Microsoft Musings

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.

I keep getting the following annoying error message when trying to print from Adobe Reader 9.

Before you can perform print-related tasks such as page setup or printing a document, you need to install a printer.

Adobe has a knowledgebase article on the exact problem and describes the solution to it. It does fix the issue, however in a couple of days the error message simply reappears. I’ve included the temporary fix below, but I would like know the REAL fix to this frustrating issue. If you know of a method to fix it for good, please let me know.

1. Select Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes (Windows XP) or Start > Control Panel > Printers (Windows Vista).
2. Look for a default printer, which is designated by a green check mark.
   * If there is a default printer, right-click on a different printer and select Set As Default Printer.
   * If there is no default printer, right-click on your printer and select Set As Default Printer.

You can also refer to the following screen shots for more help.

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On one of my customer’s computers I’ve been getting this weird error message after I installed Internet Explorer 8.

A Program on your computer has corrupted your default search setting for Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer has reset this setting to your original search provider.

Internet Explorer will now open Search Settings, where you can change this setting or install more search providers.

The crazy thing I can’t actually make any changes in Search Settings. I can’t set another search engine to be the default. I’ve tried resetting IE 8, deleting some registry keys related to search settings, etc. and I still get this error everytime I start Internet Explorer. Does anyone have a clue why this is happening? Please comment if you have a solution or if you are experiencing the same issue.

Update with possible fix for XP computers: Brad has emailed me with a solution that fixed the problem for him. I’ve not got a chance to try it myself as my computers are working properly. Your results may vary. Please post a comment if this fix worked for you. (Update: Please read the comments for additional help on this issue. Special thanks to some of the very helpful people who left insightful comments!) (Second Update: Due to the amount of comments on this post, I’ve started a new thread over in the forums to discuss this issue. Please post your tips and comments there instead. Thanks!)

1. Make sure IE 8 is closed then navigate to registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
2. Add a new “Expandable String value” inside the above mentioned key with a value name of “AppData” and a value data of “%USERPROFILE%\Application Data”.
3. Reopen IE 8 and see if you still get the error message.

Like I mentioned your results may vary, but please let us know if it fixed it for you or if you have found another alternative solution to this frustrating problem. (Thanks again, Brad)

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Does the above screenshot look familiar? The problem is quite frustrating, as multiple taskeng.exe processes will start and then never end. This results in a huge number of taskeng.exe processes running simultaneously as the about screenshot shows which over time drastically reduces system performance. You may also get the following error message when you start Task Scheduler.

The task image is corrupt or has been tampered with. User_Feed_Synchronization

Fortunately there is a simple solution for Windows Vista thanks to NickDownUnder:

1. Go to the start menu.
2. Type task scheduler and press enter.
3. Press continue on the UAC popup.
4. In the left pane of task scheduler, underneath Task Scheduler Local, right-click on Task Scheduler Library.
5. In the View submenu, make sure the Show Hidden Tasks option is checked.
6. Widen the Name column in the center pane. The hidden task that is likely at fault has a name that starts with User_Feed_Synchronization, followed by a dash and a bunch of digits inside a curly brace.
7. Select that task in the middle pane by clicking on its name.
8. To verify that this scheduled task is creating all those taskeng.exe processes, select the History tab in the middle pane near the middle of the screen. If you expand out the Level and Date and Time Columns, you should see a bunch of errors and date and times that are 5 minutes apart. If that’s the case, then this task is the problem.
9. On the rightmost pane, select Disable.
10. There may be more than one scheduled task like this, so you’d need to disable any or all that were causing problems.
11. Restart your computer.