The Telnet client isn’t installed by default in Vista, but it’s still included. You can easily install it from the Windows Features menu as well as plenty of other things.

1. Go to Start, then Control Panel.
2. Double click on Programs and Features.
3. In the left hand pane, select Turn Windows features on or off.
4. Scroll down to Telnet Client and make sure the tick box is checked.

   You may have to wait a minute or two for Windows to finish installing the client.

5. Once it’s done, close down the Programs and Features window.
6. You can now find the Telnet Client in the Start menu, simply type in telnet in the Search bar.

There are two parts to this which you need to complete; one in Windows Defender and the other in the services menu. This ensures that nothing about Windows Defender works and that even the background tasks are disabled and turned off.

VistaBase does not recommend that you alter these settings as Microsoft Update provides your computer with important updates that make your computer safer and more secure.

1. Go to Start, All Programs, then Windows Defender.
2. Select the Tools option at the top of the screen.
3. Under “Settings”, click the Options button.
4. Untick the “Automatically scan my computer” checkbox, the “Use real-time protection” checkbox, untick the “Use Windows Defender” and the “Allow everyone to use Windows Defender” checkboxes.
5. Click the Save button. If prompted for administrators access, click Allow or enter in the password.
6. Close Windows Defender. If the icon remains in the taskbar, right click it and select Exit, then click Yes.
7. Go to Start then Run (or press the Windows key +R).
8. Type in services.msc then press OK.
9. Scroll all the way down the page, then double click on Windows Defender.
10. Under the startup type, select Disabled.
11. Under service status, make sure the service is stopped.
12. Apply then OK, then close the Services console.

You may need to restart for full effect, but this will stop Windows Defender from scanning anything on your machine and should save you a good chunk of memory.

The reason Windows Mobility Center won’t load is most likely because you are not using a notebook or laptop computer. The Windows Mobility Center is designed for use on laptops as it provides useful and handy options for when you are using your laptop in different environments.

If you are using a 64-bit (x64) version of Windows Vista, then this is something you should know. By default, the shortcut in the Start menu points to the 32-bit (x86) executable for Disk Cleanup. While Disk Cleanup will work fine from this shortcut for most things, there is one function that does not work correctly – the cleaning of System Restore points and Shadow Copies / Previous Versions.

Note that if you launch Disk Cleanup from another location in Windows, for instance by clicking the “Disk Cleanup” button on a drives properties window, it will launch the correct executable for Disk Cleanup.

If you want to correct the Disk Cleanup shortcut in the Start menu, follow these steps:

1. Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then click on System Tools.
2. Right click on “Disk Cleanup” and from the context menu that appears click on “Properties”.
3. Change the “Target” from “%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\cleanmgr.exe” to “%SystemRoot%\system32\cleanmgr.exe”.
4. Click on OK. If User Account Control prompts you for consent, click on Continue or provide the appropriate credentials.

Source: Canucky.net

Windows Photo Gallery has a number of different tools which enables you to make pictures look different, and in some cases look better than the original. These features are free with Windows Vista and are there so users can edit their photographs.

To remove red-eye from a picture:

1. Find the image you want to edit, right click and select Open With, then click on Windows Photo Gallery.
2. By selecting the Fix button, select the Fix Red Eye button.
3. Simply select the red-eye area on the photo that you wish to remove, and repeat as necessary.
4. You can also select the Auto Adjust button if the red-eye removal doesn’t work, and then try removing the red-eye again.

Windows Photo Gallery has a number of different tools which enables you to make pictures look different, and in some cases look better than the original. These features are free with Windows Vista and are there so users can edit their photographs.

To crop/resize a picture:

1. Find the image you want to edit, right click and select Open With, then click on Windows Photo Gallery.
2. By selecting the Fix button, select the Crop picture button.

From here you have these options:

• Custom - crop the picture to any proportion of your liking (drag the selector tool to make the new size of the image)
• Original - keeps the proportions exactly the same by reverting it to the original image.
• Rotate frame - enabling you to crop the picture horizontally or vertically.

Windows Photo Gallery has a number of different tools which enables you to make pictures look different, and in some cases look better than the original. These features are free with Windows Vista and are there so users can edit their photographs.

To adjust the brightness/contrast in a picture:

1. Find the image you want to edit, right click and select Open With, then click on Windows Photo Gallery.
2. By selecting the Fix button, select the Adjust Exposure button.

From here you can change the:

• Brightness - the amount of light that the image has.
• Contrast - a select difference between the brighter points and the darker points on-screen.

Windows Photo Gallery has a number of different tools which enables you to make pictures look different, and in some cases look better than the original. These features are free with Windows Vista and are there so users can edit their photographs.

To adjust the colours in a picture:

1. Find the image you want to edit, right click and select Open With, then click on Windows Photo Gallery.
2. You can click Auto Adjust to make the picture seem more realistic using the Photo Gallery’s workings.

• Colour temperature - makes the picture look warmer (more red) or cooler (more blue).
• Saturation - increases or decreases the amount of colour in your picture.
• Tint - removes the green from the image to give it a tinted look.

Windows Mail shows you your email in a preview pane below your folder list. If you want to change it to a Microsoft Office Outlook view (where the preview pane is on the right of the folder list), do the following:

1. Open Windows Mail (in the Start menu).
2. Click View in the main screen toolbar, from the drop down list select “Layout”.
3. From the Windows Layout properties menu, find the “Preview Pane” settings.
4. Check the appropriate box for the setting you want - below messages or beside messages.
5. Click OK to apply the new settings.

If you have your Sidebar open with gadgets littered across your desktop, but you have other applications open and you can’t see your gadgets anymore, simply press the Windows key + Space to bring them to the front of the screen again.

ICS files are brilliant. Mixing Apple’s iCal web page and the Windows Calendar, you can easily put all kinds of calendars into your Windows Calendar.

1. Go to Apple’s iCal Libary webpage whilst on Windows Vista.
2. Select a calendar to download, and click on it.
3. It’ll open up Windows Calendar - click Next and wait for it to subscribe.
4. Name your calendar accordingly, and set the update interval to Every week.
5. Click Finish.

Viola - you have a calendar installed into your Windows Calendar without having to type anything in!

Gadgets are the add-ins you see in the Windows Sidebar. You already have a few installed - the clock, stocks, calculator and calendar, but do you want more? You can get more!

Windows Live Gallery is the website full of gadgets for the Windows Sidebar, gadgets for your Windows Live Space and gadgets for your personalised Live.com. Most of them are submitted by the public who write them themselves and some are developed by separate companies and even Microsoft.

1. To download and add gadgets from the web:
2. Go to the Sidebar section of Windows Live Gallery.
3. Just above the first gadget listing, select All types then select Sidebar gadgets.
4. Browse through and search for a gadget you wish to install.
5. Select the Download button on the gadget’s page.
6. A small warning box will appear on-screen. If you are sure about the security risks and wish to install the gadget anyway, click OK.
7. Click Run on the download box, and as soon as it finishes downloading (usually a few seconds even on a slow connection), it should open up in the Sidebar automatically.

The new interface of Windows Media Player 11 lets you do a lot more with the media player, but what they’ve seemed to have kept hidden from us for a while are the cool little nifty tricks you can do using keyboard shortcuts. These work on Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista and Windows XP.

To slow down playback: Ctrl+Shift+S
To speed up playback: Ctrl+Shift+G
To return to 1x speed: Ctrl+Shift+N
To see more speed settings: Right click the Play/Pause button

 Why was Pinball removed?
 They had to make some tough choices on what to bring forward. Pinball was one of the least popular of the bunch so it was removed.

 I notice when Solitaire is maximized, the cards become blurry even with a high-end 128MB graphics card. Is this issue going to be resolved in future builds?
 The high-resolution artwork does not get used until your game window is maximized beyond 1024×768.

 Can all 32,000 FreeCell games really be won?
 That’s a question that’s been debated for a long time! They did keep the game seeds the same as they were in XP, as there are people that are working their way through each one.

 Is the games list now fixed, or are you still open to adding more titles to it?
 The games list is now fixed.

 Can all Spider Solitaire games be won?
 It is a random deal in Spider Solitaire just like Solitaire so the answer is no.

 Is it true that Vista won’t include single player online game just what we have on XP?
 There are no online games included in Vista. All of the games are single player only, with the exception of Chess Titans which can be played by 2 players on the same computer.

 Are there any more thoughts on adding to the current list of games, or is what available in the Games folder pretty much it?
 You can go buy Rise of Legends and Halo for PC or any other game and they will show up in Games Explorer.

 Any plans to extend the gaming experience beyond the desktop games?
 Gaming is an important part of Windows Vista. They’ve done a lot of work with the Games Explorer, Parental Controls, the XBOX 360 Controller for Windows, DirectX 10 and more that should make gaming even better.

 Apparently the games use a custom framework and pure Direct3D. Are there any plans to take advantage of Windows Presentation Foundation, or is this planned for the next major version of Microsoft Windows?
 No plans at this time.

 Moving forward, what can we expect to see in future builds of Vista such as Beta 2; will there be any additional surprises coming for in-boxed games?
 Beta 2 was a “feature complete” milestone for Microsoft, so from here on in, it is just bug fixing and stabilisation.

 Will you provide any extras in the Vista Ultimate Extras, such as additional background themes for Solitaire Classic and Spider, and additional Game Levels maybe?
 No set plans at this point, but you never know.

 Will there be any cheats in these games as there were some cheats by finishing any game of Solitaire by pressing a key combination in XP, so will these be available in Vista as well?
 No, there are no cheats in any of the games.

 Why is the gaming aspect so important for a new OS release ?
A There are statistics out there suggesting that games are some of the most heavily used applications on Windows, games drive hardware and new computer purchases, and gaming is still one of the major differentiators between Windows and other OS’s (Mac, Linux, etc).

 Will all Vista games will be available in all languages?
 The plan is to translate all the games for each language Vista ships in.

 I noticed some of the games have “Oberon Games and Microsoft” as developers. What part played Oberon Games in the development of the games?
 Oberon Games is the developer for all of the games. The games that list both developers are the legacy games that were brought forward. Oberon did the updates, Microsoft did the original code base.

 There is a demonstration relating to this article. Click here to view it.

 Some applications trigger the firewall prompt “keep blocking this app” although they don’t need to open local ports. Which behaviour exactly triggers a prompt?
 Windows Firewall prompt gets displayed when an application is listening on a TCP socket or binding to a non-wildcard UDP port and that application does not match any rule in the firewall policy.

 Does the Windows Firewall team have a blog?
 They don’t currently have a blog dedicated to Windows Firewall, but there are two networking blogs that contain information about Windows Firewall - http://blogs.technet.com/ianhamer and http://blogs.technet.com/jleznek.

 Can be firewall settings separated for low privileged administrator and high privileged administrator?
 The firewall settings are set globally for the machine.

 The user interface for the Windows XP Firewall looked like it was bolted on as an afterthought. Any plans for an rapid-access icon on the taskbar in Vista so that power users can get to the firewall settings quickly?
 There is no added taskbar access for the Firewall It is available in the Control Panel, through Windows Security Center, and in Administrative Tools (access to the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security MMC)
 Will there be more features in Windows Firewall like some of the features Sygate Personal Firewall has?
 We are mostly feature complete for Windows Vista. If there are particular features that you are interested in, they would like to hear about them for future planning purposes.

