Windows Vista: Creating a Recovery Disc (SP1 only)

One of the new features of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is the ability to create a recovery disc. This is not like your computer manufacturer's recovery disk that restores your system back to its original state when you bought it. This is more of a system repair disk that you can use to boot and fix certain problems on a failing system.

Basically this is a Windows PE disk (a CD bootable version of Windows) that contains some system repair utilities. Creating a Windows PE is generally a pain in the rear, I think most people would give up trying to create one. Although this utility simplifies the process down to just two clicks.

To find this utility, from the "Start menu > All programs > Maintenance > Create a Recovery Disc". You will need a blank CD or DVD, and your original Windows Installation DVD. It takes about 5 minutes to complete the process.

Now all you have to do is boot a computer with the disc you created. Once you enter into the Windows Recovery Environment, click the "Repair your computer" link at the bottom of the Welcome screen and then select the Windows partition you would like to repair. After this, it will present you with a list of available system recovery options:

• Startup Repair
• System Restore
• Windows Complete PC Restore
• Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool
• Command Prompt
  

MUTO (Wall Painted Animation)

A weird short film by Blu. Its an ambiguous animation painted on public walls. Made in Buenos Aires and in Baden

Historic Blockbuster Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past

Software: Laptop Alarm (Laptop Security)

Laptop Alarm is a free program that can help protect your laptop from being stolen in a public area such as a coffee shop or library when you're away from it. If someone tries to still your computer it will sound an alarm.

Its a fairly simple program to install and use. All you need to do is download and run it. Select the events to respond to, and press the Options button to set a password. Then press the Lock Computer button to protect your laptop.

Note: This program is only a deterrent, and can't protect against all types of theft. The program can only respond to a few types of events (such as AC power loss, mouse movement, etc.)

Microsoft Revamps Download Center Using Silverlight

PC World reports: "Microsoft continues to eat its own dog food to promote the adoption of its Silverlight technology.

The company is beta-testing a new version of its Microsoft Download Center Web site using the technology, a browser plug-in and development runtime for adding multimedia and high-definition video to Web-based applications."

Silverlight is Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash technology. I also checked out the new Microsoft Download Center site and it looks really nice.

Personally, I would like to see more sites leverage the Silverlight technology so I can decide which one I like more based on how people are implementing it.

Windows Vista: Searching for .DMP files

Are you running low on disk storage on your computer? The .DMP (crash dump) files consume a great deal of space.

These files are created when your operating system or application crash. Programmers use these files to find what cause your OS or program to fail.

The problem with these files is that they will sit around for a long time sucking up space. The file size can vary from a few kilobyte to a few gigabytes.

If you run the following command from the Command Prompt it will find these files and show you where and how big they are.

for /r c:\ %i in (*.dmp) do @echo %i ^(%~zi^)

Note: This command needs to be entered exactly as shown. You can change the .DMP extension to something else if you want to (i.e.: .TMP). You can also change the drive letter (i.e.: C:\) as appropriate.

Software: MediaCoder (Audio/Video Transcoder)

The MediaCoder describes itself as the 'swiss army knife for media transcoding'. MediaCoder is a free universal batch media transcoder utility, which integrates the most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution.

MediaCoder uses various open source audio and video codecs and tools to transcode different audio/video files into different formats. Common uses for the program include compression, file type conversion and extraction of audio from video files.

Below is a brief list of the many formats that are supported by the application:

• MP3
• Vorbis
• AAC
• Windows Media Audio
• RealAudio
• WAV
• Xvid
• DivX 4/5
• MPEG-2
• AVI
• CD
• DVD

Windows Vista: Windows Server 2008 Remote Server Administration Tools

For those systems administrators that support Windows 2008 servers, this post is dedicated to you.

Microsoft has finally release the Windows Server 2008 Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). This software allows you to remotely manage roles and features in Windows Server 2008 from a Windows Vista SP1 workstation.

This software provides similar functionality to the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack. It also includes support for remote management of Windows 2008 servers running either the server core or a full installation option.

Security: Darik's Boot and Nuke (Hard Drive Disk Wipe)

Darik's Boot and Nuke ('DBAN') is one of those tools that has become a standard in its class (i.e. data destruction), and best of all its free. DBAN is a self-contained boot disk that can securely wipe your hard disks.

DBAN can use several different data destruction techniques (such as: 'American DoD 5220-22.M Standard Wipe') that can prevent or thoroughly hinders all known hard disk recovery methods.

Note: This software is not perfect, and can't promise to make it impossible for any of the data to be recovered. To do this, you would need to physically destroy the drive.

To use DBAN, all you have to do is download the ISO from the site, burn it to a CD, and boot your computer with it. All the instructions are on the CD.