In Windows XP and Windows 2000, you may have a problem opening the Computer icon in Component Services (Dcomcnfg). When trying to open it, instead nothing happens and it automatically closes the entire window and disappears.

Try the following things to solve this issue.

1. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 ole32.dll and click OK.

Try it now. If it doesn’t work, go to step 2.

2. Click Start > Run and type regedit and click OK.

3. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3

4. Delete the COM3 folder. Close the registry editor.

5. Open Start > Settings > Control Panel.

6. Open Add/Remove Programs.

7. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.

8. Click Next through the wizard. No need to check anything first. You may be prompted for a Windows Installation CD.

9. Restart the computer and try Component Services again.

If that doesn’t work, you may want to explore certain programs that may have corrupted this option. Some have reported that uninstalling McAfee or Nero products have fixed the issue.

See Also:

PRB: Cannot Expand “My Computer” in Component Services MMC Snap-In

McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i Update Problems

Try these steps if you are unable to open Add/Remove Programs in the Windows 2000 Control Panel.

1. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 mshtml.dll

2. When you receive the message that the DLL has been registered, click OK and perform the same steps for each of the following commands one by one under Start > Run:

regsvr32 shdocvw.dll -i
regsvr32 shell32.dll -i

Are you getting “Error Deleting File or Folder” when deleting a file or a folder?

The best solution is a free download called Unlocker. It works even better than Sysinternals tool available from Microsoft.

When installing a program, you may get the following error:

Error 2739. Could not access Javascript runtime action

This error is usually appears because the jscript.dll is not registered in Windows. To register it, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start > Run or hold down the Windows Key and press R.

2. Type regsvr32 jscript.dll.

3. Click OK when the message appears about the registration succeeding. If you receive an error instead, ensure you are logged into Windows as an Administrator.

I used the old registry tweaks for speeding up your Internet connection on my Windows 2000 and Windows 98 machines. By default, the registry wasn’t optimized for high speed Internet connections. These old tweaks worked very well in speeding up my connection back then. These days under Windows XP, I was getting decent speed with my cable modem, but nothing mind-blowing. I used to think that Windows XP didn’t need any tweaking at all and was already optimized for high speed connections. It turns out that I was wrong. I came across TCP Optimizer and thought I would give it a try. To my amazement, it tripled my Internet download speed.

Greedy for more speed, I began playing with the advanced settings in the program, trying to squeeze every last byte out of my connection. It eventually got to the point where my download speeds were 5 times faster, but my computer started losing connection randomly, forcing me to restart my computer often. Luckily there was an option in the software that backed up my previous settings, so I was able to revert back to them.

Give the software a try and see what it does for you. Click here for TCP Optimizer.
There is also a guide available on how to use it if you need help.

Recently I discovered a bunch of .SQM files all over my hard drive and wondered what they were. After further research, I found that these files are created by the Customer Service Improvement Program feature in MSN Messenger. They are used to track bugs and errors with the system.

This feature can be disabled by selecting the Help menu in MSN Messenger and selecting Customer Service Improvement Program. Simply select I don’t want to participate right now and click OK.

Source: File Extension .SQM 

Disable the annoying message that appears that prompts you to Send Error Report to Microsoft when there is an error with a program:

“program name has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience… Please tell Microsoft about this problem.”

1. Right-click My Computer.

2. Select Properties > Advanced.

3. Click on the Error Reporting tab.

4. Check Disable error reporting.

Microsoft has released a patch for a problem with their hotfix KB918899 that crashes Internet Explorer.

If you have already installed the KB9118899 patch, you will need to download and install the new release from Microsoft at http://www.windowsupdate.com. This newer version was released August 22, 2006.

Are you a System Administrator that likes to lock up the systems you administer so users don’t jack up the computers? Well the Control Panel is where a lot of things can be changed. You might want to lock them out. Here’s how to hide the Control Panel.

Now the users of this computer will not be able to run the Control Panel or anything that resides

How to set Windows Firewall to block or unblock certain applications.

3. Check the applications that you wish to unblock.
Uncheck the applications that you wish to block.

You get the following error when you try to install a Printer in Windows.

3. Restart the computer and try to install the printer again.
Read more… »

Does browsing the network for shares take forever? There is a setting that disables checking for scheduled tasks when browsing the network. This can speed up things considerably if you’re on a larger network. This hack works on Windows 2000/2003/XP and Vista.

After you restart the computer, network browsing should be faster.

When you install the Windows 2003 Administration Tools on your Windows Vista computer, you get the following error when you try to use them:

MMC could not create the snap-in.

For a workaround to this problem, follow these steps:

1. Login to Windows Vista using an account with administrator rights.

2. Download adminpak.cmd and place it in the C:\Users\username folder where username = the admin account you are currently logged in with.

3. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories and right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

4. Type the command below:

C:\Usersusername\adminpak.cmd

If you are running the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, type cd %systemroot%\syswow64 then press ENTER first.

Now you can click Start > All Programs > Accessories and right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. and type the command of the tool that you want to run, and then press ENTER. Add the tools you wish to use.

Source:
You experience installation errors and compatibility problems when you install Windows Server 2003 management tools on a Windows Vista-based computer

When you use the Start a program feature in Remote Desktop, the wrong application starts.

See also:
An unexpected program may start when you use the “Start a program” feature in Remote Desktop Connection

How to enable Internet Connection Sharing or ICS on the host Windows Vista computer.

Now any computer connected on the same network will be able to use this computer to obtain an Internet connection.