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I was challenged by Zarek to try SimCity4 on Ubuntu 8.10 because I was “complaining” about Ubuntu performance. This will be the second time I have done this, but the first time I will have blogged about it. Here’s what happened… More »

Found it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/09/04/739820.aspx

Running Windows XP (2k maybe)? Try to boot your computer and all you get is a background with no icons, no taskbar, no start menu and just a mouse cursor? Try this:

Symptom

When you try to boot your computer: all you get is a background with no icons, no taskbar, no start menu and just a mouse cursor. If you try to launch explorer.exe manually from Task Manager, you get “explorer” could not be found or “explorer.exe” could not be found.

Cause

A registry key that handles how the Windows shell (explorer.exe) loads is corrupt.

Fix

Delete the offending registry key and reboot the computer. Use Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) to run regedit manually. Then find the following key and delete it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe

Then, reboot the computer. Problem solved.

Symptom

You are running Windows XP and you recently removed some malware. After removing the malware, you get the following message on a blue screen (BSOD):

STOP: C0000135 {Unable to locate component} This application has failed to start because [name] was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

… where [name] is a word starting with the letters ‘base’ (not winsrv or user32) and has some random crap on the end of it, and you can’t boot the machine anymore.

Cause

You have inadvertently deleted a file windows ‘thinks’ it needs, but doesn’t really. The malware you removed hijacked a registry entry to ensure it is loaded with every Windows session, so you have to un-hijack the registry it to fix it, basically pointing Windows to the original non-malware version of the file it thinks it needs.

Solution

• Load the hijacked “SYSTEM” hive file on a clean system. (You can do this any way you wish. You can use Windows PE, or another Windows machine; it basically goes like this)
  • Get access to the file called “system” on the infected machine in the folder C:\windows\system32\config (the previous path may be different if Windows is installed in a different folder or on a different drive letter)
  • Use the clean system to run regedit, highlight the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” branch at the left, click “File”, then “Load Hive…”, and point it to the “system” file I talked about above.
  • Regedit will ask you for a name. Just call it “FIX”.
• Next, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\FIX\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems
  • The folder above called CurrentControlSet may be called ControlSet1 or ControlSet2, or the like. There may be more than one. If you are unsure which one to use, perform the following steps in all of them.
• At the right, you will see the value at the right called “Windows”. This is the infected registry value. You must replace the value with the following, all on one line:
  • At the right, right click on the item called “Windows”, and select “Modify”, then paste in the following value:
  • %SystemRoot%\system32\csrss.exe ObjectDirectory=\Windows SharedSection=1024,3072,512 Windows=On SubSystemType=Windows ServerDll=basesrv,1 ServerDll=winsrv:UserServerDllInitialization,3 ServerDll=winsrv:ConServerDllInitialization,2 ProfileControl=Off MaxRequestThreads=16
• When done, go back to the top and highlight the FIX folder underneath HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Then click “File” and “Unload Hive…”
• Put your fixed machine back together (i.e. put the hard drive back in it, or throw the fixed system file back in the right place . .. or basically reverse whatever you did to get access to the system file )
• Boot up your fixed computer.

My previous fix for the HP LaserJet 1020 Spooler Service Restart issue did not stick. Upon reboot of the server, the problem returned and was not correctable in the manner previously described.

I researched the issue again and found a Microsoft forum post where they actually fixed the issue. The fix goes as follows:

• NOTE: Do this on the machine connected to the printer.
• Run gpdedit.msc
• Go to “Local Computer Policies\Administrative Templates\Printers”
  • Set the setting “Allow print spooler to accept client connections” to “Enabled”
• Go to “User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Printers\”
  • Set the setting “Point and Print Restrictions” to “Disabled”
• Close the Group Policy Editor
• Go into the Printers and Faxes control panel, right click on the printer and hit properties.
• Click the “Ports” tab
• Uncheck “Enable Bidirectional Printing”
• Close the Printer panels/windows
• Run a command line, type in “gpupdate /force”, and hit enter

Fixed!

The forum fix was here.

Finally found the definitive fix for error 720 in Windows XP if the problem is not caused by your ISP totally sucking b***s. The original fix was created by someone and was posted here. Here is my version for your enjoyment.

