AMD Dual Core Better Deal Than Intel for Windows Virtual PC Testing
The still-in-beta Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 needs hardware virtualization assist. However, many (most) Intel's low-end processors (even quad core models) do not support Intel VT-x. I recall spending a lot of time checking various comparison tables before buying my Dell quad-core PC last year to make sure its CPU supported VT-x.
When I thought my old PC running Windows XP died (or so I thought - see previous blog for its revival) a few weeks ago, I went to Costco and bought the cheapest PC they had - an eMachines (yes, I know I swore off them a while back, but $340 is a good price) PC with an Athlon X2 4050e processor. Generally speaking, none of the sub-$400 PCs with Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processors I looked at a year ago supported Intel VT-x. So, I didn't expect this ultra-cheap AMD based one to provide AMD-V hardware virtualization. But, a quick check of its BIOS configuration shows that it does have that feature and that it is turned on by default.
I still haven't gotten around to installing Microsoft's in-beta virtualization products under Windows 7 RC yet. But, it is nice to know that I can since I didn't expect to do be able to test it for a long while.
Regained 52.6GB Disk Space After Windows Vista SP2 Update: Also 45005 Registry Changes
After seeing this in PC World...
Windows Vista SP2: Readers Report Big Increases in Free Disk Space
...I decided to take some notes when updating the only PC I have running Windows Vista to Service Pack 2 (SP2). Here's what I found.
1. I had 74.4GB free hard disk space before beginning the SP2 update. I had 137GB free after the process and before rebooting the system. So, I recovered 52.6GB of disk space.
2. The SP2 update includes two reboots. The second reboot comes after the second phase of the three phase update process.
3. My screen went text-only during the second phase of the update and 45,005 registry changes were made during this phase based on the messages on the screen. You can see a frame grab above from a video I recorded during this process.
4. There was still 137GB of free space remaining after the second reboot from the third update phase.
Windows 7 RC Pushing Us to Go Green?
I mentioned a few days ago that migrating an old desktop PC from Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 Release Candidate seemed to result in a noticeably slower system. I think I know why now.
Taking a look at Win7RC's power options on the desktop showed just the "Power Saving" and "Balanced" settings visible. I had to dig into the Advanced Options to find the "High Performance" power setting. Selecting this seemed to restore the desktop's performance to what it "felt like" with Win7Beta (I haven't performed any actual performance tests).
I wonder if Microsoft is trying to force users to go green (or buy faster PCs) by thinking that Balanced is the faster processor performance option available after a quick glance?
If your PC seems slower after migrating from Win7Beta to Win7RC, check your power options and hunt for the High Performance power setting.
Windows 7 RC Installations: 1 Fast, 1 Slow – No Idea Why
I installed Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) on two computers so far.
The first was an Asus Eee PC 1000HA netbook that had Windows 7 Beta installed on it. I performed a clean non-formatting installation where the Win7Beta and associated directories were moved to another folder that RC does not look at. This installation took, perhaps 30 minutes including moving the old Beta related files to an archive folder.
The second was an old desktop PC with an AMD Athlon processor. It too had Win7Beta installed. The Beta installation took about 30 minutes. The move to RC, however, took hours. It took so long that after about 90 minutes I had to leave to run some errands and simply left the PC on to continue the installation process. The update had finally completed while I was out running my errands.
Here's another oddity. Win7RC seems to be running as fast as Win7Beta on my netbook (Eee PC 1000HA with an Intel Atom N270 processor). However, Win7RC seems much slower on the AMD Athlon based desktop PC. I haven't run any benchmarks to compare the two yet. However, tasks like starting the Firefox browser seems much slower on the desktop running Win7RC compared to the same PC when it ran Win7Beta.
Patch Tuesday: Windows Update Brought my Quad-Core PC to its Knees
This is not news. But, I'm amazed every Patch Tuesday that Windows Update can bring a quad-core PC with 4GB of RAM running Windows Vista to its knees. You can see a typical Windows Task Manager performance chart snapshot above.
Will There be a Windows 7 Release Candidate 2?
I recall reading statements from Microsoft that there would be one Windows 7 Beta and one Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC). So, why does this Microsoft On10.net blog item...
Top 7 Things to Check Out in Windows 7 RC1
...mention "RC1". Is it a simple typo? Or will there be an RC2 that pushes Windows 7's release date a bit further out. I sure hope not. I ran Windows 7 Beta from January through the end of April. And, I downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC last week Friday (May 1). These installs were on the netbook I take nearly everywhere with me including two trips to Seattle and New York in March. It is a "production" machine and, quite frankly, has been running a lot better than the "production" version of Windows Vista on my quad-core desktop.
Windows 7 Release Candidate Clean Install Does NOT Involve Reformatting
I'm a bit behind in listening to the Windows Weekly podcast by Paul Thurrott and Leo LaPorte. So, I just listened to WW #104 a few hours ago. During the course of the podcast, Paul and Leo discuss Windows 7 Release Candidate and commented that the best way to install the RC is a clean install because it does not support upgrading from XP or 7 Beta (all true).
However, they then mention that a clean install involves reformatting the drive. This is not true for the RC or the previous 7 Beta release. Here's what happens.
If you are performing a clean install for the first time on an existing Windows XP installation, the XP folder is moved to Windows.old. If you, like me, are performing a clean install on a PC that had XP on it first and currently has 7 Beta, the old XP files remain in the folder Windows.old while the 7 Beta files are placed in Windows.old.000.
However, the former version of Windows is not the only thing placed in those .old folders. You can see that the Program Files, Perflogs and Users folders along with autoexec.bat and config.sys files are also placed there. The new Windows 7 RC files completely replace those folders and the files in them to create a clean install. So, you won't see your old software or configuration. But, they are all there in the old folders until you delete them.
I actually looked for an option to either low-level format the partition or simply format the existing NFTS partition but did not see it during the Windows 7 RC installation process.
Virtual PC 2007 vs. Windows Virtual PC Feature Comparison Table
Microsoft released Windows 7 Release Candidate today (I'm downloading my copies of it plus Windows 7 server right now). It includes the Windows XP Mode which is essentially a specialized virtualization container. Microsoft provides an informative table that compares Virtual PC 2007 to Windows Virtual PC at...
Compare some of the many features of Virtual PC 2007 to Windows Virtual PC
Windows Virtual PC includes a bunch of features that a lot of people have been clamoring for for years including:
- USB support (finally!)
- Clipboard sharing
- Drive sharing
Note that unlike Virtual PC 2007, Windows Virtual PC requires either AMD-V or Intel VT-x hardware virtualization support. So, old PCs and Atom 270/280 based netbooks can't run it.
And The Windows Blog has a useful item for those of you planning to deploy Windows XP Mode in the enterprise...
Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 Weighs in at 509MB
Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 was released today and it is gigantic. Although Windows Update reported that it was 397.3MB large, the actual download was 509MB.
It is supposed to be faster (Outlook 2007 SP2 is said to be 26% faster) and more stable. It also provides built-in support for working with ODF and PDF files which previously required add-ons to do so.
Here's what I'd like to know though: Why does an Office update require Vista to reboot? That just seems wrong.
Instructions for Upgrading from Windows 7 Beta to RC
Microsoft's Engineering Windows 7 blog has instructions for upgrading from Windows 7 Beta to the upcoming RC.
Delivering a quality upgrade experience
The primary advice is to reinstall Vista and then upgrade to Windows 7 RC. Um, ack! My Asus Eee PC 1000HA came with XP. So, their primary advice is a no-go for me. And, here's their slightly less ugly alternative instructions.:
Here’s what you can do to bypass the check for pre-release upgrade IF YOU REALLY REALLY NEED TO:
- Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
- Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).
- Browse to the sources directory.
- Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
- Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000.
- Save the file in place with the same name.
- Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.