Vista profile problem

Emil Varbanov — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:27:00 GMT

Recently I had a strange "Vista" experience. A colleague asked me to troubleshoot a machine running windows Vista Enterprise 32bit, joined in Windows2003server domain environment. The previous evening he changed his password and shut down the Computer. On the next morning he turned on the PC, successfully logged on with his new password. The "nice" surprise was, that vista started with the default setting just as it starts for the first time. His profile with all his settings was gone. All of the "new user" wizards, prompts and windows appeared on the screen as if the user was logging on for the first time on the box. I started to examine the logs in the Event Viewer. There were no errors in the logs. But there was something else I found. Every time all applications started as they have just been installed. The interesting thing is, that when I start any application, set it up and then close it, all the settings were gone on the next start. The user had access to all his files and folders but the shortcuts on the desktop and on the Quick Launch were missing. Internet connection and all servers were available. The user could not log with his old password and restarting several times the computer did not help. The user was an administrator on the machine, and there were no other users on this PC. The virus check was negative. The first thing that I tried to fix the problem helped perfect. I just logged as local administrator and typed gpupdate /force at the Command Prompt and restarted. After the reboot my colleague logged with his new password and everything was just fine. No changes were saved till the last day with the old password. We lost an hour wondering what happens. Later I tried to reproduce the problem with my test pc with no success. I don't know if this is a problem with the domain or a network problem. Searching the forums I found lots of problems with the user profiles but not one that is identical to this. Perhaps Vista will furthermore continue to surprise us, administrators.

Vista activation experience

Emil Varbanov — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:42:00 GMT

Recently I had an exhausting experience with Windows Vista activation that I'd like to share.

Some background info: In the beginning of the year we received the official release of Windows Vista Ultimate via MSDN. The license allowed installing the software on ten computers. We used all the licenses on machines for testing and development. The other computers I reinstalled with Vista Enterprise edition that came later with a volume license key. I couldn't believe what happened during the weeks to come.. In a few days three of the machines running Windows Vista Ultimate had the same problem, caused by Apple iPod player's software and Intel Raid drivers. Later we fixed this bug with the following Microsoft update:
"http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936824/en-us". When your iPod is ejected, Vista fails and reboots. This is a known problem and Apple has now released a newer (patched) version of their iTunes software. After the blue screen of death (BSOD) the Raid volume degraded and windows could not boot. I entered Intel Raid Manager and rebuild the volume. Although the last version of the Raid driver was installed, when windows started it detected the volume as a new hardware and asked for activation. In fact Vista activation can be easily compromised by just updating a single device driver, or hardware component. You have probably heard about similar problems with Vista activation, and the massage "your copy of windows is not genuine" when you try to reactivate the software on the internet. I had three days to activate windows. I was not able to do the activation online, although by that moment only five of our computers still run this copy of Windows Ultimate.

It seems that when you use a license and then reinstall the computer, the license is blown away, so my suggestion is that you do not activate Windows if you intend to use it several days for tests and then remove it. I tried to activate windows by phone. Two of the installations were activated successfully, after I entered a 48 digit code, provided by Microsoft. Unfortunately, the third activation attempt was a disaster. The Microsoft guy gently explained me that I have to prove this Windows is genuine because it has already been activated two times. We provided some ID number, username, e-mail address and so on, but I had to provide our MSDN agreement number also. Unfortunately, I had no access to this info at the moment. The Microsoft webpage, where you can see your MSDN agreement needs the agreement number to log on -the same number I want to find. Talk about Catch 22 :) Anyhow, after numerous calls to Microsoft Bulgaria I realized that there was no way to retrieve this number and to activate my Vista by phone in the short period of time that I had. On the second day I started to prepare for the worst - new installation. As you probably know Ultimate is the top edition of Windows Vista and it can't be downgraded with lower edition. I got a new machine installed with Vista Enterprise volume license, installed all of the software and prepared for the "transfer files and settings wizard". I expected lots of problems with all the licensed software and certificates that were installed on that machine. Searching on Microsoft TechNet I found a way to extend the evaluation period to 90 days - long enough to retrieve the lost agreement number. You start "cmd" as administrator and type "slmgr -rearm" and restart the PC. The activation period rearms to 30 days and this step can be repeated three times (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490216.aspx). I know that this is a temporary fix, but still gives me the time to get the agreement number and re-activate Vista again.

Emil Varbanov's blog

Vista profile problem

Vista activation experience