Microsoft is going to pressure Creative for better drivers!

Cool feature of vista:
Finally, Microsoft will be making it easier for users to get manufacturers to take action when it comes to bad driver releases. Often times, an application or game can be completely or partially crippled due to a bug in the driver or just one that is poorly designed. Windows Vista will allow users to vote for the quality of a driver that they install and all drivers that wish to pass the Windows Vista Premium logo program must meet a Green status, which is a rating of 7 to 9. Any driver that is rated below it will cause the accompanying device to fall out of Premium compliancy and the manufacturer must supply users with a fixed driver within 90 days. How Microsoft will enforce this policy remains to be seen, but it's definitely a step forward in creating stable and secure Windows systems."
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2842

Your missing 3 points about how it works.
. These are for MS vertified drivers only.
2. Developers don't have to get MS certifed to use it.
3. Creative drivers would be certifed, has nothing to do with how much you upgrade a driver, its based on that driver release quality.
To sum up article below, you don't NEED MS at all to get a driver in vista.
http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2780&p=3
"Of greater importance though is the difference in how drivers are handled. The x64 version will by default be locked down to only accept kernel mode drivers which have been signed, and while this can be bypassed by tweaking Vista a bit, it's not a very easy thing to do at the moment and there is no guarantee it will stay this way. Ultimately, Microsoft sees this as a move towards ensuring better drivers, but as we've seen with WHQL certified video drivers, there are a lot of things that can slip through the cracks of Microsoft's testing. It is also not clear, even within Microsoft, whether developers who need to write kernel mode drivers (drivers which effecti'vely have full, unadulterated, operating system level access to the hardware) will be allowed to sign their drivers using 3rd parties like Verisign. Giving developers this option would offer support without WHQL tests, but would almost defeat the purpose of the requirement (which is to ensure the integrity of the system).
If only a Microsoft signature is to be allowed, hardware manufacturers will be at the mercy of Microsoft, who may not sign legally questionable devices such as DVD emulators, but at the same time may also not sign malware such as the overambitious anti-piracy toolkit StarForce or Sony's CD rootkit. In general we're concerned that with the other Digital Rights Management technologies going into Vista such as HDCP, Microsoft is going to lean towards the side of only avoiding signing obvious malware and software that sits on the "fair use" side of the IP/copyright fence (while still signing items like StarForce). However, we won't really know what kind of a stance Microsoft is going to take until Vista shi
ps.
At any rate, we hope they leave in the ability to disable driver checking, even if it's only something technical savvy users are capable of doing."

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When is Gumbo going to be available for Beta?

I have been monitoring this site for the last 5 months waiting patiently for Gumbo to try it out. I now have the Adobe CS4 package and would like to try doing some of the things that Lee Brimelow has been showing in his tutorials with Flex and Flash. Is Gumbo going to be available for beta or are you just going to by pass that stage and only offer it for sale? I am sure that I am not alone in the fact patience starting to dwindle.

You can download betas for Flash Builder 4 (formerly Flex Builder) and Flash Catalyst (formerly Thermo) from http://labs.adobe.com/.
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Mylenium

Microsoft Word Has Not Been Installed for the Current User

Hi, everybody
I'm just starting our attempt to put together ZfD app packages for MS Office 2007. I've tried 2 different route with poor results for each. I'm looking for guidance and suggestions and, hey really, the simple final solution. :)
Objectives: Each app package will install locally one of the Office apps (e.g., Word) if it is not installed and then launch it, otherwise it will launch it. It gets installed locally to the C: drive using all the MS default choices, but runs from the desktop ZEN/NAL shortcut. All desktops are XP, not Vista or W7.
Routes tried and failed...
1) Simple app, uses distribution and run scripts to figure out if already installed, then installs using network shared drive and config.xml file for just the one app. The result ought to work -- no particular error in the package, those are fixed -- but what happens is something different each time with the MS setup.exe, and it never does complete without its own error (various and different each time). So, this appears to be completely unreliable because launching MS's setup.exe from a simple app is unpredictable and incomplete.
2) Snapshot of a successful setup.exe and config.xml install. This ALMOST works... well it does in fact work but the snapshotted app gives an error once it finishes launching -- "Microsoft Word Has Not Been Installed for the Current User" -- and exits. From the research I've done on this message, the MS program sees the "wrong" Windows profile on the destination environment, compared to that in the snapshot, and figures it's now been installed from a bootleg copy of Office 2007.
At this stage all I can think of is expletives. We've paid for everything, I've followed all the usual and customary steps, played by the rules, been polite (and also used the necessary computer swear words), and now I just want to insult everyone in Microsoft's marketing department for ruining everyone's life yet again. Can't we just do this, is it too much to ask!?!
Please help me. What is really going to work for distributing and maintaining Office 2007 apps using our ZfD environment? ALL USEFUL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME. Thank you. Bless you.
-Kent S.
Be strong as a ship and wise as a whale

These questions are really best in the Microsoft Office Forums.
These are MS Office Questions not ZEN Questions.
Novell did not design Microsoft's Office Install.
I have nothing against snapshots, but it does not work great with the Office
installs, which you yourself know since you are posting here with problems
based on that.
And your other method you are trying with the break out is not working well.
We also know that from experience.
We can tell you that the way most people install it and the way most people
succeed doing it, is by doing it the way recommended and designed by
Microsoft.
ZEN does that just fine.
Craig Wilson - MCNE, MCSE, CCNA
Novell Knowledge Partner
Novell does not officially monitor these forums.
Suggestions/Opinions/Statements made by me are solely my own.
These thoughts may not be shared by either Novell or any rational human.
"KentFSmith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Thank you, Grimlock (-Grimlock?-)
>
> Through a google search I encountered a very close suggestion, and the
> poster said they couldn't remember the name of a MS utility but that
> there was one that would break out the individual MSIs from the Office
> 2007 setup.exe bundle. The dependent app appears to be a simple and
> possibly elegant solution, but without a good way to break out the MSIs
> I don't see how to do anything other than with a config.xml ('Config.xml
> file in the 2007 Office system'
> (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc179195.aspx)).
>
> Do you know of that utility and where I can find it?
>
> There is a lot of history here now of just doing the individual
> applications. Everyone gets Word and Excel, but much fewer get
> PowerPoint and Access. All other reasons aside, a compelling one is the
> reduced number of help calls to the Help Desk here. Occasionally we
> also just run the whole Office install for someone who needs some of the
> odd utilities, but that is easily cost-justifiable for us to break them
> out as exceptions. Otherwise, we focus 90% of our support on just Word
> and Excel and it pays off nicely.
>
> If we switch to putting full Office 2007 on all PCs then there may be a
> better approach that include other tools than ZfD, such as the fact that
> we replace 1/3 of all PCs in the organization each year (so that no
> hardware is more than 3 years "behind"). We could put 1/3 of all Office
> 2007 installs into the new PC image. But we still need to support all
> the use of the apps after the install, so ZfD MUST work well, it simply
> MUST work well or we're screwed, to use the vernacular. Also, just
> switching from what we've been doing for years -- single app orientation
> -- means introducing new-ish issues that have to discover and explain to
> our comrades, and to adjust our orientation with unknown future costs.
>
> But that may end up being the simplest adequate solution. And that's
> what I want.
>
> -K
>
> grimlock;1883526 Wrote:
>> Craig Wilson wrote:
>> > You should really focus on #1.
>> > Snapshot is not the way to go.
>> >
>> > Details about what is Not working or what random behavior may help
>> folks.
>> > Ask in the MS forums may help too. dont' mention zenworks.
>> > Just say you are installing as Administrator from a share and getting
>> these
>> > errors.
>> >
>> > While not 100% accurate, it should be good enough to get some good
>> feedback.
>> >
>>
>> Nor is installing 1 app at a time. Install the whole suite, have an
>> icon for each app that runs the exe for that app with a dependency on
>> the another app that points to the installer msi.
>>
>> If any user runs any app, it will run if the executable is there
>> (meaning it's been installed). If the executable is not there then it
>> calls the dependent application (the installer app) and installs it,
>> and
>> then runs it.
>
>
> --
> KentFSmith
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> KentFSmith's Profile: http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=2927
> View this thread: http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=391573
>
>

Quick ALchemy + Non BETA drivers question... for C

Hello,?I've been reading posts in this forum for the last two days... Wow... so much info!?Anyway, from what I've gathered so far (and please correct me if I'm wrong) the situation is as follows:
Official (non-BETA) drivers should be available for Vista sometime in March, these drivers should include all functionality (previously available in XP), including EAX, through the ASIO or OpenAL stacks, right?<So any game that boast EAX and uses the OpenAL/ASIO stack will work faultlessly, right?<
Meanwhile, old games that use DirectSound3D will only work with the ALchemy wrapper (that simulates a DirectSound HAL), correct?<
Assuming the above is all correct, does Creative plan to release the ALchemy wrapper with their official (non-BETA) driver? This would be great as then the new driver would (theoretically) support any EAX game (DirectSound or OpenAL)...
Thanks in advance.

g26,
I don't have any more information for everyone on what else will be included in the driver at the moment. As far as EAX goes, if a game is OpenAL it should be fine, OpenAL still works and hasn't been removed. Games with EAX that use DirectSound 3D will have to go through ALchemy instead, because of the changes in the OS. At the moment ALchemy is beta as well but keep an eye on the forums and the preview page for more updates on that. When there is more news on ALchemy I'll try to add it to the FAQ thread for that too.
Cat

Microsoft`s definition of 「All Instance」 for calculating average percentage of CPU usage is a mystery for me !!!.

Hi, I was looking up in the 「How to Auto Scale」 document
　http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/cloud-services-how-to-scale/
and got stuck in the below paragraph, the part that describes how to calculate the
average percentage of CPU usage.
==========
All instances are included when calculating the average percentage of CPU usage and the average is
based on use over the previous hour. Depending on the number of instances that your application is using, it can take longer than the specified wait time for the scale action to occur if the wait time is set very low. The minimum time between scaling actions
is five minutes. Scaling actions cannot occur if any of the instances are in a transitioning state.
==========
Does any one know the microsoft`s definition of 「All Instance」 ?
Whether the virtual machines that are shut down but has been set into auto scaling group count as one of them?
The question is that the response time, the data shows up in the management portal delays a lot comparing to the
real time. I was wondering if the definition of the calculation described above is truly what the user`s want or not.
I`m　all ears to any information. Thanks in advance !!

Hello Tomo Shimazu,
Instance is a presence of a service eg :- VM is an instance. Copy of VM is another instance which is 2 instances of VM.
Although Microsoft’s pricing model is readily available and even offers a simple calculator (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/advanced/) to assist
in the process, it may be difficult to know how much of each resource you will need to get an estimate.
To understand on calculating the compute instances and the VM size, let’s first take a look at the VM role sizes offered by Microsoft.
The prices per month for each, at the time of writing, are $30, $90, $180, $360, $720 from ExtraSmall to ExtraLarge respectively. So with the exception of the
transition from ExtraSmall to Small, going to the next size VM is exactly twice the cost, which, is mirrored in the increase of resources you get at each level. With each step, CPU Cores, Memory, Disk Space, and Bandwidth are all doubled from the previous.
If this is the case, then, is there any advantage to any one of these over the others? The answer is yes. In the majority of cases, the best bet will be to go with the small instance, with the reason being that because all of these resources scale equally
to cost it is possible to achieve the exact equivalent to a larger VM simply by increasing the number of instances. For example 8 small instances is equivalent to one ExtraLarge instance, with the advantage of the fact that when not needed these small instances
can be turned off and will cost nothing.
By hosting the application in this manner, it increases the effectiveness of the number one reason that a business would transition to the cloud anyway – Scalability.
Obviously 16 smaller instances can be more finely adjusted to the application’s usage than 2 ExtraLarge can. If traffic gets higher or lower than expected, two Small Instances can be added at $180/mo for the time that they are running, versus adding another
ExtraLarge for $720/mo.
The only exception to using the smallest instance, is in the case of the ExtraSmall, which offers only 1/20 of the bandwidth of the Small, making it only feasible
for very lightly accessed applications or, more likely, a QA environment.
From this point, it becomes much easier to estimate the compute instance requirements of migrating the application to Windows Azure. Take the current server(s)
total resources (CPU, RAM, etc) and find how many Small instances it would take to recreate it. This gives a good starting point, however, remember that these instances can be turned on and off to meet demand, and beyond the first instance, there is no charge
when the instances are off. This can lead to significant cost savings, and is the primary incentive to migrating to the cloud.
For azure pricing information, refer
pricing details.
If you still unclear about pricing and billing, you may raise a service request with billing team
here
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Shirisha Paderu

I need a clarification : Can I use EJBs instead of helper classes for better performance and less network traffic?

My application was designed based on MVC Architecture. But I made some changes to HMV base on my requirements. Servlet invoke helper classes, helper class uses EJBs to communicate with the database. Jsps also uses EJBs to backtrack the results.
I have two EJBs(Stateless), one Servlet, nearly 70 helperclasses, and nearly 800 jsps. Servlet acts as Controler and all database transactions done through EJBs only. Helper classes are having business logic. Based on the request relevant helper classed is invoked by the Servlet, and all database transactions are done through EJBs. Session scope is 'Page' only.
Now I am planning to use EJBs(for business logic) instead on Helper Classes. But before going to do that I need some clarification regarding Network traffic and for better usage of Container resources.
Please suggest me which method (is Helper classes or Using EJBs) is perferable
1) to get better performance and.
2) for less network traffic
3) for better container resource utilization
I thought if I use EJBs, then the network traffic will increase. Because every time it make a remote call to EJBs.
Please give detailed explanation.
thank you,
sudheer

Please suggest me which method (is Helper classes or Using EJBs) is perferable :
1) to get better performance
EJB's have quite a lot of overhead associated with them to support transactions and remoteability. A non-EJB helper class will almost always outperform an EJB. Often considerably. If you plan on making your 70 helper classes EJB's you should expect to see a dramatic decrease in maximum throughput.
2) for less network traffic
There should be no difference. Both architectures will probably make the exact same JDBC calls from the RDBMS's perspective. And since the EJB's and JSP's are co-located there won't be any other additional overhead there either. (You are co-locating your JSP's and EJB's, aren't you?)
3) for better container resource utilization
Again, the EJB version will consume a lot more container resources.

Beta drivers for Audigy2

Well, the title says what I'm looking for, but here's my problem:
I had installed Quake4, and was playing fine. After I had finished the game, I went to update my drivers (finally,) and noticed that I was running my NX on generic windows drivers. I updated all the drivers, mediasource, etc... (along with some other housekeeping updates,) and I now can no longer open the game.
I've already eliminated the video card update as the problem, and I honestly don't know of a way to eliminate a bios update issue, however, I HIGHLY doubt that is the culprit. After some discussions in the quake disc. boards, I sence that there is a problem with the creative drivers. I have been told that most people are getting success by using the latest beta drivers, and I was linked to a file called "SBA2_PCDrvBeta_LB_2_08_0002.exe" However, when I try to run that file, I'm told that "Setup is unable to detect a supported device on your system..." As the title says Audigy2/ZS, Audigy 4, I'm thinking these are the wrong beta drivers for my device, but I can't find beta drivers for the Audigy2 NX USB
Help? Thanks...

