Have you tried Bing? What do you think?

Microsoft unveiled its new search engine Bing, last week, aiming to take market-share from search providers Google and Yahoo and subsequently generate more online advertising dollars.

As this may well be the first usable search engine by Microsoft, I thought I should add it as my home page (alongside Google) and see what all the fuss has been about.

To run the test, I found this great tool from the folks @ Blackdog.ie, which allows users to dual search and display the results of Google & Bing (how cool is that?). My search criteria was very simply the name of this blog "whoisaaron". Here's the results...

















Click on the image to enlarge

Bing certainly returned results every bit as good as Google, albeit different and in my opinion this is an absolute first - I'm impressed. I suppose these and other inconsistencies will keep Search Engine Optimization experts on their toes as Microsoft tries to mount a serious challenge to Google's search supremacy.

Have you tried Bing?

Unblock the upgrade path for your Windows 7 beta

Microsoft really doesn’t want you to install the Windows 7 Release Candidate code over an existing installation of the Windows 7 beta. The result is a beta-over-beta installation that could exhibit odd behaviors that a customer installing the final version of Windows 7 would never confront. Not only that, but any feedback you send in via the automated tools built into Windows 7 is mostly useless for identifying problems in the final build.

So, as a result, the RC blocks upgrades over any build earlier than 7077. If you’ve been running the original beta (Build 7000) and you try to upgrade, you’ll see an error message.

But if you insist on doing the upgrade anyway, there’s a workaround. Start by copying the entire contents of the Windows 7 DVD to a local folder (use a bootable USB drive, or create a folder in the root of the drive you’re planning to upgrade, and then run Setup from that location).

In the folder you just created, open the Sources subfolder and then open the file Cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.

Change the MinClient value (highlighted in yellow above) to 7000 and save the file in the same location with the same name.

You can now run Setup without being bothered by the version check.

Installing and Upgrading to Windows 7

Window 7 Beta and RC Expiration periods
You must rebuild your test machine with a valid version of your previous Windows operating system before the Windows 7 Beta and RC software expires. Windows will notify you that the expiration date is approaching. Two weeks after the expiration date, your PC will shut down every two hours.

The Beta will expire 1 August 2009 with two-hourly shutdowns beginning 1 July 2009.
The Windows RC will expire 1 June 2010 with two-hourly shutdowns beginning 1 March 2010.

In both cases, you will need to rebuild your test PC to install a new operating system and reinstall all your programmes and data.

Upgrading to Windows RC
If you are running Windows 7 Beta or Windows XP, you must backup your data (preferably to an external device) and then do a clean installation of Windows 7 RC. After installing Windows 7 RC, you must reinstall your applications and restore your files. If you are running Windows Vista, you can simply upgrade to Windows 7 RC with no required backup.

How to enable cached mode for Outlook when used inside Terminal Server

1. Open up Regedit

2. Navigate to [HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a]

3. Find the key 00036601 (REG_BINARY) - note the number in it now so you can undo the changes if needed

4. Change the value to one of the following
* enabled value; 84 01 00 00 (Note that on my desktop system the enabled value is 84 19 00 00, so play around with this a little)
* enabled with Public Folders/Favorites: 84 05 00 00
* disabled value; 04 00 00 00

5. You will need to search for "00036601" and adjust ALL of them since each key is for a different user on your system.

Exchange 2007 cannot resolve certain top level domains (.co.uk etc.)

After one day, you may find your Windows 2008 DNS Server is unable to resolve names in certain top level domains (tld’s) like .co.uk, .cn, and .br when it is configured to use root hints. It may also occur with other tld’s. A network monitor trace shows the DNS Server does not send any DNS traffic out to the internet. The Windows 2008 DNS server returns SERVFAIL to the client or when using nslookup.

Workarounds include restarting DNS, clearing the DNS cache, setting maxcachettl to 2 days or greater, and using DNS Forwarders instead of root hints.

If you want to use root hints, you can set the maxcachettl registry value on the Windows 2008 DNS Server as follows:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).

2. Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters

3. On the Edit menu, click New, click DWORD (32-bit) Value , and then add the following value:

Value: MaxCacheTtl
Data Type: DWORD
Data value: 0x2A300 (172800 in decimal = 2 days)

4. Click OK .

5. Quit Registry Editor.

6. Restart the DNS server.

Data type Range
REG_DWORD 0x0 | 0x1 - 0xFFFFFFFF seconds Default value:0x15180 (86,400 seconds = 1 day)

You may see this behavior in Windows 2008, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008.

How to allow PPTP connections through a pre 6.3 firmware Cisco PIX!

Logon & enabled configuration, then use the following code! Remember to write the change to memory before testing.

access-list outside_access_in permit tcp any host (public-IP-of-VPN-server) eq pptp
access-list outside_access_in permit gre any host (public-IP-of-VPN-server)
access-group outside_access_in in interface outside

Setup failed to install the required component office 2007 interop

When installing BCM 2007 you may encounter an error "Setup failed to install the required component office 2007 interop". In my experience this has almost always been caused by an issue with Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs), which is the glue between Office and .NET applications.

Without going into the why this happens (it's way to long winded and boring, but you can read more on this blog). Here is the quick fix. Simply copy the application that you are trying to install to the %temp% folder (Start > Run > %temp%), and rerun the setup. The installation will pick up everything it needs to know about your .NET apps, and will complete nice and quickly!