Update for Windows Live Photo Gallery (KB 946486) Failed
This past patch Tuesday resulted in a whole host of phone calls from family members regarding a failed update to Windows Live Photo Gallery (KB 946486) on Windows XP SP2 machines. One of my laptops failed as well. The fix took a little while to figure out and is somewhat tedious.
- Download and install Microsoft Windows Install Cleanup.
- Once installed, run the program. Scroll down to (All Users) Windows Live Photo Gallery and click Remove.
Note: Be very careful with this utility because it can do a lot of damage. If you’re not comfortable with the possible reprocussions then please get in touch with someone who has prior experience. I am not responsible if you ruin your computer.
- Exit the program once its done removing Windows Live Photo Gallery.
- Download and install a fresh copy of Windows Live Photo Gallery.
- Theoretically you should have the latest version. However, on two systems rerunning Microsoft Update after the above procedure yielded update KB 946486 which ultimately updated the software to the most current version.
Truphone Forces Telephone Number Change on Early Adopters
I’ve been singing praises about the UK-based VoIP company Truphone to all of my friends and would call it the killer application for the latest generation of VoIP-equipped Nokia phones. To my dismay I received the following e-mail from Truphone Support this morning:
Truphone numbers are changing
Hello,
We’d like to give you advance notice that we will soon be switching all UK customers to Truphone’s very own new number range.
When this happens your phone number will change from 07624… to one beginning 07978…
Switching to a new set of numbers allows us to grow and evolve the service. As an early subscriber (thank you!), you were one of the few people to be assigned a number from our old 07624 range.
You don’t need to do anything yet. We will contact you again shortly to let you know your new number so you can begin telling your friends and contacts.
If you have any questions or queries, please visit the mobilevoipforum or email support@truphone.com
Thank you very much for all your support,
All at Truphone
Like any responsible business Truphone was prudent in giving a heads up to its customers regarding the upcoming change. I may be jumping the gun but no where do I see any indication of a concrete migration plan to make this change easy for us early adopters.
Number changes are difficult to handle in any medium be it VoIP, traditional landline, or mobile phone. This situation would be ideal for a Plaxo-like central address book service where I could update my contact details for all of my friends but not everyone uses Plaxo. Actually most of my friends don’t even sync their phones with their computers. Unfortunately this means that I have to cater to the lowest common denominator by spending several hours calling, emailing, and texting everyone before this change becomes permanent. Even then it’s almost guaranteed that I will miss someone.
I’d appreciate Truphone publicly post answers to its customer’s questions in the coming days. Some of the items I’d like to know are:
- Will there be free call forwarding for all calls originating from traditional mobile and landline calls for the first few weeks to our new Truphone numbers?
- Once forwarding ends, will there be a recording when someone calls my number alerting them of my new contact details for a few more weeks?
- Will the old SIP URI starting with 447624xxxxxx@truphone.com be terminated as well? If so, how long will forwarding work?
- Is there an option to maintain the SIP URI indefinitely once we are moved over to the new number? If not, how long will it be active?
- Is Truphone offering a way for me to send SMS messages out to my entire phonebook alerting them of my new number without forcing me to pay 0.07 GBP (about 14 US cents) per message?
- Rumors have persisted for quite some time that the new 07978 number range doesn’t properly support SMS. Has this been rectified?
- Has Truphone finally organized with OFCOM to bring down costs of incoming calls and to get the new number range included in the bundle of included minutes with mobile and landline operators?
I’m hoping to have answers to these questions so everything is clear before they flip the switch. Truphone can continue to set the benchmark of how VoIP companies conduct themselves by making this transition as easy and painless for its customers as possible. With this said I’m hoping this outstanding service that I’ve come to rely on for my daily communication doesn’t let me down.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 SP1 Crash in GDIPLUS.DLL
Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is definitely a must-have upgrade for serious users of Outlook 2007. The speed increases are staggering on my aging Windows XP system. Prior to SP1, I had no other issues with Office 2007 and found it to be quite stable. To my surprise last night Outlook crashed when I opened a Microsoft TechNet email. For those of you unfamiliar with TechNet emails, they are the heavily HTML based and contain several images. The exact error message read:
The file gdiplus.dll is incompatible with Microsoft Outlook. Install Outlook again.
The Event Viewer had a new entry “Event ID: 1000″ with “Microsoft Officer 12″ as the source that read:
Faulting application outlook.exe, version 12.0.6212.1000, stamp 46e03e45, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, stamp 00000000, debug? 0, fault address 0×3be666f5.
