM had grown to over 53 GB. I was worried about the performance. I had heard about software from Invirtus that would let me optimize the VM. I purchased the corporate edition and ran it on the VM. After optimizing the virtual hard disk it had gone from 53 GB to 36 GB and the performance gain is very noticable. I plan on adding Invirtus to my regular maintenance plan for this VM and for all of the other VMs that I keep around for more than a couple of weeks.

If you haven't used a virtual machine you can download free versions of the VMWare Server at http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ and Microsoft Virtual Server at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/software/default.mspx.

I haven't been adding entries, and I understand that some of you have been having trouble with your RSS feeds from my site, because of DNS problems. I recently renewed the domain and even though the registrar sent me an e-mail that the process worked, it apparently didn't work as I expected. I was confused as to why I couldn't get to the web server from outside the network that it was on. I looked at the firewall and networking. That all checked out but I still couldn't get to the server from outside. Yesterday I noticed that my web site had been replaced by a parking page. I checked the domain entry page on the registrar's web site. Everything pointed to the correct addresses but I still had the parking page. When I looked up the IP address I found that it didn't resolve to the correct address. I e-mailed the registrar and they did something to get it all working correctly. So I should be back to adding my semi-sporadic entries to the blog.

According to the article at http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?newsID=6676&pagtype=samechan Microsoft will be replacing Software Update Services (SUS) with Windows Software Update Services (WSUS). It isn't as dramatic a move as the headline "Microsoft kills SUS update software" would imply but I guess the headline did its job because I read the article and am now letting you know about it. :)

I have long wanted to set up a SUS server to conserve bandwidth at home rather than having 3 or 4 machines each downloading the patches but haven't gotten around to it yet. If I do now attempt to set one up I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

I am passing on this information about the geek dinner later this month. I will be out of town and will not be able to attend but the ones I have gone to in the past have been good.

http://www.devutah.com/2006/08/08/august-2006-geek-dinner/

Microsoft has a new tool code named Sandcastle. It is a documentation compiler for managed class libraries. According to the download page, this tool is used internally at Microsoft to create the .Net framework documentation. That should help me make more professional (and more consistent) documentation. You can download the CTP from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E82EA71D-DA89-42EE-A715-696E3A4873B2&displaylang=en.

Steve Smith is running a "contest" to come up with the official product name for Atlas. Since Steve doesn't work for Microsoft it probably doesn't mean that you will be picking the official name but still it is fun to see what some of your peers think Atlas should be called. The blog post is at http://aspadvice.com/blogs/ssmith/archive/2006/08/16/Atlas_Naming_Game.aspx

Today I got the wild idea that disabling autorun would increase the security of my system. I set about trying to find out how to do it and what the settings are. I found an MSDN article at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/Shell/programmersguide/shell_basics/shell_basics_extending/autorun/autoplay_reg.asp that seemed to be exactly what I am looking for. It lists 3 ways to disable autorun. The method that looked the best to me is to modify the registry. The documentation gives the following bit numbers and what they disable.

When I went into the registry I found a value of 0x91. I am wondering what setting the lowest order bit does? A check of a couple of other systems reveals the same setting so it doesn't appear to be a random number, just inadequate documentation.