PCTips Box

This guide shows you how to run the check disk (chkdsk) command from the System Recovery Options included on the Windows Vista DVD.

So your computer won’t boot up and you need to run check disk (chkdsk) on it to try and repair errors on the hard drive. This guide shows you how to run check disk by booting from the Windows Vista DVD and running check disk from the System Recovery Options command prompt.

Run Check Disk from a System Recovery Command Prompt

1. Place a Windows Vista DVD in the DVD drive and restart or turn on your computer. (more…)

Windows Product Activation (WPA) is Microsoft’s way of keeping you from installing a copy of Windows Vista on more than one computer. It basically marries the copy of Windows Vista you’ve purchased to the computer’s hardware it’s installed on.

The WPA Process

When you enter the product key three identifiers are generated and collected:

* Hardware ID: A unique identifier that’s generated from information gathered about the computer’s hardware.

* Product ID: A 25-character unique key supplied when you purchase Windows Vista.

* Installation ID: An identifier Windows Vista creates from the hardware ID and product ID. (more…)

Here is a pctipsbox for those of you who frequently schedule meetings using Outlook 2007. It is sometimes handy to have a hard copy of the names of attendees invited to a meeting, along with the name of the meeting organizer. Although it requires a few steps, you can print this information in Outlook 2007.

Your first step is to copy the names of attendees and the organizer:

1. Within Outlook, click the Calendar.

2. Open the appropriate meeting request.

3. On the Meeting tab, click Scheduling Assistant.

4. Select the names in the All Attendees list.

5. On the Format Text tab, click Copy.The names of the meeting organizer and attendees are copied. (more…)

There are two ways to run several operating systems on your computer. You can run them with virtualization inside one another, or you can install them alongside each other and boot each individually, this is the easiest method for most users.

You don’t even have to create a dual boot system with Linux, in this case, Ubuntu. It can be installed by itself without Vista or any other operating installed first. Most users purchasing a new computer will find Vista installed so this is the route I will take for this tutorial.

Let’s take a look at installing Ubuntu alongside Vista on a computer, assuming Vista is installed first as this will cover most instances. (more…)

Translates pdf documents into html format.Translates pdf files into HTML or XML formats, combined with png images. Supports encrypted pdf files.There is a program called pdftohtml to convert pdf to html file.In ubuntu gutsy this package in bundled with poppler-utils so we need to install this package.

Install poppler-utils in Ubuntu

sudo aptitude install poppler-utils

This will complete the installation

Using pdftohtml

pdftohtml Syntax (more…)

Microsoft constantly collects information about Vista from users. When a problem occurs, Vista usually asks whether you want to send information about the problem to Microsoft and, if you do, it stores these tidbits in a massive database. Engineers then tackle the “issues” (as they euphemistically call them) and hopefully come up with solutions.

One of Vista’s most promising new features is Problem Reports and Solutions, and it’s designed to make solutions available to anyone who goes looking for them. Vista keeps a list of problems your computer is having, so you can tell it to go online and see if a solution is available. If there’s a solution waiting, Vista will download it, install it, and fix your system. (more…)

Windows Vista introduces a new tool on top of what its predecessor Windows XP had to offer in terms of dealing with licensing resources, from the product key to information related to the activation status of a machine. The Windows Software Licensing Management Tool can be accessed via the “slmg.vbs” command and will offer users the possibility to activate, rearm and display the activation status of Vista, but also to install and uninstall product keys. In this context, the “slmgr.vbs –upk” command, designed to uninstall a Windows Vista product key, may result on the Business and Enterprise SKUs of the operating system into the scraping of all the licensing information, synonymous with a lost activation status, and the transition of the platform into reduced functionality mode.

“After you run the slmgr.vbs –upk command on a Windows Vista-based computer, you cannot see the licensing information as expected. Additionally, the Windows Vista activation status is lost. (more…)

When I bought my Sony Reader, I planned to buy e-books from Sony’s on-line ebook store. But I soon realized that a lot of ebooks are available on the internet for free.

Project Gutenberg offers thousands of titles (mostly fiction) in txt format, while manybooks.net provides an impressive array of books in Sony format (as well as several other formats).

The motherload of free ebooks, however, is books.google.com. The Google folks are busy digitizing every book they can get their hands on. As of this writing, they have reportedly digitized over 10,000 public domain books, which anyone can download for free in pdf format. (more…)