Excel 2003 Slow Opening From Network Share

Recently a user was having issues opening excel files , were by a 600kb file could take around 20 seconds to open. When you copied this file locally to the computer it opened it straight away , and other computers accessing the file had no problem. What I did notice was when you opened the file , the network usage would spike to 7mb/s for the entire time while only retrieving a 600kb file. Opening .pdf / .doc files around double or triple the size would open instantly A bit of research online only proved the fault/fix with a Windows 7 setup accessing office 2003 documents http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982860 I tried the “Under the registry entry, disable these two registry keys: Right-click Enablesecuritysignature, and then click Modify. Type 0 in the Value data box and then click OK. Right-click Requiresecuritysignature, and then click Modify. Type 0 in the Value data box and then click OK.” However no success , my setup however was Windows XP and Office 2003. After much searching the fix was actually pretty recent from microsft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623 “reduces performance due to the network traffic when reading in the parts of the workbook” So upgrade to 2007/2010 or disable OFV!

You can perform the below fix manually , or I have create a .re file which does it http://www.pariswells.com/upload/fix.zip

You can use the EnableOnLoad registry entry to configure how you want Excel to handle opening workbooks for the OFV. By default, the EnableOnLoad entry is not present in the Windows registry. To add the EnableOnLoadentry to the Windows registry, follow these steps:

1. Exit Excel.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click to select the following registry key: **EDIT** Thanks to Frank in the comments , the proper key is ” HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0″ Old key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\”
4. After you select the key that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
5. Type Excel, and then press ENTER.
6. Select Excel, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
7. Type Security, and then press ENTER.
8. Select Security, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
9. Type FileValidation, and then press ENTER.
10. Select FileValidation, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
11. Type EnableOnLoad, and then press ENTER. Note: The default value is 0 which disables the validation.
12. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

Tags: .xls slow from network share, 2570623, Excel 2003 slow to open network, Excel Slow Opening From Network Share, High Network Usage Office 2003, OFV, The Office File Validation, Windows XP Excel 2003 slow opening

WordPress WP-Admin Folder Not Parsing PHP

I moved an existing wordpress site from one server to another. After initial complications of getting the “White Screen of Death” of nothing showing this was caused by the MySQL being on another server instead of localhost. It should of given me a SQL error but for some reason it didn’t show!

Next issue was when I tried to get into the admin control panel on domain.com/wp-admin/ the webserver started serving pages as the raw php files for me to download instead of parsing them in the browser. I checked the folder permissions which the same as the server before. I tried copying a phpinfo.php file ( to check if it was a wordpress issue) but it wouldn’t even parse that! I created another folder and copied the phpinfo.php into there to try and it worked. I then copied all the wp-admin files into the new folder , renamed it to wp-admin after deleting the old folder and it worked!

Tags: wordpress not parsing wp-admin folder, wordpress white screen, wp-admin

Nvidia Dual View Not Displaying in Nview Graphics Options

After helping someone setup dual monitors on their computer with a Nvidia Geforce graphics card on Windows XP, the Nvidia drivers did not allow me to choose Dual View as an Nview option. The only options where to span or to clone. I was usuing the latest graphics drivers off the Nvidea site. I checked the display settings in Windows XP but the Nvidia drivers were only passing Windows XP a single Monitor ( Due to the Spanning Technology)

Tips online sugessted using “regedit” from the command prompt and search for “DisableDualView” and change value 0 to 1 however after a search I couldn’t find this record

Also check in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak and set the NvCplExposeWin2kDualView value to “0″ instead of 1 however I could not find this.

I rolled the drivers back to a previous version noted ( Uninstall the previous nvidia software) : http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-258.96-whql-driver.html , rebooted the machine , and this removed the Spanning Technology and allowed Windows XP to see both monitors and enable dual desktops!

I’ve heard this issue can be caused if you have a grahics card with a DVI and VGA output , and you convert the DVI into back to VGA

Tags: Can't see DualView, clone, DisableDualView, Dual View Not Displaying, DualView Nvidia, muliple monitors, NvCplExposeWin2kDualView, Nview Graphics Options, span

User Profile Service service failed the logon Windows 7

When a new user was logging into Windows 7  machine the following error messaged dispalyed : “User Profile Service service failed the logon Windows 7″. This is usually down to a corrupt user profile, so I logged in as administrator and tried to find the users profile however is was not loaded in the registry or registered as a user profile in the System Advanced Settings.

