Want to see how people view your website and give them more targetedcontent ?

Usability is extremely important on any website and the aim should be to give your visitors the information they need as quickly as possible. Recent figures indicate a webmaster only has 5 seconds to capture the interest of a visitor before they leave to find something more appropriate, so putting the right content in the right position is paramount.

A website might look fine in development but it should be remembered that people are going to be using different browsers, monitors and viewing the content through different resolutions. So what is in plain sight to one visitor may be completely obscured to another (unless they scroll downwards).
Thankfully, Google have created a tool called “Browser size”. It’s official description released on Google’s blog is as follows :

“Browser Size is based on a sample of data from visitors to google.com. Special code collects data on the height and width of the browser for a sample of users. For a given point in the browser, the tool will tell you what percentage of users can see it. For example, if an important button is in the 80% region it means that 20% of users have to scroll in order to see it. If you're a web designer, you can use Browser Size to redesign your page to minimize scrolling and make sure that the important parts of the page are always prominent to your audience.”

HOW TO TEST YOUR WEBSITE

You just go to http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ and enter your website URL into the search field. I entered http://www.supportingtech.blogspot.com/ and received the following overlay.

This tool won’t change your life and it’s not something you will use everyday but it is good for making you think about your audience and how they experience your content.

Where is the email application in Windows 7 ?

The simple answer is “There isn’t one”. XP had ‘Outlook express’, Vista had ‘Windows Mail client’ and now Microsoft have decided that their latest OS can do without. I’m not quite sure why Microsoft would decide that the ability to email people isn’t a core requirement in a modern operating system but with their ongoing anti-trust issues I wouldn’t be surprised if they just wanted to avoid more legal headaches.

That said, Microsoft haven’t left us totally in the lurch and they do provide an email client (Windows Live Mail) as part of the ‘Windows Live Essentials’ suite. This is available as a free download and also includes :

• Windows Live call


• Windows Live messenger


• Windows Live Movie Maker


• Windows Live Photo Gallery


• Windows Live Writer

You can find this download by going to the Start Menu and typing essentials in the search field. It will then give you the option ‘Go online to get Windows Live Essentials’.

Just follow the instructions and select the items you would like to download an install.

When you launch the program you will be asked for your email account credentials. Once these have been entered just sit back and watch Live Mail go off and retrieve all your email.

So in summary, it’s slightly odd that Microsoft wouldn’t include it in the OS but at least they have made the solution simple and painless. :-)

 Hope you liked the post. Please leave a comment

How to identify and remove a virus or malware

You may have arrived on this page for a couple of reasons a) because you think you have a virus and want to be sure b) you know you have a virus and want to remove it. Either way it is best to be sure that you are in fact dealing with a virus or malware.
SYMPTOMS OF A VIRUS

• Slow startup
• System crashes and reboots
• Printing failures
• Freezing
• Unexplained high processor and memory usage
• Errors
• Internet explorer homepage has changed or is taking you to the same website when you click different links
• Last but not least – your anti-virus or anti-malware program tells you, you have a virus !!

So lets assume your PC is doing one or more of the above, what are the next steps ?.
Anti-virus : If you haven’t already got this installed, get it as soon as possible. Once installed, get the latest updates and then run a full system scan. The software should identify the virus and remove it for you or provide you with information for manual removal. See software recommendations at the end of this post.
Anti-Malware : Anti-virus doesn’t always pick up Malware so it would be worth while downloading a separate program, installing, getting the updates and running a full scan. Once again, the program should remove it for you. See recommendations at the end of this post.
THE THREE OUTCOMES
Software removed the virus : Excellent. The software did it’s job and is money well spent. If you are using a free program – even better !!
Software found the virus but couldn’t remove it : The software should provide you with information on the virus and give you the steps you need to follow to remove it manually. Once you have completed these steps re-scan your pc.
Software has removed the virus, you’ve rebooted your pc and it comes back !! : Don’t worry this is actually quite common. Many computer viruses are designed to self replicate and spread themselves through-out your system. For example a virus may contain 100 files that it distributes among the directories and settings of your pc. Your anti-virus may find the main 80 files and does a perfect job of removing them, however, when the PC reboots the virus is able to rebuild itself using the 20 remaining files. The solution is to research the virus and find some manual steps or a tool to remove all of the files. Once you have done this make sure you re-scan the PC to verify it’s removal.
Hope you found this useful. Please leave a comment :-)
RECOMMENDATIONS
Anti-virus
AVG Free Edition
Avira Personal Free
Norton Anti-Virus
Anti-Malware
Malwarebytes Free edition

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 8

Day 8 – Defragment your hard drive 

Your operating system works best when all of the files on the hard disk are organised into one (or a few) large blocks. When files are added/deleted, settings changed and programs are installed and uninstalled, files on the hard disk become fragmented and move on the disk. Therefore, when these files are requested by the user, the operating system must work harder to find the information which slows down the whole process. The more fragmentation the slower the machine.

Windows Disk Defragmenter reorganises these files and thus improves performance.

To use Disk Defragmenter: Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter

In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button.

After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.

To close the View Report dialog box, click Close

To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

So this concludes our mission to speed up XP and hopefully you have found some good tips for maintaining your PC aswell.

