Windows Vista Forum / General Technical / Vista Technical

Auto Login..?

dealrocker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:11:50 GMT

My friend recently got a new laptop with Vista and he doesn't want to login with the password each time when he turn on her laptop. Wondering is there any way to make Vista do that like Windows XP does? e.g. when I turn on my laptop, I directly access the desktop and don't have to do anything.

Many thanks in advance.

Sidebar - White screen

liebach — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:46:52 GMT

I have 2 annoying problems with Vista (SP2 - x86):

1. Every time I boot or re-boot my PC, my Sidebar Gadgets is out of order so I have to rearrange them manual myself. Very annoying!

2. For a couple of weeks ago, my PC began to boot slowly into Vista. When the Vista logo is shown and when the bluegreen Logon screen is shown, then a completely white screen is shown for a long time before my desktop appears. This is also very annoying.

I hope for some help now in this forum I have found. Thank you!

[SOLVED] Error message: "Login process has failed to create the security options dialog"

lasix1 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:33:07 GMT

I'm running Vista Home Premium on a one-year-old HP Pavilion desktop. 2G of Ram, 250G Hard drive. It randomly locks up.Thescreen goes blank, the mouse cursor is visible and movable but I cannot right click and get any anything to happen. When I hit ctrl-alt-del to bring up the task manager, nothing happens for several minutes and then I get (sometimes) an error message Titled:
Login process has failed to create the security options dialog
With a dialog message of:
Failure - Security Options

At that point the only remedy is a hard shutdown. This happens sometimes 2-3 times a day. When it reboots the incident does not appear in the event log. Oh yes, when this happens, the hard drive tends to wheeze and whirr likes its having a heart attack.

There are references to this on the internet, and I saw one on the Vista 64 forum, but I have yet to see any real causes or solutions advanced. One person indicated he had gotten rid of the problem by putting in a new hard drive, but this seems drastic to me since there is no other evidence that the hard drive is bad.

If anyone has an answer to this, I will be very grateful.

Troubleshooting Windows Explorer crashes

WAW8 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:02:58 GMT

Just found the following link that provides some hints on troubleshooting Windows Explorer crashes:

[url] http://www.winvistaclub.com/t41.html [/url]

Sidebar disappeared

mschaef6 — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:15:21 GMT

Hi all,

About a month ago, I noticed that my Windows Sidebar no longer appeared. I tried restarting my computer several times to no avail. I go to my programs and click the Windows Sidebar, and an icon shows up in the system tray. Now, the weird part...when I hover the mouse over the icon in the system tray, it disappears. I can repeat this over and over, and each time it disappears when the mouse hovers over it.

Also, when I restart my computer, two or three of the sidebar icons appear in the system tray. They all disappear when my mouse hovers over them.

I didn't really try to fix anything for a while, but now that I'm back at school I've noticed that I used it quite a bit and would like it back. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate any help.

Thank you!

problem with desktop

Andromida — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:10:09 GMT

grandchildren have turned my desktop to portrait instead of landscape, how do i turn it back?. It is a laptop running Vista.

How do I change file extension?

pcurd — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:01:55 GMT

Specifically "CPI"

Or for that matter have the file extension show up the way Windows XP shows a file extension.

Thank you.

Automatic Shut Off

ruffy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:16:17 GMT

How to I make sure that the computer shuts off
or ?forces a logoff at a certain time.

I want to control the computer access time
I allow my kids, say, "No longer than 10:00 pm"

Thanks!

Windows can't check for updates.

Kitty89 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:03:07 GMT

My windows updater can't seem to check for updates... although when i does and i go to install them, i get the error code 8007010B can anyone help me solve this problem please?

Desktop not loading properly

arjuna89 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:16:40 GMT

When vista loads it loads all the way to the desktop, but what I'm left with is a black screen with a broken, unresponsive taskbar.

Oddly enough, I can still do normal operations such as ctrl+alt+delete

I've tried registry fixes, system restore, virus scan with multiple programs, many things.

