Today we're going to talk about SSL Closure Alerts in Internet Explorer.  This is usually manifested as the user getting the "Page Cannot Be Displayed" error when connecting to a secure website hosted on a non-Microsoft Web Server. ...

This week, Microsoft will be releasing a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows PowerShell v2.0.  Now - before you rush out to find, download and use the CTP, there is a very important point to remember: This release will not be for everyone...

As we get closer to the DST change here in the US, we have received some reports from a few customers that the system time erroneously reverted back an hour last Sunday (October 28). On these systems the customers did have KB931386 and / or KB933360 installed...

In previous posts we've discussed the basics of memory management including an overview of kernel and user memory , pool resources as well as the /3GB switch .   Continuing our discussion of memory management, we are going to examine an issue...

We covered the architecture of the Application Compatibility Toolkit in our last post.  Today we're going to step through a very simple installation and get our first package deployed to a Windows XP client machine.  I'm using a Windows Server...

Recently, I've had several engineers ask me about disabling of the Advanced Print Features as a troubleshooting step.  I sat down with one of our print developers to talk about the Advanced Print Features - what they do and why they are useful. ...

Deploying a new Operating System or a new version of Internet Explorer is no easy task at the best of times in a heterogeneous environment.  The problem becomes exponentially more difficult when you consider the myriad of third-party applications...

Today we're going to take a look at an issue that is fairly common when dealing with WMI failures.  Starting with Windows XP, WMI providers are hosted in a separate process called WMIPRVSE.  Most of the time this provider host runs in the context...

Here on the Performance Team, we recently had a discussion about the pains associated with viewing exported Event Log (.evt) files from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 on a Windows Vista machine. In order to increase the usability of these files within...

At the start of 2007, Microsoft released an update ( KB 931836 ) to update the Time Zone rules on Windows Operating Systems. On November 4, 2007 Daylight Saving Time (DST) will end in the United States. However, other parts of the world observe different...

In our previous post on PCA, we discussed several runtime issue detection scenarios. Today, we are going to examine some program startup scenarios (specifically application blocking) and discuss the management of the Program Compatibility Assistant. Let...

It's been a while since we posted something on Application Compatibility and Windows Vista. A question I get from quite a few customers when discussing application compatibility is, "What is the Program Compatibility Assistant used for?" Today we are...

In previous posts, we've discussed the Basics of Memory Management , Pool Resources and of course the /3GB Switch . Today we're going to take a look at the Virtual Address Space Layouts on a 32-bit system. We'll cover the 64-bit system specifics in a...

Following on from our post on troubleshooting a basic application crash , it's time to start troubleshooting what to do when your entire server hangs. Most of us have run into situations where the server is so unresponsive that we cannot access Task Manager...

Server Message Block (SMB) traffic is an application-level network protocol typically used for file and print sharing. Microsoft implements SMB in Windows operating systems through the Workstation and Server services; the client and server components...

Although the majority of IE cookie issues are handled by our Developer Support team, every now and then a question about cookies will reach us on the Performance team. Often, the question will revolve around the number of cookies stored per domain. Prior...

If you have been around since the days of Windows NT, then you are probably all too familiar with Kernel-mode Print Drivers and the devastating effect that problems with those drivers can have on system stability. In the majority of environments, these...

A few weeks ago we posted our initial walkthrough on Windows Server 2008 Server Core - getting the OS installed and joining the server to a domain. Today we're going to continue getting our Server Core implementation and turn the machine into a functional...

A couple of weeks ago we took a look at WinINet . Today, our focus shifts to WinHTTP. The WinHTTP API is designed to provide client side HTTP services to server applications. If you recall from our post, WinINet was designed as an HTTP API client platform...

Today we're going to talk about the Plug & Play Device Redirection Framework in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 which the folks over at the TS Team Blog have covered in a three part series. I'll go over the highlights of the first part here...

A common issue we work with is Printer Redirection issues with Terminal Services on Windows Server 2003. Although printer redirection seems fairly simple on the surface, the issues that we work on can get somewhat convoluted. So today we're going to look...

We often have to work with customers to understand why a specific IE scenario fails. In some instances we may have to enable some custom logging and data collection to get to the root cause. However, understanding why we are doing what we are doing is...

There have been several requests for good IE resources - especially resources pertaining to Internet Explorer 7. The majority of these requests are in reference to three areas - Security, Deployment and Developing for IE7. Bearing in mind that the folks...

Back in June, we published our post on Basic WMI Testing . Today we're going to go over some common issues and ways that you can troubleshoot and recover from them - specifically rights and permissions. We're not going to get into troubleshooting scripts...

One of the new features in Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services is Server Drain Mode. When a terminal server needs maintenance, the administrator may want to prevent users from logging onto a server which is about to be taken offline. In Windows Server...