Windows Thin PC Release Notes

The following is a copy and paste of the Windows Thin PC (Microsoft Micro Site) “Release Notes.htm” content found on the OS’s ISO. The hyperlinks have been removed from the first section since they point to the ISO’s virtual drive letter as the root:

Windows Thin PC Release Notes

5/20/2011

This document contains important information about known issues in Windows Thin PC.

Known Issues

Recommended hardware configuration

Missing Search functionality in Start menu

Adding and removing Windows features in Thin PC

Keyboard Filter may block accessibility

Cannot install .NET Framework 3.5

No support for certain Windows products and features

Write Filters: System goes into safe mode on reboot

Enhanced Write Filter cannot be disabled without commit

Recommended hardware configuration

• 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86)
• 1 GB RAM
• 4 GB available hard disk space
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or a later version driver

Missing Search functionality in Start menu

To reduce the Thin PC image size, Search functionality is not included in Thin PC. As a result, the Search bar does not exist on the Start menu. In addition, the File Open, Save, Save As, and Browse dialogs do not provide support for wildcard searches.

Adding and removing Windows features in Thin PC

Due to the locked-down mode of the Thin PC image, adding and removing Windows features is not supported in Thin PC.

Keyboard Filter may block accessibility

By design, Keyboard Filter may enable you to block certain features that may be important for accessibility. If your application scenarios require specific accessibility functionality, make sure that you verify those scenarios after enabling Keyboard Filter.

Cannot install .NET Framework 3.5

.NET Framework 3.5 is not a supported environment. The alternative is to download .NET Framework 4.x, then recompile and test your managed applications. Only .NET Framework 2.0 is shipped as part of Windows Thin PC.

No support for certain Windows products and features

Windows Thin PC does not support the following products and features:

• .NET Framework 3.5
• Premium codecs: Microsoft AC3 Encoder (Dolby), Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder (MPEG-2, AAC), Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder (MPEG-2, H.264), MPEG-2 Audio and Video Encoder, MPEG Layer-3 Audio Codec (MP3), MPEG-4 Decoders, Windows Media Video Codecs (VC-1)
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• Windows Live Essentials

Write Filters: System goes into safe mode on reboot

When you use the Enhanced Write Filter Manager (ewfmgr.exe) or File Base Write Filter Manager (fbwfmgr.exe) with the /enable command and then reboot, your device goes to a screen with options to Start Windows Normally or in Safe Mode. This can be fixed by setting the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store to ignore all boot errors, which is a default setting for write filter in the Thin PC image.

Type the following command to set the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) BootStatusPolicy to ignore faults:

bcdedit.exe /set {current} bootstatuspolicy ignoreallfailures

Enhanced Write Filter cannot be disabled without commit

When in EWF RAM Reg mode, you cannot disable the write filter without committing changes. RAM Reg mode requires you to commit the overlay to disable the write filter. The settings are stored in the registry and the /disable command will not persist without a /commit command. This is a limitation of RAM Reg mode. The workaround is to restart the device before disabling write filter.

© 2011 Microsoft. All rights reserved.

With some of the noted restrictions it becomes quite clear that this OS is truly intended to be a thin client for an already existing or soon to be set up VDI/VDA infrastructure or virtualized application delivery.

We will be installing the OS onto an Asus EeeBox PC barebones unit (EB1012P-B0320) that we just received to get a better idea of what the OS is about, its usefulness, how we can further lock it down via Group Policy, and more.

Philip Elder

MPECS Inc.


Microsoft Small Business Specialists


Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer