Tweakers second guess the kernel developers and use third-party software utilities to "clean" the registry and remove/disable system services they shouldn't be touching.

They often end up with more than one registry cleaner, more than one antivirus, and/or more than one firewall application running at the same time. Tweakers care a lot about system speed, so of course this will make them download/apply more tweaks in an attempt to offset the speed decrease from all of the junk software they have installed and running.

They change every option in the system to something bizarre and follow nutball crazy tech evangelists such as (but not limited to) Kim Komando and Steve Gibson of GRC.

They listen to their friends who know less than them and swear by software such as (but not limited to) Norton Antivirus.

Their systems come into my shop because they're ridiculously broken, and I spend hours removing conflicting "one-click fix" software that has ironically caused the breakdown of the machine and re-applying system defaults (using things like Dial-a-fix to guide me). When I tell them that these software packages they're using are pieces of junk and are causing all of the problems, they don't believe me.

They always disable System Restore (because they don't think it works well enough or they think it takes up a lot of resources) so there's no way I can go back to a sane system state by rolling back individual hives. They usually "replace" System Restore with Norton GoBack or some other ridiculously bad program.

I'm sure Dr. J.D. Azil will chime in with more stuff about tweakers. Doctor?

1. Install Windows
2. Leave it the fuck alone

Okay, there may be actual tweakers that know what they're doing, but I never see them. Why would I? They know what they're doing!

I also see kids (usually self-professed "gamers") who do the following to their homebuilt machines:

• Attach a CPU heatsink without using any thermal paste
• Screw the motherboard directly to the case (without standoffs)
• Chain multiple fans from a single molex connector where the chain finishes at a hard drive (or two)
• Forcing RAM modules in backwards

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Sorry, Windows 2000 users, Microsoft hath cursed thee without an enabled-by-default automatic registry hive backup facility. Try ERUNT, though, and perform similar steps to roll back your failed SYSTEM hive when it inevitably fails.

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A bit more info here.

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I had to find out whether the pin list problem was the cause or the effect, so I began searching the internet for the location of the pin list. It's nearly impossible to find this information.

After a half hour of digging around with Sysinternals Filemon and Regmon, I wasn't getting anywhere. I used Sysinternals strings.exe on shell32.dll (which I had previously discovered is where the pin list calls & code are stored) and finally found out where the pin list is stored: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage
The value Favorites contains the pin list itself. I found that on this Vista machine, there was nothing wrong with the Favorites value. It was the ProgramsCache value that had become corrupted. After deleting the key and restarting Explorer, the pin list came back up and all of the CPU usage went away. Problem solved. (This all works the same in Windows XP.)

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Hope this helps someone.

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We, as Microsoft do, recommend that those who are still running Windows XP SP1 or SP1a upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 2 as soon as possible.

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These are the steps I usually use to fix it:

(edit): 0) Make sure you're using the latest build of Dial-a-fix.
1) Reboot so you're starting with a clean slate.
2) Run all of DAF section #5 (Registration center).
3) Run DAF section #3 (WU/WUAU).
4) Start > Run > rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %systemroot%\inf\au.inf
(Note: the above command is one huge line — it has been wrapped for easier reading)
5) Immediately merge this .reg file: win2ksvchost.reg
6) Reboot.
7) Try Windows Update again. If it fails, try clicking "Flush SoftwareDistribution" in Dial-a-fix (and answer No) and then try Windows Update again.

Some combinations of the above steps usually fix it. Each machine seems to freak out a bit differently, so your results may vary.

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The DjLizard.net software support forum is also there. If you have any issues, suggestions, or questions about my software, feel free to post there (anonymous posting is allowed, but registration is recommended).

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A new version of WGA Notifications has been released and it is now being distributed worldwide.

Microsoft has heard that its customers are disappointed with WGA, and Microsoft is taking steps to resolve the issues customers have had with it.

Oh, you didn't know the previous WGA Notifications tool was beta-quality software? It said so in the EULA when it gets installed, but it was pushed out as a High priority update.

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I've had two Windows 2000 Professional machines in as many days that are unable to download updates. The usual Dial-a-fix Windows Update fix routines changed little about the situation. I found out that BITS couldn't start because SENS couldn't start because EventSystem couldn't start. On the second machine, EventSystem was starting, but then SENS was the final failure point. (NetMan and several other services that usually run under SvcHost were also failing with the Event 700x error listed below.)

