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| A low-tech but ingeniously distributed E-letter by Mr. E Vol. I, No. 14 — August 13, 2001 To read previous issues of The E-List, click here. Send comments about The E-List to: elist@aumha.org Please see Legal Notice. |
This newsletter tracks new information, and improvements in existing information, on The Windows Support Center, my website supporting Windows desktop systems and leading application software. I also include small, useful items that might not find a permanent place on the site, but that I would like to pass along, and anything else I feel like writing!
Click here to subscribe. If you subscribe, you will receive email notification when there is a new issue of the newsletter. (You will not receive the newsletter itself by email. That’s why I call it low-tech.) My intention is to provide a new and further way to serve the 50,000 people per month who visit my site. Previous newsletters are available online, and their content searchable through this site’s search engine. Enjoy! — Jim Eshelman
CONTENTS of this Issue
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I AM MY ONLY AD!
My employer closed its doors for good in February.
If you find anything of value in this newsletter or on this site,
please view my resume and pass it along to someone. Thank you!
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NEWS & VIEWS
It’s been a busy week. I’ll mostly forego the chit-chat this time. There’s one thing I want to mention, though, and that’s the attention the Windows XP Shutdown Troubleshooting page is starting to get. One part of me is inclined to let out a loud sigh, followed by, “Here we go again.” But I know that the shutdown scenarios arising in Windows XP aren’t anything like the Win98 SE, or even Win ME issues. They compare better to Windows 95 shutdown problems (which many of you may never have known even existed, but which, in fact, were the inspiration for my original Windows Shutdown Troubleshooting page). Still, people are interested in the subject, and it’s gratifying to be able to provide a focal point for the information to be gathered.
In the first 12 days of August, 845 people visited the Windows XP Shutdown Troubleshooting page. If some of you have found your way here to The E-List as well, then let me take a moment to welcome you aboard.
WINDOWS XP: MORE PHOTO SOFTWARE CHOICES
You’ve probably been reading, for several weeks, that Kodak hasn’t been terribly happy with Microsoft lately, due to Windows XP’s planned inclusion of Microsoft’s own lock-down digital photo-finishing software. In fact, Kodak was leaning on the Federal government to delay Windows XP’s scheduled billion-dollar release on October 25. That’s all past now, though. Kodak and Microsoft have worked it all out.
According to various news sources this morning, the main features of the deal are:
- Microsoft will ease the way to digital photo software by Kodak and other third-party vendors
- Microsoft will better label its own software, to differentiate it from the third-party software
- Kodak will withdraw its call for Win XP’s delay
- The two companies will work closely together to ensure that Kodak’s latest digital cameras work perfectly with Win XP
The official announcement will probably hit the streets sometime today.
NETSCAPE 6.1 IS HERE
Speaking of hitting the streets, Netscape 6.1 did exactly that this week. Dyed-in-the-wool Netscape fans have given a very bad reception to 6.0, which has been out for some time, and apparently had a lot of bugs. These, reportedly, have been fixed in 6.1. I haven’t put the new version through its paces very heavily, but did confirm that basic functionality is sound, and that it views all of the pages of my site at least as well as 6.0 did, and far, far better than 4.x (my least favorite browser in the world). It also coexists much better with IE, at least on my computer.
This release comes at a time when Internet Explorer 6.0 may be formally released any day and is already taking off quite strongly — my figures show that it is now responsible for about 15% of all IE use while still in Beta — and when an increasing number of commercial Web sites have simply stopped considering Netscape (meaning, in practice, version 4.x) in any of their page design. Obviously, there are many, many people who hope that Netscape 6.1 will swing the pendulum back around a bit, recovering some of the interest that has fled Netscape for IE.
You can download Netscape 6.1 here. I recommend, for maximum convenience, that Netscape 6.x users bookmark my site using the following URL: www.aumha.org/mapwht.htm.
WINDOWS SUPPORT SITES
SITE OF THE WEEK:
A TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE TO WINDOWS ME by Mike BurgessOne thing my site most definitely is not is a big ol’ list of quick tips. It’s not the way my personality works. I suppose that’s one reason I really love sites and services that provide such tips. Sometimes I get utterly playful and giddy in the face of what amounts to a “sound bite” that solves a clear problem. (One of my favorite pieces of email to get, in my first year of using Windows, was Mike Elgan’s “Tip of the Day.” I devoured those wonderful tidbits.)
Mike Burgess’ site is loaded with tips! These days, in fact, he’s my favorite tipmeister, and I wish I had more time just to lounge around his web site. He’s very “nuts & bolts” (now, please don’t go ’round claiming I just said Mike was nuts!). You may have known Mike in years past, posting under the secret identity of “Knows95” and, later, “Knows98;” but, these days, he prowls the newsgroups under his own name, seeing where he can be helpful. That’s how he won the Microsoft MVP award a couple of years ago. This is probably also as good a place as any to say that Mike was enormously generous in helping me when I started seriously learning HTML, and is usually one of the first to jump in with views and assistance when I float new ideas for this site past a circle of friends.
Despite its name, Mike’s site is as much a Win98 as Win ME site (and most of it applies to Win95 as well). Also, it seems to me much more a site on customization than troubleshooting, though it has its share of troubleshooting tips, too. Mike is also starting to accumulate a body of Windows XP information, and I have every reason to believe here will be a lot more of this on his site in the near future. Like many of the sites I recommend to you, I suggest you just set aside a little time to go browse this one. Wander around and have some fun.
Obviously, I think you should check out his general Windows Tips section. But look for the other treasures, too. His Defrag Tips has a wonderful display of just how good proper defragging can be for your computer. His Security Tips section is loaded with good information and recommendations. His tips for Internet Explorer focus on how to customize it, to make it a better tool.
In fact, that’s most of what you’ll find here. Better tools. Some of them are in the form of a fine hammer, but a lot are in the form of very high-class nails. And, there’s more than a touch of fun. As always — enjoy!
WINDOWS SUPPORT ARTICLES
IE 5.5 Service Pack 2 & WIN ME SHUTDOWN
At least in some situations, the recent Service Pack 2 version of Internet Explorer 5.5 may be creating new shutdown problems on Windows ME, apparently in combination with Nvidia drivers.
From the first month of Windows ME’s release, Nvidia device drivers have been near the top of the list of causes for the operating system’s shutdown problems. Nvidia addressed this with new driver versions. In all fairness to the company, it must be said that they have been very engaged in the issue. The newer drivers have not been reported to cause the shutdown problem. But, according to information forwarded this week by correspondent Bert Smith, there may be further problems when the card and its drivers interact with IE 5.5 SP2 on a Windows ME system. This problem doesn’t occur uniformly, but has been reported in at least four instances. If it is not an interaction problem, then it is more likely
Specifically, Bert Smith reported that his Windows ME computer stopped shutting down once he installed IE 5.5 SP2. He resolved the problem by uninstalling SP2 (i.e., returning to SP1). He wrote that he also had been in correspondence with three other people with pretty much the same story: In all four cases, the individuals were using Win ME, had Nvidia cards, had no shutdown problem before installing SP2, and developed the problem immediately after installing SP2. This was enough of a pattern to warrant adding the information to the Windows ME Shutdown & Restart Troubleshooting page this week.
However, the problem is not uniform with this configuration. MS-MVP Richard G. Harper immediately volunteered to do some testing. I accepted! Richard tested the Nvidia 6.42 drivers and IE 5.5 SP2 on Win ME, and couldn’t reproduce the shutdown problem. Others have confirmed his findings. No one yet has been able to go out and intentionally create this problem with the factors known to be in common on the computers displaying the problem. Some other system-specific factor, therefore, is likely part of the mix.
