Tips

Windows Vista Tips and News

Here are some headlines from a couple great sites that cover Windows Vista. The first feed is from Winhelponline.com and does just what it says, they help you online with your Windows operating system, and at the time of this posting, the most popular are the ones featuring Windows Vista.

The second site has been around for awhile, TweakVista is created and maintained by the same gentleman who created the TweakXP site and is the author of Hacking Windows XP. The latest posts are below.

Extracting Content from an MSU File

Updated Windows Tips FAQ from WindowsITPro, the updated FAQ will answer these questions for you.

Q. How can I extract the files from a Windows Vista Microsoft Update Standalone Package (MSU)?
Q. How can I check driver availability for my Creative Technology product under Windows Vista?
Q. Can I upgrade to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 from Exchange Server 5.5?
Q. What is the new licensing scheme that is part of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2)?
Q. How do I insert a single quote (‘) into a SQL Server database? Source: Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE–April 2, 2007: Extracting Content from an MSU File

Here is the entire list of Windows Tips on their site.

Gears of War Tips and Cheats

IGN posted a bunch of Gears of War tips and cheats earlier this month, lots of good info there. Most of them my boy probably already knew, but it will definitely help me out.

Hint: Quick Reload
When reloading your weapon, watch the upper-right corner of the screen for a meter that counts down. Press the reload button a second time when the meter’s moving bar matches up with the stationary bar. This will give you a super fast reload and put you back in the fight quicker than normal. However, if you mis-time the second button press your reload will take longer than normal.

Hint: Finding Cog Tags
There are thirty hidden Cog Tags scattered throughout the game. They’re small and sometimes hard to find, but there’s a mark you can look out for that’ll make finding the Cog Tags easier. Look for large, red Gear logos pasted on the walls–if you find a room with this large Gear logo, examine the room and you’re sure to find a Cog Tag somewhere.

Hint – Cluster Kill Achievement
To get the achievement killing three enemies at once ten times, go to the stage Act 3 – Evolution and locate the area of the Imulsion plant where the guy gets killed when he falls through the rotten wood floor.

Take along at least one grenade and simply follow the dead guy down a hole (or any hole, if you step in the wrong spot). Run around the cellar until you think you have enough enemies following (meaning at least three running after you), tag one with a grenade melee attack.

If you die, that’s perfect, since you restart right at the checkpoint of that room and do it again. Achievement progress is independent of game progress. If not, reload the checkpoint and do it again. Source: Gears of War Cheats

IGN is a great site, if you’ve never been there, be sure to check it out, they have a complete Gears of War section. And check out all of our Gears of War posts.

27 Conference Call Tips

If you are like me, you hate conference calls, it’s usually one or two people talking, or droning on and on, but if you can’t meet someone it’s almost the next best thing. WebWorker Daily has put together 27 tips for all of you conference callers out there and here is the first one.

Whether you call them conference calls or telecons or excruciatingly dull time-wasters, multi-participant phone conversations are as important to most web workers as email. If you can?t meet face to face or arrange video conferencing, the conference call is the next best thing. But just as with email and instant messaging, people don?t always agree on how to use them as effectively as possible as a tool for collaboration.

Try these tips for your next telecon whether you?re the leader of the call or just a participant. And share your own ideas for making conference calls worthwhile and productive in the comments.

1. Get the dial in. If you?re leading the call, it?s your job to make it easy on the people calling in by setting up a dial-in or otherwise getting everyone together on the phone. If you?re an employee, your company may have already chosen a conference calling service for you to use. Otherwise, you can use a variety of online services including foonz, FreeConference.com, and LiveOffice.

These services and others like them allow you to set up a conference dial-in for free, but long distance charges will apply. They also provide premium services such as toll-free numbers for US and Canadian callers. For example, FreeConference.com will provide a toll-free conference dial-in number for $0.10 a minute per caller. Source: 27 Tips for Teleconferencing

If you would rather try video conferencing, you should check out the free trial available from GoToMeeting
.

10 Windows Vista Tips and Tweaks

Ed Bott has published Vista tips before, but after he got some complaints about them being to basic, he’s released ten Windows Vista tips for the more advanced users.

Tweak #1: Add an elevated Command Prompt
Tip #2: Get an expanded shortcut menu
Tweak #3: Make text easier to read
Tip #4: Snip a screen shot
Tip #5: Get a quick system checkup
Tweak #6: Pump up the volume
Tip #7: Master the Quick Launch bar
Tweak #8: Make the blinking cursor easier to see
Tweak #9: Make Security Center go away
Tweak #10: Use the Mobility Center on a notebook Source: 10 tips and tweaks for Vista experts

Click thru to get the actual tips, or submit your own here: webmaster at tipsdr.com. We’ll provide a link to your website if your tips are used.

Windows Update Problems

Had quite a few searches recently with people having trouble getting the updates from Windows Update.

