Windows update yet again

So this was going a bit too easy. After installing a fresh copy of Windows XP, including SP2. I went to the update site which prompted me to install SP3, which I did. No problems so far, yet after the new service pack being deployed to the system windows update refused to install any further updates. It found, listed and downloaded them fine but every installation failed. Long story short, if you’re in this situation open up a command prompt. Click start, run, type in cmd and then click ok. In the command prompt type in regsvr32 %windir%system32wups2.dll and hit enter, this registers that dll. Go to the windows update site now, and you’ll have no problems.

If you have xp 64 the dll is located here: %windir%syswow64wups2.dll.

This was after I tried my earlier solution which you can find here.

Where does Outlook Express store email and contacts

At least three months have past since I had to rescue a PC in the family, a new record. One thing I keep forgetting is where, under Windows XP, Outlook Express stores its data. So I’m writing it down here for further reference.

Email messages can be found here: C:Documents and Settings(user name)Local SettingsApplication DataIdentities (under a sub folder there called Outlook Express). The files have a *.dbx extension.

The contact list can be found here: C:Documents and Settings(user name)Application DataMicrosoftAddress Book. The file has a *.wab extension, and it appears it’s prefixed with the user name.

Vista OS X

Kids, don’t try this at home. Errr let me rephrase that, don’t try this at work.

While on my lunch break browsing the Internet I found the site of Vista OS X . Cool ! The site states that it runs on all Vista 32 bit editions with SP1, just disable the UAC and you are good to go.

One install later, mayhem strikes. I didn’t take a screen shot of the end result but believe me it did not look like Leopard or any of the pictures on the site. Oh well, probably this Vista Business edition doesn’t have some necessary component so let’s just uninstall it again. Hmmm, strange the uninstall utility says it’s removed but the dialog box asking if I’d like to uninstall still stares me in the face. On to the control panel ! Hmm, that doesn’t load anymore. Ok, a more drastic option is required, to the restore utility ! Ohw, that doesn’t show up as well. Oops! Another way to get to the system restore options is via Accessories and System Tools, that did open up the screen. The install had stated that a restore point would automatically be created, but it hadn’t. Fortunately for me another program, that I installed earlier that day had, so I was able to reverse the changes.

Lessons learned: make a restore point before installing programs that have a big impact on your system. Some voice inside my head did warn me before I clicked the install button but I chose to ignore it. It’s nice to be reminded the hard way some times ;).

The iPhone has landed

Last week, through a series of events, an iPhone ended up on my desk. I was not planning on getting one, since I really liked my HTC s710 . But if I hated the new phone, I could allways sell it on ebay and make a profit.

The phone has a very nice design, everything just looks good. The box it comes in, the housing, the screen,… it just breathes quality. Now I’m not going to write an in detail review about it, but the most important improvement, if I compare it to my previous phone, is the web surfing. No longer is the layout of any site screwed up, you can zoom in and out on any site. Turn the phone on its side and you get a panoramic view, it’s just amazing, boom! This is significantly better than on the htc, but webmasters should still think about the footprint of their site on smartphones. I read the news on the mobile version of tweakers and while I could use their normal version, I still prefer the lighter one. It loads faster, has less graphical content,… just because the iPhone can display a full web page in all its glory doesn’t mean you can forget people are using other devices to visit your site.

The Youtube integration is a cool feature as well. I was able to get youtube content on my htc with vTap, but no way near the sound and video quality I now have.

Sending mail, nothing special here. Except ofcourse the touchscreen enables the nice scrolling feature which you have in all iPhone applications. There is integration with for instance, google mail, and you get imap integration if supported by the mail provider. But I just stick to the regular pop3.

Music playback, the iPhone is an iPod so you get all of the features they have and more. Most notably is the coverflow which is a visual representation of your music albums. So instead of moving through the folders on the disk you get more of a real life experience of going through your cd collection.

There is plenty more I could talk about but you’ll be able to find all of it on the internet, a good place to start is the Apple site. So what’s my advice on this new toy? Great device, it has a nice user interface, is more stable than my Windows Mobile device, doesn’t hang as much as the htc but it isn’t perfect. There are improvements that should be taken care of, for instance the keyboard doesn’t follow the rotation of your iPhone in all applications. Also I don’t think the device is for everyone, while I enjoy having my mails with me all the time and have the capability to go online everywhere anytime, I’m not Mr. everyday consumer. Most people will settle for a simple cell phone and MP3 player which you can both get for 1/4th of the price. But hey, don’t listen to me, you won’t regret having the device and the Apple marketing machine will probably do it’s best to convince you it’s the next best thing ;).

Below is a side by side comparison for the size.From left to right: a Nokia 5510, a HTC s710, an iPhone. There’s a screen protector with some air between it and the screen on the htc and some fingerprints on the iPhone 🙂 All can be removed easily.

Windows update problem

For some reason, if you’ve studied informatics, people tend to believe you can fix their computers. I really don’t like cleaning up the mess other people create, since most of the time it’s a trivial task.Just read the error message or go to the all mighty google and you’ll be able to fix most problems.

However the latest problem I encountered was more of a challenge. After formatting the hard disk and installing a fresh copy of Windows XP I let it update itself, leading from one error to the next. So I turned off automatic updates, went to the update site myself, selected all the available updates, crash… Although some updates were installed successful some kept on crashing the windows update process. After trying several things the solution that worked in the end was to create two folders ( c:temp and c:wutemp) and clear all the contents of the folder SoftwareDistribution which is under the root directory of where you installed Windows. Note that for this last step you need to turn off the running Automatic Update service. To do this go to control panel, select computer management, select services, then select automatic updates and press the stop button. After you’ve deleted the contents of the SoftwareDistribution folder you can turn this service on again.

So, no more Windows Update crashes, hurrah! The update process continued now peacefully, and the list kept getting smaller until there were 4 updates remaining. These last kept returning in the list of essential updates, even though every time I installed them it was reported as a successful update. I resolved this by turning on automatic updates again (which I wanted to do when no more updates where available),now Windows installed them when I turned off the system. Powered the machine back on, went to the windows update site and saw that there were no more essential updates. Victory!