Solution to Windows 7 Deleting Desktop Shortcuts
Recently the company I work for decided to start upgrading computers capable of handling Windows 7 Professional and purchasing new computers with Windows 7 Professional. We have had zero problems over the last month. Well, until the last two weeks. Several users began requesting assistance because many shortcuts on their desktop went missing.
I should note that these were all data migrations to the Windows 7 machines. I had their data backed up, so I was able to go back and copy over what shortcuts they've lost.
At first I thought the user might have accidentally dragged a field of shortcuts into a random folder. Maybe it went in the recycling bin and it was emptied. Neither of these quick assumptions were right, so the next idea was Desktop Cleanup. It turns out that "Desktop Cleanup" is actually automated under Windows 7.
Microsoft Support: Desktop shortcuts disappear in Windows 7
These shortcuts are regarded as broken and are deleted by the System Maintenance troubleshooter.
Broken? These shortcuts weren't "broken". There is also no limit on the shortcuts removed, only a minimum of four if detected. You aren't given confirmation to remove these shortcuts, they simply vanish.
Well, I did not want to disable the Diagnostic service or stop Computer Maintenance. That would mean we would have to disable this service on every Windows 7 machine going forward. I didn't like that idea.
Personally I have, in the 12+ months I've used Windows 7, never had "broken" shortcuts removed from my desktop, so I thought about certain attributes the shortcuts might have that were removed compared to the shortcuts that were not removed. The first instance I notice is the target link.
e.g. Target: "W:\Accounting\Billing\May-24-2010.xls"
The only shortcuts on the three desktops that were removed were using the actual mapped drive letter as the target. The shortcuts with the computer name and full location on the server as the target were not removed.
e.g. Target: "\\LDM-SVR\Billing Department\Accounting\Billing\May-24-2010.xls"
So, I went through each computer, opened the Properties for every shortcut, and manually changed the Shortcut Target. So far, it's been fine. No shortcuts have been removed and no one has gained a mess of desktop real estate suddenly.
As I'm not entirely sure this is the silver bullet to the bug just yet as this was performed Friday, I will keep this one updated over the course of the next week if shortcuts go missing again.
Some Flash Developer Attempts to Justify Lack of Flash Support on iPad/iPhone
An Adobe Flash developer, a Morgan Adams, has given a new argument for Flash support on touchscreen devices. Simply put, it has everything to do with the way a mouse cursor interacts with Flash embedded objects on a webpage. The hovering and mouseover abilities of the cursor usually have a bit of stock in the way you manipulate games and Flash videos, but I feel that this is quite an exaggeration. While his argument is valid, I feel that this is no way a proper justification.
I really do feel that this man is wrong about Flash not being able to function properly on touchscreen devices because of the lack of hovering and clicking on a touchscreen device. I say he is wrong because I actually watch Flash animated videos on Newgrounds.com and play Flash-based games on Armorgames.com and Kongregate.com. Rarely do I find a game I absolutely cannot play or at least cannot enjoy. Let alone actually beat the game! I played Sonny 2 entirely on my phone.
Web marketing people might be the only people that will feel the pinch as their annoying as hell banner ads that grow in size upon hovering will suffer from views. Even with the ads, websites feel complete and full. I don’t feel I’m missing anything upon viewing websites. Having plug-in support brings me to my next point; being able to go to other sites that aren't YouTube. Pretty much all popular mobile OSes have an app to view YouTube videos, but what about the dozens of other websites like Collegehumor and Cracked that rely on Flash embedded videos for content?
I imagine most people would agree with this guy about Flash on touchscreen devices, but I would imagine they haven’t actually tried using Flash on smartphones and tablets. His statement is an exaggeration and even though I am not an Adobe Flash developer, I have made silly cartoons using Flash before. This makes me feel more than qualified to call it an exaggeration as I’m in a much higher percentile than the people that merely watch those silly Flash videos.
Holiday Steam Sales
The Steam Holiday Sales - I copied the entire sales scraper into a spreadsheet and sorted the games from lowest to highest. Go nuts.
The Steam Holiday Sales spreadsheet
I updated today for the new sales price. 12/24/09
Holiday Service Announcement
It's the number one question asked when high definition television is the subject. Is the expensive HDMI cables worth it in terms of quality or cable longevity?
HDMI cable shopping tips:
* Gold plated connections do not increase cable quality or life.
* Length matters very little. Grab a 25' cable if needed.
* $80 for one cable?! Return it for a universal remote!
Remember these specifications for the current standard:
-
- HDMI Version 1.3
- At least 6' in length
- Category 2 Certified
- Shielding from interferance
Example: These HDMI cables right here are perfect. A 3 pack for $6.99!
