ManiacD

Installation Error 2739 on Vista

2008-07-08T18:28:00.001+10:00

I was installing a new program on my Vista machine and received the following error message.

I did a bit of a search and found that the problem was due to either VBScript.dll and/or JScript.dll not being registered.
The following are the steps needed to register them

Open a Command Prompt with Elevated Administrative Privileges
Type the following to change the correct directory
1. For 32 bit Vista
  - c:
  - cd \windows\system32
2. For 64 bit Vista
  - c:
  - cd \windows\syswow64
Type regsvr32 jscript.dll
Type regsvr32 vbscript.dll

You will receive the following messages if successfully registered.

If you received the following error messages.

It is because the command prompt in Step 1 was not run with elevated administrative privileges. To do this the easiest way is

Click Start, All Programs, Accessories
Right click on the Command Prompt and select Run as an Administrator
Authenticate

When you have successfully registered the DLLs you should have no problems re-running the installation and having installing it correctly.

Technorati tags: Vista, Installation, Error 2739

Moving Outlook's Exchange Mailbox Offline Cache

2007-11-01T23:26:00.001+10:00

If you use Outlook and connect to an exchange mailbox and have the Use Cached Exchange Mode enabled. What Outlook does is create an offline cache (outlook.ost) to store a local copy of your exchange mailbox when your not connected. This offline cache is created in the Microsoft\Outlook folder underneath the Local Settings folder of your profile.

XP and lower - C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook)
Vista - C:\Users\<Your Username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

This location is fine if you have a lot of free disk space or your exchange mailbox isn't large but if get low disk space free notifications it might be time to move the offline cache to another location. The only problem is that moving the offline cache is not as simple as moving a Personal Folder this is due to Outlook storing the location of the offline cache with the exchange account settings.
Steps for moving a Personal Folder

Close Outlook
Locate the .PST file
Move it to the new location
Open Outlook
Use the dialog box to locate the Personal File at the new location

Steps for moving the offline cache

Close Outlook
Run Regedit and locate registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<Version>\Outlook where <Version> is
1. 10.0 for Outlook 2002
2. 11.0 for Outlook 2003
3. 12.0 for Outlook 2007
Add a new a string value called ForcePSTPath and enter the new location for the offline cache (from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883401)
Run Mail Setup from the Control Panel
Click on the Data Files and add a new Temporary Personal Folder (this will just be temporary as outlook won't allow you to remove an account which is associated with the default email delivery location)
Set this Temporary Personal Folder to be the default delivery location. You may get a similar question just answer Yes
Open and close Outlook quickly. (This sets the Temporary Personal Folder created in Step 7 to be the default delivery location)
Back in the Mail Setup program and click on accounts and remove your Microsoft Exchange Account.
Open and close Outlook again to clear any settings. (May not be required but doesn't hurt)
In accounts (Step 8.) add your Microsoft Exchange account back.
Open Outlook and it will re-create the offline cache in the location specified entered in step 2.
Clean up by removing the Temporary Personal Folder created in step 7.
Open Outlook to recreate the offline cache in the new location.
Don't forget to delete the old offline cache from C: Drive.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Outlook, Exchange Cache Mode

Using Google Reader to create multiple shared feeds

2007-06-17T23:23:00.003+10:00

In my last post I talked about using Google Reader to create a Shared Item feed or Link Blog but what if you wanted to take it a step further and split the posts you find interesting into different categories (Eg. Tech News, Geek stuff, .NET, SQL, etc.) and that get there own RSS feed for people to subscribe to. Can this be done? Well "Yes" but it's going to be a bit more labour intensive on your part than just clicking on the share button.
To create your new Category Link Blog the first thing you will need to do is to create a tag that will represent the categories. The easiest way to do this is add the tag name to an existing post by clicking on the Edit Tags at the bottom as follow.
Before

Add Tag WPF

Afterwards

After you have done that the new tag will appear in your list.

The next step is to set the tag to being public via the Tag settings page (Settings, Tags) by clicking on the icon next to the word private to switch
Private

Public

From here it is just a matter of clicking on the "view public page" to get the address of your new link blog page.

To add items to this category link blog is just a matter of editing and adding the tag to the posts you want to add.

Technorati Tags: Google Reader, Link Blog, Tags

Google Reader Shared Items

2007-06-17T19:23:00.004+10:00

I was talking to Darren Neimke in the Melbourne Qantas Lounge on Friday afternoon while waiting for my flight back to Brisbane about the coolness of the Shared Item feature in Google Reader for creating a Link Blog of interesting posts.
Some of the reasons why I like the Shared items Feeds or Link Blogs are

They allow you to see what the person you have subscribed to is interested in.
They are a great source of finding new blogs to subscribe too.
You can use Google Reader Trends to see what blogs you find the most interesting and use it weed out any blogs that you find are not relevant to you anymore.
It is so simple and easy to use

To create your own Link Blog is easy as it automatically set up if you are using Google Reader. To find the location of your Shared Item or Link blog is as easy as clicking on the "Shared items" on the top left hand menu.

The Yellow box at the top of the page as you can see shows the URL and RSS feed locations.

