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 number of new features, few are more important to companies than the fact that it is very capable of running on new or old hardware alike. Windows 7 adoption shouldn’t stop you from buying now though, if you’re in the market for a new machine. Microsoft announced that it will include a Windows Upgrade Option…
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Installing a Vtrak for Windows
If you are installing a Vtrak from Apple on Microsoft Windows you can download the drivers from Promise here: http://www.promise.com/support/download/download_eng.asp Having said this, you can use the Promise drivers or generic drivers if you’re using the Promise as targets and connecting to those LUNs via StorNext that are managed by Xsan. The reason for this is that StorNext will manage the LUNs. To see the LUNs, check Windows Device Manager.
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New Windows Keystroke and Xsan Keys
OK, probably not new but oddly enough, this one is new to me. Control-Alt-Escape launches the Task Manager instead of using the ole’ three finger salute to fire up the screen to get to the Task Manager. I was on a KVM, switched between a Mac and PC accidentally, hit the same keystroke (funny keyboard map) and bam, there it was… Also, in Xsan. You can click on the Command key plus a number to cycle through the various options in the list along the left hand side of the screen. For example, the overview page when you first log in is Command-1 whereas the next one down in the…
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Debug Logging in StorNext
If you create a folder in c:Program FilesStorNext called debug then after you restart the FSS StorNext will create a file called c:Program FilesStorNextdebugnssdebug.out, which contains very verbose logs from the perspective of the StorNext system. This can be useful, for example, in debugging connectivity issues with other StorNext systems and/or Xsan.
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StorNext Command Line for Windows
StorNext for Windows comes with many of the same commands that are available with Xsan on Mac OS X. Located by default in the c:Program FilesStorNextbin directory, you can use the cv* commands in much the same way as on a Mac. This can help with regards to troubleshooting. For example, if you are having problems getting a volume to mount, even though it shows up when you go to map the drive in Client Configuration, you can use cvlabel -l (assuming your working directory is the StorNext bin directory) to see the LUNs that are accessible by your host. If you cannot see your LUNs then you also cannot…
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Mimicing OS9
Anyone remember how back in OS 9 you could collapse a window into its own title bar? Well, that functionality can be had in Windows. Winroll is an application that allows you to obtain the same functionality that you used to have in OS 9. To quote the Winroll site: Make a window roll into its title bar, send it to the back or make it stay on top. Minimize, maximize or close all visible windows, including minimizing to the tray area. Make a window translucent on Windows 2000 or above. WinRoll is lovingly hand-crafted in 100% pure assembly language to give the fastest response and the smallest memory footprint.…
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Sync Bookmarks Between IE, Firefox & Safari
If you are a Safari user and you have a MobileMe account then you can already synchronize Safari bookmarks between multiple Macintosh computers. But what if you want to synchronize to that corporate sanctioned Windows XP machine in the office that runs only Internet Explorer? What if you also want to synchronize to Firefox, running on another machine? All three can synchronize together in one harmonious bookmarking ménage à trois. How is all of this made possible?Xmarks. Formerly Foxmarks, Xmarks now supports more browsers and runs on more platforms. You store a backup of your bookmarks in the Xmarks cloud (which, yes, means that you’ll need to create an account) and then you…
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Keystrokes For Windows/Windows Server Explorer
There’s nothing that makes you faster with navigating around any GUI-based OSen than keystrokes. Navigate around the system, browse web pages and even swap between command windows at blazing speeds. You’ll get faster but you’ll seem exponentially faster to those trying to watch you work. I’ve done posts on Mac OS X and Safari. Now, here’s one for navigating around Windows with the same speed with which you navigate OS X. If I skipped something feel free to let me know and I’ll add it; there are a plethora of options and these are the ones off the top of my head… While I was shooting for Windows Explorer, most…
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Windows memory dump files.
One reason not to disable virtual memory on any Windows boxen is that you might need to grab information from a dump file. If a booted OS doesn’t have at least 2MB of virtual memory then no dump file. The default location of memory dump files in Windows XP is %systemroot%/minidump (btw %systemroot% is your Windows install directory). These are created as a result of a blue screen (bsod is not your friend – unless you’re testing a DoS). Since blue screens are typically due to hardware or drivers, and there are often many of each of those, it can help to check out the dump files. If you have…
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Config AutoPlay (GUI & Registry) for Windows
When you insert a drive into a Windows, by default it’s gonna’ likely mount the drive (and run the autorun.inf if there is one or AutoPlay to play the music if it’s an audio disc). When you insert a disk or drive into a Windows computer you can hold down the Shift key and it will disable the auto-run and AutoPlay functionality of the system. But you can also control that functionality at a pretty granular level. The most common way to do so is likely using the Global Policy Editor. To do so, open gpedit.msc, click on Computer Configuration and then Administrative Templates, then System and select the option…