Review: Windows 7

I have been using Windows 7 RC for a few months now and this is a solid OS. The visual changes Microsoft made are far better than what Windows Vista brought to the table. The tool bar is the biggest visual change I noticed at first. Now as you open multiple windows they are grouped together and by hovering over the group you will get a visual preview of each window. You can even hover over the small thumbnail preview for a full screen preview.

Another great feature is the XP Mode, it is basically a built in VM that allows you to install Windows XP only applications and run them in Windows 7 in a seamless XP Mode window. It acts like the application was installed directly in Windows 7.

Windows 7 is the perfect solution to the dismal showing of Windows Vista. It is not the resource hog that Windows Vista is. It is more open to people personalizing their desktops being packed with preloaded wallpapers that will satisfy anyone from the eccentric to the professional business person. I believe this is the next OS upgrade for Corporate IT departments to deploy.

Windows Update, Server 2003 Error number: 0x8024D007

I ran across this error this morning (Error number: 0x8024D007) while trying to run windows updates on a machine I just restored using BESR 8.5. The restore was to dissimilar hardware and I was having driver issues so I wanted to try Windows Update, that’s when I received the error. I googled this problem and found a number of solutions that didn't work for me. I ran a dll register script I found.

REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL /S
REGSVR32 MUCLTUI.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL /S
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL /S
REGSVR32 MUWEB.DLL /S
REGSVR32 QMGR.DLL /S
REGSVR32 QMGRPRXY.DLL /S

This ran successfully but didn't fix my issue. I was also directed to download an updated Windows Update agent, that didn't fix my issue. I tried to install Service Pack 2 on this box hoping I could get closer to a resolution. SP2 failed about half way through the installation. I found a different script,

REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL /s
REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL /s
REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL /s
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL /s
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL /s
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL /s
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL /s
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL /s

I had the same result with this script. I then found Microsoft KB873148, when I ran through the steps in this KB I noticed that the registry key I didn’t have access to was the "svchost" entry. Did more research and realized that this was infected with the Conficker virus and had the infamous AT1 scheduled task. Ultimately I had to reload the machine. All in a days work.

HP NIC Teaming

I am the in process of moving into a fully redundant Data Center from a very inadequate make shift Server Room. During this process one of the steps is to team the NICs for fail over. No big deal but, however I have a "HOG" of a database server which needs to be teamed for performance and fail over instead of just fail over, basicly I want to team 2 teams. I did some research and found out that HP had "at one time" an advanced pack add on for their teaming utility, but they discontinued it for the ProLiant line of servers. This option was called "Intelligent Networking Pack" and I wanted to use it for "Switch-assisted Dual Channel Load Balancing" which I have been told that HP will not support this on the ProLiant G5 line anymore. That really sucks! If anyone has another solution for me please drop a line.

I pulled this off of the HP NIC Teaming White Paper, it's a better description of what I'm trying to accomplish.

Switch-assisted Dual Channel Load Balancing, referred to as Dual Channel or a “team of teams”, is a special team type designed by HP to accomplish everything that NFT, TLB and SLB team types accomplish all in a single team type. Prior to Dual Channel, an HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming user had to choose between inbound load balancing (SLB or 802.3ad Dynamic) or switch redundancy (NFT, TLB). Dual Channel allows the user to create two teams, called groups, inside of a single team. Each group (A or B) is assigned one or more teamed ports. Also, each group can be connected to a different switch to provide switch fault tolerance. Full inbound and outbound load balancing is provided across both groups. Should all members in one group completely fail, the team remains available via the other group. If the groups are connected to different switches and one of the switches fail, the team remains available via the group attached to the functional switch. Switch-assisted Dual Channel Load Balancing requires activation with a license key and is part of the INP upgrade for HP ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming.

Adding a public folder to a security group

In the properties of the public folder go to "Member Of" and add the security group. This puzzled me this morning but after messing around with it this stuff seems to come back to you.