In any case, there are a few good reasons (and probably some not-so good reasons) why you might need to recursively add or remove the hidden attribute on a bunch of files. If you ever find yourself in need of this, never fear! attrib is here!

First, open up a command prompt. Then “cd” into the directory where you want to start applying the attribute changes. Finally, enter the following command:

attrib -H /S

That will remove the hidden attribute from all files in the current directory, then it will recurse down to do the same thing in all the subdirectories. If you also want to remove the system attribute (which you cannot do in the file properties dialog), type this:

attrib -H -S /S

Easy! No extra app required. You can also add attributes and modify directories as well as files (I know, this much fun should be outlawed.) To get a list of options, enter:

attrib /?

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I installed SP2 on my Windows XP box, and haven’t been troubled by malware since. All it takes is some common sense and a  healthy aversion to shady websites and file sharing.

Antivirus companies make millions of dollars by essentially crippling everyone’s computers in the name of protection. You know you’re running antivirus when:

• Your email software takes forever to do anything
• You are randomly blocked from completely harmless websites
• Half of the software and games you install don’t work right
• Your computer randomly crashes

Why is Windows antivirus software so bad? Simple: It has to act like a virus in order to catch a virus.

Antivirus software reaches its sticky tentacles into the internal bowels of your system, into that mysterious realm that is so undocumented that even Microsoft had to hire an outsider to teach classes on the subject to their own engineers! One wrong assumption, one small bug, and wham! The antivirus just turned into a virus.

And as if that weren’t enough, any time you try to read an email, open a web page, play a game, or–heaven forbid–save a file, your Friendly Neighborhood Antivirus Program is there to “help you out.” Kind of like this little guy. Here is the algorithm that I think must be drummed into every security company intern and new hire:

1. Notice the user is trying to do something productive. If you aren’t sure, proceed to step 2 anyway.
2. If at all possible, block them from doing what they want to do.
3. If step 2 fails, at least put up a warning dialog box.
4. If they click “OK” in step 3, let them proceed but slow down the operation by at least 50%.
5. Send the user a monthly bill and PROFIT!

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of nasty malware out there. But with a few simple precautions, you too can be antivirus-free:

• Make sure you only connect to the Internet through a router, and enable it’s built-in firewall. NEVER, EVER plug your computer straight into a DSL or cable modem.
• Ensure the built-in Windows firewall is enabled. 3rd-party firewalls are just annoying and don’t help much in practice.
• Enable Automatic Updates.
• Don’t use Internet Explorer (IE). Firefox, Chrome, and Opera are all good alternatives.
• Don’t open, click on, or otherwise interact with email or IM attachments from people you don’t know (no matter how “sexy” they say the pictures are).
• Stop downloading illegal crap from P2P sites!
• Get off Windows XP already!

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Fun fact: In Vista, Microsoft tried to block anti-virus software from doing naughty things and putting their claws where they don’t belong, but the anti-virus companies complained loudly, acting like someone just kicked their puppy. Eventually Microsoft was forced to open things up again.

The problem is, there’s a bug in Windows Explorer that corrupts the registry so that it is unable to cope with the realities of life (i.e., your designated folder options). Naturally, this situation ends up triggering prenatal Windows 3.1 instincts.

A little discipline is in order. Here is how to tell Vista to stop acting like a 3.1-year old:

1. Run the registry editor as an Administrator (type regedit into a run dialog or use the start menu search and right-click to run as administrator)
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
3. Delete the Explorer folder. Don’t worry, Windows will automatically recreate the folder. (The politically correct term for a registry folder is actually a “key”, which makes perfect sense if you’re drunk or criminally insane.)
4. Reboot.

If that doesn’t fix it, also do the following:

1. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\command and ensure that the (Default) value is empty. If not, you can clear it by right-clicking on (Default) and deleting it.
2. Ensure that HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\command has its (Default) value set to %SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe
3. Reboot.

And if that doesn’t fix it, well, you can always switch to a different operating system.

Good luck!

The first thing to try is the multimedia “when sharing media” power option:

1. Open Power Settings, choose the plan you have selected
2. Click change plan settings
3. Click change advanced power setting
4. Go to Multimedia settings >> When sharing media and change the setting to Allow the computer to sleep

If that doesn’t fix the problem (it worked for me), try this as well:

5. Go to USB settings >> USB selective suspend and set it to Enabled

And finally, if you are still having trouble, check to ensure all your drivers are up to date, and check for a new version of your BIOS from your manufacturer’s support website. Some device drivers have bugs that prevent your system from sleeping. Also, you may wish to check your anti-virus software (if you are unfortunate enough to have some installed), and any backup programs you use to see if they are scheduled to do work when your computer should be sleeping.

Most hardware was recognized out of the box, even a WiFi card that Windows XP never was able to find on its own. All hardware, that is, except for my poor, old Sound Blaster Live! card. He got completely ignored by Windows 7. Abandoned, actually. Poor guy.

So I went to the Creative Support site, dug around in their archives (note: you have to do a search at the bottom of the product page to see all the downloads), and found some Windows XP Drivers for my old Soundblaster Live.

Although the driver I found was a bit outdated, I thought it was worth a try. When I ran the installer, however, it just flashed a message about not being able to find any Sound Blaster cards on my computer. Darn.

But then, after closing the installer, Windows 7 helpfully suggested that I re-run with some “suggested settings.” That did the trick.

Say what you want about Microsoft, but they’ve always amazed me with what still runs under the latest version of Windows.

Update: Check the comments below for many more tips from the community on getting your old Soundblaster Live! working in Windows 7…

What you need is this handy (Windows) tool from HP. It formats anything with a USB plug (well, maybe not everything). Anyway, the GPT partition or whatever else is on there doesn’t stand a chance. Here’s the link:

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

Go crazy.

Update: You can also reset a USB drive from the command line.

ARM: What is thy bidding my Master?
You: It’s Windows 7 we’re after.
ARM: I’m sorry, did you just say Windows 7?
You: You got a problem with that?
ARM: Actually, I, uh…
You: ARM? Are you OK?
ARM: My mind is going…cannot format..failed to format…partition not found…

Let’s face it: Acer eRecovery Management needs a little love to get through this. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Create a System Rescue USB drive (Note: An alternative to the spyware-laden Daemon-tools for mounting the ISO file as a virtual CD-ROM is Virtual CloneDrive). If you have trouble with the System Rescue CD, you can try some other distros.
2. Reboot the netbook and go into the Acer BIOS settings. Change the boot settings to check USB first. Plug in your System Rescue stick, and restart the netbook.
3. Run “wizard”, and launch gtparted (icon towards the lower-left of the screen).
4. Delete partition 2, create a new one, then reformat it as NTFS
5. Mark partition 1 as bootable (right-click, edit flags). Remove USB drive.
6. Reboot into the Acer System Restore software. Choose to restore the system.
7. Plug the System Rescue USB drive back into the Acer netbook.
8. Reboot into the System Rescue CD/USB, go back into gparted, and flag the restored partition 2 as bootable.
9. Remove USB flash drive and reboot.

Asking someone to define usability also gives me a good idea as to whether they have ever read any books on the subject or had formal training. There are many self-proclaimed “usability experts” or “user interface specialists” who actually don’t understand or haven’t yet discovered the basic principles that go into user experience design. They simply haven’t thought deeply enough about the problem.

Now, I don’t claim to be an authority on usability. But I try to be cognizant of usability principles when I go to design a piece of software. If you’re interested in getting a handle on these principles yourself, I would recommend starting with the three fathers of user interaction design:

• Donald A. Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
• Bruce Tognazzini, founder of the Apple Human Interface Group and author of many classic interaction design papers and columns.
• Jakob Nielsen, long-time author and web usability ninja. Start with his excellent article, Usability 101: Introduction to Usability and subscribe to his bi-weekly Alertbox newsletter.

• What in the world is SqlCacheDependency? See this article.
• Most of the tutorials for caching on MSDN deal with output caching. You can’t do output caching with a generic web handler (among other things, these were used to provide RESTful interfaces in ASP.NET before WCF came along to save the day). So you will have to build up your output string on your own and cache it with a dependency on your model.
• Make sure you are using SQL Server 2005 or later. Anything earlier requires lots of obligatory sit-ups to get things working, and uses polling behind the scenes (so it is much less efficient).
• Make sure you use a unique key when adding items to the cache that includes query parameters and anything else you are referencing when you query your model to build the response.
• If you are doing multiple queries, you will need to cache each one. If one query depends on a previous querie’s results, you need to use AggregateCacheDependency to make your cache expire not only when the main query’s results change, but also when the dependent query’s results change.
• You can’t create a SqlCacheDependency object in isolation. You must use the one that was associated with the exact same SqlCommand object you used to load up your dataset.
• You must create the SqlCacheDependency object before executing the command.
• SqlCacheDependency does not work on views! But, you can still load a “view” into a typed dataset by opening the view in you designer and copying the TSQL into the query string in you code.

Random

How could I resist?

I followed all of the steps on Karnure’s blog and so far I’ve only had one really nagging issue: stuttering audio.  Initially I discovered that disabling Aero made the stuttering (mostly) go away.

I mentioned the issue and my solution to Random.  Well, he came up with a great solution (as he always does, given rand() and enough time).  He found this MSDN article about the Multimedia Class Scheduler Service.  It discusses the registry keys that control the multimedia experience of your system.

I checked the following key in my registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile

The value for “SystemResponsiveness” was set to 100, which means 100% of all other processes on my machine were given higher priority than multimedia.  I fired up my Vista box and discovered that value was set to 20%.  Aha!

Changing that “SystemResponsiveness” value from 100 to 20 did the trick.  Now I’m coding away merrily with nary a skip in my music.  Thank you, Random Boy!

Mr. ANSI Pants