My Windows 8 Upgrade experience! Windows 8 IS Really better than ALL other versions of Windows!

 

So I took the plunge and went ahead and upgraded my Windows 7 computer to Windows 8 Pro today, the first day it was available to download.

 

Yeah, I am a trailblazer.  It isn't like I didn't play with Windows 8 previously though, because I downloaded and ran the preview edition months ago and installed it in a VM.

 

The upgrade process was pretty painless, albeit it took HOURS!  It started by me getting a link from Microsoft with a coupon code that I signed up for when I purchased my daughters laptop last month.

 

I clicked on the link and was asked to install the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant.  The upgrade assistant told me that a few of my programs were not compatible with Windows 8. Would you believe Microsoft Security Essentials is one of them? This is because Windows 8 has Windows Defender that is the new er old name for their security product. Other programs along with Security Essentials I had to uninstall were a Roxio plug in and my Daemon Tools program. Otherwise I was good to go.

 

Well I continued on in the install process and was asked if I wanted to download and install Windows 8 or download the file and install at a later time. I chose to download and install Windows 8. It was a 2 GB download that took about 20 minutes to download on my 10gb cable connection. Your mileage will vary. Once downloaded the installation began. Thus ensued an over 3 hour most of the day process of installing Windows 8.  Seriously, put aside an entire day if you are going to do this.

 

At one point my computer rebooted and nothing came up on the screen but my computers hard disk light was lit and the drive was flashing furiously.  This went on for 10 minutes (maybe longer) I was very tempted to force turn off the computer and reboot it again so the screen would come up but my years of learning to be patient with computers paid off and after some time the computer rebooted again on its own and the screen came back up.  So this is critical folks, just cause you do not see anything on the screen for a long time DON'T PANIC, JUST WAIT! My monitor light even was in saver mode (yellow) during this process.

 

So when Windows 8 came back up it proceeded to install and then after it installed it proceeded to migrate my settings.  This took over an hour. Finally when Windows 8 booted I was presented with my login screen (I had multiple user accounts on my Windows 7 PC but it chose the one I had been using to upgrade by default) I entered my Windows password and was informed I could login with a Windows Live or Hotmail account so my desktop could be tailored to my preferences. I logged in with my Hotmail account and after a minute was presented with the familiar tile screen.

 

The first thing I did was select the Internet Explorer tile. All of my favorites and IE settings were intact and there! I went to my favorite download site for Windows Plugins called Ninite.com.

 

Ninite is a cool site that lets you select the Windows plug ins and programs you want by clicking a check box next to the ones you want and it will create an install file of all the programs you chose without all the google/yahoo/etc toolbar crap for you. All you need to do is click on the Install file Ninite creates for you and it will install it on your computer.  But I went to Ninite for a particular reason. There is an open source program called "Classic Shell" you can choose on Ninite and voila you will now have back the Windows Start Menu that everyone is complaining is missing in Windows 8 when you go to the desktop by pressing Start + D.

 

I do not have a touch screen on my desktop computer and would not use it if I did. The mouse works beautifully in Windows 8.  Along with a few keyboard shortcuts and the scroll wheel you can get around Windows 8 in a snap.  The thing that changes the most is that instead of using the Ctrl button you are using the Start button much more often to access shortcuts.

 

A few of the most common keyboard shortcuts besides Start + D for the desktop you will use the most is Start + C for the charms menu Start + I for settings charm and Start + Q for the search Charm.

 

The biggest frustration I have had is getting the Photos App to recognize my pictures I had already on my drive. They are in the proper folder I "think" but the app tells me that there are none there. I know they are there because I can bring up File Explorer from the desktop and see them when I click on the Pictures library. It is not a big deal because I never used Windows native picture viewer in the past opting for Google Picasa instead, which still works fine as does iTunes.

 

And finally when you run a "live" app off of one of Windows 8 tiles it opens in full screen . It isn't quickly apparent how to close the damn thing.  Well there are 3 ways I found to do it. First you can use the classic windows shortcut key Alt + F4 key to close the app. Really? Second you can press the Start button and you will go back to the Windows Menu, however the APP WILL NOT BE CLOSED! If you move your mouse over to the upper left corner of the screen the App Task menu will appear and you can right click with the mouse and choose close to close the app.

Finally you can use task manager(which I haven't found a shortcut to yet) to close the app.

 

The corners of the screen are your friends when you are in the Windows Metro screen or in an App. Each corner will take you places, or open something.  The Top left corner opens the apps switch menu, the upper right opens the charms menu, the bottom right gives you the Metro screen or desktop depending on which you are in and the bottom right will work like the old show desktop if you hover there.

 

So there you have it, that is what I figured out so far.   From start of installation to writing this blog entry approximately 7 hours of my time spent today on and off the computer getting this upgrade done. (took me about an hour to write this blog) Good luck folks and remember the word of the day if you are upgrading to Windows 8 is PATIENCE! 

 

 

 

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Help I just loaded IOS 6 and now Facebook and Twitter are denying photos to post

Maddening, you upgrade your iPhone right, and then you go to post a great picture of your cat to facebook and you get faced with a little popup that asks if you want to allow facebook to access your photos. You always say no to those things, right?

Well if you do you will get a prompt from your Device telling you that "This App does not have access to your Photos or Videos"  You can enable access in Privacy settings.  What now?

Well you must now do the iPhone menu shuffle and dig into the new IOS 6 settings. And they added privacy settings every darn place you can imagine.

To Fix you will need to click on settings icon on your iphone--->> Choose Privacy about half way down the screen ---> Click on Photos (not facebook as you would think on that screen) and tadaa lo and behold You will see Facebook and twitter and other apps there with an off and on slider. Click to turn the slider on and you can now post photos again!

Same goes for shared calendars or contacts you use from facebook or email apps you will have to select each item under privacy to get things working again.

And that other Facebook Privacy choice off of settings -->> Privacy? Well that is for allowing or denying other applications on your device access to Facebook.

Granularity can really suck sometimes. Be careful what you say no to.

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How To: Save and Retrieve Passwords across multiple devices including Windows, Apple iPhone, iPad, Ipad 2, iPod Touch, and Android OS

Lately every single web site that I have been visiting has required a password. It is getting out of hand! Lots  of sites allow logon using a Facebook, Google or other common password service.  I do not like doing this at all! I try to use a different password for every site I visit and it is a good habit and practice that I reccomend for EVERY person on the Internet.

Back in the day, I used to reccomend to my staff members that if they really had a hard time remembering their many passwords, they could pick any base eight to ten character non dictionary word or phrase and than attach the name of the website to the front or the end of it. For example if your base password is dog8kitty, you would use yahoodog8kitty or dog8kittyyahoo for your yahoo password. That way they could have a different yet easy to remember password for each site. Just make sure no one gets ahold of your base password though! My users were notorious for still writing down the base password and posting it on a sticky note on their monitor. I never had a problem accessing their stuff...lol.

And still users are faced with the issue that not all sites let you set your own password type and require all sorts of stupid combinations for your password. How do you remember them all? The truth is, you can not!

My INEXPENSIVE solution to this problem(meaning free) is an open source program called Password Safe along with DropBox.  Now grant it, you STILL have to remember a single safe combination password for Password Safe in order to open up your safe and enter your DropBox credentials as necessary once to setup the programs with my solution, but it is far better than having to remember sometimes hundreds of passwords. Just make CERTAIN that you choose a strong safe combination to open your safe and strong dropbox password!

This quote is from the SourceForge website, "Password Safe allows you to manage your old passwords and to easily and quickly generate, store, organize, retrieve, and use complex new passwords, using password policies that you control. Once stored, your user names and passwords are just a few clicks away. "

"Using Password Safe you can organize your passwords using your own customizable references—for example, by user ID, category, web site, or location. You can choose to store all your passwords in a single encrypted master password list (an encrypted password database), or use multiple databases to further organize your passwords (work and home, for example). And with its intuitive interface you will be up and running in minutes."

Basically Password Safe will allow you to save all of your passwords into an encrypted "safe" file that is even very portable if you want it to be.  By portable I mean that you will be able to access your passwords from almost any computer or mobile device you own, including your iPhone, iPad, Android Phone, and computer! Further you can organize your passwords into file folders by type of password.  Is that not fabulous?

Read on and I will explain to you more about PasswordSafe, how to get it and a bit how to use it.

Windows
I'll start by explaining on how to find, download and install Password Safe for Windows. The freely available Open Source version of Password Safe can be downloaded from this web link.(you could also choose run and not download the file if you just want to automatically install the program.)  Once downloaded Password Safe, click  on the pwsafe-3.27.exe file to install the program.  If you receive a Windows security warning dialog click on the run button. Next choose a language from the next popup, English is the default, and click on the OK button. Click the I agree button to agree to the license agreement, and now a prompt with a dialogue box that asks what type of install you would like. A regular, (on your computer) or a disk on key, which will allow the ability to install and run the program and save your password database on a USB Key Drive to carry it with you and plug it in and use it on any other Windows Computer you want. To install it on your computer leave the regular choice ticked and click on the next button.

