Recently when i launch Internet Explorer on my Windows XP machine, it keep on pop up an error message “The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context”. I tried to perform Windows update, the Internet Explorer also prompt the same error message. I tried to ignore the error message, but the Internet Explorer will quit automatically.

So, i tried to do research on Internet regarding this problem. Actually a lot of Windows users facing the same problem. The problem is come from the IE 7/ IE8.  To solve this problem, you have to reinstall the IE7/IE8.

Below are the steps:

• Enter Add/Remove Programs (Start > Settings > Control Panel)
• Find Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8
• Click Uninstall
• Reboot your Windows
• Re-Launch Internet Explorer (now back to 6)
• Run Windows Update again to upgrade to latest version on Internet Explorer

I think this kind of problem only happen on Microsoft product. So, don’t expect too much on Microsoft product…hahaha.

If you have any others tips and tricks to solve this problem, please share with me.

I got complaint from my user about their Thunderbird email client spell check function. According to them, the spell check function stop working. I tried to do misspelled two word in this email client to demonstrate the problem. I found that the email client fail to detect the wrong spelling.

To perform troubleshooting on this problem, i try to check on Thunderbird Options setting by using bellow steps .

From the pop-up dialogue shows an empty grey box for “Language” which means that Dictionaries & Language Packs installed on that computer. To solve the spell check issue, just need to manually install Dictionaries & Language Packs.

Below are the steps:-

• Click Add to Thunderbird.
• Wait for the download to finish; even if nothing seems to be happening, chances are a dialog will eventually appear.
• Click Install Now under Install add-ons only from authors whom you trust..
• Now click Restart Now.

Done!!

Recently i successfully setup OpenVPN server. It try to connect from my Windows XP pc, it work fine. But when i connect the OpenVPN via my Windows 7 and Windows Vista machine, it fail to connect.

The error they were getting was:

Thu Sep 16 13:30:09 2011 C:\WINDOWS\system32\route.exe ADD 172.16.0.0 MASK 255.255.0.0 10.8.0.1
Thu Sep 16 13:30:09 2011 ROUTE: route addition failed using CreateIpForwardEntry: Access is denied.   [status=5 if_index=24]
Thu Sep 16 13:30:09 2011 Route addition via IPAPI failed [adaptive]
Thu Sep 16 13:30:09 2011 Route addition fallback to route.exe
Thu Sep 16 13:30:09 2011 ERROR: Windows route add command failed [adaptive]: returned error code 1

To solve above problem, just edit the config file of the SSL vpn (the .ovpn file) in C:\Program Files\OpenVpn\config and add the following lines:

route-method exe
route-delay 2

This will force OpenVPN to add the route using Route.exe

After that , find the OpenVPN GUI icon on your desktop, right-click on it, and choose Properties from the context menu. In the Properties window, click “Advanced…” then check “Run as administrator”. Click OK to close the “Advanced Properties” window and click OK to close the OpenVPN GUI Properties window.

If you have others way to solve above issue, please share with me via leave your comment here

I found a freeware call BGInfo. This software automatically track real-time system information about Windows computer on the desktop’s background, such as the computer name, IP address, service pack version, system uptime, hard drive space and more. It is very convenient especially when you manage several of server.

You also can customize the BGInfo by edit the font and background colors, and can place it in your startup folder so that it runs every boot, or even configure it to display as the background for the logon screen.

Just click here to download and try out this software and let me know your comment about this software.

I got a complain from Singapore user about the remote access problem. She tried to log on to Windows machine at HQ through remote desktop connection. But fail to logon and receive the error message “The Local Policy of this system does not permit you to logon interactively”

I tried to do few testing, i realize that non administrator user try to use the Remote Desktop Connection tool will receive above error message. This issue occurs because the non administrator user account is not a member of the local Remote Desktop Users group.

To resolve this issue, you just need to add allowed users to the Remote Desktop Users list:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click System, and then on the Remote tab, click Select Remote Users.
3. Click Add type in the user account name, and then click OK.

Besides, you have to make sure that the Remote Desktop Users group has sufficient permissions to log on through Terminal Services. To do this, follow these steps:

• Click Start, click Run, type secpol.msc, and then click OK.
• Expand Local Policies, and then click User Rights Assignment.
• In the right pane, double-click Allow logon through Terminal Services. Make sure that the Remote Desktop Users group is listed.
• Click OK.
• In the right pane, double-click Deny logon through Terminal Services. Make sure that the Remote Desktop Users group is not listed, and then click OK.

If you have other solution, please share with via leave your comment here.

Your DNS cache stores the locations (IP addresses) of pages you have recently viewed. DNS cache help to speeds up the lookups within the same host.  But sometimes if the website page change before your DNS cache is updated, you will failed to access the page. For example, you received a web page with HTML 404 error codes. So you need to flush your DNS cache. Once you clear your DNS cache, your computer will query nameservers for the new DNS information you require.

Clear DNS cache on Windows XP, Vista, Win7

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Go to Run.
   • If you do not see the Run command in Vista, search for “run” in the Search bar.
3. In the Run text box, type: ipconfig /flushdns
4. Press Enter or Return, and your cache will be flushed.

To clear DNS cache in Mac OS X 10.5 and above, use the following command:

1. Go to Applications.
2. Go to Utilities.
3. Open the Terminal application.
4. Type: dscacheutil -flushcache
5. Press Enter or Return, and your cache will be flushed.

Clear DNS cache on Linux (Red Hat / Fedora / CentOS)

Launch your terminal and enter following command to flush DNS:-

$ sudo /etc/init.d/nscd restart

OR

# service nscd restart

The goal of Windows Update is to always keep your computer as safe and secure as possible.  So, you should enable Automatic Updates on your Computer.But some of the update will automatic reboot your machine after the update. This will cause a lot of problems on my Windows Server. The data might be corrupt or lost.

So, i decided to disable auto reboot after update installation. Below are the steps on how to disable the auto reboot after windows updates:-

• In the Start Menu go to Run type “gpedit.msc” and press Enter
• Now a Group Policy editor will open. In this window navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Template -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
• Double click on No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations
• In the settings window Choose Enabled and click OK
• Close Group Policy Editor

Done.

Shutdown is a very useful command that can help your daily administrative task. This program allows you to restart or shutdown your local or remote computers.

To access shutdown command, simply go to DOS command prompt by clicking on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt or Start -> Run and then type in cmd to launch a command prompt window.

Below are the few example on how to use Shutdown command:-

To reboot the computer:

shutdown -r

To restart  computer immediately:

shutdown -r /t 0

Note: T0 restart immediately, use the /t 0 option. The /t 0 option ensures that a time-out period of 0 (zero) seconds is used before the command is executed. /t can be set between 0 and 600 seconds (0 and 10 minutes). 

To shutdown a computer:

shutdown -s

Note: By default there is a 30 second delay with all SHUTDOWN commands, this at least gives you a short window to use the abort command to stop a shutdown if you’ve made a typing mistake. 

To abort/cancel shutdown:

shutdown -a

To shutdown computer immediately:

shutdown /p

To shutdown Remote computer immediately:

shutdown /m \\remotecomputername /s /t 0

To Hibernate computer:

The following command will execute a hibernation directive and will within 30 seconds begin a hibernation and shutdown action:

shutdown /h

Just try it, have fun

I got a ticket from my user said that she cannot open a file in .mdi format. I never see this kind of file format before. So, i just google it and i got the answer. An MDI file, which stands for Microsoft Document Imaging, is a file format of Microsoft for storing raster images of scanned documents together with optional annotations or metadata, and can only can only be opened or edited in Office Document Imaging.

In Microsoft Office 2003, you can open .mdi file by default. However, you cannot open .mdi file in .  The reason this happen is because by default Office 2007 does not install Microsoft Document ImaginMicrosoft Office 2007g. So if you want to open the MDI file in Office 2007, you have to install the feature manually.

To install MDI, just follow below steps:-

• Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs or Uninstall a program if you are in Vista/7.
• Select Microsoft Office 2007 and click on Change

• Select Add or Remove Features, then click Continue

• Expand Office Tools section.

• Click on the drop down list for “Microsoft Office Document Imaging” and select “Run all from My Computer”.

• Click on Continue

• Click Close when installation done.
• Done, you can now open .mdi file by just double click on the file

If you have another tips to solve this problem, please share with via leaving your comment here.

Today, i got a ticket from user about her computer always get the message, “To free up disk space outlook express can compact messages” when her computer start-up. According to her, she not even use Outlook Express.  She is Thunderbird user.

• then click the Modify button.

• Uncheck the checkbox before: Microsoft Outlook Express.

• Click OK, and then click Close to save the settings.

If this problem persists, you can try to reset the compact count to 0 inside the system registry. To do that,  just follow below steps:

• Start the registry editor by click Start -> Run and type regedit
• Open following registry key :-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{identity}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0

Note: identity is a string of letters, numbers, and dashes.

• Right click on compact Check count, and select Modify

• change value data to 0
• Click OK
• Close the registry editor and restart your machine.

If you have other solution to solve this problem, please do not hesitate to share with via leaving your comment here.