KMS keys (GVLK) for Windows Client and Server SKU’s

Vista, 7, 8, 8.1. Server 2008, Server 2008R2, Server 2012 R2.

KMS Client Keys gathered..

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 7 Professional	FJ82H-XT6CR-J8D7P-XQJJ2-GPDD4
Windows 7 Professional N	MRPKT-YTG23-K7D7T-X2JMM-QY7MG
Windows 7 Professional E	W82YF-2Q76Y-63HXB-FGJG9-GF7QX
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 8 Professional	NG4HW-VH26C-733KW-K6F98-J8CK4
Windows 8 Professional N	XCVCF-2NXM9-723PB-MHCB7-2RYQQ
Windows 8 Enterprise	32JNW-9KQ84-P47T8-D8GGY-CWCK7
Windows 8 Enterprise N	JMNMF-RHW7P-DMY6X-RF3DR-X2BQT
Windows 8.1 Professional	GCRJD-8NW9H-F2CDX-CCM8D-9D6T9
Windows 8.1 Professional N	HMCNV-VVBFX-7HMBH-CTY9B-B4FXY
Windows 8.1 Enterprise	MHF9N-XY6XB-WVXMC-BTDCT-MKKG7
Windows 8.1 Enterprise N	TT4HM-HN7YT-62K67-RGRQJ-JFFXW
Windows Web Server 2008	WYR28-R7TFJ-3X2YQ-YCY4H-M249D
Windows Server 2008 Standard	TM24T-X9RMF-VWXK6-X8JC9-BFGM2
Windows Server 2008 Standard wo Hyper-V	W7VD6-7JFBR-RX26B-YKQ3Y-6FFFJ
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise	YQGMW-MPWTJ-34KDK-48M3W-X4Q6V
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise wo Hyper-V	39BXF-X8Q23-P2WWT-38T2F-G3FPG
Windows Server 2008 HPC	RCTX3-KWVHP-BR6TB-RB6DM-6X7HP
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter	7M67G-PC374-GR742-YH8V4-TCBY3
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter wo Hyper-V	22XQ2-VRXRG-P8D42-K34TD-G3QQC
Windows Server 2008 for Itanium Systems	4DWFP-JF3DJ-B7DTH-78FJB-PDRHK
Windows Server 2008 R2 Web	6TPJF-RBVHG-WBW2R-86QPH-6RTM4
Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC edition	FKJQ8-TMCVP-FRMR7-4WR42-3JCD7
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard	YC6KT-GKW9T-YTKYR-T4X34-R7VHC
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise	489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y
Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter	74YFP-3QFB3-KQT8W-PMXWJ-7M648
Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium	GT63C-RJFQ3-4GMB6-BRFB9-CB83V
Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Standard	D2N9P-3P6X9-2R39C-7RTCD-MDVJX
Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter	W3GGN-FT8W3-Y4M27-J84CP-Q3VJ9
Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials	KNC87-3J2TX-XB4WP-VCPJV-M4FWM

Note: Sourced default KMS keys used for volume licensing editions of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.. They can be used as product key when installing the OS in Enter the product key to activate windows. When you choose to automatically install a KMS client key (GVLK), VAMT will use these KMS keys.

Creds to http://woshub.com/publik-kms-keys-gvlk-for-windows-7-windows-server-2012-r2/ and a bloke’s blog I can’t remember :)

New MS Hotmail / Outlook.com is a bit overbloated with script and active content but everything’s like that n0w I spose.

Despite the fat causing browsers to suffer resource bloat, therefore making it costly to leave a tab open for Hotmail while browsing, it’s still quite good.

It could do with room to improve though.

Here’s some suggestions, blogged so I can pass them to the devs; the feedback form isn’t much chop with limited chars and no provision for a two-way dialog or issue tracking functionality..

