IT support

Problem:

Internet Explorer will not start, the hourglass goes around once and nothing happens, but in Task Manager you can see the process going

Solution:

One of two things is happening; Either you havea corrupted installation, or something is interfearing with the application.

1. Try to run IE in safe mode with add-ons disabled. If this works, you have an add-on crashing the app. Go to Internet Options, Programs, Manage add-ons and start disabling add-on programs untill you find the one causing the problem.

2. Revert IE to defaults. Internet Options, advanced, and start reseting from here. This may not fully solve the problem however. If there is an outside ap conflicting with IE, you may be able to log on once and then not again. Make sure to test repeatedly.

3.Uninstall Google Desktop. Google Desktop has know issues with IE and will sometimes cause it to not start.

 

Problem:

The User Profile Service failed the logon, loging on with a temporary account

Solution:

In the past, we’ve “fixed” this by creating a new profile and copying all the data from the old one (in the users or documents and settings folder) over to it. However, you can try this registry fix first;

Step 1. To fix the user profile, click Start and type regedit into the search box and press Enter.

Step 2. Registry Editor will launch and you need to navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Step 3. Click each S-1-5 folder and double-click the ProfileImagePath entry to find out which user account it relates to

 

Problem:

Power on windows, but Avast Grime fighter immediately loads and cause a black scren – never moves farther than that. To make matters worse, there is no entry in the BIOS for this boot option.

Solution:

If your system runs Windows 8 or 8.1, please try this:

Boot to a Windows CD. You may have to disable Secure boot or mess wit UEFI settings in the bios to do this. As lon as the CD is the first boot device, it should allow you to bypass Grimefighter.

Select “Advanced options” -> “Troubleshoot” -> “Advanced Options” -> “Command Prompt”

Login to your Windows account if it prompts you

In the command prompt type (without the quotes)  “bootrec /fixboot”  and hit ENTER

Then type “exit” and hit ENTER

Select “Turn off your PC”

Power on the PC with the power button

If the above “bootrec /fixboot” command doesn’t work for you, you can remove the Grimefighter boot entry manually by booting back to the command prompt and doing this:

run “bcdedit /enum firmware”

Scroll up and look for the Windows Boot Manager entry with a description of Avast! Grimefighter

There will be an identifier number for this entry, it will be a random string of numbers like {233a9f91-efd8-4771-a9c7-5f4ecc823458}

Hightlight the identifier, including the curly braces, this will copy the identifier, so you can paste it into the next command, to paste after highlighting, you hit the right mouse key

Scroll back down so you can run another command

To delete the Grimefighter entry run “bcdedit /delete {233a9f91-efd8-4771-a9c7-5f4ecc823458}” using the identifier you have copied for your Grimefighter entry instead of my example one, be very careful here and make sure the identifier you delete is the one for Grimefighter, double check it before hitting ENTER

Problem:

Fix Black Screen at boot, continual restarts, or stuck at windows logo

Solution:

This has worked for me in a number of cases where Windows will not boot. If the file system becomes corrupt from something like a virus issue this write a new boot sector to the system partition or repair the MBR.

First you will need to boot into windows Windows recovery console
If there is an administrator password you will need this, if not it can be cleared with an offline password recovery disk. (UBCD, or there are standalone ones as well)
Once the console is loaded you have to choose the installation you wish to repair.

At the prompt type “fixboot” to rewrite a new boot sector to the drive.

After this completes type “fixmbr” to repair the MBR this may be redundant but it doesnt hurt.

Finally you can also re-add the the installations of Windows to the boot.ini file by running the command “bootcfg /rebuild” this automatically scans the drive for installs and adds them to the file.

You can then reboot and see if this fixed your issue.
If you are still having problems or if recovery console does not see the installation run “chkdsk /r”, it never hurts.

 

Problem:

When yo uclick on My Documents or music ect…you get the error Documents.library-ms” is no longer working

Solution:

you need to delete the misbehaving library first.  Deleting a library does not delete the content of the folder.  To fix this problem, open Windows Explorer, right-click on the corresponding library and choose Delete. Click Yes when asked for confirmation.

