04.07.07

Taking Ownership of Files in Windows XP

Posted in Windows at 8:31 am by Hyphven

This is my first entry here. My name in RL is Luke and I am a college student and I work at Best Buy as a Geek Squad Agent. I plan to share some of the very helpful bits of knowledge that I pick up.

The owner of a file or folder in Windows can change any privileges of any users. Taking ownership of a files has a number of uses. I find it most useful when recovery data off of a hard drive. You can get at those files that give you the Access Denied error.

Anyways…First you must disable simple file sharing. You can only disable this in XP Pro. There is different process to take ownership with Home. To disable simple file sharing open My Computer, open the Tools menu and click Folder Options. Open the View tab and uncheck the simple file sharing.

Now you can right click on the folder/driver/file you want to take ownership of and the magical Sercurity tab appears. If you are running XP Home, you can get the Security tab to show up by starting your computer in Safe Mode. You don’t have to worry about turning off Simple File Sharing.

From the Security tab click the Advanced button and go to the Owner tab. Please note that you must be logged in as the user that you to be the owner for the file. Click on the User or Group that you want to be owner and check the Replace owner on subcontainers and object box. If a dialogue box pops up about copying the current privileges do so and copy them.

Now you can back out the security tab and set permissions however you want to the folder. IF you are recovering data give your user at lease Read. I would recommend Full Control. BE CAREFUL when setting permissions. Do not use Deny, its rarely necessary. It IS possible to lock yourself out of the folder permanently if you set the wrong permissions, so I am just saying, Be Careful.

I hope you found my first entry enlightening. I hope to make at least one post month, highlighting something new that I have learned. Thanks for reading!

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

03.20.07

Save As v.s. Print

Posted in Microsoft, Windows at 2:11 pm by Keith

Problem: In Windows XP when you try to print a dialog box opens asking you to Save As instead of printing.

Solution: You don’t have your default printer selected correctly. You probably have Microsoft Office Document Image Writer or Adobe Acrobat Writer selected. To change your default printer go to Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes, right-click on your printer and select Set as Default Printer.

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

03.02.07

Windows Protection

Posted in Microsoft, Windows at 3:09 pm by Keith

A coworker sent me a Windows XP error she got today; it speaks for itself…

automatic updates

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

02.27.07

Y2K7 pt. 3

Posted in Microsoft, Windows at 4:30 pm by Keith

Y2K7 pt 1
Y2K7 pt 2

Since the last episode of daylight savings time fun I’ve learned a couple things.

First, Microsoft’s Time Zone Data Update Tool is really crappy, and the server version is even worse. They are supposed to be releasing a new server version soon, but I’m not holding out any hope that it will be a magic fix. The tool is supposed to fix calendar entries that are incorrect during the 4 week extended DST period, but it behaves unpredictably. It moves some correct entries, moves some incorrect entries (as it should), ignores some incorrect entries, and ignores some correct entries (as it should). In short, it has the potential to create a much larger mess than it proposes to fix.

On the smart phone front there are now patches available! I’ve tested the Windows Mobile patch and it installed OK (haven’t done much testing beyond that yet). I haven’t tested the other patches but I haven’t heard about any problems. Here are links to the smart phone patches:

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

Another Upgrade?

Posted in Hardware, Microsoft, Windows at 3:45 pm by Keith

I rebuilt Paul’s computer about four months ago. I don’t remember the machines exact specs, but I put a 2.66 Celeron processor in it along with some new memory. I got the following from him today:

Hope all is well with you. I just wanted to check with you on my computer. It seems to be working ok, but a tad slow. Should I stay with it for a while or get a new one?

Here is my response:

Paul,

If you are OK with current computer then go with that, it should run well for quite a while. If it is slow I can send you specifications/prices for a new system. Windows Vista is out now, so if you are anxious to give that a try it is available. Windows XP will be updated/supported by Microsoft for AT LEAST another year, so there is no problem with continuing to use it.

Sorry my advice isn’t totally clear but it is really a matter of preference at this point. If you want something newer and faster let me know and I can help you out. If you are having problems with your current system I can help with that as well.

One thing to consider with your current system is whether the slowness is a result of your slow internet connection. Is it only slow for e-mail and web pages? Or is everything (Word, Excel, etc.) slow?

Keith

I would love to build a new system for him and make some money but I have a feeling that Word, Outlook, and Firefox (the only programs he really uses) will run at about the same speed on a new computer. The real problem at this point is his dial-up connection, but I told him that four months ago.

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

02.09.07

Backup & Delete a Windows XP Profile

Posted in Microsoft, Windows at 9:49 am by Keith

Sometimes a Windows profile will get really hosed or even totally corrupted. Deleting the profile will allow a fresh profile to be created the next time the user logs in, clearing up any profile specific problems.

First you must log into the computer with an administrator account that is different than the one you want to delete. If the user with the bad profile is the only administrator you can try logging into their profile and adding yourself as an administrator.

To backup the user profile:

  1. Open System in Control Panel (Start > Control Panel > System).
  2. On the Advanced tab, under User Profiles, click Settings.
  3. Under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to backup.
  4. Click the Copy To button.
  5. Click on the Browse button, select a location to backup the profile to and click OK.

To delete the user profile:

  1. From the same User Profiles window click the user profile you want to delete.
  2. Click the Delete button.

Now have the user log in with their normal credentials and a fresh user profile should be created for them.

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

02.08.07

Windows XP Screen Saver Password

Posted in Microsoft, Windows at 4:25 pm by Keith

Question: Hey Keith, Can you tell me how to make it so that this computer shuts down after, like 30 seconds if you walk away…and then it forces you to put in your password. You had this set up before, and it was great. I think people are using this computer when I am not here, and we need to just block usage…let me know if I can do it, but if not, it can wait until the weekend or so.

Answer: Start > Control Panel > Display > Screen Saver (tab) > set ‘Wait’ to 1 minute, make sure ‘On resume, password protect’ is checked.

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

02.07.07

Y2K7 pt. 2

Posted in Microsoft, Windows at 3:53 pm by Keith

Y2K7 pt. 1

I’m getting a better understand of the Daylight Savings Time issues. There are a couple tools available to deal with the problem. First is a Microsoft Windows XP patch. This patch will update DST on your workstation. I installed it Monday and haven’t had any problems with it. There is also a patch for Windows servers which really should be applied before clients get updated. In an exchange environment the next step is to update Exchange server software. This should happen after Windows is patched on both server and clients.

Patching Windows should prevent new Outlook calendar entries from being messed up, but you still have to deal with ones you have already created (both recurring and individual). Microsoft has released an Office Time Zone Update tool to update existing dates. The problem with this tool is that it can’t tell if individual Outlook (pre-Outlook 2007) calendar entries have been updated already. There is not time zone information on these entries so the tool has no way to tell if they need to be moved an hour or not. Recurring meetings have time zone information and should be correctly updated by the tool. The tool has the option to update both meeting types, or just recurring meetings. Microsoft is urging caution when using the tool to update single instance meetings. Particularly individual meetings created after Windows is patched, but before the server is patched will likely be moved an hour too far if updated by the time zone update tool.

To summarize, here is the suggested update order:

  1. Patch server OS
  2. Patch Desktop OS
  3. Update Exchange (CDO)
  4. Run TZMOVE to update meetings
    • Options:
      • Meeting Type
        1. Recurring & individual meetings
        2. Recurring meetings only
      • Update Point
        1. Centrally/Server
        2. Locally/Client/Individually

On the smart phone front it looks like an update will be available February 12th. Verizon told me that the system time is updated by the network and no software update is needed, but I don’t think I believe that.

I’ll update as more information becomes available.

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

02.02.07

Y2K7?

Posted in Microsoft, Software, Windows at 3:31 pm by Administrator

Congress in its infinite wisdom has made a largely arbitrary change to the rather arbitrary Daylight Savings Time system as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November) than what had traditionally occurred. To accommodate the DST change, most systems must be patched. Otherwise, timestamps will be off, and some applications may fail to work. This could effect a variety of systems including operating systems, servers, cell phones, routers, and databases.

I’ve just begun digging into Microsoft’s documentation on this issue, so more info to come, but there seems to be some nonsense about updating enterprise servers before enterprise workstations. I also am really unclear on how this effects Windows Mobile smart phones. Hopefully I’ll get those parts worked out soon and get back with a follow up post…

More info: edgeblog, Microsoft

Y2K7 pt. 2

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

04.24.06

Custom Screen Resolution

Posted in Windows at 2:11 pm by Administrator

From Yahoo News

Windows XP allows you to specify a large number of set screen resolutions based on what types of images your display can accept. However, in a few rare instances, you may want to specify a non-standard resolution for a clearer or more accurate picture. This tip allows you to do just that. It’s one of those tips that doesn’t seem all that handy — until you desperately need it. Plus, it’s just plain cool. If you have a wonky projector or TV screen you want to use with a laptop or PC, you might want to give this a try.

Here’s how it works:

1. Open RegEdit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VIDEO\
{the address of your primary video card…it often begins with “23A77BF7″}\0000\

2. The Default Settings.XResolution data value is the horizontal resolution, and the Default Settings.YResolution data value is the vertical. Double-click the Default Settings.XResolution data entry, select the Decimal radio button, and in the Value Data field, enter your desired horizontal resolution. Then do the same with Default Settings.YResolution to change the vertical resolution.

3. Exit RegEdit and reboot your PC.

Powered by Gregarious (34)

Share This

« Previous entries

Socialized through Gregarious 34
Close
E-mail It