Windows links

Setting up a new Windows 7 installation

  • set TEMP variables to C:\temp
  • set page file to fixed size
  • disable hibernation file
  • install Dropbox
  • put TotalCommander in task bar
  • install Firefox
  • change explorer settings: show extensions, show hidden/system files
  • increase keyboard rate
  • install Lightroom
  • add script to startup that cleans TEMP folder

Backup

Open source backup software

Anti-virus

AVG free edition
Avast! Home Edition, free, requires registration

System tools

Device Doctor, find missing and updated device drivers (not tested yet)
Whoami, show name of machine on desktop
JkDefrag, freeware defragger, very good
Total Commander, absolutely brilliant replacement for Explorer
Booting Windows from a USB stick
EasyBCD, alternative bootloader
DAEMON Tools, iso mounter
Ultimate Boot CD, boot CD containing lots of system utilities (ie. imaging software, undelete, more)
CrossLoop, free remote desktop software
Secunia Software Inspector, inspects installed software and tells if updates are available
Driver Sweeper, clean up old drivers
CCleaner, clean up your system
DriverMax, export and import drivers
PC Decrapifier, removes all kind of trialware and adware from OEM installed computers
SelfImage, open source hard drive imaging utility (part of the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows)
BlackBox, deliver precise details on the core components (not tested)

Network tools

WirelessKeyView: recover lost wireless network keys, works like a charm!

Command shell

Some tips, redirecting stdout into an evironment variable and %~dp0

Thunderbird

migrating to another machine

Firefox

migrating to another machine

PuTTY

migrating to another machine

PDF

CurePDF Writer, free PDF writer, installs as a virtual printer

Graphics

IcoFX, free icon editor
Pixia, free graphics editor
Photoshop Express, online photo editing
Paint.NET, small and free graphics editor, Paint replacement
ShiftN, straighten photos with buildings

Virtualization

Xen, open source virtualization

VMware

5-1-2008: Tested VMware Server 1.0.4 on WinXP with WinXP. The install of WinXP on the VM was pretty quick. At first the frame rate was pretty horrible, I really wouldn't like the idea of actually working on such a virtual machine. But after installing VMware tools, it was much better. Still not perfect though, there were still many visual hiccups, for example when opening the start menu or when dragging a window. VMware Player 2.0.2 played the created VM perfectly, the GUI was much more responsive. However it seemed not possible so change the iso image for the CD as the Player was running. It's possible to change the amount of memory the VM uses in the Troubleshoot menu. It's not possible in the Player to change important settings like if the network card should be enabled, etc. The Player can't take snapshot, but it has a very cool feature: it can store the complete state of the VM on exit, so when you start the VM again, it doesn't need to boot.
The VM's disk can't grow beyond the limit set when creating the VM.

EasyVMX!, virtual machine creator for VMware
How to create a virtual machine for VMware Player
VMmanager, Open Source tool for creating VMs that can be used by VMware Player
VMX Builder (search for it on the page), GUI to create VMs that can be used by VMWare Player

Virtual PC

5-1-2008: Tested Virtual PC 2007. Disk image is compressed like with VMware. Disk image is not able to shrink or grow, like VMware. It's possible to mount an iso image as CD drive when the VM is running. GUI responsiveness is great, audio has some hiccups (but there is audio!). Sharing folders is easy, a shared folder becomes a drive mapping on the VM. Changing system settings when the VM is running works great. Disabling and enabling the network is no problem, is picked up correctly by the Windows XP VM. You can't chose how many processors the VM has, it seems to just access the actual configuration of the host machine. The amount of memory can be set. When a VM is closed you have the option to save the state. This takes a couple of seconds (VMware is way faster), but works properly. The state is saved in a separate file next to the virtual machine configuration file (.vmc). Copying a VM can simply be done by copying the complete folder structure of that VM.
A very nice feature of Virtual PC is that when WinXP is installed as guest OS, the resolution of the desktop is automatically set to whatever fits in the window of Virtual PC. So no more annoying scrollbars you have to use to reach the borders of the screen of your VM.

Installing Ubuntu 7.10 Under Virtual PC 2007

VirtualBox

Multiplatform virtualization, partially free. It should be possible to use the same machine on both Windows and Linux (haven't tried that yet). Installation on Windows is a breeze, so is setting up a new VM. It supports growing disk images so you won't be missing a big chunk of your hard disk space from the start. I tried to install Ubuntu Server on it. The installation worked fine (even network worked with the default settings of both VirtualBox and Ubuntu), but I got an error on the first boot: PANIC: CPU too old for this kernel. It appears that VirtualBox is not supporting PAE yet, and Ubuntu Server expects it to be present. This article explains how that can be fixed, it's not too much work. After that it worked fine. When the VM is running, the state can be saved, this means you don't need to fully boot the VM everytime you need it. Restoring the state is really fast. It also supports snapshots. Diffs between the current state and the last snapshot are stored so it's very easy and fast to return to a snapshot. This is much better than Virtual PC which only supports snapshots by manually making a complete copy of the whole VM including disk images. However, VirtualBox can't branch snapshots, you can only revert to a previous snapshot.
Initially the network is setup as NAT, which means that the VM can access the internet, but it's not possible to access the machine through the network. To make the VM a genuine part of your network, create a host interface in the network settings of the VM, change the network to use the host interface and bridge the host interface and your actual network connection. When the VM is started, it will become a real member of your network and you can access it using the machine's name. However, on my Windows installation the host interface would constantly display a disconnected network in the system tray and I could not turn that off, very annoying. Make sure your firewall allows traffic to and from the VM. In ZoneAlarm I had to add the VM as Host/Site to the trusted zone.
It appears that when running Ubuntu server as guest OS, saving and restoring the state will result in a clock that's not synchronized to the clock of the host PC. Running a cron job that synchronizes with NTP every couple of minutes will fix this.
When WinXP is installed as guest OS and the VirtualBox guest additions have been installed, the resolution of the guest's desktop will be adjusted to the window size of the VM, just like VirtualPC, very nice.

RAM disk

Free RAM disk

Benchmark

HD Tune, harddisk benchmark

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