The next screen Choose Components, is to select additional languages, if you only want English click on the next button. The next screen, select the location to install the program to on your computer. You can use the default or change it if you want. Click on the install button to start the installation. Password Safe installs very quickly and will give you a completed screen that you can now close.

There will now be a Password Safe icon on your desktop you can click on to get started using Password Safe. If there is no icon look for the Password Safe folder in the start menu and run the program from there.

There are quick start instructions for the program on the website here.

When starting Password Safe for Windows, there will be a window like the picture above. Click on  theNew Database button and enter your chosen Safe Combination, twice.  The "safe combination" will be your KEY to open your safe and access all your passwords.  Do not write it down or give it out! Be sure you will not forget it either. It is the one password you need to remember always! Click OK.

By default Password Safe will create safes in your Documents/My Safes folder. The safe location can be changed after running the program from within the file menu by resaving the safe file elsewhere. All safe files end with a file extension of .psafe3.   

Entries can be added to the "Safe" by clicking on the + icon on the toolbar of the program to bring up the password entry window. The + icon is also in most of the apps and is used to add an entry in Password Safe.  The password entry window will allow the addition of a name of the site the password is for, username, password and more.  Password Safe will even generate a strong pasword for you. Advanced settings allow setting password policies for Password Safe to use. If  urls of the web sites login page are added then the user can click on the site entry within the program to go directly to the website. Password Safe can even auto enter in the passwords on some sites!

Portability - DropBoxI alluded to putting the Safe installation on a portable USB drive during installation above, but you can make your safe even more portable by placing it in the cloud (web or Internet for you old folk) in a (you got it) password protected PRIVATE folder with a website named DropBox. 

Dropbox is a very handy tool to use which gives the user the ability to access your files from just about any device. Many of the Apple App store apps use Dropbox so it is worth checking it out. In order to have the same database across all of your devices, go to the DropBox website at http://www.dropbox.com and click on the big blue Download Dropbox button.

Follow the instructions to install Dropbox. Note that Dropbox will create several folders on your computer in the Documents folder. Once you create a SECURE logon for the dropbox site, any files put in those folders will be uploaded to the DropBox site. MAKE CERTAIN that you only save your password and any personal files into the PRIVATE folder of Dropbox if you do not want anyone to be able to access them. Using the DropBox Private folder is how to access your passwords on all your devices anytime.  Remember your safe file is encrypted and has your personal KEY. The PUBLIC folder for DropBox means just that! Files in the PUBLIC folder will be seen by everyone on the Internet!! Don't ever put password files in this folder!

Apple iOS Apps for the iPhone iPad and iPod Touch

There are two programs that I personally have used that will open  Password Safe .pwsafe3 database files for Apple ios devices like the iPhone , iPad , iPad 2 or iPod Touch.

The programs are Password Touch by EMMA Multimedia and the one I strongly reccomend is called pwSafe Password Safe for iOS by App 777 Informatica.   

(DO NOT GET CONFUSED! There are several programs in the iTunes APP store called Password Safe. The below two are the only ones I have used and reccomend that work with the open source Password Safe program available on SourceForge described above.)

pwSafe - Password Safe for iOS by App 777 informatca is available at this link*****.

The pwSafe program by App 777 cost $1.99 but it is worth every penny in order to open Password Safe files on you iOS device.  This is MY choice as the best iOS app for the open source Password Safe! The added benefit of the App 777 version for PasswordSafe is that you can create and make local safes on your iPad , iPhone or iPod Touch. Further pwSafe can sync your safes in Apple's iCloud to use on all your iOS devices! However iCloud will not let you share the safe file seamlessly with your PC, so DropBox is a better choice to use.  PwSafe allows you to enter your DropBox.com credentials and connect to your safes in your PRIVATE folder and open them using your private KEY combination code specified for the safe. You can have multiple safes on your device local, on iCloud and those from DropBox.com.

Password Touch by EMMA Multimedia Mobile is available from this link.

The $4.99 Password Touch by EMMA is not only $3 more than the pwSafe app by APP 777, it is also not worth the addional amount because it lacks many of the features the APP 777 one does.  A DropBox account is required for the app and it must have internet available to link to the safe from your DropBox account.  I do not reccomend this product and it is overpriced in my opinion for what it does.