Looking round the easiest resolve seemed a system restore to a previous date however this did not fix the issue. I checked the event log to find there was a user profile being setup in C:\Users\ area. After checking the folder I tried to delete all the tempory user profiles for the user ( e.g. .000 and .001 ) however I couldn’t due to permissions.

I opened the comma nd windows up as administrator and used the ‘ rmdir /s /q “C:\Users\Username” ‘ command however there where some files I couldn’t delete involved with the rapport service. Looking into the event log , when the profile was being built it was having issues copying in the .cfg’s files for Rapport.

I unistalled rapport , removed the temporary directorties and it worked!

Tags: rapport, User Profile Service service failed the logon Windows 7

IIS Windows 7 AppOffline DefaultAppPool

After installing IIS 7 on a windows 7 SP1 machine , upon trying to view http;//localhost/ default ISS7 page the following error popped up :

“service unavailable 503″

After logging into IIS Manager , the DefaultAppPool was in a stopped start. I renabled this and tried again , however upon trying to view the localhost default IIS webpage again , the DefaultAppPool went back to Stopped state.

Checking the event log brought back the following error

“The Windows Process Activation Service failed to create a worker process for the application pool ‘DefaultAppPool’. The data field contains the error number.”

I right clicked on the DefaultAppPool in the Application Pool menu, under advanced settings/process model changed the Identity to “LocalSystem”. I started the DefaultAppPool up again and it worked

 

Tags: DefaultAppPool, ISS 7, service unavailable 503, The Windows Process Activation Service failed to create a worker process for the application pool 'DefaultAppPool'. The data field contains the error number.

WinWord 2010 Opening Document usp10.dll Crash

Upon opening a document with Word ,  Winword crashes straight away.

I tried the main fixes of resetting the Normal.dot + normal.dotm files and opened the Winword in safe mode ( Winword /a). But the problem still continued. After further investigation usp10.dll was the DLL causing the issue , and some online research it stated Helvettica Font was to blame. I removed the problem font from C:\Windows\Fonts and Word opened straight away. It looks like this problem also exists in Outlook

Microsofts Post on the Problem : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2119612

Tags: usp10.dll Crash

Windows 7 Playing VML Files

Voice Over IP providers , provide you with a service to listen to your voice mails held on the system via email. Usually there’s a choice between MP3 ( Which costs money due to the licensing fee) , VML or .WAV ( Uncompressed so large file size ) .

Usually there will be an online portal for you to login to via Internet Explorer and download an Active X control to be able to play the files through a browser. This control will download a player usually stored in  C:\Windows\System32\VMPlayer.exe , where you can associate .vml’s to in your operating system. However for some reason in Windows 7 the player does not work if you try and open a .vml file with it. If you open the VMPlayer and open the VML file by searching for it it does.

Evening following through the file association instructions here http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12328 , it still crashes when you try and open the vml file through the VMPlayer. The only resolution I found to this was to switch the voicemail file type to .WAV ( or MP3 ) and let Windows media player or another media player take care of the audio!

Tags: .vml player, .vml windows 7, C:\Windows\System32\VMPlayer.exe

Air Asia Discontinuing the Vegetarian Fried Rice!

I recieved the following email from Air Asia this morning. I’m guessing they have a massive Vegetarian Fried Rice fan base for a personalised email to be sent about this subject. On the other side it could be a very clever social media ploy to get people to write about it , but it’s worked. I’ve never heard of Mock , but from what I can tell it’s Chicken based , but I’m guessing they are going for the veggie Mock

http://www.filipinovegetarianrecipe.com/vegetarian_main_dish/mock_drumsticks_with_gluten.php

“We will be discontinuing the Vegetarian Fried Rice from 1st June 2011 onwards.

Vegetarian Fried Rice will be replaced with Vegetarian Fried Rice (with Mock Drumsticks)
for all AirAsia QZ flights.

 

However, if you would like to have other meals instead, kindly proceed to Manage My Booking to make your changes online or contact our Call Centre. Additional fees will not be incurred unless the price of the newly selected meal is higher than the price of the original meal. Wishing you a pleasant flight!

