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If you have ever installed Windows XP, you know that Microsoft requires you to “activate” Windows. This is usually done with the help of a guided program that runs automatically after Windows starts for the first time. If you are reinstall windows on the same computer, you may have to complete the wizard again. If you re-install Windows multiple times, you may ultimately be prompted to call Microsoft to active your Windows installation.

To avoid re-activating Windows, you can backup your current Windows activation before reinstalling with the following steps. This will only work if you are reinstalling Windows on the same computer.

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After installing/uninstall some programs, the “Folders” pane in Windows Explorer may not work anymore. Most often it will just display a gray background and not show the folder tree. Other times, it may show something other than the expected folder tree. If the “Folder” pane on your computer looks like this:

a simple registry fix can solve the problem. [Read article →]

This is not a guide to installing Vista on your m200. This is a follow-up to the original post here. This post is only for those that have tried installing Vista or XP on a laptop using TFTP32 and have experienced a grayed out “Install Windows” button.

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All versions of Windows store crucial system and program information in the registry. On some versions (Windows 2000 and NT), the size of the registry is restricted by a setting. If the registry size reaches this maximum set value, an error will be displayed. If you are running Windows 2000 or NT, you can manually increase the maximum registry size. See this article for details.

Windows XP and Vista have removed this limitation. There is no maximum registry size setting. If you are running Windows XP or Vista, and get a error message about the registry exceeding its allowed size, you will need to take other measures:

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There are programs available (such as FairUse4WM) that can remove the DRM encryption from audio files without compromising the files quality. Unfortunately, DRM updates, new audio formats, and software patches quickly make this programs outdated. The other method of removing DRM is to play the audio file and record the output. This method doesn’t produce exact copies of the original audio, but it is much easier to use and much more likely to work. SO here is how you do it:

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There are 2 situations where Windows will present you with a “cannot read from the source file” error:

1. You try to open/view/edit/delete a file which has already been moved or deleted.
2. You try to delete a file (or folder) which is still present on your computer.

In the first case, the solution is simple, return the file to its original location. However, if you get the error when trying to delete a file or folder which does exist, keep reading for a fix.

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I opted for a download only version of Microsoft Office 2007 for a discounted rate. Ever since I first tried installing Office 2007, the installer gives me error messages about not being able to find files. At first I wrote these off to a poorly designed conversion from the CD media Office normally comes on to the single files installer available for download. Unfourtunatly, a Google search revealed many people, using many different install sources, experienced the same problem. During the initial installation, or when doing a repair install, the Office installer will complain that it “cannot find proofing.en-us\proof.en\proof.cab”. It may also have problems finding “proof.es” or “proof.fr”. Anything you do results in either another error message or the install being cancelled.

The good news is: I’ve found a solution.

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Many people rely on Outlook Express to send and receive e-mail. One of the most common issues with Outlook Express is that it will fail to handle “mailto:” links on web pages correctly. Clicking an e-mail address in a web page may open a blank window, present an error message, or not respond at all. In any case, the following steps will usually fix the problem.

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When you print a web page from with-in Internet Explorer, the printout will contain a header an footer. By default, the header contains the web page’s title and pagination, and the footer contains the URL and date. You can change the header and footer to include other information too. [Read article →]

The Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 1.7 patch was released today. It fixes a few problem from the 1.6 patch. I don’t know why, but I can never get the ”official” patches to install right. I’ve put together a manual patch which should eliminate the problem. This patch will also work if you have a downloaded version of the game (from Direct2Drive) and get an error when trying to install the regular patch.

You must have the 1.6 patch isntalled before installing this patch.

[Read article →]

When you run QuickBooks you may be presented with a screen such as this:

If you have company files listed that non longer exist, have been moved, or are for some other reason unable to open, you probably want to prevent them from being displayed. Here’s how:

[Read article →]

To play a media file you need two things (in addition to the media file itself obviously): a media player and a media codec. Most of you should have a player already. All versions of Microsoft Windows, in fact, include a media player known as Windows Media Player. There are also plenty of alternative players, namely “WinAmp” and “VLC”. These media players include codecs for some of the most popular media formats, MP3, WMV, etc. But there are thousands of other media formats out there and to play them you’ll need the right codec.

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The boss of a Madison Avenue advertising agency called a spontaneous staff meeting in the middle of a particularly stressful week. When everyone gathered, the boss, who understood the benefits of having fun, told the burnt out staff the purpose of the meeting was to have a quick contest. The theme: Viagra advertising slogans. The only rule was they had to use past ad slogans, originally written for other products that captured the essence of Viagra. Slight variations were acceptable. About 7 minutes later, they turned in their suggestions and created a Top 10 list. With all the laughter and camaraderie, the rest of the week went very well for everyone!

The top 10 were:

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If you have ever tried to delete a file, while it was still opened by a program, you probably received an error message to the effect of “Cannot delete file: Access is denied”. There are several other variations of this error, including:

• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• There has been a sharing violation.
• The source or destination file may be in use.
• The file is in use by another program or user.
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

All of these mean the same thing. The file is in use by a program, and you can’t delete it until that program is closed. What do you do then when there aren’t any programs actually using the file?

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Process Explorer is like Window’s Task Manager on steroids, and then some.

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The Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 1.6 patch was released recently. It fixes a problem in the 1.5 version of the game and ADDS 4 NEW MAPS! Great news huh? The only problem is the patch seems to break the game for quite a few people. I’ve put together a manual patch which should eliminate the problem. This patch will also work if you have a downloaded version of the game (from Direct2Drive) and get an error when trying to install the regular patch.

[Read article →]

The problem in the middle east:

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If you’ve turned on your computer, only to receive a “Unmountable boot volume” error followed by a restart, this guide is for you. This error occurs when Windows can’t access the drive crucial system files are on. Spyware or virus infections can cause this issue, in addition to hardware failures. Most commonly though, the issue seems to arise randomly.

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If you are setting up a network of more than two devices, cahnces are you will be confronted with all three of these terms. Hubs, switches, and routers are are crucial network components, and they each perform a unique role. Mix them up and your network won’t operate efficently…or at all. So jsut what is the difference between a hub, a switch, and a router? And what are they used for?

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I’ve created a simple invoice system to facilitate my business. It will work “out of the box” for many situations, but was designed to be more of a framework which can be tailored to your needs. Here are some of the current features:
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This is not a guide to installing Vista on your m200. If you are looking for step-by-step instructions to install Vista on your m200, please see the post here. This post is a series of hints and tips that will help you should you run into problems when following the step-by-step guide. [Read article →]

If the NTLDR becomes damaged, you may get an error message informing you that “NTLDR is missing” when you start your computer. After this error message, you will be prompted to restart your computer at which the same error will be displayed again. This effectively prevents you from being able to access Windows at all. In most cases, you will not even be able to boot into safe mode. Here are some steps you can take to fix the problem: [Read article →]

Imaginary Numbers: [Read article →]

For the regular visitors here, you might have noticed that I have changed this blogs URL from http://personal.ryantdams.com to http://blog.ryantadams.com. Behind the scenes I also moved the actual WordPress files from a folder on my web server named “personal” to a folder named “blog” to better match the new URL. The big problem with changing the URL of my WordPress blog is making sure all the old links (either in my posts, or on external websites) still worked. Here is everything I did to move my blog to a new URL: [Read article →]

If you are having issues with Windows Update, particularly having the installation of updates constantly failing, you can try the following fix: [Read article →]