So about 45 seconds on my system after initiating my search for files containing the string "hosts," Vista found three files: HOSTS in the usual location (C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc), a backup copy of HOSTS in c:\windows\winsxs\backup, and the file (get ready) X86_MICROSOFT-WINDOWS-W..NFRASTRUCTURE-OTHER_31BF3856AD364E35_6.0.6000.16386_NONE_024E4071FA6FEA95_HOSTS_D78DF635, in c:\windows\winsxs. Now it's time to perform a little experiment.

Read more

We've spent a fair amount of time recently taking a look at Microsoft search software, both "enterprise" and "desktop." It seemed like a good idea to take a breather from our analysis of Search Server 2008, an enterprise search tool, and share with you why the subject of desktop search has become particularly important as organizations roll out Windows Vista.

Say you have a need to find all the files on your C: drive that contain the string "hosts" in the filename. Sounds simple, but in Vista, the process is actually ludicrously complex.

Read more

Crawling in Search Server 2008 Express is the process of building the index based on a highly specific set of criteria and parameters. When creating a new content source, you can tell the program the starting location (URLs) of the content you want to crawl; the type of content to crawl (SharePoint sites, Web sites, file shares, or Exchange public folders); whether to perform a full or incremental crawl (incremental just crawls content that has changed since the previous crawl); and when to perform the crawl procedure.

But that's not all.

Read more

I went with the default choice and left the box checked, clicking the Close button... and the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard appeared. So I guess that was its real name. Microsoft Quality Control continues to underwhelm. If you don't care about the small stuff, how can you inspire trust with the big stuff?

Read more

After last week's philosophical postings on IT and the economic crisis, it's time to get back to tech stuff - specifically, Windows search technologies.

So after performing a "sidegrade" to fix the Windows Update and Windows Installer glitches on my much-abused Server 2008 test machine, I went back to installing Search Server 2008 Express (readers may recall that this is the least expensive way to get a taste of Microsoft's "enterprise" search capabilities).

Read more

It's amazing to think that the financial bailout (if you want to call it that, and it seems an increasingly and sadly accurate term) of $700 billion dollars is about  seven times the size of the US software industry. SEVEN TIMES. Gone in the blink of an eye.

What that says to me is that the money people, and the politicians whom they lobby, have way too much say in what happens in our world.

Read more

Another interesting detour that my brain took last week: to what degree, if any, was computer technology involved in the causes of the financial meltdown? I don't necessarily buy the simplistic arguments that it was all due to corporate greed, or consumer over-reaching, or even a lack of suitable oversight. I think part of the crash can be attributed to how easily we can confuse data with meaning.

Many of us deal every day with various forms of data: words, numbers, graphs, charts. The systems we have developed for manipulating data have become remarkably complex.

Read more

So, the stock market has tanked, may tank further, and the gurus (not that they're always right by any means) seem to feel that the US is looking at a two-year recession, if not longer. Feeling a bit philosophical, I started wondering how much the financial meltdown will impact infotech.

The net effect seems blurry at this time, partly because companies put money into IT if they perceive that it will improve productivity, and you can argue that improving productivity is just as important in lean times as in prosperous ones.

Read more

As many of you know, when you come to the end of your rope on a given system, you can try "upgrading" the operating system to... itself! I've done this on a few occasions and, while not especially convenient, it does sometimes work.

Read more

...and if you recognize THAT message, then maybe you can identify with this story. I was doing database development for a collection agency (hey, it was paying work, and as collection agents go, granted that it would not be my profession of choice, they were nice, professional guys) and the agency was using Mac Pluses.

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? You'll see in a moment, because it's an example of how the computer industry doesn't take error messages seriously.

Read more

Last time I mentioned that I ran into Event ID 4375 when attempting to install Search Server 2008 Express. It turns out that this is a Very Bad Event Indeed (VBEI). You know you're in trouble when you find a Microsoft tech note that tells you that there's basically no way you're going to figure this out, and get ready to contact Microsoft Product Support. No way, sez I, and with the confidence of the uninformed, I attack the event logs. After all, that's what they're for, right?

One of the relevant ones is %windir%\windowsupdate.log.

Read more

In my last entry on Windows search services, I mentioned that the easiest and least expensive way to get some experience with so-called "enterprise" search is by downloading and installing Search Server 2008 Express. So I decided to install that product myself. It's a 265MB download free from microsoft.com.

When you run the installer, it gives you the opportunity to review the hardware and software requirements. This product wants to see a 2.5GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 3GB of free hard disk space at a minimum. It also wants to see .NET framework 3.0 with ASP.NET 2.0.

Read more

A few weeks ago, we had some discussion about the Server Core variant of Windows Server 2008, in which the graphical user interface is dispensed with in order to create a leaner, meaner version of the server operating system. After a few months of working with Server Core systems, I thought it might be useful to present a few of the commands you'll need in this environment.

Read more

A few weeks ago, we had some discussion about the Server Core variant of Windows Server 2008, in which the graphical user interface is dispensed with in order to create a leaner, meaner version of the server operating system. After a few months of working with Server Core systems, I thought it might be useful to present a few of the commands you'll need in this environment.

First are the GUI tools. Microsoft created "shims" for the operating system so that you can run a few graphical programs, even though Server Core is supposed to be a command-line-only environment.

Read more

I've spoken at various times in this space about the benefits of virtualization. Recently I was presenting at a technical education event sponsored by the mega-distributor TechData, and the gentleman in the next room over was conducting a VMware seminar.

Read more

One of the frustrations of moving to a virtual environment from a purely physical one is dealing with the issue of licenses, both for operating system products and for applications. Many software license agreements were written in a simpler time, when OS and application products could only run on physical machines. (Heck, even that could get complicated - look at all the nonsense associated with OEM licenses for products like Windows XP.)

Nowadays, in a VM environment, an operating system might be running on a physical machine - but it might also be running in a VM.

Read more

We are expecting the final release of Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2008 "any day now." While supporting Hyper-V (obviously), VMM 2008 also integrates with VMware VirtualCenter, so you'll be able to use VMM 2008 to manage VMware VM's as well as Hyper-V VM's. Microsoft's Virtual Server architecture is also supported. Clearly, Microsoft is shooting for a one-stop-shop for VM management and administration.

VMM 2008 also purports to allow PowerShell scripting for all three supported environments.

Read more

I have had a terrible time recently trying to get an IE7 security rollup update from Windows Update to apply on my text-bench Server 2008 laptop. I've tried all the usual tricks, including deleting the local Windows Update file store (c:\windows\softwaredistribution), but every time I try applying this one update, Server 2008 quickly degrades into a scenario where it's using every speck of RAM and thrashing to the pagefile for hours on end.

Read more

Microsoft throws out a few suggestions on various web pages that although Windows Search 4.0 is pretty cool, and may be suitable for a small and simple network, we should all really be thinking in terms of an "enterprise" search solution if we have more than a few servers floating around. This led me to wondering what, exactly, differentiates a "desktop" search tool and an "enterprise" search tool - especially considering that Windows Search 4.0 allows users to access remote indexes and leverage them.

Read more

Previous recent posts have addressed the new update to Microsoft's so-called "desktop" search engine, Windows Search 4.0. One of the comments that one sees frequently on newsgroups and blogs is that a desktop-oriented search engine, which typically creates a local index on the user's workstation, can hammer an Exchange server if many users start indexing their mailboxes more or less simultaneously.

Windows Search 4.0 is first and foremost a local search product that is oriented towards helping users find stuff on their own workstation.

Read more