November 9th, 2009 by admin
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Get
ting file sharing working between your mac and windows pc looks to be as simple as enabling windows file sharing on the mac side. Well it is that simple if you are running windows xp but for Windows Vista and 7 it’s a different story. You can enable Windows file sharing on your mac and actually see the share on the windows side but when you try to connect to a volume on the mac it states you cannot connect. When I tried to map a network drive to my mac from Windows 7, I couldn’t log in with a different user name and password (login for the mac). I knew this had to be some sort of authentication problem so I searched google.
Here’s what I found: By default, Windows Security policy is not set to work with the authentication methods your mac uses. My clean Windows 7 Ultimate install had no default setting selected, I had to choose the correct one.
To change this setting in Windows Vista or 7, go to the start menu and in the “run” or “search” bar type “secpol.msc” then open it. Under “Local Policies” click on “Security Options”. Scroll down and select “Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level”. Change this value to “LM and NTLM – use NTLMV2 session security if negotiated” and click okay. Restart your computer or log off then log back on just to be sure the system disconnects from the mac as a guest.
Above: Local Security Policies settings for Windows 7
Above: Mapping a network drive to my mac, connecting using different credentials.
Above: Success! Fully connected to my Mac Laptop!
Some versions of Windows Vista (home and basic) and possibly Windows 7 do not have the secpol.msc utility. You have to actually edit the registry on those versions.
November 5th, 2009 by admin
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I initially installed my Windows 7 upgrade over my Vista Home Premium without any problems. I decided that my internal disk was a big bottleneck on my system so I installed two new 500GB HDs in RAID0 (after some trial and error). So I physically removed the old HD with the original Windows 7 upgrade on it and I was able to perform a clean install of Windows 7 on the RAID without a problem. I could install it but when I tried to enter my upgrade license number it wouldn’t except it. Damn. I was about to reinstall Vista but figured I would give Microsoft a call first.
I spoke with this friendly, helpful person at Microsoft support after being on hold for less than 2-3 minutes. Basically Windows 7 UPGRADE needs to be installed as an upgrade otherwise the license will not be excepted. I figured this out before I called and figured this would probably be the answer I got but if there was any way to avoid installing Vista again… Turns out you can perform an “in-place” upgrade of Windows 7. All this means is that you perform your clean install of Windows 7 and when you get to the end where you have to type in the license number you LEAVE IT BLANK and uncheck the automatically activate box and hit next.
At this point you need to upgrade your Windows 7 install. Double click your Windows 7 media and begin the install of Windows 7 inside of your clean install of Windows 7. Be sure to select UPGRADE or you’ll be going though this again. Also, I was told to uncheck the box “Download latest updates from Microsoft” (something like this) on the first upgrade screen. It will go through the entire upgrade but this time it will except your upgrade license key! Doesn’t make much sense but at least it works.
Happy upgrading!
November 3rd, 2009 by admin
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>>>>>>>>>>>> 
If you have ever wanted to make the switch from Apple’s Mail.app to Mozilla Thunderbird, getting your contacts and messages imported was not easy or straight forward. There is no import tool in Thunderbird 2.x that works with Mail.app BUT there IS one in the latest BETA version of Thunderbird 3! Since Thunderbird 2 and 3 share the same user settings and profile, you can use the latest beta to import your contacts and messages. Once everything is imported open the latest non beta release and viola!
A very handy trick!
Above: Screenshot of “Tools > Import” options in Thunderbird 2.0.0.23. Note no Apple Mail.
Above: Screenshot of “Tools >Import” options in Thunderbird 3.0b4
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