G
Guest
doing a system restore it stopd and said file asms is needed from cd cd is in
the drive can anyone help
the drive can anyone help
G
Guest
This may or may not help you...
"The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed" error message
when you install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/311755
"The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed" error message
when you install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/311755
G
Guest
les said:
Complaints in newsgroups, etc., about this "missing asms file" issue go back
about five years. I personally have encountered the error at least three
times in as many years. Microsoft's Knowledge Base article Q311755 -- the
one that MVPs refer XP users to when they respond to this complaint -- is
irrelevant and useless. What we have here is a serious bug in the Windows XP
setup CD that MVPs probably do not know about. Not only is it a serious
defect, one that affects virtually every copy of XP Professional Setup CD and
DVD (I don't know about Home ed, never used it), but it is a defect that has
never been acknowledged by Microsoft; there is no helpful KB article about
it, no workaround.
It's as hard to be precise about this as it is to be brief, because now that
I've spent three days restoring my OS and apps, I don't want to step through
the XP CD setup steps again. But I can summarize briefly for all MVPs who
may be listening: 1) what leads up to this Windows XP setup disk error; 2)
how to reproduce the "missing asms file" bug on the XP setup CD; 3) why the
KB article Q31175 is unhelpful.
1. A user elects this "repair" option in the XP Setup only after all other
efforts to recover have failed. I got to this do-or-die place last week by
exporting and then deleting 10 registry keys that all pertained (I thought)
to an app that didn't properly uninstall itself.
You've tried "Last Known Good Configuration", Safe Boot and its variants,
and you know you can't boot to Safe mode; you've tried "Don't reboot after
startup failure" (or whatever the wording is, toward the bottom of the list)
-- you'll get a Hex 7B error code in this case, which no one in all of New
Delhi understands. Without Safe Mode, you cannot import saved "reg" files,
run the Reg.exe tool, restore a System State backup made with NT Backup, or
use System Restore. You've tried the Recovery Console, and copied the
original five registry files from Repair subfolder of Sys32, and that doesn't
work either.
2. According to the authoritative "Windows XP: Inside Out" (Microsoft,
2001, p.815ff), "you may be able to repair your Windows XP installation using
the Windows Setup program. . . . The repair option is quick and painless..."
The same advice appears in other XP books. This is *not* the repair option
that appears right after "Welcome to Setup" screen. At that screen, press
Enter, not R. Then press F8 to accept the EULA, and from the screen showing
your Windows installations (usually one), choose the correct installation,
and *then* press R. The setup program reloads XP OS files, then reboots your
PC. Soon after this reboot, you'll get a message saying the system cannot
find a file called "ASMS", and it gives you an input box to enter the correct
path of that file. However, though an ASMS *folder* exists, there is no ASMS
file on *any* Windows XP setup disk, no way to work around the error, and no
way (for any XP Professional user anywhere in the world) to continue past
this point. The "repair" option has to fail for everyone who tries it.
At this point, you write to a newsgroup or search Microsoft or Google for a
KB article that could help. Or, like me, you call Microsoft Tech Support
(incident 1038826788) about the problem -- they'll guide you through all the
above steps, and then give up when you get to the ASMS error, advise you to
reinstall XP, and refund your $80.
3. The only Microsoft Knowledge Base article that pertains to this issue,
Q311755, under the section on the NTFS file system, offers three "methods" to
fix the problem. The first, running RegEdit, can only work if you can get to
the command prompt -- but if you could run Windows in Safe Mode, you would
not be using this last resort from the setup disk in the first place. The
second method advises installing Windows in another partition; no thanks,
that is no easier than reinstalling the whole OS on the main partition. The
third method says to "use the original XP CDROM" (the one with the hologram),
not a copy. If the original can't be found, "look for the Asms folder. If
the folder is missing or the files that it contains are zero bytes, the
CD-ROM was not burned correctly. "
But as stated above, while an ASMS folder exists, there is no ASMS file,
even on the hologram copy of the XP Pro setup CD. That's why this third
solution always fails.
