Upgrading to Windows 7 – Messed Up File Permissions

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I am an early adopter as far as Technology is concerned though more often than not, I end up not bracing a new gadget/software until it is in the twilight of its time because my disposable income is not very high.

Now that Windows 8 is lurking at us from the horizon, I decided to upgrade my computer system from Vista to Windows 7. There were two specific reasons for this upgrade.

1. My system had become incredibly slow over the last couple of years thanks to the hundred thousand applications I kept on installing. A system format had long been overdue. I had been postponing this activity as I thought I should move to Windows 7 when I actually came around to formatting the C drive and reinstalling the OS.

2. I have a High Definition camcorder that produces AVCHD files in 1080i format. My system for some reason (It may not be a Vista problem) did a very poor job of understanding the interlaced video. Those files played in a wavy fashion and stuttered every other second. Editing an m2ts file, hence, on my system was practically impossible. Initially I thought it was an issue with the system’s hardware. However when I installed the 64 bit Windows 8 Developer Preview the other day (Early Adopter!) in dual boot mode, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my m2ts files had no problems whatsoever on Windows 8. The playback was smooth and I could edit them to my heart’s consent.

Also, my parents had an age old (read three years old) computer that was inferior to my system in every possible manner. These m2ts files played absolutely fine on that computer. The only difference – They were on Windows 7 64 bit. My system had Windows Vista 32 bit.

So I concocted a theory that the interlacing issue was either due to Vista or due to the 32 bit OS. Since Windows 8 64 Bit on the same system proved that my hardware was good enough, I decided to take the plunge into Windows 7 and ordered the Home Premium version of the software this Monday afternoon from Flipkart (3 monthly installments of 2100 rupees each :) ). The package was delivered promptly on Tuesday morning at 10am. (Flipkart is amazing. Just amazing.)

I took backup of my personal data on C: This was easy as I always made my libraries (My Documents, Pictures, Videos etc) point to other drives and not the default OS drive. So I had no personal data on C: except for a couple of word documents on my Desktop. Then I popped in the Windows 7 64 bit CD into the drive and followed the instructions at http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/windows-7-clean-install-part-1.htm

It took all of 45 minutes to clean install Windows 7. The computer was fast once again. (I guess it will revert to its slow nature within a week). The first thing I did was to ditch McAfee anti-virus and install Microsoft Security Essentials. Then, I started to re-map my libraries to the other drives. This is where I encountered the first problem.

The files and folders on those other drives had the ownership associations from the previous Vista installation. So, even though I am an Admin user of Windows 7, I had no access to those folders and files. When I double-clicked on a folder, for instance, I had to explicitly grant Admin access for the operation and even then, I could not open the files inside the folders. A picture file, when opened in Windows Photo Viewer – gave the following error message. “Windows Photo Viewer cannot open the file as you do not have permissions to access the file.”

I could fix this issue by right-clicking on the picture file, selecting Properties, going into “Security” tab and explicitly granting all rights to my user id. However imagine doing this for 2000 files distributed in 100 odd folders!

After tearing my hair apart, I pounced on Google furiously to find a solution and yes! google does not disappoint even though I had to get the information pieced together from  three different user forums.

In case you ever run into such a situation, this is what you have to do:

Step 1: Open Command Prompt as an Administrator: This is important. When you go to Start -> Run and type CMD, it does not open in Administrator mode even though you are an Admin user. (And that’s actually a good thing.) If you want to run it as Administrator, you need to enter CMD in the run box and instead of hitting enter, press “Ctrl+Shift+Enter”.

Step 2: Leave alone your OS drive: (C: in most cases.) When you install a new OS, all permissions are set right on this drive and you don’t want to mess with that. Your problem is with the rest of the drives. So change to the other drives. Let us say your pictures are on D: drive. Go to D: and type the following command to take ownership of the files from the previous Vista owner who is now officially dead.

