Just This

If you purchased an upgrade of Windows 7, you probably know that you need to have XP or Vista prior to upgrading to Windows 7. However, if you format your hard drive before installing Windows 7 with the upgrade disc, you may receive an error message when you enter your product key saying that it’s not valid. Since you need to have XP or Vista already installed, the product key is invalid if you no longer have the older version of Windows installed.

The obvious solution is to reinstall the older version of Windows first, and then run the Windows 7 upgrade again, but that can be a hassle. To save time, there is a work-around that lets you use the product key after all. Leave the product-key box blank and finish the installation process. Leave the upgrade disc in the drive, and once you are in Windows 7, go to the disc and run the installer again from within Windows. Follow the steps, and once it’s done “upgrading,” or installing for the second time, you can enter your product key with no problems.

This might be a flaw in the installation process, but it seems that “upgrading” an un-activated installation of the same Windows 7 version lets you use the product key from an upgrade license.

Important: Realize that using this solution to be able to use an upgrade disc without owning XP or Vista for the same computer already is a violation of the upgrade license. I am only providing this information for convenience if you are within the license terms and simply didn’t realize that you cannot format your hard drive first. Utilizing this work-around for any other purpose is illegal.

I found this solution at http://www.oit.umn.edu/utools/all-software/windows-7-upgrade/.

I bought myself a copy of Windows 7 Professional, exited to have the real thing after using the release candidate for months. I put in my DVD, clicked through the first couple steps of the installation process, set up my hard drive partitions, and then the error message popped up: “Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition.” I tried redoing the partitions, restarting, et cetera, but I kept getting the error every time.

After Googling for the error, I found that quite a few other people have had the same problem. Fortunately the fix is extremely simple. Go to your BIOS settings and change the hard drive to which you are installing Windows 7 to be first in the hard drive boot order. Also temporarily change the hard drive to be the primary boot device (instead of a CD/DVD drive or a floppy drive). Restart, and when the computer first boots, you will probably need to press a key when it asks to boot from the DVD drive. Do so, and start the installation process again. You should then be able to go through the installation with no problems. Once Windows 7 is installed, you can return to the BIOS settings and change the boot device orders back to how you want them.

Many thanks to LinuxUser77 on Microsoft TechNet for providing the solution: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/8c26780a-78ba-4113-994b-a0ef2c117c76.

I’ve been using Hostmonster to host this site for about a year and a half now. I applied for SSH access, which requires a scan of a legal ID, a while ago, and today I needed to install Subversion by logging in via SSH. Hostmonster does not use Ubuntu for their servers, so apt-get was out of the question. I contacted Hostmonster support about this, and although they said they are unable to provide support for 3rd party software, they were very quick to respond and provided me with a link that might help. After some Googling, I came upon this post in a forum topic somewhere. Unfortunately the post was made in August of 2007, so the versions listed for some of the files are quite out-of-date. I couldn’t find any recent guides, but I wasn’t going to quit there.

I’m no Linux expert; in fact, I hardly know my way around the command line. I have messed around with Ubuntu, though, so I had knowledge enough to figure out what I needed to do. I now have a successful install of Subversion! Here is how to get it all working on a Hostmonster shared account. Note that this should work with Bluehost as well since they are related. Please forgive my terminology here. As I mentioned, I’m not really good with Linux, but I’ll do my best to explain.

First, we need to get two Apache tarballs that are required for building Subversion from source since they aren’t included in the Subversion tarball. They are both part of the Adobe Portable Runtime Project. We need APR and APR-util. As of this writing, the latest versions are 1.3.6 and 1.3.8 respectively. To find the download locations for the latest version, go to the download page and find the apr-[version].tar.gz and apr-util-[version].tar.gz files. You will need to use the download URLs for these to get the latest versions. Here are the commands to install these using a terminal. Replace the URLs and filenames to match those that you found on the download page.

