Thanks go to Vijeesh at Tech Xpress for that handy tid-bit!
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Friday, December 22, 2006
Tech Tip: Using 'No to All'
Came across this handy tip via Reddit : Using "No to all" while replacing files in Windows
Thanks go to Vijeesh at Tech Xpress for that handy tid-bit!
Thanks go to Vijeesh at Tech Xpress for that handy tid-bit!
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Tech Tip: AutoCAD Fatal Error
When installing AutoCAD ADT 2006 recently I came upon this error when starting CAD to configure settings:
AutoCAD Error Aborting.
FATAL Error: Unhandled e0434f4dh Exception at 7c59bc81h
This happened after installing Express Tools for ADT. The fix I came up with was to install the latest ADT Service Pack...
AutoCAD Error Aborting.
FATAL Error: Unhandled e0434f4dh Exception at 7c59bc81h
This happened after installing Express Tools for ADT. The fix I came up with was to install the latest ADT Service Pack...
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Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Tech Tip: InstallShield Error 1607 under Windows 2000
Every once and a while, we come up against errors which shouldn't happen, but do. One such incident started happening to me lately while loading machines with software in work...
Every time I tried to install a certain application (which worked fine the first couple of hundred times I installed it) I would get InstallShield Error 1607. Searching Google gave me a couple of fixes but none worked. Eventually, I narrowed the cause down to one thing: Windows Installer!
To fix this error, go to Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. Uninstall Windows Installer 3.1 (KB893803). This will give you a dialog similar to the following:
Click 'Yes' to this, we will fix this in a moment... Then immediately after the uninstall, go to Windows Update and install any updates available (Windows Installer 3.1 should come up as a required update). Once this intalls, those programs will work fully again (afaik, you can run them but not uninstall them properly until Windows Installer is restored).
Every time I tried to install a certain application (which worked fine the first couple of hundred times I installed it) I would get InstallShield Error 1607. Searching Google gave me a couple of fixes but none worked. Eventually, I narrowed the cause down to one thing: Windows Installer!
To fix this error, go to Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. Uninstall Windows Installer 3.1 (KB893803). This will give you a dialog similar to the following:
Click 'Yes' to this, we will fix this in a moment... Then immediately after the uninstall, go to Windows Update and install any updates available (Windows Installer 3.1 should come up as a required update). Once this intalls, those programs will work fully again (afaik, you can run them but not uninstall them properly until Windows Installer is restored).
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Tech Tip: Recommended browser: Firefox 2!
As techie's here at A Couple of Donkeys we use only the best software and where possible like to use free and open source alternatives. Ever since it was called pheonix, we've been using Mozilla Firefox as our main browser. Compared to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it just plain rocks!
The fact it rarely crashes, the multitude of extensions (which can do almost anything - from reading RSS feeds to Downloading images from webpages) and the features it provides put this browser as top dog in our book. In our opinion it is much better than Internet Explorer 7, which only serves to emulate Firefox features from days gone by.
So why did we post other than to point you to Firefox 2? Simply put, the majority of you (our readers) use Internet Explorer. Here's a screenshot of our sitestats to illustrate:
We urge you to make the switch to firefox, it's free and secure and you won't regret it!
The fact it rarely crashes, the multitude of extensions (which can do almost anything - from reading RSS feeds to Downloading images from webpages) and the features it provides put this browser as top dog in our book. In our opinion it is much better than Internet Explorer 7, which only serves to emulate Firefox features from days gone by.
So why did we post other than to point you to Firefox 2? Simply put, the majority of you (our readers) use Internet Explorer. Here's a screenshot of our sitestats to illustrate:
We urge you to make the switch to firefox, it's free and secure and you won't regret it!
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Tech Tip: Removing the need for Ctrl-Alt-Del aka No more three fingers
If you are tired of holding down those three familiar yet spaced-far-apart keys to logon your machine, here is the way to get rid of Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
It does involve a registry modification so be careful and back up the entries before doing this.
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Create a REG_DWORD called: DisableCAD
Then modify the data value as appropriate:
Value Data: (0 = Require Ctrl+Alt+Delete, 1 = Disable)
It does involve a registry modification so be careful and back up the entries before doing this.
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Create a REG_DWORD called: DisableCAD
Then modify the data value as appropriate:
Value Data: (0 = Require Ctrl+Alt+Delete, 1 = Disable)
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tech Tip: Copy from a Windows dialog box
To copy text from a Windows dialog box, simply hold down the Ctrl and Insert keys at the same time!
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Tech Tip: Disabling the 'Display Properties' dialog under Windows 2k/XP
During my college days, I always wondered how the administrator's had locked down all of the settings on the Windows machines on the network. One such setting which was disabled was the Display Properties dialog (reached by right-clicking on the desktop and left-clicking Properties). This allowed a standard wallpaper to be set and ensured you didn't sit down to a computer with a 640 x 480 resolution...
Anyway, recently in work I was looking into locking down Windows machines so they would all have a similar appearance and give a more uniform look to the office. Say what you will about restricting settings such as these, sometimes it's handy (so I don't have to look at someone's seizure inducing wallpaper while fixing their PC...).
Here is the registry setting which will do this, and it's a simple one to boot:
- Go to the Start menu and Run...
- type in regedit and hit [Enter]
- Navigate to HKEY Current User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
- If a registry key called System does not exist, create it:
- Then, in System, create a new DWORD value called NoDispCPL. This is done by right-clicking under Default and left-clicking New -> DWORD Value as shown:
- Disabling the 'Display Properties' dialog is as simple as modifying this DWORD. (To modify a DWORD, right-click the DWORD and left-click Modify. You then want to modify the 'Value data'.)
- Setting the NoDispCPL value to 1 will disable the dialog and setting it back to 0 will enable it again.
This will work on both Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines. Feel free to comment if this doesn't work and hopefully we'll be able to sort it out for you!
Anyway, recently in work I was looking into locking down Windows machines so they would all have a similar appearance and give a more uniform look to the office. Say what you will about restricting settings such as these, sometimes it's handy (so I don't have to look at someone's seizure inducing wallpaper while fixing their PC...).
Here is the registry setting which will do this, and it's a simple one to boot:
- Go to the Start menu and Run...
- type in regedit and hit [Enter]
- Navigate to HKEY Current User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
- If a registry key called System does not exist, create it:
- Then, in System, create a new DWORD value called NoDispCPL. This is done by right-clicking under Default and left-clicking New -> DWORD Value as shown:
- Disabling the 'Display Properties' dialog is as simple as modifying this DWORD. (To modify a DWORD, right-click the DWORD and left-click Modify. You then want to modify the 'Value data'.)
- Setting the NoDispCPL value to 1 will disable the dialog and setting it back to 0 will enable it again.
This will work on both Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines. Feel free to comment if this doesn't work and hopefully we'll be able to sort it out for you!
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Thursday, October 12, 2006
Tech Tip: Setting up networked Windows printers with a double-click!
The automation of setting up networked printers under Microsoft Windows 2000/XP can be easily automated using a simple Visual Basic script (.vbs).
This can be added into Active Directory to run upon startup or can be run by each individual user at any time.
To get this script to work, you need to know the server the printer's queue runs from, and the name of the printer on that server. You can use this script to install multiple printers at the same time too.
The script takes the following form:
' Printers.vbs - Printer Setup Script
' Basic network setup
Option Explicit
Dim objNetwork
Dim strUNCPrinter
Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
' if anything goes wrong, ie a printer cannot be found, skip to the next one
On error resume next
' add in as many as you like, the basic form is:
' objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\SERVERNAME\PrinterName"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_01"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_15"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_09"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\other_server\Printer_12"
' You can change the text to say something else here if you wish
WScript.Echo "Printer Setup Complete!"
WScript.Quit
' End printers script.
When you run the script (it may take a minute..) you will see the following:
Copy and paste the script into a text editor (like Notepad) and save as printers.vbs. To run it, double-click the file in Windows Explorer. You could also set it up to run upon login using Active Directory.
Technorati tags:
Windows | Netowrk Printers | Visual Basic | WSH
This can be added into Active Directory to run upon startup or can be run by each individual user at any time.
To get this script to work, you need to know the server the printer's queue runs from, and the name of the printer on that server. You can use this script to install multiple printers at the same time too.
The script takes the following form:
' Printers.vbs - Printer Setup Script
' Basic network setup
Option Explicit
Dim objNetwork
Dim strUNCPrinter
Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
' if anything goes wrong, ie a printer cannot be found, skip to the next one
On error resume next
' add in as many as you like, the basic form is:
' objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\SERVERNAME\PrinterName"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_01"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_15"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_09"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\other_server\Printer_12"
' You can change the text to say something else here if you wish
WScript.Echo "Printer Setup Complete!"
WScript.Quit
' End printers script.
When you run the script (it may take a minute..) you will see the following:
Copy and paste the script into a text editor (like Notepad) and save as printers.vbs. To run it, double-click the file in Windows Explorer. You could also set it up to run upon login using Active Directory.
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Windows | Netowrk Printers | Visual Basic | WSH
Monday, July 24, 2006
Tech Tip: Stopping Registry file in Windows from being executable
If you've ever come across the Windows Registry, you'll know that it's a powerful yet much misunderstood tool. regedit.exe can be both helpful and dangerous. If you run a registry file (.reg) without knowing what it contains, you run the risk of damaging Windows.
