I’m currently sitting in the Sprint Developer Conference and don’t have my multi-monitor setup.  what I want to do is put visual studio on the left of my single screen, and the browser on the right.  After some experimenting and Googling, I figure out the following. 

If you drag an open program (by holding down the mouse on the title bar) to the edge of the screen, then let go of the mouse when you get to the edge of the screen, that program maximizes in height and the width is half the screen and it is attached (docked) to the side of the page where your mouse pointer was when you let go.

So, I decided to give Microsoft Windows 7 support a try (which is a free service to genuine Microsoft Windows 7 Users).  I’d say things went well, though it might have been nice if the error sent me to the answer rather than a lengthy support process.

As It Happened

So, here is how things happened:

Contact Microsoft through their support web site

The error itself took me to a web site that allowed me to file a support case for free.  Immediately, I got the following back from an auto responder at 9:02AM

==============================

CONFIRMATION

==============================

Thank you for contacting Microsoft. Your support request was successfully submitted.

A Microsoft support professional will contact you within the response time specified for the support that you chose.

Print or save this page or note the confirmation number for your reference.

==============================

INCIDENT DETAILS

==============================

Incident title: windows 7 update failed (sp1 I think)

Support request number: 115778719

Severity rating: Severity C (Minimum business impact)

Type of response: Email to peter@peterkellner.net

Response time: Your expected response time is: 1 business day

View incident online: https://support.microsoft.com/viewincident

==============================

OTHER INFORMATION

==============================

Full name: Peter Kellner

E-mail address: …

Followed 15 hours later by:

Hello Peter,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Customer Service.

Your request has been processed. A Support Professional will contact you via e-mail within 24 hours to assist with troubleshooting your issue.

Note:

If you are using a spam blocker, please make sure you can receive e-mail messages from *.microsoft.com. If you do not see the response from a Support Professional within the next 24 hours, please check your junk mail folder for an e-mail containing your case number which is listed in the subject line of this e-mail.

If you have any questions regarding this service request or need to update the service request notes, please reply to this e-mail with your case number in the subject line.

Thank you for using Microsoft products and services,

Microsoft Online Customer Service

A Proposed Solution

Then, 3 hours later (or 18 hours from the problem start), I get a proposed solution from a human.

Dear Peter,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Support Service. My name is Joyce, and I am glad to work with you. For your reference, the case ID for this service request is SRX1157341819. You can contact me by sending an email to v-30joyh@mssupport.microsoft.com with the case ID in the subject line.

From the problem description, I understand that win7 sp1 fails to install with error 8024200D. If there has been any misunderstanding, please let me know.

I understand the inconvenience you have experienced. Please be assured that I will do my best to help you.

During the Windows 7 SP1 installation, one of the most common causes of failure occurs when a third-party application holds open a file or locks a file that the Service Pack installation program has to use. For example, a third-party antivirus or antispyware application may cause this problem. If you are running any third-party applications such as Spyblocker, Internet or web accelerators (programs designed to boost the speed of the Internet connection), security or anti-virus programs (McAfee, Norton, etc.), I recommend temporarily disabling or shutting them down during the troubleshooting process. Please be sure to re-enable them once the process has completed.

After that, let us try to run System Update Readiness Tool to replace incorrect data, corrupted files and registry keys on the system. I have included detailed steps below.

Step 1: Run the System Update Readiness Tool

====================================

1. Please download the System Update Readiness Tool from the link below according to the System Type:

System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 32-bit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=44e15787-66b0-4e9c-9c3b-1fc9ea40f69f

System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 64-bit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=914fbc5b-1fba-4bae-a7c3-d2c47c6fcffc

2. Double click downloaded file to run the System Update Readiness Tool. Then restart the computer and install Windows 7 SP1.

If Windows 7 SP1 still cannot be installed, I suggest downloading the Standalone Installer and installing it in Clean Boot Mode.

Step 2: Download Windows 7 SP1 Standalone Installer

====================================================

1. Download Windows 7 SP1 Standalone Installer from the link below according to the System Type:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3202ce6-4056-4059-8a1b-3a9b77cdfdda

2. Please visit the above link and click Continue to finish validation. After that the Download buttons will appear.

If your system is Windows 7 32 bit system, please select the file windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe to download.

If your system is Windows 7 64 bit system, please select the file windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe to download.

Please do not select “Run” after clicking the Download button. We need to save the file to the local disk instead of run it from internet directly.

Step 3: Install Windows 7 SP1 in Clean Boot Mode

=========================================

Please disable all startup items and third party services when booting to avoid conflict when installing Windows 7 SP1.

1. Click "Start", type: MSCONFIG in the search box and press Enter.

Note: Please click "Continue" if the "User Account Control" window pops up.

2. Click "Services", check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box and click "Disable All" (if it is not gray).

3. Click "Startup", click "Disable All", click "OK" and restart the computer.

Note: Temporarily disabling the Startup Group only prevents the startup programs from loading at startup. This shouldn’t affect the system or other programs. We can manually run these programs later.

