I recently took on the task of upgrading a friends computer from XP to Windows 7.  I always forget that doing this also means you have to deal with all of the applications that they have installed.  The one app that I have learned to love and hate is iTunes.  It actually turns out the transferring the iTunes library was fairly easy except for one tricky part.  Here are the steps I completed to transfer their library.  Hopefully it helps somebody out.  The tricky part was step number seven.

1.  Backed up the user profile from the XP machine to the external hard drive.
2.  Connected the external hard drive to the new Windows 7 machine.
3.  Installed iTunes on the Windows 7 machine.  Should be the same version as the old machine.
4.  From the old profile I copied c:\documents and settings\username\application data\apple computer\itunes to             c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\apple computer\iTunes
5.  From the old profile I copied c:\documents and settings\username\application data\apple computer\itunes to
C:\users\username\appdata\local\apple computer\itunes
6.  From the old profile I copied c:\documents and settings\username\my documents\music\itunes to
C:\users\username\music\iTunes
7.  The final step I completed was to launch iTunes and open up preferences.  On the advanced tab changed the
iTunes media folder location from c:\users\username\music\iTunes\iTunes Media to
c:\users\username\music\iTunes\iTunes Music.

I ran across an error when launching task manager in Windows 7 which was “c:\windows\system32\taskmgr.exe  The parameter is incorrect”.  You can see a screen shot of the error below .  When I first received this error I was stumped as I had never had an issue with task manager in my life.  I then started thinking back to what I had done in the past few days and remembered what I had done.  I had enabled process explorer from sysinternals to replace task manager.  This is no big deal, but if you move the process explorer executable to a different location it is a problem.  I had been doing some house cleaning and moved the exe to another location.  To fix the problem all I had to do is launch process explorer again and under options select restore task manager.  When I had completed this process task manager started up without a problem.  Hopefully this post comes in handy to somebody else running into the same problem.

Error Displayed When Launching Task Manager

Windows 7 adds a great new security feature called UAC.  There are certain situations where you have to disable UAC which you can do by following the below steps.

1. Open control panel by going to the start menu -> Control Panel

2. From the control panel select User Accounts And Family Safety

3. Select User Accounts

4.  Select Change User Account Control Settings

5. Move slider bar to the bottom so it is at never notify.  Then click OK.

There are allot of great things about Windows 7 and one of them is that it has a built in disk defragger that runs in the background and just gets the job done.  The only problem with this is that some people prefer to use their own tool of choice.  If you want to do this you must turn off the built in defragger.  Use the following steps below to turn of Windows 7 defragmenter

1.  Go To Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

2.  Select Configuration Schedule

3.  Deselect Run On A Schedule And Click OK

If you are a fan of the new movie Avatar you can now bring it to your Windows 7 desktop.  Microsoft recently added the theme pack to its growing collection.  You can follow the direct link below to download the Avatar theme pack.  I would also recommend going to the personalization gallery as there are allot of other outstanding theme packs out there.

Avatar Theme Download Direct Link
http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/1/B/41b95bca-cb54-4a6c-83ea-7a9e6e2fadef/Avatar_Windows7.themepack

Additional Microsoft Theme Packs
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/personalize

Performance Monitor is an essential tool in a server administrators life.  This tool allows us to see deep down into the operating system to see what is actually going on.  I am going to cover the performance counters I use the most over the next few weeks.  This by far does not mean that these are the only counters you should look at.  These are just the ones I have found to be very important.

One of the biggest areas we can look at is processor utilization to figure out how our server is performing.  Below are the three main counters that we will be looking at today.  The definitions are taken strait out of performance monitor.

• %Processor Time – The percentage of elapsed time that the processor spends to execute a non-Idle thread. It is calculated by measuring the percentage of time that the processor spends executing the idle thread and then subtracting that value from 100%. (Each processor has an idle thread that consumes cycles when no other threads are ready to run). This counter is the primary indicator of processor activity, and displays the average percentage of busy time observed during the sample interval. It should be noted that the accounting calculation of whether the processor is idle is performed at an internal sampling interval of the system clock (10ms). On todays fast processors, % Processor Time can therefore underestimate the processor utilization as the processor may be spending a lot of time servicing threads between the system clock sampling interval. Workload based timer applications are one example  of applications  which are more likely to be measured inaccurately as timers are signaled just after the sample is taken.
• %User Time – The percentage of elapsed time the processor spends in the user mode. User mode is a restricted processing mode designed for applications, environment subsystems, and integral subsystems.  The alternative, privileged mode, is designed for operating system components and allows direct access to hardware and all memory.  The operating system switches application threads to privileged mode to access operating system services. This counter displays the average busy time as a percentage of the sample time.
• %Privileged Time – The percentage of elapsed time that the process threads spent executing code in privileged mode.  When a Windows system service in called, the service will often run in privileged mode to gain access to system-private data. Such data is protected from access by threads executing in user mode. Calls to the system can be explicit or implicit, such as page faults or interrupts. Unlike some early operating systems, Windows uses process boundaries for subsystem protection in addition to the traditional protection of user and privileged modes. Some work done by Windows on behalf of the application might appear in other subsystem processes in addition to the privileged time in the process.

Now that you have the Microsoft definition of these counters lets take a quick look at whats important.  The first thing you want to look at is %Processor Time for all instances.  If this counter stays below sixty percent the majority of the time the system is pretty healthy.  If this counter is consistently between sixty and ninety percent you are going to want to look at the server closer.  When this counter consistently stays above ninety percent you should be alarmed and look into what is consuming most of the CPU.

This is where the other two counters come into play.  If most of the processor is being consumed in %User Time then you know it is an application like SQL or IIS that are consuming most of the resources.  If the most of the process is being consumed by %Privileged Time then you know that your bottleneck is some where else like disk IO, memory, or network.  When you are having a %Privileged Time issues it takes a little bit more investigation work to look at all the OS subsystems.

Hopefully you now know what some of the basic processor counters you should be looking at and why.  In the next part of the series we will be looking at network interface counters.

There is a new tool in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 called problem steps recorder.  The main purpose of this tool was to be able to solve problems easier.  The tool will take screen shots and also document all input from the keyboard.  When you are done recording the steps it makes a nice zip folder that allows you to see everything.  If you are like most IT professionals you hate doing documentation.  So all you have to do is fire up Problem Steps Recorder and complete the task that you need to document.  Allot of time all you will have to do is save the output from Problem Steps Recorder as your documentation since screen shots and keyboard output are put together.  You automatically have a step by step guide.  Try it out and let me know what you think.

Problem Steps Recorder Review From TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd320286.aspx

With the official release of Windows 7 channel 9 has released another video interview with Mark Russinovich.   This interview is basically part two of an interview series. Mark did an interview several months ago that covers some additional talking points.  The new video covers a wide range of topics.  I guarantee you will have to watch this video a few times to catch all of the information that is presented.  If you have not heard the first interview I also highly recommend it.  I would also like to thank channel 9 and Mark for making the time to share this great information.

Mark Russinovich: Inside Windows 7 Redux
http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Going%20Deep/Mark-Russinovich-Inside-Windows-7-Redux/

Mark Russinovich: Inside Windows 7
http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Going+Deep/Mark-Russinovich-Inside-Windows-7/

Even though Windows 7 is currently taking the main spotlight you can’t forget about Powershell.  Windows 7 will be the first client OS that has Powershell version built in from the start.  On Thursday night at 9:30 PM EDT there will be a virtual launch party on Ustream.  You can also follow the blog and podcast at powerscripting.net.  Join Jonathan Walz and Hal Tottenberg as they interview distinguished engineer Jeffrey Snover on launch day.  Check out the link below for more information.

PowerScripting Podcast Info
http://powerscripting.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/powershell-v2-virtual-launch-party/

Windows 7 team blog is reporting that you can now download the beta until February 10th.  If you have already started your download you will have until February 12 to complete it.  Also if you still need a key for windows 7 you can still get one.  Product keys will also be available through February 12th.

If you can take the time I strongly encourage you to test out Window 7.

Windows 7 Team Blog
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/default.aspx