Windows 98 Second Edition’s shutdown problem has gotten far more attention than the similar problem (from different causes) in Windows ME. In fact, as far as I’ve been able to discern, the Win98 SE problem was much more widespread. But it was also much more aggressively attacked by Microsoft and the user community, so that it is more manageable and, therefore, currently seems a smaller problem. Though fully 50% of all hits to my Windows Support Center site are to shutdown troubleshooting pages, and though the Win98 SE problem was far more widespread, about 10-12% more people visit the Windows ME shutdown page than its companion Win98 SE page.
SOUNDING OFF ABOUT WINDOWS ME SHUTDOWN!
For years we have known that one cause of Windows shutdown problems — from Windows 95 through the present — is a damaged exit sound. If Windows tries to play a sound file as it closes, and something goes wrong, it will hang the shutdown process. But, in Windows Millennium Edition, users discovered sometime back that, if you don’t already have an exit sound, adding one may solve the shutdown hang!
This week, I received further email confirmation that people continue to find this rip useful. Sometimes, it’s exactly the fix needed. The actual feedback on it has, lately, been greater than all other ME shutdown confirmations put together, so I thought it was worth mentioning again. Why does it work? I only have theories. Playing a shutdown sound lengthens the time required for the shutdown process. Since Win ME tends to hang while forcing running programs to close, this extra bit of time may be exactly what it needs — just as forcing the creation of a boot log on every startup often solves startup hanging problems. It only takes an extra second or two.
Of course, the natural extension of this theory, if you already have a shutdown sound (and you’ve determined that it isn’t the culprit in your shutdown problem) is to switch to a longer shutdown sound — and see if this sounds the death knell of your Win ME shutdown problem.
REGISTRY PATCHES
As I promised last issue, you will be seeing more Registry patches on the site that are specific to Windows XP. Additionally, existing patches for Windows 9x needed to be checked against the Windows XP Registry to learn whether the referenced keys remain valid. Applying a Windows Registry modification that mismatches the system can cause quite a lot of havoc. (That’s the main reason we constantly reiterate the need to backup the Registry before messing with it!)
This week, MS-MVP Alex Nichol undertook the lion’s share of that job, and provided me with a listing of which of the patches I’ve posted match the Windows XP Registry and which do not. I want to thank him for this in public, as I have in private. His specific task was to examine the patches and determine if the same keys (the ones added or modified by each of the patches) exist in the XP Registry. If so, then we have very high confidence that the patch is safe in Windows XP. What we do not know is whether or not the patch is at all useful in XP — for example, the problem that it was created to fix may not even exist in XP, or it may have a different solution. But, at least the patch is safe. (And I followed this up by applying each of them to my own XP test system. Doing so broke nothing.)
I have, therefore, settled on the term, “WinXP-safe” to describe these patches. Each patch that is “WinXP-safe” is specifically labeled. As is explained on the Registry Patches page itself, this does not, per se, mean that they accomplish anything useful, just that they are expected to cause no problems. Of course, I have to include the disclaimer that you use these at your own risk, that I’m not responsible for any damage they cause on your system, and that, in any case, I advise you to back up your Registry before trying any of them. But I have tested each of them on my own system without adverse incident, and all logic indicates they should be safe.
A few other patches on the page step beyond the “WinXP-safe” level, and have a bright green Win XP label indicating that they are specifically intended for that OS. Still others carry WARNINGS not to use them with XP.
As the XP release approaches, we’re making headway in being ready, to help everyone (hey, me included!) hit the ground running in using the new OS.
MY FAVORITE FREEWARE
Along with the addition of some new programs, the “My Favorite Freeware” page has undergone restructuring this week. Having recently tested all of the programs there listed against Windows XP (and marked, with the increasingly familiar four-colored flag, the ones that work for me in XP), I’ve now consolidated the display of those programs which do the same job, when more than one is listed.
