There are countless companies that have a number of database systems. Such companies keep looking for high-quality Microsoft Access development experience. They keep searching for some eminent programming skills that have the ability to make changes in the existing system as per the latest requirements. Some of the companies prefer to build an entirely new setup from the ground up.
Any new system, in its planning stage involves huge documentation and countless meetings. The developer starts with a planning document and the project manager handles the entire system. It is the responsibility of the project manager to monitor the work done by the programmer so that all the specifications are as per the mentioned requirements. The programmer is usually free to make his own suggestions and can even alter the specifications accordingly. Apart from the specifications, there should also be a textual version as well as a workflow diagram stating business logic.
After going through the specification document, the next step is to get on with the development stage. This stage might involve building screen mock ups (very basic ones) with inadequate functionality. It is the job of the project manager to review these mock ups. They can be shown to the users as well. It is always better for the programmer to take approval before proceeding further or else the output might not be in accordance to the specific requirements.
The entities that are delineated in the specification document are to be mapped into the appropriate tables. The programmer needs to evaluate the relationships that exist between different entities. If the programmer has been provided with screen diagrams, then it's better to make use of Ms Access Rich Form Designer, which allows the programmer to put up a working screen. The right usage of controls is essential at every step. Such programmers are usually perfect at their task and hence leave no space for errors. They also have a through knowledge about Database driven web applications.
Microsoft Access Database is one of the most preferred tools for prototyping. This tool can help you in creating your development version as per the specifications given to you.
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Motorola's Xoom 4G Upgrade Plan: Erase Everything, Mail it In, Wait a Week
One of the things we first noticed when we got the Motorola Xoom into the PCMag labs was that the 4G LTE radio, which would let the Xoom connect to the super-fast Verizon LTE network, was missing. We asked Motorola about it, and they said there would be a free upgrade offered to Xoom buyers, but that they weren't sure how it would happen.
Droid Life first got the details, which will soon be available from Verizon itself. Essentially, here's how the (purely optional) upgrade process is going to work: approximately 90 days after the Xoom ships (which would be about May 26 or so), Motorola will tell all Xoom owners that the 4G LTE upgrade is ready. Then, all these Xoom owners will put their device in a box and mail it back to Motorola. Motorola will upgrade the hardware and the software on the device so that it can support 4G LTE. Then they'll mail it back. The whole process, Verizon says, will take up to six days. Six days!
It's also recommended that you back-up all your data on the device "as a precaution," and then to do a factory reset to delete all the data on your Xoom. Verizon has a "Getting Ready Guide" to help you do that, but it's far from a simple process—not to mention one riddled with possibility for error and data loss. When you get your Xoom back, you'll have to re-load everything back onto the tablet.
There are plenty of good reasons to make the upgrade: Verizon says connection speeds will be up to 10 times faster with LTE, and it won't require a change in your data plan—though you'll need a new, LTE-friendly plan to make use of the new speeds. (Plus, as our own Sascha Segan found out, LTE will burn through your data allotment in a hurry.) It will make video calling with Google Talk an even better experience, and you'll be on the very latest technology. But Motorola and Verizon are asking for quite the trade-off: the need to mail in your device, and to wait a week to get it back. Verizon's leaked page makes no mention of an in-store option for upgrading.
4G LTE might be the future, and it's certainly a selling point for Xoom owners, but the upgrade process leaves a lot to be desired. What it does, in essence, is make it extremely obvious what potential buyers should do—wait until May, when Xooms start shipping with the new radios. Of course, by then the Xoom will likely have plenty more competition from the likes of the iPad 2, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and others.
Droid Life first got the details, which will soon be available from Verizon itself. Essentially, here's how the (purely optional) upgrade process is going to work: approximately 90 days after the Xoom ships (which would be about May 26 or so), Motorola will tell all Xoom owners that the 4G LTE upgrade is ready. Then, all these Xoom owners will put their device in a box and mail it back to Motorola. Motorola will upgrade the hardware and the software on the device so that it can support 4G LTE. Then they'll mail it back. The whole process, Verizon says, will take up to six days. Six days!
It's also recommended that you back-up all your data on the device "as a precaution," and then to do a factory reset to delete all the data on your Xoom. Verizon has a "Getting Ready Guide" to help you do that, but it's far from a simple process—not to mention one riddled with possibility for error and data loss. When you get your Xoom back, you'll have to re-load everything back onto the tablet.
There are plenty of good reasons to make the upgrade: Verizon says connection speeds will be up to 10 times faster with LTE, and it won't require a change in your data plan—though you'll need a new, LTE-friendly plan to make use of the new speeds. (Plus, as our own Sascha Segan found out, LTE will burn through your data allotment in a hurry.) It will make video calling with Google Talk an even better experience, and you'll be on the very latest technology. But Motorola and Verizon are asking for quite the trade-off: the need to mail in your device, and to wait a week to get it back. Verizon's leaked page makes no mention of an in-store option for upgrading.
4G LTE might be the future, and it's certainly a selling point for Xoom owners, but the upgrade process leaves a lot to be desired. What it does, in essence, is make it extremely obvious what potential buyers should do—wait until May, when Xooms start shipping with the new radios. Of course, by then the Xoom will likely have plenty more competition from the likes of the iPad 2, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and others.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Microsoft Street Slide: Pan through Street Maps
Google Maps has the user’s no.1 choice when it comes to mapping a location or finding directions. Sure their StreetView is awesome, but the latest one from Microsoft Research called Street Slide makes StreetView look inferior, under-utilizied — They missed out all the Panoramas.
Often we navigate into streets and find it hard to recognize the Buildings with the immersive the 360 environment. Microsoft Research wants to change that. Street Slide, a research project, aggregates all the photos from 360 degree bubbles and stitches neighboring images into long panoramas. The Result — You can see the full stretch of road along one street (like a filmstrip) that you can now pan across. However, this doesn’t stop you from zooming into individual positions to get the traditional 360 degree view, but the ability to zoom out and scan one stretch of street offers a level of freedom that makes exploration enjoyable and useful.
Watching says more than reading:
Street Slide is one of the implementations of Microsoft’s Seadragon technology they’re already using in Bing Maps Beta, along with an extension of its Photosynth collaborative geo-tagging photo project.
It’s great to see Microsoft Innovating after all these bad years. After all, its been long since they last used “Utility” over “Visual gimmick” to promote a product. Let’s hope that Street Slide will get the opportunity to move beyond the research paper domain and actually turn into a Bing Maps feature.
We write about Latest in tech, Apple, iPhone, Tablets, Gadgets, Open Source, Programming. Grab them@taranfx on Twitter or below:
Often we navigate into streets and find it hard to recognize the Buildings with the immersive the 360 environment. Microsoft Research wants to change that. Street Slide, a research project, aggregates all the photos from 360 degree bubbles and stitches neighboring images into long panoramas. The Result — You can see the full stretch of road along one street (like a filmstrip) that you can now pan across. However, this doesn’t stop you from zooming into individual positions to get the traditional 360 degree view, but the ability to zoom out and scan one stretch of street offers a level of freedom that makes exploration enjoyable and useful.
