CHRISdotTODD

McAfee On Access-Scan Disabled

2010-08-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

I noticed this morning that my McAfee On Access-Scan was disabled. (The shield in the system tray had a red-crossed circle.) When I opened McAfee, it was performing a scan, so it wasn't clear what was occurring. After some research, I found that the settings may have become corrupt. Here's the steps to correct:

Go to VirusScan Console >> Help >> Repair Installation.
Check the fist check-box to reset to the default settings.
Click OK.

This should do the trick.

USB Headset on Windows 7

2010-07-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

I found when I plugged my USB headset (Plantronics DSP 400) into Windows 7, it didn't work. I went through the normal stuff, trying a different port, making sure it wasn't on mute, etc. I finally determined that you need to tell Windows 7 that the headset is your default device before it will work. The good news is that you only have to do it once. Upon removal, it returns back to the external speakers, and upon reinsertion, the USB headset worked again.

To make the changes, the default configuration of the Control Panel makes it nearly impossible to make the settings change. Here are the steps:

Plug-in the USB headset.
Go to Control Panel.
Likely you will see 8 categories, and if you click "Hardware and Sound" you wont find anything to help you.
In the upper-right area of the Control Panel, it says: "Viewed by: Category". Change Category to Small- or Large icons.
This now presented many Control Panel options.
Click on "Sound".
A window should open into the Playback tab. Speakers likely has a green check mark, while the Headset may have a green phone.
Select (click) the Headset.
Click the "Set Default" button.
Click the Recording tab.
Again, select the Headset and click "Set Default".
Click OK.
Close the Control Panel window.

Remember, this should be a one-time thing. Upon disconnecting your headset, Windows 7 should revert to the speakers as the default. Likewise when you re-insert the headset, they should become the default audio device again.

Useful Windows Utilities

2010-06-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

I ran across a few useful, free Windows utilities today, all from Mike Lin. Though he created these years ago, I found them still helpful.

Startup Control Panel: This tool installs in your Windows Control Panel and allows you to disable programs that are configured to start on Startup. In October 2006
in my XP Memory Problems and Startup Applications post I wrote about a similar program, Startup Inspector, which I've continued to use. I like Startup Control Panel a little more, but they both should work for you.
StartUpMonitor: The purpose of StartUpMonitor is to monitor programs on install and notify you before they add a new Startup program. While I haven't used it yet, I like this idea as I can catch these before they get into my system instead of having to use Startup Control Panel or Startup Inspector after the fact.
Clipomatic: Clipomatic will keep a "clipboard" of your copy/cut text, so you can access and reuse items clipped long after you've made new clips. Instead of ctrl-v for paste, use ctrl-alt-v and you get a list of clips to paste. This reminds me of an old program I used to use, Clipmate, which I had only stopped using when they didn't have a new version for Windows XP. On recent check, it looks like Clipmate is still going, with a recent release on a Windows 7 version.
PathCopyEx: This will add a command to your right-clicks to allow you to copy the path of an Explored folder.

So far I've only used these on Windows XP. Mike has a few other utilities as well. Checkout his website, www.mlin.net, and see what utilities might help make your computing tasks a little simpler.

Mapping HTML files to run Classic ASP on IIS7

2010-06-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

I found that IIS 7 on Windows 2008 Server to be much different from prior versions of IIS. The first hurdle was to realize that Classic ASP isn't installed by default. In searching board posts to solve my issue, I found countless posts with directions to install Classic ASP.

So getting this far, I was unable to process my HTML files that had embedded Classic ASP code, In prior versions of IIS, you could just add *.html to the previous defined *.asp listing. With IIS 7 though, this created problems with the .asp pages, and did not solve the issue either. The trick is to make a new entry in the HandlerMappings specifically for *.html.

Request path: *.html
Executable: %windir%\system32\inetsrv\asp.dll
Name: anything meaningful to you
Mapping: File
Verbs: GET,HEAD,POST
Access: Script

Once you've completed this...

Go to %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config file
Find the new entry (search on the name you set in the HandlerMapping)
Remove the preCondition portion of the line
Restart the webserver

For me, this solved the problem.

Here's a bonus tip for configuring IIS 7.
When I went to my hostname (URL) without a file, it didn't display my Default Document (index.html). I had to change the StaticFile Mapping from "File" to "File or folder" to get it to work.

