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How to get your HP Scanjet 5300c Scanner Working in Windows Vista!

How to get your HP Scanjet 5300c Scanner Working in Windows Vista!

Introduction

If you’re reading this tutorial and are indeed the owner of a Scanjet 5300c or other 5300 model, and you recently upgraded to Windows Vista, then you are probably one pissed off individual.? Like me, you went to the HP website to download the Vista drivers and you were greeted by this PATHETIC message:

We are sorry to inform you that there will be no Windows Vista support available for your HP product. Therefore your product will not work with Windows Vista.

The majority of HP products not supported in Windows Vista are beyond seven years old. If you are using the Windows Vista operating system on your computer, please consider upgrading to a newer HP product that is supported on Windows Vista.

HP has numerous products on the market that support Windows Vista: http://www.hp.com/united-states/tradein/home_flash.html

I actually had to re-read this, especially since I bought this scanner 4 years ago, not 7. So at this point, I swore an oath that I will NEVER purchase another HP product based on this blatant laziness on the part of HP and trying to shove their clients to buying new products for no reason. I was fuming for days after this, I seriously couldn’t believe they would essentially crap on their clients like this. I can understand phasing out very old products, but my 5300c was purchased at a retail store in 2003 or 2004.

So, I started fooling around with the settings and guess what? I found out how a simply adjustment that takes 5 seconds will get your 5300c scanner to work fine with your HP Precision Scan Software! Ready to take back control of your perfectly good HP scanner? Here’s how you do it:

Installing the Drivers and Software

Step 1 – Visit the HP website driver page for the 5300c or whichever 5300 series Scanjet you have. Here’s the driver page for HP Scanjet 5300c.

Step 2 – Ignore the “Check for automatic updates” section at the top of the page and scroll down to the bottom and click on the “Download Only” button to save the sj664en.exe file to your hard-drive.

Step 3 – Run the application to install the Precision Scan software and drivers and then connect your Scanjet to your PC. You should now see the Precision Scan software in your program list like this:

You’ve successfully install the software and drivers! Time to tweak the settings to get your scanner working again.

Software Settings

Step 1 – You’re not going to believe just how simple and easy this tweak is to get your scanner working again, and quite frankly HO should be ashamed of themselves.? With your programs open in the Start Menu in the previous step, right click on the HP Precision Scan folder and click on Properties.

Step 2 – Once the Properties window opens, click on the Security tab and you’ll notice that All Users doesn’t have “Full Control” access to the application. Click on the Edit button to fix the permissions.

Step 3 – In the Edit window, click on each user and click on the Allow check-box for Full Control.? It’s important to ensure that every user type has full control.

After you’ve assigned full control access permissions to all users, click Apply and OK to return to the Properties window:

Then click OK in the main Properties window:

Step 4 – Now your new permissions SHOULD apply to all the applications in that HP Precision Scan folder, but you should repeat all the steps above to ensure that all the listed applications are all set to Full Control for all users.
After that, you’re in business!

It’s Scan Time!

Now click on the HP Precision Scan utility and the scanning utility will come up.? Click to scan and you will no longer get the “No scanner connected” error that you were getting before if you were trying to use the XP drivers without tweaking the security settings as described in this tutorial.

SUCCESS!

I think Canon just won themselves a new customer next time I go scanner shopping.

Thanks!
Dan

Importing Brushes – How to import Photoshop ABR brushes in to Corel Photopaint!

Importing Brushes – How to import Photoshop ABR brushes in to Corel Photopaint!

Introduction

Welcome to another Photopaint tutorial, and this time I think you Corel folks are going to LOVE what we’re going to do here.  I’m sure if you surf graphic sites and such, you always see people using these awesome brush packs for Photoshop, but if you use Photopaint, you’re SOL.  So you go on Google and search your heart out for ways to import these .abr brushes into Photopaint, but all you find are forum threads about people asking this very same question with either no response, or someone said “Sorry, you can’t, change to Photoshop”.  Well my friend, guess what?  NONSENSE I SAY!  Of course you can do it, so today I am going to show you how to convert and import .abr Photoshop brushes right onto Photopaint and use them as Photoshop nibs (what Photoshop folks call brushes are referred to as nibs in Photopaint).

