In my last session, I covered a rudimentary usage of XPERF to analyze my slow booting Dell with a SSD in it. The fix was simple and the problem stood out like a sore thumb. Resolution was as simple as setting the Ambient Light Service from Dell into an Automatic (delays start) state. But what… Continue reading Troubleshooting slow boot times, Part Deux
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The effects of Acoustic Management on rotational media disks.
So one of the trends I’ve been seeing in WDRAPs I’ve performed is that companies are making use of older hardware for newer tasks on a much more frequent basis than before. Budgets seem to mandate a 4-5 year (or longer) pc recycle timeframe and the net result of this is companies are running their… Continue reading The effects of Acoustic Management on rotational media disks.
To Hyper-Thread or not, that is the question….
So there was some discussion on an internal alias recently, like, well, this morning at 6 A.M….anyway, where we were talking about if having HT enabled was good or bad. Some of our performance aliases tend to equate a HT processor as 20-30% of a normal processor. It does give some benefit, but it also… Continue reading To Hyper-Thread or not, that is the question….
Anti-Virus Exclusions and You!
So there is some amount of confusion on what exclusions are needed for various Microsoft products. This blog is not necessarily meant to be a definitive list, but is a compilation, a list, of KB articles that point to the various products and their individual guidance on AV exclusions. A special shout-out to Aaron Ellison… Continue reading Anti-Virus Exclusions and You!
My first MDT 2010 post
So, I’ve been working on some MDT 2010 work for various customers for about six months or so, but I finally found something that struck me as sort of odd and blog-worthy. So I created this big long involved task sequence for a customer and they attempted to lay it down over some older server… Continue reading My first MDT 2010 post
Today I was a WSUS/IIS Engineer
And it wasn’t half bad. At this customer site I am at currently doing MDT 2010 deployment creation for a Windows Server 2008 R2 rollout, WSUS was breaking for the desktop deployment folks. WSUS was enabled on a Windows 2008 R2 server. The website couldn’t be accessed, giving a server 500 error. When I looked… Continue reading Today I was a WSUS/IIS Engineer
Why do I have long boot times? Pt 1
So one of the questions that comes to mind every now and then in technical circles (and outside as well) is “Why doesn’t it take so long for my machine to boot?”. Just what’s going on in there while these friendly, soothing graphics come up on the screen, and I wait and wait for a… Continue reading Why do I have long boot times? Pt 1
GUI Tool to collect ETW tracing, dumps, etc
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/e8649e35-26b1-4e73-b427-c2886a0705f4 So, check this out. It allows you to collect ETW tracing, dumps, all kinds of stuff. It does not work on Windows XP, but still, a handy little tool nonetheless.
SPA, not your typical freeware
In the Vital Signs workshop, we touch upon the tool SPA (Server Performance Advisor). This unsung hero of performance evaluation deserves some love, which is why I’m writing about it over 5 years after its last update was published and made available on the downloads site, here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61a41d78-e4aa-47b9-901b-cf85da075a73&displaylang=en So, Clint Huffman, creator of PAL, wrote… Continue reading SPA, not your typical freeware
On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again….
So I’m a PFE now, Premier Field Engineer. It’s an interesting gig, sort of like running your own company within Microsoft. I’m doing Platforms now, instead of Exchange. Trying to keep the mind limber and all. So far I’ve been doing shadowing of other PFEs as they do things like Active Directory Risk Assessments and… Continue reading On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again….