4. Please double click the downloaded Standalone Installer and follow the instructions to install Windows 7 SP1.

To restore the computer to use a Normal Startup, repeat step 1 above. Then click "Normal Startup" on the General tab, click "OK", and then restart the computer.

If the issue persists, please collect a screenshot of the error message for further research. Please be sure that the information does not contain any of your confidential and private information. It’s for troubleshooting purposes only. Thank you for understanding.

How to capture a Screenshot

======================

1. When the error appears, please press the Print Screen key (PrtScn) on the keyboard.

2. Click "Start", point to "All Programs", point to "Accessories" and then click "Paint".

3. In the Paint program, click the "Edit" menu, click "Paste", click the "File" menu, and click "Save". The "Save As" dialogue box will appear. Type a file name in the "File name:" box, for example: screenshot.

Note: Make sure "JPEG (*.JPG;*.JPEG;*.JPE;*.JFIF)" is selected in the "Save as type" box. Save the screenshot file to the Desktop.

Since our issue also can be caused by the corrupted system components. I also need the log file from the system update readiness tool. If I found any system errors from the log, we might need to involve one System Support later. Please be assured that Microsoft Support will do our best to help you fix the current problem.

Collect the CheckSUR.log file
======================
1. Click "Start. Type "%WINDIR%\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log" (without the quotation marks) in the Search Bar and press Enter. We will see a file named "CheckSUR.log"
2. Click on the "File" menu and then click on the "Save As".
3. From the left panel, click "Desktop" and click the Save button.
4. The file will be saved to your Desktop. Please send the file as an attachment in an email to

Note: When attaching files to emails, the process will vary depending on the email application being used. While you are composing the email, most applications will provide you with either an "Attach" button or a Paper Clip Icon to click in order to attach a file. After clicking this button/icon you must browse to the file you wish to attach and select it by either double clicking it or clicking it once and then clicking "Attach".

After obtaining the information, I will research it and get back to you as soon as possible. Please take your time with the steps and let me know the results at your earliest convenience. If there are any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me.

I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

My Solution Success

I chose the standalone installer for my solution which did work.  As advertised, it ran for several hours, but at the end, it did install successfully.

The screen I got to was this:

Conclusion

Within 24 hours, as promised, my system was back up and running!  I never actually had any down time so it was a good solution. It just required a little patience.

If you click back on top of the current window, it goes back to it’s original size.

Just had to share!

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Need-to-Repave-my-W520-with-Windows-7-Ultimate-Use-Vanilla/td-p/439787

I finally got home from a long week of travel, did a full backup of my computer just in case the registry hack failed, and applied the registry fix discussed in the article here:  http://geekmontage.com/texts/ocz-vertex-3-freezes-locks-up-stutters-and-crashes/.

I can say, after using the computer for a few hours, I have not had one hickup.  I’m hoping it stays that way.  For anyone else who thinks they have the same problem, here are some of the issues I was having:

1. W520 would boot slowly and about 1 out of 5 times hang forever after reaching the logged in screan (wait cursor when hovering over startbar)
2. Outlook would hang in the middle of typing messages, often for more than a minute
3. Eventlog errors referring to location iaStor
4. Visual Studio 2010 would get really slow and hang
5. Many others

Here is what my current stats look like.  This is a newer version of CrystalDiskMark so it may not be comparable to the previous version I ran.

For the moment, I’m a happy camper.

So, off I go to my search engine to find the solution (which I keep forgetting).  In a post on MSDN, Dave Bishop has the perfect answer.  He says all you have to do is click on the icon of the program in the task bar, then, while holding the windows key simply press the arrow buttons to move the program where you want it.

Works perfect!  Thanks Dave.

Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Bootrec.exe /FixBoot

That’s it!  Good as new.

Funny thing was that two other people had seen me in my MVP shirt (I’m sitting at the experts table today talking about Dynamic Data at Windows 7 Boot Camp) and had promptly followed me thinking I certainly must know where I’m going (Microsoft PDC conference, Microsoft MVP shirt and all).

(My MVP Team Suzanna and Emily at Boot Camp)

It started when Windows 7 Beta came out.  My Vista had gotten sufficiently slow that I decided I needed to reinstall something.  Being the adventurous type, I decided to give it a go, but with a “goback” plan.  My go back plan was to install al the programs on drive C in my 2nd hard drive (in the media bay), then put all my personal data on my built in hard drive.  That way, I could easily switch back to vista by simply popping out the removable drive and putting in my vista boot drive.

I never actually did go back to vista, but there were times I did waste a lot of time when I probably should have.  Beta was pretty frustrating.  Drivers were not so good, some crashing, some hanging, but not surprising.  RC was actually fatal.  My computer completely stopped booting when it was not docked.  Luckily RTM had just arrived so I repaved.  Sadly now, with RTM, I’m starting to have the same booting problem.  It gets past the first windows logo, then boots (but you’d never know it).  If docked, no problem.  I’m on an airplane now and my docking station is far far away.

The last thing I did was change my bios display config to “no OS detection on graphics card” and “Discrete mode” and it did boot this time.  No science on this because sometimes it would just work anyhow.

