BartPE

What is BartPE and PE Builder?

Bart's PE Builder helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.

It will give you a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800x600) and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and so on.
This will replace any Dos bootdisk in no time!




Introduction

PE Builder is not a Microsoft product and does not create Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment ("Windows PE"). Using PE Builder does not grant you a license to Microsoft Windows PE or to use the Windows XP or Server 2003 binaries in a manner other than stated in the End-User License Agreement included in your version of Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has not reviewed or tested PE Builder and does not endorse its use.

Please do not contact Microsoft for support on the preinstallation environment that has been created by PE Builder!
Microsoft does not provide support for PE Builder or for the preinstallation environment created by PE Builder.

The PE Builder program (pebuilder.exe) runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/BartPE. It does not run on Windows NT4/ME/9x.

To avoid any confusion, the bootable CD generated by PE Builder should be called by its nickname "BartPE"!

A word from the author

Hi, my name is Bart Lagerweij. I've been creating DOS based boot disks and bootable CD-Roms from Dos 3.x (not sure what year) until 2002. I have created the: Corporate Modboot, Network bootdisk, CD-Rom bootdisk, a hardware independent Dos CD-Rom driver eltorito.sys and lots of other tools needed to boot a PC the way I want it to.

As you can read above I've stopped doing that in 2002. Why? I saw a Windows PE (WinPE) bootable CD-Rom (from Microsoft) in action and I got very, very curious. I knew then as I know now, that in time PE-based solutions will be every PC technicians best friend.
Goodbye to all the good and bad dos-based NTFS utilities! Now we can boot from a CD-Rom and have full read/write access to NTFS volumes!

Here are a few things that are possible with PE and are not possible with any type of dos-based boot disk, even when using network support and ntfsdos:

Accessing very large (>2TB) NTFS volumes or accessing volumes that are not seen by the BIOS, like some fibre channel disks.
Very reliable scanning and cleaning of viruses on NTFS volumes using a "clean boot".
Active Directory support.
Have remote control over other machines, using vnc or remote desktop.

While I was already thinking about what great things this could do, I noticed the end-user license agreement for Microsoft software that is included with Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 1.2 (eula.txt). In section "1. ELIGIBILITY." it states the following:
..."You may only install and use the SOFTWARE PRODUCT if you are an active Microsoft Software Assurance Member ("SAM") for the systems product pool or servers product pool, if you currently have license coverage for Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) Upgrades via a Campus Agreement or School Agreement, or if you are a current or former participant in the Windows XP Joint Development Program, Windows XP Rapid Adoption Program, Windows .NET Server Joint Development Program, or Windows .NET Server Rapid Adoption Program. If you do not meet one or more of the requirements listed above, you may not install or use this SOFTWARE PRODUCT and you must terminate the installation of this SOFTWARE PRODUCT immediately"...

Oops, that does not include me. As a matter of fact that does not include most of us! This was very disappointing. But then I started thinking, how difficult can it be to build something similar to Windows PE from a Windows XP installation CD-Rom? A quick file compare looked like most of the needed files are on the Windows XP CD-Rom. Only because I thought building this would be easy, I started coding my own builder program. Had I known how hard it would be, I would probably never have started programming PE Builder.
This first version (v1.0.0) of PE Builder was released on April 28, 2003. Yes, version 1 was a very simple, very static, very bad and copyright violating program. And the (very friendly) people at Microsoft had every right to kick my butt. But I learned from it and in May 2003 I started on a second version. In July (three months later) v2 was ready.
Version 2 did not have the problems that version 1 had. The version 2 build engine had its own registry hive builder which was not easy to program and took about 50% of my research and coding time. It also was dynamic enough that it could build from Windows XP and Server 2003. In v2.0.1 I added a small but very powerful menu program called nu2menu, which was written by my buddy Henk de Jong. The latest 2 version (v2.0.2b) even used a new ISO filesystem called "ISO-9660:1999 (version 2)" instead of the Joliet extensions. Some non-English versions of Windows XP had filenames longer than the maximum allowed length for Joliet filenames (103 chars). I had to patch the ISO building program (mkisofs.exe) so that the Windows NT bootstrap and setup loader would boot properly. The file and directory names can now be up to 207 characters. But again this version had something bad. When comparing some INF files they looked too much like the Windows PE builder from Microsoft.

