By Diana Huggins

Windows XP includes many different features that make it accessible to all different types of users. One such feature is the Narrator, which uses Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology to enable Windows XP to play back printed text in a pre-recorded spoken voice. This can be very useful if there are users on the network who have vision impairments and difficulty reading the text that is displayed on the screen. In this article I will outline how you can configure Text-to-Speech in Windows XP and then use the Narrator to read the text that is displayed on the screen.

This blog post is also available in PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

Text-to-Speech in Windows XP

A sound card and speakers are all you need to make Windows XP talk to you. This is because Microsoft Windows XP is capable of playing back text in a spoken voice. This technology is referred to as Text-to-Speech (TTS). Not only is this technology useful for a person with visual impairments, but it is also useful for someone who is working on multiple tasks at one time.

Windows XP makes this possible through a built-in driver called a TTS engine that is able to recognize text. It can play displayed text back using a pre-generated voice. Although it is a very useful technology, the engine included with Windows XP provides limited Text-to-Speech functionality, but you can obtain third-party engines from other manufacturers. In any case, let’s take a look at how you can configure the TTS engine included with Windows XP.

Configuring speech properties

Configuring TTS is very straightforward. Open the Speech folder within the Control Panel. The Speech Properties dialog box will appear, as shown in Figure A. It allows you to control various TTS settings.

Under Voice Selection, you can select the voice you want to use. By default, there is only one voice available in Windows XP called Microsoft Sam. Additional voices can be downloaded from various Web sites.

Figure A

Configure speech properties in Windows XP.

Once you have selected a voice using the drop-down arrow, you can preview the voice by clicking the Preview Voice button. Assuming that the speakers are already connected to your computer, the voice will read the default text displayed in the Use the Following Text to Preview the Voice field. Alternatively, you can type in specific text to preview by highlighting the existing default text and typing in the text you want read.

Along with selecting a specific voice, you can also control the speed at which the voice reads text. By dragging the slider you can increase or decrease the voice speed, although the default value of Normal tends to be fine for most people.

By clicking the Audio Output button, you can select the audio output device (Figure B). From the Text to Speech Sound Output Settings dialog box, select from one of the two options: User Preferred Audio Output Device or Use This Audio Output Device. By leaving the default Use Preferred Audio Output Device option selected, the audio device used for all other sound is also used for TTS. Conversely, if there is more than one audio device installed on the computer, you can specify a separate audio output device for use with your speech programs.

Figure B

Select the Text To Speech output device.

The Text To Speech Sound Output Settings dialog box also includes a Volume button. This allows you to control the TTS volume. When you click this button, the Master Volume dialog box will appear, as shown in Figure C, allowing you to adjust the volume output levels.

Figure C

Configure the text-to-speech volume.

As you will now see in the next section, once you have configured all the text-to-speech options, you can have Windows XP read the text on your screen using the Narrator.

Configuring the Narrator

Windows XP includes its own TTS utility called the Narrator. If you require a TTS utility, keep in mind that it is limited in functionality. First of all, it is designed to work with a specific set of programs that include Control Panel programs, Notepad, WordPad, Internet Explorer, Windows Setup, and the Windows desktop. This means it may not work for other programs. Second, the Narrator is only supported on the English version of Windows XP.

To start the utility, press [Ctrl][Esc], press [R], type narrator, and press [Enter]. You can also configure the Narrator to start automatically each time you log on to the computer. Open the Utility Manager by pressing the [Windows Key][U]. Select Narrator and place a check beside the Start Automatically When I Log In option. As you can see, the Narrator is configured to start automatically when you launch the Utility Manager.

Once you open the Narrator, a dialog box will appear, as shown in Figure D. As you can see, it can be configured to perform several different TTS functions that include:

Figure D

Configure the Narrator to perform Text-to-Speech functions.

The Narrator dialog box includes a Voice button that can be used to control voice settings. As shown in Figure E, voice settings for the Narrator include Speed, Volume, and Pitch. Once you have configured the appropriate values, click OK to return to the Narrator dialog box.

Figure E

Configure Narrator voice settings.