Office Ribbon Frustrations: Working with Pictures

2010-06-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

Here's another frustration in learning Microsoft Office's new ribbon interface. I wanted to compress my PowerPoint images -- something I've always done to reduce the file size of my PowerPoint. I searched and searched for some indication of how I might do this.

I finally discovered that I must select an image, and magically a new menu appears. The words "Picture Tools" appears in the Title Bar, and below it is a Format menu. Upon clicking Format, I revealed several options for manipulating the image, including "Compress Pictures".

The Microsoft website covers file compression and other picture manipulation functions.

Sync Your Outlook Contacts and Calendar to Your Droid

2010-05-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

As nice of a phone as the Droid is, its Outlook integration is not yet up to what you can accomplish with the iPhone. Previously I blogged about how to get your Outlook email onto your Droid, as the instructions that come with the Droid are not clear. The rest of this post will tell you how to sync your Calendar (events) and Contacts between your Droid and Outlook.

It takes three things to make this work.

Compatible version of Outlook: Outlook 2003 or 2007 on Win XP (32-bit only) and Vista.
Gmail account: You should already have this, since it's required for the Droid.
Google Calendar Sync application: The Google Calendar Sync program will sync your calendar and contacts between your Outlook account and your Gmail account -- your Droid can interact with your Gmail account. Download this from Google onto your computer that's running Outlook.

Once you've downloaded the Google Calendar Sync program, install it. Just a few simple steps, and you'll have your Contacts and Calendar on you Droid.

Accept the Terms of Service.
Enter your Gmail account credentials (username and password)
Select the sync option you want.
- 2-way: Sync from Outlook to Google/Gmail and Google/Gmail to Outlook.
- 1-way: Sync from Outlook to Google/Gmail.
- 1-way: Sync from Google/Gmail to Outlook.
Select the sync frequency: minimum time frame is 10 minutes.

That's all there is too it. Now any time your computer is running (and the sync program is running), the the accounts will sync based on the setting choice.

Notes and Tips.

Google Calendar Sync should start every time you start your computer -- running in your Taskbar. If not, put an application shortcut in your Startup folder.
Only pop-up reminders will be synced. Google/Gmail Calendar SMS and email reminders will not sync.
Only your primary Google/Gmail Calendar and default Outlook Calendar will sync.
All Calendar events are synced. There is no way to configure a specific time-frame.

Still want more information? http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=98563 has information posted by Google.

Office Ribbon Frustrations: Use the Quick Access Toolbar

2010-05-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

I continue to find new and frustrating things when using Excel 2007. For example, in most spreadsheets I want to freeze the top row and sometimes columns. To do this, I need to remember that I first need to go to the View Ribbon. If I want to use a Macro, it's not on the Insert or Data Ribbon, as I expected, but it is also on the View Ribbon. For Print Preview, you need to go to the Office Button and select the Print arrow. Needless to say, some of the most common tasks I perform are now hidden and/or further clicks away.

One way to make some of these tasks easier is to use the new Quick Access Toolbar. The Quick Access Toolbar is the toolbar just right of the Office Button, above the Ribbons. By clicking the drop-down arrow to the right of the toolbar, you can customize the toolbar with your favorite shortcuts.
Here's how to customize the Quick Access Toolbar.

Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar
Click on "More Commands...". This should open the Options dialog, with the Customize window open (see the left menu to change the open window).
In the window, the left column displays possible short-cuts, while the right column displays your current shortcuts. Select from the drop-down above the left column to get a list of Popular Commands, Commands Not in the Ribbon, All Commands, Macros, or by various Ribbon Tabs and sub-Tabs.
Once you find the short-cut you want to add to the Quick Access Toolbar, click it to select it.
Now click the "Add>>" button that is between the two columns.
Select others and click "Add >>" again to add more to the Quick Access Toolbar.
In the right column, by selecting a short-cut, you can then remove it or change its order.
When completed, click "OK"

This same process should also work for you in Word 2007 and PowerPoint 2007.

Block Offensive Facebook Ads

2010-05-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

Updated May 6, 2010, due to new information.

Are you tired of giving Facebook feedback on offensive ads, and yet they keep re-appearing? Just because I'm single doesn't mean I want to continually see ads to meet women! In general, I believe displaying ads in an unobtrusive way is okay, as it is what helps pay for free websites. But why even offer a feedback mechanism, if you're not going to incorporate it into future ads?

