Windows 8 Start Button

So I've been using windows 8 since November 5th.  Having gone from XP to 8, it was a bit of a shock.  Call me a Luddite, but I can't stand the Metro tiles on a non-touch desktop format, so it's nice to have the desktop option. Also missed the Start button and found out about Torch's app.  CNet had a positive review on it as well.  Tried it out and it's pretty sweet.  I'm happy with Pale Moon so I didn't install the browser.  Did install the Media Player Classic, will mess with it later as I prefer VLC. 

CCleaner

Looking over the blog posts, can't believe I've never included CCleaner.  The sweet bomb for temp file and registry cleanup.

Windows Installer Cleanup Utility Update

[Sigh] Microsoft decides to remove a perfectly good utility. Thanks to Softpedia for posting it for download.

MS: No IE 9 for WinXP

MS's done it again to those of us who are perfectly happy with XP. The only reason I occasionally use Internet Explorer is because certain web sites require it. If I had my way, the buggy and shoddily secured piece of whatever would be gone from my computer.

Wireless BT Mouse Loses Connection

The wireless mouse connects to BlueTooth ok, but after a minute or so, it loses the connection. Problem comes from the power management setting on USB hub. Got this from a MS web link.

1. Click Start, click Run, type Devmgmt.msc, and then click OK. The Device Manager window opens.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. Right-click a USB Root Hub in the list, and then click Properties. The USB Root Hub Properties dialog box is displayed.
4. Click the Power Management tab.
5. Click to clear the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power check box, and then click OK.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each USB Root Hub in the list.
7. On the Action menu, click Scan for hardware changes.
   Windows XP recognizes the new device.
8. Close the Device Manager window.

Windows XP's Built-in Wi-Fi Security Hole

If you run wireless on a Windows XP computer, you may be broadcasting an invite to have others network into your computer.

Restore XP Profile & HCTRL.OCX Error

My XP profile decided to take a dive a week or so ago. Via Google, found some nice instructions from PC Answers on how to recreate it. PCA did warn me that I might see some weird stuff happening for a while. First time I tried to run CAM Unzip, it threw the "the DLL C:\Windows\System32\Hhctrl.ocx occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs" error msg. Googled it and was taken to The Poorhouse. Bless you again Adam for the posting the solution. Short version is to go here at the Microsoft site for the 935448 download. What's really amazing is after installing the patch, I did not have to reboot the computer! CAM Unzip was it's happy self again.

GroupWise Changes Video Display Settings

Out of the blue, when my CFO double-clicked on his GroupWise icon, the video display changed to something basic/ugly. I showed him how to change it back by right-clicking on the desktop to get to the properties. No joy, the next time he opened GW, the display would change. Then he told me that when he exited GW, the video display would go back to normal! So I uninstalled/reinstalled GW with no joy again. Baffled, I took a look in the GW program folder. Seeing nothing untoward and as a last-gasp, I right-clicked on gpwise.exe and started looking at the tabs. Under the Compatibility tab, the Run under 256 colors box was checked. Unchecked it and what do you know, no more problems. How it was checked in the first place... (cue Twilight Zone theme music)

Windows Installer Cleanup Utility

A user complained that he kept getting a PictureIt! 1607 error when opening a PageMaker file. It wanted to install something from the PictureIt! 2002 CD which I of course, do not have. As always, I thank God for Google!!! Mary Sauer of the Web Design Forum had the solution with the Windows Installer Cleanup utility. Was able to delete the offending entry toot sweet. Am willing to bet that when the program was loaded, someone picked the default rather than custom installation, which meant only part of the program was installed on the hard drive. 

Edit:  see my post on 6/28/2012, MS no longer has the utility online.  Found an alternate site which has it available.

Ghost XP Boot Disk to Box Net

Added my Ghost XP boot disk files to Box.net here. Use at your own risk.

Upgrade SAVCE 8.0 to 10.0 on Netware 5.1

After I installed Symantec 8.0, this is the weird error I received: Error: "S32evnt1.dll. An installable Virtual Device Driver failed DLL initialization" I went to here to find the solution from Symantec. Below is the condensed version.

To edit the Windows XP registry

1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start > Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type regedit
3. Click OK.
4. Go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers

5. In the right pane, delete the VDD value.
6. In the left pane, right-click the VirtualDeviceDrivers key, and then click New > Multi-String Value.
7. Type VDD for the name of the new value.
8. Exit the Registry Editor.
9. Restart the computer."

Ghost 2K3 with Windows 98

Ok, ok, I know that nobody uses Windows 98 PCs anymore, unless you work for a not-for-profit like I do.

Anyhoo, in the past, I had no problems with Symantec Ghost with a LaCie external hard drive to duplicate Windows XP PCs. Assumed (yeah, I'm former Air Force and do know what assume stands for) that the same boot disk would work for a Windows 98. Proverbial big mistake.

I had two issues. First, the Win XP boot disk wouldn't recognize the LaCie hard drive. Then, once I got it to see the external drive, Ghost would not restore the image. Said the source partition was too large. So after much sturm und drang, here's the drill for both. I put the XP drill first as that's the first OS I used Ghost on.

Windows XP Boot Disk:

Using a Win XP PC, format the floppy to FAT as a MS-DOS startup disk, Quick Format unchecked. Then delete everything but the command.com, io.sys, and the msdos.sys from the floppy. On my network drive, I have a folder with the following in it:

Ghost folder containing; Ghost.exe, Ghost.ini, Ghosterr.txt.

USB folder containing: aspiehci.sys

Root containing: Autoexec.bat, config.sys, guest.exe, ibmbio.com, ibmdos.com, mouse.com, mouse.ini.

Autoexec.bat contains:
@echo off
SET TZ=GHO+05:00
GUEST.EXE
MOUSE.COM
echo Loading...
CD GHOST
GHOST.EXE

Config.sys contains:
DEVICE = usb\aspiehci.sys /int /all
LASTDRIVE = Z

Copy the entire contents of the drive to the XP floppy, protect it, and you're good to go.

If you don't have the aspiehci.sys, you can find it on Symantec's web site or Google for it. It's actually from Iomega, as is the Guest.exe file.

When you do an Ghost an image to or from with the Win XP boot disk, do a disk selection, not partition. Then choose the first partition as usual.

Windows 98 Boot Disk:

I still used a Win XP boot disk as described above. On the network Win 98 folder, the Ghost folder is the same, but the USB and root files are different.

USB folder containing: DI1000DD.SYS and USBASPI.SYS.

Root containing: Autoexec.bat, config.sys, guest.exe, ibmbio.com, ibmdos.com, mouse.com, mouse.ini.

Config.sys contains:
Device=usb\usbaspi.sys /v
Device=usb\di1000dd.sys
LASTDRIVE = Z

As with XP, copy the entire contents of the drive to the 98 floppy and protect it.

Many thx to swhartung aka NightOwl, Ghost Guru at Radified Files Forum. I got the usbaspi.sys and di1000dd.sys files from Radified Files download page. Per NightOwl's suggestion, I used the usbaspi.sys from the kxlrw40an.exe file and the di1000dd.sys from the mhairudo.zip file.

With the Win 98 boot disk, it's reverse, do a partition selection, not disk.

Long Live DOS!!!