Dell Dimension 4500 Hard Drive upgrade

Dell Dimension 4500 - Upgrading from a 40gb IDE drive to a 250gb IDE drive.

It would not format the hard drive with the Windows XP setup disk. It would always get to the point of formatting the hard drive, and then give an error that the hard drive may be full, corrupted, or damaged. I tried to format it with Partition Magic. It allowed me to format it, but still windows said that it had to try and format it again, and then would return the same error message. I took the drive out and formatted it in another windows xp machine. It successfully formatted, but still gave the same error when put back in to the Dell Dim 4500. I even tried to format the drive and begin setup of Windows XP on my bench pc instead of in the Dim 4500. It gave me a BSOD when put back in the original system.

I ended up using a disk that I found for Hitachi Drives to recalibrate them to their original size if Acronis clones it wrong. Inside of that disk there was an option to change the DMA of the hard drive. I changed it from the default ATA133 DMA6 to DMA5 ATA100 and then attempted the installation again from the original XP cd. It allowed me to format the hard drive and continue setup!

AVG Downloader - Where does it extract to?

HOW TO EXTRACT THE AVG DOWNLOADER FILE:

If you are installing AVG onto clients using the AVG Network Installer Wizard (Installation script mode), it might be necessary to extract the AVG installation files, to allow use of relative paths. The AVG installation file can be extracted the following way:


1. download the latest AVG installation file from the AVG Download page
2. rename the downloaded file from "AVG_xxx.exe" to "AVG_xxx.7z"
3. double-click on its name to extract it into the specified installation folder

If the 7zip application is not installed on your computer, please download the free version of this software here: www.7-zip.org and install it first.

Windows XP will not store network password

Windows XP Pro will not save stored Network Passwords

Symptom:
When you click the Manage my network passwords link in the User Accounts applet in order to add or remove the stored credentials, the Stored User Names and Passwords dialog opens, but the command buttons may be grayed out. Also, the Add button may be missing.

Resolution:

This happens if the security Policy Do not allow the storage of credentials is enabled.

To disable the Policy, use the steps below:

For Windows XP Professional
•Click Start, Run and type Secpol.msc
•Under Local Policies, select Security Options
•In the right-pane, scroll down the list and locate the following entry:
Network access: Do not allow the storage of credentials or .NET Passports for
network authentication
•Double-click the option and set it to Disabled
•Close the Local Security Settings window
•Restart Windows for the changes to take effect

Here is the registry key that stores the above setting

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]"disabledomaincreds"=dword:00000000

Google Calendar HELP

USING GOOGLE CALENDAR:

Adding events and controlling your calendar through SMS messages from your cell phone is a nice feature. Here’s how to do it.

First, make sure that your cell phone is registered with google calendar.
The Google Calendar SMS short code is 48368 or you can remember it as GVENT.

Then just message your events via SMS message to GVENT. The calendar understands SMS messages fairly well if you follow the formats suggested by google’s quick add feature.

Simple text like this works well: School Meeting tomorrow at 4 at TTC

You will receive a confirmation message if it works.
Sadly, there is no way to pick which calendar your SMS-submitted events go. It goes into your primary calendar only.

Other commands that you can SMS to google:
next – Will SMS you back you next appt
day – Will SMS you back your appts for that day
nday – Will SMS your next appts for the next day

REFERENCED FROM: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1357/google-calendar-use-sms-to-add-events-and-control-your-calendar/

Block the use of specific applications with Windows Server 2003

Block the use of specific applications with Windows Server 2003

Run - MMC
Add Snap In - Group Policy Object Editor
Browse to Domain Policy
User Configuration
Administrative
System
Don't run specified win apps.

Enter the name of the executeable file that you want to block such as YPager.exe for Yahoo Messenger.

Allow GOLSN.com at school

Allow LocalSalesNetwork.Com at school.

Plug these urls in to your allowed list in the router or firewall.
http://media.golsn.com
http://support.golsn.com
http://static.localsalesnetwork.com
http://www.golsn.com
http://www.localsalesnetwork.com

DCOM Server Error Related to Printer Drivers

DCOM Event Viewer - Errors related to HP Printers on the network. This is a result of having shared printers on the server that are no longer really on the server. For instance a shared HP Laserjet 1200 when there is no longer a laserjet 1200 model because you've updated to a 1400 model now.
　
STEP 1:
VIEW DCOM INFO: Start / RUN / dcomcnfg.exe

STEP 2:
1. Open registry using REGEDIT 2. Open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT branch 3. Search for the hex number {5A5AA0AA-1DEB-4683-96B0-B43301E83971} 4. When you get a match the folder name will give you a clue as to what program is causing this errror. 5. Go onto the vendor webiste and look for fixes

　
REMOVE PRINTERS FROM REGISTRY:　
There is a problem with NT printer definitions that may cause you problems. You follow standard advice to uninstall and reinstall the printer driver. Sometimes this doesn't fix the problem and you have no choice but to remove a printer. When you use the Remove or Delete Printer options in Print Manager, the printer connection disappears immediately. However, the spooler simply marks the printer for deletion. NT doesn't actually delete the printer until you reboot the system. Sometimes NT will delete the definition if you stop and restart the spooler. Sometimes it doesn't. If this doesn't work, and you will find out when you try to redefine the printer. No issue for workstations. You can reboot. Unfortunately there are servers which can not be rebooted (or at least not for something like a printer definition). For servers which can not be rebooted, you can remove the printer definition from the registry by hand prior to the reinstall.

If it is a local printer (My Computer), go to the following registry keys and delete the respective entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\ Windows NT x86\ Drivers\Version-2\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\


If it is a network printer (network printer server or \\), go to the following registry keys and delete the respective and entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers\Connections\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Providers\ LanMan Print Services\Servers\\Printers\

After the registry edit, you need to stop and restart the spooler service. At this point, you'll be able to reinstall the printer driver correctly.