I'm always happy to have some feedback so please feel free to post a comment :-)

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 7

Day 7 – Clean up your hard disk

Time for one last big push on cleaning up XP. This time we are going to use a tool built into XP called 'Disk Cleanup Utility'. By using the 'Disk Cleanup Utility' we can free up space on the hard drive and improve performance.

Disk Cleanup allows you to :

• Remove temporary Internet files
• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls
  and Java applets).
• Empty the Recycle Bin
• Remove Windows temporary files
• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use

To use Disk Cleanup

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, click Disk Cleanup and then click OK.

2. In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list

3. Choose the files that you want to delete

4. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK

5. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes

This process will take a few minutes to complete but it will free up a lot of useful space.

See you tomorrow for the final day of speeding up XP

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 6

Day 6 – Get Windows updates

Now that you have ‘de-cluttered'and scanned your pc, you should now ensure that your operating system is up to date and secure. You achieve this using by Windows update.

Click on ‘Express' for the latest security updates. Click on Custom for all updates available for your PC.

Come back tomorrow and i'll show you how to do a big clean up of XP :-)

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 5

Day 5 – Update and Run Anti-virus/Anti-Malware programs

I would hope that today's item is already happening regularly on your PC but if not then this posting should act as a welcome reminder.

My request is simply this "Get the latest updates for your Anti-virus/Anti-Malware software and run a full system scan to remove any malicious programs."

Simple :-)

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 4

Day 4 – Reduce Windows Visual effects 

Windows XP has Visual effects activated by default to give it the appearance you are no doubt familiar with. These effects do have a performance overhead and may contribute to any slowness you are encountering.

The following steps will take you through how to optimise these settings to match your performance requirements.

Click on Control Panel in the Start menu (Ensure you are in Classic View)

Click the System icon

Click the Advanced tab and then click Settings under the performance option

The Visual Effects tab provides an easy way to set your preferences. You can select the 'Adjust for best peformance' or you can customise which features are applied.

Take some time to play around with these settings, you may like the results.

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 3

Day 3 – Prevent unnecessary programs from starting 

Yesterday we looked at removing unwanted applications from your PC and today we are going to stop the valid programs from slowing us down when we don't need them. A good place to tackle these programs is at system start up.  Programs that launch themselves at startup not only delay the PC from booting up but they will continue to run in the background and act as a drain on other system resources.

There are several ways to stop an application from running when Windows loads, I will address the two that can be easily carried out without the risk of intefering with critical startup processes.

1. Open up the application and check the settings for an auto-start option that you can disable.

2. Check the startup folder for shortcuts to applications you do not want to start when the PC boots up. The startup folder can be found by clicking on Start and All programs.

Right click the shortcut in the startup folder for the appropriate application and press delete on the keyboard. By doing this you will only delete the shortcut and not the application itself.

Well done, another step completed. See you tomorrow for step 4  :-)

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 2

Day 2 – Remove unwanted programs

If you're anything like me then you like to install programs, try them out and if you like them they become a regular part of your tool set. Other times, a program might not do exactly what you would hope and if you fail to remove it, it will take up resources and impair your PC's performance.

Follow these steps to remove your unwanted programs :

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel

2. Click Add or Remove Programs

3. Untick the ‘Show updates' option at the top

4. Scroll down through the list and examine each program and remove as appropriate.

* Do not Uninstall any program labeled as Update or Hotfix as these will be Windows Security additions from Microsoft.

Congratulations, you have started the clean up process. See you tomorrow for more improvements.

8 ways to speed up Windows XP - Day 1

There is plenty of talk at the moment about Windows 7 and how it is going to change the world blah, blah,  blah but what if you have Windows XP and can’t afford the much needed upgrade just yet. Well chances are you have had XP for sometime and if you haven’t been maintaining it, it has gradually been getting slower and slower.

One of the most common questions I get asked is “How can I speed up my computer?”. So for the next 8 days I’m going to provide some tips for restoring XP to it's former glory.

 Day 1 – Back up your data

Hopefully, you already have a regular backup procedure in place for your data i.e. photographs, documents, favourites, passwords etc. If this is the case, ‘Well done', if not then I urge you to create a back up before carrying out the following steps.  Backing up on this occasion is a good start but a regular back up routine (although rather dull sounding) will save you alot of heartache should the worst happen to your data.

This process may take you some time, so I’ll let you get on with it and i'll see you back here tomorrow for the next instalment :-)

How to add a new folder to Philips SpeechExec Pro 5.0

In this post I’m going to show you how to create a new folder in SpeechExec Pro. This will help you organise your dictations more effectively and can possibly form part of your automation.

 So let’s get started.

1.  Open the Philips SpeechExec Pro software by going to Start > Programs >Speech Exec Pro > Click the SpeechExec Pro icon.

 You should be presented with a view similar to the one below.

In this example, I want to create a folder called ‘SupportingTech’.

2.  To do this go to Settings > General settings > Work list> Folders

3.  Click new to create a new folder and you will see ‘New folder’ appear in the list.

4.  In the folder properties box, highlight ‘New folder’ and rename. See below.

Make sure the Visible status is set to ‘Yes’.

5.  Give the folder a path to link to e.g. mine is ‘C:\SupportingTech’

6.  Click apply and OK and you will see that it now appears in your folder list in the main interface.

Will my PC run Microsoft Windows 7 ?

