One of the weird and annoying things about Excel is that it shows you an item on the Windows taskbar for each document that you have open, but it doesn't let them operate as separate windows.  If you're using dual or multiple monitors you'll notice that you can't place one document on each monitor to see them side by side because they share the same window.  The following steps will allow you to open Excel documents side by side, but they involve some tweaks to the file system settings in Windows.  If you don't fully understand the changes below I would recommend that you not make them as they will be a challenge to fix on your own and could mess up your system.  To get Excel to open documents in separate windows so you can place them independently you can do the following:

Excel 2007:

• Click the Office Orb in the upper left corner to bring up the menu.
• Select Excel Options from the bottom right corner of the menu.
• Click the Advanced tab.
• Check the "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange" box and save.

Excel Versions Prior to 2007

• Tools|options|General tab|Ignore other applications (check it).

Then in Windows Explorer

1. Go to Tools -> Folder Options.
2. Select the File Types tab.
3. Select the XLS file type and click "Advanced".
4. Uncheck the "Browse in same window" checkbox if it is checked.
5. Select the "Open" Action in the Actions listbox and click "Edit".
6. In the "Application used to perform action" textbox add "%1" to the end of the line and be sure to include the quotes around the %1.
7. Uncheck the "Use DDE" checkbox if it is checked.
8. Click "OK" and "OK" again.
9. Repeat steps 3-8 for the XLSX file type if you have Office 2007 installed.
10. Click "OK" to dismiss the Folder Options dialog.

 

I am always having to open the Windows Task Manager throughout the day to kill off processes that are annoying me for one reason or another.  Usually their cpu or memory usage is out of control, so they need to be taught a lesson.  As a result I always keep the Windows Task Manger running in my system tray at all times.  Another benefit of doing this is that the system tray icon shows the current cpu usage.

To make sure that the task manager is always running I have created a shortcut to it in my startup folder.  This way everytime I start up my machine the task manager will automatically run in the task tray.  To do this you can do the following:

1. Open your Startup folder, located at: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
2. Go to the file menu and select New, then select Shortcut.
3. The dialog will prompt you for the location of the shortcut.  Type C:\WINDOWS\system32\taskmgr.exe
4. Click Next, then click Finish.
5. Right-click on the new shortcut and select Properties.
6. In the dialog there is a "Run" drop down box.  Select "Minimized" and click Okay.
7. Open the task manager and make sure that "Hide When Minimized" is selected in the options menu.

If you need even more info about the current state of your system check out the Process Explorer from SysInternals (recently acquired by Microsoft).  If you don't believe me that Process Explorer is awesome, check out some of the amazing things Scott Hansleman has used it for.

One of the challenging things about debugging an AJAX application is that it isn't obvious how to view the html source that is being rendered by the browser after you have made modifications to it via an AJAX callback.  If you use the browser's built-in View Source command then it will show you the source that was used to render the original page, but it will not include any modifications made via javascript/AJAX calls.

To figure out how to view the generated source I turned to Google and found Rumen Stankov's post on telerik blogs. 

If you are trying to view the generated source in Firefox, the simplest way is to first download and install the Web Developer extension.  Then go to the View Source menu item and select "View Generated Source".

To view the generated source in IE you can type the following in the address bar

javascript:'<xmp>' + window.document.body.outerHTML+ '</xmp>'

Or you can use this bookmarklet (Drag to links bar or add to Favorites): View Generated Source

I always store my documents and media files on a separate disk/partition from my system files and by default Vista only indexes the User folders for its fast search service.

Originally I expected that I would be able to right-click on any folder and indicate that it should be indexed in the properties dialog or something.  That's not the case though.

To add a folder to the index you have to go into the Control Panel, search for "index", and then open up the Indexing Options dialog.  Once in there click "Modify", then "Show all locations", then accept the UAC prompt and you're finally there.  Now you're able to select any folders to be indexed from the folder tree.

Maybe there is an easier way?  I haven't found it yet...

I figured this one out via this post on Mitch Denny's blog.  To be able to install the Web Application Projects add-in for Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista Beta 2 or 5536 you need to run the installer as an administrator. 

The easiest way to do this is to hit the windows key, type command, right-click on Command Prompt at the top of the list, and select Run as administrator.  This will launch the command prompt, then all you have to do is run the installer from this command window and the administrator privileges will be granted to the WAP installer.

As a side note, I am loving Vista's instant search that occurs when you hit the windows key.  I have been using it as an application launcher for the last couple of days.

 

It has always bothered me that the makers of my Toshiba Satellite laptop thought it was a good idea to put the `~ key where the Windows key belongs on my keyboard. The Windows Key Shortcuts are some of my favorite shortcuts in Windows. Toshiba's placement of the Windows key in the upper right corner of the keyboard severely limited my access to the key. Enter RandyRants' SharpKeys. SharpKeys allows me to easily remap the Windows key to be where it should be. I simply remapped the `~ key to be the Windows key and the Windows key to be the `~ key. Now I have easy access to all of my Windows key shortcuts again. If you care to know, SharpKeys works by adding specific registry entries in Windows to indicate what keys need to be remapped.

UPDATE: I also want to add that SharpKeys is not specific to Toshiba laptops. It is able to remap keys for any Windows keyboard.

Lately I have been looking for the best way to publish new posts. I have tried out several desktop apps for blog posting such as BlogJet and WB Editor. Both apps have decent interfaces, work well with DasBlog, and are convenient to use. The main reason I wanted to use a desktop blog publishing tool was for convenience reasons. The easier it is to post, the more I will post. The problem with both apps though is that they don't handle code copied and pasted from Visual Studio very well, which is of course necessary. The built in post page for DasBlog uses FreeTextBox which works great for handling code in IE. So I've decided to go with the built in posting page for publishing all of my posts. To get the convenience factor that I got with a desktop app I have created a shortcut to Internet Explorer which passes in the URL of the EditEntry.aspx page for my blog. I can then put this shortcut wherever I want; I use Y'z Dock for launching apps, so I put the shortcut there. I also set my blog to auto login in IE. Now all I have to do to create a new post is launch the shortcut and it will take me directly to the posting page in IE.

If you know of another good blog publishing desktop app, or how to get a better experience with inserting code in BlogJet or WB Editor, let me know!

In order to convert a FAT32 drive to NTFS all you need to do is simply open up a command window and type in the following

CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs

Found that little trick here. The conversion will not cause any data loss and your files will remain intact according to the site. Of course a backup of your data is highly recommended before doing this!!