Previously (Troubleshooting Performance Issues with Automatic Updates / How to Isolate A Shared Service Hosted by SVCHOST.EXE) I had detailed some steps that one could follow to isolate a shared service hosted by SVCHOST.EXE, in the context of the Windows Update Automatic Updates service. There are a couple of other ways to isolate a shared service, with different implications.

The intention / desire of a service to be “shared” or not is typically indicated when the service is created - the fifth parameter to CreateService is dwServiceType, which for our interests can be, among other things, SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS (0×10) or SERVICE_WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS (0×20). Once a service has been created, the dwServiceType setting can be changed by calling ChangeServiceConfig with the appropriate parameters.

Windows XP and Server 2003 ship with a utility program called “SC.exe”. (I seem to recall using SC.EXE on NT 4.0, after it was included in some resource kit, but I could be mistaken. The DLL Help Database listing for SC.EXE puts the earliest version as having shipped with Visual Studio .NET 2002.) SC presumably stands for “Service Controller”. At any rate, one can use SC to change the configuration…

Recently both Samsung and Chimei gained Windows Vista Premium certification on their 20 and 22″ lcd’s. As I’m still waiting on my 22″ Samsung 225BW lcd’s to arrive I thought I would find out what exactly that meant. If anything. What does certification mean for an lcd? It is not like it will not display Windows Vista. This begs the question…

What is Windows Vista Premium Certification?

Pat Azzarello, an employee of Microsoft writes…

The Premimum logo requirements are available to computer makers to help them get quality components to deliver on their systems. The Logo program is a guideline, and it doesn’t mean that other components won’t work on Vista, or that other components are not high quality. It will (in the very least) help you identify components that have been tested and work at a certain level

Basically this means for OEM manufacturers and partners to market their products with Windows Vista support, they need to gain Microsoft’s certification to do so. When it comes to marketing, the ‘Windows Vista ready’ logo is a strong force. I would argue this is something more important for manufacturers and

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