Background:

I run Vista Ultimate x64 (64-bit).

Message:

When I open the Windows Photo Gallery, I am told that, "An Update to Windows Photo Gallery is Available".

Sure.  Sounds good to me.    If I choose to download the update, I'm directed to a Canon page, which looks like this:

Discussion:

So the 64-bit version is not supported.  Lovely.  Someone botched the 3rd party software integration.

If the app was written in-house, then it would already have been ported to 64-bit, be localization-ready, undergone a security review, etc. Because those are basic ground rules for coding at Microsoft.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/02/25/7885570.aspx

Background:

A clean install of Windows Vista SP1 is attempted on an hp Pavilion dv1603tn.  The "high definition audio device" shows failure in Device Manager.  The HP provided Vista package was installed.  The "High Definition Audio Device" device error goes away, but the resultant "Conexant High Definition Audio" device is silent and refuses to play any sounds.  Attempts to do so show sounds appearing in the sound mixer - the levels change - but nothing comes out the main system speakers.

Solution:

The HP provided Vista package is non-functional.  Download and install the "XP" driver package on their website.  Windows Update then will provide an updated driver package for Vista if necessary.

XP package installed: Release Date: 2006-05-15           Version: 3.21.0.0 A
Vista package attempted: Release Date: 2007-05-15           Version: 3.38.0.50 A
It is possible that an "updated" package will be released in the future by the manufacturer to correct this problem.

1. Download the XP driver package, and open it with WinRAR or 7-zip or a similar archiver, and extract it's contents.  (This will prevent the package from auto installing.)
2. Next, right click on the High Definition Audio Device in Device Manager and update the driver to this package, by pointing the wizard to the folder where the files were extracted it.

The functional driver with Vista SP1 has a date of "4/18/2006" and is version "3.21.0.0".

Note:

Ensure also you download and install the latest video and chipset drivers from Intel.com - NOT HP's support website, which shows releases several builds behind.

Symptoms
You connect a Windows Vista-based computer to a network.
A router or other device that is configured as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server is configured on the network.
The router or the other device does not support the DHCP BROADCAST flag.

In this scenario, Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address.

Cause

This issue occurs because of a difference in design between Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Specifically, in Windows XP SP2, the BROADCAST flag in DHCP discovery packets is set to 0 (disabled). In Windows Vista, the BROADCAST flag in DHCP discovery packets is not disabled. Therefore, some routers and some non-Microsoft DHCP servers cannot process the DHCP discovery packets.

Resolution

Summary

1. Use getmac and ipconfig /all to determine the GUID of the adapter that is having the problem.
2. Set the following in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}
   Value name: DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag
   Value type: REG_DWORD
   Value data: 0
   Note A data value of 0 disables this registry entry. You can use this registry entry to prevent Windows Vista from using the DHCP BROADCAST flag. After you set this registry entry, Windows Vista never uses the DHCP BROADCAST flag.

Details

1. Start, run, cmd
2. Run ipconfig /all
   You'll get something like this:
   Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
      Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
      Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
      Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection
      Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX
      DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
      Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Note the MAC address of the wireless adapter (shown here with XXs).  Note this is a WIRED adapter in this example; you want your wireless NIC.
3. Next, run getmac
   Match the MAC address to the GUID of the adapter.
   Physical Address    Transport Name
   =================== ==========================================================
   XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX   Media disconnected
   YY-YY-YY-YY-YY-YY   \Device\Tcpip_{F37508DE-020D-43A3-916A-ED3EE080C910}
4. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then right click on regedit, and choose "Run as Administrator"
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue. 
5. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}
6. In this registry path, click the (GUID) subkey that corresponds to the network adapter that is connected to the network.
7. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
8. In the New Value #1 box, type DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then press ENTER.
9. Right-click DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then click Modify.
10. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
11. Close Registry Editor.

See also: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) Refresh - Build 17128 v.744

Working well on my x64 laptop. =)  Dual display works properly now; no more black screens.

WinSxS was implemented to eliminate DLLHell.  Applications can use different versions of assemblies without problems.  So over time, this folder will grow, and there's not really much you can do about it, currently.

The net result is applications will be more stable and reliable as more and more applications switch to winsxs. This is a good thing.