Oh, and fun doesn’t stop there folks!  Not only will you FINALLY be able to use .abr brush packs in Photopaint, but you DON’T need Photoshop to do this and it won’t cost a cent for the third party application we’ll need to perform this wondrous task.

Have a I mentioned how excited I am bringing this to you guys?

Actually, I was a sweet tutorial a few days ago that was a photo manipulation project, and it uses this beautiful set of fairy wing brushes from DeviantArt.  I downloaded the .abr file and of course they were all but useless.  I knew there was a way to use the brushes, but I just couldn’t remember, and there was literally ZERO support online on how to figure it out.  So I altered my search and started looking for converters that could convert .abr brushes to .png files.  That’s how I found an application called ABRviewer, and it did exactly what I needed.

So here it is gang!  Read on and learn how to get those .abr brush sets working their magic in Photopaint.

Setting Up

Step 1: The first step is to download the latest version of ABRviewer.  This is a completely free, open source application you can download from Source Forge.  If for some reason SF is down or they stop serving this application, I have attached the 2.0 version to the tutorial, which you can download HERE!

So go directly to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=143912 and click on the green Download link for the version you want (I recommend you grab the latest):

On the following screen, click on the filename you want to download (On this screen shot, the first file is the documentation and the second file is the source code.  We want the third, which is the distribution set used to install the application):

Step 2: Once the download is complete, unzip the archive to a temporary directory and run through the setup to install the application.  Once installed, you’ll find the new application under Programs > abrViewer.NET 2.0 and click on abrViewer.NET 2.0 to launch the application:

Conversion Process

Step 2: Once the download is complete, unzip the archive to a temporary directory and run through the setup to install the application.  Once installed, you’ll find the new application under Programs > abrViewer.NET 2.0 and click on abrViewer.NET 2.0 to launch the application:

Conversion Process

Step 3: Time to load the brushes we want and export them to .png files!  With the application now open, click on the Load Brushes button and browse to the folder where the .abr file is located:

Simply double-click on the .abr file you want and it will show you a preview of the brushes contained in the pack:

Now click on Export > Thumbnails and it will open a file browsing window.  Browse to the folder you want to save the .png files in and click OK.

 

 

 

This is what the docker looks like when it’s in use (If you don’t have a document open and you’re not using the brush tool, the docker will just be blank):

Importing the Brush

Step 5: We can now create the brush nib.  Open the .png file for the brush you want to create:

Note that the preview may be blank or a solid black square.  That’s normal, it’s just too small to show you the masks contained within the .png file.

Click OK and it will open the .png file with the masks intact outlining the entire brush:

 

 

 

You will be prompted for a default brush size… you can either set one or use the preset default:

The Photoshop brush is now your new nib!  Congrats!

Step 6: Shall we play with our new brush?  Yay!  Happy times!  Create a new document with whatever settings float your boat and start BRUSHING!

Just click on the workspace and your brush pattern will be applied, of you can hold the mouse button down and paint solid lines of the nib pattern:

You can also reduce or expand the size of the nib and change the angles, opacity etc:

Smaller brush size:

Using colors:

Conclusion

So remember, the next time you see a poor soul drooling at the never ending line-up of Photoshop filters that he *thinks* he can’t use in Photopaint, save his life and show him this tutorial!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and you are now happily using .abr brushes in your Corel products.  Thanks again for reading and we’ll see you next time!

Dan

 

 

Selling Your Site – Learn how to sell your website and not get ripped off!

Selling Your Site – Learn how to sell your website and not get ripped off!

Introduction:

Selling website and domain property is big business, and just like any popular money making venture, the field is full of players that range from first time novice sellers, to the advanced, multi-million dollar sale companies that control thousands of domains and websites.  Unfortunately there is also no shortage of con artists and thieves out there looking to prey on inexperienced website sellers.  There is usually very little that can be done once a website and domain’s control has been handed over to the new owner, and one could spend thousands of dollars trying to regain control.

To top it off, there are hundreds of large sites that make website buying and selling a breeze, but at the same time, quite faceless with a high risk of fraud and basic annoyances that comes with selling anything online.  As someone that has sold websites and other goods online in bid style sales, I have quite a bit of experience in covering your butt and making sure that your sales are as secure and safe as possible.  You may lose out on some sales with these tips, but it’s damn sure better to be cautious than to get caught with your butt in the breeze!  So in this tutorial, I am going to share with you tips and tricks to ensure your site sale is secure, safe and you will also know how much to charge and who should pay what!

Where Can I Sell My Site?

There are site selling and auction sites all over the web that allow you to sell your site yourself, or you can search online for companies that specialize in site sale brokerage in the same way a real estate company will sell your home.  Having a company sell your site is definitely easier and very secure, but you will be paying a large portion of your final sale price to the sales representative, and it will be difficult for you to control the sale.  Selling a site yourself is really not all that scary.  The key is to be confident and very specific in your sale terms.  If you’re obviously a newcomer to site selling, then the blood suckers of the industry will take advantage of that.

A few places where you can sell your site yourself:

You can also use Google to look up site auction sites, site sale brokers etc.  The market is massive and you’ll find many sites that offer these types of services.  Personally, I’ve used Sitepoint and eBay in the past for making sales, but the concepts I will show you apply to any site, and many of these rules will apply to selling more than just websites online.

How Much Do I Ask For?

The asking price for your site is determined mainly by the revenue of your site, and get ready, because you have to prove your earnings.

Warning: Do not ever talk about your predictions or potential.  No one is interested in what your “potential” is, they want to know what the site does now.  Mentioning what the site “could do” or what “potential” it has is quite frankly laughed at by the general site buyers market.

The basic formula for your asking price is 1 year’s revenue based on the average of your last 3 complete months.  Here’s a breakdown of the math:

Let’s pretend I am selling a site today (March 20th) on Sitepoint.  First thing I need to do is look up my gross revenue for December, January and February.  Let’s look at the numbers:

In December I made $250.00
In January I made $300.00
In February I made $275.00

So our monthly average is (250 + 300 + 275) / 3 = $275.00

We now take our monthly average and multiply it by 12 to give us a 1 year figure of $3300.00.

Now we have our ballpark figure: Our reasonable asking price is $3300.00 for this site.

If this is an auction style site, you will probably have to specific a starting price and/or a reserve price  and/or a BIN.  Let’s look at what these terms mean and how they affect the auction:

Starting Price:

This is the starting price of your auction.  All bids will be added to this starting amount.  Beware though, if there is no reserve price and only 1 person bids on your auction, this means that the person will win your auction for that starting amount.  If there is no reserve, it’s a good idea to make your starting price the lowest price you’re wiling to accept for the site.  In the case of my site of $3300.00, my starting price would be around $2500.

Reserve Price:

The reserve price is the lowest acceptable bid price you will accept as a winning bid.  If your auction system allows the use of a reserve bid, this is how it works:  You create an auction and specify a low starting price to attract people to a great deal.  People start to bid, but until the bid price reaches your reserve price, the bids will not win the auction.

Let’s look at some examples with our site worth $3300.00:

Auction Example 1:

Starting Price is set to $2000.00
Reserve Price is set to $2500.00
Auction ends with 1 bid at $2000

This means that even if someone bids on your site at $2000.00 and the auction ends without the bids meeting or going higher than $2500.00, the person who bid the $2000.00 does not win the auction.  You basically would have to re-list your auction if your reserve is not met.

Auction Example 2:

Starting Price is set to $2000.00
Reserve Price is set to $2500.00
Auction ends with 5 bids at $2600

The final bid amount is now past your $2500.00 reserve, so this means the highest bidder has won your auction, and the payment and owner transition phase is set to begin.

Now the question comes up, should you specify a Reserve Price?  As someone who also buys sites as well as sells, I can honestly say that reserve price auctions are annoying and not very effective.  Personally, I would prefer that sellers simple set their Starting Price at the lowest amount they are willing to sell the site for, instead of trying to bait people with low starting amounts and setting reserve prices.  So, if I were setting up this auction and I had the option of setting a reserve (you usually do not HAVE to specify a reserve price… if you do, make it the same as your starting price), this is what I would do:

Auction Example 3:
Starting Price is set to $2500.00
Reserve Price is set to NONE or if required, I would use $2500.00
So at this point, just 1 person needs to bid at the minimum $2500 and it’s sold!

