I have been keeping a list of Firefox extensions that I feel are must have items. This is by no means meant to imply that these are the only ones to have, but for me they form at the very least the core of what makes Firefox stand up and dance for me. I do update it now and then with additions or removals, status updates, whatever. I just updated the list with a replacement for one extension that went away, so check it out!
Quick fix for Notepad++ and the dreaded “Error in CreateProcess (740)” problem!
At least this worked really well for me, and a few other folk that tried it. I don’t know if this is a Windows 7 thing since it seems that most folks experiencing this problem were running Win7, but not everyone. Either way, I culled this from bits and pieces of other suggested solutions I found and thought I would share it. You never know, it might help someone else like it helped me, and that’s what this site is all about, eh?
OK, on with the goodness! Quick summary, I had Notepad++ (one badass text editor for Windows if you don’t already know about it) installed on my main machine, the Mothership running Windows 7. I had a context menu entry so that I could write click on darn near anything and have the option to “Edit with Notepadd++”. This has been a real handy option living in my context menu for years, and when it started flaking out I wasn’t happy about it. At first I figured it was just Windoze being Windoh’s and it would be OK after the next time I rebooted. However, as time went on, after the next reboot or two, it was still messed up.
Messed up how you ask? Well, I could open the program with the standard shortcut, no problem. Once open I could open files, no problem. I could drag and drop files and Notepad++ would open them fine. It was only when I tried to fire up Notepad++ with a file argument after the executable’s path (like the context menu) that I would get the following error message:
Error in CreateProcess (740): Is this command correct?
“C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe”
“D:\path\to\the\file_I_was\opening.txt”
That was it, no joy after that. Nothing. Nada. Irritating. Well, to make a longer story shorter, I did some research and found that it came down to two problems. Maybe only one, but I think it really had to do with both. These were/are:
- Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) doesn’t like the “++” in the path. The theory goes that Windows doesn’t have a publicly reported problem, like by Microsoft, but nonetheless it sometimes just lets special characters get on its bad side, and starts throwing some errors.
- Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) does not like the Notepad++ option during setup that says don’t use %AppData% for storing config settings. This allows you to override Windows default behavior and store your config data in the program directory like in the old days. Well, Windows 7 especially (maybe others) really hates this, and will fight with you over it.
So, what was the fix? The fix should be pretty obvious after reading the two items above, but I’ll lay it out for you anyway, cause that’s what I do!
- First, uninstall Notepad++, make sure to completely remove it.
- Next, re-install Notepad++, you might as well snag the latest version from their site (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) while you are at it.
- During the re-install, make sure you change the installation path so as to remove the “++” from the install directory. As a suggestion, I used “C:\Program Files\NotepadPP\”, substituting a capital P for each +.
- Also, as you are installing, make sure you do not check the option that says to not use %AppData%, go ahead and let the installer put the config files where it wants.
- Now, once the install is done, test it out. For me, this fixed my problems, Notepad++ runs faster and smoother than ever before, which is a great thing.
I sure hope this helps you fix the problems you are having with Notepad++ and opening files from a context menu. If not, drop a comment and share some details, maybe we can get folk to chime in and help you out! Enjoy 🙂
Awesome Source Code Library
(Click to enlarge)
OK, boys and girls, I have a really cool treat for you. For a long time now I have been looking for the right application to use as a source code library. I say application because I have been trying to be open minded about what to use. I have tried Wiki’s (which actually aren’t too bad), note taking programs, and a great many other tools, including a couple that were specifically written to be source code libraries … but in the end fell quite short of my expectations. Also, when I say source code library, I am not and have not been looking for tons of canned code to take advantage of, that’s the problem I have now, 20+ years in IT and I already have tons of code, I just need a way to store it, sort it, search it, export it, back it up, and anything else I can think of! I’d like to note too that in addition to all of the other features I may list here, this tool does a superb job at syntax highlighting as well.
Let me digress for a moment to mention a site called Donation Coder (www.donationcoder.com), these guys are great! Lots of free software from some really talented developers. There are some apps there that beat their commercial competition by a country mile, hands down. That’s one reason why I like to hang out there, in the forums for example, these guys write software because they enjoy writing software. Therefore they create some wicked cool stuff.
