Jan 9, 2009

What to do when Windows Update fails

Windows Update has been very unreliable since about the time Windows XP Service Pack 3 appeared. Doing a clean install of Windows XP (pre SP3) and then running Windows Update manually to get all the many patches and updates eventually fails, most often with the symptoms that the updates are downloaded but the install mysteriously fails.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase is full of suggestions and workarounds. Most appear to be complete time wasters in that they do not fix the problem. This one program has worked for us over 80% of the time: Dial-a-fix from Lunarsoft. Visit the Lunarsoft Wiki and follow the links for Dial-a-fix.

Dec 14, 2008

Those annoying new Office 2007 File Formats

Beginning with the Microsoft Office 2007 Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Micorsoft has changed the default file structure to a new Open XML Format.

These files can be recognized by their new file extensions: .docx (Word), .xlsx (Excel) and .pptx (PowerPoint).

Unfortunately, older versions of the Microsoft Office programs can not open or read these files!

Fortunately, there is a set of updates available to allow most older versions of Office (Microsoft Office 2003, Office XP, and Office 2000 only) to open, edit, and save documents in the new formats.

Go here to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. These patches will also work for the free viewer programs.

TIP: The new Microsoft Office 2007 programs also allow you to do a "Save As..." in the older file formats.

Open File - Security Warning

This annoying warning shows up after IE7 is installed on Windows XP systems if you try to run a program on your own local area network:

Open File - Security Warning
The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?


Here is our solution to get rid of this window:

Open Control Panel
Open the Internet Options Control Panel
Go to the Security tab
Select the Local intranet zone
Click the Sites button
Click the Advanced button

Add \\Server\share as a website to the "zone", where "Server" is your server name and "share" is your share name.

It will add this location as "file://server".

Free Domain Name Servers - OpenDNS

OpenDNS works with personal home networks and those of major universities, businesses, libraries and even law enforcement agencies. Details at their web site: opendns.com.

Create a free account to set your own content filters, or just point to their public name servers to use as is:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

That Damn Ticking Noise!

Here is how to fix that annoying ticking noise, usually noticed in Microsoft Internet Explorer (all versions), every time you click on a hyperlink:

Go to the Sounds Control Panel, look for the 'Windows Explorer' section, then the 'Start Navigation' sound. Change the attached wave file from 'Start.wav' to '(none)'.