Here's the error from the "Problem Reports and Solutions":

Product
Windows Explorer

Problem
Stopped responding and was closed

Date
10/31/2009 2:12 AM

Status
Report Sent

Description
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: explorer.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6002.18005
Application Timestamp: 49e01da5
Hang Signature: 8154
Hang Type: 4
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: d80356e813bd4ffe22e694152a46cf49
Additional Hang Signature 2: b144
Additional Hang Signature 3: 7ce69e15c1f650ca9baaff3b64f3c2e9
Additional Hang Signature 4: 840e
Additional Hang Signature 5: 6a8108b0e7e51d368b146123940462df
Additional Hang Signature 6: ef0f
Additional Hang Signature 7: 4b9d445ad265f413d05e34952bfa098f

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 618088093

---------

I have to use safemode otherwise I get the same thing. I've tried resetting explorer.exe over and over, and that sometimes jolts the taskbar to function. But I still have this black screen.

I haven't done anything to this machine that could have caused this.

The only thing I did that fits in the timeframe of the malfunction is copy+pasting a few .txt files to my external harddrive (something I've done zillions of times before)

Re-Installing Vista is out of the question, as I'm sure there is a better solution.

Please, I seriously need assistance or I am going to loose my freaking mind.

I can change of my read-only files attribute :(

vedo35 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:42:00 GMT

Hello friends i have big and irritable problem with vista. I dont know how i will solve. I did what are they adviceing on Google same sh..t nothing changing.

My problem since i started to use vista i dont know how come vista doing the files and folders read only files. I didn`t do when i was xp using this files and folders werent read only. !! After vista use, my dear vista !!! decided to make my this important files read only and even i cant change anymore to normal files and folders. For example delete, change the name etc...

Always i am getting of this message :

" You will need to provide administrator permission to change these attributes click continiue to complete this operation"

when i do i am getting access is denied. to my files. I am admin i have permision for all things but still doing this thing. I found a lot of advices i did but some advices like a roman. A lot of story. What is easies and fast solve of this problem? I am sending of my problem foto shot. I hope somebody can help me before i get crazy. Thanks and regards.

problem image link is :

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5623/vistaproblem.jpg

How to synce most MP3s with iTunes

VistaHax — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:28:28 GMT

Here's the link to the full video i made showing you how to do it all and use the program, video contains all links and comparability list.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5BWRuqydqc

remote access

joeyd — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:27:47 GMT

hello, I am a Vista novice and this forum has helped me in my learning process... i received a new computer with vista as a gift from an ex... i realized that it had been opened and repacked which i thought was odd..now, several months later i have learned about remote access and was wondering if there is any way i can tell if my computer is being accessed remotely by looking at my screen... could my ex have set up this computer to be accessed remotely and how can i tell....i know that the computer was opened and used before i used it for the first time.... any info would be appreciated...joeyd

How to control downloads?

pitiot4life — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:55:35 GMT

So I will be moving into a home that has 2 teenagers. I don't mind if they use my computer but I want to be a ble to turn off any kind of downloading and auto-downloads (from bad websites or opening emails) and so they can't download stuff like Limewire or Kazaa. I know I can just block these sites, but HOW? I have made an account with "standard user" abilities. I have at the moment AVG anti virus but have been too lazy to install Avast (my #1 trusted AV for the past 5 years) but I will be doing that before we move.

Any help would be appreciated. :D

Video thumbnail preview images are gone!

chromatica — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:16:48 GMT

So after installing itunes the other day, i'm now noticing that the thumbnail previews for my video folder are gone..... well for most but not all the videos.
If I copy and paste one of the videos that still has it's thumbnail into a different folder it's thumbnail goes away.

I've made sure wmp11 is set to default for every thing.
I've checked and then unchecked the "only show icons never show thumbnails", but that didn't work either.

What the crap happend?

Can't save to desktop

Bryan G — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:02:55 GMT

when I try to save something to the desktop it saves to the wrong users desktop. If I open a folder that's on the desktop I see it's the desktop of user1. When I try to save something to the desktop, it goes to user2's desktop.

Persistant nagging about adapter.

meamjw — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:42:39 GMT

Every time my computer starts, I get a nag saying an incompatible display adapter has been disabled. The display works just fine, so I obviously don't even need that adapter. I have tried several times to uninstall it, but Vista puts it right back so it will have an excuse to keep nagging. Not sure, but think the only reason that adapter is on my computer may be from an attempt (about a year ago) to set up the use of two monitors. The main point is: I don't need it, don't want it, but stubborn Vista insists on keeping it so it can keep nagging. Tell me how to give Vista an attitude adjustment!

