Most of the online help says to open the [...]]]> Have you ever wanted more than one window open for PowerPoint or Excel? Say you want to be able to compare 2 charts or presentations side-by-side.  I have a system with 2 monitors and it would be very helpful to be able to have 2 windows.

Most of the online help says to open the documents.  You then see them listed on the task bar, but toggling between the documents just places them in the same window.

The first solution you will find is to just go to the View tab and select “Cascade”, for office 2007+.  This action will place the documents where you can see them both, but they are in the same window.  This still makes it hard to see both items at the same time.  You have to move things around, or shrink them down to sit side-by-side or up-and-down.  Not really what you want, but it works.

I did figure out a way to have 2 separate windows open at the same time.

1) Open the first document normally.  It would be easier if this is the document that you are editing or working with the most.

2) Start a Command prompt by typing “cmd” in the Start/run menu or search menu.

3) Figure out what time it is now by typing “time” at the command prompt.
C:\>time
The current time is:  9:34:42.83
Enter the new time:  <just press enter>

4) Start a new command window in a minute or so from the time shown, I went for 9:36.
C:\>  at 9:36 /interactive cmd.exe

5) Wait the minute or so for the new cmd window to come up and then manually start Excel or PowerPoint.  Remember to use the new cmd window, not the old.  Also, use quotes around the full path to the command.
C:\WINDOWS\system32> “c:\program files\microsoft office\office12\POWERPNT.EXE”

You can now navigate to the other document that you need and open it in the newly launched application.  Now stare and compare to your hearts content.

The built in windows command FindStr mirrors the capabilities of the Unix command Grep.

Findstr /? FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [...]]]> Something that I have needed for a while while working with Windows.  Most of the systems I have include cygwin so  until now I had not really needed a windows grep equivalent.

The built in windows command FindStr mirrors the capabilities of the Unix command Grep.

Findstr /?
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]
/B         Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
/E         Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
/L         Uses search strings literally.
/R         Uses search strings as regular expressions.
/S         Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
subdirectories.
/I         Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
/X         Prints lines that match exactly.
/V         Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
/N         Prints the line number before each line that matches.
 /M         Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.  Same as “grep -l”
/O         Prints character offset before each matching line.
/P         Skip files with non-printable characters.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/A:attr    Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See “color /?”
/F:file    Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/C:string  Uses specified string as a literal search string.
/G:file    Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/D:dir     Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
strings    Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename Specifies a file or files to search.

Example of using Findstr to search for multiple strings in succession within a log file.
findstr “ERROR Caused Fail” c:logslog.log

This command will search for the String ERROR then Caused, and Fail while parsing down a file. So if the file looked like this:
Line1: Error Script Failed
Line2: test1
Line4: Caused by process down
Line5: test2
Line6: Error2

The FindStr output would look like this:
Error Script Failed
Caused by Process down
Error2

I needed a script to gracefully shutdown and startup an application when the server was rebooted.  Again, not an issue so much with linux as you almost never HAVE [...]]]> Boy I really miss Unix sometimes.  Things that are so super easy in Unix/Linux are often a total pain in the butt in the Windows world.

I needed a script to gracefully shutdown and startup an application when the server was rebooted.  Again, not an issue so much with linux as you almost never HAVE to reboot. Windows you reboot like you catch a cold.  “oh you are not feeling well? Reboot twice and call me in the morning.”  Plus windows systems like to reboot every time there is any sort of patching going on.  So I needed to be able to have a custom script run to stop and start an application.

A startup script is a quick and easy way of getting a process running when the machine boots. The computer startup process will be affected by the time it takes to run the program, though, so you might want to ensure you call it with the START command from a batch file, or specifying not to wait for the executable to complete from whatever script language you use. (the key point there is: run the script asynchronously unless it’s critical, or doesn’t need to be run asynchronously cos it will always take no time at all. Long boots = unhappy users).

In Windows XP/2003 you will need to use the group policy editor which can be found under Start / Run / GPEDIT.MSC.    You will then need to navigate to Computer Settings -> Windows Settings -> Scripts (Startup/Shutdown) or something similar to be able to set a startup script.  You can see the scripts outlined in the scripts.ini file or add your own scripts to the Startup/Shutdown directories found under: C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\

Using a Win32 Service is an alternative option – you can use the SRVANY utility from the Resource Kit to “service-ify” pretty much any executable. VS .Net and later also let you build a managed service directly.

And Task Scheduler gets much more capable as of Vista/2008, able to run scripts at startup, on idle, when certain other conditions are met; it’s pretty cool. Task scheduler has the possible advantage of being able to specify the user account under which the task runs, if that’s important to you.

I hope this little tid-but of information can be helpful to those that need this sort of thing.

First, there is the “SUBST” command.  This command comes with the OS.  Of course I am talking XP and Windows 2003.  I would assume it’s still available [...]]]> Thought I would throw out some information on creating links in Windows now that this is the second time I had to go and look the information up.

First, there is the “SUBST” command.  This command comes with the OS.  Of course I am talking XP and Windows 2003.  I would assume it’s still available in the latest releases.  This command will let you create a Drive Letter out of a directory.

subst M: /d
subst M:  C:\music

The first line deletes the reference to the M: drive, just to make things clean.
The 2nd line create an M drive that actually links back to C:\Music on the hard drive.  Not sure how handy this can be.   It could find a way to be used to say copy a DVD to the harddrive, then create a drive letter so the application can find the DVD info. Sort of spoofing a DVD drive if needed.  I haven’t tried it, but that’s about all I can think of what it could be used for at the moment.

The next handy linker item I stumbled upon is a little executable called LinkD.exe .  This little gem will allow you to create hardlinks like Unix on your PC.  The executible is part of the old 2000 Resource kit, so not sure on how it acts on Vista or above.

I found just the executable here without having to download the whole resource kit.

To free up some space on my C: drive, I copied everything from C:\WINDOWS\Installer to H:\WIN_FILES\Installer.  However, Windows expects to find the Installer files on C:.  To allow Windows to find the needed files, I used LINKD.EXE to point C:\WINDOWS\Installer to H:\WIN_FILES\Installer. The actual command to do this is:

LINKD.EXE “C:\WINDOWS\Installer” “H:\WIN_FILES\Installer”

That’s it! All my files moved to another physical drive without any problems.

* Note that the order of the command args is different than the Unix ln command.

Thankfully I have been able to place Cygwin on most of the systems that I support.

I have, however, needed to be able to create a few batch files that would run [...]]]> I hate to admit on a Unix admin type Blog that I have been recently forced to work in the Windows OS world.

Thankfully I have been able to place Cygwin on most of the systems that I support.

I have, however, needed to be able to create a few batch files that would run on a scheduled basis for various things and had to learn the tricks of the trade for working in the DOS command prompt.

Personal Cheat Sheet.

: — (followed by a space), alternative for “rem”, starts a comment
^ — line continuation… like a backslash (\) at the end of the line in unix
& — command separator (cmd1& cmd2& cmd3), like “;” in unix
&& — only execute the next statement if the last one succeeded, like unix/perl
|| — only execute the next statement if the last one failed, like unix/perl

• Passing in command line variables/parameters

Batch files can only handle parameters %0 to %9, ie cmd.bat Foo Bar where in the cmd.bat Foo=%1 and Bar = %2

• For Loops
• FOR %A IN (list) DO command [ parameters ]

I did find this web site has tons of useful information on windows scripts.
The menu at the left will expand to show more info on each topic.

Finding system uptime
* net statistics server

Listing all of your systems drivers
* DRIVERQUERY /V /FO CSV > %ComputerName%.csv

Tigerdirect had a great sale on the units so I purchased one and a Gyrus Universal Media Center Remote.

From some message boards I read up on I also purchased the extra 1GB of ram for the Acer, so that 1080p [...]]]> My journey on setting up a Media Center PC on a Acer Aspire 1600.

Tigerdirect had a great sale on the units so I purchased one and a Gyrus Universal Media Center Remote.

From some message boards I read up on I also purchased the extra 1GB of ram for the Acer, so that 1080p video would be possible.  Although, I just found out that my TV is 720p/1080i which isn’t 1080p.  Oh, well the system should work just that much better.

I decided to just setup the Acer as is, with all of its standard components before I start adding on things.

My planned addons are:

1. The Gyrus remote
2. Wireless keyboard and mouse.
3. Wireless USB dongle (If this thing doesn’t have wireless internal.
4. The extra GB of RAM.

My software plans for now are

1. I-Tunes
2. XBMC for windows.  ( I know I probably could just install Ubuntu or boot from a USB drive, but all of the other systems in the house are PC, so I will stick with it for now)

First impressions.  Well, it didn’t come with a manual.  WTF! I guess I have to go find one.
I found the manuals online at Acer’s Web site.

I found a nice video on how to open the Acer Aspire on Youtube to add the memory.  Adding the memory was a bit tight.  I found that you need to shove the memory in at an angle then push down and snap into place.

The mouse and keyboard look cute, like small size Mac style and all white.  Good think I have an extra wireless unit available.  When I had the unit open I did see that there was not a wireless card installed.  I’ll have to go with the USB dongle for now.  I do plan on an upgrade for the house to Wireless N and I might just get a new internal card at that time.

I found that my keyboard was no longer responding, [...]]]> While browsing the web the other day and I was in the midst of entering a search term when an odd little window unexpectedly popped up. It was titled “Ruler”, and offered some options to check, such as “Snap to X/Y axis” and “Hide Tick marks.”

I found that my keyboard was no longer responding, so I clicked the peculiar popup’s close box and continued typing. All was fine until I had occasion to enter an upper case “R,” then suddenly the strange ruler window popped up again. What the hack was going on?
The ruler box is a feature of the Internet Explorer 7 Developer Toolbar add-on and for some reason is in certain versions of the toolbar and not others for various versions of IE.  Go figure?

To make the Shift-R ruler “feature” go away, I typed Ctrl-Shift-J and the Shift-R now works as it should.  You may need to bring up the Developer Tool Bar before hitting the keys strokes to make the change take effect, by selecting View | Explorer Bar

There Word, Excel, and Powerpoint from Micro$soft that are usually very expensive.

There is also money management software, project planning software, and graphic software.

Well there is a solution for small [...]]]> There is a ton of software a new business sometimes feels that they must purchase right when they are starting off a new business.

There Word, Excel, and Powerpoint from Micro$soft that are usually very expensive.

There is also money management software, project planning software, and graphic software.

Well there is a solution for small businesses that are starting out is to use Open Source Software.
There is a great web site that lists all of the commercial software along with it’s Open Source Alternative.
Check out Open Source Alternatives web site.

They will show you stuff like
Expensive App             Free Apps
Photoshop                   The GIMP
VISIO                         DIA
MS Office                    Open Office
Illustrator, CorelDraw  Inkscape
Quickbooks                 Postbooks

There are many more and almost every big commercial application now has an Open Source alternative.  It is possible that you may need to be running Linux for some of these, but Ubuntu has become as easy to use as Windows or a Mac.

I found another Blog posting about 50 top applications and their alternatives.
The post was made early in 2008 so the software most likely has gotten even better since then.

Check out http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/