MS ReadyBoost Implementation Tips - Do Not Bother

Recently I got a small Lenovo V470 IdeaPad and have been playing with it with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit version. Along with it I found out about the ReadyBoost technology they have added into the OS since Vista.

Initially ReadyBoost does not seem to be doing anything. In fact, initially it even slows you down as it builds the cache, and actually does not make Booting faster by much. What it makes faster is applications to launch faster, especially when more applications are running consuming more RAMs and disks are working hard to service the applications.

I ran into a couple of snags thought I resolved it so here is a quick summary of how you can implement Readyboost on your laptops.

• As far as I know this works only with the Built-In SD card slot which is wired into the PCI bus and does not go through the USB.
• Get at least a 16 GB SD card with at least Category 10 capability. I had Category 4 and that failed the qualification step to activate ReadyBoost.
• Before doing anything, Format the card with NTSF and not FAT32. The reason for this is that for FAT32, the maximum file size will be limited to 4 GB.  For your laptop applications, you would want as much Readyboost cache space as possible. Typically this is 3 times or more of the RAM. Given most PCs are sold with 4 GB RAM. Having a 16 GB SD would be sufficient.
• Don't use Readyboost on your laptop unless it is connected to the AC power (this makes ReadyBoot almost useless while in battery operation.) As soon as you boot, it starts to cache data and also re-encrypts data. This means this activity occurs during every reboot and every wake-up from hibernation. NOTE: If you run into this situation while in battery operation, you can pull the card out without causing a problem. Re-encryption cannot be turned off on external devices so there is no easy way to turn this off.
• If you have lots of RAM, you may not notice the difference.

Hope this helps.

MSMQ, You Get "Invalid queue path name" Exception When Opening a Remote Private Queue

Example Symptom:

• You have a remote computer named XYZZY
• Inside it is a private queue named MyQueue
• You have written the MSMQ code in C# (or .NET)
• When accessing locally within XYZZY, you can use .\private$\MyQueue it works.
• When trying to get to the queue using "XYZZY\private$\MyQueue from another computer even on the same subnet and no firewall enabled, you now get an MSMQ exception stating "Invalid Queue Path Name"

Try This:

Instead of

XYZZY\private$\MyQueue

Try this way.

FormatName:DIRECT=OS:XYZZY\private$\MyQueue

Note, spell FormatName exactly how it is. It is the only part that is case sensitive!

--
This was tested on Windows Server 2008 R2 with .NET 3.5

Tortoise Git Annoyance Fixes and Tips Collection

I am collecting some quick fixes that I had to do to make this work the way I want it. I am using Windows 7 64-bits these days. If you are encountering other annoyances or want to share your fixes, please feel free to ask or comment on this article.

Annoyance 1: Cannot Delete A Folder, Folder in Use

This is because tgitcache.exe is running and not releasing the folder. You can temporarily kill this program from the task manager and then you can delete the folder.

Annoyance 2: The Icon Overlay on Folders are Gone

• If the overlay icons are showing on certain drives then it is just the setup on the Tortoise Git. Just open the settings and look under Icon Overlays section. It is likely Network or Removable Drives are not checked.
• If that is not the case then your computer has gone over the 11 icon limit as you may likely have installed DropBox or JungleDisk or such things that take up icons. If you are brave enough and take your responsibility then here is where the icons are referenced.
  
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
  and then remove anything you don't need above and beyond 11 total that's allowed

Want to use the Git behind an HTTP proxy? Read this article.