Ramblings, ideas, problems, and solutions

Category: Operating systems

  • The "Show Desktop" icon has disappeared from Quick Launch

    I had a user call in, complaining that her “Show Desktop” icon had disappeared from the Quick Launch bar. She was unable to find it again, and was really distressed as she used it a lot.   As it turns out, Show Desktop is not a regular program, but rather an OS command, known as…

  • Windows XP SP3 blocks uninstall of software

    As previously reported, Windows XP with Service Pack 3 has a nasty tendency to cause people to be unable to uninstall software such as Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8.   What I didn’t know, was that it doesn’t confine itself to blocking uninstall of these programs, but that it also blocks the uninstall…

  • Unable to uninstall Internet Explorer 8

    The next version of Microsofts Internet Explorer is currently in public beta. Many of the beta testers are reporting that they are unable to uninstall the beta. The reason? They are running Windows XP SP3.   Now, you can still uninstall IE8, it just takes a little more time, and effort. The first step to…

  • Oh no, they didn’t – or the many versions of Windows 7

    I have long been of the opinion that where Microsoft have gone very, very badly wrong indeed when it comes to Windows is that they release multiple versions. The argument could be made that this is how it has been since NT4.0/98, but that argument doesn’t hold, because they ditched the Windows 98 line of…

  • Unetbootin – Run Linux from a USB thumb-drive

    Many of you will be familiar of the concept of Linux Live CDs. For those of you who are not, I’ll say this: Most Linux distros are these days installed using a Live CD. You enter the CD into the CD-ROM drive, start the computer, and there you go. Your computer boots from the CD,…

  • Disabling IPv6 or running IPv6/IPv4

    If you’re running Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 with DHCP, you’ll be likely to encounter problems if you don’t set up IPv6 properly. The fix is of course to set up IPv6 properly on the server, but there are a few workarounds if you can’t do that. You can’t uninstall IPv6, but you can,…

  • Quickly and simply troubleshoot networks from the command line

    I love using command line tools, especially for troubleshooting networking. There are two simple commands you need to know; ipconfig and ping. Here’s a simple guide to finding where the problem :   Open the command line by opening the “run” dialog box, entering cmd and clicking OK Ensure that the TCP/IP service is running…

  • Find the DiskCleanup utility easily

    I’m sure you know the problem: you’ve used someone elses computer, and want to remove your traces. One of the easiest ways of doing that is to use the DiskCleanup utility, however locating it isn’t exactly the easiest thing.   Luckily, it’s pretty simple to initiate the utility from the Run dialog; simply enter the…

  • Essential Console commands in Linux

    Having once again forgotten most of the commands I use in the command shell in Linux in general and Ubuntu especially, I did a quick google search, which turned up this thread at the Ubuntuforums. The thread had two amazingly useful links, both of which referred to quick reference cheat sheets provided by FOSSwire.com Here…

  • Ubuntu: Reinstalling MadWifi

    I’ve been having some problems connecting my EeePC to wireless networks of late. The problem was that it didn’t detect available wireless networks, nor did it connect to the ones I’d already defined.   It runs Ubuntu 8.04, and I originally had to fuss around a bit to get the Atheros WLAN card to work.…