Uninstall Previous Versions Of Wine

For some odd reason, Office 2007 will not run on a version of Wine above 1.1.14. For that reason, if you currently have Wine installed, uninstall it by follow these steps:

1. Open the terminal.
2. Enter the following:
   sudo apt-get remove wine
3. Remove the hidden Wine folder by entering the following into the terminal:
   rm -rf ~/.wine

Install Wine

I’ll be using Wine 1.1.14 as I know it works.

1. Open Firefox and navigate to the The WineHQ .deb Packages Archives and download Wine 1.1.14 for your system architecture.
2. Install the .deb
3. You will see a dialog box that reads: “An older version is available in the software channel.”
   
4. Click the “Close” button.
5. Click the “Install Package” button.
   
6. Enter your password to install Wine.

Install Microsoft Office 2007

Now the fun part!

1. Insert your Microsoft Office 2007 install disc into your computer’s CD-ROM drive.
2. Look for the setup.exe executable.
3. Right-click the installer and click “Open with other application”
4. Choose Wine Windows Program Loader.
5. Enter your serial number.
6. Accept the User Agreement.
7. Click the large “Install Now” button
   
   If you click the Customize button, you can chose which components 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.
   

   

   

Install Winetricks

1. Switch back to the terminal and enter the following:
   sudo wget www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks
2. Once complete, enter this command:
   sudo apt-get install cabextract
3. Enter the following:
   sh winetricks corefonts tahoma vcrun2005sp1 wsh56js
4. Agree the Visual C++ license agreement.
   
5. Click the “Yes” button to install Windows Script 5.6
   
6. Agree to the license agreement.

Configure Wine

1. Enter the following into the terminal:
   winecfg
2. Switch to the Libraries tab
   
3. In the New override for libraries combo box, enter: riched20 and click the “Add” button
4. With riched20 highlighted, click the “Edit” button.
5. Select the “Native (Windows)” radio button and click the “OK” button.
   
6. Enter usp10 into the New override for libraries combo box.
7. Click the “OK” button to close the Wine configuration dialog box.

Test Microsoft Office 2007

All of the Microsoft Office applications should now have appeared in your application menu: Applications->Wine->Programs->Microsoft Office

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What is The Acid2 Browser Compatibility Test?

The Acid2 test is a Web page which tests a browsers ability to follow Web standards. If the browser passes, the page renders with the message “Hello World! and a smiley face”

As any developer will tell you, having a standards compliant browser is a dream! Long have we had to muck up our pristine code to write ugly hacks to support non-compliant browsers such as IE6. Visiting a site with non-compliant browser means that you probably wont see the site as the designer intend. The browser will misinterpret (if render at all) the code – which is completely infuriating as a designer!!

Up until now every major browser, with the exception of Microsoft browsers, were standard complaint.

Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 6

Firefox 3

Safari 3

What’s New in Internet Explorer 8?

Microsoft’s MSDN site lists many new features (as well as a list of standard complaint updates):

• 64-Bit Downloads
• Accelerators
• Accessibility and ARIA
• ActiveX Improvements
• AJAX Enhancements
• CSS Compliance
• Developer Tools
• Document Compatibility Mode
• DOM Storage
• HTML and DHTML Improvements
• Mutable DOM Prototypes
• Protected Mode Improvements
• RSS Features
• Search Suggestions
• Security and Privacy
• Selectors API
• Web Slices
• Zoom Enhancements
• Related Topics

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There are thousands of sites in the Internet that explain what an .htaccess file does, so I won’t get into it here. If you want to learn more, perform a Google search for .htaccess.

How to Create an .htaccess file

1. Create a new file in favorite text editor and save it, without a name, with the extension: .htaccess
   

If you are a WordPress user and have turned on mod_rewrite for permalinks, then WordPress should have inserted the following code in the .htaccess file that is on your server:

1. # BEGIN WordPress
2.    RewriteEngine On
3.    RewriteBase /
4.    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
5.    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
6.    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
7. # END WordPress
2. Now, in order to prevent hotlinking, enter the following code:
   1. Options +FollowSymlinks
   2. # Protect Hotlinking
   3.    RewriteEngine On
   4.    RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?YOURURL.com/ [NC]
   5.    RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
   6.    RewriteRule .*.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png|zip|rar)$ http://YOURURL.com/PATH/TO/REPLACMENT/IMAGE [L]

Explanation of Code

Here are the variables that you will need to change in order to protect your files:

Line 4: You will need to replace YOURURL with your site’s URL. As you can see, the code already has “http” so only need to enter the URL. For example, for my site, I would have entered:
samanathon.com

Line 6: This line specifies the file types to be blocked from hotlinking and allows you to specify a file that will be replaced when hotlinking occurs. If someone hotlinks a file, it will be replace with the file that you specify here.

