Fix Windows 7 Not Genuine Error

If you see an error on you screen stating that your version of windows 7 is not genuine or you receive a pop up that you may have a counterfeit version of windows then you can easily fix this by running the command below.

• Open command prompt as Administrator. The easiest way to do this is to type cmd in the start-menu, then right click on cmd and click Run as Administrator.
• In the cmd windows type SLMGR /REARM  and press  Enter and wait till it executes.
• Click Ok to restart your system.

When you restart your system you will not see the error.

Mongodb and Java a simple example

MongoDB (from “humongous”) is an open source document-oriented database system developed and supported by 10gen. It is part of the NoSQL family of database systems.  It is extremely easy to install and use and supports most popular programming languages.  Here is a simple java application to add and query data.

import com.mongodb.MongoClient;

import com.mongodb.MongoException;

import com.mongodb.DB;

import com.mongodb.DBCollection;

import com.mongodb.BasicDBObject;

import com.mongodb.DBCursor;

Exchange 2007 Shell Commands

Here are some Exchange 2007 shell commands that you may find useful.

Get client version used to connected to mailbox

This command will list the user name and the client version and export it to a csv file.
Get-MailboxServer | Get-LogonStatistics | Select UserName,ClientName,ClientVersion,LogonTime | Export-Csv -Path c:\ExchangeClientVersions.csv

Blackberry App World Missing

BlackBerry Torch 9800

After upgrading the App World application on a Blackerry 9800 I noticed the icon was no longer visible after the phone restarted. A search on the Blackberry Knowledge Base led to KB29422 titled ‘BlackBerry App World icon is missing after upgrading to BlackBerry App World 4.0.0.63 to 4.0.0.65′.

Windows 8 Mail Gmail with 2 Factor Authentication

If you have 2 factor authentication enabled on your gmail account then you maybe receiving an incorrect password error with trying to connect using Windows 8 mail.  To resolve this simply create an application specific password in your Google account and then use that password in Windows 8 mail.

Windows 8 Professional First Impressions

I have been running Windows 8 Professional on a laptop without a touch screen for about a week now and it is very different.  It boots very fast, not in eight seconds but it is faster than Windows 7.  The new metro interface looks amazing and is easy to use even with a plain old touch pad or mouse.  Metro apps can be downloaded from the Windows store but at the moment there is a shortage of apps and that’s where the problems begin.  Windows 8 has a split personality caused by the need for Microsoft to bring Windows in to the touch era.  Behind the new shiny interface is the old desktop we are all familiar with.  Standard Windows applications are run on the desktop and because of the shortage of metro apps you constantly switch between the two environments.

The desktop is fast with some nice improvements including the removal of the aero graphics which makes everything run faster.  It is also worked flawlessly with every application I have thrown at it, so thankfully no compatibility issues.  What people will notice is the start menu is gone.  This is hard to get your head around and will be a problem for users until the number of metro apps increases.  It is rumored that the start menu may return with an upcoming update.  Corporate IT departments will be in no hurry to deploy Windows 8 and most will stick with Windows 7 for now.

Pros
Fast Bootup.
Very clean modern look.
Good compatibility with old Windows software.
Cons
Missing Start Menu
Two interfaces lead to confusion
Very limited number of Windows 8 apps

Microsoft are definitely on the right path with Windows 8 but there is some work to be done to integrate the two interfaces and developers need to start creating metro apps.

Block Quotes in Word 2007

It might not be immediately obvious to you how to quote in Word 2007 but it is a very simple procedure. Start out by selecting the block of text you wish to quote.

On the Home tab go to the Paragraph section and click the arrow on the right side of the work paragraph.

K9 Web Protection Parental Control Software

K9 Web Protection is a completely free and very easy to use piece of software for filtering web traffic. It installs very quickly and sits in the background and does not appear to slow down your web browsing. It blocks 24 categories of websites including porn, gambling, and nudity. It also forces ‘safe search’ mode for search engines like Google or Bing.

locked out of windows pc

Image via Wikipedia

I recently could not log in to a pc when its trust relationship with the domain was broken and I did not have the local username or password.  A colleague recommend a utility called NTPassword which can be booted from a CD, USB, or floppy disk.  With this I was able to clear the password of the local administrator and also enable the account.  It is linux based and doesn’t look very pretty but it is menu driven and relatively easy to use.

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Spiceworks for Network Management

Image via CrunchBase

For small to mid size business it can be difficult to keep track of whats happening on your network.  There are plenty of solutions out there but they can be expensive and difficult to configure and support.  Spiceworks is a free browser-based network management and administration program. It provides the user with a single dashboard from which he or she can inventory, monitor and troubleshoot the network and even track Helpdesk calls.