INBOX WORKFLOW / KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS

When reading email from the Inbox, after selecting a message, (and the content then showing in the reading pane), the space-bar doesn’t work to scroll down-page in the reading pane.
It did behave that way in the past.
Obviously this small keyboard shortcut/feature is very useful when wading through a full inbox!
An ideal scenario which is not currently possible for reading an inbox with many new messages would be the provising of keyboard accelerators for a workflow similar to this:
-Beginning in the reading pane..
-Shift-tab from Reading Pane back up to the currently active email in the Message List,
-Then arrow down to the next email, with it then displaying in reading pane
-Press tab to make reading pane active
-Space-bar and/or arrow up/down through the message
-Tab or Shift Tab back to Message List when done
-Press delete, ctrl-m for move, or one of a number of other appropriate accelerators for common actions to deal with the message
-Return highlight/selection to the next email down in the Msg List
-Tab down to the Reading Pane

 

There are a few things missing from MS Skydrive. One useful feature missing is the ability to see download stats on your (and perhaps, other’s) files on Skydrive. Similar to the statistics most blog engines have on blog hits. Some key stats per file might include total hits, # last week, referring URL, downloader’s MS Live ID.

It’s typical of Microsoft to half-develop something to the point that it’s an average product with heaps of potential.. then leave it that way. Usually announcing down the track they’re “going in a different direction”. Take MS MyPhone, MS Photo Tools, MS InfoCard.. maybe if they get far along enough with SkyDrive, they’ll keep it.

So why not ask them to keep improving SkyDrive… here!

Be very careful of KB976035. It’s broken, on one system anyway.
The hotfix title is "Update Rollup for the TCP Chimney Offload feature in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Vista"
Seems to be MS’s latest attempt at fixing the persistent issues with ToE.
Under Vista x86 SP2, (Dell D830 with BCM57xx NIC, Intel Wifi 5350, Dell Bluetooth 360) the update causes a BSOD.
But, the crash is only detected when using Driver Verifier. This means the hotfix appears fine but actually has bugs in it that will probably eventually cause weird behaviour or a BSOD,
The STOP bugcheck is 0x000000C4 (DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION )
WinDbg shows:
Probably caused by : tcpipreg.sys ( tcpipreg!InterfaceAddressRegKeyChangeHandler+b2 )
Backing out this hotfix in safe mode resolved the issue.

I’m trying to disable the warning message when connecting to a client – "The identity of the remote computer cannot be verified".
This is still WiP, I’m over it for today :)

Thought I’d record for reference the registry values the TS client (MSTSC v6.1 as with Vista) queries.
Lots of these aren’t present by default. Many of these queries are also duplicated in HKLM but I’ve omitted these – we all know HKLM regedits are naughty :)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DisablePrinterRedirection NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DisableClipboardRedirection NAME NOT FOUND
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\AuthenticationLevel NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\AuthenticationLevelOverride NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\BitmapPersistCacheSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\BitmapPersistCache16Size NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\BitmapPersistCache24Size NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\BitmapPersistCache32Size NAME NOT FOUND
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\AllowUnsignedFiles NAME NOT FOUND
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\AllowSignedFiles NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\PinConnectionBar NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\RemoteDesktopFolder NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\MBCSServername NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\EnableSslWithUserAuth NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Shadow Bitmap Enabled NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\UseShadowBitmapInFullScreen NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\MaxRdpCompressionLevel NAME NOT FOUND
RegOpenKey HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\RedirectDevices NAME NOT FOUND
RegOpenKey HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\TransportExtensions SUCCESS
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\TransportExtensions\Gateway SUCCESS Type: REG_SZ, Length: 26, Data: aaclient.dll
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DisablePrinterRedirection NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DisableClipboardRedirection NAME NOT FOUND
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\AuthenticationLevel NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\AuthenticationLevelOverride NAME NOT FOUND
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\PromptForCredsOnClient NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\AuthenticationLevelOverride NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\RemoteDesktop_SuppressWhenMinimized NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Min Send Interval NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Allow Background Input NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\OffscreenSupportLevel NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\OffscreenCacheSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\OffscreenCacheEntries NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\BitmapPersistCacheLocation NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\MultiFragmentUpdateMaxSize NAME NOT FOUND
RegOpenKey HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Servers\<<hostname>>NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR\ThreadTimeOut NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR\DisableDeviceRedirection NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\LicensingTimeout NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusEnabled NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusSupportLevel NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusCacheLevel NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusGraphicsCacheEntries NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusBrushCacheEntries NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusPenCacheEntries NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusImageCacheEntries NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusGraphicsCacheChunkSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusBrushCacheChunkSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusPenCacheChunkSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusImageAttributesCacheChunkSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusImageCacheChunkSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusImageCacheTotalSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusImageCacheMaxSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawGdiplusImageattributesCacheEntries NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawNineGridSupportLevel NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawNineGridEmulate NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawNineGridCacheSize NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\DrawNineGridCacheEntries NAME NOT FOUND
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\AuthenticationLevel NAME NOT FOUND
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\AuthenticationLevelOverride NAME NOT FOUND
Let me know if you find any of this useful and have further info on any entries.

