Favorite
Links
Standard
disclaimers apply: I’m not responsible (legally or morally) for the content or
availability of any of these links, nor for the accuracy of the information
presented on any of those pages, or even on this one. I’ve tried as hard as I
could to make this page both useful and accurate, but I can’t accept liability
for anything anyone else does based on this information.
(unless
noted otherwise, these are not “affinity” links – I get no credit of any kind
for linking to them)
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Updated hourly
with deals on computer hardware and software, other electronics, and
miscellaneous. |
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Newsletter with
PC info, links, downloads, and advice. |
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Check out email
urban legends and other hoaxes (or, maybe you got a real one!) |
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Ask Nick
(Francesco): PC Guru (& media critic, apparently), in Rochester, NY. |
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Online
diagnosis of your PC, with suggestions and recommendations. No popups or
annoying ads. |
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Check out the
security of your internet connection and firewall. |
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Anti-popup
software. |
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Download a toolbar:
Allows you to search, and it blocks popups, too. |
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Displays links
to sites whose content is similar to the one you’re currently on. (Note: ucmore is reported as spyware by several
anti-spyware programs; I’m comfortable that it’s not spyware.) |
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There’s also a
newsletter to subscribe to, with a Free and a Paid Subscription version. |
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A really good
online scanner, detecting Malware (Spyware, Adware, and other –ware) and
Viruses, as well as security holes in MS Windows. And unlike some other free
scanners, it actually fixes problems (not the Windows security problems,
though it tells how to resolve those), as well. A great addition to a
toolkit. Must be run
from Internet Explorer. |
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Summarizes
weekly specials in local stores by state. Mostly focuses on tech &
electronics (computers, peripherals, video, audio). Also has a Free After
Rebate page. |
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Along with
printing of digital photos, tools for editing, etc. (I get “rewards” if
you sign up through this link) |
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Computer
Geeks |
After some
dissatisfying experiences with their support department, I’ve removed the
link for ComputerGeeks.com |
Miscellaneous
Info
Here’s
some stuff I wish I hadn’t had to find out the hard way:
Windows (2000) – Don’t disable the Window Service
named RPC! Because if it’s disabled, all kinds of things won’t work (like
Windows itself, for one thing). And it can’t be re-enabled through the Services
interface.
But if you do (as I did) somehow disable it,
there’s a registry fix for it here (external link).
Or (I’m told; I have not tried it) you can use
MSCONFIG (copy it from Windows XP; it’s not included with Win2000) to re-enable
it.
Microsoft
Outlook Forms:
The assignment:
I had to design a custom email form, and
the recipients needed to be able to print it in a meaningful format. The form
was to contain checkboxes and other useful objects.
The problem(s):
The normal way of printing Outlook forms –
File/Print – prints the values of the fields, but does a very bad job of making
it look presentable, so that was not an option (this is well documented on the
web, including on Microsoft’s site).
Microsoft has an add-in, called XPrint,
that basically captures the screen and prints it. I found this solution
unacceptable as well – the quality of the print was not nearly good enough.
The resolution:
I found several sites that discussed the
issue (a very good one is http://www.outlookcode.com/d/forms.htm ). I
ran into another problem where the recipient could print the form, but any
additional recipients (if the initial recipient forwarded it, for example)
could not print it (they could click the Print button, but nothing would
happen). I eventually realized I was running into several different issues, not
the least of which was “one-off” forms. Here’s the bottom line answer:
1. In creating the form, make sure there
were separate “views” for Compose and Read (otherwise, the recipient will see a
standard Outlook form, not the Custom form).
2. Put the print button on the “Read”
page.
3. Create a Word document to do the actual
printing (using fields and bookmarks, as explained in the link above).
4. Create the code for printing (in
View/Code) – mostly what this does is copy the field values to the Word
document, then print the Word doc.
5. On the form’s Properties page, Send
Form Definition with Item should NOT be checked (otherwise, you run into the
one-off problem, and the code won’t run for the recipient).
6. On the form’s Actions page, the Forward
action should have the Create Form of Type should be the name of the custom
form. Otherwise, any recipients after the initial batch will not be able to
print.
ALSO: Here’s a quick note, not directly related: Saving
the custom form is not the important thing in making it usable – Publishing
it is necessary so users can access it.
Problem: Attempting to clear the custom forms cache in MS
Outlook results in “The Forms Manager dialog box cannot be displayed”
Resolution: Delete (by renaming) the cache files – Search for
and rename: outcmd.dat, extend.dat, frmcache.dat, views.dat
Outlook automatically (and silently) recreates them.
I found this information here: http://www.msusenet.com/archive/index.php/t-722911.html
Microsoft
Outlook – Attachments
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The
problem: One user’s Outlook would not open or save a particular attachment.
The message was Can’t create file: filename.pdf. Right-click the
folder you want to create the file in, and then click Properties on the
shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder. I
checked the properties of the temp folders, and they were properly set. The
user was running Outlook 2000, but this apparently is an issue in Outlook
2003, as well. I
found several web pages indicating that the way to resolve this was to
recreate the user profile, but that seemed like overkill (I hoped). I also
found many references to this problem occurring with a .TIF, and/or a long
file name, but I verified that the file name was not the problem in this case
(though it was a long file name). The
resolution: Outlook has its own setting as to where it wants to store temp
files. This is independent of the TEMP settings in Internet Explorer, and
various environment variables. The setting for Outlook is stored in the
registry (and all the standard caveats apply to editing the registry). Bottom
line: The temp files setting for Outlook (in the Outlook/Security key in the
registry) has to point to a legitimate destination. If it doesn’t, this error
is a result. Here’s
the MS page: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q268744 Note
that the MS article specifically mentions Terminal Server, and this user was
definitely not running Terminal Server. Nevertheless, the fix worked. |
Microsoft
Access (2000 & XP)
Useful
commands & functions (VBA)
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Access/VBA
syntax |
Explanation |
Visual Foxpro
(VFP) equivalent |
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Application.SysCmd(acSysCmdSetStatus,
“Your Message Here” |
Sets the text
in the message bar to “Your Message Here” |
VFP’s SET
MESSAGE TO “Your Message Here” |
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Application.SysCmd(acSysCmdClearStatus) |
Clears the text
in the message bar |
SET MESSAGE TO |
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DoCmd.RunSQL also
use CurrentProject.Connection.Execute
<Sql Command> |
Runs a SQL
command (for UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE, etc. The second
method allows an user-defined message instead of Access’s built-in “Running
Query”. |
SELECT… UPDATE… INSERT INTO … |
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' use the
current (Access) connection to retrieve rows in the Access query Dim
rsDefSegDates As ADODB.Recordset Set
rsDefSegDates = New ADODB.Recordset rsDefSegDates.CursorLocation
= adUseClient Dim
StrSql As String StrSql
= "Select * FROM <AccessQueryName> WHERE <Conditions>" rsDefSegDates.Open
StrSql0, CurrentProject.Connection |
Create a record
set, and attempt to populate from an Access query. |
SELECT … INTO
CURSOR … |
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DCOUNT(
“<TableIndexExpression>”, “<TableName>”,
“<WhereExpression>”) |
Returns the
number of rows in the table meeting the WHERE criteria. Useful for limiting
the number of rows for a particular subset (number of comment lines for an account,
for example) to a maximum. |
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OpenArgs
(property of form) |
References
parameters passed to form (form must be called with DoCmd.OpenForm, and
<argumentlist> is last parm of call). |
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Windows
2000 (Win 2k):
Network
connection wizard:
Option
to connect via vpn (Virtual Private Network) was disabled (grayed out)
This
was a good one. I had played around with my Windows 2000 services, to try to
improve performance and security, so I knew that something had changed, but
couldn’t retrace my steps well enough to figure out what!
Here’s
a link
to a discussion of the problem and solution.
Additionally,
I found that some of the services wouldn’t start because there were no profiles
enabled for them (I don’t remember changing anything about that!). But enabling
the profile was no big deal, and the VPN client looks like it’s working
properly.
Windows
Update
I
was setting up an older laptop, and it was running Windows 2000 SP4. The user
was knowledgeable, but not an expert. I wanted to make sure that all Windows
Critical Updates were installed, but found that all menu links to Windows
update were “gone.” It wasn’t available in Internet Explorer, nor from the
Start menu. So I went to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.
From there, the page told me that my system administrator had disabled Windows
update. Which would have been ok, except that I’m the administrator!
Another symptom/clue: The Control panel applet Automatic Updates was available,
but all the options on the configuration screen were disabled.
I
went through some standard types of attempts, including configuring the user as
an administrator for the laptop. Didn’t work (I love that phrase!).
I
found various web pages discussing this situation. Most referenced the Group
Policy Editor, which is a tool I’d heard of but hadn’t used before, and it
seems pretty useful (though Microsoft uses an awful lot of double negatives in
it, by which I mean you have to Disable a Disable option in order to Enable
something). I followed all the instructions, several times, but still had no
success, in that the user still couldn’t access Windows update. Here are some
links for that, in case they’re useful for someone:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326686
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316524
Here’s
another link I found later on, when Windows Update told me Network policy settings prevent you from using
Windows Update to download and install updates on your computer and that I should contact an administrator (again –
this was useless, because I’m the administrator!)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_update.htm
The
information (above) link seems to have worked – I made the 2 registry changes,
and it (seems to have) allowed me to install the Window patches.
I
should note, though, that the information on the page refers to Windows XP, and
I’m applying the information in Windows 2000, so the usual disclaimers apply
even more than usual.
I
also found some references to the registry, which (eventually) worked for me,
but some didn’t. Basically, there were two registry settings – NOAUTOUPDATE and
NOWINDOWSUPDATE that look like they should have been changed by the Group
Policy Editor, but weren’t. Once I made the changes in the registry (standard
warnings apply), it worked fine.
Here
are sites I found helpful:
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1176/
Microsoft SQL Server (2000) and ODBC DSN
access
I
was creating copies of SQL Server 2000 databases, because I needed to work in a
test environment. The idea is to change the ODBC DSN so it points to the test
copy, rather than the live, so the fact that the database is in a different
location is transparent to the application.
When
I copied a database from the live system to test, all looked good. I was able
to view all the objects in the database in Enterprise Manager, and Query
Analyzer showed the database as being online.
But
the ODBC manager couldn’t find the database. When I clicked the Change the
default database to: checkbox, the database didn’t show up in the list of
available databases. When I typed in the database name, I got the error The
database entered is not valid.
But
I found a clue (duh!): When I logged in as SA (system administrator), the
database showed in the list, and I no longer got the error. So it had to be a
user issue: Once I added the user to the list of users for that database
(apparently, it wasn’t copied properly, and I have no explanation for that), I
was able to access the database.
Microsoft SQL Server (2000) Performance
We
(a coworker pointed this out to me, then I investigated further) found that
when passing parameters/arguments into a SQL Server stored procedure, performance
can be *greatly* improved by storing the parameter values to variables, then
executing any commands based on the variables, rather than the parameters. For
example:
CREATE PROCEDURE usp_testparms (@parm1 VarChar(10))
SELECT * FROM mydb WHERE myfield = @parm1
has
been noticeably slower than the functionally identical:
CREATE PROCEDURE usp_testparms (@parm1 VarChar(10))
DECLARE @strParm1 VarChar(10)
SET @strParm1 = @parm1
SELECT * FROM mydb WHERE myfield = @strparm1
This
behavior is discussed in SQL Server
Magazine, July 2004, by Karen Delaney (http://www.sqlmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/42801/42801.html#).
She implies it has something to do with compilation and execution plans, and
that certainly makes sense to me. She also implies (as I read it) that the
performance difference may not always work in this direction. But so far,
that’s been our (admittedly limited) observation.
