Windows 8.1 Image with audit mode

Check this out.

Im trying to make a Windows 8.1 image for deployment but i am unable to install any windows updates. it just keeps looking for updates. ive read that this issue is by Microsofts design and that the solution is to install updates then enter audit mode.
how do you install updates first and then enter audit mode? or is there another way to install windows updates in audit mode?
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

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Layered image with blending mode won't display properly in Indesign CS3

Hello,
I'm having trouble placing a layered psd and/or tiff with blending modes into my indesign cs3 document. Basically I have a flattened image with a shadow on a white background. I've had to doctor the image a bit in photoshop and I've used the multiply blending mode to remove the white background. (I'm trying to get around having to clip the image and having to recreate the shadow). Anyone know how I can drop my layered image into indesign and have it keep the blending modes I've applied in photoshop?
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I'll try and do my best to describe what it is I'm doing.
I've started out with a “flat” image of a product on a white background with a shadow on it. I need to make the background transparent and so that all I’m left with is the product with the shadow on a transparent background.I want to be able to place this image over another image in indesign and have the background remain transparent.
On the first layer I have a clipped out version of the product with no background (All by itself with no background or shadow). On the second layer I have the original “flat” image with the shadow and white background. On this layer I’ve used the multiply blending mode to remove the white background.
Now that I have the product on one layer by itself and the product and shadow on layer two with the multiply blending mode I have an image of the product with a shadow with no background. When I place this into indesign, my image shows up with the white background as if the multiply blending mode isn’t applied.
I’ve tried this on other images. It doesn’t appear that it lets you bring an image over with that blending mode. It's like I'd have to bring over a clipped image and then place that on top of my original image with a blending mode placed on it "in" Indesign.
Hope that make sense?

Windows 8.1 Won't get updates in audit mode.

I just installed Windows 8.1 in a Hyper-V virtual machine. The release version that was distributed through msdn not the preview. I enter audit mode as soon as I can, so there have been no changes or customization applied to the install prior to entering
audit mode. I start up windows update to search for new updates. The status is displayed as "Checking for updates..." "Most recent check for updates: Never." "Updates were installed: Never." The status never changes from "Checking
for updates...". I have even left it running over night and it still says "Checking for updates...". There is never any error message or failure. Network connectivity is functional. I have attempted an install on a physical machine as well with
the same result. If instead of entering audit mode a proceed through setting up windows and a user account, updates will work just fine. There should be an update to defender as well as an update to ie11.
I considered the possibility of a corrupt download so I compared the sha-1 hash to what is listed on the msdn download page and it does match.

Quoted from http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/afc7f693-f742-402f-b513-063989b79c2f/windows-81-enterprise-windows-updates?forum=w8itproinstall.
Emphasis added.
Thank You for sharing the logs. I was able to reproduce the issue in my virtual environment. To understand more about this behavior, I engaged the Product Group and I have been informed that
this behavior is By Design. WU uses the OOBEComplete() Windows API call to determine whether OOBE is in progress or not, and if so, it will not perform automatic or UI update searches. HRESULT code 0x8024a008 is the WU error code WU_E_AU_OOBE_IN_PROGRESS.
WU automatic and UI updates won’t run while Setup reports that OOBE is still in progress. This is to prevent automatic updates from causing a system reboot during OOBE, which is – needless to say – a Very Bad Thing. This problem has always existed. Unfortunately,
when the computer is in Sysprep audit mode, Setup will report to WU that OOBE is in progress even though it might not actually be so. This is the reason that updates from WU UIs are blocked in audit mode.
I was having the same exact issue when creating an updated WDS image for deployment to select end-users for testing. At first, I thought I was doing something wrong. This process--having a VM boot into audit mode so that it can be fully updated
with Windows Updates along with new and updated third-party applications so to become the baseline/template for deployment--has worked wonderfully since the Vista days. And it worked perfectly with Windows 8. Why did Microsoft choose to deprecate
the functionality is beyond me.
Its bad enough there is so very little traction in the corporate/Gov't world for Windows 8/8.1. Now it seems that Microsoft, once again, is hades bent on destroying all that was good with Windows.
This is to prevent automatic updates from causing a system reboot during OOBE, which is – needless to say – a Very Bad Thing.
So this was a problem? Really? I don't ever recall that happening to me or ever reading about such an issue. Even if this "issue" was a problem, why not just add another switch to the sysprep command to allow admins to specify
the allowance of updates. Something like like sysprep /oobe /audit /AllowUpdates? Is that too hard or too much to ask?
So now with the current Windows-won't-update-in-audit-mode default, if I chose to deploy over 200 Windows 8.1 Enterprise clients, I now have to have ALL 200 machines contact Microsoft Update or my internal WSUS (or push via Shavlik) for updates. Regardless
of which method is used, the result is that 200 COMPUTERS must consume valuable network bandwidth for updates. Not to mention there is always several machines that never act right. Instead of having 200
identically configured machines, I end up with 200 similarly configured machines.
Exactly who is making these decisions? Has anyone experienced the OOBE update issue that Microsoft claims is such a problem?
So disappointing.