BIN:

BIN stands for Buy It Now, and this is very handy to have on your auctions.  The BIN price is the price you are willing to accept to end the auction immediately with no further bid process.  The person who first buys your auction at the BIN price wins.  Let’s look at an example of how I would set up my BIN:

Auction Example 4:

Starting Price is set to $2500.00
Reserve Price is set to NONE or if required, I would use $2500.00
BIN is set to $4500

So now if someone comes in and accepts my BIN price of $4500 in the middle of the auction, the auction is immediately ended and the buyer who used BIN has won the auction.

What about bid increments?

Some auction sites will ask you to enter bid increments.  This means the site is asking how much more each bid ads on to the price.  So if you set the bid increment to $50, this means that every time someone bids 1 time, it will add $50 to the bid amount.  I generally like to use bid increments in the $50 – $100 range when it’s applicable.  If your yearly value for your site is very small, such as less than $1000, you may want to go to $25 or so.

How Long Should I Run the Auction/Sale?

If you are running a timed auction, you want to run at least 7 to 10 days so that you know it’s been seen by a decent amount of traffic.  Some sites don’t have a time limit issue, so this is usually not a big problem.

Pro Tip: Make sure you edit your post when the site is sold so other people don’t bother trying to contact you with bids or questions on your auction or sale.

What information should I have in my sale?

Now we get in to the critical portion of this tutorial, and that is ensuring you give the appropriate information and terms of your auction.  By having a detailed and complete sales write-up, you will help avoid last minute surprises, buyers trying to control your sale and getting ripped off and having a bad sales experience in general.

Your auction should contain all of the following information:

  • Website Domain link so they can visit your live site
  • How long you have been running the site and how long the domain has been registered, how long it is registered until, and where you have it registered.
  • The site’s REAL Google Page Rank and Alexa Rating.  You can also provide additional search engine related information such as how many crawled pages you have with Google, backlinks etc.  The more information you can provide, the better.  You can find a nice handy tool at paegrank (not a typo) that quickly shows you your Google PR and Alexa ratings with one click and a bunch of other handy stats.
  • A detailed overview of what your site is about and the target market and audience your site addresses.
  • A realistic breakdown of how much maintenance the site needs.  This would include what kind of content you need to add, how many hours you spend on the site content etc.
  • The total cost of ownership… this means how much it costs to run the site and should include any equipment/server costs, hosting, licensing, employees etc.  This is usually a total monthly cost average.
  • How much you spend on advertising if you advertise.  You don’t have to say WHERE you advertise (no sense giving out trade secrets) but the buy will want to know if you’re paying for some of your traffic.
  • Your site traffic.  You will be expected to provide screenshots of your traffic, usually a couple months worth.  Don’t just type it out, you will be required to provide real screenshots from your reporting software, such as AWSTATS or Mint.  If you don’t have a stats program on your server, download your logs and process the raw logs through a traffic log analyzer and generate yourself some stats.  You can download free analyzers from Tucows, Download.com etc.
  • You site income.  It is extremely important that you provide your site earnings for the last few months whenever possible, and you will need to post proof.  In the case of AdSense or other network ad sales, you will be expected to post screenshots of your adsense interface showing your earnings.  Make sure you sensor out information that is not permitted to be shared according to the TOS of your ad provider.  With AdSense, you can sensor everything except the the total earnings, CTR, Impressions and Clicks.  Just check the TOS to be sure.  If you are doing direct sales and payments are via paypal, show screenshots of your Paypal payments.  Either way, you need screenshots to prove everything, and it is VERY important that you do not fudge your numbers or you will get caught with your pants down.
  • Outline your payment terms.  Let me be very clear on this folks, because this is one of the most important things in this tutorial.  BE CLEAR AND FIRM with your terms and do not back down on them for any reason.  As soon as you get a buyer that is trying to get you to bend on your terms, you should be very suspicious this guy is out to rip you off.  I will discuss payment terms in greater detail after this list.

WARNING: DO NOT lie, fudge or edit your sales numbers and screenshots!  If your numbers don’t ad up in any way, you will get caught for fraud and face potential legal action.  Disclose your earnings in an honest manner or simply don’t sell.