With the Narrator settings configured, your speakers turned on, and the volume turned up, you can minimize the Narrator dialog box, and Windows XP will be ready to talk to you. Depending on how you have the Narrator configure, you should hear the pre-configured cialis cheap online voice read the text that appears on your screen. For example, if you are working in Microsoft Word, the Narrator will repeat the text as you type. You can turn off the Narrator at any time by clicking Exit from the Narrator dialog box and clicking Yes when prompted.

Troubleshooting Text-to-Speech in Windows XP

Troubleshooting can be a difficult task, especially if you have not worked with a specific technology before. When it comes to troubleshooting Text-to-Sspeech problems, there are a few points that you should keep in mind.

• Use the Preview Text button from the Speech Properties dialog box to verify that the TTS engine.
• Open the Utility Manager to check the status of the Narrator program.
• If you do not hear any sound and you are using external speakers, make sure they are turned on.
• Check the Master Volume dialog box to make sure that muting is not enabled.
• Verify that the speakers are properly connected to the computer. You may need to check the documentation that came with the speakers for the proper procedure.
• Use Device Manager to check the status of the computer’s sound card. If necessary, reinstall or update the drivers for the device.

Now your computer can talk back to you too

Windows XP includes built-in technology to make it more accessible for users who are blind or who have vision impairments. The Text-to-Speech engine can read text on the screen using a pre-generated voice. Windows XP includes a default voice called Microsoft Sam. Other voices are available through third-party manufacturers.

You can hear your computer talk using the Narrator. This is the built-in Text-to-Speech utility that is included with Windows XP. It is designed to work with common programs that come with Windows XP, such as Internet Explorer and WordPad. You can launch the utility by typing narrator using the Run command. The Narrator provides limited Text-to-Speech functionality, but third-party programs are available from various manufacturers.

Maybe the command line isn’t your favorite place to hang out, but to be an effective Linux admin, you need to be able to wield a few essential commands. Jack Wallen says these 10 are guaranteed to simplify your Linux admin life — and he explains why.

I understand that many of you don’t want to use the command line in Linux (or in any operating system, for that matter). But the truth is, to be a good administrator, you have to know the command line. Why? Well, with Windows there are times when the command line is the only thing that can save your skin. With Linux, the command line is vast, reliable, flexible, fast… I could go on and on.

And of the 2,119 possible commands from the /usr/bin directory (in Mandriva Spring 2008) and the 388 possible commands from /usr/sbin/, a few are indispensable. Here are 10 of them that might make your Linux admin life — or your introduction to Linux — a whole lot simpler.

I could make this easy and go with the most used commands (cd, ls, rm, etc — okay, etc isn’t a command, but you get the point). But instead, I am going to go with the most useful commands, and I’ll keep it as distribution-neutral as I can.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: top

I figured it was fitting to put the top command at the top. Although top is actually responsible for listing currently running tasks, it is also the first command Linux users turn to when they need to know what is using their memory (or even how much memory a system has). I often leave the top tool running on my desktop so I can keep track of what is going on at all times. Sometimes, I will even open up a terminal (usually aterm), place the window where I want it, and then hide the border of the window. Without a border, the terminal can’t be moved, so I always have quick access to the information I need.

Top is a real-time reporting system, so as a process changes, it will immediately be reflected in the terminal window. Top does have some helpful arguments (such as the -p argument, which will have top monitor only user-specified PIDs), but running default, top will give you all the information you need on running tasks.

#2: ln

To many administrators, links are an invaluable tool that not only make users lives simpler but also drastically reduce disk space usage. If you are unaware of how links can help you, let me pose this simple scenario: You have a number of users who have to access a large directory (filled with large files) on a drive throughout the day. The users are all on the same system, and you don’t want to have to copy the entire directory to each user’s ~/ directory. Instead, just create a link in each user’s ~/ directory to the target. You won’t consume space, and the users will have quick access. Of course when spanning drives, you cialis average age will have to use symlinks. Another outstanding use for links is linking various directories to the Apache doc root directory. Not only can this save space, it’s often advantageous from a security standpoint.

