Vista's File Explorer Bug

If I open a file such as an Access database, and then work on it so the file size changes, it seems that Windows Vista gets confused about the size of the file. Since when does a file size become negative? In the screen shot the 1.08MB file suddenly becomes -9,926,656 bytes. If I click on another file, the negative calculation remains. The only way to get Explorer to display the status bar file sizes correctly is to close the window, and open it again.
I doubt if I'm the only one who has experienced this bug, and I doubt if Vista Service Pack 2 will fix it either. The picture above is doctored slightly to show the problem better. Click on the picture at the bottom to see the full screen shot.
I have tried to find an email address or blog where I could report this bug, but Microsoft has a tradition of refusing to acknowledge a bug even exists until it has been fixed. Searching for "report a bug to microsoft" in Google gets some interesting articles, but the only way to report the bug seems to be by snail mail.


Update 31 March 2009: Here is how to repeat the bug in Vista (32-bit):

1. Create a directory called c:\temp.
2. Open c:\temp in Explorer, check that the menu bar is showing. If not, then go to "Organise" -> "Layout" -> "Menu Bar" to enable the check mark.
   
3. From the View menu, switch the "status bar" on, so you get "Computer" showing in the right hand third of the status bar.
4. Create a small text file in c:\temp, i.e. fred.txt, and put some text in it, so it is now 1kb in size, or less.
5. Create a new Word Document, and type in some stuff.
6. Save it and close the file. Mine starts at around 10kb.
7. Now double-click to open the file, and insert more text and graphics, so it grows to around 30kb. Save and close the file.
8. In Vista, the status bar will still show the file size as 10kb.
9. Now click on fred.txt, it will display its size as a negative number, as shown below.
   

Update Wednesay: I have been assigned a support reference number 2009040100727 by Bytes Outsources Services on behalf of Microsoft South Africa Customer Service and Support (post sales).

All Marketers are Liars

This is a very interesting video about marketing by Seth Godin, the guy who wrote the book with the title "All Marketers are Liars".

Here is another talk he did about things that are broken.

Bye-bye Bush Iraqi Style

The Iraqi journalist said what the rest of us have felt for years: "Good riddance to bad rubbish". It's a pity the shoes missed. The US invasion of Iraq has been a costly disaster, and US taxpayers are starting to feel the effects.

Inspiration, Anyone?

Hackers caught after R400 million lost

A mere R400 million has gone missing from state coffers as a result of computer hacking of government departments. That's over US$ 40 million for foreign readers. Given the sorry state of some of the departments I have visited, I'm not in the least bit surprised. How many ARV's could that have bought, or homeless children could it have fed?

Boot Time Defragmentation

Boot time defrag capabilities have been around for years, but as Windows becomes more complex and file security gets tighter, boot time defrag becomes more useful. The defrag is done while your PC boots up (i.e. at boot time) before all the windows services get loaded, i.e. when the minimal number of files are being used.
My first recollection of a boot time defrag was in an early version of Diskeeper, sometime around 2000. When I bought PerfectDisk 7 it had a better boot time defrag, that sorted out the metadata files that you can't access once the OS is running. PerfectDisk 8 and 2008 also have this feature.
Then there is PageDefrag from Sysinternals, that defrags the registry, hibernation and page files, when it can. I haven't had much success using this on Windows Vista. Not surprising, since it was published in November 2006.
Then there is the freeware UltraDefrag, which can do a much more general job of defragmenting all kinds of files at boot time. I have had great success with this on Windows 2000 servers, as well as workstations. It doesn't manage to defrag the MFT though, but this feature is on a future "things to do" list. I have stopped using UltraDefrag for any other kind of defragmentation, because I don't like the user interface, but it's brilliant for boot time defrag. I have installed it on a few servers so that it can have a go at tidying things up when none of the server's services are running.
UltimateDefrag 2008 has finally released its own boot time defrag module, and claims

"The UltimateDefrag 2008 boot time/system file defrag module is a world first in what it enables you to be able to do when it comes to defragging and moving system files to areas on your drive that further enhance performance."

I have downloaded the new version and plan on running some tests to see how it works. It's a free upgrade for existing UD2008 owners, and until the end of the year the usual price of US$ 39.95 has been reduced to $29.96 for new customers.

The Best So Far

Last, but not least, is my current favourite defrag program, Puran Defrag 5.1. It has the best of both worlds: automatic defrag that you can set to run every now and then, and boot time defrag, which I have set to run the first time I boot up on a Wednesday. The review of this program has been ready for some time, but thanks to my legal hassles it has been delayed. The photo of my laptop screen at the top of this article shows PuranDefrag at work. It is currently selling for US$19.95, which is excellent value for a general purpose simple to use defrag utility.

Update 16 Dec 2008: See KB312067: "Shadow copies may be lost when you defragment a volume". It seems that the Shadow Copy service doesn't work terribly well on drives where defragmenting is being done. This affects any kind of defrag, not just at boot time.

Stuck in the mud

This motorist got stuck in the "mud" during the rain tonight. This picture was taken at 5:41pm and the guy had already been stuck for a few minutes. He was still stuck by 6:20pm. I phoned City Water to tell them that their excavations from a water leak that started on 8th Novermber and got worse on the weekend of 22 November (Reference 2896001) had now claimed its first victim.
Originally the pile of earth that blocks most of the left hand lane was marked by 3 orange traffic cones left in the street. But by 28th November it had dwindled to 1 solitary cone, which disappeared earlier this week.
So when the guy drove up the road in the bad light during the rain storm, he may not have seen the pile of earth blocking the road, and drove straight into it. His front left wheel was well and truly stuck, and the right wheel just kept spinning in the mud. Eventually another motorist helped tow him out.
When I called 011-375-5555 at 6:12pm, the best they could offer was to say the guy should phoine their claims department in the morning on 011-688-1400. I hope they pay to fix the damage to his car. Of course there's no telling when the road will be cleared and the hole filled in. It's only been a week since the hole was dug and the dirt pile started blocking the road. Before then the fresh water ran for days into the local stream. I could hear it quite clearly at night. There is no telling how many megalitres of water went to waste.

Jesus loves Jacob Zuma

This excellent cartoon by Jeremy Nell.