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XP Time Saving Tools

Problem with Direct Access and Vodafone 3G/HSDPA – Update. SEP is the problem

I found the source of our Direct Access problems back in May during a lull period at work. Sorry for not updating then guys…

Here’s a link to my previous Direct Access post

I had a suspicion our anti-virus may have been causing our Direct Access problem so I went ahead and removed Symantec Endpoint Protection using CleanWipe which you can find here

I’m not that big a fan of Symantec as we had problems with our previous generation of PC’s – we suspected it was causing random out of the blue power downs of some PC’s while users were working. We could never prove it though as no event viewer logs were recorded just before the PC’s powered down unexpectedly. Luckily we’ve not had any problems of this type on our current generation of PC’s – they do have a new version of SEP installed though! In hindsight I should have tried removing SEP to test with Direct Access sooner in light of my previous experience with Symantec.

Anyway – Back to Direct Access. Once SEP was uninstalled with MS Security Essentials replacing it – Direct Access started behaving as it should on our laptops over a HSDPA/3G connection, and I didn’t have to run the “netsh interface 6to4 set state disabled” command  indicated in my previous post anymore.

I then decided to do  some more digging on the subject once I realised SEP was causing the problem and found this little nugget from a Symantec forum post.

So if you’re thinking about deploying Direct Access and have SEP deployed you have three choices:

1. Wait for the SEP update to come out in August 2012.

2. Uninstall SEP and replace with an antivirus that works with Direct Access (might be workable if you’ve only a small group of users that need to use Direct Access) i.e. replace AV for that group and leave the others with SEP.

3. Create a batch file that will run the “netsh interface 6to4 set state disabled” on start up on each laptop.

Hope this helps guys

 

A Start Menu on each dual screen – Actual Multiple Monitors

This is one for the Windows dual screen users out there.

I found this app just today but it seems to be working a treat.

If you’re a dual screen user you know only a single task bar can be displayed in Windows even though you have access to two screens.

Well not any more. Actual Multiple Monitors takes care of the above shortcoming (at least until Win8 comes out) by displaying a Start Menu on each monitor, each with their own set of windows so you can minimize or maximize to either monitor. How cool is that?

Actual Multiple Monitors

 

BIOS VNC Server

In what looks like a boon for IT Admins everywhere news of a new BIOS based VNC Server solution comes from a partnership between Intel and RealVNC.

This motherboard based VNC Server will allow admins to VNC to a remote PC if the computer is off or doesn’t have a functioning OS.

Nice – Remote installs anyone? I’ve been waiting for a feature like this to come along for a long time.

You need a specific version of VNC (VNC Viewer Plus) along with a vPro Processor and AMT6.0 to support this. You also need a license for each installation of VNC Viewer Plus, but wow what a leap forward!

I had investigated AMT a few months ago but couldn’t figure out its benefits. The recent news makes it all clear…

This should make my job a lot easier – I’ll be able to connect PC’s directly up to the end-user network – no need to move them into the network room to build and have to move them a second time to users desks. I can build on the spot…

More information here

Get a List View on your desktop

I don’t know why Microsoft haven’t gotten around to providing a builtin feature like this to their OS – but if you’re one of those people that like to store everything on your desktop this is for you.

Desktop List View gives you the List View from Windows Explorer on your desktop simply by executing a small exe. The Unload.bat file in the zip folder can be used to kill the running program if you don’t like what you see.

If you want to startup the program upon login just place the Desktop List View exe in “Start – Programs – Startup” by dragging the exe first to the Start button then Programs – Startup finally release to drop into the Startup folder. Delete the exe from the same location to stop it from starting up automatically.

Mileage may vary on Vista and Windows 7 – Untested on those OS platforms

Desktop List View Screenshot

 

Adobe Reader is Bloatware…

Personally I’ve never seen the need for PDF documents…

I think all documents should be created in MS Word – and everyone should have it installed on their PCs or at least an application that can open and edit Word docs.

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve had to download and install Adobe Reader on a new PC just to open a scanned PDF in an application that’s so cumbersome to use it sometimes beggars belief. You can’t even edit PDF’s on the fly without outlaying some serious cash….

But I have the solution…
Foxit Reader Ok you actually have to download and install it – but its a joy to use. Its small, its fast, you can copy text out of the PDF, it even lets you scroll easily through those scanned PDF’s that for some reason you always receive at 1000% height x 1000% width of the original document. Great app – I’ve not gone back to Adobe Reader since.

If you’ve got an application you think does a better job than Foxit Reader – let me know….

Foxit Reader Screenshot

My first post!!

I work in IT Support and had a user come into the office who wanted their laptop rebuilt. It should have been a simple task of using the recovery cd that came with the laptop to restore the OS – but of course these things never go to plan. The recovery CD was missing and this laptop was too old to have a factory restore option…

After a exhaustive search on the internet the only recovery cd that was available was the kind you had to purchase. Since I’m not one to throw away good money on something that would probably only be used once I directed the user to get their hands on a copy of XP and use that to rebuild the laptop. But not before directing him to a really great application which is the point of this post….

Driver Genius Professional – does one simple task really well. It backs up your currently installed drivers into a folder or self installing exe. Whats so great about that I hear you ask? Well have you ever tried finding drivers for discontinued hardware? home built PCs? or just wanted to rebuild your stone-age era PC and get it back to work fast? If you have then Driver Genius is a great tool to have in your arsenal of “little apps I can’t do without”

Try to avoid using Driver Softs site to download the app as their sites so slow it begins to feel like you’re downloading the tool from a web server connected to a 56k Modem.
Apart from that this tool works great so check it out and let me know what you think?

The Blog of Martin Birrane