Kill Open Applications Script

I tend to put my laptop to “sleep” at the end of the office day but often fire it back up at home. One bad habit of mine is having too many apps running at the same time (thanks to UltraMon the problem is now worse).  Putting a PC into “sleep” tries to commit things to RAM and if it runs out (it does) then to hard disk.  “Awakening” causes it to push things off of the hard disk and back into memory.  This takes a long time.  My solution was a simple VBS script to transverse and kill the most common applications right before “sleep”.  I’ve tied this to a slickrun command “kill” to make it easier to run.  Script below, enjoy!

 

strComputer = "."

dim oKillThese
oKillThese = Array("firefox.exe", "iexplorer.exe", "safari.exe", "TweetDeck.exe", "OUTLOOK.EXE", "chrome.exe", "notepad++.exe", "iTunes.exe", "javaw.exe", "cmd.exe", "Moe.exe", "Surround SCM Client.exe", "devenv.exe", "SqlWb.exe", "Navicat.exe")

For Each x in oKillThese

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colProcessList = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("SELECT * FROM Win32_Process WHERE Name = '" & x & "'")
For Each objProcess in colProcessList
    objProcess.Terminate()
Next

Next

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MySQL running on Server 2008

After installing MySQL 5 on Windows Server 2008, I kept running into an issue trying to run the MySQLInstanceConfig.exe (screenshot below).  After checking the event viewer, I found an error of:

MySQLInstanceConfig.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "…MySQLInstanceConfig.exe" on line 6. The value "asAdministrator" of attribute "level" in element "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1^requestedPrivileges" is invalid.

A quick google came up with a workaround and a fix which involves an oldie but still goodie, ResourceHacker.  This should be the same for Vista too.

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IE 8, blurry images, UseHR

I have a dell latitude d820 and the dreaded blurry image syndrome is back with IE 8 beta.  The previous fix was to add a registry key UseHR or get this fix from dell but right now neither seem to be working.  More on this soon…

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Microsoft Press Practice Test Error

So I’m trying to practice for the MCTS Exam 70-536 exam using the practice test that comes with the self paced training kit book, but keep getting this error every time I run it.  I’m on Vista SP1.  Doesn’t look like I’m the only one either.  I sent in a request to the MS people so we’ll see.

http://blog.havagan.com/?p=544

Microsoft Community Discussion Group

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Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains 10 Launch

Last Thursday I went to Microsoft’s Dynamics Great Plains 10 Launch, here’s what I came away with:

Besides GP 10, they gave a quick demo of Dynamics CRM (At one point CRM was going to live under the Live brand but this has changed).  What I saw was pretty sweet, basically it lives within Outlook.  They also demo SharePoint 2007, I was pretty impressed with this too.

What’s New

  • GP looks and works like Office 2007 (Ribbon, smart favorites, etc…) so getting Accounting team accustomed will be a task.
  • Workflow, PO process, auto notifications with things post, sales hit a certain number, item is sold, good stuff here. 
  • Search/Filters MUCH easier, custom column views, good stuff here.
  • Integrate SQL Reporting Services in GP, No need to go out to reporting server to see reports
  • Custom Home Page (Can pull from web parts)
  • Integrated with Outlook (For some users no need to open GP, can get GP panes in Outlook 2007)
  • 75 SQL Reporting Services templates to start with
  • Excel Reports Server – They are really pushing this, I get some GP data, make it look how I want then save the excel document, this automatically gets pushed back to great plains so next time I open the report I get live data and others can see it too.
  • 200 excel report templates come with it
  • Free Online GP Training (use to cost $)

New License Model called Business Ready License

  • Grandfatherd in if under current maintenance so you don’t have to go to new model· The current model you buy components as needed (Example: eConnect or FRx)
  • New model you get everything for a flat fee ($10,000)
  • New model you get 20 license to start with, $500 additional license
  • They are really pushing people to the new model so some heavy discounts are being given.  A couple of people I talked to said they basically got free maintenance for 2 years and it ended up being cheaper. I got a coupon too 😉

SharePoint 2007

  • You can do some really good things with some of their components when you hook them up to Microsoft CRM & SharePoint Server
  • Talking about a employee SharePoint server where
    • Employee update their info, check on sick days, vacation
    • Timesheets
    • Payroll stubs, w4, w2, direct deposit, 401K
    • Skills, training
  • SharePoint 2007 is cross browser (FF, Safari)
  • Can push SQL reporting services into SharePoint so that we would have cross browser reports

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Vista Battery Life

So Vista was suppose to be easier on laptop batteries then XP.  I’m not convinced, my Dell D820 last ~2 hours but should be getting close to at least 4.  I do have Aero turned on and will confess I have lots of windows open at a time + background services, but still 2 hours is no good.  I’ve been manually switching off Areo for the last week or so but that is a big pain in the arsh 😉 

Today I found Windows Vista Battery Saver.  This looks very promising, it automagically turns off Aero and Sidebar when the laptop is running on battery and it’s open source so you can peek at the code that manipulates the theme on Vista.

 

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Safari on Windows

Thanks to Scott for clueing me in on the Safari 3 for Windows Public Beta.  I must have been hiding in a hole, cause I did not see this coming at all.

First Impression

  • When I click on the top bar to expand the window, the dang thing disappears. Wait – Actually if I move it to my dual monitor and click the expand button the dang thing disappears.  Guess the dual monitor code hasn’t been put in.
  • It is fast, very fast.  Although reports are FF is faster then IE, I’ve found IE to render quicker (maybe because of the extensions I have going on FF), but this thing is really fast.
  • Finally, no more VNC to a MAC to make sure things are working correctly on Safari.  This is great.
  • Font rendering is nice – not clear type, but pretty close.
  • Hey the backspace keyboard doesn’t move you back in history – not cool.

I’m not switching from FF because of the extensive plugins I use but for some fast web browsing this might make take over my IE.

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Vista Review

So I’ve been using Vista as my main OS for almost 2 months now.  Time to give a short run down on the Good, Bad, and Ugly.

Good

  • Areo Glass Theme.  Sorry OS X but Areo Glass is so much prettier then you.
  • Changing Themes Color. Right now I’m digging green.

 

  • Ready Boost.  I got a 4 gig USB card helping free the hard drive of tedious task and extending my laptop’s battery.
  • Stable.  This should be a given but no blue screen, freezes, or spinning beach balls.  I would say this is the most stable OS I have ever used.
  • Sleep Mode.  This never worked 100% of the time with XP.  No problems so far in Vista.
  • Search.  Being able to search from the Windows start menu is almost enough to make me get rid of SlickRun, almost.

  • Snipping Tool. Finally Windows ships with a much better screen capturing tool.
  • No more “My Documents” or “My Pictures”.  They have renamed them to “Documents” & “Pictures”, finally.
  • New Movie Maker.  A nice upgrade over it’s predecessor. 
  • DreamScene.  This is really, really cool, having a movie play as your background. It does draw a on resources though, that is why I don’t have it on 100% of the time.

Bad

  • Remote Desktop.  Until my fellow Network IT guys upgrade Terminal Services on ALL of the servers, I have to type in my password twice OR type it in something once so I get the Windows login prompt.  Come on guys, backward compatibility is a good thing.

Ugly

  • Cancel or Allow.  This feature works if you are a web surfer/emailer but no way for a power user like myself.  This is the first thing I turned off.

 

So far I have not ran into any driver problems or devices not working properly.  I’ll keep you updated.

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