Archive
Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility
This is a handy tool to import USB 3.0 Drivers into a copy of windows 7 installation disk so you can build a vanilla copy of windows 7
Simple Webcam Viewer Software for Windows 7 Updated to Version V3.5
Since my post back in October 2015 Bust a Tech software have releasing new version of there great simple webcam viewer software click on the link below to be taken to V3.5 of the software
Simple Webcam Viewer Software for Windows 7 Updated to Version V2.2
Since my post back in September 2012 Bust a Tech software have been releasing new versions of there great simple webcam viewer software click on the link below to be taken to V2.2 of the software
And if you want to try the latest beta version you can find it at this link.
Clearing DNS Server Cache on Server 2008 to clear Internet Access Problems
Take a look at the following link from Chris Stark 
to see how clearing the DNS Server Cache on Server 2008 could resolve internet access problems on your devices within your domain
Server 2008 R2 clear DNS cache to get Internet working on clients
How to send a Ctr + Alt + Del to a RDP Session
During the week I had to send a Ctr + Alt + Del to a RDP Session.
After a google search the keyboard command to send is
Ctr + Alt + End
For more keyboard shortcuts for a RDP session check out the following link.
How to easily enter safe mode in windows 8
One of the comments I received this week was
“How do I get to safe mode in windows 8 ?”
Now I have yet to enter safe mode on my test Win 8 virtual machine but I decided to investigate the problem to save people some time in future.
After a quick google search and testing with my Win 8 virtual machine the best way I found was proved by Microsoft themselves and can be found at the following link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2809468
Which will show you how to add a safemode to the bootmgr which lets you gain access to the windows 8 safe mode.
Checking the speed of your Raspberry Pi SD Card
Note that if you do a read/write test on volatile memory such as USB or SD Cards then you will lose the data on them.
Having just upgraded the SD card on my Raspberry Pi from 4Gb to a 16GB, I was shocked to find that I was now getting a blank screen when running the start x for a good five minutes before the Raspberry Pi desktop would appear.
So I decided to run a program called HD_Speed from the team over at SteelBytes it measures both sustained and burst data transfer rates of your hard disks, cd/dvd-roms, flash cards/sticks, floppys, etc. in a realtime graphical display
The 80KB utility does not require installation and runs with a click. Select the drive and hit start. The read/write results show up as a graph and also as real values.
Which can be downloaded from the following location – http://www.steelbytes.com/?mid=20
It turns out that even though the SD card for the Raspberry Pi was larger than the my previous SD card it was also a lot slower so it looks like I have to purchase a new faster SD card.
Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Big Files
Today’s blog is about a useful bit of software called treesize that can quickly scan directory sizes and find big files so you can work out where all the space on your hard drive has gone, to quote the develops of treesize about the freeware version.
“TreeSize Free can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders. Expand folders in an Explorer-like fashion and see the size of every subfolder. All results can also be drilled down to the file level. Scanning operations run in a thread, so you can already see results while TreeSize Free is working. The Explorer context menu is supported within TreeSize, as well as the usual drag & drop operations.”
Which can be downloaded from the following location
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/index.shtml
Also if you want even more information about your directory sizes Take a look at the advanced analysis and management functions of TreeSize Professional.
Windows Activity Monitor – Record PC Activity
The Windows Activity Monitor monitors user’s activity on the computer, tracks active windows and processes and allows table and chart visualization such as
- Percentage of what applications were being used shown
- Track individual processes
- Time Sheet section. (It breaks down the activity of the user down to the minute)
The Windows Activity Monitor installs itself as a system service in the Windows operating system. The service will automatically record PC activity and generate reports that can be accessed with a web browser as the PC with the software installed creates its own webpage with all the information on.
This software can be very helpful for managers to monitor the PC usage of their Staff (of course with HR approval)
Windows Activity Monitor can be downloaded here
Create a Shutdown/Restart/Logoff Windows 8 Tile for the Start menu
Today we had one of our test users complaining that it takes to many clicks to shut down their laptop so having a quick look on the internet we found a great little script on the Technet website.
“In Windows 8, without a Start button, properly shutting down or rebooting Windows can be a bit of a chore. Many users want to shut down or reboot Windows in just one click”
The following script (link below) enables users to click on a tile to shut down, reboot or log off Windows on the Start menu.
Shutdown/Restart/Logoff Windows 8 Script
This link will take you to the technet website where you download the script and see how to use the script.
Once installed you should see the following
Frustrated IT Engineer 