Windows Vista automatically tunes it's network settings to make the most of the available bandwidth. In some scenarios Windows Vista can fail to connect to the network - this is often due to old routers which don't always quite follow the standards to...

Thanks to James for letting me know that there's an easy way to list and kill processes from the Windows Vista command line. Back in the days (pre-Microsoft) when I was an UNIX network administrator I often used the command "ps -ef" to list the running...

I recently set up a new wireless router at home and was disappointed to find that I couldn't connect to the network whilst upstairs. This didn't make a great deal of sense as I live in a house that's only ten years old so it's pretty much made of cardboard...

As many of you know Aero Glass is the name given to the beautiful high-end interface of Windows Vista. As we've released Beta 2 (build 5384.4) to MSDN (and very soon to TechNet - this delta will dissapear very soon) then many of you will be able to install...

Thanks to David Overton and James Senior for sharing the following... If you want to see what people are doing out there to make our OS look even better, look at these: (without modifying the OS) 3d cube based virtual desktop Rotation based Flip 3D Alternative...

I have recently qualified with PADI to use a Drysuit to dive in cold water. In order to submit the paperwork the dive company I took the course with require a couple of passport sized photographs. I wanted to know what the dimensions were for a "passport...

http://www.netcraft.com is an interesting site for a number of reasons. The site includes the facility for you to enter the URL of a site which you'd like to find out which webserver software is being used to host it. In addition to many other useful...

Earlier this afternoon I helped a friend (Tony) with a couple of Microsoft Outlook problems (mainly due to the immense size of his .pst file!) when I happened to show him a couple tricks of the trade. Tony has used Microsoft Powerpoint to present to audiences...

There's a free tool that enables you to view the contents of an ISO image and extract individual files. The tool is named "Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP" - it's not supported though so please bear that in mind. Browse here to download...

James and I demonstrated how to implement iSCSI earlier in the year whilst touring around the UK - many of the audience were keen to find out more. iSCSI is a cool technology as it allows you to share an area of disk on a server to other machines across...

This is the first part in a series of five blogcasts (video demonstrations showing you "how to") that look at how to secure a wireless network by configuring Wireless Protected Access (WPA) on both the Access Point (AP) and Vista/XP clients. Note:...

James , Andrew Fryer (new SQL/BI Evangelist) and I were helping a charity to implement some infrastructure yesterday when we encountered the following error: "Failed to create the configuration database. An exception of type System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException...

I'm a muppet! I've been using a Dell 820 laptop (other machines are available) as my main machine for six months and yet hadn't realised that it had a built-in smartcard reader. I've been using a PCMCIA smartcard reader instead. While I helped James debug...

Thanks to Mike Ormond for letting me know that the ringtones are stored in the following directory: My Device\Windows\Rings Bizarrely enough I can't "see" the \Windows directory from my PC when the mobile device is connected. Initially I used the "File...

The information in this weblog is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. This weblog does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer. It is solely my opinion. Inappropriate comments will be deleted...

That's easy - Windows SharePoint Services is a free download for Windows Server 2003, Office Sharepoint Server 2007 is a product we sell. Following my post detailing how to fix the " failed to create configuration database " post about Windows SharePoint...

I'm sure you're probably familiar with the term ITPro but just incase you're not then it means people who are paid for Technical work on Information systems. Is the term "BlackHat" familiar to ITPros in the UK? Please hit the "Feedback" button for this...

Following my how much power do each of my household applicances use you may be wondering how to measure the power consumption of your own devices both at home and perhaps at work too. I used a device very similar to the plug-in main power and energy...

*Amendment - thanks to those of you who commented that you require Exchange Server 2007 to take advantage of the functionality I discuss in Outlook 2007* I'm about to head out on holiday for a couple of weeks and have used the Out of Office feature...

Following my earlier post How to run Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 on a machie that's already running Vista/XP I thought it worthwhile to explain a nice feature of Vista and Server 2008 which enables you to dynamically resize disk partitions without...

Windows XP (and Server 2003) rely upon a series of "Master Keys" to protect both user specific secrets (including EFS and S/MIME key) and computer secrets (such as IPsec keys and SSL keys). The Master Keys are themselves encrypted with a "computer startup...

I received the following message from a friend on Facebook earlier: "Not sure this is true but.....If somebody called bum_tnoo7@hotmail.com adds you DON'T accept it because it's a hacker. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds...

There are a wealth of third party CD Burning utilities out there on the market though not everyone has one on their machine. Windows XP can natively burn files to CD without any additional software HOWEVER it can't create a bootable CD. I'm upgrading...

Please let me know what techniques you've found useful to tackle the growing menace of malware. Do you find techniques such as using low privilege for day to day operations to be something you can achieve? Running as non-admin should theoretically...

Eileen's posted a nice concise description explaining "what is RPC over HTTP(S)". As we move away from requiring Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as a transport we gain flexibility, a better user experience and a reduced...