Chris123NT's Blog

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!

  The Glasser Plugin is a plugin for Firefox that lets you extend glass down into the toolbar to give it a much better look in Windows Vista (and Win7 for that matter).  While this plugin works great on Firefox 3.0, it seems to have some issues with 3.1 relating to some code the Mozilla foundation checked in (they might be working on their own glassed UI).

Anyway, the issue is with the text in the address bar, search box, and menu text.  I have found a way to resolve this.  All you need to do is insert the following code into your userchrome.css file (located in:

C:\Users\Username\Appdata\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles\{profilename}\chrome (Create the userchrome.css if it doesn’t exist already)

Insert the following code:

#main-window #urlbar {
   opacity: .99 !important;
   -moz-border-radius-topright: 0px !important;
   -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 0px !important;
}
#main-window #searchbar .searchbar-textbox {
   -moz-border-radius-topright: 0px !important;
   -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 0px !important;
}
#main-window #search-container { opacity: .99 !important; }
#main-window #navigator-toolbox #toolbar-menubar { opacity: .99 !important; }

 

Save the file and start Firefox again.  Now it should all look normal and you will be able to see your text again.  Enjoy!

If you are having any issues installing certain drivers in Windows 7 (Creative, I’m looking at you here, jerks), there are two methods you can try…

Install using Compatibility Mode

To install a driver using Compatibility Mode, right click on the Setup Application Stub (usually titled Setup.exe or whatever program you are opening to install the driver) and click on Properties, and then click on the Compatibility tab, enable Compatibility Mode and select “Windows Vista RTM” from the drop down list, then click on OK and try again.

Install using Device Manager

If the above doesn’t work, use a utility such as WinRAR to extract the files contained within the self-compressed EXE package to a folder, and then use the Device Manager (Start > right click on Computer > click on Manage, and select Device Manager on the left hand side) to install the drivers. In Device Manager, simply right click on the device that you need to install a driver for and click on “Update driver software” and follow through the wizard, ensuring that you point it to the location of the files you extracted.

http://www.lifewithwindows.com/ 

http://www.livingwithoutwalls.net/

http://www.livingwithwindows.com/

Keep in mind these are currently configured as simple URL redirectors… because a certain Canadian was too damn lazy to do it properly. Blame Canada.

Todays URL spree brought to you by the letter “I”, an Interconnected Series of Tubes at your service(tm).

Like many others, when Microsoft announced at MIX08 that Internet Explorer 8 would be standards compliant, I was extremely pleased that they made a decision to finally conform to the standards that have been around for years.  Bottom line is, this was what we all wanted Microsoft to do years ago.

So all is good in IE8 land right?  Wrong.  Internet Explorer 8’s ideas of compliance is breaking websites that ARE standards compliant.  How exactly is this possible?  It’s simple, IE8 is NOT standards compliant.  The simple fact that the browser passed the acid2 test does not mean that it is compliant.  This can be confirmed by putting IE8 through the Acid3 test.  The abysmal score of 12/100 leaves a LOT to be desired.

So, what should Microsoft do at this point?  Well they will tell you that they are working on the problem and working towards a compliant model, and that IE8 will indeed not be fully compliant.  But I have an alternate solution to offer up.  How about ditching the Trident engine altogether?  By doing this, Microsoft would be getting rid of the largest thorn in the side of web developers all over the world.  So my solution is simple, use another engine, preferably Webkit.  By doing this the hard work is already done for them, the browser will be fully standards compliant, and Microsoft can focus on adding real features and innovation to the browser, instead of wasting all their time on an obviously broken engine.

What are your thoughts about this?  I’m curious to see how the community feels about the current state of Internet Explorer 8.

Well folks, we’re at it again.  Last night I was having a discussion with Rafael Rivera and we got to wondering if there was something more that Microsoft was hiding away from us, using the same method as they did to tuck away the superbar.  With that said, I started crawling my system with some tools to find references, as Rafael’s laptop was acting up and my machine could accomplish the task much quicker.  Completely to my suprise, the system pulled some results across many other files in the system.  Upon examination, Rafael discovered that this all ties into a new feature that we assume will be called “Desktop Slideshow”.  Think of this as a dreamscene-esque type feature but without the hassle.  Note: Desktop Slideshow will not play videos currently.  Probably never will.

OMG!  Can I have this?

Simple answer is yes, you will be able to, but not yet.  Rafael is redesigning the original patcher that enabled the superbar, to be more user friendly as well as tying in the patches to enable the Desktop Slideshow feature.  This patch will be an easy one thing does it all, and you will see all of the features that Windows 7 Build 6801 offers to an internal “Blue Badged” Microsoft Employee working in the Windows Division.  Click the link below to jump to Rafael’s blog post and read some more information and also see a video of the feature in action.

View: Rafael’s Blog Post on Desktop Slideshow and RSS

Yes, that’s right folks. The one and only Rafael Rivera has figured out how to enable the new taskbar in Windows 7 build 6801.  The taskbar was there the whole time, but protected by some rather interesting checks that I find quite entertaining.

1. Must be a member of an allowed domain
   • wingroup.windeploy.ntdev.microsoft.com
   • ntdev.corp.microsoft.com
   • redmond.corp.microsoft.com
2. Must not be an employee with a disallowed username prefix
   • a- (temporary employees)
   • v- (contractors/vendors)

So to break it down, you have to be on the Windows team in REDMOND and NOT a contract employee.  So most of the people who moderate over the Beta newsgroups would not have the new taskbar by default.  Bypassing it was suprisingly easy.  Anyway to read the full set of instructions, head over to Raf’s blog.