SYMPTOMS

When you try to use a dial-up connection to connect to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), you may receive the following error message during the "Registering your computer on the network" portion of the connection agreement: Error 720 - the connection attempt failed because your computer and the remote computer could not agree on PPP control protocol. Additionally, when you view the devices in Device Manager, you may notice a yellow exclamation mark (!) over the icon for the WAN Miniport IP (#2) device. Then again, you may not.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if:

1. the TCP/IP protocol has become unbound from the dial-up adapter
2. or if a conflict is created when a second WAN Miniport IP device driver loads
3. or a malfunctioning firewall product broke your network stack
4. or a firewall product was removed improperly or otherwise broken
5. or Windows simply decides it wants to suck a bit more today.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, uninstall then reinstall the WAN Miniport IP and PPTP devices. To do so, follow these steps:

Part 1: Remove the WAN Miniports

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager.
3. On the View menu, click Show hidden devices.
4. Under Network adapters, you will see WAN Miniport IP devices. If a WAN Miniport IP device is listed, continue to the following step. If no WAN Miniport IP device is listed, go directly to Part 2
5. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
6. Locate the following registry subkey:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
7. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File, type backup-key in the File name box, and then click Save.
8. Click each of the registry subkeys under this key, and then view the Data column of the DriverDesc value to determine which of the subkeys corresponds to WAN Miniport (IP). For example, the 0005 subkey.
9. Right-click the subkey whose DriverDesc value data is WAN Miniport (IP) or WAN Minport (PPTP); (for example, right-click 0005), and then click Delete. Click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the key.
10. Quit Registry Editor.
11. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
12. Click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager.
13. On the View menu, click Show hidden devices.
14. Under Network adapters, right-click WAN Miniport (IP) and then click Uninstall. Click OK to confirm that you want to remove this device.
15. Repeat for the WAN Miniport (PPTP).

Part 2: Reinstall the WAN Miniports

1. Find netrasa.inf in c:\windows\inf
2. Make a copy of the file and name it netrasa.inf.save
3. Open the orignal copy of netrasa.inf and place a semicolon in front of the line that starts "Excludefromselect=\" and and continue with all follwing lines and then end with "MS_NdisWanNbfIn,MS_NdisWanNbfOut" under the [ControlFlags] section. (all lines between)
4. Start a Add new hardware session (from Control Panel) and choose that the hardware is already installed. Choose to "Add New Hardware" and then select "Network Adapters" followed by "Microsoft" and then both the PPTP and the IP Wan miniport one at a time. (NO need to reboot between these steps)
5. After you finish both then reboot.
6. Select Start -> Run and type: netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
7. Reboot and try your connection.

This should resolve your issue.

I upgraded the wikibox today. I replaced the old PIII 800 machine with an Athlon XP running in the 1650 area. I decided to do this instead of using the Athlon machine as a render client, since it really doesn’t have the horsepower to do so. I want to eventually replace the Hard Drive in the wikibox with something faster to increase responsiveness.

The upgrade was easy and not easy. Unlike Windows and their fascist “copy protection asshat HAL kernel sh*t”, you can change the hardware on an Ubuntu box rather easily without tripping some kind of Gestapo alarm or basically causing the whole operating system to puke blue chunks. I just yanked the hard drive from the old machine and popped it into the new one and it just booted up and ran. I did have a couple of problems, however.

May I take this opportunity to say that the X Windowing system sucks. It’s settings are hardcoded into a fuc**ng text file and if you change the video hardware, oops sorry, you don’t get a GUI. It does not have any kind of automatic fallback mode, so if you change your video hardware and you don’t have any experience with the command line, you are basically screwed. Secondly, I think GNU/Linux really needs to create an X Windows compatible API that is BUILT INTO THE FUC**NG KERNEL, just like EVERY OTHER MODERN OPERATING SYSTEM. Maybe then graphics on Linux would not be slow, buggy and generally crufty crap.

Back to the story: I had to do some guessing and hacking and a couple “sudo -reconfigure dpkg-xserver-xorg” commands to get the video running. Then, to my surprise, the network card did not work. Running a “lspci” command showed that the OS knew the card was there, and some other command starting in “mod” (that I found on a forum somewheres) told me the driver was installed, but eth0 was just not up and could not be brought up with “ifup eth0″.

After about 2 hours of forum hunting and getting nowhere, I finally stumbled across a bit of nice detective work. Apparently, Ubuntu’s network software, also, sucks. If your network card changes, it will not automatically reconfigure your configuration files and just make it work. Oh no. You have to hand code “/etc/iftab” to match your new card’s MAC address. THEN and ONLY THEN wil eth0 come up. What if you aren’t intimately familiar with linux and/or you aren’t a hardware geek and don’t know how to get the MAC address of your network card? Again, you would be completely screwed.

What a pain in the ass! Well, at least I didn’t have to reinstall the Operating System. On XP, it’s nothing more than a minor irritation: a quick repair install and phone reactivation and you are up and running. Vista, however, is a totally different story. You CANNOT repair install it. You have to completely replace the OS, reinstall all your software and drivers from scratch, and put all your data back.

I guess what I am saying is, VISTA BLOWS.