I know it’s been a while since my last post but I recently purchased my first home and have been pre-occupied with everything surround that process. It’s pretty stressful and very time consuming but worth every minute of it. The wife and I are very pleased. Anyway on to the post…

I’ve been using Windows 7 as my main operating system for 2 months and 5 days (66 days) and I am still very impressed. Not only does it run smoothly but I’ve yet to encounter the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death”. Windows is notoriously bad for requiring reboots all the time for just about everything but this has not been the case for me. I only occasionally have to reboot when there are security and/or feature updates from Windows Update that require it.

I’ve also been testing the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows XP Mode. Both of which run fantastically well on my system. Unfortunately, at least for testing purposes, all of  applications I use work fine on 7 so I don’t have much use for XP mode. Although, I must say, the application integration in XP Mode works quite well even for apps that do work in Windows 7. Even my work doesn’t have a whole lot of legacy software that would require such a feature but I am sure some organizations do.

I also have 7 running on my work laptop so I can test in an Active Directory Domain environment. I am able to get most of my drive mappings, applications, and printers (with proper drivers) to work. There are, however, two minor issues I have encountered. One of these issues is not Windows 7`s fault but rather that of Cisco. We use a Cisco VPN concentrator for remote connections to the office and the Cisco VPN client does not support 64bit versions (of any Windows ) and requires a bit of trickery to get working on Windows 7 32bit. The second issue is the login screen. Once you have joined a domain, 7 automatically defaults to the login for that domain. Unlike XP, where you could choose the domain or computer from a drop down box on the login screen, you have to type in computer-name\username then your password to log in locally. I`ve yet to figure out how (or even if) this can be changed back to the old style.

All in all, my feeling is still very positive towards Windows 7 and I suspect this will finally be the next version for businesses and corporations looking to upgrade. Home users who were not happy with Vista should also be pretty satisfied with Windows 7 as long as the final version is as stable as the release candidate.

Cheers!
TheNerd

Windows XP Mode is a new virtualization feature to be available to Windows 7 users running the Ultimate, Professional or Enterprise versions of the operating system. This is basically a revamped version of Microsoft Virtual PC and a pre-configure Windows XP virtual machine.

The beauty of this set up is that you can have your XP applications run just as if they were installed in Windows 7. There is a folder created in your start menu that allows you to launch these applications with a single click without having to load the XP virtual machine manually each time. In effect, the XP virtual machine will be running in the background when these applications are being used but it’s transparent to the user.

As of the present time, XP Mode is still in beta and requires you to download and install Windows Virtual PC. Both are freely available as beta versions from the Microsoft website. The requirements to run XP Mode are as follows:

1. Windows 7 (Ultimate, Professional or Enterprise)
2. Hard disk: 2GB for installing Windows XP Mode. Addtional 15GB of hard disk space for the virtual Windows environment.
3. A processor capable of hardware virtualization, with AMD-V™ or Intel® VT (use this handy little application to find out if you have this capability)

If all these conditions are met you can download XP Mode, Windows Virtual PC and install them. I’ve been using this set up for a few days now and it’s very handy to run some older applications that do not work well under Vista or 7. You can also use Windows Virtual PC to create new virtual machines or run existing ones that were created with older versions (it even runs my eComStation 2.0 RC5 vm).

Cheers!
~TheNerd

I’ve been running Windows 7 RC (Build 7100) for a few weeks now and I must say that I am quite impressed. I had more problems with Vista (RTM) in the first two days after installation that I’ve had in the whole three weeks I’ve had 7 installed.

I’m running it on my desktop computer which is made up of the following components:

• ASUS M2N-E Motherboard
• AMD Athlon X2 4200+ CPU (Dual Core 2.2GHz)
• 4GB DDR 2 RAM
• ~1.5TB of disk space (2x 500GB, 1x 250GB, 1x 160GB)
• Sapphire RADEON X1650 PRO Video
• DVD Drive
• 2x 19″ LCD Monitors

The hardware worked right off the bat and I did not need to install any drivers to get going. Once I had set things up and looked for some Windows updates there was an updated driver for the video card which I installed but reall didn’t notice a difference.

As far as software is concerned, everthing appears to be working more or less as expected. The only software that has caused me problem was Call of Duty: World At War, which tried to get me to install Direct X 9 which failed and then wouldn’t load. There might be a way to get this running but I haven’t looked into it at this time.

Lastly, I am very impressed with the stability and robustness of this OS. It’s not once given me a blue screen or crashed in any way. The only time I’ve had to reboot was after some Windows updates.

All in all it looks like Windows 7 will be the OS to go with, at least for home users. I’ve yet to test it in a business capacity but I suspect that it will fair pretty well running enterprise software in a corporate networked environment. It’s much improved compared to Vista and can even run on some hardware that Vista had trouble with. Hopefully Microsoft will continue along this path and continue to create operating systems of this quality (hopefully the RTM version will be as good).

