My respect for gadget and technology website Gizmodo, went down a couple of notches because of this post. Come on, do some research before reporting factually incorrect news about Windows Vista and joining the lowly crowd of usual Microsoft bashers. According to the post,  Windows Vista renders an image unreadable in Photoshop if one adds/edits tags in it using Windows Vista's built-in Windows Photo Gallery. They couldn't be further from the truth. Its not a fault of Windows Vista, but a fault with the industry since there are multiple standards in the industry to write metadata into an image file. Microsoft has published a document regarding this, urging the industry partners to standardize their applications and plugins to use a single model.

Omar Shahine has a very detailed post about this scenario on his blog. Gizmodo, get your facts right !

Since the consumer launch of Windows Vista, everyone and thier dogs have been chattering about Windows Vista and how it needs a super powerful computer to run and so on and so forth. Don't be misled by all these myths. I came across a very interesting article on Tech Republic, debunking the myths about Windows Vista. Its definitely worth a read.

One thing that I would like to add regarding the pricing of Windows Vista is that if you are a student and your school has a MSDN Academic Alliance subscription, you are entitled to a licence of Windows Vista (and other select Microsoft products) free of cost even for your personal usage. Ofcourse, you are paying tuition fees to your school so it is not entirely free. How would you find out if your university/school has a MSDNAA subscription ? Well, the answer is easy. Navigate to the MSDNAA member search page and find out !

PS: My friends in Dalhousie Electrical Engineering, here is the login site for our MSDNAA subscription.

While one is connected to a remote machine running Windows XP or Windows Vista through Remote Desktop, the shutdown/restart dialog is unavailable. Instead, a 'Disconnect' button is available. Now, one might actually want to shutdown or restart the remote machine via remote desktop. One simple way to achieve this is by using the shutdown.exe tool available in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

• To restart your remote machine, click on Start/Run and type:
  • shutdown.exe -r -t 00
• To shutdown your remote machine, click on Start/Run and type:
  • shutdown.exe -s -t 00

(Those are zeroes, not the english alphabet 'O')

Thanks to MVP Gary Tsang for asking me this question yesterday, which prompted me to blog about it.

As mentioned on the PowerShell blog, PowerShell for Windows Vista has been released. It is available in x64 and x86 versions and can be downloaded here:

• x86 Version
• x64 Version

Enjoy !

With the consumer launch of Windows Vista just hours away, the Windows Vista Ultimate extras just went live. Those of you who have Windows Vista Ultimate already installed, navigate to Windows Update and check for updates. The extras downloads should show up as follows:

Go get them !!

A new, very useful feature in Windows Vista lies beneath the surface of all the eye-candy that comes with it. I am talking about the new Disk Management features that have been included in the Disk Management mmc snap-in. One useful and often needed feature is the ability to resize partitions non-destructively. This was previously achieved through the means of third-party software in Windows XP, but not anymore. Just right click on a partition and click on 'Shrink' or 'extend'. The rest is pretty straightforward for those who know what they are doing :o) .

Happy Republic Day, India. Jai Hind !!!

At the GTEC event in Ottawa a few months ago, a visitor to the Microsoft Ask The Expert booth complained to me that the navigation pane in windows explorer in Windows Vista annoys him to no end and he cannot find any way to turn it off. The question actually caught me off-gaurd and after fooling around for a few minutes, I finally found the solution. Here it is for those of you who are facing similar issues.

1. Click on 'Organize'
2. Point to 'Layout'
3. Click on 'Navigation pane'

Here is a before/after shot of Windows Explorer for those of you who are wondering what exactly the navigation pane looks like:

It is a commonly known fact that Windows Vista will require atleast 512 MB of RAM to install and run. However, for optimum performance, higher quantities of physical memory is a definite need. Steve Rowe, a Development Lead in test at Microsoft posts his expert opinion on this subject matter on his blog. Thanks Steve !

One would imagine that the Windows Vista setup is smart enough to determine the type of machine that it is being run upon (Tablet PC, Laptop, Desktop etc) and install the appropriate components only. However, that is not the case. On a default desktop install, Windows Vista installs the Tablet PC components, which creates unnecessary services and results in a performance hit.

The Tablet PC bits can be removed through the following steps:

1. Click on start and select control panel.
2. Click on 'Uninstall a program' under Programs.
3. Click on 'Turn Windows features on or off' and scroll down the list of features.
4. Locate 'Tablet PC optional components' and if it is checked, uncheck it. Click on OK.
5. You will probably be prompted for a system restart following this.

This should get rid of a few processes and boost system performace marginally.

As posted by Jason last night and originally by Sean Alexander, about Vista Media Center online content, it seems to have been enabled now for the Canadian market. As soon as I launched Media Center today on my Vista machine, I was greeted by the following screen:

Go enjoy !

PS: It was about -27C today in Halifax so my productivity levels have gone down and I have been watching TV on my Media Center all day.

Do you see the Windows Vista consumer launch countdown timer on the right hand column of my blog ? Its called a gadget and this particular gadget has been written by MVP Donavon West. Gadgets are a new concept in Windows Vista and the whole Live platform. Gadgets are small plugins (in laymans terms) which display glancable information. Instead of you visiting a website, they get the information to your desktop and they can be displayed in the Windows Vista sidebar or on your personal live.com homepage. I guess justice wouldn't be done to gadgets unless you read the official source.

Oh yes, you should also grab the Windows Vista gadget from Donavon's website. Enjoy !

Amongst a lot of hype, the iPhone was launched yesterday at Macworld. Since this product has probably been the most followed, analysed and discussed in the history of consumer devices, the hype was very understandable. At first the iPhone definitely looked to be a revolutionary device, however, on a deeper analysis, the iPhone definitely seemed lacklustre to me. How ? Read on...

1) Lack of 3G. If the iPhone is launched in June 2007, the lack of 3G definitely makes it outdated right at its launch, and not "5 years ahead of its time" as mentioned by His Steveness. Afterall, even the cheapest Windows based smartphone has GPRS and EDGE.

2) No user replaceable bateries. What do you do after listening to a few hours of music and watching a few videos on a plane ? Your iPhone batteries would be dead and you would be bound to the nearest wall charger as soon as the plane reaches the terminal. What happens if the battery dies prematurely ? You cannot go to the nearest Apple Store and buy a replacement battery. I do not understand how a smartphone cannot have a user-replaceable batteries.

3) No third party software. A smartphone is more of a platform for developers so that its processing power can be utilised to the fullest with the add-on software. If Apple sticks to this specification even after the launch, the iPhone would definitely be very limited in its capabilities.

4) The exorbitant price ! The device costs $599 USD PLUS a 2 year contract from Cingular. How much does that cost you ? Math 101 anyone ? Also, how are the rest of the users on different networks supposed to get hold of the iPhone ? How about Canadian users ?

Mind you, the iPhone definitely sets a very high standard of Industrial design and superb engineering, but it does not justify its pricepoint as compared to its featureset. There are more industry analysts like Scoble and Paul Kedrosky talking about the iPhone on similar lines and it would be interesting to hear something from the Mac fanboys.

A major annoyance in the newly (or yet to be) released Windows Vista is the shutdown procedure. In Windows Vista, we took a step back by having to click thrice in order to shutdown the computer (as compared to 2 clicks in Windows XP).

1) Click on Start

2) Click on the arrow

3) Click on shutdown.

The misleading power button on the start menu is actually configured by default to put the computer in standby mode instead of shutting it down fully. However, not all is lost. The power button can also be configured (albeit in a complicated fashion) to shut the computer instead of putting it to sleep.

To achieve this, click on 'Start/Control Panel/System and Maintenance/Power Options' and click on 'Change  plan settings' for the power plan that is currently selected. In the next dialog box, click on 'Change advanced power settings' and in the next dialog box, expand 'Power buttons and lid' and expand 'Start menu power button' and select 'Shutdown' from the drop-down list.

Whew !! finally its done. Why couldn't this be made easier is beyond me.

I finally got dasblog installed on my hosted servers (thanks to the fine folks here) and decided to blog full-time in the new year. Ofcourse, this depends on the course load from my faculty and other stuff that I am involved in. My blog would focus more around technology and specifically Windows Vista. Watch more coming this way.

On the other hand, Nvidia finally released RTM drivers for the GeForce line of video cards. Myself, alongwith a few other power-users had some difficulty installing the US English version of the drivers due to some glitch in compiling the installer by Nvidia. The international verison, however, installed smoothly at the cost of a bigger download. Download the drivers here:

• http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_97.46.html (Windows Vista x86 version)
• http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_97.46.html (Windows Vista x64 version)

Hello World !