CAVEAT: ppp lcp predictive doesn’t work on all IOS’s!

Like the rest of the world, I found Windows Mobile 6.1 would not connect to a Cisco VPDN server over PPTP.

I really needed this, so I struggled with it (for days). Finally I got it working! Sadly this means every customer I need to connect to must have this config.. grrr.

The issue seems to be the WM PPTP client is limited in its capabilities – it isn’t very flexible in what it negotiates with the server.

The main trouble was MPPE/MPPC negotiation – WM only supports stateful (or maybe only stateless but not both) MPPE.

PPP negotiation debugs showed a long back and forth CONFREQ CONFNAK sequence where WM just wouldn’t accept any offered types.

This behaviour was observed with 12.4(5b) on a c837.

Note you must use MS-CHAP-v2 only on the router. The easiest way is to use MS IAS on the server and configure that properly along with the router’s RADIUS config (another blog post later to describe how to get this working!)

In short, here’s the relevant Virtual Template config, along with some recommendations for PPTP:

vpdn-group <vpdn group>

accept-dialin
protocol pptp
virtual-template 10
pptp tunnel echo 30
ip tos reflect
ip tos 15
ip precedence critical
ip pmtu
ip mtu adjust

interface Virtual-Template10
mtu 1380
ip unnumbered Ethernet0
no ip proxy-arp
no ip route-cache same-interface
ip tcp header-compression
peer default ip address pool <your IP pool>
keepalive 20
compress mppc
ppp lcp predictive
ppp encrypt mppe 128 passive
ppp authentication ms-chap-v2 <your authentication list to RADIUS>

ppp authorization <your authorization list to RADIUS>
ppp ipcp mask 255.255.0.0
ppp ipcp predictive
ppp link reorders

Let me know how this works for you. And curse you MS and Cisco, so much for the ‘pledge to make products work together’.

Keywords: PPTP, VPN, VPDN, LCP, MPPC, MPPE, MS-CHAP-v2, IOS, CISCO, WM, WM6.1, Windows Mobile,, compression, encryption

