Command Prompt on Right-Click

In Windows XP it was fairly easy to add a link to the right-click menu in Explorer, so when clicked it would open the Command Prompt at that location. I posted a how-to in April 2008 on how to accomplish this. With the release of Windows Vista and Windows 7, the Tools >> Folder Options is no longer available, so the task required a new solution.

I've identified 3 possible alternatives:

All 3 options in use

1. Hold the Shift-key while right-clicking. This is built-in behavior.
2. Update the Registery.
   1. Open the Registry by entering "regedit" at the Run prompt.
   2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell.
   3. Create a new key called "Command Prompt."
   4. For the default value, add the right-click menu name, such as "Open Command Prompt Here."
   5. Navigate down to your new "Command Prompt" key (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\CommandPrompt).
   6. Create another new key called "Command."
   7. For the default value, add this command: cmd.exe /s /k pushd "%V".
3. Use one of many 3rd party tools, such as FileMenu Tools. FileMenu Tools will add an additional menu item when you right-click, and that subsequent menu item will open a sub-menu with many new options including the Command Prompt.

   

   The FileMenu Tools menu

Insert Clipart causing install loop problem for MS Office apps

On my work laptop, running Win7 Pro, all of my MS Office apps are all 2007 except for Visio 2003. When Visio was installed, for whatever reason the clipart was not installed. If I tried to use the clipart, it would start the install wizard, ask for a path to the install disk and eventually fail as I didn't have the disk. This is unfortunately is expected behavior.

But, when I go to insert clipart from my other Office apps, they run into a problem due to Visio. It goes through the same Microsoft Office Visio 2003 install wizard, and after failing, it will open the clipart that WAS installed for 2007.

I search for solutions, but never found one. This works for some install loop type problems, but not my specific case.

Enter one of the following using Run.... Substitute Excel, Visio, or PowerPoint for Word as necessary:

• Office 2007: reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

• Office 2003: reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

I eventually got a Visio 2003 disk, but then I ran into a new error message -- it wouldn't let me change the install path -- error 25091. This error is thanks to the tighter security in Windows 7.

To change an install path, you need to be running the application with Administrator privileges. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to right-click on the Shortcut and select "Run as administrator," I needed to find the source file. Right-clicking and opening the Properties dialog to get to the source didn't work either, as it was unavailable. I browsed to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12, right-clicked on POWERPNT.EXE and clicked "Run as administrator." From here, I tried to insert clipart again, and this time I was able to provide a path to my Visio disk and the problem has been resolved.

I'm not sure what to suggest to others that do not have a Visio 2003 disk -- someone had one (or a network install) to get it on your machine originally. Likely your IT department that originally set up your computer will be able to solve this -- assuming they're accessible.

Creating Multiple Email Profiles for Outlook

Want to use Outlook to access 2 or more email accounts? By adding additional Profiles to Outlook, you can avoid multiple email clients. The upside is that you can share your archive folders across your accounts. The downside is that you can only manage one account at a time.

To add a new Profile, follow these simple steps:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click Mail
3. Click the Show Profiles button
4. Click the Add button
5. Provide a Profile Name
6. Complete the Account Setup Wizard

 Once created, you can select to be prompted for the Profile you want to open when starting Outlook or you can have it always open a specified Profile.

Once you have more than one Profile, you can force Outlook to open to a specific Profile by configuring Shortcuts for each.

1. Create a copy of your existing Outlook Shortcut
2. Right-click the new Shortcut and select Properties
3. On the Shortcut tab, go to the Target text box
4. At the end of the line (after the ending quote), add the following on the same line:
   • space
   • /profile
   • space
   • "Profile name"
     Note: the Profile name only requires quotes if there are spaces within the name.
5. The completed line will look similar to this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /profile "My New Profile"
6. Go to the General tab and change the Shortcut name if desired

Refer to my post, "Open additional mailboxes within Outlook," if you want to open multiple email accounts within one Outlook Profile.

Adobe Acrobat Reader update error: Error 1602

I started getting this error, 1602, when attempting to complete the update request from Adobe for Acrobat Reader. I'm not a fan of PDF files, and use FoxIt in most cases as an alternate PDF Reader, but sometimes I still need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

I discovered that the cause can easily be solved by deleting the 'ARM' folder within the Acrobat Reader program files. You can find the 'ARM' folder within \Adobe\Acrobat\x.x\ where x.x is the version number. The location of \Adobe\Acrobat\x.x\ will vary based on your version of Windows. For XP users it's contained within C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ while Vista and Win7 users will find it within C:\ProgramData\.

Once you delete the 'ARM' folder, on the next update attempt everything should work as expected.

Odd Behavior When Moving an Application Window within Windows 7

Windows 7 has a nice feature where using the Windows key + the right- or left-arrow button you can move an application window to be maximized on half the screen. Recently I noticed that when I tried going right, it wouldn't cover the last 1/6th or so of the screen -- it was as if that portion of the screen didn't exist. I could still drag a window over to the edge, but even while dragging I would get some odd behaviors.

