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Bret Bennett

Bret Bennett is the principal consultant of BRET A. BENNETT, a business IT consultancy in West Palm Beach, Florida (est. 1987). Bennett specializes in the installation, training, and support of Microsoft Dynamics GP and Open Systems Traverse software. He also provides support for BI delivery and Microsoft servers, including SQL Server, Windows Server, and Small Business Server. Besides earning a bachelor's degree, he's a Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM), Certified Accounting Applications Specialist, and Certified Installation Specialist.

Email: bret@bretabennett.com

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Author Articles

A Mini-Treatise on Storage Device Identifiers in NTFS

By Bret Bennett, 01/23/2012

Terms such as disk signature, disk ID, volume ID, file system label, drive serial number, and volume serial number can mean different things to different people, which can cause ...

How to Avoid Browser Hijack Viruses

By Bret Bennett, 10/15/2011

Learn how you can avoid the latest crop of browser hijack viruses, which are disguised as antivirus programs.

Switching the BIOS SATA's Mode from IDE to AHCI

By Bret Bennett, 01/12/2011

If you're running Windows XP and your motherboard has an IDE port, you can switch the BIOS SATA boot drive from IDE mode to AHCI mode. Here are the steps you need to take.

Using Mount Points in My Documents

By Bret Bennett , 11/18/2010

By creating a mount point that serves as a shortcut, you can quickly navigate from the default document store on the C drive to a different drive when saving files.

Changing the Windows System Drive Letter

By Bret Bennett , 06/23/2010

Sometimes Windows system drive letters get altered. Here's a procedure you can try when you can't use the Control Panel's Disk Management tools to solve the problem.

Audio Echo in XP SP3 Messaging Clients

By Bret Bennett , 01/20/2010

Manually tuning microphone settings before using application audio tuning in Windows XP Pro SP3 can prevent annoying (and noisy) feedback echoes.

Offline File Caching Slows Logon and Logoff

By Bret Bennett , 12/16/2009

Delete and re-initialize the offline file cache to prevent slow logon and logoff times caused by synchronization.

Another Way to Add URLs to IE 7.0's Favorites Tree

By Bret Bennett , 08/06/2009

Learn about a quick and easy way you can add URLs to Internet Explorer 7.0's Favorites tree without accessing the Add to Favorites option.

Use DevCon to Manage Finicky Hardware

By Bret Bennett , 05/14/2009

DevCon is a versatile command-line tool you can use to manage devices on local and remote computers.

Easily Add URLs to Internet Explorer 7.0's Favorites Tree

By Bret Bennett , 12/22/2008

If Internet Explorer 7.0's Favorites tree is large, adding new URLs can be a hassle because the tree automatically expands when you select the Add to Favorites option. Here's a ...

Virtual PC 2007 Mouse Integration Fix for Win98

By Bret Bennett, 08/27/2008

The Mouse Integration feature sometimes doesn't work in Windows 98 virtual machines because of a bug in Virtual PC 2007's Virtual Machine Additions installation routine. To fix ...

An Unlikely Culprit Can Cause Computers to Hang

By Bret Bennett , 07/25/2007

If your computer is slow or even stops when you're opening or searching for files, you might want to monitor the catalogs that the Indexing Service creates. Learn what to look for ...

Create an MMC Snap-In for Searching PDF Files

By Bret Bennett , 02/28/2007

If you need to quickly search through PDF files, you'll want to try this reader's creative solution.

Surmounting the Unmountable_Boot_Device Error

By Bret Bennett , 02/28/2006

Here’s how one reader dealt with an Unmountable_Boot_Device error.

Exchange Connection Problems? Check This Registry Key

By Bret Bennett , 12/27/2005

If you’re having Exchange connection problems after reinstalling a user’s OS or moving a user’s PC to a different domain, the problem might lie with missing entries in a registry ...

XP Power Scheme Fix

By Bret Bennett , 10/25/2005

If your users have been experiencing problems with XP, the problem might lie with the PowerCfg registry subkey.

Recycle the Recycled Folder

By Bret Bennett , 09/27/2005

When you upgrade a PC from Win9x to XP, Win2K, or NT, the Recycle Bin points to the newly created C:\Recycler folder, but the old C:\Recycled folder remains and it’s typically not ...

What Do You Mean Not Enough Memory for My Virtual Machine?

By Bret Bennett , 06/28/2005

If you frequently receive a not enough memory message when you try to start your virtual machine, the problem might lie with the memory usage of your SQL Server or MSDE instance ...

Using Personal Firewalls: A Lesson Learned the Hard Way

By Bret Bennett , 12/28/2004

Firewalls and other programs can have UI components that, when disabled, might not terminate the underlying processes.

Windows XP AutoPlay

By Bret Bennett, 09/28/2004

A reader troubleshoots a dysfunctional AutoPlay feature.