stilldrey

right before my birthday i fired up our television from our bedroom on media center through my tiger pc’s hdmi connection.

having a 32” monitor was nice but one screen?  what i really wanted in the office was multiple screens.  so for my birthday i ordered two lenovo 22” widescreen displays.

they are a little different in screen resolution, but the great thing is i can drag media center (or another task) to the secondary monitor (placed to the left of the main monitor) and continue to work on the main display.

so now that i’ve got a 64 bit build of media center and a hauppauge wintv-hvr-950q upstairs and a 32 bit build of media center and a hauppauge wintv-pvr-usb2 in the office (why 32 bit?  the hauppauge wintv-pvr-usb2 has windows 7 32 bit drivers but not 64 bit drivers) we’ve returned the majority of our television to media center.  i use the xbox as an extender in the family room.

the setup on the xbox with windows 7 couldn’t be easier (although i will admit this was just as easy with windows vista).  the system i’m connected to is on a smaller tv in the bedroom with a wired connection to the xbox in the family room.  we watched hd recordings just fine from the family room.  now all i’m waiting for are tuners announced at ces to replace the capability of recording up to four shows (or more importantly taping three shows and watching a fourth).

this last picture was taken on another birthday gift (hint – it’s not the digital camera) which is even cooler than i had originally hoped.  more on that next week…

for the past 2 years i have lost the televisions in our home to a competitor.  my wife (and i must admit this isn’t just her) became interested in simplifying the mess of cables, wires, remotes, etc. to just operate the television so media center and the large hp media center computer was no longer hooked up to our big screen tv.  soon the same fate met the tv in the bedroom.  now that windows 7 has media center built in and with the ces announcement about cable card tuners coming out for it, i am regaining at least a couple locations with computers and media center.

1.  my office

i just got two wide screen monitors so that i can do a multi monitor setup (watch tv and still have a monitor for work, play, whatever)

2.  our bedroom

a tiger direct pc i purchased recently with 8 gb of ram has a hdmi connection.  ironically this single connection is again simplifying the connections, wires, etc. to keep my better half on board with the media center pc on tv.

pictures coming soon!

windows 7 is so good it even solves problems the average user might not know how to fix.  case in point – my laptop won’t record sounds from the built in microphone (not that big a deal until your company starts using your laptop as your phone!  now it’s really important!)

no sound when recording

in the past you might have to try to figure this out on your own.  with windows 7, just search for audio and one of the results is find and fix audio recording problems

my system is not recording audio, so i ran the recording wizard…

internal microphone is what i was trying to use

windows 7 detected the internal microphone was not the default and fixed it for me!

at cwug (chicago windows user group) this evening i demoed the office 2010 click-to-run home and business edition (which uses app-v virtualization to stream and cache the software locally) and we also had some fun viewing the new web apps and editing powerpoint and excel documents online.

editing a powerpoint 2010 document online

one of the best parts of working at microsoft is access to these kinds of technologies early on – now both office 2010 and the web apps are available as part of the public beta.  check them out http://www.microsoft.com/office2010.

in dekalb, il there’s a great little vietnamese restaurant called bea’s wok n roll and they run the business on a windows xp embedded register and application.

bea’s wok n roll

my daughter’s first grade class has a smart board interactive white board and is using a windows xp tablet with smart’s notebook software.  i spoke to my daughter’s teacher and she agreed to let me come in and talk to the kids about technology.  i brought a dell xt tablet and an acer 1420p touchscreen with windows 7, live essentials, the windows 7 touchpack and office 2010 on them and showed the kids how windows 7 multi touch works.  we looked a live photo gallery and resized pictures.  we used internet explorer 8 to resize web pages to make them easier to view or read and finally we ran the globe application to find the student’s school.  the first graders then showed me how they have been using the touch capabilities to learn math.

first graders using a smart board

i just got back from a trip to phoenix to visit family (more on that later) and had a very short but useful windows 7 todo list while i was there.  my cousins’ computers weren’t connecting to the home wireless setup and exhibited the following behavior shown below trying to connect to my mifi device:

clicking on the open network and sharing center was the next step in troubleshooting this message

and then clicking on manage wireless networks

notice that the sprint mifi was using wpa2-personal (i changed it to wep to reproduce this problem).  by removing it i was able to have my cousins reconnect to their home wireless with the new credentials

with the old information removed, i can now click on the mifi device

click connect and provide the new security key

life and access to the internet returns to normal (whew!)

now my mifi is using wep key (not as secure but compatible with older devices that don’t support wpa or wpa2)

i just discovered a blur feature in powerpoint 2010 that makes it pretty easy to mess with someone in a presentation.

