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Showing posts with the label troubleshoot

Lenovo Yoga (Synaptics) Touchpad Adjustments

I recently purchased a Lenova Yoga, which is a laptop - tablet hybrid (an article for another time). I am quite happy with it, but have been rather annoyed with one "feature." While using the touchpad, what seemed like for no reason, the screen would switch to the last program I was using. I finally discovered it was caused when I moved my finger to the right on the touchpad -- which is common when moving the cursor. I move it right, I move it left, I move it up, I move it down... you get the idea, we move the cursor on the screen, because that's how it works. I found the device properties, and learned that this was a "feature" of the touchpad. A left-to-right movement from the edge of the touchpad is an indication you want to see the last program used. Simply disabling the "Edge Swipes" feature solved this annoyance. By the way, the same feature exists in Windows 8 for touchscreens. I find this to be a great feature, and use it frequently. For

RoboForm Extension not working in Chrome

RoboForm is one of those go-to programs that if it doesn't work in my browser, I don't use the browser. I became quite frustrated when RoboForm quit working in Chrome . I tried going into the Extensions manager to get any clues, and when I changed settings I got a pop up error message. As it turned out, Chrome has a Windows 8 mode and a Desktop mode, and I was in Windows 8 mode. Apparently some Extensions in Chrome don't work in Windows 8 mode. I switched to Desktop mode, and magically RoboForm worked.

Merge PowerPoint Slides from Different Language Sources

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I recently had a situation where I needed to merge PowerPoint slides that had originated from two different language versions. While both were written in English, one group of slides were created from a Spanish install of PowerPoint. Of course the English text was displaying as incorrect spellings in the Spanish version. First, I was surprised to see the English text still displayed as spelled incorrect when I opened in my English install of PowerPoint. After that, I figured once the slides originating from the Spanish version of PowerPoint were inserted into an English version PowerPoint, it would correct itself. I found that still wasn't the case. All the slides that were authored in the Spanish version of PowerPoint still retained the Spanish dictionary, and therefore the English text on those slides indicated they were misspelled. Come to find out, each text box within PowerPoint is assigned its own dictionary language. In order to correct, follow these steps. (Note that I&

Unable to direct edit an an Excel cell

I noticed working one day that Excel was no longer letting me make edits directly in cells (when I double-click on a cell). I needed to go to the formula bar to make my edits, which is much more time consuming and mouse intensive. After living with this for a week or so, I discovered the issue and how to correct. Note that I'm using Excel 2007, so your version may be different. Click the Office Button (upper-left round Office button). On the bottom of the menu, click Excel Options . - This will open the Excel Options dialog box. Select Advanced from the left-menu. Check the box, Allow editing directly in cells . Click the OK button at the bottom of the dialog box. I'm not sure how this setting got changed, but nevertheless it solved the issue of not being able to edit directly in cells.

Dates differ for Excel between Mac and Windows

Who knew? The default date system in Excel for a Mac is different than that used on Windows. I was working across spreadsheets, referencing a column from one to a column from another and my results were driving me crazy. First it appeared my results column was just not formatted for dates as I was just getting numbers. But when I changed the column to be formatted for dates, I got dates but they were off by about 4 years. After checking my formula, which I've used countless times ( Lookup values in Excel ), I finally went searching and found this article, Microsoft Excel Date Systems for Windows and Mac . Sure enough, one of the spreadsheets I had created on my Mac while the other came from a Windows user. Bottom line, Windows uses the 1900 date system while Macs use the 1904 date system. Before you create a spreadsheet you can change the date system, but if changed afterward it will also change your dates, so be careful. Read Microsoft Excel Date Systems for Windows and Mac

Insert Clipart causing install loop problem for MS Office apps

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On my work laptop, running Win7 Pro, all of my MS Office apps are all 2007 except for Visio 2003. When Visio was installed, for whatever reason the clipart was not installed. If I tried to use the clipart, it would start the install wizard, ask for a path to the install disk and eventually fail as I didn't have the disk. This is unfortunately is expected behavior. But, when I go to insert clipart from my other Office apps, they run into a problem due to Visio. It goes through the same Microsoft Office Visio 2003 install wizard, and after failing, it will open the clipart that WAS installed for 2007. I search for solutions, but never found one. This works for some install loop type problems, but not my specific case. Enter one of the following using Run... . Substitute Excel, Visio, or PowerPoint for Word as necessary: Office 2007: reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1 Office 2003: reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\

Adobe Acrobat Reader update error: Error 1602

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I started getting this error, 1602, when attempting to complete the update request from Adobe for Acrobat Reader. I'm not a fan of PDF files, and use FoxIt in most cases as an alternate PDF Reader, but sometimes I still need Adobe Acrobat Reader. I discovered that the cause can easily be solved by deleting the 'ARM' folder within the Acrobat Reader program files. You can find the 'ARM' folder within \Adobe\Acrobat\x.x\ where x.x is the version number. The location of \Adobe\Acrobat\x.x\ will vary based on your version of Windows. For XP users it's contained within C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ while Vista and Win7 users will find it within C:\ProgramData\. Once you delete the 'ARM' folder, on the next update attempt everything should work as expected.

