VistaJuice

If you have considered running Bitlocker, Microsoft's drive encryption tool, but didn't want to bother with what it would take to setup your drives properly to support it, then you are in luck if you are running Windows Vista Ultimate edition or Enterprise edition Microsoft has made a tool just for you.  The Bitlocker Drive Preparation Tool is designed to help convert your existing install of Windows Vista into a setup that supports Bitlocker drive encryption.

Windows Vista Ultimate users can get this utility today as an ultimate extra from the Windows Update control panel applet and if you are a Windows Vista  Enterprise customer you can head over the premier website and look under the tools section https://premier.microsoft.com/troubleshoot.aspx?taid=tools or contact Microsoft customer support.

This tool will automatically create an S: drive that is 1.5 GB in size and move over the required boot files.  This new partition become the active partition that begins the boot process. It will not be encrypted, only the operating system volume will be, so don't store any data on this partition. The reason for such a large amount of space is to support WinRE and Microsoft updates.

If you are running Windows Vista Ultimate after you have encrypted the drive don't forget to backup your recovery key using the Secure Online Key Backup utility located in the Control Panel.  This will save a copy to your "digital locker" associated with your Passport/Live account.

If you are using Windows Vista Enterprise you should escrow the key to Active Directory (prefered) or to a secure file share.

Brought to you VERBATIM from: Windows Connected Site

If you are interested in using the added security which comes with Vista Ultimate, you probably thought about securing (encrypting) your drive with Bit Locker. Before diving into this territory, familiarize yourself with the whole process.

TechRepublic has a great Step-by-step article on how things should be done.

Overview: The new BitLocker data protection system in Windows Vista provides volume-level encryption you can use to secure PCs and notebooks. George Ou walks through the process of configuring BitLocker encryption to safeguard your data.
This download is also available as an article and a gallery.

Good job TR!

Via: TechRepublic

For the past couple of days I've been having strange issues with Vista on iMac. Namely, if I leave the computer alone for 5 minutes, it would go to a blank screen (all black) and never come out of it until I restart.

This was annoying the living hell out of me... I disabled the Dream Scene package and now it all works like a charm. Also, with the Dream Scene out - I do not get the random Windows Manager restarts due to some video driver failures.

So, if you are having some issues - try getting the Dream Scene out. It sucks without it, but what can one do? I rather have a stable system than 5 minutes of pretty animated desktop :)

P.S. - Scratch out where I said Dream Scene works in last post. :)