repairs

Jan 2 2012

Keep it Clean – Regularly

Dirty computer

So, you buy a new car.

You take it home and, for the next few years you drive it every day.

In those few years, the only time it sees a servo is when something breaks.

No oil changes, no 10,000km service, nothing.

What sorta condition do you think you car would be in after those few years?

If you said “pretty crappy condition” then you’d probably be fairly close to the mark.

While a computer is clearly different to a car, some of the same things apply.

If you don’t do some regular maintenance on you computer you can quickly end up needing to do some expensive repairs.  The photo with this article is real.  It’s the inside of a computer recently in my workshop.  The build-up of crap was pretty serious, to the point that some components had failed.  Much more expensive to fix than just giving I a good clean.

Moral of he story?

Regular maintenance matters.

By admin • Computers • • Tags: , ,

Apr 8 2009

The Build Disc – Part 5b (Extras – Office 2003)

Office 2003A fully standardised install only takes us so far.  At some point you have to cater to the stuff that doesn’t fit in with the standardised stuff.  This article is about the extra bits that help Office 2003.

What do I install?  Pretty much just the file format converters to allow Office 2003 to read files created with Office 2007.

(As an aside, the Office viewers normally only open Office 2003 files but if you install them and then install the converter, they will also read Office 2007 files.)

I’ve worked out an unattended install but for only one install it’s not really all that relevant.

For what it’s worth, this is the unattended install command:

Office2003-FileFormatConverters.exe /quiet /passive /norestart

This article is part of a series dealing with my standard system build.  It starts with this article and the post you’re reading now is directly related to this one.

By David • Build Disc, Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Apr 7 2009

The Build Disc – Part 5a (Extras)

copyA standard install is all very well but you reach a point, at least at the home user/small business level, where standardization falls down.  Not every computer is going to have the same version of MS Office installed (or even have Office), some computers will not already have Acrobat Reader (or have an older version pre-installed).

Having already dealt with service packs, Windows/Microsoft Updates and standard utilities, now it’s time to come up with a good way of handling these extra items.  I’ve set this up with our typical customers in mind and it handles the stuff we usually need.  Obviously once you get to this level there is almost infinite scope for how you might handle things.

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By David • Build Disc • • Tags: , , , , , ,

Apr 6 2009

The Build Disc – Part 4b (wrap-up)

Next ButtonOver the past week or so I’ve posted separate articles on each of the standard utilities that comprise the unattended installs portion of my standard build disc. Now I’m going to build on the starting point of unattended installs and talk about how to implement these installs as a component of the overall standard build.

The benefit of using unattended installs is that all of these tools get installed with no interaction required on my part.  Just set it going and come back when its done.  How did I do this?  Largely be combining each silent install into a single batch file that does the whole install process.

Unfortunately, it’s not just a matter of doing a cut and paste on each item.  In order to do this properly I need to work out which operating system I’m dealing with.  For example, there’s no point trying to install Sidebar Gadgets under Windows XP.

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By David • Build Disc, Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , , , , ,

Mar 29 2009

The Build Disc – Part 4 (Standard Utilities)

Next ButtonStandard Utilities:

A standard build needs to be able to be standardised.  This means installing the same programs every time.  With a standard install, you have to hit the “Next” button regularly and make other selections to get the software installed. This can become long and involved, it takes time.  When you get busy, things get missed.

The goal for getting this installation standardised was to have all of these tools work as a silent/unattended install.  The combination of this, and a scripted install, means that you can get through the complete install with minimum interaction.

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By David • Build Disc, Unattended Installs • • Tags: , , , , , , ,

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