SteveOH

DirectX 7.0a SDK Download

DirectX 7.0a SDK Include and Header Files (Vista)

This is the entire DirectX 7.0a SDK install cd compressed using 7-zip (link).  You’ll thank me for making you install that compression application, as it cut the size of the compressed file by 30 MB.
It is no longer available from Microsoft’s websites at all, but still remains valid technology.
Microsoft no longer supports the DirectX 7.0a SDK… however it all works well and requires little support.

The DirectX 7.0a SDK is incredibly powerful, but normally only works with Visual C++ and Visual Basic, not with Borland C++ Builder.

If you would like to experience the magic of RAD DirectX 7.0a for Borland C++ Builder, you will also need to download the TDx_Library.

Why you would use the DirectX 7.0a SDK without the TDx_Library is beyond us, it’s too hard, and RAD DirectX just makes it all pathetically easy…

Other DirectX Resources

If the boot loader to your Windows Server 2008 machine gets corrupted or deleted for whatever reason, it really is a painstaking process to get it fixed.  The boot loader to my machine got deleted somehow while I was resizing partitions.  After scouring the web, I could not find anything on rebuilding the boot loader for Windows Server 2008.  All I could find were instructions to restore a Windows Vista boot loader, but luckily, the process for Server 2008 is similar.

If you are getting a “bootmgr is missing” error upon startup or something similar, repairing the boot loader will probably fix the problem.

Due to the lack of recovery tools on the Server 2008 installation CD, the boot loader must be rebuilt manually.

For this guide, I’m going to assume your installation has a drive letter of C:.

Insert the Server 2008 installation CD into your DVD-ROM.  Restart your computer and boot from the CD.

Choose to repair your computer, then open the command prompt.

At the command prompt, use the following commands:

c:
cd boot
bootsect /nt60 c: /force /mbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

After using the “bootrec /rebuldbcd” command, you will be prompted to accept a Windows installation.  Accept the installation, then wait for the process to finish.  Once it’s done, reboot your comptuer and you should have a boot loader ready to go.

sda1: Windows Vista encrypted with TrueCrypt
sda2: Ubuntu Hardy Heron /boot partition (not encrypted)
sda3: Ubuntu Hardy Heron encrypted volume with LVM inside and / and swap partions within LVM (to save partitions used overall incase it gets over 5 partitions)
sda4: Working on installing OSX Leopard on this partition currently.

The steps I used are as follows, in brief:
1) Installed Vista first (actually pre-installed on laptop)

2) Installed Ubuntu second using encrypted physical volume with LVM inside it and 2 partions / and swap inside the LVM(at this point, grub was in the MBR)

3) Ran full windows system encryption (not full disk encryption) through TrueCrypt and let it write its bootloader to the MBR. (obviously overwriting Grub in the MBR)

4) Booted with a live cd and copied the truecrypt bootloader from the MBR to a file in the /boot partition (sda2)
use these commands to do so:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/boot/truecrypt.mbr count=1 bs=512
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/boot/truecrypt.backup count=8 bs=32256

5)Reinstalled grub to the MBR using these commands:
sudo grub
install (hd0,1)/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0,1)/grub/stage2 0×8000 p

6) Added a chainloader to the menu.lst Vista entry to point to the truecrypt bootloader within the /boot partition like so:

title Windows Vista/Longhorn
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader (hd0,1)/truecrypt.mbr
boot

The only partition not encrypted in the /boot partition so far, which is fine. After grub loads, no matter which OS I choose, I enter a passphrase and that OS starts.

For more detailed instructions which I pulled from but which are for XP instead of Vista, use this link:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=761530

By default, if you try to modify your hosts file in Vista, it will not let you save it.  It tells you that you don’t have permission.  To successfully modify the hosts file, run notepad.exe as an administrator and open the file.

1)  Browse to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories
2)  Right click “Notepad” and select “Run as administrator”
3)  Click “Continue” on the UAC prompt
4)  Click File -> Open
5)  Browse to “C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc”
6)  Change the file filter drop down box from “Text Documents (*.txt)” to “All Files (*.*)”
7)  Select “hosts” and click “Open”
8)  Make the needed changes and close Notepad.  Save when prompted.

I recently purchased this unit, refurbished, because it was on sale for $15 and I needed a player for the gym.  I received it yesterday evening and wanted to provide some feedback.

It’s kind of flimbsy and very light, it almost feels as if it’s hallow.  But, it has a small color screen and easy to understand controls, so I can’t really complain.  I do fear, however, that if I drop it, it will dissolve into the air.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing to be very light, but, it should be noted.

Things I don’t “really” like, but that aren’t a HUGE deal:

• Proprietary usb connector – Instead of using USB Mini-A Type connection, they decided to use a port that took up the entire width of the unit (about an inch) to connect via USB.  Why?
• Wasted Space – there’s a lot of space all around that could be utilized.  Either for the other controls or to space things out a little better.  This is my personal opinion, but I don’t “really” like the fact that the volume control is all the way at the top, while the play button is on the front, and then menu button all the way at the bottom right.
• Built in Battery – This really annoys me.  Why would you do that?  Now, you MUST charge this thing at a computer, because 1) you need the special cable that only connects to USB Type A connections, and 2) there’s no other port to use to charge.  So you must charge this thing at home before leaving the house.  I wonder how long it lasts?
• COULD NOT get it to sync as an MTP device – the device freezes (On both Vista and XP).  But I CAN get it to connect as a storage device (only on XP) where I can manually copy my songs over (which isn’t a problem for me) or manage it with WinAMP or something else.
  • Please note that to get it to connect, I enabled the HOLD (push it so it shows the orange) and held down the REWIND button, then CONNECTED the USB.  I had to do it in that order for it to work, no other worked for me.

Things I like:

• Micro SD Slot – It’s expandable!  Yay!  This makes complete sense and is a great selling point: why not buy a device that you can upgrade as your music collection increases?!
• LOUD – this little thing gets VERY LOUD!  A lot louder than my Creative Zen this is replacing.  Like, crazy loud.  I’m not sure I’ll ever use it louder than half way.
• Equalizer – It has an equalizer that allows you to customize the sound (and has a custom setting for your personal preferences).
•  Color Screen – it’s not high resolution or anything, but it’s nice to see things in color.  And the graphics aren’t half bad.
• Music, Audio, Radio, Recordings – This unit really does it all in terms of functionality.  It definitly plays music well and recieves radio signals even inside of buildings.

I will use it for a week or two and report back.  As of right now, I give it a 7 due to the USB connection and the syncing issues (which are not unique to me).

Later this week I will be setting up the BitLocker feature in Vista Enterprise Edition to protect my laptop from snoopers.  Not that I keep anything super confidential or anything like that, but if I do lose my laptop or it’s stolen, I want the person who wants to finally use it to have at least a little trouble.  And similarly, I don’t want any of my information in the hands of the wrong person.

Call it paranoid, but I’d rather be safe than sorry

So I’m installing Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Edition on my work computer (workstation, haha) and I kept getting this error at 34% on CD 2.  All the other resources on the net state to reburn the CD, but why if this CD was purchased from Microsoft and burnt by them?  So that just didnt make sense to me.  So I tried some of the other fixes (disabling add-on video cards, pulling out hardware, etc) to no avail.  Finally after about 30 minutes I decided that being stubborn never got anyone anywhere, so I copied the CD to a CD-R from my laptop.  Did a data verification and everything came out lovely.  (Side note: the original CD from Microsoft was in perfect condition, no scratches or scuffs)  So I reran the installation and threw CD 2 in, and can you believe that it ran perfectly?!  I was astounded.

Go figure, even if it doesn’t make sense…. the solution might work .

So I set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for remote access to my home.  It was a lot easier than I had anticipated as it only took about 35 minutes.  However, there are some things to note about my implementation.

1. PPTP was used (instead of L2TP/IPSec) due to the simplicity
2. ISA 2004 was used to create the VPN
3. Windows 2003 Server VPN services were installed before VPN creation
4. I am currently using Microsoft Vista Business Edition as the VPN client.  Windows XP has not been tested.

The directions downloaded here were quite long, so I can only assume (and reasonably so) that the VPN I have set up is very basic and is not the ultimate in security.  I actually only used some of Chapter 4 (about ~68% of it) to get it established and connected.  I verified connectivity and everything is working beautifully.  One thing, when I initially connected I was unable to hit the internet or anything else and I noticed that the default gateway for the VPN was set to 0.0.0.0  After a bit of research I had to set the VPN to not use the Default Gateway of the VPN, and then everything worked like a dream.

My next task is utilize the increased security of L2TP/IPSec and use the certificates.

Using ISA 2004 made it a lot easier than I anticipated.  Below is the list of the actual steps I took, generalized of course:

1. Install Remote Access / VPN role on Server 2003
2. Enable VPN connections through ISA 2004]
3. Create access rules allow VPN users to connect to the internal network
4. Enable Dial-in access to VPN user accounts
   1. I wasn’t sure this was going to work as I do not have an Active Directory environment, but it was of no concern.  Instead of accessing the user properties via the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in, you simply go to Computer Management and edit the same option on the local user’s properties.
5. Test it!