Monthly Archives: January 2009

Vista could not perform this operation because the default mail client is not properly installed

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer recently bought a Vista PC.

After a few weeks he started getting a strange error message:

Could not perform this operation because the default mail client is not properly installed.

This would happen whenever he would click on a mail link within internet explorer.

It didn’t take long for me to realise that there was something wrong with mailto: links on any web page (and also any mailto: link within html emails.

I’m sure there is a setting (or a registry entry), to fix up the mailto: association.

I tried the following steps until it started to work:

Start -> Default Programs -> Set Program access and computer defaults -> Custom -> default email program (you need to scroll down for this) -> set registry values to default.

Control Panel -> Default Programs -> set your default programs -> select windows mail (or your normal email client) -> Choose defaults for this program -> make sure all boxes are ticked (eg .eml, mailto:, email link)

Control Panel -> internet options -> Advanced -> Reset

Microsoft update error 0X80072EFD

Computer Aid Posted on by

After a system rebuild, I suddenly noticed that the Microsoft update started giving the error: 0X80072EFD

It wasn’t long before I figured out it was Trend Internet Security 2009 (Customer wanted it installed) that was partly to blame.

By starting the trend control panel, going to: “Internet and email controls”, and then turning off “protection against web threats” (PAWT), I was able to do updates again.

I also found that I could get updates if I disabled the IE7 phishing filter (PF).

So, it seems obvious that IE7 PF conflicts with TIS PAWT

It would probably be a good idea if trend disabled IE7 PF, or if PF gets turned  on, it warns you, or automatically turns off its own PAWT.

Can’t Play a Media File? VLC Media Player

Computer Aid Posted on by

If you download as much as I do, you often run into issues where you can’t play the file simply because you don’t have the proper codec for the file. Today I have a solution for that. That solution is called VLC Media Player.

What is VLC Media Player?
VLC Media Player is an infamous media player that plays just about any video or music file that you have.

How many file types can it play?
VLC Media Player can play well over 100 file types. If you would like to see a complete list of file types VLC Media Player can handle: click here.

But I have a Mac?
Do not worry! VLC Media Player is available for just about any operating system including most distributions of Linux.

Does it cost money?
VLC Media Player is completely free and is under the GNU Public License.

Awesome, where do I download?
Visit the main page and select your operating system. You will be able to choose from mirrors from across the world.
Alternatively, if you would like a direct download: Windows 2000, XP, Vista (15.6MB) Self-extracting

Notes:
VLC does not register all file types to itself. If you come across a media file and there is no program associated to it simply: right click > open with > VLC Media Player. You can also open an empty instance of VLC Media Player from the start menu and drag the file onto the program.

You may also have issues playing media files with DRM (digital rights management) inside of them. Although you may have the certificate installed in your computer to play them VLC Media Player does not recognize them.

VLC Media Player is also very good when it comes to resource usage. You may find that things run a lot smoother when you use VLC Media Player.

Justin Merrill
A philosophical soldier in the thermonuclear age.

Task Manager greyed-out, no Desktop and no screen saver tabs

Computer Aid Posted on by

Some of the latest malware seem to often alter XP settings like greying out access to the task manager (or starting task manager generates an error message like: task manager has been disabled by the administrator).

An added inconvenience is that 1 or 2 tabs from the screen display properties will also have disappeared (the desktop tab and the screen saver tab).

Whats most annoying, is that even after the infection has been cleared, these 3 problems still persist.

Well, easiest way to get them back to normal is to run regedit

Once regedit is running, navigate to:

HKCUsoftwaremicrosoftwindowscurrentversionpoliciessystem

Here you can alter 3 settings:

  • DisableTaskMgr (change its value from 1 to 0)
  • NoDispBackgroundPage (change its value from 1 to 0)
  • NoDispScrSavPage (change its value from 1 to 0)

Quick Fix: The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000006).

Computer Aid Posted on by

Today I will be writing about the “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000006).” error. This is a common error especially in this day and age.

This error is caused because the .NET Framework isn’t on your computer (or it was uninstalled.)

The .NET Framework is a library of files designed by Microsoft to make designing applications easier for programmers. So if you get the “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000006).” error is was because your computer was trying to load the .NET Framework libraries for that application but it couldn’t because they don’t exist!

To fix this error you simply download the latest version of the .NET Framework.

.NET Framework Development Center
Direct Download (135MB) (From Microsoft Servers)

You will find that an increasing amount of programs are relying on this framework. So make sure you have it and make sure you have the latest version!

