I love when I hear Mac Fanboys say how much better designed the Mac GUI is.

While I do have to agree parts of the Mac GUI look nice if not nicer then the Windows, The GUI is fundamentally flawed in my opinion.

Here’s a side by side comparison of Safari on a mac vs Internet Explorer on the PC. At first glance most people might not notice this, but do you realize how much vertical space is lost on a Mac due to the way the GUI is designed? Notice how in Windows you start seeing the webpage much higher up then on the mac. In face the PC shows the page almost where Favorites bar  starts on Safari.

I don’t know about you, the less scrolling I have to do in an application the better. My wrists feel better and I work faster.

Another thing in my opinion that I hate about the Mac GUI is where the Close, Minimize and maximize buttons are located. Since they are so close to the Mac Menu bar I’ve so many times when someone accidently clicked on these buttons by accident.  Again it wasted space in my opinion.

Because the Mac Menu bar is at the top of the screen and the doc is at the bottom you loose even more space. While you can’t see it in the picture I provided there is a lot of White or unused space with Mac Applications because of where the Mac Menu Bar is located.

Most Mac heads come back and say while it doesn’t matter that the dock takes up so much room because “I can hide the Dock and I then I have even more space then Windows users”. I then have to say you are misinformed. The Windows Start has had the ability to hide itself since Window 95. That puts the mac still lacking in space vs the same Windows machine.

Now with all this information I am really puzzled. Of ALL people who need  the most space, Photoshop/CAD users are the ones that need it most. While thankfully most people using CAD are on PC’s, there has been a stereotype that Mac are better for “Artists” because of the need for photoshop.

I laugh when my two year old sony Viao Laptop opens Photoshop  CS5 and Lightroom 3 FASTER then most brand new macs. It applies loading filters FASTER. It has more visual space to work with then most macs, and it was $800 cheaper then what Macs cost at the time I bought this machine. I can count on one hand the number of “Crashes” I have had with Windows 7.

I’d love to hear other people’s comments on what they don’t like about the Mac Interface…

After doing some searching around I found a great article about setting up a private virtual NIC on both the Hyper-V Host and Hyper-V client and setting the IPs to the same subnet.

While this might be OK for some people I really miss the ability to just copy files from the host machine like I could in Virtual PC/VMware.

After day dreaming for a bit how this could be done I thought I remember seeing an option in Windows 7 Disk manager to not only CREATE but Mount VHD files. I then started thinking what if I create a VHD and then mount it. Copy the files to the VHD and then mount the VHD in the virtual machine.

It could be like using a networked USB Drive.

Open Disk Management in Windows 7. Create VHD.

I saved this file to my desktop. It doesn’t seem to let you save to a network location.

You will need to initialize the disk

This will walk you through the volume and format wizard. I am assuming you have experience with this.

Copy the files you want on the virtual disk drive.

You will need to “detach” the VHD drive in Drive Manager.

Click “OK” when this window pops up.

Copy this VHD to the Hyper-V Host. I like to put it in a shared directory I use for media. ie. iso’s & vhd’s etc.

Open the properties of the virtual machine.

Add a Hard drive. Point the wizard to where ever you copied the newly created VHD.

Hit apply.

Boot up the Virtual Machine.

I’d say 95% of the people I know in Winnipeg either use MTS or Rogers for their wireless provider. To send an Text for free to them using email you need to know their phone number as well as the extension.

Rogers

If you want to send a Text for Free to Rogers clients follow this formula:

phoneNumber@pcs.rogers.com. If the number was 222-3333 then you could send a text to them using the email address 222-3333@pcs.rogers.com.

http://websms.rogers.page.ca/2way/ – This is a link that you can use instead of using Email.

MTS Mobility

If you want to send a Text for Free to MTS clients follow this formula:

number@text.mtsmobility.com If the number was 222-3333 then you could send a text to them using the email address 222-3333@text.mtsmobility.com.

http://text.mtsmobility.com/ – This is a link that you can use instead of using Email.

For all other carriers you can find a very long list on Wikipedia: List of SMS Gateways.

C:\users\%usesrname%\

*Replace %username% with the actualusername of the user who is having the issue.

Once you do find the folder “Favorites” right click it and select properties.

Click on the location tab. Then Click on the “Restore Default”  button.

If you know where you acidently moved the favorites to move them back to the Favorites directory.

You will now be able to use your favorites in Internet  Explorer.

I will first go over how to change the Blackberry Maximum Security time on Blackberry Manager:

On the Home screen click on:

1. Global Properties
2. IT Policy
3. In IT Policies click the “…” box
4. Select the policy you want to change
5. Click Properties…
6. Click Device-Only Items
7. Select Maximum Security Timeout

Your screen should look like this:

When entering the number keep in mind you can’t just enter any number. You have to follow what Blackberry wants you to set as the Maximum Security Timeout Policy.

The numbers you can use are:

So for example 3hrs is not an option. You can however select 2hrs or 4hrs.

How to change the Blackberry Maximum Security timeout in the Administration Service

This is the replacement for Blackberry Manager. I find it is much easier to find the Blackberry Maximum Security timeout setting in this application.

To change the security timeout follow these steps:

1. Login to the web interface
2. Click on Policy
3. Click “Manage IT Policies”.
4. Click on the IT policy.

In the policy Click on “Edit policy

Click on Device only.

Click on the The Maximum Security Timeout text box. The valid range for the value of this rule is 10 through 480 minutes.

