Mind Circus

How to slipstream Service Pack 3 into Microsoft Office Project 2003

These instructions apply to Project 2003 Standard Edition. To slipstream other versions, you’ll need to replace PRJSTDE.MSI with the name of the MSI for your Project Edition.

Steps

You’ll need a Volume Licence Key setup CD.

D:\setup.exe /a

Save to C:\project2003\

Download Project 2003 SP3

Extract its contents to C:\Project2003SP3\ with:

Project2003SP3-KB923622-FullFile-ENU.exe /Q /C /T:C:\Project2003SP3\

Perform slipstream with:

msiexec /p C:\Project2003SP3\PROJECTSP3.msp /a C:\Project2003\PRJSTDE.MSI SHORTFILENAMES=TRUE /qb

Delete the C:\Project2003SP3\ folder as you no longer need it

This used to do my head in until I found this little tip on Lifehacker.

Picture this: You’re consolidating your digital music collection from numerous locations to a single directory on a networked drive. To save time, you don’t want to replace existing files as these are most likely duplicates, and network transfers are often slow. Unfortunately, when Windows pops up and asks you whether you want to replace the existing file, it gives you every option you’d like apart from the most useful: “No to all”.

To tell Windows “No to all”, hold down Shift while clicking No, and it will apply to all replacements for that transaction

This will also work when Windows asks whether you want to move Read-only Files or not.

To automatically download every hotfix released for Windows XP post Service Pack 2, just run this script. [Source site].

You’ll probably want to drop wget into your system32 directory before running the command, otherwise it’ll try to use your browser to individually download the files.

Once the script has finished, you can then integrate the hotfixes into your XP SP2 source and burn a bootable ISO using something like nLite. I’ll cover more options for integrating hotfixes in a later post.

The reasons for wanting to integrate post-SP2 hotfixes are numerous; but mainly, it saves time (using both WSUS and Microsoft Update take a while), and, overall, makes for a cleaner install.

It took me ages to find this via Google, so much kudos to Ross Smith for creating such a useful script. Thanks Ross!

[Photo by Josh Bancroft, via Flickr]

It’s a problem we all encounter at some point: You’ve just re-installed Windows, and now you need to download your Mainboard drivers. But which motherboard do you have again?

Instead of opening your PC case to find the Motherboard model number, check out CPU-Z

CPU-Z is a free, stand-alone application (no installer) that very quickly lets you know your system’s vital statistics (CPU, Mobo, and RAM), so that you can head off and find the drivers you need, without having to open up the PC.

This is something I come across frequently when I’m performing OS refreshes at DisplayLink. I imagine it’s a common problem in most start-ups (are we still are start-up? haha), where PCs are bought to spec on an ad-hoc basis. Often, the only way of finding out the motherboard number is by opening the case, lifting cables, and poking around the motherboard, in an attempt to find the tiny bit of writing on the PCB that tells you its model number. Hardly ideal!

Following on from Part 1, where I shared some useful keyboard shortcuts for general Windows usage, Part 2 covers useful shortcuts for working with Files and Text.

Working with Files and Text

F2
Rename the highlighted file in Explorer. Edits a Cell in Excel / OpenOffice Calc.

Alt + Enter
View properties of the selected item. Works in Explorer, but also works in other places, including Outlook.

Shift + Drag file
Moves files instead of copying them to separate volumes or disks.

Control + A
Selects all text, or all files in a directory. Very useful when you need to highlight everything and then Copy or Move (Cut) it somewhere.

Control + C
Copies the highlighted item (could be text, or a file/folder). Also, Control + X cuts the highlighted item.

Control + V
Pastes whatever you just copied.

Control + Z
Undoes your last action. This even applies when you’ve deleted a file and want to restore it. Always useful when writing up blog posts

Control + Y
Reapplies the action you just “undid”.

Text Specific

Control + B
Emboldens selected text, or starts to embolden text after you’ve used the shortcut. Use it again to turn off emboldening.

Control + I
Italicises selected text, or starts to italicise text after you’ve used the shortcut. Use it again to turn off italicise.

Control + U
Underlines selected text, or starts to underline text after you’ve used the shortcut. Use it again to turn off underline.

Control + Left or Right Arrow
Move forward to back a word.

Control + Shift + Left or Right Arrow
Highlight a word, backwards or forwards. Keep tapping to highlight more words

Control + Up or Down Arrow
Move to beginning or end of a line.

Shift + Up or Down Arrow
Highlight an entire line up or down.

Control + Backspace
Deletes one word to the left (behind).

Control + Delete
Deletes one word to the right (in front).

Have I missed any useful ones? What shortcuts do you use? Let me know in the comments!