Well I did some digging, and found a Firefox Add-on, Adblock Plus, that will block ads. Adblock Plus will work well beyond Facebook, but so far I've only configured it to block Facebook ads. The easiest way to make this work is to also install the Element Hiding Helper Add-on too. Here's the steps:

Download/install Adblock Plus Add-on.
Restart Firefox.
Download/install Element Hiding Helper Add-on.
Restart Firefox. You should have a new ABP icon to the right of the Firefox Search Box.
Login to Facebook.
Click the down arrow and click "Select element to hide" or press Ctrl+Shift+k
Move your cursor around the Title element until the Title is circled with a red box ~~the Sponsored heading on the right until the entire ad is circled with a red box~~.
Click your mouse.
A new ("Compose element hiding rule") dialog box will open. Click "Add filter rule".
Repeat this process (6 - 9) for the Image and Body Text sections of the ad.
I continue to find new flavors that have forced me to be more specific (i.e. more difficult to only exclude the offensive ads). With the image filter, I went to the Advance View, clicked the "src" box, and deleted everything after the domain (left "http://creative.ak.fbcdn.net/").
Now the entire Sponsored section on the page should have disappeared, leaving just the thumbs-up image.

That's it!
If you want to remove the rule, so an element is no longer blocked, these are the steps:

In Firefox, go to the Tools menu and click "Adblock Plus Preferences...".
Right-click on the filter and select Delete. Alternatively, you can uncheck the Enable box and test how the page looks without the filter. BTW: The Hits column tells you how many times the filter has blocked an ad.
This is my current rule set, which is more complex than what I had originally posted, but still easy enough to develop.

Let me reiterate, I don't support ad blocking in general, as website owners need revenue to continue to offer free services.

In a case like Facebook, where many ads are offensive and they ask but don't use our feedback, few options are left. In fact using the Element Hiding feature, the ads are still loaded, they are just blocked from view. So in fact Facebook will report page views and collect revenue from the ads, we just wont have to see them. Seems to me this screams for a review of when and what ads are posted on pages. Advertisers don't want to spend money on ads that will never have a chance of getting clicked.

One final note as I've already mentioned, Adblock Plus has many more features for blocking ads, including subscriptions to lists which are maintained to block known offensive and malware ads. In general (IMHO) I think if you avoid the more "questionable" places on the Internet and have good virus protection, it's likely these other features are not necessary.

View and Manage Your Social Networks in One Place

2010-05-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Update Aug 25, 2010: After 3 1/2 months of using Yoono, I've removed it from Firefox. It had a tendency to crash Firefox, particularly if it contained a lot of unread messages. In addition, it quit updating my Facebook feed, except for notices, around the 1st of August. I've switched back to TweetDeck and Trillian.

Earlier this week I installed Yoono's (Yoono.com) Firefox Add-on, as a test to see if it can successfully be used to manage all my social networks. Today I removed my other client tools from my auto-start, as I have been very happy with Xoono.

As I mentioned, Xoono is a Firefox Add-on (it's also available for Windows desktop) that you can use to manage all my social network interactions. It supports Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, FriendFeed, and 4 instant messaging (IM) clients: AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, and MSN. Each of these can show in one feed or you can select a tab to see the individual feed. I have been using 3 of the social feeds (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and 2 IM clients (AIM and MSN). So far I have been very pleased with the easy of use and functionality. I have not used it with multiple IM sessions going at once.

Since it's a Firefox Add-on, the feed window is a left side-bar within the browser. It has a collapse button too, when you want the extra screen real estate. When collapsed, it displays the number of unread messages. With the 7 different skin colors, I found it easy to pick a color that is distinctively enough different from my browser skin to standout, but the palette choices are pleasing enough as to not be distracting.

When posting, you can post in one feed or all feeds. If you were in the All Feed tab, by default all the feeds for posting will be selected. Likewise if you are in a single feed tab, just the single feed will be selected. You can add and remove feeds through a simple checkbox.

I could go on about the many features, or you can visit the Yoono website and check it out for yourself. Needless to say, right now I think I've found a great new tool.

Office Ribbon Frustrations: Document Properties

2010-05-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Remember it used to be easy to look in the File menu and find the document properties of an Office document? This was an easy way to make sure you didn't post documents with personal information you didn't want shared.

In Office 2007 the feature still exists, it's just hidden like so many other things.

Click the round Office icon in the upper-left
Click Prepare
Click Properties

You will also find in this menu the Inspect Document feature, where you can do further analysis and clean up of a document, including the items found within the document properties.

