Date: May 9th, 2008

Author: John Sheesley

It has taken Microsoft four years to ship another service pack for Windows XP. After all that time, you might think that they’d get it right. However, even as what is viagra used for SP3 went to RTM, problems cropped up with SP3, including problems that it caused with Microsoft’s own Dynamics line of software.

With the practically unlimited hardware and software combinations that are out there, you can’t necessarily blame Microsoft if things break when they ship something as significant as a service pack. Even simple patches and fixes can sometimes break things. That’s why it’s often a good idea not to configure Automatic Updates on Windows software. You need to have a strategy in place to deal with updates and to test them in advance.

Where to begin?

Of course, in some cases users can receive updates automatically and you don’t have to worry about them. For lower-level users doing noncritical work, you may think you can save yourself some time by just enabling Automatic Updates. Usually the places where updates and service packs cause the most damage is where you’re using custom applications or rely a lot on non-Microsoft solutions. So for those users, you may want to have a testing regiment in place before you allow them to receive updates. The main difficulty with such a strategy is that you can spend a lot of time doing triage.

It’s often easier to have a blanket policy in place. Either allow Automatic Updates for everyone, hope for the best, and deal with the fallout, or block updates for all users and distribute them on an as-needed basis once you’re sure they work properly.

Do-it-yourself distribution

It’s a gamble which is the better strategy. In the short term, certainly the most labor-intensive option is to block automatic updates and distribute them yourself. If you’ve standardized the workstations in your organization, you should keep back a representative machine with typically installed software. Apply the patches and do some testing yourself. If everything seems to be fine, then you can push the patches and service packs out.

Microsoft helps with the blocking of XP SP3 and Vista SP1 with the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit. Even if you have Automatic Updates installed, this tool will prevent them from loading the target service packs for up to a year. This gives you the flexibility of allowing Automatic Updates without having to worry about dealing with bad results from the service packs.

Another alternative is to set up your own update server and redirect workstation updates to it. Microsoft’s Windows Server Update Services will help you get that job done. Third parties create update services as well, such as PatchLink, PatchQuest, and Patch Authority.

Finally, you can also just create individual MSI files for each patch or update and then push them out via Group Policy. This takes a little more effort than the other solutions, but it gives you the maximum flexibility about who gets what and when. If you don’t like Active Directory and Group Policy, you can use things like ZENworks and LANDesk to do essentially the same thing.

Avoid fixes that break things

Service packs and updates have the ability to introduce as many problems as they fix. As an IT leader, you need to have a strategy in place before you deploy them. You may get lucky and not encounter any problems. However, it’s just as likely that when the updates fix one thing they break something else along the way. Do some testing in advance, and you can save yourself time in the long run.

Date: May 21st, 2008

Author: Greg Shultz

Computer users consistently use very simplistic logic when creating passwords. For example, many of us choose meaningful words, personal dates, or a word commonly found in the dictionary because it makes the password easy to remember. These common practices cause us to sacrifice the security that passwords are intended to provide.

If you’re really at a loss when it comes to thinking of a strong password, you can let Windows XP create and assign a random password to your account. To let Windows XP generate your password, follow these steps. (Warning: Before you follow these steps, please be sure that you are paying careful attention and are ready to actually use a password that might not be as memorable as you’re accustomed to! Also, you cannot use this tip on a Windows Server domain.)

At your discretion, you may want to create a Password Reset Disk at this point. what does viagra do to men This disk will allow you to gain access to your computer in the event you forget your password. Here’s how to create the disk:

1. Open the Control Panel and double-click the User Accounts tool.
2. Click your account icon.
3. Select Prevent A Forgotten Password under Related Tasks.
4. Follow the instructions provided by the wizard.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional systems in either a standalone or peer-to-peer workgroup configuration.

Date: May 19th, 2008

Author: Susan Harkins

Slides highlight or emphasize information that the presenter elaborates on during the actual presentation. After all, you can’t put everything on slides. When you want to provide additional information, but you don’t want to include it in the actual slide show, use notes. In Normal view, you can enter notes in the small section just below the slide where it says Click to add notes.

To view all notes, choose Notes Page from the View menu (or choose Notes Page in the Presentation Views group on the View menu in PowerPoint 2007). Use the scroll bar to view individual slides and notes. You can enter and copy text in this view as well.

Although you can use these notes as handouts for the audience, many presenters use them to script their presentation. During the presentation, the presenter can see the notes, but the audience can’t. During the development stage, you can use Notes as reminders of things to add, change, or research further.

To print notes, choose Print from the File menu, select Notes Pages from the Print What control, and click OK. Doing so prints slides and notes — one page for each slide. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office button to find the Print command.

I’ve yet to find a good way to print just notes without using another application, such as Word. PowerPoint will print just the notes, but the feature is troublesome:

PowerPoint will print a page for each slide and that page will contain viagra women only the note text. It’s awkward at best because PowerPoint also prints a page for slides with no notes — in other words, you get a blank sheet of paper with a page number in the bottom right corner. In addition, you must apply the format to every slide. Removing the slide placeholder from the Notes Page Master doesn’t do the trick. However, you can delete the page number by displaying the Page Master and deleting the default footer placeholder. At least that way, you can reuse the paper.

If you don’t want a single page per slide, you can send notes to Word, but you’ll have to tweak the content once it’s there. From the File menu, choose Send To, select Microsoft Office Word, then choose one of the many options, and click OK. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office button, choose Publish, and select Create Handouts In Microsoft Office Word.

In Word, you’ll have to delete the slide content (text and graphics) or links and then format the notes to suit your needs. Publishing the notes below the slides seems to reduce the amount of tweaking in Word.

Printing just the notes in a reasonable format seems like such a useful feature that, for the life of me, I don’t understand why PowerPoint can’t do it.

It’s worth mentioning that notes aren’t the same as comments. A comment appears in a yellow box inside a slide. Most often, other people reviewing your presentation communicate their ideas, additions, mistakes, and so on, via comments, and you eventually delete them. In contrast, notes remain with the presentation as reference.

Date: May 20th, 2008

Author: Mary Ann Richardson

Date: May 20th, 2008

Author: Mary Ann Richardson

You have a number of offices in various cities across the state. You need to send the latest employee information to each office. You have already grouped your Employees report by city. Now you want to be sure that when this report is printed, each city’s employees list is printed on a separate page. Follow these steps:

1. In the GroupHeader’s Property sheet, click the All tab.
2. Click the Force New Page property box drop-down arrow and select Before Section.

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Now each city’s employees list will begin printing on a new page.