Jan’s blogs about life

I just about had it with Microsoft Word 2007. Even after using the regedit fix by deleting the data and options in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/12.0/Word of the registry files, Microsoft Word 2007 still crashes whenever I started it up. It took many frustrating tries to force that program to start up properly. Read more »

I always wondered why whenever I start up the Office Word 2007 in Windows Vista and before it could run, it just turn sickly pale and then died by crashing. I have to start it up several times before it finally stabilizes. Very irritating and left me to contemplate using the alternative from Open Office. Read more »

I inadvertently switched on the On-Screen Keyboard when I resumed the Windows Vista PC from its sleep / hibernation mode. Somehow the sleep / hibernation mode disabled my Dell Vostro 200 USB keyboard whenever I resumed from it (this makes another minus point for using sleep / hibernation mode). I had to switch on the On-Screen Keyboard to key in my password to access my PC. However after enabling it, every time I start up my PC, the On-Screen Keyboard would start up too. How irritating. There is no settings on the On-Screen Keyboard to switch it off. The only way to do it was from the Ease of Access Center. Read more »

John did something to Victor’s laptop and Windows Vista couldn’t hibernate. At first I thought it could be enabled by going through the advance settings in the Power Options from the Control Panel. Going through the list, I just couldn’t find either of the Hibernation or Hybrid sleep feature. Read more »

For the previous incarnation of Windows, you could use the little powertoys called tweakui provided by Microsoft to tweak your system including the autologin feature. It helped automate your startup process and frees up your time to do something else like mix a cup of coffee while the computer boots up. Read more »

I may have a happy smile on my face getting a new Windows Vista enabled Dell Vostro 200 computer system, and would have expected the various software like Windows Live Messenger to be installed and working without a hitch; unfortunately no. Instead it gave me an “error 81000306: you cannot sign in to Windows Live Messenger”. So I thought “Ok, let’s look through the troubleshooting guide and see if it would get it working.” And went through the whole process. Read more »

I gave Ubuntu Linux a spin, trying not to use Windows XP for a week just to see how well it could be used in the day to day office work. Running it on the Dell Dimension 4500s, it was a tad faster than the Windows XP, probably it was more efficiently designed to work with the various hardware component. In fact, in the Dell website, Dell was in favour of Ubuntu over the other distro! Read more »

I have always wondered what the sleep vs. hibernate vs. the shutdown mode in Windows Vista meant. The last time I used the sleep mode it frozed my PC and it wouldn’t shutdown or startup properly. So while visiting a relative in Kuantan with nothing else much to do, I decided to explore the above three shutdown mode with my Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop. Read more »

I don’t know how it happened, but it happened twice to me already. Somehow something happened and the menu toolbar on the Windows Explorer disappeared. I tried several ways to restore it but was not successful. In the end I had to check the Microsoft support website for remedy. Read more »

Alright! Wasn’t too difficult to revert back to IE6 from IE7 beta preview 2. Instead of using uninstall, I used one of the restore points in the Microsoft System Restore program.

And now, my McAfee Viruscan 9 is working properly again. Trust Microsft to always go their own way against the standards they set as well as the industry standard. Just because their desktop operating systmem is the dominant platform for 80-90% of the world user doesn’t mean they can at a whim do what they like. No wonder so many developers and expert users rant and rave in the net about big brother Microsoft. Can’t do much with all the rant & rave, ’cause M$ has the big bucks and they can do just what they please. Read more »