I’ve seen this happen a few times now and figured I would share the quick fix.  If after installing Service Pack 3 for Windows XP the Windows Updates stop working and instead failing, run the following commands either in a command line or in a batch file.

regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

I ran across this blog post with the main differences between SBS 2003 and SBS 2008.

http://sbs.seandaniel.com/2008/08/what-different-between-sbs-2003-and-sbs.html

I stumbled across this free Windows Server 2008 training material provided by Train Signal.

http://www.server2008training.com

I’ve upgraded a few handfuls of vista systems to SP1 already and haven’t had a single issue yet, but I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.  My first error/problem system came with a Sony Vaio laptop.   After the initial reboot, it immediately received a missing/corrupt ACPI.SYS error.

I knew most likely it could be fixed by overwriting the file from a Vista dvd, but I googled it anyway and came across this blog post.   It had the directions to fix it.

http://blog.rogercavanagh.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/16/3526136.html

Here was the fix:

1. Insert the Vista installation DVD — in my case I used the Windows Anytime Upgrade DVD that I used to ugrade to Vista Ultimate.

2. Power off and then power on the PC. A message appears inviting you to press any key to boot from DVD — on mine a restart just restarted without offering DVD boot.

3. Once the DVD boot completes, you’re asked to specify Language, Time and Currency and Keyboard Format. Choose the the appropriate options and click [Next].

4. The next screen has an option to Install now and another to Repair your computer. Choose repair.

5. There is a message about searching for files, then a list of Windows installations is displayed. I presume that, on multi-boot systems, more than one item would appear in this list. My laptop only had one that was already higlighted. Click [Next].

6. If you are offered any automatic repair options, cancel out of those until you get a screen that offers several choices beginning with Start Up Repair and ending with Command Prompt.

7. Choose Command Prompt. A window opens; on my PC the prompt showed the folder location was X:\Sources.

8. Enter cd \windows\system32\drivers. The prompt changes to reflect that location.

9. Enter c: to change to drive C; then cd \windows\system32\drivers. The prompt changes to reflect that location.

10. I did a back-up of all the files in the drivers folder before starting to copy by creating a new folder: md temp. Then copy c:\windows\system32\drivers\*.* c:\windows\system32\drivers\temp.

11. You can now copy files from the drivers folder in X. The simplest form is copy x:filename.

12.Type exit to close the command window and shut down or restart the PC with one of the command buttons offered.

The files that I copied were acpi.sys, atapi.sys, ataport.sys, battc.sys, compbatt.sys, intelide.sys, pciidex.sys and wmiacpi.sys. The info’ that I found also suggested mgahci.sys, but that wasn’t available on my system. I cannot testify to the completeness of this list. But, as I said in the post, it worked for me.

After performing these steps and rebooting, the Vista SP1 wizard continued with the update process and the SP1 installation was successful.

So I got a new laptop, a Dell Latitude D630.  I decided to use BitLocker to encrypt the drive’s contents.   After using the Drive Preparation Tool, enabling the TPM chip in the laptops BIOS, and activating the chip,  I was presented with the following error within Vista while trying to turn on drive encryption:

Cannot run.

The path specified in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) for a BitLocker Drive Encryption integrity-protected application is incorrect. Please verify and correct your BCD settings and try again.

So I did a little Google search and came across this Microsoft article which helped me resolve the problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929834

Here was the fix:

CAUSE

This problem occurs if one of the following entries in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store points to the incorrect partition:

•Windows Boot Manager

•Windows Memory Tester

•Resume from Hibernate

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, edit the following BCD entries:

•Windows Boot Manager
Set this entry to point to the system partition. To do this, follow these steps:

1.  Click Start , click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password or click Continue.

2.  At the command prompt, type bcdedit -set {bootmgr} device partition=S:
Note In this command, S: represents the drive letter for the system partition.

•Windows Memory Tester
Set this entry to point to the system partition. To do this, type the following command at the elevated command prompt:

bcdedit -set {memdiag} device partition=S:
Note In this command, S: represents the drive letter for the system partition.

