Category: Weekly TechTips

Sunbelt Weekly TechTips #35

OEM Vista upgrade frustration
If you bought a new Dell prior to the release of Vista, you had the option of selecting a Vista upgrade when the OS became available. I installed Vista from scratch on my Dell and avoided all that, but I’m hearing that some of the folks who opted for the upgrade have had long waits to get their software and that some of them are finding that Dell doesn’t have Vista drivers available for all of their hardware components. A quick web search finds that some people have recorded their experiences. We wonder if the same thing is happening with those who ordered upgrades with other brands. Let us know if you’ve experienced any problems with a hardware manufacturer’s Vista upgrade option.

Vista deactivation blues
Joe Wilcox blogged last week about a friend’s scramble to get his Vista computer working because he had failed to activate it when he installed Vista and the 30 day period ran out right at the time he suddenly decided he needed the laptop for a business trip. Sounds to me like all the drama was self- inflicted, but you can read and decide for yourself.

Vista: Improved Remote Desktop Connection
Like Windows XP Pro, Vista Business, Ultimate and Enterprise editions includes the Remote Desktop Connection service that allows you to connect to your computer and control its desktop, run its applications, etc. from another system on the network. RDC is based on Windows Terminal Services. The RDC client is included in all versions of Vista and can be used to connect to a Vista Business, Ultimate or Enterprise machine’s desktop or to a Windows Terminal Server. The new RDC client built into Vista makes RDC more secure, by using a new technology called Network Layer Authentication. You don’t have to upgrade to Vista to use the new RDC client, though. You can download a version of RDC 6.0 for XP here.

How to change the time stamp on a group of files
Here’s a by-product of Daylight Saving Time you might not have thought about: a colleague mentioned to me that whenever the time changes, his synchronization software thinks all the files have been updated on the USB flash drive he carries to transfer data between home and office, and wants to sync them all. He asked if there’s a way to change the time stamps on those files.

I use PowerDesk to do that: just open the PowerDesk Explorer, navigate to the location of the files you want to change, highlight them all, click File and select Set File or Folder Date/Time. Then type in the date or time you want to change it to and it’s done. You can use the free version of PowerDesk, or a little freeware utility called Time Stamp 1.1 that does the same thing. (On the subject of PowerDesk, the original developer, Mike Kronenberg, is rumored to be coming out with his own version of the product in several weeks. So if you’re thinking of buying a copy, I would hold off for a bit and contact his company, Novatix, to see what the plans are).

Additional Tip: If you just want to change the date stamp on a group of graphics files, but not the time, you can do it by right clicking the group of highlighted files in Vista Explorer, selecting Properties, clicking the Details tab and clicking the Date Taken field. This will drop down a calendar that lets you pick a new date.

How to change the name of the registered owner in XP
To change the name of the registered owner in XP, do the following:

  1. Click Start Run and type regedit to open the registry editor.
  2. Browse to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion
  3. In the right details pane, double click the value RegisteredOwner.
  4. In the value data field, type in the name you want to use and click OK.

You can change the company name, if any, in the same way by editing the value RegisteredOrganization.

If you’d prefer not to edit the registry directly, there is an automated script you can download from the Kelly’s Korner web site that will do it for you.

Can’t download files to XP computer with IE 7
If you’ve installed Internet Explorer 7 on your Windows XP computer and find that you are unable to save files to your computer from the File Download dialog box, it may be because you have the Japanese Input Method Editor set as the default keyboard layout. What’s up with that? You can get a hotfix for the problem. To find out how, see KB article 932823.

How to change column settings in Windows Explorer
You can configure Explorer to display the columns that you want to see, or change the order in which the columns are displayed, by following the instructions in KB article 310297.

XP computer restarts unexpectedly or you get a stop error
If your computer suddenly decides to reboot itself without your permission and you get an error message saying the system has recovered from a serious error, or you receive a Stop error message that references “Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal,” this may be caused by a problem with the TCP/IP stack on a network running the IP Security (IPsec) protocols. There is a hotfix available. For more info, see KB article 925922.

Deb Shinder, MVP

Sunbelt WeeklyTechTips #28

Vista Ultimate Extras unveiled
One of Microsoft’s stated benefits of buying the most expensive Ultimate edition of Windows Vista was that it would be able to run free “extras,” software applets that would be released later. But we were left to wonder what those extras might be. At CES last week, we got a glimpse of some Vista extras that are scheduled to be released in conjunction with Vista’s release to the general public at the end of this month. They range from a Hold ‘Em poker game to a secure online key backup program for BitLocker.

One of the most interesting was called DreamScene. It will let you set an .MPEG or .WMV video as your desktop wallpaper, just as you can choose a picture now. To use it, you’ll need an Aero-capable video card.

For more about these three Extras, click here.

More about Choosing Passwords
Last week, we talked about the difficulty of creating passwords that are both secure and memorable. In this article, Joe Wilcox reveals password weaknesses of many sites and programs, and points toward a link that features a primer on how to choose passwords and secure Adobe PDF files, much of which is applicable to password selection in general.

How to install the Windows Support Tools
You can use the free Windows Support Tools to troubleshoot and manage your network. The Support Tools aren’t installed by default in Windows XP, but they are included on the installation CD with XP Pro. Here’s how to install them:

  1. First remove any previous versions of the tools, including betas.
  2. With the installation CD in the CD-ROM drive, open Windows Explorer and navigate to the CD drive.
  3. Go to SupportTools and double click Setup.exe.
  4. Follow the steps in the wizard. You’ll be asked to agree to the EULA, provide your name/organization and choose the typical or complete installation. You can find descriptions of the individual tools and help on how to use them in the Suptools.chm file.

You can also install the tools from the command line, by typing the following at the command prompt: msiexec /I x:supporttoolssuptools.msi. For a complete installation, add the addlocal=all switch.

Dual booting 32 and 64 bit Windows.
Technically, there’s no problem with dual booting the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Vista (or Windows XP, for that matter) on a 64-bit capable system. You should install each OS in its own partition, though. A problem with many OEM systems is that the vendors ship them with one huge partition. There are several ways to solve that problem. Perhaps the easiest, if you have an extra drive bay, is to buy a second physical drive and install it. That will give you more space (and you’ll need plenty of space with two instances of Vista) and a clean new partition on which to install the second instance of the OS. Other alternatives include reformatting your existing drive and repartitioning it (this may be the best if the computer currently runs XP and you want to start over with a clean installation of Vista) or using a third party utility such as the latest version of Partition Magic to resize your existing partition and create a new one.

However, legally there’s another issue: the End User License Agreement for the retail versions of Vista, states in section 2 (a) and (c): “You may install one copy of the software on the licensed device” and “The software may include more than one version, such as 32-bit and 64-bit. You may use only one version at a time.”

Direct link to PDF here.

Although one could argue that you’ll only be using one of the versions “at a time,” I think Microsoft’s interpretation will be that you need to buy two licenses. And while we’re on the subject of Vista licensing, readers should also note that Vista Home editions (Basic and Premium) cannot legally be used as guest operating systems in virtualization programs such as Virtual PC or VMWare. You can install Business or Ultimate edition as a guest OS.

Can’t configure Scheduled Tasks to use the System Account
If you try to create a new task in the Scheduled Tasks folder and configure it to use the System account, you’ll find that the task doesn’t run as you expected. Instead, you’ll find an error message in the log file that tells you to very that the task’s Run-as name and password are valid. The problem is that the Scheduled Tasks Wizard isn’t able to configure a task to run with the System account. You can, however, use the AT.EXE command to do this. For more information, see KB article 223375.

User logon request is rejected without error message
If a restricted user with no password attempts to log onto Windows XP from the Welcome screen, and the logon request is rejected but you don’t get any kind of error message, it may be because the security log is full. There’s a hotfix available to fix the problem, but you have to call Product Support Services to get it. For more information, see KB article 313322.

Network Magic makes getting connected easier
At first glance, you might wonder why you’d need a third party product to set up your home network, since that’s all built into Windows. But if you have a network that’s a little complex or out of the ordinary, you may have endured hours of frustration, trying to get networking to work for you. In that case, a program that eases your way might be just the ticket. It can get especially tricky if you’re trying to connect computers running different versions of Windows. Network Magic can also provide some of the networking features that are in Windows Vista, like the Network Map, even if your network is running just XP computers. Check it out here.

You can also get a free scan of your network that will perform various security and performance tests and detect the devices connected to your network (you’ll have to download an ActiveX control) here.

Deb Shinder, Microsoft MVP