• Search for:

• Non-technical

  • ChrisEccleston.com
  • SteamyKitchen.com food blog

• Technical

  • BootZilla tech CD
  • Computer America
  • Digital Doctors
  • gur.in/j/ - PC help site
  • Lunarsoft.net
  • Simon’s PC Services
  • Symantec Sucks

• Categories

  Select Category Activism  (1) Apple  (1) Computer America  (6) Data recovery  (3) Delphi  (4) Dial-a-fix  (51) djlizard  (3) Fixes  (32) General  (49) Hack  (7) History  (1) Linux  (2) Mac  (1) Medical  (1) Microsoft  (9) Music  (4) Non-technical  (2) Ranting  (7) Security  (11) Software  (86) Stupid  (7) Technical  (50) Viruses  (5) Vista  (15) Windows 2000  (6) Windows Update  (2) XP  (9) Zealotry  (1)

• Archives

  Select Month August 2008  (1) July 2008  (1) June 2008  (2) December 2007  (4) October 2007  (18) September 2007  (3) August 2007  (7) July 2007  (1) June 2007  (2) May 2007  (3) April 2007  (3) March 2007  (3) February 2007  (6) January 2007  (2) December 2006  (2) November 2006  (6) October 2006  (12) September 2006  (8) August 2006  (4) July 2006  (1) June 2006  (16) May 2006  (5) April 2006  (4) March 2006  (9) February 2006  (7) January 2006  (8) December 2005  (7) November 2005  (14) October 2005  (1) September 2005  (5) August 2005  (10) July 2005  (14) June 2005  (15)

Fred pointed out this nice guide to Google's advanced operators. I knew less than half of the operators. (I only knew about several of the [all/]in* ones).

I have made a slight modification to Dial-a-fix so that it works on non-standard (i.e., not 96) "virtual DPI" settings. Windows uses its virtual DPI to scale fonts ("Small fonts" = 96, "Large fonts" = 120) and most programs become unusable because the burden of form scaling lies with the developer. Apparently, with Delphi 7 (and most likely many other versions), the form scaling is just plain broken. Each form's "Scaled" property was set to False, and a quick change was made at the beginning of each form creation procedure to add the ScaleBy function:

procedure TYourForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
    if Screen.PixelsPerInch <> PixelsPerInch then
      ScaleBy(Screen.PixelsPerInch, PixelsPerInch);
{..the rest of your FormCreate procedure..}
end;

I swear I will now begin making the Dial-a-fix tips page :)

I've had a few machines that would not complete Dial-a-fix's Shell registration checkmark. They hang at regsvr32 shell32.dll /n /s /i:U. If you find that DAF hangs at shell32.dll, open task manager (Control+Shift+Esc or Control+Alt+Delete) and kill the regsvr32.exe process. You will then get an error message with error code 1. DAF will then complete the remaining shell registrations with no problem. On one machine, I moved on and performed some other tasks and came back to it, and it stopped happening. I have no idea what the problem is, or how to fix it. If any experienced technicians know what it might be, drop me a line at dial-a-fix@ (this domain).

Bear with me while I make adjustments.

Edit: Ok, I'm pretty much done.

A major, major update to Dial-a-fix has finally been released: v0.57!

Now I can work on the Dial-a-fix tips page, then v0.58 (which will have an associations fix tool).

I've now gotten $102 USD in donations since setting up the Paypal link! I'm already 1/5 of the way to my goal. Thank you all for your generous donations.

I will be working steadily through weekend to get Dial-a-fix v0.57 released. It has some pretty serious updates in it, and it can fix a lot of new issues. I hope to get it released by this Sunday, but if I can't, then the STL will get another 0.57 beta.

Note about donations: I'm trying to save up for a TechNet Plus subscription, which is $559.30 USD. I've got $97 USD thanks to donations from generous users, but it looks as though I have a long way to go. I hope to at least be accepted into the Vista CTP program, because I'm excited about all of the new features included in Vista. I've seen Vista December CTP, and it is pretty radically different than any previous version of Windows. A huge learning curve is up ahead.

Dial-a-fix v0.57 is already in development! :)
I have found that the More... dialog needs re-tooling, otherwise it will be a button overload. I'm turning it into a drop-down box with the tooltip info replaced by an auto-updating text area. It will look great. Also, I'll be moving the registration center back to the main form (which will make Dial-a-fix tall again, but at least it will still fit on the screen in 640×480 resolution). I will also be putting an upper limit on the size of the policy dialog (so that people who are using 1600×1200 don't end up with a 7-foot wide policy dialog. This, and more will be coming in the next few weeks!

Happy new year.

Dial-a-fix 0.56 has been released.

Changes:
* Dropped 'beta' moniker
* Brand new policy scanner, supporting 53 restrictive policies
* Removed 'Rescan' button from main dialog (now on policy scanner dialog)
* Enabled XP theme support
* Removed 'always on top' buttons due to some API bugs
* Added safe mode detection; now disables inappropriate sections when in safe mode and safe mode + networking
* Added ole32.dll (+ CLSID fix), wshext.dll registrations
* Added Reinstall HelpSvc, Process Idle Tasks, and Reinstall SR (system restore) buttons
* Fix IE button now resets all IE web settings as well
* Added Vista detection (which will display an error message stating that Vista is not supported until Vista has gone final)
* ...and other things I forgot to log :)