•Resume from Hibernate
Set this entry to point to the operating system partition. This partition is also known as the boot partition. To do this, follow these steps:

1.  At the elevated command prompt, type bcdedit -enum all.
Note the identifier value for the Resume from Hibernate entry.

2.  At the elevated command prompt, type bcdedit -set {identifier} device partition=C:.

Note In this command, identifier represents the identifier value for the Resume from Hibernate entry in step 1 of this procedure. Also, C: represents the drive letter for the boot partition.

I always forget about this one.   I rarely use ExMerge as it is, but occasionally it’s a easy way to grab a copy of a mailbox off of the Exchange server.   In this case I needed to grab 5 mailboxes before I removed the users from the system.

But if you try and use the Administrator account to get an ExMerge copy, you will get errors.   Here’s the workaround:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823143

I recently got a new Dell Laptop D630 and it came with Vista Business 32-bit.  Being the badass IT guy that I am, 32-bit is not enough for me.   I need the memory increase that 64-bit allows.   With a 32bit version of Windows, your maximum memory can only be around 3.25gb.  With 64-bit, I think the limit is 128+gb.

Anyway’s, so I decided to reformat the Dell hard drive and install Vista Ultimate 64bit.  The install went fine and there were no issues until the first official boot.  Then I received a very fast blue screen (BSOD) with a STOP error, but was unable to read what it said.

It ended up being a problem with the AHCI driver installed from the copy of Vista Ultimate DVD I had.

I stumbled accross this forum posting:

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1920227&SiteID=17

Which luckily had suggestions on resolving the issue.

The issue at hand is the version of msahci.sys that shipped with Vista has a bug in it (evidently).  The problem we had was a D630 from Dell would work fine, but loading a MSDN copy of Vista Ultimate would BSOD.  I tracked it down to the AHCI system driver located at c:\windows\system32\drivers\msahci.sys.  On the Dell-supplied Vista disk the version of that file is 6.0.6000.16391.  On the MSDN media it’s 6.0.6000.16386.  A quick search for that file on TechNet shows that vile is now up to 6.0.6000.20544 as of KB933578.

There are 4 options that I can see that you can take to resolve the problem:

1. Change the SATA controller from AHCI mode to ATA mode in BIOS.  You’ll get a warning that you may need to reinstall the OS but I didn’t.  Try this at your own risk.  My gut tells me that even if you did get a BSOD on boot from doing this that you could just change back - no harm no foul.  The problem is that this setting disables the use of the Intel Turbo Cache card, if you choose to use one.
2. Get version .16391 or better of msahci.sys.  I copied the newer file from another machine that had Dell’s Vista Business image on it.  You can also get it by downloading a KB patch from Microsoft that has the fix, like KB933578.  Search TechNet on the file name for your options on patches.  My guess is that this driver will be reved with SP1 for Vista as well.  You simply copy the newer file ontop of the old one and reboot.
3. Install the Intel Matrix Storage driver, which bypasses the Microsoft-supplied driver for AHCI connectivity.  I’m sure you can find a version on Intel’s site, or you can get it from Dell’s.  The version I used is v7.0.0.1020, A02.  The download from Dell is R154200.exe.  It will extract itself to a local directory and then you’ll need to use Device Manager to update the SATA AHCI controller (manually specify the driver location).
4. This is really 3a - put the drivers from step 3 on a USB stick of floppy and install Vista from scratch.  When you get to the disk setup screen click the new driver link and point to where the driver is supplied.  Vista will then use the Intel driver instead of the Microsoft driver and you’ll have a 100% clean install.

I could of went the easy way out and just disabled AHCI and switched to ATA mode, and that did work.  But AHCI offers performance increases that I didn’t want to miss out on.  So I did as suggestion #4 says.  I had to copy the drivers from Dell’s website onto a USB thumb drive, and then reinstall Vista again.  This time prior to installing, I specified a driver to use BEFORE the install, and the install went great.