Platform: Windows XP, 2003, Vista (PowerShell)

If you're not using Windows PowerShell, you should be. Here's a way I figured out how to flatten a path into a single directory. In my case I had lots of pictures in different folders that had unique names, so it was a matter of doing the following:

gci --recurse . *.jpg | cpi -dest 'c:\flat'

gci, or get-child-item, gets all the files in this directory. It follows all subdirectories with the "--recurse" option. I ran this in the current directory, hence the "." and I just wanted all my JPEG pictures.

Then, pipe it out to cpi cmdlet (copy item) with a -dest and your destination path. It worked GREAT. In the past on Windows I've either done this with Cygwin or with other utilities like XXCOPY ($$$). Free is good, and I'm just getting my feet wet in PowerShell now.

Other sites have discussed this as well.

Platform: Windows XP/2003 (might work with older too)

Now that I'm heavily into virtualization and doing a bunch of physical to virtual (P2V) moves, I end up having NIC conflicts on IP addresses with abandoned NICs that will never make their way back into my system. Of course Windows says "you already have this IP address on another adapter" when I set my new NIC as a virtual machine guest to the same IP as the old physical adapter had. So how to delete the old adapters? It's not like I can put them back in (it's a virtual machine now!) and remove them from device manager. Here's the process:

Drop into a command line.
Type in "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1"
(don't use quotes, we just set a shell variable)
Type in "devmgmt.msc" This will launch the Windows Device Manager Console.
In the Device Manager Console, from the "View" menu, select "Show Hidden Devices".

From here you can select the old NICs or other devices long gone from your system (the icons will be somewhat lighter than valid ones) and uninstall. Note, really really bad things can happen if you remove something you need, so only take out the NICs you know you can blow away.

Platform: Linux, Mac OSX, Windows - Firefox

Wondering where the cache is at? Type about:cache in the address bar and you'll get info on the path and be able to view content info as well. I searched Google for a while, and maybe this is a beginner tip for most, but I had a bear of a time finding it. Tip: On Windows it's buried in the local profile Application Data folder.

Platform: Windows Vista Beta 1

As a followup to the "magical shift-f key" post I did a while back, I tested it out today on a Windows Vista Beta 1 install. I was able to do the Shift-F10 trick to get a command prompt and thus run taskmgr, but the Shift-F11 wouldn't give me any detail about what was being installed. So, this little hack "half" works for Vista.

Platform: Windows (Tested on XP)

Ever heard of IEXPRESS.EXE? Neither had I, so I ran it. It's a simple app that develops self-extracting packages that are like Microsoft patches. The app can be used to created Cabs, extract files, or extract and run a .EXE after extraction. In a small network, it could be a very easy and cheap way to distribute something. This app was just automatically on my system, using XP Pro SP2.

Platform: Windows XP, Nero Burning ROM, Windows Media Player, Windows Mobile

From our buddy Mr. Wizard: A while back I read an article that disabling the IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service will improve performance in Ahead Nero because Windows was conflicting for access to the burner. I disabled it, didn't really notice a big difference but left it disabled. A few weeks later I found that I lost the ability to sync my Windows Media Player 10 to my Dell Axim. WMP wouldn't see the Axim at all. Googling didn't turn anything up, but the event log had an obscure message saying the
ImapiService couldn't start that coincided with my trying to sync. I re-enabled the IMAPI service, and everything works great again.



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Platform: Windows Server 2003 and XP

I've always been a bit irritated that Microsoft's "improvements" in their installers in the recent desktop and server OS's were nothing more than removing of details. This past week I was doing an in-place upgrade of a 2000 server to 2003. I plopped the disc in after checking compatibilities (I resolved all of them) and fired up winnt32.exe. Well, we were stuck at "24 minutes" remaining. The drives kept blinking in unison, like there was some activity. I was patient, far more patient than I normally am. Anyhow, the installation of 2003 appeared to be hung. Eventually I threw the power (shudder!) on the install. I was suspecting hardware issues, so I disabled some stuff (NIC, etc.). I restarted the upgrade (basically, turn the machine back on and it restarts the setup from the first reboot). It got stuck again at "24 minutes remaining." Panic starts to set in (it's a production document management server). First rule of giving up--you never give up, you try something else. Much Google time ensued. Eventually, I ran across this jewel of a tip: While running the installer of 2k3 or XP, you can hit shift-F11 to bring up a dialog of WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON. This doesn't work during all stages of the install, mind you, but when it's copying files or "configuring your server" you'll actually see what's hanging up. In my case, this machine was absolutely stuck on the frontpage extensions for the IIS installation (a frequent problem for 2k to 2k3 upgrades). So, it's stuck, how do you fix it? Well, it turns out Shift-F10 will bring up a command window (or DOS box, if you're old school like me). Ah-hah! From here we can use taskmgr to bring up task manager. I noodled through the running apps, and I found one that was running that seemed like the one (appcfgwiz.exe or something like that, I forget the exact). I kill that, the configuration of frontpage extensions stops, and the install completes. I don't need the extensions, and the machine came up without any other issues I could identify. Keep those magic keys ready--you'll need them someday. This is reported to work in XP as well. I don't see why you would disable this on 2003 server. I mean, if you're smart enough to be upgrading or installing 2k3 servers, shouldn't you be smart enough to watch the details?