This is part of my continuous learning on my DevLog topic. When managing a private community directory—containing sensitive member details like names, home addresses, and personal emails—the biggest hurdle is access friction. You want your group members (whether they are on Facebook, WhatsApp, or Slack) to click a link and get in instantly. However, standard…
Starting October 14, 2025, Microsoft will end support for OneNote for Windows 10, making it read-only. The ONLY officially supported version moving forward is simply called OneNote—no year or edition attached. Previously known as “OneNote 2016,” this desktop app is included with Microsoft 365, Office 2019, Office 2021, and Office 2024, and is also available…
Dell Management Portal, Dell Device Management Portal Dell TechDirect are closely related but serve distinct management functions for IT administrators. Below you will find a short and friendly breakdown to help you understand the scope of each one. Other related Resources:
So after I finished my previous blog post: How to Back Up All Chrome Profiles from Your Computer (at about 8:30p) I wondered if I could build a quick script to clean up the profiles on my device. I was already using perplexity to help me as an editor of that blog post so I…
Written with the invaluable assistance of my research and editorial assistants, Gemini and Perplexity. A few weeks ago, I experienced a hard disk failure and had to replace it—a frustrating setback. This happened on my development computer (thankfully not my primary machine), and I hadn’t enabled Google Account Sync on that system, since it didn’t…
NPM stands for Node Package Manager. It’s the default package manager for Node.js, and it’s used to install, share, and manage JavaScript libraries and tools. Developers use npm to pull in reusable code (packages), manage project dependencies, and run scripts for building, testing, or running apps. What Is NPM? A Deep Dive Into How It…
Please note that this original blog post was updated on 4/15/2025 to reflect some changes on application consolidation. Microsoft’s OneNote application has become an essential tool for organizing information, whether you’re managing work projects, personal notes, or collaborative ideas. Its seamless integration with cloud services like OneDrive and SharePoint makes it easy to access notebooks…
DayScheduler is closed as of today… Posted in General We opened the site back in June 2018. Many users and many customers over the years. It served us all well. When the pandemic hit the world back in March 2020, everyone was grounded, travel came to a close and day appointments were no longer “a thing”….
Whether you are auditing a new workstation, cleaning up your own PC, or preparing for a fresh Windows install, you often need a complete list of what is actually installed. While the “Add or Remove Programs” menu is fine for casual use, PowerShell offers more power, more detail, and the ability to export your results….
If you’ve ever tried to move a web project to a thumb drive or upload it to cloud storage, you’ve likely watched in horror as the “Time Remaining” jumped from 2 minutes to 2 hours. The culprit? The infamous node_modules folder. As developers, our machines are constantly evolving. In this post, we’ll look at why…
I have the need to attach 4 monitors to my Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 laptop and I came across a bit of a challenge which I did not know about… Recording this to help others in case they come across this issue. Not all laptops are alike, but like many laptops out there, like the…
It is time to re-evaluate the backup workflow and tools I use for my websites and some that I support. I do this every couple of years hoping something has changed to make it better. With the release of WordPress 6.0 this week, I needed to backup each site before updating them, so this forced…
I need to stay up to date with the cybersecurity topics and aside from several news sources i check on a daily / weekly bases I also listen to the following podcasts: I found a lot more at this site Other News Resources / Sites: https://cybersecuritynews.com/ https://thehackernews.com/ https://cisoseries.com/ https://www.cnbc.com/cybersecurity/ https://www.wired.com/tag/cybersecurity/
With the latest news of the new File Explorer for Windows 11, I got to wonder about other features and File Explorer replacements are out there and was very surprised with my findings. One of the new capabilities Microsoft is talking about in their File Explorer app is the multiple tabs feature which is a…
Following up from my previous post Windows 10 Generic Image / No Bloatware I would like to share a great open source script it was pointed to me which removes all “unnecessary” programs out of Windows 10 fresh install provided by Sycnex called Windows 10 Debloater The script gets updated by the gitHub community, but…
By configuring a network drive to a shared document folder in Office 365, you can set up better access to a drive and its content for you and any other authorized users. This allows for increased ease of use and access to files for those working remotely. Please note that Microsoft recommends to Sync a…
personalTracker DB is an application that helps track information and notes on that information personalTracker DB is a compiled Microsoft Access database application designed to keep track of records and record progress notes on those records. Why use a personalTacker DB? Keep track of information easily and effectively Locally stored database (no need for Internet…
In my work, I need to quickly generate timelines. I have been doing it by hand in Excel adding each tasks in a line, formatting the columns and then snipping the graphic into the document I need to paste it into. If changes were need, it was not easy to do, and started the timeline…
Very happy to announce that I have launched a new site! DayScheduler is an intuitive web-based application to help individuals or teams provide visibility of daily availability of a resource (person or thing) and offer users the ability to request booking. Specifically designed for people like me, always on the go, it can also be used…
