Now i booted the migrated virtual pc image in Hyper-V, inserted the integration services image and installed it in the virtual machine. An information pop-up said:

A previous installation of Hyper-V integration services has been detected. Click OK to upgrade tor repair this installation.

Easy i thought, maybe the installer of the integration services has an upgrade product code in one of his MSI tables .. i decided to click OK. Another information:

The Hyper-V integration services have been successfully installed.

Then i rebooted the system and realized, that there is no mouse integration. Only Ctrl-Alt-Left released my captured mouse. Also no network card (NIC) was detected. i added a legacy adapter, this one got recognized. I ended up booting, adding and removing Network Adapters and Legacy Network Adapter.. until i found a post on social.technet.microsoft.com. The solution is:

1. start msconfig
2. go to the Boot tab
3. Click the Advanced options button.
4. Check the Detect HAL checkbox.
5. Click OK.
6. Click OK.
7. Reboot the vm.
8. Install Integration Services.

next time you boot, the virtual machine will detect the new Hyper-V HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) and it will pick the right drivers for it.

Another good note which helped me to diagnose this:

Open up a cmd:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

devmgmt.msc

now in Device Manager choose View – Show hidden devices

Now under Network Adapter, you’ll see a lot of old orphaned devices. You can clean them out – but don’t ask me which of them – that’s what you have to figure out yourself ..

Note: DiskShadow.exe is not supported on Windows Server 2003 / Windows Vista!

Here are the commands for diskshadow to back up the VHD using VSS (its kicks off vss inside the VM so the data is consistent)

Go to cmd prompt:

diskshadow.exe
set context persistent
add volume d: alias ddrive
set verbose on
create
expose %ddrive% y:

This will take a VSS snapshop of my D drive (where my vhd lives) and then mounts it as drive letter Y: Now copy the contents of Y: to a safe place. When your done you can delete the snapshop and unmount Y:
Delete Shadows Volume D:

unexpose y:

The following sequence generates a shadow copy on volume D: that remains even after the end of the program but not on the file system as "previous version" is available. Theoretically, you could run this script periodically.

set context persistent
begin backup
add volume e:
create
end backup

The Fact that shadow copies for this volume are in use can also be seen in explorer. Right-click the drive D: and go to Shadow Copies

To list the shadow just use

List Shadows

and to expose a specific shadow

expose {ShadowCopyId} V:

don’t forget to discard / unexpose the drive when done!

unexpose V:

Links

DiskShadow Documentation @Microsoft Technet

Snapshots can be created in the Hyper-V Manager (by selecting a virtual machine and selecting Snapshot from the Action menu or panel) and in the Virtual Machine Connection window (by clicking on the snapshot button in the toolbar or by opening the Action menu and selecting Snapshot…).

Selecting to create a snapshot from the Virtual Machine Connection window will result in a dialog that allows you to enter a custom name for the snapshot (e.g. "Before applying Patches" or "Just before I do something stupid and ruin the virtual machine").  If you want you can dismiss this dialog and have the snapshot use an auto-generated name.  This auto-generated name will consist of the name of the virtual machine followed by the date and time when the snapshot was taken.

If you select to create a snapshot from the Hyper-V Manager the snapshot will be created with an auto-generated name.

Once you have created a snapshot you can view it in the Snapshots pane of the Hyper-V Manager by selecting the virtual machine that the snapshot is associated with.  Snapshots are displayed in the Snapshots pane in a hierarchal manner that describes the order in which the snapshots where taken.  One snapshot will have a green arrow head on top of it – this indicates that this snapshot was the last one to be taken or applied to the virtual machine.  When you select a snapshot there are a couple of options that are provided to you in the Action menu / panel:

fig. Hyper-V Actions Pane

fig. Apply, Rename, Delete Snapshot (Subtree)

