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  • How to avoid Windows Genuine Advantage for an XP update?

    - by hlovdal
    I am about to apply updates to a windows xp installation I have not booted in a couple of years. When going to update.microsoft.com, it forced me first to accept an activex installation and now it wants me to install wga: Windows Update To use this latest version of Windows Update, you will need to upgrade some of its components. This version provides you with the following enhancements to our service: <... useless list of "advantages" ... Details Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130) 1.1 MB , less than 1 minute The Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool enables you to verify that your copy of Microsoft Windows is genuine. The tool validates your Windows installation by checking Windows Product Identification and Product Activation status. Update for Windows XP (KB898461) 477 KB , less than 1 minute This update installs a permanent copy of Package Installer for Windows to enable software updates to have a significantly smaller download size. The Package Installer facilitates the install of software updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems and other Microsoft products. After you install this update, you may have to restart your system. Total: 1.5 MB , less than 1 minute I have heard nothing but bad things about wga, and I absolutely do not want it installed on my system (this answer seems to give some options). Searching for "windows xp" at microsoft's web pages brought up this page which says Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers Brief Description This installation package is intended for IT professionals and developers downloading and installing on multiple computers on a network. If you're updating just one computer, please visit Windows Update at http://update.microsoft.com . ... File Name: WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe I am currently downloading this file. Will installing this bring my installation up to date with security updates? What about later updates whenever a new problem is discovered, how can i update without using wga?

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  • grep on Windows XP vs. Windows 7

    - by cschol
    I am using grep from Gnuwin32 on Windows. On Windows XP, the following grep -e "foo" NUL results in the following output grep: NUL: invalid argument On Windows 7, the same arguments result in no output at all. Why is the output different between Windows XP and Windows 7?

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  • bypass PAE, NX, and SSE2 upgrade requirements from windows 8 to windows 8.1

    - by Jonathan
    On one of my old computers I am having the problem of upgrading to windows 8.1 because my computer does not support PAE, NX, and SSE2. How was I able to install windows 8 in the first place? I heard the original requirements for windows 8.0 were PAE, NX, and SSE2. Anyone know a bypass for this on a machine already running windows 8? IMO 8.1 should have been released in the form of a service pack not an entirely new windows.

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  • Prevent Windows Key from Opening Start Menu in Windows 7

    - by Jeromy Anglim
    I'd like to be able to stop the Windows Key from activating the Start Menu on Windows 7. I don't want to disable the Windows Key completely. I'd like Ctrl + Esc to still open the Start Menu. I know that you can use AutoHotKey to disable the Windows Key completely. The reason I want this functionality is that I have a lot of shortcut keys linked to the Windows key and this often results in accidentally opening the start menu.

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  • DNS Server Order Incorrect on Windows 7 via PPTP VPN to Windows 2003 Server

    - by Simon
    Hi there. When I connect a Windows XP laptop via PPTP vpn to our Windows 2003 Server, the DNS Server order is correct: 192.168.8.3 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 But when I connect a Windows 7 laptop via PPTP VPN to our Windows 2003 Server, the DNS order is incorrect: 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 192.168.8.3 What do I need to do on our Windows 2003 Server to fix this so the when I do a ping, it will work correctly?

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  • Upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 8 using Technet?

    - by WillyWonka
    I want to go get a TechNet subscription to test some Windows software before I buy it. I want to replicate upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 8 with specific software in a virtual machine then see how stable or if possible to do it at all. I looked at the list of software but they only show Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise. Do you know if there is an Windows 7 to 8 Upgrade ISO available for Technet Standard or Pro?

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  • Add Free Windows Live Apps to Your Website or Blog

    - by Matthew Guay
    Would you like to use Hotmail, Office Web Apps, Messenger, and more on your website domain?  Here’s how you can add Windows Live to your website for free. Microsoft offers a popular suite of online communications products including Hotmail and Messenger.  Although Hotmail hasn’t been as popular in recent years as Gmail, it is getting a refresh this summer that might make it an even better email solution.  Additionally, the new Office Web Apps offer great compatibility with Office documents. While Skydrive offers 25Gb of free online file storage for all users, so Windows Live can make a great communications solution for your domain. Note: To signup for Windows Live for your domain, you will need to be able to add info to your WordPress.com blog or change Domain settings manually. Getting Started Open the Windows Live Custom Domains page (Link below) to get started adding Windows Live to your domain.  Your free Windows Live account will let you create up to 500 accounts, so it’s great for teams and groups that want to have customized email addresses in addition to those who just want an email account for their website. Enter your domain or subdomain you want to add to Windows Live in the box, and then select whether you want to setup Hotmail with this or now.  We want to add email to our domain, so select Set up Windows Live Hotmail for my domain and click Continue. You’ll need to sign in with a Windows Live ID to create the account, or choose to create a new Windows Live account associated with your domain.   Sign in with your Windows Live ID…this can be a Hotmail, Live Messenger, XBOX Live, Zune ID, or Microsoft.com account. Or, enter your information to create a new Windows Live ID if you selected the second option. Now, review your settings and make sure everything looks correct.  Click the I Accept button to setup your account.   Your account is now fully setup, but you’ll need to add or edit DNS information on your site.  The steps are slightly different depending if your site is hosted on WordPress.com, on your own server, or hosting service. We’ll show you how to do it on either one. First, though, note the information below this box.  You’ll see settings for your Mail setup…   Security settings…   And Messenger integration.  Make note of the settings, especially the circled ones, as we’ll need them in the next step. Integrate Windows Live with Your WordPress Blog If the domain you added to Windows Live is for your WordPress blog, login to your WordPress dashboard in a separate browser window or tab.  Click the arrow beside Upgrades, and select Domains from the menu. Click the Edit DNS link beside the domain name you’re adding to Windows Live. In the text box on this page, enter the following, replacing Your_info with your code from the Mail Setup box in your Windows Live Dashboard.  Note that this is the blurred section in our screenshots.  It should be a numerical code like 1234567890.pamx1.hotmail.com. MX 10 Your_info.pamx1.hotmail.com. TXT v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all CNAME Your_info domains.live.com. Click Save DNS records, and your settings are saved to WordPress.  Note that this will only integrate email with your WordPress account; you cannot integrate Messenger with a domain hosted on WordPress.com. Finally, return to your Windows Live Settings page and click Refresh.  If your settings are correct, you’ll now be ready to use Windows Live on your WordPress.com domain. Integrate Windows Live with Your Own Server If your website is hosted on your own server or hosting account, you’ll need to take a few more steps to add Windows Live to your domain.  This is fairly easy, but the steps may be different depending on your hosting company or registrar.  With some hosts, you may have to contact support to have them add the MX records for you.  Our site’s host uses the popular cPanel for website administration, so here’s how we added the MX Entries through cPanel. Login to your website’s cPanel, and select MX Entry under the Mail section. In the text box on this page, enter the following, replacing Your_info with your code from the Mail Setup box in your Windows Live Dashboard.  Note that this is the blurred section in our screenshots.  It should be a numerical code like 1234567890.pamx1.hotmail.com. MX 10 Your_info.pamx1.hotmail.com. Now, go back to your cPanel home, and select Advanced DNS Zone Editor under Domains. Here, add a TXT record with the following info: Name: yoursite.com. TTL: 3600 TXT Data: v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all Click Add Record and your Mail integration data is all configured. To integrate Messenger with your own domain, you’ll have to add an SRV entry to your DNS settings.  cPanel doesn’t have an option for this, so we had to contact our site’s hosting company and they added the entry for us.  Copy all of the information in the Messenger box and send it to your domain support, and they should be able to add this for you.  Alternately, if you don’t want or need Messenger, then you can simply skip this step. Once all of your settings are in place, return to your Windows Live Settings page and click Refresh.  If your settings are correct, you’ll now be ready to use Windows Live on your WordPress.com domain. Create a New Email Account On Your Domain Welcome to your new Windows Live admin page!  Now you can add email accounts so you and anyone else you want can access Hotmail and the other Windows Live apps with your domain.  Click Add to add an account. Enter an account name, which will be the email address of the account, e.g. [email protected].  Then enter the user’s name and a password for the account.  By default this will be a temporary password, and the user will have to change it on first log-in, but if you’re setting up this account for yourself, you can uncheck the box and keep this as your standard password. Now, go to www.mail.live.com, and sign in with your new email address and password.  Remember, your email address is your username previously entered followed by @yourdomain.com. To finish setting up the email account, enter your password, secret question and answer, alternate email, and location information.  Click I accept to finish setting up your new email account. Enter the characters in the Captcha to confirm you’re a human, and click Continue. Your new Hotmail inbox will now load, and you’ll have a welcome email in your inbox.  This works the same as normal Hotmail, except this time, your email address is with your own domain. You can now access any of the Windows Live services from the top-level menu. Here’s an Excel Spreadsheet open in the new Office Web Apps via SkyDrive on our new Windows Live account. If you setup Messenger access previously, you can now sign in to Windows Live Messenger using your new @yourdomain.com account as well. Important Links Accessing your Windows Live accounts is easy.  Simply go to any Windows Live site, such as www.hotmail.com or www.skydrive.com, and sign in with your new Windows Live ID from your domain as normal.  You don’t need a special address to access your account; it works just like the standard public Hotmail accounts. To administer your Windows Live for your domain, go to https://domains.live.com/ and sign in with the Windows Live ID you used to create the account.  Here you can add more users, change settings, and view usage details for the Windows Live accounts on your domain. Conclusion Windows Live is easy to add to your domain, and lets you create up to 500 email address for it.  With the upcoming updates to Hotmail and Office Web Apps coming this summer, this can be a nice way to make your domain even more useful.  And with 500 email accounts, you can easily let your team take advantage of your unique address as well. If you’d rather use Google’s online applications with your domain, check out our article on how to add free Google apps to your website or blog. Link Signup for Windows Live for Your Domain Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Tools to Help Post Content On Your WordPress BlogBackup Your Windows Live Writer SettingsInstall Windows Live Essentials In Windows 7Add Your Gmail To Windows Live MailMysticgeek Blog: A Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 on Windows XP TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Backup Drivers With Driver Magician TubeSort: YouTube Playlist Organizer XPS file format & XPS Viewer Explained Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12

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  • Add Background Images and Themes to Windows 7 Media Center

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Are you tired of the same Windows Media Center look and feel? Today we’ll show you how change the background and apply themes to WMC. Changing the Basic Color Scheme in WMC There are a couple of very basic color scheme options built in to Windows 7 Media Center. From the WMC Start Menu, select Settings on the Tasks strip and then select General. On the General settings screen select Visual and Sound Effects.   Under Color scheme you’ll find options for Windows Media Center standard, High contrast white, and High contrast black. Simply select a color scheme and click Save before exiting.   If you have used Media Center before you are familiar with the standard blue default theme. There is also the high contrast white. And, the high contrast black. Changing the Background Image with Media Center Studio Themes and custom backgrounds need to be added with the third-party software, Media Center Studio. You can find the download link at the end of this article. You can use your own high resolution photo, or download one from the Internet. For best results, you’ll want to find an image that meets or exceeds the resolution of your monitor. Also, using a darker colored background image is ideal as it should contrast better with the lighter colored text of the start menu. Once you’ve downloaded and installed Media Center Studio (link below), open the application select the Home tab on the ribbon and make sure you are on the Themes tab below. Click New. Select Biography from the left pane and type in a name for your new theme.   Next, click on the triangle next to Images to expand the list below. You’ll want to browse to Images > Common > Background. You should see a list of PNG image files located below Background. We will want to swap out the COMMON.ANIMATED.BACKGROUND.PNG and the COMMON.BACKGROUND.PNG images. Select COMMON.ANIMATED.BACKGROUND.PNG and click on the Browse button on the right.   Browse for your photo and click Open. Your selected image will appear on the left pane. Now, do the same for the COMMON.BACKGROUND.PNG. When finished, select the Home tab on the ribbon at the top and click Save.   Now switch to the Themes tab on the ribbon and the Themes tab below. (There are two Themes tabs which can be a bit confusing). Select your theme on the right pane and click Apply. Note: You won’t see the image backgrounds displayed. Your theme will be applied to Media Center. Close out of Media Center Studio and open Windows Media Center to check out your new background.   You can load multiple backgrounds images and switch them periodically as your mood changes. You might like to find a nice background featuring your favorite movie or TV show.   Perhaps you can even find a background of your favorite sports team.   Installing Themes with Media Center Studio Theme7MC has made available a small group of Media Center Studio Theme packs that are simple to download and install. You can find the download link below. Note: Before installing a theme, turn off any extenders and close Windows Media Center. Download any (or all) of the Theme7MC theme packages to your Media Center PC. Open Media Center Studio, select the Themes tab (the one at the top) and click Import Theme.   Browse for the theme you wish to import and click Open. Select your theme from the themes pane and click Apply. Media Center Studio will proceed to apply your theme. You should then see your new theme appear under Current theme on the left theme pane. Close out of Media Center Studio. Open Media Center and enjoy your new theme. Conclusion Media Center Studio runs on Windows 7 or Vista and gives users a solution for personalizing their Media Center backgrounds. It is a Beta application, however, so it still has a few bugs. Currently, there are only a handful of themes available at Themes7MC, but what they have is pretty slick. If you’d like to further customize the look of Media Center, check out our previous article on how to customize the Media Center start menu with Media Center Studio. Downloads Media Center Studio Theme7MC Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)How To Rip a Music CD in Windows 7 Media CenterAutomatically Mount and View ISO files in Windows 7 Media CenterSchedule Updates for Windows Media CenterIntegrate Hulu Desktop and Windows Media Center in Windows 7 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox) Backup Outlook 2010 Daily Motivator (Firefox) FetchMp3 Can Download Videos & Convert Them to Mp3

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  • Cannot update Windows update

    - by Badr Hari
    When I try to get latest windows updates, windows (7 home) tells me that it needs to update the windows update. And that the Update window needs to be restarted in order to do that. After that restart I get error "WindowsUpdate 8007006D". Googlin that code doesnt' give me any more information. This is my windows update log: 2012-06-30 09:57:36:212 4956 2e8 Report REPORT EVENT: {102103FB-11A6-4FF5-B910-75D5B104956B} 2012-06-30 09:57:30:865+0300 1 182 101 {61CA813A-7585-442E-A66B-B0D15CE6BDC0} 1 8007006d SelfUpdate Failure Content Install Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x8007006d: Windows Update Setup Handler. 2012-06-30 09:57:36:231 4956 2e8 Report CWERReporter::HandleEvents - WER report upload completed with status 0x8 2012-06-30 09:57:36:231 4956 2e8 Report WER Report sent: 7.5.7601.17514 0x8007006d 61CA813A-7585-442E-A66B-B0D15CE6BDC0 Install 101 Unmanaged

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  • How can you use Windows Backup with a TrueCrypt encrypted backup destination?

    - by Burly
    Background There are numerous backup solutions out there for Windows and they come in many different forms. From a file copy and/or syncing tool like SyncBackSE to whole hard drive backup utilities based on Volume Shadow Copy like Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost to block level copy tools like dd. Each of these solutions offers different pros and cons versus the "Windows Backup and Restore Center" feature built-in to Windows Vista and Windows 7. I am not interested in discussing alternative backup solutions here however, as that has already been covered by numerous other questions. Contraints There are two "types" of backup supported by the "Windows Backup and Restore Center"(WBRC): - File backup (which Windows calls "Back Up Files") - Full System Backup (which Windows calls "Complete PC Backup) I am interested in a solution which supports either and/or both types of backup with WBRC. Questions How can you use a TrueCrypt encrypted mount point as the destination for the built-in "Windows Backup and Restore Center" feature in Windows Vista and 7? See-Also Volume Shadow Copy based backup that works with TrueCrypt References Backup and Restore Center Windows Vista - Backup and Restore Center Windows 7 - Backup and Restore Center

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  • How to add the Windows defender(MS essential) in Windows explorer right click menu to scan a particular drive/folder on demand?

    - by avirk
    As we have inbuilt antivirus like Windows defender in Windows 8 now, I called it antivirus because it has embedded option of MS essential as well. But there is no option to scan a particular drive on demand by right click on it in windows explore as we had in Windows 7 with MS essential or like other antiviruses. I know we can run a custom scan for the particular drive or specific folder but that process is too lengthy and time consuming. This guide explain that how we can add the Windows Defender in the desktop right click menu, so I'm curious is there a way to add it in the Windows explorer right click menu to launch a search whenever I need to.

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  • Does the Windows "Sources" folder need copied to C: like the "i386" folder did?

    - by James Watt
    On all flavors of Windows prior to Windows Vista, the Windows install CD contained a folder called i386. After installing Windows, this folder is suppose to be copied to the C: drive. Once the folder has been copied, if user is ever installing a program or windows updates that require the Windows install CD, it will retrieve the files from the hard drive INSTEAD of prompting for the Windows CD. On new versions of Windows, including Windows Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2, the i386 folder has been renamed to "sources". Should this folder be copied to the hard drive? Or do the new versions of Windows work differently (i.e. by installing all features on the hard drive to eliminate the need for ever prompting the user to insert their disc.) It does not hurt to copy the sources folder, so I have been doing it. But if I could eliminate time wasted it would make installations faster which helps my customers' bottom line.

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  • Should I install Windows Management Framework 3.0?

    - by Massimo
    I'm posting this as a BIG CAVEAT to everyone. I know it's not a standard Q&A, but I think this is someone every Windows admin should know. There is a very real risk of falling into Big Troubles. Microsoft has recently released Windows Management Framework 3.0 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 systems, which includes some nice things native to Windows Server 2012 (like PowerShell 3.0) and lots of improvements to WMI, WinRM and other management technologies. Windows Update is advertising it as an optional update. Should I install it on my servers?

