The Windows Automatic Updates feature is great, however those nagging reboot reminders can drive you crazy. I can only recommend to turn this off.

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Update: The Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Vista SP1 replace the Adminpak.

The official name for the so-called Adminpak is Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Tools Pack. For earlier versions, the name of the setup file was admipak.msi, hence the name Adminpak. You will also often find Adminpack. It is a collection of free administration tools which allow you to remotely manage a Windows Server. Basically, they are the same management tools that are installed on a Windows server, the Adminpak just installs them on a workstation.

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If you only edit the registry, every now and then, you probably will get along with the Windows registry editor. However, the more you work in a Windows environment the more you will realize the need to change the registry for many important settings. This is especially true, if you use Group Polices to configure multiple PCs in your network. RegCOPA is a Registry editor, which has some useful features, if you have to access the registry often.

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VMware Server 1.0 is now ready for download. I’ve been waiting for this already for a while. Check out the release notes for the new features.

You can now download Virtual PC 2004 for free. I wonder how VMware will react to this. VMware Workstation certainly is a better product. However, I think that for many Virtual PC is sufficient.

Did you ever wonder if your backup software also secures your DHCP database? I often did, but never found time to make sure that we have backups of our DHCP settings. (Yeah, shame on me!). I was relying on Symantec Backup Exec to do the job.

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Do you know the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service? It can help solve your problems with roaming user profiles, and if your Windows shuts down very slow. Sometimes, applications maintain connections to registry keys in the user profile after a user logs off. The User Profile Hive Cleanup Service monitors if logged-off users have registry hives still loaded and releases them if necessary.

You probably know that Microsoft validates your Windows XP, every time you install an update. The German magazine PC Professionell (08/06) has an interesting article (print) about recent changes in this validation process. It seems that WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) is now contacting Microsoft daily.

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Update: Please read this review about VMware’s free P2V solution, VMware Converter 3.0 and check out my first impressions about VMware Converter 3.0 final.
We are currently setting up a new VMware server and want to migrate several physical Windows servers to virtual machines. So far, I know six different ways doing this.

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The Genius Slimstar 310 helps you to lock out malware of your keyboard: it comes with bacteria protection. It is also recommended, if you feel like pouring coffee over your keyboard every now and then since it is waterproof.