Just got a new computer the other day (info coming soon) and only had a disk for Vista x64 RTM on hand. I loaded that on and attempted to use Windows Update to move to SP1 when I was presented with the error: 8024420C. Now I have had this error before on a previous system, however I forgot how I solved it, although I thought it was solved by downloading the offline install of SP1 and running that.

So I did that, and upon booting into SP1, found the error was still there. Much searching later I found that the error has to do with proxy settings, with suggestions like ensuring “Automatically Detect Configuration” is on in the LAN settings on Internet Options, amongst other things.

The issue here: I am not on a proxy. So after much effort searching (to no avail) I did what I usually do – suspect the firewall.

Turning off Windows Firewall gave me an immediate response, my updates now worked! Turning the firewall back on gave me the error again, and so I realised that Windows Firewall was the sole culprit here.

Morale of the story? I guess there is none, thankfully I have a NAT to protect me, and hopefully Windows 7 doesn’t have this issue.

On that note, word is that Windows 7 will enter full public beta early Jan, open to all, so if you are daring (or have a VM), give it a try, and give feedback!

Microsoft has made a pretty good marketing ploy to help improve the image of Windows Vista.

Called “The Mojave Experiment”, they took a number of Vista ‘skeptics’ and showed them Windows “Mojave”, the next version of Windows. Overall these people, who had given Vista 4/10 or lower when asked in the beginning, rated “Mojave” really well.

Then Microsoft dropped the bombshell, Windows “Mojave” is really Windows Vista.

The positive reactions of the participants about Windows “Mojave” really shows that you need to experience things for yourself rather than relying only on what you hear, as most of them did. As one participant noted: “You have to see for yourself.”

You can see the video of the reactions and participants at the "Mojave" Experiment website.

Whilst searching through my RSS feeds today I found a little gem that could give you a nice boot time improvement.

It seems that even on dual/quad/n core machines, Vista boots using only one core. Peter Provost has a solution he found that will allow you to take advantage of all of your cores.

In summary the steps involve going to msconfig and changing the number of cores.

To do that:

1. Start –> Run
2. Type msconfig, click Ok
3. Click on the “Boot” tab
4. Click Advanced Options
5. Enable the checkbox titled “Number of Processors:”
6. Change the number to your number of cores using the drop down box
7. Click Ok
8. Click Ok/Apply
9. Restart

That is basically it, just follow those steps and you can enable Multi-Core startup.

This option also exists in Windows XP. It is under the tab named BOOT.INI, also under Advanced Options in there, however it is called /NUMPROC. A bit more advanced since there seems to be ini editing here, but either method isnt for a basic user