Have you ever needed the standard Microsoft fonts such as Times New Roman on your Ubuntu computer?? Here’s how you can easily add the core Microsoft fonts to Ubuntu.
Times New Roman, Arial, and other core Microsoft fonts are still some of the most commonly used fonts in documents and websites.? Times New Roman especially is often required for college essays, legal docs, and other critical documents that you may need to write or edit.?
Ubuntu includes the Liberation alternate fonts that include similar alternates to Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New, but these may not be accepted by professors and others when a certain font is required.? But, don’t worry; it only takes a couple clicks to add these fonts to Ubuntu for free.
Installing the Core Microsoft Fonts
Microsoft has released their core fonts, including Times New Roman and Arial, for free, and you can easily download these from the Software Center.? Open your Applications menu, and select Ubuntu Software Center.
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In the search box enter the following:
ttf-mscorefonts
Click Install on the “Installer for Microsoft TrueType core fonts” directly in the search results.

Enter your password when requested, and click Authenticate.

The fonts will then automatically download and install in a couple minutes depending on your internet connection speed.

Once the install is finished, you can launch OpenOffice Writer to try out the new fonts.? Here’s a preview of all the fonts included in this pack.? And, yes, this does included the infamous Comic Sans and Webdings fonts as well as the all-important Times New Roman.
Please Note:? By default in Ubuntu, OpenOffice uses Liberation Serif as the default font, but after installing this font pack, the default font will switch to Times New Roman.

Adding Other Fonts
In addition to the Microsoft Core Fonts, the Ubuntu Software Center has hundreds of free fonts available.? Click the Fonts link on the front page to explore these, and install the same as above.

If you’ve downloaded another font individually, you can also install it easily in Ubuntu.? Just double-click it, and then click Install in the preview window.

Conclusion
Although you may prefer the fonts that are included with Ubuntu, there are many reasons why having the Microsoft core fonts can be helpful.? Thankfully it’s easy in Ubuntu to install them, so you’ll never have to worry about not having them when you need to edit an important document.
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26 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 26, 2010 – 2:00 pm - 1,360 views
There are several scenarios where you may run into trouble uninstalling the 2010 Beta and trying to install the RTM (final) release. Today we’ll cover the problems we ran into, and how to fix them.
You would think upgrading from the Office 2010 Beta to the final release would be an easy process. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. In fact, we ran into three different scenarios where the install wasn’t smooth whatsoever.
If you currently have the 2010 Beta installed, you have to remove it before you can install the RTM.? Here we’ll take a look at three different troublesome install scenarios we ran into, and how we fixed each one.