What kind of terms should I ask for?

It is absolutely critical that you set out the terms of your sale right from the get go, and you should refuse to deviate from those terms in any way.  When someone questions your terms, simply answer that they should not bid if they are unable to comply with your terms.  Don’t be rude, but be firm.

The first item in your list of terms is when payment should be made.  I reasonable limit is 5 days from when the auction ends.  So you would write it out something along these lines:

“Payment expected within 5 days after the end of the auction.  If payment is not received after 5 days, auction will be re-listed and winning bidder will be banned from any additional auctions and reported.”

By the way, you might be wondering what happens first… do you hand over the goods first, then they pay, or is it vice versa?  Let’s be clear here…  THEY PAY IN FULL and you VERIFY THE FUNDS before you do anything in the way of handing control over to the new party.  I also HIGHLY recommend you accept electronic payment types to protect yourself from fraud.  Ideally, you want to accept PayPal or some other form of electronic processing, or for larger values, direct wire.  For $1000, I wouldn’t bother with someone trying to do a wire, I’d be worried about giving out my banking information for such a small amount.  If you want my opinion, I wouldn’t go with wire for anything less than $10,000, and if you do go with wire, have their banking representative contact you directly for your institution information.

So now we’ll add this new stipulation to our terms:

“Payment via Paypal ONLY!  I will not accept money orders, checks or requests for direct wire.”

You’ll also notice that I said you need to VERIFY the funds.  I will give you a real life example of what happened to a friend of mine that sold his site to someone who paid via PayPal.  My friend sold his site on Sitepoint for something along the lines of $5000.00 and the winning bidder made payment immediately.  My friend then proceeded to transfer the domain and all files/accounts to the winning bidder.  It was all taken care of within 24 hours, everyone was happy.

3 days later, PayPal puts a hold on his account because the winning bidder paid with a COMPROMISED account!  This means the guy that won the auction used a hacked PayPal account to make payment, but by the time PayPal and my friend found out, it was too late.  he had already transferred everything to the new owner, and once you transfer the domain, good luck getting it back.  At this point, my friend had no choice but to enter the EXTREMELY huge pain the ass domain of legal proceedings.

We obviously want to avoid this, so you need to verify the funds first.  One of the easiest ways of doing this is to ensure that the email the winning bidder has been using to contact you is the same as the email associated to the PayPal account that made payment.  If it’s not (the payment receipt you receive in Paypal tells you the email), send that email address an email asking to confirm that they made this payment intentionally.  This is usually enough to ensure the payment was valid and you won’t get bit in the ass my a con artist.  If you’re still not sure, call PayPal or the merchant processor you used and tell them you have a high payment pending and that you want to make sure it is legit.

The next part is to protect yourself from bidders that want payment terms, such as “Can I pay in 30 days” or “Can I pay half now and half in 3 months?  I don’t have enough money right now.”.  Trust me folks, you don’t want to TOUCH this kind of thing.  So now add this to your terms:

“Payment in full is required.  Please do not ask for payment terms, split payments or any other payment methods.  I need full payment right away.”

And finally, make sure you specify that this isn’t a try before you buy:

“Please note that all sales are final.  I personally guarantee that all sales and traffic history are accurate, and should any of this information show to be proven false, I will provide a full refund to the buyer.”

Now you see why it’s so critical to make sure you are honest with your site performance and earnings.  Don’t forget, there are a lot of cons SELLING websites too, so buyers know a lot of the tricks and will sniff out any dishonesty in your listing.

So let’s look at a complete set of sales terms:

“Terms of this sale:

Payment expected within 5 days after the end of the auction.  If payment is not received after 5 days, auction will be re-listed and winning bidder will be banned from any additional auctions and reported.

Payment via Paypal ONLY!  I will not accept money orders, checks or requests for direct wire.  Payment in full is required.  Please do not ask for payment terms, split payments or any other payment methods.  I need full payment right away.

Please note that all sales are final.  I personally guarantee that all sales and traffic history are accurate, and should any of this information show to be proven false, I will provide a full refund to the buyer.”

What about the hosting?