Cheers!
~TheNerd

So you have a mobile phone but don’t want to pay for a texting (SMS) package or can’t afford the ~ $0.15 per message the carries are charging? There’s a really simple way around it. Most wireless carriers provide an online web form where you can send messages to any of their customers, free of charge (to send but watch out in case the recipient gets charged for incoming messages).

Here are the links:

• Rogers (apparently works for Fido customers too)
• Telus Mobility
• Bell Mobility
• Koodo
• Solo

I only have experience using the Telus service because my wife is a Telus Mobility subscriber so I can’t guarantee any of the others work. I guess one can’t complain too much because it’s free.

This is for all the Stargate fans out there! A teaser from the upcoming Stargate Universe series.

I’ve never been one to worry about where my items are located on the taskbar and my philosophy has always been: “If there are too many times on your taskbar and you can’t find stuff you should probably close some applications.” But, since I’ve started working at my new job I’ve realized how this is not always an option for some people.

The users at my workplace require many applications open at the same time to work with various systems related to customer support, sales, and service. Most of these applications are actually web based so they have numerous browser windows open at the same time (we use both IE and Firefox). Because of the workflow of the various aspects of their job it’s good to be able to place items in the taskbar in a logical order where they can find things more easily.

This is where Taskbar Shuffle comes in to play. It’s a small application that runs in the system tray and uses only about 4mb of memory at any given time. It’s also very easy to configure. In fact, most of the time the default installation will provide you with all the settings needed to get you going.

Here is a screenshot of the settings screen with the default settings from a fresh installation:

This little utility is great for those people, like the ones at my workplace, who like to customize their work space. Our users don’t even have admin access to their computers but they can at least use this for some control.

Overall this is a very neat and functional utility and I recommend it for anyone who has the need (or want) to customize their taskbar items. The best part is that it’s completely free! For more information and to get the latest version visit the Taskbar Shuffle website.

A little over a year ago I wrote an article on a defragmentation utility called UltraDefrag. At that time it was in version 1.3.x and worked quite well. I wasn’t overly fond of JKDefrag at that time but since then I have been using JK off and on and it started to grow on me.

The thing I like the most about JKDefrag is that it’s small and is one simple executible file. You can put the file on a CD, USB stick or floppy disk and all you need to do is click it and let it run. It comes in x86 and x64 flavors and the souce is available in a package on the site too.

When you download and extract the files from the archive you will see that it contains four files. The first is the GUI version (JkDefrag.exe), the command-line version (JkDefragCmd.exe) and the files required to run it via a screensaver (JkDefragScreenSaver.scr + JkDefragScreenSaver.exe ).

If you are a regular user like me you will probably use the GUI version on an as-needed basis but the command-line version is great for folks who like to run things using the Task Scheduler or similar methods. If you move files around a lot you may want to try the screen saver to have it defrag when you aren’t using your computer.

One of the great things about JKDefrag are the options available to customize the way it runs. If you use the Run dialogue or a command prompt to load the program you can append some switches after the name of the executable to make it do certain things. A typical session for me looks something like this: jkdefrag -a 7 c: d: e: f:. The -a 7 switch tells JKDefrag to “Optimize by sorting all files by name (folder + filename)” and to do this on the specified drives.

You can, however, go much more in depth. There is an -e switch that allows you to exclude files by providing a mask and there is a -s swtich to tell JkDefrag to slow down by a certain percentage. Of course these are just a few examples of the many switches that can be found in the documentation.

These days I use JKDefrag as my primary utility to defragment and optimize my drives. I’ve yet to use the 2.x series of UltraDefrag but the last time I did try it there were issues running the 64bit version on Vista because of an unsigned driver. This issue does not exist with JKDefrag.

Here is a screenshot of JKDfrag in action. Althought the GUI is not overly appealing it’s how good it is at it’s job that makes it a great utility to have in your toolbox.

JKDefrag Home Page

JKDefrag in Action

I’ve recently returned from Toronto, Ontario where I was on a training course provided by Interactive Intelligence. Interactive Intelligence provides Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions for businesses of all sizes. This particular course was titled Interaction Center VoIP Professional Bootcamp. A bootcamp it was.

The course ran from 8:30 am until 10 pm and consisted of a one hour lunch break and an hour and a half dinner break. Most days we skipped the dinner break so we could finish up around 8:30 and go for dinner without having to worry about getting back to class.

I’ve been on a few training courses since I graduated from school, a few years back, but this was definitely the most challenging to date. Not only was there a lot to soak in, but I had almost zero experience with VoIP technology to boot. The only experience I did have were basic administrative skills that I picked up at my new job from my co-workers. I did have the benefit of two co-workers who already had passed the course and still had last year’s course material available so I could pre-read it before taking the class.

Because Interactive Intelligence’s systems are very diverse in what they support (i.e. VoIP, TDM, PRI, SIP etc) I had to pay close attention to the other classmates when they were having informal discussions so I could learn a bit more about telecommunication systems in general. Of all the technologies I’ve experienced and worked with over the past few years, telecommunication systems were not one of them.

