my Computer Quest: 2013

12 December, 2013

Removing iTunes and other software components

Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

10-Dec-13

After installing Visual Studio 2013, I thought I wouldn’t need to install Visual Studio 2012 anymore. Hey, I have the higher version already, and in all aspects, that should be a ‘better’ software package. Unfortunately, when working on CSS styles, there is some mouse right-click context menu that isn’t there. I thought it really wasn’t there, but it is very clear in the eBook I am going through, Beginning ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB, at the point of doing styling and executing right-click and something-something should show, and it didn’t, I was wondering. You see, the eBook is designed for VS2012, but having VS2013, I used that instead.

Some of my PCs I still have VS2012, so I tried that right-click trick, and voila! There it is.

Build Style. Within the curly braces of a rule. Have in VS2012. Don’t have in VS2013.

When I searched the web on this issue, there it was, as clear as crystal, it is a bug in VS2013, and while it was already reported, and probably some fixes were done and released, probably… the bug remains.

So I had to install VS2012. And this is when my HDD space would be consumed. I run out of space.

And hunting for some software pieces that I think I can let go, I saw the Apple suite. Nothing against Apple products, but I don’t use them in this particular laptop, so I decided they will go, and of course, with many others.

As before, it is almost always a wild good chase, this removal or uninstallation of Apple products from PC. There are about 6 products to be removed, and searching for one does not turn up the others. I would remember seeing one article before that shows how to uninstall all 6, in sequence, and that I can’t find easily nowadays.

Also, some would talk about just uninstalling everything without any particular order, and say that a lot of things will still be left behind after the uninstallation is completed, and to say that to really clean-up any leftovers, use Revo Uninstaller. I have tried Revo Uninstaller before, and I would still use it given the chance, and finding the need for it. But I think that to do just the Apple suite of products, that is too much. Revo Uninstaller is one heavyweight software, and if you go beyond what you know, things will simply get screwed up.

What’s the option?

I would suggest to simply use CCleaner after doing standard (or normal) removal/uninstallation.

Anyway, here is the list, in order, of uninstalling Apple software products, from you PC.

After removal, restart, then run CCleaner. But do make sure you review the checkboxes first and uncheck anything that you don’t want cleaned up, as CCleaner sweeps and cleans, and deletes permanently.

1.    iTunes
2.    Apple Software Update
3.    Apple Mobile Device Support
4.    Bonjour
5.    Apple Application Support (iTunes 9 or later)

Reference:
Removing and reinstalling iTunes and other software components for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8

Till then!

19 November, 2013

My mistake: VS2010 to VS2013 is OKAY

Screeshot of FarPoint Spread for Windows Forms version 5 in Visual Studio 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

19-Nov-13

So I was wrong. I thought that the errors I got from installing Visual Studio 2013 was due to the absence of Visual Studio 2012. I was wrong.

In one of the PCs I tried to install Visual Studio 2013 without Visual Studio 2012. That means I only have Visual Studio 2010. And boy, having these old desktops can cause a lot of confusion sometimes. It did, and I thought that the errors coming up one after another, they were all due to the “jump” from VS2010 to VS2013.

I was wrong.

While installing Visual Studio 2013, some errors came, mostly about SQL-related, and I just either retried the installation (modify or repair), until a restart was mandated. The installation continued after the reboot, until it was fully completed.

I called up VS2013, and when it opened nicely without any hesitation or problem, I was satisfied. When I was able to install updates, it was when I was completely assured that the installation was okay, or that I am able to “jump” from VS2010 to VS2013. I was wrong; dead wrong.

And only after my insatiable curiosity got the better of me did I find out about it, that I was wrong, and now, I am righting that mistake.
Jump from VS2010 to VS2013 is okay; it is possible.

Till then!

03 November, 2013

Don’t jump: VS2010 to VS2013

Image via CrunchBase

1 November 2013

Visual Studio 2010

I have been using Visual Studio 2010 for quite some time now, and seeing Visual Studio 2012 and having some hands-on with this version gave me some inspiration.

So imagine my excitement when I came across Visual Studio 2013! One thing that got me hooked (immediately) is the Code Lens extension. And that is just the extension…

I now continued my reading of Beginning ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB eBook, but I decided to use VS2013. I noticed right away that web site project creates 3 files, and the code-behind file, which is only one in previous versions, are now 2: the program code and the designer code.

I thought right away that Visual Studio has something new to offer, so that I started to clean up one other PC that I use for development, sort of back-up.

Clean-up done, where much old data files were discarded, and the disks were resized, and even repartitioned, I salvaged some space for Visual Studio 2013.

Then, I got some errors during the installation. As always the promise, Microsoft will try to fix it.

Retry, same error, same message. Retry, same error, same message. And finally, retry… same error, same message.

I looked (finally, some serious scrutiny) of the packages having error in the installation, and my immediate guess is that these files I do not know, and owing to the very close release dates of Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio 2013, I guessed that these files must be from Visual Studio 2012. The other confirming factor to this wild guess is the installer package size – VS2012 has a bigger installer than VS2013.

Visual Studio 2012

I now digressed to installing Visual Studio 2012. As earlier thought, the installation went through without a single glitch.

Setup completed. Product launched. Updates applied. Done!