Setting up a sysprepped image with user account customisations

I'm trying to create a sysprepped image of a Windows installation for cloning (basically, as a VM template I can clone to create throwaway test environments quickly). I'm using a new build of Windows 8.1, going into audit mode and configuring my environment,
then using sysprep to generalise the image for cloning (sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:C:\MyUnattendFile.xml).
I have customised the default account by setting things up the way I want in audit mode (under the administrator account that audit mode defaults to). My unattend.xml file has CopyProfile set to true (in the specialize phase, the only one I can set it in
IIRC). I also have my local account configured for creation in the OOBE phase in the unattend.xml file.
When I boot a copy of the sysprepped image, it starts up fine, exactly as I'd expect. But when it gets to the OOBE phase, it goes into the "Setting up a few things" sequence, and when I get the login screen and log in, I see a clean account (default
start page and taskbar, Windows theme is the default, etc). It's as if the default profile I set up hasn't been applied.
I can't tell what I am doing wrong - I saw a note somewhere (via google) that I need to set CopyProfile in the unattend file I boot from, not the one I sysprep with, but that can't be right as in this case I'm not incorporating the image into a setup process
- it's just a VM disk image that I boot normally.
I'm new to all this, and I'm a developer rather than a deployment specialist, so the discussion around images, PE boot disks, custom install disks, etc, is very confusing to me. If I'm doing something wrong, I'd appreciate any explanation someone can give
as to how to achieve what I want relatively simply.
Many thanks in advance,
Paul

I checked the log file, and I see "CopyProfileDirectory from C:\Users\Administrator succeeded. CopyProfile succeeded."
So it looks like the default profile was set up properly.
The desktop background is set correctly on the account, it's just the start page and taskbar, so the blog entry you mentioned seems like it's relevant. The problem is, there's no solution given in there :-(
From what I can see, the issue appears to be that when I initially log onto the user account created in the unattended startup, it runs the "first login" process - "Hi... We're setting things up for you... Installing your apps". So I
guess the key question is how I stop it from running that process, which is messing up the customisations I already made.
From the articles you mention, it seems like there isn't a particularly straightforward way to script the start page/taskbar changes I want. I didn't see anything that suggested I could make the changes once, then back up some data from the registry and/or
some user config files, and then set up a postinstall script to restore them (that probably still wouldn't work, as the "Hi... We're setting things up" process would probably still overwrite them :-(
If it's not possible to do things this way, maybe I'm going to have to go down the route of making a custom install disk. Is there a simple tutorial that assumes no deployment experience, and walks through the process of creating a custom install disk that
includes:
Setting the product key, the default language/locale etc (a fully unattended install)
Selecting to overwrite the whole disk, no dialog about disk partitions, etc
Create a local user account
Install various items of software (7-zip, conemu, virtualbox guest additions, chrome, probably a few others)
Pre-configure the local account with a custom start page, taskbar items, program settings like Internet Explorer home page and search providers and conemu defaults, desktop background
Set up a few other configurations (such as enabling WinRM) that can be done from an automated postinstall Powershell script.
I'm assuming this must be possible somehow, as I can't imagine corporate deployments will use the default start page. It's just how to do this as a home user. I just have a single PC, plus I can set up any VirtualBox VMs I need on it, so approaches
that talk about setting up a lab of machines and deployment servers and shares are probably out of my reach :-(
Thanks,
Paul