D:> takeown /R /F *

You might encounter some questions like “You don’t have access to System Volume Information folder. Do you want to grant access?” Say Yes to these questions. (Caution: Don’t do this on your OS drive. You will mess up the system.)

This may take a while depending on the number of files you have on the drive. But it should complete within a minute or two.

Now, this command just takes the ownership of the files but the permissions are not yet changed on those files. Now that you have ownership of the files, you can change the permissions by executing the following command.

D:> icacls *.* /reset /T /C

That should fix the problems once for all. Repeat these two steps for all the drives (partitions) you have on your system. Again, leave alone the main OS drive.

I downloaded Windows Live Movie Maker and tried to edit an m2ts file and was relieved when I found no stuttering or wavy video. Hence proves my theory that the problem is due to Vista and/or 32 bit system. Whether it is Vista or 32 bit or a combination of both – I cannot tell you right now and I have no plans of figuring that out either. As far as I am concerned, I have moved on!

Note: The 64 bit OS may cause some trouble – as my friend Prasoon (Prasoon_Gupta01) rightly points out, but I am now prepared to weather the storm. My household requires only MS Office, TVersity server and Skype installed on the system (apart from the system utilities such as Windows Media Player, Movie Maker) They work fine. I am a gamer. I might encounter a problem or two. (Steam client for instance. Haven’t tried that yet. I have more than twenty games on Steam!) Let me cross that river when I get there.

The last thing I did was to put a wallpaper on my system that states in big black letters – “No New Software Installs unless approved by Venu” and create a guest account on the system with reduced privileges while password protecting the main admin account.

Will keep updating this space about my 64 bit adventure in case something interesting turns up. My hunch is that there would be none. :)

Prasoon was amused to hear about the upgrade to Windows 7 especially when Windows 8 was just around the corner. My response: “Will wait for Windows 9 to appear on that horizon for the next upgrade!” So much for being an “Early adopter” – Maybe I should just call myself a “Poor Early Wannabe Adopter”

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Google TV in India – Logitech Revue – A Review

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I have been looking for a good Internet Content management device for a long time. In the US, it is a pretty simple decision to make. Get a Roku 2. Period. However, in India the decision is not that straightforward. Most of the content providers have no India operations. So there is no Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon VOD, iTunes Store, Google Music etc. So even though the Roku box is probably the best streaming media device out there, it is of practically no use in India.

Thanks to Amit Agarwal (Digital Inspiration, http://www.labnol.org), I realized that Google TV is probably the best bet for India because it brings the complete Internet on to the television. In addition to the streaming media, it is useful for browsing the internet as well.

So I ordered a Logitech Revue box from Amazon for 138$ (Price: 94$, Shipping 26$, Import Fees 8$) and it arrived within a couple of weeks at my doorstep in Hyderabad. It took a while to configure the box. I connected my Tata Sky STB to Revue and Revue to the Television. The remote controller of Revue is actually a full size keyboard with a track pad on it for controlling the mouse pointer.

Since Google TV is not officially in India yet, you cannot choose an Indian pin code as your location. This poses a minor problem as at times, GTV figures out that the zip code you supplied does not match with the location you are in. I am waiting for a software update that will fix this.

The Revue box had no trouble recognizing my Tata Sky STB and my Sony TV models and registered them as My Devices. Now I can use the Revue keyboard to control the TV as well as the STB. However, GTV has no partnership with Tata Sky – So there is no intelligent program guide.

I have spent around two days using this system. I am pretty darn satisfied with the experience. I can play any video on the net – on my big screen TV now. During any live event, I can keep reading the Twitter hash chatter while the event runs in a PIP window so that I can gauge the pulse of the Twitteratti.

I can play my Google Music collection using the Music app. Since it is Android based, it automatically imported all the relevant apps that I have purchased over the years on Android Market. So there is Doggcatcher for viewing video podcasts in 1080p resolution. (But my net connection cannot support more than 720p).

