Archive for November, 2008
Why is Outlook 2007 showing red Xs instead of my pictures?
Nov 25th
We got this message from Fred early in the AM. I guess its great for him that we don’t sleep past 7AM anymore!
I am using Outlook 2007. When I get email the pictures show as Red boxes with “X”’s in them. I used to be able to right click on the boxes and download the pictures. Now for some reason, I right click but the pictures don’t download. I don’t get the option to download a second time so the system must think the pictures are showing. Please help.
We went back and forth trying to enable and disable security options inside Outlook and Internet Explorer but we weren’t having any luck. I didn’t want our faithful reader to start bashing his head against the monitor. So I said screw it and went a’ looking for the registry value. Here is what I wrote back to Fred:
Found the solution, it is a registry entry called BlockHTTPImages found at this location.
\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\BlockHTTPImages
change the value 1 to 0 (zero) and reboot. All your images should have returned.
I was sure that was going to resolve our early morning Outlook hi-jinks and it sure did! Here was Fred’s final response:
YOU DID IT!!!! I don’t know how to thank you. This has been driving me nuts! I found that a lot of people are having the same problem (from reading other forums) and nobody had a solution. Thanks again. Fred
Re-Calibrating uTorrent For Maximum Download Speeds
Nov 25th
For many, this is pretty basic stuff, –even common sense. For others, not so much. First of all, determine whether or not you’ll need to set up port forwarding for your connection to remain stable and useful. In essence, find out whether or not you’re on a router. Or just open uTorrent real quick; look at the bottom of the window.
There should be small chambers along the bottom: DHT: (nodes); a symbol indicating your connection status; D: downloading stats; U: uploading stats. Double click the symbol indicating your connection status, –if it’s a green check mark, you don’t need port forwarding.
Otherwise, double click, and then click the button on the pop up that says “Test if port is forwarded properly”. Your browser will open to a window or tab that states your IP and what the status of your port is. It will plainly tell you if your port is not correctly forwarded or if it is. If it isn’t, check out Portforward.com, –they give step by step tutorials for even the worst techno-tard.
Once your port is correctly forwarded, or if it already is, follow these steps to make uTorrent download at the best speeds:
Open uTorrent -> Options -> Preferences -> Bandwidth
Set Maximum Upload Rate to 20 kbp/s
Set Maximum Download Rate to 0 (unlimited)
Set Global Maximum Number of Connections to 800
Set Global Maximum Number of Peers Connected Per Torrent to 125
Set Maximum Number of Upload Slots Per Torrent to 25
Click Apply -. OK
And you’re all set!
Written for AskTheAdmin by Vernon Southward from DevicePedia.com
A real time waster and retro joy for this gloomy Tuesday.
Nov 25th
Be fore-warned, head my warning, listen well young reader… .. insert any other corny sounding warnings you can think up here…
This will consume your free time. It is worse than Snood or the Image labeler from Google.
Your favorite Plumber turned strange creature hunter, princess rescuer and now some kind of strange floating bubble spewing guy is BACK!
And now he is in a SUPER small game for your PC that requires NO INSTALLATION! It is pretty neat and has sucked in a lot of bit of my precious time away! Check out these screen shots and then go get your Mario on over here (That link was dead here is a direct link)- it’s a free download. Thanks OrangeInks
Anyone else have some good free online games that they are into? Share em’ with us in the comments – DON’T BE A DEADBEAT! Sharing is caring :)
Troubleshooting using Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset
Nov 23rd
We have all been stuck between a rock and a hard place at one time or another…
Stuck staring blankly at a Windows machine that just won’t boot. I have been recommending this re-branded toolkit left and right recently so here is a little more information on it for you guys:
This nifty tool allows you to boot from a CD into a special diagnostics environment which enables you to:
- Fix boot problems (boot.ini/Chkdsk)
- Edit the Registry offline
- Change Services/Drivers startup state
- Restore to an earlier Restore Point even if Windows fails to start in Safe-Mode
- Reset the administrator password (or any other account)
- Easily remove malware & viruses while scanning the system offline
- Recover lost data while the system is offline (undelete files, folders or partitions)
The tool fully supports TCP/IP networking for sharing folders and remote troubleshooting.
The environment partially-supports running other Windows applications for Virus cleaning, un-deleting files and more. Most applications that will work flawlessly are the one that designed to run without installation and no run-time libraries (.Net framework, etc.)
The original name of the product is “ERD Commander” from Winternals. Microsoft bought the company and now calls that same product by the name:
Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset
The download link above is for a fully-featured 30-days evaluation version of the product. this application is intended for Enterprise IT Professionals (as a Volume Licensing Extra).
I recommend on playing with it inside a Virtual PC/VMware workstation. you will be thankful that you’ve heard about this tool on your next BSOD!
Note that this product officially support the Windows 2000/XP systems only (although it can be used for any other version too…)
Enjoy!
Dont miss that deadline. Here is a great app to go with your great excuse!
Nov 19th
Hey there drunkey…
That long weekend has come and gone? So has your deadline but not your hang over?
Don’t worry AtA to the rescue…
Well Kinda.
Everyone remembers the old my dog ate my homework excuse. Doesn’t it work so much better when it is accompanied by a shredded bitten up report?
Well now instead use this century’s version of the dog excuse… The “my computer crapped out excuse” So I couldn’t finish my power point presentation. And here is a nifty little web based application to give you a flucked up file to go with your excuse. File Destructor will give you an un-openable file of whatever size you want to give the illusion of work gone ka-bloooie (Technical Term).
We were going to use the site’s description but Download Squad came up with a much funnier one:
Look, we know you meant to paper that report last night. Sure, your final grade depends on it. But you know, the call of World of Warcraft was just too great. So what are you going to do? You could bust your butt to finish your paper today and still hand it in late. Or you could send your teacher a “corrupted” file called “term paper.doc” and hope that by the time she figures out what you’ve done, you can finish your assignment and send it in with a note saying “sorry, I think there was a problem with my computer.”
File Destructor is a web tool that lets you create junk files look like real files, except they don’t do anything. Need a 312MB MPG file or a 12KB Word document? File Destructor can help. Or rather, it can’t, but it can make it look like you’ve got such a file. A word of caution though: While you can create and download a phony Word or text document in no time flat, it takes a while to download large files from File Destructor. So we wouldn’t recommend faking your film class’s final video project.
It probably goes without saying, but Download Squad assumes absolutely no responsibility if you should be dumb enough to actually try anything we recommended in the previous two paragraphs. [Via DownloadSquad]
Pretty neat huh? AskTheAdmin.com doesn’t warn you not to use this… We encourage our readers to try and get over! ( Unless we are liable for that! Then let’s just keep this between you me and the rest of the readers :)! )
_TheSchemeingAdmiN_
Can I make my Windows Machine Shutdown Quicker?
Nov 17th
Do you hate how Windows 2000, XP or Vista takes its sweet ass time to reboot or shutdown?
Your machine asks you if you are sure you want to kill your open apps? I did just hit restart – didn’t I? It requires more than one click so when I click it I mean it!
Our good friends at Microsoft have decided we need them to put in a safeguard from ourselves so we do not loose unsaved work. Funk that!
AtA readers don’t want to be told what we can or can not do. And if you are a fly by the seat of you pants kinda guy like us (or a fly by the seat of your skirt kinda gal :)) and you don’t worry about losing files…
You just want the computer to reboot ASAP – then this quick registry hack is for you.
It will enable Windows to auto kill your tasks without prompting you to save. So 1 make sure you really really mean to restart or shutdown when you click it and 2 Make sure you really mean restart or shutdown when you click it. Yes I meant to write the same thing twice.
As always modifying your registry can seriously screw up your computer so create a backup or system restore point before you make the changes below:
- Open up your Start-Menu.
- Choose RUN
- Type regedit to open up the registry editor.
- Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER >>>>>> Control Panel >>>>>> Desktop.
- Set the key “AutoEndTasks” value to 1.
Now when you initiate your reboot sequence you can walk away and be sure the machine will be back at the login screen when you return.