 Will the new Windows Firewall check outgoing traffic by default?
 No, but it can always be configured to perform outbound filtering.

 Will there be an option to remove Windows Firewall completely, and not just disable it?
 The Windows Firewall service is performing other system critical functions in the operating system like Windows Service Hardening. If you remove/disable this service, you end up with a less secure operating system so this is not a supported feature. The correct way is to simply disable Windows Firewall if you want to replace it with a third party firewall.

 Can we expect a backport for Windows XP?
 At this time, there are no plans to backport the new functionality.

 How do you test if the new Windows Firewall is really secure?
 That’s a great question:
    1 Throughout the planning design and coding phases they use security development guidelines developed at Microsoft;
    2 For the testing phase, the Windows Firewall undergoes internal & external security testing focused testing.

 Can the Firewall block access to/from a single website/IP address?
 Yes, you can create firewall rules to block access to a single IP Address.

 What exactly is the network categorisation dialog trying to achieve? At least on build 5365 you could just close it (without selecting private or public) and nothing appeared to happen What do you need the information for?
 Windows Firewall with Advanced Security is a host-based firewall that filters both incoming and outgoing traffic. Windows Firewall with Advanced Security uses the Network Location-Aware feature is to let Windows Vista administrators define a level of protection based on the network to which the user connects. As mobile users roam from their corporate network to a Private network, or to a Public network such as an Internet cafe, Windows Firewall with Advanced Security can enable and disable connectivity or features such as:
• File and Print Sharing
• eHome Media Center Extender
• Windows Connect Now Devices
• PnP-X (plug and play for networked devices)
• Network Explorer
• Peer To Peer Discovery

To achieve this, Windows Firewall with Advanced Security uses three separate profiles for filtering traffic. The computer automatically detects the network connection and uses the appropriate profile. Windows Firewall with Advanced Security supports the following profiles:

Domain - The domain profile is the set of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security settings needed when the computer is connected to an Active Directory domain in which the computer is a member. For example, you might configure rules for the domain profile for the programs needed by a managed computer in an enterprise network. The Network Location Service controls when settings for a profile apply.

Private - The private profile is the set of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security settings needed when the computer is connected to a private network. For example, a mobile user might take their computer home and connect it behind a private gateway device (such as a router) on their home network. When Windows detects the network, a dialog box will appear.

Public - The public profile is the set of Windows Firewall with Advanced Security settings needed when the computer is connected directly to the Internet. For example, a laptop computer might be taken on the road and connect to the Internet using a public broadband or wireless Internet Service Provider (ISP) or hotspot. Because the laptop connects directly to the Internet, this profile should contain more restrictive settings than the domain or private profile. Again, an end-user with administrator privileges selects whether a connection is Private or Public. If a user does not have administrator privileges and connects to any new network, Windows Vista uses the Public profile, which contains the most restrictive settings

 I wanted to know what is the difference between System Restore from Windows XP and now the new Windows Vista? What features have been added and enhanced?
 There have been lots of changes in the firewall since Windows XP SP2. Here are some of the favourites:
    1 Outbound filtering
    2 Filtering on services
    3 Integration between IPSec and firewall (e.g. allow only secure or encrypted traffic)
    4 New MMC snap-in with advanced security options
    5 New APIs

 Does it apply to the IPv6 protocol also?
 Yes - it fully supports IPv6.

 Can you explain or give me a link to Windows Service hardening so I can understand and context it?
 Windows Service Hardening is a feature for services providers. Since services in Windows Vista can be identified by their unique SID and Windows Firewall can allow/block traffic to services based on their SIDs, services can be sand-boxed to only allow the traffic they were designed to support.

 If the Firewall service fails, will the Firewall go in to lockdown by default and deny all inbound requests?
 Correct, if the firewall service fails, the system goes into a lockdown state similarly to the state its in when the system boots up.

 Is the Windows Firewall team a separate team or a subgroup of the Security Team at Microsoft?
 The Firewall team is part of the security division at Microsoft,

 Is it possible to configure firewall “per user”?
 The Windows Firewall policy is configured per computer, not per user

 There is a demonstration relating to this article. Click here to view it.

The Memory Diagnostic Tool (MDT) is a new device technology in Vista of which detects problems with memory in the computer. Memory problems can cause Windows to suddenly stop or lose information. Due to the nature of the tool, it cannot be run whilst Windows is running so it requires your computer to be restarted.

Simply save your work, and click the Start , go to Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then click the Memory Diagnostic Tool. Select either the top option to start immediately, or the bottom option to load the tool on the next restart.

When the tool opens on startup, you’ll be presented with a blue screen and the tests immediately start. Press F1 to set the options - from here you can change the tests to either be Basic, Standard or Extended. Perform extended tests if you regularly get Blue Screen of Deaths or unexplained shutdowns.

Test results will be displayed for you when you logon and will give advice on what to do.

 How do you define Windows Mail?
 Windows Mail is the version of the Mail and News Client that ships with Windows Vista.

 Outlook has nice looking high colour message icons for new messages and read/replied/forwarded/etc… In Windows Mail, there are horrible looking icons that do not even look like mail messages! Will these be updated to Outlook style icons that look good?
 They have a great new set of icons that we are currently integrating into the app. You will see most (hopefully all) of these new icons in the Beta 2 release.

 Does the Windows Mail team plan on implementing RSS Feed into Windows Mail like they did with Office 2007?
 Windows Mail is not implementing RSS in Vista. This is a great idea though.

 Will Windows Mail be back ported to Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 like IE7 is expected to be?
 Windows Mail will is scheduled to only ship in the operating system. Windows Mail Live Desktop does run on Windows XP.

