The Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 and the Platform Update for Windows Vista are collections of runtime libraries that make it easy for developers to target a wider customer base.
Notes about the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008

• All the updated technologies in the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 are already included in Windows Server 2008 R2. The Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 is not required for Windows Server 2008 R2.
• To apply the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008, you must have Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 installed.

Notes about the Platform Update for Windows Vista

• All the updated technologies in the Platform Update for Windows Vista are already included in Windows 7. The Platform Update for Windows Vista is not required for Windows 7.
• To apply the Platform Update for Windows Vista, you must have Windows Vista Service Pack 2 installed.

Windows Server 2008

The Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 contains the following updated technologies:

• Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library
  The Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library enables developers to take advantage of the advancements in modern graphics technologies for gaming, multimedia, imaging, and printing applications. The new features include
  • Updates to DirectX to support hardware acceleration for 2D, 3D, and text-based scenarios
  • DirectCompute for hardware-accelerated parallel computing scenarios
  • XPS Library for document printing scenarios

  For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  971512 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971512/ ) Description of the Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library

• Windows Automation API
  The Windows Automation API enables accessibility tools and test automations to access the Windows user interface in a consistent way across operating system versions. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  971513 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971513/ ) Description of Windows Automation API

  For more information about the Windows Automation API, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd561932.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd561932.aspx)

• Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library
  The Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library contains the Windows Ribbon API, a command framework that enables developers to quickly and easily create rich ribbon experiences in their applications, and the Windows Animation Manager API, an animation framework for managing the scheduling and execution of user interface element animations. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  960362 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960362/ ) Description of Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library

  For more information about the Windows Ribbon API, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371191(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371191(VS.85).aspx)

  For more information about the Windows Animation Manager API, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371981(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371981(VS.85).aspx)

Back to the top

Windows Vista

The Platform Update for Windows Vista contains the following updated technologies:

• Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library
  The Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library enables developers to take advantage of the advancements in modern graphics technologies for gaming, multimedia, imaging, and printing applications. The new features include
  • Updates to DirectX to support hardware acceleration for 2D, 3D, and text-based scenarios
  • DirectCompute for hardware-accelerated parallel computing scenarios
  • XPS Library for document printing scenarios

  For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  971512 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971512/ ) Description of the Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library

• Windows Automation API
  The Windows Automation API enables accessibility tools and test automations to access the Windows user interface in a consistent way across operating system versions. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  971513 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971513/ ) Description of Windows Automation API

  For more information about the Windows Automation API, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd561932.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd561932.aspx)

• Windows Portable Devices Platform
  The Windows Portable Devices Platform supplies the infrastructure to standardize data transfers between an application and a portable device, such as a mobile phone, a digital camera, or a portable media player. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  971514 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971514/ ) Description of Windows Portable Devices

  For more information about Windows Portable Devices, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd388998(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd388998(VS.85).aspx)

• Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library
  The Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library contains the following features:
  • Windows Ribbon API, a command framework that enables developers to quickly and easily create rich ribbon experiences in their applications
  • Windows Animation Manager API, an animation framework for managing the scheduling and execution of user interface element animations

  For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  960362 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960362/ ) Description of Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library

  For more information about the Windows Ribbon API, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371191(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371191(VS.85).aspx)

  For more information about the Windows Animation Manager API, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371981(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371981(VS.85).aspx)

How to obtain the Platform Updates for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Windows Update

The Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 and the Platform Update for Windows Vista can be downloaded from Windows Update. To obtain these updates, follow these steps:

1. Click Start

   Collapse this imageExpand this image

   

   , click All Programs, and then click Windows Update.

2. In the navigation pane, click Check for updates.
3. When updates are found, click View available updates.
4. Select the update package that you want, and then click Install.

Links

Description of the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 and the Platform Update for Windows Vista

Beschreibung des Platform Update für Windows Server 2008 und der Plattform-Update für Windows Vista

The final build number is 1.0.1611.0.

Security Essentials is designed to work on Windows XP, Vista and 7 and protects end users against virus threats and spy ware. MSE is Microsoft’s free anti-virus and anti-spyware product that is set to replace Microsoft’s paid Windows Live OneCare subscription service which was withdrawn earlier this year. Microsoft Security Essentials was codenamed “Morro”.

MSE is absolutely free for all users of Windows XP, Vista and 7, and distributed in both 32bit and 64bit flavors — as long as you have a genuine copy of Windows. Microsoft will not bundle it with Windows 7, though, when it’s released on October 22nd, 2009.

