DjLizard.net » Dial-a-fix

Dial-a-fix can prevent Windows from being forced to shut down

DjLizard — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 06:02:44 +0000

You can't stop me, I'm a machine, jerk!

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Dial-a-fix page on facebook!

DjLizard — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:19:13 +0000

I created a Dial-a-fix facebook page so you can follow development even easier:

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It goes on and on…

DjLizard — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:01:10 +0000

It goes on and on…

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Dial-a-fix v1.0 policies scanner works!

DjLizard — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 23:49:59 +0000

Made the policies scanner work, and it loads the policies from an external file that is human-editable and knows which versions of Windows contain which policies!

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Dial-a-fix v1.0 log screenshot

DjLizard — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 19:57:47 +0000

You can resize or maximize Dial-a-fix now, too.

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Money

DjLizard — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 06:01:18 +0000

Hi folks. Not gonna lie, my finances are not in order. But they're still better than the U.S. Government's.

Anyone who is awesome should consider donating via PayPal to DjLizard@DjLizard.net

I am working on Dial-a-fix on a daily basis right now very diligently.
I am not going to screw this up; Dial-a-fix supporting Windows 95 through Windows 8 is going to happen. It's already happening. Help me make this happen.

Please and thank you.

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Something happened…

DjLizard — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 05:09:42 +0000

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Dial-a-fix: Error 127 in [several different files] & Internet Explorer 8

DjLizard — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:09:42 +0000

Internet Explorer 8 is not supported by Dial-a-fix at this time. If you have IE 8 installed and run Dial-a-fix, you may receive many "Error 127" messages because Internet Explorer 8 replaces a lot of registerable components with non-registerable ones. This is OK – simply ignore all of the errors. Dial-a-fix is still able to do its thing on other files, and the no damage has been done to your system during these error messages.

A future version of Dial-a-fix will support Internet Explorer 8 by ignoring those unregisterable components.

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Top ten reasons why Dial-a-fix doesn't support Vista yet – and – Mac zealotry

DjLizard — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:28:17 +0000

(Another double feature!)

Part I: Top ten reasons why Dial-a-fix doesn't support Vista yet

10. Vista sucks
9. Vista sucks
8. Vista sucks
7. Vista sucks
6. Vista sucks
5. I don't have very much personal time available to me these days.
4. I don't have any spare computers with which I could run Vista at the moment.
3. I use Borland Delphi which is fucking terrible, and I haven't been able to get back to my C studies for several months now. Object Pascal (as a language) is kick-ass (in my opinion), but Borland's IDE is complete garbage – especially its cost. Don't suggest .NET… that's not even funny.
2. Microsoft changed nearly everything Dial-a-fix is capable of fixing to the point that Dial-a-fix has to be rewritten from the ground up just for Vista. Nobody's really got lists of "common" fixes the way XP has. Dial-a-fix is just a collection of known fixes, anyway – 99% of what DAF does is not even my invention.
1. Microsoft should fix their shit so Dial-a-fix need not exist. Is it too much to ask for a brand new operating system version not to bring 7 years worth of bugs with it? Basically, #1 is that I can't currently be arsed to fix their brand new old bugs – that's their fucking job!

Everyone should petition Microsoft to get their shit together. How can this stuff happen so much to so many people that a program like Dial-a-fix needs to be made? If I can do it, why can't Microsoft?

I will probably make a Vista version, but don't ride my ass about when and where.

Vista is an abomination and it just goes to show you that even if you "listen" to your customers (by way of usability tests, etc) it doesn't guarantee you'll get the implementation right. Microsoft needs to go back to the basics and re-think the way people use computers. Most people are multitasking, non-deterministic users. Some are single-tasking deterministic users who have old habits that are hard to break. Tough for you folks – you'll need to renew your computing license. One of the problems I see in Vista is that it tried to simultaneously retain backward compatibility while moving forward. The result: a train wreck. You know who doesn't care AT ALL about your previous programs working? Apple. They couldn't give less of a flying double monkey fuck about your programs working in the next version. You know what else? This seems to be perfectly acceptable behavior in the Mac community. Why isn't anyone up in arms about how Apple constantly ditches everyone, each time a major OS release is made? At least Microsoft tries (even if they inevitably fail).

Part II: Mac zealotry

Don't even get me started about Mac zealotry (too late). Some (but not most) Mac users have serious mental issues and honestly believe that Apple computers are somehow special or better than PCs. I have news for you: they suck exactly as much as PCs – no more, no less. They fail too, and often in the same ways as PCs. Sure, there aren't any major viruses going around, but that's because people with virus programming skill are usually in it for the money, and are too skilled to waste their time on 1% of 1% of the computing population. (It might even be embarrassing to them to some degree.)

Apple almost had it right except that they've spent a lot of their time and money mocking Microsoft Windows and not a whole lot of time developing a better computing attitude and environment and moving forward with technology. So what if you're some hipster/yankee twentysomething who buys vendor-locked brand name computers at ridiculously inflated prices to use most of the same programs that are available for Windows? Sure, sometimes it's not the exact same program, but with so many choices available, there has to be something for Windows that does the same thing as what you're trying to accomplish on a Mac. There's a lot more freeware on the PC than there is on a Mac, too.

Most of the time they mock PCs for the wrong reasons. PCs don't get viruses, Windows does. PCs don't need major overhauls to upgrade operating system software – Windows does. A PC is just some hardware. Everything after that is up to the operating system, of which there are many available. It's just unfortunate for all of us that Microsoft won that war before the war really began.

You know the Mac guy on the PC versus Mac commercials? That guy is more smug than a motherfucker. Meanwhile, the PC guy is hilarious and has a nerdy charm to him. The Mac guy is a huge douche about everything, constantly mocking the poor PC's troubles, ignoring the fact that he has his own, as well as the fact that he lives in his mom's basement smoking pot all the time and needs to shave, get some respectable clothes, and get a fucking job.

I digress.

You basically bought a PC with different software on it. You have what kind of processor and motherboard (I'm sorry – "logic board")? Oh right, Intel. What kind of power supplies are used in Macs? ATX and BTX. What kind of hard drive? Seagate. Congratulations: you bought the most proprietary PC possible that still contains nothing but regular modular PC parts (excluding the motherboard's design and firmware). At least it can run Windows, I guess. I'm not sure if that's a pro or a con.

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The history of DjLizard – and – Your inflated sense of self-entitlement (0 of 1)

DjLizard — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:28:49 +0000

(This is going to be the longest blog post I've ever written.)

Hello all. I've been away for quite a while. I have been put in the position where I work as hard during personal time as I do during actual work time. In fact, going to work is a bit of a relief to the life part. As such, I have not done any development at all on Dial-a-fix and I am very sorry. Vista support is long overdue (as you can see in the message you get when you try to run Dial-a-fix in Vista) but I have just not had the energy to complete this overwhelming task with my remaining personal time. Vista changes the way *everything* works to where Dial-a-fix is no longer able to perform the same tasks. For instance… I know someone who wanted to fix System Restore and was not able to make use of Dial-a-fix because the operating system is Vista. Unfortunately, in Vista, System Restore is no longer System Restore – it's more of a function of the Volume Shadow Copy service. So you see, I have no idea how that shit even works now. It's not the same at all. At least 50% of the DLL registrations don't even exist anymore. Most of the checkboxes would go away. Windows Update is now a program and a few services so I don't really know how that works.

I have not answered my email box for a couple of weeks, either, so I apologize if you wrote to me and I did not respond. You can try posting in the DjLizard.net subforum at Lunarsoft.net forums and hope that Tarun or others can assist you or wait it out for me to eventually get to you.

Below this line is where the long story begins…

(...)
Read the rest of The history of DjLizard – and – Your inflated sense of self-entitlement (0 of 1) (2,841 words)

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Dial-a-fix MSXML3 error

DjLizard — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:31:59 +0000

Does anyone know why Dial-a-fix sometimes gets an "unspecified error" while trying to unregister MSXML3.DLL? It seems to be new because it's never done that in the past. Apparently you can immediately try it again and Dial-a-fix will then be able to unregister/re-register it. It's weird.