A search on Google yielded a few links archiving the same thread from back in March 2007 which didn’t result in a definitive fix.
Upon restarting Outlook, the email opened fine so I wasn’t able to replicate the problem. I ran Office Diagnostics anyway. Hopefully it was an isolated incident that won’t be coming back any time soon. If anyone else experiences this issue, then please post details of what you were doing, version numbers, and system specs. I’ll update the entry as I get more information.
Microsoft Releases Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Office 2007
Microsoft has quietly released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Office 2007 ahead of schedule.
Microsoft has released a service pack for the 2007 Microsoft Office suites. This article contains information about how to obtain the service pack and about how to obtain a list of issues that are fixed by the service pack. Additionally, this article contains information about the issues that you may experience when you install the service pack and about how to determine whether the service pack is installed.
You can wait for Microsoft to push this via automated updates or install it via a direct download. In my informal testing, Outlook 2007 is much faster and doesn’t lock up while receiving mail messages.
According to the official MSDN blog, WSS 3.0 SP1 and SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 should be coming out soon as well.
Update: There have been some reports that Microsoft is pushing the update out via Auto-updates even though they said they wouldn’t.
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 Released
Microsoft just sent out an e-mail informing beta testers of Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1 that a final release has been posted for public download. The full text:
Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 has been released and is available as a free download at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualserver.
Thank you for participating in Welcome to the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta Program. Your feedback and continuous involvement, as part of the beta program, greatly helped us ship a fabulous, high-quality product. Since Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 has been released, we are closing down this beta program.Again, a big thank you for making Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 happen !
Virtual Server Product Group
Once I find the ChangeLog, I’ll update this post.
Nokia E61 Wireless: 802.1x with EAP-PEAP and EAP-MSCHAPv2
I’m using 802.1x authentication with EAP-PEAP and EAP-MSCHAPv2 for wireless access at home which can pose a unique challenge in getting a myriad of devices to work within my network. I’m using the box standard Active Directory on Windows Sever 2003 with the Internet Authentication Service coupled to a Linksys WRT54G running custom firmware. I’m also self-signing Digital Certificates with the Certificate Authority (CA) service in Windows Server 2003. The following is what I did to get the Nokia E61 working:
Installing a CA Certificate:
- Point your browser to http://IPofCA/CertSrv/.
- Click Download a CA certificate, certificate chain, or CRL.
- Select the proper CA Certificate.
- Pick DER under Encoding method.
- Click Download CA Certificate.
- Save the certificate file (.cer extension) to any location on your PC.
- Connect the Nokia E61 to the PC and copy the download certificate file to any location on the phone.
- On the Nokia E61, browse to the location of the certificate file with the file browser and click on it to install.
Configuring Wireless on the Nokia E61:
- Navigate to Tools -> Settings -> Connections -> Access points. Press the Options (soft-key) -> New access point -> Use default settings.
- Connection name: (Pick an appropriate name)
- Data bearer: Wireless LAN
- WLAN netw. name: (Your WLAN)
- Network status: Public
- WLAN netw. mode: Infrastructure
- WLAN security mode: 802.1x
- Select WLAN security sett.
- WPA mode: EAP
- Select EAP plug-in settings
- Highlight EAP-PEAP and press Options (soft key) -> Enable
- Raise the priority of EAP-PEAP via Options (soft key) -> Raise priority until it is in position #1
- Uncheck everything else by pressing Options (soft key) -> Disable
- Go back to EAP-PEAP then press Options (soft key) -> Configure
- User certificate: (not defined)
- CA certificate: (Pick the certificate you installed above)
- User name in use: User-configured
- User name: (Your Active Directory user name ONLY! No reference to the Domain should be here. For example, “MyDomain\BobJones” or “BobJones@MyDomain” are wrong. Only “BobJones” should go in this field.
- Realm in use: User-configured
- Realm: (Your Active Directory Domain)
- Allow PEAPv0: Yes
- Allow PEAPv1: No
- Allow PEAPv2: No
- As before, select EAP-MSCHAPv2 and move it to the #1 position via Options (soft key) -> Raise priority and unselect everything else via Options (soft key) -> Disable.
- Select EAP-MSCHAPv2 then press Options (soft key) -> Configure
- User name: (Your Active Directory domain and username in the format: “MyDomain\BobJones”)
- Prompt password: No
- Password: (Your Active Directory password)
- Enable all
- General tab:
-
EAP tab:
-
Encryption tab:
Now go to the web browser and select your new access point to test it out. If everything went as expected, then you’ll see both the Nokia wireless icon with a little lock in the status bar and be able to browse the internet.
