I’m surprised that there hasn’t been a HAL 9000 theme already, considering how popular the Space Odyssey movie was. This Vista theme is really sleek and perfect for any computer. I like how that red eye is looking at you. It makes you feel like HAL 9000 is actually in your computer. This is a great looking theme with all the different shades of gray and the bright red light in the middle.
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Windows Vista Springboard is a micro site on the Microsoft Web site dedicated to helping IT Pros get Vista deployed into their environments.

Now before going any further with regards to Vista Springboard, I want to say that I am a strong supporter of Windows Vista. Their are some big benefits, and some big steps forward with Vista. The most important aspect of Vista is that it helps me be a lazy admin.

Now I'll also be honest and realistic, there are a lot of people that don't like Vista. There are many reasons why people won't like Vista, some of the reasons are legitimate, however most reasons tend to be rooted in a haze of bad perception. What I mean by that is Vista has a perception of lacking value, or in other words people will ask "What is my compelling reason for upgrading to Vista?" This goes for Home users, Office users,  IT pros, and especially IT managers and decision makers.

This is where the Vista Springboard program comes into play. IT people are busy people, and even though we would all like to be Lazy Admins, in reality my guess is that your not really that lazy at all. The problem with Vista is that there isn't one feature that people say WOW I need that! There are a few features that come close (I'm thinking BitLocker, Windows Search, UAC, Windows Imaging) But not of these features by themselves really sell the idea of Vista. I like to say that when you start looking at all the features, and starting to figure out how each little feature saves time, resources, the benefits start to add up. As the benefits add up, you start to realize that there isn't one compelling reason to install Vista, but a few hundred small reasons soon add up to a conglomerated compelling reason!

Now all that being said I still don't feel I have said anything really new, I can hear you all yelling at the monitors YES, WE KNOW THERE IS LOTS OF COOL STUFF, but where to do I start to get a handle on all this??

This is where Springboard comes into play. The site is designed to provide information about Vista at the right detail level, based on where you are in your considerations for, and hopefully deployment of Vista.

The site breaks down into 4 sections, which align with how IT environments will typically approach a new set of technologies.

Discover Windows Vista:  Windows XP is good enough. Why should I care?

Explore: How do I learn what's in it for me and if it's worth the effort?

Pilot: Will it work in our environment; how do I prepare?

Deploy: What best practices can we get to minimize our risk?

Over the next few weeks I'm going to focus on some of the cool articles, and talking point that we can find on the Springboard site. You can check it out too, just follow the link below. In the efforts to create a conversation around these articles, I have created a new forum to talk specifically about all things Vista, and especially around the Vista Springboard program. To motivate the conversation I have some great giveaways for TLAers who participate in the discussion/debate. Just remember, I am always up for a great debate, however formal debate rules apply, argue against the idea, not person. Also keep it clean, we can be passionate without the colourful metaphors.

Check out SpringBoard: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8418918

Discuss Springboard in the forums: http://thelazyadmin.com/forums/25/ShowForum.aspx

During the betas, one of the few new functionality Windows Vista Service Pack 1 added was the ability to create a Windows recovery CD with an easy-to-use GUI interface. Up and until then, it was slightly harder but still possible to do so through a command line. Update: To avoid confusion, this is not the type of recovery discs you find in prepackaged computer systems. This recovery disc does not reinstall Windows, it merely offers tools to fix it if it ever becomes unbootable.

Whilst all Vista install DVDs include the recovery functionality natively, it’s probably useful to burn yourself a spare copy to take with you. You can also download an ISO from NeoSmart.net but you might not have bandwidth to spare.

For unknown reasons, the functionality was then pulled out of the final release of SP1. If you look inside your system files, you can still find recdisc.exe which is the utility’s executable, but clicking on it does not launch anything. The shortcut in the Start Menu was also removed, indicating it was removed on purpose.

Out of curiosity, I decided to find out if by copying a version of recdisc.exe from a beta build of Vista SP1 and placing it in SP1 RTM would work. Thanks to Chris123NT for digging up a copy, it did work. If you also want to make it work, there’s a bit of file permissions involved, so here’s how.

Step 1. Download a pre-final release of recdisc.exe (x86 version) or (x64 version).
Step 2. Open your system32 directory. Start menu, type “%systemroot%\system32″ and click Enter.
Step 3. Find recdisc.exe, right click on it and click “Properties”.

Step 4. Select the “Security” tab and click “Advanced”.
Step 5. Select the “Owner” tab and click “Edit…”.

Step 6. Select “Administrators” to change the owner to, click “OK”. Click “OK” again on the dialog.
Step 7. You should be back at the file security settings dialog. Click “Edit..”.

Step 8. Select “Administrators” and then tick the checkbox under the “Allow” column and “Full control” row. Then click “OK”. Click “OK” again to finish.
Step 9. Rename this file (press F2) to something like “recdisc.old” to keep a backup of the original file in case you need to restore it in the future.

Step 10. Copy the “recdisc.exe” file you downloaded earlier. Double click on it to run.