No Icons on XP Desktop after Cleaning Infected System.

No Icons on XP Desktop Antivirus 2008, Antivirus XP, and other such software miscreants can leave an XP desktop with no icons, no taskbar. They boot up normally otherwise and are clean of malware, Trojans, root-kits, etc., but those bad programs have leveraged their hooks into the operating system's start up although all startup locations seem clean and none of the cleaners are detecting this registry change as a problem (at least not at the time of this post). There is a solution, a simple reg fix that all the big time tech forums didn't have an answer to. It can be found right here http://pctechnow.blogspot.com/2008/08/cant-find-explorerexe-when-run-from.html . The answer most given as a solution to XP starting up with no desktop icons and taskbar or desktop icons have disappeared, soon to replaced by this blogger's, was to re-install the operating system. This was too drastic of a move for me for this problem and besides doing a re-install won't cure the problem. Doing a complete new install would. The tech forums will find this blogger's answer and it will be the default answer to this problem on all the forums and other sites (they should at least acknowledge to where the answer came from by linking to the posts, that's the right thing to do). read more digg story

Can't open attachments with Outlook Web Access (OWA).

http://pctechgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/attachmentashx-message-when-opening.html

This solution did the trick for a client that was having some file attachment issues. The file attachments couldn't be opened or saved. The operating system was Microsoft windows XP and the browser version was IE7 (Internet Explorer 7). The same fix can be applied to a Vista desktop operating system using Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) but the user would have seen a different error message. The fact that in neither case attachments can't be opened for viewing or editing not can attachments be saved with OWA. the Microsoft Exchange server version was Microsoft exchange 2007. There are configuration changes required on the server. This is desktop client side solution. One of the obvious points of how this error if displayed is not a server side problem is that if another browser is used from the same desktop that's not working when using IE7, the other browser such as FireFox works without any setting changes. In addition, other users are not experiencing the same problem.

read more digg story

Can't find explorer.exe when run from task manager or a command prompt

Can't find explorer.exe when trying to execute the program from task manager file run menu option or can't find explorer.exe when running from a command prompt. If you have an XP system that boots but doesn't show the desktop after recently removing malware, spyware, adware, and others like Trojans and viruses, then try the fix described in this post for a fix - it worked for me.




Other symptoms include being able to access the explorer.exe file in the windows directory. You can rename it and move it , copy it and even delete it but when you try to run the file to get the desktop to show, the system tells you that it cannot find the explorer.exe or explorer file specified.

Especially if you already checked forums and found that no one has the answer to this one except to reinstall the operating system or try a repair install of XP. Doing a repair install in many cases doesn't help, the problem remains.

Cannot Display the Desktop, Desktop Has No Icons

If your computer boots but is unable to display the desktop because explorer.exe is not running and all efforts to start explorer fail, then there check the following registry setting.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options]


Look for explorer.exe and delete the key. It should not be there. If you have doubts, then just look at another computer where explorer starts. You'll waste your time if you do however and besides, explorer isn't starting anyway - what are you going to break. If you've found this post then your already frustrated with all the forums and tech support sites that led to no answers or the classic cop-out "reinstall" or "repair". The repair doesn't work and will most likely hang and the wipe out and re-install, a little too drastic for this problem.

If the problem also exists for Internet Explorer, where even if you try and run iexplore.exe from the command line and get the same message as when explorer.exe is run then look for a key in the registry that's labeled iexplore.exe. It will be right next to explorer.exe. Delete that key too.
If you've found this post to be useful, PLEASE link to it.......
Link to post: http://pctechnow.blogspot.com/2008/08/cant-find-explorerexe-when-run-from.html
Link to blog: http://pctechnow.blogspot.com/

Enhance your Support Services with Software for Online Desktop Support. 