In all such cases, I recommend one program more than the others for most purposes. For example, among Notepad replacements, I now recommend EditPad more than Notepad+, but also find Notepad+ so lightweight and elegant that it’s absolutely perfect for a lot of people. So I list both. But EditPad gets the “master program” slot, and Notepad+ is listed under it. Look at the page to see what I mean — and let me know if you also think it’s easier to reference the contents now. Or not.
By the way, speaking of Notepad replacements, I examined Metapad this week. I wouldn’t be bringing it up unless I had something good to say about it (which I do), but it was an easy choice not to add it to the “My Favorite Freeware” page. Metapad has a couple of cool features, especially in appearance, and it’s transparent mode is a real visual kick! — until you really start trying to use the text editor while your gorgeous screen graphics shine through. Granted, EditPad and Notepad+ are visually as boring as adjacent inches on a new sidewalk; but, if the energy and imagination that was put into attractiveness for Metapad had been put into functionality, it might have become a very striking program. Personally, I won’t use it — I have better programs to do the same job. But I mention it in passing, in case any of my readers is interested.
1ST QUICKRES LIGHT
You know what QuickRes is, right? (Or maybe you know it and use it, but without that name?) It’s one of the free Windows PowerToys originally released for Win95. It sits as a little blue-screened monitor icon in the System Tray of your desktop, and allows you to dynamically change screen resolution and color depth with a click. It isn’t needed in Win98 or Win ME, because the same functionality is built into the operating system through Display Properties | Settings | Advanced. Either way, it’s one of the nicest little extras that make using a multi-purpose computer easier.
But the functionality isn’t available in Windows 2000, and so it wasn’t added to Windows XP. Bummer! Considering the emphasis, in XP, on appearance, multimedia functionality, and other early 21st Century eye candy, this would have been a great feature to have. But it’s not there. To the rescue comes this clone from Green Parrots Software called 1st QuickRes Light ver. 1.6b. It does everything the original does, and a few things more. Additionally, it works on Windows NT, 2000, and XP computers.
When you go to download 1st QuickRes Light, you’’ encounter one little detail that agitated me. The freeware version of 1st QuickRes is a reduced-feature copy of their commercial 1st QuickRes Pro. (That part I like!) But they don’t call it freeware. They call it a trial version, implying that it times out or nags or some such thing. Trialware isn’t really freeware. I might have overlooked this version entirely, since I just don’t find it worthwhile to download trialware at all, ever. (If I want a program, I buy it. Just let me know up front whether you’re selling it to me or giving it to me.) But there’s no expiration, and no nag — and it works really well. Highly recommended, especially for Windows 2000 and Windows XP users. (And yes, they really do spell the name “Light” and not “Lite.”)
DirGraph
Do you use DUW — Markus Seger’s Disk Usage for Windows? It’s a great tool that very rapidly analyzes how much room each folder, subfolder, and file occupies on a given drive or partition, so that you can manage your space allocations. It’s great for a number of purposes, as I’m sure you can already imagine. I’ve had it on my page as long as I’ve had a page.
If you understand DUW, then you understand David James Spillett’s DirGraph utility, with one exception — it’s a graphical representation! Hey, sometimes you want the numbers — sometimes you want the pictures, right? Well, I do, in any case — which is probably why this is the one instance of dual tools on my page, for a similar purpose, where I can’t pick one over the other. Try them both, and let me know what you think.
TestCPU
I’d seen this utility before — and then I lost it. This week, I found it again.
Have you ever tried to identify what CPU is in a computer while you are running it? Or find out how fast it’s running? Normally, the way to get this information is to reboot the computer and watch the messages that flash by the first two screens. (Or, of course, to open the computer case, remove a fan, possibly scrape back some heat goop, and read the printed information on the CPU. Most people choose the first method.) Fortunately, there are utilities that make the job easier. For quite a while, I’ve featured CPU-Z and WhatCPUIs on the freeware page. They now take a back seat to TestCPU 0.96, especially on systems with anything short of a Pentium 4.
