Windows Mobile: How To Disable GPRS On AT&T Phone
Posted by Patrick in Windows Mobile on March 7, 2008
Windows Mobile phones from AT&T come with GPRS enabled and there is no way to turn it off. Having it set up this way is fine if you pay for AT&T’s unlimited data plan. But since I have Wifi at both home and work it is not worth it for me to pay for a monthly data plan. I just use my 8525’s built in Wifi to get Internet access.
AT&T doesn’t want you to use Wifi exclusively so they force GPRS to be enabled even if you don’t plan on using it. This is really annoying because the phone pops up messages all the time telling you that it can’t connect via GPRS. The only way that I found to disable these messages is to use the Modaco Nodata program available here:
http://www.modaco.com/content/Pocket-PC-Software/246171/New-FREE-Utility/
Just install the program and run it. Select the GPRS connection and disable it. It is really simple to use and solves the problem. Plus you can always go turn it back on if you want to use GPRS later on.
Windows Mobile Media Player: Missing Music From Storage Card
Posted by Patrick in Windows Mobile on March 6, 2008
I use my HTC 8525 running Windows Mobile 6 to listen to music that I’ve saved on a 2gb storage card. Yesterday I loaded up Media Player on the phone and discovered that all of the music had disappeared! Nothing I could do in Media Player would bring the music back, it was all missing except for a few music files that I had stored in the phone itself. I tried re-inserting the card and Media Player detected it but still the music did not show up.
After trying a bunch of things unsuccessfully I finally found out that using the file explorer on the phone I could browse to the storage card and delete the folder called MSMETADATA. This is a hidden folder so in order to see it in File Explorer select Menu and then check the “Show All Files” menu item. Once you delete that folder, reload Media Player, and rescan the card by selecting “Update Library” from the menu. All of your music should reappear in Media Player.
Screen Protector Review: InvisibleShield vs ScreenPatronus
Posted by Patrick in Electronics on February 26, 2008
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I have an HTC 8525 that I got from AT&T. The problem with a non-flip phone like this is that if you put in in your pocket you risk scratching it with keys, coins, or whatever else is in your pocket. I figured I’d pick up a screen protector so I wouldn’t have to worry about scratches.
I did some searching online and found some people saying good things about the InvisibleShield protector. Their protectors seemed as good as any and with the positive reviews I read I went ahead and ordered one. I got the protector for the screen only. They also have a full phone protector, but since I’m really only worried about scratching the screen I just went for the screen only protection.
A week or so later the protector arrived. This has to be the fanciest screen protector packaging I have ever seen. The protector comes in a fold out box along with an installation solution and a squeegee. The instructions were pretty simple so I went ahead with the installation. First I cleaned the phone with an LCD screen cleaning product I already had. Then I sprayed the protector with the enclosed solution and installed it on the phone. I tried getting the bubbles out from under the protector with the squeegee but they just would not come out. The directions said that bubbles and imperfections would work their way out after 72 hours so I didn’t worry too much about the bubbles.
72 hours went by and the bubbles will still there, the screen looked terrible! Apparently the bubbles don’t really go away like the instruction say. The screen was pretty much unusable in the current condition so I decided to take it off. The Invisible Shield web site says that the protector is removable. Technically this is true but it sure isn’t easy. There is adhesive on the protector that sticks to the screen so it takes a lot of force to get the protector off. The 8525 has a touch screen so the screen isn’t very strong, I though it might rip right off during removal of the protector. Eventually I got the protector off with no damage to the screen. But the protector was ruined. The pulling that was needed to get the protector off stretched out the protector causing visible imperfections. Unfortunately InvisiblShield only gives you a single protector, so if that one gets damaged or installed incorrectly you are out of luck.
I didn’t want to risk installing another InvisibleShield on the phone so I started researching other products. I found out about a product called ScreenPatronus. I’m not really sure what that name is supposed to mean, but I heard people online say good things about it including that it is easy to remove. I ordered one and got it a week later.
