Pem’s Tech Blog

Sometimes the ability to copy/paste between my local computer and remote computer breaks when I use Windows Remote Desktop Connection.  The simple fix is:

1) on the remote computer, use Task Manager to kill rdclip.exe
2) close your RDC session
3) re-open your RDC session

The reason apparently has something to do with certain applications not passing the clipboard messages around the way Windows requires (do an internet search if you want to know more).

I ran into a similar issue when with TightVNC on Windows to a Linux vncserver.  I was able to connect, but the clipboard didn’t work.  After I ran “vncconfig”, the clipboard worked.

Pem (Admin) :: 2011/07/26 (Tuesday, July 26, 2011) :: Linux, Windows OS :: No Comments »

I had a strange device driver conflict with my newer GPU (Radeon HD 4850) on Windows 7 and my old motherboard (MSI MS-7184, aka HP AmethystM-GL6E) (see here).  After recently installing the latest ATI GPU drivers, I noticed that the High Definition Audio Controller got re-enabled whenever I reboot Windows 7.  So, I investigated an automated way to disable it after the reboot.

I tried doing it with AutoHotKey, but the GUI scripting wasn’t working for Device Manager.  So instead, I looked into a command line version of Device Manager called devcon.  I had better luck with devcon.  So, I ended up putting a simple one line batch (*.bat) script in my startup folder:

devcon\amd64\devcon.exe disable find *DEV_AA30

How did I figure out the “*DEV_AA30” part?  “devcon.exe find *” listed all the devices, one of which was High Definition Audio Controller with the ID “PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_AA30&SUBSYS_AA301002&REV_00\4&3083E1D6&0&0110”.  Using that ID directly got multiple matches (something weird with the & symbols?).  But I figured out that doing “devcon find *DEV_AA30” only matched one device.

Pem (Admin) :: 2011/04/10 (Sunday, April 10, 2011) :: Windows OS :: No Comments »

Import Audiobook into iTunes
* from http://www.cnet.com.au/how-to-create-audio-books-in-itunes_p7-339293735.htm#vp
* import CD into iTunes (with standard iTunes), AAC is the successor to mp3, although Apple Lossless is lossless
* Get Info -> Options -> Media Kind is Audiobook, Remember position is Yes,
* Get Info -> Info, specify Artwork, etc
* Rename files, such as (Ch. 1) to (Ch. 01)

Convert Podcast to Music using this same method:
* Get Info -> Options -> Media Kind is Music, Remember position is Yes,
* Get Info -> Info -> Genre -> change from Podcast to your new preference

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/07/01 (Thursday, July 1, 2010) :: Computers / Tech, Mac OS, Windows OS :: No Comments »

I faced an annoying problem with my Windows account in a corporate network (at my day job).  IT security makes our passwords expires after 90 days, so you have to change your Windows account password.  I change the password.  Then it locks me out.  I ask IT to reset the password, and it works.  Then shortly thereafter, it locks me out again.  It kept locking me out.

IT thought this might just be an issue of waiting for the password to sync.  But I had another idea.  My local Windows 7 machine is not on the domain, and it still had the old password cached, such as for credentials as seen in (Control Panel\User Accounts and Family Safety\Credential Manager).  You can also get there from Run -> control userpasswords2 -> Advanced -> Manage Password.

Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, you can only delete them one at a time, and it’s really slow…  It takes 3 clicks per removal, plus each time you remove one it scrolls you back up to the top of the window.

So many things are wrong with this entire situation.  Everything involved is Microsoft Windows technology, yet it manages to horribly break itself.  The error shouldn’t happen in the first place.  But the bad UI makes it so much more painful.

