Manual creation helpers

Ever wanted to create a manual for you application? Well, instead of pressing the print screen button and then editing the captured screens you may use a few build-in tools of windows 7 to help you out. The first tool I would like to mention is the “Snipping Tool” (located in Accessories) which allows you to select the region you want to capture and then edit it. The second one is the amazing “Problem Steps Recorder” (psr.exe located in windows\system32 folder) which allows you to record the steps you do and writes a pretty nice tutorial for you. The only problem is that it takes full screen pictures, but you can always resize the screen resolution and hide the start menu bar.

Hope this will help save a few hours from the nasty manual making job!

Autostart application that requires UAC on user logon in windows 7 without verifying them

I wanted to make windows autorun some application (like openvpn-gui and SQL 2005 Service Manager) whenever I logged in in order to have them loaded in the tray. Placing them in the Startup folder would autostart them but I had to confirm both of them in the UAC (User Account Control) since they both run as administrator. In order to bypass this, I had to schedule them in the windows scheduler. In order to do so you must follow the following steps.

Επιδιόρθωση του MBR

Όσοι έχουν dual boot windows με Linux με boot loader το grub έχουν σίγουρα αντιμετωπίσει το φαινόμενο να μην ξεκινάει ο υπολογιστής και να πετάει κάποιο σφάλμα ο grub. Σε αυτές τις περιπτώσεις, μια επανεγκατάσταση του grub μπορεί να επιλύσει το πρόβλημα που αντιμετωπίζεται. Για αυτό μάζεψα παρακάτω τις οδηγίες που επιτυγχάνουν την επιδιόρθωση του boot sector.

Unwanted languages in the language bar.

A few days ago, i noticed that i had in my language bar 5 language options, instead of 2 that i had configured for my English Windows 7. I checked it out and i had, for no obvious reason, Japanese (JP), Chinese (CH) and Korean (KO). I looked in my "Text Services and Input Languages" where i could only see the Greek and English keyboards that i had installed. Reboot didn't help so in order to get rid of them, i had to manually add them and after applying the changes i removed them. That worked for me and now i only have my original keyboard settings. I have no idea how i got them there in the first place...

Just for reference, the steps where:

1. Open "Text Services and Input Languages"
• Right click on the Language bar → Settings...
  OR
• Control Panel → Region and Language → Keyboards and Languages → Change Keyboards... 
2. Click Add...
3. Select the Keyboards you want to add. In my case:
• Chinese (Simplified, PRC) → Chinese (Simplified) - US Keyboard
• Japanese (Japan) → Japanese
• Korean (Korea) → Korean
4. Click OK
5. Click Apply
6. Select and click Remove each language you don't want.

Update [16/03/2011]:

According to Sinsoul's comment below, the reason appears due to installed MS Office profiling tools. He suggested that you should also remove all unwanted languages from the language options in office profiling tools. Here's how:

Start -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Tools -> Microsoft Office 2007 Language Settings

On the right list (labeled "Enabled editing languages") select each language you don't want and click Remove.

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: