Microsoft Support & Discussions

Hello, WinXP sp2. In Explorer, the View->Explorer Bar... sub-menu takes over a minute to appear. What is causing the delay? How can I correct it? TIA for any suggestions... CB

I configured Windows Performance Monitor (a.k.a. perfmon) to record data on the CPU utilization by software processes. The system has four processors. The "Process(_Total)\% Processor Time" performance counter includes all 4 processors. However, this appears to include the "time taken" by the "Idle" process. However, the "Processor(_Total)\% Idle Time" appears only to include one processor. Does this make any sense? Or is there some other data I should be collecting? Does the "Idle" process only show one processor (less than 100%) because only one processor is actually being utilized? …

Dell offers "Vista bonus" discs PC Pro, UK - Jul 1, 2008 Dell has issued a subtle dig at Windows Vista, describing the operating system as a "bonus" that comes with Windows XP. The PC manufacturer is urging ... More...

Windows XP will be sold to some OEMs after all, says Microsoft BetaNews - 13 minutes ago Then, on June 30, Dell leveraged its channel blog to tell systems integrators and other resellers about the loophole in the Vista license that lets business ... More...

Quite often, when I try to download a program from a commercial website, the dowload "runs" to anywhere between 0% and, say, 58%, or anything in between, and then just stalls. When I try again, the same thing happens, just stalling at some different %. I always allow full firewall access to the site to the site from which I'm trying to download. Sometimes the download goes quickly and smoothly, sometimes after many attempts, and sometimes never. Any thoughts? -- Thanks, Alex

This solution found on http://www.technipages.com worked for me and according to responses for others. "1. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 wuapi.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 under Start > Run: regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll regsvr32 wuaueng.dll regsvr32 wucltui.dll regsvr32 wups2.dll regsvr32 wups.dll regsvr32 wuweb.dll " I found this by googling A problem on your computer is preventing updates from being downloaded "Enquiring Mind" wrote: > Then yesterday (14/02/07) I ran Windows Update on the desktop, and 10 > Windows XP upd…

Run DCOMCNFG.EXE Under Component Services, My Computer, DCOM config I found Windows Update. When I entered this area there was a friendly message... Do I want to solve a particular registry problem, I answered Yes. That did not resolve this problem. I set the Authentification level higher.... (Action/Properties) and it did not help. So I set them back to default. This message does not contain enough information to help, but does make the point that the microsoft messages are no help. They say to use the troubleshooter and troubleshooter comes up blank, like, it has no idea why you are there and so you just try to guess what to do with it. W…

hi all. the problem i have is this: when i start the program manager (my computer (file manager)), it disapears, taking the destop with it, all icons and the task bar are gone. making windows useless!!! after restarting, i get the same result. i am not sure what info you need, so please ask if you need any more? -- zothen

Windows XP: Only 'mostly dead'? InfoWorld, CA - 41 minutes ago Vista is such a dog it qualifies for the Iditarod." Still, it seems there's a lot of revisionist history going around these days. When Windows XP came out, ... More...

Open for example: Display Settings. Text and controls buttons are cut off on the right side and you cannot expand the box so you can see everything within it. I've run into this in both XP and Vista. Because I have the Corel Draw Suite installed on my computer and use the Bitstream Font Navigator, I removed many of the OpenType fonts and substituted TrueType fonts. Problem is I removed the OpenType fonts the system uses for the dialog boxes I believe XP uses Tahoma and Vista uses SegoeUI. Once I added these back, either with the font manager or in the Control Panel / Fonts folder, the problem was resolved.

Windows XP: Dead or just resting? InfoWorld, CA - 2 hours ago When Windows XP came out, it was panned for being slow and incompatible, just as Vista has been (in InfoWorld, no less). It was also woefully, ... Vista failed on compatibility issues? CIO Weblog Windows 7 is coming. Will your PC be ready? InfoWorld all 5 news articles More...

Hi there, As a Vista Ultimate user, I was wondering if there was any way of "locking" the "User Account Control" window that pops up each time I try to open or install a program that needs Administrator permission? At the moment it pops up all over the Desktop. I want it to popup in the middle of the screen. Not a major prob, a little annoying, but would be nice to be consistent with the position of these boxes. Thanks, Dave.