Get Exchange (Outlook) Email on your Droid

2010-04-28T17:14:00.001-07:00

With my new Droid, it was extremely easy to get my Gmail, but I found the instructions for getting Exchange email not so clear. It's actually quite easy once you realize what's being asked -- the key is it's the same as your Outlook Webmail.
Here's what you need to do:

Click/Open the eMail App and choose Add Account.
Enter your Outlook email address and password.
If you want this to be your default email, be sure to check the box before clicking next.
Select Exchange from the account type options.
Complete the following
- Domain\Username: This will likely have your email username as entered in step 2. It may not be the same as your network username, which is required here. Most of us don't have to remember our domain, except when using Webmail, e.g. mydomain\myusername.
- Password: The password you use to login to your corporate computer, and therefore your email. It should also be the same password you use when retrieving Outlook Webmail.
- Server: This will likely have your email domain as entered in step 2. Likely it wont be correct -- this should be the sub-domain and domain of your Outlook Webmail, e.g. webmail.foo.com.
- User Secure Connection (SSL): Should be checked.
When you select Next, it'll validate the the information was correct and you're done.

Switched from iPhone to Droid for $20

2010-04-28T17:00:00.001-07:00

With my contract expiring on AT&T I found myself in the market for a new cell phone. I could have waited for the next iPhone, by continuing month-to-month, but I really wanted to move to a 3G connection. With the announcement of the new iPhone OS only working on the 3GS, I had to spend $200 (and a 2 year contract) to get it. I'm not sure why with the threat of switching carriers that AT&T didn't have a better offer.

From my research and testing a few Droids owned by 3 friends, it seemed like a good alternative to the iPhone. In speaking directly with Verizon, they too could only offer me a $200 Droid with a 2 year contract, so it didn't offer anything better. Then in searching Amazon, I found that I could get it for $20 on a 2 year contract.

It's now been a few weeks, and I'm very happy with it. While the Droid has its own quirks, they're no worse than the iPhone quirks. There also is a promise to bring Flash to the Droid, which is a lot closer than Flash on iPhone, which I don't think we'll ever see. Further, I like the better service from Verizon -- yes AT&T Edge (2G) service was as bad as the claims about the 3G service.

So if you're in the market for a good, low cost smart phone, give the Droid a try.
Full disclosure: use this link below, and I'll get credit through the Amazon Marketplace.

Portions of a PDF don't print

2010-04-16T14:23:00.001-07:00

I recently have had two cases where a portion of a PDF file that I saw on screen didn't print. Both documents had inserted signatures among other things. When I opened the file in Acrobat and Illustrator, I could see there were multiple objects. It was some of the objects that were not printing. I figured I should be able to solve with Illustrator, but never came up with a solution using it.

Back in Acrobat, I saved the PDF as a Word document. Then from Word, I created a new PDF. Now my new PDF was complete and it printed everything that I saw on the screen.

Fonts not displaying or printing correctly

2010-04-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Ever have a Word (or other) document given you by someone else, and it didn't display the fonts correctly? Perhaps they sent you a PDF or image of the file, and it displayed correctly there, but not in the file that you want to now update.

The first thing to check is to make sure you have the same fonts on your system. An easy check is to look at the font list in your application. For example, if you're supposed to display Frutiger 45 Light, but its not in the list, then it's likely not installed. If you don't have the font, and can get access to it, Microsoft has a process for installing it to your Windows machine.

In some cases, you may have the font, but it still doesn't display correctly nor is it in the list of fonts in your application. This is likely due to the original file being created on a Mac. It may even occur in some applications, such as Word or QuarkXpress, but not in others, such as Photoshop. The reason is that Windows uses style-linking, while the Mac used different fonts.

If you go to c:\windows\fonts\ and look at the font that is installed, but not working, you should see the typeface name used to create the font. The typeface name will be in your list of fonts in the application. For example, the properties for Frutiger 65 Bold uses a typeface of Frutiger 45 Light.
To correct existing documents, highlight the text that references the non-displaying font (e.g. Frutiger 65 Bold) and then select the typeface you found defined in the font (e.g. Frutiger 45 Light) followed by applying any modifications, such as bold.

To keep this from occurring, have the creators of the source documents on the Mac only use base fonts (i.e. Frutiger 45 Light and Frutiger 55 Roman).

