Discoveries in Windows Vista 5824

[longhornwhistler]

Ok. I kept the OEM folder, got it installed and found a few pretty interesting things.

#1 MCPerfmon, which seems to be kind of a "registration" software for this build. In User Info, you have to enter a Microsoft email, and in Machine Type, you have to choose how you will use the build.
In the window it says:

The user responsible for this machine is:
*Fill this in*@microsoft.com

If you will use Media Center like a real-life customer please select one of these:
- TAKEHOME - MS eHome employees only
- SELFHOST - Employees of Microsoft that are not in eHome

If you will use this machine for testing, development, or stress, please select one of these:
- TEST - General test\development\stress machine.
- RWTB - This machine is on the Real World Test Bench

Then you click update and it asks you to restart your VM.



#2 The desktop already has items on it that I have never heard of. These include ehSpy (which has the media center icon from XP), EasyDriver x64, 2006 Fall TV folder, MceTools folder, MCX support info folder, and PinConfig. However, only ehSpy shows up when you add another user.



#3 VMWare Tools does work in this build however, it will set the BIOS date back to the present so you will need to set it back again and remove the timebomb somehow.

EDIT: After a couple of tries I got slmgr -rearm to work to reset the evaluation which eliminated the need to set the BIOS date back.

#4 The root of the hard drive is full of goodies such as notes on the Take Home Program, and TweakMCE.


Probably more to come later as I literally just got it installed. And it probably goes without saying, but don't remove the $OEM$ folder unless you ABSOLUTELY have to. You could be missing out on a lot of goodies.

[ovctvct]

Wow.. shame I deleted $OEM$ folder... BTW try upgrading from XP to this build and see what happens

Also, you don't need to set the date back - it has no timebomb.

[longhornwhistler]

Wow.. shame I deleted $OEM$ folder... BTW try upgrading from XP to this build and see what happens

Also, you don't need to set the date back - it has no timebomb.

I'll do that XD

[XDude]

You installed the MS internal debugging tools and drivers. The OEM files aren't actually part of the build itself (not in install.wim). They are installed separated in post setup like all customized installation.

[longhornwhistler]

I just found something about the install in the Take Home Program Notes that you will probably want to know.

DVD Installation Dialog Options:
o SKU to install - select which edition of Windows Vista will be installed on your system (Home Premium or Ultimate). If you are setting up for use with OCUR, you will need to obtain a secondary product key from http://mspkd (see below).

o Computer name - specify a computer name for the system. Do not enter a machine name with blanks in the name.

o Run machine OOBE? – This check box allows you to specify whether or not to run the initial Windows Vista 2' out-of-box experience (OOBE) when the OS boots for the first time. Machine OOBE is a wizard interface that asks you some questions in order to configure your system for first use. Examples of questions asked during machine OOBE are machine name, user accounts, time zone the system is located in, whether or not to enable daylight savings time adjustments for the system clock, and so forth.

o Run OS Setup Manually – will walk you through a complete manually install process. It is important to know that if you select this, none of the MCE tools will be installed to the hard drive and there will be no desktop shortcuts. To manually setup the tools, run %systemdrive%\install\mcprep.cmd from an elevated command prompt, after OS install is complete.

Also, in this paragraph it states that there are "Diamond" and "Emerald" builds. Any idea what this refers to?

Creating System Partitions for New Take-home Systems


To install the OS Installation DVD on a new system, you will need to first format and partition your drive during Windows Setup by doing a manual setup and then choosing the Advanced button on the drive installation screen.



Current Diamond builds may be unstable, and you may wish to configure your system for dual boot, one partition for Diamond and another for your content and Emerald.



The recommended configuration for take home systems is a C: system partition with 30GB of space, and a D: partition with the remainder of the free space on the system. You can use the D: partition for Emerald and/or to store your music, TV, photo, and video content. With this partitioning, data on D: will be preserved when installing future take home builds since only the C: partition will be formatted.

[Win7]

Also, in this paragraph it states that there are "Diamond" and "Emerald" builds. Any idea what this refers to?

"Diamond" and "Emerald" are Media Center codenames – I assume they're respectively Windows Media Center 6.0 and the then-upcoming Windows Media Center 2005 Update Roll-up.

Win7

[ShadixAced]

Hey,
I'm actually using it, the "CGPerfmon" thing couldn't install due to privilege problems.

EDIT: VMWare Tools is finished. It's actually working with the rearm option, and running fine.