November 2006 - Posts

Making XP feel more like Vista....

OK the reformat reinstall post will come soon, but in the meantime here's a collection of funky things you can add to your Windows XP box that brings some real productivity boosts (and some eye candy) until you try Vista.
  • Aero Cursors
    First up is those lovely Aero cursors that have superseeded the "Windows Animated" iconset i've used over the years.

    Download them from DeviantArt's LiLmEgZ97 submission.
  • TaskSwitchXP
    July 2004 was when I started the project for Monash (Refold?) and when i first came across this damm handy tool called TaskSwitchXP that takes over your ALT+TAB and adds so much more. Its matured over the years and the current v2.x releases are a godsend! Download TaskSwitchXP and try it out.
  • Unlocker v1.8x
    Something we've all come across (developers more-so) is files locked because its in use by other applications. This little beauty unlocks them and lets you get back to working without rebooting. Not only that, Unlocker will *detect* when a file is trying to be used when locked and popup a message on your behalf. While _not_ a vista addition its a godsend for anyone and I dont know what I was doing without this tool before (probably delaying whatever I planned on doing till the next reboot and forgetting about it later)... Download Unlocker
  • THEMES: Royale Theme
    not a huge fan of themes (most of the time i'm still running windows classic) but the new Royale and Luna themes will make a stock standard XP look more like Vista.

    Luna with White Start, Luna with Color Start, Luna with Orb.
  • EYECANDY: Luna Clock
    Nice luna clock & Calendar to lighten up your day.
    Download Luna RoyaLClock -> 2 in 1
Thats it for now, there's lots of other bits and pieces you can add (like a Vista Drive space Indicator) and even better be able to slipstream the above so they are there when you install windows. I'll post that up tomorrow or Friday:-)
posted Wednesday, November 29, 2006 12:22 AM by Thushan Fernando with 3 Comments

FIX: Office 2007 Installer - The windows installer service cannot update one or more protected windows files.

Uni's over (yayy!) for another year (*doh* still one more to go!) so its time for the bi-annual reformat and reinstall of the main box. I'll write a proper blog post about how you should do this later, but I came across an interesting dilema just now trying to install Office 2007.

Before actually starting to install the product the setup stalled with:
The windows installer service cannot update one or more protected windows files.
I was a little stunned, this is clean installed box. So I checked the Event Viewer: 
Product: Microsoft Software Update for Web Folders  (English) 12 -- Error 1933. 

The Windows Installer service cannot update one or more protected Windows files. SFP Error: -536870654.  

List of protected files:\r\nc:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin\fp4autl.dll
Ah ok, this is a customised installation of windows (I'll post how this happend later) and its looking for the frontpage extensions which (in this install) doesnt exist. So how to fix? Simple, download a copy of the missing file from DllDump, place it into the c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin\ folder and retry installation!
posted Saturday, November 25, 2006 12:48 PM by Thushan Fernando with 26 Comments Rated Excellent [5 out of 5].

Windows PowerShell RTM's

I've been hooked on PowerShell since first joining the early previews (ahhh the memories of BetaPlace!) and just yesterday MSFT released the final version. Go download PowerShell!

For a good introduction and concept tour of PowerShell take a look at the ArsTechnica guide 'A guided tour of Microsoft Command Shell' from over a year ago (pwoahhH!)

Some cool stuff to try...
  • cd ~/Desktop
    Takes you to your Documents & Settings Desktop folder 
    PS C:\Documents and Settings\Thushan Fernando> cd ~/Desktop
PS C:\Documents and Settings\Thushan Fernando\Desktop>
 -- OR --
PS C:\Documents and Settings\Thushan Fernando\Desktop> cd /
PS C:\>
  • Autocomplete
    Autocomplete by hitting the [TAB] key and PS will cycle through the files in the directory. 
    PS C:\>./ [TAB]
  • Get PS to talk!
    No this isnt BonziBuddy, you can get PS to talk via the SAPI.svoice COM object... 
    PS C:\> $vce = new-object -com "SAPI.spvoice"
PS C:\> $vce.Speak("Mmmmmm yummy yummy in my tummy")
1
Eh thats it for now I'm meant to be revising...
posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 2:56 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

Office 2007 available on MSDN

Microsoft released Office on MSDN today.

Office Professional 2007 (English) English 11/12/2006 7:00:50 PM
Office OneNote 2007 (English) English 11/12/2006 7:48:14 PM
Office Groove 2007 (English) English 11/12/2006 8:06:59 PM
Office InfoPath 2007 (English) English 11/12/2006 8:21:34 PM
Office Project Professional 2007 (English) English 11/12/2006 8:58:25 PM
Office Visio Professional 2007 (English) English 11/12/2006 9:26:33 PM

So if you have a subby get your coppy...
posted Monday, November 13, 2006 11:24 PM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

Trailer: Simpsons Movie trailer...

Simpson's movie trailer is available on (you guessed it) YouTube so go watch it (hurry before it gets removed!).
posted Monday, November 13, 2006 4:13 AM by Thushan Fernando with 1 Comments

.NET Framework 3.0 Final Released!

I'm studying in the library so I have to make this quick...

Microsoft just released .NET Framework 3.0, remember that you dont need to "port" your code to use 3.0 (its additions to 2.0)
Enjoy! Dont forget to remove older CTP's! The .NET Framework 3.0 Readme is also available!

Samples are available too!
posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 2:17 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

Mental Note: If you steal a PS3, dont post pictures!

Whats the most exciting thing thats going to happen sometime soon? Vista you say? Maybe, but more people would be wanting to jump on the PS3 bandwagon... Guy by the name of "Hanniballs", steals a PS3 from a Kiosk, decides to be ubber-cool and post it on a Mustang car forum. Dont believe me ? checkout the cached/mirrored pages. But the funny thing about the internet is that its full of trails, so pretty sooon people workout who he is and what he looks like.

Next thing you know...



posted Monday, November 06, 2006 11:22 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

Whats new in Windows Vista?

Forget MSFT marketing hype, forget the freebies - tshirts, cups, mugs, hugs... just look at Wikipedia's Features new to Windows Vista! Very indepth and has got alot of the major features (and some that havent even been mentioned in many of the articles floating around!)

on the subject of Wikipedia, watchout for the new trend of inserting Malware in articles.

November 30th we'll finally see Vista + Office 2007 being released... If you cant get wait and want to join the hype for the other operating system, go buy a (Big) Mac:p
posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 2:14 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments