Startup Delayer Staggers Your Startup Apps for Smoother Loading [Featured Windows Download]

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Adam Pash.
Categories: Contributors, Windows.

startup-delayer.pngWindows only: Free application Startup Delayer staggers the applications that launch when you log in to Windows by user-defined increments. The reason: To mitigate the common startup bottleneck caused by all of your startup applications fighting to run at the same time. You'd never try launching eight different applications simultaneously under normal circumstances and expect your computer to handle it well, so why should your startup apps be any different? To use it, just drag applications to the delay bar at the bottom of the window. You can visualize the time between the launch of different apps and drag-and-drop the delays until you've got the perfect spacing.

Though you'll likely be delaying app launches by seconds, you can delay a launch for up to 24 hours (though we're not sure why you would). If Startup Delayer sounds familiar, that's probably because we featured an identically named application a while back. This Startup Delayer, however, makes the process much simpler and more manageable. Startup Delayer is freeware, Windows only.

Startup Delayer


A Dynamic Menu For Your Dynamic Data

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Matt Berseth.
Categories: ASP.NET, Contributors, Dynamic HTML.

So I am still playing around with building a Northwind Dynamic Data web site. Tonight I thought it would be interesting to see what it would take to create a menu for navigating the tables in the site. I was particularly interested in seeing if I could get some grouping or categorization to the metadata so I could create a multi-leveled menu. It turns out it wasn't too difficult at all (see the screen shot below - the menu is on the left). I have my tables organized into 4 categories: Sales, People, Products and Reports. And the cool thing is that this menu is completely dynamic. You can add, remove or reorganize the categories without touching the UI. And depending where you are keeping your metadata you could even do this without recompiling your app. The grouping is automatically discovered from the metadata and the menu is built solely off the it so everything 'just works'.

Besides adding the grouping information, I also tagged each of my tables with a custom description that I am displaying under the grids title. Nothing too complicated, but still interesting. Read on if you are curious how I did this and don't forget to check out the download.

Download

image

Adding Category and Description

When MetaTable objects are created, the Dynamic Data components automatically populate the the MetaTable's DisplayName property from the DisplayNameAttribute that is hanging off the metadata class (if you are using the default metadata provider). This is why you see the nice 'Products By Category' title in the screen shot above. I have specifically told Dynamic Data to use this value because I tagged my metadata class with the DisplayName attribute and given it a value of 'Products By Category'. Below this metadata ...

  1. [MetadataType(typeof(ProductByCategoryMetadata))]
  2. public partial class Products_by_Category { }
  3.  
  4. [DisplayName("Products By Category")]
  5. public class ProductByCategoryMetadata
  6. {
  7.     [ScaffoldColumn(false)]
  8.     public object Discontinued { get; set; }
  9. }

To add a category and description to the metadata, I just used the existing Category and Description attributes and added them to the metadata class as well. So now we have ...

  1. [MetadataType(typeof(ProductByCategoryMetadata))]
  2. public partial class Products_by_Category { }
  3.  
  4. [Category("Products")]
  5. [Description("You can use this page to view your products by category")]
  6. [DisplayName("Products By Category")]
  7. public class ProductByCategoryMetadata
  8. {
  9.     [ScaffoldColumn(false)]
  10.     public object Discontinued { get; set; }
  11. }

The Category and Description attributes don't directly map to any properties on the MetaTable type. But, any extra custom attributes that are applied to in the metadata are passed through to the Attribute collection that hangs off the MetaTable class. So with a couple of pretty simple extensions methods I can add them myself (ignoring error handling for now) ...

  1. public static class MetaTableExtensions
  2. {
  3.     /// <summary>
  4.     /// Gets the description for the MetaTable
  5.     /// </summary>
  6.     public static string GetDescription(this MetaTable table)
  7.     {
  8.         return ((DescriptionAttribute)table.Attributes[typeof(DescriptionAttribute)]).Description;
  9.     }
  10.  
  11.     /// <summary>
  12.     /// Gets the category for the MetaTable
  13.     /// </summary>
  14.     public static string GetCategory(this MetaTable table)
  15.     {
  16.         return ((CategoryAttribute)table.Attributes[typeof(CategoryAttribute)]).Category;
  17.     }
  18. }

... and now to get at the MetaTable's description or category I can just go through these methods. So I updated the List template and added a little bit of code that generates a simple title bar generated from the MetaTables DisplayName and Description attributes.

image

and now our List pages have a nice dynamic title bar ...

image

Building the Menu

To build the menu, I am using a ListView tied to a LinqDataSource that uses a Linq query to create a 2 level object structure that I can bind to. First, I wired the LinqDataSource's Selecting event to the following bit of code that groups my tables by their category ...

  1. protected void LdsMenu_Selecting(object sender, LinqDataSourceSelectEventArgs e)
  2. {
  3.     e.Result =
  4.         from vt in MetaModel.Default.VisibleTables
  5.         //  use the category to group the tables
  6.         group vt by vt.GetCategory() into groups
  7.         select new
  8.         {
  9.             CategoryName = groups.Key,
  10.             Tables = groups
  11.         };
  12. }

Then I bound this data source to my ListView ...

image

And that's all it took to build my 2 level menu. Awesome!

image

Conclusion

Can Dynamic Data be used for more than admin screens and prototyping? I think it might. What about you?

That's it. Enjoy!

UNetbootin Creates USB-Bootable Linux the Easy Way [Featured Download]

Posted on by Kevin Purdy.
Categories: Contributors, UNIX.
Windows and Linux only: Free bootable image creator UNetbootin automates the downloading, imaging, and installing of Linux distributions onto USB thumb drives, creating a persistent, boot-anywhere desktop. We've previously featured rather involved guides to putting Linux on a flash drive, but UNetbootin does it all for you, from downloading the right ISO to setting up a USB stick as a bootable Linux drive. It can also convert almost any bootable ISO, so if you've got an old, smaller thumb drive not seeing much use these days, you can use UNetbootin to install a partition editor, a file-recovering live CD, or the Windows password-cracking Ophcrack. UNetbootin is a free download for Windows XP and higher and Linux systems.
UNetbootin [via Tombuntu]

Control Your Computer with Shortcuts to Common Windows Tasks [Windows]

Posted on by The How-To Geek.
Categories: Contributors, Windows.


Many people don't realize that rather than installing dozens of applications, you can control nearly any aspect of your computer with simple shortcuts that don't take up any resources. You can even take this approach a step further and assign shortcut keys using the built-in Windows hotkey functionality, or access them from the keyboard using your favorite application launcher. Let's take a look at a number of simple shortcuts to control some frequently used tasks.

Mute the System Volume

togglemute.pngIf you use your computer to listen to music, you've no doubt had to fumble for the volume controls or hit the off switch so the person calling won't know that you are listening to Cornflake Girl loud enough to wake the dead. What I've always done is create a shortcut key that will instantly mute the speakers so I can answer the phone. Of course if you have a multimedia keyboard you probably already have a mute button, but that only works if you are running the keyboard software.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Mute the System Volume in Windows>>

Clean Up Your Computer

runccleaner.pngThere's loads of commands out there that will let you clear your history or recent documents from a shortcut, but the much simpler option is to setup CCleaner with a shortcut to quickly clear out everything. You can even assign a hotkey to clean your computer with a keystroke. The great thing about this technique is that it runs silently and quickly.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Run CCLeaner Silently>>

Open Task Manager in All Users View

taskmanager.png If you are using Windows Vista, you've probably noticed that in order to see the full process list in Task Manager, you have to first open Task Manager, and then click on the All Users button... instead of dealing with that, why not just create a shortcut that opens it directly in All Users view?

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Open Task Manager's All Users View in Windows Vista>>

Turn Desktop Icons On or Off

hidedesktopicons.png As a big fan of a clutter-free desktop, I like to keep the icons hidden most of the time, but sometimes it's just easier to access files through icons on the desktop. You can create a shortcut or hotkey that quickly turns the icons on or off, keeping your desktop nice and clean unless you actually want to see the icons. If you like to see your icons instead, you can always arrange them for productivity.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off>>

Clear Your Clipboard

clearclipboard.png If you've ever copied a large amount of data to the clipboard, you might wonder how to clear that memory after you've already finished pasting. Sure, you could try and copy a smaller amount of data to the clipboard, but a simpler method is to just use this shortcut to clear the clipboard. This also comes in handy if you copied sensitive data to the clipboard and don't want it sitting there if somebody else is about to use your computer.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Clear the Clipboard in Windows Vista>>

Turn the Windows Firewall On or Off

firewallshortcuts.png When you are troubleshooting connection or network application issues, one of the first things to try is disabling the firewall. If you are using the built-in Windows firewall, there are way too many steps required to turn it off, but with a little command line magic, we can create shortcuts to turn the firewall on or off.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn Windows Vista Firewall On or Off>>

Create a System Restore Point

systemrestoreshortcut.png One of the best features in Windows Vista is the revamped System Restore, which unlike the XP version actually snapshots all the important system files on a regular basis, making it simple to roll back to before a system change. Creating a restore point on demand, however, takes far too many steps, so this shortcut to create a system restore point can be a real timesaver. If you are still using Windows XP, you can always follow Gina's guide to System Restore.

Make a Shortcut Icon to Create a System Restore Point>>

Eject Removable Devices

ejectdevices.pngIn the age of flash drives and digital cameras, we're always plugging and unplugging drives to transfer files and photos, but the Safely Remove dialog is only accessible from a tiny tray icon. If you like to keep excess icons hidden or just don't feel like finding the icon in the list, you can create a shortcut or hotkey to the Safely Remove Hardware dialog or even a shortcut to eject the CD/DVD drive. The best option, though, is to create a shortcut that immediately ejects a specific USB drive that you use all the time.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Immediately Eject a Specific USB Drive>>

Start or Disable the Screensaver

screensaver.png Have you ever noticed that many end users refer to the desktop wallpaper as the screensaver? Odd. For those of you that actually know what a screensaver is, you can create a shortcut icon to quickly start a particular screensaver, or even an icon to disable or enable the current screensaver. This comes in handy when you want to start a screensaver, but don't feel like locking your computer with the usual Win+L keyboard shortcut.

Create Icons to Start the Screensaver on Windows Vista>>

Shutdown, Reboot, Sleep, Hibernate or Lock Your PC

If you dislike the shutdown menu on the Windows Vista start menu, you aren't alone. Rather than using that tedious popup menu, you can simply place shortcuts for each function on your desktop or quick launch bar.

If you are using a dual boot scenario between Vista and XP, you can even create a shortcut that reboots the computer into the alternate version of Windows, instead of having to wait to choose the other OS from the boot menu.

Create Shutdown / Restart / Lock Icons in Windows Vista>>
Create Shortcuts to Quickly Reboot to the Alternate OS in a Vista/XP Dual Boot>>

Access Your Shortcuts Quickly with the Keyboard

Rather than using the mouse to launch these shortcuts or trying to assign hotkeys to all of them, you can put all of the shortcuts into a folder and then index them in Lifehacker favorite Launchy for quick access from the keyboard.

Instead of using Launchy, you could use previously mentioned Executor, Adam's (and my) new favorite application launcher to index these shortcuts, or you could take it one step further and assign a custom command to run your shortcut. Simply open up the settings dialog, and drop the shortcut onto the drop box below, and it will fill in all the details. You'll have to manually choose your keyword and the icon, however.

I decided to use ?cleanup as my custom command to run CCleaner silently to match the other system commands already offered in Executor.

You can add even more shortcuts to your collection of commands with the previously mentioned Nircmd and Wizmo command line utilities.

What shortcuts are most useful for you? Let us know in the comments.

The How-To Geek is a tech writer and geek enthusiast who loves to control every aspect of his computer from the keyboard. More of his tips and tweaks can be found daily at Howtogeek.com.


Speed Up Your Vista Installation with vLite on a Flash Drive [Step By Step]

Posted on by The How-To Geek.
Categories: Contributors, Windows.


Sometimes the most effective way to clean up Windows is to just wipe your hard drive and start over with a fresh re-installation, and that process can be so long and tedious—unless you know the shortcuts. Power Windows re-installers already know about slipstreaming with nLite for XP and using vLite for Windows Vista to trim down your installation disk to just the bare essentials and speed up the process. If you want to speed up your reinstall even further, you can copy your Windows installation files over to a bootable USB stick that has much better transfer rates. Here's how.

Create Your Custom vLite Install

You already know the details of how to use vLite, since that's been covered already. What we're going to do is follow the same steps, customizing anything that you want to change...

Then you'll want to click the Apply button at the bottom when you are done.

VLite will prompt you to rebuild the installation files, which it copied to your hard drive. This process will take quite a long time, but at the end your source files should be updated.

You should now have a folder with installation files that look very similar to the actual installation CD. These are the files we will need to copy to your flash drive.

Of course you could simply use the regular Vista DVD, or even just mount your vLite ISO image instead, but this saves you from the extra step.

Prepare Your USB Drive

Open up an administrator mode command prompt by right-clicking on the shortcut and choosing Run as Administrator, then type in diskpart to load up the disk partitioning command line tool.

The most important step is to run the following command, which will give you the numbers of the disks, so you can use it in the next command (and not accidentally remove a partition on another drive).

list disk

Now that you know the correct number for the disk, you can use the select disk command, substituting the number 1 for whatever number your flash drive is set to:

select disk 1

Now you can run the rest of the commands, which will remove any partitions before creating a new FAT32 partition and setting it to active so it can boot.

clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32
assign
exit

That final assign command will let you access the drive from Explorer, so we can copy the files. You'll want to copy all of the files from your installation DVD or from the vLite folder over to your flash drive.

At this point you should be able to stick the USB drive in your computer and boot from it. Note that you might have to enable USB flash booting support in the BIOS, and often it helps to use the shortcut key for your BIOS boot menu.

Got any other tips for a speedy Windows installation? Let us know in the comments.