Enable Shut down prompt in Windows 7

One of the things that's bugged me since upgrading to Windows 7 is the lack of "confirmation dialog" when selecting the shut down button. A number of times members of our family have shut the machine down by accident, when switching users for example (shared family machine). Not really sure why Microsoft removed the confirmation for such a major task, but hey, not my call.

Anyhow, if you (like me) want a confirmation, you can do this very easily via the local group policy editor:

• Select start and enter gpedit.msc into search box and run the editor
• Go to Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System
• Then choose Display Shutdown Event Tracker and Enable.

Now when you select Shut down you have to confirm and put some text in a comment box (server ops styleee). The comment is overkill for a desktop really but way better than not having any confirmation at all.

Monitoring WiFi channels

Our home WiFi is pretty good, with a decent signal across the house, but there are occasions in the evening where performance is a bit inconsistent compared with the daytime. Not normally a major problem as we use homeplug for devices like TVs, PVRs, Blu-ray (iPlayer, YouTube etc) and music. We save WiFi for laptop/tablet browsing.

This got me thinking... why the WiFi performance inconsistency? We live in a cul-de-sac so surely not 'that much' interference from fellow neighbours? I needed to check, so downloaded inSSIDer 2, a free open source tool that 'scans the waves' for WiFi points in your area.

I installed it and ran for a few minutes (you can leave it running over 24 hours if you want and see all access points that have been switched on over that period).

As you can see from the screenshot, we are not on our own. Our access point is the one in red (PoorSignal, yes that is the SSID ho ho) and you can see that we are competing with 7 or so other access points in our spectrum - although we run on channel 4, that actually spans into neighbouring channels, see the graph, namely channels 1, 4, 6 and 7 in this case.

I'll leave it running for a while and then I will try changing my channel to a less congested area. Of course there are lots of other factors that affect performance (other devices, walls, mirrors etc) but lets see how it goes.

Give it a go!

Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed

Finally found a convenient time to install VS 2010 SP1 (often difficult when you have several key projects on the go and you do not want to break your "known good" VS 2010 / TFS build). Anyhow, it is well worth installing... here's the info you need:

Web Installer:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23691

List of changes:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983509

Full readme:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210711

Since the install I've had no issues so far - looking promising :-)

I need to upgrade the TFS server next. I'll try it on our dev TFS box first and see how that pans out first.

Web Designer and Content Manager - ideal for recent IT graduate

We are looking for someone to work on a dedicated project for one of our clients, which is a large multi-national company.

You will be required to:

- Create, design and administer sites in SharePoint

- Migrate content from existing web sites to SharePoint

- Discuss with users their requirements and design/implement sites accordingly

- Provide SharePoint technical support

If you have no experience in SharePoint, cross-training will be provided by your team colleague(s).

You may also have the opportunity to do some ASP.Net/C#/SQL work depending upon your experience and interests.

We are looking for someone who has an IT related qualification at degree level or equivalent, with both web and design experience. You will also need to be proficient in using HTML and CSS. Excellent communication and organisational skills are essential, and you should be able to use your initiative whilst being flexible to the demands of the users.

Experience of Sharepoint 2007/2010 (or similar CMS) and Javascript would be an advantage but is not essential. In addition, any Visual Studio 2008/2010, ASP.Net, C# coding and SQL database experience may also be beneficial if you wish to get involved with web development activities.

This contract is initially for 6 months (£14 to £16/hr, 37.5 hour week) but there may be the possibility of further work after this time, and would ideally suit a recent graduate or someone looking to broaden their IT skills.

To apply, please send your CV to lisa@visualizehr.co.uk and a covering email detailing your interest in this role by 28th June 2011.

UK Tech Days 2011 - sessions now available online

We had a great time at the May 2011 UK Tech Days Conference in Fulham, London (held in the Vue cinema complex with popcorn and 'everything'!). For those that could not make it, Microsoft have now published the sessions on the web:

http://uktechdays.cloudapp.net/home.aspx

The next best thing to being there, enjoy!

Corporate Intranet Web App – Browser Statistics May 2010

As in previous posts, I like to annually report on browser stats that I collect via the Intranet web apps that I develop. Knowing your target browser platform is crucial when developing web sites, affecting your designs, client side functionality and testing criteria. So here are May 2010’s stats, taken from a 1229 user global application (across 87 countries), all of whom have logged on in the last 12 months (Corporate desktop for the company concerned is still IE6 as I write this, sigh…):

Browser Version	User Count 2010 (1229 users)	User Count 2009 (1017 users)
IE6	1116	973
IE7	77	33
IE8	27	2
Firefox	7	8
Chrome	2 (new entry!)	NA

IE5 no longer shows thank goodness and a high count for IE6 is expected (default desktop install remember). Great to see IE8 in there which should rapidly rise by 2011 as it is likely to be adopted globally soon in the Company concerned. Firefox has gone down and in my opinion will continue to drop with it offering little over Chrome/IE8 for day to day browsing (gone too bloaty). Reminder: these stats are from what the user used for a particular web app only - the user may well have other browsers installed for general browsing.

Window sizes:

Viewable window size (pixel width)	User Count 2010	User Count 2009
less than 800	18	23
800 exactly	28	63
801 to 899	22	28
900 to 999	26	22
1000 to 1099	492	489
1100 to 1199	51	35
1200 to 1299	272	135
1300 to 1399	21	1
1400 to 1499	68	52
1500+	15	5

 

These figures were captured at logout time (assuming that by then the user would have their browser sized/maximised to their preference for the application). Looking at the figures, clearly larger windows sizes are on the up and smaller sizes are on the down (surprise surprise). The “design for 1024” philosophy still seems to hold to a point but the “1200+ size” users are on the increase. There are still 94 users viewing windows at less than 1000 though, something the web application concerned, it has to said, does not look its best at! Hey ho, something to ponder on…

Clarkey

Two upcoming events – Agile Anti-Patterns and DevWeek 2010

I enjoy seminars, conferences etc. Whether presenting or attending, chosen carefully, they provide a great way of sparking interest in new methods and technologies, putting aside some time for training/education (essential if you work for yourself as I do) and meeting other like-minded individuals.

Here are a couple of upcoming events I’ve recently registered for:

SPA-237 - Agile Adoption Anti-Patterns
Wednesday 3rd March 2010 6.30pm, at the BCS in London
Presenter: James Lewis, ThoughtWorks

“… focuses on the things that you shouldn't do when trying to introduce Agile practices to an organisation”

This is a free evening session and is being presented by James Lewis from the well respected consultancy Thoughtworks. I’m a big fan of Agile approaches, but there are issues you have to watch out for and hopefully this event will get some of these aired.

DevWeek 2010
15th to 19th March 2010, London

The conference blurb… “DevWeek is Europe’s leading independent conference for software developers, database professionals and IT architects, and features expert speakers on a wide range of topics, including .NET 4.0, Silverlight 3, WCF 4, Visual Studio 2010, REST, Windows Workflow 4, Thread Synchronization, ASP.NET 4.0, SQL Server 2008 R2, LINQ, Unit Testing, CLR & C# 4.0, .NET Patterns, WPF 4, F#, Windows Azure, ADO.NET, Entity Framework, Debugging, T-SQL Tips & Tricks, and more”

I’ve been to one of these previously and from what I remember they are slick and very well organised, with the sessions containing some great material. Although clearly Microsoft centric, if you use (or intend to use) such technologies, you could do a lot worse than attend this.