Friday, May 20, 2005

But I Don't Want to Find a Path

Windows 2000 and Windows XP do away with the AUTOEXEC.BAT file forcing you to set command prompt environment variables in a different manner. Personally, I needed to add the Java SDK bin directory to my PATH environment variable, here's how:

1. Right click My Computer -> Properties
2. Click the Advanced tab and then Environment Variables
3. Under "User variables for (current user)" click New
4. Name the new variable PATH and give it the value to which you want to set your PATH, in my case I gave it the value: D:\j2sdk1.4.2_08\bin
5. Click OK three times and you're done; the path will be automatically appended to your PATH variable whenever you open the command prompt

For more info you might want to check out the following Microsoft document: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310519&sd=tech

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Stubborn Americas Army Server Manager (AASM)

This text was taken from an AASM tutorial post by [STAB]-Ravenstone on the official Americas Army forums; I'd like to thank him for posting it.

"PART 7: AASM Removal bug fix.. OK I have tested this method at my house and I have not experienced any problems with this removal process. First this is an uninstall process for the people who installed AASM from a fresh install of America's Army 2.3.0 and selected to install AASM at that time. If you did this you may have come to find that you now cannot remove this program from your pc. This only happens to those that install AASM during the full install of America's Army 2.3.0. Before we start let me state this. Use this at your own risk the utility you need to use for this method is a Microsoft program. You will be downloading this small utility from their (MS) website. Please read all the warning information on the Microsoft website before you attempt this!!! It is not hard at all and took me only 5 minutes to do twice. This will also unlock the "AASMInstaller.msi" file that is located in your America's Army folder. So at a later date you can reinstall AASM if needed. At which point you can use the normal method of uninstalling it. 1. Go to Microsoft's webpage http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301 and read the WARNINGS 2. Scroll down to the bottom and download the file. Save it to your desktop. 3. Double click the file you just downloaded and follow the instructions. 4. Click your "start menu" and then "Programs" and look for 'Windows Install Clean Up" then click it to start the program. 5. Find the AASM entry like the next picture and click the remove button 6. Close "Windows Install Clean Up" 7. Delete the AASM folder. By default it is located here. C:\Program Files\America's Army Server Manager\ 8. Enjoy the rest of your day. Now what this utility does is removes the MSI installation information from the registry meaning it is no longer listed in the Add/Remove Programs list, but does not remove the files. There is also a folder that is in your "My Documents" folder to remove too. I think it only creates this folder if you run a server config though, but double check. That is a complete un-install the semi hard way. The file in the America's Army Root folder named "AASMInstaller.msi" Is now functional again. This means at a later date you will now be able to reinstall the AASM to use. Please leave feedback if this works for you. There are a great deal of people that have this issue and don't know it yet. If this has helped you please leave that feed back for others. This is something that I have tested on all the pc's in my house and it has worked with no side effect that I can find yet. I would like to know how well this works for others."