Here’s one post that at least attempts to help troubleshoot the issue:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprosecurity/thread/0f88e0b6-7aa0-4917-bd06-68f77f14493e

-> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773155%28WS.10%29.aspx

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/05/27 (Thursday, May 27, 2010) :: Windows OS :: No Comments »

After I upgrade to iTunes 9.1.1.12, iTunes would crash every time I open it.  I tried repair, then uninstall / reinstall, but this didn’t fix it.  Then I did this:
1) rename my iTunes_Media media folder (such as to iTunes_Media_)
2) open iTunes, close iTunes
3) rename the folder back to iTunes_Media

This appeared to fix the problem.  Until I tried (File –> Library –> Organize Library –> Consolidate files), and iTunes crashed again.

To narrow it down, I went through this rather painful process:
1) close iTunes, rename a folder inside iTunes_Media
2) open iTunes, try consolidate files to see if crashes (alt, f, b, l, c, enter)

It turned out that 5 of my author-named folders had broken audiobooks.  Yet they had working copies with “ 1.aa” at the end.  So I deleted the “my file.aa” copies, and renamed the “my file 1.aa” copies to “my file.aa”.

I’m guessing this means that the file was somehow corrupted.  I’m not sure what caused this.  But regardless of whether or not it was iTunes, this really shouldn’t make iTunes crash…  Instead, iTunes should list which files are corrupted.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/04/30 (Friday, April 30, 2010) :: Windows OS :: No Comments »

Referencing my earlier post (here), I wanted to carry my boot drive back and forth between 2 copies of my desktop computer.  Rather than dealing with different hardware configs, I made it extra simple by just using a copy of the same hardware (same motherboard model, same graphics card model, same amount of RAM) on both.  So far, everything has worked…

A good bonus is that I’m using a 5.25” SATA enclosure, which goes in a standard CD/DVD disc drive slot.

The only real concern so far has been the Windows Activation notifications.  We’ll see later if it starts to give me problems.

Finally, it’s definitely possible that Windows 7 (and graphics drivers etc) may simply deal better with moving a boot drive to a more significantly different hardware configuration…  Or if not, there may be some work-around.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/02/17 (Wednesday, February 17, 2010) :: Mobility, Windows OS :: No Comments »

On Windows, try: echo hello | clip

On Linux, try: echo hello | xclip

On Mac OS X, try: echo hello | pbcopy

For example, you might do (cat myFile.txt | xclip).  This would basically allow you to edit the clipboard directly.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/21 (Thursday, January 21, 2010) :: Mac OS, Misc, Windows OS :: 1 Comment »

DropBox is an awesome easy way to sync your files with the cloud and with multiple computers.  To start, just install it, point it to a data folder, and let it automatically sync your files with DropBox in the cloud.  Please click my referral link:
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTEyODU2ODk

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/12/18 (Friday, December 18, 2009) :: Internet / Web, Mac OS, Windows OS :: No Comments »

I want to have two copies of the same desktop (or workstation) computer hardware, minus the boot drive (which is also the drive with all the programs installed) (all other drives are irrelevant, since they are just data drives).  The exact same motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM, with Windows 7.  I would like to use 1 boot drive for both computers.

I have computer-A at location-A (such as my home office), and computer-B at location-B (such as my work office, or it could be somewhere far away).  Let’s assume these two locations are in different states, via a full day plane ride.  Also, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be 3 locations.

I want to be able to take the boot drive out of computer-A, bring it on the plane, fly to location-B, and put it in computer-B.  Such that it is seamless and low-hassle to continue working on computer-B as if it is computer-A.  This would be a routine thing, not just once – if it’s my home and office computer, then it could easily be twice a day.  And a 3rd location could still be out of state.

My goal is that once this is setup, it will be very easy and painless.  Much more easy and painless than actually maintaining two copies of the computer…  Having to redo my program installs, copy svn/subversion diffs, redo svn checkouts, redo my configurations, etc.  I want this to be basically equivalent to if I had transported my entire huge powerful desktop computer on the plane.  Except I just shutdown computer-A, unplug the boot drive, take it to location-B, plug it into computer-B, and boot computer-B.  Simple, and no hassle.