• Settings…
  Selecting this will allow you to open the Virtual Machine Settings dialog with the settings that the virtual machine had when the snapshot was taken.  All the settings will be disabled – because a snapshot is essentially read only.  The only settings that you can change here are the snapshot name and the notes associated with the snapshot.
• Apply…
  Applying a snapshot to a virtual machine basically means copying the complete virtual machine state from the selected snapshot to the active virtual machine.  This process means that any unsaved data in the currently active virtual machine will be lost – and you will be asked if you want to create a snapshot of your current active virtual machine before the selected snapshot is applied.
  Once the snapshot is applied the virtual machine will either be in a saved state or stopped (depending on if the snapshot was taken of a running or stopped virtual machine).  If there are any settings that you need to change before starting the virtual machine you can now select the virtual machine, open the Virtual Machine Settings, and change them.
• Rename…
  This is a quick shortcut that allows you to rename a snapshot without having to open the Virtual Machine Settings.
• Delete Snapshot…
  Deleting a snapshot means that you can no longer restore the virtual machine to that point in time.  It is important to understand that deleting a snapshot will never effect any other snapshots, nor will it affect the current state of the virtual machine.  The only thing that will disappear is the selected snapshot.
  Sometimes in order to delete a snapshot we will need to merge the differencing disk that we created for the snapshot (this differencing disk is hidden from the user under most circumstances – I will talk more about the actual plumbing involved with snapshots another day).  This merging will happen automatically the next time that the virtual machine is not running.
• Delete Snapshot Subtree…
  Will delete the selected snapshot and any snapshots that are hierarchically underneath it.

Once you have snapshots associated with a virtual machine you can use the Revert option.  This will take a virtual machine back to the last snapshot that was taken or applied (indicated in the Snapshots pane by the green arrow head) and delete any changes that have been made since that snapshot.

Until today, i’ve never thought of SC.exe to delete a Windows Service. Is it so easy? it is!

To delete a Windows Service using Service Control SC.exe just do a:

SC DELETE “Service Name”

Jup, that’s it!

First things first;
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bbf2eb61-2b30-4f2d-bccd-df53e220b8e9&displaylang=en
This is a great intro video to KMS’ing on a Win 2008 box, it will cover all the basics and give you a good idea on how this works.

You likely need this patch to upgrade the KMS service on the Win 2008/2003 box to allow Win7 etc. to register;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968912 – for Win 2008 kms
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968915- for Win 2003 kms

Now you will need to add a KMS key to the server you got this key from Microsoft as part of your license (NOT a MAK key, a KMS key).. This might confuse you as it did me, I was thinking, oh I will need to add KMS keys for all the versions of windows I need the KMS to work for, but this is not so..

On this page;
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9893f83e-c8a5-4475-b025-66c6b38b46e3&displaylang=en
you will find a document “Volume Activation 2 0 Changes for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1.doc” explaining this in more detail, but basically if you install a server 2008 R2 KMS key then this will also work for Win7, Vista etc.

How do i register a key on the KMS server;
Start an elevated CMD.exe and
change dir to c:\windows\system32

write: slmgr -IPK <YOUR KMS KEY HERE>
wait for a confirmation dialogbox, this can take a long time up to 1 min or more..
then activate the KMS key: slmgr -ATO
wait for a confirmation dialogbox, this can take a long time up to 1 min or more..
Now check the status of the KMS server: cscript slmgr.vbs -dlv
It will take a while before it is displayed.

Damn if I understand why there is no GUI for this!?

FAQ;
Help, I have machines registered with a MAK key, and now want to change this to my new KMS server – how do I do this? It is not that complicated, all you need to do is to change the license key of the workstation/officepack to a KMS key, IMPORTANT!! we are NOT talking YOUR KMS KEY, but the default KMS key from MS – confused!!? I was too, well it is not that complicated when it comes to it, when you install a MVLS product like eg. Office 2010 then it carries a default key this is the default KMS key with a limited lifespan, once you click activate this key tells the product to seek out a KMS server and try to register – if no KMS server is found the activation fails.  If you entered a MAK key at the time of installation then the product is activated and you need to unactivate it with the KMS key for that product, a list of default KMS keys can be found here;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd772269.aspx#EOIAC