Removing Ads for Popular Windows IM Clients
The latest bunch of official IM clients have ads that not only play animations but some have sound that don’t respect the application’s other options of disabling sounds. Although the debate of removing ads while using a “free” is still quite valid, providing the information isn’t a crime (yet). Below are instructions on how to remove ads from the four official clients I use most frequently.
- Google Talk: No ads (tongue-in-cheek). In addition to its integration with other Jabber clients, the lack of advertising alone should be reason enough to use the service but a large chunk of the untamed masses can’t be bothered to switch.
- AOL Instant Messenger (AIM): Use AIM Ad Hack v4.15 for the old client (version 5.9.6089) or Ad Hack 5.2 for the new AIM 6.0 client. One caveat to watch out for if you’re using the old client is although AIM Ad Hack will successfully download the client, AOL has piggy backed upgrade software to download the new 6.0 client. If a window pops up with a progress bar and a message claiming to download new AOL software, just hit cancel and delete the resume download icon off the desktop. The rogue AOL downloader software is in a Windows temp folder which CCleaner will happily delete.
- MSN Messenger / Windows Live Messenger: A-Patch is a tool with a whole host of options to configure the box standard MSN/Windows Live Messenger. Make sure to get the right version for the client running on your system.
- Yahoo! Messenger: If running the 8.1 (latest version), Y!MSGR AD-Remover new 2 by Sunboy454 will remove the ad box completely.
Prior to version 8.1, a simple edit of the Registry in Windows eliminated all ads. If you are still using an older client open Regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Yahoo\pager\YUrl and create a new string key named Messenger Ad that has the value * (an asterisk).
Other keys you can create to remove ads from Yahoo Messenger:
Webcam Upload Ad
Webcam Viewer Ad
Webcam Viewer Ad Big
Webcam Viewer Ad Medium
Change Room Banner
Conf Adurl
Chat Adurl
Force Flashing Vodafone-Branded Nokia E61
I’ve been rather frustrated with the reluctance of Vodafone UK to release any new firmware upgrades for the Nokia E61. As an American mobile phone user, I had always naively assumed Europe to be the panacea of the latest GSM-based gadgets (and associated firmware) that would take months before arriving State-side–not so with Vodafone. Although I have no knowledge of how other carriers are handling Nokia’s online software updating system, I was due in for a reflash due to various software bugs.
A big thank you goes out to Jeff Cross over at Average Admins for having already done the dirty work to make my wish a reality. I’ll make some comments on his basic instructions below (in italics) and provide screenshots of the process but I’d suggest heading on over to read up the discussion for useful pointers.
Note: This is an unsupported procedure and could leave your phone unusable so take the proper precautions if you choose to follow this tutorial. I cannot be held responsible if anything unexpected happens or if your phone is bricked.
Duplicate Appointments and Contacts in Microsoft Outlook
For years I’ve been using the same Outlook data files from Office XP to the latest Office 2007. Through all of these upgrades and synchronizing against various PDAs, phones, Exchange servers, and Google Calendar imports, I’ve amassed quite a large amount of duplicate appointments and contacts. It has gotten to be so bad that I specially allocated time during the Christmas season to eradicate the clutter.
My procrastination had gotten the best of me until a little digging on Google revealed the existence of a free utility called Outlook Duplicate Remover by Fr. Simon. This clever program only requires a few simple configuration options and does its job without a lot of fuss. There is no preview mode so take the necessary precautions (i.e. backup your PST file). Although the splash screen doesn’t mention Outlook 2003 nor Outlook 2007, it worked for me but your mileage may vary. Another item off my task list!
Nokia E61
I purchased a Nokia E61 two weeks ago and have been enjoying its well thought out design as a mobile messaging device. I was under the impression that a handheld that doesn’t crash and works as advertised out of the box (more on this later) was a fantasy. Push email is fantastic as is the web browser (from which I am typing this entry using the device’s keypad). On the other hand I find the lack of Outlook e-mail syncing and A2DP Bluetooth stereo to be a little bit of a pain. The major pitful keeping me from dumping my device in addition to the two above shortcomings is the lack of medical software. I will post an entry on how I use both my Axim x51v and Nokia E61 in my daily hospital routine in the next few weeks. Until then, read up OSNews’ review of the E61.
-
-
Google Ads
-
Links
-
Blogroll