Steve the IT Tech Guy

Can’t Email From Word or Excel

Within MS Word or Excel they have an option to email directly rather than opening Outlook and then attach the file. Sometimes this option does not work. It pops up an error about MAPI connection.

One way that might help is a little utility that Microsoft has built in to Windows called fixmapi.exe . This file is located in C:\Windows\system32. Basically you close all your applications, Click Start-Run (Or Windows Key-R) and type in C:\windows\system32\fixmapi.exe. After this you might need to restart. Then try emailing from Word or Excel and it should fix your issue.

Windows 8 Review So Far

Well I have installed Windows 8 Release Preview and have lately installed the full Windows 8 (Tech Net). And the following I have found:

Windows 8 looks like 2 in 1. It has the original Desktop without the Start menu (Download Classic Shell to get it back). and the new (METRO) start menu. Microsoft has still not labeled the new interface but I will still call it Metro.

Microsoft is pushing the new Metro apps. The issue I have is there are limited apps. If this is the norm then Windows RT Tablet will tank. For example after all this new OS through beta etc (I don’t know maybe I am missing something) there is no Facebook app for Metro. I googled it and they say there is one and when I go through the process it just gives me a window in Firefox for Facebook. So if this is the case ( I looked at the store in social apps and there is no Facebook) the latest and greatest OS to be all the end all does (Who is pushing Metro apps (or whatever MS will call it)) does not have a metro app yet for the largest social thing on the Internet just makes this thing closer to a Vista OS EVER!!. Ok you want to push METRO (AKA WHATEVER YOU CALL IT!!) But don’t include the largest social explosion for it. This is just crazy!!!

The other thing I find is that there is no search for apps in the store. Whats all that about. You want to compete with Apple in iOS for tablet but there is no search for apps. I’m sorry I am a Windows fan. I have used every OS that they have created. Windows 7 is the most stable and best OS they have created. They want to compete with Apple for Tablet I can see their point but at least try and compete!! iOS has 400,000+ apps so far and you are starting from the ground up with Windows 8 RT and Windows METRO! It will be a struggle. Maybe you will improve and incorporate this but so far you are just treading water.

I won’t even get into the corporate issue with not including a normal start menu as an option. Corporate already skipped Vista with it’s issues. They are slowly going with Windows 7 with its great benefits of 64-bit larger memory issue and compatible etc.

Will have to see. There are some nice features in Windows 8 that look nice (restore easily etc) but will have to review more. So far I can’t see a big thing of switching from Windows 7 to 8.

XBMC vs PLEX for Windows

I have been an XBMC fan for a few years now. Before this I was always wanting a media center for my home. I have probably over 100 DVD’s and 2 small kids. The issue with DVD’s is that they can get scratched and go missing. With 2 small kids this is the norm probably for most families. What I always wanted is a place where I can store all the DVD’s I have in one location and then I can play them anytime and (without looking all around the house) any time.

I have played with Windows Media Center. It’s OK but it would not play all the different media versions I have (.avi,mp4, etc). Then I came across XBMC. The greatest thing I saw was it would play anything I could put through it. I have had standard Windows not play by default all the different versions of media that XBMC could play. I don’t think there is one media version that it can’t play. It is great. I can have 1 PC that holds all my media (Not just movies but music and pictures) and then I can have another PC running XBMC and access the same content. Life is great.

Then I heard about Plex ( I believe a division team from XBMC decided they could make it better) . I thought there are some things with Plex that I like that XBMC does not have. One is that its a Server/Client type system that allows me to start a movie on one PC. Pause it and then resume from another. XBMC does not have this by default. There is away to setup this and I have not tried yet with a SQL database metadata. I figured Plex has this from the start so it should be easy and it is.

The other thing that Plex has over XBMC is that it has a client that works on iOS (iPod,iPhone,iPad) that I can play movies directly on my iPad and I can resume movies AND if I sign up with myPlex (free) I can play through the Internet anywhere I like. XBMC does have this option BUT you have to jailbreak your iOS device. Something I don’t really want to do just for this option. And I have been using a 3rd party utility called Air Video that does the same thing without jail breaking it to play either through my local LAN or through the Internet. The only thing is it does not have the pause and resume feature that the Plex does.

