Windows Vista: June 2007 Archives

Not long ago I posted about using the Reliability and Performance Monitor tool to figure out where all that disk-bashing was coming from in Vista.  After some feedback from people "in the wild" and some work on my own, I've found the two biggest sources of unexpected disk activity are:

1. The defrag application running in the background, and
2. Volume Shadow Services.

The latter is the one most people are not immediately aware of.  I've noticed that VSS kicks in on a notebook when you bring it up out of hibernation or sleep mode, and it's been off for a long enough period of time that a new shadow copy repository is about due to be created.  When this happens, you see a lot of disk activity that doesn't seem to be related to anything -- and, as I've found, if you start doing regular work with the computer, it doesn't seem to affect performance very much, since VSS runs at a lower I/O priority than most other things.  (The same goes for defrag.)

Here's how I figured it out: the next time I fired up my notebook and saw the disk bashing, I used the R&PM to single out disk activity and sort it by writes, and looked at the File column.  Sure enough, the file in question was one of the shadow-copy repositories (found in the hidden C:\System Volume Information directory).  You could turn off System Restore to prevent this behavior, but to me, that's kind of self-defeating -- especially since System Restore and shadow copies have saved my bacon more than a few times.

As it turns out, the scheduling for how System Restore runs is now controlled in Vista by -- you guessed it -- the Task Scheduler.  A default task is created for creating System Restore points, and I'm going to look into seeing if there's some way to tweak how it's triggered so that it works better with my particular habits.

An oft-raised complaint about Vista is that if you want to do any detailed work in the Program Files directory (such as deleting or moving things around), you get bombarded with UAC prompts.  Here's one way to work around that: create a shortcut that opens an elevated instance of Explorer, which you can then place in your Quick Launch or Start menu as needed.

1. Right-click somewhere (on the Desktop is fine) and select New | Shortcut.
2. In the item location text box, type %SystemRoot%\explorer.exae "c:\program files"
3. Click Next.  Type a descriptive name, like Program Files (Admin).
4. Click Finish.
5. Right-click on the new shortcut and select Properties.
6. In the Shortcut tab, click Advanced.
7. Check the Run As Administrator box and click OK.
8. Click OK to close the main Properties dialog.

That's all there is to it.  Run it, and you'll get one UAC confirmation, and then an Explorer window that opens directly onto the Program Files directory.  From there on you can do everything you need without being pestered repeatedly.  (If you want to use another directory name, just substitute it for Program Files in step 2.)

(Note: I generally have the Explorer option "Launch folder windows in a separate process" turned on.  I don't think that should affect the behavior of this tip, though.)

(Note #2: This is also a great way to do a lot of work in the Control Panel -- for instance, in the network configuration section -- without being interrupted. Just remember to close that instance of Explorer when you're done.)

(Note #3: If you already have other instances of Explorer open, or a "lingering" instance of Explorer.exe open in the Task Manager [one without an attendant window], close those first!)

Ed Bott made a point that I have a hard time disagreeing with: Where are the Vista Ultimate Extras?  Nowhere, evidently.

Part of the reason he has been unhappy about the Extras thing is because they, in theory, represent a fair part of the pricetag for Vista Ultimate -- not BitLocker, not the Vista backup tool (which despite having full-system backup and restore is annoyingly crippled in wholly arbitrary ways that have nothing to do with withholding features from lesser-paying customers or anything like that), but the stuff that MS hasn't even published yet and which they are charging Ultimate users a premium for.  Heck, I'm an MSDN subscriber and I get to use Ultimate in my lab without having to shell out for the full price, but even I can see this is disingenuous.

So where are they?  I have a few theories.

1. They're still in the process of being doped out, and Microsoft is being as secretive as possible about them.  Somehow, this does not square with what I know about Microsoft -- they have a harder time keeping secrets than almost anyone else in their position that I know of.  Not because they're bad about doing so, but because they want to generate buzz.  (I'm willing to believe they have an easier time keeping their silence about this than something truly major like Windows Home Server, but it still doesn't square with what I know about them as a whole.)
2. They just haven't been written yet.  Sadly, I have the feeling this is the most likely theory.  They simply do not yet exist in any form -- or they had earlier editions of Extras that were discarded because they simply didn't meet their own expectations.

For me, right now, the Extras that do exist are wasted.  Hold 'Em Poker -- well, I'm no poker player, so strike that.  Dreamscene?  My machine's video hardware can barely deal with it (part of the reason I'm getting a new machine next year).  BitLocker?  On my notebook, it's useful, sure but not my desktop -- and on my notebook it's a terrible pain to work with in the first place since my notebook doesn't support booting from USB (which is mainly how it's implemented on a non-TPM system), so I have to punch in this massive PIN number to boot it each time if I want to use it.

Maybe they're waiting for Christmas.