Drewcorp Coding and Technology

I wrote recently about some correspondence I had with UPEK support to remove the “Encrypted Archive” menu items from the context menu of the whole file system. I thought it was a bit of a nuisance and wanted it removed, so UPEK immediately provided me with a registry key to delete that would solve my [...]

It didn’t bug me until today but alas, it eventually got to me. Windows Live Messenger on Windows 7 has a new home in the quicklaunch area and I’m not the only one who has found it annoying. Want to put it back in the system tray (at the bottom right where other notifications show [...]

A fairly specific title, to be sure. I recently wiped my laptop and used this opportunity to streamline much of my system as well as to officially upgrade to Windows 7. One of my favorite features of my laptop – the Dell XPS 1530 – is the built-in UPEK biometrics fingerprint scanner. Unfortunately, the dell-supplied [...]

I’m a bit late to the game here, but after reformatting my computer to officially upgrade to Windows 7, and installing OpenOffice because I don’t want to deal with Office 2007 licensing, I realized how much I prefer the ribbon interface. I looked around briefly to see if there was a “skin” or something similar [...]

I recently decided to tackle a problem that has plagued me from the beginning in XBMC. Some time ago, I changed the naming convention of my files to something that was cleaner and more logical to me. The format used to be like this example: Burn Notice/Season 1/Burn Notice – 101 – Pilot.avi I noted [...]

My wife Janine has always loved photography, and I’ve encouraged her buy purchasing some very decent cameras over the years. Most recently, the Sony alpha a100 DSLR with 10 Megapixels. Next I should mention we have two kids and we travel. Not tons of travel, just more than some and less than others. Janine recently [...]

On the off chance that you computer savvy users have not heard of PortableApps.com, I thought I’d bring it to your attention. Basically all of the best open-source applications have been shrunk down and configured in a way that doesn’t involve embedding itself in your system registry. Apps include Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice3.0, ClamWin (antivirus), InfraRecorder [...]

I came across a great post today, highlighting software that sadly I can’t experiment with because I only have a single Mac – a Mini. For those of you with multiple Macs, this software may be for you. And as an added bonus, the post is from a ColdFusion developer not far from here over [...]

I wanted to give props to the guys who developed and maintained a great little program called HandBrake. I’ve used it on a number of occasions to transcode big MKVs to smaller AVIs that my modded Xbox finds easier to handle. Every other program I’ve tried is either a trial version, difficult to use, or [...]

In my entire memory, there is no more pesky or nightmarish an un-install process as with the MS Office Activation Assistant. For the uninitiated among you, the Office Activation Assistant (OAA) is a tool that pc and laptop manufacturers preinstall on your computer at the factory. Here’s a blurb from the Microsoft website: The Microsoft [...]