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Fix Frequent Windows Explorer Crashes With KB980408

April 28, 2010April 28, 2010 by bharath

“Windows Explorer has stopped working.

Windows is searching for a solutions

Windows Explorer is restarting “

windows explorer stopped working

The most annoying errors that keep popping up in Windows 7 too many times (I already had enough of them).Normally this error could occur possibly due to missing/corrupt files in windows explorer window.Windows 7 team has had a serious look into this mess and they have decided to release April 2010 stability and reliability update KB980408 exclusively to fix these frequent windows explorer crashes in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.According the release the update KB980408 fixes the following issues:

Windows Explorer crashes and restarts while accessing a third-party Control Panel item.

Issue that affects the connectivity with an instance of SQL Server Analysis Services from any application in Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2

Windows Explorer stops responding for 30 seconds whenever a file or directory is created or renamed after installing some programs

Welcome screen hanging for 30 seconds while logging into the computer, if you had set the desktop background to a solid color.

You don’t get any warning when you try to delete more than 1000 files and all the files gets deleted permanently without moving to the Recycle bin.

If you have experienced any of the above issues in your Windows 7 machine, you must download the update KB980408 from the download links below.

Download Links:

The April 2010 stability and reliability update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2- Update for Windows 7 (KB980408)

Download size: 5.3 MB

Update type: Important

Released: April 26, 2010

With validation:

Windows 7 (x86)

Windows 7 (x64)

Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64)

Without validation:

Direct download link KB980408-x86.msu for x86 Windows 7

Direct download link KB980408-x64.msu for x64 Windows 7

Link for KB980408 support

Enable Pin To Start Menu For Folders In Windows

April 28, 2010April 28, 2010 by bharath

Pinning items to the start menu is one great way for accessing them more quickly.By default Windows allows only programs to be pinned to the start menu.If you want to add folder to the start menu, follow this simple tutorial which will add “Pin to start menu” context menu option for folders.You can also pin any library to the start menu using this method.

Steps:

1. Open run command by pressing Windows button + R.Type regedit in the filed and click ok.

2. In the Registry editor (regedit), go to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

3. Right on the right pane and select New> Key (refer to the screenshot below)

4. Copy and paste {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8} as the new key name like we did it in the following screenshot.

5. You are done with the tweak now.Press “SHIFT” key and right-click on any folder, you’ll see a new context menu option “Pin to Start Menu”

if you want to rollback and undo this new change just delete the key that you have just added {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8}, which will remove the Pin to Start Menu context menu option from the folders.

If you want to automate the above whole process, just download the following reg entry file (.reg), and double click it, the corresponding registry entry will be automatically added.

Download

Note:

1. You can drag any folder to the start menu, hold it until you see “Pin to start menu” and then drop it.This will automatically pin that particular folder to the start menu.

2. The folders pinned to the start menu by this method will not expand if you hover the mouse over it.You need to pin them to the taskbar instead to see the expansion of the folders.

IDT High Definition Audio CODEC Update #Fail In Windows 7

April 27, 2010 by bharath

Windows logo

Alert: IDT HD Audio Codec Windows optional update causing problems in Windows 7

There’s a new optional Windows update showing up in Windows update from a couple of days, “IDT – Audio – IDT High Definition Audio CODEC”.But there seems to be some problems with this particular update no please do not install this update hastily.Some users who have installed this have reported there was no sound output after installing this and rebooting the system.

Continue reading this post if you have already installed this and facing problems.

IDT – Audio – IDT High Definition Audio CODEC

Download size: 8.9 MB

You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.

Update type: Optional

IDT Audio software update released in March, 2010

More information:
http://winqual.microsoft.com/support/?driverid=20347177

Help and Support:
http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=hub

Update failed: error 80070103 (see the below screen shot)

IDT audio codec update fail

Solutions:

1. The easy way- All laptops :

The easiest and the most worked solution for this is to rollback the default windows driver (“High definition audio device”) which was released in 2008 (12/12/08 or 06/27/08).This almost solves the problem.But if you are still getting the same problem, try downloading the latest update by following these steps:

2. Specific Notebooks:

HP Notebook users:

HP IDI audio codec driver download

Go to this HP support site, enter your product name and search for drivers and download the latest

Dell Notebook Users:

Go to Dell.com and search for “IDT High Definition Audio Codec” in the search field and look for the latest update in the drivers section, choose and download the right update for your Windows.

