Release Note Windows 7 SP1 64-bit for Community Connect 4

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Release Note

Windows 7 SP1 64-bit

for Community Connect 4

Introduction

This release note gives information about a Microsoft® Windows® 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) build image and RM Smart Client update for your Community Connect® 4 (CC4) network. This update allows 64-bit computers to be added to a CC4 network, and provides default build templates for both Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit and Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 64-bit.

This release note gives requirements for servers and computers, and directs you to instructions for adding 64-bit Windows 7 SP1

computers to your CC4 network either by using Computer Build or RM Smart Client.

Note This Release Note does not cover 32-bit versions of Windows

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Overview of Windows 7 SP1 64-bit

Windows 7 SP1 64-bit is a service pack for the 64-bit version of the Windows 7, and allows you to run 64-bit applications. Service Pack 1 is an important update which includes previously released security, performance, and stability updates for Windows 7, together with improvements to Windows 7 features and services, such as

improved reliability when connecting to HDMI audio devices, printing using the XPS Viewer, and restoring previous folders in Windows Explorer after restarting.

Windows 7 SP1 64-bit for CC4 includes 64-bit fixes for CC4 components such as My Connect and RM Desktop Agent (for a list of the components see TEC2889122). It ensures that your

Windows 7 computers are kept up-to-date, and lets you run 64-bit applications on CC4 computers. By default Windows 7 SP1 64-bit computers launch a 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, and they cannot run legacy 16-bit software.

The Windows 7 SP1 64-bit build image and Smart Client update are delivered as a single download via Knowledge Library article DWN2852249 (together with this Release Note), available from the RM Education Support website. Please also read the download instructions in that article.

Pre-installation environments and the need for

32- and 64-bit drivers

To use a 64-bit operating system, you need specific 64-bit device drivers for your hardware to work properly.

If you intend to build Windows 7 SP1 64-bit computers from a build image, you will need all of the following:

• The post-installation 64-bit drivers for Windows 7 SP1 64-bit • The pre-installation build driver (32-bit Windows 7 network card

driver).

This is because the CC4 computer build process is launched using a pre-installation environment (referred to as Windows PE). This is a cut-down version of Windows which can be loaded via PXE (network boot) or from removable disks, and allows access to the server so that the operating system and network components can be loaded and installed. The Windows 7 SP1 64-bit build process uses the Windows PE 3.1 pre-installation environment, which is based on the 32-bit version of Windows 7 SP1, which is why the build image must include a 32-bit compatible driver for your network card. Without this the build will fail because the computer will not be able to connect to the server.

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Additional devices (printers, for example) may require you to install both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers. If your server runs Windows Server 2008 64-bit, but your computers use Windows 7 32-bit, you will require both 32- and 64-bit drivers when you install the printer. For advice on adding 32-bit printer drivers to Windows Server 2008 R2, see article TEC1750193, available at the RM Support website.

Requirements

Server requirements

Disk space

Your CC4 First server, and any CC4 Site servers in a multi-site network, should have the minimum free disk space listed below:

Server Drive (partition) Free disk space First server* D: 10 GB** Site server D: 10 GB

* Except in CC4 Matrix environments, this will be the Forest Root domain controller (FRDC).

** This includes space for the download file, the extracted executable, and the OS image (3 GB) created during installation. When installation is complete, you can delete the installation files. (For instructions on how to increase available drive space by extending a volume, see Knowledge Library article TEC51543 for physical disks, or TEC1752400 for virtual disks, available from the RM Education Support website.)

CC4 Updates

Windows Server 2008 R2 networks

The CC4 First server must have the following installed: • CC4UPD124

• CC4UPD129.

In a multi-site network, CC4UPD129 must also be installed on any CC4 Site servers.

Windows Server 2003 networks

The CC4 First server must have the following installed: • CC4 Service Release 2 (SR2)

• CC4UPD110 • CC4UPD124 • CC4UPD129.

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Drivers

(See also ‘Pre-installation environments and the need for 32- and 64-bit drivers’ on page 2.)

• For RM hardware, check that you have installed all the required driver pack (CC4DRV) updates. (For a list of supported

hardware, refer to TEC1299560.) Note that drivers must be marked as 64-bit compatible, so that even if you have current drivers that work on 32-bit Windows 7, you may need 64-bit versions as well.

• For older RM hardware on your network which is not included in the supported hardware list, or for third-party hardware, ensure that you have all the 64-bit drivers required.

You may first need to check that legacy hardware is compatible with 64-bit Windows 7. Many hardware components are not supplied with 64-bit drivers. Useful tools to check are:

• Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor – this software runs on any computer and produces a compatibility report for both 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, stating exactly which components are not compatible, if any. • Microsoft publishes a list of components which

includes whether or not they have drivers for 64-bit versions of Windows 7.

Both these are available at the Windows 7 Compatibility Centre:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx.

Note If your hardware is identified as not compatible, Computer

Build will not display any 64-bit build options.

Another important source of information is the appropriate manufacturer’s website.

You may need to import these drivers into the network yourself; for instructions, see the Drivers Help topics in the RM

Management Console (RMMC).

Marking a custom driver as compatible with Windows 7 SP1 64-bit You cannot modify the properties of a driver after it has been imported. To change the properties of a custom driver, you need to delete the driver and then import the modified version. For

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Installing the update

Install the CC4 Windows 7 SP1 64-bit update on your CC4 First server (and on any CC4 Site servers in a multi-site network), and on all your CC4 Additional servers (Replica servers, User Storage servers and Member servers).

Note The RM Service Host service will be restarted during the

installation.

To install the CC4 Windows 7 SP1 64-bit update on the CC4 First server, CC4 Additional servers, and any CC4 Site servers

1. Download the Windows 7 SP1 64-bit executable file from article DWN2852249, available at the RM Support website.

2. Log on to the CC4 First server as a Windows administrator user and copy the Windows 7 SP1 64-bit executable to a temporary location (for example, D:\Temp).

3. Ensure the RM Management Console (RMMC) is not running. To check that there is no RMMC process running, examine the Task Manager, Process tab. If RMMC.exe is listed, right-click it and choose End Process.

Repeat this step for all other instances of RMMC.exe listed on the Process tab.

4. Browse to the folder to which you saved the WIN7SP1_64BIT.exe file.

5. Double-click the WIN7SP1_64BIT.exe file.

The RM Integration Pack Wizard may take a short time to initialise. The Service Pack extracts files automatically and runs the RM Installation Assistant to begin the installation.

6. When the RM Integration Pack Wizard dialogue appears, read the End User License Agreement and click Accept to continue. 7. When initialisation is complete, click Continue.

8. The installation proceeds automatically. When it has finished, click Finish.

9. If you have a multi-site network, repeat steps 2–8 at each of your CC4 Site servers.

You do not have to wait for the installation to complete on one CC4 Site server before starting to install on the next one. 10. Repeat steps 2–8 at each CC4 Replica server, CC4 User

Storage server and CC4 Member server in your network – but do

not install the update on Remote Desktop Services (RDS)

servers (Terminal servers).

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Core-updating computers and RDS/Terminal

servers

After the update has been installed on your servers, your computers and RDS/Terminal servers will continue to work correctly. However they will be shown in the 'Requiring System Updates' smart-list. We recommend that you core-upgrade your computers, to ensure that all computers in your network have the latest versions of core packages that cannot be deployed to computers by conventional assignment. Core-upgrading will remove the computers from the 'Requiring System Updates' smart-list.

You can also core-upgrade your Terminal/RDS servers, but note that because of a known issue, they will remain on the 'Requiring System Updates' smart-list.

For instructions, please refer to the release note available from article DWN1676191 at the RM Education website. Check that you are using the latest version of RM Updates Phase 1, and refer to TEC2796270 for checks that you should run on your Terminal/RDS servers before core-upgrading them. Note that the core upgrade process for computers and Terminal/RDS servers is not the same.

