Internet Explorer 8 locks up when trying to install Windows Update Component

No matter what I did, the windows update component would not install.  If you don't install this, you can't scan for patches you need.

Here's how I fixed it.

There is a side option that says "More Options"  I clicked that and chose always trust.  I closed my browser and relaunched windows update.  This time it loaded just fine!

The next problem I ran into was when trying to select it to install the Microsoft update and not just windows update.  The Active X just kept crashing.  I had to turn off "Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks”.

To disable it go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced Tab -> Scroll down to “Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks”

Click ok and restart your browser.  Try to reload the Microsoft Update site, and this time it shouldn't crash.

Source:  Link

Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130) were not installed

If the updates on Windows Updates are failing go to http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/diag/ and run the test.  It will help you solve why its failing.  After everything has passed go back to the Windows Update site and try to download updates again.

OS:  Windows XP SP3

Where do I set the default home page in group policy?

Since I can never remember where this is located, I thought I would post it.

User Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Internet Explorer Maintenance > URLs > Important URL


Source: Link

New Windows XP Installation Blue Screens with pci.sys Error

What this means is you have a PCI Express video card and back when Windows XP was first created, PCI Express didn't exist.  Windows XP will work fine, but you have to have an XP cd with SP1, SP2, or SP3 slip'd streamed to it.

Source:  Link

How to Slip Stream a Service Pack in to Windows XP (Need to Add)

How to use Diff in Notepad++

Download install Notepad ++ Link

Click Plugins -.> Plugin Manager -> Show Plugin Manager

Check Compare and click Install

Restart Notepad++

Open the old document first then the 2nd document

Next click Plugins -> Compare -> Compare

Notepad++ has now compared the changes between both documents.

Source:  Link

Where are the All Users folder in Windows 7 and Server 2008?

In Windows XP, User Profiles and All Users use to be in C:\Documents and Settings\

In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, it is now located in two different locations.

Windows 7: Users are located in C:\Users
Windows Server 2008: All Users are located in C:\Programdata

Program data is a hidden folder so either type the full path or enable hidden folders.

Source: Link

Secunia PSI opens to a white screen then disappears

First thing I would try would be to set this setting on the local exe before making it a global setting.

Go to -> C:\Program Files\Secunia\PSI

Right Click psi.exe -> Click Properties -> Click the Compatibility Tab -> Check "Turn off advanced text services for this program" -> Click Ok

If that didn't work, we are going to set it globally.

Click Start -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages -> Click Details -> Click Advanced -> Check "Turn off advanced text services"

Launch Secunia and it should load.

Tested with:
Windows XP SP3
Secunia PSI 2.0

How to automatically load images for Thunderbird

Open Thunderbird

Tools -> Options - > Under the Advanced Icon -> Click the General Tab -> Click the Config Editor Button

Click "I'll be careful, I Promise"

In the Filter section type:  disable_remote_image

The full Preference Name is: mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image

The Default vaule is set to True.  Double click and it will change to false.  Close this window and click a new email.  Images should automatically load.

Tested On:
Windows XP SP3
Thunderbird 10

How to Configure a Fully Syncing Gmail Setup Thunderbird (Email, Contacts, Calendar)

First download Thunderbird -> Link

Install

Configure Gmail (Link)

Download Google Contacts -> Google Contacts

Click Tools -> Add-ons -> Click the "stary" thing beside the search box -> Click Install Add-on From File

Go Back in to the Add-ons and select Exetensions -> Select Options under Google Contacts

• Under General, Change Address Book backups to 1
• Under Advance, Change the working directory to somewhere in My Documents
• If your under Vista or Windows 7 there should be a Contacts folder in the user profile
• If your under XP, I would just create a new folder in My Documents
• Under Mapping, beside your account, select the drop down box and select  my contacts

Open your address book and right click the tool bar and click customize

Drag the reload icon up to the tool bar and select done, click reload

You should now see a folder called Google-xxxxxx

Copy any local Contacts to that folder by dragging and dropping to it

• If you are doing this on a second computer, you may end up with duplicates.  At some point, login to www.gmail.com and go to contacts.  Once in contacts select More-> Find & Merge Duplicates

Last thing is to make the Gmail the default option when creating a new contact

Close the Address book and go back to Thunderbird

Click Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General -> Config Editor, Click that you'll be careful.

