Windows – BCDEdit
KB ID 0000097 Problem If you’re used to editing boot,ini files in earlier versions of windows then you are in for a bit of strife – Vista and newer OS’s now has its own boot loader, but happily there is a tool to let you edit what it does – this tool is called BCDEDIT.EXE and by default it lives in the windows > system32 directory. Solution Simply running the command will tell you what the boot settings are...
Windows – Black Screen Of Death
KB ID 0000152 Problem Post Microsoft KB 915597 and KB 976098 updates. You PC will boot, and you will see a totally black screen with (but not always) a Windows explorer window. Solution Credit to the guys at Prevx who have a fix online already. 1) Restart your PC. 2) Logon and wait for the black screen to appear. 3) Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the internet (black screen does not appear to affect this). 4) Press the...
Windows – “Windows Explorer Stops Working” When you open Control Panel
KB ID 0000457 Problem Seen today on four brand new Windows 7 machines. Whenever you attempt to open the control panel, you see the error message, “Windows Explorer has stopped working” And the event log yields no clues, it does log an Event ID 1000, but that does not seen to help much? Solution Essentially this error is caused by a .cpl file that Windows does not like, these are control panel applets (small programs), we...
Disable ‘Fast user Switching’
KB ID 0000320 Problem Fast user switching was introduced with Windows XP (though XP can’t do this when joined to a domain). Starting with Windows Vista you COULD do this in a domain environment. Some users and sysadmins see this as a bad thing (having users logged on with sessions open that may get forgotten about). Should you with to disable this feature then do the following, Solution Option 1 – Via the registry 1. On...
Cisco – Windows x64 Bit VPN Client (IPSEC)
Note: This page was originally written before the release of the Cisco x64 bit Windows 7 Client KB ID 0000163 Problem I was widely accepted for some time that Cisco’s support for the IPSEC VPN client will not be extended to x64 bit Windows platforms, That’s simply because they are gearing up towards their own AnyConnect VPN client. Update 18/02/10 – Cisco have released an x64 Bit VPN Client for Windows 7...