I had to change the entire INF file layout to use its own format. And on Sep 1, 2003 (almost 6 months after starting) version 3 was ready. After adding plugin support, PE Builder got very popular. People from all over the world are writing their own plugins to add the program they like and use.


BartPE vs. Windows PE?
BartPE is not supported by Microsoft. Windows PE is an official Microsoft product.
BartPE has a graphical user interface. Windows PE has a command line interface.
The tools needed to make a BartPE installation are free software. Windows PE is available only to Microsoft OEM users.
BartPE allows unlimited custom plugins. Windows PE has a limited range of plugins options.
What is the technical difference between BartPE and Windows PE?
Target - Microsoft sees Windows PE as an installation platform. Bart sees Windows PE as the next generation rescue platform.
Start-menu - Bart's builder gives you a simple, dynamic and powerful start-menu (Nu2Menu, see screenshots). Microsoft's builder does not give you a start-menu, it uses a command prompt.
Build from - Bart's builder can also build from Windows XP Home Edition or from a preinstalled Windows XP version (without CD).
Plugins - With PE Builder you can easily add applications, drivers or tools using plugins. This makes PE Builder extremely powerful. The end user can even combine plugins from different software vendors into one CD image.

Network support - PE Builder includes its own network support tools (bartpe/penetcfg) to start TCP/IP and Microsoft Client. The TCP/IP settings like: dynamic/static ip-address, subnet-mask, default gateway, dns-servers computer-name, workgroup can be changed on-the-fly. You can create pre-defined profiles, that you can select. Microsoft Windows PE only supports DHCP or fixed settings using winbom.ini.
Also there is a plugin (NwDskPe) created by Erwin Veermans that loads the Netware Client on BartPE (IP/IPX).
Fileshare - BartPE can start File Sharing support so you can connect to the system through a share.
VNC - Because of the File Sharing support you can also run UltraVNC.
Dos support - Bart's builder has a plugin called "dospe".
License - Microsoft Windows PE is only for Enterprise/OEM customers (see previous), BartPE is for everybody!
64-Bit - Bart's builder does not support Windows 64-bit editions.
Requirements to build:
The files from your Windows Installation CD-Rom.
Supported Windows versions are:

Windows XP Home Edition (must be slip streamed with Service Pack 1 or higher)
Windows XP Professional (must be slip streamed with Service Pack 1 or higher)
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
PE Builder runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/BartPE systems.
CD/DVD writer if you want to creat a bootable CD/DVD.
Why did I build PE Builder?

Microsoft only provides Windows PE to OEM and Enterprise customers. So the small companies and end users do not get Windows PE. I think this is really bad. With PE Builder they can build a Bootable XP CD-Rom (called BartPE) to use for maintaining their systems.

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Bing

Bing (anteriormente Live Search, Windows Live Search y MSN Search) con nombre código Kumo es el nombre del buscador web de Microsoft, estaba diseñado para competir con los líderes de la industria Google y Yahoo!. Presentado por el CEO de Microsoft, Steve Ballmer en el 2009 , el 28 de mayo en la Conferencia D en San Diego, Bing es el sustituto de Live Search, y fue totalmente puesto en línea el 3 de junio del 2009.

Cambios notables incluyen la adición de búsquedas relacionadas (llamado "Explorador" en el lado izquierdo de resultados de búsqueda), basada en tecnología semántica de PowerSet , adquirido por Microsoft a una empresa de búsqueda en el 2008 , buscar sugerencias como tipo y la capacidad de realizar un seguimiento de su historial de búsqueda.

Productos de búsqueda [editar]Además de buscar páginas Web, se incluyen otros servicios de Bing

Bing Shopping
Bing Club
Bing Travel
Bing Health
Bing Images
Bing Maps
Bing News
Bing Video
Bing xRank
Bing Translator
Bing Local

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Pandora

What is a Pandora station?

