HL tech solutions

F11 = Recovery Partition

2008-09-01T23:07:00.001-04:00

Well only when the recovery partition is set to active. :(

Set the recovery partition active to enable the F11

START/run/compmgmt.msc and press enter
select Disk management
Right click the recovery partition
Mark partition as Active
restart pc.

Uninstalling a hotfix using Recovery Console

2008-09-01T23:03:00.001-04:00

Original from:http://windowsxp.mvps.org/spuninst.htm

From the Recovery Console, you can not just run the spuninst.exe from within the $ntuninstallkbXXXXXX$ folder.

Within the recovery console you need to do navigate to the spuninst folder and then do:

batch spuninst.txt

When the Recovery Console Password does not work.

2008-09-01T22:58:00.001-04:00

This registry edit causes the Recovery Console not to ask for a password. This works for both XP Home and XP Professional.

Start | Run | Regedit
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Setup\RecoveryConsole
Set the DWORD SecurityLevel value to 1
Exit Registry and Reboot

MICROSOFT'S "ULTIMATE STEAL"

2008-08-22T16:30:00.008-04:00

In today's economy we can all use deals like Microsoft has released on their Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95. The only catch is that you do need to be a student. Maybe it is time for you to finally sign up for that class you have been talking about taking. If you are a procrastinator, you will need to decide before the end of 2010 to purchase at this price.

If you need a refresher on what is included in Ultimate... here it is:

Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
OneNote
Groove
Publisher
Access
InfoPath
Accounting Express

Don't forget to check the Additional Products. They have VISTA Ultimate Upgrade for only $64.95.

So for those with a student, it is a deal you should not pass up. Click here http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/ to go to Microsoft's website for more details.

WINDOWS HOME SERVER DESKTOP RECOVERY ROCKS!!!

2008-08-05T00:14:00.002-04:00

A customer that has Vista Home Premium with SP1 installed, went out and purchased Ulitimate Upgrade. He proceeded to install and got a warning message that it could not be installed over a SP1 without wiping everything. Unfortunately the customer proceeded with install and lost everything.

Then he called. Via the phone, we booted the desktop from the Desktop Recovery CD included with WHS and in about 10 minutes the “Recovery Wizard” comes up. After a few clicks of “next”, it does a complete recovery from the WHS backup.

HAPPY CUSTOMER.... PRICELESS!!!!

IPHONE RETURNED

2008-08-05T00:12:00.004-04:00

It had some really great features, but at the end of the day.... the features I needed for it to replace my business pda were just not there. The key features that we will be watching for Apple to correct are:

calendar issues... inability to invite people to a meeting; update the notes field and have it sync with Outlook (nice to have of color coding meeting blocks)
email issues... inability to sort/search; inability to mark a email as unread
notes issues... inability to sync notes (would be happy if they came over with a hard sync)

So back to the Apple Store they went. But we did come out with one iPod Touch, so my wife will have access to her email and calendar (although limited), not to mention the aps!

IPHONE ACTIVESYNC: EMAIL

2008-07-26T00:23:00.003-04:00

A quick review of what you can not do with the new iPhone sync's with Outlook email...

Cannot mark as unread after opening
Cannot collapse the folders. Therefore, all folders in the exchange account mailbox show up except Calendar, Contacts and Tasks
Cannot search or sort the inbox
Cannot delete series of emails, have to delete one at a time

A few positive notes on the topic...

Emails look more formatted or wysiwyg even with exchange 2003 as the back end
Push work great
To conserve battery you can set iphone to “fetch” at 15 min, 30 min, 60 min or manually

IPHONE ACTIVESYNC: CALENDAR DISAPPOINTMENTS

2008-07-24T10:30:00.001-04:00

Since the iPhone is primarily a consumer product and most consumers do not schedule extensive ‘meetings’, it appears that the meeting features are non-existent on the iPhone calendar.

1. Appointment category colors are not included with the iPhone calendar.

2. Appointment busy, out of office, free, tentative color indicators are also not available in the iPhone. The appointment is same color on the iPhone regardless of any changes to appointment.

