As it turns outs, the winsxs folder was growing. The winsxs folder (located at C:\Windows\winsxs holds temp backup files for Windows Updates. You’ll find this folder in most, if not all, versions of Windows – from Server 2008 to Vista and 7. When I discovered the folder, it had grown to about 9GB.

You should not delete this folder. Its existence is important. That said, the contents in the folder may be important later on. This isn’t like deleting temporary internet files. Instead, take a look at the command below. Open up a command prompt as an administrator and run the command below. It will clean up your service pack updates and reduce the folder size considerably.

dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

Running this script takes about two minutes. When I ran this on a 9GB folder, my folder size dropped to just above 6GB. That’s a pretty darn good cleanup, comparatively.

DISM (Deployment Image Servicing & Management) has a number of different maintenance features for your images. The cleanup that we did is just one of the services. Take a look at the rest of the DISM tools to see if it can help you elsewhere.

Cheers

• Blackberry Setup
• Setup Wizard
• Email Setup
• Corporate Account with BES
• Choose yes, you do have a password
• With your BES password given to you by your admin, enter your email and your BES password
• Push in the menu option and select Activate

As I said, kind of different and kind of a pain, but it will get the job done.

Cheers

As it turns out, I was wrong.

On Dec 12, 2011, at 10:56 PM, Matt Mullenweg <m@mullenweg.com> wrote:

On 12/12/11 7:56 PM, Dan Lee wrote:
You’re getting bigger. It’s scaring me.

Okay I’ll stop eating so much.

–
Matt Mullenweg
http://ma.tt | http://wordpress.org | http://automattic.com

I was kind of floored that Matt, the lead developer at WordPress, responded. You’d think with the potentially millions of people that got the email address that his mailbox would have filled with Out of Office replies and the like.

Anyway, petty and small as it may seem, I enjoyed getting a response from Matt. Hope this little blurb brings a smile to your face. Maybe I’ll write about the new 3.3 features soon.

If you upgraded Outlook to version 2010 but left the rest of your Office products at 2007, you may not be getting red underlines when you type words incorrectly in Outlook. Here’s the easy, easy fix for this:

Find the winword.exe file for Office 2007, located by default in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12 if you’re using 64bit).

Copy and Paste winword.exe into Office 2010′s location in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14.

Close Outlook and open it back up. Give it a test and see if you get those red lines that keeping your emails looking professional!

Other potential issues with Spell Checker not working in general

Sometimes there are issues with spell checker in general. The biggest issue is that Spell Checker was disabled as in add-on. If it’s disabled in word then you won’t be able to use it in Outlook. Here’s how to enable it:

1. Open MS Word
2. Click on the Microsoft Office Button (MOB) at the top left of MS Word
3. Go to Word Options
4. Click on Add-Ons
5. At the bottom of the window there is a drop down box labeled “Manage:”. Choose the drop down called “Disabled Items” and click GO:
6. If spell checker is listed there, remove it from this list
7. Close Outlook and Word and reopen word to test

Let me know your thoughts and successes or failures with this tutorial. Cheers!

Like it or not, if you install Windows Sharepoint Services the databases will end up on the same drive as your install by default. Sometimes you may need to move the databases that Sharepoint uses. For example, I needed to move a database off of the small root drive (C:) of my Windows Server 2008 R2 installation onto another volume, labeled DATA E:. In fact, I consider keeping your databases separate from your install to be a best practice. Ideally, you’ll want databases to be stored on a database server so your DBM can give the DB’s the full attention they deserve. For this tutorial, we’ll show you how to move them to a new location local to the server. This can be accomplished with a few commands, but first you’ll need to install some things that aren’t readily available with a fresh Sharepoint installation.

Before you begin the tutoral

• Install Microsoft SQL Server Native Client.
• Install Microsoft SQL Server Command Line Utility.
• Do not reboot after installs. Well, you could, but why? It doesn’t ask you to.

Step 1: Figure out the path to the databases you want to move

By default, mine were all located here:

C:\Windows\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSQL.2005\MSSQL\Data\

The main databases you’ll want to move will be the content database, named WSS_Content.mdf by default and the config db, named Sharepoint_Config_%randomnumbers%.mdf. In my experience, the search database grew far larger than I expected so I moved it as well. You may want to add it to your list of dbs to move. Best practice would, naturally, be to move all associated databases. This will keep things organized.

Step 2: Stop all Sharepoint Services that are currently running

Keep a note of the ones you stopped so you can turn them on later.

Step 3: Head to the CLQU in a command prompt

By default it is located under the Binn directory at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\%number%\Tools\Binn. This was the third item I installed here, so my %number% was \100\. Some install CLQU before the Native Client, which puts it at \90\.

Step 4: Query the databases

You can copy and paste into your cmd prompt:

sqlcmd -S \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query -E

Step 5: Detach all the databases you want

If you entered it correctly, you’ll be given a 1. At the 1 line, enter the following command (the database name does not need the brackets or the .mdf extension):

EXEC sp_detach_db [your_database_name] 

At the 2 line, enter the command:

GO

If you entered it correctly, you’ll be given another 1. See screenshot below:

Keep repeating this step for as many databases as you want.

Step 6: Move your databases

When you’ve detached all of your databases, you can then move all of .mdf files. You’ll also need to move the .ldf files that are in the same directory as them. We’ll be using the .ldf files to attach the db’s back to Sharepoint.

Step 7: Attach the moved databases

Now that the databases are moved, you can attach them again. You’ll need to know the name of the db, the location of the .mdf, and the location of the .ldf for this long command. We’ll use WSS_Content as the database example. Enter the extremely long command without line breaks:

EXEC sp_attach_db @dbname = N'WSS_Content',
@filename1 = N'D:\SharePointDB\WSS_Content.mdf',
@filename2 = N'D:\SharePointDB\WSS_Content_Log.ldf'

And at the 2 line enter:

GO

Step 8: Exit command prompt and restart services

Just like in step 5, if you did this correctly you’ll get another prompt. Repeat step 8 to attach all of the moved databases. Exit out of the SQLCMD by typing exit and close the command prompt by typing exit again or simply closing the window.
Start up all the noted Sharepoint Services you made before and check to make sure Sharepoint is working properly.

If you run into any specific errors or see anything wrong please let me know in the comments. I designed this tutorial for Windows heavy Network Admins that don’t really get their hands dirty with command line stuff all too often. Cheers!

I’m not going to start from scratch when I start from scratch. I decided to go with a blank development theme. For basic projects for hobbyists or other not for profit sites I would quickly style the BLANK theme from DiW Theme Clubhouse. It was very easy to get started and very easy to style. Since its been a little bit, I decided to research new blank themes for development and found the DiW Team right at the top of a few lists with a new theme they call H5. This puts me in a great starting place and allows me to hit the ground running.

Why should you care?

You shouldn’t, really. But there’s a better than good chance that I’ll be able to create new tuts and whatnot as I crawl through the development of the new site. I was thinking about doing a series. No promises, though.

That said, pardon my dust.

The short answer: Yes.  For English speakers, The easiest way to test this theory is to change the language from an English version to German or French. Ask Siri a question and watch it offer a web search for the closest thing it could possibly translate from your gibberish.

If you are satisfied with the way Siri understands you and your English accent then you have a few options to choose from. You can make the changes by heading to Settings > General > Siri > Language.

Who can resist the accent of the female Australian? I can’t help but feel as though the accent on the UK English version is a little too electronic; it could have been better.

My tests weren’t as in depth as they could have been, but I had no problem asking for the time of other countries, setting up meetings, and using dictation features to reply to general texts and emails. Just with every other toy Apple has to offer, the best way to figure out what you like is to play with it.

Have fun!

The resource [datastore name] is in use.

• Version: ESXi 4.1
• Pesky Datastore: iSCSI SAN Volume

In use? But I moved everything off of the datastore and deleted the rest of the snapshot data and rubbish spread about the left over directories. What gives?

Datastores will still be in use if something is still pointing or mounted to them

Although you may not be dealing with a ISO issue, this KB article kind of explains how mounted items inhibit the ability for the datastores to be deleted:

kb.vmware.com/kb/1015791

As I’ve read though the KB articles and forums posts, I’ve found this to be the most prominent. Even though the files are gone, there still may be resources that believe they are mounted to something very real on the datastore.

To avoid going through every VM, take a look at your maps view and see if there is anything connected to the datastore you’re trying to get rid of. If it’s an offline VM that’s attached to it, you’ll have no problem seeing it there and knowing just how to take care of it. (The steps below that indicate how to remove a confused template can be used to remove and add a VM as well). For those of you that have command access to the host, give this a shot:

vmware-cmd -l

This will show you what items are registered with the datastore and may help to determine what to focus on during your hunt.

As painful as it sounds, you may have to check the settings of every VM recently associated with the datastore in question and see if there is still a CD Drive, mounted ISO, template, or hard drive pointing to it.

In my case, I found a template that was still convinced it’s hard drive was on the datastore. The steps to fix this were easy:

1. Right click on the faulty template and choose “Remove From Inventory”
2. Browse out to the datastore where the VM Template now resides
3. Right click the .vmx file and choose “Add to Inventory”

Removing the template from inventory will finally release the datastore. If that’s the last thing attached to the datastore, you should be able to delete it now. Adding the template back to inventory puts your template back in your list, ready for use when you need it.

Photoshop changes the colors of images when I save for web

Photoshop knows that not all monitors produce the same colors, and not all operating systems display colors in the same manner. Photoshop allows someone creating images the opportunity to adjust the way images are viewed on different mediums using color profiles. These color profiles may be friends to some but enemies to others, depending on what you’d like to accomplish.

This image color changing phenomenon, now popularly known as the Save For Web (..and Devices) Color Shift, requires just as much research and understanding as the pen tool. Here’s a great way to test out your color options, including profiles and sRGB.

1. Using Photoshop CS3 or higher, create a new 500 x 500 image.
2. Put a super bright color on top of another super bright color.
3. With just default settings, head to File > Save For Web (..and Devices), and save the file.
4. Open up that image in a browser and check out the saved image and the PSD image side by side.
5. For further testing, take a screenshot of the saved image, open it up in Photoshop, and select the colors with the eye dropper tool. Can you see a difference?

You’ll find my example below.

I made a 100 x 100 image with an orange background of #ff9900 with a red heart of #ff0000.

I placed it on top of a 250 x 250 html square. A screenshot of the outcome shows the difference between the two colors.

The resolution?

Easier said than resolved, really. It depends on what you want. If you’re creating stand alone images such as pictures then Photoshop is helping you out and doing the right thing by assigning color profiles. But if you’re interested in blending images, such as the images that make up the layout of your website, with backgrounds then you’re going to want dead on color accuracy. I can’t give you the end all answer because this topic is still wildly debated. I can, however, give you the options to tweak and the settings that I use to make website design more accurate.

Settings that have worked for me

1. Head to View > Proof Setup > and select Monitor RGB.
2. Now go to Edit > Monitor Settings > under RGB Settings change the setting to “Monitor RGB – (Your Computer Name)…”
3. Finally, when you are finished with your image and head to File > Save for Web (…and Devices), you’ll want to make sure that “Optimized” is not checked, “Convert to sRGB” is not checked, and you’re previewing in Monitor Color.
   

Why it’s not working for you

That’s probably the trickiest part of all of this. You may find the outcome half as accurate as you want it to be in certain browsers or while using certain monitors. Not everyone will be satisfied. These are the variables you’ll want to play with:

1. Converting to rSGB when you save or not.
2. Using an ICC profile or not.

The best I can give you is a big good luck, a pat on the back, and a “hope you figure out what you like.” It’s a shame there are so many options that we have to struggle with, but what would Photoshop be without options? Imagine building websites with MS Paint.