The event log gets flooded with Event 7000 (SENS), Event 7001 (BITS), Event 4097 (EventSystem), and DCOM event 10005.

7000:

The System Event Notification service failed to start due to the following error:
The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service.

7001:

The Background Intelligent Transfer Service service depends on the System Event Notification service which failed to start because of the following error:
The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service.

4097:

The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was 8007043B from line 42 of .\eventsystemobj.cpp. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.

10005:

DCOM got error "The dependency service or group failed to start. " attempting to start the service BITS with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{4991D34B-80A1-4291-83B6-3328366B9097}

The server {E60687F7-01A1-40AA-86AC-DB1CBF673334} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

The fix is to change the "netsvcs" REG_MULTI_SZ in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost. You can save the following block of text as a .reg file and double-click it to import it (it's for Windows 2000 only). Then restart the computer. All of the services that failed before should now work fine, and Windows Update should work again (and/or Dial-a-fix will finally be able to help).

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost]
"netsvcs"=hex(7):45,00,76,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,\
6d,00,00,00,49,00,61,00,73,00,00,00,49,00,70,00,72,00,69,00,70,00,00,00,49,\
00,72,00,6d,00,6f,00,6e,00,00,00,4e,00,65,00,74,00,6d,00,61,00,6e,00,00,00,\
4e,00,77,00,73,00,61,00,70,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,00,00,52,00,61,\
00,73,00,61,00,75,00,74,00,6f,00,00,00,52,00,61,00,73,00,6d,00,61,00,6e,00,\
00,00,52,00,65,00,6d,00,6f,00,74,00,65,00,61,00,63,00,63,00,65,00,73,00,73,\
00,00,00,53,00,45,00,4e,00,53,00,00,00,53,00,68,00,61,00,72,00,65,00,64,00,\
61,00,63,00,63,00,65,00,73,00,73,00,00,00,54,00,61,00,70,00,69,00,73,00,72,\
00,76,00,00,00,4e,00,74,00,6d,00,73,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,00,00,57,00,5a,00,\
43,00,53,00,56,00,43,00,00,00,00,00
"rpcss"=hex(7):52,00,70,00,63,00,53,00,73,00,00,00,00,00
"wugroup"=hex(7):77,00,75,00,61,00,75,00,73,00,65,00,72,00,76,00,00,00,00,00
"BITSgroup"=hex(7):42,00,49,00,54,00,53,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost\BITSGroup]
"DefaultRpcStackSize"=dword:00000008

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost\netsvcs]
"CoInitializeSecurityParam"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost\wugroup]
"CoInitializeSecurityParam"=dword:00000001

Here is a link to the .reg for right-click-save purposes. (If you single-click on it and it looks funny, that's because it's Unicode).

Also take a look at the update to this article.

© DjLizard for DjLizard.net, 2006. | Permalink | 47 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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I haven't been paying attention lately (I've been quite busy) but a new version of MSHTML.DLL is out – 6.00.2900.2912. It can't be registered (at all), thankfully. The previous version, .2838, was not supposed to be registerable either, but Microsoft broke it. This time, it spits out an error code (specifically, hex 0×80029c4a / decimal -2147312566: TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY). Dial-a-fix v0.58 (which is pretty close to being v0.60) recognizes certain versions of files now, and ignores the ones it knows it can't register. I'll have a new public beta soon, I think. I've got to do some more private testing first (I've made a truckload of changes since the last public beta).

edit: Wait, the one on my dev machine is 6.0.2900.2912, and it DOES register. Something's not right here!

edit 2: Ok, I found out what the problem is. A rogue program removed mshtml.tlb because it thought it was no longer being used. WTF! Ugh, 3rd party software. This post has been rendered invalid. At least I have something to check for with Dial-a-fix now…

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You can receive up to 2 product keys, each of which is good for 10 computers. They will also be emailed to your live.com profile.

If you are a member of Something Awful and Alluvion.org, then you can latch on to my x86 torrent.
(x64 torrent)

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It's 2006, and somehow, people still apparently believe that Windows XP does not allow you to use all of your bandwidth because of a service called QoS (Quality of Service). This is patently false.

People also think that cleaning the Prefetch folder helps, or that not cleaning it will somehow lower your performance. I would have thought a site like "windowsnetworking.com" would have been a bit more professional about these things, but I can't have everything. They said, and I quote (emphasis theirs):

Prefetch when unattended can also slow down your system. This is because over time

* XP will retain a copy of a portion of a program in the prefetch folder even if you only use it one time, which is not good. Since you may not use the program again, you may impact the performance of your system by having portions of a program you do not use loaded in your system's memory.
* XP systems with very low hardware resources (such as memory and hard disk space) will definitely be affected by an over-bloated prefetch folder.