It is time Microsoft publicly acknowledged this defect in its omnipresent XP
Setup disk CD and offer some kind of workaround. I also would appreciate it
if Microsoft tech support representatives would stop pretending they don't
know about this issue. I am convinced they do know about it, because in all
three cases where I have called upon their help over the past three years,
they have known when to give up and offer a refund: "ASMS File Not Found" is
endgame; they all know it, and unlike the KB article, they don't bother
asking you if you are using an original hologram XP setup disk or advising
you to try a different CD ROM drive, because they know that neither of these
steps makes any difference.
I don't plan to buy Vista until all the serious bugs in XP have been worked
out. I can handle minor bugs -- no OS is perfect -- but this is not minor!
I suggest other XP Professional users do likewise.
N
NotMe
I must be weird, I have done many XP repair installs & have never had that
error.
--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!
(e-mail address removed)
Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
error.
--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!
(e-mail address removed)
Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
<snip>David B said:
P
Patrick Keenan
NotMe said:
I believe I've seen it once or twice. Replacing failing hardware seemed to
help, IIRC. XP can be touchy about hardware quality.
HTH
-pk
C
C J.
I'm like you... I've done many installations over the years and have never
encountered that error... I've seen an Error updating a file to the System
Volume Folder during a repair install... something to do with a Eula text
file needed for activation - I thought that was a pretty bizarre malfunt.
encountered that error... I've seen an Error updating a file to the System
Volume Folder during a repair install... something to do with a Eula text
file needed for activation - I thought that was a pretty bizarre malfunt.
G
Guest
Thanks to NotMe, Patrick and CJ for your input. My comments may have been
misunderstood because, I just noticed, the original complaint by "les" refers
to the error following a "System Restore", and my grievance does not refer to
the System Restore utility. I'll backpedal in one other way, too: I do not
know that all XP OS CDs, or even all XP Professional OS CDs, sold by
Microsoft have the defect I've described. The error may not be so widespread.
(So I believe NotMe when he says he's never seen the error.)
Apart from those mini mea culpas, though, I stand by what I said. I am
certain that this "missing ASMS File" error did not occur because of a bad CD
or DVD ROM drive, I have two DVD ROM drives and one older CD ROM drive on my
PC. All three are reliable, and all three produce the error.
I also know that the error occurs on all four copies of the Windows XP Pro
setup disk that I own. I have an OEM hologram copy given to me by a former
boss, dated 2002, and three copies on MSDN Professional Subscription CDs
dated 2003. The error occurs on at least three of the MSDN copies as well as
the OEM.
Furthermore, I know that complaints about this error go back about five
years. Do a Google on "missing asms file" (but without the quotes). There
are numerous responses to the problem, coming from users and Microsoft MVPs
alike. The answers include dirty CD, bad drive, bad communication with
drive, etc. Recent online forums all refer to KB article Q311755, which
Microsoft published 5/4/2005, an article that, as I said before, is not
particularly helpful. In spite of all the comments and suggestions, though,
so far I have found no one besides myself who has actually searched the setup
CD to see if it even *has* a file called asms dot something. The absence of
this file is what tells me there is probably a defect in the repair logic, or
else on the CD itself. It is this fact that makes me skeptical of Patrick's
advice that "changing the hardware" might help. If a file called "asms"
something is being searched for, and doesn't exist, how could using a
different CD ROM help?
I don't know all the answers, and don't have time to find them either. But
I still think there is a defect in the repair logic of many if not all XP
CDs, or else a missing file on the CD. If anyone would like to try to
reproduce the problem (on a clean hard disk), and tell me what you find, I
would be grateful for your feedback. But please read sections 1 and 2 of my
earlier entry carefully, to be sure we're on the same page. This is not
about System Restore or the Recovery Console.
Oh yes. One piece of advice. I got into this mess by deleting 10 registry
keys; of course I exported them first. I thought I would be able to restore
(import) those keys if something went wrong. But that option was never
available to me because I could not boot to Safe Mode. When you can't boot
to Safe Mode in any form, next you try Recovery Console -- right? But you
cannot run reg.exe from Win\Sys32 to import those keys from Recovery Console.
