Optimize Windows Settings for SSD

So you got a shiny new SSD for your Windows system. As you may or may not know, there is only a finite number of writes to each sector before it becomes unusable, eventually causing the disk to be unusable. So what can you go to make sure it lasts as long as it can? I’ve [...]

Activate Windows and Office at the Command Line

I was recently looking for a way to activate Windows 7 and Office 2010 at a command prompt; this is what I found… Since the release of Vista, you can use the command line utility slmgr for Windows activation when using a MAK (or Multiple Activation Key). Windows Activation Open a command window (as administrator) And run… slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx slmgr [...]

(Not so) New Folder Locations

Since the advent of Windows Vista, the usual folder locations don’t always apply. Take the Quick Launch or All Users Desktop, where did they go? Here’s a short list of what’s been moved around (and yes, I’m writing this as much for me as anyone else)… All Users: All Users Desktop, Favorites, Documents, Downloads, Music, [...]

PowerShell: Execution of scripts is disabled

This information is available on many sites, but I’m tired of searching for it every few months when I switch laptops/tablets. Whenever you try to run an unsigned PowerShell script, you get the following message: “File C:\Custom\Test.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see “get-help about_signing” for [...]

WMIC to the Rescue

A recent project had me trying to script the retrieval of the Dell Service Tag. Luckily there’s WMI Command-line to the rescue. From a command line or in a script wmic bios get serialnumber will display or grab the Dell Service Tag. Furthermore, you can use the WMI Command-line to retrieve all kinds of system data and even make [...]

Microsoft Learning Snacks

You may have guessed it already, but they’re bite-sized videos for learning quite a few of Microsoft’s products. Click here for a full list of what’s available, all that is required is Silverlight for viewing. I’m currently watching the eleven videos for Windows 7, part of my studies for an upcoming certification exam, and they’ve [...]

Where the 32-bit Programs Hide in the Registry

Trying to increase the speed of a Windows system typically involves disabling Services, removing items from the Startup menu and deleting Registry entries under Run, in both the Current User and Local Machine trees. The latter bit is what was missing when working on 64-bit systems. After noticing that the pesky Acrobat Speed Launcher and [...]

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