Blog: General

I have been asked several times what my favorite Windows program is for accessing ISO images of CDs and DVDs.  To just browse an ISO and extract files, I prefer 7-zip.  To mount them as a drive letter I like MagicISO.  I am partial to tools that do not need installation, but of course something like this must install a driver, so it requires an installer.  This software is very lightweight.  The driver is only 250K and you only need to run the client to mount and dismount disc images. Some of these kinds of tools are used by gamers and others to make illegal copies of CDs and that software may be detected as malware, but MagicISO is still passing all antivirus scanners on Virustotal.

We had a new ESXi host to install recently with the latest 4.1, but the server didn’t have a disk (yet) for us to install it on. Fortunately, our Fiber Channel SAN had a spare LUN with some extra drives that we could use. I destroyed the LUN and the virtual disk and pulled out a spare drive to stick it into the new server. Simple enough and now we can install ESXi.

Well, not quite… [more]

When we started the installer, it would always hang on loading the storage drivers. No matter what version of ESX or ESXi we attempted to install, the application would hang before the software even had an opportunity to start installing and always at the storage drivers. After some discussion with one of the other engineers, I had an epiphany. Maybe that drive still had some remnants of the old RAID 5 array and the server was looking for the remaining disks. I booted the server to a SmartStart CD, fired up the Array Configuration Utility, destroyed and recreated the array, and attempted the reinstall of ESXi. Success!

Moral of the story: When repurposing a hard drive that was formally a part of an array, make sure to actually wipe the disk clean instead of simply destroying the array to completely verify that there are no longer any remnants of the former array configuration.

Sometime back while I was out of the office, my system crashed with a blue screen message about a hard drive failure.   Fortunately, I was able to restart and save any essential files that weren't already backed up.  When I got back to the office I ran SpinRite on the hard drive, it didn't find any problems, and I have yet to have another crash.

But recently I launched a program which I had running during the crash.  The program appeared in the task bar but nothing happened.  When I clicked on the task bar icon it expanded to show a program instance, but nothing happened. When I right clicked on the task bar icon, it expanded to show the program, "Pin the program to the taskbar" and "Close Window."  I clicked on the program and got an error saying the program could not access a needed file and the program was terminating.  I tried several times to get the program to run and each time I couldn't see the program and eventually getting the same error.  I tried several fixes such as renaming the offending file, deleting the file, etc., but nothing worked.  Finally I restored to a virtual machine where I was able to run the application and finish my work.

Back in the office, I asked a coworker for some help to get a fresh pair of eyes on the problem.  I showed him what was happening and I was able to reproduced the error.  He sat for a moment and then said, "I wonder if it is running off the screen."  He right clicked on the task bar icon looking for the "Move" option and it wasn't there.  (In Windows7, you have to let the task bar item expand and them right click on the instance you desire in order to see the familiar options of "Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize and Close.") [more]

Once he selected "Move" he was able to move the application window (using the arrow keys) back onto the screen so it could be viewed.

I then realized I was getting the access error, because when I right clicked on the task bar and then left clicked on the program, it was attempting to launch a second instance of the program.  It couldn't do it because the program was already running and had locked the needed files.

"Moving" windows back on the screen is often required when you work with multiple monitors and then switch to work on only one monitor.  In this Gotcha, I hadn't been working on multiple monitors, but the crash must have mixed up the window location.  "Move" fixed the problem.  If you can see an application icon on the task bar, but not on the screen, assume it is running and you need to "Move" it onto the screen.

Adobe Reader 10.0 is installed in a protected mode. One of the features of the secure mode is:

• Cannot open PDF files whose source is DFS or NFS: PDF files in shared locations on a distributed  or networked file system (DFS/NFS) cannot be opened. Attempting to open such a file results in an error opening this document. Access denied."

The solution is to disable protected mode by completing the following steps: [more]

1. Within Adobe Reader, go to Edit > Preferences > General and deselect Enable Protected Mode at startup.
   
2. Restart Reader.

For more information, refer to the following Adobe KB article: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/860/cpsid_86063.html

When I am away from the office I often set Outlook to “Work Offline.”  This allows me to have Outlook open for access to the cached information and it doesn’t try to connect and update all the folders whenever I establish a VPN back to the office.

