I stumbled across a cool utility provided by Microsoft. It is actually a Sysinternals tool created by Mark Russinovich. If you are the type that likes to get every sliver of performance out of your system - then this is for you.

It is called PageDefrag

It essentially allows you to defragment the page file, and all of the registry files that are normally in use while your system is running.

You can set it to run once on the next boot, or run every time the system boots up.

It works quite well, and once you set it to run each time at boot it works quickly. The best part is you are given the option to cancel it if you are in a hurry.

Get your free copy from Microsoft

Update 9/27/2007 (9:30 AM) - I received a note from Ivan at http://www.cybermag.com:

I have one comment about Page Defrag, if you attempt to defrag a Pagefile it might take a very long time, especially if the system has lots of RAM, one example, I have some PCs with 1.5 GB of RAM and even with only 2 fragments the process will take forever, of course the less memory the system has the pagefile will be smaller, the way I circunvent this is by deleting the pagefile (booting to command prompt), it doesn’t matter how defragmented the registry is (I’ve seen some horror show registries) the utility runs thru like nothing, the most I’ve waited is 1 minute.

Just my 2 cents.

This is a very good point. I have not had this happen to me yet, but I would imagine on a system that has a page file that has been around for a while would take a long time to defrag.

• Windows Vista SP1 Beta already leaked
  Didn’t take long for the 32-bit version of SP1 Beta to leak out onto the P2P sites.
  (tags: SP1 Beta )
• Microsoft’s Mea Culpa on Vista Ultimate Extras
  Sounds like us Ultimate users may actually end up with some ‘extras’ as we were promised.
  (tags: Ultimate Extras )

Earlier this week, I posted instructions on how to install the "Viridian" CTP on Windows Server 2008 RC0. VMs aren’t very useful unless you can install an operating system in them, so I thought that today’s post should center on doing just that. As you may have guessed from the title, today we’re going to talk about installing Windows Server 2003.

Before we begin, you should make sure that you’ve created an external virtual network switch. See yesterday’s post for details on how to do that. You should also have a Windows Server 2003 CD or CD Image (which I’ll refer to as an ISO from now on) handy. Ideally, you’ll have SP2 integrated into the installation media, but if you don’t, we’ll take a trip to Windows Update later on.

A Brief Introduction to the New VM Wizard

Ben Armstrong is going to go over this in more detail in a future post, so I’m just going to run through this at a pretty quick pace, and not go into detail about all of the available options.

To create a new VM:

There are you have it – you’ve got Windows Server 2003 SP2 installed in a "Viridian" Virtual Machine.

Yesterday we were alerted to an issue in Excel 2007 (and Excel Services 2007) involving calculation of numbers around 65,535. The Excel team would like to provide a description of the issue and explain what we’re doing about it.

Background
Yesterday evening we were alerted to an issue in Excel 2007 (and Excel Services 2007) involving calculation of numbers around 65,535. The first example that we heard about was =77.1*850, but it became clear from our testing as well as additional reports that this was just one instance where Excel 2007 would return a value of 100,000 instead of 65,535. The majority of these additional reports were focused on multiplication (ex. =5.1*12850; =10.2*6425; =20.4*3212.5 ), but our testing showed that this really didn’t have anything do to with multiplication - it manifested itself with many but not all calculations in Excel that should have resulted in 65,535 (=65535*1 and =16383.75*4 worked for instance). Further testing showed a similar phenomenon with 65,536 as well. This issue only exists in Excel 2007, not previous versions.

The Problem
This issue was introduced when we were making changes to the Excel calculation logic in the Office 2007 time frame. Specifically, Excel incorrectly displays the result of a calculation in 12 very specific cases (outlined below). The key here is that the issue is actually not in the calculation itself (the result of the calculation stored in Excel’s memory is correct), but only in the result that is shown in the sheet. Said another way, =850*77.1 will display an incorrect value, but if you then multiply the result by 2, you will get the correct answer (i.e. if A1 contains “=850*77.1”, and A2 contains “=A1*2”, A2 will return the correct answer of 131,070).

So what, specifically, are the values that cause this display problem? Of the 9.214*10^18 different floating point numbers (floating point on wikipedia) that Excel 2007 can store, there are 6 floating point numbers (using binary representation) between 65534.99999999995 and 65535, and 6 between 65535.99999999995 and 65536 that cause this problem. You can’t actually enter these numbers into Excel directly (since Excel will round to 15 digits on entry), but any calculation returning one of those results will display this issue if the results of the calculation are displayed in a cell. All other calculation results are not affected.

The Solution
We take calculation in Excel very seriously and we do everything we can in order to ensure that calculation is correct for all cases. We’ve come up with a fix for this issue and are in the final phases of a broad test pass in order to ensure that the fix works and doesn’t introduce any additional issues - especially any other calculation issues. This fix then needs to make its way through our official build lab and onto a download site - which we expect to happen very soon. We’ll add another post once that’s taken place with a link to the download.

