Pandigital Novel

I must say I didn't have the highest hopes for the Pandigital Novel eReader at $149, but I at least expected it to function for reading.

The out of the box experience was fine. Everything worked and the device's battery was charged to 97%. It detected my wireless and authenticated effortlessly, no issues with connecting with my Windows 7 laptop, upgrading to the latest firmware or copying epub and pdf files to the file system, which showed up like another drive.

The browser was lackluster and the device settings were limited, but all I really wanted was a device that I could use for reading. It displayed my files correctly and the night-time reading mode was pleasant, since it shows the text in negative (great for reading in bed with the lights out). And this is where I was mostly disappointed...

My problems were the accelerometer, which kept changing from portrait to landscape when at a mild angle or slight turning motion and the less than sensitive touch-screen. I was slowly adjusting to the auto-rotation "feature" by moving the device as little as possible, but the touch screen is what killed it for me. Turning pages can only be accomplished via the touch screen, which took two to five "swipes" each time; which of course takes you out of the material you're reading and involves far more movement than a light-sleeping spouse would prefer.

Two things on the settings screen would have kept this device in my home: a checkbox to turn off the auto-rotation and the ability to remap the analog rocker switch (the only switch aside from the power) to page turning instead of adjusting the volume (which was available via the touch screen).

I returned the device to Best Buy yesterday and will be likely be purchasing a NOOKcolor in the coming weeks.

Outlook Links Don't Work

One of my customers recently had an issue with broken links in all his Outlook e-mail. Any link that was present in the body or subject would not work, only giving the cryptic message: "This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer."

Turned out to be an issue with an faulty uninstall of Chrome, which left some bits behind in the registry. Bad, bad uninstaller! Go stand in the corner!

Anyway, after numerous searches and a number of unsuccessful fix attempts, Slipstick had the answer. Windows was trying to use the browser that was no longer installed, but was still referenced in the registry.

1. Start, click Run..., type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.


2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.html


3. Right-click the value for the .html key and select Modify...


4. Change the value from "ChromeHTML" to "htmlfile" (or from FireFoxHTML to htmlfile)


5. Repeat these steps for .htm and .shtml keys if they exist. You may also want to check the .xhtml and .xhtm keys.

Note: As always, the Registry can be a dangerous place, so do a backup/export before making changes.

This didn't even require a reboot and yet another happy customer was made. Judging by the amount of possible issues causing this message, this is only one needle in a field of haystacks.

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 other usual suspects were missing from the Run locations I ran a registry search for reader_sl.exe and with little delay was presented with the location below, which also hosted all it's resource sapping pals as well.

HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Note: As always, the Registry can be a dangerous place, so do a backup/export before making changes.

Exchange 2003 RPC over HTTPS - Easy

If you remember way back in September of 2003, (I don't, had to look up the date), a new version of Exchange Server was released with a new and really cool feature, RPC over HTTPS. This allowed for use of Outlook outside the company's network without the need for VPN. What a huge boon for traveling employees and IT staff alike.

With that came a convoluted configuration that probably resulted in more support calls to Microsoft than anything else involving the then-new Exchange Server 2003 product. And I always found it puzzling that Microsoft didn't create a wizard to automate this configuration, as they did for Small Business Server 2003, which included Exchange Server. (This was addressed in the later Exchange Server releases, 2007 and 2010.)

In any case it always seemed like a miracle was preformed when RPC over HTTPS finally did work. Fast-forward seven years and there are web pages and tutorials aplenty. In my recent search, the MSExchange article I found was the most straight-forward for a single system, Exchange Server 2003 deployment. One key element upon completion of the feature install and changes to the registry, is to make sure you reboot any Domain Controllers that were updated after the work is complete.

The reboot is necessary to complete the Global Catalog port mapping of 6004. In fact, you should be able to telnet to ports 6001 and 6002 on the Exchange Server, and 6004 on the Global Catalog server that was updated.

And as always, there is the über-useful Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer to aid with troubleshooting (that's how I found out the Global Catalog needed a reboot).

Microsoft offers Security Essentials to (very) Small Businesses

Since Microsoft announced its own anti-malware product, Microsoft Security Essenstials, back in late 2008, the product has been steadily getting better. When asked what I use for anti-virus, I always answer MSE or AVG Free.

Both cost my favorite price, free, and are well regarded in the security community.

The big news of course, is that MSE is now free to small businesses with 10 or less PCs. I've actually been recommending it to smaller businesses for a while and now they'll be in compliance. (Now if only it was okay for servers...)

Exchange 2010 SP1

Get it while it's hot: Exchange 2010 SP1.

Here's the list of what's new and shiny.

Paychex Preview Upgrade to Mapped Drive

This was actually too simple, but unless you speak with support, how is one to know?

I was recently tasked with upgrading a server installation of Paychex Preview software, which according to documentation cannot be done on the host server, it has to be upgraded from one of the workstations via mapped drive. It seemed simple enough, until the point of the install "wizard" where it prompts for installation directory. It listed C:\RAPID, and had a dropdown menu so I could choose one of the mapped drives; but instead of listing mapped drives it only offered the local C:\ drive. No problem, the instructions on the screen said reboot if it doesn't list your mapped drive. Wait a few minutes for the reboot... and no good, just C:\RAPID again; time to call support.

After starting a WebEx session, so the tech could see what I was saying was true, we copied the RAPID directory from the mapped drive to C:\, then ran the Paychex Preview software upgrade on C:\RAPID. When the upgrade was complete, it was just a copy and replace over the RAPID directory on the mapped drive and the deed was done. Oh yeah, don't forget to run WS_Setup.exe from each workstation to create appropriate shortcuts to the mapped drive.