1. Start > (type in the search bar) cmd , Right click on cmd and run as administrator
2. Once inside the command prompt, type in: diskpart , then press Enter
3. type: list disk . All active drives will be displayed to the command prompt
4. After that is done, you will want to select your USB drive. Typically, it’s always the smallest one in size, so you will always be able to tell which one it is so type select disk 1 (or the one that corresponds to your USB drive)
5. Clean your USB. Be sure to back up all data stored on the USB you are using or you will lose all your data in this step. Once confirmed type: clean
6. Create a partition for the USB by typing: create partition primary
7. Type: select partition 1 to select the partition you created in the last step
8. Type: active to mark the partition active on the USB
9. Format the USB as NTFS by typing format fs=ntfs
10. Once completed type: assign
11. Now you have a bootable USB but you need to copy the bootsect to it so type exit to exit diskpart and get back to command line
12. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “U” as my USB drive letter.
    1. Type: D: and press enter
    2. Type: CD BOOT and press enter
    3. Now type BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 U: and press enter. (Where “U” is your USB drive letter)
13. After all the above steps just copy all the contents from the Windows Vista/7/8 DVD (or image if you’ve downloaded it) and copy it to the root of the USB drive.

Congratulations, you now have a bootable USB drive with Windows Vista/7/8 installation files on it.

Issue:

When you run Windows Update from within Windows XP for the first time you get an error 0×80244019.

Cause:

One of the most likely cause is that you have installed an old version of Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Resolution:

• Search for: WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe and download it to your computer
• Save the download to the C: drive (for easier access from the Run window)
• Click Start, then click Run.
• Type C:\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe / wuforce then click OK to install the WU agent.
• Restart the computer
• Run Windows Update again

Prerequisites:

To configure user password expiry period on Office 365 using PowerShell you need Microsoft Online Services cmdlets, you can download them from the links below. You will need to download Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant (32-bit or 64-bit) and Windows Azure Active Directory Module for PowerShell (32-bit or 64-bit)

Connect to Windows Azure AD:

- Import-Module MSOnline

- set-executionpolicy remotesigned (Run this if you get an error and type ‘Y’)

- $Creds = Get-Credential

- Connect-MsolService –Credential $Creds

Confiure Password Expiry:

- To see whether a single user’s password is set to never expire, run the following cmdlet by using the user principal name (UPN) (for example, aprilr@contoso.onmicrosoft.com) or the user ID of the user you want to check:

Get-MSOLUser -UserPrincipalName <user ID> | Select PasswordNeverExpires

- To see the “Password never expires” setting for all users, run the following cmdlet:

Get-MSOLUser | Select UserPrincipalName, PasswordNeverExpires

- To set the password of one user to never expire, run the following cmdlet by using the user principal name (UPN) or the user ID of the user:

Set-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName <user ID> -PasswordNeverExpires $true

- To set the passwords of all the users in an organization to never expire, run the following cmdlet:

Get-MSOLUser | Set-MsolUser -PasswordNeverExpires $true

- To set the password of one user so that the password does expire, run the following cmdlet by using the user principal name (UPN) or the user ID of the user:

Set-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName <user ID> -PasswordNeverExpires $false

- To set the passwords of all users in the organization so that they do expire, use the following cmdlet:

Get-MSOLUser | Set-MsolUser -PasswordNeverExpires $false

- To set the passwords of all users in the organization to expire after a set number of days, use the following cmdlet:

Set-MSOLPasswordPolicy  -domainname “Domain” –ValidityPeriod “Number of days”

In addition, to notify the users a few days before you can add “-NotificationDays -30″ (Replace 30 with your choice again) at the end of the above line.

Windows Server 2012

Once you’ve logged into the server with the correct account, you have to add the Active Directory Domain Services feature to your server. You can install the Active Directory Services feature on to Windows Server 2012 by both PowerShell and Server Manager. The fastest method of installing features in Windows Server 2012 is with PowerShell; let’s take a look at the steps needed to accomplish this.

