Rhyous

Ok, so have you ever started to copy a folder from the network and had it crash on you? And the folder of course has hundreds of subfolders and thousands of files, so you have to copy it again.

Why doesn’t windows handle this better. Why don’t I get a nice prompt that says: The copy failed…do you want to try again?  Yes / No

If i drag the folder over again, it seems to copy everything and give me annoying prompts for whether I want to overwrite the folder and the prompts can be endless.

I know I could avoid this by zipping the directory first, but really, zipping 1.5 GB of thousands of files takes even longer.

Sorry to drop a complaint today, but restarting massive folder transfers seems like an area where Microsoft has really not put any effort.

I will say that on my Windows 7 64 bit box, the number of annoying prompts to copy and replace were far less if I checked the box to not copy, so that is a positive.

Ok, so I had a hard time finding Windows Color and Appearance in Windows 7.

It is pretty easy to get to the Windows Color and Appearance tool if you know where to go. The problem is that where to go is not obvious.  So here is where you go:

1. Right-click on Desktop and choose Personalize.
2. Click the Windows Color icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Clikc the Advanced appearance settings… link.

Besides the problem that it is not obvious where to go, there are also some computer some diseases that make this harder than it should be.

Disease #1 – Limited Clicking Ability Disorder or LCAD

People have what is called Limited Clicking Ability Disorder or LCAD.  In layman’s terms, click laziness. Yes, that means we want to get there in less clicks.

It is 4 clicks to get to the Windows Color and Appearance tool, assuming you know where you are going.  Otherwise, you have to click all over till you find it. Whether it is four or more, this is way too many clicks for someone who suffers from click laziness or LCAD.

The Cure

Create desktop shortcuts or shortcuts on your startbar.

Steps for creating a shortcut to the Windows Color and Appearance tool.

1. Right-click on your desktop and choose New | Shortcut.
2. In the Type and location of the item field type in:c:\windows\system32\desk.cpl ,5Note: Yes, there is a space between desk.cpl and the ,5.

1. Click Next.
2. In the Type a name for this shortcut field, enter this:Windows Color and Appearance
3. Click Finish.

You now have a shortcut on your desktop which will all you to access Windows Color and Appearance in one click and cure your LCAD.

Note: If you want, you can right-click on the shortcut and choose properties and click the Change icon button and select a different icon if you want.

Disease #2 – Keyboard-to-Mouse Tropophobia

Tropophobia is the fear of moving and yes, Keyboard-to-Mouse Tropophobia is the fear of moving the hands from the keyboard to the mouse.

The Cure

Learn to access as many features as you can without using the mouse.

So how can you access the Windows Color and Appearance tool without going to mouse?  This one was not as easy as others, but the solution was found.

Steps for accessing the Windows Color and Appearance tool using only the keyboard

Do this:

1. Press the Windows Key and the R key simultaneously.  This brings up the Start | Run tool.
2. Type the following into the Open field:desk.cpl ,5Note: Yes, there is a space between desk.cpl and the ,5.
3. Press Enter.

Sources:
This page got me started and my own knowledge got me an easier solution than what was posted here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/59884-window-color-appearance-shortcut-create.html

Today I am writing this post using windows seven speech recognition.

I turned on windows speech recognition and found a surprisingly working well at times.

You must speak very clearly and be prepared to make a lot of corrections.

To turn on Windows 7 speech recognition, go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | Ease of access | Windows Speech recognition.

Say “Press pipe” to insert a pipe symbol.

…using the keyboard now…
I couldn’t quite finish it using just audio. I struggled selecting the Categories…everything else I was able to do. It is quite difficult and takes a lot of practice and a lot of corrections, but I have to say that I am impressed. However, as impressed as I am, it is a long way from being faster that a keyboard for me. Of course, I have about 20 to 25+ years experience typing and I don’t remember when I started to use a mouse, but only a short few hours of voice, so maybe if I gave this voice thing 25 years I would be just as good…

Ok, so I had a window that was off the screen when I opened it. This is really annoying and easy to fix, but not obvious to fix. In fact, I didn’t find it, my manager Beau found it and showed me.

In the past version of windows, you could find the application on the start bar and right-click and choose move. However, in Windows 7, you cannot do this exactly the same way, though it is close to the same.

For example, Notepad++ opened off the screen for me one day. I right-clicked on the icon for Notepad++ in the start bar, but there was not a move option.

Method 1 – Right-click on the mini square representation of your window
So, what you have to do is really easy, though not exactly intuitive. Instead of right-clicking on the icon, just let your cursor hover over it until the small square representation of the window appears. Then right-click in the small square to find the move option.

Select the move option and you can now use the arrows or the mouse cursor to move the window back onto your screen.

Note: If the window is minimized the move option is grayed out, so make sure the window is not minimized.

Method 2 – Shift + Right-click on the Icon (Only works if only one instance is open)
If you only have one instance of the application running, you can also use Shift + Right-click.

However, if you have two instances of the application running, this method doesn’t work for you, but gives you a different list of options, which I didn’t screen shot but here are the options:

Cascade
Show windows stacked
Show windows side by side
Restore all windows
Minimize all windows
Close all windows

I found the Shift + Right-Click method here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=353959

Now that I think about this it makes sense, because the icons on the task bar have a one to many relationship with the instances of the application they are running, while the pop up boxes have a one to one relationship.

How to send an audio or voice email in Windows 7?

This can be done with special software and without specially software.

Without special software
Requirements:

• Microphone – Often laptops come with microphones built-in. But a head set or a stick microphone usually has better results. If you don’t have one, buy one here: USB Microphone from Amazon
• Email – any email that allows for attachments will do.

Step 1 – Record the email.

1. Open sound recorder by going to Start and typing in “Sound Recorder” and choosing to open the application.
2. Click “Start Recording” and talk into your microphone.
3. Click “Stop Recording” when finished.
4. Save the file where you want to save it. It is a .wav file.

Step 2 – Send the .wav file as an attachment

1. Open your favorite mail program or web-based email tool.
2. Start a new email or compose a new email.
3. Enter a recipient.
4. Enter a subject.
5. Add the .wav file as an attachment.
6. Click Send.

With special software
There is special software for doing this, and there are lots of different types. I am only going to discuss one piece of software here called WaxMail that is an integration tool to Outlook or Outlook Express.

Step 1 – Download WaxMail.

1. Go to the web site: http://www.waxmail.biz
2. Choose the correct download based on whether you are using Outlook or Outlook Express and click it.
3. Follow the download instructions and on step 3 click the download button.
4. Save the file to where ever you want.

Step 2 – Install WaxMail

1. Make sure Outlook or Outlook Express is closed.
2. Run the downloaded executable: setup_waxmail_1_0_0_40.exe
3. Follow the installation instructions.
4. Finish.

Note: I use Outlook at work, so I am going to show you an example using Outlook. I am not going to post an example using Outlook Express but it should be similar.

Step 3 – Use WaxMail to send a Voice Email

1. Open Outlook or Outlook Express. You should now have a WaxMail toolbar.
   

2. Click New WaxMail. You get a new email message and the WaxMail voice recorder show up.
   

3. Click big red Record button and talk into your microphone.
4. Click Stop when you are finished talking.
5. Click the rename option and rename the voice file. The voice message is named something generic and you can see it in the WaxMail tool in a white box and there is a Rename and a Delete button
6. In the email under To: enter the recipient.
7. Also give the email a valid Subject.

   It should now look something like this:

   

8. Click Send.

The one thing that I don’t like is that this line is appended to all emails unless you purchase WaxMail.

Tired of typing emails? WaxMail lets you record and send voice messages via email. Get your free copy from www.waxmail.biz

I looked for an open source or free version without advertising and that didn’t cost any money, but I couldn’t find one. If you find one, please let me know, otherwise you have live with the ad.

Hey all,

I got a post today in Facebook:

You Tube
http://merzoukiklaudia.blogspot.com/

When I click on it, I am taking to a Youtube video that downloads a file called Setup.exe.

Three obvious things tipped me off that this was a virus:
1. The video said it needed Flash 10.37 to run, but I had the latest Flash.
2. The file was named “setup.exe” and not something like
3. I didn’t notice at first that it was asking for flash 10.37 and the lastest version is 10.32.