fetchTweets allows you to retrieve tweets in HTML table format fetchTweets is a web-based application I wrote in PHP to create a backup of my tweets on my blog. I later modified it so anyone can use it from the web. https://fetchtweets.jorgep.com A PHP script retrieves (“fetch”) the tweets from an account and returns the results in…
TimeSOW is a web-based project time entry and tracking system based on timesheets designed as a flexible and scalable solution to maximize user adoption, which they adopt and use it on a daily basis.. It can track, approve, and manage team members time incurred for projects and clients you define. You can pre-assign project time…
I have many hundreds of PDF files and sometimes they do not have the a name that corresponds to the content. Renaming these files, has proven difficult to do as you have to look at them, exit the program and then renaming it to something that makes sense.. So many times I wished for a program…
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) is a technology that enables a computer to send and receive data across a network by establishing a connection through the use of dedicated connections, virtual tunneling protocols, or traffic encryption. The basic principle is that once you establish a secure connection, the server handles all of your internet on the back-end which secure…
I just listened to Chris Jordan’s TED presentation: Turning powerful stats into art. The presentation is very good, but one particular item kind of stuck with me… How many papercups does our society use servicing hot beverages per day ? 40 Million cups! That does not sound like much until one begins to *visualize…
I was skeptical at first, but I must say – I am very impressed. My house is 40+ years old and has not been retrofitted to allow for the modern Internet wiring. Like most folks out there, I have ran wires thru the ceiling, drilled new holes in the walls and still have one or…
Backups should be top of mind for everyone, but it is especially critical when you upgrade your OS. Creating a full-image backup is – in my opinion – a must have before begining the upgrade process.. There are a number of free drive backup software (imaging, cloning) that can be created to a second hard…
On Monday, I was trying to place a presentation on a USB drive on my Windows 8 machine, and after a several attempts (different ports and drives) I discover that the USB drivers in Device Manager all had issues. I had no idea what had happened, as no matter what I did, they would not…
I have just enabled plug in WP to Twitter so I can auto-issue tweets based on a particular category. Working smoothly. Nice work Joseph Dolson !
Every book, eBook, blog and podcast I have read, mentions the same thing: You got to be able to account for your incoming and outgoing traffic. When setting up blog you must be able to track your statistics (not only the people coming in, but also which links within the site are more effective than…
I wanted to be able to automatically send a tweet when a new blog post was published… After looking at several options, I settled on WP to Twitter Plug in By Joseph Dolson. This is a post to test the newly installed WP to Twitter plugin. Great
One common thing everyone has mentioned when setting up blogs is that you must be able to track your statistics (not only the people coming in, but also which links within the site are more effective than others, so I 16ot on to searching… My requirements were simple: easy to use within the administration site not…
I have spent so much time trying to figure out my new theme… I was fine with the theme I had at WordPress.com but when I moved to my own hosted instance, found out that the theme was not longer available for download.
When you migrate from WordPress.com into your own hosted instance of WordPress, there is a setting you need to enable if you are using Microsoft’s LiveWritter (or any other tool like it) to write blogs. XML-RPC — By default it is disabled. To enable it, you go into Settings –> Writing and towards the bottom…
An very interesting web application that has just been updated and is very much worth checking into. So many times I come across an excelent blog or web page, that is a bit too long, or simply do not have the time to read at that moment… ( yes, i save them to pocket –…
You want access to your desktop from your tablet device ? I have been trying several of the available apps to remotely access my desktop from my tablet devices (I have an iPad and a Nexus 7 – Android), but the ones I have tried are usually clunky, slow, hard to setup or simply do…
For a while now, I have been looking for a photo gallery application. I’ve tried almost everything, from hosted services to open source apps (Flickr, SmugMug, 500px, Google+, Photobucket (being updated soon), Gallery, Shutterfly, Facebook (ugh!) and many others.. ) and there is always something missing… I need a workhorse.. (or tug boat!) As…
It has been an interesting challenge. Using my iPad to type an article (offline), save it locally, make revisions over time, add some pictures and then, when its ready, post it to the correct blog. Been searching for an app for a while. I have used many, some paid, some free, and they always fall…
End of last year, I decided to use my blog to backup my Twitter account by placing a (mostly) semi-monthly blog entry with the tweets for that time period… After looking around for a simple tool that would allow me to do this, I end up doing the work semi-manually using cut and paste a…
There are many reasons you would like to convert a Desktop/ Laptop image into a virtual image. They may include: Backup / easy recovery Want to access your image while on the road Tired of traveling with multiple devices Today is fairly easy to convert a physical desktop/laptop into a virtual one. Although I focus…
I did, and I ended up in quite a digital journey… Prelude: If you are a bit like me, you have multiple important (and not so important) digital places in which you keep things at. Heck! you probably have multiple blogs, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and so on accounts. Background: One day a while back, after…
This is a common topic of conversation and it comes up every time I start a project… Best advice I have found follows: As the Project Manager you need to know what to, who should do what, when it should be done, why it should be done, the cost for it and a variety…
