Tech Tips

You most likely know that you can sort items in Outlook by clicking the column title in the message pane. A second click of the same column toggles between ascending and descending sorts.

What you may not be aware of is that Outlook isn’t limited to single column sorting. To create a secondary sort, first create the primary sort by clicking the header of the principal column. Then, hold down the [Shift] key and click the header in the column that will be the secondary sort criteria. This can be used to easily locate e-mail without utilizing the search function: for example, a secondary sort based on Subject or Size within a primary sort by “To” can greatly simplify locating a specific e-mail, particularly from a Sender with whom you frequently correspond.

To set up a “GodMode” folder that provides access to all Windows 7 tools in a single location, perform the following setup routine:

1. Select any folder from Windows Explorer where you want to locate the “GodMode” folder – I placed mine in C:\, but any location will work
2. Create a new folder titled: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
3. Enter the new folder – all of the Windows tools should be there broken out by base function.

Or when the AC unit turns on, or when I vacuum the office?

A trend in high end desktops and laptops that is likely to quickly be adopted at all price points is the use of Active Power Correction Factor (Active PFC) based power supplies.  Active APC has benefits, but mostly for enterprise level use, as it reduces stress on the AC wiring by lowering the current drawn by power supplies with a high Power Factor, which can reach 90% in an Active PFC supply, vs. the 65% seen in typical Passive supplies.  UPS costs are also reduced, as an Active PFC requires less current capacity than the older Passive supplies.  Active PFC supplies don’t use less power, but they do deliver a higher percentage of it when called upon to the PC components.

So what’s the downside and why wouldn’t you want all of your new hardware to utilize Active PFC? There are two compelling reasons:

• Your existing UPS probably won’t keep an Active PFC based PC running when the power goes off, or during a brownout when the UPS takes over. This is due to the need for most Active PFC power supplies to be fed a true sine waveform. The majority of the household UPS’s are stepped “simulated” sine, which isn’t a viable source of power for Active PFC based designs.  Data Centers typically use UPS’s utilizing true sine waveform, so see the benefits, but at price points starting at around $500, aren’t a viable option for most home and SMB based computing.
• Active PFC won’t likely reduce your electric bill. Power Factor isn’t a criterion on which homes and small businesses are billed for electricity. This is true except in the case of commercial utility users who pay for V(oltage) x A(mperes).

Some vendors are providing options for Active or Passive Supplies. Unless your existing UPS is a true sine wave capable device, or you plan on replacing the OEM supply, strong consideration should be given to avoiding Active PFC.

Users can become quickly discouraged with SharePoint if they are constantly prompted for their credentials during a web session. This is particularly frustrating for users who have already established their domain authentication in other web sessions such as OWA. To eliminate this problem, make the following changes in Internet Explorer settings to allow the authenticated credentials to be passed to SharePoint:

1. In Internet Explorer, select Tools/Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog appears.
2. Select the Security tab, click the “Trusted Sites” icon at the top, then click the “Custom Level…” button at the bottom. The Security Levels dialog appears.
3. Scroll all the way down to the bottom to the User Authentication/Logon options, then click “Automatic logon with current user name and password.”
4. Click OK, and save settings as requested

The cost of electricity is a significant percentage of the overall operating cost of data centers. Minimization of electrical consumption can significantly reduce data center operating cost via the proper planning of the physical infrastructure and implementation of energy efficient technologies. This can be realized by:

1. Properly designing the physical space to minimize “heat islands”
2. Locating heat generating devices such as air conditioners outside the primary data center and utilizing “Economizer” modes
3. Proper location of venting
4. Sizing the primary electrical systems and UPS to avoid operating above 75% of maximum load
5. Reduction of server count via virtualization and retirement
6. Migration to energy efficient computing platforms such as blade servers and multiprocessor/multicore solutions
7. Elimination of older, inefficient servers
8. Utilization of power management features (CPU throttling)
9. Storage centralization and the introduction of efficient disk storage (solid state drives, unused drive spindown)
10. Implementing and utilizing energy tracking systems to identify opportunities to reduce power consumption

APC offers a comprehensive white paper on this subject, which is available at : http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/NRAN-6LXSHX_R0_EN.pdf

Little is as frustrating as losing a document that you have spent hours working on and having to recreate the document from scratch. Before you recreate, here are some potential solutions to recover your corrupted Word Document.

1. Make a copy of the corrupt document. Create a version that you can return to if other methods further corrupt the document
2. Try opening the document on another computer – sometimes the issue is local (Operating System or Word)
3. Run Chkdsk – If the issue is disk corruption, Chkdsk may repair the file system and allow the document to function properly
4. Try opening the file in another editor – Wordpad, Notepad, or other editors may allow you to recover the entire document, or at least the raw text
5. Use the “Open and Repair” option n Word – select the file in the Open dialog box and choose Open And Repair from the Open drop-down list in the bottom-right corner. This will force Word to attempt to recover the document.

If these methods don’t succeed, there are a couple of options to consider:

1. Look for copies of the document outside of the local system. Check your e-mail to see if you may have a copy there
2. Use Shadow Copy to recover recent versions of the document. To do so, right-click on the document and select the Properties command from the shortcut menu. When the document’s properties sheet appears, select the Previous Versions tab. The Previous Versions tab will show you any previous versions of the file that are available.
3. Use a recovery program. OfficeRecovery and Ontrack both offer solutions to attempt to recover important documents.

Windows 7 has delivered a number of tools that enable improved and centralized management of the operating system and user experience than was possible in Vista (and XP).

Tools such as the Action Center, Problem Steps Recorder, Credentials Manager, and an improved backup solution can both improve end user experience and simplify support.

Debra Littlejohn Shinder has a good summary of these tools available via Techrepublic: http://i.techrepublic.com.com/downloads/dl_10_win7_tools.pdf

While most of what we need to accomplish to maintain and support Windows PC and Server systems is available via the graphical tools available via the Operating System, inevitably, the Command Line tools are still necessary or present an efficient method of generating information. There are a number of Function Key shortcuts available within the CMD window that can be significant time savers, including:

F1 retypes the previous command one character at a time
F2 brings up a dialog and asks “Enter the char to copy up to:”
F3 retypes the last command in full
F4 brings up a dialog and asks “Enter char to delete up to:”
F5 same as F3
F6 Print EOF character (Ctrl+Z)
F7 brings up a dialog of all the recent command history
F8 brings up each of the most recent commands, one at a time
F9 brings up a dialog and asks “Enter command number:”