   1: mkdir ~/src

   2:  

   3: cd ~/src

   4: wget http://www.axint.net/apache/apr/apr-1.3.6.tar.gz

   5: tar -xzf apr-1.3.6.tar.gz 

   6: cd apr-1.3.6

   7: ./configure --prefix=$HOME

   8: make 

   9: make install

  10:  

  11: cd ~/src

  12: wget http://www.axint.net/apache/apr/apr-util-1.3.8.tar.gz

  13: tar -xzf apr-util-1.3.8.tar.gz

  14: cd apr-util-1.3.8

  15: ./configure --prefix=$HOME --with-apr=$HOME

  16: make

  17: make install

Next we need to find the latest version of Subversion to download and build. You can find a link to the latest version right on the home page for Subversion. As of this post, the latest version is 1.6.3. You will need the link to the .tar.gz file under Source Code. Here are the commands to get us started. Even if you know what you are doing, do not go any further than this yet because we need to do something else first. Replace the URL and filenames to match those that you found on the download page.

   1: cd ~/src

   2: wget http://subversion.tigris.org/downloads/subversion-1.6.3.tar.gz

   3: tar -xzf subversion-1.6.3.tar.gz

When I first tried to configure Subversion as we will do soon, it gave me an error saying that it needs SQLite. It said to download the SQLite tarball and copy the sqlite3.c file from it to a sqlite-amalgamation/ subdirectory under the Subversion folder we just unpacked from the Subversion tarball. The latest version of SQLite can be found on the SQLite download page. You need the sqlite-amalgamation-[version].tar.gz file; it should be the second file in the Source Code category. As of this post, the current version is 3.6.16. Here are the commands to get the file we need from this tarball. Don’t forget to replace the URL and filenames with updated ones if you are using newer versions.

   1: cd ~/src

   2: wget http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite-amalgamation-3.6.16.tar.gz

   3: tar -xzvf sqlite-amalgamation-3.6.16.tar.gz

   4: cd sqlite-amalgamation-3.6.16

   5: mkdir ~/src/subversion-1.6.3/sqlite-amalgamation

   6: cp sqlite3.c ~/src/subversion-1.6.3/sqlite-amalgamation

Now we are ready to configure and build Subversion. Here are the commands to do so. As before, update the folder name accordingly.

   1: cd ~/src/subversion-1.6.3

   2: ./configure --prefix=$HOME --without-berkeley-db --with-zlib=/usr --with-ssl

   3: make

   4: make install

We’re all done! Use the following commands to make sure Subversion is now installed. Note the double dash in the second line.

   1: cd

   2: svn –version

You should now be able to use Subversion on your shared hosting account with Hostmonster or Bluehost. Many thanks to the original guide that provided the basis for my findings and to all the other places I don’t remember where I found some other bits and pieces that made this possible.

I hope this saves somebody else the hassles I went through trying to find this information!

I was searching around for the best plugins for Windows Live Writer, and I came across a way to make Writer portable, as in for a flash drive. I’ve got a flash drive all set up with my favorite portable apps, so I decided this would be really cool to have, so I could blog from anywhere. Here’s the blog post and download link from the guy who make it happen.

http://www.techlifeweb.com/2008/11/08/windows-live-writer-portable-version-3/

To my surprise, it works perfectly! My plugins seem to work and everything. Considering Writer is a Microsoft program, I didn’t think a portable version would be very reliable since Microsoft tends to let things only work a certain way.

Here, let me use the Polaroid plugin from this portable instance of Writer. How about a nice Jedi Knight Jedi Academy screenshot?

Fun!

I’m not usually in a situation where I need a computer and don’t have one of my own, but for the times I might be, it’ll be nice having this.

I read on Lifehacker a while ago about Windows Live Writer, and it seemed like it could be really nice. I went ahead and downloaded it just now, and I’ve begun messing around with it to try it out. In fact, I’m posting from it right now. I’ve found a number of articles about ways to improve it, especially via plugins. I have yet to try any, but I downloaded a few that I’m going to try when I get a chance.

So far, I’m impressed. I like being able to not only make new posts, but also edit previous posts from an application on my computer instead of logging onto a website and going through menus and what not to get to what I need.