Comments

Ben Ryan – 13/02/2009 1:15:39 PM

This is a snip of a successful negotiation:
1643181: Feb 9 08:11:07.122: Vi6 PPP: Phase is UP
1643182: Feb 9 08:11:07.122: Vi6 IPCP: O CONFREQ [Closed] id 1 len 16
1643183: Feb 9 08:11:07.122: Vi6 IPCP: CompressType VJ 15 slots CompressSlot ID (0x0206002D0F01)
1643184: Feb 9 08:11:07.122: Vi6 IPCP: Address 172.17.1.1 (0x0306AC110101)
1643185: Feb 9 08:11:07.122: Vi6 CCP: O CONFREQ [Closed] id 1 len 10
1643186: Feb 9 08:11:07.122: Vi6 CCP: MS-PPC supported bits 0x00000001 (0x120600000001)
1643187: Feb 9 08:11:07.126: Vi6 PPP: Process pending ncp packets
1643188: Feb 9 08:11:07.310: Vi6 CCP: I CONFREQ [REQsent] id 0 len 10
1643189: Feb 9 08:11:07.310: Vi6 CCP: MS-PPC supported bits 0x00000001 (0x120600000001)
1643190: Feb 9 08:11:07.314: Vi6 CCP: O CONFACK [REQsent] id 0 len 10
1643191: Feb 9 08:11:07.314: Vi6 CCP: MS-PPC supported bits 0x00000001 (0x120600000001)
1643192: Feb 9 08:11:07.330: Vi6 IPCP: I CONFREQ [REQsent] id 0 len 40
1643193: Feb 9 08:11:07.330: Vi6 IPCP: CompressType VJ 15 slots (0x0206002D0F00)
1643194: Feb 9 08:11:07.330: Vi6 IPCP: Address 0.0.0.0 (0x030600000000)
1643195: Feb 9 08:11:07.334: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryDNS 0.0.0.0 (0x810600000000)
1643196: Feb 9 08:11:07.334: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryWINS 0.0.0.0 (0x820600000000)
1643197: Feb 9 08:11:07.334: Vi6 IPCP: SecondaryDNS 0.0.0.0 (0x830600000000)
1643198: Feb 9 08:11:07.334: Vi6 IPCP: SecondaryWINS 0.0.0.0 (0x840600000000)
1643199: Feb 9 08:11:07.334: Vi6 AAA/AUTHOR/IPCP: Start. Her address 0.0.0.0, we want 0.0.0.0
1643200: Feb 9 08:11:07.334: Vi6 AAA/AUTHOR/IPCP: Done. Her address 0.0.0.0, we want 0.0.0.0
1643201: Feb 9 08:11:07.338: Vi6 IPCP: Pool returned 172.17.0.129
1643202: Feb 9 08:11:07.338: Vi6 IPCP: O CONFREJ [REQsent] id 0 len 10
1643203: Feb 9 08:11:07.338: Vi6 IPCP: SecondaryWINS 0.0.0.0 (0x840600000000)
1643204: Feb 9 08:11:07.338: Vi6 IPCP: O CONFNAK [REQsent] id 1 len 28
1643205: Feb 9 08:11:07.338: Vi6 IPCP: Address 172.17.0.129 (0x0306AC110081)
1643206: Feb 9 08:11:07.342: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryDNS 172.17.2.10 (0x8106AC11020A)
1643207: Feb 9 08:11:07.342: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryWINS 172.17.2.10 (0x8206AC11020A)
1643208: Feb 9 08:11:07.342: Vi6 IPCP: SecondaryDNS 172.17.1.2 (0x8306AC110102)
1643209: Feb 9 08:11:07.342: Vi6 IPCP: O CONFACK [REQsent] id 2 len 34
1643210: Feb 9 08:11:07.342: Vi6 IPCP: CompressType VJ 15 slots (0x0206002D0F00)
1643211: Feb 9 08:11:07.346: Vi6 IPCP: Address 172.17.0.129 (0x0306AC110081)
1643212: Feb 9 08:11:07.346: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryDNS 172.17.2.10 (0x8106AC11020A)
1643213: Feb 9 08:11:07.346: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryWINS 172.17.2.10 (0x8206AC11020A)
1643214: Feb 9 08:11:07.346: Vi6 IPCP: SecondaryDNS 172.17.1.2 (0x8306AC110102)
1643215: Feb 9 08:11:07.350: Vi6 IPV6CP: I CONFREQ [Not negotiated] id 0 len 14
1643216: Feb 9 08:11:07.350: Vi6 IPV6CP: Interface-Id 0218:41FF:FEAC:A676 (0x010A021841FFFEACA676)
1643217: Feb 9 08:11:07.354: Vi6 LCP: O PROTREJ [Open] id 3 len 20 protocol IPV6CP (0x80570100000E010A021841FFFEACA676)
1643218: Feb 9 08:11:07.354: Vi6 IPCP: I CONFACK [ACKsent] id 1 len 16
1643219: Feb 9 08:11:07.354: Vi6 IPCP: CompressType VJ 15 slots CompressSlotID (0x0206002D0F01)
1643220: Feb 9 08:11:07.354: Vi6 IPCP: Address 172.17.1.1 (0x0306AC110101)
1643221: Feb 9 08:11:07.354: Vi6 IPCP: State is Open
1643222: Feb 9 08:11:07.362: Vi6 IPCP: Install route to 172.17.0.129
1643223: Feb 9 08:11:07.362: Vi6 IPCP: Add link info for cef entry 172.17.0.129
1643224: Feb 9 08:11:07.370: Vi6 CCP: I CONFACK [ACKsent] id 1 len 10
1643225: Feb 9 08:11:07.370: Vi6 CCP: MS-PPC supported bits 0x00000001 (0x120600000001)
1643226: Feb 9 08:11:07.370: Vi6 CCP: State is Open
1643227: Feb 9 08:11:07.490: Vi6 IPCP: I CONFREQ [Open] id 1 len 34
1643228: Feb 9 08:11:07.490: Vi6 IPCP: CompressType VJ 15 slots (0x0206002D0F00)
1643229: Feb 9 08:11:07.490: Vi6 IPCP: Address 0.0.0.0 (0x030600000000)
1643230: Feb 9 08:11:07.494: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryDNS 0.0.0.0 (0x810600000000)
1643231: Feb 9 08:11:07.494: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryWINS 0.0.0.0 (0x820600000000)
1643232: Feb 9 08:11:07.494: Vi6 IPCP: SecondaryDNS 0.0.0.0 (0x830600000000)
1643233: Feb 9 08:11:07.494: Vi6 IPCP: Ignoring predicted packet, state is Open
1643234: Feb 9 08:11:07.530: Vi6 IPCP: I CONFREQ [Open] id 2 len 34
1643235: Feb 9 08:11:07.530: Vi6 IPCP: CompressType VJ 15 slots (0x0206002D0F00)
1643236: Feb 9 08:11:07.530: Vi6 IPCP: Address 172.17.0.129 (0x0306AC110081)
1643237: Feb 9 08:11:07.534: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryDNS 172.17.2.10 (0x8106AC11020A)
1643238: Feb 9 08:11:07.534: Vi6 IPCP: PrimaryWINS 172.17.2.10 (0x8206AC11020A)
1643239: Feb 9 08:11:07.534: Vi6 IPCP: SecondaryDNS 172.17.1.2 (0x8306AC110102)
1643240: Feb 9 08:11:07.534: Vi6 IPCP: Ignoring predicted packet, state is Open
1643251: Feb 9 08:11:08.114: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Virtual-Access6, changed state to up

