Microsoft has announced that the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Review is available today.  The download is for Windows Vista SP2 (32bit or 64bit) or Windows 7 (32bit or 64bit). On Vista, Internet Explorer 8 and Direct 2D (D2D) are also required.

Unlike a beta release, the platform review is very limited in the user interface. Browsing is difficult, as the usual back and forward is disabled. The platform review is just for developers to test the new features of IE9. The top features of Internet Explorer 9 are the HTML5 support and hardware accelerated graphic engine. It’s touted as the first browser to provide hardware-accelerated SVG support. The JavaScript engine is also rewritten to improve performance. An early benchmark shows great improvement over IE8, and the JavaScript performance is more in line with Firefox.

Download link: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

[via IEBlog]

When you try to connect to a workgroup computer from a Windows 7 machine, you might run into problems where your password is not accepted even though you are sure you typed the password correctly. The problem is not that the password is wrong; it has to do with the authentication method. By default, Windows 7 has stricter rules about authentication. You have to configure the authentication level in order for your Windows 7 machine to communicate with computers running earlier version of Windows in a workgroup.

Vistax64.com has a detailed post about how to fix this problem in Vista. You can use either the Local Security Policy tool or registry editor to configure the LAN Manager authentication level. The same fix works in Windows 7.

[ via vistax64]

It has been several years since Microsoft introduced Office 2007. However, a lot of people still do not want to upgrade because of the interface issue. For users who do not want to switch, I install a program called Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats so the Office 2003 users can open the Office 2007 file formats.

I got some reports recently that some users cannot open the Office 2007 documents even though their machines already have the compatibility pack installed. I tried to repair Office 2003 and reinstall the compatibility pack from the server and they did not work. I found that there is a recent update of the pack which is published on 1/6/2010. I uninstalled the old version of Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack and installed the updated version and the problem is solved.

You can find the latest update of the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack by following this link.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

I usually do not have preview pane activated in Windows Explorer, so I did not notice the Acrobat preview under Windows 7 64bit is broken. Further investigation shows that not only the preview doesn’t work, the thumbnails do not work either. The issue is actually over 2 years old. It happened ever since Microsoft introduced 64bit OS.

pretentiousname.com has documented the problems extensively, they also offer free solutions. It’s surprising that neither Microsoft or Adobe cares to offer patches to fix the problems. The preview problem is only a simple registry fix. The thumbnails problem is harder, you need a software “bridge” to get the thumbnails to work. You can find out the registry fix and the software bridge from the site.

I got this error when I tried to run Any Video Converter:

Can not load output profile data from the configuration file “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\AnvSoft\Any Video Converter\profiles_v2.xml”, please check the installation and try again later.

I checked the profiles_v2.xml and it’s not in the folder. So, I tried to copy the file from the program folder (C:\Program Files\AnvSoft\Any Video Converter) to my configuration folder indicated in the error message, and the problem is solved. Note that I have Windows 7, the path to the configuration folder is different for Windows XP. Just make a note for the configuration folder when you see the error message so you know where to copy the profiles_v2.xml to.

When I built my i7 workstation, I used the Intel ICH10R controller to build a RAID 5 RAID. The RAID runs fine for 5 months. I have run into a lot of troubles with the RAID starting since one month ago. It started when I first noticed my RAID got degraded. While I was trying to figure out which disk went bad, I found that I did not have Intel Matrix Storage Console installed. The console program is used to manage the RAID on the system. Without it, I cannot identify the failed hard drive and replace the hard drive. The newest version at the time is 8.9, so I installed the newest version.

After I installed the console program, I was able to find out which hard drive is the cause. I removed the problematic hard drive and tested it. The hard drive was indeed bad. I RMAed the drive and sent the drive back for a replacement. The synchronization of the RAID took several days after I inserted the replacement hard drive back to the system.

Just when I thought the case is over, the RAID got degraded a few days later when one drive fell out of the RAID. I took out the “bad” disk and replaced it with a spare disk.  However, the drive identified by the console program passed diagnostic tests. So, it’s probably not a hardware problem. I then checked the system log and found a lot of isStor Event ID 9 events.

Log Name:      System
Source:        iaStor
Event ID:      9
Level:         Error
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.

All the drives are of Seagate 1.5GB SATA drives(ST31500341AS). I suspected if there is a problem with this particular hard drive and the Intel ICH10R controller. I found there are quite a few users reported problems when they used these drives in a RAID cofiguration  in Seagate’s forum. I was led to believe the problem is the firmware of the hard drive and the only way to get around it is to replace all the drives because you cannot update the firmware of the questioned hard drive to the firmware that works.

While I was investigating my options, the RAID got degraded again. This time a different disk was identified. This disk also passed the diagnostic tests. I was about to purchase replacement hard drives. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a post that solved the problem. (I do not have the link to the post right now.) One user has suggested possible problems with Intel Matrix Storage Console 8.9. Installation of the old 8.8 version might fix the problem that the drives fall out of RAID for no particular reason. The RAID has been stable ever since I installed version 8.8 about two weeks ago. I did get one iaStor Event ID 9 in the event log, but no hard drive falls out of the RAID. I am keeping my fingers crossed for now. I’ll update the post for future “development”.

Boot Camp 3.1 Update is available for both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows. This is a must-have update if you use Boot Camp 3.0 on Windows 7. This is from the download page:

This update adds support for Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate), addresses issues with the Apple trackpad, turns off the red digital audio port LED on laptop computers when it is not being used, and supports the Apple wireless keyboard and Apple Magic mouse.

Ever since I installed Boot Camp 3.0 on my MacBook, I have been struggling with the trackpad. I can’t put my palm anywhere near the trackpad when I type, because the cursor would go crazy if I do. This update finally fixes the problem. Here are the links for download.

Boot Camp 3.1 (32 bit)

Boot Camp 3.1 (64 bit)

Quite a few people have reported their Windows computers got BSOD after applying this month’s patches. This thread has some of the reports. The exact cause is not known yet. However, people have reported to get their machines back to normal by uninstalling the patch KB977165.

If you have access to your Windows XP CD or you already have Recovery Console installed, you can follow this instruction(Thanks to maxyimus and LThibx):

1. Boot from your Windows XP CD or DVD and start the recovery console (see this Microsoft article for help with this step)

Once you are in the Repair Screen..

2. Type this command: CHDIR $NtUninstallKB978262 $\spuninst

3. Type this command: BATCH spuninst.txt

4. Type this command: systemroot

5. Repeat steps 2 – 4 for each of the following updates provided by FindMeFollowMe:

• KB978262
• KB971468
• KB978037
• KB975713
• KB978251
• KB978706
• KB977165
• KB975560
• KB977914

6. When complete, type this command: exit

Your computer should restart and everything should be back to normal.

This solution instructs you to uninstall all the patches for Feb. It might not be necessary, you can try to unistall KB977165 first and see if that alone can fix the problem.

If you do not have access to your installation CD, but you have a BartPE CD, txkonen has offered this solution:

Booted using BartsPECD  or use your Recovery CD

Change directory to c:\windows\$ntuninstallkb977165$\spuninst

copy the file spuninst.txt to spuninst.cmd

execute the file spuninst.cmd

It will back out the change.

When I installed a new battery of my digital camera, I input a wrong date into the clock. I did not notice the problem until I found that the date taken of the EXIF is wrong. In search for a way to edit the date back to the correct date, I found a program called FastStone Image Viewer. With the program, you can do a lot more than editing the EXIF date. It is actually a very good program to manage your pictures. However, it is still an external program to download and the steps to edit the date are not very straight forward.

I found an easier way on Windows 7 and you do not need to download any program. It’s also very easy. All you need to use is the Windows Explorer. Here are the steps:

1. Open up Windows Explorer and browse to your picture.
2. Make sure the details pane(the bottom pane) is turned on. If it’s not on, click on Organize ->Layout->Details pane.
3. Select a picture to edit the date. Click on the Date taken date.
   
4. The date is now editable, you can enter a new date. Click on Save to save the changes.
   

Note that you can edit the date for multiple pictures. Just select multiple pictures in the step 3.

Microsoft Press is offering an eBook – “First Look Microsoft Office 2010″ for free. Two formats are offered: XPS and PDF. Please follow this link to get the free eBook.

Free ebook: First Look Microsoft Office 2010

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