Operating System Edition  Product Key

Windows 7 Professional -  FJ82H-XT6CR-J8D7P-XQJJ2-GPDD4
Windows 7 Professional N -  MRPKT-YTG23-K7D7T-X2JMM-QY7MG
Windows 7 Enterprise -  33PXH-7Y6KF-2VJC9-XBBR8-HVTHH
Windows 7 Enterprise N – YDRBP-3D83W-TY26F-D46B2-XCKRJ
Windows 7 Enterprise E – C29WB-22CC8-VJ326-GHFJW-H9DH4
Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition -  FKJQ8-TMCVP-FRMR7-4WR42-3JCD7
Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter -  74YFP-3QFB3-KQT8W-PMXWJ-7M648
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise – 489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y
Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems -  GT63C-RJFQ3-4GMB6-BRFB9-CB83V
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard – YC6KT-GKW9T-YTKYR-T4X34-R7VHC
Windows Web Server 2008 R2 – 6TPJF-RBVHG-WBW2R-86QPH-6RTM4
Windows Vista Business   YFKBB-PQJJV-G996G-VWGXY-2V3X8
Windows Vista Business N    HMBQG-8H2RH-C77VX-27R82-VMQBT 
Windows Vista Enterprise    VKK3X-68KWM-X2YGT-QR4M6-4BWMV 
Windows Vista Enterprise N    VTC42-BM838-43QHV-84HX6-XJXKV
Windows Server 2008  Datacenter    7M67G-PC374-GR742-YH8V4-TCBY3 
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V     22XQ2-VRXRG-P8D42-K34TD-G3QQC 
Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems      4DWFP-JF3DJ-B7DTH-78FJB-PDRHK 
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise    YQGMW-MPWTJ-34KDK-48M3W-X4Q6V 
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V     39BXF-X8Q23-P2WWT-38T2F-G3FPG 
Windows Server 2008 Standard  TM24T-X9RMF-VWXK6-X8JC9-BFGM2 
Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V     W7VD6-7JFBR-RX26B-YKQ3Y-6FFFJ 
Windows Web Server 2008    WYR28-R7TFJ-3X2YQ-YCY4H-M249D
Microsoft Office 2010 – VYBBJ-TRJPB-QFQRF-QFT4D-H3GVB

You can change the license key via this command (remember it has to be launched from an Elevated CMD.exe);
cscript Slmgr.vbs /ipk <SetupKey, the key from above>

Advanced tips and tricks;
Use other than the default KMS server (force a specific KMS server)
If for some reason you need to specify WHICH KMS server you wish to use (or if you need to use a remote KMS) then you do like this;
1. open an elevated cmd.exe
2  type; cscript slmgr.vbs -ipk <KMS KEY (not your own, one of the default microsoft once>
3  type; cscript slmgr.vbs -skms <IP OF KMS SERVER>:<PORT NO On KMS SERVER>  (default port is 1688)
4  type; cscript slmgr.vbs -ato

Command lines;
cscript slmgr.vbs -dlv (show status of KMS)
cscript slmgr.vbs -dli (show quick status of KMS)
cscript slmgr.vbs -dlv all (show advanced status of KMS)
cscript slmgr.vbs -upk (Remove key – unactivate Windows CAUTION!! – this may however be needed if you wish to remove the KMS role from a server)

Upgrade your KMS to accept Office 2010 clients;
Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=97b7b710-6831-4ce5-9ff5-fdc21fe8d965
IMPORTANT! Strangely enough this is NOT supported for Windows 2008 KMS servers, it works for 2003, 2008 R2 but NOT 2008. (more here; http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officevolact/thread/b2ffee91-c6a4-4196-8a86-4974534c3dbd)

