Question:

Hi

I don’t know if i am in the right forum - but no doubt you will tell me if I am not!

I have just loaded Windows Vista Home Premium from a clean boot but it will not allow me to load software and programs from a CD. I get the error message :-

“To install software you must have Administrator rights. Please log in as Administrator and start the install again.”

I AM the Administrator, I have not changed any settings since loading Vista - in fact I have re-loaded it but get the same message.

I cannot find anywhere that I can log in as Adminstrator.

Have you any ideas please or can you suggest a help site? I tried Microsoft but they want £40 minimum. - Lovely guy Bill Gates!

Thanks
Keith

Answer:

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My server has been randomly freezing ever since I upgraded the memory. So, I wanted to run a memory test. For some reason, my bootable copy of Memtest x86+ wasn’t working… probably because it’s scratched from the awful way I stored it.

Anyway, off I went to burn a new bootable ISO. Vista can burn DVDs, but I don’t know of any way to burn a bootable DVD. Of course, the tool I normally use–Roxio (it was on my Dell when I bought it, with Windows XP)–wouldn’t work in Vista. So, I was off to find a new tool to burn bootable CD/DVD images.

I found three free tools that work with Vista:

• DeepBurner. The free version works great. This is the one I ended up using.
• ImgBurn. Another free tool reported to work.
• Magic ISO Maker. A more robust tool for coverting, editing, and burning CD/DVD image files.

If you prefer a different tool, add a comment to let us know why.

Your computer is bogged down, so you open Task Manager and check the processes tab. There’s the culprit: Svchost.exe. Svchost.exe represents many different services, however, so it doesn’t really tell you what’s causing the problem.

In Windows Vista, you can easily determ determine which specific service is using resources. Just follow these steps:

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Lots of weird problems happen if you’re low on disk space–programs randomly fail, the operating system can seem unreliable, and you might lose work because you can’t save it.

Just like Windows XP, Windows Vista includes the Disk Cleanup Wizard. To use the Disk Cleanup Wizard to free up space, follow these steps:

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If you need to edit your Start menu, just right-click the Start button, and then click Explore (to edit programs for just your user account) or Explore All Users (to edit programs for all user accounts).

The files that make up your Start menu and the groups are stored in a different location than they were in Windows XP. Programs installed for all users are now at:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Programs installed just for your user account are at:

C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\

Programs listed in both locations show up in your Start menu.

Gone. (Well, it’ll still be there if you have an earlier version of Windows installed. If you’re just running Vista, it’s gone.)

Microsoft has replaced the Boot.ini file with the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) registry file. It’s no longer a text file, so you can’t edit it directly. Instead, it’s a proprietary format like the registry.

Read this article if you want to change startup settings. If your computer won’t start, don’t sweat it. Follow these steps to run Startup Repair.
For more information, read Chapter 30 (which I wrote!) of the Windows Vista Resource Kit. Also check out the BCD FAQ and read the Boot Configuration Data in Windows Vista Word document.

The BCD registry file controls which operating system installation starts and how long the boot manager waits before starting Windows. Basically, it’s like the Boot.ini file in earlier versions of Windows. If you need to edit it, the easiest way is to use the Startup And Recovery tool from within Vista. Just follow these steps:

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Ever have a friend ask you computer problems? Sometimes, it would just be easier if you could take over their desktop so you could see the problem yourself or even fix it… Like your company’s computer guy would say, “MOVE!”

If you use Windows Live Messenger in Windows Vista, you can offer Remote Assistance to the remote user. With Remote Assistance, you can watch their desktop (if the user allows it), or even control their desktop (again, with their permission).

While instant messaging them, press the Alt key to make the menu bar appear. Then, click the Actions menu, and click Offer remote assistance.

After that, the person you’re helping will be prompted to allow you to view their desktop. Just follow the prompts. Windows Vista Remote Assistance also includes some very cool improvements to help Remote Assistance work through firewalls–namely NAT traversal using Teredo and IPv6. If you’re interested in how it works, check out this video.

Windows XP included several security templates (.inf files that represent a computer’s security configuration), but Windows Vista includes none. Want some? Download and install the Windows Vista Security Guide.

The Windows Vista Security Guide includes several templates:

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Via Lifehacker, here’s a useful Web page providing an introduction to batch files. I’m posting it because I’m constantly amazed at how many very competent Windows users and even administrators don’t know how to use batch files–even though they’re one of the best ways to automate repetitive tasks. For example, I use batch files to update my iPod, process my Web server logs, perform specialized backups, and synchronize files between computers on my network.

Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and earlier versions of Windows used proprietary .ADM files to store custom Group Policy settings. Windows Vista provides similar functionality using .ADMX files, which are XML-based.

Windows Vista provides limited support for .ADM files (they appear under Classic Administrative Templates in the Group Policy Object Editor). You don’t need to worry about migrating the standard .ADM files provided by Microsoft to Windows Vista, because those are already built-in. If you created custom .ADM files, however, you can migrate them to Windows Vista using a free tool called ADMX Migrator, which was developed by FullArmor. ADMX Migrator is available from the Microsoft Download Center and can be installed on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 1), and Windows XP (with Service Pack 2). It provides both graphical and command-line interfaces.

Notepad is still one of my most commonly used applications. Alberto Escobedos provides instructions for replacing Notepad with Notepad2, a free download. Notepad2 provides more sophisticated editing, it opens large files MUCH MUCH faster, and it deals with special characters much better.

Alberto provided high-level instructions that are perfect for IT guys. Here are my slightly more explicit instructions, for those who want the upgraded Notepad but might not be familiar with changing permissions:

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You can uninstall most programs by opening Control Panel and then clicking Uninstall a program (under Programs). Oddly, not all programs are listed there.

MyUninstaller is a free tool for removing software that might not be listed. I needed it because I was trying to install Office 2007 and it gave me an awful error message about having needing to uninstall a beta version of Office 2007–but none were installed, and none of the software I needed to remove was showing up in the Uninstall A Program window. MyUninstaller did list some incompatible components (I have no idea how it got installed) and launched the uninstaller for me.
Thanks to Scott Hanselman for pointing me to this tool.

In Windows Vista, administrators can stage drivers to the Driver Store. Once a driver is in the Driver Store, any user can install the driver without providing administrative privileges or responding to a UAC prompt.

Cool stuff if you’re in IT. If you’re planning to deploy Vista computers and you want to stage drivers so they’re accessible to users after the client computers are setup, use the “Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system” (affectionately known as “BDD 2007“). I helped write some of the docs for that project.

If you want to stage drivers after clients are setup, you can use a script with the PnPUtil.exe command (included with Vista). Here’s the usage information:

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To quickly copy the full path of a file to your clipboard, hold down the Shift key, right click a file, and then click Copy as Path. The full path to the file is placed on your clipboard.

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