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Is Windows 7 Better than Vista?

Submitted by phil on Sat, 2009/11/07 - 13:56

The question a lot of folks have, is whether Windows 7 is better than Windows Vista. As a computer professional, I am going to give my honest opinion of Windows 7.

Background

Microsoft has received a lot of criticism about not releasing new versions of Windows in a more timely manner. Roughly 5 years passed between windows XP and Windows Vista. A lot of major software companies will release a "major" version every year, or at minimum, every two years. Not Microsoft. They apparently don't have a set schedule on when they release their software.

Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Drivers for Windows 7

Submitted by phil on Sat, 2009/11/07 - 13:21

If you have a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card, windows 7 (and I think Vista) will not pick up drivers for the card, rendering it kind of useless... Creative Labs is not supporting these operating systems with new drivers, BUT, if you have one of these cards like me, you want it to work. Don't throw the card away just quite yet... There is actually a fix for getting the sb live to work on Windows 7.

Automatically Empty the CIFS/SMB Recycle Bin On A FreeNAS Server

Submitted by phil on Wed, 2009/10/21 - 02:00

Ever wanted to setup FreeNAS to empty the recycle bin automatically for you? Well, this should help!

First off, if you want to enable the recycle bin, go to the share you want to enable it for (Services -> CIFS/SMB -> Shares) and edit that share. About half way down, you will find a checkbox for "Enable recycle bin".

Second, we need to create a .sh file
(the following method seemed to give me the least amount of trouble...)

Go to Advanced -> Command
In the box, type:

mkdir /usr/opt/

Hit the Execute button, then type:

Ubercart Catalog in a Panel Pane

Submitted by phil on Sun, 2009/10/18 - 20:32

I have a website where I wanted to post the full catalog grid on the homepage inside of a panel pane. While having the catalog show up "as" the homepage by going to site information and changing the homepage path to /catalog, this didn't allow for any other text to be added to the homepage. Doing some research, I ran across a post on the Ubercart forums where a guy posted exactly how to add the catalog to a panel.

Email Drupal Comments for Approval to Admin Email Address

Submitted by phil on Sat, 2009/10/17 - 15:44

The Need

Back in the Drupal 5 days, there was a wonderfully made little module called: Comment Mail that would e-mail the site administrator if there were any new comments on the site needing approval. While there is a D6 version of the module, it has not been maintained since Nov 2008 and even posts that there are some bugs with the module. This inspired me to figure out a way of doing the same thing with a few other modules. While I believe the way I have devised is a bit overkill, it does the job :)

Access Denied on Right Click My Computer Manage

Submitted by phil on Tue, 2009/10/06 - 04:35

Working on a customer's computer, I ran into an issue where right-clicking on My Computer, then clicking Manage would bring up an error box stating "Access Denied". Obviously, computer manager would not open. Not exactly sure what the problem was, I decided to do some research on it and found a few websites that explained the same problem with a "fix" of going into gpedit.exe and checking the policy related to computer manager. That is fine and dandy on a Windows XP Professional version, but XP Home is a different ballgame.

Funny 404 Error Page

Submitted by phil on Mon, 2009/09/07 - 01:34
Image: Funny 404 Error Page

I was searching for some Sony earbud headphones that are bluetooth capable and ran across a "404 Error" page which is probably the funniest 404 error page I've seen to date. Click on the image for a bigger image.

HP All-In-One "status.msi" Fix

Submitted by phil on Fri, 2009/08/28 - 13:28

Working on a client's computer recently, I decided to run the HP Update software. After successfully installing a few items, along with some windows updates, I rebooted the computer, only to find a dialogue box asking for the location of status.msi. Ugh! I don't know what it is about HP software developers, but they need to be fired! I'm yet to see a piece of software come from HP that is actually worth $0.02...