Posted on June 16th, 2008 by vaelek
Unlocker Assistant is one of those tools that once you start using it you wonder how you ever got by without it. Everyone has run into a file that they want to delete, move, or rename only to be denied because the file is in use. Windows however, in it’s current middle-aged version, still provides no information other than the file is in use. Sometimes it is as easy as remembering to close a notepad window, but often it is not so obvious.
Some common messages you will receive include:
- Cannot delete file: Access is denied
- There has been a sharing violation.
- The source or destination file may be in use.
- The file is in use by another program or user.
- Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Most times you can suck it up and wait until the next time you restart the computer, but that’s if you actually remember when the time comes. I usually do not. If you are a flash drive user, this utility is even more valuable. There have been too many times I’ve needed to leave quickly and am at the mercy of Windows to release the flash drive or risk losing data. The difference in this scenario is that Windows will not even tell you what file(s) are in use. At this point, I use Unlocker on the whole drive rather than a single file and in seconds am off and running.
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Posted on May 11th, 2008 by vaelek
Here we’ve got one impressive little program. There is almost no format this sucker can’t handle. It’s got the standards, AVI, MPEG, ASF, MOV, VOB. Then it’s got some less than standard 3gp (Nokia cell phone video), animated GIF, SWF and FLV. Even I-Tunes, Zune, DS, PSP and PS3. That’s still not a complete list. These are the available containers as it calls it. For example, while a file may be an AVI, it could be encoded with DivX, XVid, or other codecs.
The Output codec drop-down will update accordingly to reflect the available options for the selected container format. Keep in mind that not all combinations will be 
successful for various reasons that are beyond the scope of this article. The image to the left is the list of codecs when selecting the AVI container on my computer.
Once you’ve chosen a video codec, it’s time to choose an audio codec. This is not necessary, and in fact not possible, when selecting a format that has no audio such as GIF. Likewise, if choosing an audio only container such as WAV, MP3, OGG, etc, you cannot select a video codec.
Video Options
Once you’ve settled on the codecs, move on to setting the video options.
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Posted on May 10th, 2008 by vaelek
This review is of a tool that is now 12 years old. Originally written for Windows 95/NT, and last updated in 1996, Peek is a tool that has withstood the test of time. To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing quite like it.
Peek is an Explorer shell extension. It comes with no formal just a DLL and an inf. Once installed, it adds a new entry to the context menu for files.
These are the items shown with the default installation. For most people, this is enough, for those that want more options, Peek has the ability to add entries via the registry. Everyone’s had a file you didn’t know what it was, or something downloaded from a questionable source. Even if something is not a [known] virus, it could still be malicious. For executable files you would likely select the Binary Files option.
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Posted on May 9th, 2008 by vaelek
You know the story, you’re sitting there, knocking out some work and all of a sudden everything freezes while some unknown happenings are going on. Maybe Outlook decided to exercise god-like powers and take over 99% of your CPU cycles, maybe a poorly written application is bogging everything down, Windows Updates, slow network shares, the possibilities are endless. When it happens, what options do you have?
- Wait obediently for [something] to finish its task.
- Forcibly terminate the offending application, if known
- Reboot because nothing is responding
With Process Lasso, this scenario is not entirely eliminated, but greatly reduced. The extent of the options and the configurability of Process Lasso makes it a very powerful tool while remaining fairly simple for the average user.
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Posted on May 3rd, 2008 by vaelek
Oscar’s Daddy was originally inspired by a program that is now a decade old and all but forgotten, entitled Oscar. Oscar was Widely used in the 90’s Warez scene, primarily by the group Phrozen Crew. Oscar was simply an application that contained key generators and serial numbers for almost every popular software package that existed at the time.
To the best of my knowledge, there exists no equivalent to Oscar’s Daddy at this time.
Many times I have lost serial numbers for purchased applications, other times the original CD becomes unreadable. While there is an obvious use for Oscar’s Daddy to enable the use of pirated software, it’s intention is to provide a way for people to continue using legitimately obtained software that might otherwise be un-usable for various reasons.
Originally created with Delphi for my own personal use sometime around 2004, I have finally updated OD, ported it to C#, and decided to release it to the public.
Visit this page for more details and a download link.
Filed under: Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments »
Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by vaelek
I was going to make this an addition to the Live Writer post, but decided it deserved it’s own glory. I’ve been doing a lot of web design lately, as a result I have a greater use for Live Writer. Tonight I attempted to add a new account and was greeted with a friendly dialog stating Writer was unable to determine the blog I was using.
…….?