This has been a holiday service announcement to save people money during a glorified mindless consumer holiday.
Not Your Average Joe
Who needs 2,500,000,000,000 tons of antimatter to destroy the planet Earth when you have coffee?
While it would take the LHC hundreds of years to produce that amount of the most explosive substance possible, this 12oz cup I made in under five minutes might be just as powerful.
If I make a mistake with the cinnamon, the release of energy would be so great, Earth would become a second asteroid belt around the Sun.
I hope they name it after me.
I should also note that I have erred in all 26 dimensions in the known universe. Good luck escaping a worse fate.
Apple Fanboy Bloggers Gush Further Misinformation
Two weeks in a row, bloggers. Is this the result of the average blogger repeating a "hot" story without checking the source or is this the result of fan boys and girls gushing over anything Apple?
Apple was NOT more profitable selling cell phones than Nokia in Q3
"Recent reports that Apple's phone business generated $1.6 billion profit compared to $1.1 billion for Nokia don't add up. The companies' financial disclosures tell all."
The other story was, of course, when the project manager was quoted on how Windows 7 is, what most of the community would like to take from the story, a rip off of the OS X GUI. This man was not a developer nor a designer. He had as much to do with Windows 7 as I have with NAFTA while I do IT at this company.
Not quite the same.
Not the fault of Microsoft anymore than this link is Apple's.
I feel incredibly alienated at work. Really.
As for my job, I do IT support for a local business where I live in Michigan. I rarely leave my office anymore, even for lunch. I go to the kitchen, make my lunch, go back to my office. I do this while wearing my headphones the entire time.
This incident happened yesterday, Wednesday the 21st of October. Have any of you seen that Sony Ericsson chain letter including an image of a fake Sony Ericsson campaign that tells you to send this email to 20 people CCing the fake Sony address for a free laptop?
Snopes - Sony Ericsson Laptop Giveaway Hoax
Yeah, that one. Well, it was circulating at the office yesterday and was starting to spread like wildfire. There were many people that were sending it to at least 20 people, including non-employees, which is a big no-no already.
I didn't want people to continue spamming this JPEG (another no-no) for free laptops in this economy right before the holidays. Not only that, but what if someone got in trouble for sending this around? This would definitely fall under company email abuse. I felt it was my duty as the IT guy, I guess.
I figured I'd just send out an email with Sony's official statement straight from Snopes. I figured the worst that would happen would be a few people going, "Oh, well. I knew it was fake, but whatever, right? Just another chain letter."
I was wrong.
Moments after sending my reply, I had one employee call my extension and started complaining about how I sent it to everyone listed in the forward. That I did, yes. I sent it to everyone listed in the chain, not just the employees. She apparently thought I was trying to make her look silly to her friends, family, and coworkers.
She eventually hung up after a few kind words. I don't want to be stubborn, but I thought I was trying to help. It's a desperate time and those that could really use an awesome gift, such as a laptop, would send this to everyone they know.
Second response from another coworker, except this time, she actually came into my office. She tried to explain that I had no business telling everyone that this campaign was false and I should have let them go on with their bliss. That is almost verbatim.
About 30 minutes went by and I have this email sitting in my inbox...
Hey……………..you are being mean, I don’t think it hurts to try and get something for free. Did it cost anything to forward it? The answer to that should be ‘NO’ but you yelled at me!!!!!!!!!!! I was being a friend and thought MAYBE you could use one for a Xmas gift.
*Her Name,* the PRESIDENT and CO-FOUNDER of the he’s being mean club
Here is my email in full.
This is a hoax. Please do not spam this chain letter around.
Please go to http://www.snopes.com and check it for yourself. Sony Ericsson has made no such offer. This is a really old chain letter.
“Sony Ericsson has been made aware of an online email campaign claiming that Ericsson will give away a free laptop computer to users who forward the promotional information. The same campaign includes a photograph of the Sony Ericsson logo and mentions an Ericsson contact name and email number.
Sony Ericsson confirms that this email campaign is a hoax. In addition, Sony Ericsson confirms that the Ericsson contact name does not exist.
All competitions and promotions involving Sony Ericsson are run through official channels such as Sony Ericsson's website or Sony Ericsson's partners' websites. Please be wary of any competition or promotion that appears to come from outside of Sony Ericsson or Sony Ericsson's partners official channels. Examples of these include via spam emails or SMS.
Please do not reply to or forward the email if you receive it.”
I started having doubts about sending that email later, but the email was the last of the responses of the 30-40 people as of today. Maybe the people that appreciated the input remained silent?
Do you, dear reader, think I was wrong for sending that response?