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  • Windows 8 wmvcore.dll

    - by Dominykas Mostauskis
    I am running Windows 8 Pro N x64 without Windows Media Player (which might be called Windows Media Center in the case of Windows 8) preinstalled. Apparently certain software packages require WMP to be installed, in my case Premiere Pro, (wmvcore.dll required error); however, Microsoft will only be releasing it at the end of October, which is a month from now, while no other WMP packages seem to install on Windows 8. Tried downloading a Windows 7 x64 SP1 wmvcore.dll to no avail. This is a problem for many people at the moment, and a solution would be appreciated.

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  • How do I delete the Windows Explorer address bar history

    - by mlissner
    Note: I am NOT referring to Internet Explorer. I am using Windows XP and Windows Server 2008 and need to delete the history values from the file browser (aka Windows Explorer). Somebody put a password into the address bar as ftp://user:pass, and now I can't delete the value. Some forums say to delete this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\TypedPaths In Windows XP, the key doesn't exist, and in Windows Server 2008, the key is there, but deleting it doesn't seem to help. Any help?

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  • Where are essential Windows files located?

    - by Dorothy
    I am using a Vista but I would like the answer for XP, Vista and Windows 7. I am writing a program where I want to count the Important or Essential files of the Windows PC. It looks like the Essential files would be located somewhere in C:/Windows and after some research I found that some Essential files are located in C:/Windows/winsxs. What and where are the Essential files for a Windows PC? Is there a folder or set of folders that contain the essential files? Are all the files in C:/Windows/winsxs Essential? Essential Definition: Absolutely necessary; extremely important

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  • Running Windows 8 Consumer Preview to Pro

    - by elvispt
    Currently I have Windows 8 Consumer Preview installed I tried running the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, and it tells me, after checking for compatibility, that I can buy Windows 8 Pro for 29.99euros. Will I have any issues with this? Will I be able to perform a clean install from the downloaded file? I heard that I could not get Windows 8 Pro at this price, only If I had Windows 7 installed. The bottom line is, what kind of issues can I expect if I decide to go down this path? Will it ask me later for a key of Windows 7 to validate? Thanks.

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  • Windows Phone 8 development on Windows 7 - is it or will be possible?

    - by Tiby
    I was trying to install Windows Phone 8 SDK on my Windows 7 machine and it hit me with the 'supported only on Windows 8' message. I actually wanted to develop Phone 7.5 apps on Visual Studio 2012, impossible thing with the 7.1 SDK, so I thought 8 SDK will do the job. As if it was not enough that the 8 SDK was controversial upon release, now that it's generally available, to me it seems like a horrible decision to make it available only for Windows 8, because in my humble opinion, no serious and sane developer will install Windows 8 ever, or at least in the near future, just because of the Metro UI. So, anyone knows any workarounds for developing Windows Phone 8 on Windows 7, or at least develop for 7.5 but using Visual Studio 2012?

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  • Remote Desktop access Windows 7 system from Windows 8

    - by Prabhat
    I have 2 systems; Windows 7 & Windows 8. Both are connected to WiFi router. They have been assigned address 192.168.2.8 & 192.168.2.9 respectively. I have added them to home group. I am able to ping and connect Windows 8 system from Windows 7. I am having trouble connecting Windows 7 system from Windows 8 system. I can't even ping Windows 7 system. Windows 7 system's user is administrator (default administrator account from secpol.msc). File sharing, Remote Access, network discovery are all enabled. Someone please help me connect. EDIT : I found that this is the issue of Kaspersky Internet Security 2012. If I disable firewall, it works. I tried opening port 3389 in Kaspersky. It is still blocking access.

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  • Windows 7 - How to access my documents from Windows 8 (dual boot)

    - by msbg
    I am dual booting Windows 7 and Windows 8 on two different partitions of the same drive: Win7: (C:) Win8: (D:) I am trying to get access to my Win7 user folder (C:\Users\Mason) in order to access my Win7 documents folder (C:\Users\Mason\Documents) from Windows 8. When I try to on Windows 8, I get an error message saying "You don't have permission to access this folder. Click here to permanently get access to this folder". When I click, the progress bar in Windows Explorer slowly moves to the maximum and disappears. When I try opening the folder, I get the same error message. When editing security permissions for the folder in Windows 8, Explorer freezes. I do not know how to remove the restrictions from Windows 7. I checked the Windows 8 user folder (D:\Users\Mason) and it had the group or user name: "S-1-5-21-936898901-3363470404-1273668825-1001". I tried copying and pasting it into the Win7 User Folder Permissions, but got the error "An object with the following name cannot be found". How would I access my folders?