An issue that you need to be aware of is that we’ve just told the server to block all hotlinks with those extensions, so your replacement image needs to have an extension that is not listed on this line of code. If your replacement file is an image (which it should be), simply give the file a different extension. For example, my replacement images is an .png file, this is the file:
http://samanathon.com/images/hotlinking.pn

Options

Google Cache/Image Search/Reader

Google does create a cached version of your pages when the search spiders index a page. You can choose to allow the cache server permission to like to your images. This is comes in handy when someone is viewing a cached version of your site. All you need to do is create a like and add “google.com” as the URL, similar to the line with your site’s URL:

Redirects

There has been much debate on the use of “www” in your URL. I prefer not to use it and I have my server redirect a request of www.samanathon.com to samanathon.com. This is how you can achieve this redirect, enter the following into the same .htaccess file:

Simply replace YOURURL with your site’s URL.

Final Code

If you’ve used all of the code that I’ve suggested, this is what your final file should look like:

Upload

This file nees to be in your site’s root and not in a folder. Navigate to your (or use an FTP client to access) your site and place the .htaccess file in the site’s root.

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How To

1. Right-click your Taskbar and click Properties.
2. Under the Taskbar tab, tick the “Group similar taskbar buttons” option.
   
3. Click the “OK” button.

Download

There are two components to this walk through:

1. Download Pidgin
2. Facebook Chat for Pidgin

Optional download

You can also choose to download Facebook icons that will be displayed in your IM window when you hover over a contact (just like when you hover over a contact that’s on a different protocol).  Look for “facebook_icons.zip” in the downloads section. Windows users, extract the archive to:

c:\Program Files\Pidgin\pixmaps\pidgin\protocols

Linux users, extract to:

/usr/share/pixmaps/pidgin/protocol

How To

1. Install Pidgin.
2. Install Facebook Chat for Pidgin.
3. In the main chat window and on the tool bar, click Accounts>Manage Accounts.
   
4. Click the “Add” button.
   
5. In the Add Account dialog, select “Facebook” as protocol.
   
6. Enter in your Facebook user name and password.
7. Accept the security certificate.
   

Now, your Facebook friends will show up in their own group!

There are some more options under the Advanced tab. These options include:

• Hide myself in the Buddy List
• Set Facebook status though Pidgin status
• Show Facebook notifications as emails in Pidgin
• Edit Facebook friends from Pidgin

How To

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

1. Hit the Windows Key+R, type regedit into the run dialog and hit the OK button.
2. Now that you’re in the the Registry, navigate to this key:
   HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current\Version\Explorer\Advanced
3. Right-click in the right pane and click New, then DWORD Value.
   
4. Name this new DWORD Value:
   TaskbarGroupSize
5. Double-click this new value and enter in the following in the “Value Data” field:
   2


Changes should take effect immediately! If not, simply reboot.

Download

You can download this Registry key and call it at will! Just download and double-click this entry. Also, if you’d like to make sure that there isn’t any malicious code (which I suggest, it’s your system – don’t trust anyone!), right-click the downloaded file and click Edit (or open it in Notepad). The code should closely match the instructions above.

• Install – TaskbarGroupSize

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Here’s my description of the Super Fort:

The Super Fort, created with four different Lincoln Log sets, has been created with security in mind. There is only one entrance, with a second security door to protect soldier who are at the look-out posts.

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How To Check And Repair Disc Errors

1. Click the Start button and select My Computer
2. In My Computer window, right-click the hard disc that you want to scan and click Properties
3. Click the Tools tab
4. Click the Check Now… button
   
5. Tick the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
   
6. Click Start button

Video

How To

Follow along with these few short steps:

1. Right-click the Desktop and click New then Shortcut.
   
2. In the “Create Shortcut” dialog, enter the following and click the “Next” button:

%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\tsdiscon.exe


3. In the “Select Title for the Program” dialog, enter a descriptive name and click the “Finish” button.
   
4. Right-click the shortcut and click “Properties”.
5. Under the Shortcut tab, click “Change Icon . . .” This will pop-up the following error:
   
6. After clicking “OK”, a dialog should open displaying all of the icons in the location:
   %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
7. Find one that you like and click the “OK” button.
   

Options

You could get nutty and place this shortcut in your Quick Launch folder by typing Windows Key+R, then:
"C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch"


Command Line Options

You can also use tsdiscon.exe in a batch file. Here are the optional perimeters:

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Prerequisites

You need a couple of things before you get started. Download each of the following installers and plugins to your desktop:

• Download Songbird
  • LiveTweeter plugin
• Download Pidgin
  • musictracker plugin
• Sign up for Twitter

Optional

If you’re a really audiophile or social networking junkie, you can install/sign up for a couple of other services and automatically update them all!