Windows 7 was launched today and many people who pre-ordered PCs and Laptops will be up and running immediately. However, for those with existing computers that want to upgrade (especially from Windows XP) there seems to be some uncertainty as to whether they can make the leap.

Generally there are two ways of knowing whether your current PC is compatible with Windows 7.

Minimum system requirements :  The ability to run Windows 7 is determined by the type of hardware you have rather than the operating system you are currently using so Microsoft has released it’s minimum system requirements and these should give you an idea of whether you need to upgrade your hardware for Windows 7. Click here to see the requirements.

Windows upgrade advisor : The system requirements are fairly general and do not indicate what will happen to your existing settings and applications if you do go ahead and upgrade. Thankfully, Microsoft has gone some way to address this and have provided a useful compatibility tool ‘called Windows Upgrade Advisor’.

Microsoft’s description of the software :

“Just download, install, and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta. You'll get a report telling you if your PC can run Windows 7 and if there are any known compatibility issues. If an issue can be resolved, you'll get suggestions for next steps. For example, it may let you know that you need an updated driver for your printer and where to get it “.

I have used this on a couple of my PCs and it does perform very well. Give it a go and see if you 'have what it takes'.

Download :  Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

Windows 7 system requirements

Are  you wondering if Windows 7 will run on your existing hardware ?

Well look no further, here are Microsoft's minimum system reqirements :

- 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Additional requirements to use certain features:

- Internet access
- Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware.
- For some Windows Media Center functionality a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required
- Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware.
- HomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7.
- DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive.
- BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2.
- BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive.
- Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on.
- Music and sound require audio output

How to find a computer name on a network from the IP address

How do you find the computer name on a network from the IP address ?

The solution is actually quite simple, you just use a MS-DOS command that will query the network and return the name. The syntax is as follows :

nbtstat -a "ip address"

Walkthrough

1. Go to the Start menu
2. Click Run
3. In the Run window type, “cmd”. This will pop up a black command window.
4. Type in nbtstat -a "your IP address here".
5. Press enter

Example

 nbtstat -a "10.1.1.73"

 Example Output

Local Area Connection :

Node IpAddress: [10.1.1.72] Scope Id: []

            NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

        Name               Type         Status

    ---------------------------------------------

    FELIX               <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

    DOMAIN         <00>  GROUP       Registered

    FELIX              <20>  UNIQUE      Registered

    DOMAIN        <1E>  GROUP       Registered

     MAC Address = 00-15-D4-E4-3C-83

 Taking the above example the computer name for IP address 10.1.1.73  is ‘Felix’.

Additional info

Nbtstat is a MS-DOS utility that displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP).

There are many other parameters that can be used with nsbstat and they are as follows :

NBTSTAT [ [-a RemoteName] [-A IP address] [-c] [-n] [-r] [-R] [-RR] [-s] [-S] [interval] ]

-a	(adapter status) Lists the remote machine's name table given its name
-A	(Adapter status) Lists the remote machine's name table given its IP address.
-c	(cache) Lists NBT's cache of remote [machine] names and their IP addresses
-n	(names) Lists local NetBIOS names.
-r	(resolved) Lists names resolved by broadcast and via WINS
-R	(Reload) Purges and reloads the remote cache name table
-S	(Sessions) Lists sessions table with the destination IP addresses
-s	(sessions) Lists sessions table converting destination IP addresses to computer NETBIOS names.
-RR	(ReleaseRefresh) Sends Name Release packets to WINs and then, starts Refresh
RemoteName	Remote host machine name.
IP address	Dotted decimal representation of the IP address.
interval	Redisplays selected statistics, pausing interval seconds between each display. Press Ctrl+C to stop redisplaying statistics.

Simple PHP test script to check PHP is installed correctly

When you install PHP for the first time one of the best ways of knowing it is configured correctly is to use a simple PHP script. If your browser can read the file and carry out the stated action then you know you are ready to continue with more interesting things.

So without further ado here are a couple of simple PHP scripts that will get you started.

<html>
<head>
<title> Supporting Tech PHP Test Script </title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
phpinfo( );?></body>
</html>

This script will display some of the hosts php specifications. Alternatively, if you want to 'keep it real' then you can always use the classic 'Hello World' script.

<html>
<head>
<title> Supporting Tech PHP Test Script</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
Echo "Hello world";
?></body>
</html>

UPLOADING AND TESTING

1. Type the above and save the file as 'index.php'.
2. Add this to your web server root directory.
3. Open up your web browser and type in the address to view that page .e.g 'localhost' if you're using IIS.

How to send a file via email using the Philips SpeechExec Pro Dictate5.0 software

Needless to say there is more to life than configuration alone, so i'm  now going to demonstrate how to use the Philips SpeechExec Pro interface to send an actual dictation.

SENDING A DICTATION VIA EMAIL

1 Create your dictation on the Philips recorder

2 Place the recorder in the docking station or attach it directly to the PC via the USB cable.

3 You will see the following message and the dictation will appear in the Finished folder within the SpeechExec Pro Dictate software.

4 Highlight the job and press the ‘Submit for Email’  button.

5 You will be presented with an email window. All you will need to do now is enter the email address of the person you want to receive your dictation and click 'Send'.

Philips SpeechExec Pro Dictate 5.0 configuration for sendingdictatations via email

Well, it's that time again when Philips bring out a new version of SpeechExec Pro and a request lands on my desk to work out how to configure it for solicitors to send dictations. The software allows you to automatically (and manually) send dictations via email and FTP.