3. Appointment indicator for repeat appointment is not available on the iPhone. If you edit an appointment on the iPhone you can see repeat.

4. Appointment indicator for meetings with attendees does not show up on the iPhone.

5. Cannot create a meeting request (inviting others) on the iPhone.

6. The first created appointment with a note does sync with Outlook. Although adding notes in an appointment on the iPhone does not sync to outlook and if notes are edited on Outlook it will overwrite the notes on the iPhone.

7. A appointment created on the iPhone which overlays an existing appointment does not sync to Outlook.

The notes issue with the calendar is a major concern for me (additional edits of notes in a iPhone appointment do not show up on Outlook). I enter my billable information via my handheld and ‘expect’ it to update my Outlook where I then print out to bill from.

Update: Have had several people refer me to the following link:
http://sites.google.com/site/iphoneexchangeissues

IPHONE ACTIVESYNC: TASKS

2008-07-24T00:05:00.003-04:00

Nope, iPhone does not sync Outlook/Exchange tasks.

IPHONE ACTIVESYNC: NOTES

2008-07-24T00:03:00.003-04:00

LOL

iPhone does not sync Outlook/Exchange Notes over the air or via usb.

IPHONE FIRST THOUGHTS

2008-07-23T15:08:00.004-04:00

These were our first observations/thoughts after having the iPhone for about an hour.

1. www.dslreports.com/mspeed

a. iPhone 193 kbit/sec

b. Xv6700 164 kbit/sec

2. Nice 3.5 inch screen

3. Exchange

a. 12:12 click exchange email setup on iPhone
b. 12:18 data entered (have to get used to the keyboard)

c. 12:22 iPhone sync’d calendar, contacts and email

d. Where it shows domain\user, had to enter just user name

e. Did warn about certificate with a accept option.

4. GPS is cool

5. Web browser more cool

6. No flash for camera

7. Screen shows finger prints

8. Olga’s in Woodland Mall ... one bar on my Verizon phone and two bars on AT&T phone.

CONNECTED, DISCONNECTED or OFFLINE

2008-06-07T00:54:00.002-04:00

Quite often we get called from a user that is no longer sending or receiving email with Outlook.

Our response now is “In the bottom right hand corner of Outlook, does it say “Connected, Disconnected or Offline?” Most cases the answer is Offline, which then is a simple click of the word Offline and another click on ‘Work Offline” to uncheck this setting. Outlook now tries to connect to exchange again and 98% of the time will now show Connected and email starts flowing again.

FABULOUS TOOL!

2008-03-11T13:04:00.004-04:00

Showing html code within your blog can be cumbersome to have it actually show properly. Centricle.com has created a simple encoding tool (click here for the link) to do the work for you. Enter the code you want encoded and click on the encoding button and like magic, it is done. Copy the encoded text into your blog and you are all set!

Note... It will look odd when you paste it, but it will come out correct in the "preview" mode.

I used this for the coding done in the blog SHOW/HIDE BLOG NAVIGATION BAR.

Enjoy!

SHOW/HIDE BLOG NAVIGATION BAR in BLOGGER

2008-03-11T12:32:00.006-04:00

With a little html coding you can choose to show or hide your blog navigation bar on your blog page. See the show/hide in the upper right corner of this page.

Here are 3 simple steps to add this to your blog page:

Paste the following html code between your <head>...</head> tags:

<script type="text/javascript">
var showHeader=false;
function ShowHideNav()
{
showHeader=!showHeader;
var nav=document.getElementById("navbar-iframe");
if (showHeader)
{
nav.style.visibility="visible";
nav.style.display="block";
}
else
{
nav.style.visibility="hidden";
nav.style.display="none";
}
}
</script>
<style type="text/css">
#navbar-iframe {
visibility: hidden;
display: none;
}
</style>
Add a Page Element (HTML/Java Script) to your blog page where you would like the show/hide navigation to appear.

Paste the following html code within this Page Element

<span style="cursor:pointer;" onclick="ShowHideNav();">
Show/Hide Navigation
<a a style="visibility:hidden;">
</a></span>

That's it! Enjoy!