Apply company desktop theme via Group Policy

Apply company desktop theme via Group Policy

You could create a custom Windows theme by modifying an existing "default" one by changing the background colour, then apply this by group policy under -

User configuration - administrative templates - control panel - display - desktop themes - load a specific visual style file or force windows classic

The default location for windows themes is %windir%\resources\themes

Copy the style file(s) to all machines or a network location and in conjunction with the above GPO specify the desktop background and job should be done...

Group policy to show "recent items" in Windows 7 menu

Group policy to show "recent items" in Windows 7 menu

There is a confirmed bug with Windows 7 / group policy around this setting.

The scenario is as follows:

• Windows 7 disables Recent Items in the Start Menu by default
• You want to enable Recent Items via group policy
• You configure ‘User configuration\Policies\Administrative templates\Start menu and taskbar\Remove recent items menu from start menu’  and set this to ‘disabled’

Even though you have implemented the above setting, Recent Items still doesn’t show up

This is a bug and the workaround is to add a registry entry HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Start_ShowRecentDocs and set this REG_DWORD value to 1.

Its all about the CV

It was the last day of my monthly railcard today so I decided to make use of it and go down "to the smoke" to see an agent.

Here's my approach so far:

• Don't just apply for all relevant jobs you see on the web: the world and his wife have already done that!
• Develop a close relationship with selected recruitment agents and hopefully they can put you in the path of a few decent jobs before they are posted and everyone starts applying
• Start going through each job I am applying for and look at the bullet points of what if required for the post: and then re edit my CV to address these points directly in the CV

With the above in mind I trotted into town to see an agent at Badenoch and Clark which is just on the north side of the river.

I only got to chat with the agent for 20 mins: however these were the most useful 20 mins of my job search so far.

When I chat to an agent I'm grateful for any time he/she has.  Time taken speaking to me is time that the agent is not using to place people at a profit: and its a high pressure business.

I've worked for a couple of recruitment agencies in the past (IT manager for one,  helpdesk manager for the other) and I've always had a health respect for agents.  Many people have a bad image of agents,  often because they don't let you know if you have failed to get an interview or that they bombard you with unsuitable roles,  but I've always held a positive view.  The thing I like about agents is that "what you see is what you get" : there seems to be little politics playing: and if you do have an issue with an agent: just move on: there are plenty more!

Anyway the agent was pretty brutal about my CV which was just what I was after.  He said that it would be one of the first in the bin and gave some pretty convincing reasons to back that up.

Basically I need to go into much greater detail (and probably bullet points) about my previous role: as its the last 5 years its what people will be most interested in and it should take up most of the front page of the CV.

With that in mind I will be contacting my colleague who is still working part time for my former employers and will draw up a list of all our projects before some of them begin to disappear into the mists of time.

I have been using LinkedIn to create my CVs and will do so again once I have all my projects and achievements listed properly.

I'm now officially out of work!

I came to an agreement with my former employers today: so financially all the details are now sorted.

Yikes: that means that at 5 today I officially stopped working for them.

Its nice that things were finished on an amicable basis: now I can look forward more clearly.

Onwards and upwards next week,  actually my diary is looking pretty full already.

FreeMind

Freemind

My wife suggested to me that I organise my thoughts using a diagram.

This got me thinking about geeky ways to achieve the above.

I came up with FreeMind.  I suggested it at work for a few people as the commercial software available,  although excellent was a little pricey when too many people were using it and requiring licenses. 

Installation is a breeze: I just installed via the Ubuntu Software Centre: but its worth looking into the advanced details and selecting the additional components that you may require.  For example,  you can enable export or your mind maps to various formats.