Start -> Run:
type regedit
then navigate to:

Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. In the left pane, right click on Winlogon and click New and click Key.
Type “SpecialAccounts” and press Enter.

In the left pane, right click on SpecialAccounts and click New and click Key.
Type “UserList” and press Enter.

In right pane of UserList, right click on an empty area and click New then click DWORD (32bit) Value.
Type in the name of the user account that you want to hide and press Enter .e.g.: “IT”.

In the right panel, right click on the user account name and click Modify.

To hide the user account – Type ”0″ and click OK. (The number zero not the letter O). Changing this value to “1″ will unhide the account.

user account · vista · windows 7

 

I recently purchased a WD 1.5TB hdd for my Desktop. About 2 hours into its use in my PC it burnt out. I sen this back to the nice folks at overclockers.co.uk and 2 weeks later (blame the UK postal strike) it arrived and was promptly replaced. So the new drive arrived and 24 hours later i deem it working OK. However with my current rig i have 1 x 160 GB SATA, and 3 x 1TB SATA. The 3 x 1TB drives are in a RAID 5 configuration. No more data loss for me. Recently my gaming habits have pushed my 160GB drive to capacity. So i figure its time to try Windows 7 Built in Backup and Restore.

Start ->Â backup. Simple eh?

Select the Library and Local Disk, also tick include a system image.

Now to the scary part. Installing the new HDD in the Antec 900 was easy and a prompt reboot and boot to DVD brought up the Recovery disk. This restore process detected my backup and offered to restore it. My fear of losing my raid array made me chose the custom route. However this was not necessary as the drive restore stated that the RAID would be excluded from the backup as it was the location of the backup media. My fears however were  not alleviated as i found in the past with Microsoft that sometimes they mess up the simplest wording of an action.

20 Mins later and the PC had booted into Windows 7. As it uses an image level backup my HDD was showing as 160GB. Thankfully microsoft were smart enough to remove the need for Partition Magic and other partitioning software and i was able to “expand disk” while windows was still running. No reboot needed at this point and no re-activation of windows.

Some benchmark tests will follow once i get my SSD’s up and running.

hdd · overclockers · raid · sata · windows 7

Today i arrived into work to a very … different sight.
I was missing my taskbar icons. Having seen explorer crash in the past in XP and Vista whereby it decides to take the quick launch away i figured that this was the same. Well i was wrong.

You see 1 icon there, thats the Problem Steps Recorder at work

Further investigation revealed that i could pin and unpin new items at will. But the oldies would not reappear. Some well placed r-click’s lead me to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar”. This handy little place is the physical store for what we “pin” to the taskbar. So it was very surprising when i found that my icons were still there!

A quick jump to Microsoft support online and they had never heard of this issue before. So i record the problem i am having using the beautiful “Problem Steps Recorder”. For those that don’t know this is the greatest gift from Microsoft in Windows 7 for anyone who troubleshoots issues for remote desktop users. If you haven’t used it simply give it a try and you will see why this tool is excellent for troubleshooting your computer illiterate grandparents “errors” and to even make how to guides on navigation or setting changes.

My psr file was 13MB unzipped (in .mht format) due to the number of screenshots it took when i made it and the dual screen high res setup that i am using. (2x 22″ @ 1680×1050). Currently i am liaising with Sherry Jia, Partner Online Technical Community, and as my employer is a Microsoft Gold Partner it seems that i will get the support i need.

So finger crossed that tomorrow shows the results, not that it matters as i have installed Server 2008 R2 with HyperV on my second HDD in work and plan to make a fresh Win7 VM. That will hopefully push me onto Win7 backup and restore and finally HyperV backup and restore.

HyperV · missing taskbar · problem steps recorder · psr · Quick Launch · taskbar · windows 7