Best Regards,
Catering & In-Flight Management AirAsia Berhad

Tags: Air Asia Discontinuing the Vegetarian Fried Rice!, Mock Drumsticks

Export contacts from outlook inbox

Sometimes people want to send an email to all the people who have ever emailed them , like a big company name change / email address etc. I was looking for some software to do this , but turns out you can do this via a Macro

 

• Open Outlook
• Press the ALT+F11 to open the Macro Editor
• Click on Tools , References and make sure Microsoft Scripting Runtime/Dictionary is ticket
• Press ok , then on the left hand side , choose the project 1 , microsoft outlook object and ThisOutlookSession
• Copy the following code from the raw paste data here
• Press the F5 Key to run the macro , and you should be ask to choose a folder
• Press the Ctrl G Key after the Macro has run ( Might take some time depending how big the inbox is ) to bring up the results below
• You can then copy this into a text file , or in a BCC to To filed to send off the email

would like to reference help from http://geekswithblogs.net/VROD/archive/2008/11/08/126878.aspx

Tags: Export contacts from outlook inbox, microsoft outlook object, Microsoft Scripting Runtime, ThisOutlookSession

Top 10 India Travel Tips – Rajasthan

 

1. Take a cheap unlocked phone and buy a pay as you go sim card forthe journey – This will set you back around 300 ruppees for a month , but most hostels will have free pickup from station airport and this is the only way to get in touch with the driver

 

2. Take Passport Photos -You cannot get a simcard above without a passport photo!

 

3. Book trains in advance – Trains get very busy in India , it seems to be on of the best ways to travel so book at least 3 days in advance or as early as possible – You can use this site  : http://www.cleartrip.com/

 

4. Don’t get ripped off by taxi’s / rickshaws - When you get off a bus / train / plane in India there are always taxi’s/rickshaws lurking for tourists. The best way it to ignore these as you get off the bus and start walking in a direction away from them , when you get a few minutes away , pull over a tuk tuk / taxi and get a proper rate! If possible ( but I only found I could in Mumbai ) get them to go on the meter! Also when getting in make sure they know where you are going , there was many a time when I got into one and the guy had no idea where it was and proceeded to drive around on the meter asking everyone where the place was, if you have the contact details of your place you are staying , call them up and pass the phone to the drive

 

5. Find active accommodation - Hostelworld.com has not let me down yet , search for the city and view by ratings , you can read the reviews. This means you can arrive in a hostel and find people doing the same route or pass invaluable advice on!

 

6. Carry change or small notes- This seemed to be a classic trick for street vendors , spending time bartering for something for you to produce a 100 ruppee note and they don’t have any change. They then try to sell you more to get the full 50 or taxi’s ask for the whole thing. Any established place you visit like restaurants or fast food chains , change up the 500/1000 notes there!

 

7. Local Guides at the sites – When you go to any of the famous sites such as the Taj you will be approached by various local guides, they will only take payment after the tour has finished , but most of these sites do already have English translations around so I recommend this only if you are very keen and a good listener as the Indian accent is hard to hear over a crowd

 

8. Visa – Getting the Indian visa was probably the hard visa I’ve ever had to get. I used the post method through their website in.vfsglobal.co.uk . I filled out all the forms signed them and sent my passport off special delivery with a return envelope. I get my passport back a week later asking not for 1 photo but 2 and they are not the standard passport size they are 2 inch x 2 inchs. Turns out no where does these , the only place I could find locally was a  professional photograher and he would do 4 for £35! As I’d already lost £10 getting the forms sent back in, I thought I would head into london to a visa center to make sure everything was fine and also get the 2inch photos in their photo booth in Victoria. This was a 2 hour wait to drop off , then another 45 minutes to collect

 

9. No Visa Runs ! – Usually most countries you can pop out then pop back in the next day to get an extended visa. On the Indian visa it clearly states then if you exit you have to wait 60 days before you can re-enter. I met alot of people hoping to pop to Nepal and back but this will be a one way journey!

 

10. Food – Some dishes I would highly recommend  trying -

• Tali , its like India Tapas , you get a whole dish of different curries , breads and sauces
• Pav Bhaji – Popular in Mumbai is a potato based curry with bread
  
• lassi – Yogurt based refreshing drink
• Chai Tea – Masala based tea , the workings that go into making this is incredible, I was amazed it was a milk based tea!
• A Paneer Dish ( There are many! )   – Panneer is white cheese , but its cooked into a dish like tofu
• Bombay Mix – We walked past a shop just selling bombay mix , what started out as watching it being made , turned into trying 20 different types of deep fried snacks sweet/sour/hot/spicy !

Any other questions fire away , but http://www.indiamike.com/india/ was really helpful for my trip planning!

Tags: Delhi to Mumbai, India Pay as you go phone, India Travel Tips, Indian Visa, rajasthan travel tips