20 Jul 2009
Power saving options on computers are something that I personally think are great. They not only help reduce carbon footprints, but they also help draw out even more life from your laptop battery. One of the main ways in which this is done (others being things such as disabling hardware) is by having an inactivity option that turns off the screen and the hard disk after a period of inactivity. Unfortunately there are times when this isn’t something you want. The primary example of this is when you are giving a presentation.
Read More19 Jul 2009
I’ve seen a few variations over the years on how to create a progress bar and an update window in VBScript. I’ve taken many of the ideas and some of my own to create what I hope is a flexible solution that not only allows you to display updates, reports, etc., but also a reasonable looking progress bar. If you want to skip ahead then the code is at the bottom of this post and includes an example, but for those of you who want to know a little more about how to use it or how it works I’ll explain some of the whys and wherefores.
Read More18 Jul 2009
Sometimes I need to create shortcuts with VBScript especially if the script is being installed and
a shortcut needs to be created to the script. The code to create a
shortcut is quite straight forward, but the CreateShortcut()
function
presented here pulls everything together into a single reusable form.
Optional parameters that you don’t want to use can be filled by the use
of NULL
and environment variables can be included in file paths to
make this as flexible as possible.
18 Jul 2009
I like using VBScripts and the Windows Script Host to resolve issues as it has proved quick and flexible for most tasks. One thing I have found problematic on occasion is the installation of the scripts on a user’s PC. It takes time to do if it is not being deployed using logon scripts, group policy, etc. To this end I decided to write a function to allow a script to install itself. The script below is primarily made up from three functions/routines.
Read More16 Jul 2009
It’s been quite a few weeks since I’ve been able to devote any time to blogging. It has just been a really busy time for me. However I’m currently sat on a train between Edinburgh and York so it’s an excellent opportunity to have a bit of a catch up. Specifically I wanted to post something about one of the biggest things I’ve worked on recently - The Higher Education Academy Conference 2009.
Read More13 Jul 2009
I’ve been tinkering recently with some things around portable applications which I will probably post more about in the hopefully not too distant future. One of the things I’ve been trawling around for and busily configuring are various free web server packages that are “portable”. Unfortunately it has taken a fair bit of effort to actually track down and configure something that is portable enough. The problem for me is that I have a particular need to locate the web server within a particular sub folder and in the case of most software packages this is not an option.
Read More01 Jun 2009
Recently I’ve been working a little bit with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It is recommended that Internet Explorer is used to interact with this web based system as it provides the widest and tightest integration and range of features. Unfortunately I have a strong preference for Mozilla Firefox over Internet Explorer.
Read More25 May 2009
It’s been rather busy of late and I’ve only just got chance to start posting again. So I thought I’d best begin by posting about the weekend of the 8th, 9th and 10th of May.
Read More14 May 2009
Today I came across an issue in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 (a.k.a. MOSS). I was trying to upload some Microsoft PowerPoint slides into a slide library in a My Site and everything had gone fine with the first presentation, but the second one I tried came up with an error:
Read More10 May 2009
I have a problem with my mobile phone number … I can never remember it because I rarely tell it to anyone any more. So when I do need to tell someone and there’s no one around who can tell me what it is from their phone I have to resort to looking it up on my own phone. The quickest way I’ve found to do this is to punch in a special Vodafone code.
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