From the category archives:

Windows

Fix Twitter name changes in TweetDeck: the Nuclear Option

by Michael Krupa on August 12, 2009

Recently a number of my Twitter buds decided to change their twitter name. Why you ask? Well, that’s another blog post. Focus people focus. Anyway, after the name change I discovered that TweetDeck continued to show the old name for my group members and for autocomplete.

I tried to un-follow/re-follow the person who changed names, I removed and then re-added them to a group but in every case, TweetDeck continued to show me the old twitter name. The only option that worked for me was to completely uninstall TweetDeck and wipe out all the directories and reinstall. I’m calling this the nuclear option since it will wipe out all the groups and group members for the local installation on your computer.

Fortunately TweetDeck now has the ability to sync your groups (and the group members) to the TweetDeck servers. This feature was designed to allow you to have TweetDeck installed on multiple devices and only have to maintain your groups in one place and then sync everywhere. We can take advantage of this feature to wipe out TweetDeck, re-install and then sync the groups and group members back.

After the re-install and re-sync, the groups on my computer now contain the correct (renamed) twitter accounts.

Here are the steps for the nuclear option. These steps are only for Vista and XP.

  1. Make sure you have created a TweetDeck account and have run a sync (Setting buttons, Sync tab)
  2. If possible, install TweetDeck on another computer or iPhone, enter your TweetDeck account information when prompted, wait for the sync to complete and verify that all your columns and group members synced correctly
  3. Uninstall TweetDeck on the original computer (add/remove programs in XP control panel or Programs and Features in Vista control panel)
  4. Delete the directory containing the TweetDeck program if it still exists (typically C:\Program Files\TweetDeck)
  5. Delete the directory containing the TweetDeck user files

    Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\TweetDeckFast.xxxx

    XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\TweetDeckFast.xxxx

    where xxxx will be a unique string such as “F9107117265DB7542C1A806C8DB837742CE14C21.1”

  6. Delete the Adobe Air directory for TweetDeck

    Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\AIR\ELS\TweetDeckFast.xxxx

    XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\AIR\ELS\TweetDeckFast.xxxx

    where xxxx will be a unique string such as “F9107117265DB7542C1A806C8DB837742CE14C21.1”

  7. Download and re-install TweetDeck
  8. Run TweetDeck, enter your TweetDeck account information and wait for sync to occur (may take a couple of minutes so don’t panic)
  9. You should now see the new Twitter usernames in your groups and autocomplete should show you the new names.

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PeopleSoft Time Machine

by Michael Krupa on July 22, 2009

I was organizing some of my PeopleSoft documents and came across some screen shots of PeopleSoft from years gone bye. Interesting to see the changes in the application from the Windows 3.1 days to the Web. Enjoy.

Here is the original PeopleSoft 3.0 application from 1994. Windows 3.1 baby!!!

PeopleSoft version 6:

PeopleSoft version 7:


PeopleSoft version 8:

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Perhaps I’ll pass on passive marketing

by Michael Krupa on March 17, 2009

I received an email today from Dell informing me there were new updates available for my Dell laptop. I had to laugh when I read the description of the new version of the Dell Support Center application “1. Add new feature of passive marketing.”


I consider my Dell laptop as my own and as such do not want Dell sending me marketing messages through support software. So, perhaps I’ll pass on passive marketing.

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Windows 7 Aero Snap and Shake now in Vista

by Michael Krupa on December 25, 2008

As we wait for anxiously for Windows Vista 2.0…er…I mean Windows 7, there are a couple of Windows 7 features that are now available in Vista and XP

The first feature is called Aero Snap and can be downloaded here. Once Aero Snap is running you can drag a window to the left or right side of the screen (drag until your cursor is stopped at the side of the screen) and release the mouse button. The window will resize to take up 50% of the screen. If you drag the window to the top of the screen and release the mouse button the window will maximize. Dragging the window away from the top or sides will resize the window back to the original size. Once I realized that the mouse cursor had to stop at the side or top of the screen before Aero Snap would change the window size the program worked flawlessly.

The second feature is called Aero Shake and can be downloaded here. This application is pretty straightforward. When you shake the active window with you mouse, all the other windows will minimize. Shaking the active window again with your mouse will restore the previously minimized windows. In my testing on a Dell XPS laptop running Vista Ultimate I had to give the active window a pretty strong shake with my mouse before the other windows would minimize or restore.

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