Dave Glover "Down Under (Oz)" : Windows Vista

Experience the Zermatt region, Switzerland, with this Windows 7 Touch Solution, inc the help of Silverlight and Deepzoom

dglover — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:20:07 GMT

Wow, just spotted this amazing solution utilising Windows 7 Touch and Silverlight 3 with Deepzoom.

Check out http://rubrik.ch.msn.com/reportagen/zermatt.aspx and click on the Info button and read how it was created, stunning!!

Yes, it works with a mouse too if you don't have Windows 7 with a Touch display (or for that matter Windows 7), but yeah, the experience is not as immersive!!

Check out the Windows 7 Training kit if you want to build amazing stuff too!!

Cheers Dave

Western Australian 2009 Daylight Saving Changes Updated 28 September 2009

dglover — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:19:32 GMT

original posting at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/bb821275.aspx

On 16 May, Western Australians rejected by referendum a proposal to extend their trial of daylight savings. As a result there will be no daylight savings in WA this year or for the foreseeable future.

This change will affect Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office Outlook and other Microsoft, third party and custom applications, which are currently programmed to adjust their clocks on 25 October 2009. However, we have taken important steps to help you proactively address the issue.

The Australia 2009 Daylight Saving Planning Guide provides detailed guidance on preparing Microsoft solutions in complex environments for changes in daylight saving. Click on the links below to download the document in your preferred format:

What is the impact of Daylight Savings changes?
Effects can range from the incorrect time display on the clock, to calendaring problems, to changes in business critical services that are time dependent.

What is affected?

All Microsoft Windows PC, server and mobile devices in the affected time zones must be updated to ensure accuracy of internal time zone tables and correct operation of the system clock.
Microsoft Office Outlook calendars may need to be adjusted. Client and Server-based tools are available to automate this service.
Microsoft, third party and custom applications which schedule events at future dates should be reviewed to ensure they will operate correctly from 25 October onwards. Previously scheduled events may also need to be adjusted.

What do I need to do?
Thorough planning and testing for these changes is critical to ensure the change results in minimal user impact, so to help customers prepare Microsoft has developed the Australia 2009 Daylight Saving Planning document which details the nature and impact of the DST changes, along with planning guidance to avoid user impact.

What if the systems have been previously patched?
Where servers, workstations and mobile devices have been added to the infrastructure, organisations will need to audit their environment to ensure all systems are updated according to the organisation's Daylight Savings Plan.

Where the environment does not have a consistent Daylight Savings Time (DST) update level, appointments may have been created with a mix of correct and incorrect DST transition dates.

Excellent Windows 7 Compatibility Video and get the Green Light

dglover — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:57:21 GMT

This is time well spent, check out the Windows 7 Compatibility training session.

Some of the resources referenced are

and finally head to over to "Give your application the green light", get yourself registered, it's free, stacks of resources and support, get ready and get your application in to the online catalogue in time for the Windows 7 Launch on October 22nd.

Cheers Dave

Readify to run .NET Developer Training in Darwin!!

dglover — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:21:13 GMT

I often hear from folk in smaller cities in Oz that there is limited access to solid training!! So great news from the guys from Readify in conjunction with Crimson!!

If you live in or near Darwin or know someone who does then be sure to let them know about these training opportunities!!

Crimson Courses	Dates
5 day professional .NET 3.5	August 10-14
Visual Studio ® 2008 ASP.NET3.5 (6463A)	August 18-19
Visual Studio ® 2008 ADO.NET 3.5 (6464A)	August 20-21
Implementing a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (5061A)	August 31-September 2

Cheers Dave

Silverlight Designer and Developer Network, Melb, June 30th, @shanemo and SketchFlow, not to be missed!!

dglover — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:16:50 GMT

If you are a designer or a developer then make sure you make this SDDN event, tonight, Tuesday the 30th of June in Melbourne.