 Is it possible in a future release of Windows Mail to write email in ink on a Tablet PC (like in Outlook 2003 now for example)? It would be a great feature for tablet PC users
 Absolutely! Windows Mail does that now in the February CTP. We even have auto complete for the To: and CC: lines for tablet mode.

 Will “find” in Windows Mail be made better? If so will it be part of an indexed search?
 Yes, email is now indexed in Vista. You can find it with the explorer search feature and in Windows Mail in the world wheel (top of the main window). Finding mail is much easier now!

 Why won’t Windows Mail support Hotmail accounts anymore?
 Hotmail support was removed for a number of reasons within both Windows and the Hotmail organizations.

 How come Microsoft changed the name for Outlook Express to Microsoft Mail?
 One of the reasons for the name change is that it makes us more aligned with the Windows brand and reduces confusion with Outlook.

 Switching newsgroup is still sluggish. We were told this would improve. How far are we now?
 In fact this week we just finished a month long performance drive and this was a key thing addressed in it.

 When Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta is released, is it going to replace Windows Mail?
 No, we’ve worked too hard on it for it to be replaced now! These are two separate apps with different strategies and feature sets.

 What are the “Community features” present in Windows Mail, what do they provide that normal newsgroups don’t, and do beta newsgroups support that?
 Community features are the rating and ranking functionality that allow newsgroup users to mark a specific newsgroup post as useful or not useful. Ranking functionality allows Windows Mail to mark newsgroup posters as MVPs, and also takes the data from the newsgroup ratings and translates it into poster rankings. A person who historically posts ‘useful’ newsgroup feedback is ranked higher than a poster who has not ever posted a newsgroup answer that was marked useful.

 Will the splash screen ever be updated? The blue splash looks bad on Vista - please make something that looks better like the Office 2003 splash or something!
 This is in the works!

 Will Windows Mail be a part of “Longhorn” Server?
 No it is not part of the server package

 What are the the five top things you like in Windows Mail?
 1) Contacts experience is integrated with shell for a richer experience in or outside of Windows Mail;
    2) Better database, less corruption;
    3) It feels cleaner, has improved visuals;
    4) Search and wordwheel helps finding mail and contacts easier and more consistent with the rest of Vista;
    5) Junk mail and phishing integration and improvements.

The Digital Locker Preview (it may not be it’s final name, we’ll have to wait and see) is a new e-commerce site provided by Microsoft which enables downloads and download management straight to your machine. It’s essentially a download manager, with a locker storage area for your downloads. It also keeps tabs of what you have downloaded and gives you options to burn them to CD so that you don’t have to download them again. See the Digital Locker as a storage for downloads from Windows Marketplace. As the slogan says, it manages the software you buy online.

As you can sign in with your Passport account, it enables you to check downloads and the status from your machine, but also see what you’ve downloaded from any Vista machine out there. Some of the features in Digital Locker are as follows:

Shopping cart: you can buy as much software as you want and download it all in one go, or if you’ve purchased it and don’t have enough bandwidth or the time, you can download it another time.

Personal information manager: enabling you to save personal bank information such as card details securely, so you can transfer it to another machine or need to reinstall software.

Windows Live ID Network: runs seamlessly with your Windows Live ID so you can sign-in and sign-out from the locker whenever you like.

 There is a demonstration relating to this article. Click here to view it.

Updated for Windows Vista RTM
You can now access the Digital Locker by either downloading it from the website (Windows XP only) or go to Start , Control Panel, Programs and Features, then View your digital locker.

In Vista, there are five default gadgets which are already pre-configured for the standard user. An overview of the gadgets installed by default is seen below:

 A very simple RSS news aggregator (I always think of alligator when I write that…) which displays RSS or XML feeds from a website. Easily configurable and links in with Windows Internet Explorer 7 as well, so you can see all of your favourite feeds from inside this little gadget window.

 The Slide Show - you can configure it to find and display images in any particular folder you wish, and when you hover over the image that’s displayed, you can also scroll through them one by one.

 Even the Recycle Bin is mentioned - with a variety of bin designs to choose from, you can add this handy gadget to your Sidebar. Just by hovering over it can you tell how many files are there, how much space the files are consuming and you can even empty it with the click of a button. Not to mention, the bin actually looks empty when there are no files in there - how cool!

 The Sidebar Clock - only in analogue format, however you can configure it to have a second hand on it for more accurate timing. There are many styles of clocks and you can even change the timezone of it or have multiple clocks. This is ideal if you have to keep up with people in a different timezone.

Updated for Beta 2 (build 5384)
Since the Beta 2 release, they’ve added a calculator gadget capable of the Standard Calculator that ships with Vista, a CPU and memory monitor which visually changes depending on your system resources, a currency converter which updates itself with the latest exchange rates (as long as you have Internet connectivity). You also have a notes gadget which enables you to create and save quick notes on your sidebar, a number puzzle which you have to arrange the numbers from 1 to 15 by clicking on them as well as a similar picture puzzle which is based on the same concept. The slideshow has been enhanced to expand once you take it off the sidebar, as well as an added stocks and timer function to keep good track of time.

 What is the Sidebar and what are “gadgets”?
 The Sidebar is a vertical bar which sits either to the left or the right hand side of the screen, that contain “gadgets” which are small XML based plug-ins which can be easily written and easily installed. These gadgets can be anything, from clocks to Active Content. These gadgets and the Sidebar in general are meant to make things you access often more accessible and easier to use.

 How many gadgets will there be for the Windows Sidebar in the released version of Windows Vista?
 There will be loads of gadgets, ranging from clocks to updatable gadgets (such as the RSS aggregator), there will be a calendar one as well as the long awaited Windows Media Player 11 gadget. Of course there will be pre-configured ones that will ship with the operating system, however MicrosoftGadgets.com will be available from the website (at the bottom of this article) which enables anyone to write them and install them.

