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Rebuilding a Mac Mini (early 2009) --- Update

A couple of months ago I rebuilt the family’s Mac Mini (you can read the details in this post). Things had gone pretty smoothly until a few weeks ago. That’s when my wife mentioned that different applications would spontaneously crash. She kept track for a few days, and it turned out to be any or all of the applications that she uses (Safari, Quicken, Entourage, etc.) . I did some online research and didn’t really find too much – but then how do you do a proper Google search for “Mac OS 10.5.8 applications...

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Posted On Saturday, March 19, 2011 7:27 PM | Feedback (0)

How to have Windows 7 remember a password for a Domain

About eighteen months ago, I wrote a post covering how to clear saved passwords in Windows XP. This week at work I was reminded how useful it is to not only deleted saved passwords, but to also setup wildcard credentials using this same interface. The scenario that I run into as consultant working at a client site, is that my laptop is not a member of the Windows Domain that my client uses to secure their network. So, when I need to access file shares, shared printers, or even the clients internal...

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Posted On Saturday, February 12, 2011 10:30 PM | Feedback (0)

Plugged in, not charging–Windows 7

Just a quick post on something I ran into lately with my Dell Precision M4500 laptop (monster laptop!). I noticed the little icon in the system tray for the power options was stating that it was “plugged in, not charging”. I don’t know why it was stating this, but I quickly found a fix for it on the net. I found the fix in this forum on CNET. Here’s the fix: In order to correct problems with the battery's power management software, follow the steps below. 1. Click Start and type device in the search...

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Posted On Saturday, February 12, 2011 5:59 PM | Feedback (4)

Rebuilding a Mac Mini (early 2009)

This weekend I decided to rebuild the family’s Mac Mini. It’s the early 2009 model and I hadn’t done it since we got it in March of 2009. Even worse, I had done the import data step (or whatever Apple calls it) which brought over all of the data files and apps from our previous Mac. AND that install goes back to before 2005, as far as I can remember. SO, to say that “cruft” had built up in the operating system, is probably a bit of an understatement. The rebuild went pretty smoothly, especially since...

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Posted On Monday, January 17, 2011 1:45 AM | Feedback (0)

How to organize your desktop and keep it that way

I’ve been using a utility for the last couple of years that organizes my desktop – Stardock Fences – and I was going to write up a review saying how cool and useful it is. However, others have already done that here and here (and many more via Google). So instead of rehashing those reviews, I’ll just say this: I find that the hiding icons feature and the screen resize features are great when I’m using my laptop for presentations. I’ve used this utility on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 R2, and Windows...

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Posted On Saturday, September 04, 2010 6:17 PM | Feedback (1)

Google Search tips & tricks

Over the course of using Google for the past ten years, I’ve found several tips and tricks to using the search engine. This post covers the ones that I’ve found most useful. Limit your search to one site Have you ever tried to find something that you know must exist on a particular site? This happens to me when I’m looking for info on Microsoft’s site. So, I’ll often enter a search term into Google and then add “site:microsoft.com” . Google will then only return hits that are on the *.microsoft.com...

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Posted On Wednesday, September 01, 2010 7:32 PM | Feedback (0)

Windows Live Sync….being renamed to Windows Live Mesh

Microsoft announced that they going to change the Windows Live Sync service in the future, answering one of my complaints from my earlier post. After the beta, Microsoft is going to rename Windows Live Sync to Windows Live Mesh, but more importantly, increase the size of the SkyDrive size from 2GB to 5! (Courtesy of Paul Thurrott and the Inside Windows Live blog)...

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Posted On Friday, August 27, 2010 2:48 PM | Feedback (1)

Windows Live Sync (Beta)

I decided to install the new beta of Windows Live Essentials, mostly for the new Sync app. I also got Live Writer, which has the newer Office style ribbon User Interface. (Here’s the Windows Live blog announcing the beta in June. There was a beta refresh last week.) I’ve been using sync apps for a while now, starting as far back as 2004 (IIRC) with Folder Sync (a company/app which was later purchased by Microsoft). When Live Mesh appeared, I switched to it, primarily so I could not only sync to other...

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Posted On Monday, August 23, 2010 5:02 PM | Feedback (0)

Calendar syncing

I’ve been syncing my calendars for years. If you’re interested in why I am using Google, then read the history section, otherwise skip down to the how to section of this post. History For past six years or so, I’ve been using Plaxo to synchronize my calendar and contacts between my work computer and my home computer. My work computers have been Windows XP/Vista/7 with Outlook 2003/2007/2010, so I used the Plaxo Outlook Toolbar to sync calendars and contacts. At home, our main family computer has...

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Posted On Wednesday, August 18, 2010 10:40 PM | Feedback (1)

How to move an off screen window back to main screen on Windows 7

Ever had the fun of trying to see a window that is open, but off your screen? I ran into this again this week. I have a second monitor hooked up to my laptop most of the time, but when I undock my laptop, I’ll inadvertently leave windows open on the second monitor. It’ll also happen when I open an application and it launches on the second window (because that’s where it was last open). The fix for this is to get the window to move back to the main screen. In Windows XP, you’d simply right click on...