Typing Tutor and a great Freeware site

Freeware Files - Free Software Downloads

I was looking for a typing tutor software. Among a few that are free, one popped up for having a portable version which does not need to be installed. This is a must have for some users who want to practice typing on computers where they don't have administrative rights to install any software. Other than that, Rapid Typing Tutor (link) is a decent typing tutorial with a very nice graphical interface and sets of exercises to practice touch typing. I will keep this software on my laptop in case someone asks me for such a program in the future.

Another good thing I found is the web site from which I downloaded the above typing tutor. FreewareFiles (link) also hosts other freeware with portable versions. It lists CCleaner portable version, for example. The site is full of ads but it hosts loads of freeware programs with user reviews. I will review the site in the future to see how often it gets updated.
Too bad they do not offer customized lists for tracking the latest versions of the software one uses. There are no logins for the site hence no customizations. But the search works well.

Subtitles - .srt files

Subtitle files (.srt) for movies are used to display the movie conversations and monologues on the screen. Sometimes they are used to translate a movie in a foreign language and sometimes simply to understand what the actors are saying.
Here are a few sites that host .srt files for various movies:

OpenSubtitles
Subscene
DivX Subtitles
DivX Subtitles World
RDW Subtitles
Subbiee Search
Any Subs

Some VM Tools

Sanbarrow.com

To create Virtual Machines for use with VMWare a VMX Builder is available here.
Instructions on how to convert from scsi to ide disk are posted here.

I'm trying to collect all the free tools and scripts out there to allow manipulation of virtual machines and virtual disks.
Still no idea on what to use as a standard. I think it will be .vmdk for now. For virtual machines it will be VirtualBox. And I'll still have to use VMWare Player and VirtualPC for machines created with these tools. Some operating systems won't run after disk conversion or if run under VirtualBox, although it supports all types of virtual disks above.

Deploying a WCF Service with IIS 7

I did expect it to be this simple but I could not believe it would really be that way. All it takes for a WCF service to be deployed to IIS box is the following:

1. Copy .svc file into a web site folder on the server,
2. Copy .dll file into a \bin subfolder in the web site,
3. Copy web.config or create a new one. It has to have the endpoint configuration. The one created by default by Visual Studio 2008 simply references "localhost", which seem to be fine.
4. "%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation\ServiceModelReg.exe" -r -y

Assuming the service has been tested through Visual Studio 2008 on the development box, this is it!
Navigate the browser to that http://<server>/<service>.svc and you will see the service front page. The step #4 is required for WCF to work IIS OOTB.

This works for the default option of BasicHTTPBinding and no specific endpoint or binding configuration. The point was to get it working. All the nitty-gritty stuff comes later.

Automatic Logon in Windows Server 2003

How to turn on automatic logon in Windows

To avoid having to log on to Windows 2003 follow the steps below. Some might wonder why would anyone do such a thing as remove authentication from a server operating system. I think they are suffering from lack of imagination. :)
Running a Windows Server in a virtual machine environment is a perfect example where I don't want to type a password for all the virtual machines around.

To use Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) to turn on
automatic logon, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type Regedt32.exe, and then press ENTER.
3. Locate the following subkey in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
4. Double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click OK.
5. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password, and then click OK.NOTE: If the DefaultPassword value does not exist, it must be added. To add the value, follow
   these steps:
   
   
   1. On the Edit menu, click New, and then point to String Value.
   2. Type DefaultPassword, and then
      press ENTER.
   3. Double-click DefaultPassword.
   4. In the Edit String dialog, type your password and then click OK.
   NOTE: If no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows automatically
   changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon key from 1 (true) to 0 (false), disabling the AutoAdminLogon
   feature.
   
   
6. On the Edit menu, click New, and then point to String Value.
7. Type AutoAdminLogon, and then press
   ENTER.
8. Double-click
   AutoAdminLogon.
9. In the Edit String dialog box, type 1 and then click OK.
10. Quit Registry Editor.
11. Click Start, click Shutdown, and then type a reason in the Comment text box.
12. Click OK to turn off your computer.
13. Restart your computer. You can now log on
    automatically.

Software as a Service - Online Database

Dabble DB - Create an Online Database - Collect, report, and share your data

One more Web 2 (or 3) application that continues the trend of "software as a service". Here I count only the applications that are actually useful and can replace something that already exists while also adding some new value (features, options, etc.).
Dabble DB is one of them. It offers a free version of the service which allows up to 100,000 records in a database and 15 users sharing the data. Perfect for small-scale projects. Available everywhere around the world where internet access exists.
Dabble allows creation of input forms, reports, charts - seems everything one needs for a simple database project is there.

Create .vmdk with QEmu

QEmu-Img, a tool that comes with QEmu package, can create new .vmdk virtual drive images. This should be enough to satisfy most of the functionality needed to work with virtual machines yet to keep all the software free (Open Source).
Together with VirtualBox, this makes a strong VM combination. VirtualBox supports all its functionality while using .vmdk drive images.

The command parameteres are listed below:

qemu-img version 0.9.1, Copyright (c) 2004-2008 Fabrice Bellard
usage: qemu-img command [command options]
QEMU disk image utility

Command syntax:
  create [-e] [-6] [-b base_image] [-f fmt] filename [size]
  commit [-f fmt] filename
  convert [-c] [-e] [-6] [-f fmt] [-O output_fmt] filename [filename2 [...]] out
put_filename
  info [-f fmt] filename

Command parameters:
  'filename' is a disk image filename
  'base_image' is the read-only disk image which is used as base for a copy on
    write image; the copy on write image only stores the modified data
  'fmt' is the disk image format. It is guessed automatically in most cases
  'size' is the disk image size in kilobytes. Optional suffixes 'M' (megabyte)
    and 'G' (gigabyte) are supported
  'output_filename' is the destination disk image filename
  'output_fmt' is the destination format
  '-c' indicates that target image must be compressed (qcow format only)
  '-e' indicates that the target image must be encrypted (qcow format only)
  '-6' indicates that the target image must use compatibility level 6 (vmdk form
at only)

Supported format: parallels qcow2 vvfat vpc bochs dmg cloop vmdk qcow host_devic
e raw

Windows Server 2008 and File Extensions - Bug?

I had a few file extensions set to open with programs located on my mounted I: drive. Then I moved the files to C: and removed the mounted drive.
Windows Server 2008 went crazy with file extensions that were linked to programs on (now) non-existent drive. It was impossible to select another program as the default. I had to manually open the registry and search for previous location and change it to the new drive. After that everything worked as usual.

Creating a virtual machine from a real one - Virtual disk resources

Here are some tools that might help in creating a virtual machine from a real one. Some of them create only a virtual hard disk drive image, which can be enough since creating a new virtual machine is rather simple with VirtualBox or other virtualization programs.

QEmu package can be used to create new .vmdk virtual drive images and then the following programs can be used to copy files from an existing system, or mount an existing virtual drive and copy, or any other combination possible.

Free software:

• HoboCopy - copy utility using Volume Shadow Copy. Project page on SF - here.
• Shadow Copy - copy utility using Volume Shadow Copy.
  
• DD for Windows
• VMWare Server
• CloneZilla
• Ping and PartImage (for Linux)
• VMWare Converter

Additional free software listed here.

Free alternatives (trial, home, shareware, etc.):

• DriveImage XML
• DriveBackup Express
• CopyWipe from Terabyte
• Macrium Reflect
• DiscWizard
• Acronis True Image 8.0 Personal
• WinImage
• Drive SnapShot - creates disk images from a running system. See Tips on how to create a virtual disk from a drive snapshot.

Commercial software:

• VMWare, both Workstation and Server, offers the feature of creating a VM from a physical one but I had no luck using this feature;
• Acronis True Image
• AyRecovery (home), previously EAZClone
• DriveBackup, from Paragon
• Norton Ghost
• Image for Windows from Terabyte. There is also BING (BootIt Next Generation)
• ShadowProtect If you run across some other packages, let me know.

VirtualBox - No Network Adapter on Windows XP

I had an issue with a guest Windows XP in a virtual machine. It could not recognize neither of the network cards (NICs) offered by VirtualBox.
Here are the links for Intel, and AMD network card drivers. I used the driver (available here) and everything was alright after the driver installation.
Funny the driver was not available on the manufacturer's site for Windows 2008 Server.

Source for the links - here.