[sawo]

This is a good idea – i was thinking of a way to see how the logon studio (doesnt) works ill check it out!
edit: it will take some time to investigate the whole login process and eventually compare it between vista and 2008.
Just as i suspected all logon studio do is to change the imageres.dll file and thats not enough for 2008, because looks like it doesnt even load the background from there.
In the meantime if anyone is interested, here are the process monitor logs from vista and 2008.Test conditions:
All possible processes and services stopped, started logging right before executing the switch user command, stopped logging after the completing of the operation.All other OS settings are unchanged.
It is possible that the settings or files responsible for the change of the login background image may be loaded at other time – at boot for example, but logon studio uses the switch user command to show the changes so im assuming that the actions required to change the login screen background are loaded at that point too.
btw the background color used in the login screen is “29 95 122”

[sawo]

warning: read the whole post before taking any actions!
Here is how to change the background:
Download Resource Hacker
Open C:WindowsSystem32imageres.dll with resource hacker
Navigate to “IMAGE” from the left menu and you will see all of the available versions of the logon screen:

5031: 1280x1024

5032: 1280x960

5033: 1024x768

5034: 1600x1200

5035: 1440x900

5036: 1920x1200

5037: 1280x768

5038: 1360x768

5039: 1024x1280

5040: 960x1280

5041: 900x1440

5042: 768x1280

5043: 768x1360 

UNfortunately, nothing is that easy 🙂
Looks like M$ disabled the background image completely so changing it isnt going to help.I looked in the registry and usually the syntax for using images from imageres.dll is “imageres.dll,-XX” where XX is the number of the resource that is going to be used.I exported the entire registry database from Vista Ultimate but unfortunately there is no imageres.dll,-503* nor imageres.dll,-504* which means that the background isnt selected from the registry.I tried to replace shell32.dll and few other files directly from vista to 2008, but that doesnt change anything so there must be some other place where these settings are stored.I searched in the group policy editor too, but nothing found again.
The only way to change the login screen i found was to copy tokens.dat from vista to 2008, but that leaves more problems than solves so there must be other way.
Does anyone have any idea where these settings are stored?Apparently changing the tokens.dat have something to do with the whole thing, but im still not sure what..

[sawo]

I dont have tablet pc to test, but there are some options in gpedit.msc > computer configuration > administrative templates > windows components > tablet pc

[sawo]

Yeah ofcourse the performance is another issue, but the compability is an issue too – thats why im still using 2gb of faster ram 🙂

[sawo]

Probably this value limits the amount of RAM the system can take (4096 means 3gb physical ram + 1gb for drivers etc)
You can try to increase this value to 8192, but then your probably going to experience the same problems as before.

Arris Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 can detect up to 64GB of physical memory.Single application cant use more than 4GB, but the OS itself can use up to 64GB.

The x86 processor hardware is augmented with additional address lines used to select the additional memory, so physical address size is increased from 32 bits to 36 bits. This increases maximum physical memory size from 4 GB to 64 GB. The 32-bit size of virtual address is not changed, so regular application software continues to use instructions with 32-bit addresses and (in a flat memory model) is limited to 4 gigabytes (GB). The operating system uses page tables to map this 4 GB address space onto the 64 GB of total memory, and the map is usually different for each process. In this way the extra memory is useful even though no single regular application can access it all simultaneously.

Check out this link!

[sawo]

You mean you use 3870X2 in crossfire? If thats the case your ritht, i thought you use regular cards in CF thats why i suggested to flash them seperately 🙂

[sawo]

Great to see more people coming 🙂
First, i like too to get the best from the hardware – i got 3,2ghz quad cpu, 2900pro gfx etc and the performance gain is enormous.For example the css stress test:
xp – 301fps
2003 – 331fps
2008 – 370fps (even with tons of apps running in background – httpd,ftp and many other server apps)
btw do you have test results with the new 3d mark vantage? i got 3,3k on the gfx card and 11,2k on the cpu
There are few service that can be stopped too – for example the pritner service and the tablet pc service.
About the cards, why don’t just flash them seperately? You still can use crossfire and there will be no need to use riva tuner or atitool!

[sawo]

Bioshock works just fine without compability mode – you only need to register the gameux.dll file.Type the following command in run after you put gameux.dll in the system32 folder:

regsvr32 C:WindowsSystem32gameux.dll

With compability mode bioshock doesnt work very well – i cant change the resolution, and if i run fraps the game freezes before the menu show up.Also if i minimize the game i cant restore it back..

[sawo]

Does this update affect the system even if im not using hyper-v? I just installed all of the available updates, but i cant really notice any difference.I just completed the CSS stress test and there was small performance loss, but i suspect thats because im installing server 2008 on virtual pc 2007 at the same time..
Btw my mobo uses P35 chipset too, but the latest drivers are from 2007.

[sawo]

The older version doesn’t work, but the new v2a versions works just fine.Unfortunately the latest 2.6 version requires vista only, so the latest usable version is the chinese 2.0, which can be tricked.
BTW i’m not sure if we are allowed to discuss such topics here..

[sawo]

Yeah maybe your right, but i’m still worried if M$ release update or something else that will put back these files thats why im using the TimerLock/TimerStop method.here is an article about it.
The only downside is that you must still have atleast one free rearm!

[sawo]

I don’t use it so i cant tell you for sure, but i think you can go to the properties window of the drive you want to enable shadow copies on, then go to the “shadow copies” tab, select drive and click the “enable” button.

[sawo]

Just click properties of some file or folder and you will see “previous versions” tab.Here is quote from the help:

You can use Previous Versions in Windows Server 2008 to enable your users to access previous versions of files and folders on your network.

How do I restore a previous version of a file or folder?
Once you enable Shadow Copies of Shared Folders and start creating shadow copies, you can use the Previous Version feature to recover previous versions of files and folders, or files and folders that have been renamed or were deleted.

[sawo]

If the system is checked, then the core functions are in palce anyway.If we manage to get list of the files that are needed for the app to run we can copy the files from vista and see if they work..

[sawo]

Actually, i wasnt talking about that method 🙂
I tried it today and looks like it works, but some people reported that after few days windows wants to activate again but it cant because the files are missing and the computer becomes unusable so i dont think this is safe method, or atleast backup these files instead of deleting them as the author suggests!

[Author]

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