Installing PHP 5 on IIS 5 or IIS 6 in 5 simple steps

Just click the link below and follow the steps outlined there:
Installing PHP 5 on IIS 5 or IIS 6 in 5 simple steps

Uninstalling IIS from Windows XP

It seemed an easy task at first. From the windows control panel we have to choose Add/Remove Programs, and then to choose Add/Remove Windows components. Once IIS is unchecked we should be able to uninstall it. But unfortunately it could not finish uninstalling IIS that way. It could uninstall several components of IIS individually but it failed or appeared non-responsive during un-installing World Wide Web Service component of IIS.

After many trial and error attempts and googling I finally figured out an way. I restarted my PC in Safe mode and followed the above approach and was able to unistall IIS finally. If you dont know how to restart your PC in safe mode – reboot it and keep pressing on F8.

The file wmplayer.exe has a version number of 11.0.5358.4827 where 9.0.0.3250 was expected

I’ve just installed Window Media Player 11 on windows xp sp2, but when I start, it gives an error message:
“The file wmplayer.exe has a version number of 11.0.5358.4827 where 9.0.0.3250 was expected”
and I’m not able to start the player. After a little googling found this tips on eivaagames.com. The fix is as follows:

For Windows Vista:
Reboot your system. Then open cmd.exe as an administrator and then run
“c:\windows\system32\unregmp2.exe /UpdateWMP” to fix this.

On all other Windows systems:
Reboot your system and then run “c:\windows\inf\unregmp2.exe /UpdateWMP” to fix this.

The Working Directory Does not Exists C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\…

I am working on a shared Add-in for Excel in Visual Studio 2005 and got that message. The add-in is under development by somebody else and I am to help him in implementing a part of it. When i click on Start Debugging [F5] then I got this message: The Working Directory Does not Exists C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\…

Well my Windows is installed on Q:\ directory (weired, isn’t it) and Visual Studio is also there. Since it is somebody else’s program whose Windows is naturally in the C:\ drive I know I need to figure out where to setup the working directory of a visual studio project.

And here is that. Under  Project -> [my project name goes here] Properties -> Debug tab in the IDE. Setting the options that I need to correct is “Working directiry” to my drive/path and also “Start external program” to one of my target apps such as Excel’s drive/path that would lauch that application with the debugger attached when I press F5.

DotNetNuke 4.08.01 Installation Tips

I was having trouble installing DotNetNuke (DNN) on SQL server 2000. It was giving me the error message that user cannot be recognized etc. Although user and database was properly set up. What was wrong is that by default the database connection string which is active (uncommented) in web.config file is for SQL Server Express 2005. The connection string for SQL Server 2000 is actually commented out.

I could not notice it – although i was making changes to the SQL 2000 settings it was not making any sense. Finally i could catch the culprit comment in both “connectionStrings” and “appSettings” section of the web.config file.

The active SQL Server 2000 settings for my web.config file is as below. The SQL Express 2005 settings are commented out:



<connectionStrings>
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express
<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=.SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
-->
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 -->
<add
name="SiteSqlServer"
connectionString="Server=(local); Database=DotNetNuke; uid=dnn; pwd=dnn;"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

<appSettings>
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules
<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Data Source=.SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;" />
-->
<!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules -->
<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Server=(local); Database=DotNetNuke; uid=dnn; pwd=dnn;"/>

…

</appSettings>

Yahoo Bookmarks with FireFox Yahoo Toolbar Extension

I was really in trouble with all my bookmarks in so many places. In my office PC, home PC, PocketPC, mobile phone, note pad, stumbleupon, everywhere and in overwhelming numbers. It was really really inefficent way of managing bookmarks.

Many days ago I started using google bookmark hoping to manage it on the internet, but rarely had time to update it.

Fewdays ago StartAid, a firefox extension, was released. Since Firefox is my favorite browser I intended to use that. But of course Google and Yahoo services are also always on my favorite list and both of them have bookmark service. Now I had to make a choice. You know, logging in and out to manage my bookmarks is a boring thing for me. Understandably I can not avoid that though.

But at last I make my choice and pick up Yahoo Bookmarks. I could also choose Google’s but Yahoo mail is my prime online mailing system. That is why I picked up Yahoo for my “Note”, and now for “Bookmark” also. Moreover, “Yahoo toolbar” extension for firefox is there to make my life easier. In fact I found that “Yahoo Bookmark+Firefox Yahoo Toolbar extension” is an ideal choice for bookmarks management. The Yahoo bookmarks (still in beta thoug) is fantastic in functionality, it allows you to create tags and folder for your boookmarks, export FireFox bookmarks from your PCs, and make your bookmarks available from the FireFox Yahoo toolbar. And needless to mention that I am be able to use my Yahoo bookmarks from everywhere, on my PC, PocketPC, or mobile phone, while at office or home or on the move.

Now that I am able to consolidate, categorize, tag all my bookmarks at one place and can be efficient on-line. That is what I always wanted.

Minimize Firefox to System Tray

Minimize to tray icon for Firefox (and Sunbird) is what i was looking for for sometimes. The current version 0.0.1.2 works with my Firefox 2.0.0.11. You have to set the option from the Add-ons menus – the options are 1) whether you want the browser to be minimized always or 2) only while closing.

RSS Feed Format for Blogger Blogs

One can easily forget the blogger rss feed format, here is it:

http://BLOGNAME.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

or the xml feed

http://BLOGNAME.blogspot.com/atom.xml

One has to replace the BLOGNAME with the actual blog name.

SMF Specific

The blogger RSS feed is not directly supported by SMF forum add-on “Feed” for TinyPortal v0.9.8. Because it only support RSS feed. You can however burn your feed in Feedburner. Once burned you can use the feedburner link fro your blog with SMF “Feed” add-on.

The feedburner link will be something like:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOURBLOG

Where YOURBLOG is the unique string you assign during feedburning to identify your blog.

Sent html Newsletters to all SMF members

SMF allows both plain text and html email/newsletters to be sent to forum members. Before you click on the “send” button make sure you choose the right option from below. SMF offers the following two checkbox options immediately before sending your mail.

1. Send in HTML format. (with this you can put normal HTML in the email.)
2. Add <br />s and  s to this message.

The second option is the default for text mail. However, when you want to copy and paste HTML formatted file make sure that you choose the first option and deselect the second one.

Firefox and ScribeFire

Firefox is my favorite desktop web browser. The topmost reason why I like Firefox is, it is free and it has multitude of free Add-Ons many of which are really powerful and useful. One such add-on is ScribeFire (eralier “Performancing”). This is a Blogging utility as an extension to Firefox browser that allows me to manage and post entries to my blogs.

I have my blogs on WordPress and Blogger. ScribeFire allows me to add all my blogs to it and thus I am able to switch between my Blogs from a single interface. I can also see and manage all of my posts, tags, pages, etc. ScribeFire thus not only saves my time, it also encourages me to do blogging as the interface is now just a click away. Without such tool, blogger like me would be usually reluctant to spare some extra clicks required to visit the blog site, login, write and then post.

Also using ScribeFire means you are editing your blog locally on your computer instead of on a remote blog server. That is another big advantage because it is quicker to do stuff like adding links, doing formatting, reviewing multiple times, saving temporarily as note, etc.

To add Blogs site to ScribFire one has to just press the “Add” button from the “Blogs” tab on the right panel. Then enter your blog address like “http://myonecent.wordpress.com”. Next you have to enter user id and password for your blog site. Just remember, if your sign-up email address was abc.xyz@gmail.com your user id is abc.xyz. That is all you need to add your site to ScribeFire.

Happy Blogging!

P.S: This entry was posted using ScribeFire.