Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Windows Vista Service pack 2 cleanup tool (Compcln.exe)

Recently, I was trying to free up some disk space on my C:\ drive. Back in the windows XP era, I used to delete the hidden blue folders (compressed folders with funky names like $NtUninstallKB975025$) in c:\windows\ that contained the uninstall information of each and every update. In windows Vista SP2, Microsoft provided a cleanup tool to do so. Simply open a command prompt (start+R, type “cmd” and press enter) and run “Compcln”. If you have UAC enabled you will get a prompt to allow the program to run. Click continue and then answer “Y” in the command window that will pop up. This will delete all the unnecessary files that are required to uninstall the SP2 (what’s the point of doing so since SP2 increased tremendously the OS’s performance?), freeing up a lot of disk space.

Enjoy!

PS: For windows vista sp1 you can use the vsp1cln.exe tool.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Automatically Print Both Sides with HP LaserJet P2015dn and Window 7

Since i upgraded my laptop with Windows 7, i couldn't figure out how to automatically print in both sides with my office's HP LaserJet P2015dn. On windows XP and Vista that had "HP LaserJet P2015 PCL5 Plug and Play Print Driver Package" HP drivers installed, there was an easy-to-find-and-understand option (Two-sided Printing) on Print → Preferences → Printing Shortcuts tab. Unfortunately, on Windows 7 the only driver available is the one coming with Windows 7 but there is no such tab and the closest option to it, is to print duplex manually.
Today i tried to fix this, but having spent allot of time using the good old fashion way of trial and error, I decided to call HP's support. They tried to help (not that effectively) but i managed to find the solution by my own while i was waiting for reply...

So here are the steps to fix this: