I stopped using Vista for my day to day work about 6 months ago. I only fire it up in a virtual machine for testing with our remote control software.

I have realized it is keeping me from experiencing the pain of Vista, and finding solutions for it.

I decided I needed to start using it every day. That way I know exactly what my customers experience when running Vista. To make this mission more appealing I splurged and bought a dream system.

I finally made my choice - The Sony Viao TZ Series.

It is the white edition - looks a lot like a very thin Mac book (Surprise surprise). The hardware itself is awesome. The similarity ends there.

Unfortunately I cannot run Mac OSX on this fine piece…and I am stuck with Vista. Yes…that was my original purpose, but after I made the plunge I was swearing at it for at least a few hours.

The first thing I noticed is that I couldn’t telnet into my FreeBSD based Asterisk server. Hmm. It says the command is not recongizied.

Could it really be that Microsoft has removed telnet from Vista?

Yep. Yes they took it out. Perfect. It makes me love Vista even more.

Here is how you get it back:

1. Get to a command line

2. Type: start /w pkgmgr /iu:”TelnetClient”

3. Click Continue on the User Access Control Prompt

4. Wait while Vista churns and churns thinking about it

5. Bam. Now you have telnet back

• With SP1, Microsoft plans to ditch the Vista ?kill switch?
  More coverage of the changes to WGA, removing the ‘kill switch’.
  (tags: WGA )
• Windows Genuine Advantage : Evolving WGA…
  The WGA website post about the changes coming in Vista SP1 related to WGA.
  (tags: WGA )
• Microsoft to modify Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy scheme
  Vista SP1 will contain the WGA changes, which will disable the OEM BIOS exploit, and the Grace Timer exploit. It will also stop disabling the system, and instead give prominant notices of the system status and how to get genuine.
  (tags: WGA SP1 )
• Microsoft system builders offering Vista holiday bundles
  Bundles and rebates. It holiday shopping time…
  (tags: Sales )
• Windows Tip: Turn Off Shadow Copies to Speed Up Vista
  Saves a few CPU cycles, but you must give up System Restore if you do.
  (tags: Tips )

What a unique set of Autumn icons. This pack included 6 Vista icons like a small tree in a pot, a butterfly on a CD and more. Such high quality icons are always a pleasure to add to the desktop.
(more…)

Microsoft has disclosed a vulnerability in Vista and IE7 that could result in information disclosure. The vulnerability is in the way Windows resolves hostnames that do not include a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN). The Microsoft Security Response Center says they know of no current attacks. The Security Advisory (945713) lists a number of ‘Mitigating Factors’ that can help work around this problem, but you can expect they are working on an update to deal with it properly.

Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. When you insert a compatible device, the AutoPlay dialog box will offer you the option to speed up your system using Windows ReadyBoost.

Move the slider to choose how much space you want to designate for boosting your system speed.

Note:The removable media device must contain at least 256 megabytes (MB) of space to work with Windows ReadyBoost.

Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. When you insert a device with this capability, the AutoPlay dialog will offer you the option to speed up your system using Windows ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can then choose how much memory to use for this purpose. However, there are some situations where you may not be able to use all of the memory on your storage device to speed up your computer.

Some universal serial bus (USB) storage devices contain both slow and fast flash memory, and Windows can only use fast flash memory to speed up your computer. So if your device contains both slow and fast memory, keep in mind that you can only use the fast memory portion for this purpose.

The recommended amount of memory to use for Windows ReadyBoost acceleration is one to three times the amount of random access memory (RAM) installed in your computer. For instance, if your computer has 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM and you plug in a 4 gigabyte (GB) USB flash drive, setting aside from 512 MB to 1.5 GB of that drive will offer the best performance boost. The minimum size for any USB flash drive to work with Windows ReadyBoost is 256 MB.

Source : http://windowshelp.microsoft.com