Folder Icons Won't Show

jkennedy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:35:45 GMT

Hello, I am having a problem where the folder and file icons will not show up in Windows Explorer without switching the view to a smaller icon view or list view, then enlarging back to large image view (if I am lucky). This problem is very annoying and happened about a month or so ago.

Vista cannot check for updates

amyandmarshall — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:33:15 GMT

I've been struggling to update Vosta for four days now...

I tried system restore and just about every other fix I could find on the internet. Scanned for viruses and the like did, all the standard stuff--no result. Not even the pinned windows update topic on here worked (I could never delete the file to try).

Can anybody help me with this problem?

Thanks.

About to throw my computer out the window....

seventhirteen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:25:32 GMT

I have windows Ultimate...had it for about a year now and i honestly cant stand it anymore....

Im having WAY too many problems with it lately..

However the most recent one I cant seem to find any direct help support from the internet forums so ive finally decided to post.

So this is the problem. I go into itunes, press sync songs to iPhone and after about 10 seconds it says Itunes has stopped working and closes the program....it was honestly working just 1 week ago and just now nothing seems to fix it.

Plz if anyone knows wats going on plz help me....

Repairing Windows Update

WAW8 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:08:39 GMT

If you run into the problem where Windows Update refuses to install updates, here is a solution Jason found on some other sites which seems to work pretty good if you do everything right! Apparently Microsoft knows this is a problem and has no solution but this works!

The issue is that the WUA 3.0 (7.0.6000.374) upgrade is corrupted,
essentially the system reports the WUA to be 7.0.6000.374 but the files on
the disk are still from the old version (you can check some of the DLLs like
wups.dll, wuaueng.dll etc... in the windows\system32) ... and you cannot
install the WUA 3.0 even manually.

Delete the following file:

C:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml

Since Windows security will not allow you to do this, hereunder the
procedure to take ownership of the file:

Run a command prompt with "Run as Administrator".
Type in the following commands:

takeown /f C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml

cacls C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml /G :F

Then delete the file

del C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml

Reboot the machine, then manually install the WUA 3.0 downloadable from
here: http://download.windowsupdate.com/v7/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe

This should fix the Error 80073712 when the other solutions do not work.

BE AWARE that renaming C:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml might have
unrecoverable impacts on your Vista installation

NOTE:

As a result of this comand:

takeown /f C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml

your user name will display which you can use in place in
this command (drop the < and >, one space after G and no space after
):

cacls C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml /G :F

If the del command works (no errors displayed) you can go on and do the
download of Windows Update.

[Update]: There are reports that Comodo firewall is preventing Windows Update from working. You not only have to disable Comodo; you have to completely uninstall it.
Check to see if you have Comodo installed or running.

[Tut]Fix a broken keyboard, mouse and USB.

SirDanielot — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:00:02 GMT

Hey all, my keyboard wasn't working the other day. The Web/Home, Search, Mail and Calculator buttons were working so i knew it wasnt the keyboard. This is how i fixed it.

1.Go to Control Panel

Next go to System and Maintenance, then scroll down to device manager.

3. Look through the list for 'Human Interface Devices', your not working Keyboard, USB or Mouse should be on that list with a Yellow Triange with an exclamation mark in the middle.

(Note: My keyboard is working fine atm. If it doesnt work ill take a screen shot.

4. Right click the device with the triangle and press uninstall.

Replug in your device and it should reinstall the driver.

Hope i helped,

SirDanielot.

Speaker issue - please can someone help me~?

Hisomi — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:42:11 GMT

I am at a complete loss.

Everything was working perfectly and then suddenly last night all sound was diverted to the right speaker. Naturally I thought I had done something to accidentally mess up the balance - but the balance is still at 100/100. When I try to do a sound test both speakers work fine - however when I play movies/games/listen to music on the computer, all sound is diverted to the right speaker.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Vista wont load, but i need to re-install it..

getslinky — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:04:59 GMT

Hey

My computer has gone through a major breakdown, and now will not load.
So i need to format. When i put the installation cd in, it loads. But then when i put my cd key in, it says 'to use this cd key, please install vista when vista is running'. So what can i do? I can't format from the installation cd or vista itself!

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 fails

tony2010 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:53:34 GMT

Hi,

I had notice of 6 or 7 updates this morning for Vista.