Dell IDT update

Alternatively, Dell users can first uninstall the IDT driver from the control panel and then download “SIGMATEL driver” from the Dell.com- drivers and downloads section.Let the program automatically detect your hardware and install the right audio driver for you.

Have you faced the same problem while installing IDT HD audio codec update? If so, how did you solve it? Tell us through comments..

Note: The solutions listed here are the probable solutions that may work based on the opinion of a small numbers of users who faced this issue.There is no guarantee that it will work 100% even after you try all the above steps.

BtProx: Auto-Lock Your Computer When You Move Away [Software]

April 26, 2010 by bharath

Bluetooth logo

Bluetooth Proximity Lock or BtProx in short is a free Bluetooth based application that locks your system using a paired Bluetooth device.BtProx works with any Bluetooth device that is already paired with your system.Just use your Bluetooth enabled phone (paired already) to start with.BtProx automatically locks down your computer screen when you move away from the Bluetooth range of your PC or alternatively it can be user initiated too.You can configure the BtProx to set a custom timeout , the time after which the computer screen needs to be locked down once the Bluetooth connections is lost.

Bluetooth Proximity Lock:

Bluetooth proximity lock

Once your Start the application, it monitors the paired Bluetooth connection for any connectivity issue.Once the connection gets lost and the timeout time is reached, your computer gets locked keeping the running process as such.The program runs on any Windows operating system including Windows 7.

Download

How To Create A System Repair Disc In Windows 7 & Vista

April 26, 2010 by bharath

Windows logo

Creating a System Repair disc in windows vista and Windows 7 is very simple and straight forward process.System repair disc would be very much useful when in situations like your Windows encounters a serious problem and unable to start properly.

A system repair disc can be used to boot your computer.It also contains Windows system recovery tools that can help you recover Windows from a serious error or restore your computer from a system image

Let’s see how to create a Windows System repair disc in simple steps.

Steps:

1. Go to Control panel> System And Security> Backup and Restore, click “Create a system repair disc”

backup or restore

2. Now it’ll ask you to select the CD/DVD drive and insert the blank CD into it. Select the drive and click “Create disc’ once you have inserted the blank disc into the drive.

create system repair disc

3. Let the DVD/CD (we need a DVD for Windows 7 backup) burn.

4. Now you have successfully created a system repair disc.

Using the system repair disc:

1. Insert the system repair disc into your CD/DVD drive.

2. Restart the computer

3. Windows will automatically discover the system recovery disc.You will be prompted “press any key to start the computer from the system repair disc”

4. If your computer primary boot device isn’t set to “CD/DVD" drive”, go to BIOS settings and change the boot order to configure your computer to start from a CD or DVD.

5. Choose your language settings and click “Next”.

6. Select a recovery option from the following:

# Startup Repaid

# System Restore

# System Image Recovery

# Windows Memory Diagnostic

# Command Prompt

System_recovery _options

You may also refer to our earlier Windows 7 guides like Install Windows 7 using Microsoft USB/DVD tool, Install Windows 7 using bootable USB

You can also our exclusive posts about Windows 7

Create Keyboard Shortcuts For Programs in Windows

April 25, 2010 by bharath

Windows logo

At Techrena, we always strive bring the best available tricks for making your life easier.We have been updating our blog off late with lot of interesting windows and internet tips and more.

Today we are coming up with a very easy but effective feature in Windows, adding keyboard shortcuts to the windows programs.This saves a bit of time particularly if you need to open that program too frequently.Just like our last week’s tutorial about adding keyword shortcuts to Firefox bookmarks.

Follow these steps to add Keyboard shortcuts to your favorite programs.

1. Right click on the program icon and select “Properties”.

2. Find the “Shortcut” tab under the properties.Look for “Shortcut key” under the tab.

keyboard shortcut for programs in windows

3. Use your keyboard to assign a shortcut key for this program.

4. Click “Apply” and press “Ok”.

Now you use the shortcut that you have set to launch the applications directly.In the above case, I have added “Ctrl + Alt + N” to launch notepad.