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  • How to Restore the Real Internet Explorer Desktop Icon in Windows 7

    - by The Geek
    Remember how previous versions of Windows had an Internet Explorer icon on the desktop, and you could right-click it to quickly access the Internet Options screen? It’s completely gone in Windows 7, but a geeky hack can bring it back. Microsoft removed this feature to comply with all those murky legal battles they’ve had, and their alternate suggestion is to create a standard shortcut to iexplore.exe on the Desktop, but it’s not the same thing. We’ve got a registry hack to bring it back. This guest article was written by Ramesh from the WinHelpOnline blog, where he’s got loads of really geeky registry hacks. Bring Back the Internet Explorer Namespace Icon in Windows 7 the Easy Way If you just want the IE icon back, all you need to do is download the RealInternetExplorerIcon.zip file, extract the contents, and then double-click on the w7_ie_icon_restore.reg file. That’s all you have to do. There’s also an undo registry file there if you want to get rid of it. Download the Real Internet Explorer Icon Registry Hack Manual Registry Hack If you prefer doing things the manual way, or just really want to understand how this hack works, you can follow through the manual steps below to learn how it was done, but we’ll have to warn you that it’s a lot of steps. Launch Regedit.exe using the Start Menu search box, and then navigate to the following location: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D} Right-click on the key on the left-hand pane, choose Export, and save it to a .REG file (say, ie-guid.reg) Open up the REG file using Notepad… From the Edit menu, click Replace, and replace every occurrence of the following GUID string {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D} … with a custom GUID string, such as: {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D} Save the REG file and close Notepad, and then double-click on the file to merge the contents to the registry. Either re-open the registry editor, or use the F5 key to reload everything with the new changes (this step is important). Now you can navigate downto the following registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D} \ Shellex \ ContextMenuHandlers \ ieframe Double-click on the (default) key in the right-hand pane and set its data as: {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D} With this done, press F5 on the desktop and you’ll see the Internet Explorer icon that looks like this: The icon appears incomplete without the Properties command in right click menu, so keep reading. Final Registry Hack Adjustments Click on the following key, which should still be viewable in your Registry editor window from the last step. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D} Double-click LocalizedString in the right-hand pane and type the following data to rename the icon. Internet Explorer Select the following key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D}\shell Add a subkey and name it as Properties, then select the Properties key, double-click the (default) value and type the following: P&roperties Create a String value named Position, and type the following data bottom At this point the window should look something like this: Under Properties, create a subkey and name it as Command, and then set its (default) value as follows: control.exe inetcpl.cpl Navigate down to the following key, and then delete the value named LegacyDisable HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D} \ shell \ OpenHomePage Now head to the this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Desktop \ NameSpace Create a subkey named {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D} (which is the custom GUID that we used earlier in this article.) Press F5 to refresh the Desktop, and here is how the Internet Explorer icon would look like, finally. That’s it! It only took 24 steps, but you made it through to the end—of course, you could just download the registry hack and get the icon back with a double-click. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Quick Help: Restore Show Desktop Icon in Windows VistaQuick Help: Restore Flip3D Icon in Windows VistaAdd Internet Explorer Icon to Windows XP / Vista DesktopHide, Delete, or Destroy the Recycle Bin Icon in Windows 7 or VistaBuilt-in Quick Launch Hotkeys in Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Looking for Good Windows Media Player 12 Plug-ins? Find Out the Celebrity You Resemble With FaceDouble Whoa ! Use Printflush to Solve Printing Problems Icelandic Volcano Webcams Open Multiple Links At One Go

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  • 6 Ways to Free Up Hard Drive Space Used by Windows System Files