The iOS version of DropBox needed for the above programs is available from this link in the iTunes Store

A third iOS program I have NOT used is the $1.99 DropSafe by Smith Surasmith available from here. However it appears to be very similar in functionality to the PW Touch program only using the database from DropBox so I would not bother with it.

Android

The port PasswordSafe for Android, reccomended by the developers, is available at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jefftharris.passwdsafe

I played with this on a G2X and am very impressed. It doesn't look like  much until you press the bottom left menu key. Then you see the power of this port of PasswordSafe. It works flawless to make your own safe on your android device. DropBox can also used and available from http://www.dropbox.com

 Linux

 PasswordSafe for Linux is Beta software but versions can be downloaded from here. I'll have to admit again that I have not had a chance to even look at or test this version of Password Safe so I can not offer any reccomendations or insight on how well this works.



And for those brave souls who want to tinker there is even a version of PasswordSafe for Windows Mobile Phone Project going on at this link.

Different versions of PasswordSafe are constantly emerging. Check out the related project page at http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/relatedprojects.shtml to see if your OS is supported.

Password Safe and Dropbox have served me quite well over the last few years as a secure way to save my passwords and make them available across all my devices. I have found no other password wallet or utility that is so diverse. Give it a try today.

Disclaimer: There is really never any way of knowing if Dropbox, iCloud or any place else on the web or in the "cloud" where you store any of your files or email is ever 100% secure. *The fact is it probably isn't. There is also no guarantee your data is out there permantly. Always back up important data in at least 2 places.  This doesn't necessarily mean you can not store secure files out in the cloud, it just means you have to be very very careful HOW and WHERE you do it. Always use trustworthy web sites to store your files. Always encrypt personal information and password protect files if possible. Always use strong passwords with letters, numbers and special characters if possible.
 Follow Microsoft's Tips for Creating Passwords.

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So you just got an iPad (for Christmas) what killer apps should you get? Kenzig's top 5 picks.

Being a "PC" all of my life and a Microsoft fan boy, I never quite really got into the "Mac" thing throughout my 30 year or so long computer career.  Yeah, I "played" with the stuff, I had several iterations of the old style iPod, set up a Mac IIe for the library, messed around with a blueberry iMac, and even set up and played with a PowerMac. 

But Apple products were never for me, that is until I got my first iPod Touch.  It was a gen 1 I got off eBay and I just had to know what the hype was about. When I got the device in my hands, I was immediately hooked. I began using and carrying it around in my pocket every place using it for email, calendar appointments, notes, internet, apps and sometimes even music.  I had to brag and show it around work and show it to everyone I could. Four years later and I now have an iPod Touch Gen 4, an iPhone 3gs, an iPad I and iPad II.

I guess you can call me a pseudo Apple Fanboy now, I use my iPad now more than my home computer. (I am still a PC though)
I have over the years amassed 533 Apple iTunes Apps, you read that correctly, 533 apps that I have downloaded for free or purchased for the iPod/iPad/iPhone. I have spent far too much money over the last 4 years on "iDevices" and the Apps that go with them. Because of this I have been able to sort through the riff raff of apps and find some true "gems" that I personally can not live without on my iPad for day to day use.  So I picked my top five all time favorite apps for the iPad that I think will make your first iPad app experiences pleasant

Now the iPad comes with many great apps to get you started. And you can get all of the standard social networking apps like twitter and facebook easily enough for free from the app store, but what happens when you really want to get something done? You need the most useful apps and the most bang for your buck.
Before I get too far I want to stress to you, the new iPad owner, that the very first thing you should do before you plug your iPad into your computer is to be certain you have downloaded and installed the latest version of Apple iTunes on your PC/Mac. Click on help and then select check for updates in the iTunes top menu and check to make certain you have the latest version.

I am assuming you have set up the internet and other settings on your iPad for this article and are ready to get started with using it.  I also assume the user knows how to tap the App Store icon and navigate and download an app from the app store. One thing I would suggest to the novice iPad user is to be careful about what free apps you select from the App Store. Most free apps, except those from well known suppliers contain ads that show within the app and will encourage you to buy the paid version to have the ads removed. Know that if you install these free versions, the app will constantly request updates in the App store to update the ads in the app. It can get frustrating seeing the same app want to update itself week after week so it can download the updated ads to it.

