So here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Install IIS. By default Vista doesn’t install Internet Information Server (IIS), even if you are running the Professional edition. Adding it is pretty simple, go to Control Panel and choose the option to “Turn Windows features On or Off”. Now, if you just turn IIS on, the default options don’t have all the features you need to run VS2005. The options I turned on are as follows (there may be a couple of extra ones, but it took some trial and error to get this right):

-> Web Management Tools
--> IIS 6 Management Compatibility
--->IIS Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility (not sure if you really need this one)
-->IIS Management Console
->World Wide Web Services
-->Application Development Features
--->CGI
--->ISAPI Extensions
-->Common Http Features
--->Default Document
--->Directory Browsing
--->HTTP Errors
--->Static Content
-->Health and Diagnostics
--->HTTP Logging
--->Request Monitor
-->Performance Features
--->Static Content Compression
-->Security
--->Windows Authentication (this is the important one)


Simple enough when you know which options to pick.

Step 2: Install VS2005. Before you install IIS, VS2005 won’t install properly. Well, you can install bits of it, but without the web console you won’t be able to create new VMs (which is all I really wanted to do). Anyway, one IIS is installed with the settings above, VS2005 will install successfully.

Step 3: Add more settings to IIS. If you thought you had your installation all sown up, you’re wrong. If you try running the administration console you’ll get the following error:

Basically, the HTTP Error 404.2 is just IIS telling you that the page you are requesting cannot be served because of the ISAPI and CGI Restriction list settings on the Web server. Running executables in IIS can give rise to quite a few nasty situations, so by default IIS won’t do it. You can change this configuration by going to the IIS administration console and in the Feature View for the root level there’s an option to modify ISAPI and CGI restrictions. I tried to add in the VS2005 executable, but just couldn’t get it to work. The only thing that worked was to choose “Edit Feature Settings” and Allow unspecified CGI and ISAPI modules. Now, if you’re just messing around, this is fine, but you need to realise that you’re blowing an enormous hole in IIS’ security like this. It’s fine if you’re just on a development machine, but you shouldn’t do this on a production box. But then .. you wouldn’t be using Vista there, would you …

Step 4: We’re almost there. The only thing you need to do now is rung the Virtual Server Administration website. BUT, it won’t run correctly unless you first run your browser as an Administrator. Now you know

Anyway, I hope the short walkthrough will save you some time in the long run. It was a pretty informative experience.

Looks pretty stable, you might want to try it out. There’s speculation around whether this is the pre-SP1 update.

So, I thought I’d give it a try. I headed down to the website. The first problem was the website detecting that I wasn’t running IE, or XP, which it was picking up from the UserAgent string (the identification attributes that browsers sent to web server to let them know what capabilities they have). The screen shot at the side shows the reported issues with downloading the application.

Luckily, this is quite easy to spoof, so I was quickly on my way downloading the package. I was all set to change the compatibility mode of the executables used by the application, but guess what .. it worked first time! (see screenshot)

I’ll keep you posted if I have any problems!

An interesting idea that Marketing Pilgrim put forward is that Microsoft will be dragging it’s feet on this service pack to try and get as many people hooked on it’s product set as possible. Originally SP1 was slated to be available later this year, but this announcement pushes it into the beginning of next year. Is Google really to blame? Or is Microsoft simply using this as an excuse to hide slippage on their SP1 release? Interesting .. the games big companies play.

I think it’s a great idea. It lets you use the OS for a restricted time, so you can still get your data off or run an upgrade if you need, but reduces the utility of the OS for any real jobs. Rebooting without warning may seem a bit mean, but users will be warned they are running an expired OS from a couple of weeks beforehand. The 2-hour window will continue for a couple of months after which those versions will be locked forever and just won’t work.

Quite a graceful exit path, I must say.

He describes how to solve the problem for both Home and Business/Enterprise/Ultimate editions. Didn’t realise that you’d need two different ways to do it. I suppose the Home edition comes without the admin tools you need to do things easily.

Enter Amnesty Generator. This little piece of freeware lets you use Gadgets from other sources on your Vista gadgetbar. Now you can place Google gadgets, Grazr RSS readers, YouTube videos and more onto your Sidebar.

I’ll give it a whirl and report back. Should be fun

It contains a vision of PC that will be avialable this year sporting Vista as the OS they ship with. There’s some nice designs in there. Wish I had all those to play with

So, first of all, what is the AppPatch folder that Vista uses. Well, it’s a folder where Windows stores a database of known DLL issues and their fixes. Here’s the official word on how Vista deals with Application Compatability:

Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003 resolve application compatibility problems by dynamically matching application problems with solutions. The matching mechanism is controlled by a dynamic-link library (DLL) that starts and runs the matching mechanism whenever a user installs or runs an application. However, the matching mechanism is transparent and does not significantly affect the performance of the operating system or installed applications.

The matching mechanism relies on several database files to match problems with solutions. The database files contain a list of applications that have known problems and instructions for resolving those problems. The database files are saved in the \systemroot\AppPatch folder in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003.

Okay, useful but I was no closer to getting the package running. Digging through Google a bit more I found 2 ways to deal with the problem:

The better solution:

1. Find the C:\Windows\AppPatch\AcGenral.dll file.
2. You need to have Administrator permission, AND do this first to claim your right back in Vista to modify the file…
   Right click on file Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner>Edit..>Other users..>Advanced..>Find Now>
   YOUR_ADMINISTOR_USER_ACCOUNT>OK> ok to all boxes.
3. Now rename this files to something as “1AcGenral.dll”.

The quick and dirty solution:

1. Rename \windows\appPatch to appPatchOLD

I tried the quick and dirty solution (knowing full well that this might affect Windows’ ability to automatically resolve application compatibility issues), but I wanted to see if I could get Beta up and running .. and

Voila’ The Venice Project Beta is now running! Have to run to work now, but I’ll give it a spin tonight and report on whether it’s any good!

Unfortunately my Vista box is out of action at the moment, so I can’t try it out. In practice, I’m not sure how this will work as busy feeds like Boing Boing or Slashdot will dominate the interface, while personal blogs, which may be more interesting, won’t be as apparent. The question is to how to address the noise to relevance ratio issue.