1) start with a title slide and then save the title slide as a JPG

2) next import the JPG into PowerPoint 2010

3) under artistic effects blur the picture

4) then choose to animate with the picture on top of the slide immediately

5) now when someone looks at the first slide it looks ok, but as soon as you present it blurs

let’s see how this works in my next presentation at work!

having the windows explorer shortcut on the taskbar in windows 7 is really helpful, but most of the time when i’m opening it for work i wish i was in my documents library.  if you are like me, this week’s tip should be very interesting to you.

right click on the explorer icon and then right click on the windows explorer icon and click properties

edit the target by adding shell:documentslibrary click ok and you’re done!

you can also select other libraries with this same method:

shell:pictureslibrary

shell:musiclibrary

shell:videoslibrary

so it’s early january and i usually spend some time updating what the family has been up to in the past year.  this year i’ve decided to look forward to what we will be doing in 2010 – as a family, at work and for fun.

1.  today a friend put the following as their facebook status: 

Put this on your status if you know someone with Autism. All I wish for 2010 is a cure!! Dear God, I pray for a cure of Autism, Amen 93% of you won't copy and paste this Will you for just one hour, FOR MY SON HUNTER???

i hope to make 2010 the year where i can focus on others and those in need.

2.  supporting the american brain tumor association.  technically a 2009 donation, i plan to continue my support of abta.org in memory of edward green.

3.  trip to phoenix, az to see my grandma audrey - we named our daughter after this amazing influence in my life.  everyone is heading out to see her this year.

4.  bowl for kids sake – in march everyone will participate in this charity for big brothers big sisters.  you’ll see more on this shortly – stay tuned!

5.  trek 100 – eva and i plan to ride in the 21st trek 100 (june 12th, 2010).  mike grimm let me know about the ride at my first cowalunga and eva and i participated two years ago on a short ride and last year made the 65 mile ride (100k) together.

6.  cowalunga 2010 – on saturday, august 7th eva and i plan to ride on the cowalunga to support the respiratory health associate of metropolitan chicago.  it’s up to a three day ride – we just think a day of riding is enough.

7.  sometime between biking this summer, i will upgrade all of the family computers to office 2010 using click-to-run.

8.  movies!  eva and i see a number of movies in the theatre.  here is our list for 2010 (up in the air was our new years eve choice, so it’s the only thing i’m bringing with me into this look forward to 2010 from 2009)

• avatar (technically the first time i saw this eva wasn’t with me – but we’re planning to correct that soon!)
• it’s complicated
• up in the air

9.  influencing others to greatness.  whether this is as a father, son, leader in toastmasters or as a big, i plan to focus energy on influencing others to make 2010 the year they volunteer, donate to charitable organizations and help others.

10.  and finally 2010 will be the year of the video podcast and screencast.  some of the tips and tricks that i’ve posted will go viral through the chicago windows user group site – stay tuned for more information.

hope you have a prosperous and enjoyable 2010!

taskbar preview from the keyboard – windows key + t

most people love the taskbar preview of multiple windows or documents in windows 7, but did you know you can access it from your keyboard?  press and hold down the Windows key and then the t key to highlight the thumbnail previews – press t again or the left or right arrows to move to the next item on your taskbar  and then you can use the up arrow and your left and right arrow keys to navigate to a specific thumbnail.  really helpful for multiple windows and/or tabs in ie8!

on my regular system this have never presented itself as an issue, but what about on a netbook with limited resolution?  windows 7 allows the alt + tab results to wrap in the list.

alt + tab results on my workstation

usually the main culprit for me to even consider this limit is internet explorer windows.  i typically have 10 or more sites open at once.  the average number has increased since i started using direct access (internal sites are available wherever i access the internet).  internet explorer 8’s tab feature allows me to cut down on the number of alt + tab (and with windows key + t i can still get previews of all the tabs i have open – even in 1 internet explorer window)

pressing windows key + t even with multiple tabs open on windows 7 shows you each tab as a thumbnail – up arrow and then right and left arrows allow you to navigate the previews from your keyboard.

here’s another installment of my public windows 7 wednesday tips.  we’ve been providing weekly tips internally for 18 weeks and many of those same tips will be reproduced here (as well as new ones).  here are 7 tips to ring in the new year:

#1 use internet explorer 8’s inprivate browsing mode for online banking, shopping, etc.

even on my home computers i use inprivate browsing as an added measure of security when conducting online banking or going to any shopping sites that cache my logon and purchase information.  in private browsing doesn’t save cookies, temporary internet files or history.

