Mark Minasi's Windows Networking Tech Page
Issue #84 Late January 2010

What's Inside

News
- Join Me at a Seminar!
Tech Section
- Catch Up On 90s PC Advice at Compute!'s Archive
- Liven Up Your WinPE with a Custom Background
- God Mode Works on 64-Bit Vista/2008 After All
Conferences
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News

Hi all —

I've been writing computer articles and columns since the early 80s, but to this day I never know which articles will generate reader interest and which won't, so I was happy to see that many of you liked the piece on the so-called "God Mode" folder. I said in the last newsletter that as far as I knew, you couldn't make "God Mode" work on 64-bit Windows, but a reader wrote to show me how, as you'll see in this issue. And speaking of columns, I came across an online archive of all of the columns I wrote for Compute! in the early 90s, and I've got the link to that archive here for your entertainment. But that's not all; in this issue, I also want to tell you how to spruce up a WinPE desktop with a custom bitmap. There's lots to talk about here but first, a word from our sponsor:

Two-Day Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Classes: Dallas March 22/24 2010, and Charlotte NC March 30-April 1

My new two-day Windows 7 desktop support class and my two-day Server 2008 R2 support class are coming to Dallas and March and Charlotte in late March. Why attend? Well...

Windows 7, Microsoft's new desktop OS, and Server 2008 R2, the new server OS, arrived last October 22, and so now we've all got to answer the question, "to upgrade or not?" It's not an easy question, as Win 7/R2 -- like all new OSes -- are a mixed bag of pluses and minuses, and sorting through all of that can take a lot of time... which is how my courses and I may be of assistance. As I've done throughout the past 26 years whenever a new OS appears, I've created an easy-to-understand, in-depth guide to what you'll like and what you might hate about the latest Windows. Oh, but wait, I forgot the two most important other reasons to attend my courses. First, I'm independent. I don't work for Microsoft, I don't sell software, and I won't make a dime if you upgrade. Second, I discovered something a long time ago: this stuff can be deathly boring. I love talking about tech, but it can have its boring aspects and even the smartest tech companies do some of the dumbest stuff, so there's always lots to get a giggle out of, as you'll see if you join me for a class.

The first new seminar, Windows 7 for Support Professionals, gets you up to speed quickly on everything new on the Win 7 desktop — deployment changes, new admin tools, brand-new security and networking features, and so on. If, on the other hand, your focus is on server software, then our second new class, Installing, Managing and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 R2, does the same thing for server software, including a special focus on new Active Directory capabilities.

Attend Both Seminars: Save A Day and $200

But what if both new operating systems are of interest to you? Then I can save you some money and time because I discovered as I researched these classes that there was a lot of new information that applied both to the desktop and the server OSes, and so I've arranged them so that the second day of the desktop class is also the first day of the server class — for example, "booting from virtual disks" is a nice new feature that applies both to desktops and servers, and BranchCache is a useful branch office technology that's of no value without configuring both clients and servers, and so both technologies fit well in the middle of the three days. Thus, you can attend both two-day classes in just three days total, and the per-day cost of attending the third day is 40% cheaper than the first two days. Whether you're interested in the Windows 7 class, the Server 2008 R2 class or both, you can attend them at either of these locations:

Dallas 22-24 March
Charlotte 30 March-1 April

We've got the Windows 7 outline at http://www.minasi.com/win7class/, the Server 2008 R2 outline at http://www.minasi.com/08r2class/, and the schedule of classes and links to register at http://www.minasi.com/pubsems.htm. I hope you can join me for one of these seminars, as there's lots to learn about Win 7 and R2.

And don't forget that I can bring either or both classes to your site and, if you skipped Vista/2008, can add whatever other info you need to get completely up to speed; to find out more, email my assistant Merilyn Foell at Assistant@Minasi.com, or call her at (757) 426-1431 (only between 12-5 Eastern time, weekdays, please).

Tech Section

Catch Up On 90s PC Advice at Compute!'s Archive

In the early 90s, I wrote a monthly column called "Hardware Clinic" about PC hardware and repair. Some kind souls have resurrected them in an archive of old computer magazines. You can find my old columns at http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/index/index.php?author=Mark+Minasi. (And before you spend too much time there, rest assured that there is probably no actual information value in the columns -- making the choice between 386DX and 386SX chips just isn't something we need do very much these days!)