I had to install them all 1 by 1, because I kept getting message: "Unable to update, reverting Windows"

I found which one wont install, "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 (KB974455)

Anyone else has same problem? Solution? Thanks.

windows manager

jhavens1 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:07:35 GMT

I down loaded the Windows dream scenes but they won't run. Says Windows Manager is not turned on or not running. Can't figure out how to deal with this problem. Any help would be appreciated.

monitor resolution isn't available

obvious_hat — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:08:55 GMT

After reinstalling windows vista I could not find the appropriate resolution for my monitor. My monitor is 1440 by 900 but this setting is unavailable. Infact, all of the widescreen resolutions are unavailable. Is there anyway I can manually fix this. Also, my computer does neglect to recognise my graphics card in which the monitor is plugged. Could this have anything to do with my monitor resolution proble,? As well as that my windows vista theme has went odd. I currently have windows vista basic and my theme looks like the following LINK however, my brothers theme, using the same os, looks like windows aero without the transparencies. If anyone can solve any of my problems preferably the first I will be very thankfull :)

Vista Registry access problems

TonyMacaroni — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:41:06 GMT

Any help would be appreciated as I am totally stuck!

Only have one account on Vista Home Premium, which I set up when first loading up the PC - this account is the admin account.

I recently trialled some Adobe software, the software ran out and I attempted to uninstall. An error message came up saying I didn't have sufficient priveledges to write to the key/registry and I couldn't properly uninstall. I followed some instructions and tried to make the key available to access using permissions, this seemed to work. It still wasn't uninstalling so I searched the net and came across Revo Uninstaller, and managed to remove all instances of the software.

I then attempted to install some different software and this failed with a similar message - "do not have permission to access the key"...

Today I tried to load up iTunes and now I'm getting the same message when double-clicking the logo on desktop. So I attempted to uninstall iTunes, then re-install. I can't uninstall as I get a registry key error message again, and when I try to install the same error occurs.

Everything points to me not being able to have full permissions to access the registry, but I can't find out exactly how to:

1. Uninstall correctly
2. Reinstall correctly

If anyone can help I would appreciate it - otherwise, I'm going to wait until Windows 7 comes out, wipe my HD and do a fresh install

Thanks,
Tony

Game Consul Not Working

Mellie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:27:57 GMT

While playing a game a msg popped up saying the Game Consul had quit working. After closing the game I am unable to start any again. I double-click and it does nothing.

How can I fix this?

Thanks,
Melody

dll error

Kortprosess — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:28:07 GMT

Somthing happened one day with windows defender. A dll file from windows system was put in carantine. And when i tried to recover the file i got this message that the file could not be recovered!

This was i while ago, and i dont remember what the file was named. Stupid of me not to do anyhing right there and then!

here is the thing,
When i start apple safari, vista tells me that "cannot initialice dll resource, press OK to exit"

This happens when i right-click on files, and when i start safari, + internet-explorer.

I use vista 32 bit home premium.

Hope any of you can give me a hint on what to do here. Becouse vista`s not finding anything when i do a scan, and i cant do a reboot with recovery becouse this happend some time ago...

Allso did a scan on cmd.exe, sfc/scannow and it found some errors. windows recource protection found some injured files, but could not repair any of them. it sais that i should look at the log windir\logs\cbs\cbs.log , but when i try to open it it wont. Im not sure if this is relevant info, but i hope we can figure it out together.

Its not that the laptop aint working or anything like that.. But one problem can lead to another.

In advance thank you!

Page switching to google image search

Lake Show — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:26:27 GMT

Any ideas as to why my page switches to a Google Image Search? I am running IE 8 and when I'm in the Yoville application, the page automatically switches. I have had this problem in the past but not on a specific application. I have switched from IE 7 to IE 8 hoping that would solve the issue. I have already ran Malwarebytes and fixed the issues. I also have ran CCleaner and am still having the problem. When I use Firefox, I do not have this problem. Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks.

Extended desktop resolution changes after login

victgann — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:05:25 GMT

Hi all -

have an annoying issue occuring for a while now - every time i login to my computer - the screen resolution changes to that of my laptop.

My set is as follows -

Extended desktop set up with my Monitor as primary device (1280 x 1024) and notebook as secondary (1280 x 800).

Any ideas how to remedy this?

Cheers -

Vic

Windows Has Recovered From an Unexpected Shutdown

Diddy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:07:39 GMT

Hello,

I've been getting this problem ever since I've had my laptop. It all of a sudden just blacks out, restarts and leaves me with this description. What can I do to fix this???