Watching says more than reading:
Street Slide is one of the implementations of Microsoft’s Seadragon technology they’re already using in Bing Maps Beta, along with an extension of its Photosynth collaborative geo-tagging photo project.
It’s great to see Microsoft Innovating after all these bad years. After all, its been long since they last used “Utility” over “Visual gimmick” to promote a product. Let’s hope that Street Slide will get the opportunity to move beyond the research paper domain and actually turn into a Bing Maps feature.
We write about Latest in tech, Apple, iPhone, Tablets, Gadgets, Open Source, Programming. Grab them@taranfx on Twitter or below:
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Download Windows Live Wave 4
Windows Live Wave 4 is a most awaited LIVE platform for over an year. The new Live package features all new Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Sync and the blogger’s favourite tool Live Writer. Luckily enough, the leaked version, now available on The Piratebay) is a beta that works quiet well.
Of course there are some limitations to Sync and Messenger, restricted to corporate users with Microsoft credentials. Your LiveID won’t let you sign in. But luckily enough the crack is also available, everything works with almost no extra effort.
You can download it here.
windows live wave 4
Wave 4 has a revamped GUI, and you can theme it to what you want. What comes more is the obvious Windows 7 Integration plus a bulk of new features.
Live Mail
This is much better than Outlook. As far as using Gmail with it goes, it’s nitty-gritty on features like “Auto Inbox Refresh”, Keyboard shortcuts, Contact Picker Improvements and more.
Live Messenger
Messenger gets Twitter and WordPress connection, Geo-tagging support in Windows Live Photos, New “Friends” view
Live Writer
Live Writer has seen a number of improvements as well (particularly integration with online services like YouTube and Facebook). It’s even better than previous versions — which were already must-haves for desktop blogging on Windows.
Live Photos
Just like Picasa, Live photos has been there for a while. But this update makes it faster and equally competent with most things Picasa can do: Tags, locations, etc.
Movie Maker
Movie Maker for the first time becomes truly usable. It has new cut, crop, and effects plus uploading to Youtube, Facebook.
Of course there are some limitations to Sync and Messenger, restricted to corporate users with Microsoft credentials. Your LiveID won’t let you sign in. But luckily enough the crack is also available, everything works with almost no extra effort.
You can download it here.
windows live wave 4
Wave 4 has a revamped GUI, and you can theme it to what you want. What comes more is the obvious Windows 7 Integration plus a bulk of new features.
Live Mail
This is much better than Outlook. As far as using Gmail with it goes, it’s nitty-gritty on features like “Auto Inbox Refresh”, Keyboard shortcuts, Contact Picker Improvements and more.
Live Messenger
Messenger gets Twitter and WordPress connection, Geo-tagging support in Windows Live Photos, New “Friends” view
Live Writer
Live Writer has seen a number of improvements as well (particularly integration with online services like YouTube and Facebook). It’s even better than previous versions — which were already must-haves for desktop blogging on Windows.
Live Photos
Just like Picasa, Live photos has been there for a while. But this update makes it faster and equally competent with most things Picasa can do: Tags, locations, etc.
Movie Maker
Movie Maker for the first time becomes truly usable. It has new cut, crop, and effects plus uploading to Youtube, Facebook.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
MCTS 70-680
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Microsoft 70-680 Preparation Labs and who know all and popular mistakes made by those who take a Microsoft 70-680. The entire material is logically composed in such a way that everything becomes easy to understand for anyone. full download Many Microsoft 70-680 guides include audio and video material. It is really easy to acquire Microsoft 70-680 exams because of great variety of methods of payment.
70-680 braindump is the choice of all IT professionals who aspire to obtain Microsoft 70-680 certifications. Some of the websites on certifications provide free 70-680 dumps to help the IT professionals in their studies for Microsoft certifications. Most the free 70-680 dumps prove helpful but one should be careful in downloading free 70-680 dumps as they may not contain updates on the certification. In such a situation, the matter can be dangerous instead doing some help to you. A little care on your part can save you any of the mishaps.
Our Certkingdom on-site online training experts create all of the Microsoft 70-680 exam products. Our main goal is to get your certified with a firm understanding of the core material. Whereas other online distributors only concern themselves with helping you obtain the paper, we strive to educate the certification candidate and better prepare them for their IT career.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Best President's Day Weekend Tech Deals
President's Day weekend is here again. That means not only do you get a long weekend, but there are also some great sales to honor our American leaders. So why not celebrate this President's Day by keeping a few of the bills, proudly sporting their portraits, in your pocket?
Our new sister site, LogicBuy, posted some killer President's Day weekend deals, including items from the HP President's Day Sale with up to 50% off laptops, desktops, printers, and accessories; the Lenovo President's Day Sale with up to 15% off ThinkPads and IdeaPads; and the Dell President's Day Sale with up to 30% off laptops, desktops, monitors, and accessories.
We rounded-up some of the best deals on laptops and desktops from these three vendors, like a $400 coupon code for the HP Pavilion dv6 and HP Pavilion dv7. For some of the products, LogicBuy made configuration suggestions, both base and high-end. You can choose to grab the deal for one the LogicBuy configurations, or create your own. But you better decide fast, because prices are only good while supplies last.
Make the most of your long weekend and check out all the money you can save with the tech deals in the slideshow.
Our new sister site, LogicBuy, posted some killer President's Day weekend deals, including items from the HP President's Day Sale with up to 50% off laptops, desktops, printers, and accessories; the Lenovo President's Day Sale with up to 15% off ThinkPads and IdeaPads; and the Dell President's Day Sale with up to 30% off laptops, desktops, monitors, and accessories.
We rounded-up some of the best deals on laptops and desktops from these three vendors, like a $400 coupon code for the HP Pavilion dv6 and HP Pavilion dv7. For some of the products, LogicBuy made configuration suggestions, both base and high-end. You can choose to grab the deal for one the LogicBuy configurations, or create your own. But you better decide fast, because prices are only good while supplies last.
Make the most of your long weekend and check out all the money you can save with the tech deals in the slideshow.
Microsoft Warns of Xbox 360 and Kinect Shortages
December of 2010 might have been a great month for sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360, but Microsoft's surge in year-to-year console sales—42 percent—comes with its own price. According to the company, shortages of both the Xbox 360 and its Kinect accessory could be looming for those looking to pick up a post-holiday console.
"In order to keep up with holiday demand in December for Xbox 360 and Kinect, Microsoft pulled units from its January and February production," said a Microsoft spokesperson in an e-mail to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
"Despite this, Microsoft still experienced out-of-supply situations in late December, and it expects supply constraint to continue in January and February as it works with retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments to replenish the channel," added the anonymous informant.
But even though Microsoft's 1.9 million Xbox 360 sales in December were the company's largest ever for the console, Nintendo's Wii was still able to overtake Microsoft's device with 2.3 million units sold. Microsoft blames the aforementioned shortages for its inability to capture a seventh straight month on top of the console sales charts.
However, Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360 did manage to continue its own trend as the best-selling console accessory in December. That's two months in a row at the top for the Kinect. And according to Microsoft, more than eight million Kinect units were sold within the device's first 60 days on the market.
If anything, accessories are just about the only part of the home video gaming equation that are performing well in the market nowadays. Year-to-year hardware sales fell 13 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to NPD, and gaming sales themselves—including mobile games, PC games, and console games, amongst others—remained flat.
Gaming accessories, however, saw a 13 percent growth across the entire category between 2009 and 2010. And December 2010 alone was the largest month for accessories sales in the history of NPD's data-tracking.
"In order to keep up with holiday demand in December for Xbox 360 and Kinect, Microsoft pulled units from its January and February production," said a Microsoft spokesperson in an e-mail to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
"Despite this, Microsoft still experienced out-of-supply situations in late December, and it expects supply constraint to continue in January and February as it works with retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments to replenish the channel," added the anonymous informant.
But even though Microsoft's 1.9 million Xbox 360 sales in December were the company's largest ever for the console, Nintendo's Wii was still able to overtake Microsoft's device with 2.3 million units sold. Microsoft blames the aforementioned shortages for its inability to capture a seventh straight month on top of the console sales charts.
However, Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360 did manage to continue its own trend as the best-selling console accessory in December. That's two months in a row at the top for the Kinect. And according to Microsoft, more than eight million Kinect units were sold within the device's first 60 days on the market.
If anything, accessories are just about the only part of the home video gaming equation that are performing well in the market nowadays. Year-to-year hardware sales fell 13 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to NPD, and gaming sales themselves—including mobile games, PC games, and console games, amongst others—remained flat.
Gaming accessories, however, saw a 13 percent growth across the entire category between 2009 and 2010. And December 2010 alone was the largest month for accessories sales in the history of NPD's data-tracking.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
78-702 dump
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Friday, February 18, 2011
Microsoft Adds Phony E-Mail to Your Hotmail Account
Microsoft recently announced a new feature that lets you create and maintain multiple phony Hotmail addresses from your main Hotmail account.
The new alias service lets you create up to five different e-mail addresses per year that point directly to your primary Hotmail account. Microsoft says you can keep up to 15 aliases on one account even though you can only create five aliases per year. Hotmail aliases make it a breeze to hand out a genuine e-mail address in awkward or short-term situations while keeping your primary address private.
The average person maintains three different e-mail accounts, according to Microsoft. There are various reasons you might want more than one e-mail address such as dedicating separate accounts to handle junk mail from retailers, business, and personal mail; or maybe an account for comment trolling on the weekends.
But checking multiple inboxes every day can often be a pain, especially if you're busy trolling. One option before now was to have all your mail forwarded from multiple addresses to your primary account. Gmail and Hotmail also offer a service that lets you prepend your e-mail address with a '+' symbol such as spam+myemail@gmail.com. But the prepend method requires you to reveal your actual e-mail address within the phony account; Hotmail's new alias feature avoids this.
Getting Started With Hotmail Aliases
To create an alias click on the cog icon next to your Inbox link in the left pane of the main Hotmail Window. You should see an a pop-up menu with an option to "Create a Hotmail alias."
This will take you to a screen where you can create an @hotmail.com or @live.com e-mail address. If you choose an e-mail address that's already taken, you'll be prompted to try again.
It should take just a few minutes for Hotmail to create and prepare your new phony address. Once it's ready you'll receive an alert in your inbox. After your alias has been approved, you can decide to have all e-mail that is sent to the phony address delivered to a dedicated folder or to your main inbox.
To send mail from your new address just click on your e-mail address at the top of the compose window and select from the drop down menu.
Hotmail started rolling out aliases earlier this week, so if you don't have the alias feature in your account yet you should see it soon.
The new alias service lets you create up to five different e-mail addresses per year that point directly to your primary Hotmail account. Microsoft says you can keep up to 15 aliases on one account even though you can only create five aliases per year. Hotmail aliases make it a breeze to hand out a genuine e-mail address in awkward or short-term situations while keeping your primary address private.
The average person maintains three different e-mail accounts, according to Microsoft. There are various reasons you might want more than one e-mail address such as dedicating separate accounts to handle junk mail from retailers, business, and personal mail; or maybe an account for comment trolling on the weekends.
But checking multiple inboxes every day can often be a pain, especially if you're busy trolling. One option before now was to have all your mail forwarded from multiple addresses to your primary account. Gmail and Hotmail also offer a service that lets you prepend your e-mail address with a '+' symbol such as spam+myemail@gmail.com. But the prepend method requires you to reveal your actual e-mail address within the phony account; Hotmail's new alias feature avoids this.
Getting Started With Hotmail Aliases
To create an alias click on the cog icon next to your Inbox link in the left pane of the main Hotmail Window. You should see an a pop-up menu with an option to "Create a Hotmail alias."
This will take you to a screen where you can create an @hotmail.com or @live.com e-mail address. If you choose an e-mail address that's already taken, you'll be prompted to try again.
It should take just a few minutes for Hotmail to create and prepare your new phony address. Once it's ready you'll receive an alert in your inbox. After your alias has been approved, you can decide to have all e-mail that is sent to the phony address delivered to a dedicated folder or to your main inbox.
To send mail from your new address just click on your e-mail address at the top of the compose window and select from the drop down menu.
Hotmail started rolling out aliases earlier this week, so if you don't have the alias feature in your account yet you should see it soon.
Hands On: Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials V
The bottom line
Taken on an application-by-application basis, the newest version of Windows Live Essentials is a clear success. Windows Live Sync, for example, is probably the best free syncing product I've ever tried, and I've tried quite a few of them. And I don't think I've seen a free video-creation tool as powerful as Windows Live Movie Maker, either. Photo Gallery is an excellent application, if not necessarily the best free one in its class, and Windows Live Mail is also good, although not as powerful as, say, Thunderbird.
But whether you try the entire set or only a few apps, there's something here you can likely use.
Taken as a coherent product line, though, Windows Live Essentials is not a success. What does a browser toolbar like Bing Bar have to do with the movie-creation application Windows Live Movie Maker? Nothing, really. And therein lies the problem. Although there are some links between Windows Live Essentials applications -- for example, making it easy to send an e-mail full of photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery -- these are all really stand-alone applications. And only in some instances is there direct integration with Microsoft's free cloud-based file storage service, SkyDrive.
One can't help thinking about the possibilities inherent some aspects of Windows Live Essentials -- notably with Windows Live Sync. If Microsoft properly developed it, the company would have the makings of an exceptionally powerful cloud-based set of services with links to client applications, something that Google can't currently match.
Imagine if the Web-based and client-based versions of Office used SkyDrive for common storage, backup and synchronization, with Windows Live Sync providing the synchronization services. Imagine if Windows Live Photo Gallery similarly featured online-offline synchronization tools. You could get the best of cloud-based computing and client-based computing, and not need to worry or think about where the file you were currently working on was stored -- the latest version would be on whatever device you wanted whenever you needed it.