• Got a huge bloated WinSxS folder?  Not much you can do about it.
• Can you delete WinSxS?  Nope.  If you do, you'll likely have to format and reinstall all your applications.
• Can you move it to another drive? Not really.  Give your C drive more space instead.

Here's some more information:

http://www.davidlenihan.com/2007/07/winsxs.html

On a Windows Vista-based computer, you configure the following Group Policy setting:
   Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart
Therefore, you expect the user profiles that have not been used within the number of days that you specify to be automatically deleted when Windows Vista restarts. However, you notice that some user profiles that have been used within that period are unexpectedly deleted some days later.

This problem occurs because of an error in the User Profile Service. The Group Policy setting uses the time at which the profile was created instead of the time at which the profile was last used as the basis for determining when to delete the profile. Therefore, even if the user profile is still being used, it is deleted after the specified number of days have elapsed since the time at which you created the profile.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945122

I filed a bug a few weeks ago about a problem with Vista SP1.  The beta code caused a "black screen with mouse cursor" when the display driver came out of standby or hibernation.  The fix made it into the codebase yesterday, apparently, so the RC1 release has this problem.

Any time you resume from hibernation or standby with a multi-display configuration, or connect via TS/RDP (which causes a display driver resolution change) this appears to happen.  Starting/closing Media Center fullscreen is also a trigger for this problem.

Time to wait for the next build to show up on Connect...

The wise old men of mainstream tech journalism are once again repeating the conventional wisdom that Vista is slow to start up and slow to shut down. They’re wrong.

Five secrets to faster Vista starts
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=332

Is Vista really slow to start up?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=239

More details about Vista startup times
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=240

The final word on Vista startup times
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=241

Use a Different Wallpaper on Each Desktop in Vista or XP

DisplayFusion - http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

Place a fully functional Microsoft Outlook Calendar on your Desktop

OutlookDesktop - http://www.michaelscrivo.com/projects/outlookdesktop/

Create a taskBar for the extended monitors and add additional functionality to Windows with multimonitor support

Oscar's Multi-Monitor TaskBar - http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

Media Control Plugin for Windows Vista Media Center

Switching embedded audio and subtitles streams while playing a video: works with AVI, OGM, MKV
Switching between external subtitle files (.SRT, .SUB)
Switching between FFDShow presets (audio & video)
Setting and loading bookmarks inside a video with visualization of the pictures of the saved bookmarks
Real fastforward (and rewind) exactly like in the TV module (with 3 different speeds)
Switching and setting post-processing filters in FFDShow (video filters only)
Separate application to assign keyboard/remote control shortcuts to the commands and the MCML pages of the pluginFull remote control support (6 buttons are mapped by default, but this can be changed)
Default mapping (works in full screen while watching a video, except the blue button that is always caught) : 
   Fast forward / rewind buttons 
   Blue button : loads the startup page of the plugin 
   Red button : switches audio stream 
   Green button : switches subtitle stream 
   Yellow button : switches subtitle file
Live post-processing for Live/Recorded TV, as well as DVDs
Multiple FFDShow instances support
Removes black borders of videos automatically
Direct commands : set some parameters without entering the Media Control interface

http://damienbt.free.fr/

I started the install of Vista SP1 Beta at 9:40pm this evening on my ThinkPad T60p. It finished installing at 10:22pm.  My laptop HDD was quite warm by the end of the install; it had been cranking along for quite some time.

I also grabbed the September QFE testing packages: Windows6.0-KB941649, Windows6.0-KB941651, and Windows6.0-KB941229.

My thoughts?

• I can burn a recovery CD/DVD now... yay?
• All the IBM OEM utilities appear to continue to function.  I'm running Windows Ultimate x86 (July, 2007) from the Lenovo pre-install.  I had removed a bunch of the junk in the preload using the Base Software Administrator.
• Outlook 2007, Remote Desktop client, MSN Live Messenger, Skype all seem to work.  XviD video files are playing fine, VLC works fine.
• My laptop recovers from hibernation faster - there's less HDD cranking... this is PROBABLY a result of the correction of the ReadyBoost bug that caused the entire cache to be flushed after a resume from hibernation.
• Browsing a network share of pictures, and video files loaded faster.  Thumbnails are being cached/read more intelligently.
• Moving files on the local computer is much, much faster.  It used to sit and crank while it "counted" files and "thought" about the process.
• SSTP!  I'm going to set this up in the next few days, time permitting...