I realize that everyone has different tastes, and use will use their devices differently than I do,  but I wanted to take a stab at creating a list of what I believe to be the must have iPad Apps for the common person who just got their iPad and has a shiny new iTunes card in hand. So lets get started already.
BOOKS
One of the main reasons most people want or purchase an iPad is so that they can read books on it. It thouroughly confuses me why Apple does not include one of the most useful apps available for the device which is iBooks.  iBooks is a free App by Apple that lets you read books from the App Store, PDF's and a few other types of files. It also is the only way to get the iPad user manual. I use iBooks at least twice a day to read a PDF file off of the web. There are thousands of free books you can get from the iTunes store to read in iBooks. iBooks can be had for FREE from here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8
After download open up the iBooks app, go to the store and search for the FREE iPad user guide for IOS 5.0. This is is must have and a must read. Get the free iPad 2 starter guide while you are at it (or the iPad Starter guide if you have a first gen iPad)

Of course you may want to get the free Amazon Kindle App and Barnes and Noble Nook app if you read a lot. Also don't forget the free Google books, Stanza and Wattpad Apps for many free and public domain writings. This group will surely keep you busy.
NEWS
Under the books and reading category if you like news, I would also highly reccomend the free USA Today app which is made for the iPad. You can get that from here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/usa-today-for-ipad/id364257176?mt=8  We won't count these apps toward my fave 5 though.

NOTES

The next task you are going to use your iPad for a lot is taking notes. While I understand there is a built in Notepad App for the iPad, you will find it not sufficient if you want to organize your notes and better keep track of them.  The app that is a must have is one called Awesome Note.  It is like sticky note on steroids for your iPad.  You can organize the notes in folders, set timers on the notes on the calendar, make todo and grocery lists, take quick notes while in a meeting or on the phone.  And you can sync your notes with Google docs or Evernote. At $3.99 US you will not be dissappointed.  Awesome note is my most favorite utility App for both my iPhone and my iPad. You can get it from the following link:   

       
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/awesome-note-to-do-diary/id320203391?mt=8

Runner up Note Apps you also may want to look at are My Notebook!, Evernote, or Penultimate. Again not in my favorite five though.


CALCULATOR
Previous IOS versions on the Apple devices contained a Calculator app.  When Apple introduced the iPhone 4 and the IOS 4.5 that went along with it, the Calculator app was suddenly absent.  Big sigh. What the hell Apple? I don't get it. Now so many, many developers came out with Calculator apps it is hard to slush through to find a useful one. There are a boatload of free ones out there, though inundated with ads. Pony up 99 cents and buy Calculator 4. You will be glad that you did. You will use it all the time and it will serve you well. Get it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/calculator-4-ipad-edition/id387648188?mt=8


CALENDAR
I use my favorite calendar app a lot to remind me of bill pay dates and for my upcoming meetings and doctors appointments.  The iPad has a built in calendar app that may be sufficient for most people but not for me. Before iCloud in IOS 5.0 it was not very easy to sync your appointments between your iPhone and your iPad. Further backup of your appointments was difficult unless you used an app like Mobiun Copy.  While I realize that has all changed with IOS 5.0, the built in calendar is still not enough for me.  My calenday of choice is Pocket Informant HD.  At $14.99 this is probably one of the most expensive apps I have paid for. It has been worth every penny for me. Pocket Informant HD has allowed me to sync my Google Calendar and local appointments all on to one calendar. (It also will sync with Toodledoo calendars) Direct to Outlook for Windows Sync is available though it requires separate $5 WebIS Desktop Sync software from http://tinyurl.com/yggbk2a . Pocket Informant HD allows me to make tasks and set alarms or reminders.  I never miss a bill payment because I can set up repeating appointments.  Pocket Informant HD also gives you List, Day, Week and Month views and planner style screens. I just can't say enough good things about it.  You can get more information and download Pocket Informant HD from here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-informant-hd-calendar/id380732176?mt=8

Best Game

It was tough coming up with a choice for my final category. After all what is the iPad without the lacking weather app. My dad used to always tell me to look out the Window if I wanted to know what the weather was like. If you want my opinion the Weather+ App wins this category hands down so there is no discussion.  How about entertainment and TV? If you search the iTunes App store you can find free Apps for all of the TV networks. Music? Lots of free apps like Pandora, IHeartRadio, Radio.com and Aol Radio. But for the diehard radio fan everone knows Wunderradio beats them all and worth the $3.99 price. And I know there are still more thousands of utilities and useful business line apps out there I could of picked.  Still none of these apps are on my everyday use list. And they are all fodder for follow up articles in each of their respective categories.

