Chris123NT's Blog

As many of you know, I published an article a few years back telling everyone how to make WMP x64 the default in Windows Vista x64.  I had hoped at that time that Microsoft would have the sense to make the x64 player the default one in Windows 7.

Well not only did they fail to see why the 64 bit player should be the default, they also locked the user’s ability to switch the default player.  They locked the registry keys that the old Vista command altered.  Their excuse for this is that it “adds security” so that malicious code cannot modify the WMP play/enqueue commands.  Fine, I can buy that, but then alter the tool so that it can change those keys.  Well apparently this wasn’t on the timetable, and I decided to find a way around this, because after all, who wants to have to install TWO sets of codecs to watch stuff in Media Player (x86 player used by default) and also watch stuff in Media Center (which is x64).

So for those of you who recognize that the 64 bit media player SHOULD be the default in Windows 7, I have made a script with the help of Kristan Kenney that automates the entire process for you.  It unlocks the necessary registry keys, and then uses the old vista command to make the switch.  We have also included a script that allows you to switch back to the 32 bit player if you choose to do so.

So Microsoft, specifically the WMP team, you guys didn’t want to fix it, so we did it for you.  Now users can have some consistency in their 64 bit user experience.

NOTE: After changing the default Media Player to x64, remove the media player shortcut from the taskbar, start media player via the start menu and then re-pin it.  If you don’t do this you will see 2 WMP icons on your taskbar.

If anyone has any other questions or comments, either post in the comments section or contact me privately and I will answer them.

Download: Windows Media Player x64 Switch Script

So with the recent leaks of various Windows 7 builds leaking in VHD form, I thought it would be a good time to dust off my guide writing skills and do one to inform everyone just how easy it is to make an install DVD out of your freshly downloaded VHD of Windows 7.

So firstly I should answer the million dollar question that some of you may have.  What is a VHD?  Well to put it simply, a VHD is the image file format used by Microsoft VirtualPC and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technologies.  Some of these builds leak in these forms because internally Microsoft does a lot of their staging/testing in Hyper-V environments.  One cool thing to note, is that these images are already staged, so all we have to do is capture the contents to a WIM file.

What you will need to follow this guide:

• Windows 7 Ultimate (we’re using the built in VHD mount utility)
• Windows 7 AIK RC
• UltraISO (Or another Utility to edit ISO Files)
• Windows 7 ISO (Any build 7100 or newer will work)

So, the first thing you need to do is obviously make sure you have your VHD downloaded to the desired location. Once you have done that, do the following:

1. Go to start and type compmgmt.msc and press enter.
2. Click on “Disk Management”
3. Go to the Action Menu and click “Attach VHD”
4. Browse to the location of your VHD, select it and click OK.
5. It will install a drive to your system, take note of the drive letter, you will need this later.
6. Install the Windows AIK and take note of the installation path.
7. Now start an instance of command prompt as administrator.
8. Navigate to X:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86 or X:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64 depending on your architecture. (X being the drive you installed the AIK to)
9. now type imagex.exe /compress maximum /flags “Ultimate” /capture L: D:\install.wim “Windows 7 Ultimate”
10. Let that process run (should take a few minutes) and you will have your WIM.

Now we need to put this shiny new WIM into an ISO.  For this do the following:

1. Open your ISO in UltraISO (make sure your ISO is the same architecture as what you downloaded)
2. navigate to the sources folder and delete install.wim
3. Drag your new install.wim into the sources folder.
4. Save the ISO with a new name.
5. Burn the ISO and install.

And that’s it, using the above method you can quickly convert a VHD into a WIM and insert it into an ISO and install it like any normal build of Windows.  The above can be accomplished in under 10 minutes, so it’s a pretty quick process as well.

Yet another Windows 7 build has escaped Sinofsky’s watchful eye, except this time the circumstances were a bit different.  This build was actually stolen off a machine on the WinHEC China demo floor by a few gutsy guys who decided to image one of the boxes.  This could explain some of the issues that I will outline further down.  Paul over at Geeksmack was kind enough to write up a little mini-review on this build so I figured I would post what he wrote and add a few things to it.  I’m really not going to do a full scale guide for this build because of how badly broken certain things are, it just isn’t practical for every day use.  So without further ado, on to the review after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »

A new version of Rafael’s Blue Badge tool for Windows 7 has been released.  This new version brings many improvements as well as implementing a few rather interesting discoveries that were made.  The other night (I think it was Saturday), we started digging around in a build of Windows 7 that out of the box that had all of the features protected but was known to have working Aero Peek.  Conventional Blue Badge patching was not working to enable peek.  As a matter of fact, everything except peek was working.

This led us to do something that caused us to discover how it works internally.  We set our machine names and criteria to match the Microsoft criteria the build checks for and everything turned on, including Aero Peek.  After a little investigating, Rafael found code references to checks pointing to specific registry keys that when set to a certain value, will turn on the feature associated with said key.  So we dug up all the ID’s, compiled them together, set the proper attribute value, and voila, blue badge, the easy way.

So just to outline, here are the improvements in this revision of the Blue Badge tool:

• Completely Build Independent: Will work on any build of Windows 7 that contains protected features.  This version of the tool works perfectly on build 6801 as well as 6936.
• No Patching of System Files: This revision works its magic through the registry, no system files are altered in any way.
• Blue Badge on a Per-User Basis: since this tool applies the feature ID’s under HKCU, you can patch each account at your own discretion and compare.  So you can have users with all the features, and others without.
• Enables Aero Peek on 6801: After using this revision of the tool, users of build 6801 will be able to enjoy fully functioning aero peek on their machines.

That pretty much wraps it up, look below for download links for the tool as well as a link to Rafael’s post about the new tool (where he even includes a new flowchart).

Download: Revision 3 for x86 and x64

View: Rafael’s Post

As many of you undoubtedly know by now, newer builds of Windows  7 come along with a “Send Feedback” link to the left of the min/max/close buttons of nearly every window you open.  This is reminiscent of the old “Comments?” link that was present in Whistler/XP betas.  So Rafael and I set out to find a way to do this.

Fortunately we can remove this link pretty easily.  It just involves a simple registry edit.  For the sake of easiness I will post the reg code below, all you have to do is copy/paste it into notepad and save it as feedback.reg.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"FeedbackToolEnabled"=dword:00000000

 

Merge the registry file, say yes to any UAC prompts or otherwise, log out and back in and enjoy your clean window frames!

If you’re like many others, then upon installation of Windows 7 build 6801 you have an unknown device in the device manager that doesn’t seem to fit with any of your hardware.  And if you look at the hardware ID it is shown as DETECTED\blbdrive.  Up until now we thought this was something to do with backup, but we now know it is for the “File as Volume” driver.  Which probably has something to do with the VHD mounting technologies in Windows 7.  The following guide will show you how to fix the unknown device in the device manager.

1. Navigate to %windir%\system32\drivers
2. rename blbdrive.sys to blbdriveold.sys or something similar
3. Go into the device manager and right click the unknown device and click “Update Driver”.
4. You want to find the driver on your own, so select the bottom option.
5. At the screen, select the option shown in the screenshot:
   
6. Next, click the have disk option, and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\blbdrive.inf_amd64_neutral_f7447a670ab06496 (for x64, x86 name should be similar).  Select the File as Volume driver and click next.
7. You will be presented with a prompt warning that the device may not be compatible.  Ignore the warning and click yes.
8. The device will install.  The system tray may report that installation failed, but that is not the case.  Reboot when asked and enjoy a clean device manager!

One thing I noticed rather quickly with this build was that the iPod Touch does not seem to work out of the box in iTunes.  At first I didn’t mind, but then there was added pressure when my brother snatched my 6801 DVD and installed it on his machine and then came to me to get his iPod Touch working.  So of course this started a quest to do what many others wrote off as impossible.  Well, I’m here to tell you that it is NOT impossible, it just requires a little know how and willingness to do some things manually.  So let’s get to it shall we?

NOTE: Everything you need to know to make this work is in the following guide, if yours isn’t working, you did something wrong, so read it over again because you probably missed a step.

What you will need:

• Latest iTunes x64 release from apple.com
• Installed copy of iTunes on a Vista x64 system available to you
• Basic knowledge of installing drivers in Windows

Ok, so first off, you obviously need to install iTunes.  Install it as you normally would and let it do it’s thing.  Once you have done that, you will notice the following error if you try to start iTunes with your iPod Touch plugged in:

The reason this happens is because the iTunes installer does not install the Mobile Device Support component which is necessary for the iPod Touch to work correctly.  To remedy this issue do the following:

1. Copy the “Mobile Device Support” directory from your Vista system to the same location on your 7 system (Located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\).
2. Once you have done that, we need to merge the appropriate registry entries so the services actually work.  Merge THIS registry file and allow all UAC prompts.
3. Once that is done, now we need to move on to the hardest part of the whole process.  Installing the correct driver for the iPod Touch.  Windows 7 incorrectly sees the device as a digital camera, so we need to fix this manually.  To do this head into the device manager and select the iPod (see screenshots below).

   

   Once you have done that, right click and go to “Update Driver”.  You will now see this:

   

   Select “Browse my computer for driver software”.  Now you should see this:

   

   Click the button highlighted (hint: it’s the Let me pick… Button).

   When the prompt comes up, click have disk and navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers\

   After doing that click OK and you should see this:

   

   Click Next and the driver will install.

   Finally, reboot your computer to allow the Mobile device service to start, and plug in your iPod Touch and fire up iTunes.  Your device should now work exactly as it should.  Enjoy!

Just wanted to post a quick note that I have added a new Tips & Tricks section to the site.  This can be reached by clicking the link in the top navigation bar.  This is a one stop shop that will contain links to all of my guides and other guides that I feel are useful for people to have a look at.

 With that said, I should also mention that I posted a new guide in that section yesterday that outlines how to get the search link back in the start menu in Vista SP1.

Vista SP1 Re-Add Search Guide

So a while back, Kristan Kenney wrote a very thought out guide to Power management in Windows Vista.  His guide included how to use the various features of the power management control panel and how to optimize Vista’s power settings for optimal battery life on any laptop, whether it be an ultra-portable or a desktop replacement system.

As many of you know, his blog at Windows-Now, where he posted this guide is now gone (might have something to do with the fact that he went over to the dark side *cough* MAC USER *cough*).  I have found a copy of the guide and have posted it on this site in the interest of preserving such a great piece of work.  So without further ado, I give you the Windows Vista Power Guide:

Windows Vista Power Guide by Kristan Kenney

Ok, I can see that people want to try to disable the LUAFV driver in Vista on their own so they can test my findings with boot times and UAC.  So here it is.  Of course use this at your own risk, I hold no responsibility if this tweak should cause your computer to spontaneously combust or eat your children.

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\luafv”
3. Double click the “start” string value, and set it to 4.
4. Reboot and see the improvement.

So there you have it.  Test it and see how it works for you, of course your results may vary but it should render an improvement for the majority.  Any questions or comments, well don’t be afraid to use the comments feature.  I promise I won’t bite……too hard.