The Todd Today

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So today we had a customer bring in a laptop running Windows XP that would not print websites correctly using Internet Explorer 7.  Instead of printing the text and images it would print the HTML code that created the webpage.  After digging around in several forums I was able to put together the following solution.

1. Click start
2. Click Set Program Access and Defaults
3. Most likely Custom is selected, click the down arrows off to the right to expand the field.  Even if custom is not selected do the same for the field that is selected.
4. Under choose a default web browser, select Internet Explorer
5. Then hit Ok

Thats it, now go and try print another website as it should be working fine now.

Let me know in the comments if this works for you.

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Ok so Microsoft definitely does not make it easy to backup Outlook Express when you can boot into Windows so when you can not, well that’s when the following comes in handy.

The first thing you will need to do is hook your hard drive up to another computer or perhaps use BartPE to get access to your hard drive.  The goal here is to get access to your hard drive files.  Outlook Express stores each e-mail folder as a .dbx file.  To back up your outlook emails then you need to copy these files to a CD, flash drive, etc.

Outlook Express keeps the .dbx files in a location called Store Folder.  By default Store Folder is found in “C:\Documents and Settings\(Your User Name)\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{4D2652B7-E489-4302-B4A7-80B37678B194}\Microsoft\Outlook Express”.  Make sure to go into your specific user folder as each user’s emails are stored separately.  Also the numbers in the folder tree may be different.

Next go to your Store Folder and move the .dbx files to a floppy, CD-R, or other removable medium. Once they are saved on a removable medium then you are good to go.

You may also want to backup your address book which by default can be found at “C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\Microsoft\”.  Just copy the entire Address Book folder to a removable medium.

You can now go ahead and reload Microsoft Windows or whatever you would like to do.

To restore your saved e-mail, open Outlook Express and select File, New, Folder. Give the new folder the same name as the one you’re restoring (it’s the archived file’s name, minus the .dbx extension), and press Enter. Click the new, empty folder and close Outlook Express. Now copy the archived.dbx file to your Store Folder. If you named the new folder properly, Windows will ask you to confirm that you want to replace the file; click Yes.  The next time you reenter Outlook Express, your saved e-mail files will be there.

To restore your address book simply go back to “C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\Microsoft\” and paste the address book folder back in.  If you changed your login user name you will have to go into the address book folder and rename the .wab file to your new user name.

Hope this helps, let me know in the comments.

Running a computer repair shop you end up running into things much more than most people.  This issue of Microsoft Windows XP Updates failing has bite us a few times but every time this same fix has done it for us.  Many of the other sites give this answer only after a Windows XP repair but we have found that it works many times even when a repair has not occurred.

So this is the first thing that we alway try, so if you find that Windows Update refuses to install patches it is very possibley because of the following DLL’sfailed to be registered with Windows.  Just follow the instructions below to fix it.

Step 1. Open Notepad (or any text editor).

Step 2. Copy and paste the following command lines into the Notepad window (the /s switch runs the commands silently, freeing you from having to press Enter after each line):

regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

Step 3. Save the file to your desktop, using a .bat or .cmd extension.

Step 4. Double-click the icon of the .bat or .cmd file.

Step 5. A command window will open, run the commands, and then close.

Let us know if this works for you or not in the comments.

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Ran into a very interesting Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 bug today, could not display the menu bar even though we clicked the menu bar option in the tools menu.  After clicking menu bar it put a check next to it in the tool menu meaning that it should have been displayed but it was not.

After searching high and low the fix ended up being very simple.  Simply click tools - toolbars - links which will bring up the links bar.  After that the check mark that was next to menu bar in the tools menu should be gone.  Now just click Tools - Menu Bar and your menu bar should be back, feel free to remove links bar as it is not necessary to keep it on.

This is the first time we have run into this but I would bet that Microsoft will issue a patch for the bug eventually.

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Slipstreaming has become so much easier than it was not to long ago thank to tools such as nLite, Windows Updates Downloader, & WMP11 Slipstreamer.  We have been using this method for quickly reloading desktops and laptops with Windows xp, 2000 and Vista for quite awhile at the shop,  I figured I would write up a post about it for your and our future reference should we forget.

The tool that does most of the work here is nLite, nLite takes all the work that it takes to put together a slipstream disc and automates most of it.  All you have to do is answer the prompts that come up as you work through the wizards.  For a list of all the features go to http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html .   A couple big things that we love about nLite are that you can add any drivers you would like to the OS install CD as well as its ability to incorporate all the updates from Windows update onto your install disc, and that where the Windows Updates Downloader comes into play.

Windows Updates Downloader is one of the greatest time savers you can find, it takes all the work out of hunting down every windows update you could ever need.  You simply download the program and then download the url list that corresponds to the version of Windows that you wish to install, select the updates you want, hit continue and bam, you have more updates than you know what to do with.

Finally the last tool is optional but if you want to slipstream Windows Media Player 11 then you will need it.  WMP11 Slipstreamer once installed is automatically used by nLite to slipstream WMP 11 onto your Windows install CD.  No need to do any customization of this tool as it works out of the box just fine.