My lack of knowledge may have helped me in the sense that I could focus solely on the solution I was being trained on without getting all mixed up with other technologies. It definitely made it much more difficult to understand some things but I managed to muddle through it.

Our exam on the last day was pretty intense (to say the least). It began with a written test that had 42 questions. The second part was to install the system from scratch with the specs provided on a sheet of paper. For the third, and final, part we had to leave the room while the instructor went and broke three things on our system. It was quite stressful but in the end I passed with very good marks.

The whole trip was very much a rewarding. I added another certification to my portfolio, I learned a ridiculous amount and it was fun. I would like to thank Chris, our instructior, for creating a great atmosphere for learning and Microsoft Bob for providing comic relief. It was a pleasure meeting the rest of the class too and it was a great bunch of people to have around during such an intense experience. I have a funny feeling Derek is still crying (from laughing so hard) over the whole Audio Activated Hacker incident.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s article where I talked about transitioning from eDirectory to Active Directory, today’s artcile is about adjusting to the new style of organization I work for.

As you probably know already, I recently left my position with a government organization to re-join the ranks of the private sector. In a previous article title “I need a new challenge” I talked about why I was unhappy in my former position. You can consider this as a follow-up to that artcile as well.

Transitioning to a new employer is not always easy or fun but if done right can be a very rewarding experience. This happens to be the case with me with the added benefit of fun being part of it too. My new job is with a private company based in New York but I work in the Canadian office which also happens to be the support center for this organization.

Some of the problems I had with my old position were the red tape, lack of montivation, and un-willingness of management to move forward (on almost everything). Other factors included lack of comminucation, disfunctional teams and so much segragation of duties that no one knew what anyone else was doing.

My new job has been much different. My new manager is very helpful, knowledgeable, and hard working. Which is a complete change from past management. I’ve already been registered for a training course in Toronto that costs more than all the training I received with government over the entire five years I was there.

The biggest improvement is that I now feel like I’m part of a team. I must point out that my team size went from nine in my old job to only three (that I work with directly with but it’s essentially bigger because of other groups we work with very closely) where I am now. Regardless of the size it’s nice to finally be able to ask questions without being shut down. I’m also able to make decisions and not have to worry all the time that I’m doing things the wrong way. My peers and superiors appear to appreciate my knowledge and education enough to trust me to do things right. This is a HUGE plus over my last job where I was always second guessed and nothing was ever done right because certain people looked down on me because of my “Help Desk” position.

Finally, one of the things that impresses me the most about my new job is the passion that everyone has about their work. When things break we not only fix them but we spend the time to understand what caused it and how to prevent similar problems in the future. In my last job we just fixed things and didn’t spend the required time to learn why it broke in the first place. This shows that my new co-workers have much more pride in their work than my last ones did.

Not everything is a peachy as it sounds. There’s always the worry about the economy and what will happen to the company but this is an acceptable risk to take when the rest is so much of an improvement over the last.

For the greater part of the past 5 years I’ve worked mostly with Novell’s eDirectory and related services. I thought it was a great combination but I’m starting to realize how much better Active Directory is.

Now, as I get settled into my new position at my new company I’ve started to realize how much I actually missed working with Active Directory.

In the past I thought that eDirectory and NetWare was the way to go. It seemed reliable, fast, and easy to administer. For the most part I guess it was but Active Directory works that much better.

In my old environment we had NetWare servers, eDirectory for authentication and user related stuff, and GroupWise email. My new company uses Windows servers, Active Directory and Outlook/Exchange for email.

One of my main complaints about Novell was that it required client side software to connect to the services (Novell Client) where as Windows already has a built in client for Active Directory logins (I don’t care about Client Services for NetWare). What is the point of using a system that requires extra overhead of another client when there is already one built in. Not to mention the endless problems that arise because of NDPS/iPrint, NMAS, NICI etc that have to also be installed for the use of a lot of NetWare/eDir services.

With NetWare based services you have to use three different tools to administer everything, ConsoleONE, Netware Administrator and iManager just to accomplish simple tasks. And most of the time they never work right to begin with. With Active Directory most of it is done in the Active Directory Users and Computers console.

Working with printers in NetWare can be a nightmare. You have to manage the Broker, Manager, and printer agents. In Windows you just set up the printer and connect it to the print server (usually by creating an IP printer port on a dedicated print server). There’s not as many components to deal with or to fail in a Windows environment.

Those are just a few things, I could probably go on for quite a while about all the short falls of NetWare but I won’t. I’m quite happy re-learning all of the things associated with Windows and Active Directory. The one thing that makes Windows so much easier to work with is Remote Desktop. It’s much easier working in a GUI session on a Windows machine than it is to muddle through the NetWare console and it’s text based interface.

I’m not saying that NetWare and eDirectory is all bad but now that I’ve re-experienced a Windows environment I’m hard pressed to find a lot of good to say. Maybe it’s because I’m enjoying the challenge and the new environment but I suspect these feelings won’t go away anytime soon.