#3: tar/zip/gzip

Tar, zip, and gzip are archival/compression tools that make your administrator life far easier. I bundle these together because the tools can handle similar tasks yet do so with distinct differences (just not different enough to warrant their own entry in this article). Without these tools, installing from source would be less than easy. Without tar/zip/gzip, creating backups would require more space than you might often have.

One of the least used (but often most handy) features of these tools is the ability to extract single files from an archive. Now zip and gzip handle this more easily than tar. With tar, to extract a single file, you have to know the exact size of the file to be extracted. One area where tar/zip/gzip make administration simple is in creating shells scripts that automate a backup process. All three tools can be used with shell scripts and are, hands down, the best, most reliable backup tools you will find.

#4: nano, vi, emacs

I wasn’t about to place just one text editor here, for fear of stoking the fires of the “vi vs. emacs” war. To top that off, I figured it was best to throw my favorite editor — nano — into the mix. Many people would argue that these aren’t so much commands as they are full-blown applications. But all these tools are used within the command line, so I call them “commands.” Without a good text editor, administering a Linux machine can become problematic.

Imagine having to attempt to edit /etc/fstab or /etc/samba/smb.conf with OpenOffice. Some might say this shouldn’t be a problem, but OpenOffice tends to add hidden end-of-line characters to text files, which can really fubar a configuration file. For the editing of configuration or bash files, the only way to go is with an editor such as nano, vi, or emacs.

#5: grep

Many people overlook this amazingly useful tool. Grep prints lines that match a user-specified pattern. Say, for instance, that you are looking at an httpd.conf file that’s more than 1,000 lines long, and you are searching for the “AccessFileName .htaccess” entry. You could comb through that file only to come across the entry at line 429, or you can issue the command grep -n “AccessFileName .htaccess” /etc/httpd/conf/http.conf. Upon issuing this command you will be returned “439:AccessFileName .htaccess” which tells you the entry you are looking for is on, surprise of all surprises, line 439.

The grep command is also useful for piping other commands to. An example of this is using grep with the ps command (which takes a snapshot of current running processes.) Suppose you want to know the PID of the currently crashed Firefox browser. You could issue ps aux and search through the entire output for the Firefox entry. Or you could issue the command ps aux|grep firefox, at which point you might see something like this:

Now you know the PIDs of every Firefox command running.

#6: chmod

Permissions anyone? Linux administration and security would be a tough job without the help of chmod. Imagine not being able to make a shell script executable with chmod u+x filename. Of course it’s not just about making a file executable. Many Web tools require certain permissions before they will even install. To this end, the command chmod -R 666 DIRECTORY/ is one very misused command. Many new users, when faced with permissions issues trying to install an application, will jump immediately to 666 instead of figuring out exactly what permissions a directory or folder should have.

Even though this tool is critical for administration, it should be studied before jumping in blindly. Make sure you understand the ins and outs of chmod before using it at will. Remember w=write, r=read, and x=execute. Also remember UGO or User, Group, and Other. UGO is a simple way to remember which permissions belong to whom. So permission rw- rw- rw- means User, Group, and Other all have read and write permissions. It is always best to keep Other highly restricted in their permissions.

#7: dmesg

Call me old-school if you want, but any time I plug a device into a Linux machine, the first thing I do is run the dmesg command. This command displays the messages from the kernel buffer. So, yeah, this is an important one. There is a lot of information to be garnered from the dmesg command. You can find out system architecture, gpu, network device, kernel boot options used, RAM totals, etc.

A nice trick is to pipe dmesg to tail to watch any message that comes to dmesg. To do this, issue the command dmesg | tail -f and the last few lines of dmesg will remain in your terminal. Every time a new entry arrives it will be at the bottom of the “tail.” Keep this window open when doing heavy duty system administration or debugging a system.

#8: kill/killall

One of the greatest benefits of Linux is its stability. But that stability doesn’t always apply to applications outside the kernel. Some applications can actually lock up. And when they do, you want to be able to get rid of them. The quickest way to get rid of locked up applications is with the kill/killall command. The difference between the two commands is that kill requires the PID (process ID number) and killall requires only the executable name.

Let’s say Firefox has locked up. To kill it with the kill command you would first need to locate the PID using the command ps aux|grep firefox command. Once you got the PID, you would issue kill PID (Where PID is the actual PID number). If you didn’t want to go through finding out the PID, you could issue the command killall firefox (although in some instances it will require killall firefox-bin). Of course, kill/killall do not apply (nor should apply) to daemons like Apache, Samba, etc.

#9: man

How many times have you seen “RTFM”? Many would say that acronym stands for “Read the Fine* Manual” (*This word is open for variation not suitable for publication.) In my opinion, it stands for “Read the Fine Manpage.” Manpages are there for a reason — to help you understand how to use a command. Manpages are generally written with the same format, so once you gain an understanding of the format, you will be able to read (and understand) them all. And don’t underestimate the value of the manpage. Even if you can’t completely grasp the information given, you can always scroll down to find out what each command argument does. And the best part of using manpages is that when someone says “RTFM” you can say I have “RTFMd.”

#10: mount/umount

Without these two commands, using removable media or adding external drives wouldn’t happen. The mount/umount command is used to mount a drive (often labeled like /dev/sda) to a directory in the Linux file structure. Both mount and umount take advantage of the /etc/fstab file, which makes using mount/umount much easier. For instance, if there is an entry in the /etc/fstab file for /dev/sda1 that maps it to /data, that drive can be mounted with the command mount /data. Typically mount/umount must have root privileges (unless fstab has an entry allowing standard users to mount and unmount the device). You can also issue the mount command without arguments and you will see all drives that are currently mounted and where they’re mapped to (as well as the type of file system and the permissions).

Can’t live without ‘em

These 10 Linux commands make Linux administration possible. There are other helpful commands, as well as commands that are used a lot more often than these. But the commands outlined here fall into the necessity category. I don’t know about you, but I don’t go a day without using at least half of them. Do you have a Linux command or two that you can’t live without? If so, let us know.

Before debating the relative merits and shortcomings of Linux and Windows, it helps to understand the real distinctions between them. Jack Wallen has distilled the key differences into one list.

I have been around the Linux community for more than 10 years now. From the very beginning, I have known that there are basic differences between Linux and Windows that will always set them apart. This is not, in the least, to say one is better than the other. It’s just to say that they are fundamentally different. Many people, looking from the view of one operating system or the other, don’t quite get the differences between these two powerhouses. So I decided it might serve the public well to list 10 of the primary differences between Linux and Windows.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Full access vs. no access

Having access cialis 5mg side effects to the source code is probably the single most significant difference between Linux and Windows. The fact that Linux belongs to the GNU Public License ensures that users (of all sorts) can access (and alter) the code to the very kernel that serves as the foundation of the Linux operating system. You want to peer at the Windows code? Good luck. Unless you are a member of a very select (and elite, to many) group, you will never lay eyes on code making up the Windows operating system.

You can look at this from both sides of the fence. Some say giving the public access to the code opens the operating system (and the software that runs on top of it) to malicious developers who will take advantage of any weakness they find. Others say that having full access to the code helps bring about faster improvements and bug fixes to keep those malicious developers from being able to bring the system down. I have, on occasion, dipped into the code of one Linux application or another, and when all was said and done, was happy with the results. Could I have done that with a closed-source Windows application? No.

#2: Licensing freedom vs. licensing restrictions

Along with access comes the difference between the licenses. I’m sure that every IT professional could go on and on about licensing of PC software. But let’s just look at the key aspect of the licenses (without getting into legalese). With a Linux GPL-licensed operating system, you are free to modify that software and use and even republish or sell it (so long as you make the code available). Also, with the GPL, you can download a single copy of a Linux distribution (or application) and install it on as many machines as you like. With the Microsoft license, you can do none of the above. You are bound to the number of licenses you purchase, so if you purchase 10 licenses, you can legally install that operating system (or application) on only 10 machines.

#3: Online peer support vs. paid help-desk support

This is one issue where most companies turn their backs on Linux. But it’s really not necessary. With Linux, you have the support of a huge community via forums, online search, and plenty of dedicated Web sites. And of course, if you feel the need, you can purchase support contracts from some of the bigger Linux companies (Red Hat and Novell for instance).

However, when you use the peer support inherent in Linux, you do fall prey to time. You could have an issue with something, send out e-mail to a mailing list or post on a forum, and within 10 minutes be flooded with suggestions. Or these suggestions could take hours of days to come in. It seems all up to chance sometimes. Still, generally speaking, most problems with Linux have been encountered and documented. So chances are good you’ll find your solution fairly quickly.

On the other side of the coin is support for Windows. Yes, you can go the same route with Microsoft and depend upon your peers for solutions. There are just as many help sites/lists/forums for Windows as there are for Linux. And you can purchase support from Microsoft itself. Most corporate higher-ups easily fall victim to the safety net that having a support contract brings. But most higher-ups haven’t had to depend up on said support contract. Of the various people I know who have used either a Linux paid support contract or a Microsoft paid support contract, I can’t say one was more pleased than the other. This of course begs the question “Why do so many say that Microsoft support is superior to Linux paid support?”

#4: Full vs. partial hardware support

One issue that is slowly becoming nonexistent is hardware support. Years ago, if you wanted to install Linux on a machine you had to make sure you hand-picked each piece of hardware or your installation would not work 100 percent. I can remember, back in 1997-ish, trying to figure out why I couldn’t get Caldera Linux or Red Hat Linux to see my modem. After much looking around, I found I was the proud owner of a Winmodem. So I had to go out and purchase a US Robotics external modem because that was the one modem I knew would work. This is not so much the case now. You can grab a PC (or laptop) and most likely get one or more Linux distributions to install and work nearly 100 percent. But there are still some exceptions. For instance, hibernate/suspend remains a problem with many laptops, although it has come a long way.

With Windows, you know that most every piece of hardware will work with the operating system. Of course, there are times (and I have experienced this over and over) when you will wind up spending much of the day searching for the correct drivers for that piece of hardware you no longer have the install disk for. But you can go out and buy that 10-cent Ethernet card and know it’ll work on your machine (so long as you have, or can find, the drivers). You also can rest assured that when you purchase that insanely powerful graphics card, you will probably be able to take full advantage of its power.

#5: Command line vs. no command line

No matter how far the Linux operating system has come and how amazing the desktop environment becomes, the command line will always be an invaluable tool for administration purposes. Nothing will ever replace my favorite text-based editor, ssh, and any given command-line tool. I can’t imagine administering a Linux machine without the command line. But for the end user — not so much. You could use a Linux machine for years and never touch the command line. Same with Windows. You can still use the command line with Windows, but not nearly to the extent as with Linux. And Microsoft tends to obfuscate the command prompt from users. Without going to Run and entering cmd (or command, or whichever it is these days), the user won’t even know the command-line tool exists. And if a user does get the Windows command line up and running, how useful is it really?

#6: Centralized vs. noncentralized application installation

The heading for this point might have thrown you for a loop. But let’s think about this for a second. With Linux you have (with nearly every distribution) a centralized location where you can search for, add, or remove software. I’m talking about package management systems, such as Synaptic. With Synaptic, you can open up one tool, search for an application (or group of applications), and install that application without having to do any Web searching (or purchasing).

Windows has nothing like this. With Windows, you must know where to find the software you want to install, download the software (or put the CD into your machine), and run setup.exe or install.exe with a simple double-click. For many years, it was thought that installing applications on Windows was far easier than on Linux. And for many years, that thought was right on target. Not so much now. Installation under Linux is simple, painless, and centralized.

#7: Flexibility vs. rigidity

I always compare Linux (especially the desktop) and Windows to a room where the floor and ceiling are either movable or not. With Linux, you have a room where the floor and ceiling can be raised or lowered, at will, as high or low as you want to make them. With Windows, that floor and ceiling are immovable. You can’t go further than Microsoft has deemed it necessary to go.

Take, for instance, the desktop. Unless you are willing to pay for and install a third-party application that can alter the desktop appearance, with Windows you are stuck with what Microsoft has declared is the ideal desktop for you. With Linux, you can pretty much make your desktop look and feel exactly how you want/need. You can have as much or as little on your desktop as you want. From simple flat Fluxbox to a full-blown 3D Compiz experience, the Linux desktop is as flexible an environment as there is on a computer.

