Vista
Convener: Rich McGee
Note Taker: Rich McGee
Participants
Rich McGee rmcgee@csusb.edu
Mason Long mason@humboldt.edu
Dylan McClintock dylan.mcclintock@csueastbay.edu
Thuthu Tonnu thuthu.tonnu@csueastbay.edu
Dennis Tilford dwtilford@csupomona.edu
Patrick Wechire pminor@sjsu.edu
Larry Coolidge lcoolidg@calpoly.edu
Thinh Ly tly@csusb.edu
Session notes:
Background of the Session
Microsoft has announced that they will cease selling XP/Pro within the next few months. This means that one way or another, we’re all eventually going to have to deal with Vista. But XP will remain supported until 2012.
The purpose of this CATS meeting was to discuss with other techs what each campus plans to do with Vista, and hopefully help us all to avoid “re-inventing the wheel” when we come across similar problems.
The KMS Server
The CSU system, in an apparent effort to shave costs, purchased a key managed version of Windows Vista Enterprise. This means that most techs will never see a product license key. Instead, the Key Management Server (KMS) keeps track of the software licenses, and actually activates Vista. But the KMS won’t distribute a single Vista license until you have at least 25 copies actually running! And every few weeks (at least), each copy will “phone home” back to the KMS and re-authorize the product. This means that during periods of light use (i.e. holiday breaks) it is possible for licensed copies of Vista to ‘fall off’ the KMS server, since the server now sees less than 25 copies. Microsoft promises a fix in mid April that is supposed to avoid the activation problems, but I’ve checked, and this will have no effect upon the CSU’s KMS licensing plan or how it functions.
The DNS has to see the KMS in order to activate Vista. This could cause problems for faculty laptops, or for those who rely upon an external DNS server. Most campuses are not resolving the KMS off-campus (Vista is primarily for campus-owned machines) so faculty may have to bring their machines back on campus every so often to re-activate their license.
Issues! We’ve got Issues!
Several CATS participants reported horror stories about installing Vista Service Pack 1. Their advice is to avoid it unless you really need it. I installed it (It patches over 530 issues), and had zero ill effects.
One tech from CSU San Bernardino reported several problems with Intel Macs running Vista in a virtual environment under Parallels. Switching to BootCamp cured the problem. Eventually his system would be corrupted. Some people in the CATS group think this may be caused by having too many invisible user profiles, which are created each time a new user logs in.
Store your “My Documents” and mail files on a different partition, just for ease of backup. Plus, if you lose your primary partition, the user’s mail and docs can be more easily restored. You do have a backup plan in place, right? Has it been tested recently? Backup before installing Vista, please!
Two people reported that the latest Vista updates literally broke the backup subsystem. See the previous paragraph.
Vista training is expensive! SDSU spent $20,000 to send 8 people for a week’s worth of training.
If we’re still going to roll back new Vista machines to XP (Most campuses are doing this), how long will the new hardware support the old XP drivers?
Some applications simply do not work under Vista! Yes, there is *supposed to be* a compatibility mode (Found under the program/properties tab) for previous Windows versions, but this seems buggy.
Use “DeepFreeze” to capture a Vista image. Several CATS participants use this product, and it works very well.
The CSU Vista license is an upgrade version only. It requires a valid Microsoft operating system to already be in place. FreeDos is NOT a legal base OS. If you need to purchase an OS to upgrade to Vista, purchase Microsoft home. Install it, then upgrade immediately. (I would never recommend you use MS-Home for anything useful).
(Feel free to use/modify)
By Rich McGee
rmcgee@csusb.edu
Yes, we know many techs prefer to do a "clean" upgrade to Vista, including reformatting the drive. But if someone in your office insists on upgrading their workstation from XP/Pro to Vista, this document should help.
Before You Do Anything Else
It is critical that you know that the workstation you are about to upgrade will be compatible with Vista. So before you begin a Vista installation, you need to be sure of a few things:
1. Does your machine meet the minimum specs for Vista? I wouldn't try it on less than 2gb of RAM.
2. Can your graphics card handle Aero, the 3D display interface? (Without Aero, Vista will run, but it will be lacking some very nice screen layout options)
3. Do you have a CD and/or DVD drive?
4. Have you fully updated and patched MS-Office?
5. Have you fully patched your machine's OS, via the Windows Update program? What about BIOS updates?
6. Are you aware that Vista only supports I.E. Version 7? This could effect users who must access PeopleSoft? . And the version 7 of I.E. which comes with Vista is not the same version as the XP upgrade.