(Update: see the comments for a possible explanation. Short version: just run the same parts of Dial-a-fix again and you shouldn't get the error. If you still have trouble with Windows Updates, try clicking "Flush SoftwareDistribution".)

© DjLizard for DjLizard.net, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dial-a-fix, Fixes, MSXML, unspecified error

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Superfail, the third

DjLizard — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:03:12 +0000

Superfail part 1
Superfail part 2

Thanks to astute reader Nate Coffey and Dial-a-fix, we've found another DLL registration bug.

The current version of wuaueng.dll provided to Windows 2000 service pack 4 clients has a bug in its DllInstallServer.

In the first picture is a "before" screenshot that shows that all of the SvcHost key values are here. This is a freshly installed Windows 2000 machine that only has Service Pack 4:

In this second picture, I have visited Windows Update, gotten the latest Windows Update client, closed my browser, and then unregistered the DLL using regsvr32 /u:

In this third picture, I have re-registered the DLL using regsvr32 /i, but it caused an error (0×80070057) and only one key was put back. The netsvcs key is lost at this point. In order to fix this, merge this default SvcHost key .reg file.

The error code 0×80070057 is E_INVALIDARG, or invalid parameters/arguments.

The current version of Dial-a-fix will accidentally trigger this because of the malformed DllInstallServer in wuaueng.dll. Once a new, fixed version of the Windows Update client is pushed out, Dial-a-fix will be able to help you again. I'll be filing this as a bug with Microsoft – I hope they fix it.

Edit: be sure to read Superfail part 2 for the solution for afflicted machines.

© DjLizard for DjLizard.net, 2007. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fixes, Incompetence, Windows 2000, Windows Update, wuaueng.dll

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Dial-a-fix intimidates know-it-alls

DjLizard — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:40:42 +0000

http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/609118-solved-dial-fix.html

Basically Dial- a fix .. Does nothing …. Very few cases .. it solves the problem

…and this gem…:

All this can be easily achieved by a batch file

I've seen stuff like this floating around the web before. It doesn't really faze me as it just proves the poster's ignorance.

Dial-a-fix started as a set of batch files which were long and ugly like devil_himself's list of DLLs. Batch language differs slightly between Windows versions, and so do DLL registrations. Obviously, Windows 9x can't register all of the same DLLs that Windows XP can. IE7 also changed a lot of DLL registrations.

After a few months of using multiple batch files for each issue set (Cryptography, Windows Installer, etc) I got tired of having to fix them whenever a new conditional interrupted the workflow (such as a new version of a DLL that is no longer registerable, or to add dependency checks for missing files that I didn't realize could be missing when I first wrote the batch) so I converted the entire project into actual compiled code. This way, I could use real logic instead of a weak batch engine, and support more platforms.

The main problem that I have with that thread is that the junior member penguin47 has said that Dial-a-fix has solved the problem and simply wondered how it works. I wish he had asked me or Lunarsoft.net, but what can you do? Fortunately, the "senior member" devil_himself let him/her know that Dial-a-fix does nothing at all and has implied that it can accidentally fix your problem sometimes. I love that at the end devil_himself stated that this can all be easily accomplished with a batch file. Did you expect penguin47 to have found or written one?

penguin47 found my program, and it fixed the problem easily – for free. What's so wrong with that? Sure, you can easily write a junk batch file that does similar things to Dial-a-fix, but why would you shit on a program that makes it ten times easier and works on multiple versions of Windows, checking for stuff your batch file could never check for? My guess is that devil_himself is not an actual bench technician or has never used Dial-a-fix. I can't imagine any other reason to avoid something that is free and works this well just because you have some kind of batch file pride.