Windows 7 Kills Dumbledore
That's right, Windows 7 is already smashing pre-order records on Amazon. It's definitely a good sign that I will be supporting Windows 7 in the near future professional instead of Windows XP for the rest of my life.
I, for one, am excited about Windows 7. I have been using it since January, wrote a handy little tutorial about adding Windows 7 into the GRUB, which I've done since every beta release and RC. It's still relevant. Now that it is retail, try it out yourself. You don't have to let Windows take over your PC.
The Windows 7 to GRUB it up is located here.
Dear Science: Isn’t being lactose tolerant after a certain age great supporting evidence of recent evolution in human beings?
To start, I became lactose intolerant many years ago and it was a very difficult transition as I live in a society where dairy products are primarily all the popular foods that I like to eat. Like ice cream. Imagine being at a birthday party faced with delicious looking ice cream cake while young with no magical lactase pills.
As I got older, I found out that a great deal of the world population is lactose intolerant after a certain age. I learned that most cultures that have very low dairy consumption are predominately lactose intolerant while those that, even recently, consume more dairy products become lactose tolerant.
The science of this is that there is a mutation on chromosome 2 gene which eliminates the shutdown in lactase production after the suckling years. While I found this out years ago to help me accept my inferior ability to handle that spicy milk, I always wondered about actual statistics regarding people by region. I found this on Wikipedia to be of interest.
An anecdote here involves my Native American friend mocking me for becoming lactose intolerant only for him to become lactose intolerant after several months of joking about my condition.
After a little thought, isn't lactose tolerance a simple explanation for people regarding recent evolutionary proof in human beings? Why is it that this is never brought up in debates or arguments with those that choose to fail to grasp the idea or ignore evolution? Is this not a stopper in support for evolution during those ridiculous debates?
Moving JBlend to My Storage from Storage Folder
I read on several forums that users had issues with JBlend failing to installing on the storage card. Here's a guide on how to move JBlend to storage.
This should take you between five to ten minutes and is almost risk free if you know how to copy and paste and know your way around the registry. To make things even faster, use My Mobiler.
I recommend using the same CABs as I did. The links are located at the bottom of this post.
Note: Editing the registry can be a breeze if you know what you're doing. I recommend using FDCSoft Task Manager 3.1. The attached file is the cab for WM5&6. It's a very powerful utility with a very awesome regedit feature with an excellent search and a favorites features. If you're uncomfortable doing this, please ask around before making any changes. I do not and no one here will be held liable for damages to the system.
First, when we install Jblend, it will create a folder called Storage Card in the root of our system memory. This is really annoying, because JBlend is over 4MB. Not only that, but all Midlets will be installed in /Storage Card/Program Files/JBlend/InstalledMidlets. This can easily hurt your internal storage space very quickly. I'm sure everyone is like me and wants to save as much as space as possible.
Now we navigate to the directory of /Storage Card/Program Files with File Explorer, Total Commander or any other explorer program. You only need to see the JBlend folder, you do not need to be in the JBlend directory. If you installed it successfully, everything should be in order. Simply highlight the JBlend directory, find the Cut or Move option. Step one is done.
Next, we navigate to /My Storage/Program Files and Paste it or Move it there. I recommend dumping this program directory in your /My Storage/Program Files so we have to edit as little as possible when it comes to registry. Next step we'll go and edit the proper registry values.
Note: Do not try to run JBlend yet. It should not run.
Where you should be now: HKCU\Software\JBlend. All you have to do is find the values that show "\Storage Card\Program Files\Jblend" and change Storage Card to My Storage. This is going to be the most time consuming, but with MyMobiler, you can simply copy and paste it over and over. Do not forget the "\" before My Storage in the value. I mistyped and spelled My Storage wrong on purpose and the worst thing that happened was JBlend did not start when opened.
There should be 10 values to edit. I highlighted them in the attached pictures with the \My Storage changes.
The final step is probably the easiest. We will navigate to the root of \HKCR and will create a new KEY named ".jar". Exactly that. There might be a REG_NONE type value in the key of .jar, so we will double click that and select REG_SZ. If there is not a REG_NONE blank value, just create a new value in the .jar key. We will give it the Value Data of "jblendfile".
You're done. Navigate to your JBlend folder or shortcut (you will have to create new ones), and fire up JBlend. This is not necessary to install the midlets, but we want to know it's working. It should open right up. Second, use your explorer window to find a jar file to test the changes. If you downloaded the Zombie Infection game, you should see the file with a JBlend icon now. Open it up and JBlend will take care of the rest.
That's it. We successfully moved JBlend to My Storage. All installed Midlets will be installed to /My Storage/Program Files/JBlend/InstalledMidlets as well. This saved me at least 9MB immediately, which then allowed me to go nuts with more JAR files
