Joe Hackman

Joe Hackman

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Windows 7 Video Tip – Adding new items to the sendto menu

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Example Sendto Menu

Typical Sendto Menu

When you right click a file or folder on your Windows 7 computer there are several menus available, one of them is the “sendto” menu. This allows you to easily send that file or folder to that program or folder. One important option that is missing in this menu is the notepad program. In this video I demonstrate how to add new items to the sendto menu or specifically the notepad program in the example. You can use it for almost anything a program, network drive even an FTP server.

How to add valuable information to your Windows desktop background (Video)

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It seems as though basic system information is often needed but not always easy to get. This video demonstrates how to use the BGinfo program by Sysinternals to display important information on the desktop background of your windows PC. The first couple of minutes show how to edit and use the program then a demonstration showing how to add it to a login script follows that for network admin types.

Here is a screenshot example of the output on one of our test machines:

BGinfo on a Windows 7 Aero Desktop

Have an idea you’d like to see a video demonstration of? If it’s not already here, let us know via comments, contact form or Facebook and we’ll try to get it added to our library.

How to refresh your DNS Cache

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You may have found yourself in this predicament – you or your ISP have changed some of your domain name server settings for your website, email or similar service and you cannot yet access the new resource when you try. Part of the process you can control and part you cannot. These changes when well planned will occur very quickly on the internet side of things but your local computer may need some help to recognize the new settings. That is the purpose of this article.

Who is it for specifically?

This information will be very useful for anyone running Windows who has recently made changes to their website or email server DNS settings. The instructions are written for Windows 7, but the commands work on NT and above.

Accessing an administrative command (cmd) prompt

There are three commands total but to access them you first need a cmd prompt running as administrator. To do that go into the start menu/all programs/accessories and find Command Prompt. Right click Command prompt and choose “run as administrator” this may require some account credentials of an administrative user on the machine or domain.
Admin Command Prompt Windows 7

Running the commands to refresh all of your local DNS cache

Once you are in the administrative cmd window you will need to type the following three commands:

  1. ipconfig /flushdns
  2. net stop “dns client”
  3. net start “dns client”

Close and re-open your browser and test

Once that is done, you can try to access the resource where the changes were being made. If it still doesn’t resolve it is not on your computer. Simply run the commands again periodically and test. This will ensure that you will get updated dns settings each time.

Questions? Comments? Leave them in the comment section below.

Powerpoint Tip Slideshow in a Window (Video)

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Ever try to record a screencast of a Powerpoint presentation? If you have you may have noticed like I did that you cannot easily run the presentation slideshow within a window small enough for a practical screencast. After doing some research I discovered that there are some not so well documented features for Powerpoint 2007/2010 that will allow you to run your presentation in a window. This would be particularly useful if you were doing some kind of mashup.