INDEX

Contents Page Planned !

SOLUTION: Systray \ System Tray icons missing on taskbar in Windows XP?

Have you ever found that one of your system tray icons is missing when you boot up Windows XP?

The system tray (in short systray, also called taskbar notification area) is the icon strip located to the far right end of the task bar, next to the clock. Some Windows XP installations have a defect, in that some systray icons disappear or, rather, do not appear, when the system is booted when a user logs on. The problem is even more common on systems with autologon. The most frequently affected icons seem to be the speaker icon (sound volume) and the power / energy icon if on a laptop (notepad).

I had my sound icon missing for a while on my desktop but recently I found a very easy way to correct the problem. Very annoying as when ever I wanted to increase or decrease the volume I would have to go into Control Panel; Sounds and Audio Devices.

To fix this, simply download and run (on the affected computer) the installer below (after unzipping it using 7zip or what ever you use to unzip zip files):

http://nars.aloj.net/download/shell32patch.zip

SOLUTION: Trouble finding firmware or drivers for hardware that is not listed within manufacturers archives?

I just spent 30 minutes trying to find an updated firmware for my relatively 'newish' Sony DVD-ROM (SONY DVD-ROM DDU1615S drive) and Sony DVD-RW DL (SONY DVD RW DRU-190S) drives.

For those who found this in a Google search and just need to download the firmware for either drives named above, below this paragraph are direct links just for you as I am too kind :)

SONY DVD-ROM DDU1615S | SONY DVD RW DRU-190S


Now of course the first place that I checked was the main manufacturers web site for Sony Optical Drives. Managed to find one drives firmware on there easily (the DVD-RW DL drive); but could not find the DVD-ROM drive within the archives. So as you do I did a Google search. Took me a while but there was a web site which really was the only place to find it:

Step 1) Go to the following web site and search for the hardware firmware (or driver)

Note: You may want to simply use the category link as that is useful as well, but personally I found it easier to simply search my hardware name 'SONY DVD-ROM DDU1615S' - selecting download and clicking on GO to find it listed in the results.

http://www.opendrivers.com/ (use the site search to the right hand side menu rather than the Google search at the top).

Step 2) From the results select your hardware which takes you to where you can download the driver (or firmware).

e.g. In my case download SONY DVD-ROM DDU1615S firmware result page :)

Step 3) Scroll down the page to find a heading ">> Driver Download >> "

Within this area you need to type in a validation code and click on the 'Download This Driver for Your Device from Open Drivers' button in order to get the download link (or several download links).

Step 4) Once this page has loaded you need to look carefully for the right download link as it can be confusing as to which link actually works (as in you do download the firmware or driver you need).

What I did was try the first link under "Official Driver Download" (which was a link back to the main manufacturers web site), but this was an outdated link and I had some other web site try and make me buy an application to scan my system and update drivers etc for me ... I don't want that!

So I went back to the page again and scanned around and found below the sponsored links a section called "Backup Download Server". Clicking the link here downloaded the right firmware for me. so I was happy.

Use the link under the "Backup Download Server " to download your firmware or driver if you find that the official links do not work.

How to find a song title and artist using lyrics :)

This one is one that I find useful. If you know some lyrics to a song but you don't actually know the song title or the artist, yet you wish to find out, then this is a good way to find out:

1) Go to a search engine (I tend to use Google)

2) Type in a line of lyrics (e.g. "strange what desire will make foolish people do")

3) Add the '+' symbol followed by the word 'lyrics'

so your search criteria now looks like ...

strange what desire will make foolish people do + lyrics


4) Click on search or press enter to get the results

Google Results from example above = Chris Isaak - Wicked Game


5) You should be able to go through the results and look at the lyrics to identify which song the lyrics are from; including the artist (note: some artists do covers so it may not be the exact version your looking for in which case I suggest using Shazam i.e. on my phone I call the number 2580 if I hear a song playing on TV or the Radio which I don't know and let it text me the artist and song title)

Hope this helps anyone who struggles :)

Windows XP Error Deleting / Moving File or Folder: Access is Denied = SOLUTION !

All images in this post can be enlarged by clicking on them!

Have you ever had windows provide an error to you saying you cannot move or delete a file or entire folder because you do not have access to it? Well I spent a good few minutes troubleshooting this the other night. After about an hour I finally worked out why my Windows XP Professional was not allowing me to delete 5GB of data files off my external hard disk drive. This is the error message in question:
"Error Deleting File or Folder

Cannot delete f0045528: Access is denied.

Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."



To solve this issue so you can delete the folder you do have to do two actions:

1) Disable simple file sharing if it is enabled - Depends on your OS - (Windows XP Pro)

2) Take ownership of the folder (or files within the folder) in order to be able to have permissions to delete them or move them.
Step 1 (Windows XP Home users)


Windows XP Home users will need to start windows in safe mode (press your F8 key continuously at start up until you are provided with a black screen and a load of white text options. Select 'Start Windows in Safe Mode'. Then navigate to the folder / files you wish to delete or move.

Step 1 (Windows XP Pro users)

Visit the following link on how to do this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874/
Then navigate to the folder / files you wish to delete or move.

Step 2 Take Ownership and set permissions
In my example I had a folder which I wanted to delete. Yet it was the actual files inside the folder which needed the permissions and ownership changing.

Instead of spending ages changing the ownership and permissions for one single file at a time I selected all files in the folder I wanted to delete (using Crtl + A); then gave each file within the folder the same ownership and permissions enabling me to delete the entire folder.

First though before you continue to delete (or move) your files / an entire folder. Make sure you are logged in as an administrator otherwise you won't be able to change the files ownership or permissions.

1) After selecting all the files in this example, you need to right click and select properties as shown:

2) On the 'Security' Tab of the properties window; click on 'Advanced' (1)

3) On the 'Advanced Security Settings' window, select the 'Owner' tab (2). Notice in my example that the owner is completely different to the currently logged on user (PeterLT). So in order to set permissions (you may have noticed they were greyed out on the main security tab); we need to confirm who owns the files.

4) In my example I select 'Administrators' (3) and then click 'Apply' (4) in order to make the files owned by all administrators; so all admin accounts will be classed as the owner of the files.

5) Now click on 'OK' and you'll find that the permissions are still greyed out, even though we have changed the owner of the files:

6) So click on 'OK' on the properties window to close it and save the ownership changes. Then select all files again and right click, selecting properties (short cut way is to simply press 'r' when the right click menu appears on screen). Now we can change the permissions:

7) On the 'Security' tab, select 'Everyone' so that it is highlighted grey. Then in the permissions window below tick the checkbox 'Allow' to the right of 'Full Control' - all boxes below will become ticked also. Then click on 'Apply' to confirm the change in permissions:

8) Now you can delete (in this case) the entire folder as all files have been successfully changed to allow such an action on the account you are logged in with:

That's it. All you need to do. Same goes for moving files as well. It is more than likely either (a) a file / folder permission problem or (b) an ownership problem.

Hope you found this helpful. Resources used as help for myself:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421