Install Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2012 with PowerShell

Add-WindowsFeature -name ad-domain-services -IncludeManagementTools

It doesn’t get any easier than that, but in case you want to do it the hard way, I’ll show you how to add the Active Directory feature to your Windows Server 2012 using Server Manager, too.

Install Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2012 with Server Manager

1. Open Server Manager, then select Manage and click on “Add Roles and Features”
2. Click Next on the “Before you begin” window
3. Select Role-based or feature-based installation and then click Next
4. Click Select a server from the server pool, click the name of the server to install Active Directory Domain Services to, and then click Next (If you wanted to install this on a remote server, you have to first create a server group containing the remote server)
5. Click Active Directory Domain Services. When the Add Roles and Features Wizarddialog box opens, select Add Features, then Next
6. On the Active Directory Domain Services page, review the information and then clickNext
7. On the Confirm installation selections page, click Install
8. On the Results page, verify Installation succeeded, and click Promote this server to a domain controller to start the Active Directory Domain Services Configuration Wizard

The good thing about using the Server Manager method is that it takes you directly into running the Active Directory Domain Services Configuration Wizard, which is the utility which replaced the deprecated dcpromo. Now that you’ve installed the features, you will need to promote the server into a domain controller.

How to Promote a Server to a Domain Controller in Windows Server 2012 with Server Manager

After installing the Active Directory Domain Services feature on your server, you can promote the server to a domain controller. If you have just finished the feature installation, the AD DS Configuration Wizard begins automatically. However, if the feature installation has already been closed, you can start the Active Directory Domain Services Configuration Window by clicking the Tasks icon along the top of Server Manager.

1. Choose your Deployment Configuration.
   • To install a domain controller to an existing domain, specify the domain name.
   • To install a new domain in existing forest, choose “Child” or “Tree” domain, then browse for forest structure.
   • To install a new forest, specify the new forest name.
   • Then click Next.
2. Choose your Domain Controller Options.
   • To create a new forest or domain, select the functional levels, click Domain Name System (DNS) server, specify the Directory Services Restore Mode password, and then click Next.
   • To add a DC to a domain, choose Domain Name System (DNS) server, Global Catalog (GC), or Read Only Domain Controller (RODC) as needed, choose the site name, and type the Directory Services Restore Mode password and then clickNext.
3. If installing a DNS Server, you may need to Update DNS delegation. To update, enter credentials with permission to create DNS delegation records in the parent DNS zone. (To help determine if you need to update DNS delegation, see the Microsoft TechNet articleUnderstanding Zone Delegation. For more information on any errors that may be generated by updating DNS delegation, see DNS Options.
4. If installing a Read Only Domain Controller (RODC), specify the group that will manage the RODC. Add or remove accounts to the Allowed or Denied password replicationgroups. Click Next.
5. On the Additional Options page, choose one of the following options:
   • To create a new domain, type or verify the NetBIOS name of the domain.
   • To add a DC to a domain, select a domain controller to replicate the AD DS installation data from (or the wizard can select “any”).
6. Specify where the directories for the Active Directory database, the log files, and the SYSVOL folder will be. Click Next. Warning: Do not attempt to store any of the above on a Resilient File System data volume.
7. You may need to specify alternate credentials to run adprep on the Preparation Optionspage.
8. If you want to reuse these steps again, click View Script, and copy the text of the PowerShell script.
9. Verify your server was successfully promoted on the results page, then click Close.

A reboot is required and it happens automatically by default. You can also automate this process with PowerShell.

How to Promote a Server to a Domain Controller in Windows Server 2012 with PowerShell

There are three PowerShell cmdlets, which coincide with the three deployment options:

How to Add a Domain Controller using PowerShell

To use Install-ADDSDomainController, only three things are required:

• domain name – which must be passed through the DomainName parameter
• credentials – that are in the Domain Admins group of the domain
• Directory Services Restore Mode password – which can either be passed through the SafeModeAdministratorPassword parameter, or it can be provided when prompted.

There are many more optional parameters that can be used, which specify everything from where to find the installation media, to whether or not to reboot when it’s completed. The simplest example of this is:

Install-ADDSDomainController "mydomain.local"

How to Add a Domain Forest using PowerShell

To use Install-ADDSDomain, you must also specify the parent domain name. Just as when using PowerShell to add a domain controller, you may either supply the Directory Services Restore Mode password in the cmdlet, or provide it when prompted. This is an example of how to create a new domain in a forest with PowerShell:

Install-ADDSDomain  -NewDomainName  mychildn  `
-ParentDomainName mydomain.local; `
-InstallDNS `
-CreateDNSDelegation `
-DomainMode Win8 `
-ReplicationSourceDC  dc0.mydomain.local

Note: The ` character is used to continue the command on the next line

How to Add a New Forest with PowerShell

To use Install-ADDSForest, all that needs to be provided is the forest name. A prompt will allow the Directory Services Restore Mode password to be entered, and DNS is installed by default during a forest installation. An example of this would be:

Install-ADDSForest "mydomain.local"

Or you could be more specific:

Install-ADDSForest –DomainName mydomain.loca  `
 -CreateDNSDelegation  `
 -DomainMode Win8   `      
 -ForestMode Win8

Conclusion

Though Windows Server 2012 removes the dcpromo that system engineers have been using since 2000, they have not removed the functionality. If a GUI is preferred by an active directory engineer, they may still have much of the look and feel provided through Server Manager. If a script or a command line interface is preferred, new cmdlets in PowerShell provide all of the flexibility of the GUI, with the added benefit or scalability and reusability.

-Petri

HP WebOS

Hewlett-Packard says it will sell the webOS operating system to South Korea’s LG Electronics, unloading the smartphone software it acquired through a US$1.2 billion (NZ$1.43 billion) acquisition of Palm in 2010.

LG will use the operating software, used in now-defunct Palm smartphones years ago, for its “smart” or internet-connected TVs. The Asian electronics company had worked with HP on WebOS before offering to buy it outright.

Under the terms of their agreement, LG acquires the operating software’s source code, associated documentation, engineering talent, various associated websites, and licenses under HP’s intellectual property including patents covering fundamental operating system and user interface technology.

HP will retain the patents and all the technology relating to the cloud service of webOS, HP Chief Operating Officer Bill Veghte said in an interview.

“As we looked at it, we saw a very compelling IP that was very unique in the marketplace,” he said, adding that HP has already had a partnership with LG on webOS before the deal was announced.

“As a result of this collaboration, LG offered to acquire the webOS operating system technology,” Veghte said.

Scott Ahn, President and CTO, LG Electronics, said the company will incorporate the operating system in the Smart TV line-up first “and then hopefully all the other devices in the future.”

Both companies declined to reveal the terms of the deal.

LG will keep the WebOS team in Silicon Valley and, for now, will continue to be based out of HP offices, Ahn said.

HP opened its webOS mobile operating system to developers and companies in 2012 after trying to figure out how to recoup its investment in Palm, one of the pioneers of the smartphone industry.

The company had tried to build products based on webOS with the now-defunct TouchPad tablet its flagship product.

HP launched and discontinued the TouchPad in 2010, a little over a month after it hit store shelves with costly fanfare after it saw poor demand for a tablet priced on par with Apple’s dominant iPad.

WebOS is widely viewed as a strong mobile platform, but has been assailed for its paucity of applications, an important consideration while choosing a mobile device.

-Reuters

Firefox Mobile OS

Mozilla, the non-profit foundation behind the popular Firefox web browser, is getting into phones. But it’s not stopping at web browsers – it’s launching an entire phone operating system.

The Mountain View, California-based foundation has said that phones running Firefox OS will appear this summer, starting in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela.

The Firefox OS will land in a crowded environment, where many small operating systems are trying to become the “third eco-system,” alongside Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Together, those two account for 91 percent of smartphone sales, according to research firm IDC.

Mozilla Foundation has an ally in phone companies, who are interested in seeing an alternative to Apple and Google, particularly one coming from a non-profit foundation.

Thirteen phone companies around the world have committed to supporting Firefox phones, Mozilla said, including Sprint Nextel in the US, though it gave no time frame for a release.

Other supporters include Telecom Italia, America Movil of Mexico and Deutsche Telekom of Germany. DT is the parent of T-Mobile USA, but plans to sell Firefox phones first in Poland.

Phone makers that plan to make Firefox phones include Huawei and ZTE of China and LG of Korea. The first devices will be inexpensive touchscreen smartphones.

All the phones will run on chips supplied by San Diego-based Qualcomm, whose CEO Paul Jacobs appeared at Mozilla’s press event Sunday in Barcelona, Spain, on the eve of the world’s largest cellphone trade show.

The industry has seen various attempts to launch “open” smartphone operating systems, with little success.

Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla, said these failed because they were designed “by committee,” with too many constituents to please.

While developing and supporting the Firefox browser, Mozilla has learned to develop large-scale “open” projects effectively, he said.

He also said that putting quality third-party applications on Firefox phones will be easy, because they’re based on HTML 5, an emerging standard for Web applications.

“Firefox OS has achieved something that no device software platform has previously managed – translating an industry talking shop into a huge commitment from both carriers and hardware vendors at its commercial launch,” said Tony Cripps an analyst at research firm Ovum.

“Neither Android nor Symbian – the closest benchmarks in terms of broad industry sponsorship that we’ve previously seen – have rallied the level of support that Firefox OS has achieved so early in its development.”

-AP

Lots of people till date find it hard to play videos of different formats and it can get very frustrating at times. So here’s a single and simple solution to it.

It’s called CCCP and has the logo matching up with it’s name too but the abbreviation when expanded reads Combined Community Codec Pack. An all in one pack gives you the most of it. You can use Windows Media Player itself to play all your video files, which means no more installing another player. It can play videos of most formats that are available today. Try it and see for yourself. You can download the codec pack from here. When you run the set up make sure you use the custom set up option and uncheck ‘Media Player Classic’ if you do not want another video player.

Nokia Lumia 920 Metallic

Lately a lot of the buzz has been about the new Windows 8 phones and especially the Nokia Lumia 920. Microsoft’s shares have been constantly increasing while Apple and Google’s shares dropping by the day. According to me there can only be two reasons: one being Apple’s iPhone 5; Did Apple not get it right this time and the other being Microsoft and Nokia taking their time and  making the best of it without making any mistakes.

Frankly speaking I was expecting something great being an Apple fan myself, only for the iPhone though. Two years I hung on to my iPhone 4, didn’t go for the iPhone 4S and was really really looking forward to the iPhone 5 hoping that Apple would make history with it’s new design like how they did when they launched the iPhone 4. But with the iPhone 5 did they really? I don’t think so and I’m sure not that many Apple lovers think that either.

Surfing the web one night I bumped into a video showing new Windows 8 phones released by Nokia, for my surprise I actually loved the Nokia Lumia 920. Started hunting for more and I had a jaw dropping experience watching some of the videos out there coz these were some of the things I was hoping Apple could easily pull off with the iPhone 5. But Microsoft and Nokia made no mistakes and launched the ultimate device The Nokia Lumia 920 with one great operating system Windows 8.

Nokia Lumia 920

Why was I so amazed?

First of all the colours: so vibrant and great looking colours that work closely with the theme colours you choose in Windows 8, they just grab your attention.

Nokia Lumia 920 Colour Range

Hardware Specification: There is the Design, 4.5″ display just big enough to fit in one hand easily and along with it the high ppi that makes reading everything on screen easy from a fair distance. Then there is the 2G, 3G, 4G, more and more G’s, Wifi, Bluetooth, NFC, Wireless Charging, LTE, CDMA, and bla bla bla and the list goes on. And then the best part is the battery, even with a smartphone Nokia being Nokia the standby time for battery lasts a massive 460 hours on 3G; is that good enough or what? I charge my iPhone every night and sometimes if I forget to charge it the battery dies within 4 hours of hardly any use. Another very impressive thing about this device is the display, it’s so well thought through that you can use a key to scroll through without happening to damage the display…wow. Nokia have made no mistakes here!

