Organize your desktop quickly and easily: Fences v1.01.143

http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/downloads.asp



When I was a kid, my room was ALWAYS cluttered.  There was stuff everywhere, and every time I cleaned it, it would somehow get cluttered again.  My mom even took pictures of it (sorry, don’t have them here for you) and still shows it to me on occasion.  Thanks mom.

In any case, my Windows desktop typically will get to be the same level of disjointed mess that my room was (and now, my garage and office, *sigh*).

Enter Stardock Software’s (makers of WindowBlinds) ‘Fences’.  This little gem can organize your desktop by creating borders/containers around icons of different types.  These fences are adjustable and are scrollable if you have a LOT of items in the fenced area.

Upon initial installation, the program will perform an ‘auto-layout’ if you desire, based upon some basic criteria:  Are the icons shortcuts of folders, programs, files, system shortcuts, etc.?

This automatic feature can be utilized after you’ve cluttered up your desktop again later, but I’d like to see it as an automatic option (i.e. always auto-layout, even if new icons are dropped to your desktop), or at least a right-click option.  With that being said, new icons that are in fact dropped to your desktop (free version) will not go into a fenced area, so you will have to manually organize or dig through the configuration screen and perform another auto-layout.

New fences can be created quickly by simply secondary-clicking (right-click for default mousers) and dragging a rectangled area on the desktop – not unlike when you perform a multi-select to highlight multiple icons.  Upon your button release, a menu will appear, and you can click ‘Create fence’.  Fences will then take over and ask what name you would like to give your new area.  Drag your icons into the new area, move the fence, and you are done!

Additionally, you can adjust the color and transparency of the fences using the configuration tool in addition to taking snapshots of your current layout prior to making changes.  There are a number of pre-made layout ‘templates’ you can choose from if you don’t like the default (as shown below).




Dislikes:

• Not sure where fences.exe runs – as a service?  I have to admit, I couldn’t find it running either in task manager or via services.  This is a red flag for a lot of people. and may trigger some anti-rootkit or malware detection apps.
• Have to dig in the configuration screens to get back to the auto-layout option (‘Tools’> ‘More tools…’> ‘Perform an auto-layout on my desktop’)
• Automatic organization option when new icons are saved or moved to your desktop *

I will quantify this dislike by saying that Stardock does in fact have a pro version, but this feature isn’t apparently in either version - although you can (in the pro version) tell Fences to automatically assign a fence to new icons, but I didn’t see a way to make it perform an auto-layout on new icons.

Likes

• Auto-layout at program initialization and manual “re-layout”, this is very handy
• Transparency looks great, it is very unobtrusive
• Great set of initial fences
• Good feature set for free offering (list of features – free vs. pro)

Diagnose MySQL in real-time: Spotlight on MySQL

http://www.quest.com/spotlight-on-mysql/

Here’s a quick one for you…if you maintain any MySQL databases (IT admins, you know who you are), then you can drill down on potential issues and performance counters using Quest Software’s awesome Spotlight tool (they also make Spotlight on Windows – a fantastic troubleshooting and monitoring tool).

Aside from looking cool, the tool has some useful features.

Like Spotlight on Windows (actually, the MySQL piece runs in the same parent ‘Spotlight’ instance), you can see a quick overview of important performance counters and statistics, which in turn allow you to drill down to additional information about that particular counter.

You can view (if enabled), the slow, general and error logs in a tabbed display, check out performance graphs of SQL execution rates, row access, sessions, etc. and much more.  Also, as before, you can get audible or visual notifications if an item hits a defined threshold (see the program preferences).

This is a must have if you have a need to keep a *ahem* spotlight on your MySQL databases.

One caveat, though – you must have MySQL 5.0.3 or later running the InnoDB storage engine (not ISAM).  Also, be sure the user account you use for monitoring has all the proper permissions in MySQL.

Anyone know of any other great MySQL monitoring tools?  I actually need one to watch ISAM-based databases - - and I am not a MySQL guy, so any help here is appreciated!

Sorry about all the layout changes...!

So, as you may (or may not) have noticed, I've change the layout and colors a few times over the past couple of days.  I think this darker theme is where I'm going to stick for now; it's sleek, "techy" enough, and is pretty easy on the eyes.

It's kind of a mental thing for me.  I feel that in order to build enthusiasm for me and the blog, I have to make some layout/color changes to get an understanding of where I want to go and to make an impression of a 'new beginning' of sorts for myself.

I got a few opinions from some members of the Spiceworks community re: the layout I had.  While I was on the fence with a 'wood-like' background, overall consensus wasn't too favorable.  That was enough to lean me to the direction of changing up the theme once again.


Hope this will work for ya and I promise I'll stop.

Remote Control: Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4603c621-6de7-4ccb-9f51-d53dc7e48047&displaylang=en



If you maintain multiple servers (or “server-like” computers), you probably find that you connect to the same computers over and over again via RDP. Sure, you can save individual RDP files and have a list of them in a folder, but there’s something to be said for a tool that will organize your connections for you.

In the past, you may have seen me refer to Royal TS from time to time – which I still say is amazingly useful…but…there’s a new-ish game in town. In the beginning, Royal TS was completely free, but over the past few years, they’ve shifted to a limited freeware model (limiting you to 10 connections for free). While still useful, we were forced to purchase a copy if we wished to use the latest version for our 20-odd servers that we maintain.

Don’t get me wrong, the price for Royal TS is fantastic for what you get, but they may have to up the ante a bit to compete with some features here from their competitors.

Out with the old

Microsoft’s prior tool, ‘Remote Desktop Manager’ was ok, but that’s about all I can say about it. Basically, a resounding “meh” from the industry in terms of features and functionality. It gave you a quick way to quickly list and connect to your remote desktop sessions. The nicest part about it was being that it technically was MMC-based, you could include it in your own “swiss-army knife” of administrative tools (computer manager, active directory users and computers, event log viewers, etc.).
But, MMC can only take you so far.


In with the new

Microsoft’s new remote connection manager, entitled “Remote Desktop Connection Manager” or “RDCman” for short, is a fantastic follow up to a mediocre tool. Yeah, it’s not flashy, but what it lacks in style makes up for in usefulness.
Features:

• Create groups of servers, think folders, but with more functionality
• Assign a set of credentials at one level, let it pass down to the servers underneath
• Assign local resources, display and security settings, gateway addresses, etc. using the same hierarchical fashion.
• View a thumbnail preview of all connected servers in realtime
• Drag and drop servers to change their order or group membership

Performance seems more than adequate, and I have already placed it as a published application on our Citrix server for ease of management while “on the outside”.
A recommended download for any admin!

Alternates:

• Royal TS free (limited to 10 managed connections)
• CodePlex Terminals (RDP, VNC, VMRC, SSH and ICA)
• Remote Desktop Manager (thanks Shannon!)

Coming back soon…

 

I realize it’s been a LONG time, but things had gotten busy busy busy at the workplace, and the blog was definitely not a priority.

Things have straightened out mostly, so I hope to start getting some regular postings again, starting with 1 a week and maybe moving up to 2 again.

 

Sorry for the long hiatus!

 

Rob