Visual Studio 2013

Coming back to Visual Studio 2013, the installation was then retried, and this time, there was no error that came up. Setup completed in a jiffy!

Product launched. Updates were installed. And now, I have a back-up machine that runs Visual Studio 2013.

Lesson learnt: Don’t jump (you cannot jump) from Visual Studio 2010 to Visual Studio 2013. Do Visual Studio 2012 first. They have done much in the in-between years…

Till then!

17 October, 2013

Stylesheet folder or directory - could make or break your web apps

English: CSS rule in Malayalam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

17-October-2013

I have been reading on ASP.NET, so at least I learn something new. I have been coding and coding and coding, and I have become the woodcutter who did not sharpen his axe. And with the slowdown in load (all major projects completed, and pending roll-out only), I have some free time on my hand.

I found an e-book of Beginning ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB, and I skipped the chapters that discussed basic web development, but coming to Chapter 3, I found the CSS section a bit of an eye-opener. Not that I know nothing of CSS -- it is something that I have used extensively on my site, but not entirely the optimum way. And what I have just learned, I tried to apply on one of my simple web applications.

Did I find something to blog on?

You betcha!

I am one who always practiced organization, and I just find that the stylesheet file that was created in the process is 'mixing' with the code files. I just didn't like that. So in the middle of streamlining the CSS codes, have done some pages already, I moved the stylesheet to the \App_Code folder. There was no objection in the IDE...

So, I completed migrating all the inline and embedded styles into the Stylesheet file, so they are all in one common place, and this gave me a chance to remove all redundant and duplicate styles. Wow! Just think of the junk I created... And that is just in the simple web apps...

Anyway, having done everything, I now proceeded to test if what I did works.

Surprise, surprise!

In IE, it did not work. I am using IE10, running in Windows 7 Enterprise. The fonts and colors are all using the default values.

I tried it in Maxthon, in most likelihood, the closest browser to IE. The same behaviour was observed.

I now tried Firefox, and the styles came forth, shining through!

But since the majority of browsers used in our company is IE, I have a problem...

I tried defining the font in the individual rule sets, since the * { font: ...} rule doesn't seem to work at all.

No change.

I put the font definition in the body { ... } rule, and still, no effect.

At this point, I now thought of doing one thing: search the web. Search the web for similar issues and of course, the possible solution to my problem.

Found one article that mentioned the problem to be related to some server issues, and also on the folder/directory that keeps the stylesheet file. Spaces must be replaced with underscore (_).

Well, mine is having an underscore (\App_Code\), so I ruled it out.

I stopped for a while, and tried to think some more...

Then, out of a wild guess, I thought of moving the stylesheet file out of \App_Code\ folder, and back into the main folder.

Did that work?

Yes, it did!

So it wasn't the folder having spaces, and it wasn't the server behaving erratically, but simply, and I confess I don't know why (I don't understand it), the problem was simply due to where the stylesheet file was located.

So a few more code corrections, putting back all those definitions [ * { font: ... } ], and making sure all sections work, I published my modified web apps.

Hopefully it is much faster now.

Till then!

22 August, 2013

BSOD using Vuze

English: New icon for the Vuze client (formerly Azureus); is a departure from old icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

22-August-2013

The laptop I am using isn't one that is perfect, and while it may be blazing fast and surprisingly efficient and can withstand my habit of opening many applications in quick successions with 1 or 2 seconds, it still gives me the blank face of blue screen sometimes, and just spurts our numbers and letters that I don't understand.

However, one very consistent behaviour I know is my use of Vuze.

Searching on the error codes would come out with an endless list of posts and articles, and looking at some, there is a consistency that I found. It is the use of Vuze - due to some setting in Windows 7 network usage (limit). And I for one would like to push things to the limit: I would often open up a lot of torrent files, since my internet service plan is unlimited, and fast, I expect that everything else would be the same: unlimited and fast.

Well, some things would comply, but differently: a fast Blue Screen Of Death response, right after I click on Vuze application shortcut.

Like I said, I found out that the cause is the heavy network traffic, which kicks in when Vuze starts up due to the many torrents currently active.

The suggested solution to tweak some settings, disable some checks, turning on some, blah, blah, blah... well, I can't follow. Not to that level.

So what I did was reinstall Vuze. That required uninstalling Vuze first, and deleting the settings, so whatever uploads and downloads are active will be cleared. And of course, I did a backup before that.

After reinstallation, I put back in torrent files, one after another. And each time, I would close Vuze, then open it again after a while. When the BSOD came back, I noted down the number of active torrents, and set the limit to a number lower, to be safe.

Do I still get BSOD when activating Vuze? You bet I do. But at least, I know why now. And that is something within my control.

Sometimes, it is even with no torrent running but with many other resource-heavy applications and programs, activating Vuze will surely throw out a BSOD. So I just make sure that computer has stabilized for some time before I turn Vuze on.

The thing is, you can't have too many torrents active when opening Vuze. I am able to go over the limit when Vuze is already opened and running stable, only that I have to be sure that these torrents will complete by the time I have to shut down my laptop or before I close Vuze. And that, also, is within my control.

Till then!

my Computer Quest

12 December, 2013

Removing iTunes and other software components