Posts

Showing posts from 2009

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

Image
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 . Close Outlook. Wait a few seconds for it to finish shutting down in the background. Go to your c:\users\[ USERNAME ]\ Appdata \Local\Microsoft\FORMS directory and delete the cache file from there. 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

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! Navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions in the registry and delete all the string values, except for the 'Default' entry. Run the group policy editor - gpedit.msc Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Internet Communication Management -> Internet Communication settings. 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/

Windows 7 - Live Messenger 2009

Well here's something thats a bit wierd. Upon installing Windows Live Messenger 2009, the first thing you notice is that the damn window just wont minimize. It's very odd. Even after you've closed all your discussion windows and the main contacts window, you still get an entry on the taskbar, which personally just isn't desirable. It's easy to fix though! Change the properties of the Windows Live Messenger shortcut and set the compatibility level to Vista. Then when you next run it, you'll see it minimizes exactly how it used to...

Windows 7 - Cisco VPN Client

I recently started using Windows 7 and so decided to push it to the limit and run all the software I was previously running under Vista. The only serious problem I had with incompatibility was a known issue with Daemon Tools in that it simply isn't compatible with Windows 7, so I used the free version of Virtual CloneDrive by ElaborateBytes instead. My next stumbling block was to get the Cisco VPN client working. Oddly enough I had no problems getting this to work on build 6956, but on moving to 7000 I kept getting a dreaded blue screen everytime I tried to start Windows. Luckily the system repair managed to get round this and take me back to the system point just before I'd installed the VPN client. After hunting round the web for a while I found a simple combination of things that seemed to result in a reliable way of getting the VPN client to install and work properly. The VPN client version is v5.0.04.0300. First I changed the properties of the Setup application so that it

Windows 7 - Graphics issues NVS 135M

While it seems to be well understood that Windows 7 is in early beta and has many graphics issues, I did come across one particular issue that really drove me up the wall. My laptop, a Dell D830, had been running 6956 for a week or so with no problems and was displaying the new superbar taskbar with it's nice Aero peek function no problem. I found Windows 7 to be pretty stable and run all the software I was running on Vista, so I thought OK, I'll upgrade to the 7000 Beta 1 build which was release a week or two after I had installed 6956. However, after installing the new build, my nice Aero affect had gone and the taskbar was back to a rather cut-down version of the Aero peek feature. I decided to work on this one as it had been working so it seemed quite plausible it should still work on the 7000 build. I had done an upgrade from 6956 to 7000 so I decided to install 7000 from fresh. This resulted in the same problem. I had been accepting the Windows Update recommendation to in