CSI-Windows Debugging Checklist Mousepad for Previous Students of DesktopEngineer.com Wednesday, March 31 2010 @ 02:22 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy If you've ever taken a class from DesktopEngineer.com or CSI-Windows.com and did not receive one of our cool Debugging Checklist mousepads, drop us a line to get yours. See below for a graphic of what it looks like. read more Win 7 / MSI 5 Test Package and 30 Pages of Labs Wednesday, May 13 2009 @ 11:23 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy DesktopEngineer.com / CSI-Windows.com has released an MSI test package that can help you explore and test the new features of MSI 5 in Windows 7 and MSI 4 in Windows Vista.  Read more about it at CSI-Windows.com read more DesktopEngineer.com Launches Concise Systems Internals for Windows Training Wednesday, April 29 2009 @ 09:58 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Probably everyone has seen the gurus of Windows systems internals dig deep diagnostic information out of a nasty application crash.  We wonder how to get our hands on the "book of knowledge" they use for their magic.  DesktopEngineer.com has a new training offering designed to get you started... read more Acresso Expands InstallShield Packaging Suite to Support Output to Three Virtualization Formats Wednesday, April 29 2009 @ 09:46 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Feeling daunted by the prospect of ramping up for application virtualization?  Acresso has retooled the AdminStudio packaging suite to output to the three primary application viritualization formats.  There are many potential benefits to this approach.  There were three that struck me as very beneficial.... read more FREE: Excellent Application Monitor And Control Utility Tuesday, February 24 2009 @ 08:34 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Kiwi Application Monitor provides excellent, long term application performance and usage tracking, but that's not all ... read more FREE: Cool Microsoft Setup Chainer With a Wacky Name Wednesday, November 12 2008 @ 03:55 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy One of the little setup gems unveiled at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference was a setup chainer ... read more FREE: Windows 7 Microsoft Conference Sessions Thursday, November 6 2008 @ 12:53 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Microsoft has published all the sessions from the Professional Developers Conference online, many on Windows 7 ... read more FREE: Speed Up Windows with DesktopEngineer.com's WinServicesTuner.vbs Wednesday, November 5 2008 @ 10:15 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy I wanted an automated way to optimize the services running on my training VMs and real machines as well, but every script I checked out was unsatisfactory - so you know what means ... read more Vista's Aero interface is hard on batteries Friday, September 5 2008 @ 02:57 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Here's a utility that lets you get some of that battery life back... read more Sysinternals Live Friday, September 5 2008 @ 02:30 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy All the sysinternals tools available with a simple click ... read more PREVIEW: LUA Buglight 2.0 Thursday, June 19 2008 @ 02:42 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy The fans of this very helpful tool will be happy to know there was a new preview version released at TechEd... read more RELEASED: Updated Application Compatibility Toolkit Documentation Thursday, June 19 2008 @ 02:36 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Application Compatiblity Toolkit has long suffered from insufficient documentation - Microsoft has recognized this and has updated the docs... read more New Post Categories App Mgmt and Vista Thursday, June 19 2008 @ 02:27 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy We have two new post categories that are linked on the home page - "Application Management" and "Vista"... read more RELEASED: PowerShell Scriptomatic Monday, May 26 2008 @ 02:16 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy A PowerShell version of Scriptomatic has been released ... read more FREE: Sysinternals Suite Tuesday, March 4 2008 @ 05:41 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy It can be rather tedious to download all the cool sysinternal tools individually, I'm glad someone at Microsoft thinks so too ... read more FREE: Unlocker for "in use" files Tuesday, February 19 2008 @ 12:56 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy How many times have you had to completely reboot Windows to get Explorer or some other greed process to let go of a file you needed ... read more FREE: vOptimizer Freeware Version! Friday, February 8 2008 @ 09:16 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy vOptimizer crushes a Virtual Machine's disk size by 20-60% and can increase performance dramatically - they have a freeware version now, but it's hard to find on their website... read more FREE: Windows SteadyState - Shared Computer Toolkit grows up Friday, February 8 2008 @ 09:01 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Microsoft has been enhancing their tools for computers that are in shared environments - but for software packagers that are restricted from using Virtual Machine technology, this kit has another great use ... read more Thinstall Acquired by VMWare Wednesday, January 23 2008 @ 10:20 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Thinstall is an extremely robust application virtualization solution.  This robustness makes it a natural fit with VMWare's products ... read more Microsoft Service Pack Blocker Toolkit Monday, December 17 2007 @ 05:29 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Sometimes your company is not ready for a specific Microsoft service pack and you live in fear of end users pulling them down through Windows Update ... read more Make Firefox Do IE Favorites Sunday, December 16 2007 @ 07:31 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy If you're asking yourself "why would I ever do that?", skip reading this - otherwise you already know why - here's the solution ... read more FREE: Three Undelete Tools Sunday, December 16 2007 @ 06:33 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy You've probably had that sinking feeling that you don't have a recent copy of that file you just deleted ... read more FREE: Vista Trial in a Virtual Machine - without buying a copy of Vista Monday, December 10 2007 @ 03:48 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy As far as I can tell there has been no official evaluation DVD for Vista since RC1 (correct me if I'm wrong) - you can build a evaluation build of any version of Vista from any Vista media, but what if you can't get access to your company media and need to start testing - or you're looking to check it out for professional development.  Microsoft's "VHD Test Drive" site to the rescue ... read more PUI - You Can't Afford It Wednesday, November 28 2007 @ 02:09 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy There is a specific release of a certain piece of software I love to beat up on because it never should have happened... read more RELEASED: Admin Script Editor 3.1 Tuesday, November 27 2007 @ 11:04 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Admin Script Editor has been on a steady path of upgrades and enhancements.  If you haven't had a chance to check out the latest features ... read more RELEASED and FREE: SpecOps Command Monday, November 26 2007 @ 05:32 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy PowerShell is the next big thing in Microsoft scripting - but how are you going to get it installed, and what about the prerequisites you need to deploy for your latest script ... read more Debugging Toolbox for Serious Vista Application Compatibility Testing Monday, November 26 2007 @ 08:30 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy If you are getting pretty serious about testing applications on Vista ... read more RELEASED - FREE: VMWare Server 2.0 (Beta) Thursday, November 15 2007 @ 12:28 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Vmware has released a beta of 2.0 of it's free VMWare Server software ... read more A Laptop For Every Child In The Developing World Thursday, November 15 2007 @ 08:49 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy A lofty goal to be sure - but one that seems to be gaining ground.  OLPC is making headway and is running a promotion in late November (very soon)  ... read more Thinstall Partners with Macrovision to Bring Robust Application Virtualization to InstallShield Wednesday, November 14 2007 @ 02:36 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Occasionally we have provided updates on an application virtualization product that is extremely robust, but little known to admins.  Now that they've partnered with Macrovision you're going to be seeing a lot ... read more New Version of Windows Scripting for XP: What gives? Wednesday, September 5 2007 @ 03:29 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Just when you thought you'd seen the last release of Windows Script Host and VBScript out comes version 5.7 ... read more Windows Installer 4.5 In Beta Tuesday, August 28 2007 @ 04:19 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy If you'd like to get on the beta of the next release of Windows Installer ... read more VirtualBox - Free and VMDK Compatible Monday, August 20 2007 @ 04:12 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy VirtualBox is an open source and VMDK (vmware disk format) compatible virtual machine solution ... read more FREE: Microsoft Virtual Server Management and Remote Control Utility (VMRCplus) Monday, July 9 2007 @ 12:25 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Virtual Server 2005 has gained a new tool for remote management and control ... read more Application Compatibility 5.0 Update Tuesday, May 8 2007 @ 09:45 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy The Application Compatibility Toolkit Version 5 was updated with performance improvements and bugfixes ... read more FREE: Vista Distribution Tool - Build Any Vista Distribution Source from Upgrade CD Friday, April 20 2007 @ 10:46 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Maybe like me you receive the Vista "Upgrade" CD with your Microsoft software subscription (ActionPack in my case) and are wondering how that will help you get going with your Vista customers since you have to muck about with doing an upgrade to a previous OS - vlite gets around this and does much, much more ... read more Windows Installer COM Advertising and Cross-Product Interaction Thursday, March 15 2007 @ 12:32 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Don't your users hate it when they start a software application that then triggers a request for the installation media of a totally unrelated application?  How about some relief ... read more FREE: IZArc Zip Utility Wednesday, March 7 2007 @ 12:39 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy I hate paying for every little piece of utility software I need because it adds up so fast.  The search for a free zip utility that can handle archiving Virtual Machines is over ... read more RELEASED: FREE Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 Friday, March 2 2007 @ 01:44 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Virtual PC 2007 has been released and it's gonna cost you ... read more RELEASED: wmidiag.vbs Version 2 Monday, February 5 2007 @ 02:44 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy WMIDiag is a VBScript from Microsoft that runs a complete diagnosis of the health of WMI on a computer... read more RELEASED: Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 Thursday, February 1 2007 @ 10:39 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy This release focuses on Windows Vista readiness assessment ... read more Symantec Acquires Altiris Tuesday, January 30 2007 @ 01:48 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Symantec has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Altiris.  I have to tell you the first thought that came to my mind ... read more Getting Vista into a Virtual Machine Tuesday, January 23 2007 @ 04:19 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Now that it's released, you want to play with Vista in a virtual machine?  Here is a good article with tips and tricks for getting Vista loaded into a VMWare or Virtual PC virtual machine ... read more EVENT: Thinstall App Virtualization Suite 3.0 Webinar on 1/23/07 Friday, January 19 2007 @ 10:56 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Application virtualization is all the rage and Thinstall has a unique tack on the market - unlike most other application virtualization solutions ... read more JUST RELEASED: Vista Deployment Tools - BDD 2007 1.0 Thursday, January 18 2007 @ 10:29 AM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy The Business Desktop Deployment 2007 offering includes documentation, project planning information and the Windows Automated Installation Kit... read more VMWare Workstation Version 6 Enters Beta Monday, January 8 2007 @ 02:17 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy VMWare has announced beta testing of version 6 of their workstation product ... read more RELEASED: Version 8 of AdminStudio SMS Edition Monday, January 8 2007 @ 02:11 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Version 8 of Macrovision's AdminStudio for SMS has been released... read more ProcessMonitor - Regmon + Filemon on a Single Process Tuesday, November 21 2006 @ 02:41 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy It has been many moons since I asked Sysinternals if they had thought of combining regmon and filemon for a single process  ... read more Pasting Text with No Formatting Thursday, October 19 2006 @ 09:20 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy It is hard to count the number of times a day I have to paste something I've copied from the web, email or a document into Notepad so I can dump all the formatting that is copied via "CTRL-C", not anymore ...  read more UAC in MSI Notes by MSI Team Member Monday, October 9 2006 @ 07:20 PM CST Contributed By: Darwin Sanoy Microsoft employee Robert Flaming has been publishing some excellent information about how Vista's UAC and MSI interact  ... read more