Showing posts with label Windows Home Server. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Windows Home Server. Show all posts

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Windows 8 Linkage: Product Name “Something or Another”

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Umm…we’ll get back with you on that…

Glad I’m not the guy in charge of product branding and damage control over in Redmond at the moment!

If it wasn’t challenging enough trying to continue the positive spin on the forced Windows 8 Metro home page (?) interface, and convincing enterprises that this new GUI model will improve productivity and operational excellence with their employees over Windows XP/Window 7, now they have to do some major spin-control on the whole “it was really just a codename” for the Windows 8 look/feel.

Really?

Anyway…regardless…it’s time to clean out the Windows 8 link hopper and do a Grand Stream Dreams Windows 8 linkfest dump.

Please note references to the former Win8 interface have been struck through for amusement and accuracy.

Win8 - Start Here - Get It

Win8 - Related Products and Services

Win8 - Install It

Win8 - Under the Hood

Win8 - To Go

Win8 - Tweaks

Win8 - Deeper Insights

Win8 - DaRT

Win8 - Usage Tips

Win8 - Miscellanea, Rumors, & General Grumblings

Windows 8 - GSD Previously Posted

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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Saturday, April 14, 2012

Windows 8 Linkage: “Passage Public Metro” version

cc image credit image by david.nikonvscanon on flickr

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So Claus, where do you stand on Windows 8 at this point?

Well, to be honest, I’m really liking the under-the-hood improvement talk on how things are working in Windows 8.

What I still find very hard to overcome are the end-user interface changes and the challenges trying to restore it to some form of a Windows “Classic” interface and operation.

I get that Microsoft wants to forge ahead with a new interface and blending between the Windows Phone interface and the computer system interface. I get that “apps” are all the rage. I like old-school design but am pretty comfortable with moving to new designs. (I no longer curse the Ribbon interface in Office 2007/2010.)

So…when Windows 8 gets released in a final version, I’m not going to be rushing out to upgrade all our systems to it from Windows 7. Windows 7 is super-stable for our needs at home and everyone is very happy. That said, once it looks like things are stable and I’ve come to terms with the new interface, I’ll probably upgrade just one of our systems here at the Valca ranch to Windows 8 and see how things go.

In the meantime, here are an updated collection of Windows 8 linkage building on the prior grand stream dreams: Windows 8 Linkage: “Majestic Metro” version post. It definitely requires an update since the Consumer Preview release of Windows 8 has come out a while back and some of the things from that one either no longer apply or may not work in this release.

Truth be told, tonight will be the first opportunity I’ve budgeted myself to load up with Windows 8 Consumer Preview version in a virtual machine.

Windows 8 “Consumer Preview” Version - Start Here to Get It

Windows 8 - Related Betas

OK. None of these are required for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. However they are related to it and I thought some folks might be interested in playing around with them as well. If you don’t know what these even are, then just skip down to the next section.

Windows 8 - Install It

There are a number of methods and platforms to install Windows 8. Review all the ones below carefully to figure out which works best for you. I personally am currently going with installing it into a Virtualbox session. When I get closer to pulling the trigger on installation to one of my laptops at home, I’ll first install it into a VHD and then dual-boot my system so the Win8 install can run on real “hardware” to check driver compatibility and system performance on the iron rather than in a virtual system. I did that before with Win7 and found it very beneficial.

Windows 8 - Under the Hood Stuff

These are the things that make me look forward to Windows 8 despite the stupid fact the “classic” interface is stripped out and requires considerable effort to restore using tips/tweaks/third-party tools to accomplish. Note: when I say “classic” I’m not talking about the theme that is a toss-back to Windows 2K/XP but rather the “classic” GUI with the program bar, the “start” menu, the system tray icons, etc.

Windows 8 - To Go

Windows “To Go” is basically a feature in Windows 8 that allows it to run “full OS” from a supported USB storage device like a flash drive or external hard-disk drive. I guess it could be considered an advanced version of WinPE but with all the benefits of the OS with no feature strip-out or additional “hacking” required that custom WinPE builds require to get past a plain DOS box environment “out of the box”. It is very intriguing to me and should be a cool option…if you meet the license requirements as well have a robust and super-fast USB device/port.

Windows 8 - Tweakages

Getting Windows to the way you like it is still important. Here are some important (to me) tweaks, tips, and tweaking tools to make it possible.

Windows 8 - Deeper Insights

Windows 8 - DaRT (Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset)

This off-line system boot tool is kitted out with a collection of system administration tools to aid in the diagnosis and recovery of a tanked Windows system.  This isn’t as easy to get your hands onto so some work and signup with Microsoft is required to get it.

Indirectly related but still interesting.

Windows 8 - Usage Tips

New user interface, new things to learn navigating around and completing basic tasks without beating head on desk…

Windows 8 - Miscellanea & Rumor Mongering

Already mostly covered in the linkage above, but sometimes you just can’t resist poking that ant-pile with a stick…

Cheers.

--Claus V.

