Monthly Archives: September 2011

How to add Google as a search provider in ie9

Computer Aid Posted on by

Interesting… I was recently setting up a new PC, and then installed IE9.

So far, its all quite simple.

Then I get the usual annoying setup wizard, that asks all the questions designed to confuse a novice computer user (do you want to activate web slice, etc).

At the end, I expect to be taken to a web page, where I can select google as my default search engine… but google isn’t there!

So whats microsoft up to?

I quickly find many posts saying:

hey, its easy, just go to: tools -> manage add-ons -> search providers -> find more search providers

But the problem is that I’m taken to a microsoft page that gives me the following choices:

  • Bing
  • Ebay Australia
  • Grays Online

So where is google?

It turns out that microsoft believes that if you don’t live in the USA, then you don’t want to use google as a search provider…

But the solution is easy when you know how…

Just navigate to:

Google search provider in IE9

Then pick google on the left.

I wonder how long this page will remain available, before Microsoft decide to make it “disappear”?

Thunderbird master password reset

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently had a customer call to ask if I could setup their email client.

I couldn’t see why they would need this, as they seemed competent enough.

Anyway, when I arrived, I was told that a well-meaning employee had tried to setup Mozilla Thunderbird, but did not get anywhere.

When I started Thunderbird, I was asked for a master password as soon as I tried to do something meaningful (eg complete setting up an email account, or changing the settings of an existing account).

It was annoying, as I could make all the changes I needed, but as soon as I tried to save the changes, I’d get the master password dialog box.

Since nobody knew the master password, I decided to find out how to reset the password.

I soon found the trick:

Start Thunderbird -> tools -> error console -> paste the expression openDialog("chrome://pippki/content/resetpassword.xul")-> evaluate button

Please note that there is a very real possibility that you will lose any other stored passwords… But this wasn’t an issue in this case, as it was a new account.