Nor can you restore a System State backup, or much of anything else. It
would have been better to back up the whole registry from regedit using a
special recognizable suffix. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that would
have made it possible to recover using the Recovery Console.
misunderstood because, I just noticed, the original complaint by "les" refers
to the error following a "System Restore", and my grievance does not refer to
the System Restore utility. I'll backpedal in one other way, too: I do not
know that all XP OS CDs, or even all XP Professional OS CDs, sold by
Microsoft have the defect I've described. The error may not be so widespread.
(So I believe NotMe when he says he's never seen the error.)
Apart from those mini mea culpas, though, I stand by what I said. I am
certain that this "missing ASMS File" error did not occur because of a bad CD
or DVD ROM drive, I have two DVD ROM drives and one older CD ROM drive on my
PC. All three are reliable, and all three produce the error.
I also know that the error occurs on all four copies of the Windows XP Pro
setup disk that I own. I have an OEM hologram copy given to me by a former
boss, dated 2002, and three copies on MSDN Professional Subscription CDs
dated 2003. The error occurs on at least three of the MSDN copies as well as
the OEM.
Furthermore, I know that complaints about this error go back about five
years. Do a Google on "missing asms file" (but without the quotes). There
are numerous responses to the problem, coming from users and Microsoft MVPs
alike. The answers include dirty CD, bad drive, bad communication with
drive, etc. Recent online forums all refer to KB article Q311755, which
Microsoft published 5/4/2005, an article that, as I said before, is not
particularly helpful. In spite of all the comments and suggestions, though,
so far I have found no one besides myself who has actually searched the setup
CD to see if it even *has* a file called asms dot something. The absence of
this file is what tells me there is probably a defect in the repair logic, or
else on the CD itself. It is this fact that makes me skeptical of Patrick's
advice that "changing the hardware" might help. If a file called "asms"
something is being searched for, and doesn't exist, how could using a
different CD ROM help?
I don't know all the answers, and don't have time to find them either. But
I still think there is a defect in the repair logic of many if not all XP
CDs, or else a missing file on the CD. If anyone would like to try to
reproduce the problem (on a clean hard disk), and tell me what you find, I
would be grateful for your feedback. But please read sections 1 and 2 of my
earlier entry carefully, to be sure we're on the same page. This is not
about System Restore or the Recovery Console.
Oh yes. One piece of advice. I got into this mess by deleting 10 registry
keys; of course I exported them first. I thought I would be able to restore
(import) those keys if something went wrong. But that option was never
available to me because I could not boot to Safe Mode. When you can't boot
to Safe Mode in any form, next you try Recovery Console -- right? But you
cannot run reg.exe from Win\Sys32 to import those keys from Recovery Console.
Nor can you restore a System State backup, or much of anything else. It
would have been better to back up the whole registry from regedit using a
special recognizable suffix. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that would
have made it possible to recover using the Recovery Console.
C
C J.
Okay ...
Thus far - we've determined your CD/DVD drives are known good hardware but
how do you run 3 on 1 PC? That you've tried this with 4 different Windows
XP CDs and all get to the same place in Setup where it errors looking for an
ASMS.??? file. \ASMS is located in X: \i386\ASMS where x is your drive
letter. Each folder in \ASMS is numbered: 1, 2, 10, 52, 60, 70, 1000,
5100, 6000, 7000. Each numbered folder contains a subfolder inside called
\Default - and inside each of these subfolders are two files called
Default.Man and Default.CA
If I was to take a wild guess, these files are queried by Windows
Setup -during boot from CD- in order to determine what the basic hardware
set up is on the system, prior to setup commencing. Any drivers setup will
require to continue - are copied into a temp folder on the harddrive - so
setup can proceed working from the harddrive and CD after copying Cab
files - before the 1st reboot.
Perhaps, it creates this file ASMS.??? on the harddrive in order to control
what devices setup will eventually install from the CD. Mind you, I could
be way off here too. I didn't write the installer.. like you, I just use it.
LOL
If you pause think about it for a moment, the chances that all these disks
you own are defective or share the same defect in common is just way too
convenient: meaning, I'd tend to believe its still a hardware config
related issue somehow.
Try using only one CD Drive on 2nd IDE channel - and your system drive on
1st IDE channel. Be sure both the Harddrive and CD/DVD drive are set as
Master. Try Setup again and see what shakes.
