Antimail : Vista

A simple way to access Shadow Copies in Vista

AdiOltean — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:37:18 GMT

In the past, I presented various ways to browse these mysterious device objects called "shadow copies". Shadow copies are static images in time (snapshots) of your volume contents, at some point in the past. These shadow copies are volumes on their own, with a file system namespace accessible through the regular Win32 APIs such as FindFirstFile/FindNextFile. For example the existing sample code in MSDN for these APIs that enumerates files on a real volume will work just fine on a shadow copy volume. In fact, that's how all backup applications are accessing shadow copy content today.

So, if these devices are real volumes, how can we view them in Explorer? It turns out that you can't view them by default - this is simply because these are volumes without an associated drive letter or root mount point. However, in XP or Windows Server (and Vista), you can still access these shadow copies by assigning them a drive letter using utilities like DOSDEV, or by doing tricks with the FOR command, etc.

Now, if you have Vista, it is much simpler to access shadow copy devices directly from Explorer. The trick is to use a new feature called Symbolic Links: to access the contents of a shadow copy as a "directory", simply create a symbolic link to the device. Vista also includes a convenient command-line tool called MKLINK.EXE to create symbolic links, which makes this operation very easy.

Here is an example of accessing the contents of a shadow copy device. The first step is to enumerate shadow copies on the machine, using the VSSADMIN LIST SHADOW command. This will give us the devices and also a creation timestamp.

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list shadows |more
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {c72c8036-d563-43c8-b351-1994dfad580a}
   Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 2/23/2008 9:59:04 AM
      Shadow Copy ID: {f3727808-bea6-4b59-bef7-6849ee721709}
         Original Volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3e83355f-7c0e-11dc-b416-806e6f6e6963}\
         Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy4
         Originating Machine: Adi-Game-PC
         Service Machine: Adi-Game-PC
         Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
         Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
         Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {0bf23f77-8461-4869-b391-da4d213940a5}
   Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 2/24/2008 4:00:24 AM
      Shadow Copy ID: {87d59b22-9e84-4d0d-81ca-2b565d6f7e55}
         Original Volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3e83355f-7c0e-11dc-b416-806e6f6e6963}\
         Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy5
         Originating Machine: Adi-Game-PC
         Service Machine: Adi-Game-PC
         Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
         Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
         Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered

C:\Windows\system32>mklink /d c:\shadowcopy \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy5\
symbolic link created for c:\shadowcopy <<===>> \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy5\

C:\Windows\system32>dir c:\shadowcopy
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 4A02-860C

Directory of c:\shadowcopy

12/14/2007 01:46 AM    <DIR>          Asi
01/15/2008 12:56 AM    <DIR>          bin
12/13/2007 11:59 PM    <DIR>          debuggers
12/13/2007 11:55 PM        17,644,031 dir.log
01/14/2008 11:41 PM    <DIR>          Downloads
01/01/2008 05:50 PM    <DIR>          dumps
12/30/2007 11:43 PM    <DIR>          garbage
01/08/2008 11:13 PM    <DIR>          Garmin
10/15/2007 09:03 PM    <DIR>          Intel
12/30/2007 11:59 PM    <DIR>          Program Files
01/27/2008 01:32 AM    <DIR>          Program Files (x86)
01/15/2008 12:17 AM    <DIR>          test
01/30/2008 06:52 AM    <DIR>          Users
12/14/2007 01:55 AM    <DIR>          WinDDK
02/13/2008 05:23 AM    <DIR>          Windows
02/21/2008 10:43 PM    <DIR>          Work
               1 File(s)     17,644,031 bytes
              15 Dir(s) 147,657,666,560 bytes free

That's it. Now I have a persistent link called c:\shadowcopy which points to the contents of the shadow copy device - which is the image of my C:\ drive at 4:00 AM (this is when my latest system restore point was created).

A new notes,though:

1) Make sure you use the "/D" option in MKLINK so you create a directory-based, not a file-based symbolic link

2) Make sure you append a backslash to the shadow copy device in the MKLINK command (marked in red above)

If this made you interested about shadow copies - note that you can create, enumerate and delete shadow copies programatically using either VB scripts that use the WMI API for shadow copy administration, or by using the VSS API (documented publicly on MSDN). Sample code is available in the Platform SDK as well.

[RO] Seminar - Storage si programare distribuita

AdiOltean — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:57:00 GMT

Florin Lazar, Todi Pruteanu si cu mine am demarat in cursul acestei saptamani un seminar tehnic pe teme de storage in Vista si programare distribuita in WCF. Mai multe detalii aici: http://reg.studentclub.ro.

Pana acum seminariile din Bucuresti si Cluj au avut un raspuns fantastic! Daca aveti opinii, impresii (pozitive sau negative) m-as bucura sa le puneti in sectiunea de comentarii...

Si nu in ultimul rand, multumiri lui Todi si Microsoft Romania pentru organizarea acestui eveniment.

Windows Home Server - links

AdiOltean — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:43:27 GMT

A friend of mine didn't know about Windows Home Server - so I sent him these links:

- Main site: http://stopdigitalamnesia.com

- Interview with Charlie Kindel http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=270965

- Download: https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&siteid=38

- Articol on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Home_Server

- Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver

- Press release: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/jan07/01-08WindowsHomeServerPR.mspx

Previous Versions in Vista - on Channel 9!

AdiOltean — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:29:48 GMT

Hot and fresh from Channel 9: a session on Shadow Copies in Vista, and its applications: Previous Versions and the brand-new System Restore.

Check it out.

Flicks - A gesture based scrolling interface in Vista

AdiOltean — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:45:11 GMT

If you have a Tablet PC or a touch-sensitive model, check out Pen Flicks. Here is a video capture of Pen Flicks in action:

I just found this nifty little feature after installing Vista on my old Tablet PC and it works great. It works on any list box in any application (Internet Explorer, Outlook, Shell, etc)

P.S. I heard that the Apple iPhone has a "revolutionary" scrolling interface based on flicks - hmmm... what was their source of inspiration?

Yet another 3D photo wonder is now available - Microsoft Photosynth is available for preview

AdiOltean — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 01:23:00 GMT

Try it here: http://labs.live.com/photosynth. It is an interesting approach of building a 3D world from a bunch of 2D photos taken anywhere.

Coincidentally, Microsoft just released 3D maps in Windows Live Local, which also succeed to build 3D models of cities simply by getting data from a camera floating around in a plane.

Vista is now shipped!

AdiOltean — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 01:55:00 GMT

A new OS is born - and I hope you will like it!

The new must-have gadget: Flash laptops

AdiOltean — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:31:49 GMT

The entire world is now slowly shifting to Flash-based storage in mobile devices. The latest trend is to get rid of harddisks in your laptop - and you will have longer battery life, faster shutdown/reboot, better shock-resistance. Not to mention that flash memory takes less space than a harddisk.

Fujitsu follows this trend with their NAND-convertible Lifebook laptops:

Fujitsu is estimating that it will receive roughly 20,000 orders for its new NAND-convertible Lifebook laptops through March. If 20 percent of those orders specify a flash drive, as Yamamoto predicts, that figure will amount to 4,000 computers with flash.

Replacing the standard hard disk drive on Fujitsu's new laptops with a flash drive would make the laptops lighter and more shock-resistant, extend battery life by 30 minutes and cut in half the time required to start up Windows. But replacing a 20GB hard drive with a 16GB worth of flash memory would cost an extra $670 (80,000 yen). That figure would be $1,335 to switch to a 32GB flash drive.

"The price is high, but we judged there is adequate demand from companies for NAND PCs, which greatly reduce the risk of losing data," Yamamoto said. "It may be a slow start, but we want to be ready when laptops will be as handy as mobile phones."

[source: CNet]

Vista - any opinions? Let us know. It's not over yet...

AdiOltean — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:07:00 GMT

Vaibhav Kamath asked on one of my previous posts if there will be any UI changes after Vista RC1.

The answer - no major changes, of course. Just fit & finish at this point. If you have any comments or issues around Vista, please log them on our forum, or even in the comments area of this post.

Thanks!

12-disk SATA storage box for less than a grand

AdiOltean — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:34:14 GMT

ExtremeTech has a review of the Norco DS-1220 eSATA storage box, which can accomodate up to 12 SATA disks. The price is pretty low (on Newegg.com it is $840 without disks).

I computed a small table that shows how much it will cost for a simple JBOD configuration. So, for less than $3000 you can get six terabytes in raw storage (therefore, 3 TB with RAID-10). Pretty competitive, and scales down nicely to whatever your storage needs are.

Disk capacity (GB)	Total capacity JBOD (TB)	Disk price	Total cost	$/GB
40	0.47	$32.99	$1,235.88	$2.57
60	0.70	$62.95	$1,595.40	$2.22
80	0.94	$36.95	$1,283.40	$1.34
120	1.41	$50.99	$1,451.88	$1.01
160	1.88	$48.00	$1,416.00	$0.74
200	2.34	$59.99	$1,559.88	$0.65
250	2.93	$63.00	$1,596.00	$0.53
300	3.52	$81.99	$1,823.88	$0.51
320	3.75	$86.00	$1,872.00	$0.49
400	4.69	$123.00	$2,316.00	$0.48
500	5.86	$177.00	$2,964.00	$0.49
750	8.79	$338.50	$4,902.00	$0.54

- Disk prices from http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_drives
- Enclosure price: $839.99 from newegg.com

From this table, it looks like we are approaching nicely (and even passing) the theoretical 50 cents/TB limit, starting with around 160/200 GB disks. So, when fully loaded, this array scales down nicely as expected.

The formulas above should be obvious:

- Total cost = $839.99 + 12 * disk_price

- Total capacity (JBOD) = Disk capacity * 12.

Vista RC1 is now done!

AdiOltean — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 01:26:53 GMT

Whew! Time for a beer :-)

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsvista/archive/2006/09/01/453491.aspx

The new OS runs pretty sweet on my dev box (aside a few bugs that I noticed and which are mostly already fixed in newer builds).

Gartner redesigns Windows Vista

AdiOltean — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 23:55:47 GMT

There is an article in Techworld.com mentioning a curious research report from Gartner implying a redesign of the Windows Vista code base, around virtualization. Huh? To quote from the article:

Instead, the research firm predicts, Microsoft will be forced to migrate Windows to a modular architecture tied together through hardware-supported virtualisation. "The current, integrated architecture of Microsoft Windows is unsustainable - for enterprises and for Microsoft," wrote Gartner analysts Brian Gammage, Michael Silver and David Mitchell Smith.

The problem is that the operating system's increasing complexity is making it ever more difficult for enterprises to implement migrations, and impossible for Microsoft to release regular updates. This, in turn, stands in the way of Microsoft's efforts to push companies to subscription licensing.

There is a basic confusion going on here about architectural choices vs. release frequency.

On the last point (release frequency), Microsoft is committed to not repeat the mistake of delaying a Windows version that much (or any other Windows version) and instead, impose a sense of predictable rythm in releasing incremental, predictable and evolutionary improvements in future versions of Windows. Gaining this sense of rythm can be done even with an extremely complex code base such as Windows, and the proof is the predictable, stable releases of Windows Server versions already exist: Windows 2000 (beginning of 2000), then Windows Server 2003 RTM (april 2003), then Windows Server 2003 R2 (RTM November 2005).

That said, if we are talking about Operating Systems in general, the architectural idea of achieving modularity through virtualization is a very interesting idea. I would like to point out to a cool research project called Singularity which achieves exactly that goal. If you want to see how operating systems will look like, say, 20 years from now, you can start with Singularity. One note, though: Singularity achieves isolation through pure software mechanisms. Hardware protection (like Hypervisor support from the AMD processors) is also possible to be used in conjunction with software isolation, although this is not a direct goal of the Singularity project.

WS-Management? Already here in Vista!

AdiOltean — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 08:19:00 GMT

WS-Management is a new web services-based management protocol. It's SOAP-based of course, and it is compatible with the rest of the specifications in the WS-* Web Service stack, like WS-Transfer, WS-Enumeration, WS-Addressing.

WS-Management is enabled in Vista (and Longhorn Server) in several ways.

On the client side, you have a standard library (called WinRM) which can "consume" other WS-Management enabled interfaces. You could also use Indigo, or other web service frameworks to access the same services as well. Finally, there is a command-line tool also named WINRM which can be used to communicate with WS-Management enabled servers.
On the server side, any WMI class can be made remotely accessible through WS-Management.

Security

WS-Management is securely enabled on Vista machines. To find out the security configuration of your machine (both for client and server) you can use WS-Management itself like in the command below:

C:\>winrm get winrm/config
Config
    MaxEnvelopeSizekb = 150
    MaxTimeoutms = 60000
    MaxBatchItems = 20
    MaxProviderRequests = 25
    Client
        NetworkDelayms = 5000
        URLPrefix = wsman
        AllowUnencrypted = false
        Auth
            Basic = false
            Digest = true
            Kerberos = true
            Negotiate = true
        DefaultPorts
            HTTP = 80
            HTTPS = 443
        TrustedHosts
    Service
        RootSDDL = O:NSG:BAD:P(A;;GA;;;BA)(A;;GR;;;ER)S:P(AU;FA;GA;;;WD)(AU;SA;GWGX;;;WD)
        MaxConcurrentOperations = 100
        EnumerationTimeoutms = 60000
        MaxConnections = 5
        AllowUnencrypted = false
        Auth
            Basic = false
            Kerberos = true
            Negotiate = true
        DefaultPorts
            HTTP = 80
            HTTPS = 443
        IPv4Filter = *
        IPv6Filter = *
    Winrs
        AllowRemoteShellAccess = true
        IdleTimeout = 900000
        MaxConcurrentUsers = 5
        MaxShellRunTime = 28800000
        MaxProcessesPerShell = 5
        MaxMemoryPerShellMB = 80
        MaxShellsPerUser = 2

By default, WS-Management is not enabled for remote access, Windows authentication is used by default on local acceess, and encryption is turned on.