One other thing I have found on the difference between the 2 is the add-ons. Both XBMC and Plex have a lot of add-ons. For example they both have a video add-on for Twit. I watch Twit (This Week In Tech) and a lot of their video pod casts that they produce. They have some great tech stuff and they are getting better. Know how and This Week In Enterprise Tech are starting to be very good. The Security Now is an essential and Windows Weekly is usually pretty good for the Windows tech guy. Any how the difference between the add-ons is this. I find the majority of the video add-ons for Plex work better for me (being a Canadian) than the XBMC. I install the add-on for Plex on the main PC and they work. XBMC I find (other than say Twit or Revision 3 etc) they are hit or miss if the videos work. For example the CTV add-on works pretty good in Plex but XBMC it has issues.

Now down to the nitty gritty. Why have I not fully switch to Plex over XBMC! Well the biggest thing is stability. Now it might be different in the Apple camp (where Plex started and just ported over to Windows and Linux) but for me the XBMC is far Superior in stability (For Windows) than Plex. And from what I have heard XBMC is very stable in Linux compared to Windows. I know Apple (Based on Unix/Linux) and Linux are the open source defaults and both XBMC and Plex both are based on the open source code/team so for whatever reason the Windows version get shafted. HELLO PROGRAMMERS. Who has the world domination of OS for the last 15 years!!! Windows!! Why not dominate the market and follow the leader!!. I own a company that is mostly Windows OS both PC and Server side. I have played with Linux also. I know the benefits that you get with Linux (and Apple OS based on Unix) BUT get with the program. Linux/Unix/Apple OS will not dominate the market for A LONG TIME!!.

OK so I have drifted from the topic. Sorry for that (Hay I am Canadian, I apologies for everything :-)) Anyhow on the comparison of XBMC and Plex I have found (during playing things remotely on the video add-ons) the Plex server part would crash. And not a nice crash. I tried to stop and start the server part of Plex and that would not work. I had to restart the PC. XBMC would not do this (Again since its not a server/client app). It would have the issue when it would freeze and all I had to do is end the app (through task manager) and start it again and all was fine.

The other part (that really bugs me) is the Plex is maybe to simple. For example in XBMC I can start playing a video add-on say Twit episode. I want to bookmark it and then play it later at the bookmark I can easily do this. Plex has no bookmark and the only play from resume is local content. No add-on video has the bookmark option. The local media has no bookmark option also, the only thing it has is resume from last played.

These detail things make a difference and these are the things that have me still using XBMC over Plex. It is still simple compared to XBMC. Also I have not explained is that XBMC is more customizable than Plex. By default XBMC has many skins. For Plex you have to download a separate Skin manager to change the major things in Plex.

Plex is nice for novice’s. It also has nice client things for iOS and even Roku box add on but for Windows its stability is a major issue. When they fix these issues I can see them being a major contender for XBMC. In the mean time I will stick to XBMC.

There are a few article comparison between the two. Just google it (probably where you got this one) and you will see the difference. One article that I like is this one. It goes into detail of the history of the 2. You should really read this also.

Thanks and again any comments would be appreciated. Let me know how you feel about either software.

Steve

EXTRA STUFF: Found this that is a really good article about XBMC and PLEX

Goodbye SBS

I have been a great fan and provider of MS SBS. From the way back machine of SBS 4 NT to SBS 2011. I started off with Novell 3.X and went to Novell 5.X The problem with Novell was not their servers. They could run forever (till a major problem HD/MB etc) It was their client. At first it was small and the norm. Then MS came along and the client was installed by default and the Novell grew and was really obsolete. MS and Exchange dominated the email client. They still do. Now most of my clients run SBS. Why??? Hello cost!!!! I can install a SBS 2011 1/3 the cost of server 2008R2 and Exchange 2010 with CALS. (Same software for small business but much cheaper!!!!)Now the new Windows Server 2012 is out and they dropped support for SBS!!!. There are a lot of SBS installers/providers that are PISSED!! I don’t blame them being one of them!!!! So either grab up the SBS 2011 server software or switch to full Windows at the cost. MS wants us all to switch to the cloud. Everyone else why not us. The cloud is great to fill the home office to people on the road field BUT what happens if you are small office and the Internet connection goes down!!! Bye Bye email. Bye Bye bandwidth if you have a full staff connecting email all the time. If you can guarantee full connectivity all the time with full sharing connectivity of email/calender etc then its great but when the ISP/Internet goes down, so does your business!!!!

