Tech Support Me

The print spooler service is not running Error!

So your getting the following error when you try to install a Printer in Windows.

Operation could not be completed. The print spooler service is not running.

How to fix The print spooler service is not running Error

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog Start and type services.msc and click OK.

2. Double-click the Printer Spooler service, and then change the startup type to Automatic. This sets the Spooler service to start automatically when you restart the computer. Click OK. Read more…

What is Bonjour and mDNSResponder.exe?
Bonjour, also known as zero-configuration networking or Zeroconf. It enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. Bonjour uses industry standard IP protocols to allow devices to automatically discover each other without the need to enter IP addresses or configure DNS servers (naming servers).

If you open Services.msc (start > run > services.msc >ok) and see the following or If the first line in the list of services looks similar to ##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##, then Bonjour is installed on your system.

Why Do I Have Bonjour or mDNSResponder.exe running?
If you’ve installed software like Apple’s iTunes, Adobe Premiere Pro, Skype or Gizmo then you probably already a Bonjour folder in your Program Files directory. The service starts automatically and runs a process named mDNSResponder.exe which cannot be ended by Windows Task Manager. If you wanted to remove, uninstall or stop Bonjour from being on your computer then it can seam impossible to find any uninstaller for it! There isn’t even an entry for it in Control Panel’s Add or Remove Programs.

How do I safely uninstall Bonjour and remove mDNSResponder.exe process?

Removing Bonjour from your computer.

1. Click on Start > Run > type the command below and hit OK. Read more…

If you have lost your recycle bin from your desk top on windows vista then the follwoing might help

Basically The Recycle Bin does not appear on the desktop in Windows Vista or in Windows XP. Therefore, you cannot use the Recycle Bin to do such tasks as restoring a file that was deleted. Hopfully we can help you make the Recycle Bin work again.

Several issues could cause this problem:

• A third-party program was used to hide the Recycle Bin.
• The TweakUI program was used to hide the Recycle Bin.
• The registry information for the Recycle Bin was deleted.
• A Group Policy setting was used to hide the Recycle Bin.

You can automatically fix the problem by downloading this file from Microsoft.

Or if you prefer the manual method – Read more…

Got this error the other day repeatedly at bootup so I thought I would share the fix with you

Microsoft Windows Search Indexer stopped working and was closed
A problem caused the application to stop working correctly. Windows will notify you if a solution is available.

So I went into services and disabled it (and I had to also disable the automatic retry separately or it kept starting despite being “disabled”). Any attempt to manually start it there gives me:

Windows could not start the Windows Search service on Local Computer.

Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.

The fix is to delete all files related to search indexing, located by default at:

C:ProgramDataMicrosoftSearchDataApplicationsWindows

and:

C:ProgramDataMicrosoftSearchDataTemp

Note that these are both system directories – You can access it without changing your folder options, just type the shortcut to the folders in the address bar of windows explorer. Or if you want to show hidden folders, you go into Control Panel, (make sure you’re in classic view) and you click on the icon labeled Folder Options, at which point you go into the View tab, there is a sub-folder about halfway down entitled Hidden Files and Folders, click the button next to Show Hidden Files and Folders.

Delete all files and folders in these directories.

Then, change the service back to starting automatically. You still can’t start the service until you reboot, at which time Windows will rebuild the index for you.

One of the most annoying things to happen is when your playing your favirate game and you hammer the shift key five or more times. Windows kicks you out to the desktop and displays the following screen

This happens to me a lot when im playing Call of Duty 5 or Call of Duty 4 as my run key is Shift, so im there playing and running around and I hit the shift key to get away from other people trying to kill me, then without warning Sticky keys notification minimises the game and asks me if I want to enable sticky keys! How annoying! here is how to stop it. Read more…

Author Ken Kirby PCModHouse.com

One of the best ways to improve your case’s looks without spending huge money is to spray-paint it. Getting serious with spray-paint is more about patience than money, but your case will still look like a million dollars

Getting that show car shine on your case is a great way to grab serious attention. In this chapter, I will reveal the secrets to getting your case to have the gloss of a new BMW, but for the price of a used Geo. Professionals use compressed air and special equipment to paint. But you can get results that are just as good with a “rattlecan” and some sanding techniques. First we will cover the proper techniques for surface preparation, and paint application. Then we will deal with applying the clear coat and finish the sanding. You can paint your case according to this chapter and have a great looking case, but by adding the finishing touches you can have the show car look that will turn heads.

Your total budget for this project will be under Forty dollars (and you can do just the first portion for fewer than twenty). You’ll need:

1x can of primer
1x or more cans of spray-paint in your choice of color
1x can of clear coat

For surface preparation, you’ll need a sheet each of 220, 320, and 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, and a sanding block. For finish sanding, you’ll need a sheet each of 600, 1000, and 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper, a wire brush, paint stripper (both for correcting mistakes), plus rubbing compound. The rubbing can be found in any automotive supply store. You’ll also want two or three clean tack cloths Read more…

Author Ken Kirby PCModHouse.com

I like to keep my links available at the top of my IE page. I also like to keep them personalized. You can do this too.

First, unlock your Toolbar by right clicking where your Back, Forward and Home buttons are

Then select to have your links available Read more…

If you have inserted a USB Stick or external HDD and its not there in the my computer as a drive then try the following.