This is bull. Let's break it down:
* XP will retain an index of the locations of files needed by a process in the prefetch folder even if you only use it one time, which is not a big deal. Windows XP automatically prunes old entries after a 129th entry (or more) needs to be created. At worst, you're going to lose less than 20 MB of hard disk space (my prefetch is currently using 4MB).
* XP systems will very low hardware resources (such as memory and hard disk space) are already at a disadvantage, but without prefetching, it would be even worse. There is no advantage in deleting prefetch entries…. and the only time prefetch entries need to change are when the files they are prefetching have changed (such as being upgraded by a Windows Service Pack or hotfix). And as previously stated, they will automatically be pruned to just 128 entries. At least someone out there knows what they're talking about. If you delete all of the prefetch files, they have to be prefetched *again* (which comes at a performance loss), and doesn't that seem like a waste of time?
* Windows doesn't load things in the Prefetch folder unless you're actually attempting to run the program, so claiming that Windows erroneously loads files in there that no longer exist (and thus need to be cleaned) is also patently false.
* Ed Bott said: It doesn’t actually preload anything into RAM until you run the program, and when you do that, prefetching only works if you have RAM to spare.

Notes from Microsoft:
* Once every three days, by default, Windows XP will perform a partial defragmentation and adjust the layout of the disk based upon current use. The files to be moved are written in the file Layout.ini (found in the Prefetch directory under the System Root directory). [1]
(Dial-a-fix's "Process Idle Tasks" tool forces this to happen sooner than 3 days).
* Windows XP also uses prefetching when launching applications. The files and the contents of the files accessed by each new process are observed and recorded. No prefetching can be done for the first launch of an application, so first launches are often considerably slower than subsequent launches. About 85% to 90% of the improvement is realized after just one launch of an application, with the remaining speed improvement coming after the system has had an opportunity to adjust the disk layout with information specific to this application. [2]

Also, search for "prefetch" here.

—

Anyway, these technical myths are extremely annoying to technicians (such as myself), who constantly have to disprove these dubious claims to customers.

© DjLizard for DjLizard.net, 2006. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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They're actually embracing the ability to dual-boot to Windows XP!

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

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oh god make it stop

© DjLizard for DjLizard.net, 2006. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Among other errors, it changes the path of mshtml.dll in about 30+ CLSID entries to "%_SYS_MOD_PATH%". If you search your registry for %_SYS_MOD_PATH% and find several entries in HTML-related objects, you are affected. You will also not be able to use System Restore (blank window), Internet Explorer (tries to download the root of a website instead of opening it), Help and Support (hit F1 after clicking on your desktop once – it tries to Open/Save "context.htm"), possibly Event Viewer, and probably many more things that use embedded HTML objects. It also seems to affect reinstalling of Service Pack 2.

The fix is posted below.

The previous version of MSHTML.DLL (which is NOT affected) is 6.0.2900.2802.

6.0.2900.2838 is the version of mshtml.dll that IS affected.

1. If you do not have a copy of the 6.0.2900.2802 version of MSHTML.DLL, you can download it here from this site (do not download this unless you have SP2 and all post-SP2 updates). It is approximately 3 megabytes.
2. Copy it to your Windows\System32 directory and overwrite the previous version. If you are not able to do this, close all programs that use embedded HTML objects, including Internet Explorer, Help and Support, System Restore, etc. If you are still unable to overwrite the file, do it in Safe Mode.
3. Run Dial-a-fix again, and checkmark everything in box #5 and hit GO.

The problem should be solved at this point.

At least I know now that it wasn't me!

"Thank you" to all those who have been patient with me and my software, and have allowed me to obtain system information and files from them.

Again, KB912945 is the update that causes this problem. You can install this update as long as you do not run the Explorer/Shell checkmark in box #5, which causes Dial-a-fix to register the broken file. If you do register the broken version, simply copy the old version over the newer one and register it using Dial-a-fix (or for the techies, regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i)

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Dial-a-fix v0.57.6 changelog:
* Removed OLE registration section until further notice

Update: it wasn't OLE at all! Argh! See this post: http://djlizard.net/2006/03/14/139

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This will be included in the next incremental release of Dial-a-fix.

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