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen

OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:

BCCode: d1

BCP1: 0000369C

BCP2: 000000FF

BCP3: 00000001

BCP4: 8CC197F0

OS Version: 6_0_6001

Service Pack: 1_0

Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:

C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini040108-01.dmp

C:\Users\Mike Diddy\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-135252-0.sysdata.xml

C:\Users\Mike Diddy\AppData\Local\Temp\WER61ED.tmp.version.txt

Read our privacy statement:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

Slow loading websites

ADKR — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:02:04 GMT

When I open the first website it takes 42 seconds. The second takes 20 no matter what order I open them.
If I close IE or Firefox and re-open the website it takes 32-40 seconds. The second takes 20.
When I open the first program it takes 9 seconds.

I do not have a lot of programs running, run my utilities regularly, use CCleaner daily. My hardrive has 50 of 150g used.

Is there a way to cut down the load time of the initial website?

Vista Home Premium with updates installed
Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion dv9500
1.90 gigahertz AMD Turion 64 X2
4mb RAM

nvidia drivers

aoreste — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:31:33 GMT

Hello.

Here's my problem: i use 2 monitors and one of them is flipped VERICALLY. problem is that with the latest official drivers, i can't vertically flip the display. any solutions?

thanks in advance

Windows button boxes remaining in next window.

hobittual — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:04:33 GMT

Hi. I have Vista. Recently, i have had the button boxes that i will have clicked on to open a new page or window, remaining in the new window. as in, you click on a box saying "next", and the box with the word in it, does not disappear with the rest of the page you have left, but stays in its original position on the screen, overlaying the new page. I have known this to happen on odd occasions but this is happening more often and persists for quite a time.
I have one right now that is the top button on a right click menu, that i used in my email 10 min ago saying "Open".
Any offers on this one.
Thank you
Hobittual.

Local Area Network (LAN)

JamesDeneen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:48:02 GMT

Configuration: In many cases, data are transmitted between computers, terminals, word processing stations and other devices that are located within a compact area such as office building or a headquarters. The communication system used to link these nearby devices is referred to as LAN.

Transmission Lines: Two common configurations of LAN are: a Star-LAN and a Bus-LAN. In case of Star-LAN, there is central controller (file-server) and all network terminal hookups radiate out from this central node like the points of a star. In a Bus-LAN, however a single cable (or bus) is routed from station to station provided the network linkage. Other configurations are Ring-LAN and Tree LAN.

Transmission channel may use everything from pairs of twisted wires to coaxial and fibre-optic cables. The speed of transmission and the network cost varies widely depending upon type of LAN manufactured by different vendors, while others are restricted to components made by a single vendor.

Categories: Most of LANs can be placed in one of the following categories:

High Speed Network: Over 20 million bits per second (MBps) can be transmitted, which provide links between mainframe computers.

Medium Speed Networks: Transmission speeds for these LANs very between 1 MBps and 20 MBps. Suitable for use with mini-computers, these LANs can support a few hundred workstations and other devices.

Low Speed Personal Computer Network: Transmission rates are generally less than 1 MBps. Prices and capabilities very considerable. There are no LANs that will link all brands of personal as well as [url=http://www.intellixmedia.com/index.aspx] Web Design Firm [/url] computers together. Some of the LANs that support more than one brand will allow the different makes to share printers and other peripherals, but they may not allow the different to talk to each other.

Rom driver control 2009(free software)

nainai — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:57:27 GMT

This program can control rom wonderful and the software is free to download compressed packets need not be installed directly decompression use. in vista/windows7

Account picture wont change from default

willzi8 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:31:11 GMT

I'm having trouble changing the account picture from the default flower (without replacing C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp, which is a pain) I have a file called William.dat in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\, but it is a blank file. Is there something I need to do with that?

Note: I have Vista Home Premium, so I can't access the option to disable the default account image through gpedit.msc.

I upgraded to vista now i get artifacts.

scramdor — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:01:28 GMT

i upgraded from windows xp to vista home.

i had no problems with games on xp but now that i got vista my games dont run right. the screen flickers with other colors.

my compter specs.
xfx4890 video card
780sli motherboard made by evga
e8500 3.16ghz cpu
500gb 7200rph hard drive.

i really need this fix i spent alot of money on this computer and vista and i cant play games without the annoying artifacts.