Password to log in to your computer has come in different forms, initially we had and still have text passwords, where one uses the keyboard to type, then the finger print scanners (bio metric) were introduced, then there is face recognition (I am not sure how far this was successful), and now with Windows 8, Microsoft has introduced a new way to enter your passwords and its called Picture Passwords 
. This is one of the newest and coolest features I have used so far. Its not that difficult to configure either (that’s the best part)
The idea behind this feature is that, you will have to select a picture and up to 3 different gesture combinations that you use to interact with it. These interactions can be either in a circular form or just lines, for an example, in a picture you can start connecting all your family members faces with a line and that can be a password or may be circle the face of your best friend.
How to do?
- Click on the Control Panel App
- Tap on Users
- Create Picture Password
- Enter your password
- Once the account is authenticated it will give you an overview on the Picture password feature and will allow you to choose the picture
- Select the Picture and position it and click use this picture
- Create you gestures and confirm the gestures (Circles, lines and taps)
Once you receive the success message then you are done
Below video would give more detailed info
This is one of those features within the Microsoft Office family that I use a lot.
Scenario: If you have formatted a Letter, Word, Sentence or a Paragraph with lots of different formatting types like, change of fonts, colors, bold, italics, underline, alignment, etc. which needs a lot of clicks and if you want to apply the same formatting to another letter, word, sentence or paragraph in the same document, you do not have to redo everything again.
Simply, select part of the text from which you want to copy the formatting from and click on the “Format Painter” button within the clipboard group under the Home tab. Select the destination text and the formatting will be applied.
If you need to apply the formatting on to no consecutive, multiple places in the same document, double click on the Format Painter button and you can apply any where in the document.
To view the locations of Bootmgr and Winload in Windows 7 you may use the following command
- Open CMD with elevated privileges
- type Bcdedit /enum
Incase of BOOTMGR missing or corruption
- Start your computer with a Windows 7 DVD and enter Windows RE (by selecting Repair my computer option)
- Open up command prompt and navigate to \Windows\System32
- type Bootrec /rebuildBcd
It’s been a while.
I had to setup an Exchange 2010 Server and wanted to write on how to Install Exchange 2010 Step by Step.
Here goes:
Before you install Exchange 2010, you need to have your AD forest setup. The forest and domain under which you are to install Exchange 2010 should meet the following
- Domain Controller can either be x86 or x64, Every AD site you plan to have/install Exchange 2010, you should have a writable domain controller running on Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
- The AD Schema Master can either be x86 or x64, should be a Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008 or a Windows Server 2008 R2 (I went with a Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise)
- Global Catalog can either be x86 or x64, Every AD site you plan to have/install Exchange 2010, you should have a Global Catalog running on Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
- Active Directory forest and domain functional level should be a minimum of Windows Server 2003.
- The user account which you use to install Exchange should be a member of Schema Admin, Enterprise Admin as well as the Domain Admin group.
- You can either manually extend the Schema of your forest and Prepare you Active Directory to accommodate Exchange Related attributes as well as the Exchange Server
- Setup /PrepareSchema
- Setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName<name>
Note that these commands has to be run from an elevated prompt of PowerShell (Run Setup from the directory where your Exchange 2010 installation files are located)
We are preparing for an installation which will be a typical installation which will combine all HUB, CAS and MBX server roles together in one server.
Lets look at the other server roles and component required
- Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack (click here to download and install the x64 pack)
- To install the rest of the prerequisites, Open PowerShell with admin privileges and import the ServerManager module by typing Import-Module ServerManager
- Type the following to install the roles and features Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy –Restart
- Goto command prompt and run sc config NetTcpPortSharing start= auto
Now we can start the Exchange server 2010 installation by Auto running the CD
Click on “Step 3: Choose Exchange Language Option” and select Install only languages from the DVD
Click on “Step 4: Install Microsoft Exchange”
Setup will copy the necessary files
Initializing
Click next on the introduction screen
Accept the licensing agreement
Select your preference on the error reporting screen
we will select the typical exchange server installation as our requirement is to install HUB. CAS and MBX on the same server. if you need to install these roles on individual server box or separately, you may select the “Custom Exchange Server Installation” option. Click Next
Note the check box at the bottom which is a new GUI improvement in Exchange 2010 with SP1 setup. if you enable this, this would install all the server roles and features required for Exchange Server 2010
Specify the name of your Exchange Organization ( I am leaving it as default)
Note the checkbox Apply Active Directory split permissions security model, this is a new GUI improvement with SP1. Enable this only if you have two set of different administrators administering your AD and Exchange. By enabling this check box the Exchange Server or the Exchange Administrator/s will not be able to create any Active Directory Objects or attributes
Click Yes if you have any Outlook 2003 clients, otherwise click No and next
If you are to configure external access to your server, eg: access it through OWA, ActiveSync, RPC/HTTPS you will need to give a domain name on this page and click next
Let the prerequisites and preparation being done. Once done review for any errors
If you are ready click install
Installation in progress
Installation being done successfully
Restart notification
And after the restart you are done with the Exchange Installation