How does this pertain to the issue at hand? Well, it was in the forums there that I ran across a thread where people were talking about their own search for a source code library much like my own search. I found one post among others recommending different things that mentioned a free tool called “Developer’s Tips & Tricks (DTT)” from Freesoftland. I had never heard of this group before, but I liked what I had seen posted in the Donation Coder forums, plus I really liked what I saw when reading up on their DTT tool.
Visual Basic dot NET – Making a button the form default
Here is a quick tip for any and all of you VB slimming pills that work.NET heads out there. Need to make a button on your form the default one to fire off when you hit the enter key (while that form has focus naturally)? In the old days, it was a button property, and now it has become a form property. It actually kind of makes sense when you think about it. I mean, you can only have one default button on a form, right? Anyway, go to the properties of the form in question and look for an option called “AcceptButton”. This will be a drop down list comprised of all the buttons that have been placed on the form. Pick the one you want as the default and there you have it, your button is ready to go! Hope that helps …
Love the iPhone, but not the battery life?
That’s me! I love my iPhone, but I don’t consider myself to be one of those blinder wearing fanbois either. I have had various and sundry mobile phones over the years, with one of the best being my Motorola Timeport. That thing lasted me five years and could still get better reception than anything else around it. To bad it finally came apart one too many times for me to put back together, gravity is a bitch lemme tell ya. Anyway, I made the move into “smart” phones with a Blackberry (didn’t everyone else when they came out? LOL). I had, had PDAs before, but this was my first adventure with a PDA/phone combination and I was hooked, I mean I loved it. I went through several Blackberry models both at work and with my personal ones. Including a stint with a Blackberry storm at work, man did that thing suck, it was awful. I had wanted an iPhone and had almost gotten one back in my Blackberry days, but I really figured that they were all pretty much the same. Boy was I wrong! I finally switched from a Blackberry to an iPhone (3GS) and I am never going back. It is an amazing work of art, both the hardware and the software that goes with it, although I am not a big fan of iTunes (not on a PC anyway). Even when I compare it to the Droid side by side, I just don’t see the iPhone killer that everyone talks about. However, that discussion is for another day.
I said all that to say this, the one thing that does bring me down a bit about the iPhone is the battery life. I know, you thought I was gonna say AT&T but that’s not a bad thing either, I already had AT&T and the service is great, way better than Verizon, and the prices are nice too. No, the only thing weak on my iPhone is the maybe 24 hour lifespan of the battery. My Blackberry Curve that I had could go a freakin’ week on a charge, it was awesome! So, to help this, I just ordered a nifty little product called a Mophie Juice Pack Air. It’s essentially a hard shell case for the iPhone with a battery incorporated inside that is supposed to double my battery life. While not a week, I’ll take 48 versus 24 hours any day. Once I get the little rascal, I’ll put up a proper review for anyone who might be interested. If you have one, or have used one, drop a comment and let me know what you thing about it. There are a few options available nowadays, but this one seemed like the best fit for me, and the prices have come down a lot compared to when they first hit the street.
So, check back in a few days, and hopefully I’ll have a cool review and maybe some pics too for ya. Later …
Beware World of Warcraft Cataclysm Beta Opt In Scam
In yet another new and trendy spammer and phishing ploy, I have been getting a few copies of a message claiming to be from Blizzard regarding Beta access to the Cataclysm expansion coming out soon. This one did give me pause at first because I am signed up for the Beta, waiting to see if I get in. Luckily, I noticed some blatant signs when I inspected the message. The biggest thing was not only the Cataclysm website they wanted to send you to for account information harvesting being wrong, as in the wrong URL (not even close LOL), but I received several of these and they had different URLs between them. One other thing was that I received this to several email addresses, none of which were the one actually associated with my WoW account. Obviously these guys (or gals?) are carpet bombing and hoping they snag a few of the 10 or 12 million or so WoW players. Just wanted to pass this on, be on the lookout if this fits you in any way! In the words of Mad Eye Moody “CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!”