I figured since Wordpress 2.5 isn’t that old, perhaps something changed enough to break it for Writer. Looking at the options is gives me I chose Wordpress 2.2+. Then it wants the post API URL. I obediently enter the host and path, click next, and am greeted with another dialog stating there was an error. Bummer.
I have other Wordpress sites, one of which I also updated to 2.5. This account was setup in Writer before updating it to 2.5, and continued to work. Of course the next action was to determine where Writer stores its configuration and try to create an entry manually. I quickly located the registry keys and attempted to do just that. I was able to get it to appear in the blog list in Writer but couldn’t copy the binary value that was the password and you can’t edit that in the program without going through the detection again. ARGH.
Nonetheless, I am now happily using Writer with my shiny new Wordpress 2.5 site. The solution to it is really quite simple. As you’re reading this now.
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Filed under: Blogging, Tips & Tricks | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 3rd, 2008 by vaelek
I’ve tried a number of blog services (Blogger, Live Spaces, the dreaded MySapce), packages (Wordpress, GeekBlog), and applications (Semagic, Live Writer beta). Just about all of them have something or other wrong with them. The editors integrated into most services are definitely not perfect.
TinyMCE, one of the most popular web based WYSIWYG editors, does come pretty close. It has the convenience of being accessible from anywhere as it is web based. It has one major downfall though. If you use TinyMCE I’m sure you’ve had to re-format an article time and time again after making one minor change or even so much as clicking the source tab. Forums are scoured with posts about this bug but it remains. TinyMCE has a habit of inserting extra line breaks in <pre> sections, usually when switching back and forth between Visual and HTML views. Live Writer does this on occasion, but as I’ve found through the use of a few big name WYSIWYG editors (coffee cup, even FrontPage at times) this is pretty common. I’ve had to manually fix the HTML a couple of times with Live Writer, but not nearly as often as any of the others.
I’m as surprised as you are that a Micro$oft product has made this list. However, Live Writer does not carry with it the typical bloat or monopolistic suckage known to come in their products. Live Writers intent, if you haven’t guessed from the name, is for posting to a Live Spaces account. Whether it be a general dislike, distrust, dis-anything-else for Micro$oft, I do not use Live Spaces. This is where Live Writer becomes useful as it can be used with other services as well.
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Posted on March 31st, 2008 by vaelek
If you have come here from Google, search no further for I have solved the problem of making Lookout play nicely with Outlook 2007. There are two issues to contend with. One is not such a big deal but may be the cause of numerous Vista users reporting the indexer crashes or exhibits strange behavior while indexing. Additionally it will cause an error message if using date ranges in your query. The problem exists only if you have the .NET 2.0 Framework installed.
Between 1.1 and 2.0 there was a breaking change involving ParseEx.ReplaceDates. If you’re interested in the details, there is a great write-up about it here . The second and more show stopping problem, is getting Lookout to load in Outlook 2007 at all. After installing the application and launching Outlook 2007, you are greeted with some carnation instant failure.
WTH does that mean?? and more importantly, can we get around it?
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Posted on March 31st, 2008 by vaelek
Anyone who’s used Outlook on a regular basis and has ever needed to locate an email among hundreds, even thousands of other messages knows it can be all but impossible and anything but quick.
Enter Lookout. 
Created by LookoutSoft, Lookout was the best thing to happen to Outlook. Using the built in search functionality of Outlook is horrendously slow, lags the entire system, and renders Outlook useless during the search. Not to mention that once the search is complete, one slight click of the mouse and the results are gone. Lookout did what MSN Desktop Search does, except Lookout did it well. My Outlook PST has over 20,000 items (including RSS feeds). Indexing the whole mess does take a bit of time initially, but once it’s done, say hello to lightening fast searches the likes of which MSN Desktop Search doesn’t even come close to.
I have been using this tool religiously at work and recently attempted installing it at home, only to find out it was not compatible with Office 2007. BUMMER!.
Nah, read on for the full review and tips on how to make Lookout work both with .NET 2.0 and Office 2007, both of which are known to cause problems.
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Posted on March 30th, 2008 by vaelek
Enough was enough. Between home and work, so many passwords, so many different criteria, just gets to be too much to remember. After reaching the breaking point, I went searching for a good password manager. What I found, was Multi-Pass. Note that there is a version 2.2 available, which some people may prefer. After using 1.2 and moving to 2.2, I immediately went back to 1.2. The newest version seems to be missing some key features, one of which being minimizing to the tray.
I didn’t really have any requirements when I began looking for a good password manager, and Multi-Pass has some features I never even knew I wanted. Multi-Pass has all of the required ones, as well as some features that set it apart from other password managers.
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