In the search box type ldap_2.servers

• What we are looking for are the .position -> type ldap_2.servers.*.position
• If you want to see all of the contact settings type  ldap_2.servers.
• Locate ldap_2.servers.history.position -> Double Click -> change value to 3
• Locate ldap_2.servers.pab.position -> Double Click -> change value to 2
• If this doesn't work, look through the whole list and see if there are other contact folders
• The values have to be greater than 3 and can't be duplicated

**This looks like it works in version 3, but not in 7.  I have not found a solution yet.

Source: Link

This was done on two computers, one with Windows 7 and one with Windows XP.

I will add the calendar part in the future.

How to Move your iTunes Library

This should work if you want to run it from an external hard drive or just to move it from an old computer to a new computer.

***THIS IS FROM CURRENT WORKING COMPUTER***

Open iTunes Preferences:
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.

Select "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" and click Ok

So what iTunes does is copy any files you copied in to iTunes that aren't stored in the default iTunes directory.

Default iTunes locations:

Mac OS X: /Users/username/Music
Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\%username%\My Documents\My Music\
Windows Vista or Windows 7: \Users\%username%\My Music\

At this point copy the files to an external drive.  If they were already stored on an external drive, you don't have to do anything.  Also at this point you can map a drive to the other computer and copy it directly to the new computer's hard drive.

Copy the music from the external to the local hard drive if that is your choice.

***THIS IS ON THE NEW COMPUTER***

Open your iTunes Preferences again:
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.

Click Advanced and  click change.  Now navigate to where your music will be located. Click ok

*** THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT *** Make sure iTunes is closed....

Next, open iTunes while holding down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows).

This will pop up a window that will ask you to choose your library.  You will be most likely looking for a file called "iTunes Library.itl". At this point everything should be there that you had in your previous library.

Source: Link, Link

Windows Update Won't Load error 0x80070424

I was working on removing a Trojan and no matter what I did, I couldn't get the windows update to start running.  The machine was clean from several scans from Malwarebytes, Microsoft Security, Essentials and Spyware Doctor.  Then I ran across this page.

Click Start -> Run
Type:  regsvr32 wuaueng.dll

Opened Windows update and it started working!

OS: Windows XP

Using Excel with Dual Monitors Windows XP, Windows 7 and Office 2010

I have dual monitors and a lot of times I want an excel file on each monitor.  Typically that can't happen because they are both contained inside of excel.  Here is how you can have it open two instances of excel.  Make sure Excel is closed.

Open Windows Explorer...  At the top select Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types

Scroll down to the excel file types.  The two types you'll need to change are xls and xlsx.

You will want to highlight that extention and click advance -> Select Open -> Click Edit

In the "Application used to perform action:" Box scroll to the end of the box and add "%1". You need the quotes.  Uncheck DDE and click ok.  Click ok and do the same for xls or xlsx.  Now open two excel docs and they will be in two instances!

Source: Link

UPDATED:

For Windows 7 and Office 2010:

NOTE:  ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE MAKING CHANGES.  I am not responsible if you screw up your computer changing these settings.

Click the Windows Start button/orb -> Type Regedit

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command

Double click the (Default) key and it should say: 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /dde

Change to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /dde "%1"

Click Ok

Rename command to command2

Repeat the following for Excel.Sheet.12

Full credit goes to this guy for figuring it out since the previous way was not possible any more.  Link

Windows Boot Failure / Fake Windows Safemode Ad-ware

Windows boots to a screen that looks like windows safemode.  There is a box that says Windows Boot Failure: Press "ok" to fix boot failures.

It gives you a Disk Diagnostics box asking you about scanning the disk and selecting options.  So far this looks legit.  It will scan the computer and come back with errors.  It will say Windows Detected a hard disk problem:

"A problem with the hard drive has been detected.  It is strongly recommended that you download and install the following certified software to fix detected hard drive errors.  Do you want to download recommended software?"

You can click ether yes or no.  If you click no, it takes you back to the Disk Diagnostics box.  Funny thing here is if you just keep hitting cancel it will still get to the ad-ware.  If you click yes, it opens a program called Windows Safemode.  It analyses your pc and then tells you that you have errors.  It will fix them if you buy the software.

This is impressive because you can't alt+F4 out of it.  You can't control+alt+delete to bring up task manager.

Your next step is to reboot and press F8 after the bios logo appears.  The option you want to select is Safe Mode.  The first time I booted in to this I was able to get into it and it worked fine.  I had to reboot and when I came back in to safemode I was unable to use safe mode because the same issues were happening like booting normally into windows.  You couldn't alt+F4 or control+alt+delete.  So reboot and press F8 again.  This time select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.  You will only be given a command prompt.  At the command prompt type explorer.exe.  This will start explorer and give you control of windows.  At this point you should be logged in as the user that has this installed on.  Click start run and type regedit.  Navigate to the following locations:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\LocalUser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system\]
"DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"DisableCAD"=dword:00000000

Now I found mine to be located in  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system\ and DisableTaskMg was set to 1.

Reboot and boot into windows.  I was then able to hit control+alt+delete and kill the all the prompts that kept coming up.  At this point click start new process and type explorer.exe.  At this point you want to install all the tools you need to scan the PC.

Tools I used:

Malwarebytes Link
Microsoft Security Essentials Link
Spyware Doctor (Google Pack version) Link

Here is a pictures of the final one that actually what it was...

Fix selected and reboot.  Things booted fine, but I still had that weird background.  When trying to change the background the selection was greyed out.  Here is how to fix that. 

Click start-> Run -> type regedit -> Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

 There is a key called NoChangingWallPaper REG_DWORD Data 0x00000001 

Change the key from 1 to 0. 

Sources I used to help:

• "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator" error message 

• How to remove Check Disk (Uninstall Guide)

• Remove HDD Defragmenter with Its Fake Safe Mode and Fake Errors

 

Internet Explorer Launches then Disappears

I had a case where you launched Internet Explorer 8 and it would start to load and then close.  No error messages, nothing.  I decided the first thing to try was running with no extensions.  This worked.

OS: Windows XP
Problem: IE8
Solution:  Ran IE with no extensions.  Can be done to ways... 1.  Click start and right click IE and there is an option to run with no extensions.  2.  Open the run box and type iexplore -extoff.  I then uninstalled the Yahoo Toolbar, Yahoo Update services, and Yahoo Protection.  IE then launched correctly.

Link

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer

This was an issue with Microsoft Outlook when clicking a link in an email.  It would give you the message "This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer.  Please contact your administrator."  This is caused by Outlook being confused to which browser to use.  A lot of threads I read blaming Chrome when a user would uninstall it.  I was unsuccessful fixing this error with installing and uninstalling Chrome.  But I was able to fix it using Firefox.

OS: Windows 7 Professional
Problem: Outlook 2007
Solution:  I opened firefox and made it the default browser.  I closed outlook and reopened it.  I tried clicking a link in an email and it launched firefox.  Success!  Now getting it to launch in IE (since this is what the person wanted).  I opened IE and made it the default browser, closed outlook, reopened outlook and tested again.  The link successfully opened in IE.

Link

(**Also fixed same issue on Windows XP and Outlook 2003**)

Installing Chrome gives Error Message: 0x80040909

So I decided to try Google Chrome again after watching what is coming out for Chrome v9.  When I was installing it, I kept getting an error message that gave me 0x80040909.  After finding several solutions through Googling, I found one that actually worked.

OS: Windows XP

Problem: Google Chrome

Solution: When clicking download, uncheck make default browser before downloading.

Link

Your Credit Card was declined - iTunes 10.1

So I had this problem all day and couldn't purchase anything.  I first called my bank and they said that the transaction was getting to the bank, the bank authorized it and then iTunes would just drop it.  So I knew it was an iTunes thing.  It allowed me to update apps but that is it.  I ran across this post (Link) and it mentioned about selecting "None" as the credit card.  I did that and attempted to purchase my app I wanted.  Obviously it failed and took me back to the account page.  I selected my card type, entered my information and magically it worked!  Hope this helps anyone with the same issues.

Spooler SubSystem App

I had a family member trying to print a PDF and for what ever reason this PDF caused some havok.  Wouldn't print and then we couldn't print at all from any computer we tried to print that from.  Here is the solution...

OS: Windows XP SP3

Open Control Panel --> Printers

Delete All printers

Open C:\windows\system32\spool\PRINTERS

Delete all files inside of that folder.  Seems to have been caused by a corrupt print que.

Source:  Link (this site is where I found the solution)

Problems occurred with: Adobe 9.4.1

Will Update to Adobe Reader 10 and will update report back if that fixes it.