So working for LANDesk which provides Antivirus (using Kaspersky) I naturally noticed this as a virus right away. It is pretty close to a Zero day virus. A Zero day virus means that most Antivirus companies don’t have content to detect and scan for a virus. However, about half the anti virus companies have released updated virus definitions for this virus today.

So it was probably released yesterday or as long as a few weeks ago and just now got detected.

This the the Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.fwz virus according to Kaspersky.

Hey all,

I recently noticed that their are more right-click options in Windows 7 when you hold down shift as your right-click.

You get different options based on the different items you right-click on, such as a folder, executable, etc…

I am not going to write a whole post, because I found this on another post.

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/hidden-right-click-context-menu-options-windows-7/

Windows 7 takes a long time to login, 50 seconds or more on my IBM T61.

I have seen that there is an issue if you are using a solid color blackground instead of an image, however, I am using an image.
http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/22147-slow-login-2.html

I guess I have to do more research on this.

Ok, so is anyone else frustrated that Microsoft fails to include certain executable tools that are standard on BSD and Linux? On my FreeBSD system, I don’t have to install anything special to telnet, or ssh, or check any type of hash (md5, sha1, sha256, etc…) and ump-teen other simple free features.

Especially the ability to check a hash, which is a key step to verify that a file was downloaded securely, and was not tampered with. In fact, it is a security risk that Microsoft doesn’t have these tools. We pay a lot of money for a Microsoft operating system and yet they fail to provide me with the tools I need to maintain security, tools that are ubiquitous and free. Also you wrote a tool for this already, were you just too thoughtless to include it in Windows 7? See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290.

So here is what you have to do to get these tools added to your windows platform.

A quick search in Google led me to this download which will provide you with most the tools you need for comparing hashes or check sums.
http://www.nfllab.com/sums/sums611.zip

However, here is what I had before:

And if you want more tools that are ubiquitous to open source platforms but somehow Microsoft has excluded from their operating systems, check these out:

I hope this page helps you. I mostly wrote it for myself, so I could remember where I find this stuff again.

UPDATE: 3/5/2010
2.1.6 beta 6 addresses this issue, so please install this version and ignore the rest of the comments below.

Ok, so I am big support of ShrewSoft VPN Client and I am also a user of VMWare Workstation. However, I have found an incompatibility between the two.

I tell everyone here at work to use ShrewSoft VPN Client on their Windows 7 64 bit clients. However, they are all running VMWare as well. So I feel it is my responsibility to also inform them of this issue that was found by one of my coworkers.

PROBLEM
Well, a strange problem is seen on VMWare Guests running on a host with ShrewSoft VPN Client installed. No DNS requests are going out for the Guest. A DNS Request never leaves the host.

Troubleshooting
I seached the following term on the VMWare forums: DNS Bridged

The following VMWare Community discussion appeared:
DNS Name Resolution using a bridged network connection not working

Resolution
If you stop the ShrewSoft DNS Proxy Daemon, then the issue goes away.

Also, this is not really a reason to stop using ShrewSoft VPN. There is a post about Cisco’s VPN Client firewall causing the same issue.
Problems with networking using Workstation 7

Hello world,

I mostly use Windows 7 as a desktop but I often use FreeBSD with KDE, too.

I just submitted this wish to the KDE team.

Bug 221667 – Please make Keyboard shortcuts the same as those used by Microsoft Windows
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221667

If you agree, please Login and vote for this bug. I so want to always use the same keyboard shortcuts no matter which platform I am installed on.

This probably is not just an enhancement request for KDE but for every GUI Operating System everywhere. In fact, let’s make a standard set of Keyboard Shortcuts and have every desktop-like software use the same exact keyboard shortcuts. Maybe someone who is a member could write and RFC and publish it, or does it need to be an IEEE standard?

Anyway…I try not to rant, but today it happened. Sorry.

Ok, so the Control Panel is annoying to me in Windows 7 (or Windows 2008 or Windows Vista). I want the big long list like I used to have. Also, I would like the Administrative tools and other features to be part of it. Turns out there is a way to do this.

