Tag: Software

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E-mail Home PC iMac Software

Beta Testing Spark Mail App on Mac

So I signed up to beta test Spark Mail App for Mac.  I like the app for iOS.  Really can’t say much about it since it is not installed.

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Software Windows 7 Windows Stuff

Applying Regional and Language Setting

Today at work I had a Windows 7 PC that was defaulted to English United Kingdom instead of English United States.  I was able to log onto the PC as the customer and go into Control Panel to access Region Language.  I selected English (United States) under each tab for Formats, Location, Keyboards and Languages.  I rebooted the PC and noticed the keyboard was still English (United Kingdom).  So a quick Google search and I found the following web link.

What I missed was selecting the Administrative tab, click the Copy settings button, and placing the two checks in the boxes.  Click OK to save and then reboot.  you should have the correct region and language settings for your PC.

Categories
Linux Stuff LinuxMint Software Windows 7

Linux Mint 10 Julia

Linux Mint 10 is here!  I installed the DVD version onto my 16GB Flash drive using the updates Universal USB installer 1.8.1.2.  I had to increase the primary partition to 1024MB (1GB) to accommodate the full DVD install.  I also created a new casper-rw partition on the remain space, plus modified the Shutdown Policy from USB.  I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.4 and chntpw (both of which can be installed from Software Manager), and I still need to install a few other apps like Google Chrome and Filezilla.

I forgot to copy the DVD ISO to my drive last night so I am downloading while writing this post.  I plan on updating my production PC this week so I can run Windows 7 in a VM to provide support to my customers.  I don’t expect any problems with installing the new OS.  Just remember, always backup your data before installing a new OS.

Categories
Geek Stuff Sager Software Virtual Machine VirtualBox Windows Vista

Resize Virtual HDD in VirtualBox

Several weeks ago I created a VM of Windows Vista with SP2. It ran great on my Sager NP8690. Unfortunately when I created the virtual hard drive I made it a 20GB drive. After all the patches were installed, I was down to about 3GB free. So I read a few posts from VirtualBox Forums about how to resize the drive. Here are the steps I used from the post:

  • Close you virtual machine, leave VirtualBox running.
  • Create a new virtual hard drive with the new size (I went with a dynamic size with a maximum size of 80GB).
  • Download Gparted-Live CD ISO file.
  • Add the Gparted-Live CD ISO file as a new virtual CD in VirtualBox.
  • Adjust your virtual machine settings to add the second larger hard drive and the Gparted-Live CD.
  • Start the VM and boot from the Gparted-Live CD file.
  • Choose all the defaults and wait for Gparted to start.
  • Select the second hard drive and set the partition to msdos.
  • Select the first hard drive, right click on the graph and select Copy.
  • Select the second hard drive, right click on the graph and select Paste.
  • This will take some time.
  • Once completed, shutdown the VM.
  • Adjust the settings for the VM by removing the old hard drive and the Gparted-LiveCD.  Add your Vista CD or ISO file.
  • Boot the VM and press any key to start from the Vista CD.
  • Select the option to Repair the OS.
  • Once it repairs, reboot the VM and do not press any keys.  Vista should boot and run a check disk of the VM.

Now when I boot into Vista, I have a 80GB hard drive with plenty of free space.

Thanks to gushy and bwh1969 for the original posts.

Categories
LinuxMint Software

Modified Linux Shutdown Policy running from USB

Several weeks ago I installed Linux Mint 9 on my 16GB USB Corsair jump drive.  I use it at work when I need to rescue a Windows PC (save a PC running Vista twice this month).  What I didn’t like was having to authenticate my account to shutdown the PC.  The system always displayed the message System policy prevents stopping the system when other users are logged in. I always had to log off first to shutdown the computer.

I found a fix at Len’s site which solved my problem.  I am posting the modified org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy at my box.net as a reference for myself.  Here are the step I used to fix the issue:

  1. Open terminal and type gksu nautilis
  2. Navigate to /usr/share/polkit-1/actions
  3. Right click org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy and open with gedit
  4. Scroll down to section org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users
  5. At allow_active, replace auth_admin_keeps with yes
  6. Scroll down to section org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users
  7. At allow_active, replace auth_admin_keeps with yes

Now I am able to shutdown Linux Mint running from my USB jump drive.

Thanks to Marilen Aretius Corciovei for originally posting this fix.


Categories
Home PC Software Ubuntu

BT Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop – Server

Today I tried to download the iso files for Ubuntu 9.10.  Needless to say it was taking hours.  At one point my computer said it would take 2 days to complete!  OK, time to switch to a Bit Torrent. (I am running Vuze on my home PC.)  I found the BT files for Ubtunu 9.10 Desktop and Server.  I had both iso files under 10 minutes. 

Some people might quit their session once the files are downloaded.  Not me, I’m keeping the feed going until I get home from work.  Tonight I will stop at the store, pickup a stack of CDRs and burn the iso files.  Since I have a lot on my plate this week, I might not get to try them out until Sunday November 1st.