Completing the deployment to Site servers

If you have a multi-site network, to complete the deployment you need to run the Package Repository Health Check tool; for instructions see article DWN1980356, available from the RM Education Support website. This is an important step to allow package assignments to function correctly in additional sites. You will need to run the 'Health Check & Fix' option when using this tool, to ensure that the packages repository local to each of your Site servers is updated correctly.

Checking the build image

To check that the build image has been successfully created, do as follows:

1. In the left-hand pane of the RMMC, expand Computers, Build and select Build Templates.

2. In the right-hand pane, check that the following are listed:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 x64 Default

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Building Windows 7 SP1 64-bit computers

Computer requirements

For the Windows 7 SP1 64-bit build, you need a PC with 64-bit-compatible hardware which meets Microsoft’s system requirements, including:

• Dual-core processor or higher • 2GB RAM

• 20GB available hard disk space

• DirectX 9 graphics controller, with WDDM driver model 1.0 or higher.

For full information about requirements for Windows 7 computers, please refer to the Microsoft website.

Build templates

After the server installation, two Windows 7 SP1 64-bit build templates will be listed in the RMMC, Microsoft Windows 7

Enterprise SP1 x64 Default and Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 x64 Default. To view them, in the left-hand pane of the RMMC expand Computers, Build, and select Build Templates. You can use these templates to build new Windows 7 SP1 64-bit computers. Note that the default screen resolution set in the Windows 7 SP1 64-bit template is 800x600. If you want to build your computers with any other screen resolution, please change this value in the template before building computers.

Build instructions

Follow the instructions in section 3 of the CC4 Reference Manual. In particular:

• Choose a new build, not a rebuild of an existing computer. • Ensure that you choose a 64-bit template based on the RM

default build disk (WinPE3.1).

• Ensure you have all the appropriate drivers installed (see ‘Pre-installation environments and the need for 32- and 64-bit drivers’ on page 2).

• If you are using Windows Deployment Services (WDS), refer to TEC1484478 for instructions on how to update the

boot.wim file for a 64-bit image.

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Using RM Smart Client to add Windows 7

SP1 64-bit computers

Follow the instructions in section 3 of the CC4 Reference Manual. Remember to use the latest version of the RM Smart Client application, by selecting the latest version folder in

RMHolding\Tools\RM Smart Client\.

WSUS updates

Once Windows 7 SP1 64-bit has been installed on a computer, from then on it will need the 64-bit versions of Windows updates.

For more information on WSUS, see Knowledge Library article TEC1329475, available from the RM Support website.

Using 32- and 64-bit computers in the same

network

Though 64-bit computers can run either 32- or 64-bit applications, 32-bit computers can only run 32-bit applications. When users move from a 32-bit computer to a 64-bit computer or vice versa, if they have shortcuts ‘pinned’ to the Windows taskbar these may not work properly.

Pinned shortcuts are saved in the user’s roaming profile. Issues with these shortcuts can arise because the default folder for 32-bit applications has a different name in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 – ‘Program Files’ and ‘Program Files (x86)’, respectively – so an application may exist in two different locations on the same computer. Furthermore, the folder named ‘Program Files’ contains 64-bit applications in Windows 7 64-bit, but 32-bit files in Windows 7 32-bit. Because of this we do not support the practice of pinning shortcuts to the taskbar in networks that include both 32-bit and 64-bit computers.

Possible issues

XPS Document Writer

You may see an issue where the XPS Document Writer is set again as the default printer. For instructions on how to resolve this, refer to article TEC1356820, available at the RM Support website.

Some package assignments may show as ‘failed’

After a computer build or rebuild, the Assignment Overview of the RMMC will show some RM packages as ‘InstallFailed’; known examples are Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7

V1.0.0.0.0, Windows Update KB2454826 V1.1.0.0 and Windows 7 SP1 32bit V1.2.0.0.0. Although these packages are marked as

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Further information

Frequently Asked Questions

The RM Support website’s Knowledge Library provides the latest information on Windows 7 SP1 and any known hardware and software issues; see article NWS2804435.

Windows 7 SP1 driver compatibility