Archive for category Windows

Windows Live Messenger works again

Posted by Benny Chew in Web, Windows on October 19th, 2006

Since googling didn’t work the last time I tried to find a fix, I went through M$‘s Windows Live Messenger’s newsgroup earlier today and actually found a fix to the problem I had! Here’s the fix which worked for me (Credit to Jonathan Yaniv for the steps below):

  1. Go to Start, run, then type “regedit”
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\microsoft\MSNMessenger\Policies
  3. Delete the key “contacts.msn.com”
  4. Then, try launching Windows Live Messenger again.

Apparently the full uninstallation I did the last time did not remove any of the messenger registry keys (I forgot to check on that either).

I guess you could say this is probably one of the very few M$ software which I would gladly choose to use over other alternative software. :P Do try out the excellent Messenger Plus! Live extension if you’re already using WLM (adds heaps of features like tabbed chats, etc). Just remember to refuse the installation of the sponsor program unless you want adware/spyware installed on your machine. ;)

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Windows Live Messenger stopped working

Posted by Benny Chew in Miscellaneous, Windows on October 12th, 2006

Downloaded and installed the latest security and critical updates for my Windows Server 2003, restarted, and WLM decided to not sign on. The odd thing was that it was actually connected to the .NET Messenger service, but it just won’t load up my contact list nor sign me on (the messenger icon was still swirling around for more than 20mins until I decided to shut it off). No error codes whatsoever and neither did it timeout by itself.

However, WLM seems to run fine after I installed all the updates on my Windows XP laptop which makes it even harder to pinpoint the fault. Tried GAIM but it crashed the moment I added an MSN account and tried to sign on. So I’m back to MSN 7.5.

To top it of, I’ve got a very sore throat and it’s..

Melbourne's end-of-spring-2006 temperature

.. a scorching 36 degrees now! :(

If there’s anyone with similar WLM symptoms and have solved it, do let me know..

Edit: It’s now working again, check here for the steps to fix it.

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Using IE6 and IE7 together

Posted by Benny Chew in Tips & Tweaks, Web, Windows on September 25th, 2006

When you install IE7, it automatically replaces IE6 which can be annoying if you need to use IE6 for certain sites which have restrictions on the browser version or when you want to check for cross browser compatibility while developing websites. (credit to HMMaster for googling it for me :P)

There are a couple of ways to get around this, but I found downloading the standalone IE6 to be the quickest and easiest fix to get around this. You can get it here.

If you have not installed IE7 and want to try it out but not replace IE6, you can get the IE7 standalone instead here.

via Tech-Recipes.com

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GParted

Posted by Benny Chew in Linux, Open Source, Tips & Tweaks, Windows on September 19th, 2006

GnomeIf you have ever partitioned your hard disk, Partition Magic would probably be the application you used for it. It’s probably the de facto software to use for doing anything with partitions with a very low chance of any loss of data (I personally have never got any issues on data loss/corruption). Unfortunately, Partition Magic isn’t free.

I recently tried out GParted (stands for Gnome Partition Editor) to repartition the hard disk on my Ubuntu server box. As opposed the Partition Magic which runs only on Windows, GParted can be used regardless of the operating system installed. It boots up via a CD or USB (which you can choose from the site) and is able to support the file systems currently in use by Windows and also Linux.

Its interface is very similar to Partition Magic, so it shouldn’t be too difficult if you have prior experience with the former. I managed to delete a redundant FAT32 partition I had and resized my /home ext3 partition without much drama. After restarting, everything was in a perfect order, so I don’t really have much to complain about.

Try it out if you’re looking for a free, open source alternative to Partition Magic.

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Portable apps

Posted by Benny Chew in General Tech, Open Source, Tips & Tweaks, Windows on September 14th, 2006

If you’re always having to use public terminals or friends’ PCs, you definitely would have been in a position where you wanted to or had to install an application to get some stuff done. In another situation, the applications might have already been installed on the machine, but the settings isn’t configured to how you want them to be, causing heaps of time wastage in reconfiguring it (and risking the wrath of your friend or sysadmin).

With USB thumb drive storage capacities skyrocketing in recent times, you can now have those applications you need stored in it, ready to be used right away with Portable Apps. The list of applications being made portable seems to be growing so there is a chance more applications will be added soon if the one you’re after isn’t listed. All portable applications are open source and seem to be updated fairly regularly.

However, with more and more traditional desktop applications being turned into web applications (e.g. Writely, Google Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, Meebo) as well as internet access being available almost everywhere, I  believe the only portable application worthwhile having on a thumb drive would be Firefox Portable since everything else is available through the web browser. Hmm, I think I should stop before I start contradicting myself..

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RemoveWGA

Posted by Benny Chew in General Tech, Tips & Tweaks, Windows on August 7th, 2006

Although Microsoft has already posted a knowledgebase article which I’ve posted about here, RemoveWGA does the removal process seamlessly just by executing it and thus should be worthy of mention.

After removal, Automatic Updates would probably prompt you to install it again, which you would have to choose ‘Custom installation’ and explicitly choose not to install it and ignore that update. Steps on how to do so can be found here (the screenshots are in French though).

I recently used it on my laptop to remove the WGA notifications as it recently kept hitting 100% CPU usage the moment Windows starts up and stays that way for a couple of minutes. After removal, everything seems back to normal again leading me to assume WGA is the culprit. I don’t think I’ve come across this behaviour being reported anywhere, but I can’t verify that on my desktop either as it’s running Windows Server 2003 which doesn’t have WGA notifications. I’ll be interested to know if anyone else experiences the same thing though. ;)

Edit: It wasn’t WGA to blame, but Microsoft Update instead. My bad. :| I’ve written about it here. 

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M$ speech recognition goes awry

Posted by Benny Chew in Humour, Windows on July 30th, 2006

Yet another embarrassing moment for Microsoft. :P

IEd_PtdPQjI

via digg

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Change Windows XP Home to Windows XP Pro

Posted by Benny Chew in General Tech, Tips & Tweaks, Windows on July 18th, 2006

If you have the Home version of Windows XP, try following the steps here and you could end up with a Pro version (I have not tried this before, so do it at your own risk :P).

via AsenDURE @ Corner of 11th & 20th

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nLite

Posted by Benny Chew in General Tech, Tips & Tweaks, Windows on July 2nd, 2006

Here’s MSFN‘s brief description of nLite:

Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger…How about not even to install them with Windows ?

nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows setup. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn’t include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.

With the release of version 1.0 final, it should be relatively ‘stable’. ;) Haven’t had the chance to try it out yet, but I’ll give it a shot sometime soon. It would’ve been a great time saver if it had been released earlier judging by the amount of formatting and setting up of PCs I’ve done over these years. :(

via MSFN

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Disabling/uninstalling Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications

Posted by Benny Chew in General Tech, Windows on July 2nd, 2006

Here is the knowledgebase article courtesy of M$ themselves. There have been rumours that they would be releasing another version soon which would stop your Windows from working if you are using an illegal copy, although I highly doubt that would happen.

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