Logitech Vista Gadgets for your QuickCam

Few may know that Logitech has made available some pretty neat gadgets for Vista's Sidebar. A QuickCapture gadget which makes it really easy to take snapshots and record quick videos, rather than launching the QuickCam software, and the MotionDetector gadget which transforms your webcam into a very cool video surveillance device.

Missing Icons or images in Vista's Help

I found myself today set on finding a fix for a little annoyance i've had to put up with for a while now: icons and images were missing from Vista's Help and Support system. Apparently, this is a common problem. Fortunately, there's also a very quick and easy fix for it. It seems, for something, it has something to do with the .png file associations.

A google search led me to the solution as described in the last post on this page:

http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=680234

Right click on the .reg file link and select Save Link (or Target) As... to download the reg file to your computer. Once downloaded, double click the reg file and allow it to be imported to the registry. That will solve the problem.

The registry file is harmless, nothing dangerous in it, so rest assured it will not cause any damage to your computer.

Enjoy your restored icons and images in Vista's Help.

PNG.reg

Google: Trendsetter, online and not only...

CNET News has an interesting article on, simply put, how great Google is.

There's no question that Google is a trendsetter. The company made Web search sexy, and lucrative.

With its lava lamps, simple doodle design, pampered employees and millionaires in its rank and file, it has become a cultural icon and an emblem of the gold-rush promise of the Web.

Google was ranked by Fortune magazine as the best place in the U.S. to work, and it has reached another zenith by becoming the most popular Web site. It's even become a verb in the dictionary.

Go on, read the rest of the article.

Vista CMD Command Prompt Problems

I came across a little issue today that made me panic for a second. I opened up the Command Prompt window (Start/Run/cmd Enter), looking to flush the dns via the "ipconfig /flushdns" command. Oddly enough, all i got in return is an error saying:

'ipconfig' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

I then tried other commands like "ping", "netstat", etc., with the same result; Vista would simply not recognize them.

What to do?

The quick answer is you need to run cmd as Administrator. How? One way is by opening up the Start Menu, type 'cmd' and in the results right click 'cmd.exe' and choose Run as Administrator.

If you find yourself using 'cmd' quite often, you can also create a shortcut for it on the desktop and set it to be run as admin by going to the shortcut Properties (Right click/Properties), clicking on the Advanced button and checking 'Run as Administrator'.

Exit panic mode. Breath :).