CHRISdotTODD

In my last post, " Our search sucks! Why can't it work just like Google? ", I told you to also consider your content when improving your search. Poor titles and multiple articles on a single subject will impact success. I want to expand on content a bit more. First, consider the search results again. If your search engine displays the first part of the content underneath the title, is the information helpful? Next, when the user does click-through on a search result, can they quickly reassure themselves that the content presented is what they're looking for? I believe if you follow the advice of Tim Ash in his article " Fix Your Writing or Suffer Lower Conversion Rates ," you will be able to satisfy these two issues in regards to your content. Whether you're trying to convert a user to buy your product or you're trying to help a customer fix his problem with your product, the principles still apply. Tim begins, "The vast majority of Internet use

"Why can't I find what I'm looking for on my own companies website? I know the document/content is there -- I wrote it. When I use Google I don't have troubles finding what I'm searching for. Why can't we have Google for our website?" (This is a topic I would not typically post on this blog, but it's an often misunderstood issue that is raised frequently within companies -- an issue I've had to address many times.) The short answer, whether searching your companies (public) website or intranet (website), is that your company websites are not like the Internet and therefore the same technology that Google has developed for you to search the Internet will not work for your company. "But Google sells a search appliance for the Enterprise -- why can't I just use that?" Well, you can use Google's Search Appliance, and it may even be better than your current solution, but it wont live up to using Google to search the Internet. I have

I've been using Belarc Advisor , a free personal tool for analyzing your Windows computer, for some time now. It will provide a detailed analysis of several items: Installed hardware Installed software and version number Windows Updates, and indicate if any are missing Checks for virus protection and last scan Software keys Software usage (frequency) User accounts and last login What I like best is that it reports the software keys of my installed software. While it doesn't appear to grab all software keys on my personal computer, it lists all of them from my work computer including Microsoft, Adobe, Corel and TechSmith. I recently used it before rebuilding my Dad's computer. In addition to being certain to have his software license keys, I was able to also view what programs he hadn't used in sometime -- therefore I didn't reinstall them. Considering adding more RAM to your PC? Instead of taking the cover off to do a visual inspection, use Belarc Advisor to identi

I noticed this morning that my McAfee On Access-Scan was disabled. (The shield in the system tray had a red-crossed circle.) When I opened McAfee, it was performing a scan, so it wasn't clear what was occurring. After some research, I found that the settings may have become corrupt. Here's the steps to correct: Go to VirusScan Console >> Help >> Repair Installation. Check the fist check-box to reset to the default settings. Click OK. This should do the trick.

I found when I plugged my USB headset (Plantronics DSP 400) into Windows 7, it didn't work. I went through the normal stuff, trying a different port, making sure it wasn't on mute, etc. I finally determined that you need to tell Windows 7 that the headset is your default device before it will work. The good news is that you only have to do it once. Upon removal, it returns back to the external speakers, and upon reinsertion, the USB headset worked again. To make the changes, the default configuration of the Control Panel makes it nearly impossible to make the settings change. Here are the steps: Plug-in the USB headset. Go to Control Panel. Likely you will see 8 categories, and if you click "Hardware and Sound" you wont find anything to help you. In the upper-right area of the Control Panel, it says: "Viewed by: Category". Change Category to Small- or Large icons. This now presented many Control Panel options. Click on "Sound". A window should open

I ran across a few useful, free Windows utilities today, all from Mike Lin . Though he created these years ago, I found them still helpful. Startup Control Panel : This tool installs in your Windows Control Panel and allows you to disable programs that are configured to start on Startup. In October 2006 in my XP Memory Problems and Startup Applications post I wrote about a similar program, Startup Inspector , which I've continued to use. I like Startup Control Panel a little more, but they both should work for you. StartUpMonitor : The purpose of StartUpMonitor is to monitor programs on install and notify you before they add a new Startup program. While I haven't used it yet, I like this idea as I can catch these before they get into my system instead of having to use Startup Control Panel or Startup Inspector after the fact. Clipomatic : Clipomatic will keep a "clipboard" of your copy/cut text, so you can access and reuse items clipped long after you've made new

I found that IIS 7 on Windows 2008 Server to be much different from prior versions of IIS. The first hurdle was to realize that Classic ASP isn't installed by default. In searching board posts to solve my issue, I found countless posts with directions to install Classic ASP. So getting this far, I was unable to process my HTML files that had embedded Classic ASP code, In prior versions of IIS, you could just add *.html to the previous defined *.asp listing. With IIS 7 though, this created problems with the .asp pages, and did not solve the issue either. The trick is to make a new entry in the HandlerMappings specifically for *.html. Request path: *.html Executable: %windir%\system32\inetsrv\asp.dll Name: anything meaningful to you Mapping: File Verbs: GET,HEAD,POST Access: Script Once you've completed this... Go to %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config file Find the new entry (search on the name you set in the HandlerMapping) Remove the preCondition port