Error codes;
If you get an errorcode; Error: 0xC004F015
This may indicate that you are trying to import a KMS key that is already covered, eg. you installed a KMS key for servers KMS_B key and are trying to install a KMS for Windows7 then this Errorcode will be shown – Windows 7 is already covered by your KMS_B server key (yeah strange I agree, but that is how it works)..
(more here; http://www.vistax64.com/vista-installation-setup/173686-setup-kms-2k8.html)

Stop the KMS server (stop the KMS service on a machine);
open a commandprompt (elevated);
type; net stop slsvc – to stop the service
type; net start slsvc – to run it again

Check that the DNS records are created properly;
open a commandprompt (elevated);
type; nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp

you should see something similar to this:

_vlmcs._tcp.domain.net SRV service location:
priority = 0
weight = 0
port = 1688
svr hostname = kmsserver.domain.net
kmsserver.domain.net internet address = x.x.x.x
General tips and tricks;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx

Volume Activation Technical Reference Guide (very useful)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee355153.aspx

in the technical reference guide you can among other thing find this;

Customizable Activation Help

For product activation in managed environments, the Activate Windows now dialog box can be configured to display an optional Learn About Activation Online link, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Learn about activation online

Clicking this custom link loads an administrator-defined URL in the user’s default browser. This URL can point to a custom Web page or other file stored on the local computer or on a network share. A Volume Licensing customer can use this link to direct their users to the customer’s Helpdesk or other activation-related resources. Displaying the link requires setting the REG_SZ value AlternateURL to the URL of the Web page to display when the user clicks it. The value AlternateURL is in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\ACTIVATION registry subkey.

LINKS

Tools to configure client computers in Office 2010

Configure and deploy volume activation of Office 2010

How to troubleshoot Volume Activation error codes on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista-based computers

Volume Activation Tips and Tricks

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Key Management Services (KMS) Host Setup

Office 2010 KMS Aktivierung (German, but with pictures

f your Windows 7 systems need half an eternity to boot up, there’s clearly something odd going on. Dealing with slow boot problems is annoying and – let’s face it – is mostly guesswork. Guesswork that costs money and time. We have got you covered: Learn how to analyze the startup process, find the cause in no time, and get rid of bottlenecks once and for all!

Windows 7 is a fast beast, especially when it comes to its startup process which was optimized dramatically compared to Windows Vista. No wonder, as Microsoft has a dedicated team focusing strictly on startup performance. And it shows: On one- to two-year-old hardware, Windows 7 usually takes only 20 to 40 seconds to boot up. Even the performance-wise challenged netbooks rarely need more than a minute to be ready for work!

Certainly, boot times vary significantly from one computer to another. This is nothing new. But if Windows 7 clients need way longer – and we’re talking way over one or two minutes – then you’re looking at a resource hog. So what could be causing the problem?

• You just installed a new driver, which hasn’t been WHQL-certified and delays the boot up process. It could be a simple driver bug!
• You installed a piece of resource-intense software that initializes a process or a service during startup.
• You updated existing software or Windows 7 itself. Yes, it’s not unheard of that some updates cause a significant boot delay.

Maybe it’s a combination of all three causes. In any case, something is clearly taking up too much resources during startup time. To get to the bottom of the mystery, you need to follow a couple of step-by-step instructions to find and resolve the issue. Ready? Here’s how!

Find Out Exactly How Long Windows 7 Needs to Start Up

Let’s start off by finding out the exact time the Windows 7 client needs to start up. And guess what, no stopwatch is required! Windows 7’s very own Event Viewer does the trick. In the following four steps you learn to measure both the raw boot time and the real life boot time (and what both mean).

1. Open up “Control Panel,” go to “System and Security” and head over to “Administrative Tools.” From here, launch “Event Viewer.”
2. Expand “Applications and Services Logs,” “Microsoft,” “Windows,” “Diagnostics / Performance,” and finally “Operational.” Now look out for the Event ID 100:
   

   This Event details how long your Windows 7 client takes for a full boot. This is what I call raw boot time.
   