They joys of consent.exe – User Account Control – stealing your life, one dialog box at a time

A while ago I really started to get sick of the extended delay whenever Vista kicked up a UAC prompt. The delay was between 2 and 10 seconds depending on power management settings (eg throttled CPU on Power Saver profile took longer). So I poked around with ProcMon from Sysinternals to see what was going on.

All I could really see was a heap of registry access related to the audio subsystem, culminating in a "Beep" when the dialog box is finally presented.

So, I stopped the Windows Audio service. Lo and behold – INSTANT UAC PROMPT!

Now if you can explain this, I’m all ears. If you can reproduce this behaviour, I’m even more interested. Needless to say I’ve been running for a while now with no audio… when I get around to it I’ll try Norton’s beta UAC replacement tool – http://www.nortonlabs.com/inthelab/uac.php

BTW don’t turn off UAC. UAC isn’t just a dialog box and a beep – it has a whole shedload of stuff happening in behind the scenes (registry and folder virtualisation, process-sandboxing etc). If you turn it off, you will probably regret it at some point, as well as being less secure.

Ever had a guest in VS2005 show "The device, \Device\Harddisk0, has a bad block." " Windows – Delayed Write Failed" "{Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file" ?
I’ve run into this a few times. Seems the VS host process must have createfile (RWX/FC?) to the host’s volume/disk where the VHD’s reside (the whole tree up to the VHD files). The account the VM’s run under must have access – I create a group "VM Accounts", add my VM user accounts to it and grant FC to eg D:\ (Folder Only), D:\Server (Folder Only), D:\Server\VHD (Folder Only).
This resolves the issue. Nice work Microsoft.

Ran across this today..

Vista x32 SP1 box, IE stopped working. It wasn’t using the proxy. Trace showed it couldn’t auto-detect the proxy. It was attempting to look up "wpad" to grab the proxy wpad.dat file. The local DNS was returning "Server failure". It was because the client wasn’t appending the domain suffix to the query. It had been working fine, and no configuration had changed to trigger this issue. DHCP was issuing the suffix with its leases, the adapter had "Append primary and connection-specific DNS suffixes" set.

No "DNS suffix for this connection" was manually entered (this is provided by DHCP).

Nslookup was issuing unqualified names (eg trying to resolve "wpad" not "wpad.local"). All other winsock apps were doing the same.

