I’ve been using PostgreSQL for years as the back-end database for my company’s intranet, and though I haven’t had to reinstall it once in the past five years on the production server, I inevitably need to reinstall it on my development workstation at least once or twice a year. Of course when the time comes for a reinstall, the steps I’ve taken to make it work have been completely forgotten. Performing a basic install of [...]

Since Vista’s release Microsoft has provided a variety of tools for deploying their operating systems. One such tool is Business Deployment Desktop which Microsoft describes as ” the best-practice set of comprehensive guidance and tools from Microsoft to optimally deploy Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system.” Though BDD certainly makes OS and application deployment to a variety of hardware platforms simpler than ghosting, eventually you’ll run into a problem: some critical hardware may not be natively supported by WinPE, the preinstallation environment used to load the OS onto a new system. This article will explain how to inject LAN drivers into WinPE, allowing you to deploy installations to a larger variety of hardware.

CCC Pathways is an estimating application for auto repair and and appraisal businesses and is commonly installed as a client/sever package. I work for a technical school and have installed and supported Pathways for several years. This post documents the process of installing CCC Pathways and provides solutions to common problems.

Much to the displeasure of everyone the IT industry, some software companies still insist on utilizing floppy disks. Rarely are floppies used to distribute software, but they are used for anything from boot disks and recovery disks to distribution of software licenses. Ironically some of your business’ most critical files could be stored on floppy disks, the most undependable of all media. To some this tip might be a no-brainer, but regardless, it may one [...]

In a previous post I talked about the importance of keeping your software current by installing patches and updates. Microsoft, in an effort to make this process as painless as possible, has made updating an integrated part of their operating systems. This article will explain how to turn on automatic updating in Windows XP and Vista and discuss best practices about it’s configuration.