News Source: blogs.msdn.com (via www.bink.nu)

I just downloaded the Windows DreamScene Content Pack which includes an additional three DreamScene looped background desktop videos. I love the new Waterfall DreamScene which is my default, Brandon Leblanc over at the Windows Experience Blog shows how to install it. Yesterday I announced the final release of DreamScene which is an exclusive feature for Vista Ultimate customers through the Ultimate Extras Service.

Rocky Mountain Fall (looks like somewhere in Nebraska, lol!)

Windows Vista Orb branded DreamScene - The orb glows and shines ;)

This one is a bit difficult, its an abstract DreamScene with some weird marble kind of thingy’s

Related:

How to enable Windows DreamScene

A look at the Windows DreamScene Content Pack Favorites

Oh my Goodness - the new DreamScenes are HOT!

Resources:

Has Ultimate Extras failed?

The Windows Ultimate Extras Drought

DreamScene - The Issues So Far
Forza 2 DreamScene for Windows Vista

Disclaimer: This is a Microsoft asset-tagged item that Microsoft Corporation provided ActiveWin and Teching It Easy for review under no obligation and that it is expected to be returned at the end of the review period.

We conclude our Certified for Windows Vista Devices Review with the Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision.

Features:

· True 1.3 megapixel sensor with RightLight 2 Technology

· Live video: up to 640 x 480 pixels

· Still image capture: True 1280 x 960; Up to 4 Megapixel *(software enhanced)

· Built-in microphone with RightSound Technology

· Up to 30 frames per second live video with recommended system

· USB 2.0 high-speed certified 6 ft. USB cable

· 2-year limited hardware warranty

· Adjustable base fits any monitor or notebook

· Fixed focus

Applications for Windows(R):

· Logitech QuickCam (easily capture, save, and email your web camera’s pictures and videos)

· Logitech Video Effects avatar and face accessory software

· HP Photosmart Essential Software (web download required)

· Skype with free, full screen video calling

· Windows Live Messenger with free full screen video calling

· Yahoo Messenger with free video calling

· Video enabled AOL Instant Messenger Service

For years video web cams have been available to anyone who needed such functionality, even in pre-broadband times. I was always interested in getting one, but certain factors always got the best of me. I either don’t have appropriate hardware, too complicated to setup, no one to chat with and lack lustre software. But it’s 2007 and the more you interact with people online, the more you want to go beyond basic text based chatting. This is especially true if you have close family and friends who are far away and you would like to see them every now and then. With the pervasiveness of broadband Internet, the user experience has also been greatly enhanced, for that you get better video calls in addition to more attractive functionality that goes beyond video based chat sessions.

Setup:

Installation was pretty much uneventful, but suffered from too many wizard pages; something I have noticed when installing Logitech products in particular, this case was a four step process. But, I just wish Logitech had toned down on the configuration processes. I want an experience similar to connecting a Keyboard or Mouse or at least strive to be. Before connecting the QuickCam Ultra Vision I ran setup from the provided Installation Disk. I chose a typical installation which provided me with the essential software to work with Windows Vista. In addition to Vista, the QuickCam also supports Windows 2000 and XP. At the end of the initial phase of the installation, I was asked to Insert the QuickCam’s USB connector. Next up was a dry test run which detected the Camera and displayed a preview video. The first problem I noticed immediately was jerky video, because the table on which I was reviewing from was a bit shaky so, a video/image stabilizer would have come in handy. After this last step, setup was complete from what I could tell.

No it wasn’t, next was configuration, which I consider to be a part of the installation. The Logitech Audio Tuning Wizard began, this part focused on tuning the devices audio settings for optimal use. After eight pages, I was ready to now use the QuickCam Ultra Vision. Not so fast, one last hurdle popped up, a dialog appeared asking if I would like to enable RightLight Technology which adjusts the web cams lighting in different environments, whether dark or bright.

Usage: QuickCam Quick Capture

After installing and configuring, the QuickCam Quick Capture application started which is a similar application to Apple Inc. Photo Booth software. The software provides a number of nifty features such as taking a photo and recording video. Captured video and photos are immediately stored in the Gallery which you can easily minimize for convenience or open pictures in your default photo application. Other handy options include emailing, printing and deleting. The Logitech QuickCam floating toolbar list links to other features such as an Avatar gallery you can use to replace your face in a video with an animated character. I had some problems calibrating my face to work with the provided Avatar, but it should be fun for kids who like to do that sort of thing.

Privacy Shade

Replaces your background with a stock photo, such as an image of the beach so you can fool your colleagues or some other nature based background. There are numerous images to choose from and you can add your own with little effort. I never got this one working properly either, but then again, I really didn’t care that much. It’s something do with the lighting in my room or the calibration of my head I guess.