   The value represents the exact time necessary to go from the first startup phase (right before the animated Windows boot logo appear) to the final stages. This is when the desktop is visible, startup programs are being loaded, and network connectivity is up and running. Remember to take this value with a grain of salt — more in Step 4!

3. As seen on the screenshot above, my test bed needed 103 seconds. That’s okay, but pretty bad compared to the original performance. The week after I installed and configured Windows 7, it needed about 46 seconds to start:
   
   In my example, this is quite a loss in performance: From 46 to 103 seconds!

   You can find the original boot up time if you sort the list by “Event ID” and look for the earlier couple of entries.

   Note: I wouldn’t necessarily take the very first boot log for a comparison. In the first couple of days after installation, Windows 7 needs to adapt the SuperFetch feature to all programs and install updates during boot up.

4. You have the “Raw boot time” value now. As I said, this value doesn’t necessarily represent the actual startup performance. Even though the desktop is visible and you have a working internet connection your PC may behave incredible sluggishly. For example, even launching a small footprint browser like Google Chrome can take up to 10 seconds in the first minute after boot. No surprise here; Windows is still busy initializing services and paging data in and out of RAM.To get the real life boot time, double-click on the latest Event ID 100 entry, go to “Details” and check the “MainPathBootTime” value:
   
   Phew! Another 38 seconds until Windows 7 is done with all its “post-boot” workload and I am actually able to work with the PC.

It’s important to watch both the raw boot time and real life boot time to troubleshoot a slow startup!

Step-by-Step: Finding Boot Delays

If you’re plagued by a slow startup, there is probably more than one problem going on. And guess what: Windows 7 knows them all. The “Diagnostic Performance” category (mentioned above) keeps a record of all startup issues. Simply sort the list by “Task Category”…

…and go through all the events you see in the “Boot Performance” category. Look for “Warnings” and “Critical” errors. The following entry is a prime example:

This event clearly shows that MsMpEng.exe needs 26 seconds to start, which is 10 seconds longer than normal! If this event only crops up once, you don’t need to go to Red Alert. However, if you see the same warning more than once, then this is definitely a call to action.

Eliminating Boot Delays

Next up: Commonly found causes for boot delays! The following problems originate from a dozen computers of a client who asked me for troubleshooting advice. In each case, I’ll explain how I treated these issues.

Problem: WLIDSVC.EXE needs more time to start up.
Diagnosis/Solution: First of all, I evaluated if my client really needs the Windows Live ID Service,  which is responsible for linking a local user account to the Windows Live ID for an automatic logon. As he really did not know what it is and never used it, I decided to completely uninstall the service:

Problem solved! That actually took three seconds off the startup process. It’s not much, but a penny saved is a penny earned.  If his business depended on Windows Live, I would have used the repair option to reinstall the service or I would have looked for a newer version.

Problem: The Eventlog service suddenly needs more time to run.
Diagnosis/Solution: I did absolutely nothing. It’s important to pay attention to which service is slow; explicitly check the service or file you see (“File Name”). Make sure it’s not in any way crucial to your business. Google for it, if necessary! Also, “Total Time” and “Degradation Time” are in the milliseconds – nothing to worry about.

Problem: Prefetching took longer than usual.
Solution: Windows 7’s optimization features (Prefetch and SuperFetch) took longer than usual to optimize performance. This may be due to a newly installed program or a program that you start much more frequently. Both may cause Windows 7 to optimize its cache for faster application launch times.
In this particular case, I didn’t see a reason to react. I noticed this event coming up every one or two weeks; that’s normal behavior for Windows 7 as it’s adapting its caching routines mentioned above.

Problem: The Windows Audio service causes a delay during startup.
Diagnosis/Solution: This seemed like a bigger problem. Apparently, the Windows Audio service needs more time to get started. Hmm…a problem with the sound card, maybe? My first reaction proofed to be the answer. I checked the driver version of the build-in “Realtek HD Audio” sound chip and noticed that it was last updated in September 2008. I downloaded the latest drivers from Realtek and installed it; the error never came up again!
If you see these kinds of driver related issues in your event log, I suggest updating the related driver. This IT Expert Voice article helps: “Doing the Driver Dance: Updating and Maintaining PC Drivers.”