This is a common topic of conversation and it comes up every time I start a project… Best advice I have found follows: As the Project Manager you need to know what to, who should do what, when it should be done, why it should be done, the cost for it and a variety of…
One of the most common questions I get asked is what tool to I use to manage projects while working with virtual teams. The answer I give, is typically, “it depends a lot on the size of the project, and what you want to manage” Collaboration, Project Management, Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Online Project Management,…
This is not only about passwords, but all kinds of confidential data. There are so many important numbers, pins, passwords, challenge questions !! Where do you safely keep all of this information? Some of my friends have a little notebook (yes old school!). Others keep all this info stored in emails or in Word/Excel documents…
via TechCrunch Spiceworks, a startup that develops Web-connected social IT management software, has raised $16 million in Series C funding round led by Institutional Venture Partners with Austin Ventures and Shasta Venturesparticipating. This brings the startup’s total funding to $29 million. Spiceworks develops a desktop software suite that helps a company’s IT staff collaborate with…
A flash site to create flash sites. I have seen these before, but this one is vey well executed. You can pay $10/month (a bit expensive, but if you want to go this route why not!) and will eliminate Wix advertisement and offer more options. the Check it out… A Couple of quick tests I…
Been busy this week with a lot work, so I have not had the chance to post much lately . However this does not mean, I have forgotten about my blog 🙂 It is interesting… When I made a personal commitment to actually write something often, everything I look at becomes a candidate for the…
Several years ago, as a result of many issues with my then service provider, I switched and standardized my default DNS settings to point to a free DNS service called OpenDNS. I’ve been very satisfied with, and has provided great reliable and save service. My old service provided went our of business, and many…
As I read articles, and surf the net, I jut down sites that call my attention so when I have the time, I can go back and check further.. Up until now, I have been just keeping them on my to-do list, and then mark them off when I get to them. I figure, why…
Every post I have made up until now, I have written while I am online. Even though I have heard a number of times about off-line blog writers and editors, I have never used one… I guess it was about time. I downloaded Windows Live Writer 2009, from the Windows Live suite of tools to…
Like many of us, crazy technologists, I’ve had at least 3 (if not 4+) computers on my desk for years now… Aside from your day-to-day one, you must have the computer with the music library, then there is the laptop, and then the test sandbox one, where everything new goes into… I thought virtualization was…
I have a good friend that introduced me to Anagram – a tool that allows you to highlight a section of an email and it will convert it into an outlook contact. — I tried it for a couple of weeks (during the trial period) and I found it VERY useful. Unfortunatelly, not 34.95 worth…
I ran across – actually a good friend send me the link – a very useful tool called EtherPad — An online, real time, multiuser text editing tool. If you have not checked it out – Do so right now! — It will change the way you take notes in meetings! www.etherpad.com
Microsoft’s Business productivity Online Services (BPOS) is getting ready to officially launch within a few weeks… They have moved all beta users in to release candidate code and are in high gear recruiting partners, as their strategy is 100% partner attachment for these services… ( We are hoping this to be the case for many years…
Over my years as an IT consultant, it’s become clear that assessing a client’s infrastructure and systems is a time-consuming and tedious task. And, horror of horrors, what do you do if the client is not running any systems management software (read: SMS/SCCM, please!)? Well, you hunker down for some challenging work, and you pray…
By way of Brian Tucker’s excellent blog, Brian’s found a guy who knows a guy who has built some really cool right-click extensions for SCCM. These were a real cottage industry for SMS 2003, and administrators who were in the know never traveled anywhere without a USB key chock full of these little gems. Well,…
If you are struggling with trying to diagnose LUA, or Least-Privilege User Account bugs in your Vista, Server 2003 or XP environments, then Aaron Margosis has a tool for you. The tool is called LUA Buglight and, while it’s in beta, it still may be a useful tool for you developers and system administrators out…
From the Awesome Ideas Department, Brian Tucker has raised the idea of an SCCM Ranger training event that would encourage a team-based deep-dive into the management software, and would do so in a casual setting – a house on a beach, for example, rather than YACRIAMH (yet another conference room in a mediocre hotel.)
Special Operations Software has released a tool that combines Group Policy and PowerShell, allowing administrators to push PS scripts to all desktops in their organization. This has a lot of potential to standardize and simplify what we often see out in the marketplace: a Frankensteinian tangle of KiX, VBScript, and Batch scripts running at login and at other times during user startup and shutdown.
I attended a Microsoft TS2 event yesterday, and I’m currently preparing a report for my colleagues on what was announced and showcased. As I digest and remember everything from the event, I’ll post things of interest to the community here.
Microsoft recently released an updated version of the SysInternals AutoRun tool, which is absolutely in my daily toolbox when troubleshooting desktops. What runs at startup on your machine? Like detail? It’s compatible with Vista now, and comes with a command-line version, for you automation folks. Get it.
