Microsoft(R) Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 RELEASE

Version 2007 Release Notes

March 2007

 


 

Contents

 

 


 

Overview

 

Components of Winternals Administrator's Pak technologies are now available as the Microsoft(R) Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0, which is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. Customers looking for desktop diagnostic and recovery tools with functionality similar to Administrator's Pak should refer to the recently announced Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/optimizeddesktop.

 

More information about the Winternals product acquisition can be found at http://www.winternals.com/Faq.aspx.

 

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 is a complete suite of powerful and versatile tools that allow you to repair unbootable or locked-out systems, restore lost data, and diagnose system and network issues while the system is safely offline. Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 includes the following tools:

       

 

 

 

 

 

Supported platforms:

 

 

Unsupported platforms:

 

 


 

What Has Changed Since Winternals Administrator's Pak 5.0?

 

A complete product review has been performed to meet Microsoft quality requirements.

 

The following tools have been removed:

 

 

The following functionality has been removed:

 

 

The following functionalities have been added for security, reliability, and supportability:

 

·         Locksmith Wizard reports events in the Security event log on the computer where the password of a user is reset.

 

·         The ERD System Restore Wizard restores more Windows configurations settings than the Administrator's Pak, which only resets the registry. The ERD System Restore Wizard restores or updates the following items:

 

o   Windows System Restore Log

o   Windows Registry

o   File Operation (addition, modify, rename, delete)

o   Folder Operation (addition, modify, rename, delete)

o   SID/RID correct handling

o   WMI Repository Support

o   Components execution cleanup

 

 

Except for these modifications, Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 is in parity with the features shipped with Winternals Administrator's Pak 5.0.

 


 

Known Limitations Due to the product and Windows Behavior

 

 

Before installing Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0, the existing installation of Winternals Administrator's Pak 5.0 must be removed from the computer. After the Winternals Administrator's Pak 5.0 has been uninstalled, the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 can be installed.

 

 

To uninstall Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0, ensure that the network installation point is still available.

 

 

It is not recommended to start ERD Commander on a computer running Windows Vista. ERD Commander is built on WinPE 2003, and booting a WinPE 2003 CD on a computer running Windows Vista will delete all Windows Vista System Restore points.

 

Note that this does not affect the Windows Vista System Restore to create new System Restore Restore Points after booting back to Windows Vista.

 

 

If you change the password of a user account that owns encrypted files, the user account will no longer be able to access the files. For example, if you use the Locksmith Wizard to reset the password of the administrator account, the administrator account will not be able to access any of the encrypted files. The same rule applies to user accounts that own encrypted files.

 

For more information about encrypted file usages, see http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2fae3470-742d-4902-95ab-f77cbafb12d41033.mspx

 

 

The ERD System Restore Wizard does not perform a complete System Restore operation as the Windows System Restore of Windows XP SP2.

 

The ERD System Restore Wizard does NOT restore the following information:

 

o   ACL changes on files and folders support

o   SAM Password hashes

o   Attribute changes

o   Alternate data streams

 

Therefore, once the Windows XP SP2 system is back online, it is recommended that you execute a Windows System Restore from a restore point of your choice. The ERD System Restore Wizard should be used to perform the bare minimum of actions that will enable a Windows XP system to start.

 

Note that the ERD System Restore Wizard is only supported on Windows XP SP2. Windows Server 2003 does not implement the Windows System Restore.

 


 

Files

 

This distribution installs the following files:

 

o   Crashanalyze.exe

o   ERDC.EXE

o   Eula.rtf

o   FileRestore.chm

o   FileRestore.exe

o   License.txt

o   MSDaRT.chm

o   MSDartCmn.dll

o   Relnotes.txt

o   StarBurn.dll

o   Wnaspi32.dll

 


Documentation

 

For documentation on how to use the tools in Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset 5.0, please refer to the MSDaRT.CHM help file, which is in the "Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset" installation folder.

 


 

Redistributables

 

None of the files in the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 are Redistributables.

 


 

More Information

 

For more information about Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/optimizeddesktop.

 


 

Feedback

 

We are interested in your feedback on Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0. You can send your feedback directly to dartreq@microsoft.com.

 

This feedback is not a support channel, but your feedback will help us to plan future changes for these tools to make them more useful to you in the future.