Blend 3 and SketchFlow absolutely rocks and it'll be time well spent!!

What's on?

Sketch Flow: Don't know what SketchFlow is? Then read this!. Okay, now tell me you dont want Shane Morris, Microsoft UX Evangelist, to run through it live!

Expression Blend 3 - What's new? Expression Blend 3 improves upon the goodness of Blend 2 SP 1 by providing a whole heap of new features and more importantly, the ability to create applications for Silverlight 3. The list of new enhancements is long - Lots of improvements to the way you use the tool, Improvements to how XAML, C# and VB.NET files are edited, Support for importing Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files, Skinning enhancements, Enhancements for animation, Sample data generation, etc, etc.

Mahesh Krishnan will run through these changes in a fast demo based session (without using Powerpoint!) The session is targeted at both Designers and Developers, so don't miss out

When and Where?

The date and time: Tuesday June 30 at 5:30 PM for a 6:00 PM start.
The venue is Microsoft Theatre, Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place, Southbank.

Attendance is FREE, but please RSVP by entering your details in the registration tool on the site (http://www.sddn.org.au) or send an email to info@sddn.org.au.
Pizza will be provided to keep those tummies from rumbling.

Who will this group interest?

The focus of the group is not just on developers. Traditionally developers have had great community support, whereas designers not so much. now that Silverlight 2 is out we plan to change this.

Silverlight is as interesting for developers as it is for designers. Due in part to Silverlight's excellent separation of design and development concerns we have new problems to solve around finding the best ways to work together.

To this end the SDDN will facilitate an ongoing discussion and promote the development of ideas and best practices for anyone who works with Silverlight.

To register interest head over to http://www.sddn.org.au. Use the registration tool in the header of the site. Registering your interest helps us organise the meetings (and order the right amount of pizza)!

Microsoft Support Scam

dglover — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:28:24 GMT

Hmmm, now a mate's mother got one of these calls from this organisation, so be sure to let friends and family know this is a scam, guessing it's mostly about identity theft!!

A company called 'SupportonClick' is randomly calling Australians claiming to know that the person's computer has a 'problem' that they can fix for at a fee. These callers also claim to be calling from Microsoft Support which is not the case. Please inform your family and friends of this scam and direct them to follow Microsoft's Protect Your Computer guidance so they can be confident that their computer is running smoothly. Protect Your Computer.

Windows 7 Software Logo Toolkit Now Publically Available

dglover — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:35:04 GMT

Microsoft is pleased to announce the public availability of the Beta release for the Windows 7 Software Logo Toolkit. The toolkit allows ISVs to submit and receive the "Compatible with Windows 7" logo for their products.

Improvements, including self-test for applications, instant approval of passing applications, and a streamlined waiver process dramatically speed up the logo testing and the submission process. Fees for logo submissions have also been eliminated.

As a valued logo partner, the "Compatible with Windows 7" program also offers a variety of benefits including co-branding, MS partner points, and premier placement on a variety of online consumer facing sites.

Here are a few simple steps towards getting started:

1. Download the Beta logo toolkit here: https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?SiteID=831&DownloadID=19072
NOTE: this link also includes the logo requirements document, toolkit release notes, a toolkit user's guide, and an overview of the submission process.

2. Submit the test report from the toolkit via: https://winqual.microsoft.com.

3. If a waiver is needed for a failing test case from the toolkit report, the streamlined waiver process can be initiated by completing the online form at the following link:
https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/CreateFeedbackForm.aspx?FeedbackFormConfigurationID=3419&FeedbackType=3&SiteID=831&wa=wsignin1.0

Some additional information you may find helpful:

· Logo artwork and marketing guides can be downloaded from http://winqual.microsoft.com immediately once the following has been completed:

o The passing logo report is submitted and the logo policies are accepted

o The Software Logo License Agreement is signed online

· Instructions on how to perform the two manual tests can be found in the release notes.

· Windows 7 Logo Waiver/Exception Request: https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/CreateFeedbackForm.aspx?FeedbackFormConfigurationID=3419&FeedbackType=3&SiteID=831

· Only test results generated by the Beta release of the toolkit can be used to submit for the logo

· Additional frequently asked questions (FAQ) and the corresponding answers are maintained at the following location:

o Technical FAQ:
https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=11911&SiteID=831

o Business FAQ:
https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=11912&SiteID=831

Please note, now that we are now accepting officially logo submissions we are no longer accepting logo prequalifications.

We look forward to your participation in the Windows 7 Software Logo program.

We welcome any feedback you may have on the Windows 7 Software Logo program. Please use the following links to communicate with us:

· Report Logo Toolkit Bugs

· Logo Toolkit/Program Feedback & Suggestions

· Windows 7 Logo Waiver/Exception Request

Application Architecture Guide 2.0

dglover — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:28:00 GMT

Hey if you went to the Victoria.NET User group on Tuesday then you would have caught my Windows 7 session, you can find resources I mentioned at here, hope those that installed Win 7 on the night are enjoying and those that grabbed the DVDs have had a chance to fire it up!!

You can find resources from Tarn Barford's awesome session on Iron Python at http://blog.sharpthinking.com.au/post/2009/05/11/IronPython-Presentation.aspx - funny we both did our sessions on Netbooks!!

And Mahesh's session covering the Application Architecture Guide 2.0, tbh, I had lost track that version 2 was over on codeplex!! If you've not see this guide then I highly recommend you download it from http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=20586

There is great coverage of where technologies fit, from web, to services, data access, security, desktop and mobile along with recommended best practices and patterns, honestly take a break from your busy day to day busy existence and check it out, it'll be time well spent!!

Cheers Dave

Tech.Ed Australia and New Zealand Call for Content Now Open

dglover — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:07:09 GMT

We’ve just opened the “Call for Content” for TechEd 2009 Australia and New Zealand, if you are interested in getting involved then check out Andrew’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/acoat/archive/2009/05/06/tech-ed-australia-and-new-zealand-call-for-content.aspx

Cheers Dave

Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Ships

dglover — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:24:13 GMT

Cool, Office 2007 Service Pack 2 has shipped!!

For me the killer feature in SP2 is that Outlook shuts down when you exit, so hopefully less “the data file was not closed properly” scans!!

Great to see Open Document Format support and in the box for PDF and XPS!!

For more detail check see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5&displaylang=en

Yup can find out what’s been up dated at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5&displaylang=en

Btw, depending on size of your inbox allow for few minutes while the file store format is updated!!

Cheers Dave

Sydney May23rd - "Windows Presentation Foundation" Community Workshop and Bushfire Appeal

dglover — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:09:22 GMT

We have a finalised Saturday May 23rdth for the Sydney Community Workshop which hopefully wont clash too much with other stuff in our busy lives!!

For more information of the workshop format see my original posting at http://blogs.msdn.com/dglover/archive/2009/03/23/windows-presentation-foundation-community-workshop-and-bushfire-appeal.aspx

Registration and Payment

There is a nominal charge of $100. With the help of Cliftons we are keeping costs minimal and if we fill all workshops across the country then this event will raise close to $23,000 for the Red Cross "Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009".

The registration process is kindly supported and provided by the "Australian Computer Society (ACS)", if you are not a ACS member then register as a guest and choose to opt in or out of additional ACS information.

If possibly, please pay with your credit card to help minimise payment processing administration.

To register for Sydney on Saturday May 23rd, 2009 then please click here.

Quick summary.

Ok, so you've seen Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and you thought the technology looked interesting. You know your applications are starting to look dated, you understand WPF has matured, now in its 3^rd release; but life gets in the way and you haven't had the chance to get down and dirty with it yet. So here's your opportunity to skill up, and raise money for the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal, in this One-Day Workshop!!