Google Plus experience on GTV has been pretty good. I can view my timeline, play any videos that Mike Elgan or Robert Scobble share and even play Mafia 2. Facebook is more or less OK given how difficult the navigation is even on the web version of this social network.

When I posted this review on my company’s internal forums – I got a response from Tomy Thomas, one of the fellow tech aficionados recommending Western Digital WDTV Live HUB as a viable alternative to Google TV especially for people in India. In his own words: Western digital WDTV Live HUB is better for India which strikes a balance between managing local content and online content.  I am yet to test Google TV’s USB capabilities. Will post an addendum once I have that information.

Finally a word of caution as Logitech has no plans of producing a successor to the highly unsuccessful Logitech Revue. So keep that in mind if you are toying with the idea of purchasing one.

The Book Clerk – A Rant

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My name is Venu and this is a small slice of my life. I am not a Steve Jobs and will never be one. I have not explored the Eastern mysticism or acid. I will never be a leader. But that’s just who I am. Whether or not I am proud of this fact, I am not sure. It would be good to live in a big palace in the silicon valley I guess. Maybe I would enjoy the land of opportunities – with the Netflixes, the iTunes matches, the Amazon Instant Videos and the generally high quality lifestyle.

But then, that’s not what I am. That’s not where I am. I am in India. In a crowded metropolitan city where it takes an hour to drive a distance of 10 kilometers. I don’t get Netflix but that is OK. Around 10 movie halls are within walking distance from my home. And the ticket is barely a dollar!
So what is my story? I have established what this story is not. But I haven’t talked about what it is. To tell you frankly, I don’t have a story. The media talks about the do-ers. The Disney movies talk about the celebration of human spirit and the journey to succeed. There are the goners as well who try something unique but do not succeed and are relegated to the dark dungeons. Between the do-ers and the goners, are men like me – those who have nothing to boast of. They have no vision, no idea, no theme in their life. They don’t try anything. They just live – in fact just exist and call it living. Once in a while, they do go to an Art of Living workshop but the euphoria generally subsides within a week or two.
If you ask me, the goners are much better than these idiots. Take the ideal idiot’s word it. The idiots have no real sense of purpose at all. They are merely vegetables. That cabbage skin you get when you order a sizzler… Mostly you just ignore it.
So why am I writing this story when there is absolutely nothing worth telling a story? Because I can. I have a computer and a word processor. I have the internet. I can post anything I want to.
This computer by the way is perched on a table that is adjacent to a large window from where I can see the world outside – a busy street of sorts with a number of vehicles and dogs. There are some rotten tomatoes and some vendors as well. And there is Nitya. She would now come in and ask me if that wretched new book of Lee Child is available. I don’t really understand how these folks assume that a book released at 12 o’clock the previous midnight by a Frisco based publisher would miraculously land on the shelf in a dilapidated mom and pop store in the darkest corner of an Indian city. The expectations need to be realistic. Amazon would ship that book to them I am sure but they want to buy it from a store.
“No ma’am, not yet. Will let you know once I get the stock.” I tell her.
The wave of disappointment engulfs her completely. She comes here every week – Wednesdays at 11am – almost always on the dot. Her usual routine is to scan the bookshelves generally and check if there are some interesting books. When there is a big release however, she would ask me specifically for that title.
Truth be told, she is one of the very few customers still clinging on to the traditional way of buying books. Most of the folks have already moved to Flipkart.com. They provide a handsome discount on every title, which we cannot match and deliver the books within a couple of days. Our business has dropped 60% in the last one year. It is a foregone conclusion that we would be selling idli and dosa within a year from now.
“You can probably try flipkart” I tell her. She shakes her head. “No. I don’t want to.”
“Everyone is doing it ma’am. It is ok. They offer cash-on-delivery too” I respond. Frankly I don’t care anymore about this bookstore. It is already a loss making venture. I will probably move on to idli or just build a shopping complex here and live off the rent.
“There is a difference” Nitya says, “between shopping online and buying it from a store. Here I can come in – browse without any specific title in mind and pick up something interesting. Online shopping requires me to be totally clear on what I want. My brain is not always that focused.”
I nod. I know what she is talking about. The same thing can be said about cable TV as well. All the shows are now available on the internet. So why bother paying the cable guy? The point is, after a hard day’s work you slouch on the couch and just flip the channels and start watching that Die Hard movie the three hundred and seventieth time. That act of flipping the channels is the best part of watching TV. If you cut the cable, you need to know what to watch in order to watch TV. Too much of work for a couch potato.
“Look” Nitya tells me, “I don’t want you to go away. I mean this shop – it should not fold. That would be a disaster. If everyone shops online, what happens to the personal touch – the interaction and the discovery?”
“There’s nothing better than Google for discovery.” I say
“Yeah, if you know what you are looking for.” She responds.
She walks off saying goodbye. I return to the computer and start typing some nonsense. Her last words before leaving the store are still ringing in my ears. “You are important to us. A knowledgeable book-vendor is hard to come by these days. Maybe online shopping will eventually takeover but let us hope we can delay it as much as possible. I don’t think I would be able to find another store where I can walk in and get a recommendation of A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain.”
I am not a do-er. I am not a goner – yet. I am just an ordinary book clerk. But perhaps I am very good at it.