You need to specify if you are selling the hosting of if the buyer is expected to provide their own hosting.  If you are selling the site AND the account on which it’s hosted, make completely sure they have taken over the billing of the hosting.  Get a letter from the host saying you are no longer responsible for the hosting and keep that email on file in case you are charged the following month and you have to do a chargeback.

What is Escrow?

You may get a request or see other auctions mentioning the use of Escrow services.  An Escrow service is a neutral party that “holds” the money until both parties are satisfied that the deal is complete.  Here’s how it works:

  1. The buyer or seller requests the use of an Escrow and both parties agree to use it.
  2. The buyer makes payment to the escrow service provider
  3. Escrow confirms payment to seller
  4. Seller transfers site package to buyer
  5. Buyer confirms to escrow the deal is done
  6. Escrow releases funds to buyer

In my opinion, the use of escrow for anything less than $10,000 is pretty much a waste of time, and I would definitely refuse to waste my time with escrow for anything less than $5000.  As a general rule of thumb, the buyer will normally request the use of escrow and paysthe fees of using the escrow service.  Typically it is the seller who offers a list of acceptable escrow services and the buyer picks from that list.

If you need a list of escrow service providers, I recommend you search on Google for some top names in escrow services or check out Sitepoint.com for recommended escrow companies.  I personally have never used escrow, so I can’t honestly say who is good and who isn’t.  Just do your homework and you’ll find tons of escrow reviews and get some reputable providers that don’t cost a fortune.

Special circumstances when selling a website

I will be the first person to say that selling based on potential and perceived value is absolute nonsense, and anyone trying to justify an asking price higer than the 1 year rule is only fooling themselves.  BUT there are some exceptions to the rule that I would like to list here:

High Revenue Model:

If your site has been a consitent large dollar earning site for a year or more, you can justify a higher asking price.  If your site makes $800 – $1000 a day, your site is making around $300,000 a year.  Having a $500,000 – $1,000,000 asking price is fully justified.

Extended Reputation:

If your site has been actively earning consistent revenue for several years and your name is will established in your niche, you can add on to your price.

Extreme natural traffic:

If your site is an overnight success and has been experiencing extremely high volume natural traffic for the few months it has been open, you may be able to justify asking a higher price.

Brand new site:

If you are selling a site you just created and deployed, don’t expect a lot of money.  It doesn’t matter if you spent $5000 in development.  If it has no traffic and no revenue, no buyer will care how much it cost to make.  Your best bet is to run it for a couple of months and try and get some numbers on the site and try to get a Google PR level assigned.  Again, don’t try to sell potential, it won’t work and there’s a good chance someone will just call you on it.

Conclusion

It is important to follow some basic concepts in your sales in order to stay safe, be protected and experience relatively stress free selling:  Be detailed, be accurate, be professional and be firm.  There are some very pushy and arrogant people out there that will try to muscle in on your terms or aggressively question your stats and earnings.  Be polite and answer the questions to the best of your ability, but always stick to your guns.  Do you really want to close the deal on your beloved site with a complete jerk?

For those of you BUYING a site, simply reverse this guide and be sure that all of the information that I have told sellers to provide in their auctions and sales is present in whatever deal you are considering.  If a seller refuses to show you any of the information I have described, especially when it comes to disclosing any earnings or stats, or they get mad when you question numbers that seem innaccurate, I recommend running like the Bay City Rollers are on your tail looking to recite their entire LP collection using spoons and a galvanized 10 gallon pail. (Just to clarify, that means run VERY fast!)

Good luck in all your sales and use common sense in your dealings!
Dan

How to Share a Local Printer on your Network with Other Computers with Vista

How to Share a Local Printer on your Network with Other Computers with Vista

Welcome to another Vista based tutorial!  Today I am going to teach you just how easy it is to share a locally attached printer with other computers on your network.  By locally attached, I mean a printer that is connected locally to a PC via a USB or parallel adapter, and is not connected to a HUB or Router.  We’re going to create the share with Vista, but you will be able to link to the share from any Windows machine.
This tutorial is split into 2 sections… first we will look at how to create the share, then we will look at how to add the shared printer to your other computers.
Shall we dance?