I have tried re-installing, that isn't working. I'm also hearing that people are having success when installing the OpenAL libs....
I've been trying to get this file: http://developer.creative.com/articl...&top=38&aid=46 however, whenever I try to d/l the file I time-out to a "page unavail." error... Is there some server error at creative? ...or, does anyone know of a mirror server?
The file I'm looking for is: OpenALwEAX.exe
Message Edited by Toker on -02-2005 0:45 PM

I couldnt update my itune as it was coming up with a warning message so i uninstalled it and now it wont let me re installl it? when i hit download off apple website it goes to thank you for downloading itunes but it didnt download.

i couldnt update my itune as it was coming up with a warning message so i uninstalled it and now it wont let me re install it? when i hit download off apple website it goes to thank you for downloading itunes but it didnt download.

Hi,
Please uninstall your creative cloud desktop app and re-download it from the below link:-
Creative Cloud Help | Creative Cloud for desktop
and then follow the same steps that you have been following.
Hope that works for you.
Regards
Sarthak

Best Bit Rate for Better sound

I’m new to the iTunes/iPod thing. A friend told me that he re-sets the bit rate from the default of 128 kpbs to the top of 320 kbps for better quality. [He plays everything off of his computer which is wired to speakers throughout his house and does not travel or drive much so hardly uses his iPod.] I played around a tad with the various rates on the same album and found that a fairly short one used 34.9 MB at 128 kbps, 52.1 MB at 192 kbps, 60.8 MB at 224 kbps and 86.6 MB at 340 kbps. Another friend told me that he noticed a big difference when he played a song off his iPod through his several thousand dollar system if it was imported at 128 kbps. While hard disc space is cheap and I would simply opt for the higher quality setting, the iPods are not so big when one almost triples the file size.
I tried to figure out what the max bit rates in the CDs are so that could guide the max import rate, but I could not and that question may make no sense at all anyway.
What is the max that a human can notice the difference at and what have folks found to be the best balance between sound quality and storage space?
Thanks for your help.
PC Windows XP

Monty, this is really going to be up to your ears to decide. All I can tell you is my experience during the 2+ years of owning an iPod. I initially thought AAC @ 128 was satisfactory. I then started experimenting with various bitrates, but kept the AAC format. I decided that 192 was a discernible improvement over the 128. Not to go into a lot of detail, but I, quite by accident, had one album download at 256 & thought, "Wow, this is unbelievably better sound, even over inexpensive computer speakers." At that point, I started importing everything in AAC @ 256 VBR which I feel is pretty darn close to CD quality sound. I have a 60GB iPod that I'm willing to sacrifice some capacity in order to ensure the best audio quality I can. This is also why I do not buy frequently from the iTunes store as I do not feel the 128 downloads are the best quality. I buy & my own CD's, now, to insure good quality. I will by the occasional song from the store when I do not care to buy the whole CD. Hope this helps!

Scale out SSAS server for better performance

HI
i have a sharepoint farm
running performance point service in a server where ANaylysis srver,reporting server installed
and we have anyalysis server dbs and cubes
and a wfe server where secure store service running
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1) application server + domain controller
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adil