Liven Up Your WinPE with a Custom Background

I use WinPE a fair amount both for deployment and system recovery tasks. Its ease of use -- it fits on a USB stick -- and versatility makes it an essential tool in my PC support toolkit.

But ever since Server 2008 came out, WinPE's had this dull, boring gray bitmap for a background. I mean, at least Vista's WinPE had this colorful blue-green thing that sort of reminded me of a kelp forest. How, I wondered, can I get something better for my WinPE wallpaper?

Well, a bit of Googling reveals two kinds of Web pages on the subject. The first, which far outnumber the others, are pages explaining how to use the MDT to set a custom wallpaper bitmap for WinPE. I don't use MDT (there's nothing wrong with it, I've just not had the need to learn it), so those pages were no help. The second and smaller set of pages had some advice that said something like

"Well, in theory, all you need do is to put a file named winpe.bmp into \windows\system32 of your WinPE image and that'll be your WinPE wallpaper. But you've got to exactly match the characteristics of the current winpe.bmp file, or WinPE will just ignore your wallpaper."

Aha, I thought; heck, if anyone can create an image to a given specification, that'd be me, with my extensive photography tools and such. So I took my favorite bullfrog picture and set it up just as the default WinPE bitmap file "winpe.bmp" is set up: 1024x768, 24-bit color, 72 DPI resolution, Windows BMP format. I then

Copied the new bitmap, which I'd named to winpe.bmp, to c:\winpe, which is where I keep my WinPE stuff (see Newsletter #59).
Fired up my Deployment Tools Command Prompt, which I got when I installed the WAIK (ditto).
Changed my default folder to c:\winpe by typing cd \winpe.
Mounted the boot.wim that I use in my WinPEs by typing imagex /mountrw iso\sources\boot.wim 1 mount
Copied the new Winpe.bmp by typing copy /y winpe.bmp mount\windows\system32
Unmounted the boot.wim by typing imagex /unmount /commit mount
Created a new WinPE ISO by typing oscdimg -n -h -betfsboot.com iso frogpe.iso

I then burned frogpe.iso to a CD and booted from that CD. When booted, the WinPE screen looked like this:

Neat, eh? The beauty of having a bullfrog in your WinPE background is that it distracts the client, who then is more interested in the bullfrog than in asking you annoying questions while you're trying to fix their problem. (Haha. Kidding. Kind of. Not really <g>. Feel free to grab the picture and crop it as you like, it's at http://www.minasi.com/photos/2009/content/bin/images/large/bullfroginwater_1.jpg.)

The odd thing is that I then tried messing with the bitmap to see why WinPE allegedly rejects attempts at replacing winpe.bmp. I was, however, unable to break the thing. Color depth, size and DPI had no effect. So, the bottom line is that if you'd like a different background on your WinPE, it's as simple as creating a BMP file, naming it winpe.bmp, and installing it in Windows\system32 on your WinPE image.

God Mode Works on 64-Bit Vista/2008 After All

In the last newsletter, I discussed Windows' capability to create a single folder that displays a sort of flattened view of your Control Panel applets, something that many on the Web have dubbed the "God Mode" folder. I said that it didn't work on 64-bit Vista or 64-bit Windows Server 2008. Based on reader questions and feedback, here's a bit more info.

There's no way to do it on XP. I got this question from 15 readers, so I guess I didn't make clear that XP can't do it, no matter what.
There is a way to create a "God Mode" folder on 64-bit Vista and 2008. Reader Peter Kraemer was the first to tell me the fix. Peter says, "Launch the command line (or make a shortcut): %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} This will bring up the explorer window described in your newsletter even if you are on a 64-bit system." I've tried it, and it works like a charm. Thanks to Peter and the others who offered this tip.

Do you hate printers? I do, and so does this clever person

This is fall-down funny. My thanks to Wes Lazara of the Forum for pointing this out.

Conferences

Coming up...

MR&D Forum 2010! Your best value in conferences, my friends: $450 for three days with some brilliant speakers and tons o' fun. May 2-5 2010, info at www.minasiconference.com.
Techmentor Orlando March 8-12 2010: Techmentor's back and better than ever, as they return to Orlando with a great lineup of talks. I'm doing talks on DNSSEC, my in-depth Kerberos talk, Windows 7/R2 storage changes, and User Account Control. Info at www.techmentorevents.com.
TechEd US: I've been okayed for a few talks in New Orleans, so if you make it then please stop by.

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Mark Minasi's Windows Networking Tech Page Issue #84 Late January 2010