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Sometimes when you uninstall a program, corresponding entry in the Add or Remove Programs listing may not be removed. This may be due to incomplete uninstall or poorly designed uninstaller itself. To manually remove the orphaned entries from the Add or Remove Programs applet, follow these steps:

• Click Start, Run and type regedit.exe
• Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall Continue reading »

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How to Keep RAS Connections Active After Logging Off
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=158909

Keep a Dial-Up Connection Open for All Users [Microsoft ExpertZone article]
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/tips/may02/theriot1.asp

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PARTITIONING:

1.  Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive.
2.  At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER to continue.
3.  Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.
4.  If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you will be prompted to repair it. At this point hit the ESC key (do not repair).
5.  The screen will now list all existing partitions and un-partitioned space for each hard disk. Use the cursor/arrow keys to choose where to create the new partition. Press D to delete an existing partition or press C to create a new partition in un-partitioned space. If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System partition) to confirm that you want to delete that partition. Repeat this process for each of the existing partitions that you want to move (or remove) in order to create your new partition. When all necessary partitions are deleted, you can then select the remaining un-partitioned space and then press C to create new partitions.

Continue reading »

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By default, Windows Explorer always opens with My Documents. You can customize it by changing the properties for the Windows Explorer icon and replace the Target field with: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e, c:\yourfolder

• Right click on the icon you use to launch Explorer and select Properties.
• In the Target box, type (or replace the existing text with) the following:

%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /e, path

Where in place of path above you should enter the actual path to the directory you want open by default. For example C:\Windows, or C:\Documents and Settings, etc. To have My Computer listed as the default selection, type explorer.exe /e,

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Apple has released an update to its Mail app that addresses several stability issues. The problems revolved around the recent change to Mac OS X 10.5.6 which had caused Mail to unexpectedly quit for many users. The release should be installed if the OS update did not properly install the “3.5 (930.3)” version of Mail.app. Users can check the exact build by opening Mail and choosing “About Mail” from the menu.

The release appears to be Apple’s first fix amid the large number of problems reported with the 10.5.6 update. Users have encountered lags with the installation, system crashes, kernel panics, hardware connectivity issues and even disruption of Time Machine backups.

The Mail update is available from Apple’s support page. If the correct version is already installed on a system that still shows stability issues, the company suggests that third-party plug-ins should be removed or updated.

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Ending a beta period, App4mac has released the final version of CheckUp 2.0, its system monitoring tool. The software tracks CPU, memory and network usage, as well as processes; alerts can be triggered whenever a resource hits a particular value, such as when a hard drive fails. CheckUp can also be used to determine compatibility with Leopard, and monitor a Mac remotely via LAN or Internet connections. The app is free as an upgrade or $40 new, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

App4mac has also released Flexteam 2.0, a group scheduling program. People can jointly view and adjust schedules, which can also be printed, exported to PDF or published to a website. Schedules can be sorted by day, week, month or year, and tweaked to assign days off as well as holidays. Flexteam 2.0 requires Leopard and costs $67, but like CheckUp 2.0 is a free upgrade for v1.x owners.

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Volitans has published v2.0 of SMART Utility, a diagnostic tool for hard drives. The software taps into the SMART monitoring technology built into hard drives, and presents status information in a more convenient and legible form. The app additionally attempts to warn users about impending disk failures, with the aim of allowing time to transfer material to a different location.

New to v2.0 are the ability to run built-in self-tests, and preferences that can limit alerts to the discovery of new problems. Temperatures can now be displayed in Fahrenheit, and Growl users can receive notifications for scans, updates, and impending or total failures. SMART Utility requires Mac OS X 10.4 or better, and costs $25.

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When I wrote a commentary about whether or not Leopard was successful, predictably the comments were all over the place. Some of you had experiences that match mine, with no problems or just issues so minor they weren’t worth serious attention. But others voiced endless frustration, going so far as to zero your Mac’s hard drive in other to attempt to make Leopard “take” without protest.

To be sure, I’m rightly concerned that the experiences appear to be all over the place. While I grant that the vast majority of Leopard users have had great experiences, there are far too many to ignore. But how do we get to the bottom of this dilemma? Continue reading »

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If a system isn’t producing the desired end result, look for what it is doing correctly; in other words, identify where the problem is not, and focus your efforts elsewhere. Whatever components or subsystems necessary for the properly working parts to function are probably okay. The degree of fault can often tell you what part of it is to blame. Continue reading »

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Set up instrumentation (such as a datalogger, chart recorder, or multimeter set on “record” mode) to monitor a signal over a period of time. This is especially helpful when tracking down intermittent problems, which have a way of showing up the moment you’ve turned your back and walked away.

This may be essential for proving what happens first in a fast-acting system. Many fast systems (especially shutdown “trip” systems) have a “first out” monitoring capability to provide this kind of data. Continue reading »

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