Here are some good tips and techniques to use around your testing of Windows 7 thanks to the great work of Jeff Asis and Joel Schoenberg on the Windows Client team for providing these techniques!
Boot to VHD Screen cast now available
Learn more about booting Windows 7 directly to a VHD file by watching this video walkthrough: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=80EDE31D-3509-407B-A896-0BEEA8705589&displaylang=en The purpose of the boot to VHD feature in Windows 7 is not for enterprise-wide deployment, but is very useful in certain scenarios. The documentation for automating deployment of VHDs currently exists here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd363560.aspx If you want additional detail on this, please send me a note and we can discuss it offline.
WIM2VHD code project helps you virtualize straight from your deployment images
This tool is a great way to take your existing WIM file and convert it to a VHD. I expect this tool to be heavily used, especially given the boot to VHD feature in Windows 7. Try it here: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wim2vhd
Virtual PC 7 requirements (and the MEDV mitigation)
The latest version of the Virtual PC product requires CPU-specific virtualization extensions in order to run. Therefore, detecting the presence of this chipset becomes important if you want to use this new software. Here are a few tools to detect the presence of virtualization extensions on a given machine:
Intel: http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/
AMD: http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/dynamicDetails.aspx?ListID=c5cd2c08-1432-4756-aafa-4d9dc646342f&ItemID=172
Gibson Research: http://www.grc.com/securable.htm
Remember that Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MEDV) does not have this restriction. You can have these killer integrated virtualization features (just like XP Mode) even on non-virtualization extension CPUs. Learn more about MEDV here: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/default.aspx
New Windows features in Windows PE version 3.0
With the Windows 7 WAIK, available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4AD85860-D1F4-42A1-A46C-E039E3D0DB5D&displaylang=en, we will get a new version of Windows PE. This version contains several key enhancements you should know about:
• Smaller default Size. Windows PE version 2.0 contains staged optional components that add additional size, which required additional effort to remove. The Windows PE 3.0 default image contains only the minimum resources to support most deployment scenarios. Optional components can be added using Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM).
• Serviceable. In Windows Vista®, after you run PEImg /prep against a Windows PE 2.0 image, the image cannot be modified. Windows PE 3.0 images can be serviced at any time using DISM. The PEImg.exe tool is not supported in Windows PE 3.0.
• Image optimization. Previous versions of Windows PE provides limited support for optimizing (reducing) the size of an image. Using the new DISM /apply-profiles option, you can reduce the contents of a Windows PE 3.0 image to only those files necessary to support a given set of applications.
• System drive letter. You can assign any letter to the system drive using the new DISM /Set-TargetPath option.
• Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM). DISM is a new command-line tool you can use to customize a Windows PE 3.0 image offline. DISM replaces PEImg.exe. For more information, see Deployment Image Servicing and Management Command-Line Options.
• Mounted images. Windows PE 3.0 supports mounting a Windows image (WIM).
• Hyper-V support. Windows PE 3.0 includes all Hyper-V™ drivers except display drivers. This enables Windows PE to run in Hypervisor. Supported features include mass storage, mouse integration, and network adapters.
New features in User State Migration Tool 4.0
Also contained in the WAIK, available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4AD85860-D1F4-42A1-A46C-E039E3D0DB5D&displaylang=en, is the User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0, which will be key for any customer expecting to go from Windows XP to Windows 7. This migration path requires a fresh install, which means migrating the user's settings and data is very important to accomplish well. Therefore these following improvements in USMT 4.0 are timely:
• Hard-link migration store
• Ability to run the ScanState command on an offline Windows image
• Volume shadow copy support
• New helper functions
• Improved space estimation
• Configurable file errors
• Local group migration
• List of files being migrated
• Usmtutils.exe
• New Advanced Encryption Standard encryption options
Record quality screencasts easy and cheap with Community Clips
Office Labs has published a great tool for you to communicate more effectively about technology. Office Labs Community Clips will let you instantly record a compressed (but decent quality, actually) video of your desktop or portion of your desktop. Get it here: http://communityclips.officelabs.com/
Windows Sensor and Location platform "lights up" Windows 7
Literally, in a way. The Windows Sensor platform allows your Windows 7 PC to use ambient light sensors on your laptop to adaptively change your screen brightness (even if you don't have a fancy new laptop, you can try it out with this code from the Windows SDK: http://blogs.msdn.com/gavingear/archive/2009/04/22/don-t-have-a-light-sensor-use-virtuallightsensor-exe-from-the-sdk.aspx). The Windows location platform aims to make very specific location information (GPS, for instance) available for your application without having to interface directly with the GPS unit. Here's sample code for that: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=SensorsAndLocation&DownloadId=5857 You can learn more about this platform here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/d/f/adf1347d-08dc-41a4-9084-623b1194d4b2/Introducing_Sensors.docx
Bing Maps is localizing content in the cloud
Microsoft (and other companies) get a lot of press about building huge centrally-located data centers (http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/look-inside-data-centers-cloud?page=), while at the same time Microsoft and the industry are also moving in the opposite direction by localizing content delivery, rather than centralizing. Content Delivery Networks (CDN) like Akamai and Limelight have been around for quite some time to help the internet deal with large file transfers such as HD video, video game content (Xbox) and massively downloaded binaries (such as the Windows 7 Release Candidate) by localizing the download to close-by servers. Now, with increasing expectations on how our software works, Microsoft is seeing big value in providing even more localized content to enterprises. Thus, Microsoft has invested in Content Delivery Network technology and is beginning to integrate, as reported last year: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/01/11/microsoft-building-own-cdn-network/. And now with the release of Bing Maps, the content is delivered from this CDN, and is now both strongly localizable and much faster for the user to view and navigate. Try it for yourself here: http://maps.bing.com.