My name is Justin Merrill and I own a personal blog called Educated Whore. I write just about anything but mostly about my military career. I have been blogging since 2005 when I was 15 years old (now 18 ). I plan to be writer when I am older too. I also know a bit about computers but my blog doesn’t get much attention in that department so I decided to write posts on a site dedicated to computers and help with computers. I plan to write many posts. I hope you enjoy them.

intel pro 2200bg wireless cannot connect using AES encryption

Computer Aid Posted on by

This laptop was badly infected, and couldn’t connect to the internet via the 802.11G wifi wireless router.

I remove the infection, but for some reason, the wireless still won’t connect to my office wireless…

In the past, I’ve had problems with the intel proset wireless software, so I uninstall it and use the XP wireless software, but still no go.

I take a closer looks at the windows wireless settings, and I see that it only allows me to select TKIP as the encryption method… and the office wireless uses AES.

I’ve had something similar happen before, but its usually been an 802,11B verses 802.11G incompatibility…

So I try updating the intel driver: yep, there is a newer driver available.

So I install the new driver, reboot, and behold! I can now connect to AES encrypted wireless routers.

prism3d engine error on: 18 wheels of steel haulin

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had a customer who had purchased this game but couldn’t get it to run on her 2.8 Ghz Pentium4 system.

After some investigation, it turns out that this games needs a 3d accelerator video card.

Well, I just happen to have a Nvidia geForce FX5500 video card.

So I plug it in, install the latest drivers from the internet, reinstall 18WoSH and when I start the game, it displays a small window that says: prism3d engine error.

The valuesoft online technical support suggests getting the latest video drivers (hold on, that bit of advice is dated dec 2002… 6 years ago…)

Some forums suggest that some video cards are “too advanced” for the game, and so the game fails because it cannot handle some of the newer 3d settings. And it seems that most people suggest switching off the extra 3d features once the game starts… but I cant start the game… catch 22

After mucking around with all sorts of nvidia settings, I tell the customer that this game just cannot work… and its best she try to get her money back (which she did get refunded).

City of Melbourne: unfair parking fine… give me my money back!

Computer Aid Posted on by

The City of Melbourne has unfairly obtained $50 from me.

The money doesn’t belong to them, and they should give it back (plus about $45 in interest)

This is an issue (from many years ago – around June 2002) that has always bothered me, as its an example of how government bureaucracy can unfairly take (I’m tempted to use the word steal) from ordinary people.

At the time, I was working in La Trobe Street, Melbourne.

The company I was working for, needed me to work late one night (on a planned out-of-business-hours, IT upgrade).

The way it worked, was I would start work at 5 PM, and work on the upgrade until about 1AM (or later if needed).

I needed to drive in (as I’ll need to drive home again, as there are no train services when I finished work). So I got to the City at about 4PM, and spent a frustrating 45 minutes looking for a parking spot.

I eventually found one, but when I put a $2 coin in the slot, nothing happened. I tried again with another $2 coin, and still nothing happened. I Just needed the meter to last until 6pm (I think), after which parking meters are not monitored.

I tried a $1 coin, and that worked just fine.

Unfortunately, I only had one $1 coin (but a few more $2 coins)

Besides, I had already put in enough money to get me past the end of the metered time.

I took down the meter details (PM000698 ), and once in the office, I called the phone number on the meter.

I explained what happened, and a nice lady told me I shouldn’t worry. If I get a fine, it will be discarded once the faulty meter is repaired, and I was given a reference number (PINN 141615062).

I figured: thats ok. I spent the money anyway ($5)… I did the right thing,

So I duly got fined. I wrote to City of Melbourne, and quoted the reference number.

A few weeks later, I got a letter saying that there was no fault found with the meter, and I’ll need to pay the fine.

The fine print basically said: if you don’t pay the fine, you will be taken to court, and you might end up paying a lot more than just the fine.

At the time, I tried to get the meter mechanics report on the meter… But nobody bothered to send a reply email. I eventually had to start sending daily emails to corspd@melbourne.vic.gov.au, asking for a copy of the engineers report (but never got a reply). About 2 week later, I get a maintenance schedule, which just shows that the meter (amongst many others) was serviced at a particular date, and no fault was found.

At this point, I feel I have no choice: Pay the fine, or risk paying an even bigger fine.

I pay the fine.

But I also email them, saying that they are effectively extorting the fine from me, so I will use whatever means I can to recover the fine. I also say that I cannot accept the meter mechanics records, as the meter was obviously faulty at the time, and I had already fed the meter with more than enough money to avoid having it expire within the allocated meter parking times.

Again no reply.

I say I will take the matter to the Victorian Ombudsman, but still no reply. I contacted the ombudsman, but I recall that there was very little that could be done…

I would love to organise a City of Melbourne “strike” or an act of civil disobediance… maybe something like: everyone who parks in Melbourne will refuse to put any money into the meters and will refuse to pay the fines.

I’m sure the council doesn’t have the resources to procecute thousands of people per day, and with the spotlight on their inefficient parking systems, they just might be forced to do the right thing and do a better (and fairer) job.

Ah, thats enough ranting for now… I think I’ll just go into a corner and fume for a few minutes… Grrr

Compaq SR1000 (SR1616an) boot failure

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer says that after a storm, the computer (a compaq SR1000) won’t start anymore.

I take a look, and windows XP seems to mostly boot up, but just sits at a light blue screen. The mouse pointer works, but there is nothing to click on and keyboard commands (like Crtl-Alt-Del).

I figure a recovery, or a re-install is all that should be needed.

Well, the HP/Compaq recovery partition doesn’t start properly… Hmmm, not good.

The customer also created a recovery CD, but that didn’t work either.

Next, I try a fresh install of XP. The install process only gets part-way through, and then I get a familiar light-blue screen with a mouse pointer.

I also try removing as many peripherals as possible (dial-up modem, second CD drive), and replace RAM, reseat CPU, replace HDD, etc, but all to no avail.

Booting from a bart-PE CD and a linux CD, causes strange lock-ups, and errors.

In the end, I admit that the there is a subtle electronic failure on the motherboard or CPU.

Its not fixable, but it took a while to diagnose.

Grrr, I don’t like the weird problems that are difficult to diagnose!

An infection means someone can steal from your bank account

Computer Aid Posted on by

In the last 3.5 years, I’ve seen many infected PCs (seen many viruses, trojans, spyware, and recently rootkits as well)

My usual routine is to remove the infection, and then tell the customer to: (after I leave) change any passwords that could involve financial transactions.

In this case, the PC was the admin PC of a childcare centre. It was used for (amongst other things) transferring staff wages to their bank accounts.

The PC had AVG 8 installed, but it didn’t seem to prevent the infection.

After some hard work, I managed to remove all the nasties (Vundo, various trojans, TDSS kootkit, etc).

A few weeks later, I was talking with the customer, when she tells me that about 1 hour after I left, she got a call from the bank, saying that they detected a suspicious transfer of over AUD$15000 out of her account.

After that she went through a long and arduous process to prove to the bank that she didn’t transfer the money (stat. dec., police report, screenshots of an antivirus scan showing that her PC is clear of infection… changing passwords, cancelling credit cards, etc etc).

So please be careful, as an infection is not just an inconvenience, you can really get money stolen from your account.

Most computer techs already know this, but this is the first time I’ve actually heard of  this happen with a customer.

Also remember that an antivirus/antispyware program cannot guarantee that you will not be infected.

It is always possible for an infection to start spreading on the internet, and then an antivirus/antispyware is able to detect it only a few days later.

This can easily happen if you use something like limewire, emule, or one of the many bittorrent programs, as you will get “new” files with brand new viruses…

WoW dropouts over a 3G wireless connection

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer asks me to try to find the cause of World of Warcraft (WoW) dropouts.

The last time I saw him (about 2 years ago), I installed a video card, as the built-in video wasn’t compatible with WoW.

He thinks that the video card might need an upgrade.

Once on site, I see he gets to the internet using a telstra nextG 7.2 USB wireless dongle.

I’m suspecting network dropouts, but I install a more modern video card so I can rule it out.

He still notices some dropouts (less often than before), but they still happen.

I also get to see what he means by dropout: his WoW character will continue to move about, but all other characters stop moving. if he leaves the session and then re-connects, then his character restarts from where the “dropout” happened.

I still suspect that the nextG network is at fault… he gets good signal strength, but I tell him that I have no way of knowing what happens at the wireless network level… it is possible that the occasional WoW network packet is “invisibly” delayed long enough (by the wireless network) to cause a dropout from the WoW server.

I try a ping test (although ping is not a great test), but the pings seem to work perfectly for at least 1 minute.

In the end he is happy to keep the newer video card, and I suggest he take the PC to a friend or relative that has ADSL… This should confirm or deny if the network type is causing the dropouts.