TestCPU is the best CPU identifier I’ve ever found. It not only identifies your CPU and its feature set in a few seconds — it also shows a picture of the chip! It does other things, too, like running simple benchmarks. Additionally, it has a built-in “museum” with pictures and feature lists for every major Intel, AMD, Cyrix, and Centaur CPU from the 386DX to the Pentium-IIIE, making it a great reference resource for computer techs. With all that, it’s still small and lightweight — a perfect item to stick on your utilities floppy when you head out on a service call, or bop over to look at a friend’s computer problems.
PRICELESSWARE
I suppose everyone who has been into computers a while already has their favorite freeware sites. I’ve wandered into several over the years, and liked them well enough to add them to my Favorites. On the other hand, I never set out to make “My Favorite Freeware” into one of these pages. All it is, remember, is a list of cool stuff that I actually use and think that someone else might find valuable.
This week, I learned about Pricelessware. It’s so very cool that I’ve added a link to it to the top of my freeware page for those who are looking for a kind of software I don’t list.
Pricelessware isn’t the largest freeware site that you’ve ever seen. It’s not like walking into Best Buy or Fry’s, knowing you’ll find something resembling what you want in a bin somewhere. But one of the most cool things about it is that Pricelessware lists “The best of the best in Windows Freeware, as determined by the readers of alt.comp.freeware.” Now, I don’t know if you’ve been to alt.comp.freeware lately, but those dudes take their freeware seriously! They’re a tough crowd, and you have my sympathy if you’re the warm-up act. Their “cream of the crop” is quite a treasure-trove. The one requirement for inclusion on this site is that a program had to be “the best Freeware program one could think of for each particular category.”
If the site doesn’t have enough for you even still, then there’s an easy link to the freeware site of alt.comp.freeware regular Son of Spy, who inspired the whole thing to begin with — and that is a big site!
I’m especially pleased that my own “cream of the crop” favorites overlap heavily with software on the Pricelessware page. That tells me that their tastes are similar to mine, and that visitors who find my freeware page to be valuable will likely find similar philosophy and standards on Pricelessware. Freeware categories include: business, desktop, file utilities, graphics, Internet, multimedia, security, system, and text.
KB ARTICLES: Specific Commands
You May Be Unable to Save .JPG Files with MS Paint After You Install Office 2000 SR1 or SP2 Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
This problem (adequately described in the title) is caused by a Registry error. The article tells how to edit the Registry to correct the problem. I have also provided a Registry patch to correct the problem — just be sure that, as always, you backup the Registry before applying it. (And yes, the patch is WinXP-safe, even though the problem has only been documented thus far for Win 9x.)KB ARTICLES: Control Panel
How to Troubleshoot Control Panel Issues in Windows Win95, Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
A good ol’ standard. If you are having Control Panel problems, this may be the first place you want to check. Includes basic, common sense troubleshooting tips for isolating corrupt Control Panel files and generally getting the engine purring again.“Error opening c:\windows\system\messages.drv ” or, “C:\Windows\System\messages.drv is missing” Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
Either of these error messages can occur when opening the Control Panel after uninstalling Dr. Solomon’s Anti-Virus, because the good doctor’s uninstall program doesn’t remove the DRSCPL.CPL file. There’s an easy fix. (See the article.)Computer Stops Responding (Hangs) During Program Setup, Installing Updates, or Adding New Hardware Win ME; IE 5.5 for Win ME; Office 2000
After upgrading your computer to Windows ME, the computer may begin to freeze in different situations involve software installation. The Add New Hardware wizard may stop responding or, during startup, your computer may stop responding when Plug and Play detects a new hardware device (this is a software issue because drivers are being installed). Or, during an IE 5.5 SP1 installation, Setup may hang when 70% done, or you may receive the error message, “Error 52: Setup could not finish opening a file on your destination disc.” Or, the computer may hang when installing Critical Updates from the Windows Update site, the Virtual Machine update, or DirectX 8.0. Or, the computer may hang during the Win ME upgrade itself. All of these have a common cause, involving a volume lock on the hard drive. The fix isn’t hard. Step-by-step instructions in the article tell you how.KB ARTICLES: Error Messages