In case anyone is wondering…  No, a laptop is not powerful enough.  No, I don’t just want the data files.

And I think I’d prefer to take the actual boot drive, rather than an external data drive with an image of the boot drive, because I think taking the boot drive sounds faster and simpler?

Some more focused questions:

1) Will it just work, since it’s two copies of the same hardware (motherboard, cpu, gpu)?  Could I just carry the boot drive (from computer-A, to computer-B) after a clean shutdown?  Or, do I need to use sysprep (or something) to generalize (Computer name, Security Identifier (SID), Driver Cache) each time?  Or Windows System Image Manager?  Or repair Windows from the DVD on the destination computer?

2) What hardware would affect this?  Just motherboard, CPU, GPU?  Is it okay if computer-B is missing some pieces, such as a Blu-ray drive on computer-A and no disc drive on computer-B?  Keep in mind, I want everything to just work, and all my stuff to be in full working order, including details like environment variables, registry keys, what SDK’s I have installed, my working copy of an svn code checkout, etc.

3) Any catches / gotchas to my idea?

4) Any specific hardware to make this easier?  I noticed that with some computers, the internal hard drives slide in/out very easy and tool-less.  Though with others, it’s kind of a pain.

I think these are the right answers:

1) It will just work.  Sysprep is only needed if you’re moving it to different hardware.  With sysprep, you could do the same thing, even if computer-A and computer-B were different hardware.  Windows repair would also work.

2) Yes, just the motherboard, cpu, and gpu matter.  The cpu just has to be compatible with the motherboard.  And the motherboard can be different, as long as it uses the same chipsets.

3) My biggest worry is that it will cause Windows activation – every single time I move the hard drive.  So if I move from computer-A to computer-B, then back to computer-A, that would be 2 activations?  Somewhere I read that you only get 5, after which you have to activate by phone?  Sounds potentially annoying…  And I wonder what, if anything, happens after 50 activations?  100 activations?

4) Probably just route the SATA and power cable outside of the case drive.  Maybe there’s an enclosure to help keep it stable and safe.

However, my confidence level is not yet 100%…  Two things similar are: (using sysprep for simple images with massive deployment) and (moving the system drive from an old computer to a new computer, just once, not repeatedly)…  But I was kind of surprised that it was not incredibly easy (via google search) to find other people already doing / trying what I described here.

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/12/14 (Monday, December 14, 2009) :: Mobility, Windows OS :: 1 Comment »

Windows 7 seems more stable, less annoying, more efficient, and the UI is improved.  The most obvious UI change is to the taskbar, with the application group pin/unpin style (similar to Mac OS X doc, but personally I think better in terms of mouse-over and standard shortcut keys).  It sounds like this time around, Windows 7 is a lot more popular (than Vista).  Personally, I was really never that negative about Vista, but in hindsight I might’ve just gone straight form XP to Windows 7.

On one machine I did a fresh install of 64-bit Windows 7, and I’m keeping a full list of every program I install.  On another, I did an upgrade from 64-bit Vista to 64-it Windows 7 (maybe I should’ve done a fresh install?).  I’m still running 32-bit Windows 7 inside my Mac OS X virtual machine, but other than that it’s all 64-bit for me.  And maybe if I ever need to run (or test) something again in Windows XP, I can use a virtual machine.

I ran into an interesting error with my Windows 7 64-bit upgrade.  Basically, 1 of my 2 cores was always at 100% usage.  Eventually I found the problem was due to a conflict with my graphics card’s audio device (which it has as part of HDMI support) and my system’s local audio.  The fix was to go to Device Manager -> System devices -> High Definition Audio Controller.

Here’s a shot of Windows 7 with the Switcher add-on:

Update 2011/04/10: I used devcon.exe to automate disabling the device on startup, see here

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/10/10 (Saturday, October 10, 2009) :: Windows OS :: No Comments »