You can enable remote access by typing:

C:\>winrm quickconfig
WinRM is not set up to allow remote access to this machine for management.
The following changes must be made:

Set the WinRM service type to delayed auto start.
Start the WinRM service.
Create a WinRM listener on HTTP://* to accept WS-Man requests to any IP on this machine.
Enable the WinRM firewall exception.

Make these changes [y/n]? y

WinRM has been updated for remote management.

WinRM service type changed successfully.
WinRM service started.
Created a WinRM listener on HTTP://* to accept WS-Man requests to any IP on this machine.
WinRM firewall exception enabled.

The output above already illustrates one main advantages of web services - their flexibility with respect to firewall access. Say that you want to enable your current machine to accept incoming WS-Management SOAP requests through the port 80 (as HTTP requests). Then, all you need to do is opening port 80 and that's it! Also, NAT is not a problem, of course.

Try this type of exercise when enabling DCOM through the firewall, and you'll have nightmares. This can get really complicated. Furthermore, DCOM doesn't really work in NAT environments.

A simple example

At this point, you have a secure web service enabled on your machine, that you can then use to perform regular management queries, in WMI style. Let's get some information about a Windows service, like the status of the Spooler service.

Note that I am doing a remote query - basically contacting the machine AOLTEAN-D2, through an internal, WS-Management web service interface:

C:\>winrm get wmicimv2/Win32_Service?Name=spooler -r:aoltean-d2
Win32_Service
    AcceptPause = false
    AcceptStop = true
    Caption = Print Spooler
    CheckPoint = 0
    CreationClassName = Win32_Service
    Description = Loads files to memory for later printing
    DesktopInteract = true
    DisplayName = Print Spooler
    ErrorControl = Normal
    ExitCode = 0
    InstallDate = null
    Name = spooler
    PathName = C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe
    ProcessId = 1472
    ServiceSpecificExitCode = 0
    ServiceType = Own Process
    Started = true
    StartMode = Auto
    StartName = LocalSystem
    State = Running
    Status = OK
    SystemCreationClassName = Win32_ComputerSystem
    SystemName = AOLTEAN-D2
    TagId = 0
    WaitHint = 0

Well, it looks like the spooler service is started. We can perform even more complicated queries, such as this one, to find the list of stopped services which are supposed to be started:

C:\trace>winrm enumerate wmicimv2/* -filter:"select * from win32_service where StartMode=\"Auto\" and State = \"Stopped\" " -r:aoltean-d2

XmlFragment
    Win32_Service
        AcceptPause = false
        AcceptStop = false
        Caption = Media Center Service Launcher
        CheckPoint = 0
        CreationClassName = Win32_Service
        Description = Starts Media Center Scheduler and Media Center Receiver services at startup if TV is enabled within Media Center.
        DesktopInteract = false
        DisplayName = Media Center Service Launcher
        ErrorControl = Ignore
        ExitCode = 0
        InstallDate = null
        Name = ehstart
        PathName = C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k LocalServiceNoNetwork
        ProcessId = 0
        ServiceSpecificExitCode = 0
        ServiceType = Share Process
        Started = false
        StartMode = Auto
        StartName = NT AUTHORITY\LocalService
        State = Stopped
        Status = OK
        SystemCreationClassName = Win32_ComputerSystem
        SystemName = AOLTEAN-D2
        TagId = 0
        WaitHint = 0

So, where does WS-Management comes into play? At its roots, WS-Management is a simple management protocol that allows us to operate with resources. WS-Management defines a few operations on these resources:

Get resource properties - this is used by the "winrm get ..." command above. We can see that we interrogate here a resoure (the "spooler" Windows service) and we obtain various properties like PathName, Started, etc.
Enumerate resources - this is a more complex command that allows us to enumerate several resources at once
Set properties on a resource
Create or delete resources
Execute methods on a resource, just like WMI methods.

In some sense, resources can be viewed as "objects" in OOP point of view, and WS-Management defines a simple protocol to manipulate these "objects".

Under the hood

So where do web services come into play? Can we peek into the actual management protocol?

With web services, it is actually easy - all we need to do is to use a network protocol analyzer to sniff the HTTP packets between client and the server. Ultimately, web service interactions are nothing more than exchanging XML packets using HTTP/HTTPS, so analyzing these interactions is no more difficult than analyzing HTTP request/response commands between a browser and a web server.