Odd Behavior When Moving an Application Window within Windows 7

Windows 7 has a nice feature where using the Windows key + the right- or left-arrow button you can move an application window to be maximized on half the screen. Recently I noticed that when I tried going right, it wouldn't cover the last 1/6th or so of the screen -- it was as if that portion of the screen didn't exist. I could still drag a window over to the edge, but even while dragging I would get some odd behaviors. It turned out the problem started when I installed Pidgin (2.6.5) instant messaging client. My particular version came with 1 plug-in already enabled which was causing this weird behavior. The plug-ins can be found at Tools >> Plugins (or CTRL-U). The culprit was "Windows Pidgin Options 2.6.5." Once disabled, the windowing (Windows key + the right- or left-arrow button) movement again operated as expected.

iTunes was unable to load provider data from Sync Services. Reconnect or try again later.

If you're experiencing this problem, "iTunes was unable to load provider data from Sync Services. Reconnect or try again later," perhaps the fix I found will work for you too. At the time of the error, I was running iTunes 10.4.1.10 on Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit OS. I had just starting using iTunes again to sync with my iPhone 4. It had been nearly 2 years since I had used it with an iPhone -- the original. Try these steps to correct the problem: Eject / disconnect your all iTunes devices (iPhones, iPods, etc) Close iTunes Open Task Manager and kill the Sycservices process Rename the "C:\Users\ [your user name] \AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\SyncServices" folder. DO NOT delete the folder, because if this doesn't solve it or causes other problems you can always return to this older version of the folder. Restart iTunes Re-attach your device This worked for me. Let me know how it worked for you.

Recent Items in Windows 7 Greyed Out

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I recently got a new Windows 7 machine, and when I tried to use Recent Items, there was nothing listed. Worse, when I went to configure it... it was set at 0, it was greyed out and I could make any changes. As it turns out, there's any easy fix for this. Go to the Properties dialog: Click Start | Right-click and select Properties Go to the Start Menu tab Click the two check boxes within the Privacy section (items and programs) Click Apply Click the Customize button At the bottom of the dialog you can now adjust the number of items to display as well as the recent programs.

Move Off Screen Window in Windows 7

Back in Windows XP, I found it easy to recover a window that the Title Bar was off the screen. When this occurred in Windows 7, I was surprised to find the same trick didn't work (right-click the icon in the Task bar, select Move, and use the arrow keys to grab and move the window). In Windows 7, it's not difficult, just different. Select the program in the Task Bar. Hold the Windows key and press an arrow key. Repeat the arrow key movement as necessary. The Windows key + arrow key offers other interesting options even with fully visible windows. Try Windows key + right or left arrow to get the window to take 1/2 of the screen. Use Windows key + up or down arrow to maximize or minimize, respectively, the window.

Thunderbird links wont open browser tab

My Thunderbird email client quit opening up links when I clicked them, regardless if they were in an email or from an RSS feed. Turns out the issue was with my web browser. I switched from Firefox as my default to Internet Explorer and it worked again. I then reset my default to Firefox, restarted Firefox, and it responded again, too.

McAfee On Access-Scan Disabled

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I noticed this morning that my McAfee On Access-Scan was disabled. (The shield in the system tray had a red-crossed circle.) When I opened McAfee, it was performing a scan, so it wasn't clear what was occurring. After some research, I found that the settings may have become corrupt. Here's the steps to correct: Go to VirusScan Console >> Help >> Repair Installation. Check the fist check-box to reset to the default settings. Click OK. This should do the trick.

