takecare.ro

About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that my Windows application shortcut icons were showing the default, “no type associated” icons for all of the Office-related documents. I could double-click one of these (such as a .pptx or .xls file) and it would open in the correct application, so the shortcut itself was working.. but the icons were the generic Windows icon:

I found a very detailed page describing various ways to try to fix the issue, and I tried all of them. None of these worked.

What did work, however, was completely quirky and inexplicable. I had to replace a directory under C:\Windows\Installer called:

{90120000-0012-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}

Here’s how I stumbled upon this. I tried to change the default icon for Excel files by doing the following:

1. I opened an Explorer window (explorer.exe)
2. I clicked on Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types
3. I scrolled down to XLS in the list and clicked on “Advanced”. I saw the following dialog:
4. I clicked on “Change Icon”, and the following error message came up:

So the icon shortcuts were missing, because this weird directory was missing (probably some disk-cleaning tool I ran purged that directory to regain some space).

I found that directory on one of my other Windows laptops, copied it over, and now the Office document shortcut icons are working again.

One of the interesting problem I encountered while setting up a new computer for a end user was printing PDF file. Here is how it went down and how I fixed it:

Windows XP Professional SP3

1.The end user first said that he wasn’t able to print anything at all.
2.At first the print spooler service was down. I restarted the print spooler service and it crash again.
3.Taking a look at the event viewer under system, found an interesting error “Faulting application spoolsv.exe, version 5.1.2600.5512, faulting module ZSR.DLL, version 6.20.1625.0, fault address 0×0001f979?
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I’m getting the message “This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the folders options control panel.” when I attempt to open a PPS/PPT attachment in Outlook Express. What’s that all mean, and what do I do?

Well, in short it means that Outlook Express doesn’t know what to do with the attached file. It tries to figure that out based on the file “extension” or the characters that follow the last period in the file name; the “pps” or “ppt” file.
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NT performs most browsing tasks automatically without any help from the administrator. The election process, which determines which computer will function as the master browser, takes place when the following occurs.

* The primary domain controller (PDC) boots up.
* A backup browser is unable to obtain an updated browse list from the existing master browser.
* A computer is unable to obtain a list of backup browsers from the master browser.
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Recently when I was setting up a client’s computer with Windows Printer Sharing, I ran into an issue where a document was stuck in the print queue and was brining the system down to a crawl. First I tried deleting the document from the queue the “traditional” way by opening “Printers and Faxes” and launching the stuck printer and right-clicking the document name and selecting “cancel.” With that process, the document was stuck in cancel-mode for hours and obviously didn’t work.
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I was reviewing some Windows Event Logs and came across a repeated entry in the System log. It basically looked like this:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MRxSmb
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8003
Date:
Time:
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer [computer] that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_{#######-####-####-#. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced.
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