Look in the Windows Issues section of the file on OpenType(R) fonts from Adobe to learn more.

iTunes 9.1 on Windows 7 (x64) fails on update

2010-04-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

Perhaps like me, you accepted the prompt when iTunes notified you that 9.1 was available for updating on your Windows 7 (x64) computer. After the rather large download though, the installation failed. Trying again later ended with the same results. I found some reports of this occurring on 32 bit Windows 7 and on Vista.

From what I could gather, it appears to occur due to a conflict with the version of Bonjour that is already installed. (Bonjour is Apple's service discovery protocol, and is used by iTunes to find shared music on your network.)

I was able to successful perform a manual update.

Download iTunes 9.1 for Windows (64 bit)
Close iTunes
Run the install

When I ran the install, it reported that my version of Bonjour was newer than the version within the install package, but it didn't cause any issues. (Note, I had previously installed the Bonjour Print Utility in troubleshooting a previous problem with my wireless modem and Apple TV. That fix ended up needing a firmware upgrade in my wireless modem.)

Share files across computers across the Internet

2010-04-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

I recently had a case to share a few free eBooks with a friend in Europe. The files were large enough that sharing over email wasn't practical. My friend introduced me to Dropbox, a service that allows me to store up to 2GB of files for free, and I can designate a folder to share with him (or others).

Dropbox goes beyond just file sharing though. With their client application (Windows, Mac, and Linux), I can have my Dropbox folder sync across computers. Therefore if I add a file on computer A, it will automatically sync to computers B and C. And if I want to access one of my files from any computer, I can just login to Dropbox and get to my files.

Now that I've used Dropbox for a few weeks, I have detected one thing to be cautious of. It has a feature to perform a LAN check -- before sync'ing out to the Dropbox servers, Dropbox checks your LAN. This is an optional feature, that defaults on. What I found is that it though my WAN connection was part of the LAN, and it significantly impacted my throughput on the WAN. This one issue aside, I've found the application to work as advertised.

If you like the service and want more space, Dropbox offers services that provide 50GB and 100GBs of file storage. You can also get 250MG of additional space through referrals.

Create 2nd Set of HP/Compaq Recovery Disks

2010-03-30T00:29:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, some 5 years ago I got a new Compaq PC. I diligently created restore disks, in case the hard drive ever crashed. Fast forward to the present, and I started having boot problems due to a hard drive problem. Fortunately I had an automated backup running every day and I made my restore disks.

Uh oh, I couldn't find my disks.
No problem, I'll make more.
Err, it wont let me make more! Huh?
Google to the rescue!

After many searches and poking into newsgroups, I found a promising lead. I either had to delete 3 instances of hpdrcu.prc on the restore drive (D:\) or HPCD.SYS located on the restore drive and in C:\windows\SMINT. Upon looking at the restore drive, it was locked down, so I couldn't get to the file.

Fortunately I found a utility, FreeCommander, that ignored the Windows locks and tricks. After renaming the files (never delete until you know you have the right files), I was able to successfully run the CD Creator utility and create a new set of recovery disks.

Unable to Sync iPhone and Unable to Sync Photos to iPhone

2010-03-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

Another issue I found moving my iTunes and iPhone to a new PC, was Sync'ing was hanging, though I did have my Apps, Podcasts, and Music. Upon further investigation, I discovered that if I did not sync my photos, then it no longer got stuck.

First I was thinking it was a permission issue with Windows 7 -- but I made no progress. I finally figured out how to solve the issue.

Stop the sync'ing
Delete the iPod Photo Cache in my photo folder(s)
Resync

I can only assume the iPod Photo Cache had pointers to the location of my photos on my old computer.

Stop Unwanted Programs from Starting in Windows 7

2010-03-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Regardless of the OS, some programs insist on loading themselves every time you start your computer. The most friendly ones will have a configuration option, while others will use the Startup folder. Unfortunately some are even more sneaky.

All but the very worst offenders can be managed through msconfig, the same program we used with Windows XP. Go to the Run... dialog and type in msconfig to launch it. If Run... isn't in your Start menu list, try searching for it. This opens a System Configuration dialog box.

Within the dialog box, go to the Startup tab. Search through the tab and uncheck any programs you do not want starting up each time you reboot. You're prompted to restart your computer, but its not required. Just manually kill the ones that started the last time, and next time they wont come back.

iTunes Clean Up

2010-03-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

In moving my music onto a new computer, I copied my backup music folder, which contained my iTunes library definition, onto my new drive. Then when I installed iTunes, I had duplicate entries of each file, with one being a bad link (as the path was different on my new computer). With nearly 4000 files (8000 listed), I didn't want to manually go through my list and delete the Songs that were broken (Exclamation point next to the Name in iTunes.)

Fortunately with some searching, I found Paul Mayne, who had a solution. Through the use of 2 Smart Play Lists and a Play List, I was able to quickly remove the dead, duplicate listings. See Paul's post for the specific details.

You can may also find yourself in trouble if you let iTunes scan your backup drive and your primary drive. This would actually create duplicates, one pointing to each drive. To correct this, temporarily rename the music folder on your back drive, which will make all the listings on the backup drive to now have invalid links. Then use Paul's technique to remove the invalid listings. Finally, rename the backup drive music folder back to what it was.

Free Anti-virus Software

2010-03-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

I hope you're all using anti-virus software, and are having it self-update. I want to give a plug to Avast! Free Antivirus. I've been a user of Avast! for years, and have never gotten a virus on any of my computers. There has been the occassional trapping of a virus, but Avast! has stopped them all. If you're looking for a good, reliable, and free anti-virus software, I would recommend Avast!.

Word and Excel Hang on Startup

2010-03-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it happened with prior versions of Word and Excel, but I definitely noticed for the first time switching to Office 2007. As a laptop user, I don't always work while connected to my office network, or it may just be that I'm connected via a much slower VPN connection. Regardless, every time I start Word and Excel, they ping the Default Printer, which happens to be on the office network. Due to this, whenever I'm using Word or Excel outside the office the applications hang for several minutes.

Apparently so the onscreen display will match the Default Printer specifics, such as margins, Word and Excel will perform this action when started. When over 95% of my documents are never printed by me, and the great possibility that when printed by someone else, they won't have the same printer, I fail to see why Microsoft has chosen this path.

From the research I've done, the workarounds are limited. For the Word/Excel VBA Power Users, you can write some code and have it as part of Normal.dot which will switch your Default Printer based on your domain. For everyone else, the best solution is to set your Default Printer to a local printer such as the Microsoft Document or Image Writer. If you use Adobe PDF and/or Cute PDF Writer, those are options too.

I think this issue supports my belief that just because there's a new version of software, it doesn't mean your current version isn't good enough. Unless you know the next version addresses a big issue or problem that you're struggling with, don't be the first to install it -- give the new release time and learn what others are reporting. While the new templates that come with Office 2007 can make my documents look better, the added headaches make me question the value of the upgrade. Oh and by-the-way, I'm still using Office 2000 at home.

Office Ribbon Frustrations: Switching Windows

2010-03-16T09:14:00.001-07:00

I may be a little late to the party, but I finally upgraded to Office 2007 a few months back. While I like the new styles and themes, and I can still use the keyboard shortcuts I've learned, I'm still struggling with find other features within the Ribbons.

Top of my list has been switching windows (view another open file) within Excel. In prior versions of Excel, I could go to the Windows menu and select another file. With Office 2007, you have to first select the View ribbon and then click Switch Windows, where you can select a different open file. As with many of the changes, I had to hunt for a while to find the Switch Windows option.

In the mean time I did learn a new keyboard shortcut for switching windows. Use Ctrl-F6 or Ctrl-Shift-F6 to go in reverse order. As with the View >> Switch Windows menu, this also works in Word and PowerPoint as well as Excel.

Fix corrupt Outlook.pst (2007) in Vista

2010-02-08T15:29:00.001-08:00

Unlike XP, Vista does not provide the same privileges by default, and therefore it can be difficult to repair your PST file. The trick is to run the scan and repair program with Admin privileges. Here are the steps:

Close Outlook -- likely it's already closed, because if the PST file is corrupt, Outlook wont run.
Find the Command Prompt, right-click, and run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\SCANPST.EXE", including the quotes. If you have a different version of Outlook, you may still have a repair program -- find it and replace with the string I have here.
When prompted to Repair, select Repair.
Enter 'Exit" at the command prompt to close the Command Prompt window, and run Outlook again.

That should do the trick.
Some folks may not have an Admin password for Vista. If that's the case, check out these instructions for further help.

Rip / manage music on your iPod

2010-02-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Sometime you need to manage music on your iPod that iTunes doesn't allow. I tried iDump, and it didn't recognize my music, so I tried SharePod. While iDump has a 30 day trial before purchase, SharePod is completely free -- donations accepted. SharePod installed quicker, and was very simple to use.