Okay, so while Office 2007 is awesome and I can still "save as" Office 2003 format for all those I communicate with that have not made the jump, I still have a few systems running Office 2003 and a Service Pack is most welcome. The link below will give you the rundown on what is in there, but if you are using Office 2003 (or any product with an available service pack) it is best to upgrade.

While it does list FrontPage 2003 as a product this update applies to, none of the listed fixes mention FrontPage. So does it fix the dreaded hyperlink crash in Vista? It seems to have fixed it for me. But it could be in combination with other fixes I've tried. Anyone care to confirm?

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |

This latest updates supersedes and replaces update KB931836, released back in January 2007. Yes, the one you likely scrambled to deploy. In addition to some enhancements, this also includes additional time zone changes that were signed in to law after update KB931836 was created.

While Microsoft is recommending that you standardize on the must current cumulative time zone update for all systems, it's designation of this fix as an "important" one can be evaluated based on your needs. Essentially, you should update but if you need it right away depends largely on if you have systems in any of the following five time zones changed by this update:

Caucasus Standard Time - Changes display name to Caucasus Standard Time as cities in the previous display name have separate time zones, and removes DST settings.

Armenian Standard Time - Creates a new time zone for Armenia to better align with different DST changes in the Caucasus region.

New Zealand Standard Time - Adjusts DST start dates and end dates according to changes signed in to law after the prior cumulative time zone update was created (February 2007).

GTB Standard Time - Corrects the display name for GTB Standard Time on Windows Server 2003 SP2 to include Bucharest.

Jordan Standard Time - Adjusts DST start times, end times, and dates according to changes signed in to law after the prior cumulative time zone update was created (February 2007).

Also helpful in the KB article is a table that describes the values in the registry that affect these changes. However, you should use the patch to apply the changes-- it is for information/verification purposes only.

However, aside from the specific list of updates above, the article also points out that there are changes made to all of the below time zone entries:

 
Continue reading (Another) Time Zone Update...

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |

Microsoft was slow to release the promised Ultimate Extras and apologizes for this fact. But as the language packs and DreamScene programs, what more can we expect? DreamScene was cool and poker was a nice one to throw in. I'm not sure how excited people get about the BitLocker enhancements and language packs but you can get them if you have Ultimate. I'm not sure if anyone out there bit off on Ultimate because of the promise of Ultimate Extras, but it was certainly a good selling point for anyone on the fence. What were we supposed to get? Go to Ultimate Extras in the control panel and you'll see

With Windows Ultimate Extras you get:

Cutting-edge programs - Enjoy Microsoft programs that are available only through Windows Ultimate Extras. Windows Update notifies you when new downloads become available.

Innovative services - Benefit from unique services that can help you tailor your computing experience to your digital lifestyle. These services are designed to help make your experience more powerful, productive, and personal.

Unique publications - Download premium content that focuses on your digital lifestyle. Discover techniques and strategies that help you get the most out of Windows Vista Ultimate.

The few applications offered take care of the first bullet, but what of these "Innovative Services" and "Unique Publications"? I don't see any such things.

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |

You can fight Vista at home, but even if you cling to your Windows 2000 computer tightly, odds are you'll be forced to get with the times at work. In fact, very few people can say they use Windows 2000 at work anymore. Released in March of 2000, it was no longer being sold by march of 2004-- and by March of 2005 you could not even buy a new computer with it installed anymore.

Many see it as evil, but it is easy to see that things must move forward. For applications to take advantage of the new things Windows XP and Vista do, developers need to have some assurance that they will not have to maintain very different code to support older systems. This results in a fear to move forward, so Microsoft pushes people along with its published lifecycle:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx

Sure it makes them money too; that is the nature of it. Windows XP is set to begin its death next January (2008) and will no longer be available on new systems by January of 2009.

Also out here is a projected list of service packs. According to it, we should see a SP3 for Windows XP in the first half of 2008. But what of Vista SP1? No mention of it. However, there is quite a lot of industry speculation that we should see a SP1 later this year about the time of Windows Server 2008. However there have been recent reports that release could be as soon as mid August and that some beta versions of the service packs have been leaked. More on that as it becomes available.

 
Continue reading Microsoft Product Lifecycles...

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | Comments (4) |

It would seem over the last few months that the one issue on the minds of many here in the community is that of application compatibility. It can be quite frustrating to install and application only to see it does not work-- specifically, when you know it worked on your XP system prior to a Vista upgrade!

Is there an application that you found necessary to run in compatibility mode? Is there an application that works as long as you do so as an admin? These are the kinds of things the community would love to hear about. So please share your experiences, your questions, and find some sympathetic ears to your frustration at the new Application Compatibility forum.

This forum exists to discuss both in general and application-specific issues you may encounter. Please come check it out!

http://www.realtime-vista.com/forum?f=8

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |

FrontPage, works in Windows Vista, but it is not without issues. If you make use of the hyperlink feature by right clicking text and choosing "Hyperlink" or pressing "CTRL-K" to do the same crashes the program in Vista pretty reliably. It is frustrating because it is such a common task, knowing it is going to crash if I hit CTRL-K does not stop me from doing it as a matter of habit. I've finally broken myself of it now, and using FrontPage in split code/design view, I just go up and type the hyperlink tags manually:

<a href="where_you_want_to_go"> text to display</a>

It has been suggested that this problem is more reliably encountered when editing a remote website, so you might try publishing your web locally and working on it offline.

