Using Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility Mode

Windows Vista or Windows 7, will have problems running some older versions of applications, just because so much has changed under the hood from Windows XP days. There is a compatibility mode that can be easily set per application. To configure the compatibility mode for an application, just locate the installation directory and right click on the .exe, selecting Properties from the menu.

Select the Compatibility tab:
You can choose to run the program in Windows XP compatibility mode, or even all the way back to Windows 95 compatibility.

Probably the most useful setting to start off with would be to disable the visual themes and desktop composition, if you can’t get things working. If you are trying to run a video game, you will often need to choose “Run this program as an administrator”. You’ll have to play around with it, but most likely you can get your application working this way.

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Disable AutoPlay in Windows Vista

Windows Vista’s AutoPlay options are a great improvement over Windows XP in terms of flexibility, but unfortunately there are so many options that it can be confusing, especially since there’s no specific mention of USB Flash drives in the options. Open your Control Panel, and then click on “Play CDs or other media automatically” to open the AutoPlay dialog.

Disable AutoPlay Globally

The quickest way to disable AutoPlay entirely is to just uncheck the box for “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices”, which should usually work.

Disable for a Single 

Type You can choose a setting in the drop-down menu for a single type of drive, for instance Audio CD in this example. For this to work you’ll have to make sure to keep the global autoplay option on, and then choose the specific setting in the drop-down.

Disable for just Removable (flash) Drives 

The problem here is that while there are settings for Audio CDs and DVDs, there’s nothing specifically for USB flash drives. Windows will determine the drive type based on the content it finds on the flash drive itself, so that’s what we’ll need to change In order to disable AutoPlay for the removable drives, you should change all of the following to Take no action: Software and games, Pictures, Video files, Audio files, and Mixed content.

Disable Through Group Policy 

If you’d like to disable it entirely you can use the Group Policy editor on the Business and Ultimate versions of Vista Open up gpedit.msc through the start menu search box, browse to Windows Components \ AutoPlay Policies, and change the value of “Turn off Autoplay” to enabled.

You can choose whether to disable for just removable devices, or entirely.

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Run Windows XP on Windows 7

it’s been a long time since the release of Windows 7 but there are few individuals who are not impressed with Windows 7 and want to continue with XP

Windows XP is so simple and easy to use that not everyone wants to come out of XP. So if you are using Windows 7 but also wants XP back then Windows 7 has something interesting for you.

 The feature is called “XP mode on windows 7” and it can enable you to continue with XP while using Windows 7. This feature works with the feature called Windows Virtual PC. Other advantage of this feature is that while Windows 7 is compatible with most of the applications in XP, in case there is some application that runs only on XP then you can run it easily.

The only thing to note is that you must have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate to run Windows XP Mode. Download link for the same is given below

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

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Troubleshooting Driver Problems with Tape Drives, Library or Autoloaders

Tape drives and Libraries or Autoloaders do not necessarily require drivers, like a hard drive or CD-Rom. But they do need a 3rd Party Backup Software to manage the transfer of data from the server or hard drive, to the tape drive. If the software requires a driver, it will be included by that software vendor as part of the package. When the software is installed, it will search the bus for supported hardware, and will install the appropriate driver. If the software vendor does not provide a driver, they will give you information on the driver that is required. 

Backup utilities that are provided with operating systems may not include drivers. Generic drivers are available on the Principal Vendor website for use with these utilities

DO NOT INSTALL THE GENERIC DRIVER IF YOUR SOFTWARE PROVIDES ONE. The generic driver will interfere with your software’s ability to communicate with the tape drive. They are also difficult to fully remove once installed. 

DO NOT INSTALL MULTIPLE DRIVERS. Doing so will cause conflicts and failures. If you install multiple backup utilities, it also means multiple drivers are installed. It’s best to remove a backup utility before installing another one to avoid problems

YOU MUST TURN OFF THE SERVICES OF YOUR BACKUP SOFTWARE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO USE ANY PRINCIPAL VENDOR DIAGNOSTICS TOOL. The backup services and drivers will prohibit diagnostics tools from communicating with the tape drive. 

