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Downloaded and installed the latest security and critical updates for my Windows Server 2003, restarted, and WLM decided to not sign on. The odd thing was that it was actually connected to the .NET Messenger service, but it just won’t load up my contact list nor sign me on (the messenger icon was still swirling around for more than 20mins until I decided to shut it off). No error codes whatsoever and neither did it timeout by itself.

However, WLM seems to run fine after I installed all the updates on my Windows XP laptop which makes it even harder to pinpoint the fault. Tried GAIM but it crashed the moment I added an MSN account and tried to sign on. So I’m back to MSN 7.5.

To top it of, I’ve got a very sore throat and it’s..

.. a scorching 36 degrees now! :(

If there’s anyone with similar WLM symptoms and have solved it, do let me know..

Edit: It’s now working again, check here for the steps to fix it.

      

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When you install IE7, it automatically replaces IE6 which can be annoying if you need to use IE6 for certain sites which have restrictions on the browser version or when you want to check for cross browser compatibility while developing websites. (credit to HMMaster for googling it for me :P)

There are a couple of ways to get around this, but I found downloading the standalone IE6 to be the quickest and easiest fix to get around this. You can get it here.

If you have not installed IE7 and want to try it out but not replace IE6, you can get the IE7 standalone instead here.

via Tech-Recipes.com

      

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If you have ever partitioned your hard disk, Partition Magic would probably be the application you used for it. It’s probably the de facto software to use for doing anything with partitions with a very low chance of any loss of data (I personally have never got any issues on data loss/corruption). Unfortunately, Partition Magic isn’t free.

I recently tried out GParted (stands for Gnome Partition Editor) to repartition the hard disk on my Ubuntu server box. As opposed the Partition Magic which runs only on Windows, GParted can be used regardless of the operating system installed. It boots up via a CD or USB (which you can choose from the site) and is able to support the file systems currently in use by Windows and also Linux.

Its interface is very similar to Partition Magic, so it shouldn’t be too difficult if you have prior experience with the former. I managed to delete a redundant FAT32 partition I had and resized my /home ext3 partition without much drama. After restarting, everything was in a perfect order, so I don’t really have much to complain about.

Try it out if you’re looking for a free, open source alternative to Partition Magic.

      

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If you’re always having to use public terminals or friends’ PCs, you definitely would have been in a position where you wanted to or had to install an application to get some stuff done. In another situation, the applications might have already been installed on the machine, but the settings isn’t configured to how you want them to be, causing heaps of time wastage in reconfiguring it (and risking the wrath of your friend or sysadmin).

With USB thumb drive storage capacities skyrocketing in recent times, you can now have those applications you need stored in it, ready to be used right away with Portable Apps. The list of applications being made portable seems to be growing so there is a chance more applications will be added soon if the one you’re after isn’t listed. All portable applications are open source and seem to be updated fairly regularly.

However, with more and more traditional desktop applications being turned into web applications (e.g. Writely, Google Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, Meebo) as well as internet access being available almost everywhere, I  believe the only portable application worthwhile having on a thumb drive would be Firefox Portable since everything else is available through the web browser. Hmm, I think I should stop before I start contradicting myself..

      

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Although Microsoft has already posted a knowledgebase article which I’ve posted about here, RemoveWGA does the removal process seamlessly just by executing it and thus should be worthy of mention.

After removal, Automatic Updates would probably prompt you to install it again, which you would have to choose ‘Custom installation’ and explicitly choose not to install it and ignore that update. Steps on how to do so can be found here (the screenshots are in French though).

I recently used it on my laptop to remove the WGA notifications as it recently kept hitting 100% CPU usage the moment Windows starts up and stays that way for a couple of minutes. After removal, everything seems back to normal again leading me to assume WGA is the culprit. I don’t think I’ve come across this behaviour being reported anywhere, but I can’t verify that on my desktop either as it’s running Windows Server 2003 which doesn’t have WGA notifications. I’ll be interested to know if anyone else experiences the same thing though. ;)

Edit: It wasn’t WGA to blame, but Microsoft Update instead. My bad. :| I’ve written about it here. 

      

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Yet another embarrassing moment for Microsoft. :P

IEd_PtdPQjI

via digg

      

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If you have the Home version of Windows XP, try following the steps here and you could end up with a Pro version (I have not tried this before, so do it at your own risk :P).

via AsenDURE @ Corner of 11th & 20th

      

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Here’s MSFN’s brief description of nLite:

Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger…How about not even to install them with Windows ?

nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows setup. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn’t include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.

With the release of version 1.0 final, it should be relatively ’stable’. ;) Haven’t had the chance to try it out yet, but I’ll give it a shot sometime soon. It would’ve been a great time saver if it had been released earlier judging by the amount of formatting and setting up of PCs I’ve done over these years. :(

via MSFN

      

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Here is the knowledgebase article courtesy of M$ themselves. There have been rumours that they would be releasing another version soon which would stop your Windows from working if you are using an illegal copy, although I highly doubt that would happen.

      

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This free public beta has been out for quite sometime now, but I just got my hands on installing and trying it out yesterday. ;)

A pretty radical interface has been introduced to replace the standard menus/buttons/toolbars that have been ubiquitous in all previous generations of M$ Office. Initially I found the toolbar buttons layout to be a little confusing, but after a while, you do notice that the developers have carefully placed the mostly used features right in the main interface allowing you quick access unlike previously where browsing through multiple stages of menus were necessary to get some simple things done.

I’ll probably need more time to give a more solid assessment of it, but I don’t seem to dislike it so far. Will post up updates on it as I use it more often or if I find anything worthy of mentioning.

I’ve been told by some friends that Outlook 2007 Beta is very buggy, so you might want to stay away from it if you have been relying on Outlook 2003 or previous versions as your main email client (I use Gmail’s web interface for email, so I currently don’t use any standalone email client ;)).

Here’s a screenshot of M$ Word 2007 Beta:

You can download and install Office 2007 Beta here, or if you would like to just try it out without having to go through the hassle of downloading and installing, you can try it here. More screenshots can be found here.

      

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