Make sure your clock is set to the correct time, sometimes when your clock is far enough from the time on Windows Update, the scan from Windows Update uses SSL and if the time is far enough apart the process will fail.

Another thing to check is to make sure you have a language set in your options, at the top of the bar in Internet Explorer, click on tools, click the button marked languages and make sure at least one language is selected.

You can also check out the Windows Update Troubleshooter including the following topics:

• Problem reaching Windows Update
• Problem Downloading/Installing a Software (Non-Driver) item
• Problem Downloading/Installing a Driver
• Other

There are many, many links you can check to see if you are experiencing the same trouble downloading updates.

How Do I Find My IP Address

Lot of searches today trying to figure out how to find what your ip address is. Using Windows XP, click on start, then click on run, in the command box type “cmd”, you’ll get a dos command prompt, in the command prompt type ipconfig and hit enter. In the dos box you’ll get your ip address, subnet mask and default gateway for each communications adapter in your computer. If you enter ipconfig/all, you will get a lot more information, computer name, DNS servers, etc. If you hit ipconfig/? you’ll get a list of all the available switches and what they do. These commands also work with Windows 2000, and Windows NT, if I remember correctly, it’s been awhile since I looked at NT.

If you are running Windows 98 or ME, just type winipcfg in the dos box and hit enter and you’ll get a new window with all the info.

Now, if you are using a wireless router or similar device, your ip address will be something like 192.168.0.*, with the * being any number between 1 and 255, most likely it will start with 2 and go up according to the number of computers that receive an ip address from your router. Without going into too much detail, the 192.168.*.* range are private ip addresses, which means everything in that ip address range is local to your network and the packets for those computers remain inside your network. So, the router has to translate that address to one that can be seen from the outside. So to find out what your ip address is on the internet go to this website, http://www.edpsciences.org/htbin/ipaddress and it will show you your ip address.

IE Has Encountered a Problem and Must Shutdown

Saw a couple people searching for “IE Has Encountered a Problem and Must Shutdown” on the site, and found this article on Microsoft site, You receive an “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close (Mshtml.dll)” error message.

This behavior may be caused by an older file from a Beta version of Microsoft Windows XP and the Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview releases. You might experience this symptom if you upgraded from a Beta release of Windows XP or from the Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview, or if you are still running a Windows XP Beta version or Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview release.

Click here for the resolution.

Other articles:
You receive an “Invalid page fault in module Tps108.dll” error message or an “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close” error message when you start Internet Explorer.
You receive a “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close” error when you use Internet Explorer 6 to view a Web page that hosts an ActiveX control.
You receive a “Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close (Pdm.dll)” error message.
You receive a “Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.” error message when two pop-up windows appear at the same time in Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1.
Internet Explorer quits unexpectedly when you press F1 in a Web page dialog box.
Internet Explorer Quits with Error in Shell64.dll When You Browse the Internet.
Internet Explorer May Quit Unexpectedly with an Error in Mshtml.dll When You Click a Button on a Web Page.
An Error Occurs in Ssl.dll When You Try to Start Internet Explorer.
You may receive an error message in module Mshtml.dll and Internet Explorer quits when you run a custom Web program in Internet Explorer 6.
Error Message in Mfc42.dll Appears When Starting, and then Internet Explorer Quits.
Description and availability of Internet Explorer Error Reporting tool.
An Error Occurs in Mshtml.dll in Internet Explorer 6 on Windows Me.
“Iexplore.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close” error message when you try to start Internet Explorer.
Error Message: Iexplore.exe Has Generated Errors and Will Be Closed By Windows.
Error Message if Speech Recognition Is Not Configured Correctly.
Versions of Comet Cursor That Are Earlier Than Version 4.0 Cause an Error Message.
“Iexplorer.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close” error message when you try to view a timesheet in Microsoft Project Web Access.
FIX: Internet Explorer may unexpectedly quit with an error message in module Mshtml.dll when you try to locate a Web page in Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Internet Explorer or Outlook Express quits unexpectedly with an error in Mshtml.dll.
Access Violation in Internet Explorer When You Use RDS Under Stress.
Web site content is not updated or you receive an unrecoverable error in Internet Explorer.

Even more available at Microsoft.

How To: Disable Error Reporting

You can get rid of the Windows XP error report messages if you don’t want to send another one in. Start the System Configuration Utility:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type msconfig to open the System Configuration Utility.
3. Click the Services tab.
4. Clear the Error Reporting Service check box, and then click OK.
5. Hit Restart to reboot your system.

Your computer will now start without loading the error reporting service.

Click here for more.

The Blebla Worm May Cause an “Access Violation” Error Message (Q319148)

You may receive the following error message:

Sysrnj.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

You may receive this error message if your computer is infected by any variant of the Blebla worm, including:

• W32/Blebla@mm.Worm
• W32/Blebla.A
• W32/Blebla.B

Click here for the article.