Archive for the 'Windows Vista' Category

Microsoft Brings some Vista Features to XP

Published
by
Chris Meller
on November 29, 2006
in Commentary, Daily Grind, Insomnia, Internet, Links, Microsoft, Networking, Reviews, Techno-Babble, Windows and Windows Vista
. 0 Comments

Early this morning, as my insomnia-driven computer addiction ensued at hours in which even the birds refuse to wake, I noticed that a couple of new Windows Updates had been deployed by my in-house WSUS box and were ready for installation on my client machines. I thought we’d already had our patch-Tuesday for the month, so I decided to check out what was being updated.

Much to my surprise, there was a new version of the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (aka Terminal Services client) app available. Since, as far as I remember, there has never been an update to this program (since it’s initial inclusion in Windows XP), I thought I’d go check it out.

Thanks to my handy dandy (unofficial) Microsoft Download Notification RSS feed, I was able to quickly track down the stand-alone download package1.

For those that may be interested, the short description of this update is:

Remote Desktop Connection (Terminal Services Client 6.0) provides a way to use any new Terminal Services features introduced in Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows Server Code Name “Longhorn” from a computer running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1.

This simple update boasts a host of changes. Most notably are:

  • Lots of new Authentication updates
  • 32-bit color support
  • Font-smoothing capability
  • Terminal Services “Remote Program” capability
  • Enhanced Device Redirection (for things such as printers connected locally)

My favorite feature, however, is without a doubt the new Monitor Spanning capability. That’s right, now I can finally utilize both of my monitors when doing a remote desktop. Oh sweet joy of joys. Microsoft, sometimes I just can’t help but love you guys2!

For those interested in more details, here’s a link to the stand-alone download, and the knowledge base article3.

Update: In case you have difficulty finding them yourselves, here are download links for other platforms. Still, I’d probably just snag it over Windows Update…

Windows 2003: here
Windows 2003 x64: here
Windows XP x64: here

  1. Oddly enough, Googling around and searching both Microsoft.com and the Microsoft Knowledge Base directly proved to be useless. [back]
  2. And god knows I try not to… [back]
  3. By the way… When did these start requiring passport logins? KB articles have always been publicly available, haven’t they? [back]

Vista RC2 Install on Inspiron 9300, Part IV

Published
by
Chris Meller
on October 15, 2006
in Commentary, Follow Up, Internet, Links, Networking, Reviews, Techno-Babble, Windows and Windows Vista
. 2 Comments

The series goes on with three new observations…

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the default homepage for Internet Explorer is no longer the massively ad-infested monster that is MSN. Instead, we’re now presented with the lighter, friendlier, much cleaner Live homepage that’s sure to please the Google-lovers out there.

Also, I was quite happy to see that my basic Group Policy settings for my XP machines were properly retrieved and run on my newly domain’d Vista machine. Logging in with my domain user account and popping up Windows Explorer showed me all my usual mapped network drives, thanks to my logon scripts. It’s the simple things that make transitions like this all the more pleasant…

I still wish the logon screen would default to a domain account on the first reboot after joining a domain. If I just joined a domain, why would I still want to login to the local machine? In XP, this is merely clicking a button to display the login drop-down box and selecting your domain from the list. With Vista, we’ve made it an extra click - Login as another user, Login as another user, type in credentials. No more drop-down list goodness… Like I said, it’s the simple things. They can make the transition more pleasant, but they can also make it a much larger pain in the ass…

Vista RC2 Install on Inspiron 9300, Part III

Published
by
Chris Meller
on October 15, 2006
in Follow Up, Internet, Networking, Reviews, Techno-Babble, Windows and Windows Vista
. 15 Comments

Continuing the series with random observations as I finish the installation and configuration of Vista on my laptop, I love the way windows fade in and out. It’s very soothing and smooth. I can’t help but notice, however, that the window prompting you if you really want to perform an administrative function (since I’m an administrator) doesn’t fade in or out like that. All of a sudden, bam, your screen is grayed out and you’ve got a new popup window in your face. I know it’s supposed to get your attention, but it seems a tad too abrupt to go with the rest of the overall theme of Vista.

Joining my domain here at home was painless - just like joining the domain with an XP machine. Since I had no physical network connection during setup, I wasn’t prompted to join the domain immediately after setup like you would be on XP. I’m not sure if this functionality exists in Vista as well, but it’d have been really nice if I’d been able to connect to a wireless network and join a domain before logging in the for the first time. Since my wireless did actually work as soon as a logged in, I don’t see why that couldn’t be accomplished. I guess you also have to consider that most comapnies running a domain are going to have some type of rollout process that will have an automated script do all the leg work. Low priority, sure, but it’d be a nice addition if you ask me…