Yes, Dial-a-fix tells you all of the basic commands necessary to perform the same operations (somewhat) in its tooltips but you must remember that there is not enough advanced logic in a batch file to match what Dial-a-fix does now (checking for dependencies, etc).

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Maximum PC mention!

DjLizard — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:19:07 +0000

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/broken_windows_fixed_quick_with_dial_a_fix

How did I not notice that Dial-a-fix was mentioned on my FAVORITE no-bullshit magazine's online blog-thingy-or-whatever-the-fuck? Oh yeah, I don't have an up-to-date subscription and I don't read the online stuff of theirs, but I guess I need to start.

Click the Digg button once you get there. Then, cross-post on Slashdot so that the internet explodes.

This is the best review of Dial-a-fix I've ever seen. It's very clear that Mark Soper understands what Dial-a-fix is about and what is going on under the hood. Thank you 'Marcus Soperus' for your kick ass review.

Speaking of Dial-a-fix — I need to get to fucking work!

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Getting destroyed by Digg

DjLizard — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:50:15 +0000

…because of that PC World article.

You guys better donate me some moneys!

Digg it here.

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If you can't receive my email replies…

DjLizard — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:56:46 +0000

Then you should read this post and visit this forum and post and your issue there.

I've had two replies today that I could not deliver because of one reason or another.
Red Condor was unable to deliver the attached message to Bruce Dawn, and Barracuda Spam Firewall could not deliver to Jim Remy of deltagraphics.com.

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PC World Online mention

DjLizard — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:02:14 +0000

I forgot to mention this before:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137083/article.html

That's in contrast to his previous article where he ripped me a new one:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/002591.html

That's okay though, I used that as motivation to consider how best to present the interface to end-users. It didn't really work out in my favor, yet. I'm working on making Dial-a-fix more user-friendly now.

Also, Steve Bass is hilarious.

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Dial-a-fix update – for real!

DjLizard — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:20:18 +0000

I've started Dial-a-fix over and here is what I have so far:

As you can see it's mostly empty (for now) but there are great plans.
Currently, the "Scan" button on the "Find issues" tab looks for over 40 separate problems relating to the registry, services/drivers, shell/Explorer.exe, and Internet Explorer. It also displays restrictive policies.

It's written in Delphi and coming along nicely. A few rules lists will be moved to outside of the program .exe for easier access (such as restrictive policies). It will support languages. It will support Vista, Server 2003, and XP Pro x64. It will still support Windows 98. You can even resize or maximize the window now.

I spent all weekend working on it, and I plan to spend all of next weekend working on it as well. I have a lot of work to do but I'll keep everyone posted.

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Tune in to Computer America tonight!

DjLizard — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:17:29 +0000

It's last minute… but I'll be on Computer America from 11PM to Midnight (Eastern time). That's the second hour of the show. I'll be on with Steve Bass from PC World.

Steve is writing an article in November about hassle-free software… and he wants to give Dial-a-fix top billing! He also requested my presence on Computer America.

Edit: it was fun!

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Data recovery article / Dial-a-fix

DjLizard — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 20:46:00 +0000

I have put up the beginning of my data recovery article on my wiki. It focuses on using Linux and various free tools (ddrescue, smartctl, badblocks, testdisk) to recover data at the software level. It is not really complete, probably contains errors, and is highly opinionated.

If you are an intermediate end-user or a beginner technician, this is a good article for you.

If you see any problems in the article or have constructive criticisms, please email me using the link at the top of the data recovery article.

If you wish to link to my article, link to it using the words "data recovery" to give me some pagerank boost for that phrase :)

If you find it very helpful, send me a donation!

—

Now I'll work on Dial-a-fix again. Oh yeah – I can't do the C version right now, it's too much for me. But I will be giving the Delphi version some organ transplants and you should see a new version of old Dial-a-fix soon. After I get that patch out, I will get back to doing it in C. I will be leveraging the things I've learned about Win32 and C into the Delphi version though, so it hasn't been all for naught.

Also, I won't be writing new Dial-a-fix in C++; it will be written in C, which is more up my alley.

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