Archive for January, 2009
How can I move My Pictures folder from my documents to an external drive?
Jan 16th
Our Reader RJ writes to us:
ATA,
Would you know how to change the default path of the “My Pictures” short cut in XP Pro.
Default points to “My Pictures” in “My Documents”. I would like to change it to point to pictures on an external NAS drive. (Something like Y:\Pictures)
I did try changing the registry settings in Shell folders and then rebooted, but on reboot, it reverts to default and not the changed path.
Hope You Can Help
We sure can, and this one is easy. I don’t know why Microsoft hides this functionality away. Lots of my end users will benefit from this one. It is as simple as this:
- Open My Computer
- Browse to the My Documents Folder
- Highlight the My Picture Directory
- Open a second My Computer window.
- Browse to the directory where you want to put the My Pictures directory into
- Drag the My Pictures directory to then NAS Drive in the other window.
- Windows does the dirty work of updating links and shortcuts
That’s all there is to it! Glad it worked out for you RJ! Did anyone out there already know this?
Check out the comments for helpful insights from AtA Readers!
Can you rename a Windows 2003 Domain?
Jan 15th
So we learned recently that Microsoft has made great strides in allowing you to rename a domain in Server 2003. They have provided a tool but remember this CAN NOT be used on a Windows 2000 domain and will cause you lots of problems.
With this being said here was the situation:
A company was bought out by another company and wanted to retain the purchased companies domain structure while just changing the domain name. Google an Admin’s best friend returned this page from Technet…
Here is the direct link to the tool and a excerpt from the Microsoft site (But we recommend reading the whole thing before you begin!)…
The Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Domain Rename Tools provide a security-enhanced and supported methodology to rename one or more domains (as well as application directory partitions) in a deployed Active Directory forest. The DNS name and the NetBIOS name of a domain can be changed using the domain rename procedure. For an understanding of the constraints of the domain rename procedure, please see the accompanying document, “Understanding How Domain Rename Works,” available on this page.
Note: These tools are for use with Windows Server 2003 only. Do not use them with Windows 2000.
Worked like a charm. Everything is up and running – so far so good! But the real test will be in the morning. When we attempted this about 10 years ago on a NT domain it was horrible and just didn’t work. Microsoft sure has come along way!Have you renamed a domain? How did it go? Hit us up in the comments…
What The Hell Happened To My Task Managers Tabs and Options?
Jan 13th
A reader from Idaho was seriously freaked out after a late night at the computer and sent us a picture of their task manager in a strange state.
They asked for their identity to be with held so here is a screen-shot of a random person’s task manager in a similar mode.
Have you seen this before? Take a look over on your right. You probably have see it and had to idea how you did it.
This is what is called “Tiny Foot Print” mode. Don’t worry its nothing to get all frantic about dude.
It happens by double clicking (usually by accident) on the gray border which we have so kindly dotted and pointed an arrow at for you in the picture on the right.
Here is the Microsoft KB article on it here. They say you can also hit, CTRL+ALT+SHIFT at the same time, and while holding them down press ENTER CTRL+ALT+SHIFT at the same time, and while holding them down press ENTER, to remedy your issue as well.
Hope that helps Idaho! Keep those question coming in!
Kick-ass Firefox extensions save you time and money
Jan 13th
There are two things we hate over @ AtA : Registering for a website JUST to SEE content.That is just evil - sure you get your membership numbers up but…
We HAT
E you. We hate you we hate you we hate you. Did I say we hate you?
Most of you have heard of the website http://www.BugMeNot.com that provides free community user names and passwords for sites. This made life moderately easier but I still had to go to their website and look up the security information.
That is where this Firefox extension comes into play… if there is a user name and password for the site you are on and you right click on the text fields – BugMeNot the FireFox plug in offers instant gratification…
That sounds perverted huh?
Um how about Instant Population of the fields.
But wait, you say that’s just one thing Admin!
Oh yeah the other thing we hate (actually there are quite a few other things we hate, come to think of it) is looking for coupon codes before checking out @ any online store. So the same author Eric from http://roachfiend.com/ came up with the FireFox plug in called RetailMeNot…
Yup you guessed it. This one will pop up a box ONLY if it finds a deal/coupon code for the specific page you are on! Thanks Eric and Thanks John for sending this one in. Remember send your tips and tricks to tips@askTheAdmin.com.
Here are the sites descriptions:
BugMeNot: Bypass compulsory web registration via FireFox’s right-click context menu. Compatible with Mozilla and current Firefox releases. Visit bugmenot.com for full details of their service. Features: multiple login attempts, failure reporting, and auto-submit. BugMeNot is finally compatible with bugmenot.com. You can all thank Dmytri Kleiner for its success. He is an extremely talented coding guru who whipped this thing back into shape.You can change various settings in the extensions’ options menu if you use Firefox. Mozilla and Netscape’s auto-fill and auto-submit are on by default.
RetailMeNot: I’m a poet and I kind of know it. RetailMeNot, brought to you by the perspicacious minds of BugMeNot, is both a service and a Firefox extension. The extension is new and will be the main focus of this mini-review. It sits invisibly behind Firefox’s exterior, waiting to pounce on any web site that will try and make a buck off of you. As soon as it detects a web site that has possible coupon codes, it lets you know.
Why am I getting Winmail.dat files on my mac from Windows users?
Jan 12th
Jodi writes in:
I wasn’t sure who I should contact about this, so i am sending this to you. As of late, word attachments coming from my friend on a Windows XP Machine appear as “winmail.dat” files.
When I try to open these, the text runs about 150pp long, (it’s a 4page doc) and the text looks like this:
?<‡META †[1]0 ?Xt=”‡$.
It shows garbage like that over and over again. Admin Can you help me open them? If I forward the message on to a windows user it is fine! What gives?
Jodi have been dealing with this one for a while and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when they appear and when they don’t appear. We investigated the possibility of drag and drop causing it – but that wasn’t it consistently. But we found a utility called TNEF’s Enough for our Mac friends here:
http://www.joshjacob.com/macdev/tnef/
You can simply drag winmail.dat into this application and BAM! There is your data ma’am, can we do anything else for you today?
UPDATE: Fix this on your exchange 2007 server by doing this:
On the exchange server, go to global settings, Internet Message Formats, Default Properties, Advanced tab, for “Exchange Rich-Text Format” select “Never Use”.
This will prevent your Exchangeserver from using Rich-Text Format and creating winmail.dat files.
From TNEF’s website:
TNEF’s Enough allows Macs to read and extract files from Microsoft TNEF stream files. The files are usually received by SMTP based e-mail programs from Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook users. The SMTP based e-mail program will usually receive either a MIME attachment named “winmail.dat” or a MIME attachment with the type “application/ms-tnef.”
The file is a rich text (or MAPI) message that is sent from Outlook to Exchange. When Exchange sends the message to an outside server it writes the MAPI message as a MIME attachment. The unfortunate side effect of this plan is if the Outlook user has someone in their address book as a person who can receive “Rich Text” then the user will receive the TNEF file whether the user uses Outlook or not.
TNEF’s Enough is a freeware application
Save coffee beans…Macro your life
Jan 9th
So, it’s the last day before the weekend, and you need to catch up on some sleep… You can’t wait to hibernate in your bed this weekend…
Then your boss smells your happy unproductive weekend plans on you and pulls this crap..
His tasks were nothing creative and I will have to stay in the office late just to do thousands of repetitive moves (copy, switch windows, paste then click a button…blah blah blah!)
Before you run to refill that coffee maker, install this freeware program Macro Maker.
So here is the deal, with this program you can either record your moves so you can repeat them later, or you can simply insert a couple of actions from a drop down list.
After you are done define a trigger which can be by pressing a keyboard button or on a schedule.
You also get to define number of times for that action to be repeated (in this make sure the last move is a preparation for the next one so you won’ t end up repeating yourself).
Now all is done and the (CBRSo) Coffee Beans Rights Society are happy, but hey don’t give all your tricks away – don’t tell your boss how you did it…let him wonder about it the whole weekend ;)
See, a geek can be your best friend..and they are good in bed 8-]
