Month: July 2007

I ran the Cleanup Wizard that comes with WSUS 3.0 on a server today, and watched Task Manager as the SQL 2005 server app kept using more and more memory and CPU resources. By the time it finished, the SQLServr.exe task had grabbed 671,212K of memory! I knew of Susan’s blog for adjusting the SQL resources for SQL 2000 and have used it on my other SBS servers. But I did not know if it would work with SQL 2005. Well, I stumbled across Jesper’s blog where he had the same issue and question. Apparently, the command line sequence that Susan … Continue reading WSUS 3.0, SQL 2005 and Memory Hog, Oh My!

On my SBS 2003 R2 server I recently started getting the yellow ballon popup on my server telling me I have updates to approve. But when I look, it’s for two outdated IMF updates, one from late 2006 and the other from early 2007. I checked with some other SBS’ers and found that several of them have also encountered this issue, but since they didn’t know how to fix it, they were simply ignoring these unwanted IMF update requests. So how does oneI get rid of them? In my case, I have WSUS 3.0 installed on my server, and rely on the SBS management … Continue reading Multiple IMF Updates showing up?

I recently was directed to Paint.Net, and I would suggest you take a look at it. It started as an undergrad project back in 2004, and completed in 10 weeks. It’s now on version 3.08 and runs nicely on Vista. I like software like this. Sure it’s free, but if you really like it, throw a few $$$ their way! -kw

If you are a Dell-basher or build your own systems, you can skip this post, but for the rest of you … Here’s a handy little pop-up Dell Service Tag utility from Creativyst that will take your alpha-numeric Dell Service tag and convert it into the Dell’s numeric Express Service code. And for those who need to know the actual formula, click here.

The other day I posted about Gliffy, a simple and free drawing tool that one can do network or floor diagrams with. Here’s a few others that may catch your fancy: Free Conference Calls: come on, we’ve all been in a situation where we needed to get 3 or 4 people on a phone conference call in short order. FreeConference may be your answer! Both their reservationless and web-scheduled services are free; the participants simply dial an assigned long distance number. If you want a toll-free option, you can set that up for once ten cents a minute per caller. Free Secure Screen … Continue reading Free Tools for the I.T. Needy Professional

I use Visio a lot at the office, but at times I need to do a quick diagram — either of a floor plan, or a flowchart, or even a network – when I’m out of the office or don’t have my laptop with me. Recently I stumbled across Gliffy, which is a free web app for doing drawings. It includes version history, and allows you to let other users share and collaborate on your drawing. Here’s a sample of what it can do:

Yep, a fellow Microsoft MVP, Patrick Schmid, has a product called RibbonCustomizer – which includes a set of UI interfaces for Office 2007 that emulates the menus and toolbars of Office 2003. This should help ease the transition of your “I don’t want to learn anything new” users to Office 2007. Read more here: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/index.php and under Features Tour, click on Part 3: Classic UI Tabs. Enjoy!-kw  

I’ve been getting a little annoyed at the posts in the various newsgroups bashing Vista. But I realized that I could not really respond since I was not using Vista myself on a daily basis. Sure, I’ve had the various beta and RC versions of Vistas running on a workstation for nearly a year here in my office. But the truth to be told, it was mostly sitting there idle. So this past weekend I decided to do the switch. I reformed that workstation, and installed the production copy of Vista Ultimate on it. I installed all the primary applications that … Continue reading Vista, SBS2003 and the 4th of July

I have used the screen capture utility SnagIt (from Techsmith) for many years, and I love it. However, there are times, especially when using a different computer, I have a need to do a full or partial screen snapshot. Well, one solution that I found that fits my needs (= free & easy) is called Cropper. It installs quickly (even on Vista), and allows you to select the size of the screen you wish to capture. The captured snapshot can be saved to your clipboard, as a graphics file to your disk, attached to an email, Give it a shot. As the man says, … Continue reading Easy Man’s Snag It

Today’s challenge was to get Verizon’s IOBI voice mail client working on my Vista workstation that’s part of my SBS 2003 network. Downloading and installing the software went smoothly. But the software kept crashing when I tried to start it up and sign in. Solution is to run the program in “Compatibility Mode”. Right click on the IOBI client icon, select Properties > Compatibility, and then click on the checkbox to run it in compatibility Mode (I left it default to Windows XP SP2 mode). Hope this helps someone!