1. Create a new folder. It doesn’t matter where.
2. Rename the folder this:
   

   GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

You now have a nice Control Panel with everything in a big long list.

If you want you can drag it to your Start bar or ping it to your Taskbar.

Ok, so God Mode isn’t exactly some way to have all power over the box. It is really just a pretty, one-window-list of links to the interfaces of different management features

Why does Firefox prompt for Domain (AD) Authentication? or How to get Firefox to automatically login to web sites with Domain Credentials (Sharepoint for example)?

Hey all,

I am sure you have been annoyed by the fact that when you use Firefox, the sites that require Domain credentials can popup and ask you to login. Sites like Sharepoint can ask you to log in over and over and over and over again. And then just when you are about as annoyed as you can be with typing your Domain user name and password, it prompts you some more.

For those of you who know, I work for LANDesk and we have server software and our Web Console uses NTLM authentication or Active Directory Domain credentials. You can log into the LDMS Web Console using Firefox using this method.

Well, this is really easy to make this “authentication prompt” go away. A quick search in your favorite search engine will resolve this (on a Windows box at least).

I found this site rather quickly:
http://www.1stbyte.com/2008/03/15/automatic-windows-authentication-with-firefox-networkautomatic-ntlm-authtrusted-uris/

Step 1 – Gather the lists of Sites that require domain authentication

1. Determine all the sites you go to at work that require domain or active directory credentials and put them in a text file.
   

   http://CompanyName-Sharepoint
   http://CompanyName-HelpDesk
   http://InternalServer1
   http://InternalServer2
   http://InternalServer3
   http://LDMSCore

2. Now format them like this:
   

   CompanyName-Sharepoint, CompanyName-HelpDesk, InternalServer1, InternalServer2, InternalServer3, LDMSCore

   Don’t worry if you don’t get them all, you can add new sites at any time.

   Note: Save this text file as you may want to do this again for someone else or you may want to do it again yourself computer gets rebuilt/upgraded.

Step 2 – Configure Firefox to Automatically Authenticate to these sites

1. Open Firefox.
2. Enter the following for the URL:
   about:config

3. When warned to be careful, click the “I’ll be careful, I promise” button.
4. In the Filter field, enter this value: network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris
   Note: If the value is not there, you can add it as a new string.

5. Right click on the value and choose Modify.
6. Enter your servers as we formatted them above:
   

   CompanyName-Sharepoint, CompanyName-HelpDesk, InternalServer1, InternalServer2, InternalServer3, LDMSCore

7. Click Ok.
8. You shouldn’t have to close and re-open firefox but some poeple like to do this anyway.

You should now be able to browse your sites without having to enter credentials.

You may be asking the question:

Where can I get Windows 7 or where can I buy a Windows 7 license key (32 bit or 64 bit)?

Don’t steal it or pirate someone else’s key. One of the main reasons I am into open source such as FreeBSD is not because I don’t like Microsoft, but because I like to obey the law and open source lets me obey the law. I do used Windows all the time. I like many Microsoft products, including Windows 7. Yes, it is a better desktop than anything open source has to offer yet. Yes, you should pay for it. And Yes, someday the likes of Ubuntu and PC-BSD will remove the need to pay for an Operating System. Operating Systems will become ubiquitous. We aren’t there yet, so bite the bullet and pay for a nice shiny legal DVD with a nice legal key.

Amazon has your Windows 7 DVD and Legal License Keys here:
Windows 7 – Single License Key

• Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit OEM 1pk
• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Windows 7 – Multiple License Key

• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3-User)

Windows 7 – Upgrade License Key

• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade
• Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade
• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade

Stay Legal!

Please don’t post illegal locations or sketchy sites as those comments will be ignored/deleted.

Hey all,

No more release candidate only. ShrewSoft’s Windows 7 VPN Client (that works in 64 bit) was released Dec 5th.

Go here to download it:

http://www.shrew.net/download/vpn

Or just click this link.

http://www.shrew.net/download/vpn/vpn-client-2.1.5-release.exe

Thank you ShrewSoft for the work you do…