TechBlog
A collection of computer fixes gathered in one spot.
Monthly Archives: March 2011
Firefox/Windows keeps changing my keyboard layout and messing up my symbols
March 30, 2011
Posted by on Problem:
I’ve had this problem for a while and only thought to ask about it now. Just upgraded to Firefox 4, but I’ve had the problem in the past as well. Doesn’t happen all the time but it’s really annoying when it does. To fix it, I simply restart Firefox and it’s fixed. I haven’t been able to link the problem occurence with any sites I visit.
Anyway here`s some examples of what happens when I try to type symbols:
`apostrophe
É question mark
” at symbol
/ number pound sign
? exponent arrow
é forward slash
‘ less than
. greater than
^ open square bracket
¸ close square bracket
< backslash
^ open curly bracket
¨ close curly bracket
It doesn`t seem to be anything to do with the language settings of my keyboard as only Firefox is affected. For example right now I can type question marks in notepad but in Firefox they look like this ÉÉÉÉ
Solution:
Turns out it was a Windows problem, not Firefox (but for some reason it would only change the keyboard for the program that was being used when the sequence was pressed). Went into my Keyboard Language settings and disabled the CTRL SHIFT hotkey that cycles through languages.
Brought to you by: Your Information Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI. Serving the Comstock, Richland, Portage, and Kalamazoo area’s needs for computer and laptop service and sales.
Dragging and Dropping No Longer Works
March 27, 2011
Posted by on This problem typically presents itself in Windows XP when upgrading to SP3.
Things that work!
Can drag out of Recycle Bin to desktop without problem.
Can drag web link from address bar to desktop to make shortcut without any problem.
Can drag a file into notepad and open it.
Can drag icons to the start menu without any problems.
Can right click and copy and past without any problems.
Things that do not work
Can’t drag a file to a folder.
Can’t right click drag (no menu will show)
Holding down Ctrl while dragging will show plus sign but does not work.
And while I drag the, ghost icon appears as normal, with the cursor. But just does not copy, or move the file as expected.
There might be a variety of things that shift between the columns but these are some of the common issues I’ve seen.
The fix:
The issue becomes that an Internet Zone policy is being checked, but the registry key doesn’t exist for it. No registry entry, no policy, so no authorization to drag and drop.
In regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Internet Settings/Zones/4.
If there isn’t an entry named 180D, then create a new DWORD entry named 180D and set the value to 0.
Brought to you by: Your Information Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI. Serving the Comstock, Richland, Portage, and Kalamazoo area’s needs for computer and laptop service and sales.
Driver Collection Packs
March 26, 2011
Posted by on Ever get so annoyed trying to find a driver for your system you want to rip your hair out? Driverpacks.net can fix that for you.
They have a large collection of drivers sorted by OS, and lumped by category. This allows you to essentially download one giant repository of drivers for a given device (say, wireless network cards, or touchpads) for easy use later in imaging setups or such.
Brought to you by: Your Information Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI. Serving the Comstock, Richland, Portage, and Kalamazoo area’s needs for computer and laptop service and sales.
All Linksys / Netgear / D-Link Router Interfaces
March 26, 2011
Posted by on Here are two websites that let you see exactly what the user is seeing when accessing their router. One contains all the Linksys router’s emulated, and the other is all the Netgear routers.
Brought to you by: Your Information Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI. Serving the Comstock, Richland, Portage, and Kalamazoo area’s needs for computer and laptop service and sales.
Computer Hardware Chart
March 26, 2011
Posted by on This is just a handy chart of all the interfaces for pretty much all computer hardware from the last many years (all the way back to 72-pin SO-DIMM’s)
Check it out here for easy reference
Brought to you by: Your Information Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI. Serving the Comstock, Richland, Portage, and Kalamazoo area’s needs for computer and laptop service and sales.
Passing a printer through RDP
March 26, 2011
Posted by on So the issue we were running into was as such. The client is set up for terminal services logins (RDP environments using server 2008) and had a printer shared on a separate computer from the one we were logging in from. Should have been simple enough as connecting to the machine the printer was hooked to, right clicking it and choosing connect, right? Sadly wrong.
Ultimately, we had to go into Devices and Printers and use the ‘Add a printer’ wizard. We added the printer as Local Printer, not a network device or anything. On the port selection screen we chose to create a New Port, and in the name field we put the full network path of the printer we wanted to use (‘\\<ipaddress>\<sharename>’). This solved any problems we had and allowed the RDP session to pass the printer through no problem.
Whenever we added it as a network device, RDP would not send the printer into the session, therefore not allowing us to use it. This was for an old Okidata ML490 printer onto Windows 7 as the ‘host’ machine we were RDP’ing from.
Brought to you by: Your Information Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI. Serving the Comstock, Richland, Portage, and Kalamazoo area’s needs for computer and laptop service and sales.
Installing Windows XP From a USB Flash Memory Drive
March 25, 2011
Posted by on Goal: To be able to install Windows XP from a usb flash drive.
Problem: Windows XP does not like being installed from a usb flash drive.
Requirements:
1) 1gb flash drive or larger (preferably U3 capable, instructions for non-U3 will be posted however),
2) Windows XP .iso
3) The files contained in this rar file of usb modifier files.
So Windows XP really disagrees with being installed from a flash drive. Typically you can get it to load up and choose what disc to format, but after copying setup files and rebooting it can’t find the flash drive in order to continue install after it’s now booting from the hard drive. The files you downloaded under the third requirement for this post correct this problem.
Instructions:
1) Open up the ISO image in your favorite ISO edition program (MagicISO being my favorite, AVS Disc Creator being freeware)
2) Copy the files from the above rar file you downloaded into the ‘i386’ folder in the ISO, overwriting any files it asks
3) Save the newly modified ISO image
4) If using a U3 capable flash drive (this makes everything so much easier, if not scroll down to the next set of steps) download U3 Customizer and follow the instructions it gives (You basically choose what ISO you want and choose what flash drive it’s to use, WARNING: THIS WILL WIPE THE FLASH DRIVE COMPLETELY)
5) Enjoy your working Windows XP installing usb flash drive! Load it into the computer, boot to it, and let it fly.
****
If you are not using a U3 drive, you can use something similar along the lines of WinToFlash to get the ISO image onto the flash drive ready for install. I have not tested this method, but I have had a few reports saying that following the rest of my steps, this worked for them.
Brought to you by: Your Information Technologies of Kalamazoo, MI. Serving the Comstock, Richland, Portage, and Kalamazoo area’s needs for computer and laptop service and sales.
Keywords: install windows, flash drive, usb, xp, blue screen, bsod, winxp, crash