7. Download and run the Microsoft Vista Upgrade Adviser.
8. Examine the Upgrade Adviser reports, and attempt to resolve as many hardware and software conflicts as possible. Remember: Vista cannot be uninstalled once installation has finished. Once you commit to running Vista, you must either remain with it, or re-format the drive and re-install XP/Pro. There is a "rollback to previous operating system" option, but this can only be used if the upgrade fails.
9. Some programs, like display managers, VPN, 3rd party firewalls, etc. have Vista-specific versions. Please do not install these until your initial Vista installation has completed.
10. Remove/uninstall as many of your startup programs as possible. Try to get your XP system as close to "stock" as you can. This means that any 3rd party program which runs at startup should be removed.
11. On many systems, the "ROXIO" series of CD software causes the installation to fail. This is NOT documented in any Microsoft publication! If your upgrade doesn't work (System cannot start without error messages) roll back to XP, de-install all the Roxio products, and try again.
12. Don't forget that that CSU uses a key-management system to activate Vista, in addition to the installation serial number. This KMS must "check in" with the client every few weeks, or Vista will go into "limited functionality mode", and you will be unable to access most Vista functions. The Wiki page does have a Vista application count - the campus requires at least 25 Vista machines to keep the license server functioning. If this count drops below 25, you cannot activate your machine. Contact Keith Castillo in ACM if this happens to you.
Before Starting the Upgrade
1. Back up your files. This is not optional. You really need to perform a backup, and verify it (some of us found this part out the hard way), before you proceed. Vista is new, and although it underwent the most sweeping beta program in the history of Windows, there may be undocumented incompatibilities galore. An operating system upgrade isn't something to take lightly; it could, potentially, hose your hard drive.
Use your favorite backup program to back up virtually everything that you can't restore from installation media. You don't necessarily have to create a full system backup—although it's not a bad idea—as long as you make backups of things like finance spreadsheets, office documents and so on. If you're an Outlook user, at least back up all the ".PST" files.
2. Purge your system. Next, get rid of anything you don't need. Uninstall applications you haven't opened in the past year and will never use again. Run Disk Cleanup and do away with stuff like temporary files and installation files for updates. Check your download folders for installation files of programs you installed long ago. Consider archiving data that you haven't used in some time to removable media such as writeable DVDs, and then removing it from your system's hard drive. If you haven't cleaned up your hard drive in a while, this is the perfect time to do so.
3. Uninstall your antivirus program. Some antivirus programs have issues with system upgrades, including installing a new operating system. Even if you're absolutely sure your antivirus program is Windows Vista–compatible, uninstall (or at least disable) it before you proceed. If you know it's not Vista compatible, get rid of it entirely. Then, once Vista is installed, re-install your campus antivirus software. Disable other security applications, like antispyware and third-party firewalls. Better yet, uninstall them cleanly. 4. Defrag the hard drive(s). Even if you don't believe in defragmenting hard drives on a regular basis, you should perform a defrag before you start the Vista setup program. After a serious purge, there are sure to be plenty of gaps in the file system and at least some program fragmentation. Make your drive neat and orderly to roll out the carpet for the new OS.
5. Plug in your external devices. If you've got anything connected with a USB cable, plug those in before beginning the upgrade.
6. Research any third party products you are not sure of. It is better to know you have software that Vista approves of before you begin the upgrade, right?
Start the Upgrade
Critical Note: Don't boot the Windows Vista DVD to perform an in-place upgrade; it won't work. You have to run the Setup program from within Windows XP.
After a few seconds, the upgrade splash screen should appear. Select the option "Keep existing files", or else your hard drive will be reformatted, and your data will be lost!
The Vista upgrade usually takes from 90 to 120 minutes. Your system will be rebooted at least once during the installation process. It may also appear to "hang" for prolonged periods of time.
