“Microsoft” collection
Master your productivity with in-depth guides on the Microsoft ecosystem, including Windows operating systems and Office software. From software troubleshooting to Surface hardware reviews, these articles offer practical solutions for both professional and home environments.
HTD Tech Briefs
View all →June 19, 2007
Family Tech: Easily manage what sites your kids see with Glubble
Finally I have come across something to write about that truly talks to my site motto "where technology and fatherhood collide." It is not very often that I can write about a new service or piece of software that can help a family. Computers are now as common as TVs and now kids have computers in their rooms, at schools,…
Read more →June 14, 2007
PC: Nice blogging software from Microsoft – Windows Live Writer
I'm writing this using Microsoft's latest beta of their blogging software called "Windows Live Writer". There are lots of ways to do blog posts out there, from using the built-in blogging tools, to using Word 2007, to using programs like Ecto. All have advantages and disadvantages, unique and common features. Now I will add Windows Live Writer into the mix.…
Read more →June 11, 2007
First Look: Safari 3 for Windows/Mac
While the announcements at the WWDC 2007 (Worldwide Developers Conference) in my opinion, lacked some things (e.g., new hardware announcements), the information about the up coming Leopard OS (due in October '07) did have me drooling a bit. And, Apple has started to extend its reach into the Windows arena similar to how they did with QuickTime and then iTunes.…
Read more →June 11, 2007
Fix-it: How to remove a document stuck in your Printer Queue
Recently when I was setting up a client's computer with Windows Printer Sharing, I ran into an issue where a document was stuck in the print queue and was brining the system down to a crawl. First I tried deleting the document from the queue the "traditional" way by opening "Printers and Faxes" and launching the stuck printer and right-clicking…
Read more →May 30, 2007
Scam/Virus Alert – emails from IRS with Subject “Complaint Case Number…”
Scam, Virus, Phishing alert! Looks like there is a variant of the Better Business Bureau scam is circulating now but seemingly from the Internal Revenue Service, and I was a recipient of one of the emails. It came in with a title of: "Complaint Case Number ###### against User Name" from, supposedly "[email protected]". The body itself looked somewhat legit and…
Read more →May 17, 2007
Bluetooth Internet Sharing from Windows Mobile 6 to Mac OS 10.4.9
In the past, there were ways to share your cell phone's internet connection via Bluetooth on a Mac using the DUN profile on Windows Mobile 5 (sorry for the geek-speak). With the recent introduction of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft removed that profile, thus alienating many Mac users who used to enjoy the Bluetooth tethering/internet sharing (however it sounds like they…
Read more →May 10, 2007
What Web 2.0 would have looked like 10 years ago
Microsoft has been including IE7 in all of the latest Critical Updates. It's getting harder and harder to avoid installing. At my work, we recently had to roll back some of our users' machines to remove IE7 so that an automated testing software could run properly on IE6. So that got me thinking (and searching) and I found this great…
Read more →May 9, 2007
How to Fix Master Browser (MRxSmb) Event ID 8003 errors
I was reviewing some Windows Small Business Server 2003 Event Logs and came across a repeated entry in the System log. It basically looked like this: Event Type: Error Event Source: MRxSmb Event Category: None Event ID: 8003 Date: 5/8/2007 Time: 10:05:16 PM User: N/A Computer: [SERVER] Description: The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer [computer]…
Read more →May 7, 2007
HTD Roundup: Snippets of Tech that I have been playing with
It's been a while since my last post so I figured I would do yet another laundry list of things that I have been doing and technology I have been reviewing: Updated my Blog Theme to Redoable 1.2 - still a work in progress as there are some issues preventing me from showing what I had previously MAMP 1.6 -…
Read more →March 26, 2007
NeoOffice 2.1 released – MS Office for Mac replacement
If you are tired of paying for Microsoft Office for Mac, you have had an alternative for some time, that of OpenOffice. The "problem" with OpenOffice is that you have to have X11 (a windowing environment) installed on your Mac. And it looks like a "port" from Windows. Enter NeoOffice. NeoOffice was updated to 2.1 on March 26th, 2007. NeoOffice…
Read more →March 20, 2007
Power add-on for Excel
If you are like me, Microsoft Excel is one of the primary applications that you use (probably mainly for tracking lists of things). As with most applications, most of us only use a fraction of the functionality. We can apply the 80/20 rule here where 80 percent use only a fraction and 20 percent might be considered "power users." And…
Read more →March 9, 2007
Quick way to test if you need DST patch
Ok, you are running out of time!!! Literally! Thanks, Kris, for the comment on my previous post. Here is a site that you can just point your browser to in order to find out if you need to apply a patch for DST or not. It's really easy to do, trust me. Click here to test! If you are OK,…
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