StevenMcNutt.com

Ed Bott is digging into the technology behind Windows Activation, and one of the more amusing bits was when he had to use a cracking program to fix a file he had intentionally damaged since Microsoft’s own tool was unable to fix it. My own amusing story was when I was trying to properly activate our work systems. Since the volume management auto-registration program (KMS) won’t run until at least 25 Windows 7 systems have tried to register (why? I’ve no idea), I decided to fall back on our key (MAK) that we can use alternatively in limited use. The key had worked for me fine before when I used the GUI, but when I used the command line ‘slmgr.vbs’ Windows still showed as being un-activated. I wanted to use the command line so that I wouldn’t have to visit each system to register them, so I tried to force it on my own computer by using the undocumented ‘rearm’ switch. I figured it would either work, or reset to default settings at which point I could try putting the key back in, but no, I got this instead: ‘Unauthorized’? By who? It goes without saying that the OS in fact does NOT have to be reinstalled, but instead the licensing cache has to be cleared out (it also turns out that an extra command is required to register through the command line). If Microsoft is going to be a bit overbearing in preventing piracy, couldn’t they at least make sure their anti-piracy protections work? It aggravates me all the more since I’ve always made sure we are properly licensed and I would think that somewhere in the bucket of money we send them every year they could find the funds to fix stuff like this. . . . → Read More: Windows Activation

Although my limited Windows 7 experience thus far has been largely positive, even my meager deployment of a half dozen PCs has turned up two irritations: Firstly, I started up four of the HP systems we purchased and two of the systems started in a different manner than the other two. The ‘different’ systems had startup menu options that appeared out of sync. It still got the job done, but it was disconcerting that even such a limited number of Windows PCs couldn’t be bothered to start up in a consistent manner (“did someone use this before me?”). Secondly, my user base is pretty anxious for their new PCs so I was hoping to avoid a time sink by simply upgrading Windows 7 Pro (the OEM version which ships on the units) to Windows 7 Enterprise (the SA version we’re entitled to run). Doing this would save me time from having to rebuild the application and driver base to support the system. Unfortunately I got a big old error message stating that ‘Windows 7 Pro cannot be upgraded to Windows 7 Enterprise’. Why the frick not? Is it that involved of a process to copy that small handful of code that differentiates the versions? It can upgrade from Vista Business, why not 7? My only other peeve is the nasty mess that is the control panel. I figured this would be one of the big things addressed with the upgrade, but that half baked idea is a direct port of the original Vista implementation. I wait with baited breath in anticipation of finding another landmine. . . . → Read More: Let Down a Little by 7

We’re going to be getting some very nice business desktops at work which will have quite a bit more CPU power and six (!) times the memory of our current systems.  This of course means that it will now take a little bit longer for my PC to be brought to it’s knees by . . . → Read More: All for Naught