Helmers Blog

Just earlier today Nick Simons announced on the Office Web Apps blog that they’re expanding the Office Web Apps Technical Preview! So if you want to try the new Office Web Apps….just click here to sign-up.

Note : If English isn’t the default language in your Internet Explorer and you receive the error below, just set English to your default language. IF you’re not sure how you have to do this, just read the instruction below.

The item can’t not be found error message in Dutch.

Change your default Internet Explorer language To change your browser language open Internet Options in Internet Explorer and click Languages (on the bottom of the dialog screen)

Add English (United States) [en-us] to the list and be sure that English is the first in the list (see image below).

Close the browser (very important!), reopen the browser and click the link again. User the Windows Live ID you want to use for Office Web Apps and you should now see the License Agreement. Accept it and you’re ready to use Office Web Apps.

Ever since I’m using Windows 7 with the new taskbar (or the so called Superbar) I was wondering why it isn’t possible to simply pin your Recycle Bin to the taskbar. If you try to pin it to the taskbar it is just added to the existing Libraries/Explorer pinned application (see image below).

It is possible to pin the Computer icon to the Windows 7 taskbar, so I imagined that it it probably should also be possible to pin the Recycle Bin to the taskbar the same way. I did some research and….it is possible!

Just follow the steps below to pin the Recycle Bin to your Windows 7 Taskbar.

1. Right click on the desktop and select New –> Shortcut
2. Enter the following info in the Type the location of the item: field : %SystemRoot\explorer.exe /E,::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} 
3. Click Next
4. Enter a name for the shortcut (Recycle Bin for example )
5. Click Finish. By default the new created Recycle Bin icon isn’t the correct one. We’ll change it in the next few steps.
6. Right-click on the just created icon and select Properties
7. Click Change Icon
8. Enter the following location in the Look for icons in this file : %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
9. You can just select any icon you like, but the original Recycle Bin icon is also available. Select an icon and click OK
10.   Click OK
11.   Now just drag the just created shortcut to the taskbar to pin it there.
12.   Done!

Because some of you were asking me how I was able to use Aero in combination with Windows 7 when I installed it inside a VMWare virtual machine I will explain how I did it in this how-to post.

Click here for a Dutch version / Klik hier voor een Nederlandstalige versie.

Read the rest of this entry »

Update : This procedure did only work with the Windows 7 beta version!!!  It DOESN’T work with the current version of Windows 7!

To receive a valid Windows 7 Beta/RC key just click here to visit the official Windows 7 Product Key page, or follow the instructions below.

Read the rest of this entry »

It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s good to know that it’s possible : Changing you’re Windows Live Messenger e-mail address without having to tell all your contacts that you’re going to change the address.

Let’s say I want to change the Windows Live ID I use for Windows Live Messenger, but I don’t want to e-mail everybody my new Messenger address. In this example my current Messenger address is and the address I’m going to use is .

Below I will describe the steps you will have to take to change you’re Live Messenger e-mailaddress and update your contacts automatically (updating your contacts can take 48 hours to complete).

Step 1 : Log on to https://account.live.com with you’re current Windows Live ID ( in this example)

Step 2 : Click on the Change button next to your current Windows Live ID (see picture below)

Step 3 : In the password field you have to enter the password for your current Windows Live ID ().

Step 4 : At Change your Windows Live ID select the appropriate radio button and enter your new Windows Live ID ( in my example) and click Save.

You’re all set and within the next 48 hours you’re Windows Live ID will automatically be updated in contact lists of you’re messenger friends.