Monthly Archives: October 2009

The User Profile Service failed the logon.

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Yesterday I received the following error on my Windows 7 x64 Enterprise laptop when I tried to logon.

The User Profile Service Failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

Then the logoff message appeared en I was back where I was started.

The strange thing is nothing had changed when I shutdown the laptop last night. No update’s installed, no software installed. So I started searching the internet. The following article resolved my problem. It is an article about Windows Vista, you can read it here. Link.

The first thing I tried was the system restore to an earlier restore point. That worked for me..

Create an All-in-one x86+x64 Win7/Vista/Server 2008/R2 USB stick

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One of the great things about the Vista and post-Vista operating systems is that the installer subsystem allows you a great deal of flexibility when it comes to installing multiple operating systems. It is fairly easy to put together a single installation DVD or USB stick that will allow you to install Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 – in a variety of x86 and x64 flavors.

A couple of things to note about this guide:

  • I do not use Vista — I have never really used Vista and now with Windows 7 out there really is no reason to; however the steps here will work just fine with Vista installation sources
  • I have only tested this using a USB stick and will only cover that method here – it’s much more flexible (and faster) for installation than using DVD — but DVDs should work just fine: you can find plenty of tutorials on the web that will tell you how to use oscdimg.exe to take the files we create here and turn them into a burnable ISO

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

  • USB stick, at least 4 GB (perhaps larger depending on how many OSes you plan to integrate, I use a 16 GB) that has been properly formatted using Steps 1 and 2 here
  • ISOs or DVDs of the operating systems that you plan to integrate
  • imagex.exe (can be found for download on the web, or you can download the full 1.7 GB WAIK here)
  • computer running Vista or newer operating system (XP should work but I have not tested it)

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Keynotes Technet Live online

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Microsoft_Logo

The keynotes from Steve Ballmer and the keynote from Daniel van Soest and Tony Krijnen are online. Both keynotes were given at the Windows 7 launch event in The Hague, The Netherlands. For more information see the link. On this page there are other interesting presentations about the optimized datacenter, security and other stuff. Presentations are in Dutch.

  • The keynote from Steve Ballmer link.
  • The keynote from Daniel and Tony link.

Booting from a VHD disk

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Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 have a really useful feature called “VHD Boot”. With that you can boot your entire Windows out of a Virtual Hard Disk file (as those used with Virtual PC or Virtual Server).

This VHD file is mounted as a virtual disk, you can use it as a normal hard disk drive, but all the data is stored in ONE file. The machine is booted physically (unlike with Virtual PC), so you can only run one at a time, but have the full machine’s power.

The advantages are magnificent:

  • Simply copy one file (the .VHD file) and you’re entire system is included.
  • Create incremental VHD files: One VHD file can be based on another one. So if you have different systems, create a base Win7 VHD and make all others incremental. This will save a lot of disk space!

There’re also some small disadvantages 🙂

  • The .VHD booted OS needs to be Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or later.
  • There’s a performance decrease of about 3%.
  • Hibernate and some BitLocker scenarios don’t work
    (BitLocker CAN be used within the guest VHD though, but not on the disk where the VHD resides).
  • Windows Experience index won’t work.

So how do you install a VHD-Boot machine?

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