Remove “Send Feedback” in Windows 7 Beta
If you’re looking at the Windows 7 Beta like I am, you have certainly seen the “Send Feedback” link on the right-side of each window’s title bar. I click this link by mistake on a daily basis and now I have figured out a way to get rid of it. If you are comfortable editing the Windows registry, follow these steps to get rid of the link:
- Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
- Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
- Change the value of “Feedback Tool Enabled” from “3” to “0”
- Restart your system
After the restart, the “Send Feedback” link will be gone. To restore the link, change the value of “Feedback Tool Enabled” from 0 back to 3 and restart.
Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse
Being mobile requires good gear. That’s why I’ve been using the same Targus USB mouse for years. 
It’s nothing fancy but it operates smoothly and works without fuss. On occasion, I’ve tried wireless mice because I like to eliminate cords whenever possible. Each time though, I returned to the Targus. There’s something about those giant receivers that’s just not right. They look ridiculous and the way that they extend so far from the laptop makes them easy targets for damage.
When the Targus finally gave out, I decided to give the Logitech VX Nano a try. Of course, I liked the fact that it was 
wireless, but I was also intrigued by the super-small receiver. This was a good choice. I’ve been using it for over a week now and I don’t miss my old mouse at all. It’s solid, has the smooth feel of my old mouse, and the wireless receiver is barely noticeable as it extends from the laptop.
Other things I like about the VX Nano:
Precision scroll wheel with two modes: free-spin and click-to-click
Pressing the wheel toggles between these two modes. The first is frictionless and fast while the second gives feedback through clicks as the wheel is scrolled making it well suited for line-by-line scrolling. I really like this feature and find myself switching back and forth between the two modes frequently to better accommodate different kinds of work.
Small profile and case
Perfect for the mobile worker. It takes little room in the bag and the case protects it from wear and tear.
Not just for mobile
The VX Nano also comes with a USB extender making it easy to put a USB port on the desktop for the receiver. No need to crawl around under the desk searching for a USB port just to use the mouse.
The Logitech VX Nano retails for $69.99 but I picked it up from Amazon.com for $51.99. Reading the reviews there, it seems that others are really happy with the mouse as well.
Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks
The Gap Was Not Bridged
In a previous post, I wrote about DocSyncer, a service that provided a way to get all of your Microsoft Office documents into Google Docs and keep them in sync. It sounded like a great idea but apparently did not work out so I thought that it would be appropriate to close the loop.
May All Your Tabs Be Favicon Tabs
Firefox is my browser of choice, and with the right extensions, it get’s the job done in a way the Internet Explorer can’t touch. Once of my favorite extensions is FaviconizeTab which allows the text label of a tab to be eliminated leaving only the favicon of the site visible. Liking this clutter-free look and enjoying the extra room that it provides, I was looking for a way to make this happen to all of the tabs automatically. There is no configuration option for this in FaviconizeTab preferences so figuring out a way to do it eluded me for longer than I care to mention. After figuring it out though, the approach seems so obvious. All it takes is to enable Auto Faviconize in Faviconize Tab preferences and enter “http://*” and https://*” in the URL list. That’s it…all web site tabs are now Faviconize tabs.
Here’s what it looks like before…
And here’s what it looks like after…
Nice!
Bridging the Gap
Google Docs is great but how do I get all of my Microsoft Office documents uploaded and available for use online?
DocSyncer, a new service that will soon be in beta, aims to answer that question by offe4ring synchronization of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents for your PC to the web where they are available to Google Docs. It sounds great but I’ll have to wait until I get a beta invite to find out for sure. My first reaction is that this will be great for anyone with lots of Office documents who is making the jump to the web. In the enterprise environment, I can see alarms going off as information security groups consider the privacy and data retention issues that a service like this could present. Either way, it looks like it will be worth checking out.
The Web is the iPhone SDK
Watching the iPhone frenzy is almost like a spectator sport. I don’t have one yet and I’m not sure I’ll get 
one anytime soon, but I can certainly understand the enthusiasm of the early adopters. It reminds me of how I felt back in 1984 when my Dad surprised me with a brand new Mac.
Once of the criticisms of the iPhone that I hear often is that it’s a closed environment with no SDK. Although that’s true, it appears that the web is the platform on which iPhone applications will be built. The iPhone uses Wi-Fi and AT&T’s EDGE network to provide a seamless data connection. Despite the difference in performance between the two, it’s enough to allow web applications to keep working. Add a caching mechanism like Google Gears and things start to get interesting.
Anyway, I’ve seen several lists of web applications appear since the iPhone launch. This one from Rev2.org is the most extensive. Lifehacker also has a good list. Finally, I’m glad to see 37signals get on board with Ta-da list for the iPhone. After iPhoneDevCamp, who knows what will happen.
Using the iPhone with Exchange
Mary Jo Foley is reporting that the iPhone will be compatible with Microsoft Exchange after all. If true, the biggest barrier to adoption among the Enterprise set is removed. This will be interesting to watch.
Remove Ads from Windows Live Messenger
I’m not a Windows Live Messenger power user, but I do like to tweak the interface a bit to make look the way I want. The tabs on the left and the ad on the bottom of the main window have always bugged me. WLM Universal Patcher does the trick by allowing me to easily disable these annoyances. Additional options include hiding search bar, actions pane, and enabling multiple logons.
Windows Vista Deployment Tools
Although Windows Vista was released to manufacturing in November, the much needed deployment tools were not. Since then, things have been coming together, and and with last week’s release of the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment 2007 (BDD 2007), the final piece is in place. Organizations now have everything they need to set about making Vista deployment plans in earnest.
I’ve been working with BDD for a while in beta and was anxious get the final release installed in my environment. After making a backup of my distributions share, I uninstalled the beta and manually deleted everything else. After a system restart, I began the process of putting it all back. From beginning to end, the process took about two hours.
The only issue that I experienced after the install was the inability to connect to my database. After entering the necessary information, I received a message stating “Unable to load SQL Server OLEDB provider resource DLL.” I never received this message running beta version of the BDD. I solved the problem by finding a copy of sqloledb.rll and copying it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Ole DB\Resources\1033.
Resizing Partitions is a Breeze in Vista
Often in the course of my work, I have the need to repartition drives on Windows XP systems. Typically this involves reducing the size of a large, single partition and creating a new, second partition in the free space. Partition Magic is my tool of choice because it allows the work to be done from within Windows and without data loss.
I was working with Vista RC1 this morning and discovered that the Disk Management features have been improved to offer this capability out of the box. Referred to as Shrink Volume, this command can be used to reduce the size of simple and spanned volumes. This morning I used it to reduce a single 80GB partition to 50GB and then created a new 30GB partition in the free space.
Here are the steps:
- Open Computer Management (Start, right-click Computer, Manage) and click continue at the UAC prompt.
- Click on Disk Management in the Storage section.
- Right-click on a partition and Shrink Volume and will appear on the context menu.
- After some checking, Windows will report the partitions current size, how much it can be “shrunk”, as well as the new size. You can go for the maximum “shrink” (default) or enter a smaller value.
- When the values are set, click the Shrink button.
- Unallocated space will appear which can be used to create a new partition.
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