Think Before Using USB Flash Drives To Run Applications or OS: Advisory

April 26, 2010April 25, 2010 by dennis

I am writing this post on an advisory note. With the extensive use of USB flash driven in our day to day activities, now we have been aiming to make even our Operating System(OS) portable by installing it in a USB Flash Drive and carrying around in our pocket. Moreover we can run applications such as Mozilla, Anti Viruses etc. from a USB pen drives. Here I am going to explain, why you need to think twice before using your USB Flash Drive to run an Operating System from it.

Why you should think twice before using a USB Flash Drive to run an OS or applications for prolonged period?

All flash memory devices can sustain only a limited number of write and erase cycles before failure. While running a normal OS or an Application from a Flash drive, the system will write and erase a huge number of files and data in the flash drive. With prolonged use, the write/erase cycles of your flash drive may come to an end and may eventually fail.

The write/erase cycle performed while running an Operating System(OS) such as Windows XP or 7 will be very much more than what we can perform manually, by copying and deleting data. So this should be a consideration as it may make your flash drive run out of Write/erase cycles much faster than expected.

Another usage of USB is Windows ReadyBoost. Windows 7 and Vista can make use of a USB flash drive as a cache memory to improve the performance. In this case also the cycles are be used a high rate.

Points to be Noted:

Flash memory devices have a limited number of write and erase cycles before failure
Running an OS or an Application from a Flash drive will write and erase a huge number of files or data in the flash drive per second.
Running an Operating System(OS) will perform these cycles much more than what we can perform manually
Prolonged use will make your flash drive run out of write/erase cycles and may eventually fail much before expected

How to address this issue?

To address this, as well as space limitations, some developers have produced special versions of operating systems such as Linux in Live USB or portable applications such as Mozilla Firefox designed to run from flash drives. These are typically optimized for size and configured to place temporary or intermediate files in the computer RAM rather than store them temporarily on the flash drive.

Compared to other portable storage devices such as external hard drives, USB flash drives still have a high price per unit of storage. But Hard drives have a higher minimum price.

Alternatives:

Run applications or OS which are configured for Flash Drive use only
For Prolonged usage, try buying an external Hard Drive
If you are using your USB Drive as a Cache device to improve performance, why not upgrade your RAM size?

Notes:

1. Manual usage of your USB Drive will take years to use up the Write/erase cycles available, so no need to worry.

2. Most Failures in USB Memory Devices are due to wear and tear

Display Your Custom Text On Windows Desktop

April 25, 2010 by bharath

Windows logo

Few days ago we have written a brief tutorial about how to display Windows 7 current version and build number on your desktop (right above the system task tray).The natural question that comes to our mind after performing this trick successfully is :”Can we customize this text so as to display our name for instance?”.

Well, if you have been thinking that way, just stop thinking and read this tutorial and implement it to display your own name on desktop instead of Windows 7 watermark.Follow these steps carefully.

Requirements:

1. You need to know how to take ownership of a file in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

2. You need to download a small software called “Resource Hacker”.

Download

Steps:

1. Refer to display Windows 7 current version and build number set the settings to display Windows 7 version and build number on your desktop.This is the first step that you need to do.You need to restart your system after this step.

windows 7 build info

2. Once you have completed the above, the remaining task is to change or customise this text.To do this we need to edit the system file called “user32.dll.mui” in Resource Hacker.
Open windows explorer and copy and paste this in your address bar.

%windir%\System32\en-US

3. If you are using Windows 7 & Vista, the above command will open

“C:\Windows\System32\en-US”

folder for you.

Find the system file called “user32.dll.mui” and take ownership of the files.

user32.dll.mui windows 7

4. Now that you have the ownership of the file with you, you can go ahead and open and edit it in Resource Hacker.Just drag this file into the Resource Hacker window.

5. In the resource hacker, navigate to “String Table>45>1033”.In the right side of the window, you can see all the values running from 705 to 719.We don’t need to worry about the rest of the values, we just need to edit the values “715” and “716”.As you can see 715 (“%wsWindows %ws”) is responsible for displaying Windows version and 716 (“%ws Build %ws”) is responsible for displaying the build number if your Windows 7.

resource hacker user32.dll.mui edit

6.Now replace the text inside the quotes(“) in 715 and 716 with whatever text that you want to display on your desktop.

change string table values of user32.dll.miu in resource hacker

Once you have edited it, click “Compile Script” and then save the file (If you don’t have ownership of the file, here you will not be able to save it).

