Tech Discussions

How to Save a Lost offscreen Windows window

2007-03-26T08:15:00.001-07:00

I had the hardest time with this issue, 2 crucial parent and child windows were lost offscreen. I needed to get them back, then I found this simple fix here (thanks Kevin, whoever you are). I'll repost the content in case that link stops working:

1. Hold down Alt + Spacebar
2. Press the M key
3. Use the arrow keys to relocate the window
4. Press the Enter key when you have the Window in the desired location.

SQL Server Hacking

2006-12-20T15:11:00.001-08:00

I found this neat article on password cracking for SQL. The tools used can be found here.

SQL Server 2k5 and users, if it hurts, (don't) keep doing it

2006-12-20T14:53:00.001-08:00

I created a sql account and wanted to give it dbo access to a particular database. The settings didnt set for dbo when I created the account, then when I go back and try to adjust the user settings, I get a user already exists error. The user does already exist, but I just want to update it, not recreate it. Eventually I found out from reading here and here that my login was orphaned and needed to be mapped to a sql account. I got the list of orphaned logins with this:

EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Report'

and I fixed it with this

EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Auto_Fix', 'myuser', NULL, 'mypassword'

The only remaining hurdle was I had to set check_policy = off. I tried some variations of set check_policy = off, all of which gave me errors, but one worked apparently, cuz I was finally about to exec that statement.

Web Forms Designer - Type Abstract Error

2006-12-13T14:16:00.001-08:00

This guy has a good post about this issue here. However, I'd like to take it one step further and create 2 new configurations, Design_Debug and Build_Debug, since I still like to run my app in Debug mode. That way, I just change the build type while working with the aspx UI designer in VS.NET, and switch back when I'm actually coding and testing.

Personal (Rebel) Subversion - Part 1

2006-12-01T13:41:00.001-08:00

I've had to deal with some rather cumbersome dev environments recently (no .sln files under source control, projects and assemblies scattered all over, web folders under program files on dev, etc). That doesn't include the various source control systems I'd had to work with (so far, VSS6.0d and Starteam 6). And yes, I realize 2 probably doesn't qualify for "various", but there's more than enough pain/frustration going around with just these 2.

So, how to deal with this situation? My answer is still in progress, but so far I'm using subversion as my daytoday source control repository and I'm using NAnt to manage the tedium of checking out, copying and translating from vss/starteam to my working area with subverion. More to follow as the experiment progresses.

Any comments or suggestions on this approach?

Cool Programming Fonts

2006-06-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

cool programming fonts. I recommend Proggy Clean Slashed Zero.

http://www.proggyfonts.com/

Fix AutoComplete for IE 6

2006-05-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

Have a look if this key is in XP
Question: My CTRL+ENTER keys (which adds www.???.com to a word in the
address bar stopped working.
How do I get back this functionality?
Solution:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoCo
mplete]
"Append Completion"="no"
"Use AutoComplete"="yes"
"AutoSuggest"="no"
Changing "Append Completion" from "no" to "yes" will restore the function.

Changing the default View Source editor in IE

2006-04-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

Run REGEDIT, follow the following directions to the proper key.

If this doesnt exist (but it should) then create the Key "View Source Editor".
Then create a Key within that named "Editor Name". Modify the "(Default)" value to make it point towards any program on your computer using "D:\Tools\Notepad2\Notepad2.exe" (without the quotes).

Better Text Editors and Right-Click Menus

2006-04-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

Notepad is pretty basic. There are several better text editors out there. Below is a short list.

Notepad2
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html

Textpad (trial, free if you don't mind the reminders)
http://www.textpad.com/

Vim
http://www.vim.org/

others can be found at download.com or sourceforge.net

Now to add your new text editor to the right-click menu for various file types: (if you want to add it for all files types, follow these steps for the '*' folder ( HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/* ) ).
http://www.jfitz.com/tips/rclick_custom.html

abbreviated instructions:

open regedit.exe
Open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT "folder"
go to the extension you want to modify (use * for all)
right click on the shell key or create it if its not there
create a new key for your command to create
create a new key below that called command and enter the path to the exe without quotes and add "%1" with quotes to the end, so it looks like
C:\Program Files\Notepad2\Notepad2.exe "%1"

And then to use your new text editor in IE's View Source feature, see my other post.

Shortcut to Properties

2006-04-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

On your desktop, quicklaunch or the right side of windows explorer, if you alt+dblclick a folder or file, it brings up the properties dialog for that object.

Folder Navigation Tips & Keyboard Shortcuts

2006-04-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

I've come across a couple of nifty shortcuts and ways to make stuff easier and quicker that I thought I'd share.

File Dialog - The file dialog, the one you get when you do a file->save as or download something from IE (or Firefox :-) ) has a list of locations on the left. Usually its not that helpful, like my recent documents or my network places, but you can customize this list. There's 2 dialogs and each is modified differently. For the main one, you have to download the windows xp powertoy, tweakui. Open it, expand the common dialogs and select the places bar and customize the 5 locations. The other dialog is used in office 2003. Open the dialog, right click the places bar and switch to small icons if you want. To add a folder to it, navigate to that folder, then click the tools menu and select 'add to my places'. Then you can right click it in the places bar and move it up or down in the list.

Windows Key + E open my computer, but you can create shortcuts somewhere, desktop, quicklaunch, etc and assign keyboard shortcuts to it.

Then there's the combo keys:

Ctrl + Shift + Esc = windows task mgr

WinKey + D = show desktop

WinKey + M = minimize all

WinKey + L = lock workstation

WinKey + R = open run dialog

Sync Utility

2006-04-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

This is a neat tool to sync 2 folders.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E0FC1154-C975-4814-9649-CCE41AF06EB7&displaylang=en

Hard Links (aka Junctions) and Reparse Points

2006-04-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

Below are some articles on how to create and manage hard links(aka directory junctions) in Windows NT/XP/2003 and also manipulate the underlying mechanism, reparse points. Directory Junctions can be used to make one folder look like another, not just be a shortcut. You can also mount a drive as a subfolder under another drive. These are called volumne mount points.
Aside from those two, reparse points are also used in Windows for Remote Storage Service (RSS) and Remote Installation Services (RIS).

I'll repost this info on tech discussions.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262797/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/205524/EN-US/
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Junction.html

Avoiding the Latency "Features" of Windows Explorer

2006-04-27T06:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes in windows explorer, I've noticed clicking on different locations (especially removable media such as thumb drives) can be rather slow, somewhere in the range of 30 seconds to 3 minutes. This is not a hardware issue as I can bring up a dos prompt and get a directory listing of said thumb drive with no wait at all.

So, this seems to be a problem with windows explorer, but we don't have to put up with it.

Workaround:

Typing the address of the location you want in the address bar, while maybe taking an extra second or two to perform, the contents seem to load up immediately, without the 3 minute delay.