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showing posts tagged with 'windows'
Fallout 3: notorious CTD upon saving
by lunarg on June 18th 2010, at 20:27
Ran into a problem with my Fallout 3 saving, oddly enough for the first time ever. Every time I tried saving my savegame, the game crashed with an access violation. As long as I did not save, there was no problem, but hey, what's the use about not saving your game...
The problem started appearing right after I started the Broken Steel quest line, but even outside the quest line, I have this problem.

As a member of Fallout Nexus, I was nosing around the mod repository when I stumbled upon an unusual post: Crash To Desktop Begone. It explained a plausible reason for the problem: upon sav  ...
 
Advanced 7-Zip SFX creation
by lunarg on May 31st 2010, at 10:57

By default, 7-Zip SFX (self-extracting executable) creation only has basic configuration options. With 7-Zip SFX Maker, you can expand those options with a whole lot more.

This piece of software allows the creation of customized SFX, taking 7z files as input. Things like changing the icon, captions, default extraction path and more, are all implemented. This makes 7-Zip SFX Maker a handy tool when you require a little more than a standard SFX but less than a fully-fledged installer.

Download link: http://teejee2008.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/7-zip-sfx-maker-v20-2/.

 
Remote Desktop Connection: enable redirection of DOT4 printer
by lunarg on May 31st 2010, at 10:51
Printers that use ports that do not begin with COM, LPT or USB are not redirected in a remote desktop or terminal services session. To force all ports to be redirected, the filtering type has to be changed. This is done in the registry.

Do a Start, Run, type in regedit and press Enter. This starts the Registry Editor. Navigate to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR. Right-click in the right pane, choose New, then DWORD value. Name the value FilterQueueType, press Enter. Double-click the newly created entry, and set the value to  ...
 
McAfee's take on svchost.exe
by lunarg on April 23rd 2010, at 20:42
One of my clients at work was also a victim of the latest McAfee false-positive trouble. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, read the official statement (and remedy): https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?id=KB68780&page=content.
Basically the issue is that McAfee wipes svchost.exe from your system because it thinks there's a virus in it. And this file is in fact quite critical for Windows to function properly.

My client managed to skip by the worst part of the trouble, and only had this issue on two of their desktop computers (running Windows XP SP3). Their systems were not entire  ...
 
Print server properties in Windows 7
by lunarg on April 20th 2010, at 13:36
The print server properties have been misplaced a bit in Windows 7. Before, you could right-click in the window showing your printers, then choose the dialog from the menu. In Windows 7, this no longer works, as they've kicked out that particular menu entry.

But all is not lost: it still exists, but is not directly accessible anywhere. You need to use MMC, add the right snap-in, and that one provides you with full acess to the server properties.

Start mmc (start -> run, type in mmc);From the menu, choose File, then Add/remove Snap-insIn the available snap-ins list, scroll down until you f  ...
 
Avast Internet Security trouble
by lunarg on April 16th 2010, at 10:52
Had a problem with an XP (SP2) computer and Avast Internet Security. Upon installing the product (and its subsequent reboot), the computer freezes right after startup. The mouse still moves, but keyboard does not respond, no applications get started.

After a search on the Avast forum, I came across this post, claiming there's a problem with certain applications and Avast on XP:

Quote

This is caused by a bug in Windows XP function ImageEnumerateCertificates( ) which is being called by firewall service when a process tries to access the net. This function (unpatched in all version of XP) hang  ...
 
Change max message size in SBS 2008 POP3 connector
by lunarg on April 14th 2010, at 20:54

To change the maximum message size in SBS 2008's POP3 Connector, it is not enough to change the Exchange maximum send and receive limits. The POP3 Connector's limit is specified through the SBS Fax Sharepoint Receive. Setting the receive size of that specific connector will set the POP3 Connector's maximum allowed message size.

 
Get rid of sending winmail.dat attachments
by lunarg on April 14th 2010, at 20:31
When you yourself are sending out e-mail to others, your recipients might complain about them not being able to open this e-mail. This is because you're probably using Outlook (with Exchange) and are sending e-mail in RTF-format.
Using RTF in a mail is generally a bad idea, because it's not an internet standard for e-mail layouting. RTF was introduced a while back by Microsoft, but has since been superseded for the widely adopted HTML; even Outlook 2007 now defaults to HTML.

So, to get rid of the winmail.dat, simply set your mail format to HTML (instead of RTF).

In Outlook, on the Tools menu  ...
 
STOP 0x7E when inserting USB flash drive
by lunarg on March 30th 2010, at 11:53
Had a rather odd problem with a laptop of a client: upon inserting any USB storage media, his Windows XP bailed out with a BSOD with STOP code 0x7E.

A look with windbg revealed it may be related to an issue with the USB driver (usbport.sys), but as there were no real USB drivers available for it, and he already had the most recent Windows Updates, a "regular" solution would not be an option.

So I went for the more irregular option. I knew that there's probably another Windows Update which had replaced one or more of the USB driver files (in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers) - the proble  ...
 
Analyze wireless networks with inSSIDer
by lunarg on March 19th 2010, at 18:37
inSSIDer is a free tool to analyze wireless networks. While this tool may not be as extended as professional ones, it has a few nice features that make this thing a must-have. Add to it that it's entirely free, and you've got yourself a nice tool for troubleshooting wireless networks.

inSSIDer can be used to inspect wireless network and troubleshoot access points. It goes as far as viewing received signal (in dBm) over time, track channels in use, etc. There's also additional GPS support (NMEA v2.3) to locate access points, including support to export it to KML for viewing in Google Earth. Th  ...
 