To make it so registry files can only be added to the registry by right-clicking on the file and left-clicking 'Merge', save the following text to a file called nomerge.reg:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell]
@='edit'
Stay tuned for more updates coming soon...
Then run that registry file by double-clicking it. This will be the last registry file you may double-click to run. From now on registry files will open in an editor such as notepad...
To make it so registry files can only be added to the registry by right-clicking on the file and left-clicking 'Merge', save the following text to a file called nomerge.reg:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell]
@='edit'
Stay tuned for more updates coming soon...
Then run that registry file by double-clicking it. This will be the last registry file you may double-click to run. From now on registry files will open in an editor such as notepad...
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Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Tech Tip: Banging your iPod fixes it!!
WARNING: This will probably void any valid warranty. Don't do this if you have a valid warranty.
Sad Paddy (broken iPod)
Before you're tempted to call bulls**t on this, it's pretty reliable. How reliable? I saw it done right in front of my eyes. At first I didn't believe this would work. I heard about a friend of a friend of a friend throwing his broken iPod in rage against a wall. It magically worked after that. Then he told the friend of a friend (who also had a broken iPod) just to bang it off of a desk. Again, the impact fixed the problem, the iPod worked again!
To finish off the story, I was discussing this story with my friends (Paddy). Surprise, surprise one of them had a broken iPod. Five minutes ago, literally he gave the iPod a bang off of the desk. And guess what, it worked!
If you've got a broken iPod, that is NOT under warranty, and doesn't work. Try giving it a bang off a desk (not too hard though, you don't want to smash it!!). So far it's worked! If it IS still under warranty, try getting it fixed before you send it back.
Anyway, the juicy stuff: bang the *side* of the broken iPod against a surface. Then test to see if it works!
End result: Happy Paddy!!
Feel free to leave comments (if it worked or otherwise)...
Before you're tempted to call bulls**t on this, it's pretty reliable. How reliable? I saw it done right in front of my eyes. At first I didn't believe this would work. I heard about a friend of a friend of a friend throwing his broken iPod in rage against a wall. It magically worked after that. Then he told the friend of a friend (who also had a broken iPod) just to bang it off of a desk. Again, the impact fixed the problem, the iPod worked again!
To finish off the story, I was discussing this story with my friends (Paddy). Surprise, surprise one of them had a broken iPod. Five minutes ago, literally he gave the iPod a bang off of the desk. And guess what, it worked!
If you've got a broken iPod, that is NOT under warranty, and doesn't work. Try giving it a bang off a desk (not too hard though, you don't want to smash it!!). So far it's worked! If it IS still under warranty, try getting it fixed before you send it back.
Anyway, the juicy stuff: bang the *side* of the broken iPod against a surface. Then test to see if it works!
Feel free to leave comments (if it worked or otherwise)...
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Monday, May 01, 2006
Tech Tip: Turning off services remotely with Windows
This article applies to Windows Server OS's (Server & Advanced Server 2000, 2003), Windows XP and greater with the Service Controller Query Tool - sc.exe.
sc.exe is contained within the Windows Resource Toolkit. From the Microsoft website:
"The Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools are a set of tools to help administrators streamline management tasks such as troubleshooting operating system issues, managing Active Directory®, configuring networking and security features, and automating application deployment."
Anyway, what we need is a list of all of the computers on the local network and administrator rights within that domain. To do this, open up the command prompt (Windows-R -> cmd, Start -> Run -> cmd ...) or open the command prompt from the start menu and use the net command to list all available computers.
The usage is:
net view
Then, we need to identify the service name we want to stop. (A useful list of windows services can be obtained through your favourite search engine or here.) Then we do the following (again at the command line):
sc \\hostname stop servicename
where \\hostname is one of the names on the list we got from the net view command. An example would be to remotely stop windows automatic update:
sc \\machine stop wuauserv
The output will look something like the following:
If you need to do this on your local machine, you can either use the hostname of the machine, or leave out the hostname entirely and it should work. Using localhost, however, does not work...
As always, any questions or comments, feel free to post ;)
sc.exe is contained within the Windows Resource Toolkit. From the Microsoft website:
"The Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools are a set of tools to help administrators streamline management tasks such as troubleshooting operating system issues, managing Active Directory®, configuring networking and security features, and automating application deployment."
Anyway, what we need is a list of all of the computers on the local network and administrator rights within that domain. To do this, open up the command prompt (Windows-R -> cmd, Start -> Run -> cmd ...) or open the command prompt from the start menu and use the net command to list all available computers.