Running ASP Pages on a PC
This
falls under the category of “everything’s easy once you know how to do it,” but
it wasn’t so easy to figure out initially: A company web site was redesigned,
and one of the old pages contained ASP pages that a (n important) user wanted
to be able to run. We could get him the pages & code, but that wasn’t
enough –an ASP page “opens” in a text editor, not as an executable page – even
if you open it in Internet Explorer.
As
I said, the answer turned out pretty straightforward, and can be found here: http://www.w3schools.com/asp/asp_install.asp
In
summary, Windows must be running IIS, and the ASP pages need to be in a
particular directory structure: C:\INETPUB\WWWROOT\<optional additional
path>\<asppages.asp>
Login Script doesn’t run
The
initial symptom of this problem was that our users didn’t see their “home”
drives mapped. The problem started when we installed new PCs. The old PCs had
been Windows 2000, and the new ones are XP Professional. Our investigation and
anecdotal evidence showed that the system login script (NETLOGON.BAT) would run
sometimes, and the home drive mapping would be successful if the script ran,
and not otherwise. Further, we could see that if the user hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to
log on to their PC “immediately” (as soon as the screen came up) the script was
likely to not run. If the user waited about 15 seconds before attempting the
log on, the network login script would likely run, and the home drive mapping
would appear.
Turned
out there were several issues involved here. The first is a “feature” of
Windows XP, where it tries to speed up the login process. Basically, it allows
the user to log into the PC even before the PC has established itself on the
network domain. Since there’s no domain, there’s no login script to run. To
force Windows to wait for the domain, there are a couple of Group Policy
settings (use the Group Policy editor – Start/Run gpedit.msc – to make these
changes):
Under
Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Scripts: Run Logon
Scripts synchronously – set to Enabled.
Under
Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Logon: Always wait for
the network at computer startup and login – set to Enabled.
(we have one PC that doesn’t have that second
setting available, and I have not yet figured out why!)
Making
those changes to Group Policy solved the problem for many of our PCs, but not
all. We found that – for the PCs on which the problem still existed – the “Hit
Ctrl-Alt-Del to sign on” screen was still coming up almost immediately, while
on the “fixed” PCs, there would be a noticeable delay while the PC connected to
the domain controller.
For
the not-yet-working PCs, the event viewer gave us some additional information:
We saw an Event 5719 (no domain controller available) in the system log, and
Event 1053 (cannot determine user or computer name) in the application
log. Searching on the 5719 gave us the
final piece of the puzzle: Windows XP has a problem with some gigabit Ethernet
devices, and in those cases, Windows can’t connect to the domain, and can’t
apply Group Policy. The fix is to disable Media Sensing in the registry.
Details
are here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326152
and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239924/
Internet Explorer 6 – Cannot Download file
One
user – running Windows XP Professional, w/SP2 – had a problem attempting to download
or open an Excel spreadsheet from a website. Other users on our network did not
have the same problem, at the same site. The error message was Internet
Explorer cannot download filename…
Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site
is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.
I
tried patching Windows (which led to a whole other nightmare – problem with COM
components and DTC. That’s a discussion for another time), moving the site to
the Trusted Sites zone, removing (then installing an upgraded version of) the
AntiVirus software, deactivating the Windows XP firewall – none of these
helped.
I
finally found a solution that worked at http://www.openrdf.org/issues/browse/SES-63,
which references http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q316431&,
entitled “Internet Explorer is unable to open Office documents from an SSL Web
site.” I don’t quite understand the answer (but I do understand that it works!)
The bottom line (from the user’s perspective) is that the option “Do not save
encrypted pages to disk” (why does Microsoft state everything in the negative?)
needs to be turned off (the check box needs to be cleared). This option can be
found near the bottom of the Advanced tab of Tools/Internet Options in IE6.
I
don’t know if IE7 behaves the same way.
Find this stuff
useful at all? Let me know:
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