A Pandora station is a personalized stream of music, based on one or more artist names or song titles of your choice. Working from the massive collection of music analyzed in the Music Genome Project, your Pandora station will explore a particular corner of the musical universe based on your station's starting points.

Each Pandora station is completely unique to you-- no two Pandora stations are ever exactly alike, even if they're based on the exact same artist or song.

This is because you can further customize each of your stations in several ways. You can give direct feedback in the form of a "Thumbs Up" or a "Thumbs Down," which will tell Pandora to play that song more often-- or not to play it again. Also, you can add more artist names or song titles to broaden your station and explore a theme, such as different styles, subgenres and eras of music.

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For more information on how to create a Pandora station, click here.





How many Pandora stations am I allowed to have?

You can have up to 100 stations at any one time [plus one QuickMix].

Once you reach the maximum number of stations you have to delete a station before you can add another one.

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For more information on on how to create a Pandora station, please click here.

Click here

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CPU-Z utility

CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.

CPU
Name and number.
Core stepping and process.
Package.
Core voltage.
Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.
Supported instructions sets.
Cache information.
Mainboard
Vendor, model and revision.
BIOS model and date.
Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.
Graphic interface.
Memory
Frequency and timings.
Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.
System
Windows and DirectX version.

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Notable Changes in Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2

Notable Changes in Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2

Updated: April 28, 2009

Applies To: Windows Server 2008,Windows Vista

Microsoft® continuously improves the Windows Vista® and Windows Server® 2008 operating systems by providing ongoing updates while working with software and hardware vendors to help them deliver improved compatibility, reliability, and performance. These updates are provided to customers by Microsoft’s hardware and software partners, as well as directly from Microsoft in the form of regularly distributed updates delivered via Windows Update. Updates to Windows are also delivered directly to some affected customers and preinstalled by computer manufacturers.

Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 are updates to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 that address feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack, which will be thoroughly tested by Microsoft and by industry partners and customers during the pre-release cycle, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.

In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards. SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

This document describes the notable changes in the Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 release. For a complete list of all the hotfixes and security updates in SP2, see Hotfixes and Security Updates in Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2. Note that many of the updates listed are already publically available and have been released via the Microsoft Download Center or Windows Update.

Organizations do not need to wait for SP2 to deploy Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008; we encourage them to begin their Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 evaluation and deployment now.
Setup prerequisites

There are only two prerequisites for installing SP2:

* Your operating system, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista must have Service Pack 1 installed.

noteNote
Windows Server 2008 shipped with Service Pack 1 built in.

* Users updating through Windows Update/WSUS must install an update to the servicing stack (described in knowledge base article 955430) that handles installation and removal of software updates, language packs, and optional Windows features. This update is necessary to successfully install and uninstall the service pack; it also improves the performance and reliability of the service pack installation. This update may require a reboot and is part of the standalone update package. It will be offered as a separate package on Windows Update. Users installing SP2 in standalone format will have this update built-in

Service Pack 2 size

In order to make the improvements detailed in this document, individual files and components have been updated. Also, the language-neutral design of Windows necessitates that the service pack be able to update any possible combination of the basic languages supported by Windows Vista with a single installer, so language files for the 36 basic languages are included in the standalone installer.

These features result in a large stand-alone package, which is the delivery vehicle typically used by system administrators. However, most home and small business users will receive SP2 through Windows Update, which utilizes an efficient transfer mechanism to download only the actual bytes that are changed, resulting in an approximately 43 megabyte (MB) download. This is similar in size to many common software and driver updates that are delivered by other software vendors over the internet, and therefore should not cause issues for most customers.




Application compatibility improvements

Thanks to the rich instrumentation capability of Windows operating systems, we are able to understand the types of issues that our customers experience while respecting their personal information and privacy preferences. We use this information to focus improvements in Windows, but we also share this information with our software vendor partners to help improve the reliability and compatibility of non-Microsoft applications. For example, in SP2, Spysweeper and ZoneAlarm, now work with POP3 e-mail accounts.

Our goal for SP2 is that applications that are written using public APIs and that run on the Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 operating systems will continue to work as designed.

Microsoft has already released several application compatibility updates which allow more applications to work seamlessly for the end user. These appear in SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, but they are also available through Windows Update. Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 contain additional application compatibility fixes for individual applications.

For more information about previously released compatibility updates, refer to article 947562 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128900.
Hardware ecosystem support and enhancements

* SP2 adds support for the 64-bit central processing unit (CPU) from VIA Technologies, which adds the ID and vendor strings for the new VIA 64-bit CPU.

* SP2 integrates the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology.

* SP2 improves performance for Wi-Fi connections after resuming from sleep mode.

* SP2 includes updates to the RSS feeds sidebar for improved performance and responsiveness.

* SP2 includes ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media.

Operating system experience updates

* SP2 includes Windows Search 4.0, which builds on Microsoft’s search technology with improved indexing and search relevance. It also helps find and preview documents, e-mail (including signed e-mail messages), music files, photos, and other items on the computer. The search engine in Windows Search 4.0 is a Microsoft Windows® service that is also used by programs such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 and Microsoft Office OneNote® 2007. Autotuning Diagnostics in SP2 now interprets current network conditions when implementing Windows scaling. This feature includes full netsh support.

* SP2 improves Windows Media Center (WMC) in the area of content protection for TV.

* SP2 removes the limit of 10 half open outbound TCP connections. By default, SP2 has no limit on the number of half open outbound TCP connections.

Enterprise improvements

* SP2 provides the Hyper-V virtualization environment as a fully integrated feature of Windows Server 2008, including one free instance with Windows Server 2008 Standard, four free instances with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and an unlimited number of free instances with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter.

* SP2 increases the authentication options for WebDAV redirector, enabling Microsoft Office users greater flexibility when authenticating custom applications using the WebDAV redirector.

* SP2 provides an improved power management (both on the server and the desktop), which includes the ability to manage these settings via Group Policy.

* SP2 improves backwards compatibility for Terminal Server license keys. Windows Server 2008 changed the licensing key from 512 bytes to 2,048 bytes which caused clients using older Terminal Server versions to fail. SP2 allows legacy license keys on Citrix applications to work with Windows Server 2008 Terminal Server.

Setup and deployment improvements

The SP2 standalone installer:

* Provides a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

* Includes the ability to detect an incompatible driver and either block service pack installation or warn users of any potential loss of functionality.

* Provides better error handling and descriptive error messages where possible.

* Improves manageability through logging in the system event log.

* Provides a secure install experience.

* Includes the ability to service the installer post release.

SP2 also includes a Service Pack Clean-up tool (Compcln.exe) which helps recover the hard disk space by permanently deleting previous versions of files (RTM and SP1) that are being serviced by SP2. The Service Pack Clean up tool can also be run offline while creating slipstream images to reduce the size of the image.
Conclusion

SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 represents Microsoft’s continuing commitment to quality. While most updates contained in SP2 are available as individual downloads, the roll-up convenience of SP2 is a major benefit for administrators. This functionality coupled with new advanced deployment features, such as the single installer and the pre-installation analyzer, means SP2 continues to provide ongoing improvements that our customers have grown to expect from Microsoft. For more detail on SP2’s contents, see Hotfixes and Security Updates in Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2.

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Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Before you begin

Before you run the Upgrade Advisor, be sure to plug in any USB devices or other devices such as printers, external hard drives, or scanners that are regularly used with the PC you're evaluating.

Download Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Ready to upgrade? Get Windows Vista from the Microsoft Store.

The Upgrade Advisor works with 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. Review the upgrade options available for earlier versions of Windows.

Make sure your computer is ready for the edition of Windows Vista you want.

The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor will help you to determine if your Windows XP-based PC can run Windows Vista. You can also use the Upgrade Advisor to determine if your Windows Vista-based PC is ready for an upgrade to a more powerful edition of Windows Vista.

