Windows Vista Compability Reliability (kb938194) and Performance Reliability Updates (kb938979) had been released

Hi folks,

great news today for all Microsoft Windows Vista users. You may already noticed some performance, compatibility and reliability issues during your Windows Vista utilization.

Common issues like long delays while you copy or move files, compatibility with some NVIDIA cards, resume a computer from hibernation and many more can now be fixed with two updates that Microsoft released today.
I do recommend that you apply these fixes on your Windows Vista computer.


Check for details and download the updates from the links below:

An update is available that improves the compatibility and reliability of Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194/en-us

This update resolves some compatibility issues and reliability issues in Windows Vista. By applying this update, you can achieve better reliability and hardware compatibility in various scenarios.

This update resolves the following issues:

• The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver.
• The computer stops responding, and you receive a "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer's power button.
• The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
• The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
• The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
• A computer that has NVIDIA G80 series graphic drivers installed stops responding.
• Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
• You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
• Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
• Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
• Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
• The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
• You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active.

An update is available that improves the performance and reliability of Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979/en-us

This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who are using the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services.

This update resolves the following issues on a Windows Vista-based computer:

• You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
• A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.
• If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
• When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.
• When you copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
• After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.
• When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.
• If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file. This problem occurs if the RAW image is from any of the following digital SLR camera models:
•Canon EOS 1D
•Canon EOS 1DS
• After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.
• Poor memory management performance occurs.

R-Tape Loading Error,
Luís Rato

Get ready for Windows Server 2008

Hi folks,

Micrososft released the Windows Server 2008 beta 3 and made it available for download on the link bellow:

Evaluate the Windows Server 2008 Public Beta today
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/beta/lhs/default.mspx


I believe that before you start to do some tests on your lab enviroment and evaluate the new features and changes from Windows 2003, you want to read some documentation and get as much information as you can. To help you out with this, Microsoft released the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library on the link below:

Windows Server 2008 Technical Library
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/

Note: You should be aware that at the moment this documentation is based on beta versions and is subject to change with additional content, stay tuned for the new changes.


Don't wait for the final release to get experienced with Windows Server 2008. If you want to stay on the lead, get ready now!



R-Tape Loading error,
Luís Rato

Toshiba releases M400 bios update to add support for VPC 2007

Toshiba has released a new Bios update for the Portege M400 which adds support for the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. This is really good news for someone like me that owns one M400 and depends on the portable computer for the business show with Virtualization.

Title: ACPI Flash BIOS version 3.60 for Portege M400
Version: 3.60
Size: 4,288,384 bytes
Posted: 07/13/07
Released Date: 07/13/07
Operating System: BIOS

Change History:
Version 3.60 07-13-2007 Added support for Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Link for download: http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/support/downloads/pm400v36.exe

R-Tape Loading error,
Luís Rato

My first Post

Hi everybody, here is my first post on this blog. It is my intent to share my ideas, knowledge and experience from the last 11 years of hard work in IT.


For the Kick Off I will show my respect and tribute for the responsible ones of what I do today in my job, my father and the Zx Spectrum 48k.


In early 80s my father went home with his new brand Zx Spectrum 48k, as a little kid at that time I was far to image how this moment was so important for my career and life path. I started to put my fingers on the rubber keyboard with the help of my father, we spent our time programming in basic to reproduce some drawings, and all the fun came right after it when I started playing 'MANIC MINNER'. I'll never forget the good times with my friends playing Formula One Manager, Bomb Jack, Target Renegade, Chuckie Egg, Double Dragon and so many, many more, that time when I spent 8 or 16 hours in front of the computer for fun and not for work.


My Zx Spectrum was a real survivor, I did punch it, Kick it and even Stab it and all it asked for in return was a new keyboard. I will never forget the face of the guy that did repairs to my Spectrum for a couple of times, on the moment he looked for it with two big holes on the keyboard plate and he asked me "What the hell happened this time?" and I just said "I did Stab it", he laughed and told me "come on kid get out here, no one Stab's a computer". Poor me, we cannot even be honest on these days. :S

Just for the record, obviously all the future content on this Blog will not be regarding Spectrum, for all I said before I think that it deserved to be remembered. I will post here some content based on the current technology and interest.

To finish, for all of those with the same nostalgic feeling and also for all of those who only know what is a Xbox, Playstation, PCs and may be curious about what the heck is a Spectrum, I leave here some links to make you feel more happy.

Web Site with all those special Spectrum Games (ready to play online):
http://zxspectrum.net/

A bit of history of Spectrum:
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/sinclair/sinclair.htm

Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC Programming:
http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/zxspectrum/start.htm



R-Tape Loading error,
Luís Rato