Rebuhjill--
There is a promising "feature" or utility in Vista called Win RE or Windows
Recovery Environment. Unfortunately, MSFT has published no information on
it on their site, so that if Vista evokes a metaphor of a broad horizon,
they are encouraging you to explore many of the features in it by fflying by
the seat of your pants.
It may be that the missing corrupt system file feature is not up and running
in Beta 2. I could tell you more accurately if I could find any information
from MSFT or anywhere else on Win RE.
Win RE can be launched directly from the installation media that MSFT says
it will mail out to people in a few weeks. If you burn the ISO, Win RE can
be launched directly from it. It fixed a registry corruption caused by the
erratic damaging SFC (SystemFile Checker) that the developers and PMS on the
Vista team have crafted for Vista. This tool is targeting fixing corrupt
drivers,corrupt registries, drivers that are not compatible with your
hardware, and a few other no start problems that will be elucidated when and
if someone from MSFT ever rights an intelligent article on this feature.
In other words, they turned Vista loose on the public without explaining
many of its features, includingthe ones that are designed to save your OS.
I consider saving the OS a fairly important priority. It's hard for me to
discern what priority MSFT gives it.
***Accessing Windows RE (Repair Environment):***
1) Insert Media into PC
2) You will see on the Vista logo setup screen after lang. options in the
lower left corner, a link called "System Recovery Options."
3) Select your OS for repair.
4) Its been my experience that you can see some causes of the crash from the
Win RE feature, but as is SOP with errors from Windows, most of them are
written in unintelligible encrypted language, hex or otherwise, that are
often metastatically and ectopically scattered to the four corners of the
operating system. They also have cute names like Sometimes at least one of
them is in English.
5) Just as they did with XP, MSFT will make promises that OEM partitions and
Recovery Discs will access Win RE. I've had seven years to realize that's
not true; and you have six more years to understand it's not true in Vista.
If you pluck down your hard earned money to the large OEM companies for a
machine, insist that they fund an OEM retail DVD so that you will be able to
access Win RE when Vista RTMs. MSFT is ensuring this won't happen, as are
the OEMs because the two entitties can't cooperate on a price point to
deliver customers the Recovery tools that they are making in Vista that they
need. Corporate customers may have customized solutions in the context of
Win RE, but all those teenyboopers using PCs in the MSFT ads that will
trumpet Vista aren't corporate customers if I understand what Gartner calls
a corporation/enterprise accurately.
5) MSFT will always issue some reflex aphorism like "OEMs are encouraged to
provide the media" and I offer you as prime evidence of the efficacy of MSFT
encouragement 7 years of XP and its Beta where I've fixed 1000 no start XP's
and hidden and unhidden partitions from large so-called OEM named partners
have been over 99% ineffective.
*Ask anyone who signs such a statement if they will go on prime time TV
trying to access Win RE with a standard OEM recovery disc or partition.*
Don't expect the silence to ever be broken. Don't expect anyone from MSFT
to jump in here or anywhere else and say "Hell yes those OEM discs will
access Win RE." They know a lot better. They know the truth and silence
underscores that they do. If they think diffently, let's see Stevie Ballmer
dance on in here and say so.
Truth in advertising would be a polished statement like "Hey Yo Customers.
We know you're buying OEM pre-installed Vista. But listen up, because if
you want effective access to our spiffy new recovery feature, you had better
get your hands on a retailed DVD. Are we requiring you to purchase Vista
twice (preinstalled and a retailed DVD? You bet your little round start
button we are." Don't expect
Wegner-Edstrom or any companies hired to do the "Vista in Every Pot in
countries where no PC is left behind the migration ad campaign" to advertise
with this kind of clarity and transparency. It's my experience if you want
to make a room full of softies very quiet, ask them about the ability of OEM
tools to handle no boots and what the success rate is. Most of the softies
don't have a lot of experience with no boots,and when they do, they know the
truth and they have tons of their own media free anyway.
What would change this is if everyone purchasing an OEM computer simply
insist to the sales person, that they won't spend their hundreds or
thousands of dollars unless they get a genuine MSFT Retail DVD with that
very expensive machine. What would be interesting is if the OEM VP of MSFT
would post precisely what code is given over to the OEMs to make these half
baked not even capable of being a frissbee Recovery CDs or what goes into a
so called and classic oxymoron of a name "recovery partitions."
When you realize that the MSFT OEM VP is an accountant from Price Waterhouse
with no background in computer software engineering, it gets very easy to
understand what is going on in the 3 Card Monte Shell Game where MSFT tells
you their OEM partners are "encouraged to provide access to their Recovery
tools like Win RE." It is time that the Vista PMs stood up to these
accountants who block delivery of their software to a prospective/projected
500 million OEM non enterprise customers and insisted that their product get
delivered to customers. But often a backbone is a very difficult thing to
find at Redmond. Gates, Ballmer, Sinofsky, Allchin and Chris Jones,
Corporate VP Windows Client Core Development should proudly stand up and
brag that they are delivering the full panopoly of their software recovery
mechanisms to OEM customers but they won't and they can't right now because
they aren't.
Good luck,
CH
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