WinZip allows you to scan your archive with a virus scanning tool.  Unfortunately it does not provide instructions on how to use Grisoft's AVG product.

When you receive a Zip file in e-mail or through other means, you should follow the same basic security procedures that you follow for any other file: use good virus scanning software, and know the source of the file. If you follow sensible security guidelines, you can be comfortable working with Zip files that you receive.

To enable virus scanning with AVG within WinZip:

1. Start Winzip in classic mode.
2. Select the Options -> Configuration... menu item.
3. Select the Program Locations tab.
4. In the Scan Program field, enter the path to the avgw.exe file.
    Mine was: C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avgw.exe
5. In the Parameters field, enter:  /se %d
6. Click OK.
7. To test it open a .zip file and select the Actions -> Virus Scan menu item.

Set your virus scanner to run a complete system scan on a schedule, and always scan files you download from the internet.

VMWare 4.5

Boot time: 1 min 40 sec.
CPU Usage: 1%
Network: Could not get the adapter drivers installed.
Usage is obviously slower than on a physical machine, but not too bad.

VPC2004

Boot time: 4 min 45 sec.
CPU Usage: 85%
Network: Worked fine.
Usage is so bad that I can see the Start Menu rendering when clicked on.


Conclusion:  If you really want to run Windows Vista Beta 1 in a virtual machine and don't care about the network adapter, I'd go with VMWare byfar.

I burned the ISO to a DVD+R but you can mount it to a drive letter on the host OS. (Virtual PC does not support ISO images over 2.2GB so the mount must be on the host OS.)

Create a new Virtual PC.  I used 256MB RAM and 16GB virtual hard drive.

Boot from the DVD or host os mounted image.

Click "Install Now".

Since the Windows Vista Beta 1 installer does not support RAW drives (ie. virtual hard drives) you must do the following:
See the Readme file for more details.  (However I was able to install it on VMWare without a problem.)

Press Shift-F10 to get a command prompt.  (I wasn't able to get Shift-F10 to work until after I selected "Install now".)

Type DISKPART at the command prompt to start the diskpart tool.

Type the following commands in diskpart:

select disk 0
create partition primary
select volume 1
format fs=ntfs label="windows vista"

Type EXIT to exit diskpart.

Reset the virtual pc via the Virtual PC Console window.

When you reboot an install, the partition will be ready to be selected.


Total install took 3 hours.  Compared to 1 hour with VMWare (see link). (I did use a little less memory in VPC, could that be why?)

Keywords:  Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 VPC2004 VPC 2004 Longhorn Microsoft Vista Beta 1 OS

Do you remember spending countless hours on operating systems that are no longer around, or are at least no where to be seen?

I ran across this website a while back and thought I would share. :)

To reminisce about your favorite forgotten OS' click here.

You might notice that after installing an ASP, ASP/VB6, or ASP.NET application, you get undesired results under oracle client driver versions Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2.0.x.x) and Oracle10g Release 1 (10.1.0.x.x).

This is due to an Oracle install bug dealing with file permissions.

 

 Due to a bug (see Note:215255.1) of Oracle installation on XP, you have to execute the following bug-fix:

 Solution Description -------------------- Oracle 9.2 Client software requires that you give the Authenticated User privilege to the Oracle Home by following these steps:

 1. Log on to Windows as a user with Administrator privileges.

 2. Launch Windows Explorer from the Start Menu and and navigate to the ORACLE_HOME directory.

 3. Right-click on the ORACLE_HOME folder and choose the "Properties" option from the drop down list. A "Properties" window should appear.

 4. Click on the "Security" tab on the "Properties" window.

 5. Click on "Authenticated Users" item in the "Name" list (on Windows XP the "Name" list is called "Group or user names").
 
 6. Uncheck the "Read and Execute" box in the "Permissions" list (on Windows XP the "Permissions" list is called "Permissions for Authenticated Users"). This box will be under the "Allow" column.
 
 7. Check the "Read and Execute" box. This is the box you just unchecked.
 
 8. Click the "Apply" button.
 
 9. Click the "OK" button.
 
 10. Reboot your computer after these changes have been made. Re-execute the application and it should now work.

VMWare Workstation 4.5.2

1. Start VMWare Workstation.
2. Select menu item: File -> New Virtual Machine...
3. Choose a Typical Configuration, Microsoft Windows, Longhorn (experimental).
4. Choose your network connection.  (I chose Bridged)
5. Choose disk capacity.  (I chose 20GB, unallocated)
6a. Insert your Microsoft Vista Beta 1 DVD disc and boot from the dvd.
OR
6b. Mount the MSDN ISO as the CD drive.

During the installation the video color depth is 4 bits resulting in color dithering making it difficult to read text on the screen.
Installation seemed to lock up a couple times where the mouse cursor would not moved for about a minute or so, but it recovered fine.

After the 1st reboot (there are 2) during the installation which occurs when the progress bar is about 50%, the progress bar becomes more of an activity bar so you can't guage how much longer the install will take.
From the start of the install it took 1 hour until the 2nd reboot, which finally boots into Window Vista.
After the system has rebooted, the Supplemental Driver Pack Installation Wizard runs... which for ended with "Drivers are unavailable for your devices."

Install VMWare Tools
 Do not install install the VMWare Tools from the VMWare Workstation VM menu as it does not work.
 You must edit the Virtual Machine Settings and mount the windows.iso cd image to a vm cd drive.
 
 VXMNet will fail to install, and although there are descriptions on how to fix this for version 5.0, I have not resolved the issue with 4.5.2.

 Once you reboot your video will be much better but you still don't have network or sound.
 
 I was not able to get the network driver to work even on a manual install so I don't know that 4.5.2 support it.
 

If you are using 5.0, here is a link on getting it to work:

Total installation took just over an hour on my pc.

It's been a real struggle finding good web sites that are available on a mobile phone.  I've used the My Yahoo! site almost exclusively for quite some time now as it has several of the features that I use... movie times, web search, among other things.  I thought I'd put a list of sites together:

Favorites

Yahoo http://home.mobile.yahoo.com/
Google http://www.google.com/wml
Froogle http://wml.froogle.com
Mapquest http://www.mapquest.com/pda/main.adp


WAP/WML Portal Sites

http://www.pdaportal.com/
http://www.skweezer.net/
http://209.221.153.18/smallsites/
http://treo1.com/
http://mobile.treobits.com/
http://www.glida.net/treo.htm
http://www.thephonecam.com/links.html


WAP Directories

http://mobile.yahoo.com/resource_center/wapdir/home
http://www.wapcatalog.com/

It's that time again... To upgrade phones or not.

I currently have a Motorola v710 and it is by far the best mobile phone I have had.  Although the fact that Verizon cripples it's bluetooth capabilities is annoying... capitalism at it's best.  They cripple several features which are built into the phone and force you to use pay services for similar functionality.

In any case Motorola has released the e815 and I have been doing a little research on whether or not it is a worthy upgrade from the v710.

Pros over v710: (in no particular order)

Longer talk time
Broadband (EV-GO)
Outside display is always on (dimmed) with the time.
Better Camera
40MB vs 10MB
Better KeyPad
The keypad won't scratch the screen

Cons:

No analog
No Dial-Up Networking (DUN)
No OBEX profiles
Limited card read/write abilities
    Although there are hacks to enable these, I'm not sure about their legality.

Conclusion:

It's a definate maybe.  The biggest draw for me is the longer talk time and broadband.  I love being able to get movie times, directions, froogle, and local info so the broadband would be nice.  The video clips do not interest me any, nor does the $15 USD a month fee for them.