Frostyzone.net

This is a hardware update to my current specs found here

• Motherboard: ASUS P5Q PRO --> GIGABYTE EX54-UD4
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 @ 2,5GHz --> i7-920
• Graphic card: MSI NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT --> GeForce GTX 285 1gb
• Harddisk: 2x Seagate Barracuda 320GB 24/7 --> Added: WD Caviar Black 1TB (OS disk)
• RAM: 2x Samsung 2GB  UPDATE: 2x Geil Black Dragon 2GB (8GB FTW) --> 6x 2gb DDR3-1333 (12gb)
• Tower: Antec Performance One P182
• PSU: Corsair TX750W

And the OS is ofcourse Windows Server 2008r2 now :D ..I'm very happy with my new hardware update and it's just working perfectly!

I needed to partition my newly bought 1TB WD disk for my HTPC, because i wanted to use some for OS and the rest for data storage, but i had already put 200GB of data onto it. I will explain how I handled this problem, and still kept my data.

First of all i needed a program capable of partitioning a disk that contains data. I was a little careful picking the software, because a software crash right ind the middle of the partitioning, would destroy the data that was already on the disk.

I read a lot of recommendations in different forums and stumbled upon this: http://www.partitionwizard.com/, it did exactly what i needed!

And it was really easy to use, just a few clicks and the disk was partitioned in a few minutes. But remember that it is recommended to backup the data before using the program, even though the program is capable of saving the data.

One thing i struggled with a lot afterwards, was installing the OS and it seemed like i needed to set my newly partitioned part to active(has to be if it should be bootable), stupid mistake but took a lot of time before I realized it was the problem.

Hardware:

• TV: Sony KDL-40V5500 - 40" Full HD LCD (here)
• Console: PS3
• Receiver:  Sony STR-DH800 (here)
• Subwoofer: Apart SUBA165 (here)
• Front/Back speakers: Apart MASK6-BL (here)
• Center speaker: JVC

• Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech dinovo mini
• Motherboard: Asus P5N7A-VM
• CPU: Intel Core 2 duo E6600
• CPU cooler: Cosmo cool aluminium/copper hybrid edition
• Graphic card: NVIDIA GeForce 9300 (integrated)
  
• Hard disk drive OS: 1TB Western Digital AV-GP (partitioned)
  
• Hard disk drive Data: 1TB Western Digital AV-GP
  
• Optical disk drive: Asus combo CD/DVD-RW
• RAM: 2x1GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2
• Tower: Antec NSK2480 (removed one fan to reduce noise)
• PSU: 380W 80 plus (integrated)

Software:

• OS: Windows XP professional (speed optimized)
• Media center: XBMC FREE read more..
• Music player: Winamp FREE read more..
• All round player: VLCplayer  FREE read more..

Review:

So far it is working perfectly! ...with low noise and great performance.

When I have used the system for some time, I will make a more thorough review of my HTPC set-up

Pictures:

I've been wondering about how secure Windows Remote Desktop actually is, and it seems like you can be pretty protected with some common sense and few changes.

Here are a few tips that I have found while searching:

• As default all administrators has remote desktop access, so it is a good idea to change the Administrator users name to a different name.
  
  1. It is found in: Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy -> Local Policies -> Security Options
  2. Find: "Accounts: Rename administrator account" in the list, and right click and Properties.
  3. You are able to rename the administrator name here, and then restart the computer.
  4. While your in the Local Policies you can change the values in the Account Policies to be as you want it, like changing the: Account lockout threshold to a few attempts.
• Another thing is to change the default port number of remote desktop which is 3389, it can be changed the following way.
  1. Go to: Start -> Run -> write "regedit" -> press OK.
  2. Go to the following folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> TerminalServer -> WinStations -> RDP-Tcp
  3. Find: "PortNumber" in the list, and right click and "Modify..."
  4. Write your desired port number and remember to add ":PortNumber" at the end of the URL when connecting to your Remote Desktop, and be sure to check if the firewall port is open.

I use windows server 2008 as a workstation myself, and there are significant changes which can be made to make it much better as a workstation.

A great site that i used to reconfigure mine is: win2008workstation.com, there is guides to everything, from disabling the shutdown tracker to performance increases and much more!

..i can warmly recommend it, because it gives a better workstation experience on a awesome OS.

Problem

We have a computer showing an excel document at work, which shows who has to get breakfast on the particular day. I thought it could be made a lot smarter, and that's why i started this fun mini project, but also to get a better understanding of Windows application, because they are relatively new for me.

Solution

Create a small windows application which will keep track on who has to get breakfast each day.

The language is Danish, so you will have to translate if you don't get the main functionality.

Read more

I'm not a big fan of WLM, but because so many uses it you are kind of forced to use it. So that's why I've found some nice extensions I'd like to share with the readers, you probably already know them or maybe not, but here they come.

I think this is the most popular Plug in to WLM out there, and I am of course talking about Messenger Plus! Live. This extension has a lot of great features, like the option to import scripts into WLM to give it even more features. One of my favorites is the Screenshot Sender, because it makes it very easy to take a screenshot of either the whole screen or just a windows etc. It can be downloaded here: Messenger Plus! Live.

One of the problems I encounter in WLM, is that my mail and links all open in Internet Explore, even though I've set Firefox as my default browser. I think that is very irritating, because I want everything to open in Firefox, and the only reason I use IE is to test my projects. But there must  be something out there, that could solve my problem, and there is, it's called StuffPlug 3 and is a plug in which has a lot of little tweaks that help's you customize WLM after your needs. All you need to do is to download the extension from here: StuffPlug 3 and then go to Options and check the Open all URLs in default browser.

This is the two extensions I'm currently using, if you have any other good suggestion about a nice extension feel free to leave a comment.

I have finally got my new computer build, and it is now up and running pretty good.

Here is the hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUS P5Q PRO
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 @ 2,5GHz
• Graphic card: MSI NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT
• Harddisk: 2x Seagate Barracuda 320GB 24/7
• RAM: 2x Samsung 2GB  UPDATE: 2x Geil Black Dragon 2GB (8GB FTW)
• Tower: Antec Performance One P182
• PSU: Corsair TX750W

And now for the obligatory software:

Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, sql server 2008  **Heroes happen {here}**