I also recently found Zoundry Raven (I believe that’s the name), which aims to do the same thing. I installed it a while ago, but I never really tried it out, so I uninstalled it. Sometime I’ll have to install it again and try it out to compare to Windows Live Writer.

Now to test the integration of a picture from Live Writer. I’ll use one of my screenshots from Gran Turismo 4.

A while back, a friend of mine asked me to find out for him how much a KVM switch would cost him. I looked around on Newegg a bit, and I found that KVM switches that can handle digital monitors cost upwards of 60 or 70 bucks. Now maybe it’s just me, but paying $60 just so you can switch between two computers on one monitor doesn’t seem worth it to me.

I started Googling things like "virtual kvm" and "software kvm". One search brought me to http://www.avidardik.com/2006/03/28/a-guide-to-building-a-software-kvm-switch/. This was just what I wanted to do. I already knew about VNC for remotely viewing computer screens, but I never thought about writing a script to make the process of switching between the local and remote screens a lot easier. The script on that page is useful but rather limited as it only works with one remote computer, so I set out to write my own. Enter Virtual KVM.

What Virtual KVM does is act as a powerful manager for VNC connections. It gives you the ability to switch between a maximum of 8 remote computer screens via the VNC protocol. The result is a simulation of what a real KVM switch does. Obvious limitations are that you can’t switch audio or USB connections, but at least in my experience those has never been all that necessary.

My first KVM switch was a Belkin one, and the Scroll Lock key was used for switching between computers, so that’s the key I decided to use for Virtual KVM. The Scroll Lock key is used for every hotkey the program currently supports. Scroll Lock+1 always switches back to the local computer. Every other number from 2 to 9 is used to switch to a remote computer. Besides using the number keys, you can also use the left and right arrow keys in combination with the Scroll Lock key to cycle through the computers in order, either in decreasing order (left arrow) or increasing order (right arrow). A final hotkey I added was Scroll Lock+Tab. This will always switch to the last viewed computer. So if you are viewing computer 4, and you switch to computer 2, pressing Scroll Lock+Tab will get you back to computer 4. Pressing it again will return to computer 2. This makes it easy to quickly switch back and forth between two computers without remembering which numbers they are.

What makes Virtual KVM really shine is its management of VNC connections. It allows you to have multiple VNC connections open at once, so after the initial connection period for each computer (typically less than a second), switching between computer screens is almost instantaneous. If you switch to a computer that has not yet been connected, Virtual KVM will automatically attempt to connect to it. If the connection is already open, Virtual KVM simply switches to it. You even get the option of automatically connecting to all the remote computers when the program is started, so you won’t even notice that it had to connect to them. If you desire, you can have Virtual KVM disconnect from a remote computer when you switch away from it, but in general you will want to leave the connections open. If you’re computer can handle it, leaving the connections open makes for very quick switching between computer screens.

After about a month’s worth of coding, debugging, editing, deleting, et cetera, I finally reached the release stage for the first version of the program. I gave it a version number of 0.99 because it was essentially complete for a first version, but I figured that there was probably still a bug or two in there that I would want to fix before I officially declared it Version 1.

Starting with version 0.99.3, all VNC clients are theoretically supported. I have only tested RealVNC and TightVNC so far, but others should work equally well. I do, however, prefer and recommend RealVNC because it supports sending special hotkeys like Win+E (Windows Explorer) to the remote host. Unless I am missing something, TightVNC does not support this feature. One nice feature that TightVNC has and RealVNC lacks, though, is the ability to scale the desktop automatically to fit the local screen.

Version 0.99.5 adds support for 64-bit Windows. Note that the program itself is not 64-bit, but it will run properly on a 64-bit system.

If you find any bugs when you’re using the program, please feel to comment about them on this post or send me an email via the contact page on this blog. If you have any ideas for improvements or features for Virtual KVM, please feel free to let me know as well. I want to make this the best it can be!

When you download the program, you will need to configure it before you can use it. There is currently no GUI to do this, so you will have to manually edit the Settings.ini file. It’s pretty simple, so you should be able to figure it out easily. Instructions are included in the readme.