Adding items to your Shared Item Feed or Link blog is as simple clicking on the Share button at the bottom the post or if your a keyboard person using Shift+S.
Not shared

Shared

If you have a Shared Item Feed or Link Blog please leave a comment here with a link to it and the type of information you are likely to share so I can subscribe to it.
You can check out my Share Items or Link blog here at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/14406416809126036932 from which you can subscribe to RSS feed. I primarily share items about Software Development (.NET, SQL, Coding, etc.), Web 2.0, Tech News, Geek Stuff, etc.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Reader, Link Blog, Shared Items

Steps for setting Vista's Default Explorer Window Size

2007-05-15T20:17:00.006+10:00

Ever since I switched to Vista the one thing that really annoys me is that when windows explorer is run, either via the shortcut or from the right click, it would always default to this small window which I had to keep enlarging to the size I want and after closing it would default back to that small window the next time it opened. Unlike XP which re-opened explorer as the size it was when it was last closed.
I've had a bit of a look and found that what is happening is Vista saves the window size against the last folder displayed when you close Explorer.
You can test this out yourself by doing the following.

Open Windows Explorer
Navigate to another directory
Change explorer's window size then close the Explorer
Create a new shortcut on the desktop by using the following command

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, <Insert the full path to the folder in Step 2>

Double click on the shortcut and you will see it opens as the size it was closed.

To make matter worse there are 4 main ways of opening Windows Explorer that most people use and each has a different start directories.

Right Clicking or double clicking on My Computer
- My Computer
Right Clicking on the Start Button (or Start ORB) and selecting Explore
- C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Running Windows Explorer shortcut from Start, Accessories
- C:\Users\<Username>\Documents
Windows Key + E
- My Computer

So therefore to set Windows Explorer default window size in Vista you will need to do the following for each of the above ways of opening

Open Windows Explorer
Set each window size to what you want
Close Explorer.

Technorati tags: Vista, Tips, Explorer

WinHlp32.exe not included in Windows Vista

2007-03-16T19:53:00.001+10:00

Last week I finally was giving the go ahead to upgrade my Work PC from Windows XP Pro to Windows Vista Business. Everything went find with the install but it wasn't until a couple of days ago I needed to open a .hlp file when I received this message.

Clicking on the "The Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) program is no longer included with Windows operating systems starting with Windows Vista" link takes you to KB Article 917607.
In the article it says says that

The WinHlp32.exe technology is officially obsolete, starting with the Windows Vista release. The WinHlp32.exe technology will not be supported in its current form in future Windows releases.

The funny thing is that the 16bit version of Windows Help (Winhelp.exe) is included with Vista. You would have thought that it would have been the program not included.

The WinHelp.exe program is a version of Windows Help that is designed for 16-bit .hlp files. The WinHelp.exe program is included with Windows Vista.

One other thing to note is if you are creating .hlp files with your application

Also, third-party programs that include .hlp files are prohibited from redistributing the Windows Help program together with their products.

But you can can download WinHlp32.exe from the Microsoft Download Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148.
Which is what I did and after installing the update I went back and tried to open the .hlp file. Now I received the following error message not just once but actually 6 times.

The reason being is that by default you can't access .hlp files which reside on network shares. All that I needed to do was to add the following (DWORD32) key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WinHelp\AllowIntranetAccess = 1 to the registry.
Opening up the .hlp file from windows explorer works a treat but when I try to use the help file in a program to be able to jump straight to a topic the following error message pops up.

This is due by default macros are not enabled by default so to enable them I needed to go back into the registry to add the following (DWORD32) key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WinHelp\AllowProgrammaticMacros = 1.
So after all that I can now use my old officially obsolete 32bit Help files in Vista.

Technorati tags: Vista

PayPal and eBay Security Key

2007-02-26T16:41:00.002+10:00

I was reading a couple of weeks back that you can now purchase a PayPal security key for $7.50 AUD which adds an extra layer of protection when logging in by having to enter a 6 digit code which is generated when you click the button on the security key.

I just couldn't resist so I ordered one which was to take up to 10 working days for it to arrive. I'm not to sure of the exact day it actually arrived as I don't check my mailbox everyday but I had before the 10 working days.
Activating the security key to work with my PayPal and eBay account was quite easy, just a matter of clicking on the activate security key link after logging in and entering in the security key serial number and then 2 consecutive generated numbers.
Now after logging with my username and password I get a secondary login screen to enter the generated 6 digit security code.
For PayPal it looks like this.

Click on the I don't have my PayPal Security Key take you to this page.

For eBay it's looks like this.

If you click on the Lost, damaged of forgotten your Security Key take you to this page.

I didn't go any further down then the above pages for not having my security key on me but you can see that it's still possible to access your accounts but it will require additional verification and in the case of eBay their Customer Support will call the number listed in your account to verify.
So the for the cost of the security key to get that extra layer of security seems like a very good deal.
Now to use eBay and PayPal more than a dozen times a year... ;)
Technorati tags: Security, PayPal, eBay

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-05T19:31:00.002+10:00

I saw this on Somewhat Frank and just had to share! It's a fantastic representation what web 2.0 is all about!
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

The creator of the video was Michael Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.
Technorati tags: Video, Web2.0

How do you track your feeds?

2006-12-10T19:51:00.000+10:00

I was reading Mitch Denny's blog about how he keeps a track of his feeds which got me thinking on how I am keep a track of the information posted from the feeds (105 and counting) that I'm currently subscribed to.
For me it comes down to some of the features in Google Reader including

It's a web based and keeps a track of what has been read independent of the viewing computer.
It only marks posts as being read as you scroll past them. (Not when you initially view the feed)
You can still access previously read posts. (No more having to go to the source to old posts)
You can share items easily to create a link blog which has it's own RSS feed.
You can star a post for follow up later (same as you can do in GMail)

As you can probably guess from the last 2 points what I do to keep track is to share all the interesting posts and if I want to follow up on a post it will get starred.
So how do you keep a track of your feeds?
Technorati tags: RSS