foyleman

virtual windows – installing xp mode

Nov 072011

I ran into a position where I needed to check how a website would function across older versions of Internet Explorer. Being on Windows 7, the tools I used to use weren’t going to work for me. And since the site I needed to check had javascript, Flash and some other functionality I couldn’t use the free testing services that are available online (like Adobe Browser Lab).

The solution was to install a virtual copy of Windows. Then I could duplicate that system for each of the versions of Internet Explorer that I wanted to test.

Virtual Windows XP with IE6

Head over to the Microsoft page to Download Windows XP Mode with Virtual PC found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx.
Select your system and language.
Jump down to step 2 and download and install Windows XP Mode.
Return to the page and download and install Windows Virtual PC.
Restart your PC. It is very important that you do this.
In the Start menu, select All Programs > Windows Virtual PC > Windows XP Mode and follow the setup for Windows XP Mode virtual machine. By default, this will install Internet Explorer 6.

Duplicating your install and adding IE7

Open Windows Explorer and head over to C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines. You may need to show hidden folders to find this path.
Copy and paste the .vhd file in this folder. This is your virtual hard drive file.
Rename the duplicate file to something like “Windows XP Mode – IE7″.
Open the folder C:\Users\username\Virtual Machines.
At the top of Windows Explorer press the link to “Create virtual machine”.
Name the Machine “Windows XP Mode – IE7″ and click next and next again to continue.
Here, choose “Use an existing virtual hard disk” and select the duplicate you previously created.
Click Create.
Launch the new virtual machine by double-clicking the new virtual machine you just created.
Once it’s booted up, rename the computer so that there is no network conflict by going to Start > My Computer … System Tasks … View System Information … Computer Name … Change (to rename).
NOW you can add IE7 which I did by searching the Microsoft site for the download (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=2) and installing it.

Although the instructions above are somewhat abbreviated, I think there is enough to get the job done.

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takeover my screen

General 1 Response »

Apr 162011

I deal with some clients that sometimes need me to jump right in and take over their computer for a little while. This means I need software that can allow me to do this. Here are some options I’ve come across:

TightVNC
The original screen commander. VNC is an acronym for Virtual Network Computing. Once setup on the computer and the ports on the router are properly forwarded, this is an awesome tool for remote accessing a computer and doing what needs to be done. You can even find mobile apps for remote access.
The problem is that this require the client to know how to forward ports on the router. If the clients I dealt with could do that, they wouldn’t need my help initially.
GoToMyPC
This access software is all over the radio trying to promote itself as a way to work from home. It does work and it works pretty well. The lag is not that bad and the access is pretty painless.
The problem is that after 30 days they want your credit card. I wouldn’t mind paying if this was a regular part of my day. However I help about 10 clients a year and that in no way covers the cost of subscription.
YuuGuu
This software has a wild name, but it works. I found this a year or so ago and they had a free version that was easy to find. I think that’s when their software was still in beta. Now it’s pretty hard to locate their free download and if you do, it’s then hard to locate where to register your free account.
The problem with this software is that it’s the laggy-est of the three I’ve tried to date. You can work with it remotely, but expect a delay that sometimes feels a little confusing. If you know what you’re doing, no problem. If you’re feeling your way around trying to help someone when you don’t fully know what your looking for, you might get frustrated.
TeamViewer
This is some software that I’ve come across and would like to try based on a few glowing forums posts. They have a free version and they have a mobile application.

Other services that I have not had the opportunity to try:

LogMeIn (thanks Zeroy)
There does appear to be a free version available for this product, however there is no comparison of features letting you know what you don’t get. I also cant confirm if the free version is limited and requires an upgrade later.
RemotePC
Requires a monthly plan.
WebEx
Nice for online meetings, but expensive. I used this software briefly when it first launched and shortly thereafter moved to GoToMyPC. GoToMyPC was a better pay-for product at the time.

Also, here’s a nice list of product via Wiki. I’ve listed those products I’ve heard about above.

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Rsync for Windows

Hints No Responses »

Mar 262011

If you are looking for a way to Rsync a Windows machine to your Linux server, or visa versa, then you have come to the right place! This is a fast and efficient way to syncronize files between your web server and your PC. Only the files that have changes are synchronized saving you time and bandwidth.

*** The majority of this page was reposted from http://www.gaztronics.net/rsync.php. I cannot take credit for this outline. I am reposting this for my own record as I find this information very informative.