This small software tool will scan your computer and create an easy-to-understand report of all known system, device, and program compatibility issues, and recommend ways to resolve them. Upgrade Advisor can also help you to choose the edition of Windows Vista that best fits the way you want to use your computer.

Just download, install, and run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

Please note:

• The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor works with 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista, except Windows Vista Enterprise edition. It will not work with other editions of Windows.

• The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor does not collect or send any personal, identifiable data to Microsoft Corporation or third parties. See the Upgrade Advisor privacy statement for details.

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Access Developer Extensions

For Microsoft Acces 2007

Overview

The Access 2007 Developer Extensions provide packaging and deployment tools and licensing and distribution agreements to make it easier for developers to bring solutions to market. Whether you are working in a small business or a large enterprise, as a third-party or an internal developer, the Access 2007 Developer Extensions can facilitate the deployment and management of Access 2007 solutions.

The Access Developer Extensions include the following components:

• Package Solution Wizard
  A wizard that creates a Windows Installer Package (MSI) to install your database and any supporting files and optionally includes the Access 2007 Runtime, or prompts the user to download the Access 2007 Runtime.



• Save As Template
  Enables you to create database templates (ACCDTs) that can be featured in the Access 2007 Getting Started screen.



• Source Code Control
  Integration with Microsoft Visual SourceSafe or other source code control systems to allow check-in/check-out of queries, forms, reports, macros, modules, and data. You can also see the differences that have been made to your checked out objects.

The Access 2007 Developer Extensions do not include the Property Scanner and the Custom Startup Wizard that were included in previous versions.

The Access 2007 Runtime is also available as a download. For more information, see Access 2007 Download: Access Runtime.

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EL ANTES Y EL DESPUES DEL XP

EL ANTES Y EL DESPUES DEL XP

Existen dos formas de ver el mundo. Una es creer que el mundo es estático, y otra que vivimos en un mundo dinámico. Pero para que los cambios no nos sorprendan en la vida, es preciso saber y entender que aunque las cosas sucedan de repente sin mayor explicación, nada de lo que nos rodea en nuestra vida es completamente inmutable. Hoy no es igual que ayer, "todo puede cambiar en cuestion de un segundo" de hecho vivimos en un universo que permite que ocurra este fenómeno tan silencioso. Un segundo antes, una persona era pobre, y un segundo despues es millonario. Algunos cambios son solo cuestion de un simple segundo. Por un segundo podrías salvar tu vida de ser atropellado por un tren enloquecido. Otros cambios parece que exigen algo más de tiempo que ese simple segundo. Verdaderamente guarda un profundo sentido para nuestras vidas que tan solo un único segundo cambie las cosas.

Como ejemplo de las cosas que pasan en el mundo, y que nunca son estáticas, me gustaría enseñaros el ANTES Y EL DESPUES DEL XP. Muchos de vosotros habéis visto el famoso salvapantallas de Windows XP. Bueno, pues como todo, puede ocurrir que las cosas que cambien sean para bien o mal. Eso dependerá desde que perspectiva lo miremos..... Pero siendo el caso de Microsoft, hasta la propia naturaleza parace traicionarle y augurarle un futuro muy poco halagüeño y si no vean y juzguen por ustedes mismos si el Antes y el Despues del XP, no parece decirlo todo.

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Vdownloader

VDownloader is a powerful tool that can search, download and convert videos from Youtube, Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace, DailyMotion, Pornotube, Yuvutu, and many other similar sites, saving them in AVI or MPG format. It is also a powerful video converter.
Download videos from your favourite video sites.Vdownloader can download and convert videos from the following sites:

Youtube (in HD if available) Google Video DailyMotion MySpace Veoh GoFish Netlog Blip TV MyVideo.de

Porkolt Metacafe Break.com 123 Video Bolt Vreel (Beta) Clevver Tudou

VSocial Lulu TV Guba HideBehind Dale al Play Yahoo! Video Tu.tv Hispavista Vimeo

VDownloader can also download RTMP streams from the following sites:

MTV.com CBS (US only) RTVE

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