Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 Install Error - You must install Service Pack 2 or later to complete installation

Have you have got an error when trying to install Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2 which says:

"Windows Service Pack 2 Update Information"

You must install Service Pack 2 or later to complete installation. This service pack must be installed before you install this Microsoft Team Foundation product.

The sneaky Open Command Window Here feature in Windows Vista

I am by no means the first to blog this (most people probably blogged this about three years ago when Vista came out!) but I keep using it recently and I thought maybe some people have forgotten this in the last few years.

That's often the problem with a really cool tip - if you don't keep using it then you forget it. Sometimes when you're in the middle of things you half remember it but don't know how to find the exact trick quicker than it is to do it the "hard way".

Isn't it lucky for me then that now I'll always know that this tip can be refreshed in my mind with a quick search of my blog?

For the rest of you this might be your only chance for the next three years so listen up :)

How to get a Open Command Window Here option in the context menu of a folder

To get the Command Prompt Here option you simply have to hold down the shift key and right click on your folder. The context menu that pops up looks pretty similar to the one you always get except that it has an extra entry that says "Command Prompt Here":

Bonus knowledge - network drive mapping

While researching this blog post (yes I did research for a tip this simple) I found this little tidbit over on this post:

(Reproduced entirely without permission - sorry Tim!)

What's really cool about this is that if the target folder is a network location, Windows Vista silently maps a network drive to that location before opening the folder (so that your command prompt has a valid path containing a drive letter) and then deletes the network drive once the command prompt is closed.

Source: Tim Sneath's Blog

He actually has a pretty interesting series of Vista tips if you are up for the distraction:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/tags/secret/default.aspx

How to install telnet in Windows Vista

This is just a quick little tutorial which walks you through the steps to install telnet in Windows Vista as its not there by default.

It was written to accompany another upcoming tutorial I am working on but if you just landed here from a search engine then I guess its just as handy!

Is telnet already installed?

Before you follow this you better check you haven't already installed it and forgotten!

1. Press Start Key on the keyboard and the R key together
2. Type telnet into the run dialog
3. Press enter

If you see a message that says "Windows cannot find 'telnet'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again." with an OK button then press OK and carry on with this tutorial.

Installing telnet

1. Click the Start orb
2. Choose Control Panel
3. In the top right corner search box type "feature"
4. Click the link that says "Turn Windows features on or off"
5. Wait a short while for Windows to figure out which features you already have turned on
6. Scroll down to the entry "Telnet Client"
7. Tick the checkbox
8. Click OK
9. Wait another short while
10. When its done you can close the control panel.

Change the default OS on a dual boot system

I have Windows 7 RC1 installed as well as Windows Vista. Up until a few minute ago I had been frantically hitting F8 every morning when I turned my pc on to stop it booting into Windows 7.

Windows 7 seems like a great system but I haven't installed all my programs and made a commitment to it. Plus I need to get a new sound card for it.

To change the default operating system is quite easy these days (if i recall correctly back in the day you would have had to edit a boot.ini file by hand and hope you got the syntax right)

This guide is for Windows Vista.

1. Open up the "System" panel using one of these methods
1. Click start, right click on your Computer link and choose Properties
2. Press the Start + Break key combination (the top right key which also says Pause)
3. Click start, choose control panel, and type system in the top right search box
2. Click Advanced system settings in the Tasks menu down the left hand side
3. Click the Advanced tab
4. Click the Settings button in Startup and Recovery
5. Use the drop down "Default operating system" to choose your OS.
6. Click OK on all the windows until you are back to System dialog.

And that's all there is to booting up cleanly in your preferred OS.

Bonus tip

In case you didn't go ooh and aah when I mentioned the Start + Break key combo earlier then I recommend you try it now. When I sit down at a new pc to fix it for somebody its normally the first thing I use to see if the spec (processor and ram) meets the OS requirements. Its useful in more scenarios than that though such as getting networking info and getting a clickable device manager link up really fast.