Nokia Lumia 920 Using a Key on Display

The Camera: Have you seen the pictures taken from this phone? It’s actually very impressive. Apparently it’s got a Full HD back facing camera with Nokia’s PureView technology and takes great shots. Even the back facing camera is pretty impressive with 1280×720 pixels which is HD ready and some great pictures can be taken with it.

Photos taken from leading smartphones compared

Check out the videos below and you’ll see why.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8_Z7_kJ3_g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q8tlSDpVDI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tT4ws9KauQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMdNtVqYJIw

I guess it’s time for a shift in headlines from Apple to someone else and the times starts now. Although I really love this device time will tell whether I really do or don’t. Once I get my hands on it you’ll hear more from me. Till then keep sharing your comments.

Powerful A6 Chip

Apple’s iPhone event ended more than 2 hours ago, but we’re still trying to sift through the gobs of information regarding the new iPhone 5 and its features.

So we went ahead and did all of the leg work for you, and uncovered just about everything there is to know about the new iPhone 5 hardware.

Here’s the iPhone 5 by the numbers…

Size

123.8 X 58.6 X 7.6

Though it looks a bit like its predecessor, the iPhone 5 is a whole different handset. Here are its measurements:

Height – 4.87 inches (123.8 mm)
Width – 2.31 inches (58.6 mm)
Depth – 0.30 inch (7.6 mm)
Weight – 3.85 ounces (112 grams)

Wireless

Ultrafast Wireless

The iPhone 5 supports GSM, CDMA, LTE and a wide range of other wireless technologies. And here they are:

GSM model A1428*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 4 and 17)
CDMA model A1429*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25)
GSM model A1429*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5)
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz)
Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology

Display

4-inch Retina Display with 1136 by 640 Pixel Resolution at 326 ppi

One of the first things you’ll notice on the iPhone 5 is its larger display.

Retina display
4-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
1136-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
800:1 contrast ratio (typical)
500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical)

Camera

8 Megapixel iSight Camera

The iPhone 5′s iSight still uses an 8MP sensor, but the system has been upgraded, as has the FaceTime camera:

8-megapixel iSight camera
1080p HD video recording at up to 30 frames per second with audio
FaceTime HD camera takes 1.2MP photos and 720p HD video

Battery

Despite the fact that it has a larger display and LTE, Apple says the iPhone 5 still has great battery life:

Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter
Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G
Standby time: Up to 225 hours
Internet use: Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 8 hours on LTE, up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback: Up to 10 hours
Audio playback: Up to 40 hours

Price

As usual, the iPhone 5 comes in both black and white, as well as three different storage options. And the price points are the same as well (remember, these prices are subsidized and require at least a two-year carrier contract):

16GB iPhone 5 is $199
32GB iPhone 5 is $299
64GB iPhone 5 is$399
16GB iPhone 4S is $99
8GB iPhone 4 is free

The new handset will be available for preorder on September 14, and will start shipping on the 21st.

Just hours before Apple unveiled its third-generation iPad this year, a report came out suggesting that the tablet could feature some sort of new haptic “touch-feedback” display.

Obviously, the story never materialized. But as it turns out, Apple is looking into it. The company has had over 4 patents published this year on haptics, including this one…

PatentlyApple points to a newly published invention from Apple regarding a “linear vibrator providing localized haptic feedback.” Here’s an excerpt from the description:

“Further, the vibrator may be configured to be activated when a user touches a particular portion of a touch-sensitive screen of the mobile phone. When the user’s touch or near-touch is sensed in the appropriate area of the screen, the vibrator may be activated in a boosted mode, thereby providing localized haptic feedback directly under the area in which the touch was sensed. In this manner, the localized haptic feedback may serve to confirm the touch to the user, for example by emulating the feeling of pressing a button.”

This particular patent application, #20120223824, was originally filed in the first quarter of this year, with Fletcher Rothkopf named as the inventor, and was published Thursday.

There’s obviously a million ways Apple could implement this kind of technology into its mobile devices. But the question is: should it? Is there a need for haptic in touch screens?

I think if it’s done right, it could make a positive impact — especially in gameplay.