Software

Outlook – Autocomplete a Recipient’s Name

Posted by Brad

I’ve been offline for too long so I’m hoping to correct that starting now.  Here’s a topic I wanted to mention a while back when I bought a new PC for my wife.  She uses Outlook a lot for email, and when I setup Outlook on her new PC, she was not happy that her autocomplete entries were gone whenever she typed a new email.  She liked to be able to start typing a person’s name and have Outlook “fill in the blank” so to speak.

After a little research, I found out that Outlook stores its autocomplete info in an .nk2 file (Outlook Contacts Nicknames).  A quick search of her old PC (running Windows XP) located the file in C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.  On Windows Vista, the file is located at C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook.  Rename the.nk2 file on the new PC, copy the old .nk2 file to the proper location, restart Outlook and you should have your autocomplete entries back.

FYI, my work was done with Outlook 2003.  Microsoft references this procedure in an article for Outlook 2003 titled “Copy Autocomplete name list to another computer.”

Firefox 3 on U3

Posted by Brad

I had been looking for Firefox 3 availability for my U3 drive, but all I kept seeing was Firefox 2.  However, while using Firefox on my U3 drive yesterday, I received a notice to upgrade to Firefox 3.  I said yes and the download and installation went flawlessly.  So this is one way to get Firefox 3 on a U3 drive until someone releases this version for download to U3.

Peer to Peer Networks & Firewalls

Posted by Brad

I finished up a job this week for a company which has a peer-to-peer network which lost their Internet connection after someone jacked with their DSL modem while trying to install a wireless router.  They had a Zoom DSL modem/router with DHCP enabled.  I could not get this router or an identical one working even after talking with Zoom tech support.  The company requested a new modem from AT&T, but began having network issues in the meantime.  All the computers on this network use some kind of commercial firewall – either McAfee, Norton, or AVG.  All three of these products wreaked havok with me changing routers and such.  I had to end up assigning static IPs to each computer and going on many computers’ firewalls to either trust the network and/or specific IP addresses.  So if you run into trouble with a peer-to-peer network not seeing computers, check the firewall settings and make sure the firewall trusts the network and possibly specific IPs if there are still connection issues.

Robocopy and Windows 2000

Posted by Brad

I ran into my first problem installing Robocopy today when I tried to install it on a Windows 2000 Server.  When I tried to install the Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools, I received the message “This product requires Windows XP or a later version to have been installed.”  Since I was tight for time, I settled for Robocopy 1.7 (which came with the Windows NT 4 Resource Kit), which was the only version I found on the Internet for straight download after 20 – 30 minutes of searching.  It functioned similarly to the version I have been using (XP010) but some of the switches I use were not present like /copy and /zb and /log.  But it was enough to get my client’s backup working for now (I had setup the ArcServe which came with her Rev 70 drive, but the jobs kept crashing and it was too complicated for the client to really use).

Later, my employee Marvin found a nice blurb somewhere which looks to solve our problem and which I tested on a Windows 2000 Pro VM.  If you download rktools.exe, you can use WinZip or a similar program to extract the files from the compressed executable;  you then end up with 3 files: rktools.msi, rktools_p.cab, and rktools_s.cab.  The important file here is rktools.msi.  What you do next is open a command line session, go to the folder where you extracted rktools.msi, and type the following command: msiexec /a rktools.msi.  You will be prompted for a folder to which to perform an administrative install.  Essentially, this decompresses all of the files in the msi file to the folders in which they would normally be placed (or that’s what it appears to do).  Under Progam Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools in whatever folder you installed the msi files, you will find Robocopy.exe (amongst other files).  I went to a command line and the command executed without a problem.  Looks like I can just copy the executable file to the Server and update my batch file with additional switches and I’ll be good to go.  And now I don’t have to install the entire Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools to computers just to get the one file I need.

Robocopy

Posted by Brad

I’m over 2 months late with this, but that’s given me time to put Robocopy into production use.  I have found that it’s everything I’d hoped it would be.  First, let me say my suspicions about Iomega Backup were right – it is a piece.  For whatever reason, the installations I did and checked on months to years later were not backing everything up.  This is unacceptable in a business environment.  So I’ve switched my clients to Robocopy where needed and am in the process of switching my offices.

In order to use Robocopy (unless you have Windows Vista in which it is included) you need to download and install the Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools (rktools.exe).  After this, robocopy will be available from the command line.  I have found frontends for using Robocopy, but instead of using them, I examined them and learned some good switches to use with Robocopy.  The default command I use is robocopy source destination /copy:dat /e /zb /v.  If you want a log of the copy, add /log:logfile.txt to your command where logfile.txt is the destination and filename for your log file.

Some gotchas I found while playing around with Robocopy include the source and destination.  I guess I was used to copy or xcopy where you specify something like “c:\data\*.*”  With Robocopy, you would use c:\data, no final backslash or wildcard needed.  Also, don’t forget to inclose long filenames (e.g., c:\program files)  in quotation marks.

The great thing about Robocopy is it’s a synchronization tool: if the file(s) it is copying are the same, it does not recopy them, only the files that have changed.  So there is no need to format your backup disk everytime before backup or use a /y to  autoanswer a choice to overwrite a file.

If you are looking for a new way to backup, check out Robocopy.  It’s fast, it can be used in a batch file and with the task scheduler, and it just plain works.

Stupid Vista Tricks

Posted by Brad

Or, how to turn on or find things in Vista that Microsoft decided did not need to be available by default.

Ever since I started using Windows Vista, it has bothered me that the representation in the system tray of two computers, one for upload and one for download, did not light up to show activity like they had since Windows 95.  Low and behold, last night I right-clicked the stupid icon and saw the option in the menu “turn on activity animation.”  I proceeded to turn on activity animation and there were my missing lights.  Now why would this not be the default selection?

