Finding Microsoft KBs afterwards

This happens frequently enough to warrant comment. I hate when I find Microsoft Knowledge Base articles detailing the solution after I'd already stammered and stumbled into a solution on my own. Case in point, although this applies to Windows 2000 Server, there is a Microsoft Knowledge Base article called "How to perform a disaster recovery restoration of Active Directory on a computer with a different hardware configuration", KB263532 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263532, explaining what I blogged about. Maybe those missing registry keys were the source of my problems. I haven't found a more up to date KB article but have found a related one: "How to move a Windows installation to different hardware", KB249694, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249694. I guess it's part of learning.

Network Shortcuts on Desktop slows Windows XP Performance

I spent two days trying to diagnose a laptop computer running Windows XP experiencing slow performance, all to conclude the issue was with old links on the desktop pointing to non-existent (no longer existent) network locations - decommissioned servers.

I ran the much vaunted Dell Diagnostic utilities four times, memtest86+ 44 passes, and the IBM Hitachi Drive Fitness Test. I started to update drivers, which unfortunately lead to a blue screen then a non booting system. I tried to get the system booting again by using chkdsk, fixboot, and fixmbr to no avail, leading me to repair Windows XP, update Windows, and update the drivers. It wasn't until I was asked to transfer over desktop files and folders to the loaner issued that I noticed that it took longer to log in as the user than to log in as me, and that there were old network shortcuts on the desktop.

In Windows XP, I have mistyped into the address bar computer names and IP addresses in the past to have Windows Explorer freeze until the requests time out after a few minutes. In Windows Vista or Windows 7, the same mistake does not cause that to happen. In essence, when loading or refreshing the desktop, Windows XP must be validating the shortcuts and freezing until the request times out. By extension, I would think even the valid shortcuts are checked, with some overhead. Shortcuts in folders on the desktop are probably not checked this way.

To summarize, network shortcuts on a Windows XP desktop can cause performance problems, and I would recommend storing shortcuts you want on the Desktop inside a folder on the desktop, as opposed the directly on the desktop. With Windows Vista and Windows 7, this is less of a concern.

VirtualPC Virtual Network Adapters in Windows (Server 2008)

I am using a set of Microsoft VHDs to demo their software (specifically Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2), and I wondered why my Local Area Connection was around Local Area Connection 24 and my network card was Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network 15. My guess is that Microsoft passed these VHDs around for review before release, so it stored past local area connections and network adapters. The Virtual Machines had a startup script called startup.cmd that referenced a Local Area Connection that wasn't the current one. I changed the number to match mine, then decided to remove the old adapters through the registry. Here's what I did (take caution and perform backups before editing the registry):

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Network Cards\, network cards are enumerated by number. The Description subkey lists the name of the adapter and the ServiceName subkey lists the Service GUID. I noted the ServiceName and deleted the keys.

For Windows Vista/Server 2008 and above, the keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\NetworkList\Profiles represent the networks. I deleted all but the network I was interested in (the domain). The network names are listed under Description and ProfileName. Interestingly, one of the networks was corp.microsoft.com.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}, network connections are listed (like Local Area Connection n) by GUID with their names under Connection\Name. I deleted all the GUIDs for the connections I didn't want.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\Description, adapters are enumeratec and used the numbers are listed under the data of the REG_MULTI_SZ key. I cleared the data for Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network Adapter and Microsoft VMBus Network Adapter.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services are listed the the GUIDs representing the network cards from the ...Network Cards subkeys (ServiceName). I deleted the corresponding GUIDs from the Network Cards.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip\Adapters are listed GUIDs representing adapters. I deleted the unwanted keys. The same is true for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip\Interfaces. I left HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\Interfaces alone.

I found these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles, but they apply to NT 3.5 - 4.0:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/146333
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/147797