Web Cam Settings

Provided are a plethora of options for adjusting the QuickCam’s settings, some of these included are Pan and Tilt, Zoom, Fast Tracking, and various lighting adjustments. Other tools include Volume and Speaker, Lighting effects using the RightLight Technology for fixing poor lighting environments, Exposure, Gain, AntiFlicker, Image Orientation and Camera Selector. Application Preferences allows you to select your default video calling application, I chose Windows Live Messenger since the majority of my friends and family use that, but you can also use Yahoo! or AOL AIM if those are installed on your system. Other options include default email client which is strangely enough set to CorelCENTRAL Mail, but provides other popular choices such as Windows Live Mail, Office Outlook, Windows Mail and Yahoo! Mail. You can also set storage options for captured images or video.

 

Video Calling Applications

The Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision supports a wide variety of services, I previously mentioned AOL, Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger, along with these, users can also use Skype, and Logitech’s own VideoCall which you have to download separately. If you want to do more with Video, tools for Blogging, Sharing and Podcasting are also available such as Google’s YouTube, Grouper and Logitech’s Mobile Video. A very nice feature I noticed while going through the Video based tools option, the Quick Cam provides access to tools you can already take advantage of that are installed on your system. For instance, video Editing Tools HP Photosmart Essential is provided as an option to download, but you can readily use the Windows Moviemaker application that comes built into Windows Vista. Video Snap which you can use to capture footage of an item you plan to sell on eBay so in addition to the bland still photograph you are accustomed to seeing in eBay listings, you can add a video to provide some pizzazz.

Design and Technologies

The QuickCam Ultra Vision has a unique design that’s considerably modern and functional. I used the Ultra Vision with a notebook; it was mounted on the laptops display panel, but almost seemed unstable. It just did not feel secure; the advertised “Flexible clip” did not conform to the laptops ridge although the packaging says it works with any monitor. If you are unsure about placing it on top of your monitor, you can also place it on a desk and align the camera lens to see your face.

Apart from being a traditional web cam, you can take up to 4.0 Mega pixel resolution photos; the default is set to 320 x 240 which is appropriate for emailing. If you want to achieve more high quality output you can click the Select Image Size list box which provides a number of sizes such as 960 x 720 (Hi-Definition video) and up to 2304 x 1728 for photos. I still didn’t find the results for the 4 MP photos that impressive, the colour was a bit shabby and washed out, in comparison to my Canon A520 digital camera which produces crystal clear photos with richer colours. Both sides of the camera have buttons for taking photos and video, the middle of the camera has a built in microphone along with the Activity Light button.

Windows Live Messenger

Working with Instant Messaging

The next logical step was to test it out over Instant Messenger. To start using Live Messenger for Video and Audio, a setup wizard was launched when I clicked the Start or Stop a video call button on the contacts conversation window. After adjusting my hardware, the video session began. There was nothing spectacular about it, but I notice the video quality was not that riveting, but was fluid and acceptable. That was pretty much it to be honest with you. There were no issues throughout the chat session. I notice that the recipients viewing quality was not that picture quality although I was receiving a much clearer picture from the other end.

Conclusion

The Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision is nice, just the ability to see the person on the other end is a great treat, especially if it’s someone you have not seen in ages. Although the video capabilities were not impressive, I feel it was more a result of my connection which is kind of slow by DSL standards. But going beyond just video chat sessions, I was pleased with the web cams range of capabilities. The QuickCam software provides nifty features such as the ability to record video so you can easily setup a Podcast and post a video to your blog or on popular services such as YouTube or MSN Soapbox. The tight integration with the Windows Vista operating system gives you choices to experiment and utilize existing technologies built into the OS such as Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker. Although I do not consider supporting specific Instant Messaging services a feature any typical web cam should be able to do that, its nice to know it confidently supports the various services available. If you are interested in purchasing a web cam, this is definitely a recommended choice to look at.

 

In the Box:

· Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision

· Installation CD

· Installation Guide

Ratings:

· Installation: 79 %

· Ease of Use: 86%

· Features: 86%

· Design: 95%

· Options: 95%

· Help & Documentation: 85%

· Price: 90%

Price $129

Check out the Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision Gallery Here

Certified for Windows Vista

Windows Vista Logo Program: http://www.windowsvista.com/lookforthelogo

Logitech:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2204,CONTENTID=11804

System Requirements:

· Windows 2000, Windows XP Pentium 4 1.4 Ghz or AMD Athlon 1.6GHz processor (Pentium 4 2.4 GHz recommended) 128 MB RAM (256 recommended).

· Windows Vista – Pentium 4 2.4 GHz (2.8 GHz recommended), 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended)

· 200 MB hard disk space

· CD-ROM drive

· 16-Bit color display adapter

· OS Compatible Sound Card and Spears

· 1.1 or 2.0 USB port

Recommended system requirements are needed to use Logitech RightSound or RightLight 2 technology features.