Hi there, As a Vista Ultimate user, I was wondering if there was any way of "locking" the "User Account Control" window that pops up each time I try to open or install a program that needs Administrator permission? At the moment it pops up all over the Desktop. I want it to popup in the middle of the screen. Not a major prob, a little annoying, but would be nice to be consistent with the position of these boxes. Thanks, Dave.

TechRadar.com Digital Home TechRadar.com, UK - 23 minutes ago By Ian Dixon It’s fair to say that over a year after its launch, Windows Vista has not been the giant success story that Microsoft probably hoped it would ... More...

Vista failed on compatibility issues? CIO Weblog, CA - 21 minutes ago That seems to be the implication in Senior VP Bill Veghte's letter to Microsoft customers announcing the ship date for Windows 7 (around about January ... More...

I am comfortable developing and architecting SharePoint solutions using my Virtual PC or connecting to a SharePoint server within our company network that I never thought of using my Vista laptop for SharePoint development. I just came across this post from BambooSolutions, webpart maker, about their “SharePoint on Vista” tool. I might try this out in [...] More...

I get a blue screen error page everytime on stertup. It only pops up for a few seconds and than reboots again. The blue page says something about a registry change and writing to a read-only memory it doesn't stay up long enough. F8 works but it won't start in safe mode or any of the other choices.

We use group policy to manage our user environment of around 2000 users. Users have roaming profiles with folder redirection applied to the the "documents" folder which points it to the users personal network directory path as follows - \\domain\unc\path\user\documents. As the documents folder has folder redirection applied Vista creates a "Recycle Bin" in the network folder. When a user deletes a file from their network "Documents" folder, Vista moves it into the recycle bin and changes the icon to show that there are files in the bin. However, if you open the "Recycle Bin" by double-clicking no files are displayed. When a user opts to empty the recycle bin Vi…

When I have Windows Media Player v.11 open, my cursor blinks rapidly back and forth between arrow pointer and the rotating circle "Vista Hourglass"- this is very irritating. It's very distrating to use a cursor that is very rapidly "stuttering" or "flashing" back and forth between the rotating circle "Vista Hourglass" and the arrow. Windows Media Player shows only 1% or so CPU usage It stops when I close Windows Media Player. But I should be able to have Windows Meida Player open and idle without having this annoying super-fast blinking cursor-rotating circle "Vista Hourglass" thing. I have a fast machine, 5.9 in all Windows User Experience categori…

Dell Windows Vista Bonus is a PC with Windows XP instead iTWire, Australia - 20 hours ago According to Dell, new buyers can have a Windows Vista Bonus: a copy of Windows XP instead... In what has to go down as one of the most bizarre bits of ... Goodnight XP, Goodnight Vista, hello Midori TECH.BLORGE.com The end of Windows XP SmartCompany.com.au Windows Vista is built on a framework that can’t support it TECH.BLORGE.com all 4 news articles More...

TechRadar.com Dell offers 'Windows Vista Bonus' to frightened customers Register, UK - Jun 30, 2008 The Dell channel blog is pointing resellers to the loophole in the Windows Vista license that enables business customers to downgrade from the unwanted ... Dell offers "Vista bonus" discs PC Pro Why Windows XP is the OS that refuses to die TechRadar.com XP: The end is nigh IT Week all 12 news articles More...

I just cannot figure this one out. Users have been Migrated from one file server to another, and I get these wierd quota entries on the new server The amount used for one of the users is 8.5GB but the limit is set to 2GB. I checked all files owned by this user on the new server - and the only data on this server with him as owner amounts to only 1.3GB. So where does the other 7 odd GB come from ? I cannot find any other files for him that amounts to this size. Can anyone please shed some light ? Thanks

A classic NT/Windows 7 gem from the blogosphere InfoWorld, CA - 1 hour ago Through the comments mechanism attached to virtually blogging platform, both fans of a blog and its detractors have an opportunity to voice their opinions. ... More...

Costing Sun Ray vs Wintel ZDNet - 10 minutes ago On the Windows side the server picture is much more complicated largely because the key redundancy strategy is based on layering virtualization over ... More...

A classic NT/Windows 7 gem from the blogosphere InfoWorld, CA - 20 minutes ago NT's HAL for example was under 64KB, and even on Vista is still 256KB(slightly larger in Vista x64), which for modern hardware is still extremely small. ... More...