When not using my device on the web and in the other 4 apps I have mentioned, the rest of my time is spent playing games. After all, the iPad is a fabulous game device and there are tens of thousands of games available for it. Sure I tried the most famous Angry Birds, mindlessly shooting birds of all sizes at pigs in various structures, and I was bedazzled by Bejeweled for hours. But I must be becoming an old fuddy duddy because my all time favorite past time and game to play on the iPad is Scrabble by Electronic Arts. If you are a fan of the board game spend the $4.99 and get this one. This is one game that will keep your mind sharp and you may learn a word or two playing against the computer.  You can also play multiplayer by passing it around the room to friends and family, or play with friends on Facebook who have the app. Get it here:

 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scrabble-for-ipad/id363306776?mt=8

I would be remiss if I did not point out that a close second to Scrabble when it comes to games for me is Pinochle by Fishdog.Net (again out comes the fuddy duddy). Once again if you are fan of the game there is no better version.

FINALLY

More Advice

I realize in the scope of this article I can not give you advice for all app categories. However a great app to give you advice about other app categories and to get you started is called AppStart by Appadvice. This free app will give you some of the best tips of suggestions for those other killer Apps you should have on your iPad. I still use this to find new apps almost every other day. Get Appstart from here http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appstart-for-ipad/id408984648?mt=8

So there you have it my top 5 picks(and then some) for the best killer iPad apps you should take a look at.

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My tips and gotchas to upgrade your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad l or iPad ll to IOS 5.0

My tips and gotchas to upgrade your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch,
and iPad l or iPad ll to IOS 5.0

We all love our Apple iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices but it gets really scary when it is time to upgrade the devices to A new IOS.

Since I personally own each one of these devices I learned firsthand the headaches of trying to get them upgraded to IOS 5.0 without losing all of my apps data and contacts.
It is actually a more daunting task than it should be and Apple and ITunes have a major flaw at the end of the hours long process that COULD cause you to lose all of data! Scared yet? You should be.

I had to lose almost everything on my iPod Touch 4 before I picked up on the problem.

First and foremost here are a few things you should do before you begin to upgrade any of your devices.
-Upgrade your version of iTunes to the latest version on your computer. This is critical!

-if you have a lot of Calendar events and contacts go to the app store and get Mobiun Copy. It will easily copy all your contacts and events to the cloud for later restore should things go wrong.

-For photos and videos get the Simple Photo and Video Transfer App from the app store, that will allow you to backup and transfer your photos wirelessly to your desktop computer.

-If your Apps support it back up your data to Evernote, Google Docs or Dropbox first.

-When your device is connected in iTunes be certain to transfer all of your purchases by right clicking on your device in the left pane of iTunes and choosing to upload your purchased items from the context menu.

- Backup your device from within iTunes.

-I can't speak for iTunes on a Mac but on a PC, iTunes is going lock up and stop responding at some point. Windows Task Manager won't kill it, only a reboot will get you going again. Of course this is the last thing you want to do during an upgrade. Do yourself a favor and download a free program I have been using for years that is a staple in my quick launch called Dtaskmanager by Dimio. You can download it free from this link http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ Just scroll down the page to the Dtaskmanager program. Note this page for later because there are a lot of other great free apps here you will find useful. Anyways, just download the program directly to your desktop and it will run from there when you click on it. The benefit of Dtaskmanager is it has a kill task override choice that will definitely kill any task that is not responding. No ifs and or buts. This is a lifesaver for preventing reboots and really stopping a program.

-Make sure all of your apps are up to date from the app store on your device.

-Turn off the lock screen on your device. It will mess up reboots during the upgrade

-Turn off power save features and screensavers on your computer prior to the upgrade.

-Close all other programs on your computer, don't use your computer for anything else during the upgrade.

After all this you should be ready to upgrade your Apple device to IOS 5.0 after you stop all apps and restart it.

Eject your device, press the iButton twice to show all running apps in the bottom bar, push and hold the first app until it starts shaking. Press on the X of each of the running apps in the bar to close them. Next push the iButton once more to stop the apps from shaking. Now turn off your device by pushing and holding the button on the top side until slide to power off shows. Slide and power off your device and then once it is off turn it on again by holding the top button until the apple logo appears. Your device should now be ready to upgrade.