#2 direct access – change the way you access your work network

this has been my biggest productivity boom in 2009.  i am working from my home network today and my computer has full access to the microsoft network (the screen shot below shows mysite at microsoft).

microsoft has some great documents posted on what direct access is and even setting up a pilot.

direct access executive overview

direct access technical overview

demonstrate direct access in a test lab

direct access design and deployment guides

#3 windows 7 calculator

my counterpart dan orum came up with this one, but if you haven’t discovered it for yourself, it can been very helpful.  windows 7’s calculator can calculate your mortgage, lease as well as full ecomony!

#4 window 7 speech recognition

If you don't feel like typing, use windows 7 speech recognition to do your typing for you.  it can even replace your mouse – switching programs for you!

#5 windows 7 troubleshooting

control panel – troubleshooting can assist with many common computer problems and even take corrective steps connecting to a network or with your computer’s power settings.

#6 powercfg.exe – how energy efficient is your laptop running windows 7?

want a report of how your systems is using power?  access an elevated command prompt, type in powercfg – energy and wait 60 seconds…

#7 windows 7 gadget – traffic by bing maps

and finally a tip for all of you commuters out there – the traffic by bing maps gadget.

there’s a lot to choose from…

this time of year everything looks pretty good on the roads but usually this comes in handy.

you choose the area you wish to monitor and a small and larger image are available – you can bring a gadget to the forefront by pressing windows key + g

that’s it – have a happy new year and hope you’ll be back to visit in 2010!

on december 21, 2009 edward l. green lost his battle with brain cancer.  he had fought valiantly for almost 4 years.  we began at microsoft on the same day (october 31, 2005) and worked alongside one another for 6 months before he was diagnosed.  edward was a coworker, a spiritual brother and a great friend.  today was his funeral and he will be missed as was evident by all the people who spoke today.  read more about edward in this previous post.  edward – your legacy will live on in those that knew you as a brother, son, father, grandfather mentor, boss, coworker and friend.

mark russinovich and bryce cogswell published desktops v1.0 just over a year ago.  i recently tested it on a non production windows 7 computer (my trusty netbook) and it worked well with a couple interesting exceptions:

1) the virtual desktops didn’t have the full aero effects (thumbnails were previewed using the windows basic scheme – although aero snap seemed to work ok)

2) alt + tab didn’t seem to be working

3) up to 3 virtual desktops are available

4) the program runs in the notification area but doesn’t have an “exit” function

other than these issues the program allowed me to organize various programs on separate virtual desktops and switch between them using configurable hotkeys.

right clicking on the desktops icon and clicking options allow some basic functions to be configured

hopefully a version that supports windows 7 will be released, but if you can’t wait and want to experiment it runs on windows 7 and is a single exe so it’s easy to remove (delete desktops.exe – that’s it!)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx

ever want to connect to another computer running windows 7?  i’ve got a desktop at home running 8 gb of ram, so i configured remote desktop services to allow connections from a work laptop.

the first thing i had to do was configure my new desktop computer to allow remote desktop connections in control panel - system

then choose the types of connections and optionally select users that have rights to connect remotely

on a desktop or laptop that is set to sleep or hibernate, you are given a warning to turn that off.

from my work notebook (which doesn’t have 8 gb of ram of a gigantic hard drive) i used the remote desktop connection program to simulate a local windows 7 experience by changing a couple settings under options

the first setting was under local resources to allow recordings using my laptop’s microphone to be saved remotely to the desktop computer (this also enables telephony applications like office communicator)

the other setting was under the experience tab.  i selected desktop composition so i have the thumbnails on the taskbar programs and other windows 7 features that i have become used to within my session (you can also choose a faster connection speed and certain capabilities are turned on automatically)

once i connected to my computer remotely i now have the windows 7 desktop experience from where ever i have my laptop.

how cool is it to record a sound file from a system remotely?

playback also works remotely just fine.