Thus far - we've determined your CD/DVD drives are known good hardware but
how do you run 3 on 1 PC? That you've tried this with 4 different Windows
XP CDs and all get to the same place in Setup where it errors looking for an
ASMS.??? file. \ASMS is located in X: \i386\ASMS where x is your drive
letter. Each folder in \ASMS is numbered: 1, 2, 10, 52, 60, 70, 1000,
5100, 6000, 7000. Each numbered folder contains a subfolder inside called
\Default - and inside each of these subfolders are two files called
Default.Man and Default.CA
If I was to take a wild guess, these files are queried by Windows
Setup -during boot from CD- in order to determine what the basic hardware
set up is on the system, prior to setup commencing. Any drivers setup will
require to continue - are copied into a temp folder on the harddrive - so
setup can proceed working from the harddrive and CD after copying Cab
files - before the 1st reboot.
Perhaps, it creates this file ASMS.??? on the harddrive in order to control
what devices setup will eventually install from the CD. Mind you, I could
be way off here too. I didn't write the installer.. like you, I just use it.
LOL
If you pause think about it for a moment, the chances that all these disks
you own are defective or share the same defect in common is just way too
convenient: meaning, I'd tend to believe its still a hardware config
related issue somehow.
Try using only one CD Drive on 2nd IDE channel - and your system drive on
1st IDE channel. Be sure both the Harddrive and CD/DVD drive are set as
Master. Try Setup again and see what shakes.
G
Guest
You asked, "How can you run 3 on 1 PC?"
Your remarks about the ASMS.???Could be. I just searched my whole C: drive for ASMS.*. Not there. Erased
by Setup when I canceled? However, I did find, I think, the temporary folder
you refer to under admin's docs & settings .\application data\Microsoft\CD
Burning\ .... The two default files are there, too. So you may be onto
something.
But the message we (I'm not alone) get refers to an "asms" file, not to a
default.man or default.ca file. Why would Setup ask the user to supply the
location of an asms file rather than a "default" file, if no such file is on
the CD, or in a temporary HD location?
I tend not to, because I never have trouble with any of these drives, and I
never find other indications that they have been configured improperly;
indeed, SCSI drives only need to have their ID set and (sometimes) to be
terminated. No IDE-like configuration is needed.
Your remarks about the ASMS.???Could be. I just searched my whole C: drive for ASMS.*. Not there. Erased
by Setup when I canceled? However, I did find, I think, the temporary folder
you refer to under admin's docs & settings .\application data\Microsoft\CD
Burning\ .... The two default files are there, too. So you may be onto
something.
But the message we (I'm not alone) get refers to an "asms" file, not to a
default.man or default.ca file. Why would Setup ask the user to supply the
location of an asms file rather than a "default" file, if no such file is on
the CD, or in a temporary HD location?
I tend not to, because I never have trouble with any of these drives, and I
never find other indications that they have been configured improperly;
indeed, SCSI drives only need to have their ID set and (sometimes) to be
terminated. No IDE-like configuration is needed.
G
Guest
One last question, for les, Patrick, CJ, and "Not Me". My Windows XP setup
CD, the one with the hologram, says 2002 on the front. Would you mind
telling what year you see on yours ?
Thanks for responding, and thanks for your feedback and advice.
CD, the one with the hologram, says 2002 on the front. Would you mind
telling what year you see on yours ?
Thanks for responding, and thanks for your feedback and advice.
C
C J.
My full retail CD Says "Service Pack 2 Included, Version 2002" on the
holographic label.
You're having some doubts about the condition of the disk media too?
One other thing I was meaning to ask you ... have you made any significant
hardware changes to your system. I'm assuming the OEM disk shipped with
your PC initially. Does the COA sticker for that disk say "OEM -software"
or "OEM-SLP" on the label. This would be an important detail to make note
of. If its an OEM-SLP CD then the original hardware that shipped with your
system would still have to be in the PC.. as the disk is BIOS locked for a
specific configuration of hardware.
I've been re-thinking this problem over and over since you started this
thread. While it doesn't make sense to me that 3 MSDN disks would all
display the same ASMS error - as the OEM disk, it would if you couldn't use
them to do a "repair installation" on an existing OEM build.