Sysprep taking nearly 2 hours to reseal a Windows 7 x64 image

When trying to reseal an image into Audit mode (or OOBE) using the Generalize flag, sysprep takes an inordinate amount of time to complete.
Here is an extract from the setupact.log file showing start time, end time and where it appears to spend nearly 2 hours doing something with the drivers.
2014-04-03 11:55:10, Info SYSPRP === Beginning of a new sysprep run ===
2014-04-03 12:01:32, Info SYSPRP SPPNP: Persisting all existing device installs <partial generalize>.
2014-04-03 13:49:12, Info SYSPRP SPPNP: Reflected all boot critical driver packages (6460688 ms)
2014-04-03 13:49:14, Info [0x0f0052] SYSPRP Shutting down SysPrep log
2014-04-03 13:49:14, Info [0x0f004d] SYSPRP The time is now 2014-04-03 13:49:14
I've never come across this issue before but looking at the setupact.log file it does look like the image has suffered from some sort of decay as new drivers have been added to it, what could be causing this long delay and how can I fix it?
2013-12-09 19:33:12, Info SYSPRP SPPNP: Reflected all boot critical driver packages (10389 ms).
2013-12-11 10:30:49, Info SYSPRP SPPNP: Reflected all boot critical driver packages (10936 ms).
2014-02-24 09:36:52, Info SYSPRP SPPNP: Reflected all boot critical driver packages (109934 ms).
2014-03-20 06:32:25, Info SYSPRP SPPNP: Reflected all boot critical driver packages (4786547 ms).
2014-04-03 13:49:12, Info SYSPRP SPPNP: Reflected all boot critical driver packages (6460688 ms).
Any help would be much appreciated.
Best regards
Darren

Hi,
Do some research, it's really an odd issue.
Please re-try to reseal for test. Since your log file indicatedthat Persisting all existing device installs process took too log time. in addition, strips all language pack to check the result.
This article could be referred:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766514(v=ws.10).aspx
Karen Hu
TechNet Community Support

Problem with window repaint and scrollbars in edit mode (LabVIEW 8.0.1)

I am running LabVIEW 8.0.1 in Windows XP SP3. For my main VI, I ran into a strange problem about 5 months ago. The front panel window - in both edit mode and run mode - stopped repainting itself on the right side which is most visible when you scroll up and down, but also visible with overlapping windows. Coincident with the repaint problem, both scrollbars look disabled with greyed-out arrows and no boxes in the bars that you can click and drag to scroll the window. The scrollbars still partially work if you hover the mouse over them and roll the mouse wheel but clicking and dragging doesn't work.
The front panel has lots of controls and indicators including tab-control containers and is larger in the horizontal and vertical directions so both scrollbars should be active. But I deleted all elements on the front panel and everything in the block diagram and the problem persists. So the problem is not directly related to some control/indicator display.
I saved the simple VI with this problem (using a wide text line and a tall rounded box to test), then created a new VI and copied the two elements to the new VI. This new VI does not have the repaint and scrollbar problem. The two VIs differ slightly in memory usage and in revision number (the bad one is revision 1785 and the good one is revision 3), but otherwise the two VIs are identical. I attached both VIs to this posting. When you first open the bad VI, you'll see the disabled scrollbars whereas the good VI has active scrollbars. To replicate the repaint problem, scroll the window up and down with your mouse wheel. If it's fine when you first open the VI, click on another window, then click back on the VI window and try the mouse wheel again. This clicking-away-and-back always causes the repaint problem for me. I tried the VIs on two different computers both running Windows XP SP3 and LabVIEW 8.0.1 with identical results.
Here's what I discovered from troubleshooting with the simple VIs:
* scrollbars always disabled
* repaint problem in main window for window widths larger then 680 pixels
* repaint problem in main window menu toolbar for widths larger than 646 pixels
* entire window becomes disabled for window widths larger than 1348 pixels
* can repaint window by minimizing and restoring, but only repaints that one time
* scrollbar boxes sometimes flicker into view but then disappear
* scroll left and right by hovering mouse over horizontal scrollbar and using mouse wheel
I found something similar on this forum (thread: Problem with front panel refresh) - it might be related to the CAR about the panel being offset internally. I don't have access to LabVIEW 8.5 or later and don't plan to upgrade - I haven't tried the trial version as that user did. I could try to copy and paste my entire block diagram to a new VI but the VI is so large I'm afraid something would break, plus I don't want this to happen again in a few months. The problem seemed to occur after a certain number of saves (or revision number). I save backup copies often and when the problem first happened, I was able to go back to a previous version, make the missing changes and save it with no problems, but this only delayed the problem and it came up later. So maybe it's the revision number. It didn't seem related to a particular addition or modification in the front panel or diagram.
The image attached shows the repaint and scrollbar problems in the bad VI.
This brings up a question I have - if this problem is a bug and was fixed in 8.5 and later, is there a way to apply bug fixes to earlier versions? Or do I have to pay for an upgrade to fix such bugs?
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
RepaintTest_Bad.gif ‏27 KB
Test Repaint - From Bad VI, scrollbar and repaint problems.vi ‏7 KB
Test Repaint - From Blank VI, no problems.vi ‏5 KB

Seems something got corrupted with this VI. Copy things over to a fresh VI and things should be OK.
See also this recent report of a similar issue.
LabVIEW Champion . Do more with less code and in less time .

2 TB Time Capsule Not Letting Windows 7 Prof Backup With Connection Sharing Off(Bridge Mode)

Hello Everyone,
     I've been struggling with this and I am completely puzzled, I have a 2 TB Time Capsule that has the connection sharing: Off(Bridge Mode) and I am unable to backup my Windows 7 Professional Desktop to the Time Capsule. So far I am able to map and access the Data file inside the Time Capsule
in My Computer on the PC after installing Airport Utility version 5.5.3. However, I see 2 errors when trying to perform a backup:
Error 1) When I try to do a regular back up using the Backup and Restore Utility, I get an error stating:
Error Code: 0x81000031 The last backup did not complete successfully
Error 2) When I try to create a system image :
A backup cannot be done to a remote shared folder which is not hosted on a volume formatted with NTFS.
Error Code: 0x807800B0
     What's weird about all this is other then having the backup inside my Windows 7 Proffesional home PC configured the exact same way, and back up
on my Linux and XP and Windows 7 Proffesional boxes with no issues, the only change in menu that is different on that Windows machine is that under the Internet Tab under the Airport Utility, Connection Sharing is set to:
Share a public IP address
     I've read some post online and microsoft is saying that the error is generated because the Time Capsule is not in NTFS format. However, my time
capsule at home is a FAT32 just like the 2TB one here that is giving me all this grief. Any help on this is greatly appreciated.
Best Regards,
Nevins Duret

mocanuj wrote:
Hello,
Please read this article. So far as I've read the approach the author takes might make your task easier.
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57401784-285/the-best-ways-to-format-an-exte rnal-drive-for-windows-and-mac/
Some of the article is wrong.. so be careful.. HFSexplorer AFAIK cannot write.. only read HFS+.
It is also irrelevant to the TC.. what the Mac can read and what the TC can read are two different things.. also storage on network drive is handled by SMB.. file format is actually irrelevant. For disks directly plugged into a computer.. buy two.. one for the Mac and one for the PC.. use each in native format. Share files the right way.. via network.

Running Dual boot windows 8 and win 7 pro with xp mode installed!! I love it!!

It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
Step 1: using diskmgmt.msc you have to shring the C partition. I shrunk it so I had 80GB remaining as unallocated space.
Step 2: You have to enter the machine Bios adn set the BIOS to Both and UEFI as first
Step 3: Connect your usb dvd
Step 4: Put your win 7 pro dvd in the usb dvd drive
Step 5: Reboot your machine and when it starts press F12 to get the boot menu and select the usb dvd drive then press enter
The machine restarts
Message on screen says press a key to boot from cd/dvd
Press space and it boots up the win 7 pro DVD
After files copy and load the setup screen asks to accept the agreement and where to install win 7
BE SURE TO SELECT THE 80GB location
Then follow thru the win 7 prompts to load it.
When the machine restarts you will see a dual boot screen with Windows 7 on top as first selection and Windows 8 below it as 2nd selection.
Make sure to hit enter with windows 7 selected
The win 7 installation completes.
You will see many items with drivers not installed dont fret.
You can load most of the drivers by highlighting the device in control panel/device manager and pick update driver then select BROWSE for DRIVER and be sure to put in drive D:\ which is now the windows 8 drive and hit search.
Many of the windows 8 drivers installed with no issue.
The Realtek driver was an exception .. goto to the lenovo site and pick the x100e tablet and download the LAN driver from there about (4MB). Copy it to flash drive and install it in win 7 from the .exe file. The driver for LAN will install sucessfully. The version of the driver is 7.46 something the 7.11 versions do not workl.
I have only 3 drivers that I could not find - 2 list as unknown and are related to ACPI or power management and 1 lists as USB controller but all the USB stuff works without it.
Be sure to either shutdown the system or sign out of win 8 when your done so you get the dual boot menu. If you shutdown while logged into win 8 the next time you start up it will go right to win 8 until you signout and restart.
Just to let you know an easy way to shutdown is go to the desktop and press ALT + FN + F4 and a shutdown menu comes up on the desktop.
Once win 7 pro is installed you can download the XP mode free from Microsoft and install it.
This is of course AFTER you have ACTIVATED WINDOWS 7 ONLINE with YOUR ACTIVATION KEY(you supply).
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!

It's been many, many years since I don't do dual boot anymore. Don't find the reason to do it, either. Different kinds of virtualization should be enough. Anyway...
dfw1417 wrote:
It took over 2 days to figure out how to adjust the bios to get my win 7 pro DVD to boot and install dual boot on this GREAT MACHINE!!
ENJOY! This is the BEST machine I ever had!
WHICH machine?
Cheers.
If I helped you, please give me some kudos! ^^

Opening a file with FILE_SHARE_DELETE mode (Only on Windows)

Hi,
We have an application that imports logs from several 3rd party vendor's applications. Basically what we do is import the logs in real time, i.e we do have a live FileInputstream connection to the log file. Now, when the 3rd party applications that rotate these logs (many of them do when they grow big or scheduled periodically), all unix flavors dont see to have any problem, while the windows does complain that the device or resource is busy and the original application is not allowed to rotate it. When i dug into the native code of windows jvm, i found that the file is not opened in the FILE_SHARE_DELETE mode and only with FILE_SHARE_READ and FILE_SHARE_WRITE modes. When we wrote a separate C++ application the opens a file with FILE_SHARE_DELETE mode, we found that the logs are rotatable.
Now, how can we instruct the JVM to open a file with FILE_SHARE_DELETE mode? Is there any such implementation already or do i have to come up with another class extending the FileInputStream and use a totally different open method where the file is opened with this mode in the native code?
Thanks
Manava

Hello,
I think you can write :
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("start.exe " + MyFileDialog.getDirectory() + MyFileDialog.getFile());
So, "start.exe" choose the application (not valid for NT machine), ".getDirectory()" return the PATH and ".getFile()" return the NAME.
Best regards from France
Thierry

When I open Firefox, even in safe mode, it causes my Windows 7 64-bit to totally crash and I get that blue screen of death =(. This has happened suddenly on Nov 16, 2010. I had been running Firefox on Windows 7 64-bit with no problems previously. Help?

I have had Windows 7 64 bit for the past year and have run Firefox with no problem. It was the most problem free of the three browsers including IE and Chrome.
I have a Vista side where I run my online backup and did so yesterday. Went on Firefox. No Problem.
Today I booted into the Windows 7 side. Seemed to boot up okay. Until I opened Firefox. Suddenly, my whole computer crashed, windows shut down and that bluescreen popped up. I restarted normally. Same thing. I restarted in safe-mode. Couldn't find any problems. Went back to regular mode. Started FF. Boom crash.
Back to safe mode. Did a system restore. Back to regular startup. Didn't help. Attempting to open FF crahed windows.
So back to safe mode. Started Firefox. Crashed the whole computer and same blues screen.
So I uninstalled FF. Reinstalled FF. It still makes Windows crash.
So now I am on IE :P

See below -- the way I asked the question the first time may not be clear. This post was a goof but I can't figure out how to delete it

How do you install Windows 7 on Macbook Air with a Windows 7 ISO image?

Macbook Airs have no optical drives, and I can't buy one. I do, however, have the Windows 7 ISO image. And I also have access to a Windows 7 PC. I found an article on CNET on installing from a Flash Drive, but that requires the CD. I also have a hard drive (120GB) and Flash USB (4GB), if they could help. Please help me as many programs I am familiar with are only windows-based. I am tried using open-source software like Wineskin Winery and WineBottler, but to no avail, I always end up confused with them.Please help me.

Acius wrote:
Crjohnson, I think you can really help me!
Okay, how do you use Wine? I don't want to install lots of software like MacPorts, just want the minimal software. So there are many things like Wine, WineBottler, and Wineskin Winery. What do I use for what? For example, I want to turn a windows game (Age of Empires 2 for example) into a full Mac App. How would I go about this?
I tried researching but it is so in-depth with terminal commands and all(i dont want to risk ruining my computer)
What is crossover? Is it another wine app?
Oh, and I tried Winery Wineskin...why doesn't it work? It keeps installing random things like Gecko, or Mono, but in the end, it doesn't work. Do I need the windows app's executable, or the window's apps's installation executable??
What are engines, and how many do I need to create? I think the best thing for me is to learn wine, because installing windows with bootcamp isn't worth the effort, I think, with me having only a few apps i need to run.
As for learning mac apps only, well, Windows apps dominate the market with most of applications being made for windows, especially games, with 90% market. So for some apps, there just isn't a mac version available, or if there is, it's costly. (Which you already know I can't buy things)
You probably cannot afford to buy Crossover either. It is designed for user friendliness though, but of course Wine cannot run everything.
Yes you have to learn some things to use Wineskin. Normally on Gecko and Mono prompt, just cancel them. Gecko is needed if you have a program using mshtml (its basically a replacement for Internet Explorer for programs that use parts of it). Mono is a replacement for .NET if your program requires that. You do not want to install them if you don't need them as they will just waste space. You can always refresh the wrapper later on and get the same prompts if you find out you need them later.
You can copy the full installed version of a game inside the Wineskin wrapper and try to set it up that way, but its usually easier to just run the installer and install it inside the wrapper just like you'd install it in Windows.
An Engine is something you download... its basically a specific Wine build made for a Wineskin wrapper.
If you do not want to learn Wineskin enough to get in and port your programs yourself, you can often find other people who have done so (at least with games).
Check out sites like PaulTheTall.com who has tons of Wineskin wrappers already made and ready to go for many games... you just download the wrapper, install the game you want in it using the normal Installer, then its ready to go. Many you'll need to manually update yourself to Wineskin 2.5.8 though since all the older versions broke ok the OS X 10.8.2 and 10.7.5 update, and Paul hasn't gotten to all of them yet since he has hundreds (including AoE 2 i think).
There is also Portingteam.com which has tons of pre-made wrappers for games (Including Cider hacks from official games).
If your talking about non-Game apps though, you can normally find an alternative... many of which are free.

Cannot Install Windows 7 with AHCI mode

Hello,
Having just submitted a support ticket to MSI, I was curious to see if anyone else has experienced a similar issue or may be able to suggest a possible resolution.
I recently purchased a MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate for an htpc build.
I've ran into an issue of not being able to install Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit onto my ANY SATA 3 hard drive with SATA mode - AHCI enabled in bios.
Main parts for the build are:
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate
CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4 3 FCLGA 1150
RAM: G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX 600
OS HD: Crucial M500 SSD
During Windows install and selecting the SSD in which to install windows onto..
Windows will prompt with: “Windows cannot be installed to Disk x Partition x. (Show details)
Afterwards, I’ll select ‘Load driver’ and select the “Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver for 8x series,” provided by MSI drivers download page. Confirmed as a valid driver for the SATA AHCI controller.
"Select the driver to be installed" lists: “Intel(r) 8 Series/C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller” Looks good, then progress...
Followed by clicking on next- “Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the setup log files for more information.”
I've tried installing Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit via USB drive and OEM disc to no avail.
Performed a test using the same install procedure with my primary desktop computer which uses a MSI z68A-GD65 (G3) motherboard (AHCI enabled.) I was able to install windows to my Crucial M500 SSD without issue.
Confirmed the issue occurs while testing with different hard drives. I have yet to be able to install windows with AHCI enabled on this motherboard.
HDDs tested include:
WD Black WD5002AALX 500GB
Seagate ST3100524AS 1TB
Once I change SATA mode from AHCI to IDE, I was able to install windows without the need of pre-loading the Intel 8 Series SATA/AHCI driver.
Afterwards having installed windows, I decided to test by switching SATA mode back to AHCI. Doing so will cause the machine to bsod upon booting to windows. Later, I performed the registry edit to change IDE to AHCI mode within windows. Followed by again enabling AHCI in bios.
I was able to boot while in AHCI mode temporarily a couple of times until this method stopped working. Any attempt past the bios post, windows will not boot.
I've also tested the manual and XMP profile RAM settings as suggested by the sticky'd thread here https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=178019.0
I would like to possibly resolve the issue in regards to utilizing AHCI mode for optimal performance for my hard drives and hot swap capability.
When I have more time, I suppose I can run a RAM test; but so far I simply believe it may just be a SATA controller or driver conflict with the motherboard.
tl;dr Cannot install Windows 7 onto any hard drive with AHCI enabled. Works fine with IDE mode.

** Update as of 6/3/2014 ** Issue resolved.
Received my replacement motherboard from RMA. Replacement is working without any issues with SATA mode set to AHCI.
Tested by running Windows 7 and Windows 8 install - both detected my SATA SSD and other HDDs as applicable drives to install Windows onto. Pre-loading the SATA controller drivers was not necessary. Windows boots up immediately without any delay now. Benchmarks are showing valid stats for SATA3 devices.
Also to note, the replacement motherboard came with bios version 1.5, compared the one I sent back which came with 1.6. In case if that had anything to do with it. Not going to risk updating the bios at this point.
Video of issue:
Benchmarks from the old motherboard on the Crucial M500 SSD taken with Crystal DiskMark
Benchmark from MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate (MS-750)
on SATA 3 port set to AHCI
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 264.792 MB/s
Sequential Write : 143.991 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 250.614 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 142.545 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 24.176 MB/s [ 5902.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 82.152 MB/s [ 20056.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 210.018 MB/s [ 51274.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 134.663 MB/s [ 32876.6 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [C: 35.4% (39.6/111.8 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2014/05/24 3:25:19
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Benchmark from MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate (MS-750)
on SATA 3 port set to IDE
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 181.472 MB/s
Sequential Write : 141.275 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 177.430 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 141.393 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 21.646 MB/s [ 5284.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 68.922 MB/s [ 16826.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 25.411 MB/s [ 6203.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 108.275 MB/s [ 26434.3 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [C: 35.4% (39.6/111.8 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2014/05/24 3:41:42
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Benchmark from MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate (MS-750) **Replacement from RMA**
on SATA 3 port set to AHCI
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 469.045 MB/s
Sequential Write : 138.655 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 419.083 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 135.032 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 26.454 MB/s [ 6458.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 89.189 MB/s [ 21774.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 252.818 MB/s [ 61723.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 129.909 MB/s [ 31716.1 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [C: 37.1% (41.5/111.8 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2013/03/10 10:02:50
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Oracle Reports - Unable to generate report with colored image in bitmap mod