It turned out the problem started when I installed Pidgin (2.6.5) instant messaging client. My particular version came with 1 plug-in already enabled which was causing this weird behavior. The plug-ins can be found at Tools >> Plugins (or CTRL-U). The culprit was "Windows Pidgin Options 2.6.5." Once disabled, the windowing (Windows key + the right- or left-arrow button) movement again operated as expected.

Create an Outlook Template

Do you find yourself having to send the same message over and over again? With Outlook Templates you can save yourself from having to recreate the same message. Further, it can help to make sure your messages are consistent. It's actually quite easy to do.

Create the Template

1. Start with a new blank message.
2. Write the message.
3. Add a subject. (optional)
4. Add recipients if you like. (optional)
   
5. Select Office Button >> Save As...
6. Change the Save as Type to Outlook Template (*.oft).
7. Name the file and click Save.

Use the Template

1. Go to Tools >> Forms >> Choose Form...
2. From the Look In drop-down, select User Templates in File System.
3. Select your template and click Open.
4. Make any last minute changes, add/remove recipients and Send.
   

Digital Signatures in PDF Do Not Print

Trouble getting the digital signature in a PDF to print? The solution is actually simpler than you might think.

1. With your document open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, click File >> Print.
2. When the Print dialog box opens, look for the "Comments and Forms:" drop-down below the Properties button, located in the upper-right.
3. Click the drop-down and select "Document and Markups."
4. Now print.

That's all there is to it.

iTunes was unable to load provider data from Sync Services. Reconnect or try again later.

If you're experiencing this problem, "iTunes was unable to load provider data from Sync Services. Reconnect or try again later," perhaps the fix I found will work for you too.

At the time of the error, I was running iTunes 10.4.1.10 on Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit OS. I had just starting using iTunes again to sync with my iPhone 4. It had been nearly 2 years since I had used it with an iPhone -- the original.

Try these steps to correct the problem:

1. Eject / disconnect your all iTunes devices (iPhones, iPods, etc)
2. Close iTunes
3. Open Task Manager and kill the Sycservices process
4. Rename the "C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\SyncServices" folder.
   DO NOT delete the folder, because if this doesn't solve it or causes other problems you can always return to this older version of the folder.
5. Restart iTunes
   
6. Re-attach your device

This worked for me. Let me know how it worked for you.

Add shared folders to your VMware VM

Having a few different VMs, but unable to edit them due to not having VMware Workstation can be a hassle. But if you understand the configuration file, *.vmx, and the available options you can actually change up quite a few things. The latest for me was adding a shared folder, so i could get some files from the Host to the VM.

Even though I'm using Windows, the Ubuntus Sharing blog had an article the helped me. With the following lines, I shared the C and E drives, with E being Read Only.

isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"

sharedFolder.maxNum = "2"

sharedFolder0.present = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.enabled = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.readAccess = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.writeAccess = "TRUE"
sharedFolder0.hostPath = "C:\"
sharedFolder0.guestName = "C"
sharedFolder0.expiration = "never"

sharedFolder1.present = "TRUE"
sharedFolder1.enabled = "TRUE"
sharedFolder1.readAccess = "TRUE"
sharedFolder1.writeAccess = "FALSE"
sharedFolder1.hostPath = "E:\"
sharedFolder1.guestName = "E"
sharedFolder1.expiration = "never"

"isolation.tools" was the command that enabled shared folders, while the other entries defined what was shared. I believe the settings are self explanatory.
If you want to learn more, sanborrow.com has an explanation of many of the VMX file parameters. If you want to create a new VMX file, try sanborrow.com VMX Builder.

Add a network adapter to your VMware VM

I recently downloaded 5 VMs from a cloud service my company is using, and 4 of them couldn't create a network connection. I discovered that the 4 that failed had named network connections for their network adapters, and that it required VMware Workstation to change (which I didn't have).

Through some research and help from others I discovered that additional network adapters could be added to an existing VM by editing its *.vmx file with a text editor such as Notepad. As noted in Step 2 of Jesin's Blog post, "Adding Custom Network Adapter in VMware Player", you can added a few lines to the end of the file to add the new network adapter.

I didn't follow Step 1, which is defining another network card on the Host, I just modified the file to use the existing network card. The key is to reference the next available network card in the VM and the network card reference in your Host. I did use the VMware Network Editor (vmnetcfg.exe), which came with the VMware Workstation trial, to identify the VMnetwork name (VMnet0) on my PC (the Host). I suspect if you're running this on a PC, yours will also have the same name (VMnet0).
Here's my entry:

ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
ethernet1.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
ethernet1.startConnected = "TRUE"
ethernet1.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet1.vnet = "VMnet0"

Be sure you add it to the end of the file, and replace ethernet1 with the appropriate value if there's already 2 or more network adapters defined (starts at 0).
Once the file has been updated, run the VM with VMware Player. If it doesn't immediately recognize the new adapter and connect the network, then restart the VM OS and it should recognize the new adapter.