Project Planning Software

I stumbled upon this cool Project Planning Software called Tom's Planner. It is really easy to use and is tailored for someone like me, that hates MS Excel or over bloated enterprise project management software. You can export to many different formats and has abundant templates. Its free for personal use, but the rates are very reasonable. I wish Google would sweep them up and add them to Google's Software suite for free. Google is severely missing any project management apps. This would be a great addition. Here's the link below.

http://www.tomsplanner.com/

Microsoft Outlook Only Prints in Landscape Format

Okay, I had a user, that no matter what he printed in Outlook, his printer preferences always defaulted to Landscape mode. He would have to manually edit the print style to portrait for every email. There are few things to try to fix this. 1. Edit the global Outlook print style to portrait format. 2. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook There is a file called "OutlPrnt" This file contains the Printing Style (memo, table....) Rename the file or delete it. Restart the computer and start Outlook. Outlook will recreate the file with the default settings and style, losing your custom style if you have any. 3. Lastly go into control panel and find the printer section. Go to printer preferences of the target printer and set it portrait format. The third option fixed my problem. Of course this post is geared towards WinXp. The same applies for Vista and WinXP, just use the correct directory paths.

Picasa Android Sync Fix

Turn off account auto sync. Go to gallery and share a photo to Picasa. Upload the photo with your Google account. Go back and turn on account auto sync. Fixed!!!

Cannot Activate Windows After a Recover Install

Problem: You run the recovery install on Windows, it reboots and forces you to re-activate windows before entering Windows. The problem is, that it never lets you see the activation screen.

1. Turn On your PC

2. Press F8 repeatedly and go to Safe Mode

3. Logon as normal
(note: Administrator password is usually blank, but hopefully you know your password)

4. Allow the Desktop to fully load (answering "Yes" to continue into Safe Mode)
(note: This is just a long way of saying go to Safe Mode)

5. You can simply get into safe mode and if you have an installer for IE8 you can omit the activation reset as this will fix oobe. If not:
Click on Start - Run

6. Type in exactly: rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (and click OK)
(note: one space, after "rundll32.exe " also the Oo are two letter o's in "oobe"; capitals and comma are important)

7. Wait a couple of seconds (although you will Not see any change)

8. Restart your PC normally (Start - Shutdown - Restart - Ok)

9. You are now able to go to Normal Mode again (For another 30 days)

10. Install IE8 and that should solve not being able to run windows update and not being able to activate.

"There Is No Script Engine For FIle Extension" .VBS Problems

I was having an issue running .vbs files on a few computers. I Googled for a solution but no answer. Registering vbscript.dll did not help. It seems a program installed , "BlueFish HTML editor", had broken the .vbs file associations with Windows Script Host. The only way to fix the vbs script error was delete the .vbs script file type from windows and recreate it. That did the trick!

Future Proof Your Home's Wiring

One important consideration to make is to “future proof " your home. Future proofing covers a wide spectrum, we will focus on “future proof " your home’s wiring from a technology point of view. Everything is going or has gone digital and you do not know exactly what is around the corner a few years down the road. Preparing for the future can save you money and help your home’s market value.

You’re probably already indulged in (or aware of) Home Networking, High Definition Television (HDTV), or any of a number of other digital products and services out today. A term that has trickled from the “computer world” is structured wiring. Your entire home’s wiring is considered to be one unit and wires are in a "home run" (star) configuration back to a central location in your home. The wires should incorporate the following: Data, Video, Telephone, Audio, Fiber Optics, Infrared Control, Alarm (including surveillance video), VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Fiber optics is considered the “big daddy” of data transport, at the speed of light. It may be a little out your price range now, and a little too extreme. Installing it now will save you money later.

1. Troubleshooting - Each of the cables can be individually isolated from the rest of them and tested easily.
2. Manageability - With all of the cables running back to the Central Wiring Panel you can easily change how and what these individual cables are connected to and what they are used for.
3. Eliminate Splices - Splices are bad and create unnecessary problems. They are prone to failure and can pickup noise and interference.
4. Better signal quality - With all cables running back to the Central Wiring Panel they can all be connecter to the same source and get the same signal level.
5. Planning for the future can save you time and money and eliminate you destroying your home to run or upgrade wiring in your home.

ESXI 4.1 - HP Flash Drives and N68-S ASRock Motherboard A "No Go"

Could not get ESXi 4.1 to boot on a HP flash drive or SanDisk on a ASRock N68-S system. It would only boot maybe 1 out of 8 times. Definitely not production ready with this setup. Moving back to hard drives in RAID 1.