Following are indications of multiple driver installation problems: 

•The Diagnostics tool fails

•The tape driver and/or library are reported in the SCSI bios and environment, but not in the backup software. 

To determine what driver is installed

1. Right click on My Computer. 

2. Select Manage then Device Manager. 

3. Right click in Plus Box next to Device Category

4. Right click on Device name and select Properties

5. Click the Driver Tab. The 2nd line shows the Driver Provided. 

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VMware ESXi interview questions answer

Can I run virtual machines created by Microsoft Virtual Server, Microsoft Virtual PC, or VMware Server on VMware ESXi? 
Yes. You can use the free VMware vCenter Converter to import virtual machines that were created using VMware Server, Microsoft Virtual Server, or Microsoft Virtual PC version 7 or higher. VMware vCenter Converter also supports conversions from sources such as physical machines and certain 3rd party disk image formats.
What is the difference between VMware ESX and VMware ESXi?
VMware ESX and VMware ESXi are both bare-metal hypervisors that install directly on the server hardware. Both provide industry-leading performance and scalability; the difference resides in the architecture and the operational management of VMware ESXi. Although neither hypervisor relies on an OS for resource management, VMware ESX relies on a Linux operating system, called the service console, to performtwo management functions: executing scripts and installing third party agents for hardware monitoring, backup or systems management. The service console has been removed from ESXi, drastically reducing the hypervisor footprint and completing the ongoing trend of migrating management functionality from the local command line interface to remote management tools. The smaller code base of ESXi represents a smaller “attack surface” and less code to patch, improving reliability and security. The functionally of the service console is replaced by remote command line interfaces and adherence to system management standards
How is VMware ESXi different than VMware vSphere?
VMware ESXi is a hypervisor that partitions a physical server into multiple virtual machines.VMware vSphere is the industry’s first cloud operating system that drastically reduces ongoing costs and increases control over delivery of service levels while still preserving the flexibility to choose between any type of OS, application and hardware architecture. VMware vSphere offers organizations high availability and centralized management functionality that span across multiple ESXi hosts such as live migration, protection against hardware failures, power management, and automatic load balancing. VMware vSphere relies on a hypervisor to partition servers. Customers can choose to deploy either VMware ESX or VMware ESXi as part of the VMware vSphere suite. All the functionality of VMware vSphere is supported on both VMware ESX and VMware ESXi. In fact, VMware vSphere supports server resource pools that contain both hypervisors.
How do I use VMware vCenter Server to manage my VMware ESXi hosts? 
VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management for ESXi hosts and their virtual machines. To manage an ESXi host with vCenter Server, you must have a vCenter Server Agent license, which is included in all editions of VMware vSphere
What is the difference between VMware ESXi and VMware Server?
VMware ESXi is an enterprise-class hypervisor that offers a bare-metal architecture for near-native performance, features like memory de-duplication to increase consolidation ratios and a cluster file system for managing VM files on shared storage. VMware ESXi and VMware ESX are the critical foundations for a dynamic and flexible virtual infrastructure.
VMware Server installs as an application on Windows or Linux, relying on the operating system for resource management. This limits the performance and scalability. VMware Server is popular for test and development activities. Virtual machines created using VMware Server can run on VMware ESXi, but they must first be converted using the free VMware Converter.
Is it possible to download a virtual appliance into an ESXi environment for evaluation? 
Yes. If you are running VMware vSphere Client 2.5 and later along with ESXi 3.5 or ESX 3.5 or later, it is possible to access a list of downloadable virtual appliances for evaluation into an ESXi environment. To access that list of virtual appliances, open your VMware vSphere client, select "Virtual Appliance" from the file menu, and then select "Import...". When you select “Import from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace” and click “Next”, you will be sent to a page where you can download the appliances
How do I use VMware vCenter Server to manage my VMware ESXi hosts?
VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management for ESXi hosts and their virtual machines. To manage an ESXi host with vCenter Server, you must have a vCenter Server Agent license, which is included in all editions of VMware vSphere.

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