View: Rafael’s Blog Post

EDIT: Here is a copy of Rafael’s post as it seems his Blog is down at the moment:

During PDC ‘08, I was passed a note indicating that I should dig deeper into the bits to discover the snazzy new Taskbar. Upon cursory analysis, I found no evidence of such and dismissed the idea as completely bogus.

I got home and starting doing some research on a potentially new feature called Aero Shake when I stumbled upon an elaborate set of checks tied to various shell-related components, including the new Taskbar. To use these, what I call “protected features”, you must meet the following criteria:

1. Must be a member of an allowed domain
   • wingroup.windeploy.ntdev.microsoft.com
   • ntdev.corp.microsoft.com
   • redmond.corp.microsoft.com
2. Must not be an employee with a disallowed username prefix
   • a- (temporary employees)
   • v- (contractors/vendors)

Protected Feature Flowchart (click for full)

As checking against this criteria is potentially expensive, in terms of CPU cycles, the result of the check is cached for the duration of Explorer’s lifetime (per protected feature). The cached value is stored within a variable, space of which is allocated in the image’s initialized data section (.data).

Explorer does not initialize these variables at start and checks for a cached result for before performing any checks. I exploited this behavior by setting the initialized value in the image itself to 1 vice 0 to bypass all twelve checks.

Why not use a hook to intercept GetComputerNameExW / GetUserNameW?

I thought about building a hook to inject into the Explorer process upon start, but I grew concerned that legitimate code in Explorer that uses those functions to perform various legitimate tasks would malfunction. And I was lazy.

Can I has too? Plz?

Simply download a copy of a tool I whipped up for either x86 or x64 (untested thus far), drop it into your Windows\ directory and execute the following commands as an Administrator in a command prompt window:

• takeown /f %windir%\explorer.exe
• cacls %windir%\explorer.exe /E /G MyUserName:F (replacing MyUserName with your username)
• taskkill /im explorer.exe /f
• start unlockProtectedFeatures.exe

After changing the protected feature lock state, you can re-launch the shell by clicking the Launch button.

Screenshot of PDC ‘08 build with new Taskbar

Why did Microsoft do this?

I’m not sure why these features went into the main (winmain) builds wrapped with such protection. What are your thoughts?

Could it be true?  Well apparently it can be.  Upon reading a post on Paul Thurrot’s Winsupersite I noticed a particularly interesting screenshot.  You can view the screenshot below and make your own judgements, but it looks legit.

Well folks, that time has come again.  PDC 2008 has come and gone and we have been given copies of Windows 7 to play with.  This version of windows comes with many features that improve over the oft-frowned upon Vista.  Many features that make us feel we are that much closer to the original Longhorn Vision from 2003.

Now, the purpose of this guide is a bit different from previous guides you have seen us write.  The purpose of this one is to highlight the new and exciting features in Windows 7, show you how to use them and how to make the most out of the Windows 7 experience.  Let’s face it, this OS is actually stable enough to use as a primary operating system, unlike Longhorn.  We also outline some small issues we encountered while using this build and provided workarounds to remedy them.  So without further ado, I give you the Windows 7 PDC Build 6801 Tips and Tricks guide by Kristan Kenney (Nighthawk) and myself.  Enjoy!

View: Windows 7 Build 6801 Tips and Tricks Guide

Also something I’d like to add to this post on another note is a note from Nighthawk himself.  It acutally upsets me to say this, but he is making a departure from the Windows Community to take care of some real life issues.  I wish him the best and hope he can make the type of impact in his other endeavors that he made on me and the Windows community as a whole.  He was a huge contributor to these guides and he will be greatly missed.  Don’t worry though, I will be continuing the writing of these guides for future builds for everyone to enjoy, and maybe one day Kris will come back when he sees fit.  Anyway, below is the note directly from Kris that he asked me to post on his behalf:

This guide was quite different for us to write for a few reasons, the biggest reason being that the operating system is so stable out of the box there’s not really a whole lot that you need to do, which in my eyes is a step in the right direction for the development of Windows. Can’t quite say the same of Longhorn, pre-reset or post-reset — and lets face it, Windows Vista is not anywhere close to what Microsoft envisioned for Longhorn… however we are seeing all of that effort slowly come to fruition with Windows 7.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers over the years, without all of you there would be no reason to write these guides at all. I’m the kind of person who loves to tinker around with things and figure out how things work, so for me these were a lot of fun to write, and even more fun to explore these builds. In a lot of ways, it gives you a bit of excitement.

With that being said, I would also like to mention that I am making a departure from the Windows community. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to manage a few great forums (Next L3vel comes to mind here), blog to my hearts desire, and publish some of my best work, and at the end of the day I know that out there, somewhere, I’ve helped someone, and most importantly I’ve gotten you to explore and learn, which to me is more than enough, because let’s face it, you can never stop learning, even if you tried.

I wish all of you the best in the future, not only in mind but in body and spirit as well.

Nighthawk, out.

Well I honestly have to say, after using Windows 7 Build 6801 for a day, I am extremely impressed with this OS.  It has features that just work how people thing and do what you expect them to.  It is smooth and has things that Vista should have had right from the word go.  I am going to be using this as my primary OS, without doubt.  After getting used to the quite addictive Library feature and the new explorer views, Vista just doesn’t measure up to my standards anymore.

Anyway, I have encountered a few things while using the OS.  So with that said, I brought Kristan Kenney back (for what might be his last hoorah for a while in the Windows community) to help me write a guide for build 6801.  Now, while there isn’t much to tweak in this build because it’s already so fast, we are more focusing on the new features in Windows 7, how to do things, and how to work around some of the minor issues that we have encountered.  Look for the guide to be posted sometime later tonight.