To help you get to grips with this great technology quickly, Microsoft has created a series of Hands on Labs and Presentations. These will grow your skill set, putting you on the path to building the rich user interfaces your customers are demanding.

This training event comes to you courtesy of the .NET User Groups across Australia, and Cliftons, who are generously providing their training facilities at minimal cost. This is your chance to learn new skills, network with other professionals, and have a bit of fun along the way.

Who should attend

This series of workshops across the country is targeted at .NET Developers who are new to Windows Presentation Foundation.

Cheers and I hope you can make it along!!

Dave

Windows Presentation Foundation Community Workshops and Bushfire Appeal Update

dglover — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:34:00 GMT

To date we've rolled out the Windows Presentation Foundation Community Workshops across Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne with a total of 130 people attending and at the same time raising over $9000 for the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal.

A VERY BIG THANK YOU FOR GETTING INVOLVED!!

I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank the community guys for leading and proctoring the workshops - much appreciated, listed in alphabetical order and hyperlinked for more information!!

Cliftons - access to training facilities at minimal cost to support the Bushfire Appeal
David Burela (Melbourne)
Faith Rees (Brisbane) - most notably for working with Cliftons
Jason Schluter (Adelaide)
Joseph Cooney (Brisbane)
Mahesh Krishnan (Melbourne)
Niall Ginsbourg (Melbourne & Mobilewares)
Nigel Spencer (Adelaide)
Paul Stovell (Brisbane)
Peter Griffith (Adelaide & the ACS Registration System)

Locations to come

We are only half way through and based on feedback we'll wait until after the school holidays for Canberra, Sydney and Perth (and may be others). Apologies to folk in Sydney, seems there was some lost communications.

Updated Labs

The lab material rolled out in Melbourne and Brisbane was of mixed quality, this has now been fixed and again apologies for this and thank you for your patience!! I have placed the updated labs at http://cid-d03fa499b14904f9.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/WPF%20Community%20Workshop%20Updated%20Labs - they're a (relatively) small download.

Cheers Dave

Windows Presentation Foundation Community Workshop and Bushfire Appeal

dglover — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:00:40 GMT

Who should attend

This series of workshops across the country is targeted at .NET Developers who are new to Windows Presentation Foundation.

Registration and Payment

If possibly, please pay with your credit card to help minimise payment processing administration.

Adelaide: Saturday April 4th, 2009 - Click here to register

Brisbane: Saturday March 28th, 2009 - Click here to register

Melbourne: Saturday March 28th, 2009 - Click here to register

Sydney: Saturday April 4th, 2009 - Click here to register

Canberra and Perth: to be confirmed

Format

Following a 10 to 15 minute introduction to each topic, you will kick start Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend and work on the relevant lab!! Regardless of your current level of experience, you can work at your own pace; a facilitator will be on hand to guide your learning; and you'll be able to take the lab content home for further learning.

Content

The WPF Skills day will cover

1. Creating layouts, compositions and templates

2. Building custom controls

3. Working with Styles and control templates (includes using Expression Blend to restyle)

4. Using the Ribbon control to effortlessly create applications that are as familiar to your customers as Office 2007 (not to mention the Windows 7 Core Applications)

5. Working with the new DataGrid control to display tabular and editable data

6. Binding data with ease to your user interface

7. And more...

Running Windows 7 on my ASUS Eee PC 1000H Netbook

dglover — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:25:00 GMT

Now that Windows 7 beta 1 is out in the wild I can't resist sharing my experiences with Windows 7 Beta 1 on my ASUS Eee PC 1000H Netbook (also see My ASUS Eee PC 1000H Netbook and Windows Vista Experiences) I did a fresh install and the system is upgraded with 2GB RAM, 2GB ReadyBoost SD card, 200GB disk.

To help you get up and running with Windows 7 I've listed the device drivers, software packages I've installed that work just fine plus a few minor tweaks I made!!