I finished downloading the RC0 bits for x86 and x64 a few minutes ago.  I'll have to burn the stuff to disk sometime tomorrow before I can play.

• Hypervisor in x64 bits - I'm going to put this on a Core 2 6300 machine with 3 GB of RAM sometime this coming weekend - and see how it goes. =)

Summary:

Windows Update gives error 0x8020000E.  Usually happens after a partition has been changed, resized, cloned, etc.  To resolve the problem, flush the Software Update Distribution folder by renaming %SYSTEMROOT%\SoftwareDistribution with the "Windows Update" service stopped.

Resolution:

The technical solution:

1. Start an elevated command prompt
2. cd %systemroot%
3. net stop wuauserv
4. ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
5. net start wuauserv
6. Close command prompt

The GUI solution:

1. Control Panel, Services (launch with admin rights)
2. Find the Windows Update service, and stop it.
3. Open Explorer to C:\Windows (Or wherever you installed Windows)
4. Find and rename the SoftwareDistribution folder to something else, like "SoftwareDistribution.old"
5. Start the Windows Update service again.

First published: June 10th 2007
Updated: September 11th 2007

Good Vista gadgets are currently difficult/impossible to locate.  The rather poor documentation, coupled with poor examples and a lack of a development environment (ever try debugging a gadget?) means that well designed gadgets with good HCI principles are few and far between.

Building background services that deliver core functionality but work well with other services can be challenging. This topic includes best practices and case studies for creating high performance background services that run on Windows Vista.

Describes the considerations necessary to build a good background service, the options available to create background processes that don’t overuse system resources, and the techniques used by Windows Search to achieve good citizenship while still delivering its core functionality.

This topic is written specifically for Windows Vista, but information on writing background services is generally applicable to other releases of Windows as well, including, but not limited to, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f8e87c7d-9404-4914-92ae-dde09389a64e&displaylang=en&tm

Summary:

I recently got hold of an HP Media Center PC - a1720n.  There is so much junk in the preload.  If I bought this, and this was my first taste of Vista, I would return it and buy a Macintosh.  No wonder people hate Vista.

Background:

This a1720n Media Center PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium (OEM).  It is a Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz with 1 GB DDR2 RAM, a 320 GB HDD, DVD-DL, Intel 945 onboard graphics, 10/100 ethernet, media card reader, 56k modem, etc.  4 SATA ports.  A decent system.

Comments:

Toolbars are coming out of the system.  I! opened! the! case! and! discovered! a! Yahoo! toolbar! in! the! CPU! cooling! fan!  Norton wants to activate a 60 day trial.  HP welcome center wants me to make a backup DVD set of my computer; I placed a blank in the drive, waited for it compile files.  The burn failed at 2% on Verbatim media when the application crashed.  I'm told to sign up for a high speed internet connection since I decided not to plug this infested machine into my LAN right away.  A pre-installed DVD MPEG2 decoder breaks the Windows built-in decoder; I can't even watch a DVD.  I don't want to Get Vonage, and I don't want to Sign Up for AOL.  Yes, I know my HP warranty is active.  No, I don't want to make a backup of my computer, and no I don't want to try 100's of games.  I don't have a printer installed... and no I don't want to buy one now.  I'm running low on disk space!  Apparently, the recovery partition (which is tiny partition) only has 14% free!  Didn't this computer come with 320 gigabytes or megabytes or whatever that stuff is called?

Icons are everywhere, flashing buttons, trial software... The desktop looks like a teenager's face with a serious acne problem.

If this is the way people - HP, in this case - sell PCs, people will continue to hate Bill Gates.  No, I don't see a sudden marketshare drop; most people have accepted that their computers will not function the way they want... and these are the people who are too lazy to do anything about it.  But for those who have had enough... they will switch to company that sells machines that work.  Out of the box.  And since this will be chalked up to Bill Gates' fault, that means that Steve has a new "convert".

The inherant problem with Windows is not the operating system itself.  With the release of Vista, it's not even the applications, viruses, or the hardware/driver problems.  It's the OEMs that are paid to install junk on the system, ruining the OOBE (out of box experience) that Microsoft worked so hard to develop.  They've stomped all over the fit and polish.

People who try other platforms aren't "converts" - they've just had enough of junk in the preload.

Conclusion:

I'm placing my Vista media in the drive now, and formatting the machine with a fresh, clean copy of Windows Vista Home Premium, using the license code on the side of the machine.

If you own this model computer, I suggest you do the same.  If you don't own a copy of the clean Vista install DVD, don't ask the people at the Genius Bar.  They won't be much help, I'm afraid.

URL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932818

Microsoft has released the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista. This update contains several improvements, and it resolves several issues. This cumulative update is intended for computers that are running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate.

x86: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AE86D8C1-4015-4B43-ABB6-123E6E539248

x64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8E75B530-2086-4A70-AB91-47DDB8B49AE7

I played with the Yod'm 3D utility a few weeks back.  Wasn't too impressed; caused some strange behaviours, didn't install well, and was quite slow.

Switcher is really cool though.  Offering the same thing as Window's Flip3D, but now with Exposé-like layouts.  Hitting PgDown/PgUp switches between the "dock" layout and Exposé layout.

I recommend you give it a try.

Update for Outlook 2007 (KB933493)

This update fixes a problem in which a calendar item that is marked as private is opened if it is found by using the Search Desktop feature. The update also fixes performance issues that occur when you work with items in a large .pst file or .ost file.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c262bcfd-1e09-49b6-9003-c4c47539df66&DisplayLang=en

Error message:

System error 1058 has occurred.
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

To re-enable service:

sc config servicename start= {boot|system|auto|demand|disabled} - note the presence of the space!

Example:

sc config beep start= demand (where beep is the name of the service.)

More:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/03928250-2796-4253-8fb1-b25329ddf35f1033.mspx?mfr=true

Summary

I'll look at changes in the areas of processes and threads, and in I/O. Future installments will cover memory management, startup and shutdown, reliability and recovery, and security.
The scope of this article comprises changes to the Windows Vista™ kernel only, specifically Ntoskrnl.exe and its closely associated components. Please remember that there are many other significant changes in Windows Vista that fall outside the kernel proper and therefore won't be covered. This includes improvements to the shell (such as integrated desktop search), networking (like the new IPv6 stack and two-way firewall), and the next-generation graphics model (such as Aero™ Glass, Windows® Presentation Foundation, the Desktop Window Manager, and the new graphics driver model). Also not covered are the new Windows User-Mode and Kernel-Mode Driver Frameworks (UMDF and KMDF) since these are back-level installable on earlier versions of Windows

3 Parts
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/02/VistaKernel/Default.aspx?pf=true
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/03/VistaKernel/Default.aspx?pf=true
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/04/VistaKernel/Default.aspx?pf=true

Microsoft security strategy director Jeff Jones this week published a report comparing the security vulnerability profile for various high-profile operating systems in the 90 days of their existence. Surprisingly, Vista came out in front: Vista had 5 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, one of them fixed, and one pending with a High severity rating. By comparison, XP had a total of 17 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, 8 of which were rated High, when it shipped in 2001. The surprises, however, come when you compare the non-Microsoft competition. Mac OS X 10.4, a darling of the press, actually suffered from 20 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, 8 of which were rated High. Worse, OS X 10.4 still suffered from 17 publicly disclosed but unpatched vulnerabilities at the end of those 90 days. "The data doesn't support [Apple's] marketing," Jones writes. Linux fared even worse: Ubuntu 6.06 suffered from a whopping 71 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, 27 of those rated High. And there were at least 29 unpatched vulnerabilities in that OS after the 90 day period ended. And so on. You can read the entire report (PDF), and look forward, as I am, to Jones' 6-month and 1-year updates.

Report: http://www.csoonline.com/pdf/Vista_Vuln_Report.pdf (or below)
Source: http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/95554/95554.html?Ad=1
Local cache: Vista_Vuln_Report.pdf (385.96 KB)

The sidebar takes up valuable screen space when it is set to be always on top.