A Full Retail disk would be a different matter.
Its either a significant hardware change you've made, your CD Drives, or
something about the Setup Media. I don't know why, but I keep coming back
to the CD/DVD drives myself.
I did a search last night online... and I hate to admit it but most of the
articles I found, all pointed to the knowledge base article you cited
earlier one as being a pointless remedy. Aside from a few assine
suggestions to copy ASMS to the harddrive before doing the repair.
Damaged or defective media is a different matter. Microsoft does have a
policy in place for replacing damaged or defective software and products.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246 <<
If the disks are defective - see if you can obtain replacements.
Particularly for the OEM disk from the builder of your PC. Microsoft is
pretty Anal about OEM disks, but if the manufacturer is no longer in
business they will work with you on it. One post I came across lastnight
about ASMS was resolved with the poster obtaining a new OEM Install CD from
where they purchased their PC.
Final option www.Restoredisks.com If your Make, Model, and series of PC
is listed there, then there is a chance you could pick up a disk from them
pretty cheaply.
holographic label.
You're having some doubts about the condition of the disk media too?
One other thing I was meaning to ask you ... have you made any significant
hardware changes to your system. I'm assuming the OEM disk shipped with
your PC initially. Does the COA sticker for that disk say "OEM -software"
or "OEM-SLP" on the label. This would be an important detail to make note
of. If its an OEM-SLP CD then the original hardware that shipped with your
system would still have to be in the PC.. as the disk is BIOS locked for a
specific configuration of hardware.
I've been re-thinking this problem over and over since you started this
thread. While it doesn't make sense to me that 3 MSDN disks would all
display the same ASMS error - as the OEM disk, it would if you couldn't use
them to do a "repair installation" on an existing OEM build.
A Full Retail disk would be a different matter.
Its either a significant hardware change you've made, your CD Drives, or
something about the Setup Media. I don't know why, but I keep coming back
to the CD/DVD drives myself.
I did a search last night online... and I hate to admit it but most of the
articles I found, all pointed to the knowledge base article you cited
earlier one as being a pointless remedy. Aside from a few assine
suggestions to copy ASMS to the harddrive before doing the repair.
Damaged or defective media is a different matter. Microsoft does have a
policy in place for replacing damaged or defective software and products.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246 <<
If the disks are defective - see if you can obtain replacements.
Particularly for the OEM disk from the builder of your PC. Microsoft is
pretty Anal about OEM disks, but if the manufacturer is no longer in
business they will work with you on it. One post I came across lastnight
about ASMS was resolved with the poster obtaining a new OEM Install CD from
where they purchased their PC.
Final option www.Restoredisks.com If your Make, Model, and series of PC
is listed there, then there is a chance you could pick up a disk from them
pretty cheaply.
G
Guest
Well, I must say, CJ, you really have put some time into this. Thank you!
I have been thinking that *some* OEM XP CDs have had a bug -- a logical
error in the repair code or a missing file -- in the past, though not
necessarily now. My 2002 CD does not have SP2 included, which may account
for disparities I've described between folder structure on yours & mine --
but not, I think, for the fact that I get the ASMS error and you don't.
The OEM disk I am using came with a Dell PC, not mine though, that was given
to me by a former boss.
I hate to tell you this, but I built the PC myself. I hope you won't take
that to mean it is a flaky system with odd offbrand components, just because
it's home built. It definitely isn't. My PC is a SCSI full tower system
that uses an Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI controller. It has a Pentium 4 - 3GHz
processor mounted on an ASUS P4P800-E system board with 1GB SDRAM. There are
two SCSI DVD ROM drives, one a Toshiba DVD-R and one a newer Backpack DVD-RW,
plus an older CD ROM. All three of the laser drives work fine -- all the
time. So does everything else, including the two Seagate 36GB SCSI hard
drives, a DAT tape drive, an older Panasonic DVDRAM drive (favorite), high
end graphics card, and sound card.
Hardware changes? Not recently. I have had some software issues recently
related to older Norton products being incompatible with Office 2003 and IE7,
but no hardware problems or changes.