Add Music To Ipod Without ITunes

I like iPods, iPads, iPhones. Our house is full of them. (I am a PC Windows guy but for devices like these Apple makes great products). The only thing I don’t like about Apple is iTunes. I HATE iTunes!!. The biggest pet peeve I have is the music sync. I have several computers and all I want to do is add a song on my sons iPod. Everytime I try and sync it says that the iPod was synced on another PC. I am sure I synced it last time on his PC but it comes up everytime!. I found a great app for Windows that allows me to add a song to his iPod from any PC without iTunes! Its called CopyTrans Manager. And the nice thing is its free.

New Design

Well I was getting tired of the old theme so I decided to change the look of the website. The nice thing about wordpress is you can change the theme very easily. Sometimes though you have to tweak it a bit.

If anyone cares let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Steve

Windows Update Fails Missing BITS Service

Client had a bunch of virus’s and spyware I had to remove from bench. When plugged back into PC the Windows Updates and MSE Updates would not work. Tried MS Fixit for updates and still did not work. Found out the BITS service was missing. Found the following to get the BITS to work:

First I had to create the service entry by copy and paste the following into a DOS-PROMPT (I used as Administrator)

sc create BITS binpath= “c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs” start= delayed-auto

After this the BITS would not start. I tried the following (copy/paste into DOS-PROMPT):

regsvr32 qmgr.dll /s
regsvr32 qmgrprxy.dll /s
sc sdset bits D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll /s

That did not work. I then had to export the following registry from a working PC and then import it into the failing PC:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\BITS

Here is the .reg file that you just merge and it should solve the problem (Windows 7).

I also created one for XP users. Try the XP-BITS.reg

The update from the last downloaded update would not install. Other updates would. I downloaded the .msi update associated and tried to install but it said it was not needed so I hid that update. All other updates worked fine.

AMENDMENT:

I found this site that has the bits.reg file along with other .reg files that could fix updates. They are broken down for Windows 7 (Seven.zip) Vista.zip and XP.zip. Click on the download link and select the appropriate OS. Extract the files and then select the bits.reg and wuauserv.reg.

Fix Windows 7 With SFC From Windows 7 DVD

Windows 7 does not come with a repair option like Windows XP has when booting from the OS disk. The one option you can do is run the SFC command. Normally you would run this withing the OS but if you can’t boot into Windows 7 then follow the instructions I found online from Windows Seven Forums. The main part of the procedure is boot with your Windows 7 DVD. Go to System Recovery Tools and Select the Command Prompt. Once you have the Command Prompt type the following:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=f:\ /offwindir=f:\windows

Where f is your harddrive. Sometimes you have to change the offbootdir=C:\ and offwindir=d:\windows

Missing CD or DVD in Windows 7

Had a client that did not show the DVD in their Windows 7. The BIOS saw it OK.

MS has a fix for this under KB982116. Either run their FIXIT or do the manual registry.

Security Warning in IE8 when accessing secure websites

Lately I have been getting clients with the following error message when they try and connect to a https site. MS wisdom to security load Internet Explorer. This is one of the major issues I don’t use IE. Any how if you are getting the following message the option to eliminate the warning everytime is below.

Launch Internet Explorer. Click on Tools -> Internet Options.

Go to Security tab. Select Internet zone (default selection).

Click on Custom level… button under “Security level for this zone” section.

Under “Miscellaneous” branch, for Display mixed content parameter, select the radio button of Enabled.

Steve the IT Tech Guy

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