At some point, Outlook started resorting to Work Offline every time it started.  This was troublesome as I might go for hours at a time not realizing I was Working Offline and as a result, not receiving email messages.  Before this problem, Outlook would start in whatever state (Connected or Work Offline) it was in whenever it was shut down.

In researching the problem I found many references to this problem which go all the way back to Outlook 2003. [more]

Microsoft’s solution is to create a new Outlook profile, as the existing profile has somehow become corrupted.  I really wanted to find a “cause and effect” fix, but never did.  So ultimately, I created a new profile and the problem is solved.  It seems as though this is a work around rather than a solution, but I am now Online.

To create a new Outlook profile go to Mail (32 bit) in the Control Panel (Windows 7).

• Click on the Show Profiles button under Profiles.
• Click on the Add button.
• Give the new profile a different name from your existing profile.
• Follow the instructions and Outlook will connect to the Exchange server and automatically create a new profile.
• With a new profile, you can now have Outlook prompt you regarding which profile you want to use when Outlook starts.  You can also specify one of the profiles for Outlook to use automatically.
• If you specify a profile, be sure you specify the new one you just created.  This will ensure Outlook will start up and look for a connection to the Exchange server rather than ignore the Exchange server and Work Offline.

In Microsoft Office 2007, Quick Access Toolbar definitions are stored in .QAT files that are stored in the c:\users\<username>\appdata\local\microsoft\office\ folder for each user.  For Office 2010, these are files that are formatted the same but have .officeUI extensions.  Actually, you can rename the extension of .QAT files and they'll work with 2010.

If you want to retain Quick Access Toolbars, keep a backup copy of your QAT or officeUI files and copy them to the user's appdata file on a new system.

For several months I would try to open Outlook 2010 and nothing would happen. When I checked the Task Manager I would see two Outlook.exe processes running. If I killed the process with the most memory, Outlook would open and all would be well.

One day I decided to fix the problem. My first guess was that Outlook was not starting correctly. When I searched for "Outlook startup problems", I didn't find anything useful. After a little research I found that when I closed Outlook, the process did not go away. A quick search for "Outlook shutdown problems" immediately returned the most common problem is a third party Add-Ins. When I checked the list of Outlook Add-Ins, the most likely suspect was "Outlook Change Notifier" that was in an Apple subdirectory. I removed the Add-In and Outlook would open and close like a champ.  [more]

I found a forum discussion, http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/32169731/itunes-outlook-addin.aspx, that said opening iTunes will reinstall the add-in. It tried it and iTunes acted like it was reinstalling and the Outlook Add-In was back.

Instead of removing the Add-In, just uncheck the box next to the Add-In to disable it. This will allow Outlook to close correctly and iTunes won't try to reinstall it. An alternative method is to rename the file that contains the Add-In: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3500. Although Apple claims it's not a problem with Outlook 2010, it is.

I've noticed an increasing use of Micro USB connectors in things such as bluetooth headsets, external hard drives, Kindle and BlackBerry devices, etc.

Since so many devices use the Mini USB connector, I have more than enough of the Mini USB cables.  I looked and found some nice little Micro to Mini adapters that just plug onto the end of the Mini cable.  If you can keep from losing such a small item, it saves room and cables.

I had a problem with my iPhone. It was getting hot to the touch. I then discovered that it was chewing up download data... about 5MB every 15 minutes. This was discovered when AT&T sent me a message that my consumption of my monthly allotment was at 90%.

After many hours of work, I discovered that it was the Exchange server “push”   that was causing it to chew through data. Specifically, it was “push” on the Contacts folder. I ended up extracting my contacts folder to a PST file, and re-importing the file and this seemed to fix the issue of chewing through the Cellular Network Data. [more]

At this point, I realized that I had a problem syncing all my contacts. The contacts would just not all load onto my phone. This was not related to the issue above with Cellular Network Data, but the contacts download would just stop before synchronizing all the contacts. I had noticed this problem forever, but had not researched. It turns out that there were two contacts in my address book that were causing the problem. These contacts have been in my list for years.  After removing these two contacts ( I discovered which ones they were by dividing my list in halves  - binary search- until I isolated the culprits) everything works fine. I have not yet discovered the cause as to why these particular contacts will not sync. I sent one of the contacts to a coworker, and it will not sync with his phone (not an iPhone) either …