Let's take the GET command above (winrm get wmicimv2/Win32_Service?Name=spooler -r:aoltean-d2). In our case, the client program attempts to get the properties of a given resource of type "wmicimv2/Win32_Service", identified by the selector "Name=spooler".

Let's dive in. With the network sniffer we obtain the following SOAP request message:

<s:Envelope
xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"
xmlns:a="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing"
xmlns:w="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wsman/1/wsman.xsd">
<s:Header>
    <a:To>http://aoltean-d2:80/wsman</a:To>
    <w:ResourceURI s:mustUnderstand="true">http://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wsman/1/wmi/root/cimv2/Win32_Service</w:ResourceURI>
    <a:ReplyTo>
      <a:Address s:mustUnderstand="true">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing/role/anonymous</a:Address>
    </a:ReplyTo>
    <a:Action s:mustUnderstand="true">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/09/transfer/Get</a:Action>
    <w:MaxEnvelopeSize s:mustUnderstand="true">153600</w:MaxEnvelopeSize>
    <a:MessageID>uuid:2A553640-AA45-4BE1-8CE8-C3F20BD3C74E</a:MessageID>
    <w:Locale xml:lang="en-US" s:mustUnderstand="false" />
    <w:SelectorSet>
      <w:Selector Name="Name">spooler</w:Selector>
    </w:SelectorSet>
    <w:OperationTimeout>PT60.000S</w:OperationTimeout>
</s:Header>
<s:Body></s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

Correspondingly, the WS-Man response packet looks like this:

<s:Envelope xml:lang="en-US" xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:a="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing" xmlns:w="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wsman/1/wsman.xsd">
<s:Header>
    <a:Action >http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/09/transfer/GetResponse</a:Action>
    <a:MessageID >uuid:3E0BE062-2615-497E-BE6A-2FC7D5B7C9C3</a:MessageID>
    <a:To>http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing/role/anonymous</a:To>
    <a:RelatesTo >uuid:2A553640-AA45-4BE1-8CE8-C3F20BD3C74E</a:RelatesTo>
</s:Header>
<s:Body>
    <p:Win32_Service xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:p="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wsman/1/wmi/root/cimv2/Win32_Service" xmlns:cim="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wsman/1/base" xsi:type="Win32_Service">
      <p:AcceptPause>false</p:AcceptPause>
      <p:AcceptStop>true</p:AcceptStop>
      <p:Caption>Print Spooler</p:Caption>
      <p:CheckPoint>0</p:CheckPoint>
      <p:CreationClassName>Win32_Service</p:CreationClassName>
      <p:Description>Loads files to memory for later printing</p:Description>
      <p:DesktopInteract>true</p:DesktopInteract>
      <p:DisplayName>Print Spooler</p:DisplayName>
      <p:ErrorControl>Normal</p:ErrorControl>
      <p:ExitCode>0</p:ExitCode>
      <p:InstallDate xsi:nil="true"/>
      <p:Name>spooler</p:Name>
      <p:PathName>C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe</p:PathName>
      <p:ProcessId>1596</p:ProcessId>
      <p:ServiceSpecificExitCode>0</p:ServiceSpecificExitCode>
      <p:ServiceType>Own Process</p:ServiceType>
      <p:Started>true</p:Started>
      <p:StartMode>Auto</p:StartMode>
      <p:StartName>LocalSystem</p:StartName>
      <p:State>Running</p:State>
      <p:Status>OK</p:Status>
      <p:SystemCreationClassName>Win32_ComputerSystem</p:SystemCreationClassName>
      <p:SystemName>AOLTEAN-D2</p:SystemName>
      <p:TagId>0</p:TagId>
      <p:WaitHint>0</p:WaitHint>
    </p:Win32_Service>
</s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

That's it for now. I hope that in a future post I will cover the actual structure of WS-Management messages.

New hard drive price war coming

AdiOltean — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:35:00 GMT

Seagate, Hitachi and Samsung will compete for more price cuts for harddisks in the near future.

The toughest competition seems to be on the low-end, 80 GB harddisk models. So, what do you think the new non-rebate price would be for, say, 160 GB drives?

[source: USA Today]

Vista speech recognition? It actually works... :-)

AdiOltean — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:47:00 GMT

Long Zheng gave it a try and he was impressed (along with lots of diggers).

He recorded the video on his own laptop, with the embedded microphone. He was using the July Vista CTP build 5472.

If the original video fails to start, here is a cached version of the same video (which apparently was not affected by the digg effect).

[source: digg.com]