On a mobile PC that is running Windows Vista, you use the Presentation Settings tile of Windows Mobility Center to turn on presentation settings. Then, you configure a custom desktop background image. However, when you start a network presentation, the custom desktop background image does not appear. Instead, the desktop background is reset to the None setting.

Vista’s built in CD/DVD burning software works for creating data disks, but doesn’t offer the ability to use a disc image file to burn a disc. If you need to burn an image file, you’ll need a third-party application to do it, and thankfully, their are many to choose from. I use ImgBurn, which is not only free, but supports a ton of image types, and works great in Vista. ImgBurn not only handles CD’s and DVD’s, but is already capable of doing HD DVD and Blue-ray discs as well. The download is only 1.5MB, and once install, isn’t much larger than that, so it’s very resource friendly. It even supports command line switches, so it could be run from a batch file. Keep reading →

You start Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) and then use Package Manager (Pkgmgr.exe) to install a driver to an offline Windows Vista image. After you do this, the driver may not be added to the driver store folder.

For example, assume that you have typed the following command:

start /w pkgmgr /o:”c:\;c:\windows” /n:”e:\oemdrv\unattend.xml” /l:”e:\drvlog”

Because you used the /l:”e:\drvlog” switch, the following errors are logged to the Drvlogs file:

2007-01-26 14:55:53, Info CBS Pkgmgr: Install Drivers Offline Callback: INFO: The class GUID for INF ‘E:\oemdrv\nv_disp.inf’ is ‘4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318′! (Error code (HRESULT) 0×0.)
2007-01-26 14:55:53, Info CBS Pkgmgr: Install Drivers Offline Callback: INFO: The class GUID ‘4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318′ is not boot-critical. (Error code (HRESULT) 0×0.)
2007-01-26 14:55:53, Info CBS Pkgmgr: Install Drivers Offline Callback: INFO: ‘E:\oemdrv\nv_disp.inf’ is not a boot critical driver. (Error code (HRESULT) 0×0.) 2007-01-26 14:55:56, Error CBS Pkgmgr: Install Drivers Offline Callback: ERROR: Failed to stage driver ‘E:\oemdrv\nv_disp.inf’ (HRESULT= 0×8007001D). (Error code (HRESULT) 0×8007001d.)
2007-01-26 14:55:56, Error CBS Pkgmgr: Install Drivers Offline Callback: ERROR: Failed to install driver package ‘E:\oemdrv\nv_disp.inf’. (Error code (HRESULT) 0×8007001d.)
2007-01-26 14:55:56, Info CBS Pkgmgr: Install Drivers Offline Callback: INFO: Installed ‘0′ drivers. (Error code (HRESULT) 0×0.)
2007-01-26 14:55:56, Info CBS Pkgmgr: Install Drivers Offline Callback: INFO: RETURN InstallDriversOffline (0) (Error code (HRESULT) 0×0.)

When you try to repair or recover Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium by using Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

You do not have a valid backup image to restore from.

Additionally, you are asked to provide the location of a valid backup image.

When you use Package Manager (Pkgmgr.exe) to work with an offline Windows Vista image, you may receive the following error message:

0×80071a91

For example, you may receive this error message when you use Package Manager to install drivers or to update a package to an offline Windows Vista image.

This problem occurs when you use Package Manager together with the /o switch, and the full path of the offline Windows directory (offline_Windows_directory_path) has more than 100 characters.

You create a Compact Disk File System (CDFS)-based Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) image to start the installation of Windows Vista. However, when you try to start the computer by using this image, the computer does not start. Therefore, you cannot use this image to install Windows Vista.

You experience this problem if you use a tool other than one of the following tools to create the image file:

• OSCDimg.exe
• CDimage.exe

Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) imaging software may stop responding (hang) in Windows Vista. For example, when you try to use an image scanner, the scanner software may stop responding.

When you use the System Preparation tool (Sysprep.exe) in audit mode to deploy a Windows Vista Windows Image Format (WIM) image file, the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) Wizard does not run automatically. Instead, the OOBE Wizard is displayed as a System Cleanup Action option in a dialog box. This symptom occurs even though the Windows System Image Manager identifies the OOBE Wizard value as a default value for the auditUser mode or for the auditSystem mode.

The thumbnail representation of a file may not be displayed correctly in Windows Vista.

Consider the following scenario:

• You use package manager (Pkgmgr.exe) to service an offline Windows Vista image.
• Package manager reports an error.
• You use package manager again to service the same offline Windows Vista image.
• Package manager may not report an error.

In this scenario, the Windows Vista image may be corrupted, even though you do not receive an error.