Windows 7: Virtual Clone Drive and Microsoft Office 2007

The Microsoft Office 2007 installer that I had access to was in an ISO file format. It meant that either I burn it on to a DVD or find an application that will allow me to mount the file as a virtual DVD. Microsoft used to have a virtual CD application for Windows XP. Sadly, said application doesn't work for Windows Vista or Windows 7. After looking at several options, I decided on Virtual Clone Drive. It installed fine and it seems to work well. I was able to mount the Microsoft Office 2007 installer and I was able to successfully install it on my Windows 7 system so in summary:
Virtual Clone Drive 5.4.3.2 works
Microsoft Office 2007 works

Enable mail notification on Ubuntu 9.0.4 Jaunty Jackalope

Go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager

Search for mail-notification and mark it for installation

Click on Apply to install it

Go to Applications -> Internet then open Mail Notification

You should see something similar to the images below. Configure the application by replacing company with the appropriate name of the company and the username and password

Windows 7: Synergys, Virtual CloneDrive, Office 2007

Here is a couple of more programs I installed on my Windows 7 RTM laptop

Synergys works except that it has to be run as Administrator
Virtual CloneDrive works
Office 2007 works

Windows 7: Java and VMWare vSphere Client

As promised, I tried to run some more apps on Windows 7.

The Java Development Kit 64-bit from Sun Microsystems works fine with Windows 7.

VMware vSphere Client 4.0.0 does not work out of the box but eventually, after a few tweaks, I was able to make it run fine. To make it work, I copied a System.dll file from a windows xp .Net installation into a Lib folder which I created in the Launcher directory inside the VMware vSphere Client installation folder. Next I modified the VpxClient.exe.config file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.net>
        <connectionManagement>
            <clear/>
            <add address="*" maxconnection="8" />
        </connectionManagement>
    </system.net>
  <appSettings>
    <add key = "protocolports" value = "https:443"/>
  </appSettings>
<runtime>
<developmentMode developerInstallation="true"/>
</runtime>
</configuration> 

Lastly, I created an new environment variable: Devpath and set it to C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib

Asus K40IN & Windows 7 Ultimate Test Drive

Someone hooked me up with a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate and since I had a spare partition on my hard drive, I decided there was no harm in taking it for a spin just to see what all the fuss was about.



Installation was a breeze. Below, you can see the desktop and system information: Windows 7 was able to detect and enable most of the devices on the Asus K40IN laptop as seen in the screen shot below: With the exception of the co-processor which I have no idea how to fix, everything worked out of the box, the wireless card, the webcam, the touch pad, audio. The desktop resolution of the default driver only allowed for 1280x720 so I had to download the driver from the Asus K40IN product page. Other utilities for the laptop are also available for download there. Here is an initial list of programs I tried:

• Firefox 3.5.3 works
• mTorrent 1.8.4 works
• Adobe Reader 9.1.0 works
• yahoo messenger 9.0.0.2162 works
• mplayer svn r29355 works except that aero switches off when you run it
• vlc 1.0.1 works
• spybot s&d 1.6.2.46 works

I'll keep posting if I'm able to try other programs. If you have a program in mind that you want me to try, drop me a comment and I'll see what I can do.