Windows 7 – The World According to Mitch

Refresh Your PC – Save your bacon!

Thursday morning I did something to my main laptop that I really should not have done, and the results were disastrous. I succeeded in completely wrecking my installation of Windows 8. I was able to boot into the OS, but as soon as I tried to launch any application my system went into an endless flash-loop, and…

Mitch Garvis

November 19, 2012

Uncategorized

BitLocker Drive Encryption, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Operating system, Personal computer, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8

What’s this new Cert? MCSA: Windows 7!

This post was originally written for the Canadian IT Pro Connection blog, and can be seen there at http://blogs.technet.com/b/canitpro/archive/2012/09/12/what-s-this-new-cert-mcsa-windows-7.aspx. In April of this year Microsoft Learning announced its new generation of certifications. Many of us who had previously earned certain MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional) credentials were automatically ported into a new certification category, the…

Mitch Garvis

September 13, 2012

Certifications, Certs, MCITP, Microsoft Learning, Windows 7

Certification, MCITP, MCSA, Windows 7

Windows 8 Experience Index… What it means and how to check it

Six years ago Microsoft introduced the Windows Experience Index, a better way to measure the actual speed of computers, rather than simply relying on the single measurement of the CPU speed. Although it really is more complicated than this, Microsoft has broken the speed of a computer down to five components: CPU, RAM, graphics and…

Mitch Garvis

August 21, 2012

Windows 8, Windows Experience Index

HP EliteBook, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, VHD, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Experience Index, Windows System Assessment Tool

Windows 8: .NET Installation Issue

I couldn’t believe it. I had finally installed Windows 8, and I wasn’t able to blog about it. I use Windows Live Writer as my blogging tool (most of the time). One of the required pre-requisites is .NET Framework 3.5, and for whatever reason it would not install for me (see screenshot). The error code…

Mitch Garvis

August 6, 2012

Article, Windows 8

.NET Framework, Metro, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, User Account Control, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Live Writer

Smart Screen? Smart!

Unlike most people I was (and am) a big fan of User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7 (and even Vista). I have often referred to it as the ‘Are you really sure you want to do something stupid?’ button; it let you know that you were about to do something that would affect your…

Mitch Garvis

August 3, 2012

SmartScreen, UAC, User Account Control, Windows 8

Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, SmartScreen, UAC, User Account Control, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista

Getting used to Windows 8…

I have finally done it. I have ‘made the leap’ to Windows 8 on my primary laptop. I am sure a lot of people are surprised that it has taken me this long, and I want to reassure you that no, this is not my first kick at the can. I was among the first…

Mitch Garvis

June 25, 2012

Metro Interface, Windows 8

Metro, Microsoft, Start menu, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Live Writer

Creating a Multi-OS Environment with Boot from VHD

I spend a lot of time demonstrating different technologies for different audiences. Because of that I often need to use different operating systems and rather than take along several machines (which I often have to do anyways, but for other reasons) I have taken to configuring my laptop (currently an HP EliteBook 2740p) in a…

Mitch Garvis

June 20, 2012

BCD, Boot from VHD, Dual Boot, Windows 7, Windows 8

Disk Management, Operating system, VHD, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Automated Installation Kit, Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows To Go: This is going to be a game changer!

I have said before that I am not sure that Windows 8 is going to have the adoption rates that Windows 7 has had, and that it is more likely that Windows 7 will remain the dominant operating system in the enterprise. If companies are going to be convinced to switch, it will be by…

Mitch Garvis

June 19, 2012

USB Key, Windows 8, Windows to Go

Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, USB, USB flash drive, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows To Go