In this post i'm going to illustrate how to configure the software to manually send dictations via email, using the SpeechExec Pro Dictate interface.

CONFIGURATION FOR SENDING DICTATIONS VIA EMAIL

1 Install Philips SpeechExec Pro following the instructions included with the installation CD.

2 Once installed, run the application by going to Start > All Programs >SpeechExec Pro Dictate> Speech Exec Pro Dictate icon.

3 Go to Settings > General Settings and complete the screens as follows.

4 Once the ‘Email’ option is selected, click the ‘Configure’ button and check that ‘QuickSend’ is showing as the Active Profile.

Click 'OK'

5 Go to ‘Send/Receive’ and complete as follows.

6 The Philps SpeechExec Pro software is now ready to send to the typist for transcription.

For instructions on how to send a file once a dictation has been completed, click here.

Display information from a table and change the column names

In my database table I have two columns : ProdID and Prod. When I query the database to display the IDs and the product names, I would like to make the result a bit more 'User friendly' by changing the column names to 'Product ID and 'Product'. I do this in the following way :


Open query analyser.
Select the required database.

Select ProdID as 'Product ID', Prod as Products from Inventory

Display information in Upper and Lower case from SQL database

In my database table (products) I have a column called items that lists a number of products in sentence case. In order to display them in upper and lower case I do the following :

Open query analyser.
Select the required database.

Upper case

Select upper (item) from products

Lower case

Select lower (item) from products

Backup a database using a SQL command

In this example, we are backing up the database called 'Customers' to a location on the c: drive.

Backup database Customers to disk = 'c:\customer_backup.bak'

Get current date and time in SQL

There may be times where you will need to insert the current date and time into a database i.e. to record when a transaction has taken place. The command to display this timestamp is as follows :

select getdate() 'Current Date'

If you type this into query analyser you will get the current date and time in a column entitled 'Current Date'.

How do you copy a database table in SQL using code?

Open Query analyser
Select the required database (Use [databasename])

Type :

SELECT * INTO MyNewTable FROM MyTable

e.g SELECT * INTO Customer2 FROM Customer

How do you select all items from a SQL table ?

This is probably the first thing you will ever do with SQL and it's a nice easy one to get you started.

Open query analyser.
Select the required database (This can be done from the drop down menu or by typing "Use [database name"])

Type :

Select * from [table name]

This will now return all the records in the table.

Hide System Tables and Objects in MS SQL 2000 Enterprise Manager

Recently I have been working with SQL tables and stored procedures in Enterprise Manager. By default, the system and stored procedures are visible along with user-defined ones which make it fairly inconvenient when you are only interested in your own tables and stored procedures.

To make life a bit easier I thought I would find a way of hiding the system objects. The instructions are as follows :

1.  Right click on the "(Local)(WindowsNT)" in the Enterprise Manager.
2.  Select "Edit SQL Server Registration Properties," which opens up a property panel.
3.  Uncheck the option "Show system databases and system obejcts."
4.  Click OK

Get current date and time using C#

In this example, the date and time will be written to 'label1' when 'button3' is pressed.
private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

label1.Text = DateTime.Now.ToString();

}

C# application that counts the number of characters being entered

This application consists of a textbox and a label. As the user types in the text box the label displays the number of characters that have been entered. The code is as follows :

private void textBox1_TextChanged (object sender, EventArgs e)

{
int charactercount;
string labeloutput;

charactercount = textBox1.TextLength;
labeloutput = charactercount.ToString();

lblcount.Text = "Character count : " + labeloutput;

{

For Loop to display user input in C#

In this example, when 'button3' is pressed the application will read what has been added to 'textBox1' and print it the console each time it loops through.
private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

for (int i = 1; i <=10; ++i)

{

System.Console.WriteLine (textBox1.Text);

}

}

Trim spaces from the start and end of string using C#

In this example I have a text box on my windows form to collect the user input and a label to display the outcome once a button is pressed. The code is as follows to trim spaces from the beginning and end of a user input.

private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

string userinput;
char [] trimchars = {' '};

userinput = textBox1.Text.Trim(trimchars);

lable1.Text = userinput;

}

Collect user input from form and change it to upper or lower case in C#

In this example I have a text box on my windows form to collect the user input and a label to display the outcome once a button is pressed. The code is as follows to change the input to upper and lower case.

private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

label1.Text = textBox.Text.ToUpper();

}

or

{

label1.Text = textBox.Text.ToLower();

}

Check if folder exists and return a message in C#

The form I have used for this example contains one label and one button. The code checks the location you specify and then prints a message in the label to tell you if the directory exists.

using System.IO;

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string foldername;
string path;
string combinedpath;
{

foldername = "testfolder";
path = @"C:\blogexample";
combinedpath = path + @"\" + foldername;

if
(Directory.Exists(combinedpath))
label1.Text = "Directory exists";
else
label1.Text = "Directory doesn't exist";

}

How do you add a value from a webform to a variable in C#?

In Visual Studio 2005 :

Create a webform with a text field and change it's name to 'txtID'
Create another text field to show the result of the variable and change its name to 'txtResult'
Add a button and then add this code to it's click event.

String info = txtID.Text;

txtResult.Text = info;

When the button is clicked it will take the text that is in the field and add it to the variable called 'info. It will then display the value of the variable in the txtResult field.

How to create a folder with a MS-DOS command

To create a folder/directory using a DOS command, do the following :

Open up a command window i.e. Winkey + R and type cmd into the field and press Enter.
Type : md c:\Testfolder and press Enter

That's it, you will now have a folder called 'Testfolder' on your C drive !

How to merge multiple .csv files into one .txt file using command line

Create a folder on your c: drive called 'All csv files' and place all of your .csv files inside.
Open notepad and add the text below
cd C:\All csv files

copy *.csv Merged.txt

Save the text file and changed its extension to .bat 'merge.bat'.
Double click the file and you will see that a txt file is created in the C:\All csv files folder called 'Merged.txt' with all your consolidated information inside !.

Disable a user account using command line

Access your domain contoller and type the following format to disable your user :

dsmod user "cn=Joe Bloggs, ou=IT Admins, dc= Your Domain name , dc=com" -disabled yes

Check if user account is active using command line

Access your domain contoller and type the following format to check if the user is active :

NET USER jbloggs /DOMAIN | FIND /I "Account active"

Find the name of members within a group using command line

Access your domain contoller and type the following format to find the members of a group :

dsget group "cn=IT guys, ou=IT admins, dc= Your Domain name , dc=com" -members

Delete a user in Active Directory using command line

Access your domain contoller and type the following format to delete your user :

dsrm "cn=Joe Bloggs, ou=IT Admins, dc= Your Domain name , dc=com"

How to see what files are currently open on a network

Sometimes a user may leave a files open on their PC and go away from their desk, leaving the document locked and uneditable for other users.

The solution is to disconnect that user from the file and allow the new user to open it and perform the tasks that are necessary.

To locate these folders and perform this action do the following :

- Access the server that holds your network shares
- Start>Programs>Administrative tools>Computer Managment
- Expand 'Shared Folders' and select 'Open Files'
- Highlight the file in question>Right click and select 'Close Open File' from the menu

Please note that this will not close the file on the users PC it just closes the connection to the network.

Add a user in Active Directory using command line

Access your domain contoller and type the following format to add your user :

dsadd user "cn=Joe Bloggs, ou=IT Admins, dc= Your Domain name , dc=com" -samid joebloggs -upn info@YourDomain.com -fn Joe -ln Bloggs -display "Joe Bloggs" -pwd Pa$$w0rd -desc "Systems Administrator"

*ou = is the name of Organisational Unit you will be adding the user to.

How to create a template in Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Word 2007

There may be a time where you will need to create a document that has the same overall structure but slightly different content. It is possible to copy the document over and over and alter the content but the there is a simpler way of achieving the same result. The way to do this is to create a template within Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Word 2003

1. Open Microsoft Word 2003.
2. Create the document with all of the standard formatting and content that will need to be repeated for every document i.e. your company logo, address, reference etc.
3. When you are satisfied with the above, go to File>Save As
4. The 'Save As' dialogue window will be displayed for you to browse to the location you want to save the template.
5. Once you have chosen a location give the document a name in the 'File Name' field and then select 'Document Template' from the 'Save As Type' drop down menu below.
6. Click the 'Save' button.
7. Close the template

You will now see that your template has appeared in the location you selected earlier. If you double click this icon you will be presented with a new document that will be identical to your template. You can save this document as required without altering the original template.

Microsoft Word 2007

1. Open Microsoft Word 2007.
2. Create the document with all of the standard formatting and content that will need to be repeated for every document i.e. your company logo, address, reference etc.
3. When you are satisfied with the above, go to 'The office button' (Top left contains the office logo) and left click.
4. Select 'Save As'> Word Template
5. The 'Save As' dialogue window will be displayed for you to browse to the location you want to save the template.
6. Once you have chosen a location give the document a name in the 'File Name' field.
7. By default Micrsoft Word 2007 will show Word Template (*.dotx) in the 'Save As Type' drop down menu which can only be read by other computers that are running Microsoft Word 2007. If you require any version of Word to be able to use this template then you should select 'Word 97-2003 Template(*.dot).
8. Click the 'Save' button.
9. Close the template

You will now see that your template has appeared in the location you selected earlier. If you double click this icon you will be presented with a new document that will be identical to your template. You can save this document as required without altering the original template.

Entering the current date into a cell in Microsoft Excel

Within Excel there is a method of entering a formula that will automatically enter the current date. The formula is as follows :

=Today()

It should be noted that there is one final step to show only the date as the above will return the current date AND a time that will show as zeros. In order to only show the date in the cell. Highlight the column select format and then choose 'Date'.

As soon as this final step is complete you will be left with the current date.

How to show negative or minus numbers in different colours in MicrosoftExcel 2007

There may be instances where you would like to show a value in Microsoft Exel in a different colour when it becomes a negative or minus number. Obviously, you can do this manually by changing the font colour but the instructions below provide a method of instructing Excel 2007 to do it dynamically.

For this example i will turn the value red when it becomes a negative.

1. Highlight a cell with a value that is, or is likely to become a negative.
2. On the 'Home' tab under 'Styles' select 'Conditional Formatting'.
3. New rule.
4. Under 'Select a Rule Type' choose 'Format only cells that contain'.
5.Under 'Edit the rule description' choose 'Cell Value' - 'Less than' - 0.
6. Hit the format button below.
7. This will take you onto the font tab. Select the 'Color' drop down menu and select 'red' (or another colour of your choosing) .
8. Click OK and then Click OK again on the 'New Formatting Rule' window to take you back to your spreadsheet.

You will now see that if you change the value to a minus or negative number it will appear in red !.

Count number of occurences of word in Excel range

The example below counts the number of times the word "Computing" appears in Column B of an Excel spreadsheet.
=COUNTIF(B3:B32,"Computing")

How to find the size of your hard drive using a DOS command

There are other easier ways of finding the size of your hard drive but this tutorial will show you how to do it using only DOS command.

1. Open the 'run' window by going to the start menu>run (or Winkey + R).
2. Type 'cmd' and press enter and the black DOS window will open
3. Type the following to see the details for C: drive.

'fsutil volume diskfree C:'

4. You will be shown something similar to the following :

Total # of free bytes : 748716032
Total # of bytes : 69265047552
Total # of avail free bytes : 748716032

5. These numbers may be abit confusing so it is best to convert them to Gigabytes or Megabytes using a converter off the net. Here is a link to the converter i used which produced the following results :

Total # of free Mb : 714.03125
Total # of Gb : 64.5081
Total # of avail free Mb : 714.03125

How to show system folders that are hidden within Microsoft WindowsXP & Server

By default, system folders within Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Server will be hidden. There may be instances where you will need to access these folders, and the steps are as follows :

1. Go to 'My Computer'.
2. Select 'Tools' and then 'Folder Options' from the drop down menu.
3. Go to the 'View tab'
4. Under 'Advanced settings' untick the option that says 'Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)''.
5. Click 'Apply' and click 'OK'

The folders will now be visible.

How to show the extensions of files within Microsoft Windows XP & Server

By default, within Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Server file extensions will be hidden i.e. if you have a text file called 'Testing' it will show as that rather than 'Testing.txt'. In order to show these file extensions do the following :

1. Go to 'My Computer'.
2. Select 'Tools' and then 'Folder Options' from the drop down menu.
3. Go to the 'View tab'
4. Under 'Advanced settings' untick the option that says 'Hide extensions for known file types'.
5. Click 'Apply' and click 'OK'

How to uninstall an application or program

To uninstall an application or program that is installed on Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server, complete the following steps :

1. Go to Start menu
2. Control panel
3. Select Add or Remove programs
4.You will be shown a list of the programs that are installed on your machine. Find the application/program you wish to uninstall and select it.
5. A button titled 'Change/Remove' now be displayed.
6. Click the button and follow the 'Uninstall wizard' which will guide you through the removal process.

How to create and open the contents of a zip file

The steady increase in bandwidth over the last 10 years has brought about the ability to send larger and larger files. However, there are still limitations on most web based email systems which means that the smaller you can make a file the better. The quickest way of doing this on a Microsoft Windows based system is to compress the item to be transmitted using a 'zip file'.

Wikipedia and Austincc describe a zip file in the following way :

"The ZIP file format is a data compression and archival format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce their file size, or stored as-is. A number of compression algorithms are permitted in zip files but as of 2008 only DEFLATE is widely used and supported".

and

"A file that has been compressed, or reduced in size, to save storage space and allow faster transferring across a network over the Internet. To read the information, the file must be uncompressed into its original form."

The creation of zip file is incredibly easy and can be achieved in the following way :

1. Find the file you wish to send/compress.
2. Right click it once to display the menu
3. Go to the 'Send to' option to expand the list
4. Choose the 'Compressed (zipped) folder' option
5. You will now see that a new folder has been created in the same directory with a zip showing on the icon. The file will have a .zip extension at the end of the name.

To decompress a zip file to read the contents, do the following :

1. Find the file you wish to read/open/decompress
2. Right click it once to display the menu
3. Select 'Extract all' to produce the 'Extraction Wizard'.
4. Click 'Next' and then 'Next' again to have your uncompressed folder appear in the same directory as the zip folder.
5. Click finish and your uncompressed folder will be opened up automatically for you to read the contents.

Microsoft Windows version release dates

Windows 1.0 - November 1985

Windows 2.0 - December 1987

Windows 3.0 - May 1990

Windows 3.1 - April 1992

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 - February 1994

WinNT 3.51 - June 1995

Windows 95 - August 1995

Windows NT4 - August 1996

Windows 95 OSR2 - October 1996

Windows 98 - June 1998

Windows 98SE- May 1999

Windows 2000- February 2000

Windows Me - July 2000

Windows XP - October 2001

Windows Server 2003 - 2003

Windows XP 64-bit - 2003

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs - July 2006

Windows Vista (Business Customers) - November 2006

Windows Vista (Retail Customers) - January 2007

Windows 7 - October 2009

How to start and stop a service using command line

This method of starting and stopping a service applies to all Windows based operating systems e.g. Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows Server 2000/2003.

The first thing you will have to know is the name of the service you want to stop or start. You can find this by going to the services list :

1.Winkey + r
2. Type 'services.msc'
3. Locate the service you wish to start/stop and righ click>properties
4. The Service name is shown at the top on the general tab.