#8: Fanboys vs. corporate types

I wanted to add this because even though Linux has reached well beyond its school-project roots, Linux users tend to be soapbox-dwelling fanatics who are quick to spout off about why you should be choosing Linux over Windows. I am guilty of this on a daily basis (I try hard to recruit new fanboys/girls), and it’s a badge I wear proudly. Of course, this is seen as less than professional by some. After all, why would something worthy of a corporate environment have or need cheerleaders? Shouldn’t the software sell itself? Because of the open source nature of Linux, it has to make do without the help of the marketing budgets and deep pockets of Microsoft. With that comes the need for fans to help spread the word. And word of mouth is the best friend of Linux.

Some see the fanaticism as the same college-level hoorah that keeps Linux in the basements for LUG meetings and science projects. But I beg to differ. Another company, thanks to the phenomenon of a simple music player and phone, has fallen into the same fanboy fanaticism, and yet that company’s image has not been besmirched because of that fanaticism. Windows does not have these same fans. Instead, Windows has a league of paper-certified administrators who believe the hype when they hear the misrepresented market share numbers reassuring them they will be employable until the end of time.

#9: Automated vs. nonautomated removable media

I remember the days of old when you had to mount your floppy to use it and unmount it to remove it. Well, those times are drawing to a close — but not completely. One issue that plagues new Linux users is how removable media is used. The idea of having to manually “mount” a CD drive to access the contents of a CD is completely foreign to new users. There is a reason this is the way it is. Because Linux has always been a multiuser platform, it was thought that forcing a user to mount a media to use it would keep the user’s files from being overwritten by another user. Think about it: On a multiuser system, if everyone had instant access to a disk that had been inserted, what would stop them from deleting or overwriting a file you had just added to the media? Things have now evolved to the point where Linux subsystems are set up so that you can use a removable device in the same way you use them in Windows. But it’s not the norm. And besides, who doesn’t want to manually edit the /etc/fstab fle?

#10: Multilayered run levels vs. a single-layered run level

I couldn’t figure out how best to title this point, so I went with a description. What I’m talking about is Linux’ inherent ability to stop at different run levels. With this, you can work from either the command line (run level 3) or the GUI (run level 5). This can really save your socks when X Windows is fubared and you need to figure out the problem. You can do this by booting into run level 3, logging in as root, and finding/fixing the problem.

With Windows, you’re lucky to get to a command line via safe mode — and then you may or may not have the tools you need to fix the problem. In Linux, even in run level 3, you can still get and install a tool to help you out (hello apt-get install APPLICATION via the command line). Having different run levels is helpful in another way. Say the machine in question is a Web or mail server. You want to give it all the memory you have, so you don’t want the machine to boot into run level 5. However, there are times when you do want the GUI for administrative purposes (even though you can fully administer a Linux server from the command line). Because you can run the startx command from the command line at run level 3, you can still start up X Windows and have your GUI as well. With Windows, you are stuck at the Graphical run level unless you hit a serious problem.

Your call…

Those are 10 fundamental differences between Linux and Windows. You can decide for yourself whether you think those differences give the advantage to one operating system or the other. Me? Well I think my reputation (and opinion) precedes me, so I probably don’t need to say I feel strongly that the advantage leans toward Linux.

• Date: September 9th, 2008
• Author: Mark Kaelin

This blog post is also available in PDF format as a TechRepublic download.

Sometimes, depending on the manufacturer and on the particular layout, your keyboard can be a great source of frustration. For TechRepublic reader Frank Reeves, the Caps Lock key is the one that drives him crazy. After seeing the TechRepublic How do I… about how to disable the Insert key in Word, he asked for information on how to similarly disable the Caps Lock key.

There are several ways to accomplish this task. One way is to discover the scan code for the Caps Lock key and for the key you want to map it to and then edit the Windows registry. The folks at Annoyances.org explain this method. However, their explanation is more complicated than it needs to be, and there are easier and safer ways to accomplish the same thing.