Going into the tray and finding the icon is so much work.

There's a keyboard shortcut to access the sidebar in Vista: Windows key + Spacebar will quickly cause the Vista sidebar to popup, on top of other windows.

Oops.  You deleted your Recycle Bin by accident, in Vista RTM.

What do you do, you ask?

1. Right click on the desktop then click Personalize
2. On the left side of the screen/pane, click Change Desktop Icons
3. Check the box next to Recycle Bin.

Error Messages

• An error occurred accessing the website application data folder...
• Could not connect to Virtual Server. Access was denied.  You can specify an alternate Virtual Server below...
• Please install IIS-Metabase (IIS6 Management compatibility) prior to installing this software

Working Procedure

• Download the installation file from Microsoft.  Extract contents of EXE file.
• Configure IIS

• Enable Windows Authentication in IIS MMC

• Install Virtual Server.
• Start Internet Explorer as an account with Administrative privileges and launch the website.

Better solution

Use VMWare Server

I recently updated my Media Center to Vista; my GeForce 4 was replaced with a GeForce FX5200.

I kept getting a flickering screen when using the Microsoft drivers; it wasn't handling TV output properly.

I went to nVidia's site to get the (bad!) drivers... and I have my AGP nVidia GeForce FX5200 running ForceWare 97.46.  I selected (manually, using Have Disk) to use this driver instead of the OOBE drivers that ship with Vista.

Now to fire up Media Center...

Update: It works.  GeForce FX5200 on ForceWare 97.46 (which are supposedly for GeForce 6/7 and FX6000+) is WORKING for Vista Media Center, and Aero.  DVD playback and TV live playback is fully functional.  I don't play games on this thing... so... =) I'm not going to bother testing it.

Microsoft Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 is part of Microsoft Windows Volume Activation 2.0. It allows enterprise users to host Key Management Service on Windows Server 2003 to enable activation of Windows Vista using Key Management Service (KMS) Key.

Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0 is a set of technical and policy related solution provided by Microsoft’s Software Protection Platform (SPP) that gives Microsoft customers a more secure and easy to deploy solution to protect and manage their volume license keys. Microsoft Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 is part of Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0 allows enterprise customers manage the activation of their Windows machines using Key Management Service (KMS) Key.

Enterprise customers who license Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn” server under volume license program get two keys namely a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) and a Key Management Service (KMS) Key.

KMS based activation allows enterprise customers to host a local service within their environment to enable activation of machines running Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise editions within their environment instead of any activation against Microsoft. Machines that have been activated through KMS will be required to reactivate by connecting to the KMS host at least once every 6 months.

Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 enables deployment of Windows Vista using current and released server operating system. It uses the Windows Vista KMS key provided through Microsoft’s Volume Licensing System portals (MVLS, eOpen). The KMS host can be activated using either online or offline methods. It uses the same interfaces and tools as KMS on Windows Vista including:
• Software Licensing API, WMI interfaces, error codes, logging events
• SLMGR.VBS and KMS Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager
x86
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=67&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d81d1cb89-13bd-4250-b624-2f8c57a1ae7b%26DisplayLang%3den

x64
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=68&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d03fe69b2-6244-471c-80d2-b4171fb1d7a5%26DisplayLang%3den

http://www.windowsitpro.com/mobile/pda/Article.cfm?ArticleID=95011&News=1
DailyTech has confirmed a new workaround proposed by Paul Thurrott (via Microsoft internal documents).

This workaround allows users to perform a “clean install.” The process is a bit tedious, but is not hard at all to complete. Users have to perform these simple steps to perform a clean install of Vista without a previous version of Windows installed with an upgrade DVD:

1. Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD and start the setup program.
2. When prompted to enter your product key, DO NOT enter it. Click "Next" and proceed with setup. This will install Windows Vista as a 30-day trial.
3. When prompted, select the edition of Vista which you have purchased and continue with setup.
4. Once setup has been completed and you have been brought to the desktop for the first time, run the install program from within Windows Vista.
5. This time, type in your product key when prompted.
6. When asked whether to perform an Upgrade or Custom (advanced) install, choose Custom (advanced) to perform a clean install of Vista. Yes, this means that you will have to install Vista for a second time.
7. Once setup has completed for the second time, you should be able to activate Windows Vista normally. You can also delete the Windows.old directory which contains information from the first Vista install.