Can't find explorer.exe when run from Task Manager
No Icons on XP Desktop

For software that gives techs the ability of web based remote desktop support at an affordable cost try http://www.4remotesupport.com/ . I use it and for the low cost it's so worth the money. I use several remote access & computer remote control tools for remote support . I've tried the pricey stuff too and although I own a license for the expensive application and use some of the free utilities too, having another way to get to a remote computer online to provide support using web based remote control software for online remote desktop support is a nice thing to have in case one doesn't work for whatever reason or use a different tool dependent on the remote user's skills.

Providing Access to Citrix MetaFrame UDP port 1604

In this article, you how access to your Citrix MetaFrame server farm works from a network level.There are two Citrix servers load balanced. There are remote offices connected with point-to-point T1 dedicated circuits. Clients can't find Citrix servers or farm without specifying the server names. Client versions that stopped using 1604 after v6.1, Citrix version is XPa server with Feature Release 3 and Service Pack 3; UDP is forwarded on the Cisco routers at the remote offices, ip forward-protocol udp 1604. Citrix dropped the use of broadcasting on UDP port 1604 and now uses port 80 TCP. read more digg story

Supporting Technology with Technology.

Supporting Technology with Technology Microsoft LiveMeeting has a new version and some great new features to go with it. Sign-up for a demo: LiveMeeting Demo Read White Paper: Conferencing and Collaboration White Paper Tech Support

Although LiveMeeting is no longer available as a standalone product from Microsoft, Team messaging is a viable replacement. Caution however, Microsoft is proficient into getting people to signup for services they don;t immediately need or Microsoft will bundle in services that are subscription based that later because separate costs . 

Acronis Disk Director 10 - Resizing partition gotcha

Acronis Disk Director

This story may not be unique in that anyone who has ever needed to resize a partition on a server surely finds out the options are not many.

Not only are the options to resize server NTFS partitions small but the software chosen must nearly always be of commercial grade and very reliable. Sure, backups of the partitions to be resized could be backed up but no one wants to resort to that as the project will take longer (hours longer - usually into the late night) which might mean more downtime and once you've restored you are still in the same position you were when the project started, the size of the partitions has to be changed.

I found one interesting thing that caught me by surprise but made absolute sense when I first used Acronis Disk Director to resize a partition. The partition that needs to be resized has to have unallocated space right next to it on the hard drive. What this means is that if you have a c drive partition that needs to be resized and you have a d drive too. there needs to be unallocated space in between the c and d drives or else it isn't going to re-size no matter what you try to do and I believe I exhausted all possible work around.

read more digg story

VMWare - How to boot from ISO image to install a guest OS.

Last post regarding VMWare:

http://pctechnow.blogspot.com/2007/04/vista-running-as-guest-operating-system.html

In this post I wanted to post a quick blurb about how easy it is to start an OS installation if there is only an ISO image available. This is particularly useful if the computer you want to run an installation on has only a cd-rom drive and the OS you would like to install in on DVD.

With VMWare running on a host operating system, you could install a guest operating system from an ISO image. The trick is to click on the CD-ROM icon on the bottom right of the WMware window. From the small CD-ROM device window that opens, click on the browse button. Locate the ISO image on your hard-drive or a network drive then click OK. The virtual system then starts up. If it's an installation image then the guest operating system will begin the installation process.


The installation then just begins. That's all there is to it.




Virtual machines can be remote controlled for support as easily and of curse for the same reasons on physical desktop computers or server. Regardless of the installation being physical or virtual, the applications on the guest VM and also the operating system will still experience the same user affects as their physical counterparts. Installing or troubleshooting vmware  workstation or guest vm running within can be accomplished with remote control programs. Web based remote control software for online remote desktop support of installations or fixing of problems as post installation support.

Enhance the Support Services you provide remotely with Online Desktop Support Software.  Remote access to desktops and remote control screen-sharing in seconds.  Your end-users or clients just need a browser to start the remote desktop connection and get help from you. Small download, preinstalled software like plugins, extensions, or other add-on software isn't required.