Screen Patronus doesn’t come with a fancy box or instructions like InvisibleShield. But it does come with 3 protectors which is really handy so if you mess up the installation you can always try with a fresh protector. After cleaning the phone, my hands, and the work surface I tried installing the ScreenPatronus. The first time I got a little piece of dust under the protector which caused a bubble. In the process of trying to get the dust out I got the protector dirty with more dust and fingerprints. The cool thing about the ScreenPatronus is that it is fully washable. I just washed it off in the sink with some dish soap and it was good as new. I don’t think the InvisibleShield is washable due to the adhesive.
This time I tried installing the ScreenPatronus while it was still wet from washing. This seemed to help and makes it easy to get on the screen straight. I finally got the protector on perfectly with absolutely no dust under it. After a couple of weeks it still looks perfect. I literally forget that the protector is on it is that clear. When the screen is on it is impossible to tell that the protector is there. With the screen off you can see the protector is you look around the edges, but under normal use you would never be looking at the phone while it is off. Also, the touch screen still works perfectly, I don’t notice any reduction in touch screen performance.
I haven’t tried to remove the ScreenPatronus yet but I’m confident that it will be relatively easy to remove. It doesn’t use an adhesive like the InvisibleShield so it should be easy to peel it off with your fingernail.
If you’ve read this far you can probably tell that I highly recommend the ScreenPatronus over the InvisibleShield. InvisibleShield claims that their protector is very strong and I can vouch for the fact that it is difficult to remove. So I guess if you are very rough on your electronics then InvisibleShield might have an edge there because it is less likely to come off. But for the other 95% of the people in the world I think the ScreenPatronus is the better product.
Fix Cut And Paste Problems With Remote Desktop
Remote Desktop is one of the best features of Windows. Unfortunately all the different Windows version of Remote Desktop seem to have a copy and paste bug. Pasting from the local machine to the remote machine in Remote Desktop will just randomly stop working.
I’ve been plagued with this problem for a long time but I never found a way to fix it. Now I found a simple method that works: On the remote machine kill the rdpclip.exe task and restart it. Pasting will immediately start working again!
Kill the rdpclip.exe task whichever way you want. You can use Task Manager, or you can use this one line command to kill and restart it automatically.
taskkill.exe /im rdpclip.exe & rdpclip.exe
Automatically Install Definition Updates for Windows Defender
One of the benefits of Windows Vista is that it has built in spyware protection with the Windows Defender tool. Defender has frequent updates much like virus scanner products. Frequent updates are good, the annoying thing is that every time there is an update, Windows Update pops up in the task bar and asks you to install the latest update. Because I have Windows Updates set to not install automatically, this requires a few clicks every few days. I always wished there was a way to install the Defender updates automatically.
I finally figured out how to make this happen. It turns out that Defender is scheduled to automatically download updates at 2am every day and then scan your machine. This is great if you keep you machine on 24 hours a day. But I put my machine in hibernate every night to save electricity so the scheduled process rarely gets run. This means that the Defender updates don’t get downloaded automatically causing Windows Update to prompt me to install them.
To fix this just schedule the scan to occur at a time when you are more likely to be using the computer. My computer is usually on in the evening so I set Defender to scan daily at 9pm. This way the updates will get downloaded automatically when the computer is most likely to be on. And I haven’t noticed much of a slowdown of Vista when the scan is running.
Here are details steps on how to enable the automatic definition updates:
- Open the Windows Start Menu and type “defender”.
- Click Windows Defender.
- Click Tools.
- Click Options.
- Make sure these options are set:
- Automatically scan my computer is checked.
- Frequency is set to daily.
- Approximate time is set to a time that your computer is usually on.
- Check for updated definitions before scanning is checked.
- The other options don’t matter so set them however you like.
- Close out all the dialogs and you should be all set.
Outlook Automation Error When Connecting From Elevated Prompt
One thing I didn’t realize until the other day is that a Vista command prompt that is elevated is unable to control Outlook. I was testing some JScript code from an elevated prompt and got this error:
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\psheed\SendMail.js(1, 1) Microsoft JScript runtime error: Automation server can't create object
Unfortunately the error message isn’t very helpful in diagnosing the problem. After trying a few things I eventually found out that the script would work fine if it was running from a non-elevated prompt. Now it makes sense, you can’t use code that is running elevated to control non-elevated code for security reasons.
Recursive add all files in a directory with Perforce
Posted by Patrick in Random Software Tips on January 15, 2008
It is very common to want to add a directory of files to your source control system. With Perforce the command line client doesn’t support this natively. I would think that a command like this would work: “p4 add …”. But unfortunately Perforce displays this non-useful message when you try that:
Can’t add filenames with wildcards [@#%*] in them.
Use -f option to force add.
Instead you have to use a one line shell command to do this. On Windows try this:
“dir /b /s /a-d | p4 -x – add”
For non-Windows platforms you’ll have to do a similar command. Just change the ‘dir’ part to whatever you use to display files in your OS.
Multi-line Search and Replace in Visual Studio
Posted by Patrick in Visual Studio on January 14, 2008
Often it is useful to do a global search and replace in a directory of files. For a search string on a single line this is trivial. Just hit Ctrl-Shift-H or “Edit -> Find and Replace -> Replace in Files”. Then enter the necessary information and do the replacement.
It becomes more tricky when you have a multiline search or replacement string. With the standard options in the search and replace box you can’t do this. But select Regular Expressions in the Find Options section and a multi-line string becomes possible.
Now you can use Regular Expressions in the search. Enter your search and replace string as normal but enter ‘\n’ where you want a newline to appear. Visual Studio can now find and replace multi-line strings!
Improved Command Prompt For Windows Cmd.exe
This is a very useful tip for anyone who regularly uses the Windows command line. The default cmd.exe prompt displays the current path on the same line that is used for input. When you are in a deep directory you don’t get much room for typing. The other problem is that the default prompt has a “>” symbol directly after the path which causes a problem when cut and pasting the current path into other windows.
You can have an improved command prompt like this:
The quick way to test this change is to enter this command at the prompt: “set prompt=$C$S$P$S$F$_$+$G$S”. The improved prompt will be enabled in the current window until it is closed.
To make the change permanent and enabled in all new cmd.exe windows:
- Windows Key + R.
- Type “sysdm.cpl” and press enter.
- Select the Advanced tab.
- Click “Environment Variables”.
- Click “New” to add a new user variable.
- Add variable name: PROMPT
- Add this value: $C$S$P$S$F$_$+$G$S
- Exit out of everything.
Now every cmd.exe window that you open will have the enhanced prompt. This gives you some benefits:
- More room to type your command.
- Separation between the current directory and the typed command.
- Double click on the current directory and paste and you have a valid path without modification.
Automate the creation of an Outlook message with JScript
Every so often I need a way to automatically create an Outlook email message. I could create a C# application to do this but that is usually overkill and takes too much time to maintain the source and executable. Instead I create a simple JScript file that creates the Outlook message and populates it with the necessary information.
To do this create a new file named CreateMessage.js. Paste the code below into the file. Save the file and then at the command line run this command: “cscript CreateMessage.js”. Confirm the Outlook dialog that you want to do this and the new message will appear.
var outlookApp = new ActiveXObject("Outlook.Application");
var outlookNamespace =
outlookApp.GetNameSpace("MAPI").CurrentUser;
var mailItem = outlookApp.CreateItem(0);
var olTo = 1;
var olCC = 2;
var recipient = mailItem.Recipients.Add ("User1");
recipient.Type = olTo;
var recipient = mailItem.Recipients.Add ("User2");
recipient.Type = olCC;
mailItem.Subject = "Test Subject";
mailItem.HTMLBody = "Test Body";
mailItem.Display();
outlookNamespace.Logoff;