When you connect your Flip Video video recorder to your computer, you get a Macromedia Projector Error. To try to fix this problem, disconnect the device and try the following steps:

Mac: Search your hard drive for all files named 3ivx or muvee. Trash all the files you find.

Windows: Open Control Panel and go to Add/Remove Programs. Remove any programs installed that reference 3vix or Muvee.

Restart the computer then try to reconnect the Flip Video Player again.

Other reported fixes have been:

• Downloading and installing a new version of Flash.
• Removing any files on the Flip Video drive that have a date that occurs in the future.
• Correcting the date and time on the player.
• Updating the firmware and software of your player.

I don’t have a CD-drive on one of my Windows XP computers, but I need the ability to view the contents of a new CD each month. I have ISO images available as a replacement. Luckily Microsoft makes a tool available so that I can open and view the files in an ISO file. It emulates a CD-ROM drive on my computer.

1. Download the Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel package here

2. Extract the files to your desktop, then copy the VCdRom.sys file to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder. For most people, this is under C:\Windows\system32\drivers.

3. Open the VCdControlTool.exe file.

4. Click Driver Control…

5. Click Install Driver then navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder and double-click VCdRom.sys.

6. Click Start.

7. Click OK.

8. Click Add Drive. A drive letter will be added under My Computer.

9. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click Mount.

10. Navigate and select to the ISO image file you wish to mount, then click OK. UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

What if you need to mount and use a DVD ISO image or have a different version of Windows such as Vista? I have had good luck with MagicISO for working with both DVD’s and CD-ROM images files. It’s Freeware, so no worries about having to pay a license fee.

I had a strange problem with my computer, and I’m not sure how it got this way. Before I logged into Windows, I couldn’t right-click on any dialog buttons. Everything was switched around and I had to use the left mouse button instead on prompts to reset my password or when the login failed and I had to try again. I could right-click just fine though once I logged into the system.

I checked my Control Panel, and everything was setup normally. It turns out there is a setting in the registry that controls the swapping of the mouse buttons prior to login.

1. XP: Click Start > Run and type regedit.
Vista: Click Start, type regedit and open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Mouse and set SwapMouseButtons

Alternately, you can download and run the swapmouse.reg file to import these settings.

Also note, there is a separate registry entry for swapping the mouse buttons per user. That setting would be triggered after the login process.

If you are missing the option to Pin to Start menu in Windows XP or Windows Vista, try the following steps:

1. XP: Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 /i shell32.dll then press Enter.
Vista:

• Click Start > All Programs > Accessories.
• Right-click Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator.
• At the Command Prompt, type: regsvr32 shell32.dll

Now see if Pin to Start menu is back. If not, proceed to #2.

2. Download and run pinmenu.reg to import the settings into the Registry. Restart the computer and check if the option is in your menu now. If not, proceed to #3.

3.

• XP: Click Start > Run and type regedit and click OK.
  Vista: Click Start, type regedit and open the Registry Editor.
• Click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER (may also be under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE)
  then Software
  then Microsoft
  then Windows
  then CurrentVersion
  then Policies
  then click on Explorer
• Look for a value named NoStartMenuPinnedList and delete it if it exists.

Close out of the Registry Editor, restart and give it a try. Hopefully these steps brought back the option .

When you boot up your computer, you get the following error:

The instruction at 0×745f2780 referenced memory at 0×00000000. The memory could not be read.

To try to solve this issue, try the following steps:

1. Hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard and press R.

2. Type regsvr32 wuapi.dll /s and click OK.

3. Repeat step 2, but substitute wuapi.dll with the following filenames instead:

atl.dll
wuaueng.dll
wuaueng1.dll
wucltui.dll
wups.dll
wups2.dll
wuweb.dll

4. Hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard and press R.

5. Type net stop WuAuServ and click OK.

6. Hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard and press R.

7. Type %windir% and click OK.

8. Right-click the folder SoftwareDistribution and select Rename. Rename it to SDold.

9. Hold down the Windows Key on your keyboard and press R.

10. Type net start WuAuServ and click OK.

You’re done! Hopefully this error doesn’t bother you anymore when you start your computer.

When you open a file in Windows XP that has a corrupted video, image files, HTML pages, or MP3 file, Windows Explorer crashes.

You will need to somehow access this folder so that you can delete the offensive file. You will need to unregister 2 DLL’s to prevent the Windows from previewing the file, which is what is actually causing Windows Explorer to crash.

1. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll and click OK.

2. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll and click OK.

3. Delete the file that is corrupted.

4. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 shimgvw.dll and click OK.

5. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 shmedia.dll and click OK.

Disable the annoying message in Windows XP and Windows Vista that says:

This page has an unspecified potential security risk

You can receive this message when you access a file on a network resource.

In order to disable this message, you have to add the UNC path to the server where the files are stored to your trusted sites in Internet Options within Internet Explorer. Here’s how:

1. Open Internet Explorer and click Tools > Internet Options.

2. Click the Security tab.

3. Click Trusted Sites.

4. Click Default Level.

5. Set the Allowed levels for this zone to Low.

6. Click Sites. Read more… »

When installing Windows XP or Windows Vista. You get a blue screen of death error:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}

The most likely cause of this is the hard drive is damaged and must be repaired. CHKDSK /R will need to be run to try to repair it. To do so, try the following steps:

1. Boot the computer with your Windows installation disc.

2. When you are prompted to select Repair or Recover, press R.

3. Type the Administrator password when prompted.

4. At the command prompt, type CHKDSK /R, and then press Enter.

5. Read the results, and then take any steps that you must take to complete the process. You may need to run CHKDSK /F instead to fix the problem.

6. Restart the computer, and see if Windows works now.

If this didn’t fix the problem, you may have to replace the hard drive.

How to prevent Windows Update from downloading and installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 automatically.

1. Click Start > Run.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Policies
then Microsoft
then Windows
then click WindowsUpdate

4. Look for an entry on the right side for DoNotAllowSP. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on WindowsUpdate and select New > DWORD Value. Give the value a name of DoNotAllowSP. Press the Enter key when you are done.

5. Right-click the DoNotAllowSP entry and click Modify.

6. Set the Value data to 1 and click OK.

If any of the System Icons such as the Speaker, Network, or Power icons are missing from the Taskbar Notification Area (Systray) in Windows Vista or Windows XP, try the following steps to try to bring them back.

1. Open Regedit by holding down the Windows Key and press the R key. Type regedit in the box and click OK.

2. Click My Computer on the top left side.

3. Click Edit > Find.

4. Type iconstreams and click Find.

5. If Regedit finds an entry named iconstreams, press the Delete button on your keyboard to delete it.

6. Press the F3 key on your keyboard to continue searching the registry. If Regedit finds any additional entries, delete those as well.

7. Repeat steps 2 through 6, only this time instead of searching for iconstreams, search for PastIconStreams instead, and delete any of those entries.

8. Close the registry editor and restart the computer. See if your System icons have reappeared in the Taskbar Notification Area (Systray).

See also: Systray icons missing

How to enable or disable the Network icon in the Notification Area or Systray in Windows Vista.

1. Right-click on a blank area of the Taskbar.

2. Click Properties.

3. Click the Notification Area tab.

4. Under System Icons, put a check in the box for Network to enable the network icon in the Systray or uncheck it to disable it.

5. Click OK.

If the Clock is missing from the Notification Area or Systray in Windows Vista, a registry entry may be the problem. First ensure that you have tried to, enable the clock. If that doesn’t work, try the following fix:

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows
then CurrentVersion
then Policies
then click Explorer

4. Look for an entry on the right side for HideClock. Right-click the entry and Delete it.

Read more… »

If the Power icon is missing from the Notification Area or Systray in Windows Vista, a registry change could fix the issue. First make sure you’ve tried to change the setting to enable or disable the Power Icon. If that doesn’t work, try the following fix:

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows
then CurrentVersion
then Policies
then click Explorer

4. Look for an entry on the right side for HideSCAPower. Right-click the entry and Delete it.

Read more… »

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

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.

Here’s a workaround for a problem when you sync your iPod with a Windows XP computer and you get an error:

Disk cannot be read from or written to

1. Disconnect the iPod.

2. Right-click My Computer and select Properties.

3. Click the Hardware tab.

4. Click the Device Manager button.

5. Expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

6. Right-click Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller choose Disable.

Now try attaching your iPod again and syncing. Hopefully it will work. If it doesn’t check out the Apple article: “Disk cannot be read from or written to” when syncing iPod or “Firmware update failure” error when updating or restoring iPod

My boss tends to judge when employees have arrived at work by when they make it into GoogleTalk. Since I am late all the time, I’m going to setup GoogleTalk to start every weekday morning at 8:00am. Here’s how I did it.

1. Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks. This screen will appear. Click Next.

2. Select the program you want to schedule to be launched. Click Next.

Read more… »

When trying to run a Microsoft Windows Update, you get Error 8007000D and you cannot install updates.

Try importing the following file into your registry. wupdate.reg (You may need to right-click and select Save as…)

Running this file will make changes to your registry to restore the Microsoft Windows Update functionality. As a precaution, you may want to backup your registry before making this change.

Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn’t sync bookmarks directly from Firefox. There is a workaround though. To import Bookmarks from Firefox, you first will have to import them into Safari, then sync them into your iPhone.

Mac users can perform the following steps:

1. Open Safari and select File > Import Bookmarks…

2. Find your bookmark file under your Home folder, then Library > Application Support > Firefox > Profiles > user folder.

3. Double-click the file called bookmarks.html.

4. Connect your iPhone and select it on the left pane in iTunes.

5. Click on the Info button.

6. In the Web Browser section, turn on Sync Safari bookmarks and click Apply.

Windows users can perform these steps:

1. Open Firefox and select Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks.

2. Bookmarks Manager will open. Select File > Export…

3. Save the bookmarks.html file to your Desktop.

4. Open Safari and select File > Import Bookmarks…

5. Double-click the bookmarks.html file on your desktop.

6. Connect your iPhone and select it on the left pane in iTunes.

7. Click on the Info button.

8. In the Web Browser section change the option for Sync bookmarks from to Safari.