Windows 7 RTM

Yes it's true. Windows has finally been finished and released to MSDN. Go and get it! It's good, really it is! Forget Vista and move on.

Control multiple machines with one keyboard and mouse

Previously I've solved this scenario by utilising a very useful tool called Synergy. It's development has waned somewhat in recent years though, and with the advent of the new Windows 7 operating system it was time to look for another solution. I'm happy to say though that Input Director does the trick very nicely. It's powerful and yet very easy to configure and worked immediately with no issues on Windows 7.

If you've got more than one machines that you want to be able to control with the one keyboard and mouse then this is ideal. I have the scenario where I have a desktop with two monitors and a laptop next to it with a single monitor attached.

I can now have all three in a row and use the desktop or push the mouse off the side of the middle monitor and it immediately appears on the laptop connected screen on the right. It supports machine configurations of screens and really allows some easy use of multiple machine/screen setups.

WSS & MOSS

I've spent the last 2 weeks obtaining my MCTS in WSS and MOSS Configuration. Very interesting to get to grips with the architecture and seeing how the WSS platform fits into the Microsoft offering. There seem to be so many products now that either tie into WSS or actively require it.
The next version of Sharepoint will no longer be known as Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS), but will revert to the old name of Sharepoint Server. My understanding is that this is to help retain the separation between the WSS product and Microsoft Office.
Microsoft Office 2010 Technical preview is already around and brings some great interface improvements and features. The only problem is that to take advantage of all these neato enhancements you have to have the latest versions of Office, WSS and Exchange. It's tough being in IT when there's not much money available in the budget but you want to implement new systems...

Strange Outlook 2007 Error

Today I started getting a fabulous new message from Outlook 2007 whenever I tried to open pretty much any type of object, i.e. a mail message or a calendar appointment:

Could not install the custom actions. The object could not be found.

Curious I thought, this was all working yesterday. It turns out it seems to be a corruption of the form cache file frmcache.dat.

1. Close Outlook. Wait a few seconds for it to finish shutting down in the background.
2. Go to your c:\users\[USERNAME]\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\FORMS directory and delete the cache file from there.
3. Restart Outlook and the problem should have gone away.
   

Windows 7 - Can't modify wireless network profile

I came across an interesting problem caused by a group policy enforcing a wireless network policy to attach to the local corporate network and automatically authenticate.

The wireless network in question does not broadcast its SSID. Under Vista and XP this isn't a problem as the checkbox that allows you to connect even if the WLAN is not broadcasting its SSID is checked. However in Windows 7 this checkbox was not ticked and because it was a group policy it was not possible to change it.

It's possible to take a copy of the profile and change that one instead though using the netsh command.

To export the existing profile that has all the settings in you want, just type

netsh wlan export profile 'profilename'

This will give you an XML file with your settings in. Rename it to 'newprofile.xml' or similar and then edit this file and change the name of the profile to something you want, like Profile2. Then run the following

netsh wlan add profile newprofile.xml

Then happily you will see the profile in your wireless network choices and can change the tickbox to allow to connect to the non broadcasting SSID.

VMWare Unity

Upon installing the latest version of VMWare Workstation (6.5.1) under Windows, I discovered a fantastic new feature called 'Unity'.

What is Unity you ask yourself? Well it's very simple, it takes the windows from within the guest operating system and integrates them as windows in your host operating system. This way you dont have to go full screen or have a frame around your virtual machine to get to one useful window that you're trying to use.

It's also available in VMWare Fusion on the Mac, so running your Windows programs has never been so easy!

Video

Windows 7 - Windows installer has stopped working

This is a pain if it happens. I haven't seen it at all on a couple of installations, but on another I had this problem pop up constantly after installing Microsoft Office. Everything that uses the Windows Installer seems to crash without really even trying to run. It turns out it's to do with the Customer Experience Improvement Program!

1. Navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions in the registry and delete all the string values, except for the 'Default' entry.
2. Run the group policy editor - gpedit.msc
3. Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Internet Communication Management -> Internet Communication settings.
4. On the right find 'Turn off Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program' and double click it, which brings up a dialog where you can select 'Enabled'.

Solution found at http://chris123nt.com/2009/01/18/sqm-client-causing-crashing-in-windows-7/