Windows 7 & Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Released

Microsoft released Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 to the masses yesterday, February 22nd.

Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is a set of updates and fixes for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 that addresses feedback from Microsoft customers (in addition to the improvements that are delivered to users through Windows Update). In addition to including previously released updates, SP1 focuses on specific reliability and performance issues, support for new types of hardware, and support for a few emerging technology standards. Note that although SP1 is not intended to be a vehicle for releasing new features, some existing features do gain enhanced functionality through SP1.

Notable new features include:

RemoteFX – Ever use Remote Desktop to connect to another machine virtually over a LAN? You’ve probably noticed that the experience you get across a network pales in comparison to what you get locally, with features like Windows Aero, full-motion video, and 3D graphics all off limits. RemoteFX will lift those barriers.

Dynamic Memory – According to Microsoft, dynamic memory “allows customers to achieve increased density when they’re consolidating physical servers into a virtual realm, providing them with predictable performance and linear scalability.” Translated: IT administrators can dice up the physical memory on a machine, like a server, and dole it out to many different virtual machines on the fly. Continue reading “Windows 7 & Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Released”

Windows Vista / 7 ‘godMode’

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden “godMode” feature that lets users access all of the operating system’s control panels from within a single folder.

To enter “godMode,” one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

godMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

Read more here.

Windows 7 – Error Code 0x80072F8F

After a clean installation of Windows 7 Ultimate on a new Dell Precision M2400, I was unable to complete an online activation. The specific error “0x80072F8F” provided no information as to the cause of the problem. More information suggested there was a ‘Security Problem’.

After researching the issue I found Microsoft Knowledge Base article 929458 which states that the error is caused by an incorrect time, date or time zone being set on the machine.

The solution is to open the clock properties, select your time zone then select ‘Internet Time’ and update. I recommend selecting “time.nist.gov” as your NTP server as time.windows.com tends to regularly time out.