Service Pack 1
In late March, Microsoft released SP1, the first service pack for Vista. It specifically applies over 530 updates, and takes about an hour to install. The IS Office strongly recommends that all Vista users apply this update as soon as possible. It isn't available yet as an automatic update. Instead, go to http://www.microsoft.com/vista and type "Vista SP1" in the search box. Microsoft recommends that you manually download and apply this patch, but please search the web for the terms "Vista SP1". You will find hundreds, if not thousands of horror stories where people have documented that the installation of SP1 broke their system, badly.
My Own Upgrade Story
My department (ISO) purchased a new Dell Optiplex 745 for me last fall. This machine was "Vista Certified", and carried all the Microsoft stickers. Microsoft no longer issues those stickers, and I found out why.
First, the Upgrade Adviser told me I had just a few software issues: "Microsoft Step by Step Training" (Which I couldn't find installed anywhere), and my SoundMax? sound card driver wasn't certified for Vista. Everything else passed the pre-installation test, including my graphics card.
I started the installation process, and told Vista I wished to keep my existing files. About an hour later, the system said that the install had completed, and it was 'getting ready to start Vista for the first time'.
Nothing happened.
Instead of the Vista splash screen, I received a message saying "Windows cannot be started normally", followed by a list of boot options (Safe mode, Safe with Network Support, etc). I tried each of those, and none of them worked.
I then booted from the installation CD, and tried the "Restore a damaged file system" option. While it could see my hard drive, it appeared to hang after about 12 hours of doing nothing. When I checked the error logs, they were fill of useless information. None of the logs pointed to any specific problem.
So I rebooted my PC and selected the option "Roll back to previous OS". 45 minutes later, I had XP running fine again.
I rebooted, and attempted another re-install. Same situation, same results. Another rollback to XP.
Since I was installing to my account as a domain administrator, I wondered if that might have something to do with it (Perhaps a Group Policy Setting?). So I installed again as a stand-alone administrator. Nothing. Another try, another rollback. This was day 3.
I then started searching the web for "Vista Installation Failure". I found hundreds (or more) of stories where people have given up Vista, and elected to remain with XP/Pro. By this time, I was considering joining them.
Suddenly, in a non-Microsoft blog, I saw something hopeful: Someone had posted that their copy of Roxio CD Creator V5.2 didn't allow Vista to install. That was the same version shipped with my machine! Since I don't use Roxio anyway, I quickly deleted it, and retried the installation once again.
Two hours later, I had Vista. And it was good. Very good, actually. If you've ever used a Macintosh, Vista appears very close to OS/X Tiger. Everything pretty much worked as advertised, except for a few minor details.
I downloaded and installed Vista SP 1, about 63 mb worth of patches. They went in without incident, a fact I'm happy to say.
After I had everything working again, I started to test my hardware. The sound card works (I can hear playback audio) but the external mic wasn't working. I re-installed the Vista drivers from Dell - nothing. Finally I performed a manual Microsoft update, and the sound card came back to life.
E-Trust (My school anti-virus solution) installed fine, but the Cisco VPN software did not. I installed the latest version (V5.00.034), and it worked fine after a reboot. But when I logged into the VPN, it said there was an upgrade available. That's where my problem started.
Some Issues
1. Automatic updates are not currently working for Vista at my campus. We suspect that the SuS? application used to push back updates has not yet been updated/configured for Vista. Manual updates work fine, however.
2. Hibernate, don't power off Microsoft recommends this as the preferred method of powering down your machine for the evening. It is much faster than a shutdown/restart
3. ZoneLabs and Vista do not play well together. At least the ZoneLabs Pro version does not.
4. Some startup programs must be manually started, every time you reboot. If you have installed any type of program that starts a process on machine boot, Vista will literally block its execution. Instead, you will see a dialog box asking if you want to run this program, and suggesting that you write to the software developer for a Vista-ready version.
5. There are two types of "run" options with a right-click: run, and run as administrator. There is a huge difference between these two.
6. Several of the CATS participants indicated that Vista would not map to an XP system's shared hard drive, due to security issues.
7. BitLocker can be a nightmare. If a user secures their hard drive with BitLocker , there is literally no known way to recover their data without the password. ThuThu from SDSU says that her campus got around this by making a GPO change, and storing the password for BitLocker on an active directory server.
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