Since the clock appeared in the lower right corner of the system tray in Windows 95, you’ve always double-clicked the clock to bring up the window that allows you to change the time & date.  Double-clicking the clock in Vista does nothing; single-clicking brings up a window where you can make an additional click on “Change date and time settings…” which brings up another windows where you can click a button that says “Change date and time…” which brings up another window where you can actually change the date and time!  Does it somehow make it easier in Vista to make people go through three steps to change the date and time instead of one step like previous versions of Windows allowed?

I was just reading a Windows Tips & Tricks email that talked about page file size.  John Savill points out that, though the old rule of thumb was the page file should be one and a half times your system memory, a better way now is to go by your  page file size – commit charge (peak) reading in Task Manager.  Unfortunately, Microsoft removed this reading in Windows Vista.  I had to download Sysinternals Process Explorer to learn this information.  But why was this information removed to begin with?

And finally, one of the best (read: worst) decisions by Microsoft in Vista – making the Run item unavailable by default on the Start Menu.  The Run item is one of the most useful features in Windows for novices and pros alike.  It makes it simple to run a program by just typing its name in a box.  But now you have to customize the Start Menu in Vista just to add it back in.  Do they think only a few super-nerds use this or something?

In an attempt to make Windows  as easy to use as the Mac (yeah, right), all Microsoft has done is waste everyone’s time by making them search for things and relearn the way they’ve done things for the past 12 years in Windows.  I mean, what was wrong with Add/Remove Programs?  Why when I right-click on the desktop does it say Personalize instead of Properties?  It’s no wonder why some people refuse to use Vista and stick with Windows XP.

Commodore 64 Emulation

Posted by Brad

After my son started playing Rock ‘n’ Diamonds, I really starting hankering to play Boulderdash.  Unfortunately, I have not had a Commodore 64 or 128 for over 15 years.  However, about 10 years ago I found C-64 emulators avilable on the Internet.  With a little searching I came across one that works pretty good.  It’s called CCS64 and can be found at http://www.computerbrains.com/ccs64/.  The page talks about the C-64 and has many links to other sites with information and software for the emulators.  Unfortunately, the software links I tried went to a site where you had to register and write a review or visit some other site before you could download anything.  I then found the site www.c64.com where I was able to download Boulderdash.

The emulator has an installation program so it’s easy to get running.  I installed it to my Vista machine with no problems.  When started, it takes you to a C-64 Ready prompt.  I copied the Boulderdash file to the CCS64 folder to make it easy for the program to find and this seemed to be a good choice.  Besides giving you many options from the program menu to setup video, audio, and controllers, you can also have CCS64 find C-64 software files to run from the File | Load and Run… menu option.  This brought up a window where I could choose my software file.  CCS64 then enters the appropriate C-64 commands to run the software (C-64 is all command line for those folks used to point and click).  With the video option I was able to make the screen 3x normal;  there are also options for screen resolutions.  The audio picks up your primary audio driver or you can select one available.  The coolest thing was with the controller.  Boulderdash only works with a joystick, so I could not play with the keyboard.  So I picked up my trusty XBox 360 wireless controller, calibrated it in the CCS64 program, and I was cruising around picking up diamonds in Boulderdash in no time.

For all the old timers out there that had a C-64 or 128 and want to play an old favorite or two, CCS64 plus the freely available game files is a great way to do it.

Cannot Install Windows Updates

Posted by Brad

I’ve had this problem once before, but had to research the specific steps in fixing it because I could not remember each and every file involved. This problem cropped up again after I reloaded my son’s PC with Windows XP after moving his hard drive to a different computer. The situation was that you could download updates but they would fail to install.

The solution involves reregistering several Windows Update DLL files. I found the specific steps at wugnet.com, but I will list them again here:

Try re-registering the windows update components. This may help fix a corrupt installer

1. Click on Start and Run,
2. Type “REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Should get the message “DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded” Click OK.
4. Repeat above for each of the following:

REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL

5. Reboot

Now try to install your updates.

I followed the steps but did not reboot and was still able to install the updates after reregistering the DLL files. Your mileage may vary.

TiVo Transfer Quits Working On Mac

Posted by Brad

I recently went on a trip and wanted to take some TiVo shows with me for the plane ride. I hadn’t used TiVo Transfer on my Mac in a while, so I started Roxio Toast to find it so I could download some shows. After starting Toast, I was prompted that an update was available so I downloaded version 8.0.4 and installed it. I then reopened Toast, found TiVo Transfer under the Extras menu, clicked on it, but received the message “TiVo Transfer could not be found.”

I don’t know if I lost TiVo Transfer after my recent update or before, but I first reverted to Toast 8.0.3, then reinstalled Toast from the original CD, but I still did not have TiVo Transfer working. After scouring Google for a while trying to download TiVo Transfer by itself (it only comes with Toast), I finally just searched for a way to reinstall TiVo Transfer. A poster named Greg on Aldoblog provided an answer: “You have to right click on Tosat 8 Titanium and chose Show Package Contents. Then go to Contents, Resources, and copy the TiVoTransfer.tar.gz file to the dekstop or the Toast 8 Folder. Double click on the file and it should expand to the TiVo Transfer application. Make sure that is in the Toast folder and you are all set.” I actually followed his suggestion by opening my 8.0.3 update which has the latest version of TiVo Transfer (1.1.1). So thankfully I was able to enjoy a couple of episodes of Battlestar Galactica on the plane to Washington DC. Thanks Greg.