So download Windows Live Essentials for what it offers, because there's a lot to like. But like me, you may well wish for a coherent product line with synchronization services linked to other Microsoft products.
Taken on an application-by-application basis, the newest version of Windows Live Essentials is a clear success. Windows Live Sync, for example, is probably the best free syncing product I've ever tried, and I've tried quite a few of them. And I don't think I've seen a free video-creation tool as powerful as Windows Live Movie Maker, either. Photo Gallery is an excellent application, if not necessarily the best free one in its class, and Windows Live Mail is also good, although not as powerful as, say, Thunderbird.
But whether you try the entire set or only a few apps, there's something here you can likely use.
Taken as a coherent product line, though, Windows Live Essentials is not a success. What does a browser toolbar like Bing Bar have to do with the movie-creation application Windows Live Movie Maker? Nothing, really. And therein lies the problem. Although there are some links between Windows Live Essentials applications -- for example, making it easy to send an e-mail full of photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery -- these are all really stand-alone applications. And only in some instances is there direct integration with Microsoft's free cloud-based file storage service, SkyDrive.
One can't help thinking about the possibilities inherent some aspects of Windows Live Essentials -- notably with Windows Live Sync. If Microsoft properly developed it, the company would have the makings of an exceptionally powerful cloud-based set of services with links to client applications, something that Google can't currently match.
Imagine if the Web-based and client-based versions of Office used SkyDrive for common storage, backup and synchronization, with Windows Live Sync providing the synchronization services. Imagine if Windows Live Photo Gallery similarly featured online-offline synchronization tools. You could get the best of cloud-based computing and client-based computing, and not need to worry or think about where the file you were currently working on was stored -- the latest version would be on whatever device you wanted whenever you needed it.
So download Windows Live Essentials for what it offers, because there's a lot to like. But like me, you may well wish for a coherent product line with synchronization services linked to other Microsoft products.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
MB2-631 Demo
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Sunday, February 13, 2011
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Question No 1.
You are the Quality assurance manager in the Contoso company. You receive customer complaints about the screen image quality of the item 1000 LCD Television. How do you initiate the test task to test the screen image for this item in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009?
A. Create a Quarantine order from a sales order.
B. Click Functions > Test from a sales order.
C. Create and set up a new problem type.
D. Create a manual quality order.
Answer: C
Question No 2.
Which of the following is not a non-conformance type in the Quality management module of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009?
A. Customer
B. Service request
C. Item
D. Production
Answer: B
With the help of the Certkingdom study materials and guidance of Microsoft MB6-817 certification exam, you can pass your Microsoft MB6-817 certification exam in your first attempt. Certkingdom study materials of MB6-817 is composed by the contemporary and dynamic Information Technology experts, who use their knowledge and experience to organize you for your future in IT.
If you are looking to pass Microsoft MB6-817 exam, then Certkingdom has the perfect solution for you. Get Certkingdom MB6-817 exam and be on your way to passing today. It's like having an automatic guarantee of passing because the MB6-817 exam is tough. With our Certkingdom tools, you can pass MB6-817 exam easily.
MB6-817 exam is one of the best certifications from Microsoft. But at Microsoft, your talents and potential will get the right break and MB6-817 is the perfect means to this.
Question No 1.
You are the Quality assurance manager in the Contoso company. You receive customer complaints about the screen image quality of the item 1000 LCD Television. How do you initiate the test task to test the screen image for this item in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009?
A. Create a Quarantine order from a sales order.
B. Click Functions > Test from a sales order.
C. Create and set up a new problem type.
D. Create a manual quality order.
Answer: C
Question No 2.
Which of the following is not a non-conformance type in the Quality management module of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009?
A. Customer
B. Service request
C. Item
D. Production
Answer: B
With the help of the Certkingdom study materials and guidance of Microsoft MB6-817 certification exam, you can pass your Microsoft MB6-817 certification exam in your first attempt. Certkingdom study materials of MB6-817 is composed by the contemporary and dynamic Information Technology experts, who use their knowledge and experience to organize you for your future in IT.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
List open ports and listening services
As mentioned in the article, “10 security tips for all general-purpose OSes,” you should turn off any services you don’t actually need so that they will not become avenues of attack for security threats. Ten specific services for Microsoft Windows were mentioned in my later article, “10 services to turn off in MS Windows XP.” While ten is a good number for a quick list in an article, it’s hardly comprehensive.
There’s essentially no way to provide a comprehensive list, of course. Different systems will have different services running by default, even between different service pack versions of MS Windows XP, and if you’re coming into a situation where you must assume responsibility for the security of computers that were already set up before you got there, there are certain to be different services running than on a default install of the system. Worse, there are new services being invented from time to time, expanding the number of services that may possibly be running on a given computer.
What’s needed is a tool for listing active services and open ports. I’ll explain how such tools can be used on three types of systems, in alphabetical order — Linux distributions, FreeBSD, and MS Windows — plus how to use an additional tool for commercial UNIX systems where the other tools may not be available.
FreeBSD
On a FreeBSD Unix system, as with other BSD Unix systems, you have a number of utilities with a base system install that can be used for listing open files, running processes, and network connections. The netstat utility is maintained as a part of the FreeBSD base system by the FreeBSD core developers, and offers exactly the sort of functionality you need to list open ports on your system.
netstat
To list open network ports and the processes that own them on FreeBSD with netstat, you can use this command:
netstat -a | egrep 'Proto|LISTEN'
The output for this on my laptop running FreeBSD is:
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address (state)
tcp4 0 0 localhost.ipp *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 localhost.ipp *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.x11 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.x11 *.* LISTEN
The localhost.ipp entry refers to the Internet Printing Protocol, used by CUPS to talk to the network printer. The *.2200 entry refers to SSH, which I have set to a nonstandard port — so it’s not recognized by netstat’s port-to-service association capabilities. *.x11, meanwhile, refers to the X Window System protocol.
You can add the -n option to netstat to get port numbers instead of having the utility try to provide names for services:
netstat -an | egrep 'Proto|LISTEN'
The output would then look somewhat different:
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address (state)
tcp4 0 0 127.0.0.1.631 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::1.631 *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.6000 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.6000 *.* LISTEN
This information can be used to determine what services are running, in cases where services are using standard ports. On a FreeBSD system, you can get a listing of standard port associations by searching through the contents of /etc/services. For instance, if you wanted to find out what was up with port 631, you might use this command:
grep -w 631 /etc/services
The output:
ipp 631/tcp #IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)
ipp 631/udp #IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)
sockstat
In addition to netstat, the more limited command sockstat is effectively tailor-made for this kind of information gathering. To get a listing of listening ports and their associated processes, you can use this command:
sockstat -4l
The output may even be more useful than that of netstat above:
USER COMMAND PID FD PROTO LOCAL ADDRESS FOREIGN ADDRESS
root cupsd 1701 4 tcp4 127.0.0.1:631 *:*
root cupsd 1701 6 udp4 *:631 *:*
root sshd 1685 4 tcp4 *:2200 *:*
root Xorg 1154 3 tcp4 *:6000 *:*
root syslogd 907 7 udp4 *:514 *:*
Linux distributions
As with FreeBSD, the obvious choice of tool to use for listing open ports is netstat. Most Linux distributions use a different version of the utility, however — maintained separately from the Linux distribution, as an independent software development project.
One consequence of that fact is that the command line options used to achieve the same results may be different with FreeBSD than with Debian, Ubuntu, or Fedora Core Linux systems. On a typical Linux system, this command will list open network ports and the processes that own them:
netstat -lnptu
The output should look something like this:
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2458/cupsd
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5432 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2353/postgres
tcp6 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN 2335/sshd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:631 0.0.0.0:* 2458/cupsd
As you can see from this output, the Debian GNU/Linux system on which I ran that command has only four open ports — two for CUPS, so that the computer can communicate with the network printer; one for PostgreSQL so that it can be contacted by applications in development; SSH, so that I can access it remotely, from my laptop.
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows also offers a netstat command that can be executed from the command line to get a list of open ports. The standard MS Windows version of netstat is slightly more limited than its Unix-like system counterparts, but still suffices to get a listing of listening services:
netstat -a | find "LISTENING"
The output of this command should look something like this:
TCP hostname:epmap hostname:0 LISTENING
TCP hostname:microsoft-ds hostname:0 LISTENING
TCP hostname:10110 hostname:0 LISTENING
TCP hostname:netbios-ssn hostname:0 LISTENING
. . . with “hostname” replaced by the system’s hostname, of course.
Commercial UNIX Systems
For most commercial UNIX systems, even if there is not a version of netstat or sockstat available, you should be able to install lsof — which is short for “list open files”. Most Linux distributions and BSD Unix systems will provide lsof with a default install or through their respective software management systems. Some commercial UNIX systems do so as well, and for many others you can download it. The following command will limit the output of the utility to network ports:
lsof -i -n | egrep 'COMMAND|LISTEN'
The output should look something like this (as run on my laptop, again):
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
Xorg 1154 root 1u IPv6 0xc6042000 0t0 TCP *:x11 (LISTEN)
Xorg 1154 root 3u IPv4 0xc6041cb0 0t0 TCP *:x11 (LISTEN)
sshd 1685 root 3u IPv6 0xc6041ae0 0t0 TCP *:2200 (LISTEN)
sshd 1685 root 4u IPv4 0xc6041910 0t0 TCP *:2200 (LISTEN)
cupsd 1701 root 3u IPv6 0xc6041740 0t0 TCP [::1]:ipp (LISTEN)
cupsd 1701 root 4u IPv4 0xc6041570 0t0 TCP 127.0.0.1:ipp (LISTEN)
Now you know
. . . and knowing is half the battle. The other half involves using your knowledge, of course.
Now that you know how to list open ports on your system and can collect the information needed to find out what services are running that should not be active, you can make sure you turn off those services and close those ports. Because that process varies so greatly from one system to the next, and tends to be somewhat more complex than listing open ports, any instruction on that task from me will have to wait for another day.
There’s essentially no way to provide a comprehensive list, of course. Different systems will have different services running by default, even between different service pack versions of MS Windows XP, and if you’re coming into a situation where you must assume responsibility for the security of computers that were already set up before you got there, there are certain to be different services running than on a default install of the system. Worse, there are new services being invented from time to time, expanding the number of services that may possibly be running on a given computer.
What’s needed is a tool for listing active services and open ports. I’ll explain how such tools can be used on three types of systems, in alphabetical order — Linux distributions, FreeBSD, and MS Windows — plus how to use an additional tool for commercial UNIX systems where the other tools may not be available.
FreeBSD
On a FreeBSD Unix system, as with other BSD Unix systems, you have a number of utilities with a base system install that can be used for listing open files, running processes, and network connections. The netstat utility is maintained as a part of the FreeBSD base system by the FreeBSD core developers, and offers exactly the sort of functionality you need to list open ports on your system.
netstat
To list open network ports and the processes that own them on FreeBSD with netstat, you can use this command:
netstat -a | egrep 'Proto|LISTEN'
The output for this on my laptop running FreeBSD is:
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address (state)
tcp4 0 0 localhost.ipp *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 localhost.ipp *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.x11 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.x11 *.* LISTEN
The localhost.ipp entry refers to the Internet Printing Protocol, used by CUPS to talk to the network printer. The *.2200 entry refers to SSH, which I have set to a nonstandard port — so it’s not recognized by netstat’s port-to-service association capabilities. *.x11, meanwhile, refers to the X Window System protocol.
You can add the -n option to netstat to get port numbers instead of having the utility try to provide names for services:
netstat -an | egrep 'Proto|LISTEN'
The output would then look somewhat different:
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address (state)
tcp4 0 0 127.0.0.1.631 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 ::1.631 *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.2200 *.* LISTEN
tcp4 0 0 *.6000 *.* LISTEN
tcp6 0 0 *.6000 *.* LISTEN
This information can be used to determine what services are running, in cases where services are using standard ports. On a FreeBSD system, you can get a listing of standard port associations by searching through the contents of /etc/services. For instance, if you wanted to find out what was up with port 631, you might use this command:
grep -w 631 /etc/services
The output:
ipp 631/tcp #IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)
ipp 631/udp #IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)
sockstat
In addition to netstat, the more limited command sockstat is effectively tailor-made for this kind of information gathering. To get a listing of listening ports and their associated processes, you can use this command:
sockstat -4l
The output may even be more useful than that of netstat above:
USER COMMAND PID FD PROTO LOCAL ADDRESS FOREIGN ADDRESS
root cupsd 1701 4 tcp4 127.0.0.1:631 *:*
root cupsd 1701 6 udp4 *:631 *:*
root sshd 1685 4 tcp4 *:2200 *:*
root Xorg 1154 3 tcp4 *:6000 *:*
root syslogd 907 7 udp4 *:514 *:*
Linux distributions
As with FreeBSD, the obvious choice of tool to use for listing open ports is netstat. Most Linux distributions use a different version of the utility, however — maintained separately from the Linux distribution, as an independent software development project.
One consequence of that fact is that the command line options used to achieve the same results may be different with FreeBSD than with Debian, Ubuntu, or Fedora Core Linux systems. On a typical Linux system, this command will list open network ports and the processes that own them:
netstat -lnptu
The output should look something like this:
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2458/cupsd
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5432 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2353/postgres
tcp6 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN 2335/sshd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:631 0.0.0.0:* 2458/cupsd
As you can see from this output, the Debian GNU/Linux system on which I ran that command has only four open ports — two for CUPS, so that the computer can communicate with the network printer; one for PostgreSQL so that it can be contacted by applications in development; SSH, so that I can access it remotely, from my laptop.
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows also offers a netstat command that can be executed from the command line to get a list of open ports. The standard MS Windows version of netstat is slightly more limited than its Unix-like system counterparts, but still suffices to get a listing of listening services:
netstat -a | find "LISTENING"
The output of this command should look something like this:
TCP hostname:epmap hostname:0 LISTENING
TCP hostname:microsoft-ds hostname:0 LISTENING
TCP hostname:10110 hostname:0 LISTENING
TCP hostname:netbios-ssn hostname:0 LISTENING
. . . with “hostname” replaced by the system’s hostname, of course.
Commercial UNIX Systems
For most commercial UNIX systems, even if there is not a version of netstat or sockstat available, you should be able to install lsof — which is short for “list open files”. Most Linux distributions and BSD Unix systems will provide lsof with a default install or through their respective software management systems. Some commercial UNIX systems do so as well, and for many others you can download it. The following command will limit the output of the utility to network ports:
lsof -i -n | egrep 'COMMAND|LISTEN'
The output should look something like this (as run on my laptop, again):
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
Xorg 1154 root 1u IPv6 0xc6042000 0t0 TCP *:x11 (LISTEN)
Xorg 1154 root 3u IPv4 0xc6041cb0 0t0 TCP *:x11 (LISTEN)
sshd 1685 root 3u IPv6 0xc6041ae0 0t0 TCP *:2200 (LISTEN)
sshd 1685 root 4u IPv4 0xc6041910 0t0 TCP *:2200 (LISTEN)
cupsd 1701 root 3u IPv6 0xc6041740 0t0 TCP [::1]:ipp (LISTEN)
cupsd 1701 root 4u IPv4 0xc6041570 0t0 TCP 127.0.0.1:ipp (LISTEN)
Now you know
. . . and knowing is half the battle. The other half involves using your knowledge, of course.
Now that you know how to list open ports on your system and can collect the information needed to find out what services are running that should not be active, you can make sure you turn off those services and close those ports. Because that process varies so greatly from one system to the next, and tends to be somewhat more complex than listing open ports, any instruction on that task from me will have to wait for another day.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Open source is not just for Linux: 14 apps that are great for Windows users
Recently I had a client that had a need that simply couldn’t be fulfilled with proprietary software. Well, that’s not exactly true. There were plenty of proprietary titles that could do what she needed done, but none that were at her budget. So I did what any advocate of open source software would do - I introduced her to the world of FOSS. She was amazed that so much software existed that was not only quality, but very cost effective.
That little interaction reminded me that the biggest hurdle open source software faced was not an incompatibility, or lack of solid code - but the lack of recognition. The majority of Windows users out there believe if you want good software you have to pay for it. So I decided to highlight the open source projects out there that run on Windows so you could, in turn, help spread the word by using and promoting these tools to your fellow Windows users.
Now…on to the software.
#1 LibreOffice: This one is, with the exception of the “new name”, obvious. If you are looking for the single best replacement for MS Office, look no further than LibreOffice. Yes, it is a fork of OpenOffice, but it forked at version 3.x so it benefited from an already solid code base. This piece of software is a must-have for open source advocates. And don’t worry, although it may claim to be in “beta”, many users (including myself) are using it in production environments.
#2 Scribus: If you are looking for desktop publishing for creating marketing materials, manuals, books, fliers, etc. - look no further than Scribus. Scribus can do nearly everything its proprietary counterparts can do (such as PageMaker and QuarkXPress) only it does it with a more user-friendly interface and doesn’t require nearly the resources the competition begs for.
#3 The GIMP: Need a raster editor? The GIMP is as powerful as Photoshop and costs roughly $700.00 dollars less. And if you’re unhappy with The GIMP’s current interface, hold off until around March when the new single-windowed interface will arrive. Take a look at how the new UI is evolving at the Gimp Brainstorm.
#4 Inkscape: Inkscape is to vector graphics what The GIMP is to raster graphics. Of course anyone that has worked with vector graphics knows they are not nearly as easy to work with as raster graphics, but Inkscape goes a long way to making that process as easy as it can be.
#5 GnuCash: This is the de facto standard accounting software for Linux. GnuCash is amazing in features, usability, and reliability. I have been using GnuCash for years and have yet to encounter a single problem. It does reporting, double-entry accounting, small business accounting, vendors/customers/jobs, stock/bond/mutual fund accounts, and much more.
#6 VLC: Video Lan is the multimedia player that can play nearly everything. In fact, VLC claims, “It plays everything”. I can vouch for that claim. I have yet to find a multimedia format VLC couldn’t handle. Ditch Windows Media Player, what with it’s crash-prone, resource hog behavior, and migrate to a light-weight, reliable, all-in-one multimedia player.
#7 Firefox: Another open source project that goes without saying. Firefox is quickly helping the “alternative browsers” to usurp the insecure, unreliable IE as the king of browsers. Firefox 4 should be out very soon and it promises more speed and security.
#8 Claws Mail: This is my mail client of choice. Not only is Claws Mail cross-platform, it’s also the single fastest graphical mail client available. If you want a mail client that starts up in mere seconds, has plenty of plugins, and can be configured more than any other mail client Claws Mail is your tool. Unfortunately Claws Mail can not connect to an Exchange server, but for all of your POP/IMAP accounts, this is what you need.
#9 VirtualBox: No, not everyone is working with virtual machines, but for those of you who are, make sure you give VirtualBox a go before you dive in and purchase VMWare. VirtualBox has many of the features that VMWare offers but can bring you into the world of virtual machines without the overhead cost of VMWare.
#10 TrueCrypt: This is one of those applications for the paranoid in all of us. If you need encrypted filesystems to safely hide away all of your company secrets, or just your personal information, then you need to try TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt creates a virtual encrypted disk that can be mounted and unmounted only with the configured passphrase. Without that passphrase the data within the filesystem can not be reached. Just make sure you do not forget or lose that passphrase.
#11 Calibre: With the amazing growth of ebooks (Amazon reported 2010 saw 60% of all books sold were ebooks), people need an easier way to manage their collections or convert their files/books to a readable ebook format. Calibre is one of the best tools for this job. I have four ebooks on sale at various ebook resellers (check Smashwords for me) and have used Calibre to help manage the conversion from .rtf format to a usable file. The only format Calibre has trouble formatting to is PDF.
#12 Audacity: Anyone that needs audio editing software should take a look at this power, open source selection. Audacity will enable you to create podcasts, music, convert audio to various formats, splice files together, change pitch of files, and much more.
#13 PeaZip: Who doesn’t have to work with archives? Nearly every PC user has had to unzip a file or create an archive for emailing. Why not do this with an open source tool that can handle nearly every archiving format on the planet?
#14 ClamWin: Why wouldn’t you trust an anti-virus solution created by open source developers? You should. ClamWin is a solid antivirus solution and should soon have the real-time antivirus solution completed. If you need an antivirus solution that doesn’t drag your machine to a screeching halt during scans or insists of installing add-ons you do not want or need, give ClamWin a try.
That little interaction reminded me that the biggest hurdle open source software faced was not an incompatibility, or lack of solid code - but the lack of recognition. The majority of Windows users out there believe if you want good software you have to pay for it. So I decided to highlight the open source projects out there that run on Windows so you could, in turn, help spread the word by using and promoting these tools to your fellow Windows users.
Now…on to the software.
#1 LibreOffice: This one is, with the exception of the “new name”, obvious. If you are looking for the single best replacement for MS Office, look no further than LibreOffice. Yes, it is a fork of OpenOffice, but it forked at version 3.x so it benefited from an already solid code base. This piece of software is a must-have for open source advocates. And don’t worry, although it may claim to be in “beta”, many users (including myself) are using it in production environments.
#2 Scribus: If you are looking for desktop publishing for creating marketing materials, manuals, books, fliers, etc. - look no further than Scribus. Scribus can do nearly everything its proprietary counterparts can do (such as PageMaker and QuarkXPress) only it does it with a more user-friendly interface and doesn’t require nearly the resources the competition begs for.
#3 The GIMP: Need a raster editor? The GIMP is as powerful as Photoshop and costs roughly $700.00 dollars less. And if you’re unhappy with The GIMP’s current interface, hold off until around March when the new single-windowed interface will arrive. Take a look at how the new UI is evolving at the Gimp Brainstorm.
#4 Inkscape: Inkscape is to vector graphics what The GIMP is to raster graphics. Of course anyone that has worked with vector graphics knows they are not nearly as easy to work with as raster graphics, but Inkscape goes a long way to making that process as easy as it can be.
#5 GnuCash: This is the de facto standard accounting software for Linux. GnuCash is amazing in features, usability, and reliability. I have been using GnuCash for years and have yet to encounter a single problem. It does reporting, double-entry accounting, small business accounting, vendors/customers/jobs, stock/bond/mutual fund accounts, and much more.
#6 VLC: Video Lan is the multimedia player that can play nearly everything. In fact, VLC claims, “It plays everything”. I can vouch for that claim. I have yet to find a multimedia format VLC couldn’t handle. Ditch Windows Media Player, what with it’s crash-prone, resource hog behavior, and migrate to a light-weight, reliable, all-in-one multimedia player.
#7 Firefox: Another open source project that goes without saying. Firefox is quickly helping the “alternative browsers” to usurp the insecure, unreliable IE as the king of browsers. Firefox 4 should be out very soon and it promises more speed and security.
#8 Claws Mail: This is my mail client of choice. Not only is Claws Mail cross-platform, it’s also the single fastest graphical mail client available. If you want a mail client that starts up in mere seconds, has plenty of plugins, and can be configured more than any other mail client Claws Mail is your tool. Unfortunately Claws Mail can not connect to an Exchange server, but for all of your POP/IMAP accounts, this is what you need.
#9 VirtualBox: No, not everyone is working with virtual machines, but for those of you who are, make sure you give VirtualBox a go before you dive in and purchase VMWare. VirtualBox has many of the features that VMWare offers but can bring you into the world of virtual machines without the overhead cost of VMWare.
#10 TrueCrypt: This is one of those applications for the paranoid in all of us. If you need encrypted filesystems to safely hide away all of your company secrets, or just your personal information, then you need to try TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt creates a virtual encrypted disk that can be mounted and unmounted only with the configured passphrase. Without that passphrase the data within the filesystem can not be reached. Just make sure you do not forget or lose that passphrase.
#11 Calibre: With the amazing growth of ebooks (Amazon reported 2010 saw 60% of all books sold were ebooks), people need an easier way to manage their collections or convert their files/books to a readable ebook format. Calibre is one of the best tools for this job. I have four ebooks on sale at various ebook resellers (check Smashwords for me) and have used Calibre to help manage the conversion from .rtf format to a usable file. The only format Calibre has trouble formatting to is PDF.
#12 Audacity: Anyone that needs audio editing software should take a look at this power, open source selection. Audacity will enable you to create podcasts, music, convert audio to various formats, splice files together, change pitch of files, and much more.
#13 PeaZip: Who doesn’t have to work with archives? Nearly every PC user has had to unzip a file or create an archive for emailing. Why not do this with an open source tool that can handle nearly every archiving format on the planet?
#14 ClamWin: Why wouldn’t you trust an anti-virus solution created by open source developers? You should. ClamWin is a solid antivirus solution and should soon have the real-time antivirus solution completed. If you need an antivirus solution that doesn’t drag your machine to a screeching halt during scans or insists of installing add-ons you do not want or need, give ClamWin a try.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Shrink a hard drive volume in Windows 7
Takeaway: Use the Disk Management Tool in Microsoft Windows 7 to shrink a hard drive volume to create room so you can add a new partition.
Microsoft Windows 7 provides several tools for managing the configuration of your computer and the various parts of your operating system. There are times where you will want to shrink the amount of allocated space on your hard drive, referred to as a volume, to make room for another partition. In the not-so-distant past you would have used a third-party tool for this task, but with the Windows 7 Disk Management Tool, the utility you require is part of the operating system.
This blog post is also available as a TechRepublic Photo Gallery and TechRepublic download.
Shrink a volume
The first step is to start the Disk Management tool with elevated administrative rights. Click the Start menu button, type diskmgmt.msc into the search box, and then right-click the diskmgmt.msc entry to get to the Run as Administrator item in the context menu, as shown in Figure A.
Figure A
Open the Disk Management Tool with administrative rights.
Clicking Run as Administrator will load the Disk Management Tool, which will look something like Figure B.
Figure B
The Disk Management Tool will load.
As you can see, I have a recover disk on my test machine in addition to an Operating System partition and a Data partition. In general, you want to shrink a nonoperating system volume, so we will shrink the Data partition (D:).
Right-click the drive you want to shrink (D: in our example) and navigate to the Shrink Volume menu item, as shown in Figure C.
Figure C
Navigate to the Shrink Volume menu item.
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The Disk Management Tool will take a few seconds to analyze the drive in question and then present you with a summary screen similar to the one shown in Figure D.
Figure D
The Summary shrink screen shows the results of the analysis.
The number you can change on this screen is Enter the Amount of Space to Shrink in MB box. I am shrinking drive D by 5000MB (5GB), as you can see in Figure E. Click the Shrink button when you are ready.
Figure E
Shrink the drive by 5000MB.
When the process is complete, you will have a new unallocated partition. The actual size will be less than what you asked for as there will be some space taken up by the Windows file system, as shown in Figure F.
Figure F
A new unallocated partition will appear.
Allocate the unallocated
The next step will be to allocate the newly created space into something the operating system can use. That procedure is not complicated, but it does involve several steps, so we’ll run through that process in a follow-up post.
Microsoft Windows 7 provides several tools for managing the configuration of your computer and the various parts of your operating system. There are times where you will want to shrink the amount of allocated space on your hard drive, referred to as a volume, to make room for another partition. In the not-so-distant past you would have used a third-party tool for this task, but with the Windows 7 Disk Management Tool, the utility you require is part of the operating system.
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Shrink a volume
The first step is to start the Disk Management tool with elevated administrative rights. Click the Start menu button, type diskmgmt.msc into the search box, and then right-click the diskmgmt.msc entry to get to the Run as Administrator item in the context menu, as shown in Figure A.
Figure A
Open the Disk Management Tool with administrative rights.
Clicking Run as Administrator will load the Disk Management Tool, which will look something like Figure B.