Windows Live Maps (now Bing Maps) unintentionally aids scientific discovery
Scientist Martyn Barber was using Windows Live Maps to get driving directions to an archeological site, and noticed an earth formation suggesting something was in the undergrowth. This 'something turned out to be a 6,000 year old tomb, which might be a peer to the archeological site at Stonehenge. An amazing find! http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090608143835.htm
Network World takes a crack at diagramming Microsoft's desktop virtualization offerings
Read the brief blog post with a chart here: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/42507
ReadyBoost gets a boost in Windows 7
For Windows Vista the maximum you could have for a ReadyBoost cache was 4GB. In Windows 7 your cache can be 32GB when you format the device as exFAT or NTFS. Also, in Windows Vista you could have only one ReadyBoost device per machine, while Windows 7 allows eight per machine. With this improved functionality we expect newer tests to show improvements, and while our white paper has not been finished yet, you should know there are significant performance improvements, even on computers with 4GB or RAM. The sweet spot for how much helps depends on workload and configuration, but the general recommendation is 2-4x RAM size. In our live-user test results, due to be published soon, both "process" and "thread" speedup was over 25% and 15% respectively, on machines with both large and small amounts of RAM.
Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) Platform profile migration tool released
The WSR in Windows Vista was greatly improved over previous operating systems, but as people have pointed out to me, when these users migrate to Windows 7, they will want to move their speech profiles to avoid re-training your new computer. Fortunately, we have released a tool to migrate your speech profiles. Try it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1d60a5a6-85d4-4db2-a581-a41f66561a7d
Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) Macro recording tool expands usability of speech API
Now, without redeveloping your applications, you can improve the speech capabilities with WSR Macros. These are essentially manifests that define phrases to 'listen for', and the resulting action you want the computer to take. This should help you consume complex technical phrasing and perform a complex technical tasks without being a developer. Very geeky: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=FAD62198-220C-4717-B044-829AE4F7C125&displaylang=en
How to set up WMI to use a specific port
Out of the box, WMI uses port 135 to set up and then uses dynamic port mapping between 1024 and 65535 thereafter. Obviously, this complicates WMI remoting across restrictive networks, so you now have the ability to statically set the port that WMI will work with. Here's a 'how to': http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219447.aspx
Powershell Code
Use Powershell to get useful info out of the event logs. In this case, the most recent error events in the system log:
$SysEvent = get-EventLog -logname system -newest 2000
$SysError = $SysEvent |where {$_.entryType -match "Error"}
$SysError | sort eventid | Format-Table EventID, Source, TimeWritten, Message -auto
Learn more at the Powershell blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2009/05/21/processing-event-logs-in-powershell.aspx
Downloads you can use
LogParser 2.2 - Parses many types of textual content, it's a mature tool with well upgraded functionality
Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 RC - Manage Windows server infrastructure from Windows 7 RC
Windows Automated Installation Kit - Create your own Windows PE images, migrate user data
Windows 7 Applocker technical documentation - how to use Group Policy to control application usage
Tips for Virtual PC 7 - Details about how to use the new features, including XP Mode
Tips
· When you are using the MSTSC applet (Remote Desktop) in full screen mode you'll see a small title bar at the top showing your computer name. Well, in Windows 7, you can now drag and move this title bar! Which is fantastic for opening multiple TS sessions to multiple machines. Great feature!
· Yes, the "Switch Windows with Flip3D" icon is gone in Windows 7, but if you want it back, just create a new shortcut with this following command line. Then you can pin it to the Taskbar, if you like! %WinDir%\System32\rundll32.exe dwmapi #105
· If you are migrating to a new Windows 7 machine, you might want to back up your sticky notes from here: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
· When in Magnifier, hold down the Windows Key and press the plus (actually the equal key....no SHIFT needed) and minus keys.
· Check out the Windows 7 Jumplists for Powershell. Nice!
Hardware news
A wave of new devices is coming with Windows 7 that are touch enabled, yet highly capable like a netbook. Some people think of them as next-generation UMPC. Check out Archos' re-entry into this market with the 9PC here: http://www.umpcportal.com/2009/06/archos-launch-9%e2%80%9d-windows-7-tablet-umpc
Lists of changes in Windows 7
For your reference:
