Windows

Give your Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 Previous/Next song functionality

This post shows how to “hack” your Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 to give Previous/Next functionality to the numeric “Favorite” keys (specifically the 4 and 5 numbers) although you can probably use this to set Previous/Next to any of the custom keys.

These will not be application-specific but system wide, which is the beauty of it. You don’t have to switch to your music player application in order to change the track. So far I’ve tried it with Spotify and iTunes, and it works.

Here are some things that are useful to know when you do this:

  1. The Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard center uses the registry to store/retrieve the assigned target program or commands to each of the special keys. The path on the registry is at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\IntelliType Pro\ModelSpecific\1016\EventMapping.
  2. Given that the registry is used, it is possible that for 64 bit installs there are duplicate entries on the usual SOFTWARE path and on the Wow6432 node. I bumped into that the first time I tried this. The tutorial that showed me how to do it was only for a 32 bit Windows install, so I didn’t know I had to look for the 64 bit entry at that time. This second time I did it, I’m on a Windows 8 x64, and I didn’t have to anything else other than to edit the default registry path. When I did this on Windows 7, I did have to alter the entries on the Wow6432 node.
  3. Each key has a corresponding registry Key/folder, and inside, a REG_DWORD (32 bit) entry has the actual command to execute for that key.

So, the actual steps to do this:

  1. Open the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center.
  2. Go and assign custom targets for the keys that you want to you use for Prev / Next. I use #4 for Prev, so I set #4 to prev1.exe (the file does not have to exist, just makes it easier to find the key you need to edit on the registry) and I set #5 to next1.exe.
  3. Open Task Manager and kill the itype.exe process.
  4. Open the Registry, with Administrator privileges.
  5. Edit -> Find -> prev1.exe
  6. Just one registry entry should be found. Inside there will be about 4 or 5 entries. Delete all of those, it will not let you delete the default one.
  7. In that spot, create a new DWORD (32 bit) Value, make sure Hexadecimal is selected on the radiobutton, and paste the following text to its value: 000002c0. Rename the entry to “Command” (without the quotes) or it will not work.
  8. Now do the search for next1.exe, and repeat the procedure but assigning the new entry the value of 000002bf.
  9. Manually start itype.exe (location of default install is at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center\itype.exe).

You should now have Previous/Next functionality on the keys that you selected. Hope it works.

Thanks to Tom from ElectroLab Games, which is where I saw the original tutorial: Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 + Play Next Song Hack

How to fix Google Drive error c24e where the sync button does not work or do anything

I upgraded one of my computers to Windows 8 today, and when I installed Google Drive and chose a custom setup configuration to only sync some of my folders, I got some weird behavior from Google Drive.

After selecting all the configuration options (leaving the default folder as it is), clicking the Start Sync (or Sync) button wouldn’t do anything at all. No feedback, no error message, no alert, no event viewer message, nothing. I waited for a few minutes, tried again, nothing. I uninstalled Google Drive, tried again, nothing.

After a few minutes, I got an alert box that just mentioned error c24e, and a few more tries gave a different error: An unknown issue occurred and Google Drive needs to quit. Error: Invalid root_inodes set.

A few minutes of google searches, and found a very long Google Products Forum post about a lot of people having this very same error.

Apparently, one of the possible causes of this error is having two accounts with the same username (one local, one domain), which I had. The error has to do with folder permissions, more specifically, the account the user is logged on not having access to the created Google Drive folder by the installer, which is weird, since I installed with that user. I even tried to give my account full access to the folder, but that did not work.

Anyways, the fix is simple:

  1. Uninstall Google Drive
  2. Manually delete the Google Drive folder from your computer.
  3. Manually create a folder with the same name (after creating, confirm your logged in account has full access to the folder).
  4. Install Google Drive
  5. Success.

It worked for me. Another possible solution could be to just to use a different folder from the default one.

Hope it helps.

Windows 8 Pro Box

Hace un par de dias lei un blog post donde anuncian que la gente puede pre-ordenar Windows 8 Pro por $69.99, desde Amazon. Incluso al visitar la pagina de Amazon de preventa de Windows 8, se menciona una promocion en la que regresan $30 dolares en credito de la tienda online (si se ordena antes de Octubre 20), lo cual dejaria el costo de Windows 8 Pro en $40 dolares.

La muy notable reduccion en el precio a comparacion de ediciones anteriores de Windows (no recuerdo precios exactos, pero Windows XP y Windows 7 solian costar arriba de $200 dolares por una edicion comparable a la Pro) me hizo pensar que ahora es cuando varias empresas, oficinas y profesionistas independientes mexicanos pueden cambiarse al lado legal y quitarte de algunos problemas y riesgos.

$70 dolares. No es nada descabellado para un profesionista y mucho menos para una empresa, incluso micro empresas.

Los dos principales riesgos que se me ocurren de instalar ediciones piratas o crackeadas de Windows son:

  1. Pueden tener virus o backdoors integrados desde antes de que lo instales, para hacer tu computadora parte de una Botnet, o simplemente poder robarse informacion (hasta financiera) de la computadora en que se instale el Windows pirata. Una version legal de Windows te permite descargar tambien el antivirus gratis de Microsoft.
  2. Riesgos legales, auditorias, etc. Que necesidad de arriesgarse a multas o cosas por el estilo cuando se puede pagar $70 dolares por una edicion legal de Windows, cuyo gasto hasta se puede deducir de impuestos.
Espero que esta reduccion de precio que Microsoft hizo realmente impacte de manera positiva a las empresas y profesionistas mexicanos.

God Mode (O Modo Dios) en Windows 7, Vista y Server 2008

El God Mode (o Modo Dios) en Windows 7, se logra simplemente agregando un nuevo folder en el Desktop y poniendole como nombre:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Una vez que hagamos eso, inmediatamente aparecera en el desktop un shortcut que se verá asi:

God Mode en Windows 7

God Mode en Windows 7

Al dar doble click sobre el ícono, abrirá una pantalla que nos da acceso a 278 configuraciones específicas de Windows 7, divididas en 46 categorías. El siguiente es solo un screenshot de algunas de las categorías y los settings que podemos alterar, desde un solo lugar:

Algunas configuraciones disponibles en el God Mode en Windows 7

Algunas configuraciones disponibles en el God Mode en Windows 7

Funciona en Windows 7, Windows Vista y Windows Server 2008, PERO, al parecer las ediciones de 64 bits de Vista y 2008 Server presentan problemas a la hora de agregar el shortcut, así que no es recomendable probarlos. El God Mode funciona bien en 32 bits para los 3 sistemas operativos y Windows 7 64 bits.

Definitivamente a mi me servirá la próxima vez que esté intentando ayudar a alguien a reconfigurar algo de su máquina, especialmente por telefono…..tener todos los settings en el mismo lugar evita el típico: “Entra a esta categoría, dime si ves este icono, etc..”.

Espero les sirva.

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