Windows 7 - The fix is in

Although I've been on a bit of a 'blogging vacation', I know a lot of you are out there 'playing' with Microsoft's Windows 7 Beta.

Honestly, I've been somewhat glued to it myself because, other than Live Mesh, it one of the best things I've seen come out of Redmond in a LONG time.

Not only are there improvements for everyday users, but lots of neat stuff under the hood for the tech crowd.  I suppose, best of all, the drivers should be on time ..... as the driver program is not only well underway, but access to the operating system and the tools are already here (This was, in fact, the biggest problem with Vista.  The firmware updates and drivers were extremely late.)

Microsoft has also set a summer deadline for Vista drivers so that they are also Windows 7 compatible. In my own tests, the operating system recognized ALL of my existing hardware but it is fairly current stuff and had been updated for Vista.

Faster than Vista.  Much more enjoyable and configurable than Vista or XP.  Period.

The main reason for the post?  I did have one annoying issue with Windows 7.  It's already been documented on a few other blogs and now by Microsoft .... but we can't be everywhere?

Some programs simply wouldn't load, regardless of the 'legacy settings'.

Originally a few blogs reported that if you adjust the CEIP (Built-in Windows 7 Customer Experience Improvement Program), it would fix the problem (and did).

That fix has now has been replaced by a simple command prompt registry fix.

Tony Mann posted the following to TechNet and so far so good (and I thought a few of you would want to know):
An issue related to the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP is also known as SQM) in the Windows 7 Beta is causing crashes of Explorer, MSI-based installers, and other applications on some PC's.  In order to resolve the issue, impacted customers need to run the following command from an elevated command prompt. This procedure will permanently stop crashes related to CEIP. A machine not currently affected by this problem will work fine and new installations of Windows 7 Beta are also not affected.

Background:

Microsoft deployed a configuration change which exposed this problem. The procedure provided below removes those changes (registry keys) to prevent further CEIP related crashes.

Detailed instructions:

1. Select and copy the following to your clipboard:
   

reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions /va /f

2. Click on "Start", then "All Programs", then "Accessories"
3. Right click on "Command Prompt", then click on "Run as administrator"
4. In the UAC prompt, verify that the program’s name is "Windows Command Processor" and then click "Yes"
5. Right click on the "Administrator: Command Prompt" window’s black area, then select "Paste"
6. Press "Enter", you should see “The operation completed successfully”.
   If you see “ERROR: Access is denied”, please make sure you followed Step 3.
7. Close the "Administrator: Command Prompt” window       
   

Another sidenote:  Try ReadyBoost on Windows 7.  It flies ...!

Back Soon
Have a GREAT weekend all
Charlie

Belated Year End Thanks!

Note: SEO and Tech Daily is still being redesigned and re-launched on or about January 30th.  The comments and more will be back soon.  This is an interim post by the (proud) founder / editor, Charlie Anzman.

I've always had a tradition on the Internet that usually kicks in around the holidays. 

Back in 1995, when I put the second electronics export company on the Internet, and since then, I've always tried to recognize those that helped me, directly or indirectly, accomplish my immediate goals .... at least once a year.

About a year and a half ago, I launched SEO and Tech Daily with some very specific goals in mind.  I had spent over 6 years in 'in-house' SEO and, in today's times, that basically meant I went off the radar.

This blog started as an experiment in a variety of ways:

To see if I could quickly 'reconnect' (with a minimum of travel).
To see how quickly I could brand the blog (and myself .... again ?!).
To see how the search engines picked up on it over time.
To see how many people would link here (without expectation)
.... and also, to bring my humble view of a variety of topics, mostly Tech and SEO related back to the Internet.

Any decent SEO is always experimenting.  Not in a 'Black-Hat' fashion, but to see how search engines react as they continually re-write their algorithms for relevance.

The response was somewhat surprising and well, just great.  I not only reconnected with many I hadn't spoken to in the SEO / SEM world, but with people that I used to correspond with back in the dial-up days?!  Twitter, Friendfeed, and Facebook all played a significant role in that respect as well.

There were new people too.  Some absolutely brilliant, some interesting, and some that just made me laugh.

So, here, it goes .... with a little disclaimer.

I'm not big on lists. Important people always get left out.
If I do, just find this piece on Friendfeed and let me know!

Not in any particular order ....

Guy Kawasaki and crew - Who added us (me) in 3 places on Alltop.
Robert Scoble - Who put this blog on a list of 'Blogs you should be reading'. (The list was then copied and linked to by more people than I could count :)
Louis Gray - Who discovered this blog early on, later interacted, and also had this blog on his first 'recommended reading' list.
Mike Fruchter - Without whose Likey's on Friendfeed ... a lot of people never would make it to visibilty there.
Tamar Weinberg - Who I missed by a minute at a trade show and am still regretting it.  This young lady knows the landscape.
Sarah Perez - Who always keeps the door open and writes some great stuff.
Microsoft ?! - Their mention of this blog on the front page of the PDC 2008 website sent the stats into the stratosphere (and just made me feel pretty good for a few days :)
Mona Nomura - Whose outright insanity on Friendfeed kept me laughing.
Shey Smith - I'm not sure why, but he's here.
Matt Cutts (Google) - Who answered comments on his blog promptly, made a brief appearance here in the comments and immediately answered my e-mail .... when I wasn't sure if it was him or spam :)
Vanessa Fox (ex-Google) - Who engaged me in the comments on her old blog, while we were both trying to sell houses ... and probably helped the rank of the 'for sale' website .... that sold mine?!  (Not to mention bringing A LOT of quality reading to Search Engine Land and her new venture Nine by Blue).
Mike 'Glemak' Dunn - Who invited me up to visit 'the tower' last year.  A great (fascinating) conversation that made me look at things a little differently (and lent some more visibility with an awful picture of me on Flickr :).
Peter Troast - Who had the wisdom to let me do my thing without all kinds of reports, meetings and interruptions (and didn't regret it).
Bill Slawski - Just one of the nicest guys in SEO with an interesting blog (and who also linked very early on).
Duncan Riley - Who lent some important advice when I needed it ....
Cyndy Aleo-Carreira - Who let me invade a live podcast and didn't ask me to shut up.
Lee Odden - Who added this blog to 'The Big List' before there were a billion people on it ...
Jill Whalen - Who doesn't know it but was my original inspiration for switching gears to SEO, years ago.
Lisa Barone - Who's writing style I always enjoyed in her former, and current places on the web.
The founders of Friendfeed - Who made this year much more fun and interesting.
Gabe Rivera - I have NO IDEA how TechMeMe found us, but I collected at least 40 mentions last year, two headlines, (maybe more) and that was just cool.

Franklin Pettit - A fan and important critic.
Allen Stern - Whose videos made me crack up and who always responds ... and is just a nice guy.

My wife, daughter (and her fiance) ... without whom I wouldn't have half of the drive I do (and who somehow understood why I was doing this for free !?)


Great week all .. Back Soon
Charlie

Happy New Year !

SEO and Tech Daily will return on or about January 30th.

A Happy and Healthy New Year from our family to yours!

(Note: You may see some changes in the look and feel of the blog during this period as we run a few experiments with Blogger in Draft. Most of the previous features will return shortly ....)