For my example i am going to use Internet Information Server (IIS) as the service i wish to stop. It's service name is 'w3svc'. So once you have the name then perform the following :

1. Winkey + r (or start menu and then click 'Run')
2. Type 'cmd' and press enter to bring up a command prompt.
3. Type Net Start or Net Stop (depending on what action you wish to perform) and then the service name e.g. 'Net stop w3svc'. Press enter.
4. In the above instance the command prompt window would show the messages "The World Wide Web Publishing service is stopping." and "The World Wide Web Publishing service was stopped successfully".

So, to start the service back up i would just use the Net start command.

How to set the homepage in Internet Explorer using the registry

Recently I had a situation where a user couldn't re-set her homepage using the normal Internet Explorer (IE) options.

This was a problem as the site that was set to her homepage no longer existed and every time she launched IE she would get 'Page not found'.

In order to resolve this i applied the following registry hack :

1. Winkey + R or Start menu run
2. Type 'regedit'
3. Go to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Start Page"="http://www.supportingtech.com/"
4. Change the website to the one you require and you are done.

* Please note that the registry is a very important part of the operating system and you should use extreme caution when making changes.

How to check the Codec of a video file

Occasionally, Windows Media Player (WMP) may be unable to play a video file because it will say that it does not have the correct Codec. These warnings are not particularly helpful because not only can you not play the file but WMP doesn't tell you what Codec you need.

The video files you are likely to have will have the file extension of .avi, .mpg etc and the most simple way to find out what Codec you need is to do the following :

1. Go to the video file.
2. Right click the file to display the menu and go to 'Properties'.
3. Go to the 'Summary' tab
4. Click the advanced button (If the only button there says '<< Simple' then the Advanced button has already been clicked.
5. You should now be able to see Image, Audio and Video properties.
6. For the necessary Codec you will need to look at 'Video compression'. In my example, it was showing 'XVID'.
7. It's this video compression name that you would use on Google or Yahoo to find the correct Codec to download..

How to check the codec of an audio file

Occasionally, Windows Media Player (WMP) may be unable to play an audio file because it will say that it does not have the correct Codec. These warnings are not particularly helpful because not only can you not play the file but WMP doesn't tell you what Codec you need.

The sound files you are likely to have will have the file extension of mp3, .wav, .dss etc and the most simple way to find out what Codec you need is to do the following :

1. Go to the audio file.
2. Right click the file to display the menu and go to 'Properties'.
3. Go to the 'Summary' tab
4. Click the advanced button (If the only button there says '<< Simple' then the Advanced button has already been clicked.
5. You should now be able to see Bit Rate, Audio Sample, Channels, Audio sample rate, Audio format.
6. It's the Audio format that will show the name of the Codec and it is this name that you would search for on Google or Yahoo to find the correct Codec.

Open multiple web pages at the same time using a batch file

Recently whilst working on a customer's PC I noticed that when they booted up they would manually open several webpages. I asked the customer two questions, do they do that every time they use the PC and if so would they like me to show them an easier way.

As it happens the user did repeat this process everytime they worked on the PC and she was more than willing for me to show her how to get the same result with two clicks !.

Solution

1. Open up notepad

2. Type the following (substituting the web addresses you require) :

start iexplore.exe -new http://www.supportingtech.blogspot.com/
start iexplore.exe -new http://www.bbc.co.uk/
start iexplore.exe -new http://www.facebook.com/

3. Save the file to your pc e.g. your desktop.

4. Rename the file to have a .bat extension instead of .txt.

5. Double click the file and you will see that the 3 websites will now open up

How to register (or re-register) a DLL or OCX file

Go to the Run item on the Start Menu (or Winkey + R)

Type the following :

regsvr32 <path & filename of dll or ocx>

Press enter

Specify username and password within an FTP URL address

If you are using Windows explorer to access an FTP site you will know that you enter the username and hostname to be taken to the relevant site i.e. ftp:// username@hostname/. You would then be prompted for your password which you would enter into a dialogue box.

However, there is a short cut you can use to take you straight into the directory by just adding or clicking URL. The structure of this is as follows :

ftp:// username : password@hostname/

Although, this is a time saver it does have its dangers with regard to security. For example, the password will be visible in plain text and the username and password can be retrieved from your explorer/browser history if someone else accesses your pc.

How to add a shortcut to the start menu for a commonly used application

Go to Start Menu>All Programs>Right click the application you want to add and select 'Pin to start menu' from the list.

An icon for the application will now appear in the top portion of your start menu !

Display hidden files and folders on your PC

Windows XP

Go to My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View tab and put a marker next to 'Show hidden files and folders.

Windows Vista

Go to Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View tab and put a marker next to 'Show hidden files and folders.

Keyboard shortcuts (WinKey)

WINKEY - Pressing this key will open the Start menu.

WINKEY + D - Brings the desktop to the top of all other windows.

WINKEY + E - Open Microsoft Explorer.

WINKEY + M - Minimizes all windows.

WINKEY + L - Lock the computer (Windows XP and above only).

WINKEY + R - Open the run window.

WINKEY + U - Open Utility Manager.

WINKEY + F1 - Display the Microsoft Windows help.

WINKEY + SHIFT + M - Undo the minimize done by WINKEY + M and WINKEY + D.

WINKEY + Pause / Break key - Open the system properties window

What to do when a USB drive won't show up in My Computer

Sometimes when you plug a USB storage device such as a pen drive or hard disk into your PC you may notice that it doesn't show up in 'My Computer' as you would expect. This is normally caused by one of two things. The first is that the PC is trying to assign an existing drive letter to the new device and as a result the new drive cannot be displayed or there are no more available drive letters.