USB Headset on Windows 7

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I found when I plugged my USB headset (Plantronics DSP 400) into Windows 7, it didn't work. I went through the normal stuff, trying a different port, making sure it wasn't on mute, etc. I finally determined that you need to tell Windows 7 that the headset is your default device before it will work. The good news is that you only have to do it once. Upon removal, it returns back to the external speakers, and upon reinsertion, the USB headset worked again. To make the changes, the default configuration of the Control Panel makes it nearly impossible to make the settings change. Here are the steps: Plug-in the USB headset. Go to Control Panel. Likely you will see 8 categories, and if you click "Hardware and Sound" you wont find anything to help you. In the upper-right area of the Control Panel, it says: "Viewed by: Category". Change Category to Small- or Large icons. This now presented many Control Panel options. Click on "Sound". A window should open

Mapping HTML files to run Classic ASP on IIS7

I found that IIS 7 on Windows 2008 Server to be much different from prior versions of IIS. The first hurdle was to realize that Classic ASP isn't installed by default. In searching board posts to solve my issue, I found countless posts with directions to install Classic ASP. So getting this far, I was unable to process my HTML files that had embedded Classic ASP code, In prior versions of IIS, you could just add *.html to the previous defined *.asp listing. With IIS 7 though, this created problems with the .asp pages, and did not solve the issue either. The trick is to make a new entry in the HandlerMappings specifically for *.html. Request path: *.html Executable: %windir%\system32\inetsrv\asp.dll Name: anything meaningful to you Mapping: File Verbs: GET,HEAD,POST Access: Script Once you've completed this... Go to %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config file Find the new entry (search on the name you set in the HandlerMapping) Remove the preCondition port

Portions of a PDF don't print

I recently have had two cases where a portion of a PDF file that I saw on screen didn't print. Both documents had inserted signatures among other things. When I opened the file in Acrobat and Illustrator, I could see there were multiple objects. It was some of the objects that were not printing. I figured I should be able to solve with Illustrator, but never came up with a solution using it. Back in Acrobat, I saved the PDF as a Word document. Then from Word, I created a new PDF. Now my new PDF was complete and it printed everything that I saw on the screen.

iTunes 9.1 on Windows 7 (x64) fails on update

Perhaps like me, you accepted the prompt when iTunes notified you that 9.1 was available for updating on your Windows 7 (x64) computer. After the rather large download though, the installation failed. Trying again later ended with the same results. I found some reports of this occurring on 32 bit Windows 7 and on Vista. From what I could gather, it appears to occur due to a conflict with the version of Bonjour that is already installed. (Bonjour is Apple's service discovery protocol, and is used by iTunes to find shared music on your network.) I was able to successful perform a manual update. Download iTunes 9.1 for Windows (64 bit) Close iTunes Run the install When I ran the install, it reported that my version of Bonjour was newer than the version within the install package, but it didn't cause any issues. (Note, I had previously installed the Bonjour Print Utility in troubleshooting a previous problem with my wireless modem and Apple TV. That fix ended up needing a firmware

Create 2nd Set of HP/Compaq Recovery Disks

Once upon a time, some 5 years ago I got a new Compaq PC. I diligently created restore disks, in case the hard drive ever crashed. Fast forward to the present, and I started having boot problems due to a hard drive problem. Fortunately I had an automated backup running every day and I made my restore disks. Uh oh, I couldn't find my disks. No problem, I'll make more. Err, it wont let me make more! Huh? Google to the rescue! After many searches and poking into newsgroups, I found a promising lead. I either had to delete 3 instances of hpdrcu.prc on the restore drive (D:\) or HPCD.SYS located on the restore drive and in C:\windows\SMINT. Upon looking at the restore drive, it was locked down, so I couldn't get to the file. Fortunately I found a utility, FreeCommander , that ignored the Windows locks and tricks. After renaming the files (never delete until you know you have the right files), I was able to successfully run the CD Creator utility and create a new set of recove

Unable to Sync iPhone and Unable to Sync Photos to iPhone

Another issue I found moving my iTunes and iPhone to a new PC, was Sync'ing was hanging, though I did have my Apps, Podcasts, and Music. Upon further investigation, I discovered that if I did not sync my photos, then it no longer got stuck. First I was thinking it was a permission issue with Windows 7 -- but I made no progress. I finally figured out how to solve the issue. Stop the sync'ing Delete the iPod Photo Cache in my photo folder(s) Resync I can only assume the iPod Photo Cache had pointers to the location of my photos on my old computer.

Word and Excel Hang on Startup

Perhaps it happened with prior versions of Word and Excel, but I definitely noticed for the first time switching to Office 2007. As a laptop user, I don't always work while connected to my office network, or it may just be that I'm connected via a much slower VPN connection. Regardless, every time I start Word and Excel, they ping the Default Printer, which happens to be on the office network. Due to this, whenever I'm using Word or Excel outside the office the applications hang for several minutes. Apparently so the onscreen display will match the Default Printer specifics, such as margins, Word and Excel will perform this action when started. When over 95% of my documents are never printed by me, and the great possibility that when printed by someone else, they won't have the same printer, I fail to see why Microsoft has chosen this path. From the research I've done, the workarounds are limited. For the Word/Excel VBA Power Users, you can write some code and have