Figure B
The Disk Management Tool will load.
As you can see, I have a recover disk on my test machine in addition to an Operating System partition and a Data partition. In general, you want to shrink a nonoperating system volume, so we will shrink the Data partition (D:).
Right-click the drive you want to shrink (D: in our example) and navigate to the Shrink Volume menu item, as shown in Figure C.
Figure C
Navigate to the Shrink Volume menu item.
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The Disk Management Tool will take a few seconds to analyze the drive in question and then present you with a summary screen similar to the one shown in Figure D.
Figure D
The Summary shrink screen shows the results of the analysis.
The number you can change on this screen is Enter the Amount of Space to Shrink in MB box. I am shrinking drive D by 5000MB (5GB), as you can see in Figure E. Click the Shrink button when you are ready.
Figure E
Shrink the drive by 5000MB.
When the process is complete, you will have a new unallocated partition. The actual size will be less than what you asked for as there will be some space taken up by the Windows file system, as shown in Figure F.
Figure F
A new unallocated partition will appear.
Allocate the unallocated
The next step will be to allocate the newly created space into something the operating system can use. That procedure is not complicated, but it does involve several steps, so we’ll run through that process in a follow-up post.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Exam 70-646
Exam 70 601 can be strongly related to Microsoft office. It is entry level of certification suitable for the professionals who just started their career in IT industry. The persons who want to work in Microsoft 2007 office can go for 70-601 exam. For certifying MCAS certification (Microsoft certified Application specialist), candidates should take this examination i-e 70-601 along with the certifications such as 70-603, 70-604 as well as 70-605 examinations.
Exam Requirement:
The candidates who want to start up their career in Microsoft office 2007 can take up this exam. The major job roles include designation playing a major in Microsoft word application. Before attempting this exam candidate should have the basic knowledge of computer specially knowledge of using Microsoft 2007 office or other Microsoft office applications.
Skills measured through 70-601 exam
70-601 exam validates the knowledge and skills of candidates in tasks such as formatting word documents and other contents. The exam topic includes creation as well as customization of documents. Attempting this exam enables the candidates to perform various tasks like creation of lay-outs in documentation, formatting as well as creating documents, manipulating texts, creation of controlling pages, formatting paragraphs and other document related etc.
Exam outline
Following are the topics included in exam
1) Formatting all word documents / contents
2) Working with the visual contents
3) Organizing the contents
4) Reviewing and proofreading all the documentation
5) Sharing as well as securing the contents.
6) Creation and customizing documents
At the end I would like to recommend the 70-601 Certkingdom exam preparation tools for getting exam guidance.
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Exam Requirement:
The candidates who want to start up their career in Microsoft office 2007 can take up this exam. The major job roles include designation playing a major in Microsoft word application. Before attempting this exam candidate should have the basic knowledge of computer specially knowledge of using Microsoft 2007 office or other Microsoft office applications.
Skills measured through 70-601 exam
70-601 exam validates the knowledge and skills of candidates in tasks such as formatting word documents and other contents. The exam topic includes creation as well as customization of documents. Attempting this exam enables the candidates to perform various tasks like creation of lay-outs in documentation, formatting as well as creating documents, manipulating texts, creation of controlling pages, formatting paragraphs and other document related etc.
Exam outline
Following are the topics included in exam
1) Formatting all word documents / contents
2) Working with the visual contents
3) Organizing the contents
4) Reviewing and proofreading all the documentation
5) Sharing as well as securing the contents.
6) Creation and customizing documents
At the end I would like to recommend the 70-601 Certkingdom exam preparation tools for getting exam guidance.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
How to Change Screen Resolution and Display Colors Quality in Safe Mode of Windows
Whenever there is any system problem, especially the dread BSoD (Blue Screen of Death), most users first reaction is probably to go into Safe Mode to try to troubleshoot Windows. Safe Mode loads and starts just basis files and drivers necessary to run Windows.
Most drivers, including manufacturer’s driver to display adapter (graphic processing unit or accelerator GPU) is not been loaded. Thus, by default, Safe Mode normally has a screen resolution of just 800×600, causing a lot of components cannot be displayed and shown completely on screen, including the Start Menu and desktop icons, which has been realigned.
The worst part is that it seems like there is no way to change the any display settings such as desktop resolution and color quality at all. When user goes to Display Properties (in Windows XP) or Display Settings (in Windows Vista under Personalization), and try to change the screen resolution to higher resolution such as 1600×1200 or 1280×800 which is commonly used as native resolution in today’s modern LCD display panels, the Windows in Safe Mode simply does not respond to the OK or Apply button, and does not apply the change made.
Here’s a trick to change the screen resolution and color quality display settings in Safe Mode of Windows, with any registry hack or third party program.
Go to Display Properties (Windows XP) or Display Settings (Windows Vista) by right click on empty blank space on Desktop, then select Properties (Windows XP) or Personalize (Windows Vista).
Then change the resolution by sliding the Low to High slider bar. Do not press “OK” or “Apply” at this time. Instead, click on Advanced Settings, and then click OK. Windows in Safe Mode will change the screen resolution according to new settings, and prompt a “Monitor Settings” dialog box prompting that desktop has been reconfigured, with countdown timer. Click on Yes to keep the new settings.
Change Screen Resolution in Safe Mode
Alternatively, simply click on Advanced, go to Adapter tab, then click on List All Mode. Select a mode with screen resolution size and color mode that you prefer, and click on OK. Windows will apply the new resolution size and color quality on Safe Mode too.
Most drivers, including manufacturer’s driver to display adapter (graphic processing unit or accelerator GPU) is not been loaded. Thus, by default, Safe Mode normally has a screen resolution of just 800×600, causing a lot of components cannot be displayed and shown completely on screen, including the Start Menu and desktop icons, which has been realigned.
The worst part is that it seems like there is no way to change the any display settings such as desktop resolution and color quality at all. When user goes to Display Properties (in Windows XP) or Display Settings (in Windows Vista under Personalization), and try to change the screen resolution to higher resolution such as 1600×1200 or 1280×800 which is commonly used as native resolution in today’s modern LCD display panels, the Windows in Safe Mode simply does not respond to the OK or Apply button, and does not apply the change made.
Here’s a trick to change the screen resolution and color quality display settings in Safe Mode of Windows, with any registry hack or third party program.
Go to Display Properties (Windows XP) or Display Settings (Windows Vista) by right click on empty blank space on Desktop, then select Properties (Windows XP) or Personalize (Windows Vista).
Then change the resolution by sliding the Low to High slider bar. Do not press “OK” or “Apply” at this time. Instead, click on Advanced Settings, and then click OK. Windows in Safe Mode will change the screen resolution according to new settings, and prompt a “Monitor Settings” dialog box prompting that desktop has been reconfigured, with countdown timer. Click on Yes to keep the new settings.
Change Screen Resolution in Safe Mode
Alternatively, simply click on Advanced, go to Adapter tab, then click on List All Mode. Select a mode with screen resolution size and color mode that you prefer, and click on OK. Windows will apply the new resolution size and color quality on Safe Mode too.
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