User interface features

Security features

Performance features

Reliability features

Internet features

Bundled applications

Digital media features

Networking features

Mobility features

Other Windows Vista features

According to a recent entry on Lenovo's 'Inside the Box' blog, the reports earlier this month about a Vista/Thinkpad conflict are true: Lenovo admitted that some Vista-based computers manufactured either by IBM or by Lenovo may take an additional 10 to 20 seconds longer to boot than a similar Windows XP-based configurations.

This problem, according to Lenovo, only occurred on ThinkPad systems with an Ultrabay, the company's brand name for a swappable modular bay, when a user tried to hot swap optical and hard drives.

Lenovo claims that it was initially a Vista beta code problem on hotswap drives where they were not immediately recognized when inserted into the system. This happened because an optical drive takes a few seconds to be ready at power up and the Vista drive recognition logic "could not handle the device insertion in time."

Microsoft has since fixed the problem by adding a 10 second wait for optical drive insertion, but that change also affected cold boot time on certain ThinkPad systems.

Now, both Lenovo and Microsoft have come up with a new solution that fixes this problem and eliminates the extra time needed for the drive to be recognized.

Next month, Lenovo will refresh its system preload images previously shipped by the company, as well as update its ThinkVantage and system support site. ThinkPad users will then be able to obtain a fix to the boot time problem when it becomes available.

Lenovo says that for ThinkPad systems shipped before to March, which will not have the updated driver in the preload, customers should download the software update after Vista has been installed on the computer.

For those with Lenovo 3000 notebooks, Lenovo says the update will not be necessary as they currently do not ship with Ultrabay drives.
http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=50
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2087524,00.asp

Hotfixes

A high definition audio device may no longer work after you resume Windows Vista from sleep or from hibernation and then restart the computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929685
In Windows Vista, you cannot access any resources on a remote VPN server after you switch a network connection from one network adapter to another network adapter and then dial a VPN connection
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930163
You receive a Stop 0x9F error when you wake a Windows Vista-based computer that is connected to an IEEE 1394-based device
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929762
When you run Wusa.exe together with the /quiet option to try to install certain software packages on a Windows Vista-based computer, the installation fails
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929761
You may not receive audio in the desired language when you use Windows Media Center to view television in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929615

Updates

Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Driver for Windows Vista (x86)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=83d513ea-9df9-4920-af33-3a0e2e4e7beb&DisplayLang=en
Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Driver for Windows Vista (AMD64)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6eb8d0aa-bc6b-4864-8ffe-dc26e1d9f843&DisplayLang=en

Error message when you try to install Windows Vista on a computer that uses more than 3 GB of RAM: "STOP 0x0000000A"

Conditions:
The computer uses more than 3 GB of RAM.
The computer uses a storage system that is running the Storport miniport driver. 
The computer uses a controller that uses 32-bit direct memory access (DMA).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=TVSU-UPDATE
Updated January 29th 2007

System Update™ helps you reduce the time, effort, and expense required to support and maintain the latest drivers, BIOS, and other applications for Think or Lenovo systems. It enables you to get the latest updates from the Lenovo support site, or to automatically schedule your system to be updated.

• Windows Vista™ support
• Active Directory support
• HTTP basic and NTLM proxy authentication support
• Silent script support
• Ability to easily identify applicable software, hardware, and solution offerings from Lenovo that can help you keep your maximize your computer performance
• Ability to scan updates from eternal media, local hard drive, or network location
• Direct connection to Lenovo Service and Support or a local repository configured by IT administrator for available Lenovo drivers, software, and BIOS updates
• Ability to automatically download and install critical updates on a scheduled basis
• Integration with other Lenovo applications, such as Rescue and Recovery, Client Security Solution, System Migration Assistant, and Access Connections

ATI released Catalyst 7.1 drivers today, for Vista.

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html (x86)

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista64/common-vista64.html (x64)

How much video memory does Vista's Aero need, especially on two screens?

Source: http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/c/5/9c5b2167-8017-4bae-9fde-d599bac8184a/aero_rules.doc