PC Support

Enable the Preview Pane in Explorer

Posted: May 29, 2010

Windows Vista and Windows 7 both have a great option called the Preview Pane. Instead of having Windows classic style folders with file names, icons, and maybe some details, you can have a pane on the right side of your Explorer window that will preview any file selected including graphics files and Microsoft Office files without having to open them.

"An Unexpected Error Occurred" When You Right Click on a Network Connection in Windows XP

Posted: February 3, 2010

When you try to right click a network connection in the Network Connections folder in Windows XP and select Properties, you get an error message that says "an unexpected error occurred". Not very descriptive, so what is the problem?  The most common cause of this problem is damaged registry settings that prevent you from viewing the network connection’s properties.

 

Unable to Upload Files to Live Meeting

Posted: February 1, 2010

I ran into an interesting problem recently with a client who was trying to upload a file for a Live Meeting in which she was the presenter. Her presentation was created in Power Point 2007 and had the extension .pptx. When she attempted to upload the file to Live Meeting she was prompted to install an ActiveX control to convert the .pptx file to a Live Meeting (.lmp) file. The problem came when installing the ActiveX file, when she clicked on the link to install the ActiveX file, the process started but then would come back with an error saying that the ActiveX control could not be installed.

Slipstreaming Service Packs into Windows XP

Posted: January 27, 2010

If you need to reinstall Windows XP and only have the original disk you are in for a long process to get the operating system installed and up to date. There have been hundreds, if not thousands of security patches and updates released for Windows XP since its release in 2001. So, you could install XP with the original disk, then install the latest service pack and updates, but you may run into problems such as the fact that the original XP doesn’t recognize all of your large hard disk. The best way to reduce installation time and avoid potential problems is to "slipstream" the service pack files into the original version of XP. What you end up with is an installation media with all the service pack files already included.

 

"Windows has disabled remote access to this computer"

Posted: January 20, 2010

Sometimes when you try to share a folder on an Windows XP computer, you may receive an error message that says "As a security measure, Windows has disabled remote access to this computer. However you can enable remote access and safely share files by running the Network Setup Wizard." This is caused by a local policy setting, read on for the step by step instructions for resolving this problem…

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