Video: Share files between Windows 7 and your virtual Windows PC
Posted by: David
What you are trying to accomplish
Share a file from your Windows 7 computer to your Windows XP virtual machine (or other computer).
Video: Disabling Windows Firewall on XP
Posted by: David
Just some notes:
- It is very similar to this in Windows 7 and Vista if you have them.
- I think the video's will be a good idea in the long run.
- I will be posting Windows 7 stuff soon. I am working on making a Windows 7 installation video with a VM. Once that video is done, I can move on to using that VM to make other videos.
Video Tutorial: Renaming a computer with Windows XP
Posted by: David
Now, I understand this is very simple and may not be going to draw many hits to the site, but it is important for me to test my video making processes. Everything went fine, so I think I will make more in the future. Probably dealing with Spiceworks in a Windows XP VM.
Installing Crystal Ease for all users
Posted by: David
Why won't Crystal Ease install for all users?
There are two reasons why it might not be working even though you might have installed is successfully.
- You installed the software on a computer using an account that is not an administrator.
- If you did install it as an admin and can't get it to run on other accounts that is because Crystal Ease doesn't support all accounts to run from the initial installation without some modification.
What can you do about it?
A: You installed the software on an account that wasn't an administrator
- Uninstall Crystal Ease.
- Log onto an account that is a computer administrator.
- Install Crystal Ease.
- Enter your release code.
- Enter upgrade release code if necessary.
B: You installed the software as an admin, but want other users to have access to the program.
Since Crystal Ease doesn't support this necessarily, it won't be a popular solution but there isn't much for choices. Crystal Ease will always work on the account which installed it and entered the release codes. Here is what you do for other accounts that will use the computer.
- Go to C:\Program Files\Surfing Gecko Software\Crystal Ease\ (or wherever you installed it)
- Find CEV.EXE and make it a shortcut on the desktop of the account (or all users account) that will be using it. Delete the old shortcut
- When that user goes to open Crystal Ease for the first time, it will ask for the release codes. Unfortunately they will have to have someone enter in the release codes if they don't have access to them.
- Once someone has the release codes set up on their account on a particular computer they can continue opening Crystal Ease as they please.
Big time tip for success
Create a generic account for users to log into if you expect more than a few people to log onto and use Crystal Ease on a computer. This way you will only have to prepare Crystal Ease one time instead of doing it several times.
Word and Outlook are messed up whenever I open a new document/email
Posted by: David
What's wrong?
You opened up Word or Outlook and were going to type a new document or email but the format is all messed up.
How did this happen?
You accidently, or maybe not so accidently changed your template for regular blank documents.
What does a regular blank template mean?
Every time you open up Word or Outlook (which uses Word) you open up a blank document template. Normally this would just include a basic file with normal margins and nothing in it.
Some people change their normal template because they do certain jobs over and over so it was a good idea for Microsoft to allow you to edit that, but if you didn't know that you changed it or how it was possible to change it then you have a problem, and that's why you are here.
OK, so you understand what is going on but you just want to fix it.
Windows 7 Office 07
- First make sure you have your folder options set to view hidden files. You can search how to do that if you don't know how, it is very simple.
- Then, browse to your C: drive, then go to Users > Username > App Data > Roaming > Microsoft > Templates and you should see the normal.dotm file.
normal.dotm
- From here you should close Outlook and Word and make sure that they are closed in the task manager.
- Simply delete the normal.dotm template file. It will be recreated from scratch when you start Word again.
Windows XP Office 07/03
- Follow the same isntructions for Windows 7 and Office 07 but go to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.
- From here you can delete normal.dotm for Office 07 or normal.dot for Office 03.
Tip for success
Try to remember this can affect Outlook as well. Outlook uses Word to edit e-mails so it is important that you recognize this as a possible problem for similar issues with Outlook as well. Most people who use a computer wont understand this, so it is important to keep it in mind.
Have users run a batch file to find their IP Address
Posted by: David
Why have a user run a batch file to find their IP Address?
Simple, users don't know what their doing. Your CEO may be the smartest person you have ever met, but this doesn't mean they are informed enough about computers to find their IP address.
This is part of Network Support, being able to support your network, and preparing for issues where your users are having connection issues are hard to support without remote tools. Sometimes computers have trouble synching on the domain and other times users can swear they are connected when they really aren't.
The reason you make this a batch file is because while some users are computer literate and are able to follow along over the phone, others are near impossible. You know it.
How to make the batch file
- Open up notepad. Start > Accessories > Notepad
- Type in "ipconfig /all > c:\ip.txt"
- Save the file as ip.bat and store it directly on the C: drive
- Put the ip.bat file on all the computers you support
How to use the batch file
Scenario: User calls with connection issues, although they are able to access the Internet.
- Direct user to open up "My Computer"
- Direct user to open up the C: drive
- Tell them to look for the file named "ip.bat" and then double click it to run it
- If this didn't create a txt file on the c: drive called "ip.txt" then you are probably using windows 7. In Windows 7 you will need to right click the file and tell them to run the file as administrator
- Now tell them to open the "ip.txt" file and then request any information from an "ipconfig /all" command that you might possibly want.
Tip for success
Make sure the ip.bat file is on the computer when you send them out for deployment. That or you can create a policy that will make sure that file is placed on the computer.
If you want to go farther, you can put the file in the startup folder on Windows XP computers and it will generate a new copy of the ip.txt file every time the user logs on. This will take another step off the entire process.