 MicrosoftGadgets.com already make gadgets for Live.com, so where do I find the section for gadgets for Vista?
 There will be a section on the MicrosoftGadgets.com website soon for Vista Sidebar gadgets. This is expected to be around the time of Beta 2 release in April.

 What are the Sidebar Gadgets actually made of?
 Gadgets at the moment are basically zipped or compressed folders with instead of the .zip extension, they have the .gadget extension. The gadget’s innards will consist of a XML file which describes the gadget’s resources, a .JS file which contains the gadget’s functionality and any other resources like images or Flash content if necessary, a HTML document which will represent what the gadget looks like on the Sidebar, and anything else that might relate to the gadget itself. There is a simple walkthrough guide to writing gadgets here.

 What is the shortcut key view the Sidebar when there are windows in the way?
 Pressing the Windows key + Space will bring the Sidebar to view.

 Which browsers will support the Sidebar?
 At the moment, Windows Internet Explorer 7 is required to be the default browser within Windows Vista to run the Sidebar properly and the gadgets within. However, the sidebar will work with Firefox as well as other popular browsers out there to give other’s a chance.

 What is the final name for the Sidebar?
 ”Windows Sidebar” - it’s as simple as that!

 Will other content be able to be run in gadgets, such as Flash and ActiveX controls?
 Yep, anything that can be displayed in Internet Explorer now should be able to be seen as a gadget. Flash runs fine, ActiveX runs fine - remember that the Windows Media Player gadget is mainly ActiveX.

 How do we install gadgets to the Sidebar?
 You can either copy the .gadget file into C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets or you can double click on the .gadget file and it will automatically open (with security warnings) in the Sidebar.

 There is a demonstration relating to this article. Click here to view it.

 Will PMC on Vista manage printers that are installed on servers that use a different version of Windows?
 PMC manages print servers running Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 (as well as Vista and Longhorn of course!)

 Also the con of my question — PMC on Windows Server interact with printers on Vista?
 Should work just fine.

 Will PMC be able to do send messages to the admin about low ink on a network printer etc
 Yes if the device supports print specifications defined in the RFC and updates this information to the port monitor or language monitor.

 Is there possibility to implement a way to give priority to some users to a printer
 You could give priority to a job that’s sent to the printer.

 Can PMC handle printers from multiple domains at once
 If you’re authenticated to another domain, yes.

 What reporting options and inventory tools are available
 The PMC will list all the printers on all the print servers in your enterprise. The PMC does not list the printer connections that are installed on client machines.

 Is it only up to vendor to provide the support for printer’s “special” features?
 Every printer manufacturer must decide what support they want to include in their printer drivers. On occasion they will decide to write a smaller basic driver and a larger more full-featured driver so that users have an option. You might check on their website to see if they have some more full-featured drivers available for your models.

 How does the ‘pushed printers’-option work from the PMC
 Please look up the help section for Deployed Printers connection. You basically push or deploy a printer connection to all the servers that belong to a GPO using Deployed Printer Connection.

 Can you record the job/user names of print jobs sent to each device?
 PMC does not support this in R2/Windows Vista; you can capture this information in the event log, however - See the ‘add informational events’ in our online documentation.

 If a technician replaces a printer at a site but the Admin isn’t aware it happened, what will the PMC do?
 If the admin is monitoring the print server, he should see the new printer that was added.

 If a technician replaces a printer at a site but the Admin isn’t aware it happened, what will the PMC do?
 PMC will monitor the print server that connects to the device.

 This may be an AD question, but will you be able to publish printers from several domains to a centralized printer server?
 Yes - assuming that the trust relationships between domains are set up correctly, and that the user/computer accounts have permissions to use the AD/Print server.

 Will it be possible to script the publishing of a printer and assigning it to a Group Policy without using MMC
 For publishing, check out rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /? in Vista.

 Are there any updates on printer deployment? e.g. setting the default printer.
 We are looking into adding this to the PMC/Group policy editor.

 PMC will show the drivers installed and local printers on a client if you add the client as a “Print Server” - useful for Terminal Servers for example.
 Yes it will. There is a button “Add local server” that will add the client as a print server. It won’t show printer connections, however.

 Will there be a generic print driver that will allow us to print to PDF or will we need Office 12 for that functionality?
 Windows will not have a built-in PDF writer. However, there will be a print driver that will allow you to print to XPS. More information at the XML Paper Specification.

 Will there be ‘plug-ins’ available in the future to enhance the product?
 This is something we’re certainly considering for future versions.

 Will there be a way to move documents from one printer queue to another? I see this requested in newsgroups from time to time.
 This is a feature request we get a lot - We’re looking into adding this for future releases of the PMC. One workaround (today) is to change to port of the printer queue to a port that points to another (similar) device.

 Related to my question about a printer being replaced with no prior notice, can the PCM do automatic alerting - set an alarm -
 You could have a notification setup for a filter - for e.g. Queue Status - is exactly - deleting. If the technician deletes the print queue, the admin will get an email that the printer queue was deleted

 rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry has been there for a while… no need for Vista. Are there changes in it?
 It will be going away in Vista. For printing we will use printui.exe to perform the rundll32.exe functions.

 What functions does PMC support multi-select on, so I can perform mgmt tasks across a number of Print Server simultaneously
 It more or less supports all functions that don’t require UI in multi-select. You can see the full list by selecting two printers and right clicking on them.

 Can PMC push driver/printer connections to workstations (replace Novell capability)
 Yes, PMC will push printers to any client.

 Forgive the question but can someone shoot me a nice link that will let me catch-up and context these terms–Help and Support in Vista? Some TechNet sites. I may be the only one here that found these terms new but I haven’t but I haven’t gotten to drill Vista the way I will soon. Thanks.
 This is a good site - click here to view.

