If you’re looking for a grey theme, then you’ve found one of the best. This theme has a cool techie and Alien feel to it. Usually grey themes are depressing but I don’t find this one is like that at all. I like how the buttons are greyed out and overal transparent look of this theme.
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Yup, a wish came through - I'm now an MVP!

Receiving the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award is a great honor and much appreciated - thank you.

Sharing Rocks - Information wants to be free!

Time to get a beer :-)

 

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Today marks the release of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2008 - a set of tools for IT Pros managing IT environments for companies who have purchased MDOP plus Windows Software Assurance agreements with Microsoft. There are two key product updates in this release I'd like to highlight that I think IT Pros will find very useful  - Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 6.0 (DaRT) and Desktop Error Monitoring 3.0 SP1 (DEM).

For those of you not familiar with DaRT, it provides a set of tools for IT Pros to debug and troubleshoot unbootable PCs.  DaRT 6.0 brings in some new tools worth taking note of. Tools such as Locksmith can reset a local administrator password, while Hotfix Uninstall can remove a bad hotfix.  This is especially useful if the hotfix was the cause of the PC crash.  Perhaps one of the simplest uses for DaRT is to recover files from the PC, even if they have been removed from the recycle bin.  One of the new features in DaRT 6.0 is the Standalone System Sweeper, an antimalware product that runs while the Windows operating system is unbootable.  This tool, which can receive updated virus/spyware definitions via USB thumb drive or online, will scan the PC's hard drive and is even effective at removing malware which use rootkits to avoid detection.  DaRT 6.0 was previously available in beta, and Brandon had a chance to check it out late last year on the Windows Experience Blog.

DEM is a tool which allows the IT department to monitor all of the little application and operating system crashes that occur in an IT environment.  You can think of it as a "Watson for companies."  Whenever end users have a pop up error that normally says "Click to send to Microsoft," the Administrator can now use DEM to automatically redirect all of those errors to the DEM server.  By tracking all of these errors, companies can create a more stable PC environment for their end users.  They can also use it to track internally developed applications and use the feedback to improve their own development process.  DEM 3.0 SP1 brings improved performance and scalability to the product, as well as an improved look-and-feel of the reports which can be generated for key metrics such as Top Application Crashes and Top Error Groups.  Additionally, the new version of DEM can be upgraded to System Center Operations Manager 2007 through an in-place upgrade.  This will allow IT Departments a deeper level of monitoring for your machines and the added ability to monitor your servers.

The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack continues to be an excellent way for IT Pros to effectively manage their PCs in the IT environment.

By now most of you have probably read about the next wave of Ultimate Extras rumored to be arriving somewhere between now and the distant future. First uncovered by Steven Bink on the recently launched UltimatePC.com website and later removed, was a list of new content for Vista Ultimate extras which has since been confirmed by many official sources at Microsoft. They include “an original game, enhancements to Movie Maker and DVD Maker, additional Windows DreamScenes, screen savers and sound schemes”.

Today, some of those sound schemes were leaked to me by an anonymous and disgruntled Microsoft employee who did this out of frustration at the lack of transparency in the Ultimate Extras program.

In the email he writes, “what’s interesting is that not only did Microsoft bring back Robert Fripp who contributed to the original Vista sound design to work on these new sounds, but also the talent of Ben Burtt who is a notable sound editor and designer famous for his work in the Star Wars movies - most memorably R2D2’s voice and the lightsaber sound effects.” By sampling a few of the sounds, Ben’s contribution can be quite easily identified and adds a very unique touch on each.

Without further ado, you can download the ZIP (674kb) of the sound files here. The files are named in the same format as the original Vista sound files (%systemroot%\Media\) so you can copy and paste them directly over your existing files if you’re happy with them. Having said that I encourage you to keep copies of the original sounds should you ever get sick of these.

It should be noted that this download is not the complete sound scheme package you will receive via Ultimate Extras - many of the sounds have not been finalized, but this gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect in the coming months (*crosses fingers*). I’m personally a big fan of the new UAC sound.

This guide which I found at Digital Inspiration illustrates the various steps required to integrate Service Pack 1 files into Windows Vista installer via a process commonly known as slipstreaming.

Before we get started, here are four things you need to slipstream Windows Vista and Service Pack 1 files:

a. Windows Vista Installer DVD and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Installer
b. vLite Installer - vLite 1.1.5 Beta
c. A blank DVD disc for writing the Vista SP1 files and few gigs of free hard disk space.

Now that you have all the ingredients ready, let’s get slipstreaming Vista SP1:

1. Insert the original Windows Vista DVD disk and start vLite (install the program if you haven’t done that already).

2. Browse for the folder that contains your Windows Vista files (i.e., your DVD Drive letter). vLite will now copy all the files to some local folder that is specified by you.

4. Once all the pre-SP1 Windows Vista files are copied to the local hard disk, specify the Windows Vista Edition that you want to slipstream. This step is necessary because installers for all Vista Editions are shipped in one DVD

5. On the next screen, select the following tasks "Service Pack Slipstream" and "Bootable ISO" -> next -> select the location of standalone Windows Vista SP1 installer file.

6. vLite can take 60-90 minutes for integrating all the SP1 files into Vista Installer. Once this process is complete, change the mode to "Direct Burn", pop a blank DVD and Burn.

Your Windows Vista SP1 Bootable DVD will be ready in few minutes.

Via [Digital Inspiration]