Month: December 2006

Arcane Combinations: Multiple Monitors and VirtualPC

I really like Virtual PC, in that it lets me keep all of my development environments separated. I only have to load what I really need, and if my environment gets hosed it’s easy enough to rebuild or restore from a backup.

What I don’t like though, is that I lose my multiple monitor capability. I really like having the ability to drag my Visual Studio watches and other debugging windows into a second window. Fortunately, I’ve discovered an answer.

First, create a second virtual PC. This can be a bare bones system, I removed a lot of the extras like games and such prior to installing. I also run it using a minimal 256 meg of memory.

Now, go get yourself a copy of MaxiVista. I first blogged about this great product on August 30th of 2006: https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/08/30/9/ . MaxiVista allows you to go over the network take over a second computer, and use it as a second monitor. Remember yesterday when I said to the network a Virtual PC looks just like a real one?

Install the MaxiVista server program in your main development Virtual PC. Now install the MaxiVista viewer program in the second virtual machine you just created.

Now there is a final, but very important step you need to take. Before you launch either Virtual PC, you need to go into the settings for each one. Go down to Mouse, then be sure to uncheck the box that says “Use Pointer Integration”. If you don’t do this for both virtual machines, none of this will work right.

Now you are ready to go, just launch both machines, and maximize each to full desktop and you’ll be using Virtual PC with multiple monitors!

A couple of things you should note. By turning off pointer integration you will not be able to simply drag your mouse outside the virtual pc to the host one. You will need to hit the right ALT key to release the mouse. Not a big deal, especially since the intention is to run in full screen mode, but something you should be aware of.

Also, this assumes you are running Windows and have a legal copy for each virtual machine you setup. If you have a limited number of copies of Windows, there is one other way to get it working.

I loaded Ubuntu Linux into a Virtual PC environment, then WINE, then the MaxiVista Viewer component. I actually got it to work as a secondary monitor, although MaxiVista’s remote control capabilities did not work. This isn’t something I use every day though, just tried as an experiment so your mileage may vary.

There you go, an arcane combination that will allow you to use multiple monitors with a Virtual PC!

Sad News

Just found out they found the body of missing C-Net editor James Kim, he was deceased. Info on C-Net site http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6141498.html.

In similar  sad news, I also learned the Amber Alert I posted earlier about turned out to be a hoax, and that the mother’s boyfriend allegedly beat the supposedly missing boy to death, the car heist was a ruse to cover it up.

At least we can be thankful that Kati Kim and her two young kids are alive and well. Also interesting how much the blogging community came together over this. To be honest I’d never heard of Mr. Kim, but just felt like I should do something to try and help out, make the community aware. I guess that’s what community is all about.

Arcane Combinations: Virtual PC and Remote Desktop

Sometimes a useful tool becomes even more useful when combined with another. I call these “Arcane Combinations”. The first combo I’ll talk about is Virtual PC and Remote Desktop.

If you are not familiar with these, you should read my previous posts. Virtual PC can be found here https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/09/20/virtual-computer-software/ and here: https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/09/20/virtual-pc-step-by-step/. Remote Desktop can be found here: https://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2006/10/09/remote-desktop-connection/.

So how does this work? Well, to the network a virtual PC appears as a real computer. It has it’s own IP address, which is the key. Launch your virtual computer, and determine it’s IP address. This is pretty simple, but if you don’t know how just open a command window (Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt). Then type in IPCONFIG and press enter. You’ll see something like:

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Note if you have multiple network cards installed you’ll see multiple IP addresses, pick the one for the adapter you want to use.

Now on a remote computer, launch Remote Desktop, and key in the IP address given by your virtual PC. And boom, you will be remote controlling the virtual computer.

Now that you know how, I’m guessing you want to know why? Why remote the virtual computer instead of the real one?

Performance to begin with. In my testing I’ve found slightly better performance by controlling the virtual machine as opposed to controlling the host machine then trying to use the virtual computer in it. This is especially true in times where I was stuck using a dial up connection to VPN to work, and needed to remote control my computer at the office. Performance was much better by remoting directly to the virtual computer.

Next, it would allow multiple users to share the same computer. Launch two different Virtual PC sessions and allow each user to remote to it. At my company we have a standard XP build with some company components preloaded on it. We had two vendors come in for a week to do a little work, and they brought their nonstandard laptops with them. We only had one spare development PC, so we set it up with two virtual sessions and let each vendor remote to the virtual computers from their laptops so they could do their testing in our customized environment.

Some last words of wisdom, you will want your host computer (the one running Virtual PC) to be a hefty box, and good band width is helpful, although I have gotten it to work over a dial up connection.

Give it a try, and leave a comment if you find other scenarios where this arcane combination would be useful.

SharpKeys

Every so often you find yourself wishing you could remap your keyboard. Find a use for that oddball key you never hit. Or maybe you are on an older laptop and don’t have a Windows key. That’s where SharpKeys can come in handy.

Available at http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/, SharpKeys easily lets you change one key into another. You can select the key from a list, or just type it on your keyboard. In this example, you can see where I’ve remapped my ` (backward single quote mark) to the Windows key.

[Picture of SharpKeys]

To add a new key simply click Add, then in the dialog that appears select the to and from keys from lists, or type them. When you’ve done all the remapping you want, be sure to click the Write to Registry button, then you can close. Editing and Deleting key mappings works similarly.

Be aware, in order for your remappings to take effect, you have to reboot your computer. Annoying, but understandable, and hopefully remapping your keyboard isn’t something you will do often.

When you need to though, it’s nice to know this handy and free utility is there for you.

Missing Family Update

Quick update, yesterday they found Kati Kim and their kids near their car where it had run out of gas on some back road. Seems they were trying to take a short cut and got lost. James Kim however is still missing. On Saturday he decided to try and hike out of the woods and get help, and they have not yet found him. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Meanwhile in the Albertville Alabama area we have an amber alert.  Yesterday a lady pulled up a convienience store in her 1994 teal Nissan Altima, with no license plate. It was cold so she left the car running so her five year old son who was in the back would be warm. A pickup pulled up behind the car, and the passanger lept out and jumped in the Nissan and stole it.

If you happen to be in or near the Albertville area and see a teal Nissan Altima on the side of the road, please notify Albertville police at 256-878-1212 or the department of public safety at 334-242-4128, or just dial 911. See the story at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,234188,00.html for more details. 

AllSnap

While we are on the theme of tools that snap, I thought I’d introduce AllSnap. AllSnap is a handy utility that doesn’t have much to display graphically but is a real gem. If you have ever used WinAmp, you are familiar with it’s “Snap” feature. When you get WinAmp close to the edge of the screen, it automatically moves itself to the edge. 

AllSnap is a free tool that gives that functionality to ALL windows. Available at http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~iheckman/allsnap/, it’s one of those tools you will quickly get addicted to. 

AllSnap puts an icon in your System Tray, through which you can access it’s settings window. Be sure to check this out, as you can adjust things like the number of pixels you get to the edge in order to trigger a snap, whether it snaps to just the edges or a vertical and horizontal center, and much more. 

I’ve installed AllSnap on all of my systems, and it’s made life in the windows world just a little nicer.

Happy Birthday Raven

Today is my oldest daughter’s birthday. Happy Birthday Raven!

Rather than doing something technical today I thought I’d give her and you a fun little gift. I’ve found a great internet comic strip by a guy named George Sfarnas called Being Five (http://beingfive.blogspot.com/). It’s about a five year old boy who blogs using voice recognition software. Go take a look, but don’t be drinking milk when you do. You’ll laugh so hard it’ll squirt out your nose!