Geek projects, tidbits and things I'm working on at the moment…

That damn 169.254.x.x IP address has caused me more headaches than I care to count. Here’s how I turn it off:

1. Open up registry and go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters.
2. Add REG_DWORD of IPAutoconfigurationEnabled with a value of 0 (zero.)
3. REBOOT!

Seriously, you can also apply that command down @ the adapter level too. Typically when I’ve got a problem w/ APIPA I’ve got a bigger issue but can’t see it yet. As an example, once I turned off APIPA on a laptop I could see that the OS just didn’t like the static IP address I was trying to configure it with. Once I changed the IP to something different, it worked just fine. GO FIGURE!

Here’s a couple of links:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244268/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/220874

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307287

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APIPA

http://superuser.com/questions/482520/why-am-i-getting-a-169-ip-address-at-startup

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/automatic-private-ip-addressing-apipa.html

http://lyngtinh.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-disable-autoconfiguration-ipv4.html

We were having some issues at work w/ a profile migration when a user got a new laptop. During my “Googling” I happened to stumble upon how to change the users profile path via the registry which can be useful. The following registry location is still valid for Windows 7 which is good news.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

One thing to keep in mind, you’ll need to assign ownership of the users profile w/ full permissions so things don’t get messed up upon reboots or when that user tries to login!

Original link:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/clustering/archive/2004/10/06/15096.aspx

I do a lot of virtualization both at home and at work. Several times I’ve needed a way to extend the activation period of Window 7 because I’m not done w/ a project.

Enter Windows Software Licensing Management Tool.

If you open up a command prompt by right clicking it and selecting, “Run as administrator” you can run the slmgr.vbs command such as…


C:\Users\yournamehere>slmgr /rearm


This can buy you some valuable time before you delete that VM and start on something else. This command ‘rearms’ the activation period and I believe you can do it for a total of 3 times before it stops working. Also, try adding a /? on the end to see a handy dialog box w/ the other available options.

I’ve always been a big fan of keeping my fingers on the keys versus using a mouse to get things done. I think everyone learns the clipboard hotkeys first before picking up others but even I learn a few new ones from time to time. That having been said, here’s a couple new ones that came out w/ Windows 7|Vista I’ve been enjoying.

• Win + Up arrow: Will maxamize your currently active window.
• Win + Down arrow: This will minimize the current window unless it’s maxamized, then it will simply restore it.
• Win + T: This will allow you to preview items on your taskbar. Just hit enter for it to get focus.

A couple of my day to day favs aren’t new to Windows 7 but they are:

• Win + E: This will open up Explorer view for browsing your system. This has got to be the one I use most often.
• Win + D: This does a “Show Desktop” which is very useful for when things start to get a tad bit cluttered.
• Win + R: This brings up the “Run” dialog box which is handy for those times you need to run something quickly.
• Win + L: Probably my all time favorite. This will lock your screen so the interns won’t mess with your system!

Here’s a couple URLs w/ more information:

http://lifehacker.com/5132073/the-best-new-windows-7-keyboard-shortcuts

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

http://lifehacker.com/5390086/the-master-list-of-new-windows-7-shortcuts