A new tool is being offered through Windows Update; the System Update Readiness (SUR) Tool. It is designed to help diagnose and fix issues that are preventing Windows updates or Service Packs from installing correctly. According to the documentation it is only offered to systems that are experiencing one of the conditions that the tool …
Author Archives: Morgan Simonsen
Blue Screen (BSOD) on VirtualBox VM
I’ve got to handle it to Oracle; their virtualization software VirtualBox is amazing…and free! It’s features surpass Windows Virtual PC by leaps and are on par with VMWare Workstation. Lately I have been using it for all my host-based virtualization needs. I am in the process of setting up a new computer and part of …
GPS Fun with the Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform
Introduction Windows 7 has a new framework; the Windows Sensor and Location Platform. In short it is a system that enables the OS to utilize different sensors; e.g. a GPS device to track your location, a light sensor to dynamically adjust your screen brightness based on the ambient lighting, an accelerometer to use for games …
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Printing nuggets
Someone once told me “Users and printers take the fun out of the whole network.” The printing part I am inclined to agree with… I met up with an old friend today that works for a large printer manufacturer and he imparted the following printing tips to me: Disable bidirectional support on your printer This …
Consumption of data vs. creation of data
According to the latest buzz we are in the middle of the tablet/slate revolution. This is based on the popularity of the IPad, the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and countless other upcoming devices of the same type, as well as the popularity of IPhone and the recent launch of Windows Phone 7. In …
Overriding Apple QuickTime 7 installation language
I prefer when software I want to run either comes in a specific language, or lets me choose the language during installation. In an effort to be more user friendly a lot of software is configured to detect the region your computer is set to. I prefer to run my OS in English, but have …
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Entourage 2008 EWS and Public Folders
Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition is a required upgrade if you are using Exchange Server 2010. Entourage 2008 (without EWS) uses WebDAV to communicate with Exchange Server and WebDAV has been removed from Exchange Server 2010. Entourage EWS now uses Exchange Web Services (EWS) as the primary protocol for communicating with Exchange …
Viewing the contents of Group Policy Registry.pol files
While investigating some EFS settings I needed to look at the raw data in Group Policy settings files, usually called Registry.pol and located in the SYSVOL share for each GPO. First I tried to load it as any other hive in Registry Editor, but that did not work, indicating that .pol files do not use …
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Establishing a performance baseline
Introduction A performance baseline is a vital part of you system documentation. A baseline should be established immediately after a new system has entered production, and should be repeated with regular intervals. That way you can see how your system performs over time and make informed decisions about when a system will have to be …
Customizing pinned shortcuts on the Taskbar for Windows Server 2008 R2
OK, this is one way. I am sure there are several others. Can anyone say convoluted…? (This is mainly intended for use on Remote Desktop Servers.) Create a test user. My user is named Bob in this example. Log on as Bob and pin the shortcuts you want on the Taskbar, and remove the ones …
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