Plug the cable into your computer and the device and when your device shows in iTunes choose upgrade when given the choice. Be CERTAIN to read each screen along the way when you are proceeding through the upgrade. The upgrade will back up your device and will stop the process if there is a problem backing up. You will get an error -35 message if your backup is corrupt or there is not enough room on your hard disk to back up your device. STOP if you get this and quit the upgrade. Kill iTunes with Dtaskmanager if you can't get out of it. Make space on your hard drive, you can explore to your iTunes backup folder in your profile in documents and settings and delete the backups (or move them to an external drive to save them) Reboot your computer, start iTunes plug the device in, cancel the upgrade prompts and do a backup again of your device. Now eject and reconnect your device and start the upgrade process again.

iTunes will backup your device again and then begin to download the IOS 5.0 upgrade, this will take between 7 and 25 minutes depending on your Internet speed. This is where patience pays off. It could take a loooong time for the upgrade to complete, hours even depending of the size of your device. BE PATIENT! Let iTunes do it's thing.

(NOTE since I wrote this Apple seems to have fixed the below, and the progress bar WILL continue, so ignore the below directions unless it doesn't)

When the upgrade is complete your device will reboot, the upgrade tells you to keep your device connected. Here is where I had the problem with every one of my devices, the iPhone 3GS, the iPad and my iPod. What happens when your device is reconnected after the reboot is IOS 5.0 begins the setup process on the device. iTunes on the hand begins to supposedly be restoring your data on your device and shows a progress bar, but it lies! Your device is waiting for you to accept the apple terms of service and go through some initial setup screen!! This is imbecilic on Apples part. What happens, you guessed it, is iTunes locks up and stops responding! WTF. So what I did is go through the screens on my device (iPad, iPhone 3GS, etc) to put in the initial items and accept to Apples TOS. Then I used Dtaskmanager to kill task override the no responding iTunes again. Rebooted my computer again,started iTunes, plugged in my device and the did a restore from iTunes. After the restore all was fine and I had IOS 5.0.

Now my problems may have been specific to my Windows 7 computer, but I doubt it.

For my 4 devices it took me 4 days to upgrade them all. I devoted a day to each of them.

One final suggestion is, do not pick a day that there is a chance you could lose power, like a thunderstorm or snowstorm. The last thing you want s for your computer to go down during the upgrade. Good Luck and Happy Upgrading

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ALERT: SCAMMER CALLS ABOUT "ERRORS" IN YOUR REGISTRY CLAIMING TO BE FROM MICROSOFT

Well the computer scammers have gone back to the phone lines to try and steal your banking and credit card information again.

This scam has been around a while but I wanted to write a blog entry to warn people again NOT to fall for it. I got a call just the other day and here is how it went. The caller had an Indian accent and at first was a "little" convincing. Me being a Microsoft MVP once in my lifetime I eventually saw right through it. He had my name and phone number from someplace, probably a phone directory.

Me: Hello
Caller: Yes I am looking for ah a Mr. James Kenzig

Me: Thats me what can I do for you.

Caller: Ah yes Mr. Kenzig, sir I am calling from PC..(garbled) and am a Microsoft Certified Technician and we have noticed problems on your computer.

(Note that Microsoft will NEVER call you if you have a problem on your computer. Ever!!)

Me: Really? Which one of my computers? Mac, PC?

Caller: Ah sir on your Windows computer, we have noticed you have problems with your registry on your computer.

Me: Really? What registry key has the problem, I'll take a look. 

Caller: Uh sir there are 2 files in your event log in the registry that have problems.

Me: Wait a minute is the event log or the registry that has a problem?

Caller: Uh sir we noticed there are 2 files in the event log that have a  problem.

Me: Well there are only log entries that are in the event log not files are you certain?

Caller: Uh sir the files are in your registry of your computer.

Me: No I am pretty sure that there are no files in my registry, only entries that point to files. Where did you say you were calling from again?

Caller: Uh sir I am a Microsoft Certified Technician from PC...(garbled again). We know that there are 2 files in your registry that could cause terrible problems on your computer!

Me: (At this point I had enough of this idiot and said to him) Well tell you what, I am a Microsoft MVP and you don't know your @$$ from a hole in the ground and hung up on him.

Had I continued the call, this is how the scam would of worked: The scammer would of got me to go to my event log and try and have me find any error entry and claim that was the problem. Note there is always an error or two in your event log for Windows. It is inevitable.

