Ask DACS
April 2013

Moderated and reported by Jim Scheef

AskDACS is a Question and Answer session before the main presentation at the monthly General Meeting. We solicit questions from the floor and then answers from other audience members. My role as moderator is to try to guide the discussion to a likely solution to the problem. The answers below include my own post-meeting research.

Q – My work laptop running Win7 can’t see my home network. It can’t find the Network Attached Storage (NAS) device or any of the other computers (all running XP), but it can get on the Internet. What’s wrong?
A – Since the Win7 machine can reach the Internet, it has an IP address and is talking to your router (see below for another possibility). I suspect that some of the Win7 “security” features are activated. Listed below are some things to check and fix. After each one, review the problem to see if what you want is working.

1. Make sure the Win7 machine has your network identified as a Home Network (trusted) and not a Public network (untrusted). Open the Network and Sharing Center (see Control Panel or click on the network icon in the system tray) and change the network “location” if needed.
2. Turn on Network Discovery. This is the default on a Home network, so the other computers should be visible  once the network location is correct, but this is a domain computer so more may be needed (see TechNet tip below).
3. Enable File and printer sharing only if needed. I suggested this at the meeting, but it’s the reverse of what is requested in that it makes the Win7 computer visible to the other computers on the network. Because this is a domain computer, File and printer sharing may be “locked down”.

Another off-the-wall possibility is that you are actually connected to a neighbor’s Wi-Fi. This would also explain all of the symptoms.
Some companies require “more security” on their internal networks. Windows provides a means to enforce many registry settings all at once thru “Group Polices”, a feature of Windows networking since Win2k. These settings are loaded automatically when a computer becomes a “domain member” on an Active Directory Domain and are refreshed automatically. I found a TechNet tip (tinyurl.com/4sbkrjn) on the Microsoft website that explains how to change these settings on an individual computer. Since this setting could create a security vulnerability on the corporate network, making this change may be over-ridden when on the domain network (no problem here) or may not be permitted at all. If this setting is truly locked down, then you cannot see other computers on the network. In that case you must map network drives manually.

Q – What is Windows 8 “Blue”? Has it been released?
A – One member suggested that Blue would become a series of small enhancements to Win8 to add features. These mini-upgrades will be sold rather than free. I had heard that Blue was the code name for the first service pack and that Win8 service packs will add new functionality rather than just fixing bugs or security holes as was the case under Windows NT and Win2k. None of this is exactly right. It turns out that Microsoft is leaking preview editions of “Plan B(lue)” every few weeks. After the meeting I did more research and found conflicting reports (naturally) that may be due to the timing of the various leaked versions or just plain speculation. Several reports said that Blue would restore the start button and menu. A post on the betanews blog (tinyurl.com/c5ehmer) “Windows 8 Build 9374 brings 'Kiosk' mode, confirms 8.1 name” says there is no new start menu option but shows the name as “8.1 Pro Preview”. Time will tell.

Q – I’ve been using Google Drive. Where do you look to see how much space I have remaining?
A – A member did some quick clicking and found this information is in the lower left corner of the window when you are logged in to Google Drive (drive.google.com). Indeed, in that corner of my “drive” shows “2% full”. Immediately below that is a link to “Upgrade storage”. Hovering over that link produces a popup “Using 139 MB of 5GB” and “0 MB in Trash” on two lines. 5GB is the default space for a ‘free’ account. Most of the blog posts I looked at were out of date, so I recommend using Google Help for details and costs of extra space on Google Drive.

Q – I heard that Crossfire Consulting (presenters at the November, 2012, General Meeting - dacs.org/archive/2012-12/review.htm) has discontinued their training program in web and mobile apps development. Has anyone heard anything about this?
A – From the discussion, it appears that Crossfire completed the sessions that ran into January of this year and that no new sessions have started or are planned for the immediate future.

Q – Has anyone migrated their Skype account to the new Microsoft version?
A – Microsoft purchased Skype last year and has now merged the functionality of Skype and Windows Messenger into a single application. Upgrading consists of installing the latest Skype software and adding a Microsoft Logon to your Skype account. Skype is available for Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8/RT, and Phone), Mac, Android (phones and tablets), iOS (including iPod Touch), Blackberry, “Skype-ready” cordless phones, Television, and PlayStation Vita. The Windows Messenger functionality adds free instant messaging to Skype. Windows Messenger already did computer-to-computer voice and video calls, so the merger expands that capability. You need a camera and microphone device to use Skype on a television. This would be great to call the Grandparents on Christmas morning.

Q – I installed Windows 8 and it takes forever to boot up to the Modern Start screen and then takes a long time to switch to the desktop. Is there a way to have the desktop load while you’re using the Modern user interface? The machine is a 3GHz Intel with 8GB of RAM.
A – This question created some confusion because the described behavior is so unusual. After some questioning the consensus was that Win8 is not properly installed because the switch between the Start screen and the desktop is instantaneous even on a slow machine. One member related a situation where a bad printer driver caused a 3-minute delay during boot up. Another member related how a bad printer driver caused Microsoft Word to repeatedly crash about a minute after opening. Removing the printer solved the problem. The recommended solution to this unusual Win8 problem is to first remove all printer drivers and check if that solves the problem. If not, then reinstall Win8 from scratch.

Q- Is anyone using Microsoft Outlook 2007 on Win8?
A – Office 2007, including Outlook, while not officially supported, should run on Win8. The next question is how to set up the email account

Q – Another member related problems moving from one machine to another where his email messages were duplicated on the new machine. This became the next question.
A – There is no simple answer to migrating email to a new machine because there are an infinite number of combinations of Internet email providers, email clients and setup configurations. Even if the discussion is limited to Microsoft Outlook the number of possibilities is reduced to infinity minus five. Providing a detailed description is beyond the scope of AskDACS because there are simply too many variables. Bruce repeated his satisfaction with PC Mover (tinyurl.com/8zc3t3c), a program that will migrate “everything” from one machine to another, including email. The only downside is that moving to a new machine is an opportunity to upgrade how you do things along with your hardware. Switching your email from POP to IMAP is worthy of a little time and thought.

Questions for the upcoming meeting can be emailed to askdacs@dacs.org.

Disclaimer: Ask DACS questions come from members by email or from the audience attending the general meeting. Answers are suggestions offered by meeting attendees and represent a consensus of those responding. DACS offers no warranty as to the correctness of the answers and anyone following these suggestions or answers does so at their own risk. In other words, we could be totally wrong!