March 14th, 2008

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Make your my computer open faster by disconnecting the network drives

I have already published one post on How to fix slow opening of my and delayed contents display here.

There are still some issues like connected drives when you use at your work place.

Like in my when I login at my at my work place, according to the user policy every user is connected to the drives at the location.

These to the drives make my more slow at the time of opening.

Let see how can you disconnect drives. (more…)

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Written by Jason on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Network and Office and computer and connected network and connection and download and extent and faster and network drive letter and notepad and server and speed and start and startup and system and vbscript and windows.

Microsoft: Future of personal health (video)

The concept video produced by Microsoft Office Labs that was shown at a MIX08 session last week has found its way to the interwebs. Unfortunately it is a rip from the official MIX08 session webcast so the quality to begin with is not that great, and YouTube doesn’t do it much justice either. Having said all that, you can still get a pretty good idea of what Microsoft foresees as the future of personal health management with some advances in natural interface interactions.

The scene with the pill bottle and a colored ring surrounding it on the table to show which pills to take is my favorite.

Written by Long Zheng on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Try out the IE 8 Beta

It seems like it was just yesterday that IE 7 was released. Well, the IE 8 beta is now available to the public, and anyone can download and try it out.

IE 8 Logo

I had a chance to download and give it a try. It does have some ground breaking features. I am not sure if they will take hold or not.

One example is the activity providers. You can right click anywhere within a web page and launch an activity provider:

IE 8 Activity Provides Menu

So for example, I visited our website, right clicked and went to translate. I was brought directly to a translation:

IE 8 Activities Providers Translate

Another interesting feature is in the address bar. It highlights the domain name, so you can clearly see the exact URL you are visiting:

IE 8 Address Bar

This is the first browser Microsoft has released that is standards compliant. This comes at a cost, since not all websites are. For example, when I went to blogger.com some of the buttons were not aligned, and the subject edit box was missing:

IE 8 Some Sites Broken

This can be easily fixed by switching to IE 7 Compatibility mode:

IE 8 Emulate IE 7

It is an interesting release. I suggest checking it out.
Check out our Windows Admin Tools

Written by Steve Wiseman on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Microsoft Free Utility Migrates XP’s Apps to Vista

Microsoft's Technet has a utility called "Windows Easy Transfer Companion" (WETC). It can copy key software programs from Windows XP to Windows Vista for those planning to migrate over and want to make sure that the apps still work.

Windows Vista contains a similar utility, however, this version runs both on the source Windows XP PC first by scanning you hard drive, gathering basic system information, and analyzing all installed software. You need to connect the Windows XP (Source PC) to the separate Windows Vista (Target PC) via network or a easy transfer USB cable.
The utility communicates with the Windows XP machine to display a list of all discovered applications which you select to be transferred (click picture below)
At the end, a status message tells you which programs were copied and whether errors occurred.
Here is a sample list of programs that have been transferred with all its settings successfully in the past using this utility:
ProgramVendorVersions
AcrobatAdobe7
Acrobat ReaderAdobe7, 7.0.5, 7.0.8
AOL Instant MessengerAOL5.9
AOL ToolbarAOL3
Avant BrowserAvant Force11
Cam Frog Video ChatCamshare3.72
TrillianCerulean Studios3.1
Google EarthGoogle3
Google TalkGoogle
Google ToolbarGoogle2.0.114, 3.0.126.3, 4
Windows Live Mail DesktopMicrosoft
FirefoxMozilla1.0.7, 1.0.6, 2
NetscapeNetscape7.2, 8.0.2, 8.0.4
OperaOpera8.5
EudoraQualcomm6
SkypeSkype2.0
Yahoo MessengerYahoo!7, 8.1
ProgramVendorVersions
Call of DutyActivision2
Battlefield 2EA Games1
Star Wars BattlefrontLucas Arts2

Download the Utility directly from Microsoft here

Other Tips Users have watched

Written by PCWizKid on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Microsoft Windows Vista and Utility and Windows XP and powertoys and wetc and xp compatability.

Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs

Mobile PCs right now are the targets for theft and news stories misplaced or stolen Mobile PCs, laptops, PDAs filled with sensitive employee and/or customer information. Although losing Mobile PCs, laptops, PDAs ain’t such a big deal because it can be easily replaced, what’s the most frustrating about is losing what’s inside of those said Mobile PCs, laptops, PDAs : data, Confidential data, records which can cost organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost business and damage its reputation.

That’s when the Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs provides tested guidance and powerful tools to help you protect your organization’s most vulnerable data. Much like the BitLocker Drive Encryption The Toolkit uses key encryption technologies already available to you in Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista: the Encrypting File System (EFS) and Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker).

For More info You can Check out Microsoft.com and also Download it for your Mobile PCs

Written by PC Freak on March 14th, 2008 with no comments.
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How to Change the Registered Owner in Windows

Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then locate the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion



Now you can find the RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization keys in the right-hand pane. Change them to whatever values you want.

To show off the new changes, just type winver.exe into the start menu search box to see the About Windows box:

Written by ShaDow on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Windows Vista Tips.

Configure Parental Controls in Windows Vista

Parental controls are a great first step to keeping children safe online. To configure Parental Controls your computer must be set up with at least one password-protected administrator user account.

To Set up parental controls

1- Log in to a user account that has administrative privileges.
2- Click the Start button, choose Control Panel, and click Set up parental controls for any user.
3- You come to a page that shows the name and picture for each user account you’ve created Click the user account for which you want to set up parental controls.

To Define Web restrictions

1- To define Web restrictions, click Windows Vista Web Filter.
2- There are many ways to block Web content. The first step is to choose the first option, Block some websites
or content.
3- To define specific Web sites that the user can view, select " Only allow websites which are on the
allow list".
4- click "Edit the Allow and block list". Under the Website address heading, type or paste the URL of a single site and the click "Allow" or "Block".
5- To prevent user from viewing only the sites you put in that Blocked websites list. don’t select the Only Allow websites which are on the allow list option. And finally click OK.

To set time limits

1- To specify times when the user is allowed to use the computer, click Time Limits
2- You’ll see a grid of days and times. Initially all squares are white, meaning there are no restrictions. You can click any time slot for which the user isn’t allowed to use the computer to turn it blue.
3- Finally click OK.

To Control game play

1- To control the user’s game play, click Games.
2- If you don’t want the user to use the computer for game play at all, choose No. Otherwise, choose Yes.
If you choose Yes, you can block games based on content. Click Set game ratings. Your first options will be based on ESRB ratings
3- To prevent the user from playing games that have no ESRB rating, choose Block games with no rating. And then select contents you want to block.
4- Click OK after making your selections. Then click OK again to return to the main parental controls page for the user.

To Block and allow programs

1- Click Allow and Block Specific Programs.
2- to allow the user to use all programs select " can use all programs".
3- To restrict programs, choose can only use the programs I allow. And then select programs you allow.
5- Click OK
To View User Activity Reports

As an administrator, you can view the report for any user at any time Click View activity reports.

The report shows the top 10 visited Web sites overall, the last 10 visited sites, file downloads, login times,
programs used, games played, instant messaging information, e-mails sent and received, and more. Basically
you get to see everything the user has done.

Written by ShaDow on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Windows Vista Tips.