• Last.FM: Install Songbird’s Last.FM addon to update your Last.FM account as well.
• Facebook: Update your Facebook feed with your most recently listened to tracks (this option requires a Last.FM account)
• MySpace: Update your MySpace profile with your most recently listened to tracks (this application also requires a Last.FM account)
• Windows Live: Update your Windows Live profile with your most recently listened to tracks (this option requires a Twitter account). To configure, navigate to the “web activities” area on your profile.
  

Configuration

First off, install Songbird, Pidgin and sign up for a Twitter account.

Configure Songbird

1. Open Songbird.
2. On the menu bar, click Tools -> Addons
3. In the Options dialog, and in the “Add-ons” section, click the install button.
   
4. Navigate to your desktop and install the LiveTweeter-*.xpi file.
5. Restart Songbird and go back to the Addons dialog.
6. Under the LiveTwitter section enter in the following:
   • On the Twitter tab, under the General heading, enter in your Twitter user name and password.
   • On the Twitter tab, under the Options heading, tick the “Post for each song” check box.
   • On the Messenger tab, under the General heading, tick the “Activate MSN/Windows Live Messenger” check box.
     

Configure Pidgin

1. Navigate to your computer’s desktop and install the pidgin-musictracker-* program (Windows users: Double click the executable. Linux users: extract the tar.bz and issue install/make commands in the Terminal)
2. Once instillation is complete, open Pidgin.
3. On the menu bar, click Tools -> Plugins.
4. In the Plugins dialog, enable the “MusicTracker” plugin and click the “Configure Plugin” button.
   
5. In the MusicTracker dialog set the following options:
   • In the Player drop down, set the type to “Auto-detect”.
   • Under the Other settings section, tick the “Don’t change status message if protocol has working ‘now listening’” check box.
     
6. Click the “Close” button for each of the dialogs.

Now, every time a new song is played, Songbird will automatically update Twitter and your Now Playing status in Pidgin!

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If you desperately need to run Office 12 under Ubuntu, I highly suggest you spend the $40 – you won’t be disappointed!

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To make Windows boot up faster, you can defragment your system’s boot files. This will decrease the time it takes for your computer to start up. Boot defragment should be enabled by default; however, it might not be enabled on your computer.

How To Enable Boot-Time Defragmentation

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

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_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
3. Exit the Registry.
4. Reboot.

Download

You can download this Registry key and call it at will! Just download and double-click the entry you’d like to add to your system. Also, if you’d like to make sure that there isn’t any malicious code (which I suggest, it’s your system – don’t trust anyone!), right-click the downloaded file and click Edit (or open it in Notepad). The code should closely match the instructions above.

• Install – EnableBootTimeDefrag
• Uninstall – DisableBootTimeDefrag

1. Yes
2. Yes to All
3. No
4. Cancel

But what about the “No to All” option? It’s acutally there, it’s just not obvious – and it’s really easy!

How to enable the “No to All” option

1. Hold down the “Shift” key
2. Click the No button

That’s it!

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Enter iTunes.

The problem is, every time iTunes is updated (and why isn’t Apple patching instead of making us install the entire 60+MB program again and again…) it creates a new shortcut in the Start Menu, along with a shortcut to Quicktime. Worse yet, the “old” shortcuts (the one’s that I’ve moved) don’t work anymore!!

To combat this, I’m following the “More than Twice” rule: If you do an operation more than twice, then you should create a script for it.

Project Goals

To achieve this crazy voodoo, we’re going to create another batch file. This script will do a few things:

• Copy shortcuts to iTunes and Quicktime to the All Users Media Start Menu folder.
• Copy a shortcut to iTunes into the current user’s Quick Launch.
• Delete the iTunes and Quicktime directories from the Start Menu.

Now, we could create the script to move, as opposed to copy these items, but I like to have a little assurance that the files are actually where they need to be before I delete them.

Automatically Update the iTunes Start Menu Shortcut

To learn how to create a batch file, please review the post “How To Create a Batch File“.

The code is commented so it should be self-explanatory. Though, if you have any questions, leave a comment on this post and I’ll answer it for you!

Download

You can download the raw code – you must save the file with a .bat extension.

Options

If you’d like to change the Start Menu folder locations or names, you can do so on lines 3 and 7.

I have updated this guide. Please read: How To Install Microsoft Office 2007 In Ubuntu 9.04.

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 applications should now have appeared in your application menu: Applications->Wine->Programs->Microsoft Office

Source

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