Third-party keyboard layout and mapping tools are available that will allow you to change the behavior of the Caps Lock key, but many of these really boil down to a .reg file, which edits the Windows registry for you. In general, these .reg files are fine and come from people and organizations just trying to help make your life easier, but it still involves a stranger editing your Windows registry files. That makes me uncomfortable.

The best way to remap the Caps Lock key or any key on your keyboard is with a free utility from Microsoft called remapkey.exe. This little utility is available in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools. It is one of many utilities included in the kit and works with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista. This TechRepublic How do I… shows you how to use the remapkey.exe utility to remap the Caps Lock key.

Remapping

Once you download and run the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools file, you will have a long laundry list of utilities located in a single directory. I used the default location (Figure A):

Figure A

Tools

When you start the remapkey utility, it presents a screen displaying two keyboards, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

Remapkey utility

The top keyboard is the standard base keyboard layout. To remap the Caps Lock key, in the top keyboard, click on the key you would like the Caps Lock to be remapped to, drag it to the bottom keyboard, and drop it on the Caps Lock key there. In my example, I am remapping the Caps Lock key to the left Shift key. (Note the red key in Figure C.)

Figure C

Caps Lock is now left Shift.

When you are satisfied with your remapping choices, click the Save And Exit icon to implement the change (Figure D). A reboot of the operating system will be required for the change to take effect.

Figure D

Save your settings and exit.

As you can see in Figure E, the remapkey utility is writing to the Windows registry, just like the methods mentioned earlier were going to do, but this gives you more control over that delicate editing process.

Figure E

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Remapkey writes to the Windows registry.

Note: For Windows Vista, you will have to run the remapkey utility in administrator mode.

Microsoft’s Patch Tuesdays (the second Tuesday of every month) are an important part of every user’s regular Windows operating system maintenance. In fact, regular fixes, patches, and updates should be part of every user’s regular routine, no matter which operating system they use.

But sometimes Windows XP gets stuck in update mode. It will continue to show the flashing yellow shield in the System Tray suggesting you need to download and install important security patches. Windows may even display a chat bubble reminding you there is a system patch available. This may appear even after you have already applied all the patches — Windows just doesn’t recognize its current status.

Or, as in the case of TechRepublic member Riggy001, Windows may be telling you that SP3 is available, even though you have decided you don’t want to apply it right now or in the near future. This is the dilemma Riggy001 described in a TechRepublic Discussion Thread. To relieve this annoyance, Riggy001 called Microsoft support and finagled a procedure to reset the Windows update management system.

This blog post is also available in PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

Resetting Windows

Figure A

Services dialog box

1. From the list of services, right-click and then click Stop for the following services:

• Automatic Updates
• Background Intelligent Transfer Service
• Cryptographic Services

1. Next click Start | My Computer.
2. Double-click the drive where XP is installed, usually C:\.
3. Double-click Windows.
4. Right-click on the file folder SoftwareDistribution and rename it SoftwareDistribution.old.
5. Next double-click on the System32 file folder.
6. Right-click on the folder Catroot2 and rename it Catroot2.old.
7. Right-click on the folder SoftwareDistribution and rename it SoftwareDistribution.old.
8. Close C:\Windows\System32 explorer window.
9. Now, go back to the Services folder, right-click and then start the following services:

• Automatic Updates
• Background Intelligent Transfer Service (unless it was originally set to manual and you never had to stop the service in the beginning)
• Cryptographic Services

1. Close the Services Window and go to the Administrative Tools window (which should still be open).
2. Click the Back Button on your toolbar to get back to the Control Panel.
3. Double-click Automatic Updates (Figure B).

Figure B

Automatic Updates

1. Select “Notify Me but Don’t Automatically Download or Install Them” radio button and then click the OK button.
2. Close the Control Panel and resume computing.

One annoyance gone

This procedure forces Windows to reset the files that track what updates you have installed. This means that the automatic update will stop nagging you to update even though you already have. For Riggy001, this procedure means Windows will stop trying to download and install SP3.

One word of warning though, in general Windows updates are important not only for your security and peace of mind but also for the security of everyone else. I highly recommend that you apply cialis 40 mg the patches as soon as you can. Our Windows Patch Tuesday feature will keep you informed of just what each patch contains.