7. You are done, just restart the computer and you can see your own text being displayed instead of Windows version info.

MyWebSearch Adware: Instruction to Completely Remove My Web Search Toolbar

April 25, 2010April 25, 2010 by dennis

my_web_search_uninstaller

MyWay Searchbar commonly known as MyWay Speedbar, MyWay Search Assistant, MyWebSearch, and MyWeb Searchbar is toolbar allows us to query Google, Ask.com, and Yahoo! search engines. The program were classed as adware by some websites and anti-malware applications, although they claimed not to have the adware function. The MyWay Searchbar is currently described by Sunbelt Labs as a Potentially Unwanted Program. [Source: wikipedia.org]

MyWebSearch installed on my system without permission:

How I got MyWebSearch installed on my computer without actually installing it? This happened when I was chatting with a friend in Gtalk. I received a chat as:

You just received a smiley! Go to http://buddies.smileycentral.com/ to see it!

I was curious and clicked it. Then I later found out that it had installed MyWebSearch without my consent. This is only one way of getting infected. There are lots of others also.

Why MyWebSearch is potentially unwanted?

My Web Search installs its own programs without any permit.
It is difficult to completely remove this program.
Even if it is removed from the Add/Remove program, the registry values still remain and tries to run.

How to find out MyWebSearch installed or not?

Add ons appear in Browsers like Mozilla/Internet explorer
Add ons can also be found in Messengers like Gtalk
Unwanted pop ups may come up during internet usage.

How to Remove MyWebSearch Completely from your Computer?

Step 1: Remove the program from Add/Remove programs:

Go to Start Menu –> Control Panel –> Add/remove Programs or Uninstall a program

Search for MyWebSearch and uninstall all the programs shown.

After removing the program, restart the your system.

Step 2: Use HiJackThis to remove the unwanted registry entries and running programs of My Web Search:

HiJackThis is a freeware which can scan your registry for unwanted entries. It is a stand alone program and doesn’t require installation.

Download HiJackThis v 2.0 : http://www.techrena.net/downloads/HiJackThis_v2.exe

Size: 1.2 MB

Scan your System with the program. Remove the following entries if present:

Click Here to Open The text file containing the entries.

See the image below to see hot to remove the entries: (Click to Enlarge)

Step 3: Remove the My Web Search registry Entries present in the windows registry:

Download the BAT file from the link below:

http://www.techrena.net/downloads/remove_my_web_search.bat

Double click on remove_my_web_search.bat. It will open Command Prompt. While running the commands the command prompt will ask for confirmation to delete the entries. Press Y and enter every time it asks.

Ignore if it tells cannot find the value in the path. It is because the values are already been removed.

Now you have successfully completed removing My Web Search bar components from your system.

Note:

1. In order to perform all these actions and commands you need to have Administrator privilege.

2. If your registry editor is disabled, you cannot perform theses actions. You can refer: How to enable Registry Editor (REGEDIT) to enable it.

Download Microsoft Touch Pack For Windows 7

April 25, 2010 by bharath

Windows 7 Logo

It was in the mid 2009 that Microsoft had first released The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 only for OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer).So it was only available to the manufacturers of the Windows Touch capable devices and there was no way you could download add this Touch Pack, if your PC hadn’t already equipped wit it.

But in the last week, Microsoft has this major announcement saying that the new Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 would be publicly available for download making it easier for anyone having a PC with Windows Touch capable devices/ multitouch monitor.

The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 consists of collection of games and apps (6 free apps) that are exclusively made available to the computers with multi-touch enabled displays and running Windows 7 already.

The Touch Pack Includes:

Microsoft Blackboard,
Microsoft Garden Pond,

Microsoft Rebound,

Microsoft Surface Globe,

Microsoft Surface Collage,
Microsoft Surface Lagoon

Supported OS: Windows 7 Home Premium; Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; Windows 7 Home Premium E 64-bit; Windows 7 Home Premium N; Windows 7 Home Premium N 64-bit; Windows 7 Professional; Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Windows 7 Professional E 64-bit; Windows 7 Professional N; Windows 7 Professional N 64-bit; Windows 7 Ultimate; Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit; Windows 7 Ultimate E 64-bit; Windows 7 Ultimate N; Windows 7 Ultimate N 64-bit

Direct Download Link (touch-pack-web.exe – 239.2 MB)