Archive for: windows
Windows Vista and Windows 7 users do not need to enable or configure their operating system for IPv6 usage as it is enabled by default. The situation is different for Windows XP users who need to install the IPv6 protocol to add support for it to the operating system.
How to test if IPv6 is available on the operating system:
An easy option to find out is the ipconfig command which displays network information in a command line window. To run the command press Windows-R, type cmd and hit enter. This opens the Windows command prompt. Now use the command ipconfig to find out if IPv6 is available on the computer. Please note that the following screenshot is showing ipconfig on Windows 7.
If you do not see an entry IPv6 Address in the listing it is not enabled and needs to be installed. The easiest way to install the IPv6 protocol under Windows XP is from the command prompt. Enter the following commands separately and press return after each of them:
- netsh
- interface
- ipv6
- install
This installs IPv6 under Windows XP. It is also possible to install the protocol under the network settings options of the Control Panel. Right-click on the appropriate network adapter and select Preferences from the selection. Now select Install on the screen and then Protocol from the available options. Locate Microsoft TCP/IP Version 6, a click on OK installs the selected protocol.
1. Open Network Connections
2. Right-click any local area connection, and then click Properties.
3. Click Install.
4. In the Select Network Component Type dialog box, click Protocol, and then click Add.
5. In the Select Network Protocol dialog box, click Microsoft TCP/IP version 6, and then click OK.
6. Click Close to save changes to your network connection.
You can check again with the ipconfig command to make sure that the IPv6 protocol was installed successfully on the operating system.
StarWind iSCSI software represents one of the simplest tools available in the market to facilitate the use of high availability –clustering- for your servers and services, like a web server hosting your site, without the need of acquiring expensive and complex hardware to do it.
Achieving high availability for services in organizations it is not an easy task, decisions makers in several companies do not consider this solution as viable considering the costs we have to assume in storage and the new layer of complexity added to our platform. StarWind iSCSI software appears to solve both of these problems.
StarWind provides the possibility to use a simple server with normal hard drives to act as an iSCSI (open Internet protocol) portal which is charge of offering remote storage to machines and easily transform those in high availability clusters for your services. Also, using Windows Server 2008 R2 we will see that the procedure to create a cluster if we are using StarWind iSCSI is really simple.
To create a Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster using StarWind iSCSI software can be done within 5 steps (the complete guide available here):
- Review requirements for the environment: Having one machine acting as an iSCSI server using StarWind software and at least to machines, same hardware baseline, to conform the cluster.
- Install StarWind iSCSI SAN software: Easy step, just follow the wizard.
- Configure and create storage within StarWind iSCSI: This application has a very intuitive console to administer the resources, so you won’t find much problem completing this.
- Install Failover Cluster feature in machines and run validation wizard: The validation wizard will execute several tests to the servers in order to assure us that the cluster will be stable.
- Create Windows Server 2008 R2 Cluster: A three-step wizard that, if we executed the validation without any problem, this wizard should complete in the same way.
You can download a free trial for StarWind iSCSI software from this link.
Also there are more resources to take a look:
Five Easy Steps to Configure Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster using StarWind iSCSI SAN
StarWind iSCSI SAN: Quick Start Guide
iSCSI SAN Storage Videos and Webcasts
iSCSI Cluster Support: Frequently Asked Questions
Channel 9, one of the most known Microsoft’s Internet channel with thousands of interesting videos, created a very complete guide regarding Windows Phone 7 Development: Step-by-step guides for absolute beginners.
There are almost 70 different videos, available for free, covering all you need to know if you want to start working with the development of Windows Phone 7 applications and if you don’t have any experience working with development.
Microsoft also invites you to use free tools to achieve this like Visual Studio 2010 Express and the Windows Phone 7 Emulator (included in Windows Phone Developer Tools).
These videos also include the possibility to download in different versions: High quality WMV, MP3, MP4 (compatible with iPod and ZuneHD), and medium quality WMV.
Did you ever picture yourself using a 3D desktop on Windows? Aximion is the application available for converting our Windows desktop in a very cool 3D environment.
Windows desktops are indeed one of the most common places where we feel very comfortable, the simplicity and the fact that it did not have significant changes through the years are one of the reasons. But also, among the years, other possibilities appeared with other operating systems, making some interesting tweaks in user’s desktops.
Aximion makes our desktop look really cool, but it could take us a while to get used to it. One of the disadvantages is that the “Start” button is not available, so we must find our applications browsing around.
Requirements to use it:
- Windows XP 32/64 bit, Home/Pro, Service Pack 1/2/3
- DirectX 9.0 installed
- A video card that supports: •DirectX 9.0
o Vertex Shaders 1.4 and Pixel Shaders 2.0
o At least 128 Mb of on-board video memory
Direct download from here.
OpenOffice 3, released in 2008, reached a new milestone this week with the release of the 3.3 beta build. This new compilation does not offer much new functionalities, but does include several fixes.