No funky LSP’s were present, nor GPO’s or anything in hosts file. The box just stopped resolving, wouldn’t append the suffix. I tried disabling/enabling the adapter, flushing the dns resolver cache (ipconfig /flushdns), ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew.

Then after a heap of fiddling it seemed to be better – but I had to close and re-open any apps that were open while the problem was present to get them to work properly. They seemed to have some sort of stateful relationship with (winsock?) that needed to be re-established after whatever I did fixed the global issue.

Weird.. just logging it in case it’s a silent issue.

In the last few days Microsoft have published a request-only hotfix that addresses issues with pcmcia.sys.
While the repro case mentioned in the KB article is different to that here, the root cause may be similar in the pcmcia.sys driver.
I haven’t tested it, mainly due to lack of time to jump through MS hoops to get the hotfix.. (The Hotfix Share may offer an alternative..!)
If you do test it, please comment on your results!
KB article here – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957126/

Vista has set the owner of "system" files to TrustedInstaller and set the ACL to deny anyone from making changes. Cute, but annoying.

Typically anything in c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 will give "Access Denied" even after the myriad UAC prompts.

My Dell Latitude D830 has a 32GB flash-based SSD harddisk, the space constraints of which get a bit tiring.

The performance of the $800 option leave a lot to be desired.. but that’s another story. Along with the AHCI issues, BSOD due to LPM changes in Vista.. <sigh>.

Anyhow I wanted to compress the contents of c:\windows\system32\driverstore as it was 1.4GB.. dunno how compressible it will be but we’ll see.

Here’s a script to fix the permissions issue. Grab it here from my SkyDrive (incl readme)

TakeControlOf.zip

Someone at mydigitallife wrote it, it’s very basic but automates the changes. Thanks to the author!

Here’s a copy of a post I made on the Dell Forums relating to hibernation resume under Vista. Original post – http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=vista&message.id=57712#M57712

The issue still exists – I’ve disabled the pcmcia.sys driver to work around the issue.

———

Thought I’d post to document what I’ve found after at least 40 solid hours of troubleshooting.

If your notebook won’t fully wake from hibernation, and instead sits there with a black screen with a flashing white cursor at top left of screen, this is probably for you.

The issue specifically occurs here on a Latitude D830 running Vista Ent x32. The command to hibernate completes ok. On power-on, the resume process starts, the "resuming windows" bar winds back and forth with HDD activity, and after 10-20 seconds the video mode changes as expected, but instead of bringing up Windows desktop the machine is stuck/frozen with only a white cursor flashing in a dos-mode display res black screen. It’s unresponsive (no kb lights etc) only a long press on power will shut it off. At reboot the NT loader says "Resume failed, do you want to delete restoration data and boot normally".

Unsuccessful troubleshooting included

-All third-party drivers were disabled via regedit (set start type to 4) and all non-essential Microsoft drivers as well (USB etc).

-Firmware and driver versions correct, chkdsk, hiberfil.sys recreated, peripherals removed

-All MS KB articles relating to Vista and hibernation read, relevant hotfixes obtained and applied.. SP1 installed (which was another story)

-All combinations of power management settings

-Replacement of mainboard, processor, RAM, HDD (this was to try and fix another issue with SSD HDD BSOD’s, but didn’t fix this one)

-Reinstall from scratch several times with Vista Enterprise x32 using only Dell drivers and software

-Left it with the Dell service agents to muddle with (with no success I must add, so I took it back)

Eventually I found what I think is the problem. It seems that disabling the onboard PC card/1394 controller via the BIOS works around this problem. I suspect what is happening is the onboard O2Micro PC Card controller (or the associated smartcard reader and 1394 controller) is buggy in that it does not behave correctly when returning from S4. The supporting driver is the Microsoft pcmcia.sys so it’s not a driver issue imo.

This of course is not a solution – it’s up to Dell to work with their third-party suppliers to provide hardware that is Vista compliant. I happen to use my PC card slot quite a bit for WWAN and other cards.

Are there any Dell reps here who could recommend what I could do to get this on an engineer’s radar?

Hope this helped someone having this problem – if I can I’ll update this post with more info as I have it.

