Developer OneNote

Category: Windows

  • Exceed Windows Server 2008 R2 Trial Period

    Windows Server 2008 R2 does not ask for a CD key in setup, and it can be run for 30 days for free before needing to be active. You can continue to use it after 30 days trial but the system will reboot every 2 hours and run with reduced functionalities.

    If you want to evaluate or run testing on a server with Windows Server 2008 R2 installed. The following procedures will walk you through the steps to extend your grace period.

    Re-arm windows

    Type in the following from an elevated command prompt:

    slmgr.vbs –rearm

    This will reset the activation expiration and the machine is good for another 30 days. You can do this up to 3 times and get 120 days free trial in total.

    (more…)

  • Remove Earlier Version of Windows boot option

    After I upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, I see two options at boot up, one is to logon to Earlier Version of Windows, the other is Windows 7. The default option is boot into Windows 7.

    There is a workaround to remove the Earlier Version of Windows option from the boot up screen so that it will boot straight into Windows 7 instead of asking users to choose which OS or waiting for 30 seconds and boot into Windows 7.

    (more…)

  • Windows could not connect to the System Event Notification Service

    If you see Windows could not connect to the System Event Notification Service error on VISTA, Windows server 2008, or Windows 7, you can try follow these steps to get it resolved.

    1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
    2. Right-click on the Command Prompt and then select Run as Administrator.
    3. Once the Command Prompt has opened, type following command and then press ENTER.

      netsh winsock reset

    4. Close the Command Prompt and restart the machine.

  • How to delete windows.old after upgrading to Window 10

    Windows.old is a folder that contains archive information from previous windows system when you upgrading to Windows 10.  It mainly stores programs and files that are required to run the earlier version of Windows and contains following folders.

    • Windows
    • “Documents and Settings”
    • “Program Files”

    You might end up having a Windows.old folder taking up 20+ gigs on your system drive. If you don’t need windows.old folder and want to safely delete this folder, follow the instructions below:

    1. Select Start, then All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and then Disk Cleanup.
    2. If you are using Windows 7 or Windows 8, select Clean up system files. If you are using Windows Vista, select Files from all users on this computer.
    3. Select the Previous Windows installation(s) check box, and click OK.

    image

    IMPORTANT: Be sure to back up all important documents/files from the previous OS before following this article.

    Remove Windows.old from command line

    takeown /F c:\Windows.old\* /R /A /D Y 
cacls c:\Windows.old\*.* /T /grant administrators:F 
rmdir /S /Q c:\Windows.old

    Windows Server

    If you upgrade a server from Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012, you need to enable desktop experience to use this disk cleanup utility.

  • Will the screen saver disrupt my presentation

    If you give presentation to customers you might have the question like will the screen saver disrupt my presentation by locking my laptop screen.

    The answer is NO, if the PowerPoint presentation file is opened in full screen Side Show mode, screen save will never get trigged. However, it must be Side Show mode. If you have presentation opened in edit mode, and the laptop is idle longer than screen save timeout threshold, screen save will still get triggered and lock the screen.

  • File is Missing or Invalid Error Message

    I frequently hit this on my Win7/Vista machines when I run executables that were built from VB6, the following error message appears:

    Component ‘filename’ or one o its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid.

    The problem is caused by a component or a dependency file used in this executable is not correctly registered or is missing from the system. The solution is copy the file from another computer that does not experience this problem and register it.

    I wrote step by step instructions on how to resolve this problem in this post. It uses comdlg32.ocx as example but instructions also apply for other VB6 component file like richtx32.ocx, mscomctl.ocx, tabctl32.ocx and so on

  • Register comdlg32.ocx on x64 Win7

    Today while using an old tool on my x64 Windows 7, I encountered the following error message:

    Component 'COMDLG32.OCX' or one of its dependencies is not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid.
    comdlg32.ocx missing error

    Here is how to resolve comdlg32.ocx missing error.

    1. Download comdlg32.zip and extract comdlg32.ocx from zip file
    2. Move comdlg32.ocx to c:\Windows\system32 folder. If you are using 64bit Vista/Win7, move it to c:\Windows\SysWOW64 instead
    3. Open a command line window and run following command: 
      regsvr32 c:\Windows\system32\comdlg32.ocx

      Note: On 64bit Vista/Win7, run this command instead:

      regsvr32 c:\Windows\SysWOW64\comdlg32.ocx

      If you’re using Vista/Win7 with User Account Control (UAC) turned on, you must register comdlg32.ocx as an administrator, otherwise, regsvr32.exe will fail with error 0x8002801c. To do this, go to All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt, right-click on the ‘Command Prompt’ icon, and select ‘Run as administrator’. Then run the regsvr32 command.

    4. After successful registration of comdlg32, you’ll see this message: “DllRegisterServer in C:\WINDOWS\System32\comdlg32.ocx succeeded.” Now, when you launch the application again, the file missing error should no longer appear.

  • MSCDCRC

    MSCDCRC is a CRC checking tool. It can be used to verify all files in media have no errors to avoid hours later wasted installing with bad media.

    Here is example of command output:

    d:toolsbin>mscdcrc.exe e:
    MSCDCRC 4.11 CD-ROM Disc Verification Utility Copyright (C) Microsoft, 1992-2004
    MSCDCRC: Verifying disc in drive E: (3,858,216,960 bytes)
    100% complete
    MSCDCRC: Computed CRC is 0xBBE6FE57
    MSCDCRC: SHA1 hash is 0xDBE664734075EC582FFF4245D89F1AAFBDAB1CC2

    MSCDCRC can be downloaded here

  • Enabling Virtualization in Your BIOS

    For Dell Systems

    1. Restart your machine, and press F2 at boot (or whichever key is necessary) to enter BIOS setup
    2. Under Performance > set Virtualization to ON
    3. Under Performance > set VT for Direct I/O Access to ON
    4. Save & Exit BIOS
    5. Restart computer

    For HP Systems

    1. Restart your machine, and press F2 at boot (or whichever key is necessary) to enter BIOS setup
    2. Under OS Security > set Intel Virtualization Technology (VTx) to ON
    3. Under OS Security > set IO Virtualization to ON
    4. Save & Exit BIOS
    5. Restart computer

  • How to create a bootable WinPE USB Key

    Obtain the following:

    1. USB Key
    2. Windows Automated Installation Kit
      http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26D3B3B34&displayLang=en

    Steps to create the Bootable USB Key: (more…)