The usage is:
net view
Then, we need to identify the service name we want to stop. (A useful list of windows services can be obtained through your favourite search engine or here.) Then we do the following (again at the command line):
sc \\hostname stop servicename
where \\hostname is one of the names on the list we got from the net view command. An example would be to remotely stop windows automatic update:
sc \\machine stop wuauserv
The output will look something like the following:
SERVICE_NAME: wuauserv
TYPE : 20 WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS
STATE : 3 STOP_PENDING
(NOT_STOPPABLE,NOT_PAUSABLE,IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)
WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
CHECKPOINT : 0x1
WAIT_HINT : 0x3a98
If you need to do this on your local machine, you can either use the hostname of the machine, or leave out the hostname entirely and it should work. Using localhost, however, does not work...
As always, any questions or comments, feel free to post ;)
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Tech Tip: YouTube & Bebo - update
Ok, so the instructions for getting a YouTube video for a Bebo flashbox stopped working. This is because YouTube changed the way their videos play. A possible reason for this is the rate at which they're spending their startup capital...
The new way to get a link that works is to view the video on YouTube. Select the text from the box which says 'Embeddable Player'. Copy and paste this into a text editor (Notepad, Word etc). Then copy the website link, it'll look something like this
http://www.youtube.com/v/dsX3zSfktQI
Paste the link into your browser (internet explorer, or if you're cooler, firefox) and hit enter. Then copy the address that comes up once the video starts to play. That's the swf url that bebo are looking for.
The link should look something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=dsX3zSfktQI&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//stati
c15.youtube.com/vi/dsX3zSfktQI/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskJYcUEudiZEiNquYCp0sdDY
Any problems with this method, feel free to leave a comment.
The new way to get a link that works is to view the video on YouTube. Select the text from the box which says 'Embeddable Player'. Copy and paste this into a text editor (Notepad, Word etc). Then copy the website link, it'll look something like this
http://www.youtube.com/v/dsX3zSfktQI
Paste the link into your browser (internet explorer, or if you're cooler, firefox) and hit enter. Then copy the address that comes up once the video starts to play. That's the swf url that bebo are looking for.
The link should look something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=dsX3zSfktQI&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//stati
c15.youtube.com/vi/dsX3zSfktQI/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskJYcUEudiZEiNquYCp0sdDY
Any problems with this method, feel free to leave a comment.
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Sunday, March 05, 2006
Tech Tip: YouTube & Bebo
So, after getting into the social networking [wikipedia.org] thing, I've been thinking about the FAQ and help sections of these websites [facebook.com][bebo.com]. The FAQ/help sections of these websites often doesn't list details of how some of their technologies actually work. Point in case being bebo's 'flashbox' technology.
Instead of being like the rest of the 'beboers', why not add your own semi-unique flashbox by using YouTube [youtube.com].
Its pretty simple. Every video on YouTube [youtube.com] is identified by a unique bunch of letters and numbers. (eg ZRXLJp0BP9w). Bebo requires an internet url for the location of a beboer's flashbox. YouTube provides an interface to all of its video's by one player.swf file.
So, to get the video from YouTube onto your bebo profile, simply copy the random bunch of letters and numbers from the address bar of your browser and attach it to the end of this url:
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=
For our earlier example, Dillinger Escape Plan's 'Panasonic Youth' (ZRXLJp0BP9w) the url would be:
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=ZRXLJp0BP9w
Paste this into the bebo flashbox url and click 'save'. That's it, you're done. Enjoy the video you've just picked!
(For examples of two flashboxes done using this technique, check my bebo profile here [bebo.com] or my college class' bebo profile)
[Updated 29/Apr/2006 to reflect the change in swf file used by YouTube...]
Instead of being like the rest of the 'beboers', why not add your own semi-unique flashbox by using YouTube [youtube.com].
Its pretty simple. Every video on YouTube [youtube.com] is identified by a unique bunch of letters and numbers. (eg ZRXLJp0BP9w). Bebo requires an internet url for the location of a beboer's flashbox. YouTube provides an interface to all of its video's by one player.swf file.
So, to get the video from YouTube onto your bebo profile, simply copy the random bunch of letters and numbers from the address bar of your browser and attach it to the end of this url:
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=
For our earlier example, Dillinger Escape Plan's 'Panasonic Youth' (ZRXLJp0BP9w) the url would be:
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=ZRXLJp0BP9w
Paste this into the bebo flashbox url and click 'save'. That's it, you're done. Enjoy the video you've just picked!
(For examples of two flashboxes done using this technique, check my bebo profile here [bebo.com] or my college class' bebo profile)
[Updated 29/Apr/2006 to reflect the change in swf file used by YouTube...]
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