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I have to admit that I absolutely love Office 12, OpenOffice just doesn’t compare! So, I needed to install Office 2007 into Ubuntu. If you do too, follow along with my handy guide!

Install Wine

First off, you need to install Wine. I won’t get into what it is, but you can get more information on the Official Wine site.

1. Add the Wine repository’s key to your system’s list of trusted APT keys by entering the following into the Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal):
   sudo wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
2. Add the repository to your system’s list of APT sources, again in the Terminal:
   sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list
3. Update APT’s package information by running the following command (once again, in the Terminal)
   sudo apt-get update
4. If you’re on your Ubuntu machine now, you can install Wine by clicking this link. If not, you can install by going to Applications->Add/Remove and searching for Wine.
   

Configure Wine

Now for the fun stuff!

1. Open Wine. You can do so by clicking Applications->Wine->Configure Wine or by hitting ALT+F2 and entering:
   winecfg
2. Under the Applications tab, set the Windows Version to Windows Vista.
   
3. Under the Drivers tab, click Autodetect to assign a driver letter (D:\) to your CDROM drive (/media/cdrom0)
   
4. Install winetricks by entering the following into the Terminal:
   sh winetricks msxml3 dotnet20 gdiplus riched20 riched30 vcrun2005sp1

This will automatically install the following components:

Microsoft XML Parser


Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0


Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2003


Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1


When wintricks is finished, it will let you know:


5. Navigate to following folder: ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/
   You can do this via your Home folder (once at your Home folder, hit CTRL+H to display hidden files).
6. We need to make a backup of a .dll file; rename rpcrt4.dll to rpcrt4.bak
   
7. Download a new version of rpcrt4.dll and place it in the Wine system32 folder (from step 5)
8. Open up the Wine Configuration tool again (ALT+F2, winecfg) and click the Libraries tab. In the New override for library field, enter in rpcrt4.dll and hit the Add button.
   

Install Microsoft Office 2007

Now that Wine is all set up, you can install Office 2007!

1. Navigate to your CD-ROM drive and click setup.exe.
2. Enter your product key
3. Click the giant Install Now button (I noticed that the installation progress stays at 0% for a while, but your mileage may vary)!
   

If you click the Customize button, you can chose which components that you want to install. You can also enter your name, initials and company name. This information will be embedded into every document that you create, just like in the PC version.

Clean Up Wine Installation Settings

There are a couple of crucial cleanup and configuration steps remaining - hang in there, we’re all most done!

1. Navigate back to Wine’s system32 folder (~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/)
2. Delete the downloaded rpcrt4.dll.
3. Rename rpcrt4.bak back to rpcrt4.dll.
4. Open winecfg (ALT+F2, winecfg) and remove the rpct4 override we placed in the Libraries tab.
5. Click the Applications tab and set the Windows Version to Windows XP.

You’re all done!

All of the Microsoft Office aplications should now have apperaed in your application menu: Applications->Wine->Programs->Microfost Office

Source

Some of the information used on this how-to was gathered from the WineHQ page for Office 2007.

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Last week, I showed you how to edit XP’s boot.ini file. This week I’ll show you how to create a bootloader menu even if you have only one operating system installed! You can set up a boot menu that will let you choose to load your OS with different options:

• Your normal operating system
• A mode that lets you trace any startup problems
• Safe Mode

All you have to do is create entries with different switches!

Setting up Boot Options

If you wanted to start XP in a mode that will trace potential startup problems, you could create this entry: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Trace Problems XP Home Edition"
/fastdetect /bootlog /sos
This setup creates a startup log and displays information about the drivers and other operating system information as it loads them.