DDHELP.EXE caused in Invalid Page Fault in module KERNEL32.DLL Win95, Win98, Win98 SE
If you get this while trying to play an MPEG file, it’s likely that your DirectX video driver is damaged or incorrectly installed. This article walks you through the steps of fixing it.WININIT.EXE cannot be run from within Windows Win95, Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
If this error message appears during Windows startup, you probably have a Win32.Weird or Bymer virus. Solution: Get rid of the virus. Temporary workaround: Disable the load= line for the virus from the WIN.INI file.Fatal Exception 0E at 0028:xxxxxxxx in VXD Emu10k1 Win95, Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
This error message, occurring when a sound is playing (or supposed to be playing — which may, of course, be during Windows startup or shutdown) means that you have an outdated Sound Blaster Live! driver on your computer. (The “Emu” in the name refers to E-MU Ensoniq, a hardware company bought by Creative Labs a couple of years back. Both of these companies were my personal clients back when I was Lead Technical Support Representative for iSearch. How I miss those days!)IEXPLORE caused an Invalid Page Fault in module Unknown at address
SAVENOW executed an invalid instruction in module Unknown at address
IE 5.x for Win98 or Win98 SE; IE 5.5 for Win ME
If you install a program that, in turn, installs either the New.net Application plug-in program or the SaveNow program, you may get either of these messages while trying to connect to the Internet. The answer? You have to uninstall New.net or SaveNow (whichever one you have).KB ARTICLES: Hardware, Drivers & RAM
Extended or Unintelligible Characters Printed When You Start Windows
Win95, Win98, Win98 SE
Did you ever wonder why the printer spits out a few strange characters if it’s turned on when the computer starts up? I always got around this by never powering up the printer until Windows was fully loaded, and taking it offline if I reboot. It turns out that there is a manageable reason for this problem, which occurs on certain HP and Canon printers. It’s a problem that arises from a virtual driver file named DRVWPPQT.VXD unless you are using an IEEE-1284 printer cable. Just maybe, you’d be as well off taking the printer offline the way I have for the last 15 years; but, if you think otherwise, go ahead and read the article to get the fix.PS/2 Mouse May Not Work After You Upgrade to Windows ME Win ME
If this problem occurs, the solution is probably the most basic kind of troubleshooting: Delete the mouse in Device Manager, reboot, and let Windows redetect the hardware. If that doesn’t work, this articles gives a few other things to try.Keyboard Layout May Be Incorrect After Installing USB Keyboard WinME
Some keyboards support multiple maps or layouts. Windows ME doesn’t support these. That’s the bottom line. The article does, however, give a simple way to get the keyboard working for you anyway.On-Screen Keyboard Slash Key Mapping May Not Work Win ME
For technical reasons I will leave to the article to explain at length, sometimes the slash key on the numeric keypad screws up. If this occurs on your keyboard, the hardware will have an alternate way to make the same character, such as SHIFT+(character), ALT+SHIFT+(character), or LOCK+ALT+SHIFT+(character). Or, of course, you could use the slash that’s under the question mark!Computer Hangs When It Resumes from Hibernation Win ME
This one is speed — pure speed! If you have a CPU clocked at 1.3 GHz or faster, and you just happen to have a command prompt window open when the computer goes into hibernation, it will probably freeze when coming out of hibernation. There is a patch that you can obtain. Or, you can just not walk away from your computer for hours at a time and leave a command prompt window open. (It’s actually sufficient just to minimize the window!)“Verifying DMI Pool Data” Error Message Occurs & the Computer Is Unavailable
Win95, Win98, Win ME
This is an old article, but the question comes up so often that I decided to add it to the page. If you get the above message while Windows is starting, you have a hardware issue. Contact the hardware vendor. This message occurs before Windows even begins to load, so it has nothing to do with the operating system.MS-MVP Richard G. Harper recently gave a couple of great tips for narrowing the problem further. If you get this message regularly while booting, try booting from a floppy. If that works without problem, then your issue is probably in the hard drive or its controller. But, if the floppy boot fails too, with the same screen message, then the problem is likely in something to which the floppy and hard drives both connect. Start thinking about asking your friends what motherboards they like best...