To check what the problem may be you will need to look at 'Disk Management' section of the 'Computer management' snap in. You can do this in the following way :

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>highlight 'Disk Management'.

Your new device should show up here with a drive letter that is already in use. To resolve the issue

'Right click the device and select 'Change drive letter and paths' from the menu.
Select 'Change' and then choose a drive letter that is not currently in use.

Now when you go to 'My Computer' it will be there for you to access !.

If you have no available drive letters you will need to 'Right click' an existing drive in 'My Computer' and select 'Disconnect'. This will free up the drive letter.

How to see the names of all computers on your network with a single command

Open up a command window i.e. Winkey + R and type 'cmd' into the field and press Enter.
Type : Net View and press Enter

Open control panel items from the 'Run' window

Below are useful shortcuts to items in control panel. Just press 'Winkey + r' to pop open the run dialogue.

Type the commands in bold and the items will open.

control - Control Panel
control folders - Folder Options
control userpasswords - User Accounts
control userpasswords2 - Advanced User Accounts
control desktop - Display Properties
control printers - Printers and Faxes
control mouse - Mouse Properties
control keyboard - Keyboard Properties
control netconnections - Network Connections
control color - Display Properties \ Screensaver
control date/time - Date and Time Properties
control schedtasks - Scheduled Tasks
control admintools - Administrative Tools
control telephony - Phone and Modem Options
control fonts - Fonts Folder
control international - Regional and Language

How to restart/shutdown a PC remotely using command line

This question came about when I was on my test server trying to install some software remotely, on a client laptop. I wanted to apply some changes and needed to reboot so rather than rolling the two feet to my laptop I thought "hmmm, how can I do this from here". And here's the answer ...........

Open up a run window (Winkey + R)
Type 'cmd' to open a command prompt

Type :

shutdown m \\computername -s -t : 60 (This will shutdown the PC in question after 60 seconds).

shutdown m \\computername -r -t: 60 (This will restart the PC in question after 60 seconds).

shutdown m \\computername -r -t: 0 (This will shutdown the PC immediately).

shutdown m \\computername -a (This will abort the shutdown once it is counting down)

This code can also be added to a batch file to shutdown multiple PCs all at once !

Dictaphone Transnet known support issues

WHAT IS DICTAPHONE TRANSNET ?

Transnet is transcription software that is supplied by the company Dictaphone. It is installed on your computer and requires a footpedal and a Dictaphone Boomerang attachment between the footpedal and PC to control playback. The footpedal is attached via a USB port or can have an adapter that allows it to connect as a game port.

Transnet can be installed on Windows XP, Vista, Win 7 & Win 8 (In WinXP compatibility mode)..

HOW TRANSNET WORKS

Transnet which is the transcription client works in conjunction with a Dictaphone server. A secure connection is made between the two, jobs are downloaded to Transnet and the typist transcribes the files. When the typist is finished they will ’sign off’ the job and this updates the status on the server to show it is complete. Once a job has the left the transcription queue another dictation will download automatically.

KNOWN SUPPORT ISSUES

Problem :  Job becomes locked to a typist and shows as in ‘USE’ on the server (Joblister).
Solution : No manual intervention can help, unfortunately, you just have to wait for the system to release the job.

Problem : Typist cannot download any more work even though the queue is empty/Server shows the typist to have jobs transferred to her/him that they dont appear to have in Transnet.

Solution :

1. Close Transnet
2.  Go to ‘C:\Program Files\Dictaphone EXV Clients\TransNetAudio’.
3.  Inside you will see a folder with the User ID of the typist. Delete this folder.
4. Go back onto the server (Joblister) and release any jobs that were assigned to the teleworker.
5. Open Transnet and login. Jobs should now begin to download as normal

* The above solution will also work when the typist sees a string of questions marks (????) for a downloaded job instead of the job details

Microsoft Outlook 2007 can’t connect to Hotmail server to download email

For a few years now I have had my Hotmail email account linked to my Outlook client. Like many people out there I use Microsoft Outlook 2007 and this has worked perfectly for some time, and my email has downloaded automatically when opening the program. If I am waiting for an email, a simple ’send/receive’ will pull my new mail down without any issues.

All this changed recently and without warning, one day my mails were being downloaded and the next day Outlook could not access the Hotmail servers.

Folder: Inbox Synchronizing headers: reported error (0×800CCC33) : ‘Access to the account was denied. Verify that your username and password are correct. The server responded ‘Forbidden’.’

The good news is that after a bit of googling I came across a forum with lots of people having the same issue. Luckily someone had done abit more digging and had found an explanation :

In June 2009, Microsoft announced a change to the way Outlook, Outlook Express, and Entourage programs access Hotmail which may require customers to take action.
To continue to receive e-mail from your Hotmail account, please select one of the alternative solutions …... Full details here

As I have Outlook 2007 the solution involved downloading and installing ‘Office Outlook connector‘. This was a simple install and a quick restart of Outlook had my email downloading within no time.

A suprisingly painless fix from Microsoft but I have to agree with the people in the forums that an automatic prompt to install the connector and a less cryptic message from ‘Send/Receive’ would have been preferable.