Installing Windows XP alongside Vista or 7
by lunarg on February 13th 2010, at 15:25
If you come across a problem where you can't do anything but install a Windows XP alongside a Vista or Windows 7, don't despair, as it is quite easily done.

First you have to repartition your HD. If you have a second HD you're not using, you can ignore this step. If not, you probably have to resize one of the present partitions. But in order to get the maximum out of the resizing, make sure the partition you're about to resize, is defragmented properly. Note that you cannot resize FAT32 partitions (but who uses that nowadays, anyway).
The resizing can be done through Dis  ...
 
Terminal Server 2008 setup fails with 0x8004005 in SBS 2008 domain
by lunarg on February 3rd 2010, at 11:10
When installing the Terminal Services role on a 2008 member server in a SBS 2008 domain, you may run into the following error:

Quote

Attempt to configure Terminal Server failed with the error code 0x8004005.
Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.

The problem surfaces when the 2008 member server was added to the domain, it was misplaced in the SBSComputers OU, rather than the SBSServers OU. As a result, a certain client group policy, which is linked with the SBSComputers OU, interferes with the installation of Terminal Services.

To solve this problem, follow   ...
 
Remote Desktop Manager 5.7.1 released
by lunarg on February 2nd 2010, at 14:30
Devolutions has come up with a new release of their Remote Desktop Manager: a software tool allowing management of all your remote connections (like VNC, RDP, SSH) and so much more. Its latest version is a vast improvement over their previous stable releases, and is a must-have tool for all ICT employees out there with a lot of remote connections to manage (such as myself).

It comes in two flavours:

The Standard Edition is freeware and houses the majority of the features. It allows the storage to various datasources, including MS Access (containing shared access if you will).The Enterprise E  ...
 
Incoming PPTP VPN passthrough on OpenWRT
by lunarg on February 1st 2010, at 16:46
To set up a Windows PPTP VPN server behind your OpenWRT enabled router, you need to forward the necessary ports and protocols, and install the proper modules.

Finding information about how to do this was a lengthy process. I never actually found the necessary info (although I noticed there are quite a few people which are rather clueless about networking; makes me wonder why they're bothering with OpenWRT in the first place, it's not the easiest firmware out there).
But I've managed to compile the bits and pieces of various sources into a coherent mass. It's not a guide in the literal sense,   ...
 
Change SmartHost outgoing port in Exchange 2007
by lunarg on January 28th 2010, at 17:28
I've written an article before on how to change the outgoing SMTP port for SmartHost in Exchange 2003. Now, I have to do this again for Exchange 2007 as they've changed this procedure.

When you're unable to send e-mail directly to the internet (using MX), you probably have to set up a SmartHost to relay the e-mail for you. This is basically your ISP's SMTP server, but can be another server as well.
In certain cases, the default SMTP port (port 25) cannot be used to connect to the SmartHost, so you have to change this to something else. Gmail for instance, uses port 587 for SMTP. Other 3rd par  ...
 
Obtain MAC address of the wireless access point connected to
by lunarg on January 27th 2010, at 11:28
In Windows, it is possible to obtain the MAC address of the wireless access point you're connected to. This is handy when you have multiple access points with the same ESSID (i.e. "roaming") and want to know which one you're connected to. This is done with the netsh CLI tool, available since Windows XP.

To do this, start a command prompt, and type in:

netsh wlan show interfaces

This shows all wireless interfaces on your system. When your wireless is active and connected to an AP, you get output similar to this:

Name : Wireless Network Connection   ...
 
Configure Exchange Server Auto-Discovery
by lunarg on January 18th 2010, at 13:30
When you are running an Exchange server, and have your users access the server from outside the company network, you usually have to open up access to OWA. This enables users to access their mail, contacts and appointments by using an internet browser. Occassionally, someone also has a ActiveSync enabled phone that they would like to use. This protocol also uses OWA for syncing data. And very rarely, there's also a guy (usually the CEO) who simply wants to use its Outlook to connect - this is possible through web as well using RPC-over-HTTP(S), but that's information for another blog post (on   ...
 
Updating your Blackberry OS
by lunarg on January 15th 2010, at 12:00
Once in a while, it may become necessary to update the Blackberry OS to a newer version. I've noticed with the service providers in Belgium that they are usually some versions behind. If whenever you need to run an application that requires a more sane (recent) version of the BB OS, you get stuck because you cannot install and/or run it.

Now you may wonder what the problem is?
Indeed, one can download the latest version from the Blackberry site, but doing so may actually break your setup, as there are quite a few things to consider:

Does your device support the new OS?Does your service provi  ...
 
Blackberry Enterprise sync mysteriously stops working
by lunarg on January 14th 2010, at 16:07
Had a problem with a client of ours, running Blackberry Enterprise Manager. One of the devices, a Blackberry 8820, stopped receiving any sync messages. Internet on the device kept working, and the internet e-mail account worked as well, but all communication between the BES and the device failed.

The first thing I did was to completely wipe the device, as I assumed there was a problem with the pairing between the server and the thing. But when I tried to reactivate it, it indefinitely hung on the first phase:

Quote

user@domain activating

As I was troubleshooting using the support site of B  ...
 
Colibri, the Quicksilver alternative for Windows
by lunarg on December 21st 2009, at 16:37

Colibri, the Quicksilver alternative for Windows...

http://colibri.leetspeak.org/

 
showing posts tagged with 'windows'
 
 
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