Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

Chalk this one up as another thing I'd never expect to see from Microsoft.
A Firefox plug-in for Windows Media Player content can be downloaded from here.

Another reason to disable the DNS RPC until a patch is available. Read more about it here.

Read about it here and request it from PSS if you need the hotfixes that have been released since SP2.

It also looks like they are following the Vista update trend:
SQL Server 2005 hotfixes are now multilanguage. There is only one cumulative update package for all languages.

Unless you are experiencing a specific issue listed inside the KB, I'd stick with the released SP2 build for now.

Never thought I would see this, but MS has released the BDD 2007 managed source code that is used to build the MMC parts of the BDD. A good way to learn!

Check it out here.

This Office Outlook 2007 hotfix is primarily meant for fixing private calendar item crawls performed by the Search Desktop feature. A nice side-effect/noteworthy item is the fact that it also improves performance of large OST and PST files.

Grab the fix here and read the actual KB article here.

In the past, I used Outlook 2007 for my RSS feeds but it became too sluggish with all of my feeds. I am tempted to try it again as my default RSS reader.

Update: This is a brand new Outlook.exe and Mspst32.dll which updates the build from 12.0.4518.1024 to build 12.0.6014.5000.

It is better to disable a feature you don't need or use (most likely) before the weekend hits.

If you are wondering what I am talking about, check out the link here and the advice for a large scale scripted rollout here.

Want to disable locally from the command line?
reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters /v RpcProtocol /t REG_DWORD /d 4

Want to disable a remote server from the command line?
reg add \\[servername]\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters /v RpcProtocol /t REG_DWORD /d 4

Restart the DNS service and you are good to go.

So, I spent entirely too much time on this last night, and although I didn't create it, it is a wickedly cool homescreen/etc for a Windows Smartphone.

99% of the required items are built into Windows Mobile 5 and the rest are a few add-ons and most of those are free.

You can check out a message thread about it from the creator. I highly recommend it for anyone running a Q or WM5/6 phone.

This is only good to know if you have trouble upgrading your firmware, but I did find this nugget of info in a discussion related to the MOL2/MOL3 upgrade on the Q.

With the phone turned off, hold down A and [Enter] and plug the USB cable into your computer.

I noticed this over at Qusers, so many thanks to tom108.

MOL3 highlights:

1) 2007 Daylight Savings Time Update: Fixes the issue permanently, as opposed to MSFT CAB file which is temporary until Master Reset

2) Random power downs

3) "Data Stall" when using Goodlink

4) Battery Dead White Screen

Motorola Q firmware revision list:

• Original
Q2-BP_C_04.08.04P
MP_BSP_C_01.07.05-08P_HW_P2.1

• 1st update - MOL1
Q2-BP_C_06.07.03P
MP_BSP_C_02.07.38-11P_HW_P2.1

• 2nd update - MOL2
Q2-BP_C_06.0B.0BP
MP_BSP_C_02.07.55-13P_HW-P2.1

• 3rd update - MOL3
Q2-BP_C_06.0B.11P
MP_BSP_C_02.07.55-30P_HW_P2.1

A little late for a DST update, don't you think?

You can download the update here.

It is always good to keep up on Windows Updates but this one is particularly interesting because it is a public release of the newer NT kernel builds. A lot of people won't care about that aspect, but if you have been wanting the BDD XP kernel fix for the NTFS alignment issue, or needing the multi-core XP kernel update, this is your one stop shop for those updates now.

Read about MS07-022 here.

For those tracking the XP SP2 kernel build revisions, it seems to be up to 3093.

Update: I might be wrong on the BDD fix - see below from a comment left from Arian:

This update contains QFE and GDR fixes.
I think a user who has never installed a hotfix he would get the GDR fix which does not contain the hotfix 'branch' as a QFE update does.
So to my knowledge a GDR fix could probably not contain the BDD kernel fix.

So I think it does matter what update a person would get from this public released update.

It is always good to keep up on Windows Updates but this one is particularly interesting because it is a public release of the newer NT kernel builds. A lot of people won't care about that aspect, but if you have been wanting the BDD XP kernel fix for the NTFS alignment issue, or needing the multi-core XP kernel update, this is your one stop shop for those updates now.

Read about MS07-022 here.

For those tracking the XP SP2 kernel build revisions, it seems to be up to 3093.

Update: I might be wrong on the BDD fix - see below from a comment left from Arian:

This update contains QFE and GDR fixes.
I think a user who has never installed a hotfix he would get the GDR fix which does not contain the hotfix 'branch' as a QFE update does.
So to my knowledge a GDR fix could probably not contain the BDD kernel fix.

So I think it does matter what update a person would get from this public released update.

Are you getting the dreaded "A device attached to the system is not functioning" message from a shared network resource that is hosted on a NetApp appliance?

Request the fix here.

I haven't seen it firsthand, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

This release came out in March but I bumped into it by accident today while redoing my Q setup.
I originally looked for 2.0 SP1 and noticed that SP2 had been released here.

Looks like a lot of little bug fixes and Mobile 6 support.

Surprisingly, very few consumers are claiming the tax as a deduction.
The courts have ordered the government to refund the taxes you paid between March, 2003, and July, 2006.

Example

If a single taxpayer, who is a sole proprietor with less than $25,000 in gross receipts, had $20 in local service, $50 per month personal long distance plan and $150 in bundled service cellular phone charges for each month over the 41 month period, the telephone tax refund based on actual tax paid would be $200/month (50 +150) X 0.03 X 41 months = $246.00 plus interest, in comparison to the standard refund amount of $30 (which would cover both personal and business expenses).

Read more about it here.

I always had a bad feeling about the whole concept of the Protected Mode Process in Vista. It is designed to help DRM authors but in the long run it might be used for 'bad things'. Thankfully, 64-bit is "locked down" better because it doesn't have the 'legacy crutch' to keep alive.

You can read about it here. Very smart guy. MS really should have him on their kernel team and not Apple.