A new feature in Vista is the Reliability Monitor.  It compiles data from the event log, Windows errors, blue screens, and various Windows performance logs to compute a reliability index from 1 to 10 (where 10 is most reliable).  More importantly, it graphs the index over time and can give you a quick snapshot of any problems with the machine.

I had a problem with the Reliability Monitor not updating its data since early August.  I found this solution on the microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance newsgroup and am promoting it here.  Hat tip to clayga.

1. Back up the files in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\RAC\PublishedData and
   StateData directories.  The best way to do this is to open the RAC folder, copy the two folders inside and paste them.  You'll probably have to go through a UAC prompt to do this.
2. Empty both directories (i.e. delete all the files in them).  Note after
   doing this Reliability Monitor puts up a text message in place of the
   Stability Chart that says something to the effect that the data is missing or
   corrupt.
3. Open a Command Prompt with elevated (Administrator) privileges.
4. Execute RACAgent at the prompt.  Note that the task will run for a while
   (several minutes on my system).
5. Open Reliability Monitor.  Note that some or all of the Stability Chart
   is back.
6. Check the "Last Updated:" date.  If it's earlier than yesterday's date,
   repeat steps 4 and 5 after first closing Reliability Monitor.  

 Original Google Groups posting.

When Service Pack 1 for Vista is released, there'll be an important change to be aware of if you are running Vista in your SBS environment:  The Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) snap-in, normally built into Vista, will be removed in SP1.

If you have used the new group policy settings in Vista, you know that these settings are not accessible from GPMC in Windows 2003 itself;  to access Vista GP settings you must use the editor, and GPMC, from a Vista client.

The next version of SBS (2008, "Cougar") is at least a year away, so SBS shops running Vista clients between now and SP1 will need to make their Vista GP settings from a Vista client. 

I don't mind if MS makes the change but there had better be a separate version of GPMC when SP1 is released. 

HT: Darren Mar-Elia's Group Policy Blog: GPMC not part of Vista, SP1

The latest news from Palm, and it's bad.  I've written about Palm before (Palm- Duck, it's the layoffs!) and this should not be surprising.

Palm has folded its Foleo palmtop faster than the Boston Red Sox have in some years (1978, say...)  I'm mildly surprised by the timing, since Palm had to have just begun manufacturing the Foleo, making for a brutal time for Palm, now that non-PDA companies like Apple have their iPhone, more famous by far than anything Palm has done in the past three years.

I'm not concerned so much that the Foleo was going to run Linux;  if it's a solid implementation that's feature complete, that won't matter to the users.   But Palm didn't present anything that would make me think the Linux implementation was going to be functional enough for mobile use, if it even existed outside a lab.  All Palm showed at LinuxWorld for a long time was a stuffed penguin!

Worse for Palm, no one else is standing still.  HP is staying in the smartphone, and more importantly, the standalone PDA market, with six new iPaqs.  If I hadn't found my clearance iPaq 2495 a few months back, I would be making plans to buy one of the new models posthaste.   That HP is doing this gives me a lot of confidence in my PDA and Windows Mobile.

Confidence that Palm may never gain ever again.