Important Note: Before proceeding with any of these steps, make sure and backup your Outlook .pst files!
Scenario 1 – Uninstall Office 2010 Beta & Fix Install Errors
In this first scenario we have Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta 32-bit installed on a Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit system.
First try to uninstall the Office 2010 Beta by going into Control Panel and selecting Programs and Features.
Scroll down to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, right-click it and select Uninstall.
Click Yes when the confirmation dialog box comes up.
Wait while Office 2010 Beta uninstalls…the amount of time it takes will vary from system to system.
To complete the uninstall process, a reboot is required.
Fixing Setup Errors
The problem is when you start the installation of the 2010 RTM…
You get the following setup error even though you uninstalled the 2010 Beta. The problem is there are leftover Office apps or stand alone Office products. So, we need a utility that will clean them up for us.
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Windows Installer Clean Up Utility
Download and install the Clean Up Utility (link Below) following the defaults.
After it’s installed you’ll find it in Start All Programs Windows Install Clean Up …go ahead and launch the utility.
Now go through and remove all Office Programs or addins that you find in the list. Make sure you are just deleting Office apps and not something you need like Java for example. If you’re not sure what something is, doing a quick Google search should help you out. For instance we had the Office labs Ribbon Hero installed… just highlight and click Remove.
Remove anything that has something to do with Office…then reboot your machine.
Now, you should be able to begin the installation of Office 2010 RTM (Final) Release without any errors.
If you do get an error during the install process, like this one telling us we have old version of Groove Server…
![sshot-2010-04-24-[01-15-38] sshot-2010-04-24-[01-15-38]](http://www.programimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/eb40f25232011538.png.png)
Navigate to C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalMicrosoft (where username is the computer name) and delete any existing MS Office folders. Then try the install again, this solved the problem in our first scenario.
![sshot-2010-04-24-[01-23-42] sshot-2010-04-24-[01-23-42]](http://www.programimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/846ad23c5a012342.png.png)
Scenario 2 – Not Being Able to Uninstall 2010 Beta from Programs and Features
In this next scenario we have Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta 32-bit installed on a Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit system.
Another problem we ran into is not being able to uninstall the 2010 Beta from Programs and Features. When you go in to uninstall it, nothing happens.
If you run into this problem, we again need to download and install the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility (link below) and manually uninstall the Beta. When you launch it, scroll down to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 (Beta), highlight it and click Remove.
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Click OK to the Warning Dialog box…
If you see any other Office 2010, 2007, or 2003 entries you can hold the “Shift” key and highlight them all…then click Remove and click OK to the warning dialog.
Now we need to delete some Registry settings. Click on Start and type regedit into the Search box and hit Enter.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office and delete the folder.
Then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Office and delete those keys as well.
Now go into C:Program Files and find any of these three folders…Microsoft Office, OfficeUpdate, or OfficeUpdate14…you might find one, two or all three. Either way just rename the folders with “_OLD” (without quotes) at the end.
Then go into C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalMicrosoft and delete any existing MS Office folders. Where in this example we have office, Office Labs, One Note…etc.
Now we want to delete the contents of the Temp folder. Click on Start and type %temp% into the Search box and hit Enter.
Use the key combination “Ctrl+A” to select all the files in this folder, then right-click and click Delete, or simply hit the Delete key.
If you have some files that won’t delete, just skip them as they shouldn’t affect the Office install. Then empty the Recycle Bin and restart your machine.
When you get back from the restart launch the Office 2010 RTM installer and you should be good to go with installation.
Because we uninstalled the Office 2010 Beta manually, you may have some lingering blank icons that you’ll need to clean up.
Scenario –3 Uninstall 2007 and Install 2010 32-Bit on x64 Windows 7
For this final scenario we are uninstalling Office Professional 2007 and installing Office Professional Plus 2010 32-Bit edition on a Windows Ultimate 64-bit computer. This machine actually had Office 2010 Beta 64-bit installed at one point also, it’s since been removed, and 2007 was reinstalled.?
Go into Programs and Settings and uninstall Microsoft Office Professional 2007.
Click Yes to the dialog box asking if you’re sure you want to uninstall it…
Then wait while Office 2007 is uninstalled. The amount of time it takes will vary between systems.
A restart is required to complete the process…
Again we need to call upon the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility. Go through and delete any left over Office 2007 and 2010 entries.
Click OK to the warning dialog that comes up.

After that’s complete, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office and delete the folder.
Then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Office and delete those keys as well.
We still need to go into C:Users usernameAppData Local Microsoft (where username is the computer name) and delete any Office folders. In this example we have Outlook Connector, Office, and Outlook to delete.
Now let’s delete the contents of the Temp folder by typing %temp% into the Search box in the Start Menu.

Then delete all of the files and folders in the Temp directory.
If you have some files that won’t delete, just skip them as they shouldn’t affect the Office install. Then empty the Recycle Bin and restart your machine.
If you try to install the 2010 RTM at this point you might be able to begin the install, but may get the following Error 1402 message.

To solve this issue, we opened the command prompt and ran the following:
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%infdefltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose
After the command completes, kick off the Office 2010 (Final) RTM 32-bit edition. This solved the issue and Office 2010 installed successfully.
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Conclusion
Except for the final scenario, we found using the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility to come in very handy. Using that along with deleting a couple folders and registry settings did the trick. In the last one, we had to get a bit more geeky and use some command line magic, but it got the job done.
After some extensive testing in our labs, the only time the upgrade to the RTM went smoothly was when we had a clean Vista or Windows 7 system with a fresh install of the 2010 beta only. However, chances are you went from 2003 or 2007 to the free 2010 Beta. You might also have addins or other Office products installed, so there are going to be a lot of different office files scattered throughout your PC. If that’s the case, you may run into the issues we covered here.
These are a few scenarios where we got errors and were not able to install Office 2010 after removing the beta. There could be other problems, and if any of you have experienced different issues or have more good suggestions, leave a comment and let us know!
Link
Download Windows Installer Clean Up Utility
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23 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 23, 2010 – 8:00 pm - 81 views
Although Windows 7 Media Center has improved a lot over previous versions of Windows, but you might want to disable it for different reasons. Here we take a look at a couple of methods to get rid of it.
There are a variety of reasons you might want to disable Windows 7 Media Center. Maybe you own a business and don’t want it to run on the machines. Or perhaps you don’t use it at all and just don’t want it around.
Turn Off WMC Using Programs and Features
Probably the easiest way to get rid of it on all versions of Windows 7 is to open Control Panel and select Programs and Features. This method is similar to disabling Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7.
On the left hand panel click on Turn Windows Features on or off.
Scroll down to Media Features and expand the folder. Then Uncheck Windows Media Center…
You’ll get a verification message making sure you want to disable it, click Yes.
Then the box next to Windows Media Center will be empty…click OK.
Wait while WMC is disabled…
To complete the process a reboot is required.
After getting back from the restart, the WMC icon will be gone and there won’t be any way to launch it.
Re-enable WMC
If you want to re-enable it, just go back in and recheck it.
Again you’ll need to wait while it’s configured, but when it’s done, a restart is not required.
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Disable Media Center Using Group Policy
Note: This process uses Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7.
Click on the Start menu and type gpedit.msc into the Search box and hit Enter.
Now navigate to User Configuration Administrative Templates Windows Components Windows Media Center.
Double-click on Do not allow Windows Media Center to run. Then select the radio button next to Enabled, click OK and close out of Group Policy Editor.
Now if a user tries to launch WMC they will get the following message.
Conclusion
If you’re not a fan of Windows Media Center or want to disable it for whatever reason, the process is simple and there are a couple of ways you can do it. WMC is not included in Starter or Home Basic versions of Windows 7. If you’re new to Windows 7 Media Center, you might want to check out our guide on getting started and setting up live TV.
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Have you ever filled in a text area or form in a webpage and something happens before you can finish it? If you like the idea of recovering that lost data then you will want to have a look at the Lazarus: Form Recovery extension for Firefox.
Lazarus: Form Recovery in Action
For our first example we chose the comment text box area for one of the articles here at the website. As you can see we were not finished typing in the whole comment yet… Notice the “Lazarus Icon” in the lower right corner.
Note: We simulated accidental tab closures for our two examples.

After getting our webpage opened up again all of our text was gone. Right clicking within the text area showed two options available…”Recover Text & Recover Form”. Notice that our lost text was listed as a “sub menu”…this could be extremely useful in matching up the appropriate text to the correct webpage if you had multiple tabs open before something happened. Click on the correct text listing to insert it.

So easy to finish writing our comment without having to start from zero again.

In our second example we chose the sign-up form page for the website. As before we were not finished filling in the form…

Getting the webpage opened back up showed the same problem as before…all the entered text was lost. This time we right clicked in the browser window area and there was that wonderful “Recover Form Command” waiting to be used. One click and…

All of our lost form data was back and we were able to finish filling in the form.

For those who may be interested you can disable Lazarus: Form Recovery on individual websites using the “Context Menu” for the “Status Bar Icon”

Options
There are three sections in the options and you should take a quick look through them to make any desired modifications in how Lazarus: Form Recovery functions. The first “Options Area” focuses on display/access for the extension.

The second “Options Area” allows you to expand the type of data retained, enable removal of data within a given time frame, set up a password, disable search indexing, and enable form data retention while in “Private Browsing Mode”.

The third “Options Area” focuses on the Lazarus database itself.

Conclusion
If you have ever lost text area or form data before then you know how much time could be lost in starting over. Lazarus: Form Recovery helps provide a nice backup solution to get you up and running once again with a minimum of effort.
Links
Download the Lazarus: Form Recovery extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
Download the Lazarus: Form Recovery extension (Extension Homepage)
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14 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 14, 2010 – 10:00 pm - 5 views
While Google dominates the search engine market, there are certainly other alternatives out there such as Bing and Yahoo. Today we’re curious about which one you use, and would you ever consider another one?
Believe it or not…not everyone uses Google (surprising indeed), there are several other alternatives out there that some of you may be using and we’re interested in hearing about it. One of the more unique and interesting ones we previously covered is ixquick, which doesn’t save your IP or any information and can be customized quite nicely if you’re the paranoid type.
We’re interested in hearing about which search engine you currently use. Would you ever switch to a different one? Have you ever tried to experiment and not use Google (or your favorite engine) for a week?
Leave a comment below and join in the discussion!
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14 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 14, 2010 – 8:00 am - 37 views
Are you wanting to improve the search results view at Google and make better use of the webpage space? With a little user script magic you can make those search results look and fit better in your favorite browser.
Note: This user script may conflict with the AutoPager extension if you have it installed in your favorite browser.
Before
Here is the standard single column view of search results at Google. Not too bad but the available space could certainly be better utilized.
Note: For the purposes of our example we are using Google Chrome but this user script can be easily added to other browsers.

After
If you have never installed a user script in Chrome before it is just as simple as the regular extensions at the official Google website. Here you can see the details for the user script we are installing. Notice that you can view the source code if desired. To add the user script to Chrome click on “Install”.

Once you start the install process you will see an intermediary message asking if you wish to continue in the lower left corner of your browser. Click “Continue” to move to the next step in the install process.

From this point on the install process is practically identical to the official extensions. You can see the final confirmation window here…click “Install” to finish adding the user script to Chrome.

As with regular extensions you will see a post-install message in the upper right corner.

So, what does a user script look like in the “Extensions Page”? You can see the user script entry here…outside of an icon it looks rather identical to a normal extension.

After refreshing the search page shown above we now have two columns of search results (default setting). This looks much much better than a single column view and there is little to no page scrolling required now.

To switch to a three column view simply use the keyboard shortcut “Alt + 3”. To return to a single column view use “Alt + 1” and for the default two column view use “Alt + 2”. Three keyboard shortcuts for three different views…definitely a good thing.
Note: On our test system we needed to use the number keys at the top of our keyboard to switch views…this is most likely the result of unique settings on our test system.

Conclusion
If you are wanting a better viewing experience when conducting searches at Google then this user script will make a very nice addition to your favorite browser.
For those using Firefox you can add user scripts with the Greasemonkey & Stylish extensions. Using Opera Browser? See our how-to for adding user scripts to Opera here.
Links
Install the Multi-Column View of Google Search Results User Script
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08 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 8, 2010 – 11:00 pm - 4 views
So you love using Bing Search but may still be curious to see what another search engine will provide if used. Now you can search using another search engine from within the Bing Search page and enjoy numbered results using two simple user scripts.
Note: These user scripts may also be added to other browsers as well (i.e. Iron, Opera, etc.).
Before
Bing Search does nicely on searches but what if you would like to try the same search with another search engine? Having to manually open a new tab, navigate to the appropriate website, and then start a new search is not too convenient.
Another possible frustration for some people may be knowing just how many search results that they have looked through. Well, both of these small problems are easy to fix with two wonderful user scripts.

Installing the Scripts
The first script that we installed (you may do either one first) was for adding alternative search engine links. Click “Install” to get started…
Note: For our example we had the Greasemonkey extension installed.

When the confirmation window pops up click on “Install” to finish adding the user script to Firefox.

Repeating the same procedure as above add your second script to Firefox.

Confirm the second user script installation and you are ready to enjoy nicer Bing Search results.

After
As you can see there are two small unobtrusive differences in our search results. The alternative search engine links are conveniently located at the top of the page and now you can easily know just how many search results that you have looked through.

The results when we decided to try the search in a transfer over to Yahoo.

Our search transferred to Ask Search. The alternative search links can be very helpful if Bing is not providing the kind of search results that you are hoping for.

Still going very nicely past the 100 mark…

Conclusion
If you have been wanting a small booster to searching with Bing then these two scripts will get you on your way.
Using Opera Browser? See our how-to for adding user scripts to Opera here.
Links
Install the Bing (Alternate Search Engine Links) User Script
Install the Bing Numbered Search Results User Script
Download the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox (Mozilla Add-ons)
Download the Stylish extension for Firefox (Mozilla Add-ons)
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26 Mar
Posted by ProCOM
on March 26, 2010 – 8:00 am - 0 views
Do you have a lot of tabs open no matter what time of day it is and find sorting through the tabs list frustrating? Then get control back with the List All Tabs Menu extension for Firefox.
Before
If you have a large number of tabs open using the “Tab List Menu” can start to become a little awkward.
You can use your mouse’s middle button to scroll through the list or the tiny arrow button at the bottom but there needs to be a better way to deal with this.
After
Once you have installed the extension you will notice two differences in the “Tab List Menu”. There will be a search box available and a nice scrollbar for those really long lists.
A closer look at the search box and scrollbar setup…
Depending on your style you can use the scrollbar to look for a particular page or enter a search term and watch that list become extremely manageable.
A closer look at our much shorter list after conducting a search. Definitely not hard to find what we were looking for at all.
Conclusion
If you are someone who has lots of tabs open at once throughout the day then the List All Tabs Menu extension might be the perfect tool to help you sort and manage those tabs.
Links
Download the List All Tabs Menu extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
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04 Mar
Posted by ProCOM
on March 4, 2010 – 5:00 pm - 19 views
The other day we looked at sharing a printer between Windows 7 machines, but you may only have one Windows 7 machine and the printer is connected to a Vista or XP computer. Today we show you how to share a printer from either Vista or XP to Windows 7.
We previously showed you how to share files and printers between Windows 7 and XP. But what if you have a printer connected to an XP or Vista machine in another room, and you want to print to it from Windows 7? This guide will walk you through the process.
Note: In these examples we’re using 32-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, and XP on a basic home network. We are using an HP PSC 1500 printer, but keep in mind every printer is different so finding and installing the correct drivers will vary.
Share a Printer from Vista
To share the printer on a Vista machine click on Start and enter printers into the search box and hit Enter.
Right-click on the printer you want to share and select Sharing from the context menu.
Now in Printer Properties, select the Sharing tab, mark the box next to Share this printer, and give the printer a name. Make sure the name is something simple with no spaces then click Ok.
Share a Printer from XP
To share a printer from XP click on Start then select Printers and Faxes.
In the Printers and Faxes window right-click on the printer to share and select Sharing.
In the Printer Properties window select the Sharing tab and the radio button next to Share this printer and give it a short name with no spaces then click Ok.
Add Printer to Windows 7
Now that we have the printer on Vista or XP set up to be shared, it’s time to add it to Windows 7. Open the Start Menu and click on Devices and Printers.
In Devices and Printers click on Add a printer.
Next click on Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer.
Windows 7 will search for the printer on your network and once its been found click Next.
The printer has been successfully added…click Next.
Now you can set it as the default printer and send a test page to verify everything works. If everything is successful, close out of the add printer screens and you should be good to go.
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Alternate Method
If the method above doesn’t work, you’ll can try the following for either XP or Vista. In our example, when trying to add the printer connected to our XP machine, it wasn’t recognized automatically.
If you’re search pulls up nothing then click on The printer that I want isn’t listed.
In the Add Printer window under Find a printer by name or TCP/IP address click the radio button next to Select a shared printer by name. You can either type in the path to the printer or click on Browse to find it.
In this instance we decided to browse to it and notice we have 5 computers found on the network. We want to be able to print to the XPMCE computer so we double-click on that.
Type in the username and password for that computer…
Now we see the printer and can select it.
The path to the printer is put into the Select a shared printer by name field.
Wait while Windows connects to the printer and installs it…
It’s successfully added…click Next.
Now you can set it as the default printer or not and print a test page to make sure everything works successfully.
Now when we go back to Devices and Printers under Printers and Faxes, we see the HP printer on XPMCE.
Conclusion
Sharing a printer from one machine to another can sometimes be tricky, but the method we used here in our setup worked well. Since the printer we used is fairly new, there wasn’t a problem with locating any drivers for it. Windows 7 includes a lot of device drivers already so you may be surprised on what it’s able to install. Your results may vary depending on your type of printer, Windows version, and network setup. This should get you started configuring the machines on your network—hopefully with good results.?
If you you have two Windows 7 computers, then sharing a printer or files is easy through the Homegroup feature. You can also share a printer between Windows 7 machines on the same network but not Homegroup.
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10 Feb
Posted by ProCOM
on February 10, 2010 – 5:00 pm - 26 views
If your mouse is set to wake the computer from Sleep Mode, even the slightest bump of your desk can wake it back up. Here we’ll show you how to avoid this annoyance by disabling it from waking up your machine.
I have seen this happen a lot at home and in the office. A Vista or Windows 7 computer is supposed to be in Sleep Mode and when you come back to your machine after a few hours you see it up and running. If you have the mouse set to wake it up from Sleep Mode, sometimes the slightest movement can wake it up. To disable the annoyance type mouse into the search box in the Start Menu and hit Enter.
Under the Hardware tab click on the Properties button.
Under the Power Management tab uncheck the box next to Allow this device to wake the computer then click Ok and close out of the Mouse Properties window.
This comes in very handy if you have a cat who messes around with your stuff at night. You can do the same thing for your keyboard if you want.
Now when you put your Windows 7 or Vista machine in Sleep Mode, the mouse can’t be used to wake it up.
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