Microsoft Musings

Recently I received the following comment on my post (which has over 200 comments already) about an Internet Explorer problem. I had to chuckle when I read it and thought it was worth sharing.

This worked! Thanks. That was a really annoying problem.

My other computer which also runs XP doesn’t have the problem, but after I installed the fix on this one I discovered that it already has that entry.

But why does it have to be this way? Imagine what life would be like if all our electronic products required this degree of fiddling and bug fixes. Why, we would turn on a lamp, only to get an incomprehensible error message. We’d copy it down, Google it, and come to a site like this and find some incomprehensible gobbledy-gook to try as a solution. Some of us couldn’t make heads or tails of it, while others would manage to install it. Voila! the light goes on. But then the refrigerator issues some kind of warning and goes off. And the toaster hasn’t worked for a week. And the car stopped in the middle of the road yesterday, and some motorist said the thingami package needed to be reinstalled and the registers cleaned out of electronic gunk. “You need to update your anti-roadblock software,” the motorist said as the car finally started again. “Or this’ll keep on happening. Don’t get Norton, though.”

Recently a customer was having issues printing invoices from Quickbooks. Actually invoices wouldn’t print at all, however they could print everything else from Quickbooks. After trying everything I could think of short of doing a complete reinstall, I discovered this easy fix.

# Open My Computer or Windows Explorer and navigate to the correct directory below for your version or QuickBooks.
# For QuickBooks 2007: Windows XP – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks 2007
# For QuickBooks 2007: Windows Vista – C:\ProgramData\Intuit\QuickBooks 2007
# For QuickBooks 2006 and earlier: C:\Program Files\Intuit\[QuickBooks Version]

1. Locate the QBPRINT.QBP file and delete it. (Note: this file may be hidden by default.)
2. Open QuickBooks.
3. Click the File menu and select Printer Setup.
4. Click any one of the transactions in the Form Name drop-down and click OK. This will re-create the QBPRINT.QBP file. (This does not have to be done for each transaction.)
5. Open and print the transaction that was having problems.

This worked like a charm for me, hope it works for you as well.
via.

One of the new features included in Windows 7 is a nifty idea called Theme Packs.

Theme packs are cabinet files with an extension of .themepack, and consist of a .theme as well as any number of image, sound, icon, and mouse cursor files. Windows 7 recognizes this file format and will switch the user’s theme to the theme contained inside when opened.  -wikipedia

In other words theme packs are a simple way to share your theme with others. For example, Microsoft has provided a number of free theme packs including a Coca-Cola and Ferrari theme. If you are running Windows 7, you can simply download the theme pack and double-click to install and run the theme.

Now that you know what a theme pack is and how to install it, I have a huge theme pack for you to enjoy. It consists of 218 338 stunning wallpapers that I’ve collected from the various Windows 7 beta builds all the way up to the current released version. It also includes wallpapers from the international versions of Windows 7.  Currently the theme is set to automatically change the picture every 1 hour, although this can easy be changed to suit your taste. For example, you could have it change once a day, and you wouldn’t see the same wallpaper twice for 218 338 days.

So what are you waiting for?

Download: Windows 7 Wallpapers Theme Pack (.themepack file)

- Size: 230 MB – Last Uploaded: 11/9/2009
If you are a Windows XP or Vista user, click here.

One of the awesome time saving features in Windows 7 is the inclusion of the built-in Disc Image or ISO Burner utility. However, I have not been able to get it burn to my stack of Sony CD-R disks that I have. It will give the following error message.

The disc image didn’t burn successfully because an error occurred. The requested operation is only valid with supported media. (Error code: 0xC0AA0402).

If, however, I use one of the Memorex DVD-R disks that I have, it completes successfully. Weird.

Does anyone know what’s going on here?

Update: According to this MSDN Page, that error number equals E_IMAPI_DF2DATA_INVALID_MEDIA_STATE. Of course that doesn’t tell us much.

Here are the six wallpapers that are included in the localization build of Windows 7 for Italy. You can also view & download all the Windows 7 wallpapers here. Enjoy.

(Right-click thumbnail to download or click here to download .zip file.)

Here are the six official wallpapers that are included in the localization build of Windows 7 for India. You can also view & download all the Windows 7 wallpapers here. Enjoy.

(Right-click thumbnail to download or click here to download .zip file.)

Here are the six wallpapers that are included in the localization build of Windows 7 for France. You can also view & download all the Windows 7 wallpapers here. Enjoy.

(Right-click thumbnail to download or click here to download .zip file.)

Here are the six wallpapers that are included in the localization build of Windows 7 for Spain. You can also view & download all the Windows 7 wallpapers here. Enjoy.

(Right-click thumbnail to download or click here to download .zip file.)

Here are the six wallpapers that are included in the localization build of Windows 7 for Brazil. You can also view & download all the Windows 7 wallpapers here. Enjoy.

(Right-click thumbnail to download or click here to download .zip file.)