1. Open Control Panel and double click Administrative Tools
2. Double click Computer Management
3.  Left click Disk management in the left hand task plane
4. Use the lower right hand task plane to find the removable device 
5. Right click the removable disks space and select Change drive letter and Paths…
6. Click Change and select a letter that is not in use
7. Select a letter that is not in use
8. Click Ok and click Yes to the warning (becarefull to only do this to drives that are not in use, dont do it to your windows drive!!)
9. Now the drive will appear in My Computer

Alternativly you could try Acronis Disk Management to takle any other disk related problems

Thanks to Ewa Paszkiewicz for this Article

This problem started to hit me just the other day, I litrally tried everything I could to to solve it, removing programs using appwiz.cpl (because I could not get into control panel) – Running appwiz.cpl from the run line opens add and remove programs without going into control panel.

Anyway this didnt solve it! so I did some more digging and I narrowed it down to a faulty cpl file existing on my system. Heres what I did Read more…

I know a few of you have contacted me regarding  reciving a NTLDR  error so I thought I would trouble shoot this one for you a bit.

Known Errors

Below are the full error messages that may be seen when the computer is booting.

NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart

Boot: Couldn’t find NTLDR
Please insert another disk

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to Restart

Why is it happining?

1. Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.
2. Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
3. Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
4. New hard disk drive being added.
5. Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file.
6. Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
7. Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
8. Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.

Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.
Verify the computer hard disk drive cable is firmly connected by disconnected and reconnecting the cable. Read more…

We wouldnt be a Tech Support site if we didnt have a list of Vista Tech Tip, Tweaks and Tricks we hope you enjoy this list!

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1. Instant search

The Instant Search box is at the bottom of the Start menu. Read more…

For a complete list of Windows Vista keyboard shortcuts click Microsoft Windows Vista Help pages. The complete list is quite large and some are hard to remember. So here is a trimmed down list of keyboard shortcuts Read more…

1. Move Page File to Different Physical Drive
If you have more than one physical drive in your computer, this guide is for you. The page file can take a considerable toll on your system drive – by moving the page file to a separate drive, you can increase overall performance. 

Press Start, right click on Computer, and select Properties, then In the left-hand pane, select Advanced System Settings. 

Click the Advanced tab and under Performance, select Settings. Uncheck ―Automatically Manage Paging File Size for All Drives. 

Select the different physical drive that you want your paging file to now be stored on (e.g. D) and select System managed size and press Set (make sure this is the first partition on the second drive). Select the drive that contains your paging file (usually C), select the Custom Size option, set the original and maximum size, and press Set, Your page file will now need to rebuild on the new drive – this may temporarily slow performance. Note: The reason for keeping around 1GB on the OS drive is because Windows Vista needs still some pagefile space there.

2. Rebuild the Page File

Read more…

Settlers 2. what a great game! if only it worked on Vista… well guess what it can

Here is a step by step guide to get it running.

1) Download DOSBox from here

2) Run the DOSBox installer

Ok this might be of use if you are looking to install VNC accross a network, maybe via active directory or even if you just want a nice cool way to setup vnc without any hassle, it also checks and uninstalls a previous version.

Read more…

I have recently designed a new website for Lascom Solutions (www.0870ver.co.uk) and have been trying to promote the site on Google. I was only aware of the Google addURL service to add a website to Google searches and didn’t know that if you have a Google account you can submit your site to their webmaster tools to monitor Google bot Crawls, keyword searches and page rankings!

Its a really slick user interface and gives a great insight in to what Google is doing with your website, putting more control back in the webmasters hands.

I also found that they like you to create an XML sitemap which can help improve page rankings(the sitemap for this site is here), I found this website which will automatically generate one for you, which you manually upload to your site. This blog uses a WordPress auto-sitemap plugin which generates one every time content changes!

Put the following into a .bat file and run

wsus.bat:
secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy /enforce
gpupdate
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate /v AccountDomainSid /f
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate /v PingID /f
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate /v SusClientId /f
cls
@echo Triggering detection after resetting WSUS client identity
net stop wuauserv
net start wuauserv
wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow

While I was working at my last company I was asked to put together a build system that could detect and check files that could be flashed to a Watchguard Firebox Edge x10e or a SOHO TC6.

Basically it takes a file .cfg file checks to see if it a valid file format for either device and then checks the device is connected.

What you need is a PC with a nic set to DHCP that can be connected to the firebox, debian etch installed with nmap installed (aptitude install nmap)

Its very crude but it works!

The files are in bash script format
Read more…


sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

1. Add the following lines to the end of the file:

#Kiba-Dock
deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy

1. Save and Exit Gedit.
2. Run from the terminal window:

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb/DD800CD9.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kiba-dock
sudo apt-get install kiba-dock-dev
sudo apt-get install kiba-plugins


Network Layout

(10.0.2.0/24) ---> (10.0.2.2)
[NAT 10.0.2.2 <-> 10.130.0.2]
LAN A VPN Gateway
(193.115.229.12)
||
||
||
(193.115.229.11)
LAN B VPN Gateway B
(10.200.x.x/28) ---> (10.200.x.2)
||
||
||
(10.0.2.0/24)
LAN C

The aim is to have the two LANs on either end communicating freely with each other across a VPN tunnel where there is a confilct in the address ranges (LAN A and LAN C). In the test setup the VPN gateways have public IP addresses as the VPN tunnel will run over the Internet. Obviously, the gateways have two network interfaces – an internal interface (.2) and an external interface (.12 or .13)

Read more…