Hi,
I am using Oracle reports 6i.
I am generating a post script[.ps] file using bitmap mode.
The layout contains an image. The image is stored in oracle database which is colored image.
But when the report is generated same is being generated with gray color.
Could any one advise on resolving this issue? The objective is to generate the report with colored image and not gray or black&white

What kind of images do you have? Reports only supports a few formats, e.g. JFIF. So, if you have JPG images with EXIF meta information in the header, you have to remove those first.
when the report is generated same is being generated with gray color.What happens if you sent the output directly to the printer?
And what happens if you create a PDF file instead of Postscript?

Anyone have a example for useing volitile image in exclusive mode with

i need a example of how to use a volitile image in exclusive mode with active rendering .
anyone know of one or even partial code of how to do it ive been racking my brain trying to figure out how to do it.
or even a example of fullscreen that i can use to draw to the screen in exclusive fullscreen mode.
and im not talking about the sun tutorial no one can even answer my question about it when i asked in the java forum

by the way, here's a commented version of the example I gave earlier in case the puzzle pieces are upside down for you...
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
/* Goes into FullScreen with 640x480 16 bit
* Not all proper checks are made (like getting available DisplayModes),
* But you can always look at the doc for the rest of the checks. Besides,
* What computer doesn't have 640x480...?
public class Example extends Frame implements Runnable, KeyListener {
     VolatileImage v;
     int w,h,x,size; // x and size are for the moving ball
     boolean done; // when this is true, the program exits
     public Example() {
          /* Sets up the frame to be used for fullscreen */
          super(GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getDefaultScreenDevice().getDefaultConfiguration());
          GraphicsDevice device = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getDefaultScreenDevice();
          /* the below 2 methods aren't required
          * but using them results in best performance.*/
          setUndecorated(true);
          setIgnoreRepaint(true);
          /* A few mandatorial checks */
          if (device.isFullScreenSupported()) {
               device.setFullScreenWindow(this);
          if (device.isDisplayChangeSupported()) {
               device.setDisplayMode(new DisplayMode(640,480,16,0));
          /* our frame must be showing before we
          * we create our BufferStrategy or image,
          * in this case a VolatileImage.
          * Showing our frame also switches to
          * fullscreen mode.
          show();
          w = getSize().width;
          h = getSize().height;
          x = 0;
          size = 30;
          v = createVolatileImage(w,h); // creates volatile image (duh)
          done = false; // program exits when true
          addKeyListener(this); // used for exiting
          new Thread(this).start(); // starts the thread
     public void run() {
          while (!done) {
               x += 2; // increase ball location
               if (x >= w-size) x = 0; // back to left if all the way right
               /* You could also use repaint() here,
               * but you won't get a screen update
               * until the system decides it's time.
               * calling paint(getGraphics()) is much faster
               paint(getGraphics());
               /* Pausing of the thread... */
               try {
                    Thread.sleep(1);
               catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    done = true; // exit if there was some error
          System.exit(0); // this won't be called until done is true
     public void paint(Graphics g) {
          /* this attempts to get the graphics
          * from VolatileImage */
          Graphics gfx = v.getGraphics();
          /* If VolatileImage has no image memory,
          * we restore it and get the graphics for it */
          while (v.contentsLost()) {
               if (v.validate(getGraphicsConfiguration()) == VolatileImage.IMAGE_INCOMPATIBLE) {
                    v = createVolatileImage(w,h);
               gfx = v.createGraphics();
          /* this paints the ball etc */
          gfx.setColor(Color.black);
          gfx.fillRect(0,0,w,h);
          gfx.setColor(Color.cyan);
          gfx.fillOval(x,h/2-(size/2),size,size);
          g.drawImage(v,0,0,null); // draw the VolatileImage
     public void update(Graphics g) { // used for no blinking
          paint(g);
     public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
          if (!done) done = true; // program exits on any key press
     public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {}
     public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {}
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          new Example();
}

Windows 8.1 Image with audit mode

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