Just trying to get a definitive answer to the question of can we use a Shared VHDX in a SOFS Cluster which will be used to store VHDX files?
We have a 2012 R2 RDS Solution and store the User Profile Disks (UPD) on a SOFS Cluster that uses "traditional" storage from a SAN. We are planning on creating a new SOFS Cluster and wondered if we can use a shared VHDX instead of CSV as the storage that
will then be used to store the UPDs (one VHDX file per user).
Cheers for now
Russell
Sure you can do it. See:
Deploy a Guest Cluster Using a Shared Virtual Hard Disk
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn265980.aspx
Scenario 2: Hyper-V failover cluster using file-based storage in a separate Scale-Out File Server
This scenario uses Server Message Block (SMB) file-based storage as the location of the shared .vhdx files. You must deploy a Scale-Out File Server and create an SMB file share as the storage location. You also need a separate Hyper-V failover cluster.
The following table describes the physical host prerequisites.
Cluster Type
Requirements
Scale-Out File Server
At least two servers that are running Windows Server 2012 R2.
The servers must be members of the same Active Directory domain.
The servers must meet the requirements for failover clustering.
For more information, see Failover Clustering Hardware Requirements and Storage Options and Validate
Hardware for a Failover Cluster.
The servers must have access to block-level storage, which you can add as shared storage to the physical cluster. This storage can be iSCSI, Fibre Channel, SAS, or clustered storage spaces that use a set of shared SAS JBOD enclosures.
StarWind VSAN [Virtual SAN] clusters Hyper-V without SAS, Fibre Channel, SMB 3.0 or iSCSI, uses Ethernet to mirror internally mounted SATA disks between hosts.

How to uninstall beta drivers for xfi xtreme mu

Hi everybody (xcuse my bad english)?Like many people who have crackling pb with the xfi xtreme, i've installed the beta drivers. But in 2 days, these drivers will be out of date. And i don't know how to uninstall them, i cannot find any creative drivers when i go into the set up programcan u help me please?

Hello LA,
The window that I have is different from the one you posted. Please see attached for mine. When I clicked on REMOVE, a message popped up and disappeared within a couple seconds. And the message is as following: "The installer is verifying the installation, please do not reboot while this dialog is being display." This same message popped up every time REMOVE is clicked but I have no luck on removing MAX.
This test PC is for legacy testing and it was with Windows 98 and have an ISA DAQ card installed that requires DAQ driver 6.9.3. Can upgrading the test PC to Windows 2000 corrupt the installation?
Looking forward for your advice. Thank you.
Valen
Attachments:
Add Remove Programs.doc ‏57 KB

Need external monitor for better visibility. Which ones are compatible with MacBook Pro?, Need external monitor for better visibility. Which ones are compatible with MacBook Pro?

I need to set up a home office using my MacBook Pro. Does anyone know of brands of flat-screen monitors that I can plug into my laptop in order to enlarge documents for better visibiilty? I have 2 perfectly good flat screen monitors that work with Windows but they have no drivers compatible with Apple products.
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Apple has a 27" monitor with 2560 x 1440 resolution. It has everything going for it but it has a price of $999 (ouch). Check with OWC, they specialize in Apple peripherals, have decent prices and a good reputation.
Caio.

When i download itunes it goes to the thankyou for downloading itunes page.. but hats it no download begins....help

When i download itunes it goes to the thankyou for downloading itunes page but then nothing happens ???

Try a different web browser and see if that has better luck.
Regards.

I m having issues with the phone which i made a recording but the customer care support in our place donot seem to be of much help. i have told them nuumerous times that for better understanding i have made a video of it but no response.. really disspoint

i m having issues with the phone which i made a recording but the customer care support in our place donot seem to be of much help.
i have told them nuumerous times that for better understanding i have made a video of it but no response..
really disspointed with your customer support.
i have uploaded them in google docs..links below.. t
he first one happened on 30th of april 2014 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z0lUXVGPGrc0tXNnZFaDQ3WDg/edit
the second happened today. i called customer care but no satisfactory respose either. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z0lUXVGPGrSldEeWQ3aGFhaDA/edit
who is going to help me out and atleast pay attention to what my problem is. apple seems to ignore my attempts to show them what is the problem... the dont even want to see the videos.. !! disgusting.
its still under warrenty. please help.

Take your iPhone to an Apple Store or authorized service center in the country where you purchased the iPhone and they will look at it and replace it under warranty if applicable.
If you cannot take it person contact them to determine how to send them your phone.
You can't expect them to replace your iPhone without first examining it.

Microsoft is going to pressure Creative for better drivers!

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