We’ve also announced in November of 2009, that OpenOffice 3 reached 1 million downloads, making it the most popular OpenOffice suite so far. The 3.3 build just added a few more small features:
- Improvements in the dictionary and translations.
- Possibility to add different colors in sheets.
- Stability improvements and several bugs fixed.
This build is available to download for Windows, Mac, Solaris and Linux (of course); in Linux versions we can use the 32bit and 64bits. All builds available here.
The open source community maintains a simple way to do things, never stop collaborating. Even though the work it is not always great, they keep offering possibilities; which in this world is a vital thing to have.
YoYo Games Maker announced recently they are no longer Windows exclusive software for creating games, they are now introducing in Apple’s world with the release of Yoyo Game Maker for Mac.
In case, you’ve never heard of this app, YoYo Game Maker software is a simple platform for users to start developing their own games and encourage users to share those games with the community.
Here are some of the features included:
- Supports Intel only Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard) and v10.6 (Snow Leopard).
- Remote update mechanism (with regular updates for bug fixes and new features).
- Full Drag and Drop included.
- Full GML scripting.
- Extension mechanism to incorporate 3rd party libraries – (need to be Mac specific tensions, will not run Windows.).
- Room Editor
- Sprite Editor
- Path Editor
- Create standalone games that you can share with friends.
Here’s the direct download for the Mac version: http://appstore.yoyogames.com/downloads/gm4mac/Game_Maker.dmg
This is not a freeware, but the developments are really interesting. Check this link to try on the most played games.
Google’s Operating System represents, for most of open source lovers, their main hope in a Microsoft world that is now being invaded by Mac; and seems that insiders in Google are saying that Chrome OS will include a Remote Desktop Connection that will provide running locally normal PC applications.
Remote Desktop for most power and/or IT users represents the way of accessing a remote’s computer desktop by reaching it using an IP address; but is more than that. Using Remote Desktop protocol, users can access their applications, installed on a remote computer, without actually installing them locally.
This functionality, without an official announcement by Google, appeared in a Google forum; made by software designer inside the developing of Chrome: “We’re adding new capabilities all the time,” wrote Kačmarčík. “With this functionality (unofficially named ‘chromoting’), Chrome OS will not only be [a] great platform for running modern Web apps, but will also enable you to access legacy PC applications right within the browser.”
For me, almost anything representing legacy or an interoperability support sounds like a good idea; especially in today’s market when some are thinking that by being more restrictive they will win.
What do you think?
For those geeky ones always looking for new ways to improve their websites and web apps, here’s a cool plugin which you can use with JavaScript. AeroWindow is a new jQuery plugin which you can use to create pop-ups with a very neat Aero Glass style.
Access the demo site here.
jQuery is a JavaScript framework which allows programmers to interact with HTML objects, design interfaces and add some interaction with other technologies like AJAX. The scalability you can achieve using this is tremendous, and this plugin is a fine example of that.
You can see on the demo, that the similarity with common Aero windows on Windows Vista or Windows 7 is incredible. Plus, working with the plugin you can use a lot of configurations to customize it anyway you want to.
The following browsers are compatible:
- Internet Explorer 6
- Internet Explorer 7
- Internet Explorer 8
- Mozilla Firefox 3
- Google Chrome 4
- Apple Safari 4
- Opera 10
Missing drivers is a very common problem where most of us have been, but not only that, installing the wrong set of drivers is also another common issue that we found. DriverEasy is a great tool that with one click helps you find all the right drivers for those exclamation marks on your Windows Device Manager.
Ok, you’ve just completed installing your computer with a fresh new install and want to start from scratch, only installing the applications that you need and nothing more; but wait, something’s missing, you cannot play any audio and your screen looks funny. Yes, all of the important drivers are missing and you don’t recall where that damn CD is. Ring any bell? You can easily say goodbye to all those problems using this on-click free tool that can save you a lot of time.
Once you install the program, just press “Scan Now” and the software will start verifying your computer. Once it’s done, a notification with not only the missing drivers will appear but also the outdated ones, and with also one click you’ll get the chance to download all of them immediately and install them.
Did you I mention that is completely free? You can also use a Professional version from which you can have a backup of the drivers as well.
Symantec Labs completed a research about the use of botnets and the origins of spammer machines and the results, as unexpected as it sounds, the great majority of machines available in the world working as botnets are using Linux operating system.
Here are some of the facts shown in this report:
- 87% of spam analyzed came from botnets.
- Linux only used 36% of botnets to send spam.
- English language spam is the most used.
- Portuguese spam appeared as the second most used with 6%, large differences with other languages.
- The most common spam is the pharmaceutical spam. You know, Viagra stuff and that kind of thing.
Here’s a little sample about those pharmaceutical spam:
As part of this investigation, the analysis found that most of these machines are running also an open source mail transfer agent like Postfix or SendMail, which they’ve been configured to open up all the necessary ports, making those servers an easy target for hackers.
Most organizations use these kinds of “free” platforms to control their mail infrastructure and do not realize the big security concerns involved on each of them if those are not configured correctly.