Before you think I screwed things up (all right, I admit it, if it was your
home built PC, I'd be wondering the same thing about you, LOL!), note some of
the other people who've complained about this same problem. They are not all
on this thread and I doubt they are all do-it-yourselfers. Search on
"repair", also check Google. Other people have had similar complaints about
"missing ASMS".
I'll try not to have a closed mind about that possibility. Thanks.
defective media from Microsoft in 2002-2003 -- both the MSDN disks and the
OEM hologram disks. This is where all the evidence points for now.)
I don't think this would apply to do-it-yourselfers. But I'll look into it.
Please point me to that post!
Again, CJ, thank you for your interest in this issue. You've helped!
I live in Sacramento, CA with my wife. I am a software engineer (SWE).
David B, SWE
I have been thinking that *some* OEM XP CDs have had a bug -- a logical
error in the repair code or a missing file -- in the past, though not
necessarily now. My 2002 CD does not have SP2 included, which may account
for disparities I've described between folder structure on yours & mine --
but not, I think, for the fact that I get the ASMS error and you don't.
The OEM disk I am using came with a Dell PC, not mine though, that was given
to me by a former boss.
I hate to tell you this, but I built the PC myself. I hope you won't take
that to mean it is a flaky system with odd offbrand components, just because
it's home built. It definitely isn't. My PC is a SCSI full tower system
that uses an Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI controller. It has a Pentium 4 - 3GHz
processor mounted on an ASUS P4P800-E system board with 1GB SDRAM. There are
two SCSI DVD ROM drives, one a Toshiba DVD-R and one a newer Backpack DVD-RW,
plus an older CD ROM. All three of the laser drives work fine -- all the
time. So does everything else, including the two Seagate 36GB SCSI hard
drives, a DAT tape drive, an older Panasonic DVDRAM drive (favorite), high
end graphics card, and sound card.
Hardware changes? Not recently. I have had some software issues recently
related to older Norton products being incompatible with Office 2003 and IE7,
but no hardware problems or changes.
Before you think I screwed things up (all right, I admit it, if it was your
home built PC, I'd be wondering the same thing about you, LOL!), note some of
the other people who've complained about this same problem. They are not all
on this thread and I doubt they are all do-it-yourselfers. Search on
"repair", also check Google. Other people have had similar complaints about
"missing ASMS".
I'll try not to have a closed mind about that possibility. Thanks.
Thank you very much for that. I definitely will look into it!
Hadn't thought of that. Thanks. (But I still think there have been
defective media from Microsoft in 2002-2003 -- both the MSDN disks and the
OEM hologram disks. This is where all the evidence points for now.)
I don't think this would apply to do-it-yourselfers. But I'll look into it.
Please point me to that post!
Again, CJ, thank you for your interest in this issue. You've helped!
I live in Sacramento, CA with my wife. I am a software engineer (SWE).
David B, SWE
G
Guest
One more thing. The URL you gave me, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246
, didn't work. I did find it though by adding en-us to the end:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246/en-us.
, didn't work. I did find it though by adding en-us to the end:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246/en-us.
C
C J.
Is the message your getting ASMS specific to using a service pack 2 CD or is
it mentioned in the error?
I'm really curious now... about those MSDN disks? Do they have holographic
labels too?
it mentioned in the error?
I'm really curious now... about those MSDN disks? Do they have holographic
labels too?
G
Guest
The message does not refer to Service Pack 2. It shows a default path in an
input listbox, something I don't recall that begins with "Global", says it
cannot find the ASMS file, and asks the user to supply the right path, which
doesn't exist. You press OK and nothing happens. So the only option is to
press Cancel, and that terminates the repair activity and causes reboot.
MSDN CDs do not have a hologram. They come with an MSDN (Microsoft
Developer Network) subscription. I took this subscription in 2000 and again
in 2003. You can read more about these subscriptions at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx.
input listbox, something I don't recall that begins with "Global", says it
cannot find the ASMS file, and asks the user to supply the right path, which
doesn't exist. You press OK and nothing happens. So the only option is to
press Cancel, and that terminates the repair activity and causes reboot.
MSDN CDs do not have a hologram. They come with an MSDN (Microsoft
Developer Network) subscription. I took this subscription in 2000 and again
in 2003. You can read more about these subscriptions at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx.