Category: Windows

Windows 7 mp3 tag editor

I just accidentally found Windows 7’s built in mp3 (and presumably other metadata, exif perhaps) tag editor.

I looked for this thing for what felt like hours over the past year. Eventually I sucked it up and downloaded mp3tag, but its still nice to know that this is there for the next time.

Normally when browsing my mp3 files I see a window that looks like this:

Stromkern1

See that summary pane at the bottom? Select a file with editable metadata, like an mp3 and resize that pane. Then click one of the metadata values.

Stromkern2

Wow, I wish that had been more discoverable. –1 point for Windows 7 for making that far from intuitive, but 1 point for Windows 7 for having the feature.

My Whole App is a LINQ Expression

I just published an application which I consider useful over on codeplex with source hosted on launchpad.

http://wlanchannelinfo.codeplex.com/

https://code.edge.launchpad.net/~evarlast/+junk/WlanChannelInfo

I wrote this because Wifi in my home is very slow. Its so slow I’m tempted to run a network cable to my couch so that even when I’m couch surfing I can have fast access to my server.

In an effort to diagnose my slow Wifi, I tried to see if my neighbors were causing interference by running Wifi on the same or overlapping channel as me. I downloaded netstumbler; it didn’t work. I downloaded some other tool; neither did it.

So I wondered how hard it would be to write my own. It turns out Windows 7 added to the Wlan* api to expose all of the necessary data. After some digging I found the managedwlan project on codeplex. Now I got to play.

Once I figured out the api, I was able to write the entire application with pretty much one LINQ expression:

var client = new WlanClient();
var retval =
from wlanIface in client.Interfaces
from bssentry in wlanIface.GetNetworkBssList()
from network in wlanIface.GetAvailableNetworkList(Wlan.WlanGetAvailableNetworkFlags.IncludeAllAdhocProfiles)
where InterfaceService.GetStringForSSID(network.dot11Ssid) == InterfaceService.GetStringForSSID(bssentry.dot11Ssid)
select new WifiInfo
{
bssentry = GetStringForSSID(bssentry.dot11Ssid),
channel = Wifi.FrequencyChannelMap[bssentry.chCenterFrequency],
frequency = bssentry.chCenterFrequency,
linqQuality = bssentry.linkQuality,
strength = bssentry.rssi,
signalQuality = network.wlanSignalQuality,
wifitype = network.dot11BssType
};

The result of that expression is directly databound to a WPF DataGrid and I can now view the data that I want to.

I really love the platform (C#+.NET) on which I work.

Windows Home Server backup database

I’m seriously thinking I should change my backup strategy. I use Windows Home Server for one thing and one thing only, Backups. Sure the file share stuff is nice, but I already have a Linux server with samba with my file shares. WHS lovers will say I should migrate, but all I see that gaining me a day or so of copying files and no real benefit.

I recently got a new laptop and when adding this into the mix I had to add more storage to my WHS. I did, and after doing so I got this:

HomeServer-AllBackupsLost

What good is a backup system if it loses your backups? Not much good IMO.

Windows 7’s backup is very good now and I think I may benefit from just using it rather than WHS. I’ll duke it out with WHS one last time, but I won’t be recommending it to Mom, Dad or Grandma anytime soon.

Restoring a Desktop Image to a VMware Virtual Machine with Windows Home Server

  1. Copy the restorecd.iso from \\homeserver\Software\Home PC Restore CD to your VMware server.
  2. Configure a new VMware virtual machine with an appropriately sized disk, a network adapter (I prefer bridged) and a CD ROM Drive pointed to said restorecd.iso from step 1. Do not start the VM at the last step.
  3. Find the vmx file created in step 2. Add a line ethernet0.virtualDev= “e1000”.  This the required trick step since Windows Home Server doesn’t have a driver for the LANCE network chip which vmware normally emulates.
  4. Boot the Virtual Machine and follow the prompts.

Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7 is Not All Bad

The number one feature that has been in Opera for longer than I can remember, and in Firefox via add-in or by default for nearly as long, is that of restoring a session when the browser or system crashes.

I lean on this feature. I use browser tabs as a todo list. Sometimes I have to-read tabs open in my browser for only minutes, and other times those to-read tabs are around for weeks and into months.

Internet Explorer was a no-go on this feature, until I noticed it today.

My laptop (I blame hardware – or poor Dell drivers) did not go to sleep when I shut the lid this evening. After a 5 mile bike ride and a 12 mile car ride home in a well insulated back pack, the laptop was frozen and pretty warm when I got home and unpacked. I had to reboot.

As soon as I logged in I remembered that I had left an Internet Explorer window open with something I wanted to read. I cursed because I thought I would have to find it and I usually struggle finding things in browser “history”.

I was surprised when I was greeted with a “restore last session” prompt from Internet Explorer.

Good job on a great feature, Internet Explorer team.

Will I be using IE as my default browser? Absolutely Not. RequestPolicy and NoScript are required browser add-ins for my daily browser usage.

nmap can open device eth15, but only if you let it

This is here as a note to myself to not be stupid.

I’ve remembered at forgotten this at least 4 times and so that makes me stupid for not remembering.

When nmap on win32 tells you that “dnet: Failed to open device eth15”, it is really suggesting that you run it as administrator.

You need to be administrator to access the network device at this level.

Outlook 2007 autodiscover for the rest of us

Outlook 2007 has a new feature which is provided to it by default only by Exchange 2007.

I recently thought of giving Outlook a try instead of Windows Live Mail. Of course, the geek in me wanted my Outlook 2007 first run experience to be awesome. I wanted autodiscover to work for me.

It turns out if you read a KB article and a technet article you can figure out that for 99% of POP/IMAP/SMTP installations, placing an autodiscover.xml file at a url of http://myemail.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml or at http://autodiscover.myemail.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml is all that is needed. The format of the xml is very simple.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Autodiscover xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/responseschema/2006">
  <Response xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/outlook/responseschema/2006a">
    <Account>
      <AccountType>email</AccountType>
      <Action>settings</Action>
      <Protocol>
        <Type>IMAP</Type>
        <Server>mail.xmtp.net</Server>
        <Port>993</Port>
        <DomainRequired>off</DomainRequired>
        <SPA>off</SPA>
        <SSL>on</SSL>
        <AuthRequired>on</AuthRequired>
      </Protocol>
      <Protocol>
        <Type>SMTP</Type>
        <Server>mail.xmtp.net</Server>
        <Port>25</Port>
        <DomainRequired>off</DomainRequired>
        <SPA>off</SPA>
        <SSL>on</SSL>
        <AuthRequired>on</AuthRequired>
        <UsePOPAuth>on</UsePOPAuth>
        <SMTPLast>on</SMTPLast>
      </Protocol>
      <Protocol>
        <Type>POP3</Type>
        <Server>mail.xmtp.net</Server>
        <Port>995</Port>
        <DomainRequired>off</DomainRequired>
        <SPA>off</SPA>
        <SSL>on</SSL>
        <AuthRequired>on</AuthRequired>
      </Protocol>
    </Account>
  </Response>
</Autodiscover>

 

Do that, and the next time an Outlook2007 client tries to configure itself, it will.

Windows 7 Libraries and Search in Explorer

With Windows 7 at release candidate now, I wanted to review some of my favorite features which were announced 8+ months ago at PDC08.

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC16/

After a little Google searching I found this Search Connector Pack:

http://www.redmondpie.com/search-connectors-for-windows-7-federated-search/

IMO its very cool to have the Wikipedia Search Connector where I can view all of the hits in what is normally the files view in Explorer, and view the wikipedia page in the Preview pane (alt-p if you can’t see it).

Wikipeida_RSS_Win7SearchConnector_2009-05-24_14-03-47