Keywords: vista hibernate hibernation resume black flashing cursor hangs freezes "delete restoration data"

Microsoft have announced "Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless" – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942567/en-us

Quote from KB:

"This article describes the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless. This software update includes the following components or features that improve wireless support in Windows Vista:

•
Bluetooth version 2.1 support

•
Unified Pairing user interface

•
Windows Connect Now updates

Some of these features may work with existing hardware. However, you must have new hardware to take advantage of the new functionality.
This update is compatible with all versions of Windows Vista. It can be installed only on a computer that is running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)."

It is only available (at this time) from hardware vendors/OEM’s. Dell seem to be confused by my request for it, they asked me if I wanted to install SP1 (!).

I’m hoping it will resolve my rfcomm.sys BSOD/STOP issues, as rfcomm.sys has been updated in this pack.

Dell Latitude D830, Vista x32 Enterprise w/SP1 and all WU fixes

Getting regular BSOD’s in rfcomm.sys – including 0x000000D1 IRQL_LESS_OR_NOT_EQUAL

Driver Verifier is enabled fully.

Bluetooth services installed/enabled include Headset, Activesync and PAN/Internet sharing (via HTC TyTNII/Kaiser)

Microsoft has a March 08 KB article on an rfcomm.sys issue which offers a requested hotfix – this hasn’t come through yet so I dunno if it fixes it or not.

"When you try to put a Windows Vista-based computer into hibernation (S4), and the computer has multiple USB devices connected to it, the computer stops responding" – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949537/en-us

There’s also the recently announced "Windows Vista Feature Pack" which has a replacement rfcomm.sys in it but this can only obtained from the vendor.. Dell seem to be confused by it but I’ll keep persisting with that too.

When I resolve the issue I’ll post back.

Keywords rfcomm.sys, STOP, BSOD, Vista, Dell Latitude D830, bluetooth, KB949537

My notes on one of the many issues I’ve had on my Latitude D830 running Vista…

Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN on Dell Latitude D830, Vista x32 Enterprise w/SP1 and all fixes

-No magic firewall or antivirus software (the cure is worse than the disease IMO – using good hygiene I’ve never had an issue!)

I was getting regular (2-5 per hour) BSOD’s when operating onbattery, out of dock – mainly when browsing the web (esp IE7.. Yuck i know.).

I had enabled Driver Verifier (verifier.exe) fully, and was getting 0x00000019 BAD_POOL_HEADER, 0x000000C4 DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION, 0x000000C5 DRIVER_CORRUPTED_EXPOOL

I eliminated every non-critical driver (regedit, ccs\services Start=4) including modem, audio, etc but still had the issue.

I began to suspect the wireless driver. So I tried another version.

Uninstalling and reinstalling wouldn’t actually change the driver NETw4v32.sys (2,555,392 bytes – 12/03/2008)

After fiddling I did end up getting the machine to BSOD on boot (5-20 secs after logon screen) every time, dunno how.

Disabling WLAN in BIOS stopped the BSOD’s. This clinched it.

Here’s what I did:

-Renamed c:\windows\system32\drivers\NETw4v32.sys to NETw4v32.sysx

-Uninstalled the Intel driver package

-Double checked NETw4v32.sys was still renamed

-Deleted the services via regedit (in HKLM\SYSTEM\CCS\Services) EvtEng, NETw4v32, Regsrvc

-Checked no files remained in C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless

-Rebooted with wireless off in BIOS to prevent possible PNP redetection

-Checked NETw4v32.sys hadn’t returned

-Installed Intel PROSet/Wirelessdriver package v11.5.0.32 (DRIVER ONLY, NOT the IT Administrator package)

-Checked file NETw4v32.sys (now 2,251,776 bytes – 26/9/2007)

-Reset my personal driver preferences (Adapter properties->Configuration) eg 802.11n=off etc

While this was not the only thing I did to try and resolve these BSOD’s, these ones are gone and I am slowly re-adding the other drivers (Bluetooth stack, Virtual PC, WMDC, modem) to ensure it wasn’t any of those.

I’ve also reenabled Medium Savings under Power Management.

Interestingly the NETw4v32.sys driver had no digital signature, nor did rightclick properties details show version etc.

Good luck :)