First impressions are awesome, system is responsive, stable, search is fast, battery life great and the environment is more consistent and visually appealing.

I love the new unified taskbar with application preview that IMHO combines the best of previous generation Windows and OS X Taskbars and makes for a much more consistent experience.

Battery life on the system is pretty similar to running Windows XP and Vista. With the network off, screen dimmed, power set to 'Power saver' then getting 5 or so hours, watched part of a movie, did some email, read a few docs, edited a few pictures, wrote this blog item etc.. Yes, you'll notice better memory utilisation but I have 2 gig of RAM installed so not really much of an issue.

Stuff I love

There are a ton of great reviews on the web about Windows 7 and this entry is more about my experiences on the ASUS Eee PC, but a quick summary of the cool stuff I like:-

Attention to detail, example the wifi control applet, sticky notes, calculator (tons of new stuff), ribbons added to Paint, Wordpad (see Small Screen UI Optimization for Office - it's applicable for all Ribbon enabled apps)
Libraries are a great way for you to consolidate multiple folders of similar items (eg Pictures) and manage, search, sort, filter etc as if they were one.
Integrated DivX Codecs see http://apcmag.com/windows_7_surprise_divx_built_in.htm, yup freely available today, but great now just part of the platform, tested and supported.
Gadgets anywhere on your desktop.
The eye candy, yup, I know, shallow, but the built-in themes are beautiful, love the Australian theme and I assume themes will be available by region.
PowerShell 2 and an Integrated script Editor/Debugger.
Creating and mounting VHDs (Virtual Hard Disk format used by Virtual PC, Server, Hyper-V Server)
key combination takes the sweat out of selecting your video output!!
Windows Live Photo Gallery (see tweaks below, not specific to Windows 7) - Photo fixing, Tagging, Face Detection along with search and filtering is phenomenal!!

Stuff I'm not sure about

Windows Experience Index - Doesn't seem to reflect the "Super Hybrid Engine" Power modes, either a problem with the ASUS Utility on Windows 7 not working or Windows 7 Beta 1 Experience Index issue, I think the latter.
LAN traffic slow, wifi works as expected.

Setup and Drivers

Most of what I needed for Windows 7 on my ASUS Eee PC 1000H was part of the default install but I had to manually install the network drivers and ASUS utilities.

Also be sure to install the "Update for Windows 7" and run Windows Update after the network drivers are installed!!

Chipset/Graphics Diver Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family	Installed as part of Windows 7 but run Windows Update for the latest release of drivers from Intel. As at time of writing this was pre release version 8.15.10.1620
Wireless Network PCI/mPCI/CB(RT2760/RT2790/RT2860/RT2890)	Installed driver only http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Windows.html -> http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/IS_AP_STA_RT2860_D-1.2.1.0_VA-2.1.2.0_RU-2.1.9.0_VA-2.2.4.0_AU_2.0.9.0_VA-2.0.9.0_111108_1.0.6.0_Free.exe
LAN Driver Atheros AR81Family Windows Driver x86/x64(Vista, XP, Server 2003)	Current Version: 1.0.0.40 http://partner.atheros.com/Drivers.aspx
ACPI ASUS Driver Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Driver	Patched driver from http://gecko.me/?acpifix fixes Vista and Windows 7 driver incompatibility.
ASUS Utilities Super Hybrid Engine Utility for Windows XP	Current Version: V1.04 - works on top of patched ACPI Driver. http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=Eee%20PC%201000H/XP

Software Installed

Office 2007 fully Service Packed
Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Expression Blend V2 SP1 and Design V2
Silverlight 2 SDK and Silverlight Visual Studio Addin
Windows Live Essentials - Windows Live Photo Gallery, Live Messenger etc
Skype 4.0 Beta (Skype 3.x not supported on Windows 7) - tweaked recording device 2 channel, 16 bit, 48000 Hz (DVD Quality)
Adobe Reader
Zune 3.1
Twitter Clients - Twhirl and Witty

Utilities

CCleaner
WinRAR - useful for unpacking ISO files while Daemon tools not working on Windows 7
Daemon tools for now doesn't install:(

Tweaks

Bar the changes listed below everything else is as default - Super Fetch running, Aero running - Aero auto switches off when on battery and Power Saver mode selected.

Disk Advanced Performance: Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> Properties for system drive -> Policies -> Enable: Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device (ensure you read the warning!!)
Windows Update once a week: Ok, yes probably not best practice.
For Skype voice calls set recording device 2 channel, 16 bit, 48000 Hz (DVD Quality), default setting wasn't so great.
Set Windows Live Photo Gallery as default photo manager: Start -> Default Programs -> Set your default programs -> Windows Live Photo Gallery -> Set this program as default
Set Windows Live Photo Gallery as default Autoplay for photos: Start -> Default Programs -> Change Autoplay Settings -> Pictures -> Import Pictures and Videos with Windows Live Photo Gallery

Resources

Windows 7 Announcement at CES 2009
http://msdn.com
Channel 9 has an entire series of videos on Windows 7 which provide a great learning experience.
The E7 blog
The Windows 7 Blog for Developers for deep technical content

Enjoy Windows 7 beta 1 on your Netbook and be sure to send your feedback to the product group via the "Send Feedback" links scattered across most parts of the OS.

Cheers Dave

My ASUS Eee PC 1000H Netbook and Windows Vista Experiences

dglover — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:03:13 GMT

Article amended (Dec 28, 08) to include a reference to a patched ACPI Driver from http://gekko.me/acpi.php

Hmmm, may be ya getting a Netbook for a pressie or had one for awhile and you're thinking of firing up Vista or hanging in there for Windows 7, well here's a quick summary of my Windows Vista setup and what device drivers I use and how I've optimized my system for max battery life.

I've been a very happy owner of an ASUS 1000H Netbook for some 3 months now, XP Home edition lasted about a day and ever since then I've been running Vista SP1 and more recently SP2 Beta and both have been a joy and solid on the system, that said I did upgrade the RAM to 2gig, bar that, it's an out of the box system.

I love the device, small, without compromising too much on keyboard or screen size, stylish and performance good enough for day to day productivity apps, internet browsing, picture editing etc. It's running the latest Intel Atom 1.60GHz CPU which from memory runs at a cool 2 watts rather than the 35 watts consumed by traditional mobile CPU chipsets, so nice and green too!!

Vista Experience Chart

As you can see for most things the experience index is good, it's not a gaming machine but it will certainly cope with WPF apps with ease!!

Battery Life

These number are not scientific but rather under general observations for office productivity, watching a movie or two, surfing the net etc. With wifi, Bluetooth turned off, screen dimmed down and max power saver options set then getting somewhere between 5 to 6.5 hrs battery life, so absolutely awesome for travel etc. With wifi on then around 4 to 5 hrs, again not done with a stopwatch, but will give you some idea what you can expect.

Applications Loaded

Office 2007 - Outlook, Word, Excel etc and all run well
Office Communicator - Video conferencing is excellent, churns at about 20 to 30% CPU on Super Performance mode
Visual Studio 2008 SP1 - yup just fine for casual stuff
Expression Blend V2 SP1 - Yup, good enough for casual stuff, been doing some hands on labs, not lighten quick, but good enough
Windows Live Clients, IM including Video, Photo Gallery, all fine, Movie maker requires more patience
Mesh - though I don't auto start as too resource intensive for the system, certainly at time of writing, beta etc
Skype and various Twitter clients - Twirl and Witty
IE 8 Beta 2
Adobe Reader

Favourite Utilities

CCleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com/ - most excellent for getting rid of all the crap files off your system and generally tidying up
DAEMON Tools Lite - http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php - great for mounting ISO images
Auslogics Disk Defrag - http://www.auslogics.com/en/ - excellent disk visual disk defragger

Small Screen UI Optimization for Office

On a 1024 x 600 resolution screen you start to be a more mindful of screen clutter, space taken up by menus and ribbons etc. Running Office is no exception, but did you know there is a really cool ribbon space saving optimization? If you double click on any of the tabs in Office you hide the ribbon and then simply single click the tab to reveal ribbon, well cool and perfect for a small screen device!!

