Saturday, December 5, 2009

Fix when jump list items get stuck in Windows 7

Sometimes jump list items will get “stuck” within Windows 7.

jump_list1

To remove these entries, open a Explorer window and enter the following path:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

jump_list2

The list displayed will be odd file names.  You can open the files within Notepad to hopefully determine the entry to delete.

jump_list3

Friday, December 4, 2009

FixWin Utility

This utility offers a GUI for several Registry hacks.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-fix-windows-7-vista-problems-with-fixwin-utility

Core Configurator

Core Configurator is a piece of software designed to offer some GUI configuration options for a Windows Server Core installation.

http://coreconfig.codeplex.com/

How to delete a “protected” file within Windows 7

Certain files within Windows 7 can not be deleted even as using the administrator account.  Launch a command prompt with administrative privileges and use the following commands.

takeown /f C:\folder\file

cacls C:\folder\file /G account:F

Capture

Linux distros for children

The links below are for Linux distributions that are intended for children.

http://www.qimo4kids.com/

http://www.foresightlinux.org/foresight-kids/

http://edubuntu.org/

Create a system backup within Windows 7

Windows 7 (and Vista) have an option to create a system image backup.  Click on the Start Menu and type “backup” in the search dialog box.  Select the Backup and Restore menu item.

backup1

Click on the “Create a system image” option.

backup2

It is easier to create a system image using an external USB hard drive.  If you have one connected, select the device under the hard drive drop-down box.  Click on the Next button once a selection has been made.

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Once selected, click on the “Start backup” button.

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A dialog box should appear displaying progress of the backup.

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A dialog box will appear asking if you wish to create a System Repair disc.  You can create one now or later.

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Once a decision has been made concerning the System Repair disc, the final dialog box should be displayed.

backup7

Trigger services within Windows 7

Windows 7 includes a new type of service called trigger.  A trigger-start service is a regular service that you can configure to run (or stop running) only when certain criteria and conditions that you define are met.  Some conditions would be:

Device arrival or departure

Joining or leaving a domain

Opening or closing a firewall port

Group policy change

To view trigger information, use the sc command with the parameter of qtriggerinfo.

trigger1

Certain services will not have any triggers present.

trigger2

Dia

Dia is a diagram application that could be considered a replacement for Microsoft’s Visio.

http://dia-installer.de/index_en.html

A portable version is also available.

http://portableapps.com/apps/office/dia_portable

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Create a system repair disc within Windows 7

A System Repair disc can be used to boot a computer to attempt to recover the locally installed operating system.  To create a disc, access the Start Menu and type “system repair” in the search dialog box.

system_repair_disk1

Place a blank DVD disc in your DVD writable drive and click on the “Create disc” button.

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As long as the blank disc is found successfully, a progress bar should appear.

system_repair_disk3

A final dialog box should appear asking for you to label the disc that was created.

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How to enable the Quick Launch bar in Windows 7

The link below contains the instructions to enable the Quick Launch toolbar within Windows 7.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975784

Visual Subst

This application allows a drive letter to be mapped to a particular path.

http://www.ntwind.com/software/utilities/visual-subst.html

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Old Apps Web Site

This site has older versions of certain popular applications.

http://oldapps.com/

UNetbootin

UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for a variety of Linux distributions from Windows or Linux, without requiring you to burn a CD.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/