gHacks technology news » microsoft .net http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:34:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Add Names To DVD Drives http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/15/add-names-to-dvd-drives/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/15/add-names-to-dvd-drives/#comments Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:04:45 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=11227 If you have got multiple DVD drives installed on your computer system or are making use of virtual DVD drives you might have noticed that they do not come with proper names. On my system my Samsung DVD drive is simply called drive E while my first virtual drive is drive F. That leads to confusion every now and then when my brain goes blank and I try to figure out which the hardware DVD drive is and which it is not (I usually pick the wrong one)

The Windows operating system – at least Windows XP – is not offering name editing for DVD drives. At least not the easy way. You might know that it is possible to change the drive letter of a hard drive in Windows by right-clicking its icon and selecting Properties. The very same option is grayed out for DVD drives and probably other drive types as well.

Some solutions are floating around on the Internet that involve Registry editing which is something that most inexperienced users do not want to do. A far better solution is a small program called Drive Namer which has been requested and completed at the Donation Coder forum a long time ago.

drive namer

Drive Namer is a small portable application for the Windows operating system that can change the name of any drive letter easily. It has been primarily designed to work with DVD drives and other drive types with locked name editing. The program requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 to run but does not have any other requirements.

It will display the small form upon startup that provides a pull down menu for all drive letters of the computer system including those not in use. Changing the drive letter of a DVD drive would simply involve selecting the correct drive letter of the DVD drive from the menu and entering a name in the form next to it. A click on the SET button will enable the name on the system which can be checked in Windows Explorer.

Windows Explorer Before

dvd drives before

Windows Explorer After

dvd drives after

The names can be reset by selecting a drive letter and pressing the Reset button in the software program. The software does not have to be running after the names of the DVD drives have been edited.

The original location of Drive Namer is no longer providing the file download for the application. You can download it below right from the Ghacks server. The download has a size of 10 Kilobytes. There is also a download link at the Donation Coder website pointing to a file host. Could go down in the future which is why we provide the download mirror as well.

drive namer

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/15/add-names-to-dvd-drives/feed/ 13 Microsoft .net Framework Cleanup Tool http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/02/microsoft-net-framework-cleanup-tool/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/02/microsoft-net-framework-cleanup-tool/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:59:55 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=8658 The Microsoft .net Framework is being used by a wide variety of software applications. Microsoft made the decision to provide the different .net Framework versions as separate installations. This effectively means that someone who installs the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 on his computer will automatically install the previous .net Framework versions as well for backward compatibility.

It can happen that the uninstallation or repair of a .net Framework installation fails which can have the effect that a new installation wont succeed either. Manually removing the leftovers to be able to install the framework anew is a complex process.

A far better solution would be to run a cleanup tool that will remove all traces of the Microsoft .net Framework from the computer system.

Aaron Stebner’s (via Raymond) Microsoft .net Framework Cleanup Tool is that software program. The portable application scans the computer system for installed .net Framework versions.

It will display them in a list with the option to uninstall a specific .net Framework version or all of them from the computer system. The software developer points out that his application should be used as a last resort if the regular installation or uninstallation of the Microsoft .net Framework fails on the computer.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/02/microsoft-net-framework-cleanup-tool/feed/ 7 Microsoft .net Framework Version Checker http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/06/microsoft-net-framework-version-checker/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/06/microsoft-net-framework-version-checker/#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:27:56 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=8101 The Microsoft .net Framework contains a library of pre-coded functions and a virtual machine that manages code execution. Properly coded .net applications will perform a check if the Microsoft .net Framework is installed on the computer before they start the installation or execution. Improperly coded applications on the other hand might not which can lead to error messages, crashes, hangs or nothing at all.

The Microsoft .net Framework comes in various versions that build up on each other. The current versions that are mostly used by software developers are the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 with their respective Service Packs.

A user with .net Framework 3.5 installed will also have the versions 3.0 and 2.0 on his computer whereas someone with the Microsoft .net Framework 3.0 will only have version 2.0 installed as well.

The concept is not that hard to grasp but it is still confusing as to why so many different .net Framework versions are installed on the computer. That’s where the .net Version Detector (via Raymond) comes into play.

The portable software scans the computer system for installed .net Framework components and displays the results in a list. It will also list the root directory of the Microsoft .net Framework on the computer system and provide download links to versions that have not been installed yet.

This software makes the detection easier. Experienced users could also look in the System Control Panel and see which versions of the .net Framework are installed there which will give the same information except for the root directory and the download links.

Tags: , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/06/microsoft-net-framework-version-checker/feed/ 0