I don’t think I’ve actually used the caps lock key in years. Well, scratch that, I’ve frustratingly used it by accident. I did a post a couple of years back with a couple of ways to disable it for Windows. But recently I’ve been doing a lot of work and have accidentally made the amount of work a little more by enabling the caps lock key and typing entire paragraphs. So to disable, open the Keyboard & Mouse Preference Pane from System Preferences and then click on Modifier Keys. From here, change the Caps Lock Key value to No Action. Check out com.apple.systempreferences.plist and the com.apple.preference.keyboard.config array within it for…
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Offline Files on Windows Without a GPO
Open up My Computer and click on Folder Options in the Tools menu. Then click on the Offline Files tab and check the Enable Offline Files checkbox. Then select whether you would like to Synchronize All Offline Files When Logging On or Synchronize All Offline Files Before Logging Off checkbox. You can also click on the Create An Offline Files Shortcut On The Desktop checkbox. You can also click on Encrypt Offline Files To Secure Data checkbox, which will encrypt the container that the data lives in. You can also limit the amount of space to be dedicated to storing cached files using the sliding bar. Next, click on the Advanced Button. Next, choose the…
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Podcast Producer Web Controller
By default, Podcast Producer clients submit podcasts to a Mac OS X Server using the Podcast Capture application, as you can see in the comic from yesterday. This is a seamless integration, if a bit Mac-centric. But there is also a web controller for Podcast Producer that allows you to submit podcasts via a web interface, rather than through Podcast Capture and allows you to control cameras using the portal. If you have a number of Windows or Linux stations or just want to communicate over a web browser this is a great option to bolt on to Podcast Producer deployments. Find it on the Apple Education for IT Professionals…
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Windows Login Screen Customizations
OK, OK, you’re right – if I’m going to cover customizing the loginwindow of Mac OS X then the least I can do is cover Windows as well. Because the registry is basically a bigger, more monolithic version of the defaults domains, we’re going to do pretty much the same stuff at the login screen for Windows. First, open the registry editor (regedit) and browse to HKEY USERS .DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop Then edit the value for wallpaper, typing in the path to the image you’d like to use. To set it as tiled add TileWallPaper and set it to the integer 1 or to stretch add WallPaperStyle and set it to the…
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Keystrokes for Windows 7
Windows Keys: Alt+ Enter: shows properties for selection Alt+ Esc: switch between applications in the order they were opened Alt+ F4: closes the active window Alt + Shift + F4: closes all open windows of the type matching the Active Window Alt + Spacebar: shows the System menu Alt + Tab: switch between open applications Control + Escape: opens the Start Menu F1: requests help Shift: while inserting removable media, skips auto-run Shift: while logging in, bypasses startup items Shift + Delete: deletes the selection permanently Windows Key: opens the Start menu Windows Key+D: shows Desktop Windows Key + E: opens Internet Explorer (or the default browser if it is…
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Move My Documents in XP and Vista
We simply don’t always want My Documents to point to the same location. Maybe we want to move it to external media, or maybe to a network drive. Either way, it’s simple to move. Right Click My Documents, click Properties and then click on the Target tab (in Vista it’s the Location tab). You can then change the path to the My Documents directory. Quick and easy. To do so en masse is going to require a GPO: Go to the Group Policy console for an OU, open up the User Configuration then Windows Settings and finally Folder Redirection items. Then right-click on the icon(s) for the personal folder(s) to…
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Growl for Windows
I’ve grown to love and to hate the growl alerts on my Mac. Whether it’s Lithium telling me a server is down and I have to get back to work or my favorite FTP app telling me a transfer is complete or being notified that the Subversion box at the office just had a new copy of a script checked in and I need to go review something. Across the board it’s a love hate relationship. And the one place where I’ve always found solace is Microsoft Windows. You see, when I’m on Windows I don’t get those updates… But all of that is changing because of growlforwindows. Now, the…
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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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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…