KB ARTICLES: Internet Explorer
“The connection to the server has failed... Error Number: 0x800CCC0E ” IE 5.x
Lately, many Knowledge Base articles have appeared addressing problems involving MSN. I don’t really think this means MSN has suddenly gotten any worse (though, as a six-year MSN subscriber, I absolutely refuse to upgrade to MSN ver. 6 — or to use any ISP, for that matter, that drives me toward web-based email and doesn’t let me use any major email program of my choosing). No, I think they’re just documenting things a bit better.The error message quoted, in part, in the article title above is one such problem involving MSN and Internet Explorer. If you are connected to the Internet through MSN, and you try to send email messages by using an account other than your MSN account, you may receive an error message that is similar to the one above.
By the way, I use MSN for my own Internet connection, but haven’t used my MSN email account for years because of the volume of spam and other problems. My dozen or so other email accounts — the ones I actually use for sending and receiving email — are all on other domains, including two domains I own. While MSN has been attempting to increase security and reduce spam in recent months (not very successfully on the last point, I might add), the net effect has been to make life more difficult for any of us who use them for Internet connection but want to use email accounts on any other domain. They provide instructions on how to work around this, and it (mostly) works just fine. But, on two of my accounts (thanks to the benevolence of the gracious gent in Luxembourg who maintains the ISP), I have more efficient workarounds that entirely circumvent MSN’s interference. I’d tell them what these are, except (a) the probably already know, and (b) if not, then it would only make my own life more difficult for them to know. My entire reason for mentioning this is to say that if I can circumvent their system so easily with just a little help from a mail-host, it’s not surprising that their “security” changes have been wholly ineffectual against stopping spammers.
But, to return to the problem addressed in this article, the cause is that MSN no longer allows messages to be sent to another (non-MSN) SMTP server while you are connected to MSN. This is part of the filtering they now perform. No matter what POP3 or IMAP server name you use for your incoming mail, if MSN is the Internet connection you are using, you have to specify smtp.email.msn.com as the SMTP (out-bound mail) server name in the Properties section of the account settings for your email account, and you have to use MSN’s Secure Password Authentication feature in a specific way. The article gives all the instructions.
KB ARTICLES: Speed & Performance Issues
Computer Runs Very Slow After Upgrade to Win98 from Win95 Win98, Win98 SE
If you have a Logitech MouseWare mouse installed on your Windows 95 computer, and you upgrade to Win98 (either edition), a variety of performance problems may arise. These can include unusually slow computer performance overall or even hanging or freezing of the entire system, or more specific problems such as erratic mouse functioning, or the inability to launch a program from the Start Menu. Or, you may get a very strange-looking error message such as, “Em_exec.exe caused an Invalid Page Fault in module Kernel32.dll.”One reason that this article is important is that the specific problem of inability to launch programs from the Start Menu has been reported with increasing frequency on the newsgroups in recent weeks. This is the first clear answer I have seen issue from Microsoft regarding that particular problem.
While the scenario involves the Logitech mouse and the upgrade from Win95 to Win98, the specific cause of these problems is that the Event Macro Executive utility (Em_exec.exe) still gets loaded at Windows startup after the upgrade. You need to turn it off, or remove the MouseWare altogether. This KB article gives step-by-step instructions in how to do that.
KB ARTICLES: Windows ME, 2000 & XP
Windows ME
An error has occurred in the script on... file://c:\windows\Web\nethood.htt
This one’s pretty simple. If you launch My Network Places and get this error message, the C:\Windows\Web\NETHOOD.HTT file is damaged. Extract a new one. This isn’t hard, of course, but there is a trick to it — see the article for details.
Windows 2000
Troubleshooting Common Active Directory Setup Issues in Windows 2000
This is another excellent article to keep on hand if you have anything to do with Windows 2000 servers. As the title says, it describes methods of troubleshooting common Active Directory setup issues. These include DNS configuration errors, other Network configuration problems, and special migration issues when moving from Windows NT.Kernel Mode Memory Leak Caused by Invalid TCP Checksums on Port 3389 (RDP)
Have you ever read a mystery novel where the answer turned out to be hidden in the title? Well, that’s the way it is with this KB article. On a Win 2000 computer running Terminal Services, improper handling of packets with bad TCP checksums results in a kernel mode memory leak in TDTCP.SYS. Networking services on the computer may eventually stop responding altogether. This is a bug, and MS has a patch for it. Get the patch. (It’s also a good idea to install the patch!)
Windows XP
Two Windows XP issues, where other parties previously have provided the best Web information resources, are the controversial Product Activation issue, and the question of what the real differences are between the Home and Professional editions of Windows XP. Until now, we knew most of what we knew about the insides of Product Activation from the software company Fully Licensed, who reverse engineered WPA and then published a white paper about it. Similarly, journalist Paul Thurrott has, until recently, had the best page comparing XP versions. This situation has now changed, with the recent posting of the following three articles by Microsoft:
Windows XP Comparison Guide
A tabular comparison by Microsoft of the feature lists of the Home and Professional editions of Windows XP. This is currently the best guide there is on this subject. Start here!Microsoft Product Activation.
MS Product Activation for Windows XP: Technical Market Bulletin.
These two articles clear up a lot of misinformation. It will gratify many that Microsoft is candidly discussing several technical elements of WPA and its management.KB ARTICLES: Windows Setup
How to troubleshoot computer hangs during hardware detection Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
Another great, general-purpose article. The title speaks for itself. Good stuff!“Packed File Corrupt” Error Message Installing Windows Win95, Win98
This occurs when trying to install Win95 or Win98 from MS-DOS and, once more, it is the sign of a virus. Get rid of the virus!SUWIN caused a General Protection Fault in module SUWIN.EXE
A mismatched SETUPX.DLL is loaded... SU0349 Win98, Win98 SE, Win ME
One or the other of these error messages may occur while your are trying to upgrade to Windows ME from within any prior version of Win 9x. The message means that either the SETUPX.DLL or SUWIN.EXE file is damaged. This problem wouldn’t be encountered if my standard recommendations for software upgrades were followed, viz., doing this (whenever possible) from a startup diskette rather than from within the current version of Windows; and that, in fact, is Microsoft’s recommended solution.HUMOR
My friend and fellow MS-MVP, Tom Ferguson, wins E-List humor honors once more this week. The following health-conscious advice brought many a chuckle around home, so I thought I’d share it:
- It is well documented that for every minute that you exercise, you add one minute to your life. This enables you, at 85 years old, to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5,000.00 per month.
- My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. Now she’s 97 years old, and we don’t know where the hell she is.
- The only reason I would take up exercising is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
- I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven’t lost a pound. Apparently, you have to show up.
- I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I’m doing.
- I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
- I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
- The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.
- If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.
And, last but not least:
- I don’t exercise because it makes the ice jump right out of my glass.
Happy computing, everyone!
Jim Eshelman
THE NECESSARY LEGAL STUFF
DISCLAIMER: Any information given in this newsletter, or on any other part of The Windows Support Center website, is researched by me and believed to be accurate. However, I cannot guarantee, and do not guarantee, that all the information provided will work on all computer systems, for all users, all the time. Also, I sometimes make mistakes (that’s life!), and it is possible I made one or more of them here. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. In other words, I rely on the best information sources I can, and do my best to get it to you accurately; and, thereafter, you take your life in your own hands if you trust me on it. Neither James Eshelman, this site, outside contributors to this site, people quoted on this site, nor my cat is/are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application of any information presented here.
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