The frustrating thing is that this but does not appear to be documented anywhere. Not at Microsoft and not at any of the many community and MVP websites out there. Despite some conversations recommending that this is an installation order issue, it is not. It does not matter if you never install Office 2007, if you reinstall, uninstall or the order it is installed. As installation order goes, if in your installation order you install this thing called "Windows Vista" you will encounter the problem.

I first wrote about this problem in a discussion about Windows Vista's feature where it looks for a solution after a crash, Crashes: Does Vista Really Find a Solution and a lot of people wrote in that they were seeing this same issue. Amusing to me is that Microsoft granted FrontPage 2003 the "Works with Vista" logo (yeah, I guess it does "work"). http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933305

I've seen it reported that Microsoft has acknowledged the problem in phone conversations with users saying a fix will be out in a month or two, but these are all old reports and no fixes have surfaced yet. Why could boil down to the fact that FrontPage is on its deathbed. The new "Web Expressions" software is taking the place of FrontPage after nine years of use.

Update: A helpful member of the realtime-vista community pointed out a registry update that corrects the issue! Here is the simple way to implement the change:

From a command prompt running as administrator run the following command:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Application Compatibility" /v Frontpg.exe /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Second Update: At least for me, this fix appears to have worked only temporarilly. It will again crash for me reliably. Now I just type my own hyperlinks in code view. -bk 8/22/07

Final? Update: It appears that the new Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 corrects this problem. -bk 9/21/07

 
Continue reading Vista Application Compatibility: FrontPage 2003...

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | Comments (16) |

At the moment Service Pack 1 for Vista is still something officially unannounced. They are asking hardware vendors for drivers (see below) which would indicate an announcement may not be too far off.

General statements regarding the timeline for release have stated "second half of 2007".There has also been speculation that the release of SP1 will likely coincide with the release of Longhorn Server. Industry analysts suggest that fall of 2008 may be more realistic. In the mean time all critical updates are delivered via Windows Update so there really is no reason to get too worked up about just when it will come.

Recently Microsoft would appear to have starting the ball rolling when they
issued a call to hardware vendors for their latest device drivers. According to Microsoft, Vista natively supports 1.9 million devices. I'd love to see how they came up with that! (for the PC Magazine article click here).

Naturally, Vista Service Pack 1 will contain all of the security updates, hotfixes released to date, but it is also said to include other changes (with a focus on improving quality).

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |

Just a quick note to share that it arrived from DHL shipping last week...

Shipment Date: May 08, 2007
Delivery Date: May 10, 2007
Contents: Windows Vista Home Premium-English

For $10.50 and a couple months of waiting, my Vista Home Premium upgrade which I ordered back in late Febuary has finally made it to my door. It took about 12 weeks vice the 6-8 weeks advertised. I'm not sure you'd call it an "Express Update" but I'm happy it's arrived.

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |

Recently there is reported to be a new vulnerability to Windows Vista Mail exposed. Supposedly, if you click a link in an email, an attacker could execute any executable file in a folder with the same name. So if you had a folder named c:\temp and a batch file at the same level named c:\temp.bat, you could click on the link to the folder and actually have the batch file launched without asking.

In my opinion, It is not as big a deal as the reports make it. However, it does illustrate once again that you must always be very careful about what you click on in an email. Naturally if there is an attachment you should be very wary, but even links can get you in trouble. If by some remote chance you get a spam mail you are interested in-- still refrain from clicking a link. If it is fake watches you are interested, in, let the annoying spam mail be a trigger to typing "fake watches" into Google (or eBay) but never click a link. Often links will track that you clicked the link thereby labeling you a sucker to be hit up for future such trash.

 
Continue reading Vista Windows Mail Vulnerability...

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |

I wanted to call out this free webinar on Vista migration. Part three by Windows expert Nelson Ruest, Resolutions Enterprises Ltd. If you caught the others, you'll be there-- if you missed them, jump in now for some good informaion (and you can catch the previous ones "on demand" via the Altiris website. Yes, it is corporate sponsored as most everything is, but even if you don't use Altiris, the focus is primarilly on the subject of Vista migration...

Windows Vista Migration Webcast Series

Part Three: Security and Infrastructure Considerations
featuring Windows expert Nelson Ruest, Resolutions Enterprises Ltd.

How will you migrate to Windows Vista? Migrating to Windows Vista is not a question of when, but how. Whether you plan to deploy Vista as a mass migration project or gradually as new PCs are deployed, OS migration can be intimidating for any IT manager. But with Altiris, you can easily manage the mysteries of Vista migration.

Join us for part three of a seven part webcast series on Windows Vista migration featuring Windows expert Nelson Ruest. Nelson works for Resolutions Enterprises Ltd. as a Senior Enterprise IT Architect and has over 20 years’ experience in migration planning and network, PC, and server infrastructure design. He has been working on deployments since Windows 3.1 and so far, has assisted over 500,000 users with their migrations. Nelson is the co-author of the eBook: The Definitive Guide to Vista Migration.

In this one hour, complimentary webcast on Wednesday, March 21 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (15:00 GMT, Europe), you’ll learn how to successfully tackle the complex task of Vista migration through planning and best practices and how an Altiris integrated solution will help ease your migration plan.

The following topics will be discussed:

* Inventorying the network
* Server-based Operations in the Lab
* Profile Sizing Analysis
* Project Engineering Activities
* Vista OS Infrastructure Management
* Support Transfer to Operations
* Benefits of migrating with Altiris

https://altiris.ilinc.com/register/ctfzby

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Posted by Bob Kelly | Permalink | |