The scammer would say, look there are the errors and would instruct me to download and install a file so they could "access" my computer to fix it.  Once you have done this, EVERY piece of information on your computer is available to the scammer to see and use. The download will send your passwords back to the scammer  and they will get access to your bank accounts or any other account you use on your computer. Further the scammer may ask for money to remove the programs from your computer to continue the ruse.

Bottom line here is to remember to not ever give any kind of personal information to anyone who calls you out of the blue. Microsoft, Apple or any other computer company will never call you. Be wary of anyone who wants access to your computer. Stay Safe.

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How would you like to reset your webserver from anyplace. and device, anytime using a Citrix Xenapp Published App?

Often times as an administrator you are some place out in the field and you will get a call that your Web Server has crashed for some reason and needs reset. Or you want your helpdesk people to be able to reset the Webserver but not really have access to the actual desktop.

Here is a method I came up with to publish and Icon within Citrix Xenapp to allow an admin or helpdest staff to quickly do an IISReset remotely via Citrix Xenapp application to get your web server back going in most situations.

As a bonus this will give you a log file that gives you an idea when your web server is crashing and people are resetting it so you can research your log files for a fix.
Note that this script assumes that your Citrix Server is on the same network as your webserver.  I haven't tried it using IP addresses instead of a server name, but I suspect it might work as long as you are putting in an account that has admin priveleges on the Webserver in the script)

To get started you will need to do a few things.

Firstly you will have to download PSTools from Microsoft and copy the PSExec.exe file to the root of the Citrix server that you will be publishing the app to. Lets call that server CitrixAdmin henceforth. PSTools is written by Mark Russinovich and can be found at:
Link to information page on PSexec
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

Direct Download Link to PSTools.zip:
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/PsTools.zip

Download, extract the PSTools zip to a folder on your CitrixAdmin server and then copy the PSExec.exe file in the root of your C: drive. Also copy the PSExec.exe file to the C: drive of your Webserver.

The other thing you will need to do is copy the IISreset command to your C:/ root of your Webserver from the C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder (open a command prompt and type: copy C:\WINDOWS\system32\iisreset.exe c:  or use Windows Explorer to do it)

Next you need to create a simple command batch file on your CitrixAdmin Server that will run your IISReset command on the remote server that we can publish in your Citrix APP farm.

In order for the IISReset and PSExec to run you will need to pick an account with admin priveleges.

Open up Notepad or your favorite text editor and add the following text between the lines:
_________________________________________________________________
Echo This is a script file to reset the Web Server
Echo The web server was reset at %time% %date%>>C:\WebReset.txt

Echo Off
c:\psexec.exe \\web -u administratoracct -p accountpassword c:\iisreset.exe /restart
exit
__________________________________________________________________
Save the file to the C:\ root folder (or another folder of your choosing) on the Citrixadmin server as "resetweb.cmd"



(In the above script you will need to change file://web/ to file://the%20name%20of/ your webserver. You will also need to change the administratoracct text with the account name that has admin priveleges on your Webserver and accountpassword with the password to that account. Note: yes it is open text password but this file will be on your CitrixAdmin server and not out on the web server)

OK so what this little script does is remotely run IISreset on the Webserver from your CitrixAdmin server.  Then it generates a file on the webserver called Webreset.txt that keeps track of the time and date that the script was run. You can even test the script by clicking on it and running it.  It will reset your IIS Web server so be certain that it is during off hours when you test this.

Now all that needs to be done is create a simple published application for the resetweb.cmd script file you created on the CitrixAdmin Server.

As a Citrix Admin you should know how to publish an application but I will give the steps here anyways. 
On your CitrixAdmin find and Open the Citrix Access Management Console and drill down to the Farm applications folder, right click on it and Select New/ Publish Application from the context menu. Proceed as if you are creating a new app by giving it a name, description etc. and go to next screen.  Keep the defaults on the application publishing screen as an application being published from the server and click next.

To set up the application on the Application Location Properties screen all you need do is type in:  C:\resetweb.cmd   into the Command Line field and C:\ into the working directory.  Finish through publishing the app by adding your users you want to be able to reset the web server and thats it! (note if you put the webreset.com into a different directory you will have to modify the command line and working directory with that directory and the psexec.exe file must also be in that directory.

Connect to your Citrix apps via your favorite device and you now will have an icon you can click on to reset your Web server from where ever you are at! And you will have a log file in the root of your webserver that will tell you whenever this is done.

Now that you have done this what other applications/scripts can you think of that you can use PSexec to run commands remotely via a Citrix published app to save on administration time? The possibilities seem endless.

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