Office Ribbon Minimised - now we're laughing!!

Device Drivers

The following as of mid December 2008 are the device drivers I'm running with on Vista SP1 and SP2 and all stable, sleep, hibernate etc work well!!

It's probably reasonable to assume this driver config will be good for Windows 7, though I've not tried yet, the driver model in Windows 7 will be consistent with Windows Vista.

Chipset/Graphics Diver Mobile IntelÂ® 945 Express Chipset Family	Currently Version: 15.8.3.1504 http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProductID=2300&DwnldID=16312&strOSs=156&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*%20Ultimate,%2032-bit%20version&lang=eng
Wireless Network PCI/mPCI/CB(RT2760/RT2790/ RT2860/RT2890)	Installed driver only http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Windows.html -> http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/IS_AP_STA_RT2860_D-1.2.1.0_VA-2.1.2.0_RU-2.1.9.0_VA-2.2.4.0_AU_2.0.9.0_VA-2.0.9.0_111108_1.0.6.0_Free.exe
LAN Driver Atheros AR81Family Windows Driver x86/x64(Vista, XP, Server 2003)	Current Version: 1.0.0.39 though I see that 1.0.0.40 has just been released. http://partner.atheros.com/Drivers.aspx
ASUS Driver Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Drive for WIN XP	Patched driver from http://gekko.me/acpi.php fixes Vista and Windows 7 driver incompatibility. Current Version: V4.00.0004 http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=Eee%20PC%201000H/XP
ASUS Utility Super Hybrid Engine Utility for Windows XP	Current Version: V1.04 http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=Eee%20PC%201000H/XP
ASUS Utility ASUS Update Utility for updating the BIOS. Note: If you disabled the AsAcpiSvr.exe service as below then you need to enable again to update the BIOS else you get a "AsusODS.exe not existing" error.	Version V1.01.08 http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=Eee%20PC%201000H/XP

Tweek me there please!!

Ok most of these optimizations are about maximizing battery Life

Turn off Aero	Right mouse click desktop -> Personalise -> Window Colour and Appearance -> Click Open classic appearance properties Select Windows Vista Basic
Disable sidebar
Enable Advanced Disk Performance	Device Manager -> Disk Drives -> Properties for system drive -> Policies -> Enabled Advanced Performance
Disable Superfetch (slightly more controversial setting, but think it improves restart out of sleep)	Computer Management -> Services and Applications -> Services -> Superfetch -> Disable Service
Disable auto start of AsAcpiSvr.exe This ASUS Driver causes an annoying problem on Vista, it throws a can't find interface for graphics and audio dialogue box.	Not required if using patched driver from http://gekko.me/acpi.php From Start type MSConfig -> uncheck AsAcpiSvr.exe
Managing communications Disabling the AsAcpiSvr disables some of the of the hot key functionality for wifi, bt, camera etc. Not really a problem, I use the EEE PC Tray Utility and get all the functionality I need. The screen brightness hotkeys work just fine.
Windows Update Once a week. Ok yes not best practice but it helps start up time and I have other systems kicking around that warn me if urgent patches are required!!

So that is pretty much how I have the system setup, the only minor inconvenience is that the Vista Graphics driver doesn't allow for stretching the 1024 x 600 resolution to 1024 x 768 on the system LCD, this is a pain when you hook up the device to a projector and want to see the screen locally as well as externally. Bar that I love it!!

Cheers Dave