Problem: MsMpEng.exe causes a noticeable boot delay.
Diagnosis/Solution: Microsoft Security Essentials (MsMpEng.exe) added a significant amount of startup time to the boot process. Obviously, disabling it was out of the question; security comes first! Reinstalling MSE did not help things. In this case, I am basically powerless and need to wait for an update that might improve the performance of MSEs antivirus engine during startup.

Problem: NVIDIA Driver Helper Service causes a delay in startup time.
Diagnosis/Solution: The helper service that comes with all nVidia drivers doesn’t actually do much except maintain overclocked display settings. That ‘s something my client did not need. I immediately opened up “msconfig” and disabled the NVIDIA Driver Helper Service using the “Services” tab:

That took care of it.

Problem: Windows Live Messenger causes a boot delay.
Diagnosis/Solution: Although the client needed Live Messenger for external business communication, he did not necessarily want it to launch right after Windows 7’s startup. I opened up “msconfig” (see above), clicked on “Startup,” and removed the entry that belongs to “msnmsgr.exe.”

You get the drift: In each individual case I decided if the startup program or service was needed and tried to patch it. If it’s not needed, I uninstalled or disabled it. Keeping all the drivers up-do-date was also essential in reducing the Warning and Critical entries found in Event Viewer.

Step-by-Step: Finding CPU Hogs

In some cases, boot delays are not detected by Event Viewer, possibly because a specific process eats up CPU for a constant period of time. Finding this bottleneck is pretty easy using the Sysinternals Process Monitor utility. Here’s how it works:

1. Download Process Monitor. Unzip the file and open Procmon.exe with administrative privileges:
   
   
2. Stop Process Monitor from logging all the current events by clicking on “File/Capture Events.” Now go to “Options,” where you will find the crucial entry: “Enable Boot Logging.” Enable it, click on “Generate profiling events” and click “OK.”
3. Now reboot your PC. After the startup process is done, launch Process Monitor again and click on “Yes” once you see the following message:
4. Save the boot log wherever you want (on your desktop, for example). Process Monitor now generates a huge list of basically each and every boot event.

   
   591,892 events?! This is too much to bear, even for the geekiest of us. Instead, let’s focus on process that use a lot of CPU usage during boot time. To do that, click on “Tools” and go to “Process Activity Summary.”

   
   You’ll get a list of all processes that keep your PC busy. Click on “CPU” and see for yourself which is the all-time CPU hog:
   
   To get more information of its resource usage, double-click on the entry. In our example, CPU hog number one is – yet again – Microsoft’s Security Essentials. While it is relatively lightweight when Windows 7 is up and running, it can be quite a boot hog.
   All the advice I gave above still stands: Go through the entire list and get rid of processes and programs that you don’t need. If you don’t know what is behind certain entries like this one…

   

   …use your search engine to find and troubleshoot them.

5. In this list you might come across a (unnecessary) process that you can’t find using any conventional means (for example, using msconfig). In that case, try out SysInternals very own Autoruns. Autoruns lists all processes and files that are used during boot up and lets you disable them individually – no exception!

   

That’s it! With all the given advice you should be able to handle each and every boot delay that crosses your way. Go back to the Event Viewer to check if and how much all these steps affected raw boot time and real life boot time — I bet there’s a huge difference! On my client’s PCs I was able to cut boot times in half (or even less). A nice side effect that you should also consider: Now that you’ve gotten problematic services and processes out of the way, overall Windows responsiveness and performance probably has gotten a lot of better as well.

Links

What’s Taking So Long? How to Fight Slow Startup Times in Windows 7

Have you ever wondered exactly how Windows is assigning physical memory, how much file data is cached in RAM, or how much RAM is used by the kernel and device drivers? RAMMap makes answering those questions easy. RAMMap is an advanced physical memory usage analysis utility for Windows Vista and higher.

RAMMap presents usage information in different ways on its several different tabs:

• Use Counts: usage summary by type and paging list
• Processes: process working set sizes
• Priority Summary: prioritized standby list sizes
• Physical Pages: per-page use for all physical memory
• Physical Ranges: physical memory addresses
• File Summary: file data in RAM by file
• File Details: individual physical pages by file

Use RAMMap to gain understanding of the way Windows manages memory, to analyze application memory usage, or to answer specific questions about how RAM is being allocated. RAMMap’s refresh feature enables you to update the display and it includes support for saving and loading memory snapshots.

For definitions of the labels RAMMap uses as well as to learn about the physical-memory allocation algorithms used by the Windows memory manager, please see Windows Internals, 5^th Edition.

Screenshots

Links

RAMMap v1.0 by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell

Download RAMMap (Link)

Last week I noticed a unusual download at Microsoft.com called RDCman, it turned out to be a RDP manager.

I downloaded it and it does all what I want in a great RDP tool!

RDCMan supports import of server lists, it support grouping and sub grouping, you can set configurations and passwords per group. You can auto hide to connections list so you leverage all the real estate possible while the screen stays embedded.

You can connect using alternate credentials with console option on or off.

If your servers are numbered you can also create a general name of you servers with variable with numbers. Al great features if you need to manage many servers.

Oh and it is free!

The strange thing is that it was version 2.2 and I never seen it before, as the about screen says nothing about Microsoft, just the author: Julian Burger. I assume this has been an internal tool for a while and now shared to the rest of the world. Thanks Julian!

Official description:

RDCMan manages multiple remote desktop connections. It is useful for managing server labs where you need regular access to each machine such as automated check in systems and data centers. It is similar to the built-in MMC Remote Desktops snap-in, but more flexible <- That is an understatement!

Servers are organized into named groups. You can connect or disconnect to all servers in a group with a single command. You can view all the servers in a group as a set of thumbnails, showing live action in each session. Servers can inherit their logon settings from the group. Thus, when you change your lab account password, you only need to change the password stored by RDCMan in one place. By default passwords are stored securely by encrypting with CryptProtectData using the (locally) logged on user’s authority. Servers can be moved between groups using drag-and-drop or via their properties page.

Non-Win7/Vista users will need to get version 6 of the Terminal Services Client. You can obtain this from the Microsoft Download Center: XP; Win2003

Screenshots

Thumbnails view

Connected to a system

Links

Here’s more to read about the usage and features

Download details RDCMan

ConneXin Remote Desktops v2

i realized that a setup of a proper configuration requires a lot of time .. time i don’t have at the moment. So i decided to post what i have and update the post when i find the time ….

Links

If you get a "Access denied" or "No network provider accepted the given network path" then read here

Microsoft KB 926642 Entry Disable the Loop Back Check on your TFS Server

Probably the best paper / explanation

Exposing TFS 2010 (Beta 2+) to the Internet by Aron Block (use Save as Docx!)

two other guys blogging about this issue …

http://blog.keithpatton.com/2009/10/22/Enabling+A+Fully+Qualified+Domain+Name+FQDN+In+Team+Foundation+Server+2010+TFS+2010.aspx

http://www.euri.com/Blog/tabid/85/EntryId/38/Changing-the-URL-of-Team-Foundation-Server-TFS-2010-Beta-1-to-a-FQDN.aspx

If you are Installing Microsoft TFS 2010 RC or RTM, you may notice after the installation a warning that IISRESET failed.  The warning instructs you to run it manually.  Running it manually results in the same error:

The system cannot find the file specified. (2147942402, 80070002)

IISRESET failing is not a problem for TFS, but nevertheless you may want to address this.  To fix it, open Add / Remove Programs (appwiz.cpl) and run Repair on the .NET 4.0 Client component.  This requires a reboot.