Change the Blackberry Maximum Security Timeout on the Blackberry phone:

Once you have changed the policy on the server or if you aren’t under policy control then you can easily change the settings on the phone:

Change the Security timeout to what ever time the device will allow you to change it to.

Thomas: We are pleased to announce that magicJack customers have now received our latest magicJack upgrade. This upgrade includes the following benefits:

Thomas: -Less bugs

Thomas: -Superior call quality

Thomas: -Works on Windows and Mac

Thomas: -Easy to use

Thomas: -and much more

Thomas: There may be some magicJack users that will no longer have their past contact list available. Please create a new contact list. Our latest upgrade, with advanced features should prevent this from ever happening again. We apologize for any inconvenience. We are not be able to restore contact list.

We are not able to restore contact lists? Did you tell me about the upgrade?

NO!

Did you warn this could be an issue?

NO!

Is there a way to backup contacts?

NO!

Is all my phone history gone?

YES!

For Windows 7 you will need to download Microsoft Remote Server Administration tools for Windows 7 to remotely manage Hyper-V.

For Windows Vista you will need to download Microsoft Vista Management tools update. You will need at least sp1 or sp2 installed before you can remotely manage Hyper-V.

Warning. The tools are just over 220MB in size. Once you download the Remote server administration tools for windows just run the msu file and follow the install. You should find it pretty easy to click along with.

Complete all the steps that are required by the wizard, and then click Finish to exit the wizard when installation is completed.

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Programs.
2. In the Programs and Features area, click Turn Windows features on or off.
3. If you are prompted by User Account Control to allow the Windows Features dialog box to open, click Continue.
4. In the Windows Features dialog box, expand Remote Server Administration Tools.
5. Select the remote management tools (Hyper-V) that you want to install, and then click OK.
6. Configure the Start menu to display the Administration Tools shortcut, if it is not already there.
7. Right-click Start, and then click Properties.
8. On the Start Menu tab, click Customize.
9. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, scroll down to System Administrative Tools, and then select Display on the All Programs menu and the Start menu. Click OK.
10. Shortcuts for snap-ins installed by Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 are added to the Administrative Tools list on the Start menu.

How to back up Outlook settings files

If you have customized settings, such as toolbar settings and Favorites, that you want to replicate on another computer or restore to your computer, you might want to include the following files in your backup:

• Outcmd.dat: This file stores toolbar and menu settings.
• ProfileName.fav: This is your Favorites file, which includes the settings for the Outlook bar.
• ProfileName.nk2: This file stores the Nicknames for AutoComplete.
• Signature files: Each signature has its own file and uses the same name as the signature that you used when you created it. For example, if you create a signature named MySig, the following files are created in the Signatures folder:
  • MySig.htm: This file stores the HTML Auto signature.
  • MySig.rtf: This file stores the Microsoft Outlook Rich Text Format (RTF) Auto signature.
  • MySig.txt: This file stores the plain text format Auto signature.

  The location of the signature files depends on the version of Windows that you are running. Use this list to find the appropriate location:

  • Windows Vista: Drive\users\Username\appdata, where Drive represents the drive that Outlook was installed to and Username represents the user name that Outlook was installed under.
  • Windows XP or Windows 2000: Drive\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook, where Drive represents the drive that Outlook was installed to and Username represents the user name that Outlook was installed under.
  • Windows 98 or Windows Me: Drive\Windows\Local Settings\Application Data, where Drive represents the drive that Outlook was installed to.

Note If you use Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor, signatures are stored in the Normal.dot file as AutoText entries. You should back up this file also.

There are some things that you will have to change in this script! In this script my Fully Qualified domain name is going to be called: “heinrichs.domain”. If you were to only change the FQ domain name everything else is the Active Directory defaults in the GUI install. Fortunately for most people Microsoft chose some very good defaults and unless you are some enormous enterprise outfit this script should also work for you.

Bellow if the setup file for the Active Directory setup and install. First make a directory on C: called “scripts”. Make a file called “dcpromo-answer.txt” and copy this info into that file.

[DCInstall]
; New forest promotion
ReplicaOrNewDomain=Domain
NewDomain=Forest
NewDomainDNSName=heinrichs.domain
ForestLevel=3
DomainNetbiosName=HEIINRICHS
DomainLevel=3
InstallDNS=Yes
ConfirmGc=Yes
CreateDNSDelegation=No
DatabasePath="C:\Windows\NTDS"
LogPath="C:\Windows\NTDS"
SYSVOLPath="C:\Windows\SYSVOL"
; Set SafeModeAdminPassword to the correct value prior to using the unattend file
SafeModeAdminPassword=
; Run-time flags (optional)
; RebootOnCompletion=Yes

You will want open a command prompt. You will need to type this command:

dcpromo.exe /unattend:C:\scripts\dcpromo-answer.txt

Once you do that you should have a fully working Domain Controller with Active Directory installed and setup!

http://msmvps.com/blogs/thenakedmvp/archive/2010/02/23/rss-tcp-offloading-strikes-again-microsoft-should-kill-this-feature-for-the-masses.aspx

Basically this issue effects more Intel and Broadcom drivers. Almost every machine I see has one of these two network drivers.

In your network card settings, Intel and Broadcom primarily; you need to disable the advanced features.

Receive Side Scaling (RSS Offload)

TCP Offload (IPV4 and IPV6)

IP Checksum Offload

This problem has been around for ages, and was made worse since 2003 SP2 was released.

A couple of good articles:

support.microsoft.com/…/948496

blogs.technet.com/…/disable-rss-and-tcp-offload-fix-it-live.aspx

Fixit packs…   wonderful, but this should be included in the critical updates IMHO.