Windows 7: Disable USB Storage

In a number of environments, especially MPAA or DoD environments (in the US we rank nuclear bombs right up there with pilfered copies of unreleased movies, especially ones that cost a lot of $ to make), users should not be able to mount any local removable storage. While Group Policy is typically the best way [...]

Posted on February 1, 2010 at 8:00 am by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Windows Server, Windows XP · Tagged with: ,

Making Windows 7 Icons Transparent

I have to take a lot of screen shots. Therefore, most of my computers tend to have a white background (they used to be the xman the machine was named after but alas, I’m older and now they computers are all named after Backyardigans;). Sometimes it’s hard to see your icons in Windows 7 on [...]

Posted on January 30, 2010 at 1:22 pm by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Windows XP · Tagged with: , ,

Programatically Clipboarding in Windows

My last article showed how to interface with the clipboard in Mac OS X. Windows 7 comes with the same feature, but instead of pbcopy it’s simply clip. Since you don’t ls, we’ll pipe the output of dir into the clipboard: dir | clip Enjoy & no more complaining that I like one platform more [...]

Posted on January 15, 2010 at 8:00 am by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Windows XP · Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

Vista & Windows 7 Optimizer

There are a variety of simplistic tasks that can be performed to optimize a Windowz box. Disabling unneeded services and protocols is a great start, but there are tons of other little things here and there. Vista Services Optimizer (works on Windows 7 & Vista) is a nice little tool for those who don’t have [...]

Posted on December 4, 2009 at 9:00 am by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Windows XP · Tagged with: , , ,

Windows 7 HomeGroup

HomeGroup is a new home security feature of WIndows 7. HomeGroup resemble how you protect your home (an analogy I use in the Mac OS X Security book as well): Keep the outside doors locked and keep the interior doors unlocked (unless you’re on the crapper). HomeGroup can be initiated by any Windows 7 version [...]

Posted on October 22, 2009 at 11:07 am by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Windows XP · Tagged with: , , , , ,

Windows Server 2008 R2

Can you say virtualization? How about “better together”? Do you care about Hyper-V or Windows 7 integration right now? If the answer to either question is yes (and in my experience that’s not always actually the case) then you will want to check out R2. One of the biggest new features in R2 is one [...]

Posted on September 17, 2009 at 12:30 am by admin · Permalink · One Comment
In: VMware, Windows Server · Tagged with: , , , , ,

Making Windows 7 Look Like Mac OS X

Not sure if it is kosher to actually distribute a theme pack for Windows 7 that makes it look like Mac OS X.  But in lieu of doing so I can explain how it is done.  Basically, take your images from the icons of Mac OS X and copy them into files, copy them to [...]

Posted on July 1, 2009 at 12:01 am by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Mac OS X, Windows XP · Tagged with: , ,

Windows 7 in October

If Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard will be shipping in September then the earlier the better. The arrival of Windows 7 will come on October 22nd. Likely less than a month after Snow Leopard, Windows 7 is what many companies have been waiting for to get migration projects lit up. While there are a [...]

Posted on June 15, 2009 at 2:04 pm by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Mac OS X, Windows XP · Tagged with: , , , , ,

Windows 7 Themed XP

Seven Remix XP is a theme for Windows XP that will make it look eerily like Windows 7. So if you’re not yet ready to jump into running full on beta software but you want to get used to the look and feel of Windows 7 you can download Seven Remix XP at this site.

Posted on April 5, 2009 at 2:16 am by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Windows XP · Tagged with: ,

Windows 7 Alpha

Windows 7 is slated for a 2010 release, although we could see it as late as 2009.  Much like the reports coming out on Snow Leopard, Windows 7 is slated not to come with a variety of new features but rather on buttoning up the existing features and in some cases Microsoft will be reducing [...]

Posted on November 9, 2008 at 8:35 pm by admin · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Windows Server, Windows XP · Tagged with: ,