Create a Shortcut to open in your Alternate Browser

Here’s a quick and simple “How To” for you.  I had this question posed by a client the other day and it made me think.    This Client is a fan of FireFox.  It is his default browser and tries his best to NEVER use Internet Explorer.  But, as is the case with most things, the more you try to keep from using something that’s right when you find out you have to.

This was the case here.  He had a vendor’s website that would only work in IE AND he needed to use this website alot so, he had a shortcut on his desktop to get to it.  The problem is the Internet Shortcut will open in his Default Browser… Firefox.  Now,  since he uses IE so infrequently, you would think – just make the website in question the home page  and be done with it.  But that won’t help if you have more than one shortcut.

So, here we go.

• First, right-click on your desktop and select New —> Shortcut
  
• This will open a new Window.  Here you need to click “Browse” and Navigate to the folder containing the executable for the browser you are wanting to use.
  
• After selecting the executable you need to add your URL to the end. Make sure and put the URL outside the quotes surrounding the executable and make sure and put a space between the closing quote and the URL.
  
• Next, just give your new shortcut a creative name and click finish.
  

Now you have a URL Shortcut that will open in your non-default browser.

This doesn’t have to be just for Internet Explorer…  This will work for any browser you want used for this particular shortcut.  Firefox,  Chrome, Opera… whatever.

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Windows 7 …. Bacon Edition!

Coming to a Frying Pan near You!  You know you want it!

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Windows 7 Telnet Client

I dropped to a command prompt today on my Windows 7 machine to telnet into my Cisco Router and found, that once Again the Microsoft telnet client is not installed.

It seems that, as with Windows vista, the Microsoft Telnet client is not installed by default.   But luckily it’s pretty easy to install,  just follow these simple steps:

1. Click the Start “Pearl” and select the Control Panel from the menu.
   
2. Once the Control Panel opens, double click the Programs and Features  applet.
   
3. A new window will open. Select “Turn Windows Features on or off” from the left menu.
   
4. Again, a new window will open. Check the box beside “Telnet Client” … Also, if you want to enable your “Telnet Server” or “TFTP Client” you can select them at this time also. Click Ok after you have finished your selections.
   
5. Windows will not prompt you that it is installing the components.
   

After if completes you will be able to make use of the Windows Telnet client.

Enjoy!

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Windows 7 error 86

Windows 7 & Windows 2000  -  Error 86 when mapping drives.

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Windows 7 Clean Install from Upgrade

Windows 7 seems to be a hit!
Since it’s release on October 22, I’ve installed it in one form or another MANY, times probably twelve in the last 6 days.   The first couple of upgrades concerned me slightly because of the indefinite answer on whether or not you could do a clean install from the upgrade disk.

I had a couple of laptops running the release candidate and I DID NOT want to have to install Vista then do an upgrade.  But to my surprise that was just as easy as the install from an OEM disk.  It’s was “quick-ish” and really simple.  Here’s how I did it each time and it worked like a charm.

1. Back-up all your files and settings. (I used the Windows Easy Transfer Utility)
2. Insert the upgrade DVD into the drive and reboot the computer.  Booting to the DVD of course.
3. Once the DVD loads you will see a menu to select “Upgrade” or “Custom Installation”
4. I chose Custom. Selected the drive I wanted to install to.
5. Clicked “Advanced” for that drive then chose format. You’ll get the usual warning saying all files will be deleted… blah blah.
6. Select the newly formatted drive and install away.
7. Once in windows you enter the Key and activate. Simple.

Once in windows,  go into the Windows Transfer Utility and import all of your saved files and settings.  Install any needed programs and Updates then you should be good to go.

I’ve seen where other people have had to do some Registry Hacks to get Windows to take the Upgrade key after this type of installation but, I did not have that issue during any of my upgrades.  If you should get an error entering your key saying that it is not valid for that type of install check out these directions over at the Supersite for Windows.

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Use the Snipping Tool to Capture Menus

When Vista came on the scene one of the new features I thought was pretty cool was the new Snipping tool.  It’s a really useful little utility and for the most part it’s great.  In Windows 7, the tool is still there (no improvements that I can see).  But, one of the things about this little utility that bothered me was my inability to use it to capture context and other drop-down menus.  Every time I would open the menu I needed to capture, it would disappear as soon as I selected the Snipping Tool.

This really annoyed me.  There has to be a way!?  Well, it turns out there is a really simple solution for this.  To use the Snipping Tool to capture menus, follow these steps.

First, locate and start the Snipping Tool.  When the tool starts it will be in “New capture” mode.  Click Cancel but, don’t close the tool.  Next, open the menu you want to capture.  With that menu open, press the “Control” and “Print Screen” buttons on your keyboard.  This will re-activate the Snipping Tool in the “New Capture” mode.  Now just capture your image.

As you can see above, it works quite well.   This, “work-around”,  functions the same in Windows Vista and in Windows 7.  I’ve also tried it on my laptop and desktop and there was no difference in function.

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Add Additional Domain to Exchange 2003 SBS

I had to add a new e-mail domain for a client to their existing 2003 Small Business server.  Without removing the existing mail domain and without going into each user here are the steps I went through to add the new mail domain.

First, open the Exchange System Manager.  You can find it by clicking: start button —> All Programs —>Microsoft Exchange —> System Manager

Once you have the System Manager Open you will need to drill down to  “Recipient Policies” under Recipients.  When you click on “Recipient Policies” you should see “Default Policy” on the right.  Double click on the “Default Policy”

After clicking on the “Default Policy” it’s properties window should open.  In that window you will see three “Tabs” (General, E-mail Addresses (Policy) and, Details)  Click the E-mail Addresses (Policy) tab.  There you will see the current list of domains.  To add your new Domain, click the “New” button at the bottom of the window.

After you click “New” another window will open showing a list of options.  Selecte “SMTP” from the list and click “OK”.

In the next window you will type your new domain.  Make sure and include the  “@“  infront of the name.  Also, make sure the box is checked beside “This Exchange Organiztion is resposible for all mail delivery to this address.”  Click “OK” to continue.

Now you will be returned to the domain window.  You should now see your new domain in the list but it will not have a check beside it.  Check the box to the left of the domain name to enable it.  Once you do this you will get a “Pop-Up” message saying:
“The e-mail Addresses of type(s) [smtp] have been modified.
Do you want to update all corresponfig recipient e-mail addresses to match these new address(es)? “

Click  “Yes”. now your domain window should look something like this:

Now, if you have set-up the DNS correctly, you will be able to receive mail on this domain to all existing mail boxes.

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