God Mode In Windows 7

There's not much that can be done from the desktop of windows 7. by defualt it is a minimal in functionality for configuration options and settings. It is a clean interface by design and done for simplicity. Most everything needed for configuration and support can be found from the control panel of windows 7 as with previous operating systems from Microsoft. However, through control panel won’t allow you to see and easily use all those nested settings included in the main options. Did you know that you can become a God? Well, at least on Windows 7!

One of the less known options on Windows 7 is the God Mode feature. Basically, it lets you have every setting and option right in front of you, ready to be used without having to browse among different settings before getting what you are looking for.

Here is how to enable it:
Right click on any bank space on your desktop.
Click new from the menu and create a New Folder.
Rename the folder as follow: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

DO NOT use this trick on Vista and Windows 7 64X. It will cause your Windows to crash! (read comments below)

This simple command will create a special shortcut to the God Mode option letting you access all Windows 7 functions via a handy GUI!

GodMode also works on Windows Vista!

[credit: stadt-bremerhaven.de]

Action When Virtual Server Starts Greyed Out

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2

Action When Virtual Server Starts Greyed Out

The option to change the behavior of the virtual server when the host server is restarted or if the virtual server services are stopped and restarted. The option is greyed out if the virtual server is currently running. You have to turn off the guest OS before you can make changes to this area of the virtual server configuration.

RAID - Not Just for Servers Anymore

With the cost of RAID redundancy coming of age in terms of pricing, it's no wonder that there are more desktops sold with the option of RAID redundancy. Due to the successfully change from the IDE standard many years ago to SATA and SAS, RAID at the desktop level is much more consumer friendly in terms of price and therefore many more desktops are shipping with redundancy hard drive redundancy and fail over being built into them. RAID is no longer only for servers.

I think this is great and wish it could have been so inexpensive to add RAID to desktops many years ago. I know that it would have saved many people a lot of pain as their computers took a dive and the hard drive they stored much of their data on was never backed up.

What prompted me to add this post is during a recent installation of Vista Ultimate edition on a desktop computer system, I noticed a button on the installation drive selection window. It said load drivers and so out of curiosity, I clicked it. Behold, an option to add third party disk drivers to Vista. This was once a part of the text based installation of XP and Windows 2000, but now it's been nicely GUI-fied.

Oddly enough though, when you click the button to add disk drivers to the Vista installation, you are asked to insert a diskette containing the drivers. So just as it's becoming common place to see RAID installed in desktops, it becoming just as rare to see floppy drives installed on new systems.

Desktops, Servers, and Networks, oh MY!: RAID - Not Just for Servers Anymore

Remote Support Software

I found this a site that provides an online remote support solution:

Wait...before you click away. I know everyone knows the name brands of remote support software that provide you with computer remote access over the web, but this one although it doesn't have an IT household name does the job like the others. In fact, it let let's technical support and IT pros provide remote assistance software for their end-users on the cheap. No, it's not just another executable with an IP address compiled into it for downloading. They have a bit more dynamic on-demand remote support system that let's you make changes to your own configuration if you need to.

So let's say you get one of the other brands of computer remote control packages for remote tech support software that works over the web that has a static configuration and then you change ISP providers. Your out of luck. Sure you could have Dynamic DNS setup and that's good to but that's another piece of software running on your system and other id to maintain and another point of failure. Yes, point of failure. If you switch from cable, let's say, to DSL or visa versa, you have to get a new program. One can argue that you do not because of DDNS, but what if you want to provide online computer remote support software from another network. Now you have to get that same service running on the other network and the next and the next. Their system, although it works just fine with DDNS, it doesn't need it.

When you sign-up for an account you get a login to their site, not unfamiliar as many site have this, and a user page. On that user page you configure your networks settings. That's right, for many of you who have looked into software like this it's the same information you provide to the other site that have a static remote support solution. But the big difference here is that you don't wait for your pc remote support executable to be changed and of course to get charged again. It's on the fly. Change you config and instantly the same customer that you had provided on-demand pc remote support for just a while ago from another network now is connecting to the new network. You may be thinking that you need to have all your users go to their site to get remote assistance over the web from you. No, not at all. They have an executable program too that you get at no additional cost and it's dynamic too. Pretty Cool!!

I'm going to work with it some more and post back with more information.