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 an SCF-file, which according to FileInfo.com is a
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  • 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 of, for example, Lotus Notes.
     
    I even got an error message; this one, to be exact: “The Windows Installer Service Could Not Be Accessed”
     
    It would seem that Service Pack 3 actually blocks software from accessing the Windows Installer Service. The solution, then, is to uninstall Service Pack 3. After I did that, I could uninstall Lotus Notes.

  • 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 doing so is uninstalling SP3, which in turn should allow you to uninstall IE8.

  • 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 development in favor of the NT line of development with the release of Windows XP.
     
    XP, of course, was released in two versions, Home and Professional. More recently, Vista was launched with no less than six different versions. With the recent launch of the public beta of Windows 7, we see no less than five versions, with a possible sixth reserved for volume licence customers.
     
    In my opinion, what any version of Linux, as well as what Mac OS have going for them is a simplicity of choice: choose distribution. You are done. With Windows, you first need to choose Windows, then choose which version you want. I think it is time that no matter your needs, your should be able to get all of the features, provided your hardware can handle them.
     
    The division between XP Home and Professional was a mistake. Understandable, but a mistake. Why do Microsoft keep making the same rutting mistakes???

  • 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, and your are, effectively running Linux. From there, you can try out the distro, and install it if you want to.
     
    Unetbootin is a program that lets you do the same, only with a USB thumb-drive. The point is that not all computers have a CD-ROM-drive, but most have a USB-port. You simply plug in the thumb-drive, and there you go,
     
    Unetbootin supports the following distributions of Linux and BSD:
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  • 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, among others disable it, or configure it at will.
     
    To disable it, clear the Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6) check box in the properties of a network connection. You can also configure it a bit more than that. What you need to do is create a registry key and set it properly. Here’s how:
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  • 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 :
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  • 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 program name, cleanmgr.exe and hit “OK”, and there you go.

  • 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 they are:
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  • 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. After reading more than a few forum posts, I found that reinstalling MadWifi most likely would fix the problem. The fix is done solely in the command line shell. I ran the following commands, in succession:
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