The current European version of the FlipShare software will not allow you to change the default location where the video files are stored (I believe this is possible in the later US version, but I don’t seem to be able to download that). For me, this gives rise to two problems. Firstly, my c:\ drive is rather full – and videos take up lots of space, so I didn’t really want them there. Secondly, I try not to keep ANY data on my c:\ drive, since Windows periodically dies and needs re-installing, so I consider it good house-keeping to keep my data in a separate partition where it isn’t effected by the death of Windows so easily.

Here’s the solution – symbolic links! Windows Vista introduced this concept (which has been around in the Unix/Linux worlds for ever) – and very helpful it is too. Effectively you fool anything running higher than the operating system (i.e. programs!) that a directory exists in a certain location, when in fact they live elsewhere. (For more information on Symbolic Links follow this link).

Here’s a step by step guide.

1. Locate your FlipVideo files. They should be in the c:\users\yourname\videos\flipshare data\videos
2. Choose your new location for the files – for example d:\flipvids
3. Move all the video files from their original directory to the new one NB make sure you aren’t running the FlipShare software while you do this!
4. Delete the original videos directory
5. Your now going to need to get a bit geeky and do some things at the command prompt. You must make sure you use ‘Run as administrator’ when you run the command prompt – since you need admin privileges to carry out this trick.
6. Change directory to your videos directory – by typing something like
   
   cd c:\users\username\videos
7. Now you need to check what the ’short’ file name is for your flipshare directory. To do this, type
   
   dir /x
   
   
   This fifth column in will reveal the ’short’ version of the ‘FlipShare Data’ directory. It will probably be something like ‘FLIPSH~1′.
8. Now you’re going to create the symbolic link. Type the following:
   
   mklink /d c:\users\username\videos\flipsh~1\videos d:\flipvids
   
   
   (obviously use YOUR username, the correct short name for your ‘FlipShare Data’ directorym, and whatever location you have moved your video files to). It should then report ‘Symbolic link created for…’ followed by your directory information.
9. That’s it! Once the link is created, you can browse your videos in explorer as you could before, or via the FlipShare software itself.

Hope that is of use to someone else out there. I was pleased finally to get this working how I wanted!

PS I have only tried this in Vista, but believe the same idea should work in Windows 7 too.

Just occasionally the author of this site has to reveal his geeky tendencies. And although this is comprehensively off the main topic, when I have tracked down a reliable solution to an annoying technical problem, I like to post it for the benefit of fellow-frustrated-travellers.
On the arrival of our first child, my wife and I splashed out on one of these:

It’s brilliant!  It is so simple even I can use it – you just turn it on and press the big red button to record and then the big red button to stop.  Picture quality is pretty impressive – especially given the size of the unit (barely larger than my mobile phone).  And you can pump it out on an HDMI enabled TV (if you are lucky enough to own one) for glorious results.  But enough of the plug.

My problem was trying to upgrade the bundled FlipShare Software to the latest version (which it kept on asking me to do).  Every time I tried to do it, I got a ‘2738′ error and it didn’t install properly (NB this was running under Vista Home Premium 32 bit version, SP2).  I finally tracked down the following solution:

1. On the Start menu, click All Programs.
2. Click Accessories.
3. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator from the shortcut menu.
4. When the User Account Control dialog appears, click Continue.
5. At the command prompt type the following: regsvr32 vbscript.dll
6. Press Enter on your keyboard.
7. A message should appear stating “DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded.”
8. Click OK and then install FlipShare again.

Hope it helps anyone in the same boat.

I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem, but I was recently trying to get a nice new MIMO PCI card installed on a brand new and clean Windows XP machine. I have some experience with these things, and had done all the usual installation things, but the card was refusing to connect to my wireless router (which was working perfectly happily with several other machines, including a notebook sitting right next to the desktop in question.

The software utility which came with the card was refusing to play ball and would not work at all (the latest in a series of in my opinion slightly flakey offerings from D-Link). But unlike the other D-Link adaptors I have used there was no way of using Windows’ built in Wireless Zero Configuration service to try to connect to the network. The problem was the service was not running on the computer, although the necessary file (wzcsvc.dll) was in the Windows/System32 directory.

Apparently this service is not installed by default on your PC unless it comes bundled with a wireless card, which I guess makes sense. But it was only today that I discovered how to get the service running – here are some pointers…

You obviously need a compatible wireless network adapter in order to use the service. Skip the rest of this paragraph if you are not techy… The adapter and its Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) driver must support NDIS Object Identifiers (OIDs), which are used to query and set device and driver behavior. The wireless adapter scans for available wireless networks and passes the network names (also known as Service Set Identifiers or SSIDs) to the Wireless Zero Configuration service. Your wireless manufacturer’s Web site should be able to tell you if your network adapter is compatible – in practise, most modern adaptors should support this.

To install the WZC service, follow these steps. ..

Before you start, make sure Windows Explorer is configured to display hidden files. If it isn’t, open Windows Explorer, click Tools, and select Folder Options. Go to the View tab and check the “Show hidden files and folders” option, then uncheck “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).” Click OK when finished.

Click the Start button, and then click ‘My Network Places’. If you can’t see this, click on ‘My Computer’ and there should be a link to ‘My Network Places’ under ‘Other Places’

Under the ‘Network Tasks’ heading, click ‘View Network Connections’.

In the Network Connections window, under LAN or High Speed Internet, select your Wireless Network Connection. If you have not yet installed your Wireless adaptor, and no Wireless Network Connection is available, select your Local Area Connection icon instead. Right click and select Properties from the context menu.

In the Local Area Connection Properties window, on the General tab, click the Install button.
In the Select Network Component Type window, under “Click the type of network component you want to install,” click to select the Service icon, then click the Add button.
In the Select Network Service window, click the Have Disk button, then the Browse button.
In the Locate File window, browse to the C:\Windows\Inf folder (this is a hidden folder). Click to select NETWZC.INF, then click the Open button.
In the Install From Disk window, click the OK button.
In the Select Network Service window, in the Network Service box, select Microsoft as the manufacturer, then click to select Wireless Zero Configuration.
Click the OK button.
At this point, because this is Windows, you’ll need to reboot your PC. With that completed, you should find that the Wireless Zero Configuration service has been successfully installed on your system and you should now have access to the Wireless Networks tab on the Wireless Network Connection icon’s Properties page.

Note: If you don’t see the Wireless Networks tab when you go back to the Properties page, the most likely reason is that the WZC service did not start. To initialize it, open Administrative Tools in Control Panel and select Services. Scroll down to Wireless Zero Configuration, right-click on it, and select Start. The service is now enabled, and the Wireless Networks tab will be visible in Network Properties.

Hope this helps.