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Sometimes there are days that we neglect an errormessage everyday because you don’t want to find out the cause.

I have an Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 mobile phone with Windows Mobile 6.5. I like it a lot.

But since a while I got the errormessage ’The system cannot find the path specified.’ when I tried to play a playlist in Windows Media player. I have a lot of special playlists created for different styles of music, what is my mood and  for playing Audiobook CD’s of  Jim Rohn or Tony Robbins…

I was annoyed with the errormessage and wanted to find quickly a solution via Google. I was puzzeld I found only 1 relevant link (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=362841) but it wasn’t the solution for my problem.

What was the case?

First I had an English firmware ROM on my phone but since a while I have used a Dutch ROM. I discovered that playlists have a logical referrer of the location which is not translated bu the OS. I saw that all files on the external memorycard in the .asx file were stored in their path as \Storage card\. I saw when I created a new playlist that the system didn’t use \Storage card\ in the path but it used \Opslagkaart\ (note, this is dutch for storage card). Little odd as you ask for my opinion, but ok, it’s like that. I changed the path in my ASX files from \Storage card\ to  \Opslagkaart\ and… it WORKS! It’s that easy… I expect this solution is for all foreign languages of Windows Mobile and not only affects the Dutch ROM.

While surfing on the internet I found a nice hidden feature of Windows 7. (It could also work on Vista 32 Bit. I can’t test it because I only have 64-bit on my PC’s)

It’s really easy. Create a folder with the name ‘GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}’.

If you open this folder you will see nice options

It’s just easy to have all these options in 1 folder.

I see a lot of times panic when the mouse is not responding anymore. (Can happen due to various reasons)

I’m going to give some key combinations which should make working with the PC easier. Eventually you will also work more relax with the computer. Which is a nice part of these tips.

The following combinations work in all Windows screens and applications :

CTRL-A : Select all
CTRL-C : Copy
CTRL-V : Paste
CTRL-F : Find
CTRL-Z : Undo (undo your mistake)
CTRL-P : Printmenu
CTRL-S : Save (Very useful tip!) (Now and than clicking CTRL-S saves your day because you have a saved copy of your document even if something went wrong)

Alt-F4 : Close screen/windows or close your program, if no program is working close Windows
SHIFT-INS : Paste

PrtSc : Make a screendump
Alt-PrtSc : Make a screendump of the currently active window/application

CTRL-ESC : Windows Start Menu

Last but not least : CTRL-SHIFT-ESC, you will start the Windows taskmanager and can you regain the controle of your system if a program have strange behaviour.

If you want to make choices from a menu in programs most of the time you can choose it by pressing ALT-x (x= character which you will see underlined when pressing ALT). As example I give you Word; pressing ALT-f will open you file. This works in most Windows programs.

People who create a lot of documents have experienced closing program wrong or that a program did not respond anymore which resulted in loss of the data of the document till your last saving point.

You will are looking puzzled why the automatic save option in Word or Excel this time didn’t do a thing or your document is even lost and you cannot find it anymore.

You can save yourself for this kind of situations by learning yourself a good habit. Every now and than (after some minutes) you use the following keyboard combination : CTRL + S.

In most Windows programs CTRL + S (hold at same time) means that you save the current document.

If you learn yourself this habit you are experiencing less surprises if you by accident close a program. You only can loose some minutes of work. I use it often. Make it a habit. You can react more relax when experiencing a spontaneous reboot (if this happen often please search an expert and not your nephew or neighboor) or a program that does not respond anymore.

CTRL + S !

Several people who installed the Technical Preview of Microsoft Office 2010 noticed after 30 days activation will not succeed. This is related to the fact the activation servers of Office 2010 not yet are published via DNS, simply explained to the fact they don’t exist yet. How you can re-activate for another 30 days? I give you a brief procedure how to do it :

First you have to stop the service : Office Software Protection

Then run x:\Windows\System32\OSPPRUN.exe (x can be your C: or other driveletter you have installed windows on)

You will have a prompt.

Enter these command followed by an enter like shown below, go to next step

>Initialize (enter)

>Open (enter)

>GetInstalledSkuIds (enter)

   0. 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (deze is het ID van Office 2010)

   1. 26adec89-edf3-4adc-a3fc-c865f1a9f71f

OK.

> GetInstalledAppIds 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (enter)

   0. 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663

OK.

(You will get something that looks like this)

> GetLicensingStatus 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (enter)

SkuId            = 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a

eStatus          = SL_LICENSING_STATUS_IN_GRACE_PERIOD

dwGraceTime      = 1D 23:37

dwTotalGraceDays = 30 days

hrReason         = 4004F00C

qwExpiration     = 2010/10/31

OK.

(What you are now going to do is set AppID and SkuID for Office 2010 to enable again 30 days before activation. That gives you another 30 days to test. Mostly the IDs are the same, if not please copy and use yours

> Rearm 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a 1 (enter)

OK.

>close (enter)

>Initialize (enter)

>open (enter)

You can enter the command below to check out how many days you have left (See dwGraceTime): 

> GetLicensingStatus 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (enter)

SkuId            = 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a

eStatus          = SL_LICENSING_STATUS_IN_GRACE_PERIOD

dwGraceTime      = 29D 23:37

dwTotalGraceDays = 30 days

hrReason         = 4004F00C

qwExpiration     = 2010/10/31

>quit (enter)

You are able to use it again for 30 days. Have a lot of fun with testing Microsoft Office 2010…

Again back with an useful tip.

Imagine you have to do research on an specific subject. To collect the information and have this well organised is a big challenge.

Quotepad solves this problem easy and effective.

You copy all information by using a shortcut key (default CTRL-SHIFT-Q, you can change this) and Quotepad will keep track of when and from which URL you have copied the content. Very handy.

It’s is freeware. You can download it from their own site : Quotepad.

I tested it on Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32-bit.

If I see handy utilities on the internet I will now and than post an article on my blog when I also use it.

The honor to be the first tip is an easy and simple program what exactly does what it promises. Most of the time these are the most fun tools.

The program is called ‘Timed Shutdown’. I was searching for a programma which could shutdown my PC at a certain moment.

Timed Shutdown gives you 4 options in the way you want to shutdown your PC :

1. Countdown (For e.g., 15 seconds, 10 minutes, 2 hours or a specific time)
2. Time
3. CPU usage for a certain time
4. If you are disconnected from internet during a specified time

I only use option 1 and 2. If you set the program your PC has to shutdown in 10 minutes, the program wilt countdown from 10 minutes till 0 and will shutdown your PC. I use this program on Windows Vista Ultimate (32bit). You can also use this program in batchfile as it supports command-line options.

You can download Timed Shutdown by clicking on the link.