Cannot Unshare a Folder in Windows XP

I wanted to unshare a folder while using a hotel wireless network but after right clicking on the shared folder (the folder with a hand icon underneath it) and choosing Sharing and Security..., the box for sharing was checked but grayed out, so that it could not be unshared.

To correct this, reboot and press F8 to enter the menu to choose a boot up type. Choose Safe Mode with Networking. After Windows XP boots up in Safe Mode, go to your shared folder and right click it, choose Sharing and Security... and a whole new sharing menu appears that allows you to unshare the folder. Reboot back into normal Windows XP. Annoying Windows bullshit...

Lexus LS 460 Check Engine Error Reset

The Lexus LS 460 ran out of gas, oops. Got if filled with gas but an error appeared on the driver console to check engine at Lexus maintenance. Called the service department and was told it was an unresolved issue with the car and to reset the error, all that was needed was to unscrew the gas cap, screw it back on, wait 1 hour. Well, did what was told and the error disappeared the next time the car was driven.

2 Finger Scrolling for the PC

Have you always wanted to try the 2 finger scroll on a PC after trying it out on the Mac? If you have a laptop with a touchpad by Synaptics, you can try a little program that enables two finger scrolling on the PC.

Go to: http://code.google.com/p/two-finger-scroll/downloads/list

MSI Wind U100 Netbook Touchpad Driver Solution

We recently got the MSI Wind U100 US/French/German/Polish edition and found out the touchpad is missing the side scrolling function and has the default control of clicking and double clicking on the touchpad which could not be disabled. The Wind uses the default Windows XP mouse driver with no special touchpad driver. Apparently, this is something that MSI had downgraded for whatever cost saving reason (I assume someone at MSI did not pay enough for lap dances to some name brand touchpad company official) but it is highly annoying because you end up accidentally clicking on links, especially personal ads on Yahoo, because you have shaky fingers from alcohol withdrawal or early onset Parkinson's. There are a lot of forums incessantly discussing and howling at this atrocity but I just went to Synaptics and downloaded their driver and application and avoided the drama.

Solutions:

Go to Synaptics and download the appropriate driver:
http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers

This bundled driver and application that you install is accessed through an icon in the lower right corner of the XP menu bar or the XP mouse control panel and allows you to control every aspect of the touchpad from disabling touchpad clicking, turning on touchpad side scrolling, etc.

There are forums out there that point you to a German MSI website that allows you to download the Sentelic touchpad driver which I tried and did absolutely nothing for me. I tried installing the Sentelic touchpad driver before the Synaptics driver. If you want to waste 10 minutes of your life, here it is:

http://www.msi-technology.de/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=135&prod_no=1474

Virus/Trojan with Pop-Ads and Disabled Windows XP Automatic Updates with Error 1058

A nasty virus/Trojan with pop up windows affecting both IE 6 and Firefox 3 started on one of my laptops. It initially started with Acrobat starting up a couple a times in previous days before the full onslaught of pop up windows trying to sell crap. Yeah, like I'm going to click on a Caribbean vacation and spend boat loads of money from a virus produced pop up ad, dumb.

It added Add On components into IE and Firefox, and probably into the system. The virus also turned off Automatic Updates for Windows XP and attempts at turning it on through the Control Panel failed. Running Windows Update gives an error, and the error page on the Windows Update web site gives you a list of items to turn on in services.msc through the Run... window. Trying to turn on Automatic Updates in services.msc to "Automatic" and "Start" gives an error 1058. This loser virus then starts asking if you want to install VirusRemover, A-holes. I tried the following measures:

1. Ran AVG 8 Scan, restarted: Fail. Pop ups continue.
2. Ran Ad-Aware 2008 Scan, restarted: Fail. Pop ups continue.
3. Ran Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Scan (via download.com), restarted: Success! No more pop ups. Approximately 15-20 infected files.

After successfully running Malwarebytes, I went into services.msc (throught the Run... window in the Start button) and opened the properties of Automatic Updates. I was able to change the Automatic Updates to "Automatic" and "Start" the service.

Source: http://help.wugnet.com/windows2/automatic-updates-disabled-error-1058-ftopict519669.html

Microsoft Word 2003 Crashes at Startup

Microsoft Office 2003 Word was crashing several seconds after startup which also happened when a new Outlook email was created (Outlook opens Word for text editing). Crashes can be avoided if the mouse is moved around the menus, but after 2 seconds of idle time, Word crashes.

Solutions:

1. Go to Printer and Faxes, and select the correct default printer. Now try opening Word.

2. With Hidden Folder viewing on, Go to C:>Documents and Setting>User>Application Data>Microsoft>Templates. Change normal.dot to normal.old. Open Word and let Word create a new normal.dot file.

Source: http://www.officearticles.com/word/steps_to_troubleshooting_microsoft_word.htm

Filemaker Pro Database Instant Web Sharing (IWS)

How to set Filemaker Pro 9 to share your database as a website on the internet.

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Open your database in Filemaker Pro 9 from the computer you wish to Host the database. I know at least FMP 6 - 9 can publish databases on the web. I will refer only to FMP 9.
Goto: File>Sharing>Instant Web Publishing...
Turn on Instant Web Publishing to publish all open and available databases on the web.
Change the port to 591. Click OK.
For now leave the Instant Web Publishing access to file, to All Users, you can change this at your own discretion.
Your Currtently open files should be listed. Click OK.
Goto: File>Manage>Accounts & Privileges...
Make sure Admin is turned on, select Admin, Click on Edit...
Set a Password. Click OK.
If you have a Router, you must:
Open the start/end/internal/external TCP port (AKA, gateway, pinhole, service) 591 and specify which computer IP is hosting the FMP database file in your LOCAL network (LAN). For example, 192.168.1.4, is the host computer IP with the FMP database open and running in the local office network. Find this number by logging into your router and identifying the database host computer and its LOCAL IP address. That is, inquiries from the outside world to your host computer that have FMP data, will be forwarded by your router to your specified local network host computer 192.168.1.4 through port 591.
Find out the IP address of your WAN (wide area network), that is, get the IP address that your broadband carrier assigns you (for example, 60.123.4.123), or know your domain name (for example, domain.name.com)
Close and restart FMP 9.
Your database web server setup is now complete.
From a remote location inside the office or outside of the local network, open a web browser and do the following:
In the address bar, type in the static IP address or domain name with the addition of :591 at the end, for example, http://60.123.4.123:591 or http://domain.name.com:591.
If you have a dynamic IP that changes when the router is restarted or if there is a power failure, you can obtain a static pseudo domain name from sites such as www.no-ip.com.
The Filemaker web page should appear with your file available as a link.
Click on the link and log in as admin with the password.
Certain dynamic functions from FMP are not available on a static web page. One thing that is missing is Preview mode. Functions requiring the preview mode such as displaying label sheets for printing are not possible through Instant Web Sharing and require Network Sharing with a remote FMP 9 client connection to the server.
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