Windows SteadyState is ready for download from Microsoft now - you can get it right here! It’s free - you just need to pass the WGA test… Only pirate Windows users cannot pass that test, so what are you waiting for? :)

This toolkit is extremely efficient when it comes to protecting public available Windows XP computers (no support for Windows Vista unfortunately).

In short Windows SteadyState is:
- Easier to set up
- Easier to use
- More Secure

Windows SteadyState website:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

I was looking for a tool to resize the primary partition on my Vista workstation…you know something like Partition Magic but with the shiny “Works With Vista” logo?

Only after a few searches I discovered that Microsoft has baked into Vista automatic partition resizing.

I was very skeptical at first, and I worried that it might bomb out and destroy everything…so I made sure I backed up my system. From past experience I expected the resize would take hours. Amazingly it only took about 90 seconds to split my drive in half.

I will walk you through the process…I am going to go through every step for those who have not used Vista yet can easily find their way.

Click on start, then control panel

The control panel will popup and you will want to look for the administrative tools icon. (You will need to click on the classic view button on the left to see it). Double click it.

In the administrative tools window you need to find “Computer Management” Double click it.

I have had a lot of people ask me about capturing a custom image manually using ImageX. First before I go into details on how to do this let me just point out a few things first.

1) You can use the process we went through previously to recapture a custom iteratively. Meaning you can slowly build up your image as you like using the custom tasks in the builds node to perform customer installs of customizations.

2) If you choose to manually customize an image make sure that you run sysprep, or use a utility like newsid to generalize the install before joining it to a domain or network. Note: Microsoft PSS does not support using New Sid so really you should use Sysprep to generalize your image.

Note: Generalizing an image means removing data about the Windows install that makes it unique. Usually this means removing the SID, and the name of the computer. The most important element here is the SID you really don’t want to machines with the same SID living in your network

The first thing we need to do before capturing our image is get a generic version of WinPE up and running on our

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… for first time test takers, only students and faculty members and only applies to North America.

 Pearson is offering a free exam promotion, which will end on June 30th, 2007. The exam that qualifies for this free exam promotion is all 072 academic exams.

It’s easy to get your FREE exam right now.*

1. Call Pearson VUE at 800-TEST-REG (800-837-8734) to schedule your free exam over the phone.
   • All 072 academic exams qualify for this free promotion.
   • You may take your exam at any Pearson VUE® Authorized Test Center in the United States or Canada.
2. Reference promotion code EXAM4FREE while scheduling your exam.
3. Schedule and take your exam by June 30, 2007.

Visit here for more information.

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