Windows 8–A Catastrophe or Sheer Genius?

Well, here we are back again and just in time as we are on the cusp of the next Windows revolution? Or are we? Others are voicing some concerns and seem to feel that we may instead be on the cusp of the next Windows revolt?  So, where do we really stand with all of this? Let’s take an objective look…..

But first, a small digression. As of late, I find myself apologizing  more that writing on the blog as updates became more and more scarce.  I hoping to improve that a bit, so hopefully more content will be appearing on here on a regular basis.  Now, on to the good stuff.

Windows 8 is surely going to be the most controversial Windows release of all time. That is clear. While many will point to major changes in  Windows 95, Windows XP, and Vista, never before has the UI been revamped in such a radical and unfamiliar way. Undoubtedly, many consumers will be left somewhat bewildered when they try and perform routine tasks like “opening My Computer” or “launching the Control Panel” The fact is, the operating system now relies on some fairly subtle gestures to perform some of these routine actions. Admittedly, when I installed the Developer Preview, I actually called up Paul and we both had simultaneous and mutually identical reactions and with a gasp we exclaimed “What have they done?” The truth is, I hated it when I first started using it and quickly uninstalled and replaced it with Ubuntu – which at the time was looking like it might be my next new OS.  At this point I let my interest in Windows 8 sit, digest, regurgitate and I thought evaporate. Whew….glad it went away.

News of the consumer preview was to follow. I had to check it out. I installed it on a Dell Latitude D620 (read – old hardware). The computer booted and it was sluggish and performing poorly. The screen resolution was terrible.  I knew that the video driver was obviously and issue, but this particular model of Dell only has Windows XP drivers available from Dell. My attempts to force those drivers onto the system resulted in all sorts of system errata. Windows update did not return any results for a good driver either. I then went to Windows catalog and began the hunt for a driver with a similar PCI dev/hardware Id. After some hunting, I found a Windows 7 driver. To my delight, this installed. Alright, reboot time….

As the machine spun down, I was expecting the old laptop to groan under the weight of the new and beta quality OS. Much to my surprise, the OS booted in a fashion that was shocking to say the least. It was as if the laptop now had an SSD drive installed it booted so fast. Was this for real?

The speed of Windows 8, truthfully, is nothing less than phenomenal. Despite fumbling my way around the new desktop, it was shocking to see the speed at which applications were launching. Anecdotally, this laptop, despite its age, was orders of magnitude faster than Windows 7, Windows XP, and the Ubuntu install running on it previously. Magnificent.  But speed alone wasn’t going to win me over. Lucky for me a true test for the OS was about to present itself  and even better yet, the test subject was a non-geek, common salary man.

To be continued…….

Hot New iPhone Game – Gem Shock

 

For those of you that come to our blog regularly, you would know that we have never done a game review before. This isn’t because we don’t game or because we have anything against game reviews themselves, but it is more because games are usually so well covered by other sites that anything we would say would be totally redundant.

It is with pleasure, however, that I bring our readerships attention to a great new game that I have heard about and been playing.

Gem Shock is one of those extremely simple but yet extremely addictive games. It really reminds me of Tetris in its sheer simplicity and potential for addiction. It is great.  Manoeuvring your Gem through the electrified walls while pushing yourself to race against the clock and fighting to get that steady hand you need to win  really is stupefyingly fun!

The game is only $0.99 and is a hoot. Check it out on the itunes app store today and have a go at it…I sure haven’t regretted my purchase!

Here’s a link for the so inclined – Gem Shock:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gem-shock/id463681052?mt=8

DNS Issues with Server 2008 R2

RFC 2671.  This shouldn’t mean much of anything to most of us. This RFC Code, however, can literally mean hours and hours of frustration and troubleshooting if you have created a Server 2008 R2 domain.

Developed in 1999, Extension mechanisms for DNS aka eDNS, were designed to allow for increased functionality of the DNS protocol. They were also critical to the implementation of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC). Nevertheless, the protocol hasn’t really caught on and there are still thousands of devices – even ones produced today – that are not really fully compliant with the standards laid out in RFC 2671.

Naturally, the Internet itself is a inter-connected network that is literally running on loads of old and obsolete equipment.  So, it comes as no surprise that there are going to be a few problems arising from the fact that Windows Server 2008 R2, when set up as a DC with the DNS role installed and set to perform recursive lookups, has this extension to DNS enabled by default.

Not everyone, fortunately, will have issues with this as there are of course DNS servers out there that will respond properly to this type of query and respond with the IP address requested. However, if you happen to be running DNS queries against one that is non-compliant, you will end up with extremely patchy Internet service for your whole domain.

To check if this is an issue for your domain, you are going to have to run a few tests.

Open network monitor, and look at the DNS queries that you are getting. If they look like the picture below, you are probably encountering this issue.

The fix, luckily, is very simple.  Simply disable eDNS and re-enable it at some point in the future when acceptance of this protocol is a little higher.

