Tech Tips

Every now and then, when I attempt to connect to my work machine using Remote Desktop, I encounter the following error: Considering I have no special devices plugged in at work, the message always comes as a surprise. Multiple attempts to connect will simply result in the same message, forever blocking the connection. Solution Though I haven’t had the chance to try it, commenter “Rahim786” seems to have found a better solution: “1) Kill explorer of that session 2) now you will be able to connect to this session 3) Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to launch Task Manager 4) Click new task and run Explorer again” Thanks, Rahim786! Other Potential Solution The solution I found involves using Remote … Read more

As a frequent user of the built-in Internet Explorer 8 debugger, I was particularly annoyed when it suddenly started to appear off-screen. As you’ll see below, the debugger window itself was nowhere to be seen, whereas the actual “JScript Debugger” balloon tip remained visible. Amusingly enough, the balloon was pointing up, suggesting that my missing window was in that direction. I hoped it would stop happening after a reboot, but unfortunately, this was not the case.  To make matters worse, trying to killing the process wasn’t easy, as it often took a good two minutes for the kill command to take effect. I believe this was because the process was in a debug state, rather than running as normal. Solution After dealing … Read more

Before the introduction of Vista, Windows always featured a menu bar in Windows Explorer. It offered the following menu options: File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, and Help. Below is a screenshot of the bar in Windows Server 2003: Since Vista, Microsoft has decided to hide the bar, by default. In Windows 7, here’s what Windows Explorer looks like: While the menu bar is no longer visible, it hasn’t been completely removed from the operating system. You can simply press ALT to make it appear. Once visible, it is designed to disappear whenever you left-click the Windows Explorer window. If you actually click the menu, you can execute one action, and then the bar will disappear again. In this manner, Windows ensures … Read more

As I was trying to install Pear for my WampServer 2.0i installation today, I encountered a problem. When I ran the typical “go-pear.bat” script – I was hit with this message: Solution Thankfully, after searching around – I found the solution from a blogger named Latyr, who blogs in French. Since I speak French, I thought I should offer his solution in English. I expanded it into a few steps, for those that aren’t familiar with WAMP and PHP. 1) Locate the “php.ini” file.  In my case, I found it at this path: C:wampbinphpphp5.3.0php.ini Don’t use the WAMP system tray icon to edit this file. It didn’t work when I tried – you have to manually locate it. 2) Find … Read more

In the last few weeks, I’ve been having problems launching Notepad++ from the context menu as I usually do. Instead of it launching properly after I select the “Edit with Notepad++” option, I get an error: To get around the error, I had to use the File-Open menu from Notepad++, and locate the file I wanted to open. This was acceptable for a while, but eventually my patience with the issue wore thin. Solution I figured out why it was happening. The problem was that the “notepad++.exe” file was set to automatically prompt for administrative privileges via User Account Control. This works fine if you’re launching Notepad++ from a start menu or desktop shortcut, but apparently the context menu didn’t like the setting. … Read more

Usually when I copy text from web pages, I really don’t want the formatting from the webpage to be kept. I  just want to have the text in the simplest format possible, and then I can set my own styles. Unfortunately, this isn’t normally how it works. Typically, when copying from a web page in a browser, it may also copy any tables, images, and styles that are applied to or mixed with the text. This does depend on where you are pasting the text, though. In my case, I use Microsoft Word most of the time. Word supports a lot of web page elements, meaning they will likely appear in the Word document. Consider the following text: This is some … Read more

In a previous post, I described a screen capture application included with Windows, called Snipping Tool.  Since then, I’ve been using it regularly for my screen capture needs. That is, until I realized an interesting flaw: the application, after a few uses, stops working. In Vista, here’s the error message I get: It eventually appears when you try to launch the tool, preventing you from using it. The advice the dialog offers (restarting your computer and then trying again) is totally unacceptable, in my mind. Because of this problem, I could not rely on the tool – so I instead started using Jing more often. Eventually, I tried to see if I could do something to fix this problem whenever … Read more

Microsoft’s Server operating systems are specifically aligned to offer, above all, top reliability and performance. It is therefore no surprise that Windows Server 2003, at first glance, seems to lack the standard Luna desktop theme that XP users have been accustomed to. Here’s the thing: The feature isn’t missing, it’s just “hidden” by default. Solution Here’s how to enable it: 1) Open the Services Management Console by entering “services.msc” in the Run dialog. To open the Run dialog, click Start > Run, or press Windows Key + R. 2) Locate the Themes service, right-click it, and select Properties. 3) On the General tab, select the Startup Type dropdown, and choose Automatic. 4) Click Apply. 5) Click OK. 6) Right-click the Themes … Read more

When Microsoft announced their new Bing search engine, I was immediately curious about how it compared to Google. I changed Bing to my default search engine, and tried using it daily. Ultimately, I returned to Google, which always seemed to have slightly better search results – in most cases. Despite this fact, I visit Bing it at least once a day  – but not to search. I visit it daily specifically to see the new background image they are using. They change this background image every day, and each one is usually impressive. In fact, in most cases, seeing it actually makes me want to find out more about what I’m seeing. As an example, consider the following screenshot: Great … Read more

Here’s a really quick one: I kept getting this error when I tried to launch my recently purchased copy of Fallout 3. I googled around a bit, and while I found people with the same problem, no fixes were available. Solution While not an actual solution, I’ve been able to circumvent this problem by closing Steam, and re-opening it. This will allow you to launch the game successfully, but only once. If you quit the game, and try to launch it again, it won’t work. To get it to launch again, simply repeat the process – close Steam, re-open it. I’ll try and figure out how to fix this once and for all. See Also Steam Forum Post – Fallout 3 fell over and … Read more