Tag Archives: Technology

Disable Automatic Reboot after Windows Updates on Windows XP Home and Pro

If you are reading this post, you are probably about as annoyed as I am about seeing the following: Well, after a bit of googling I found the fix! Best part about it is that it’s quite simple to fix whether you have XP Pro or Home. Check it out at Code Retard. Hopefully this [...]

.SQL Files launch a new instance of SQL Server Management Studio instead of opening a new query window (Windows 7)

I had an issue where doubleclicking on a .SQL file always launched a new instance of SSMS instead of just creating a new query window. Needless to say, it was a bit annoying. Usually, you would fix this by deleting and recreating the file association. Well, thanks to Microsoft’s wonderful engineers, Windows Vista and 7 [...]

Exmerge – Permissions Error

When running the Microsoft Exmerge utility, you may receive the following error in your exmerge.log file: Error opening message store (MSEMS). Verify that the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service is running and that you have the correct permissions to log on. (0x8004011d) Even though you may be a Domain Admin or Enterprise Admin, you will [...]

sysprep fails on Windows 2008 Server Enterprise and Standard

When running sysprep tool with the /generalize switch on Windows Server 2008 Standard, I received the following errors (viewable in C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\panther\setupact.log): Error [0x0f0082] SYSPRP LaunchDll:Failure occurred while executing ‘C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer returned error code 2 Error [0x0f0070] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = 2 Error [0x0f00a8] SYSPRP [...]

Android Phones coming soon to Verizon

Well, Verizon and Google had a joint press conference announcing the soon coming release of two Android powered Smartphones on the Verizon network. While they didn’t give many specific details, they said the release would be “in the coming weeks”. While they didn’t specify what phones, Verizon CEO and Google CEO were holding what seems [...]

Microsoft breaks Firefox – go figure…

We all know that Microsoft hates their competition and will do anything to eliminate it (but not before stealing it’s technology). While you may think it’s just another bug in Microsoft’s programming, some seem to think they are trying to sabotage Firefox and their growing market-share. A while back, Microsoft silently installed an addon to [...]

Scheduled Tasks in Windows Server 2003 – Executing a Batch File – Error: Could not start

When executing a batch file via scheduled task, cmd.exe is called by the user the task is running as. If you use the default user, or a user with administrative rights, it works perfectly. What happens when you want to lock down permissions and run the task as a non-administrative user? Chances are, you will [...]

Jared Newman, PC World – You got it wrong this time.

Network Woes? Hate the iPhone, Not AT&T – PC World Historically speaking, AT&T has always had horrible service reception, dropped calls and customer service. Not to mention frequent billing mistakes that take months to fix if they ever do get fixed. I personally had to call the FCC and PUCO to file federal disputes with [...]

Web Browser Market Share

As a web developer, I like to know what browsers are likely to be hitting sites I design. There are many sources for this information on the net, but the numbers seem to vary greatly. Fortunately, I found a wikipedia page that has stats from several sources as well as the average among the listed [...]

Video Game System Reliability Report is in!

SquareTrade, a 3rd party video game warranty company, released a report giving their statistics of failed game systems (X360, PS3, WII). Not surprisingly, the X360 has the highest failure rate (typical of everything microsoft?) and the WII has the lowest (typical of Nintendo’s history). In this report, the following is their summary: X360 Failure Rate: [...]