To boot in Safe Mode with networking, you’d setup this entry:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe Start XP Home Edition" /
fastdetect /safeboot:network

Example

Lets say that you want the bootloader menu to display for 30 seconds, normal XP startup to be the default and the above examples listed above there too:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition” /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Trace Problems XP Home Edition”
/fastdetect /bootlog /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Safe Start XP Home Edition” /
fastdetect /safeboot:network

GUI Options

If you’re not too comfortable editing the boot.ini file, you could always use the System Configuration Utility. It won’t provide you with as many options as setting your own switches, but it can be much safer if your leery.

1. Hit the Windows Key+R
2. type the following, then enter:
   msconfig
3. Click the Boot.ini tab
4. Select options under the Boot Options section.

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Window’s XP’s boot.ini file is a hidden system file in your system’s root folder (it’s in the C:/ drive). By default, XP hides all system files to prevent unknowing users from screwing something up. Also, the file is sometimes set to Read Only.

Display Protected Operating System Files

We will need to display system files to be able to edit the file. To do so:

1. Launch Windows Explorer (Windows Key+E)
2. Click Tools -> Folder Options
3. Click the View tab
4. Untick the checkbox labeled: “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”
   
5. Click “Yes” in the Warning dialog
   
6. Click “OK”

You should now see the boot.ini file in your C:/ drive.

If the file is marked as “Read Only”, right-click boot.ini and click properties, untick the “Read Only” checkbox.

The Default boot.ini File

If you have a single Windows OS installed, your original file should look similar to this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition” /fastdetect
If you have two Window’s Operating Systems, it could look like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT=”Windows 2000 Professional” / fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Breaking Down The Parameters

Before we start playing around with this file, let’s make a copy of it and store it somewhere for safe keeping - there is a reason why Microsoft hid it! Save your copy in the C:/ drive and name it something like: old_boot.ini.

There are two sections to this file: [boot loader] and [operating systems]. Let’s break each section down:

[boot loader]

This section controls how the boot loader will work. It specifies the default Operating System and how much time a user has to choose from one of the choices in the boot menu - if the boot menu has been enabled.

timeout

The timeout value specifies, in seconds, how long to display the bootloader menu and wait for the user to make a choice before loading the default Operating System. If you want to show the menu for 30 seconds, then set the value to 30. If you want the default operating system to boot right away, then set the value to 0. If you want the menu to be displayed forever and stay on screen until the user makes a choice, then set the value to -1.

default

The default value decides which of the operating systems listed is the default. This must be listed, even if there is only one OS installed on this machine! In my second example above, the current default OS is to multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT. If I wanted XP Pro to be the default, with a selection timeout of 15 seconds, I would set my options as so:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

[operating system]

This section lists all of the Windows Operating Systems that are installed on this computer, and lists some options for each one. XP uses the Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) path to specify the location of the boot partition. In our example, the ARC path is:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT

The first parameter, which identifies the disk controller, should be 0. The second parameter, the disk parameter, should also be 0. The rdisk parameter identifies the disk number on the controller that has the boot partition. The numbers start at 0. So, if you have three hard disks installed and the second hard disk has the boot partition, the setting is rdisk(1). The partition parameter identifies the partition number of the boot partition. Partitions start with the number 1. The last section details the path to the folder where the operating system is installed.

To the right of the ARC path in the example is =” Windows 2000 Professional” /fastdetect. The text in quotes is what will show upon the boot menu. You could set this to whatever you want: “XP: Pirated Edition” The /fastdetect switch disables the detection of serial and parallel devices, which allows for faster booting. The detection of these devices isn’t normally required in XP, because the functions are performed by plug-and-play drivers, so as a general rule it’s a good idea to use the /fastdetect switch. The following table shows a few more switches you can use:

Switch	Discription
/BASEVIDEO	Starts XP using the standard VGA driver. It’s most useful if you can’t boot normally because of a video driver problem.
/BOOTLOG	Logs information about the boot process to the ntbtlogl.txt file in the C:\Windows folder.
/CRASHDEBUG	Loads the debugger at boot, but the debugger remains inactive unless a crash occurs.
/DEBUG	Loads the debugger at boot and runs it.
/FASTDETECT	Disables the detection of serial and parallel devices.
MAXMEM:n	Specifies the maximum amount of RAM that XP can use.
/NOGUIBOOT	Does not allow the XP splash screen to load during boot.
/NODEBUG	Stops the debugger from loading.
/SAFEBOOT:switch	Forces XP to boot into the safe mode specified by the switch parameter, which can be minimal, network, or minimal(alternate shell). In minimal safe mode, only the minimum set of drivers necessary to start XP are loaded. In network safe mode, networking drivers are loaded in addition to the minimum set of drivers. In minimal(alternate shell) the minimum set of drivers are loaded and XP boots into the command prompt.
/SOS	Displays the name of each driver as it loads and gives descriptions of what is occurring during the boot process. It also offers other information, including the XP build number, the service pack number, the number of processors on the system, and the amount of installed memory.

When you’re all done playing around, save the boot.ini file. The next time you start your machine, you’re newly created file will be used – but only if you’ve kept the boot.ini file name!

Example

If we want the menu to appear for 2 minutes, the default operating system to be XP, and the Windows 2000 splash screen to be turned off when we choose to load 2000, the boot.ini file should look like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=120
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT=”Windows 2000 Professional” /fastdetect /noguiboot
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition” /fastdetect

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Why

I like to keep my Notification Area as clean looking as possible, and this hack will remove all of those unsightly icons – it’s doesn’t actually prevent the programs from running, it only disables the actual Notification Area. ^[1]

What Is The “Notification Area”?

The Notification Area (sometimes called the “Task Tray”) is where programs, which are running in the background (like anti-virus), store their icons. The Notification Tray is located in the bottom right of the screen, next to the clock.

As always, please read this important information on editing the System Registry.

How To

1. Hit the Windows Key+R, type regedit into the run dialog and hit OK.
2. Now that you’re in the the Registry, navigate to this key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
   
3. Create a new DWORD value by right-clicking the right pane and click New, then DWORD Value
   
4. Name this newly created value:
   NoTrayItemsDisplay
5. Double-click NoTrayItemsDisplay and, in the Value Data text box, assign it this value: ^[2]
   1
   
6. Close the Registry and reboot your machine.

When your machine starts up again, you will see a clean Taskbar without the Notification Area!

^[1] To keep your computer running efficiently, you should prevent all of these programs from actually starting up! Try these steps (programmers can be sneaky; hopefully one of these will work):

• Open each of the programs (that are running in the Notification Area) and dig through their options, looking for the “Start with Windows” option – but remember that not all of these programs will have this option.
• Looking in your computer’s Startup folder: Start-> (All) Programs -> Startup – deleting the shortcuts that you don’t want to launch at start up.
• Look in MSCOFIG (Start -> Run -> MSCONFIG). Navigate to the Startup tab and uncheck the programs that you don’t want to start up – but make sure you do a Google Search to identify what these programs are; some of them have cryptic names!

^[2] A value of 0 will keep the icons displayed.

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We got a little nutty at work the other day and this is the result: We had a malfunctioning Linksys 8 port hub. The little device worked well for a long time, but could take packets no more So we decided to send it off with some style!

Step One:

Grab the nearest hole making device, we used a drill. You can use anything: spoon, gun, your teeth - whatever will work!

Step Two:

Break the circuit board. Not really necessary - but why not?! We used a combination of scissor kicks and the slam-against-concrete method.

Step Three:

Wire your chain. I used speaker wire. Why? WHY NOT?! The sheath on this wire was clear, the negative wire was silver colored and the positive was copper colored. Definitely added to the “Bling Factor”!! Notice that I used correct wire splicing technique - minus the soldering gun!

Step Four:

Show off your Geek Bling and getz yourself some mad-honeys yo!

Yeah, I’m hard-core. Believe it or not, I walked around Washington D.C. for two days wearing this!

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