Windows 7 Help is around the corner - GoITExpert.com » General

Show PID Process Identifier

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Often when you are troubleshooting what is going wrong with your Windows box you are left to your own devices to guess what is running and what is screwing up. In the Linux world you can grep and get a view of what processes are running using Process Identifier, or more commonly known as PID or process ID. Here is how to get that same functionality in Windows.

PID is a unique number tagged with each processes running on a system, and used by most operating systems to identify a process. This comes in handy when, let’s say Lotus Notes crashes on you and you want to see what other services were started by nlnotes.exe so that you can kill them.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to use Task Manager. Task Manager does not display PID information by default.

To display the PID field in Task Manager, go to the Processes tab, click on the View menu, then click on Select Columns.

In the Select Columns or Select Process Page Columns dialog, place a checkmark in the checkbox for PID (Process Identifier), and click OK.

You will now see the PID column in your Task Manager.

How To Access Boot Options

admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:50:00 +0000

I think everyone knows about the F8 key to access the Windows Boot Manager. But did you know that in Windows Vista, 2008 and Windows 7 you can access the Boot Manager by using the Space Bar as well?

If you press the space bar right after the BIOS screen and just before the Windows boot screen appears, you will be taken to the Windows Boot Manager. Users can select which operating system to boot or hit F8 key for the normal recovery options. If you hit the Space bar when you are prompted with “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” will also lead you to the Windows Boot Manager.

How To Set Up A Version Cue Server

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:06:00 +0000

Adobe Version Cue is a fantastic tool for managing your images, photos and videos. Here is the complete reference guide on how to configure Version Cue so that you can use it in your production environment.

We’ll start from the assumption that you actually installed Version Cue. To use a Version Cue Server, you’ll need to turn it on and configure initial settings. Once you’ve configured initial settings, you can configure additional Version Cue Server settings in the Version Cue preferences and specify advanced server settings (such as enabling SSL) in Version Cue Server Administration.

For a video on setting up the Version Cue server, see Version Cue Video.

1. Do either of the following:

Click Start My Server in the Adobe dialog box or in Adobe Bridge.

Open the Control Panel and double-click Adobe Version Cue CS3 (Windows) or click Adobe Version Cue CS3 in System Preferences (Mac OS), and then click Start.

Version Cue starts Version Cue Server Administration and displays the Initial Configuration window.

2. In the Initial Configuration window, specify a system administrator password in the Password text box.
Note: Be sure to note the password you specify. If you forget the system administrator password, you’ll need to reinstall the Version Cue Server.

3. Specify a name for the server in the Server Name text box.

4. Choose an option from the Server Visibility menu:

To prevent other users in your network from seeing the server, choose Private. Private Version Cue Servers can be accessed only from your local computer.

To make the server visible to other users in your network, choose Visible To Others. (You must configure the server to be visible to grant others access to projects on the server.)

Note: If Version Cue is installed on a Windows computer that uses a firewall and you want to share the server with others, make sure that TCP ports 3703 and 5353 are left open. If you’ve enabled SSL for the Version Cue Server, also leave port 3704 open. If Version Cue CS2 is installed on the same computer, also leave port 50900 open (and 50901 if you’ve enabled SSL).

5. Choose an option from the User Accounts menu:

To enable users to access the server without an existing user account, choose Automatic User Creation. If you select this option, Version Cue creates a new user account without a password when a new user accesses the server.
If you enable automatic user account creation and then subsequently enable LDAP support, LDAP users are automatically imported when they access the server with their LDAP account name. Users imported in this fashion are added to the Everyone group, given a user access level of None, and are not able to log into Version Cue Server Administration. Use this technique to automatically assign LDAP users default access rights to projects on a Version Cue server without having to explicitly import users.

To specify that only named users, defined in Version Cue Server Administration, can access the server, choose Manual User Creation.

6. Click Save & Continue to log in to Version Cue Server Administration and specify advanced server settings.

Set Version Cue Server preferences

You can configure many Version Cue Server settings in Version Cue preferences, such as the amount of RAM available to Version Cue and the location of the Data folder. To configure advanced settings, such as enabling SSL, changing the name of the Version Cue Server, specifying server log options, resetting user locks, or backing up the server, you must use Version Cue Server Administration.

Access Version Cue Server preferences

1. Do one of the following to access Version Cue preferences:

Open the Control Panel and double-click Adobe Version Cue CS3 (Windows) or click Adobe Version Cue CS3 in System Preferences (Mac OS).

In Windows, double-click the Version Cue icon in the system tray at the lower-right of the screen.

In Mac OS, click the Version Cue icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen, and choose Version Cue CS3 Preferences from the menu.
Note: The Version Cue icon is hidden by default. To make it visible, select Show Version Cue CS3 Tray Icon (Windows) or Show Version Cue CS3 Status In Menu Bar (Mac OS) in Version Cue Server preferences.

2. Click the Settings tab in the Adobe Version Cue CS3 dialog box.

Make the Version Cue Server visible

1. To grant others access to shared Version Cue projects on the server, choose Visible To Others from the Server Visibility menu. To hide the Version Cue Server from other users, choose Private.

2. Click Apply.

Specify a workgroup size

1. From the Workgroup Size menu, choose the number of people who use the Version Cue Server on a typical day. This setting controls how the Version Cue Server handles the potential load.

2. Click Apply.

Keep the Version Cue icon visible

1. Select Show Version Cue CS3 Tray Icon (Windows) or Show Version Cue CS3 Status in Menu Bar (Mac OS) to keep the Version Cue icon visible.

2. Click Apply.

Turn Version Cue on when the computer starts

1. Select Turn Version Cue CS3 On When The Computer Starts.

2. Click Apply.

Connect to remote servers

Note: You can perform this task only if you have access to the full Version Cue feature set. See Accessing Version Cue features.

When you need to work on Version Cue projects that are located on a different subnet, you can use the IP address of the computer to access the remote Version Cue Server, as long as it is configured to be visible to other users. Version Cue Servers within your subnet that are configured to be visible are visible automatically.

1. Do one of the following:

In Acrobat, Flash, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, or Photoshop, choose File > Open. If you’re using the OS Dialog box, click Use Adobe Dialog. Click Version Cue in the Favorites panel, and choose Connect To Server from the Tools menu or Connect To from the Project Tools (Acrobat) menu .

In Bridge, choose Tools > Version Cue > Connect To Server.

2. In the Connect To Server dialog box, type the IP or DNS address and port of the Version Cue Server (for example, http://153.32.235.230). If you’re connecting to a server that is on the same system as a Version Cue CS2 workspace, append the port number 50900 to the end of the Version Cue URL (for example, http://153.32.235.230:50900).
Display the Version Cue Server Administration login page to identify the Version Cue URLs that remote users and WebDAV applications need to access the server. Alternatively, view the URLs in the Inspector in Bridge.

3. Click OK.

A shortcut to the remote server is automatically included in your list of available Version Cue Servers.

Connect to a Version Cue Server using WebDAV

Adobe recommends managing non‑Adobe files with Adobe Bridge. However, if you’re collaborating with other users who don’t have access to Adobe Bridge, they can use the Version Cue WebDAV Server URL to access projects on a Version Cue Server.

You can access a Version Cue Server by using a WebDAV-enabled application, such as a Microsoft Office application. In Windows, specify a project on a Version Cue Server as a network place by specifying the project’s WebDAV URL. In Mac OS, specify the project’s WebDAV URL by using the Connect To Server Command from the Finder. Before attempting to connect, refer to your application’s documentation on using its WebDAV features.
Enter the Version Cue WebDAV URL, the port number (3703, or 50900 if you’re connecting to a server that is running on the same system as a Version Cue CS2 workspace), webdav, and the project name. For example: http://153.32.235.230:3703/webdav/ project_name

How to Find and Replace Text in MySQL

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:23:00 +0000

A common question I get asked is how to find and replace text in a MySQL database. There is a simple answer to that question and it’s staring you in the face. REPLACE. Here is how to use it properly.

The simple string function REPLACE() allows table data with the matching string (from_string) to be replaced by new string (to_string). This is useful if you need to search and replace a text string which affects many records or rows.

The syntax of REPLACE is REPLACE(text_string, from_string, to_string)

Here are the examples:

update TABLE_NAME set FIELD_NAME = replace(FIELD_NAME, ‘find this string’, ‘replace found string with this string’);
update client_table set company_name = replace(company_name, ‘Old Company’, ‘New Company’)

The above statement will replace all instances of ‘Old Company’ to ‘New Company’ in the field of company_name of client_table table.

Another example:

SELECT REPLACE(’www.goitexpert.com’, ‘w’, ‘Ww’);

This statement will return ‘WwWwWw.mysql.com’ as a result.

Use a Mac OS X Dock in Windows

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:04:00 +0000

I came across a really cool utility a little while ago. It allow you to use the MAC OS X Dock in Windows XP or Vista. It duplicates the functionality to a tee. Even the System Tray is included. Here is where to get it and how to install it.

A word of note before we begin. I found that it works great in XP, and will work on most installations of Vista. You don’t actually have to install the program, you just extract it and run the .exe. Download RK Launcher and extract it to a folder. Then just launch pklauncher.exe and away you go. That’s all there is to it. You can also use the right-click functionality on the Dock.

Automatically Check MySQL Health

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:43:00 +0000

MySQL is in my opinion the best Database system out there pound for pound – dollar for dollar. Oh wait…it’s FREE! It’s still a fantastic system. Even though it’s a fantastically robust database server the tables may get fragmented with overhead due to continuous update, or delete and insert operation on data stored in database. The solution is to check the DB for integrity. And wouldn’t it be nice if that automagically happened? Here’s how.

You can automate the optimization of MySQL process by using crontab to check and optimize MySQL databases using the mysqlcheck client utility. mysqlcheck checks, repairs, optimizes, and analyzes tables in MySQL database.

To create a new cron job, login to the server as root or any other user, and then edit the crontab file (this is usually, crontab -e to add in the following line of text.

0 1 * * * mysqlcheck -Aao –auto-repair -u root -p[password] > /dev/null

You can change the scheduled running time to a time when your server experiences the least amount of use and also change the options for mysqlcheck command. If you just want to check and optimize certain databases or certain tables without the database, use the following syntax:

mysqlcheck [options] db_name [tables]

mysqlcheck [options] –databases DB1 [DB2 DB3...]

All the details and the technical documentation can be found here including all of the switches and options.

Turn Off Hibernate In Vista

admin — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:31:00 +0000

When you use hibernate in Vista (just like in XP) it creates a file called hiberfil.sys. This file can grow rather large,if you don’t use hibernate, the hibernate file hiberfil.sys is sometimes large enough to impact the amount of drive space you have available, and you’re not able to delete it because it’s in use.

Here is how you go on doing it.

1) To be able to get rid of this file you have to shutdown and disable hibernation in Windows Vista. You can do this by opening a command prompt as administrator

2) In the command prompt type "powercfg -h off" and hit ENTER (see figure 2, it should give you no message back, no errors just blank

Setup A Palm For GMail

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:25:00 +0000

Since a lot of people have been using GMail for their email, it’s only natural that they would want to setup their mobile with access to their GMail accounts. Here are the instructions on how to setup your Palm Mobile PDA to access your GMail account.

Launch VersaMail. Create a New Account. Set the Protocol to POP. Click Next.

Enter your full email address and password. Click Next.

The Incoming Mail Server is pop.gmail.com and the outgoing Mail server is smtp.gmail.com Click Next.

Place checkmarks according tot eh screen below and change the Port Number to 995. If you receive large messages adjust the Maximum Message Size. By default the Size is set to 2048 KB which is 2 MB Megabytes. Click Next.

Change the Port Number to 587 under the Outgoing Options. And place checkmarks as shown in the screen below. Click Done.

You will now receive the messages that are in you Google Mail Account.

SyncJE and Blackberry

admin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:03:00 +0000

I’ve been using an application called SyncJEBB on my Blackberry to sync up my device with my Gmail Calendar, Contacts and Address Book. It’s a pay service but it works really well. Here is the skinny on how to configure it.

I’m going to assume that you have already bought the software. On your mobile device select the SyncJeBB application found in the "Applications" section.
You will now see the screen shown below:

Now you will need to select the Settings option from the main menu.

This will provide you with the following screen:

You need to enter the following details in order to synchronise with GooSync:

Server URL: http://sync.goosync.com
User Name: Your GooSync username
Password: Your GooSync password

The username is your username@domain.com and your password is the password you set.

Next you need to select the calendar option and enter the name Calendar into the "Foldername" field.

Select the contacts option and enter the name Contacts into the Foldername field.

Once done select the Save option from the menu.

To start the synchronisation process you need to select the Start Sync option from the menu:

AutoSync

The SyncJe client provides the AutoSync feature to allow you to automatically synchronise with the GooSync server.

We recommend that the sync intervals are set to no less than 15 minutes to ensure that connections are established.

How to install VLC Media Player in Ubuntu

admin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:23:00 +0000

One of the easiest ways of playing any audio of video file is to use VLC Player from VideoLAN. There are a number of features that you can make use of as well such as the Wallpaper feature. Here are the instructions on how to install VLC in Ubuntu.

It’s a breeze to install VLC in Windows, and fortunately VLC has now been included in the repositories and is a breeze to install in Ubuntu as well.

The easy way to install VLC is to use Synaptic. Fire up Synaptic and click Search and type VLC.

When you are prompted to install additional packages select Mark.

Alternatively, you can install VLC from the command line. Open Terminal and type;

sudo apt-get update

and then

sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd mozilla-plugin-vlc