 Event log isn’t useful for a looking at print jobs when there are thousands!
A We are aware of this limitation - some scripting is required to extract the information…We’re looking into making this easier for future releases of PMC. also note that the event log in Windows Vista has better filtering UI than the event log in Server 2003.

 Can PMC be used to look at performance issues in printing - both jobs coming from a workstation and output of data to the printer?
 No, not really.

 Can PMC redirect printing if a printer fails
 Nope.

 Are there any updates on printer deployment? E.g. setting the default printer.
 The ‘default printer’ feature is a pretty common request - we’re looking into adding it for Vista.

 Is printer driver management on a print server possible with PMC installed on Vista?
 You can open the print server properties through the PMC and add/remove drivers.

 The printui documentation has always been thin on the ground (e.g. printui /?). Will there be improved documentation for this tool - e.g. which “options” are functions (e.g. /ga), which are parameters (e.g. /n) which can be used in combination?
 There’s improved documentation at the Microsoft Windows Server site.

 Is the add printer option going to be fixed to find printers over networks, as I had to manually connect my printer.
 Yup - with the new Add Network Printer Wizard.

 What features of PMC should we be looking to test?
 Use PMC to monitor and administrate the Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Vista print servers in your organization.
Add printers, add drivers, delete printers, delete drivers, create filters to monitor printers not in a ready state. Enable email notification if you have an SMTP host email server.
Backup and restore printers.

 Are there any special security considerations that have to be taken into account when deploying PMC?
 Don’t think so. The person monitoring servers doesn’t have to be an admin, so elevated access is not required. Other than that, monitoring the server is really like accessing the remote server - \\remote_servername.

 Can I use PMC on a network? Can I connect two machines together and print from either one of them
 Yes - you can add local/remote servers to PMC…and yes.

 We have multiple subnets on floors - any way to manually add second subnet to scan for printers? or a printer list by subnet?
 Unfortunately there’s no current way to add another subnet to the list. This is something we’re considering for future versions.

 What ports does PMC need/use?
 File and Printer Sharing port.

 Will PMC be released for Windows XP?
 It already is!

 Why is it that in printing from the XPS document (e.g. the Windows Vista Product guide) there was no ability to select pages–it is greyed out. If XPS is part of the wave of the future and XML and Windows Presentation Foundation shouldn’t it have more print functionality
 You’re basically creating a document of XPS format - check out the Windows XPS Website.  

 How will the Print Management Console in Vista differ from that in Windows Server 2003 R2?
 PMC (Print Management Console) has a couple of new features in Windows Vista - it contains a new printer import/export tool (to move printers between servers and do backups), a new add printer wizard. Also, PMC now takes a comma-delimited list of servers in the ‘Add Server’ dialog PMC will soon support six filters for filtering printers (in R2 it only supported 3).

 Are there any plans to include Novell Netware Print servers into PMC?
 At this point we only support Windows print servers, and there are no plans to add other operating system support.

 In Windows Server 2003 R2, to take full advantage of the PMC, the guides recommend you be logged in as an administrator on the print servers that your managing, with the removal of access to an administrator account, has this changed with Vista for security?
 It hasn’t changed in Vista. Just to administer the print server, you don’t need to be an administrator.

 Can PMC be used for usage monitoring and print quotas?
 If usage means the volume of jobs coming into the queue, you could use PMC to monitor. PMC does not support print quotas yet.

 The new print manager in 2003 R2 is really nice. Will the tool in Vista/Longhorn Server be similar, and will we be able to grant non-administrators access to Printer Management?
 What are the permissions, PMC in R2 and Vista are similar. To use PMC, a user must be admin on the print server to make any changes. To just monitor a print server, regular read-only permissions are sufficient.

 Are there plans to enhance client location and selection of printers by providing a web-based enterprise-wide overview?
 We provide this today through our Internet Print Provider and Web Management solutions. Please see more information at Microsoft TechNet.

 Will the Print Management Console see or be able to access a printer connected on an MSN TV 2 that is attached to the network?
 PMC was designed to work with Windows print servers - so anything that shows up on the network as a Windows print server will work.

 In the “Add Printer” wizards, will their be methods to determine closest printers other than freeform data fields? (i.e. IP, site, etc.)
 Figuring out what “closest” means is a challenging thing. Does it mean closest on the network, closest physically, closest in terms of where the server is, or something else entirely? Right now the best way to determine close printers is by using the AD schema and planning it well - please see more information at Microsoft TechNet Library. In the Add Printer Wizards in Vista you’ll also be able to see all printers that support Web Services for Devices on your subnet as well, so you can easily find those. (That functionality will be turned off on a domain)

 Will we be able to override default driver settings Per Application using PMC to print to Tray 2 when you specify Tray 3 when using X App
 No, unfortunately the PMC does not allow you to do per-application settings. Some applications do enable this themselves, however (Office saves per user per app defaults). PMC is a tool that you monitor the printers on the server and can do any action you normally can do via accessing the server through \\servername\printers

 What is an ICC profile?
 ICC stands for the International Color Consortium, which help specify within drivers specific characteristics in terms of image management. You can have an ICC profile which specifically helps with black and white printing, scanning as well as colour printing and scanning.