Creating the Shared Printer

Step 1 – Click on Start > Printers to load the Printers configuration menu:

WARNING: You may have to customize your Windows Start Menu to enable the Printers button so it shows up in the Start Menu like in the Screenshot.  If you don’t want to do that, click on Start > Control Panel to open your control panel and double-click the Printers Icon to access the Printers Configuration Menu.

This is what the Printers Configuration Menu looks like once it’s opened.  It will list any Online or Offline printers you currently have installed:

Pro Tip: You can assign a share name if you don’t want to use the default.  You can use any name you want!  You can also attach driver packs, which allows you to install the share from other Windows versions without having to have the drivers on hand from those PCs.  If you don’t add driver packs here, you may have to have the drivers on-hand from any non-Vista PCs you attach to the shared printer.  Not a big deal, just giving you a heads up!

Step 4 – Once you click OK, it will process the Share request for a second or two and then go back to the main Printer menu.  You will notice that your printer now has the Shared icon attached to it:

You’re done!  Your printer is now shared and ready for use by other computers on your network.  Let’s look at page two to learn how to add this shared network printer on your other computers!

Adding the Share to Other Computers

Adding the shared Printer is extremely easy, but may vary slightly depending on the version of Windows you are using to add the printer.  The steps will be very similar to the process we’ll use here in Vista, but you may have to install drivers for your OS.

WARNING: If you are going to be adding this shared printer from a version of Windows that is different than the version used to create the share, be sure to download and have the appropriate drivers ready in case your OS requires them.

Step 1 – Once again, open up the Printers Configuration Menu and click on Add a Printer:

Step 2 – You will then be prompted to select either a local or network printer installation.  Be sure to select network printer!

Step 3 – Now this is where things may be different depending on your version of Windows.  In Vista, you will be presented with a listing of available shared printers on your entire network automatically, but others may have your browse a list of PCs with shares attached to them.  If you are using the browse method, just find the network name of the PC that is sharing the printer and double click it and it should show you the printer itself.  Click on that and you’re in business.
Here in Vista it’s pretty straight forward… all you have to do is click the shared printer you want and click Next:

Step 3 – Name your printer to whatever you want or stick with the default and click next:

Step 4 – Click Finish and you’re done!  You can also fire off a test page just to make sure your share is set up properly:

WARNING: Take note that the share only works when the PC that is hosting the share is turned on!  If the machine to which the printer is connected is not powered up, your documents will not print from other PCs.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this tutorial helpful!
Dan

How to enable the Classic Start Menu in Vista and Enable the Run Option!

How to enable the Classic Start Menu in Vista and Enable the Run Option!

Welcome to my first of what will probably be several Windows Vista tutorials!  Most people associate my tutorials and general knowledge with graphics and photography, but I spent many years in IT as a Hardware and Software manager and as a department lead, so I have tons of OS experience as well.  So with that said, I would like to expand my repertoire of tutorials to cover the latest MS operating system, Windows Vista.
I just installed the Ultimate version tonight and man, what a battle and a half to get this beast where I need it.  I really dig the new GUI functionality, but there was a lot of new goodies in this bag that had me tearing my hair hair out.  The first issue is the new Start Menu and this horrible selection method they have for the complete program list.  The entire scrollbar concept and forward/back thing just isn’t working for me.

Let’s have a look at the new Vista Start Menu:

Here you can see me browsing All Programs:

Now as you can see in the screenshots above, I have a Run command button.  If you are running a fresh install of Vista, you don’t have that available, and the thought of not having a run command is probably gnawing at your very soul!  Let’s get our Classic Start Menu and our precious Run button back!

Step 1 – Start by right-clicking on the taskbar and then click on Properties:

Step 2 – That will load up the Taskbar properties menu… click on the Start Menu tab to access the required settings:

In the Start Menu tab, you have two main radio buttons:  One for Start Menu (default) and one for Classic Start Menu (Windows goodness).

Step 3 – Click on the Classic Start Menu radio button:

Step 4TO ENABLE THE RUN BUTTON, you must click on the Customize button to the right:

Step 5 – Here you can enable/disable various functions within the Start Menu including the Run button, which I have circled in red.  Once you’re done, click OK to return to the main menu.

Step 6 – Good to go?  Click on OK to close and apply the new settings:

And VOILA!  Classic Windows Nirvana!

Thanks for playing!
Dan