configuring pre-4.0 Blackberries to BES

Yesterday, I was setting up a Blackberry 7290 to use the BES box I had created.  The BB was running version 3.8 of the device software so it couldn't use over the air enterprise activation.  After searching, it was just as simple as reinstalling the the BB desktop software and when prompted during the install - tell it to use a BES/corporate server.  I had already created a user on BES for the user who was on this BB - but I don't know how necessary that was.  It seemed pretty easy upon that install, which was nice.

what kind of laptop should I get?

One question I get all the time is - what kind of laptop should I get?

That question is no more easy to answer than what kind of car should I get . . . 

There are many manufacturers with many models with different attributes and price ranges.  I'll try to make this entry non-brand specific and able to be used in the future without mentioning models available the day I'm writing this.

In my opinion, the two most important factors when deciding which laptop to get are price and weight.  Of the hundreds of options you have, this will narrow down your choices significantly.  Most laptops weight between 3 and 8 pounds.  Generally (but not always), the heavier a laptop is, the less expensive.  Generally (but not always), the larger the screen is on a laptop, the heavier it is.  Cost is always a factor.  Generally, most laptops cost between $700 and $3000.  For the most part, you get what you pay for.  In addition to the cost of the laptop, you also need to think about software.  Laptops almost never come with software (such as MS Word).  You often need to buy that separately.

So the next step is to figure out where you are in the aforeomentioned categories.  What is your weight limit and what is your price limit?  Knowing that, it's time to start looking at what is available to you.  My favorite places to look are PC Connection and Dell.  PC Connection is an online retailer that sells virtually all brands of off the shelf laptops (made in a factory to certain predetermined specs).  Dell is the leading seller of made to order laptops (you choose the specs of your laptop and they build it for you to your specs).  PC Connection sells all brands of laptops (except Dell and a small minority) and Dell sells only Dell laptops.  But between the two you are probably looking at 90% of the laptops available.  

With PC Connection, you can look at laptops by weight and by price.  For Dell, it takes a but more fine-tuning.  For Dell, look at the screen sizes and use these approximations of weight.

17" screens - 7 pounds

15" screens - 6 pounds

14" screens - 5 pounds

13" screens - 4.5 pounds

12" screens - 3.5 pounds

Hopefully, this will lead you to what model and brand you want.  Now, you need to think about software, operating system, memory, and warranty.  For software, most people would order a version of Office: Home and Student for home or academic use, Professional (for office use), or try one of the free options like OpenOffice.  A quick google or Amazon search will give you appropriate pricing.  If Windows XP is still available as you read this, you will want Home for home users or Professional if you'll be using it in an office environment.  If you are choosing Vista, you'll choose between Vista Home Premium for home users or Vista Business or Ultimate for an office environment.  You do not want Vista Basic.  Lastly, you'll need memory.  You want 1 GB or more of memory for XP and 2 GB or more of memory for Vista.

You can always go to a Best Buy to look at laptops - which is also an option, and it's what a lot of people do.  What I listed above is how I shop for laptops and how I shop for my client's laptops.  If you have additional questions, please fee free to email me.

fix for WinXP2008 virus and xpsecuritycenter

I haven't tested this yet honestly - but an associate gave me this batch file saying that it would clean out the WinXP2008 virus if you run it in safe mode.  True?  Not sure yet.

http://www.t-solve.com/software/roguefix_2.188.bat

making a Blackberry behave like a Treo or Windows Mobile device

By default, Blackberries mix in the sent items and contents of subfolders in one giant mailbox on the Blackberry. I hate that behavior. I'd much prefer it to act like a Windows Mobile device where you only see the inbox and its contents. On a Blackberry, you have the added benefit of being able to see sub-folders and sent items through this method. In addition, I hate the default behavior of items deleted on your BB remaining in your inbox. It's much better with wireless sync of the BB and the inbox so that the two always show the same content.

Step 1:
Turn on "delete on mailbox and handheld"
Go to your Messages folder, push the menu button and go to options.
Go to Email reconciliation and make the value for 'delete on' to be "mailbox & handheld"

Step 2:
Turn off showing filed and sent messages
Go to your Messages folder, push the menu button and go to options.
Go to General Options and make the value for 'hide filed messages' to be "yes"
Make the value for 'hide sent messages' to be "yes"

NTLDR missing - solution

I reformatted a Dell laptop the other day. Long story short - this recovery partition took the C drive and the system partition was located on D.

I tried to take the C partition and give it another drive letter. Well, I rebooted and I got NTLDR missing. After research, I created a bootable CD from here:

http://www.tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

And I was able to use it successfully to fix the issue.

Installing the SQL instance for Blackberry Professional correctly

There is a small trick to getting the SQL to work in Blackbery Professional. It's given me trouble twice, so I decided to document it.

The SQL database window that comes up is missing some data - what it's missing is the \database name. Here is an example of a SQL configuration that worked for me (I used SQL Express 2005 for my db engine).

changing permissions as needed for exmerge to work

When you download exmerge, it doens't work - which is stupid. First you have to copy the files to %Program Files%\Exchsrvr\bin so that it can find all the necessary DLLS. But then you have to change some permissions on the information store.

This page talks about it, but not completely:
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/ExMerge-Recover-Mailbox.html

Basically, it works like this. Open Exchange System Manager. Drill down to First Storage Group and then Mailbox Store. Right click on Mailbox Store and choose Properties. Go to the security tab. Click Advanced. Uncheck "allow inheritable permissions from the parent . . . " and choose copy.

Click OK. If you get a warning about permissions and denying permissions or number of permissions, so be it.

Now, for each user AND EACH GROUP THEY BELONG TO clear the deny right for send as and receive as.

So when I wented to allow the administrator user to do an exmerge, I cleared the deny box for send as and receive as for:

administrator
domain admins
enterprise admins

After I did that, I was able to do an exmerge.