Virtual KVM comes as a stand alone program, meaning you don’t install it, so it will work fine on a flash drive if you have a need for that. I believe you can get stand alone versions of most VNC viewers as well, so you should be able to set up a complete portable Virtual KVM experience. See the Readme for instructions on how to configure Virtual KVM to use a portable VNC client.

That’s enough talk from me for now. Go try it out! You can download the latest version here: http://www.compeek.net/downloads/virtualkvm_v0.99.3.5.zip (208 KB). Please take a few minutes to read the included Readme.txt file to get a complete explanation of how to use Virtual KVM to it’s full ability. Enjoy!

I have only tested Virtual KVM on Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 and Windows 7 Ultimate RC x64, but it should work on just about any version.

I saw today on  that the first beta of Thunderbird 3 is out, so I downloaded and installed it. I use Thunderbird for managing all of my email, and so far I’ve been quite pleased. There are a few small things in Thunderbird 2 that I wish were better, but overall I think Thunderbird is a very powerful and useful piece of software. I read a bit about the upcoming release of Thunderbird 3 a month or two back, and it definitely sounded promising. I have to say that it isn’t living up to my expectations so far. That’s not to say it isn’t still a great email client. It’s just that I was expecting a bit more than a slightly modified Thunderbird 2. I’m sure a lot of work went into this version, but it looks and feels the same as version 2, with a few exceptions.

The first major new feature I noticed was tabs. I was very glad to see this because I love using tabs. It makes almost any application much more streamlined and accessible. At this point, however, I am not impressed with the tabs feature in Thunderbird. Double clicking a message opens it in a new window, just like before. If you want it to open in a tab, you have to right click and choose ‘Open Message in New Tab’. You can do the same with folders. I have not been able to find any settings that let you choose opening in new tabs as the default. My other complaint is that it doesn’t seem that you can compose messages in tabs. Nor can you open the Address Book in a tab. So as of this release, I don’t think the tabs feature has added any real value to Thunderbird.

The message pane got somewhat of a new look. Buttons for things such as replying, forwarding, and marking as junk have been added directly to the message pane, with an ‘other actions’ button. Probably the biggest change to the reading pane, though, is the stars that appear next to email addresses. If the address is already in your address book, the star is yellow, and clicking on it reveals a small box for editing the name to go with the email. There is also an ‘Edit Details’ button, which links you to the contact in the address book for complete editing. If the address is not already in your address book, simply clicking on the star adds the address to the book, and the star turns yellow. This is sort of a neat feature. If nothing else, it makes adding an email address to your address book a one click process.

I could be wrong, but I don’t believe the calendar has been built into this beta release. I’m assuming it will be added soon. So at this point I cannot comment on how well the calendar has been integrated.

A few options have been added/changed, but other than the features I mentioned, there isn’t a whole lot that’s "new" about Thunderbird 3 as of Beta 1. The beta hasn’t crashed on me, and I haven’t found any bugs so far, so I’ll probably be using it now instead of Thunderbird 2. However, I am not all that impressed with what’s been done to improve Thunderbird. There are probably improvements under the hood, but so far the interface has hardly changed. I hope this is not so with final release.

I’d recommend downloading the beta and giving it a shot, but don’t get too excited about it. It feels more like a half release than a full new version.

EDIT: After some use of Thunderbird 3, I have something to add. It definititely feels a lot faster than Thunderbird 2. It’s especially noticeable when using IMAP. I’m stuck with a pretty slow internet connection, so things usually hang when I’m using the internet. But Thunderbird 3 really impressed me with the speed with which it manages messages. Deleting an email almost instantly clears it from my sight, and it only takes a few more seconds for it to actually move the message on the server. I think this is definitely an improvement worth upgrading for, despite my lack of excitement about this release in general.

Welcome to Just This! I have quite a few projects in progress right now, so my custom blog software probably won’t be happening for a while. In the meantime, I decided to take the easy route and set up a WordPress blog. I experimented with WordPress a while back and was rather impressed, so I’m not too disappointed about not having my own blogging software just yet. At this point, I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting, but hopefully I’ll have some useful articles on here pretty soon. Enjoy!