Anyone has more data on this, let me know.  Could be my notebook is hosed.  Who knows.  For now I’m up and not going to shutdown until the pry the keyboard from my laptop tray.

(I’m also not completely sure it’s not a hardware problem)

Well, seems to me that the reason we talk about repaving is because we have to do it so much.

So, why did I repave? I had to because I was running Windows 7 RC and my Lenovo W500 started getting pretty sick with it.  Finally, it got to the point that it would boot off my docking station but not on it’s own.

So far, things are working well with RTM.  It feels cleaner, and maybe even a little faster.

It went to my facebook, and Steve Evans posted on my wall saying that I really wanted Ultimate.

He also included this link to describe the differences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions

Thanks Steve.

Hope this helps.

So, in Vista, you would right click on the taskbar program, choose move, then use the arrow keys to bring it back.

In Windows 7, press Shift-Right Mouse Button, then choose move, then press the arrows and you are good as new.  10 minutes wasted searching, but I’m good now.

Here are some other short cuts.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4052-shortcut-keys-windows-7-a.html

(can’t remember where I found this screen shot )

Well, to clear it, all you have to do is put your cursor at the very bottom of the screen (below the last line, but not in the light blue area, then press the right mouse button.  You should get this:

Select Group By, Then, from the next menu, Choose “none”.

That’s it!  HTH’s.

So, here I am, and so far, vary happy.  I did try the Windows 7 beta and had some weirdness with Visual Studio 2008, but so far, everything has been perfect.  I do know the Microsoft folks have advertised that it contains better multi-monitor support.  I don’t know exactly what that means, but I have two monitors running off my Lenovo.  One is 2560×1600 and the other is 1600×1200.  One hassle I always had was moving a windows that was too big for the small monitor.  Now, I find that when I drag from the bigger to smaller, if the app is to big, it automatically get’s resized!  Nice Job MS!

Also, the appearance display is nicer. There is more granularity in letting you line up the monitors.  That is, my smaller one is centered next to the bigger one and I can align them exactly now as the screen show shows.

That’s it for now.  See you.

So, for GoToMeeting, if you launch it from their web site (http://www.gotomeeting.com) and simply say “Create Meeting”, you will get an error saying IE8 is not supported.  I found that if I actually downloaded the GoToMeeting application from their web site, then move the application to my start bar and set the properties to be “Run As Vista” and “Run As Administrator”, I had success.

Hopefully, this will work for you.

Background

I don’t seem to have a pile of computers laying around anymore so testing new operating systems can be a bit time consuming.  In general, I don’t like testing OS’s in VM’s because performance on the actual hardware is what I’m trying to measure.  So, luckily, I do seem to have an infinite number of SATA hard drives for my Lenovo Thinkpad W500 ( Lenovo 4062-27U ThinkPad W500 15.4" Notebook ) so I figure the best thing to do is install the OS on one of those.  Microsoft recently sent me two DVD’s (a 32bit and a 64bit).  Since I have a 64bit machine with 4gig of RAM, I figure I should test the 64bit.  So, here we go.

The Installation Process

If you have ever installed a Microsoft OS before, the steps are basically the same.  Put the disk in, boot, go through the standard format disk screen (I like to erase all my partitions), then press go.  What seems to vary between OS’s is the time to run through this process.  So, here is how long it took for me.

Less than 20 minutes!  Pretty impressive.  I’d also like to note that it seemed all the devices on my Lenovo W500 worked best I can tell.  The Video drivers installed perfectly (even supported my two monitors on my docking station), sound worked, wireless networking immediately connected to my home wifi and it felt very very fast.

Next thing, I test to see if it can find my network printers.  I have two, an HP Deskjet 6470 and a Brother 8860DN.  It finds them both!

Let’s Test some Software

So, the first thing to test is Visual Studio 2008.  I install that from a DVD (because I have not figure out how to mount ISO’s yet and MagicDVD is rumored not to work).  It installs flawlessly as does VS2008 SP1 and the MVC Beta.  Running it however gives me a little problem.  I need to tell it to run as Admin and in Vista Compatibility mode for it to open my web projects (which work with IIS7).  Then, I install subversion (tortoisesvn), still no problem, FireFox next, still no problem.  Now to have some fun.

Next thing is I download the current Visual Studio 2008 project I’ve been working on with svn and build it.   It builds fast and flawlessly.  Then, I start running IE8 and Firefox just cruising the internet.  Everything works without a hitch.

Anything Missing?

The only thing that I couldn’t figure out how to do was mount ISO’s as driver letters.  Most my software is stored as ISO’s so I really miss that.

Conclusions

Well, if during the next year while Microsoft tests Windows 7, they restrain from filling it with features, this OS is a definite winner.  It feels hugely faster than both XP and Vista.  The graphics is just awesome.  The transparencies feel natural, moving items around the start bar is easy, as well as visualizing what is running by hovering over the start bar is much smoother than Vista.

I can’t wait until this is my primary OS.  I’m tempted to use it as my main OS but luckily my instincts prevent me from doing that.  Microsoft clearly says this is for testing only and I choose to follow that.