Use an iPhone or iPod Touch with Windows 7 64-bit

Want to install a new copy of Windows 7 64-bit, but you are worried about losing your iPhone or iPod Touch apps, music and settings?

There’s not much info about this from Apple or Microsoft – they prefer to make things difficult for each other (and their customers) – but…

It is no problem.

These steps seem long, but it is easier than you’d think.  Don’t plug in your device until step 14!

Note: These steps are based on a new, clean install of Windows 7 64-bit.

1. Synch your device (in your old operating system).
2. Back up everything in your ‘My Music’ folder onto an external hard drive or other storage device.
3. Back up everything in your ‘My Documents’ folder.
4. Back up your Outlook pst file (or any other mail program’s files).  If you don’t know how, this explains Microsoft Outlook pst files.
5. Run the Windows 7 installation – it is easy and quite quick. It even finds drivers and software for lots of your devices without needing any help.
6. Move all of your backed-up files into the appropriate folders. Best not to replace all the Windows 7 folders with the backed-up ones – instead, move the contents of the folders over to the equivalent folders in Windows 7.
7. Install your email and other software.
8. Imort your backup of email, calendar, notes, etc. and get the settings all working right.
9. Run Windows Update, and repeat until it finds nothing.
10. Download the special 64-bit version of iTunes from Apple.  Install it.
11. Run iTunes; it will automatically import all the backed-up music you’ve restored to the My Music folder, because it can see the iTunes folder that’s in there.
12. Update iTunes (in case there’s a new version that will work better).  
    ‘Help à Check For Updates’.
13. Restart your computer.
14. Plug in your device. When i did it, Windows 7 said it could not find a driver (this is the only piece of hardware I own that Windows didn’t recognise). But don’t worry! A minute later, iTunes started up by itself. You could start it manually.
15. Stop the synch when it starts.
16. Aha!
     iTunes secretly saved the iPod settings in the music folder!  It remembers your apps!
    In the iTunes Sync settings you’ll need to re-do the details (what music to sync, what calendar, notes, etc.).
17. Now you are ready to sync your iPhone or iPod.

I hope this works as well for you as it did for me!  Please post any corrections or updates.

Make Windows 7 or Vista log in automatically

If you have a computer used for home theatre or gaming, or if you are not worried about people having access to your computer, then you may find the password logon is an unimportant feature.

One method to get rid of the logon is to create user profiles with no passwords. The problem: No access to many types of windows networking.

But there is another way to eliminate Vista’s login: Make it log on automatically…

1. Click Start
2. Enter netplwiz in the search field and press enter
3. Click Continue at the User Account Control window.
4. A user accounts window will open.
5. Highlight your user account.
6. Un-check “users must enter a username and password to use this computer”
7. Click OK.
8. Enter your password when required (or, if you’ve not created a password, leave it blank and click OK).
9. Restart.
   

Now Windows 7 or Vista will log on automatically with your user account; you will have network access (and even admin priveledges if your account is set to administrator) but you’ll never need to enter a windows password.

Be Careful:  This opens a gaping hole your PC’s security - don’t do it if your computer (or the network it is connected to) contains information that needs to be secure. Anyone who has access to your computer will have full control over it and any networked resources.

How to disable the system speaker in Windows

Is your computer making noise even though the volume is turned off?

Like me you might use some sloppily-written or prehistoric programs that make alert or warning sounds using the PC’s internal system speaker instead of the normal audio system. When the audio volume is down or muted, or even when Windows is set to use a ‘no sounds’ profile, the programs still make loud and annoying honks and beeps while you work.

Suffer no longer!

1. right click my computer -> manage -> device manager
2. view -> show hidden devices
3. in the main window expand ‘non-plug and play’
4. (Windows XP) right-click on ‘beep’ and choose ‘disable’, or
   (Windows Vista) right-click on ‘beep’ and choose ‘properties’, go to the Driver tab, then choose ‘disable’ from the ‘Startup’ drop-down menu.
   
5. restart the computer

Silence is golden.

Gifts for Nerds - the flashlight

I think every nerd likes a cool flashlight.

But, sadly, flashlights are rarely as cool as they’d ought to be. Even good ones never actually seem like a hand-held aircraft landing light, like they do in the movies. But things are a-changing. Nowadays there are some truly cool flashlights around, BUT the very best ones a) cost several hundred dollars, or b) use special batteries that are hard to find and expensive to replace.

This flashlight, however, uses normal cheap batteries – and if aimed at self it is bright enough to view your own innards.

Like most good nerdy gadgets, you probably won’t find a cool flashlight in a retail store, but you might try: 

From the source: Fenix (international online shop)

In the UK: Glowgadgets, home of a true flashlight nerd wo can be seen on YouTube. 

In Australia: http://www.ledtorches.com.au/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=70

Windows System Restore crashed and won't complete its job

Windows Vista System Restore is a handy tool and can save the day when disaster looms, but when System Restore fails what can you do? 

My story has a happy ending - perhaps yours has begun in a similar way…

1. You run windows update and it offers an optional driver update (eg. for your crappy Belkin usb wireless adapter).
2. You say ok.
3. I all looks good, but when you restart it hangs at shutdown, with that little circle spinning on into eternity.
4. You leave it alone for an hour, but it is never coming back. You hard reboot.
5. The computer hangs on startup – won’t get past the black screen with the green scrolling widget.
6. You try a few more times, and maybe sometimes you get a successful startup – or else you can only successfully boot to safe mode.
7. You try uninstalling the update. No luck.
8. You try running System Restore, but it simply doesn’t run.
9. You try running System Restore in Safe Mode, but it simply doesn’t run.
10. You run a monitor and watch the active services when you launch System Restore, and you discover that the service starts, and then disappears after two seconds.
11. You look for logged errors relating to System Restore, and find nothing.
12. You waste hours trying to locate a solution online. You find nothing for this specific problem, nor anything close enough to help. You curse.
13. In desperation you boot to the Windows Vista installation CD. At the main page, instead of the central “Install” button you click “repair windows” at the bottom left. Then you choose System Restore, and select a restore point. The computer thinks and grinds for just a few minutes, then says it is done and you click ‘restart’.
    
    

    Voila! Everything is back to normal.

    
    

I think the moral of this story might be: If System Restore ever fails on you, and you don’t have a disk image to fall back on, go straight for the windows disk and spare yourself a heap of grief.