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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Get your Big Whata-Microsoft Linkdump Here!

MSDump

CC Photo Credit: by Choctopus on Flickr

Oh Boy....nothing like the smell of a Microsoft Link dump!  Get your shovel 'cause you've got a lot of shoveling to do!

Fixing Those Darn Windows 7 Task Bar icons!

In Dwight's Techblog Linkpost | 11.22.2009 frequent flier David - budalla posed the following question:

...does anybody know how to get my old start menu back? The current Win7 version is as useful as a messy desk to me.

What David was talking about is the awesome (useful/annoying depending on your preferences) Windows 7 taskbar design that has honkin' big icons that have space between them so large you could drive a Microsoft link-dump truck through with room to spare on the sides.

image

I actually think they are quite clever and useful, but I'm a hard-core multi-tasker so I have lots of apps open on my desktop and that wide-spacing just doesn't seem efficient to me.  I want to reclaim the space regardless of the enhanced features they provide.

As a matter of fact I did...

This isn't a MS "supported" solution to enabling an XP/W2K "Classic" start menu but it might be a close approximation using some free third-party applications or a paid solution.

However, turns out there was an even easier solution which involves no assistance from third-part tools, and is pure Windows tweaking, baby!  (Provided by Ronnie Vernon, MVP TechNet forum moderator.

Simply pull off the existing icons and re-configure the "QuickLaunch" toolbar from Vista/XP. (Yes it is still there!)

From his explanation (seeded with screenshots from my system tweaking)

Adding the Quick Launch Toolbar in Windows 7.

Right click the Taskbar and select Toolbars/New Toolbar.

image

In the Choose A Folder window, navigate to:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.

(Where 'username' is the name of the account you are logged on with)

(Claus's note, as seen below that "AppData" folder is hidden in my configuration.  I just copied/pasted the path above into the folder field, then changed the 'username' to my own (Claus-V) and hit Select Folder.  It found it fine...)

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Click Select Folder.

This will add the Quick Launch Toolbar to the right side of the Taskbar.

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Right click the Taskbar and make sure that it is Unlocked.

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(Claus's note, as seen above, I then had to uncheck mine to unlock it...)

On the Left Side of the Quick Launch Toolbar you will see 3 vertical rows of Dots. This is the Toolbar Handle. Use the mouse to grab that handle and drag the QL toolbar as far to the left as it will go.

image

Next, grab the Handle for the Taskbar Icons and drag it as far to the right as it will go.This should switch the toolbars.

Next, drag the QL toolbar to the left as far as it will go. This should place it next to the Start Button. Right click an empty spot on the QL toolbar and remove the check marks from 'Show Text' and 'Show Title'.

Finally, carefully drag the Taskbar Icons to the left until the QL toolbar is the size you prefer.

image

(Claus's note, now start dragging, dropping and cleaning up the icons on the various task bar and Quick Launch bars...adjust the size, remove title/text if desired, etc.)

image

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Right click the Taskbar and select 'Lock the Taskbar'.

Done!

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versus

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You be the judge... Note: no third-party applications were used or harmed in this Windows 7 task-bar tweak-out.

Related:

Windows 7 Family Pack almost Gone (Limited Time Offer thing...)

Alvis and I had no luck finding a copy of the Windows 7 Family pack in any of the local retailers back in early November 2008. (see Windows 7 Resources – Hot off the DVD Presses! - GSD post).  Fortunately I didn't delay and quickly ordered it from the Microsoft on-line store and got my copy.

Turns out it might now be nigh impossible to find one.

Quoting from Paul's post:

Unfortunately, that's just now becoming obvious to potential customers here in the United States, where the Family Pack has apparently completely disappeared. Numerous email messages this week complain that attempts to find the Windows 7 Family Pack online or at brick-and-mortar electronics retailers have proven fruitless, killing plans for planned holiday presents.

As some of us say in Texas..."too bad doodad!"

Cool Alternative Windows Updating Tricks

Just in case...

Multi-Monitor Taskbar Tricks for Windows 7

I love multi-monitors both at work and home.

However, it has always bothered me that the taskbar doesn't get extended or managed by Windows on all additional monitors.  It just makes its appearance on the primary monitor.

Now for XP I've purchased and used Realtime Soft UltraMon for my solution.  It works great and is rock-solid.  I see that in July they released UltraMon™ 3.0.7 Beta which offers Windows 7 compatibility (and maybe some stability issues along with the Aero theme support.  I've got to find my registration key since I have upgraded my XP system to now run Windows 7.  I haven't installed it yet.

In the meantime, thanks to this 3 Useful Programs That Help Manage Multiple Monitors post by MakeUseOf's Tim Lenahan, I've been re-discovering these cool freeware tools (all portable) which can add additional taskbars to various degrees of success under Windows 7 (and XP/Vista as well).

  • ZBar - Perfect!  Supports six styles from Classic to Win7, organizes wallpapers across multiple monitors, and has a hideable clock as well. Only complaint is that some MS Office apps don't cooperate well and may ignore ZBar's attempt to manage them on the correct monitor/taskbar.

  • MultiMon TaskBar - Pretty nice, but the $ pro version has more features.

  • Display Fusion - (less taskbar helper and more multi-monitor wallpaper manager to be honest...)

Related:

Finally for the Hard-Core Sysadmins...

The problem I had was that when you uninstall a printer, you don’t actually uninstall the driver/driver package associated with that printer.  If you go ahead and reinstall the printer all over again, (like a network printer) it’ll just use what you’ve got installed on your system and you’re hosed.

SO WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A CORRUPTED PRINTER DRIVER/PACKAGE
Basically, in order to remove a corrupted Printer Driver from Windows 7, you have to do the following:

  1. Run MMC from START—> RUN.
  2. Click File –> Add Remove Snap In
  3. Select Print Management
  4. Click the “Add Local server” button
  5. Click “Drivers” in the Print Management –> Print Servers –> YOURMACHINE (local) hierarchy
  6. Right click the Printer Driver/Package you want removed.

Whew!

--Claus V.

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Saturday, May 05, 2007

Now I need a Home Server...

I've never really been to the point of seeing a need for a home server around our house.

We had the primary desktop which handled the bulk of our computing duties, Alvis's Linux box for her miscellaneous web surfing needs, and then Lavie's laptop that she could also do light surfing with or perform some work duties at home as needed.

We didn't share files across each device. In the odd cases that we did, we would just copy the file to a USB stick and port it to the target device.

Simple.

Not any more.

Now Lavie is doing more work with our digital pictures kept on our desktop, off her laptop. I'm doing more frequent blogging from either of the notebooks. And it is getting to be a bit more challenging maintaining support for all four systems now with updates, software installations, etc.

Firefox Syncing between PC's

As for me, the file that is my "bread-and-butter" has turned out to be my Firefox profile's bookmarks.html file.

In this one singular file I keep my ever growing list of RSS site feeds (via Sage), my "To Blog" folder of pages that I am organizing for current and future blogging topics, and an untold number of favorite links, tip pages, and the library-like collection of references.

Trying to keep this single file synced between a desktop and two laptops is very challenging.

Here's what I do.

I have written two simple batch files to keep on each system's desktop. One copies the bookmarks.html file from deep within my Firefox user's profile folder and places the copy on the desktop.

Then I upload that file to my web-mail account when I am all done working on that particular system.

If I later get on a different system, I download the bookmark file to the desktop of the local machine I am on and then run a second simple batch file on my desktop to move the bookmarks.html file back to my Firefox profile on this machine.

Semi-instant syncing.

While the batch files make this a simple one-two click process, and having a copy safely tucked away in my web-mail account is great, it is a bit of a hassle.

I'm sure there are other solutions, but as I have a routine and method in how I use Firefox for my blogging organization, it works for now.

Related link: Synchronize Your Bookmarks Between Different Computers - Pain in the Tech

Enter Windows Home Server

I know it probably wouldn't be too hard for me to pick a nice Linux distro and in a weekend get a Linux-based home server solution up and going. However, I really want a server system that Lavie (and even Alvis) can work with, especially in the event of my absence.

Ed Bott recently had a tease-post on his blog about the upcoming Windows Home Server (WHS) - You'll want a Windows Home Server. No, really, you will.

The singular screen shot intrigued me.

I followed the link and read his review of the beta WHS; Microsoft hits a home run with Windows Home Server.

Performance wise he points out that the hardware requirements aren't too demanding. And as it is a server, doesn't even need keyboard, mouse, or monitor. Just a standalone box (systemboard, CPU, RAM, drive(s), network card, psu)...that's pretty much it. As Ed notes...it's quite appropriate to consider it in terms of being an appliance.

The basic features are performing a back up of each attached system to enable system or individual file recovery, sharing common folders between systems, remote access to shared files and systems from a remote system over the web, and it monitors the health of the network, providing alerts on outdated security software or backup failures.

I was getting quite excited even before seeing the screen shots he also provides.

The design of the software interface and the hardware requirements looks to make this quite an interesting proposition to consider.

I'm going to be adding this product to my "watch-list."

As I understand, it will be primarily offered directly to consumers "installed" on hardware via OEM builds. I expect that one will be able to buy it "software-only" and install on your own home-brew rig as well, but doubt you will be able to purchase the software in your local store. Instead you will probably need to buy on-line via Microsoft directly or via a business like NewEgg.

More Windows Home Server Links

Here are some more great posts and pages to give a wide view of what we may be able to expect in Windows Home Server;

To Beta or Not to Beta

I'm even tempted to bite on the Windows Home Server Beta tester program...only I don't think Alvis's pc quite fits the hardware needs (nor would she let me take away her SAM installation). Nor do I think Lavie would be impressed with me suggesting adding another pc box to the home just yet...even if I just called it an "appliance."

I have to admit, I'm getting kinda giddy with enthusiasm at the possibilities of this Windows product.

Will you be served?

--Claus

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