Preamble

I have created this page to help others who wish to use Rsync to backup M$ Windows based machines to Linux Servers or to other Windows Workstations/Servers. I hope you find this example useful. It is tried and tested. Once installed and setup, syncing is as easy as running the following command:
rsync -av –delete loginname@domainname.com:”/home/loginname/www/” “/home/foyleman/loginname/”

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pixlr is like photoshop in a browser

General No Responses »

Mar 252011

I was very surprised to come across this little application. Pixlr seems to work like Photoshop and it runs right in your browser. It’s free to use and seems to work pretty well.. with what little I’ve fooled with.

I discovered it while using a Chrome addon called LightShot. It allows me to take a selected screen shot. If I choose to edit the screenshot, the image is automatically uploaded to Pixlr and is ready for me to manipulate.

OK… It’s not as feature rich as Photoshop. But this little utility would be awesome if you were on the road, working from a laptop, need something quick…

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Chrome and cross browser syncing

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Mar 252011

A couple months ago I moved from FireFox to Chrome. FireFox was taking to long to start up and I was tired of waiting. Yea, I think the reason for it is the large history database, but I don’t want to have to think about that all the time.

Anyway, that brings me to a new issue I came across… and I think I solved. That issue is cross browser syncing of my shortcuts.

Apparently Xmarks is still in business and did not actually shut down. This is a great plugin that’s available for IE, FireFox and Chrome. The problem I ran into with Chrome is that sometimes Xmarks would encounter an error during syncing and I’d end up with my shortcuts being duplicated like 10 times.

If you run into this issue… here’s the fix I came across:

Open up Options in Chrome and disable syncing with Google.
Go to your Google Dashboard account and remove all your old data. Don’t worry. We’ll restore it in a minute.
Restart the Chrome browser and wait for Google to finish removing your old data. Check with Google in about 5-10 minutes until your synced data for Chrome is no longer listed.
In Chrome, go to Options and re-enable syncing. However this time deselect the option to sync bookmarks.

You should now be able to use Xmarks to sync across all your browsers and still use Google to sync your other data.

On a related note, checkout LastPass for syncing your passwords. It’s another cross browser option since Xmarks has apparently stopped syncing passwords too.

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Sorority Pillow Fight!

Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 242011

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

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Synergy between Win 7 and Mac

Hints No Responses »

Mar 232011

This took some doing, but I figured out a configuration setup that works with the latest version of synergy.

Mac OSX 10.6:

Download and install the latest version: http://synergy-foss.org/download
Download and install SynergyKM: http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergykm/files/Binaries/1.0%20Beta%206/SynergyKM-Beta6.dmg/download
Launch SynergyKM Installer and follow the instructions per Mac.
Under General, select “Connect to shared”.
Under Client Configuration, enter the IP address of the Windows 7 machine. **
Note the value for “This computer’s Screen Name” as you will need it for Windows 7.
Press Apply Now.

** Get your IP address from Windows 7:

Click the windows icon and in the search box enter “cmd” and hit enter.
In the windows terminal, type “ipconfig” and hit enter.
There, note your IPv4 Address as your IP address.

Windows 7:

Download and install the latest version: http://synergy-foss.org/download
Check the box “Server”.
Press Configure Server.
Drag a new monitor from the top right onto the screen where you want to use it (under the existing monitor).
Double click the new monitor.
Change the name of this monitor to the ”This computer’s Screen Name” as noted when setting up the Mac.
Apply the changes.
Start the server.
NOTE: sometimes it won’t start right away and I don’t know why. But walk away and come back and it will work.

Mac (again):

While the server is running on Windows, go to General and press Turn Synergy On.

You should now be connected.

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Popups in Firefox opening in new tab

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Aug 012010

I was having an issue recently with my FireFox browser related to pop-ups. If you use a WYSIWYG editor with pop-up editor windows, or you want to stream on Stickam, you need to open those windows separately from your browser. For some reason, FireFox found it necessary to open these windows in a new tab.

I don’t know what started this problem, but I did figure out a solution. Since I am using Windows 7, the links below may not look like yours.

Open windows explorer.
Navigate to your FireFox Profiles folder. Mine was:
C:Users[username]AppDataRoamingMozillaFirefoxProfilesumbvzbnq.default
In this folder, open prefs.js in notepad or other plain text editor.
Search for “browser.link.open_newwindow” in this file.

In performing the above search, I only found one entry, user_pref(“browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction”, 0);

Now the above entry means that all links will be opened in your browser according to the setting for “browser.link.open_newwindow“. This also means that all links will follow this rule. I don’t want ALL links to follow this rule, therefore…

Delete this line in your file.
Close your FireFox browser completely.
Save this file.
Open your browser again.

Now your browser will behave as it did when you first installed it.

Once I restarted the browser, I was back to the way I wanted things to be.

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modsonline upgrade

General No Responses »

Aug 272009

Many of you know I’ve been trying to get around to updating the MODSonline server. However, I’ve been putting it off for many reasons.

New servers mean additional expenses. I’m already paying a lot of the expense out of pocket and an upgrade would mean paying more.
I can’t just move to a new server without updating the backend that drives the site. And I can’t just update the backend without updating the server. The two together means… whew, more work than I care to think about.
If the work involved in the move doesn’t turn out to be more than expected, something will come up that is. (and it did, but that’s not for this post).

>======= Perhaps boring to most of you. skip down =======>

Trying to acquire a server that I think matches the requires of MODSonline, I ended up with difficulty in actually getting that server. I shop at ServerBeach for my servers. What I mean is that I (sorta) lease them from ServerBeach for a monthly fee similar to a normal hosting plan. The difference here being that I have full control over the entire server as opposed to a hosting plan which is usually shared with many other websites. I use ServerBeach because after shopping with many other providers in the past, I found them to be the most reliable and consistent. And reliability is really an important factor when it comes to a website you want to see running… regularly.

After having issues in picking my server (the right one for the job), I thought to check out co-location. This is when you purchase the hardware and plug it in somewhere. Why didn’t I follow through with this in the end? It turns out that reliable co-location costs about the same as a dedicated server. I’m not trying to lose money and create more work.. I’m trying to stay within a budget (that I can get away with because I always end up spending more than I can afford).

>======= Skipping done, read on. =======>

So finally, the server was chosen. I went quad core, 2Gb ram, larger storage and 100Mb net card (it was a 10Mb). The entire site WILL run faster and smoother. Download speeds should improve.

Of course, there is that thing that always comes up that makes a server move go from “simpler than expected” to ” ugh, this is killing me”. After talking with techno2sl, I realized there was something else that needed to get done.

Oh, what? You thought I was going to tell you? Sorry, no reason to ruin the surprise. You’ll find out by September 4th. Why that date? If I don’t finish the move by that date, I have to pay for two servers that month and… ouch.

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att not so sucky

General 3 Responses »

Jul 182009

I gave in and am spending the next 30 days testing an iphone. Now let’s backtrack and explain.

I’ve been a loyal customer of Verizon for many years now. It could possibly be about 14 years that I’ve stuck with the same carrier and it’s not because I have a thing for Verizon. It’s because I know from experience and other user experience that they have the most reliable service in the Northeast (USA).

Being a fan of gadgets a gadget freak, I’m always ready to jump on board the next greatest thing. However, Verizon really doesn’t allow me to do that. They don’t release new hardware right away and the hardware they do release is usually not as feature rich as the manufacturers originally conceived. For instance:

It wasn’t until about a month ago that Verizon realized their consumers like the availability of WiFi on their portable devices.
Want to install an application? It better first go through a year of testing by Verizon before being approved. And that’s the easy part from what I hear.
Tethering? I hope you know how to hack work around issues.

Aside from all those issues, I convinced myself it was the right thing to do to remain with a provider that was reliable above all other things. Then comes the iPhone.

My wife gave me an iTouch (iPod Touch) for Christmas last year. I fell in love with this new gadget. Not only is it a wonderful piece of hardware, it’s forever evolving thanks to applications. The ability to create an application and get it approved by Apple is so easy, anyone can do it. Heck, even I have a game coming out in about week (stay tuned for that bit of awesomeness). Applications to a gadget enthusiast freak such as myself is the equivalent of a bag full of gadgets.

The problem I’ve been having is that in order to get everything you can out of this new piece of hardware, you need to purchase the iPhone. And the problem with such a purchase is you have to sign up for an AT&T account as opposed to Verizon.

The plan was to head over to a Verizon store to see what kind of savings I could get out of my account by dropping services and then to head over to an AT&T store to see what kind of testing (try and return if I don’t like) I could perform on the iPhone. At the last minute I realized the short path was to head to the local Best Buy where all the services were available in one location.

*Note: I have found that if you know as much as or a little more than the service provider, they will drop all the bullsh!t and tell you truth. Rather then make sure they don’t lose any money from additional services (which I know they are specifically instructed to do), I had the guy telling me everything about the company and how to get the lowest bill possible in my situation.

*Note 2: In case you wanted to know, Verizon will be launching 4G in the 4th quarter of this year which could quite possibly mean future iPhones on the Verizon network about a year after that. Also, they are interested in getting involved in the Andriod phone business, but haven’t figured out how to go about it. Expect a response next year regarding this.

Let me cut to the chase. I am testing my iPhone for the next 30 days in which time I can cancel my contract with AT&T without penalty. So far, it works. The service isn’t as bad as I’ve been told. I might change my mind about this in another week, but so far… why did I wait so long? I’ll let you know what happens.

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