Vista Explorer showing music columns for files

I had one folder that suddenly wouldn't show file details in Explorer view.  Instead, it treated it like it was a folder with music and my columns all where all music details like 'album', 'artist', 'rating'.  I wasn't even sure how to phrase the problem so searching was a challenge.  Was it 'album view', 'music view', 'media view'.  'Album', 'Music' and 'Explorer' aren't very unique words. Finally, on the properties for the folder I saw that it was set to "Music Details" for the template and this helped me find a solution.  Unfortunately Vista won't let us change the template being used for a folder.  All Vista lets me do is save my current folder as the settings for that template.  Thanks Microsoft!  But with 'Music Details' as a search word I was able to Google and find a fix in a forum thread.

To clear this up, you need to delete a couple of registry keys...

• Open regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
• Delete the BagMRU subkey
• Delete the Bags subkey

I've read that this will "reoccur" later so you'll probably need to delete this keys again at some point.  Hopefully all the paid installs of Vista being pushed out right now will help fund SP1 fixing problems like this and the host of other issues I've had that have made Vista an absolute pain.

SSL on IIS 7.0 - Vista Self Signed Certificate

You've been working with IIS for years and thought you knew your way around the settings didn't you?  Then Vista came along with IIS 7.0 and now you feel lost.  Join the club!  I recently needed to get a self-signed SSL cert going on my development desktop and was stumped.  Then I found Govind's Web Log post and it turned out to be a quick setup.

1. Open IIS 7.0 Manager.
2. Click in the left pane on your server (or desktop) name.  This is what stumped me.  Now, the options you need will appear on the right.
3. Double click on Server Certificates in the middle pane (or main pane).
4. Now in the right pane, you'll have the options you need to Create Self-Signed Certificate or you can start the process for a real cert.  Click on that link.
5. Give the cert a name, any name will do...(i.e. LocalDesktopCert)

So now you have the cert created but you need to assign it to your site.  Scott Guthrie has a great blog post (lot's of pictures <g>) that shows you step by step how to bind the cert to your site.  In fact, Scott's article really walks you through the whole process.  Here's the short version but your really should check out his post for the full 'visual'.

1. Click on your web site in IIS 7.0 Manager.
2. In the right pane, click Bindings.
3. Click Add
4. Change the Type to HTTPS
5. Select your previously created cert from the drop down and click OK

It's really not that hard...in fact it's quite easy with Vista.   It just takes a while to find where things are and making sure you click on the correct thing on the left column to bring up the desired options in the middle or right pane.