    - by Chris Hoffman
    We’ve previously covered the standard ways to free up space on Windows. But if you have a small solid-state drive and really want more hard space, there are geekier ways to reclaim hard drive space. Not all of these tips are recommended — in fact, if you have more than enough hard drive space, following these tips may actually be a bad idea. There’s a tradeoff to changing all of these settings. Erase Windows Update Uninstall Files Windows allows you to uninstall patches you install from Windows Update. This is helpful if an update ever causes a problem — but how often do you need to uninstall an update, anyway? And will you really ever need to uninstall updates you’ve installed several years ago? These uninstall files are probably just wasting space on your hard drive. A recent update released for Windows 7 allows you to erase Windows Update files from the Windows Disk Cleanup tool. Open Disk Cleanup, click Clean up system files, check the Windows Update Cleanup option, and click OK. If you don’t see this option, run Windows Update and install the available updates. Remove the Recovery Partition Windows computers generally come with recovery partitions that allow you to reset your computer back to its factory default state without juggling discs. The recovery partition allows you to reinstall Windows or use the Refresh and Reset your PC features. These partitions take up a lot of space as they need to contain a complete system image. On Microsoft’s Surface Pro, the recovery partition takes up about 8-10 GB. On other computers, it may be even larger as it needs to contain all the bloatware the manufacturer included. Windows 8 makes it easy to copy the recovery partition to removable media and remove it from your hard drive. If you do this, you’ll need to insert the removable media whenever you want to refresh or reset your PC. On older Windows 7 computers, you could delete the recovery partition using a partition manager — but ensure you have recovery media ready if you ever need to install Windows. If you prefer to install Windows from scratch instead of using your manufacturer’s recovery partition, you can just insert a standard Window disc if you ever want to reinstall Windows. Disable the Hibernation File Windows creates a hidden hibernation file at C:\hiberfil.sys. Whenever you hibernate the computer, Windows saves the contents of your RAM to the hibernation file and shuts down the computer. When it boots up again, it reads the contents of the file into memory and restores your computer to the state it was in. As this file needs to contain much of the contents of your RAM, it’s 75% of the size of your installed RAM. If you have 12 GB of memory, that means this file takes about 9 GB of space. On a laptop, you probably don’t want to disable hibernation. However, if you have a desktop with a small solid-state drive, you may want to disable hibernation to recover the space. When you disable hibernation, Windows will delete the hibernation file. You can’t move this file off the system drive, as it needs to be on C:\ so Windows can read it at boot. Note that this file and the paging file are marked as “protected operating system files” and aren’t visible by default. Shrink the Paging File The Windows paging file, also known as the page file, is a file Windows uses if your computer’s available RAM ever fills up. Windows will then “page out” data to disk, ensuring there’s always available memory for applications — even if there isn’t enough physical RAM. The paging file is located at C:\pagefile.sys by default. You can shrink it or disable it if you’re really crunched for space, but we don’t recommend disabling it as that can cause problems if your computer ever needs some paging space. On our computer with 12 GB of RAM, the paging file takes up 12 GB of hard drive space by default. If you have a lot of RAM, you can certainly decrease the size — we’d probably be fine with 2 GB or even less. However, this depends on the programs you use and how much memory they require. The paging file can also be moved to another drive — for example, you could move it from a small SSD to a slower, larger hard drive. It will be slower if Windows ever needs to use the paging file, but it won’t use important SSD space. Configure System Restore Windows seems to use about 10 GB of hard drive space for “System Protection” by default. This space is used for System Restore snapshots, allowing you to restore previous versions of system files if you ever run into a system problem. If you need to free up space, you could reduce the amount of space allocated to system restore or even disable it entirely. Of course, if you disable it entirely, you’ll be unable to use system restore if you ever need it. You’d have to reinstall Windows, perform a Refresh or Reset, or fix any problems manually. Tweak Your Windows Installer Disc Want to really start stripping down Windows, ripping out components that are installed by default? You can do this with a tool designed for modifying Windows installer discs, such as WinReducer for Windows 8 or RT Se7en Lite for Windows 7. These tools allow you to create a customized installation disc, slipstreaming in updates and configuring default options. You can also use them to remove components from the Windows disc, shrinking the size of the resulting Windows installation. This isn’t recommended as you could cause problems with your Windows installation by removing important features. But it’s certainly an option if you want to make Windows as tiny as possible. Most Windows users can benefit from removing Windows Update uninstallation files, so it’s good to see that Microsoft finally gave Windows 7 users the ability to quickly and easily erase these files. However, if you have more than enough hard drive space, you should probably leave well enough alone and let Windows manage the rest of these settings on its own. Image Credit: Yutaka Tsutano on Flickr     

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  • Customize the Windows Media Center Start Menu with Media Center Studio