Open up a cmd prompt and elevate it (right click on it and run it as an administrator). Then run the following command.

dnscmd /config /EnableEDNSProbes 0

This should take effect immediately.

I sincerely hope that this helps a few of you out there that are just starting to deploy Server 2008 R2 now that SP1 is out.

Cheers!

Matt

Outlook 2010 Auto Complete Cache Corruption

A while back, I had written a fairly complete article on restoring the Outlook auto complete cache and working with .NK2 files.  Well, just when we thought that we could all return home in a victorious Napoleonic march, our enemy defeated, our pals down in Redmond reminded us all of Waterloo.

Outlook 2010, has completely done away with .NK2 files and has unfortunately replaced it with a system that seems far from bulletproof. My recent experiences, along with thousands of others on the net, suggests that the new system is rather prone to corruption and cannot be easily fixed.

But first, in a bid to dispel some of the misinformation out there, let me briefly go over how the new system works.

Users first using Outlook 2010, or syncing it to an active sync device are immediately going to notice a new set of contacts called suggested contacts that has been auto created upon opening a new mail account.  Inside, they will quickly notice that it is populated with email addresses of people whom they may not even remember having contact with. One soon realizes that this is a contact list that is being generated based on emails that have been sent out and incoming emails that do not have a proper contact in Outlook.  This idea, actually, seems to make a lot of sense as it is an easily backed up way of managing all of those contacts that were previously stored in the Auto complete cache’s .NK2 file.  It would be easy to come to the conclusion that this is the same thing as the .nk2 cache and this is what populates it. This, however, is wrong.  While it does store similar information, there is in fact a new .dat file that has taken the place of the venerable .NK2 file, but now has a GUID attached to it that is,ostensibly,l generated based on characteristics of the profile.  Apparently, this file can be transferred around just as was done with .NK2 files, but you would have to rename it with the exact same corresponding GUID for it to work. Definitely, not as slick as the simple renaming it to the name of the profile as in previous versions of Outlook. This won’t, however, be an issue if you have transitioned to Exchange 2010 as the file is actually stored on the Exchange server and synced back down to the client allowing for your auto complete cache to follow you as part of a new profile on a second computer.  Again, this is a great idea if it weren’t for the apparent instability of the file itself.

I have been able to find very little information on the causes of the issue, and nothing at all from Microsoft, but it appears that this file syncs itself back to the Exchange server upon closing Outlook. However, if for some reason, Outlook does not close cleanly, it appears to cut short the write of this data which subsequently corrupts the file. It is at this point extremely difficult to correct the situation. 

The file is located at %appdata%\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache  and will be the file labeled Stream_Autocomplete_<GUID>.dat. As I stated, I have yet to come across anything that immediately fixes the issue in all cases, but here are a few things to try.

First, to verify that you are having the issue in question, you will a.) have an auto-complete cache that isn’t working and b.) a Stream_Autocomplete file that is 0 bytes in size and stays that way despite adding data to the autocomplete cache during a session. With this issue, your cache will work during the duration of Outlook being opened, but then when you close outlook and reopen it, all of the data is lost. 

Anyway, here are some methods that are known to work.

1. Delete the auto-cache data through the provided menu interface provided in Outlook.  To do this,

1. In Outlook 2010, Click the File menu and Select Options.

2. In the Outlook Options window Click the Mail tab.

3. Scroll down roughly halfway until you see Send messages. Uncheck the Use Auto-Complete List to suggest names when typing in the To, Cc, and Bcc lines box.

2. The second method is to manually delete the file mentioned above. Make sure and close outlook before you do this, as it will have a lock on the file and prevent you from doing so otherwise.  This method is really the same as what happens above, but some people have actually reported that the file did not delete as it was supposed to from the GUI.

3. Rename then whole Roam Cache folder and reopen outlook.

4. Disable cached exchange mode and try methods 1,2, or 3 above and repeat until the file starts to grow in size.

And please, if anyone else has any more information on the actual root cause of this, please comment below so we can all get through this.  There are many possible culprits, but I suspect that over time we will find that it is one particular add-on or program that is causing the vast majority of cases.

Cheers!

Calgary’s Premier IT Provider

We’re back! Recently Paul and I have been busy with other projects and have let the content on the blog slide a little…we promise we will be better in the coming months.

With this hiatus, there have been a lot of things underway, but I wanted to take a moment to just point out something that is near and dear to my heart and well worth mention.

SysGen Solutions Group, Calgary’s premier IT and network support provider, recently underwent a transformation getting a new look, logo and slogan.  The launch of this new theme better showcases SysGen as Calgary’s leading provider of personalized IT support and everyone is brimming with excitement over the look.  I love it and I think you will too.

“Support Beyond the Network” is now the company’s new mantra, and I would just like to invite anyone in the Calgary area reading this to browse on  over to  http://www.sysgen.ca and check it out! 

Congratulations SysGen!