Then, in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer, right-click on Libraries and click Restore default libraries.  This recreates the library that you just deleted. This option will only restore the default libraries that came with Windows 7.

Problem:

You want to figure out which folders are using the most space, ex: Windows is using 14 GB, Program files is using 20Gb, My documents has 10GB

Solution:

There’s no trick to this one, I’m actually just going to recommend an app! The app is WinDirStat. This is a little freeware marvel that I use on a regular basis. You may remember a previous article about Acronis creating temp files that blow up your HDD, well the way I find those files is by using WinDirStat. It breaks down drive usage by folder and file type and can help you see what’s clogging up your drive at a glance. Check them out over at https://windirstat.net/

Problem:

When you use your address book to select recipients for an e-mail message or a fax message in Microsoft Outlook, information from your Contacts folder does not appear in the list.

This is likely happening because the Outlook Address Book Service isn’t running, iut has either been corrupted or deleted from the accounts tab.

Solution:

Install the Outlook Address Book service
To do this, follow these steps, as appropriate for the version of Outlook that you are running.
Microsoft Outlook 2002 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
1.On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
2.Click to select View or change existing directories or address books, and then click Next.
3.If your Outlook Address Book is listed, click Cancel, and then go to the steps in the “How to Mark Your Contact Folder for Use with Your Address Book” section.
4.If your Outlook Address Book is not listed, click Add.
5.Click to select Additional Address Books, and then click Next.
6.Click to select Outlook Address Book, and then click Next.
7.Click OK when you receive the prompt that the address book you added will not start until you click Exit from the File menu.
8.Click Finish.
9.Click Exit from the File menu, and then restart Outlook.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
1.On the Tools menu, click Accout Settings .
2.Click the Adress Books tab.
3.If your Outlook Address Book is not listed, click New.
4.Select Additional Address Books, and then click Next.
5.Select Outlook Address Book, and then click Next.
6. You receive a message that states that the address book that you added will not start until you click Exit on the File menu. Click OK.
7.Click Finish.
8.Click Close, and then restart Outlook.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2010
1.On the File tab in the Ribbon, and then select the Infotab in the menu.
2.Click the Accounts Settings tab, and then click Accounts Settings again.
3.Click the Address Books tab.
4.If your Outlook Address Book is not listed, click New.
5.Select Additional Address Books, and then click Next.
6.Select Outlook Address Book, and then click Next.
7. You receive a message that states that the address book that you added will not start until you click Exit on the File menu. Click OK.
8.Click Finish.
9.Click Close, and then restart Outlook.

Problem:

File shows up in a folder, but any attempt to delete, rename or move it results in : “Error Deleting File or Folder – Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk“.

If it’s a folder, no hidden files are inside it. You can read and write to it. No permissions error, and the file/folder is not set as hidden or read only in properties.

Dropping down to a DOS prompt and trying a DEL, DELTREE, or RN return the same error.

Solution:

This is caused by an invalid character in the file name. Possibly a dot or a space (Spaces are really hard to spot – they’re invisible. But try a rename and just use the arrow keys in the rename box. If there’s a space at the end, the arrow key will find it and move one character past the last letter). Normally Windows will not let you create something with an invalid character in the name, but it can happen if you’re in a system remotely and the connection gets cut off, or if there’s corruption on the Hard disk, or if the file was created by a Mac and then some how transferred over to the system.

I ran across a couple of possible solutions from the command prompt, but if your file has a space in the name, especially in the middle of the name, you won’t be able to run them.  Tried a couple of tools, “Killbox” returned a similar error – that the file dosen’t appear to exist. Finally came across “Unlocker”. This app will force a delete of the file. Start up the program and use it’s interface to browse to the file / folder in question (local or network drive, it doesn’t matter. as long as you can browse to it, the application can work with it), and from the actions list select “Delete”. File is immediately deleted. There’s also a “Rename” and a “Move” option. if your trying to preserve the file.

Are you getting a “Disk Full” error on your hard drive? The backup program Acronis may be to blame. Check you’re Temp Folder. You’ll find some acr* files in the user temp folder that need deleted.