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Do you ever wish you could change the WMC start menu? Maybe move some of the tiles and strips around to different locations, add new ones, or eliminate some altogether? Today we look at how to do it using Media Center Studio. Download and install Media Center Studio. (Download link below) You’ll also want to make sure you have Windows Media Center closed before running Media Center Studio. Many of the actions cannot be performed with Media Center open. Once installed, you can open Media Center Studio from the Windows Start Menu. When you first open Media Center Studio you’ll be on the Themes tab. Click on the Start Menu tab. It should be noted that Media Center Studio is a Beta application, and it did crash on us a few times, so it’s a good idea to save your work frequently. You can save your changes by selecting Save on the Home tab, or by clicking the small disk icon at the top left. We also found that that trying to launch Media Center from the Start Media Center button on the application ribbon typically didn’t work. Opening Windows Media Center from the Windows Start Menu is preferred.   When you’re on the Start Menu tab you will see the Windows Media Center menu strips and tiles. Click the arrows located at the right, left, top, and bottom of the screen to scroll through the various menu strips.   Hiding and Removing Tiles and Menu Strips. If there is an entire menu strip that you never use and would like to remove from Media Center, simply uncheck the box to the left of the the title above that menu strip. If you’d like to hide individual tiles, uncheck the box next to the name of the individual tile. Renaming Tiles and Strips To rename a tile or menu strip, click on the small notepad icon next to the title. Note: If you do not see a small notepad icon next to the title, then the title is not editable. This applies to many of the “Promo” tiles. The title will turn into a text input box so that you can edit the name. Click away from the text box when finished. Here we will change the title of the default Movie strip to “Flicks.” Change the Default Tile and Menu Strip The Default menu strip is the strip that is highlighted, or on focus, when you open Media Center.   To change the default strip, simply click once on another strip to highlight it, and then save your work. In our example, I’m going to make our newly renamed “Flicks” strip the default.   Each menu strip has a default tile. This is the tile that is active, or on focus, when you select the menu strip. To change the default tile on a strip, click once on the tile. You will see it outlined in light blue. Now just simply save your changes. In our example below, we’ve changed the default tile on the TV strip to “guide.”   Moving Tiles and Menu Strips You can move an entire Menu Strip up or down on the screen. When you hover your mouse over the a menu strip, you will see up and down arrows appear to the right and left of the title. Click on the arrows to move the strip up or down.   You will see the menu strip appear in it’s new position.   To move a tile to a new menu strip, click and drag the tile you’d like to move. When you begin to drag the tile, green plus (+) signs will appear in between the tiles. Drag and drop the tile onto to any of these green plus signs to move it to that location. When you’ve dragged the tile over an acceptable position, you’ll see the  red “Move” label next to your cursor turn to a blue “Move to” label. Now you can drop the tile into position. You’ll see the tile located in it’s new position.   Adding a New Custom Menu Strip Click on the Start Menu tab and then select the Menu Strip button.   You will see a new Custom Menu strip appear on your Start Menu with the default name of Custom menu. You can change the name by clicking on the notepad icon just as we did earlier. For our example, we’ll change the name of the new strip to Add-ins. To add a new tile, click on Entry Points at the lower left of the application window. This will reveal all of your available Entry Points that can be added to the Media Center Menu. You should see the built-in Media Center Games and any Media Center Plug-ins you have added to your system. You can then drag and drop any of the Entry Points onto any of the Menu Strips. Below we’ve added Media Browser to our custom Add-ins menu strip. You can also add additional applications to launch directly from Media Center. Click on the Application button on the Start Menu tab. Note: Many applications may not work with your remote, but with keyboard and mouse only.    Type in a title which will appear under the tile in Media Center, and then type the path to the application. In our example, we will add Internet Explorer 8. Note: Be sure to add the actual path to the application and not just a link on the desktop. Click any of the check boxes to select any options under Required Capabilities. You can also browse to choose an image if you don’t care for the image that appears automatically.   Next, you can select keyboard strokes to press to exit the application and return to Media Center. Click the green plus (+) button. When prompted, press a key you’ll use to close the program. Repeat the process if you’d also like to select a keystroke to kill the program.   You’ll see your button programs listed below. When you’re finished, save your work and close out of Media Center Studio.   Now your new program entry point will appear in the Entry Points section. Drag the icon to the desired position on the Start Menu and save again before exiting Media Center Studio. When you open Media Center you will see your new application on the start menu. Click the tile to open the application just as you would any other tile. The application will open and minimize Media Center. When you press the key you choose to close the program, Windows Media Center will automatically be restored. Note: You can also exit the application through normal methods by clicking the red “X” or File > Exit. Conclusion Media Center Studio is a Beta application which the developer freely admits still has some bugs. Despite it’s flaws Media Center Studio is a powerful tool, and when it comes to customizing your Media Center start menu, it’s pretty much the only game in town. It works with both Vista and Windows 7, and according to the developer, has not been officially tested with extenders. Media Center Studio can also be used to add custom themes to Windows 7 Media Center and we’ll be covering that in a future article. Looking for more ways to customize your Media Center experience? Be sure to check out our earlier posts on Media Browser, as well as how to add Hulu, Boxee, and weather conditions your Windows 7 Media Center. 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