When you open a .CHM file over a network drive in a Windows XP/2003/Vista computer, the right pane may show the following message instead of displaying the topic/contents.Read more
Windows Vista
How to Start Task Manager As Administrator (Elevated) by Default in Window 7
Task Manager in Windows Vista and Windows 7 runs in non-elevated mode by default, showing only those processes running under the current user context. To be able to terminate or manage a process running under other user accounts, or to log off other users, you need to elevate Task Manager by clicking the Show processes from all users button in the Processes tab.Read more
Dragging a folder to Favorite Links moves the folder instead of creating Shortcut
When you drag a folder to the Favorite Links area in Windows Explorer, the shortcut to the folder is placed in the Links folder. This was not the case in one of my Windows Vista systems, where the entire folder and sub-folders were moved to the Links folder when dragged to Favorite Links.Read more
Taskbar displays full path of open folders instead of the actual folder name
When you open a folder window, Taskbar may display the full path of the folder instead of just showing the folder name. So, if you have multiple folder windows open, you may have to click around every window before you get to the right one.Read more
Calendar Gadget in Windows Sidebar is Blank with Orange Background
The Calendar gadget in the Windows Sidebar may display blank content, showing only the plain orange background. Also, the Stocks Gadget may not show up when you add it to the Sidebar. A missing scripting run-time registration usually causes this problem. Registering VBScript.DLL Registering the vbscript.dll file from an admin Command Prompt fixes the problem. … Read more
Exit and Restart Explorer.exe Cleanly in Windows 7 and Vista
To restart Explorer to test a registry setting without a reboot, we usually terminate the Explorer shell (explorer.exe) using Task Manager. The Task Manager method is like forcibly killing the process instead of terminating it cleanly.
Jeff, a Software Design Engineer at Microsoft, posted a great tip on how to cleanly start and stop explorer.exe in Windows XP.
Quote:
If you are running Windows XP and want a cmd prompt with no strange environment variables set, do the following: Ctrl + Shift+Esc → File → Ctrl + New Task (Run…)
This will open a cmd window with only the basics. This is useful if you have killed Explorer and need to restart it. Explorer will keep the environment of the cmd window that started it.
If you want to cleanly shutdown Explorer without having it automatically restart: Start → Shutdown → Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Cancel.
Although the above method (originally written for Windows XP) would work for the Classic Start menu in Windows Vista and Windows 7, not everyone uses the Classic Start menu.
This article tells you how to exit explorer in Windows Vista and Windows 7 using the New Start menu.
Error 0x80070032 when creating a System Restore point in Windows Vista
When you try to create a System Restore point in Windows Vista, the following error may occur: Could not create the scheduled task for the following reason: The request is not supported. (0x80070032) This happens if the Windows Event Log and the Task Scheduler services are disabled. Follow these steps to fix the problem. 1. … Read more
Fix for Gadgets Not Showing Correctly in Windows 7 and Windows Vista
Have you come across the problem where some of the Gadgets that you added to the Sidebar/Desktop are not displayed correctly? For example, the clock gadget may be displayed as a black square containing only the “seconds” hand. Other gadgets may show up as white rectangles with an information (i) icon and a plus sign. … Read more
Unspecified error when adding a link to Favorites in Windows 7
After reading the post Folder Redirection for Favorites on the Same Machine at the IE Team blog, I relocated my Favorites folder to a different drive. After the relocation, when I tried to add a URL to Favorites, I received the following error:Read more
PreviewConfig tool registers file types for the Preview Pane in Windows 7/Vista
Windows Vista introduces the Preview pane in Explorer, which shows the contents of the currently chosen file. You can also play multimedia files from the Preview pane, without opening Windows Media Player. This article explains how to use the PreviewConfig utility to register a custom file type for the Preview pane in Windows Vista and Windows 7.Read more