DLNA– Wireless Network – You probably have it already…

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DLNA is the short form for Digital Living Network Alliance. It is just a way all your devices talk to each other via the friendly wireless modem you have at home. The beauty of DLNA is, it requires zero setup time. If your device can connect to the wifi router, it is already part of the DLNA network.

In other words, chances are – you have a functional DLNA network already at your home. Maybe you don’t know how to use it. This blog post will help you get started.

Before we go further, let us look at the typical use cases of a DLNA network.

  1. You have a set of photos or videos on your laptop hard drive. You want to play them on your LCD TV. (Without explicitly connecting the laptop to your TV)
  2. You see a great video on Youtube. You want to watch it on your large screen TV instead of your laptop screen.
  3. You want to use your smartphone as your TV remote control.

 

If this is exciting, welcome to the wonderful world of DLNA. If you are an Apple user, DLNA is child’s play thanks to AirPlay. However if you are a Mango user (Aam Aadmi – comman man in Hindi), you need the following to make a DLNA network.

1. An Internet aware Television set or set top box or DVD player or BD player or PS3 or XBOX – Basically any device that has an RS-232 interface better known as the Ethernet Port. Connect this to your home wifi router using a LAN cable. (If your device is wifi capable, just ensure it is paired with your router)

2. A DLNA server installed on your laptop. There are many options available. I use TVersity Media Server which essentially puts all your laptop hard drive content on the TV as a folder that you can navigate.

3. A DLNA app on your smartphone so that you can beam your phone music/photos/videos to your big screen TV.

4. This is where it gets really exciting. Download Twonky Beam – an IE plug-in that creates a side bar for IE. If the web page you are viewing has any media files, Twonky Beam will beam it to your TV at a click. (Screenshot below)

image

That’s pretty much it. Once you have the server up and running on your laptop, go to your Television’s “Media” menu and you will see a TVersity folder there that lists all the files present in your laptop. Navigate to the required file and play it on your TV.

However, the one that I use a lot is the Twonky Beam tool. I can be anywhere on the home wifi network. If there is a video that I would like to see on the big screen instead, I can beam it to my TV in a second and start watching it. No need to carry the laptop to the TV and connect the HDMI cable.

Disclaimer: TVersity and Twonky Beam are just the products that I use. There may be better products available that I don’t know of. I am in no way connected to the companies that make these wonderful products. Twonky Beam is a 30 day shareware and you are expected to pay if you like the service. If you know of a better product for DLNA (Windows based), please post it in the comments space. Thank you.

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