I forgot about Windows Update?

No I did not.

I scheduled a task to import a set of boot entries that boot up the parent vhd instead of the differencing vhd.

While booted into the parent vhd, I can do all the necessary updates. After that, I import a set of boot entries that boot up to a WinPE ramdisk.




In WinPe, I have a custom script just to generate a new updated differencing disk for use in the next boot up. I need to do this in WinPE as I wasn't able to generate the differencing disk while booted in the parent vhd because of "...the process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process..".

All these are cumberson, and I hope this "home-made" disk protection will not be the permanent solution for us. As we all know, there is still some performance hit even though not always noticeable by the users.

And I don't get it why MS is still asking us to help them "collect specific feedback", shouldn't they be revisiting why they came out with Shared Computer Toolkit and Windows SteadyState? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/philosophy.mspx . Have they begun to doubt their own belief ?

C'mon MS... show us you are wiser than that.


References
http://blogs.technet.com/michw/attachment/3270048.ashx


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766521(WS.10).aspx

What will be at stake to MS for not releasing Windows SteadyState for Windows 7?

MS risk riling not only people from schools or libraries but also other profitmaking organizations as revealed by the poll on this blog.


These people form a geopgraphically dispersed groups of users from 42 countries/territories .






Really hope MS will think right and make a respectable decision.

WIM2VHD - More reason for can't wait ..

If so far you have only known of the straight path of getting Windows Virtual PC.. getting Windows XP Mode...install all your apps in XP Mode then that wouldn't be very interesting right ?

However, you now have a more attractive option :

1.) Using your existing Windows XP imagex WIM image to create a VHD by WIM2VHD

2.) Install just Windows Virtual PC

3.) Create a virtual machine with the VHD created in step 1

4.) Install Integration Components and RemoteApp.

Now people can use the three modes of Windows XPM.


So what are you still waiting ? For me I am going ahead before 2010 :)



Please note though this is only a valid option if you have hardware support for virtualization.



References

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wim2vhd
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681616(WS.10).aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/windows_vpc/archive/2009/08/27/three-modes-of-windows-xp-mode.aspx

Windows 7 compatibility with Steadystate?

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprosecurity/thread/0110d93c-eea5-4da9-9eea-d97ff88bff0e


Let's all poll here so that MS can "collect specific feedback" and make it a New Year resolution to release SteadyStae for Windows 7 :D

Will there be SteadyState Support for Windows 7?

So far as of October we only have this disappointment :

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/windowssteadystate/thread/8ddff48e-aa90-4bf3-9b5a-4b11b02906bb

However, there are still things we can do about it in the meantime while hoping :D
Windows 7 support native VHD boot and we can actually make use of this cool new technology to implement a “home-made” Windows SteadyState for Windows 7.

1. Install Windows 7 to boot by VHD. Use a filename of d:\w7.vhd.



2. Create a startup script like the following, the whole idea is to create a differencing disk for the NEXT reboot while booting up the current copy of differencing disk. This script can then be added to the startup group policy.

If exist d:\2 goto next2
bcdedit /import d:\boot1.bcd
del d:\diff1.vhd

diskpart /s d:\create1.txt
del d:\1
echo 2 > d:\2
goto end
:next2
bcdedit /import d:\boot2.bcd
del d:\diff2.vhd
diskpart /s d:\create2.txt
del d:\2
echo 1 > d:\1
:end

3. Create the create1.txt and create2.txt diskpart script files as following.

create1.txt file content: create vdisk file=d:\diff1.vhd parent=d:\w7.vhd
create2.txt file content: create vdisk file=d:\diff2.vhd parent=d:\w7.vhd

4. Create the boot1.bcd and boot2.bcd BCD (Boot Configuration Data) file by using the following commands

boot1.bcd:
bcdedit /set {current} device vhd=[d:]\diff1.vhd
bcdedit /set {current} osdevice vhd=[d:]\diff1.vhd
bcdedit /export d:\boot1.bcd
boot2.bcd:
bcdedit /set {current} device vhd=[d:]\diff2.vhd
bcdedit /set {current} osdevice vhd=[d:]\diff2.vhd
bcdedit /export d:\boot2.bcd

References:

http://blogs.msdn.com/knom/archive/2009/04/07/windows-7-vhd-boot-setup-guideline.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/michw/attachment/3270048.ashx