 Will PMC be able to manage printer’s ICC profiles?
 ICC profiles for a printer can’t be changed remotely (you have to be logged on locally on the print server to add/remove/change them) - however, on Vista, once users connect to a shared printer, they can change the ICC profiles (for their local copy of the shared printer - this is a new feature in Windows Vista)

 Will we be able to override default driver settings Per Application using PMC such as a Savin PCL6 driver tends to print to tray 2 when you specify tray 3 when using X App
 PMC is a tool that you monitor the printers on the server and can do any action you normally can do via accessing the server through \\servername\printers, you probably will be able to achieve setting default settings through printer defaults

 Can someone explain the function of the XPS printer in the printer’s folder in Vista?. It was the default printer in Vista when it loaded. I didn’t have any trouble printing with the XP Brother printer though except notepad. I want to sort out this. I
 XPS is the printer for creating the new document format (XPS) that Microsoft came up with. Please refer to www.microsoft.com/xps for more info

 Has there been an update to PMC for printers that have http administration pages, specifically a way to work with them besides the workaround from Server 2003 of having to add them to the trusted sites or disabling IE Enhanced Security Configuration?
 PMC will invoke the HTTP pages the same as IE. We do not change any of the current security settings. If the IE setting is secure we will prompt. In Vista client you can view the pages without prompts in the default configuration

 Must all printers have a new Vista driver or will XP drivers be good ?
 Almost any version 3 (designed for Windows 2000/Windows XP/Windows Server 2003) driver should work on Windows Vista.

 What is MFP?
 Multi-functional printers.

 Will we be able to install 32-bit driver drivers on 64-bit Windows Vista? Lots of printer drivers will not be updated from the vendor. Lots of people would love to upgrade to 64-bit today, but missing printer drivers often stop the project.
 You can install 32-bit drivers on 64-bit Windows in order to share with 32-bit clients, but you cannot run a 32-bit driver natively on 64-bit. We’ve been working with all the printer manufacturers to encourage them to write 64-bit drivers and you should continue to see better support over time.

 Will PMC exist in Windows Starter Edition?
 No, PMC (and other network management tools) are not included in Windows Starter edition.

 How well does PMC works with wireless printers?
 Through Add Network Printer Wizard, we should be able to add wireless printers (IP, Bluetooth) as well.

 From a home perspective, I do not think that you would have many individuals know what driver to install with the 1284 request.
 We try to automatically figure out the right driver to install but if we can’t we’ll give as much information as possible. Most printer drivers are named after the device name so it shouldn’t’ be too hard to figure out which is the appropriate one to select.

 What advantages does PMC have over vendor supplied tools or web based management capabilities
 The PMC is a tool focused on monitoring your print servers rather than your printers directly. It will give you good generic information and will work for printers from all manufacturers.

 We have a need to cluster a print server, but grant non-Administrators privileges to manage queues, add printers, create ports, etc. Is this something that will be available in Vista/Longhorn as we have been unsuccessful with this scenario in R2
 Yes, in Vista, with introduction to LUA, you don’t need to be an administrator to add a printer.

 Is there any advantage on using the PMC with only one printer on one computer?
 If you are managing your own printer on your own machine…then the Printers folder is probably more useful.

 Ive read that PMC works with Samba and AppleTalk. Are there any plans to include rendezvous?
 The PMC monitors print queues on a server. Our print servers support Samba clients through the services for Unix and Apple clients through Services for Mac. Rendezvous (aka Bonjour) is somewhat different as it’s a connection protocol to the printer itself. Windows Vista will support Web Services for Devices, which includes a discovery protocol similar to Bonjour but one that includes security and is enterprise-ready.

 How is x64 driver development progressing? I’m still running on hacked drivers on XP x64 and I’m disenchanted that manufacturers are not embracing x64.
 We’re working closely with printer manufacturers to develop x64 drivers and I believe you’ll continue to see better support as time progresses.

 Will the PMC detect version mismatches of printer drivers in the domain?
 The drivers are specific to the server on which they’re installed.

 What is the minimum number of printers you recommend in order for PMC to be worth using?
 There is no such minimum number. I guess it’d be worth to have at least one printer so that you’ll be able to monitor a printer

 How can PMC improve the printer driver upgrade process in client-server scenarios?
 The PMC does not affect client/server driver updates. However, we have made print spooler changes that will allow the entire driver package to move from Longhorn server to Vista and thereby preserve the driver signatures.

 The new print manager in 2003 R2 is really nice. Will the tool in Vista/Longhorn be similar, and will we be able to grant non-Administrators access to Printer Management?
 Bandwidth about the same.

 What is the maximum number of printers the PMC manage?
 We have tested PMC with thousands of servers and tens of thousands of printers and the performance was really great!

 Will the new functions in PMC consume more bandwidth than the current setup of R2? How much of a difference is there between the two versions?
 new stuff PMC has a couple of new features in Windows Vista - it contains a new printer import/export tool (to move printers between servers, and do backups), a new add printer wizard.

 How much bandwidth does PMC use? Can you give us any real-world numbers?
 We tested PMC with thousands of servers and tens of thousands of printers and bandwidth usage was really minimal.

 Is there any hopes of getting more print drivers from HP? Their response to us has been worse than dismal
A We are working with HP to get many of their print drivers on the Windows DVD. Aside from that, please continue to work with them directly for additional driver support.

 Does the network traffic data between the printer and the monitoring print server travel encrypted?
 If you have a printer that supports IPSEC, then it should.

 Is it possible to save user defaults when you push out an updated printer driver
 If the Device Mode settings are compatible between the old driver and the new driver, the per user dev. mode settings will be retained

 this might be a UI question will the PMC in Vista get updated Icons verses the 16 colour ones there are in today (I know this is probably way down the list of things to do)
 Yes, new icons will be available shortly!

 I just joined so I don’t know if this has been asked yet. What facilities are available for shipping drivers to various machines and for getting the latest versions of the software?
 The existing point and print architecture has been extended in Windows Vista to allow driver signatures to be checked on the client. That’s the best way of distributing drivers.

 What is IIS7?
 IIS7 is short for Internet Information Services 7.0, also known as Microsoft’s web server

 Will IIS7 be available as standalone product, or only bundled with Vista?
 IIS7 will only be shipping with Vista and Longhorn Server.

 Any chance of using the security groups from the IIS lockdown tools that were not used in IIS6 for setting permissions?
 It has a built-in group and a built-in account in IIS7 now. This way you can copy your content across your web farm and your ACL’s will still be valid.

 Is this IIS7 for Vista client, for Longhorn Server or both?
 IIS7 will shipped for Vista Client and Longhorn Server. There are some features available only Longhorn Server.

 Will IIS7 be used much by home users or is it mainly for enterprise/corporate usage?
 Anywhere from educational development (or developing new ASP.NET web applications) to hobbyist development is something Microsoft MUST enable. In the past they’ve had issues where IIS6 did not ship on typical end-user, non-enterprise editions. Now however, they are changing this in IIS7 by shipping IIS7 in some form on all Vista client releases.

 Can you highlight some of the new features in IIS7?
 Distributed configuration: configure IIS settings in web.config files, managed extensibility: write modules and handlers in managed code, IIS7 is highly instrumented for easier debugging and troubleshooting componentisation: select the modules you want or write your own a whole new UI (remotable via HTTP, supports delegated config)

 Are there any particular areas of IIS7 that you need further beta testing on?
 They need more feedback as possible on all areas in IIS7. We have exciting new features like Integrated Pipeline and run time API’s, failed request monitoring etc.

 Will IIS7 support PHP 5.x?
 They’re in the process of testing app compatibility on top of IIS7, including PHP. The teams tested versions of PHP in the past and have been able to get it working. I don’t know the details though of which version they tested though.

 Is there a chance of lifting the 10 connection limit on workstation to lets say 15? 10 sometimes just is a little low while developing
 Done. You can have as many connections as your computer can deal with. You can also create as many web-sites as you want. In XP you were limited to 1 site.

 What is the best (biggest, your favourite, etc.) new features of IIS7?
 Integrated pipeline and new modular architecture. You can customize your server by adding/removing modules and reducing the surface attack.

 Why was Usenet (NNTP) removed from IIS7?
 I believe this was because the Exchange team wanted to improve upon it and wanted to do so out of band with Vista/Longhorn. If you have feedback for what you’d like to see in the NNTP server, please let them know!

 What limits does IIS7 have on the client OS? (i.e. will it be capable of being used for a personal web server at home without running out of connections if more then 2 people connect?)
 The maximum concurrent request limitations 3 on Vista Client. The important part is we are enqueing more requests so they are not rejected if limit is reached.

 Can I run IIS on a domain controller?
 Small Business Server is one of the key scenarios where this is required, so yes you can run IIS on a domain controller.

 What are the differences between the IIS in XP now and the IIS that will be in Vista?
 IIS in Windows XP is IIS v5.1, which most closely approximates the version of IIS that shipped in Windows 2000. Single INETINFO process that hosts all the IIS services, with ability to isolate a few applications in DLLHOST.exe processes. IIS6 shipped in Windows Server 2003, and completely changes its hosting model for web applications, hosting applications by default in Application Pools (w3wp.exe) processes, segmented out by assigning web applications to application pools. IIS7 is the next generation, maintaining the similar process model as IIS6, but shipping across both client (Windows Vista) and server (Longhorn Server), and feature a merged IIS/ASP.net request processing pipeline and the ability to componentised functionality, such as determining exactly what you need (such as not needing Windows Integrated authentication, or static compression; you don’t have to install this) and only using those components, and a unified configuration system now that blends IIS & ASP.net configuration.

 Will .NET framework 1.1 work with IIS7 or only .NET Framework 2.0?
 .NET 1.1 & .NET 2.0 will work side by side for IIS7. If you have both installed then you can use one or another inside a worker process.

 Why is ASP.NET WPG a member of ‘NTAUTHORITY\SYSTEM’?
 ASP.NET is in the IIS_WPG group, because it needs read access to the metabase. NTAUTHORITY\SYSTEM is too because an IIS worker process can run as SYSTEM. In general every identity that is used for an IIS woker process has to be in the IIS_WPG group.

 Will the FTP server in IIS7 see an overhaul in Vista / Longhorn Server?
 There are no major improvements scheduled to be released with Longhorn Server. However Microsoft are working on some things to be released out of band.

 If Longhorn Server changed IIS before it ships, will those changes be back ported to Vista for a service pack?
 Yes, the current plan is to synchronise Vista Service Pack 1 with the initial release of Longhorn Server.

 In which Vista editions will be include IIS?
 All editions will include IIS.

 Which IIS7 features will only be available to Longhorn server?
 Not decided yet. They will synchronise Vista SP1 with the initial server release so that you have a single development and production platform.

 Will there a Internet Information Services Migration Tool available?
 Yes, Vista client and Longhorn Server setup will do migration.

 Will the co-operation with ASP.NET be improved? Some people have had a lot of issues with this in the past…
 IIS and ASP.NET actually merged into the same team a while back and worked together to merge the IIS and ASP.NET request processing pipelines so that you can now write managed modules (IHttpModule, IHttpHandler) that can also affect requests that would not normally be routed to ASP.NET (such as static files, ASP classic, etc.). Furthermore, you can now use ASP.NET features like Forms-Based Auth for ALL of your content without needing to route all that content to ASP.NET’s ISAPI. There are many other integration points; they encourage to take a look at the Core Server & Diagnostics scenarios (3 & 4) available at IIS Scenario Documentation available here.

 Does AJAX participate in II7?
 ATLAS (Microsoft’s version of AJAX) will work in coordination with and can be hosted by IIS (6 or 7 really)

 Is real-time monitoring - anything possible? I’d love to see something like ‘top’ but for the IIS processes - to see what is actively going on the site at that moment - it’s something I’ve always wished was possible with IIS… doable or not doable?
 In IIS7, we have set of run time apis to allow you to control site and application pool states as well as see the executing requests inside a worker process.