One last things to note is that not all updates will slipstream so during the build process of nLite you will get errors but fear not just coninue on and you will have a nice slipstream disc in no time.  If you need help at anytime referr to the forums on each products site as they seem to be very helpfull in our experience.

Hope this helps someone!

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On Fridays episode of WEAU’s Technology Sport is a segment of myself doing a custom computer build , check it out and let me know what you think in the comments: http://tinyurl.com/4akz2a

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So I was talking to one of the Clearwire technicians that my company deals with and we discussed a variety of things from the future of internet connection to the future of the computer. One of the biggest things that the computers of the future will need is a non-stop connection to the internet. As the Clearwire technician stated this is the basic idea of what they are trying to do.

Currently it appears that Clearwire is working on partnering with Sprint as well as cable providers. By doing this you will be able to package your Cable, Cellphone, Internet connection into one package. By combining these services in the future you will be able to seamlessly hand off from your home internet connection to your wireless internet connection without seeing the transition.

As for the future of the computer I believe it will all be based off of Apple iPhone type devices. The Apple iPhone is the perfect device for mobile computing when you do not need to have a big screen or a full keyboard. This leads me into what I believe the future of the computer will look like.

I do not believe there will be desktop or laptop computers as separate devices as we have them now. The desktop will basically be a large screen, keyboard, and mass storage all connected to a small dock, once you get home you simply dock your hand held device and use it on the large screen with your large keyboard. You will also have a laptop type device but it will simply be a shell containing a larger screen and a full keyboard, you will simply slide your hand held device into the side like a PCMCIA card does currently and you would then have a laptop computer system.

So in conclusion I believe that everything will be centered around one small hand held device. You will not need to worry about having separate devices for everything as we currently do. This one device will simply dock with your desktop shell at home and your laptop shell on the roa, providing amazing convenience.

Let me know if you think I’m right on or if you think I’m crazy in the comments bellow!

Micro blogging has exploded in popularity and has taken the internet by storm. There seems to be so many that it is hard to keep up at time. Myself I use Twitter and Pownce to keep in touch but I know there are many more I could be using if I so desired.

Let me know in the poll how many micro blogging services you use as well as post what they are in the comments. Feel free to post a link to your profile if you prefer.

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Most Linux articles I have read and many Linux users that I have talked to seem to think that with Linux you will never need an Anti-virus.  At this time in history that my be true but its only a matter of time, right?.  With most any OS we can look back before it had a large market share and see that it did not seem to have to worry about viruses (Perhaps with the exception of windows :<)

Once Linux gets enough market share for it to make sense for hackers to start hitting Linux hard, then viruses attempts will start coming.  We must remember that where there’s a will there’s a way and that way will probably be found.  Viruses, spy-ware, rootkits, etc are big money and people will do anything for that money.

Personally on my Ubuntu Linux installation I use ClamAV for my Anti-Virus which seems to work great, although it is hard to find what a good Anti-Virus is for Linux.  Having ClamAV installed just gives me another reason to feel great about the security of Linux.   Now don’t get me wrong and think that I am saying that Linux is not secure because I am not, compared to Windows, Linux is Fort Knox.  What I am saying is that eventually perhaps Linux’s time will come to feel the heat just Like Mac OS X’s time has come as of late.

As Linux users do we need to start taking the threat of an eventual virus more seriously before its to late and we start getting infected?  Let me know if you think I’m right for being worried or you think I’m just paranoid.

Attended my first ECLUG (Eau Claire Linux User Group) today and it was very enjoyable. ECLUG is a group for people in the Eau Claire area that are into Linux and open source. Check out the website for a little more information on the group.: http://eclug.homelinux.org/ There ended up being 9 people at the meeting tonight all snuggled together into the back room at the Cafe 420 down town Eau Claire. The room worked fine as it has a projector to hook a laptop up for easy display of items that are talked about.

The meeting started off with two minute introductions where you got to introduce yourself and tell a little bit about your past week or so. I stated my name and that I was the owner of TCTEKS as well as that my week mostly consists of fixing hundreds of other peoples computers (I love my job). This is a very good way to start off the meeting as in addition to me there was a few other new people attending.

After the introductions it broke down into random chatting about different subject that people brought up such as podcasts, network, and Linux of course. This lasted for a good 10 - 20 minutes and was very interesting as everyone is very into technology and Linux.

Once the chatting slowed down then we got into the meat of the meeting (60 minutes+) which is going over the weekly newsletter which can be found on the website. This was very interesting and had a wide range of targeted topics such as Gnome 2.2 now available, Don’t trust Microsoft, Netbeans, Hulu.com, etc… The discussion was very lively, spirited, and involved everyone.

After the newsletter discussion is over the meeting once again broke down into random chatting about technology subjects, Many based on what we just talked about in the newsletter as well as many others such as Cantenas, dd-wrt, etc… This goes on until one at a time people started leaving with the meeting coming to a close around 9:15pm.

Overall this was a very positive meeting and I will definitely be making this a weekly event on my calendar. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions as well as feel free to join the meeting next week as its a very welcoming atmosphere.