“Consumers have told us that they want the protection of real-time security software but we know that too many are either unwilling or unable to pay for it, and so end up unprotected,” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager for consumer security at Microsoft. “With Microsoft Security Essentials, consumers can get high-quality protection that is easy to get and easy to use – and it won’t get in their way.”

MSE is likely to be targeted to compete with the low end of anti-virus products from other providers, and it is not expected to make a big impact on sales of full-blown security suites. MSE is designed for home use. It requires no registration, trials or renewals and is available for download directly from Microsoft. Most users are expected to be home users or small businesses with a only a small amount of managed PCs. In a statement earlier this year, Janice Chaffin, president of Symantec’s Consumer Division claimed: “Microsoft’s free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from the shelves. A full Internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected.”

Security Essentials ranked fourth in a test with other leading free malware protection. If you are interested in MSE you can read an informative early review by Paul Thurott here

Links

Microsoft Security Essentials Homepage

Download: Windows XP (32 bit)
Download: Windows Vista & Windows 7 (32 bit)
Download: Windows Vista & Windows 7 (64 bit)

To get it back / install it, use pkgmgr on the Client Operating Systems and ServerManagerCMD on the Server Operating Systems..

For Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows 7

Open a CMD (Run As Admin)

Type

start /w pkgmgr /ui:TelnetClient

PkgMgr_Install_Telnet_Windows_Client_OS

you’re done!

For Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

ServerManagerCMD -i Telnet-Client

ServerManagerCMD_Install_Telnet_Client_WindowsServerOS

you’re done!

This is a quick tutorial about booting the setup and installing Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 from a USB Stick or a USB Harddisk / Harddrive. This procedure can also be used for other types of memory cards like SD, MMC or XD, as long as the system can be configured to boot from such a device (check out the BIOS bootable devices and boot order).

Consider to use a memory type which has good data read speeds (15 MB/s is okay, 50MB/s is fun! . The setup only reads data from the media (it’s handled like a ROM (Read Only Memory)), so for the copy / setup process it is great to have a performant type of memory chip on the media.

Start from scratch:

• Mount / Plug in the USB Stick / Memory Card into the slot
  Be careful, the next steps will erase/delete all data on the USB Stick / Memory Card.
  Consider, you must be administrator to run diskpart!

Start DiskPart

on the DISKPART> prompt type LIST DISK

on the DISKPART> prompt select the disk (be careful!) using SELECT DISK 2 (on my system this is the USB Stick)

on the DISKPART> prompt LIST PARTITION to get a list of partitions on that specific disk

on the DISKPART> prompt select the partition using SELECT PARTITION 1

on the DISKPART> prompt format the the partition using FORMAT FS=FAT32 LABEL=”WIN7SOURCE” QUICK OVERRIDE

on the DISKPART> prompt make the selected partition active (bootable) using ACTIVE

on the DISKPART> prompt quit DiskPart using EXIT

your done – Your USB or whatever Media is formatted and bootable!

Format_USB_Stick_Diskpart

Copy the Microsoft Windows Vista / 7 / Server 2008 Source on the media

Assuming your Microsoft Windows Vista / 7 / Server 2008 source is in the format of an ISO file you have the following possibilities:

• Mount the ISO using Daemon Tools daemon-tools.cc
  i recommend using Daemon Tools. Be careful, choose and download the LITE version, during Setup the Installer wants to install crap components, remove all check boxes. additionally they want to set your browser start page on one of their sites, remove that checkbox as well .. you don’t have to do this, but i recommend it!
• Extract the ISO using Tools such as Winrar or 7-Zip
• Extract / Mount the Media using UltraISO

In this post i will describe the process using Daemon Tools, but there’s not a big difference if you choose one of the other tools and extract or mount the ISO image.

Mount the ISO using Daemon Tools

Right mouse button on the Trayicon..

DaemonTools_Mount_ISO_Image

Now your Explorer should like this:

Explorer_MountedUSB_ISO

In my case, the USB Stick uses Driveletter F and the ISO is mounted as a virtual Disc Drive under Driveletter H.

Now copy the whole content of H to F and your done. You can do this in explorer or using the xcopy command:
xcopy h:\*.* /s /e /f f:\

now reboot your system, set the correct boot order in BIOS (USB /Memory Card Slot must be the first boot device) and the system should start / boot using your created media.

feel free to comment!